The Demon God Beneath the Lake

“GRAAAAAAHHHH! You damn human! How dare you call me a monkey?! I’ll smash you into minced meat and chew your head together with the paste! Gikikikikikiki!”

Avisotel once again seemed to descend into a berserk frenzy, revealing a furious, enraged expression.

A terrifying pressure engulfed the entire area, causing every monster present to shrink back in fear.

“…Did you really think I’d say that?”

But in the very next second, its aura completely vanished as its emotions swung from one extreme to the other.

“Muhihihihi~ You really underestimate me, human.”

“You’re saying all this to provoke me, right?”

“And then while everything’s chaotic, you’ll run into that stairway…”

“Though I don’t know why you’re trying to stall for time, I’ve got a feeling that if I let you succeed, I’m gonna end up in big trouble.”

“……”

Ye Yousheng ignored it.

Taking advantage of the monsters still being stunned, he hurriedly killed several more of them.

Seeing Ye Yousheng refuse to respond, Avisotel did not get angry.

Instead, it rubbed its palms together slyly and continued speaking.

“Lemme tell you something, you poor little thing.”

“You’re already completely wrapped inside my ‘palm.’”

“Come here.”

The instant those words entered Ye Yousheng’s ears, his vision darkened yet again.

The sensation beneath his feet vanished, and for a moment he had absolutely no idea where he was!

He did not even know what had happened!

Even Ye Yousheng’s Godspeed Reaction failed to detect anything.

All he knew was that by the time he regained awareness—

He was already standing right in front of that monkey.

“Kihihihi! Go on, run!”

“Keep running!”

“I’ll give you a chance!”

“Come on, hurry up and run!”

“……”

For this monkey to act so arrogantly, it could only mean one thing.

It definitely possessed some kind of ability capable of instantly dragging Ye Yousheng back.

Ye Yousheng immediately searched through the information in his mind, replaying what had just happened…

And eventually reached an answer.

“I see now.”

“Your ‘Third Hand’ has two abilities, doesn’t it?”

“One transfers touched objects to a designated location.”

“And the other transfers things it has already ‘touched’ directly in front of you.”

Whether it was being sent into the monster horde earlier or suddenly appearing before the monkey just now, both felt exactly like riding a teleportation array.

Combined with what the monkey had said previously about its Third Hand possessing special powers, the answer became obvious.

“Ohhh? Pretty smart, aren’t you?”

“Yep, that’s the power of my [Drifting Hand].”

“Drifting Hand…” Ye Yousheng narrowed his eyes and muttered quietly.

A bizarre ability.

And absurdly overpowered.

This could no longer simply be called a skill.

It could exile enemies.

It could draw enemies toward itself.

It ignored space and distance entirely and functioned freely.

Calling this mere magic or a normal skill felt outright unfair.

In other words, now that Ye Yousheng had already been marked by it, there was no escaping anymore.

Even if he ran into the stairwell, Avisotel could instantly drag him back like it was playing with a toy monkey in a street performance.

Crossing its arms, the monkey swung the Third Hand attached to its tail and laughed.

“Too bad the effective range of Drifting Hand is only one hundred meters.”

“Otherwise it’d be soooo fun to send all these monsters straight to the surface!”

“Muhihihihi!”

A creature that delighted in chaos no matter the consequences.

Just as Yiwu had said—

A monster like this could not be allowed to continue existing.

Ye Yousheng became even more resolute in his decision.

“What’s wrong?”

“Not running anymore?”

“There’s no point, is there?”

“Muhihihihi, so you’ve given up resisting?”

“Among all the humans I’ve met, you’ve got the most guts.”

Avisotel swayed its head back and forth as it spoke.

“You know, those humans I met before…”

“The moment they saw me, they ran for their lives.”

“Companions, bonds, feelings… they threw everything away and only cared about saving themselves.”

“So ugly…”

“Though they were delicious to eat, hehe.”

Using the Third Hand, it patted Ye Yousheng on the head and continued.

“You lured me here for that woman’s sake, didn’t you?”

“Amazing~ Truly amazing~”

“You’re the bravest human I’ve ever seen.”

“Such admirable courage. You deserve praise~”

“And seriously, your healing speed really is kinda ridiculous.”

“Your wounds are almost healed already…”

The man-eating monster bared its fangs as its face twisted hideously.

“You don’t mind if I take a bite first, right?”

Crunch.

A chunk of Ye Yousheng’s shoulder was bitten off.

Its cheeks twitched as it chewed.

Wet smacking noises echoed from its mouth while blood dyed its lips crimson red.

Because it was eating too quickly, sweat appeared around its nose.

Its teeth clattered noisily like weapons colliding in battle.

At first, it wore an expression of pure enjoyment, as though tasting the greatest delicacy in the world.

But slowly…

Its expression vanished.

Until now, its face had always been overflowing with expressions.

Grinning.

Furious.

Like a clown constantly changing masks.

But after biting off a piece of Ye Yousheng’s flesh, all expression disappeared from its face entirely.

And this emotionless appearance was a hundred times more terrifying than its anger.

“Ptooey.”

Avisotel spat out the meat in its mouth, wiped the blood from the corner of its lips, and stared at Ye Yousheng expressionlessly as it delivered a two-word evaluation.

“Disgusting.”

After grinding the piece of meat beneath its foot several times, Avisotel crouched down, tilted its head, and stared at Ye Yousheng.

“You…”

“Are you really human?”

“Why does it taste this awful?”

“No, wait… maybe not awful…”

“It’s more like… tasteless…”

“No, that’s not right either…”

“It’s like you’re not even food…”

The monkey scratched its head for a long while, unable to find the right words, before eventually giving up and changing the subject.

“I thought with your healing speed, I’d be able to eat human meat every day.”

“But if it tastes this bad, then there’s no reason to keep you around.”

“Even if I used you for breeding, the humans born from you would probably taste just as disgusting.”

At that moment, the final bit of value Ye Yousheng possessed in its eyes completely disappeared.

From this point onward, it no longer cared whether he lived or died.

To it, he was merely discarded trash.

A useless piece of garbage.

And facing this situation…

Ye Yousheng smiled instead.

Because the perfect opportunity had finally arrived.

He raised his head and spoke with the utmost mocking tone imaginable.

“Heh, you think I taste bad?”

“Why don’t you try eating yourself instead?”

“Maybe you’re actually the tastiest thing in the world.”

“Back among us humans, there are people who love eating the brains of monkeys just like you.”

“……GIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“UGIKIKIKIKIKIKIKI!!”

“GRAAAAH!”

There it was.

This time, it was real.

Now that Ye Yousheng had lost the “protection” of being considered food, this monkey would unleash all of its accumulated fury directly onto him.

Ye Yousheng turned and ran!

But this movement was never meant to truly escape.

It was to expose his back deliberately.

That way, there was a very high chance the monkey would…

THUD! BOOM!

Exactly like this—

Stomp him beneath its feet.

“You worthless human!”

“Filthy insect!”

“Useless trash!”

“Be crushed into pieces!”

Its fists rained down onto his back.

Every strike exploded like a detonation.

The violent force sent wave after wave rippling through the ground as Ye Yousheng was hammered deep underground like a stake.

Once pain reached a certain extreme, sensation itself disappeared.

Every punch was a fatal blow.

Ye Yousheng’s body was truly smashed into meat paste.

And yet—

Even so—

He still would not die.

The three hundred thousand HP he had accumulated began dropping at terrifying speed while his body continuously regenerated itself.

There was nothing left he could do now.

Even turning his body over had become nearly impossible.

All that remained was to wait quietly.

To wait for this monkey to smash through the floor itself.

Would things proceed according to Ye Yousheng’s plan?

Would the floor collapse and send them falling into the hidden floor?

Or would his accumulated HP run out first, leading to his death here?

At this point, all he could do was leave it to fate.

Hopefully Yiwu’s sister was watching over him from heaven and would keep him alive…

He no longer knew how many punches he had endured.

Nor how much time had passed.

Nor why he had to suffer through such agony.

He wanted so badly to simply close his eyes and embrace the long-awaited death.

Even Ye Yousheng’s iron will could not endure this kind of soul-rending pain forever.

The thread of his sanity stretched tighter and tighter, on the verge of snapping beneath Avisotel’s fists.

His HP was also nearly depleted.

The number had already dropped to triple digits…

No matter how one looked at it, this was the final moment.

And in the end, the first thing to collapse was…

The floor.

His body suddenly lost all support.

Claimed by gravity, he began rapidly falling downward!

Spitting dirt from his mouth, Ye Yousheng did not even have time to wipe his face before—

Splash!

He crashed into water!

Water seeped into his wounds, and sharp pain swept through his entire body!

But for Ye Yousheng, the level of suffering actually lessened instead.

After blowing bubbles to confirm where the surface was, he began swimming upward.

“Pwah!”

The first thing that entered his sight was a lake.

An enormous lake.

Who could have imagined that beneath the thirtieth floor of the dungeon labyrinth, there was actually such a vast hidden body of water?

Although there was no sunlight, the glowing moss covering the ceiling illuminated the area brilliantly, reflecting off the lake’s surface and making this place far brighter than the labyrinth above.

Only now did Ye Yousheng finally understand why the air became more humid the deeper he descended.

It was all because of this lake!

Looking around, he could not find any visible land.

It seemed this entire floor was one massive azure underground lake.

He had no idea where Avisotel was.

Perhaps it had fallen into the water just like him.

Ye Yousheng suddenly wondered whether the monkey simply could not swim and had drowned underwater.

If that turned out to be the ending, it would honestly be ridiculously anticlimactic.

Unfortunately—

With a massive explosion of water, the monkey burst up from beneath the lake.

Standing atop the water’s surface, Avisotel roared furiously.

“You bastard human! Was this your scheme too?! GIYAYAYAYA! I’m going to—”

“Who…”

“…has disturbed my slumber?”

A hollow, ethereal voice interrupted Avisotel’s raging screams.

That voice was incomparably sweet, as though it could cleanse the soul itself.

At the same time, Ye Yousheng felt the water around him beginning to gather toward one point.

Following the ripples spreading across the lake’s surface, he looked toward the converging currents—

And saw the owner of that voice.

Staring at the scene before him, even someone as calm as Ye Yousheng could not stop himself from muttering in disbelief.

“Hey, hey…”

“Wasn’t this supposed to be a slime…?”

“This is way too unfair…”

Appearing upon the water’s surface was not the cute-but-deadly slime from his memories.

Though both were blue.

Though both were liquid.

Their existences were fundamentally different.

Name: Undine

Titles: Lord of Water Elements, Guardian of the Labyrinth, Demon God of Pure Waters

Race: Elemental Spirit

Lv: ??? (Rank ?)

HP: None

MP: ???

Skills: ???

Her entire body was formed from water itself, as though containing every shade of blue in the world.

From afar, one could see her deep azure form—

Yet never truly grasp the profound depths hidden beneath that color.

She was the absolute sovereign standing at the pinnacle of all water elements.

The great Guardian of the Labyrinth.

The Demon God of Pure Waters revered by the Demon Race.

The Water Elemental Spirit—

Undine.

At that moment, Ye Yousheng suddenly realized—

He may have awakened something truly unbelievable.