The Guard Captain's voice was as cold as winter iron. "Release the arrows."
Su Ming's compound eyes captured every detail in that split second: fourteen archers had drawn their bows to the full, the arrowheads shimmering with a pale blue magical glow—enchanted arrows with a Silence effect attached. The tops of twelve magical guards' staves had already condensed high-density energy orbs. Worse still, two guard ballistas fixed to the city walls were slowly turning toward him.
This setup, in the wild, would turn a level 15 elite monster into dust.
But Su Ming didn't move.
It wasn't because he was terrified into paralysis; it was because, in that instant, he figured out one thing.
He wasn't afraid of physical damage. A level 3 Abyssal Tyrant combined with that absurdly thick carapace meant ordinary arrows and spells couldn't touch his vital spots. What he feared wasn't damage—it was control.
Once those fourteen enchanted Silence arrows hit, his skill system would be sealed for five seconds. Five seconds. In those five seconds, he couldn't use Abyssal Pressure, couldn't cast Abyssal Taunt, and even his most basic dodge skills would fail. And the reload speed of the two ballistas was only three seconds.
Three seconds of stun, two seconds to shoot. That was enough to pin him to the bluestone pavement like a bug.
Running was impossible. The barrier had closed; the light curtain blocked all exits. But the barrier had a weakness—it was vertical.
Su Ming猛地 (suddenly) looked up.
The golden light curtain above his head was like an inverted pot, covering the entire Starter Village. But the curtain's thickness was limited, and it only prevented players from entering or exiting; it didn't apply pressure in the vertical direction. In other words, it was a net, not an iron plate.
He needed height.
"Re—"
Before the Guard Captain could finish saying "lease," Su Ming moved.
His eight legs fired simultaneously, and the entire lobster shot forward like a red cannonball, heading straight for the nearest building. It was the blacksmith's shop on the edge of the square, a two-story wood-and-stone structure with black smoke still rising from its chimney.
"Stop it!"
The bowstrings twanged in unison. Fourteen enchanted arrows whistled toward him.
Su Ming didn't look back. He retracted his carapace as tightly as possible, aligning the thickest part of his back armor with the hail of arrows. Crack, crack, crack—a chaotic racket erupted. Most arrows were bounced off; only two managed to slip into the gaps of his carapace. The Silence effect took hold.
A chilling sensation spread from his back. For a moment, his skill panel dimmed to gray.
But Su Ming didn't need skills.
All he needed was that wall.
*Boom!*
The two-meter-tall Abyssal Tyrant crashed into the blacksmith's outer wall at full speed. The wood-and-stone structure crumbled like paper in front of him; the entire wall collapsed inward. Debris and wood chips flew everywhere, and the tools and semi-finished weapons inside the shop clattered to the floor.
"What the—"
The NPC blacksmith, who had been hammering away, was so terrified he plopped down on the edge of the furnace.
Su Ming didn't stop. He stepped over the rubble of the collapsed wall and charged up to the second floor of the blacksmith's shop. The floorboards groaned in agony under his weight, and the entire building swayed precariously.
He reached the window and leaped.
The height of the second floor, combined with his own jumping power, launched him nearly eight meters into the air. The golden barrier curtain was less than three meters above his head.
Enough.
Su Ming curled his body in mid-air, concentrating all his strength into his two claws. He snapped them open like two reverse chisels and drove them hard into the light curtain.
*Zzzzt—*
The moment the curtain touched the abyssal carapace, a piercing electrical screech rang out. The pale golden barrier flickered wildly, its energy rapidly depleting at the point of contact.
It hurt. It felt like someone had shoved his claws into a pot of boiling water. But Su Ming gritted his teeth—well, lobsters don't have teeth, but he gritted the muscles between his carapace plates—and held on.
A crack appeared in the light curtain under the edge of his claws.
It wasn't big, maybe only half a meter wide. But for a flat lobster, it was enough.
Su Ming forced his body through the gap with all his might. His carapace scraped violently against the edge of the barrier, emitting a grating, teeth-aching squeak. The moment the very tip of his tail cleared the opening, the crack snapped shut, erupting in a burst of golden sparks.
He fell like a stone, landing on the grass outside the Stream Valley Town, rolling twice before coming to a stop.
From behind the barrier, the roar of players and the Guard Captain's bellowing reached him, muffled as if heard through a thick cotton blanket.
Su Ming lay on the grass, panting heavily, and shook the dust off his carapace. The countdown for the Silence effect had two seconds left. He dared not waste a moment. His eight legs pushed off the ground, and he sprinted toward the dark forest in the distance.
Three kilometers east of Stream Valley Town lay the edge of the Misty Marsh.
He had to dive into that death zone, where even high-level players were reluctant to tread, before the Heavenly Fate Guild could react.
---
The Misty Marsh lived up to its name.
The moment Su Ming stepped into the reeds at the marsh's edge, visibility plummeted to less than ten meters. White fog coiled around his legs like living creatures, and the air reeked of rotting stagnant water. The ground beneath him shifted from hard soil to semi-soft mud, requiring three times the usual effort to take each step.
But he didn't slow down.
Because the pursuers behind him were far more terrifying than the fog.
Although the barrier in Stream Valley Town had stalled him for five seconds, those five seconds were enough for the Guard Captain to notify the guilds outside. The bounty on Su Ming's head from the Heavenly Fate Guild was still active. A price of 5,000 gold coins for a single life was enough to send every greedy soul in the server flocking out.
As expected, less than ten minutes after he entered the marsh, movement came from ahead.
Three people.
The leader was a warrior named "Wandering Sword Under the Sky," level 7, wearing a decent set of leather armor. Behind him followed an archer and a mage, both around levels 5 or 6. A typical random party setup—a Warrior, Mage, Archer triangle—sufficient for dungeons, and barely enough to chase down a lone lobster.
If Su Ming were still an ordinary level 1 lobster, these three would indeed have given him a hard time.
But he wasn't anymore.
"Holy crap, it really is that lobster! The forum didn't lie!" Wandering Sword Under the Sky swallowed hard, raising his mediocre steel longsword which glowed with a cheap luminescence. "Brothers, if we drop this bug, we split the 5,000 gold bounty from the whole server!"
Su Ming didn't move.
5,000 gold.
Just for 5,000 gold, a novice who hadn't even sharpened his sword properly was daring to throw his life away.
He blew a string of murky bubbles, and his massive right claw shot up.
He brought it down.
The sickle-shaped claw tore through the air with a deafening bang. The warrior didn't even have time to see the motion before he was smashed into the mud pit. A red-and-white damage number "-1240" floated into the sky, and the health bar above his head instantly emptied.
One-shot.
"G-g-ghost!" The remaining two fell flat on their butts in the muddy water, scrambling away in a panic. One of the cloth shoes given for free in the starter village was lost in the chaos. They looked utterly pathetic.
"Why run?" Su Ming followed leisurely behind, dragging his claws through the mud and leaving two deep furrows. "Didn't you just want to sell me for cash?"
Two minutes later, the marsh held two more corpses and a pile of broken equipment.
Su Ming didn't even glance at the loot. He continued deeper into the marsh.
First wave: a five-man assassin squad.
Second wave: three rangers trying to trap him with physical traps.
Third wave: reinforcements for the unlucky Wandering Sword Under the Sky, a mixed squad of twelve.
Fourth wave, fifth wave...
Tonight, the Misty Marsh was exceptionally lively. The server-wide bounty combined with the temporary leaderboards of various guilds had attracted all the greedy flies. Su Ming didn't even need to seek them out; he just followed the beams of their cheap flashlights, and he'd inevitably run into a few teams seeking their own deaths.
It was boring.
With Abyssal Pressure and the stat dominance of the Abyssal Tyrant form, these low-level players were no different from paper for him. The only thing that surprised him slightly was the growth speed of his Dark Energy bar.
On the system panel, the [Dark Energy] progress bar was skyrocketing. With every wave of players he killed, the bar jumped forward significantly. The more people cursed him on the forum, and the more vicious the live stream comments became, the more absurd the values of his [Absolute Reflect] and [Iron Carapace] attributes grew.
He glanced down at the panel.
[Dark Energy: 73%]
The progress bar glowed with an ominous dark red light, like a viper ready to overflow.
"Master, your Dark Energy is rising a bit fast," the Sprite floated above his head, munching on a French baguette it had somehow acquired, mumbling, "At this rate, it won't be long before it triggers... uh, that thing."
"What thing?"
"Anyway, it's not good news," the Sprite mumbled, dodging the question. "You should find a safe place to hide. The main force of the Heavenly Fate Guild is probably already on the way. These small fries are just appetizers."
Su Ming said nothing.
He knew the Sprite was right. Those scattered hunters were just cannon fodder for the Heavenly Fate Guild; the real killing blow was yet to come. The Guild Leader, Pojun, was meticulous; he wouldn't send a ragtag group to die.
