Chapter 545: Heart of Dreams (Part )
The fourth layer of the Abyss Ruins is called the Ocean of Dead Bodies.
According to the bunny girl's description, the fourth layer of water occupied more than 90% of the area, and the remaining 10% was various skeletons.
There are various carnivorous fish in the Sea of Dead, with teeth that can bite through ordinary iron tools and poisonous meat.
The former, illustrates their dangerousness.
The latter, meaning they cannot be eaten directly by humans.
To go to the next level, one must go to the steel base around the black pillar in the center of the fourth level. There is a passage leading to the fifth level built by the Abyss people for generations.
"However, to reach the fourth floor, you must pass through the outer waterfall on the edge of the third floor. Therefore, after reaching the next floor, you are at the edge and must go to the center to reach the fifth floor."
The bunny girl burst into tears, “Under this situation, Na brought Nanamichi with her and followed the expedition group, and together they went to the fourth floor along the outer waterfall of the third floor.
At the very edge of the fourth floor, there is a protruding three-meter-long circular stone platform where we can stand.
But when we fell into the ocean of dead bodies, we startled the carnivorous fish in it, and we lost five companions...
The diameter of the fourth layer is 150 kilometers, and we have to cross a distance of about 70 kilometers to reach the steel base built near the Lord.
However, in addition to carnivorous fish, there are other creatures in the Ocean of Dead Bodies. Some of these creatures are so powerful that they can destroy nearby mountains with a single blow.
At that time, there happened to be an outside soul master who came to explore. It seemed that he had reached the Soul Saint stage as described by outside soul masters, but without being able to use soul skills, it took him nearly half a year to collect enough floating bones from the ocean of corpses and make a raft strong enough to go to the steel base on the fourth floor.
The expedition team that Na and Namichi were in had quite a few people, but none of them had the strength of a Soul Sage, and their food was gradually running out.
The fourth level's ascending curse will cause severe pain in the human body and bleeding from all seven orifices. Therefore, after reaching the fourth level, it is basically impossible to go up again..."
A team that cannot return but cannot go to the lower level in a short period of time will slowly run out of food and edible water.
What should they eat then?
eat human!
Zhou Qing's heart sank, and he came up with the answer together with the others.
"Without food, people began to starve to death, until the leader broke the rules himself and began to eat Namichi's children—"
The bunny girl looked sad. "Namiki, who merged with the Heart of Dreams, became an alien body. She doesn't need to eat, and can directly absorb energy from the air to survive. The energy she needs to give birth to a child also comes from the outside world."
"At first, some people were not used to it, but hunger made people crazy and they didn't care about anything else. Everyone, including Na, joined the ranks of eating Namichi's children."
"After all, Namichi's child doesn't look like a human, maybe he's not a human at all..."
Guilt?
have no choice?
Grief?
The bunny girl has forgotten what kind of mood she was in and what kind of reasons she used when she ate Nanamichi's child.
But the only thing she remembered was Namichi's desire to contribute to the team, the joy she felt when she gave birth to a child, and the sadness she felt when the child died... