Looking down at the dense metal grating beneath his feet, mottled with rust, Li You plopped down and began recovering his strength while analyzing his current situation.
First, he could not swim, so he did not dare enter the water. Second, he was currently in a little girl's body. Even if he could get into the water, it could not possibly support him all the way to the other side. More importantly, there was no shore on the opposite side at all. If he swam over, he would have to start rock climbing, and even the upper part of the cliff face curved inward... All things considered, this place was practically a natural prison. There was no way out by water.
Am I really going to be trapped here until I die?
Li You stared blankly for a while, feeling that the future was utterly bleak. He might as well jump into the water and start over.
Not long afterward, however, a white bird flying overhead suddenly caught his attention.
The bird was huge, about the size of a pelican, though it looked more like a seagull. It plunged sharply into the lake and, moments later, emerged with a fish clamped in its beak. It looked remarkably agile.
Watching it brim with life gave Li You some encouragement and inspiration. There were fish in this lake, so perhaps he could find a way to catch some and solve his food problem?
But the very next second he decided this might work, an even larger shadow silently surfaced beneath the water.
It was a fish—a massive fish, at least five or six meters long. Calling it a water monster would not have been an exaggeration. It burst from the surface, its purplish-red body sending up violent sprays of water.
Li You watched in astonishment, instinctively assuming it was a case of the mantis stalking the cicada while the oriole waited behind. But then something utterly unexpected happened—the great fish's head suddenly split apart, forming a four-petaled, chrysanthemum-like maw. At its center were three layers of embedded circular teeth. Its turbine-like shape was far more terrifying than a meat grinder. It crushed the white bird in a single bite, then rolled over and dove back into the water as if it had never appeared.
Li You stood frozen on the metal platform. The positivity he had only just found vanished in an instant.
What the hell was that thing?!
If he had seen correctly, that fish's head had split open, right? That lamprey-like thing in the middle was its mouth, right?
Was that really a fish? Even in another world, that thing looked way too abnormal!
It looked like it had grown up drinking nuclear wastewater!
Wait... Could the miserable sight of bones scattered throughout this underwater base be related to those horrifying Fish Monsters in the lake?
The image of the Fish Monster's splitting head replayed over and over in his mind. Li You suddenly felt that the Water Platform was not all that safe either. He stood up and was about to move farther from the platform's edge when he noticed a line appearing in the middle of the lake, steadily lengthening as waves parted to either side.
It was the fish!
That fish was coming over!
What cut through the lake's surface was the Fish Monster's dorsal fin, but up close, it looked more like folds of flesh resembling a crest.
It was incredibly fast. Before Li You could react, it shot out of the water and crashed heavily onto the platform, making the Water Platform—which was as large as a football field—tremble slightly.
"Fuck!!"
Only now did Li You finally get a clear look at it. It was not a purplish-red fish at all. Most of its scales had fallen away, exposing writhing flesh and tumors that gave it that coloration. Its pectoral fins had mutated into two short appendages with hooked claws. Its eyeballs were grayish white and cloudy, connected only by strands of flesh and dangling outside their sockets as though ready to fall out. Inside the sockets, countless tiny tentacles squirmed like swaying sea anemones.
If he had not seen it with his own eyes, Li You would never have believed such a horrifying fish could exist in the world.
It was too bizarre, too disgusting, too grotesque!
But this was not the time to judge its looks. He bolted toward the side-door tunnel leading into the underwater facility, then turned and slammed the door shut behind him. Fortunately, the door here was not broken, and its simple mechanical lock still worked.
After locking the door, Li You raced down to the first basement level. Soon afterward, violent impacts rang out above and behind him. Clearly, the Fish Monster had failed to catch its prey and was taking out its anger on the metal door.
He stood shivering in the emergency passage on the first basement level and listened for a while. Only when the noise gradually subsided, with no sign that the door had been broken open, did he finally let out a long breath. It felt as if he had narrowly escaped death.
Now, when he looked around at the silent, eerie darkness, it suddenly seemed much more pleasant.
In any case, he absolutely was not going outside again! There were no roads out there, only a whole lake full of monsters. He did not want to let his guard down one day and get ambushed by a water monster. That was far too terrifying.
Of course, there might be monsters inside the facility as well. But based on Li You's observations and deductions, this place had been destroyed for at least several decades. Much of the paper had become so brittle that it crumbled into dust at a touch. Even if there had once been monsters here, they had either starved to death or left by now. No matter what, this place had to be safer than the Water Platform.
Besides, the original owner of this body had been able to remain in this facility before Li You transmigrated here. That was proof of safety in its own way...
Well, perhaps the original owner had not been ordinary either. But Li You could not yet tell what exactly was unusual about her.
Afterward, Li You followed the spiral staircase in the emergency passage and headed down again. Unlike when he had gone up, he briefly checked the interiors of the other floors as he descended. He found nothing useful, but he also found no potential dangers.
A few minutes later, he returned to the ninth basement level.
But the stairs did not end there.
With a little hope, he continued downward and arrived at the entrance to the tenth basement level.
After cautiously peering around at the entrance for a while, the sight before him left Li You slightly surprised. "Huh...?"
Just like the level above, plenty of Glow Vines grew here. But unlike the floor above, this level was filled with white mist, making everything indoors appear hazy and indistinct.
Why was there fog?
He became alert, picked up an unidentified hard fragment from the ground, and tossed it into the mist.
The next second, a crisp clatter echoed through the room as it struck the metal floor. Li You pricked up his ears and listened carefully, but aside from the echoes, there was no movement at all. Everything was steeped in deathly silence.
After hesitating for a moment, his gaze shifted toward the lower part of the stairwell. That was the way to the eleventh basement level, but a sealed metal door blocked the path, preventing him from exploring any farther down.
At the same time, he noticed a large number of dried bones scattered in the stairwell before the metal door. There were at least eight or nine intact human skulls alone, and clear claw marks covered the walls.
Li You could not help imagining a scene—the monsters had poured in endlessly from outside, forcing the people in the base to flee deeper into the underwater facility. Some people, in order to survive, had closed off the emergency passage and left everyone else outside...
What a terrifying and tragic thing. Fortunately, that had happened many years ago... he thought. Then he silently turned around, hesitated slightly, and walked straight into the fog.
Contrary to what he had imagined, the fog on this level did not feel particularly unusual after he entered it. It was neither damp nor cold.
Li You moved forward slowly through it for a while when a wave of drowsiness suddenly rose in his heart.
Is this... because I'm too tired... or because of the fog...? The question surfaced in his mind. Then he dropped to his knees, leaned against the thick main stem of a Glow Vine, and fell into a deep sleep.