But he couldn't hide.
The reason was simple—he had nowhere to hide.
He couldn't return to Stream Valley Town; the NPCs had marked him as an enemy target. Other starter villages were also guarded by soldiers; once his ID was recognized, the outcome wouldn't be much better. Safe zones in the wild? On the first day of the server, there were no safe zones.
The only way out was to go deeper.
The central area of the Misty Marsh, a forbidden zone rumored to be too dangerous even for the Heavenly Fate Guild's elite squads. There were high-level monsters, poisonous miasma, dark currents, whirlpools, and a legend never confirmed by any player—the entrance to the bottom of the Abyss.
Su Ming's past-life memories told him that legend was true.
And there, he needed something.
"Go deeper," Su Ming decided.
"You're crazy," the Sprite almost choked on its bread. "The center of the marsh is a Red Zone! Do you know what that means? It means 'die if you go there'!"
"I won't die," Su Ming replied without looking back, pushing through the reeds ahead, his eight legs marching a steady rhythm in the rotting mud. "I've jumped off cliffs, crossed toxic miasma, and survived a server-wide manhunt until now. You think the mere center of a marsh can kill me?"
The Sprite opened its mouth but said nothing in the end.
She had followed Su Ming for so long that she knew this lobster had no concept of the word "fear" in its brain. More accurately, his dictionary only contained two words: "Do it" and "Finish it."
---
The deeper he went into the marsh, the more complex the terrain became.
The relatively flat mudflats turned into a swamp riddled with dark currents and whirlpools; one wrong step could trap him in mud up to his knees. The toxic fog in the air grew denser too. Even though Su Ming's carapace could filter out most toxins, he could still feel a slight sting in his gills.
But what truly made him vigilant wasn't the environment, but the monsters.
The levels were skyrocketing.
From the initial level 3 Snake Lizards and level 5 Marsh Lizards, to the level 8 Poison Toads and level 10 Shadow Crocodiles later on. These monsters were grotesque, each with an attack power more outrageous than the last.
But Su Ming didn't even bother to pay them attention.
Abyssal Pressure.
Although this skill was still at the beginner level, under the buff of the Abyssal Tyrant form, its effect far exceeded expectations. All monsters below his level automatically entered a fear state within five meters, their attack desire drastically reduced. Wild non-boss monsters even lay flat on the ground, too afraid to move, as if worshipping a king returning from the Abyss.
Su Ming strode majestically through a group of trembling monsters like a tyrant inspecting his territory. Occasionally, a high-level monster that didn't know how to die would try to ambush him, only to be slapped into the mud by his claws, leaving no corpse behind.
But one monster was different.
It was a level 12 Marsh Python.
It didn't retreat under the pressure of the Abyss like the others. Instead, as Su Ming approached, it shot out of the mud at the bottom of the water, opening its blood-filled maw to reveal two fangs glowing with eerie green poison, heading straight for his face.
Su Ming dodged to the side. The fangs grazed his carapace, leaving a faint white scratch on the surface.
This beast's level was higher than his; the Abyssal Pressure had almost no effect on it.
After landing, the Marsh Python quickly coiled its body, its triangular head staring down at Su Ming, its scarlet tongue hissing. It was as thick as an adult's waist, its body over ten meters long, coiled into a ball, its scales shimmering with a strange green light in the fog.
Su Ming's compound eyes narrowed slightly.
This was the first truly threatening opponent he had encountered since entering the marsh.
The python attacked first. Its tail, like a steel whip, swept forward, carrying mud and gravel. The speed was so fast it created a whistling sound in the air.
Su Ming didn't block. He jumped back sharply, his eight legs digging eight deep pits in the mud. The snake's tail swept past him, less than ten centimeters away, the wind pressure blowing his antennae askew.
Before he could stabilize, the python's second strike was already upon him. This time, a direct frontal assault. The massive snake head, like a green cannonball, charged straight at him with a foul stench.
Su Ming made an unexpected move.
He didn't dodge; he advanced.
In the split second before the snake's head collided with him, he snapped his claws open and clamped them tightly around the python's neck.
*Crack.*
The dull sound of claws sinking into scales echoed. The python's scales were indeed hard, but not hard enough to block the Abyssal Tyrant's claws. Su Ming felt resistance, but he didn't let go; instead, he poured all his strength into the grip.
The python thrashed wildly. Its ten-meter-long body rolled violently in the mud, its tail whipping everywhere, smashing the surrounding reeds and shrubs into pulp. Su Ming was dragged this way and that, cracks appearing on his carapace from the whipping.
But he refused to let go.
Like a crocodile biting down on a prey's throat, he held on regardless of how the python thrashed. The claw blades slowly sank inch by inch into the python's neck muscles. Blood sprayed from the wound, staining the black mud around them red.
The python's movements slowed.
Its thrashing changed from violent to spasmodic, then from spasmodic to weak twitches. Finally, its massive head crashed heavily onto the mud, motionless.
Su Ming released his claws, panting heavily.
His carapace now had seven or eight cracks, and his HP had dropped by nearly a quarter. But as he looked at the massive python corpse on the ground, his compound eyes held no fear, only a pure, battle-induced excitement.
[Defeated Marsh Python (Level 12 · Elite), EXP gained: 12,000.]
[Level up to 4.]
[Dark Energy +15%.]
Both EXP and Dark Energy were credited. Su Ming glanced briefly at the panel; all attributes had increased again. The boost wasn't huge, but every bit counts. At this level, every point of attribute was crucial.
He didn't linger long. The scent of the python's blood would attract more high-level monsters; he had to leave the area quickly.
---
12:20 AM.
Su Ming finally reached the edge of the marsh's center.
Before him lay a lifeless Blackwater Lake. The water was thick as ink, its surface devoid of ripples, eerily silent. In the center of the lake, the silhouette of a building could be vaguely seen through the fog.
That was the legendary Abandoned Altar.
Su Ming's carapace was burning.
Since entering the central range of the marsh, he had felt a scorching sensation. It didn't come from the outside, but from within him—specifically, from the Abyssal Core Fragment embedded inside his chest plate.
At this moment, that fragment was beating frantically, like a heart about to explode. Dark red light seeped through the gaps in his carapace, casting the surrounding mud pits in a blood-red glow.
"Master..." the Sprite's voice trembled slightly. "The thing in your chest, its energy reading is skyrocketing. It's more than ten times higher than when you were on the marsh's outskirts."
Su Ming looked down at his chest. On the carapace, tempered by countless battles, the newly grown deep purple patterns were resonating with some energy coming from the direction of the lake's center. The frequencies matched perfectly, like two synchronized heartbeats.
He stopped by the lake.
Not because he was tired, nor because he was afraid. But because he saw something he shouldn't have.
In the mud by the lake, there were footprints.
Not monster footprints. Human footprints.
And not just one set. At least a dozen different shoe prints converged on the lake from all directions, then disappeared onto the water's surface. The depth and freshness of the prints told him—these people hadn't been here long; no more than an hour ago.
Someone had arrived here before him.
Su Ming's compound eyes narrowed slightly. He crouched low, maximizing the Abyssal Tyrant's perception. His antennae trembled gently in the air, capturing every faint scent.
He smelled it.
The scent of humans. Metal. And the residual aura of magic.
Not ordinary players. Members of a guild. And elite ones.
Su Ming suddenly turned his head toward the northeast.
Deep in the thick fog, countless headlamps flashing with blue-white light were approaching like ghost fires. Chaotic footsteps, the clinking of iron armor plates, and the roars from the guild channel merged into a suffocating wave of sound.
Three hundred.
Five hundred.
One thousand.
Su Ming's health bar had just fully recovered. His Dark Energy bar was also high from harvesting malice all the way here.
But he couldn't smile.
Because he recognized the insignia on those headlamps.
It was the elite squad of [Heavenly Fate], the largest guild in the server. Guild Leader Pojun was leading them personally. Plus the temporary mercenaries from various other guilds, they had managed to encircle him at this precise moment.
In their previous encounters, the members of the Heavenly Fate Guild had been crushed by this "bug lobster," their faces utterly humiliated. Pojun had even descended personally, only to be escaped by Su Ming jumping off a cliff. Such humiliation was unacceptable for a top-three guild in the server.
So they had come.
With a thousand elite soldiers.
With frost traps, magic arrays, heavy crossbows, and siege equipment.
With a determination to fight to the death.
Su Ming slowly straightened his body.
His eight walking legs supported his massive, iron-armored body, towering like a small hill in the mud. His two giant claws collided in the air, emitting a metallic roar that made eardrums ache.
One thousand people versus one shrimp.
It sounded like a joke.
But Su Ming knew that under the rules of [Divine Realm], numbers themselves were a form of power. A thousand level 10 players focusing fire, even with his hard carapace, couldn't withstand endless skill bombardment. Moreover, the Heavenly Fate Guild was not short of core members above level 20.
Run?
Where to? Behind him was the Blackwater Lake; in front was a military formation of a thousand. His eight legs were fast, but they couldn't outrun a mage's ranged spells or a ranger's tracking arrows.
There was only one path left.
Kill.
There was no fear in Su Ming's compound eyes, only a calmness suppressed to the extreme. In his past life, he had been a coward for ten years; in this life, every battle was a gamble with his life. He had grown accustomed to being forced to the brink.
Or rather, he enjoyed this feeling.
Because only in dire straits did a lobster's claws clamp down the tightest.
In the distance, the Heavenly Fate Guild's formation had unfolded. On the left, a line of tower shields pushed forward like a brick wall; on the right, the mage squad crouched behind, charging up their ultimate spells, their colorful light effects dazzling to the eye; rangers hid at the back, nocking their arrows. The formation was stretched out wide, like a fishing net slowly tightening.
"Hold steady! Everyone, hold steady!" Pojun's voice came from the rear of the formation, steady and cold. "It's just a monster. A bounty of 100,000 gold, 50,000 for a live capture. Don't let the duck fly away."
Su Ming heard the number "100,000 gold" and his claws tightened slightly.
100,000.
Last time it was 5,000; this time it had multiplied by twenty. It seemed the price on his lobster head was rising faster than inflation.
The first wave of arrows descended, blocking out the sky.
Su Ming didn't dodge.
He snapped his claws open, facing the impenetrable hail of arrows, and let out a roar that shook the entire Misty Marsh.
It wasn't a sound a human could make, nor any known monster. It was the war cry of the Abyssal Tyrant—a low, guttural screech from the bottom of the Abyss that made everyone who heard it feel fear rising from the depths of their souls.
The arrow rain collided with his carapace, sending sparks flying. The iron armor deflected most arrows, and the Absolute Reflect caused a few archers who hit his weak spots to suffer real damage themselves. Only a few lucky arrows managed to slip into the gaps of his carapace, taking away less than 200 HP.
Su Ming stepped forward with his eight legs.
In the center of the battlefield, the Heavenly Fate Guild's formation began to waver. The front-line heavy warriors raised their shields to stabilize the line, but facing a giant lobster covered in black mist, moving like an out-of-control armored vehicle, their courage was draining away at a visible rate.
Su Ming's right claw pierced through the shield wall of three heavy warriors.
500 Real Damage. Ignores defense.
The three warriors' shields shattered like paper, and along with their bodies, they turned into three beams of white light, flying back to the resurrection point.
A huge gap was torn in the line.
"It's charging! Retreat!"
Panic spread like a plague through the crowd. Su Ming didn't give them a chance to regroup. His left claw swept horizontally, his right claw struck vertically, and his eight legs, like eight sharp knives, carved a bloody path through the crowd.
Every claw strike was accompanied by a terrifying damage number. Every collision knocked down a wave of players trying to block him. Behind him lay corpses scattered haphazardly, broken equipment, and desperate screams.
But it wasn't without cost.
High-level mages' fireballs and ice shards exploded on his carapace. While they didn't cause fatal damage, the accumulated damage was slowly eating away at his HP. Assassins' backstabs occasionally found gaps in his carapace, each taking away 200-300 HP. And a few elite warriors with excellent equipment left deep scratches on him with their enchanted weapons.
Su Ming's health bar jumped between 80% and 60%.
Dark Energy was frantically healing him. Every curse, every "die," every scream of fear was converting into his HP. But the healing speed couldn't keep up with the damage rate.
He was surrounded.
A full thousand people formed an impenetrable circle. The front-line heavy warriors built a human wall with their shields and bodies; the mages and archers in the back frantically output damage from a safe distance. Even a few engineering players were quickly assembling siege crossbows. Those giant crossbow bolts, capable of piercing city walls, would penetrate his carapace if they hit.
Su Ming leaned against a huge boulder, panting heavily. His carapace was covered in cracks; his left hind leg was pierced by an ice shard, and every movement sent a stabbing pain through him.
"All troops, siege crossbows loaded! Target locked!" Pojun's voice came from outside the circle, devoid of emotion.
Su Ming looked up. The tips of three siege crossbows were flashing with blinding magical light, all aimed squarely at his chest.
He couldn't survive this volley.
He had only one choice left.
Su Ming stared fixedly at the direction of the Blackwater Lake in the center of the marsh. There lay what he needed, and his only chance to survive.
He stopped trying to break out.
He chose the craziest path of all—charging toward the densest part of the encirclement.
That was where the main force of the Heavenly Fate Guild was located. A wall of steel made up of hundreds of elite players.
Everyone who saw this thought the lobster had gone mad.
But Su Ming knew what he was doing.
He wasn't charging.
He was using them.
"Abyssal Taunt!"
Su Ming let out a deafening roar. The sound waves, mixed with a mental shock, radiated outward from him in all directions. This wasn't a damage skill; it was a taunt skill—it forced all surrounding enemies to lock their hate onto him, while simultaneously lowering their sanity, causing them to make more aggressive, reckless attacks.
The effect was immediate.
The elite squad of the Heavenly Fate Guild, which had been maintaining their formation, instantly lost their composure upon being taunted. The front-line warriors stopped raising their shields to defend and started slashing wildly at Su Ming. The mages in the back abandoned precise aiming and switched to large-scale AOE bombardment.
Everyone wanted to tear this damn lobster to pieces.
But because of this, their attacks began to overlap. Mages' fireballs exploded on their own warriors; rangers' arrows hit the backs of teammates in the front row. Chaos spread through the crowd, and the formation completely collapsed.
Seizing this moment of confusion, Su Ming charged toward the Blackwater Lake in the center of the marsh at his maximum speed.
"It's breaking out! Stop it!"
Pojun's roar exploded behind him. But the chaotic formation couldn't be reorganized in time. Su Ming was like a bull in a china shop, smashing through the crowd, leaving blood and flesh in his wake.
Behind him were the roars of pursuers and a sky filled with skill effects.
Before him lay the bottomless Blackwater.
Su Ming didn't slow down.
He leaped, the Abyssal Tyrant like a red cannonball, plunging straight into the Blackwater Lake.
Splash!
The ink-black water instantly swallowed his figure. The Heavenly Fate Guild members who reached the lake's edge exchanged glances, none daring to jump in. The color and smell of the water were abnormal; their instincts told them that going down meant a one-way trip to death.
"Guild Leader, the lobster jumped into the lake!"
The deputy leader's voice came through the communicator, tinged with obvious anxiety.
Silence on the other end for five seconds.
Then, Pojun's voice came through, calm as if discussing the weather.
"Set up sentries around the lake. It can't stay underwater for too long. When it surfaces, focus fire immediately. Set up a water-element suppression array; not even a fly is allowed to escape."
---
At the bottom of the Blackwater Lake.
After sinking about twenty meters, Su Ming's feet finally touched the bottom.
Surprisingly, the lakebed wasn't mud, but a layer of hard black stone slabs. The slabs were covered in dense runes, emitting a faint blue light.
The runes formed a massive array.
In the center of the array was a downward channel. At the entrance of the channel sat an old-fashioned windproof lantern, quietly resting. The flame didn't extinguish in the water; protected by a transparent sphere, it emitted a warm yellow glow.
In this dead silence and darkness, that single point of candlelight looked particularly lonely, yet particularly determined.
Su Ming swam closer.
Next to the lamp was a line of text. Not Abyssal, but the Common Tongue of humans. It was carved into the stone slab with some sharp tool, the strokes messy and urgent, as if left under extreme pressure.
"Su Ming, follow the light. —Someone who knows the truth earlier than you."
Su Ming's compound eyes stared at the words, his antennae swaying slowly in the water.
He didn't know this person. But this person obviously knew him. Not only did they know his name, but they also knew he would come here.
Past life? Present life? Or some power he didn't yet understand?
Su Ming didn't hesitate long. He picked up the lantern from the stone slab, turned around, and swam toward the downward channel.
Behind him, the torches and headlamps of the pursuers above the Blackwater Lake reflected a red glow on the water's surface.
But those lights could no longer reach him.
Carrying the lantern, the mysterious message, his wounds, and his killing intent, Su Ming sank into a deeper, darker abyss.
Several lines of golden text popped up on Su Ming's system panel.
[You have entered an uncharted area: Blackwater Lake Bottom.]
[You have lost your Starter Village protection qualification.]
[You have become the Number One Enemy of the Heavenly Fate Guild (Player Organization).]
[The Abyss is watching you.]
Su Ming looked at these lines and held the lantern a little higher.
Ahead was a pitch-black channel, bottomless.
Behind were relentless enemies, mere inches away.
And he was trapped in between.
Like a true lobster, trapped in a cage.
But a cage couldn't hold the Abyss.
Su Ming moved his left hind leg, which was still pierced by ice shards, pressing the last bit of pain deep beneath his carapace.
He continued to sink.