[3/5]
Ancient Leviathan?!
Seeing the title of the video, players immediately recalled the massive skull found in the Lost River in Subnautica. Compared to that colossal skull, even the terrifying Ghost Leviathan looked as small and harmless as a tiny gummy worm.
To think that Sinclair had actually modeled a living, fully grown Ancient Leviathan?!
Trembling with excitement, viewers clicked on the video.
The footage showed PewDiePie piloting the Cyclops through the endless ocean, his energetic voiceover playing in the background, "Alright guys, I've been trying to find the edge of the map in Subnautica for a while now. I really want to see just how massive they made this world."
"But due to power constraints, the dozen or so Power Cells I packed previously ran completely dry before I could reach the edge. So, I've never managed to find it."
"But now, we have Ion Power Cells! Theoretically, this gives us virtually limitless energy. So this time, I've packed over a dozen Ion Power Cells to give it another shot!"
"The challenge is simple: just drive the sub in a single direction and see if we can hit the edge of the map!"
"Enough with chitchat, let's go."
True to his word, PewDiePie steered the Cyclops and drove straight south.
"Since the map is absurdly huge, I'm going to fast-forward the gameplay here!"
He sped up the footage, playing it at 10x speed.
According to the in-game timer in the top right corner, PewDiePie literally drove in a straight line for nearly eight hours!
It wasn't until eight hours later that the scenery finally changed. The reefs and various fish that were once visible completely vanished. Ahead lay nothing but dark, deep, empty ocean water.
[Bruh ain't no way he drove straight for 8 hours, PewDiePie is built different]
[Deadass nothing but water past here tho. ngl it's lowkey nightmare fuel now]
[He definitely hit the world border. Anon is 100% just looping the background textures to gaslight us into thinking the Cyclops is still moving]
Viewers couldn't help but marvel at the sheer scale of the game.
Many gamers had already guessed Lucien's trick. It was quite simple, really: the Cyclops wasn't moving at all. The surrounding water textures were just looping continuously, giving the illusion of forward momentum.
This was a common trick used by game developers to save resources. Because of this, no matter how long you sailed, you would never reach a true "end" of the ocean.
However, to prove this theory, PewDiePie kept driving for another half hour. The endless expanse of water remained unchanged.
"Alright guys, I think we have our conclusion," PewDiePie announced. "The map does have an edge. If you drive the Cyclops straight for about eight hours, you hit the boundary."
"But did you think I was just going to stop there? Of course not! This is the ocean we're talking about. We've found the edge, but we can still go down. Let's see just how deep this ocean goes!"
With that, PewDiePie tilted the Cyclops and began a vertical descent.
[Damn, PewDiePie is fully committed to the grind!]
[Respect! He must have spent so much time recording this!]
[Thank you for your service pewds]
Amidst the audience's praise, the depth gauge on the Cyclops began to skyrocket: 1,600 feet... 2,600 feet... 3,200 feet...
The surroundings had long since faded into pitch-black darkness. The powerful headlights of the Cyclops were swallowed up by the void, rendering them completely useless. Even the sonar system failed to work; because there were no reefs or fish in this empty expanse, the sound waves had nothing to bounce off of.
"You have entered the Dead Zone. Proceeding further will expose you to an endless abyss and extreme danger. Please return immediately," Gaia AI's voice suddenly warned.
[Whoa, so this is the Dead Zone? Even Gaia AI is throwing up warning signs!]
[This place is genuinely terrifying. It's just endless darkness, and even the sonar is useless!]
[It looks so freaky! It feels like he's descending into hell!]
Looking at the pitch-black environment, the viewers couldn't help but gasp in awe and fear.
In the video, PewDiePie ignored Gaia AI's warning and continued his descent. "Remember, guys," he advised, "if you want to try this yourself, you must use the Cyclops. The Cyclops has an energy shield upgrade that protects it from the insane water pressure. If you try this in the Seamoth or the Prawn Suit, you'll be crushed instantly!"
Soon, the Cyclops passed the 6,500-foot mark, but PewDiePie pressed on relentlessly.
6,500 feet... 10,000 feet... 20,000 feet...
The entire descent was spent plunging through complete darkness, prompting PewDiePie to fast-forward the footage again.
He drove straight down for nearly another hour, pushing past a depth of 32,000 feet. Throughout the descent, Gaia AI's danger alarms blared continuously.
[Are we sure this isn't just another texture loop from Sinclair? Maybe there really is no bottom?]
[Seriously! If you made me drive a sub in absolute darkness for an hour, I'd have a literal panic attack!]
ROAR!
a series of piercing, shrill roars echoed from the depths below.
Just as the viewers were panicking, faint pulses of blue light suddenly began to emanate from the pitch-black depths.
As the blue light drew closer, everyone realized what it was: the bioluminescent glow of Ghost Leviathans! While their natural glow wasn't overly bright, it stood out starkly against the infinite abyss.
And there wasn't just one. There were three of them. All fully grown adults, each nearly 330 feet long. They writhed and coiled around each other, roaring fiercely as they charged straight toward the Cyclops!!!
[Holy shit, three Ghost Leviathans!]
[Anonn definitely programmed them to spawn here just to keep restless players like PewDiePie from exploring out of bounds!]
[Yeah, get ready for a forced cinematic death!]
[Wait a second... look behind them! What the fuck is that?!]
Just as everyone was marveling at the sheer terror of the three Ghost Leviathans, they made a horrifying discovery. In the pitch-black void directly behind the Leviathans, two massive, glowing orbs suddenly materialized!!
They looked like giant lanterns, perfectly round, emitting a sickly green light that pierced through the darkness. And they were unfathomably massive, instantly taking up two-thirds of PewDiePie's entire screen!!
Despite clearly being further away in the distance, these two glowing orbs appeared significantly larger than the Ghost Leviathans!
[Holy fuck, what are those glowing things?]
[They're so huge!]
[Yeah, they look like two massive underwater caverns.]
Just as the viewers were gaping in awe, an ear-splitting, blood-curdling bellow erupted from the speakers.
ROOOOOOOAR!!!
It was a roar unlike anything they had heard before. It was so deafeningly loud that it completely drowned out the shrieks of the Ghost Leviathans, carrying heavy, vibrating echoes across the expansive deep. It instilled an immediate sense of profound shock, primal terror, and absolute insignificance.
[Holy shit, I get it now! Those glowing things must be the Ancient Leviathan!] a viewer suddenly commented.
[Jesus, if that's the case, the Ancient Leviathan is way bigger than the Ghost Leviathan! And Sinclair sent TWO of them?! He really is a sadist!]
[Oh my god... wait, something's wrong. Look! HOLY FUCK!]
Amidst the audience's disbelieving screams, they watched in sheer horror as a gargantuan, monstrous, fish-like visage surged up from the depths below, instantly swallowing PewDiePie entire field of vision.
The face was so incomprehensibly massive that it looked like the entire seabed itself was rising up to meet them.
Only then did it dawn on them. There weren't two Ancient Leviathans. There was only one. It was just absurdly, terrifyingly colossal!
Those two glowing "caverns" they saw earlier... were just the Leviathan's eyes.
The three 330-foot-long Ghost Leviathans suddenly looked like three tiny earthworms in comparison!!
[WHAT THE FUCK]
[HOLY SHIT?!]
At that moment, the collective brains of every single viewer completely short-circuited!
"FUCK, WHAT IS THAT MONSTER?!!!" PewDiePie's horrified, panic-stricken scream tore through the video audio.
ROOOOOOOAR!!!
The next second, the Ancient Leviathan let out another deafening roar, unhinging its massive maw as it lunged upward to bite!!
"Maw" was putting it lightly. Its mouth literally looked like a black hole, turning the entire screen pitch black. The sheer force of it opening caused all the surrounding water to twist, churn, and spiral into a massive, inescapable vortex!!!
Even the three Ghost Leviathans panicked. Abandoning their attack on PewDiePie, they turned tail and desperately tried to flee. But their struggles were entirely futile. The three Ghost Leviathans were sucked into the black hole like spaghetti noodles, instantly vanishing without so much as a final shriek.
"No! No! AAAAAAAAH!!!"
PewDiePiewas in full-blown hysterics. Screaming in pure, unadulterated terror, he violently yanked the Cyclops' steering wheel, desperately trying to escape. But just like the Ghost Leviathans, it was completely useless. The next moment, everything went dim as a massive shadow descended upon them, plunging the screen into absolute darkness!
The Ancient Leviathan's black hole of a mouth had swallowed the Cyclops and PewDiePie whole!!!
However, the death wasn't a painful one. The moment he was swallowed, the screen instantly flashed a prompt.
[YOU HAVE DIED!]
The game quickly booted back to the main menu, but the audience was far too shell-shocked to recover.
[Holy fucking shit... that Ancient Leviathan was way too big...]
[Yeah... just its head alone was the size of a damn mountain!!]
[God, my jaw is literally on the floor. NOW THAT is a true Leviathan!]
[Judging by the sheer scale of that thing, it looks even bigger than the skull in the Lost River!!]
[So this is Anon's Ancient Leviathan Easter egg... Fuck, my legs are shaking just watching the video.]
[Man, New World Studio really is on another level.]
As the viewers spammed the comments with awe and terror, PewDiePie's voiceover resumed. "Alright guys, so that was the Ancient Leviathan Easter egg Anon hid in the Dead Zone. I honestly never expected that trying to find the edge of the map would lead me straight into the jaws of that thing."
"Do you guys know what I felt in that moment? Fuck... seeing a gigantic, seemingly endless face lunging out of the darkness straight at me... I can't even describe the sheer fear I felt!"
"After getting eaten by that monster, I literally sat frozen in my chair for two hours before I could calm down!"
PewDiePie's voice still trembled slightly as he spoke. "I'm telling you guys right now: if you get scared easily, do not come here. The Ancient Leviathan is ten thousand times more terrifying than the Reaper, Ghost, and Sea Dragon Leviathans combined. If you have a weak heart, seriously, don't do this to yourself! It will actually give you a heart attack!"
Hearing PewDiePie warning, the viewers heartily agreed.
[You don't need to tell me twice! I wouldn't go down there if you put a gun to my head!!]
[Yeah, these are the kinds of Easter eggs you watch other people suffer through on YouTube. Hard pass on experiencing it myself.]
[Just watching a video of it is terrifying enough. Actually triggering it in VR? You'd have to be out of your mind.]
[Fuck, that was way more intense than any horror game jumpscare!]
PewDiePie's video inevitably went viral, confirming a long-standing fan theory: Anon had indeed programmed a living Ancient Leviathan Easter egg, and its execution was absolutely mind-blowing!
However, that wasn't the only Easter egg Lucien had hidden.
Gaining viral traction at the exact same time was a brand new video uploaded by Twigs. The title read: [Disabling the Precursor Quarantine Enforcement Platform BEFORE the Sunbeam Arrives! Can We Save the Crew? (INSANE ENDING!)]
The video title was incredibly click-baity, yet highly effective. After all, the tragic destruction of the Sunbeam rescue ship had always been a bitter pill for players to swallow.
The video started with Twigs voiceover, "Alright chat, as we all know, after playing Subnautica for a while, the Sunbeam contacts us. They fly lightyears across the galaxy to rescue us, only to be shot out of the sky by the Precursor planetary defense cannon before they can even land, killing the entire crew."
"But what if we disable the cannon before the Sunbeam arrives? Will the ship be able to land safely? Can we actually meet the crew and escape the planet with them?"
"Today, we're going to find out!"
The footage showed Twigs standing on the mountain island in Subnautica. "Alright, so I've successfully cured myself of the Kharaa bacterium on my second playthrough and shut down the enforcement platform. At the same time, the Sunbeam just messaged us saying they're entering the atmosphere!"
"Let's see what happens next!"
30 adv chapter on patreon.com/edgyreader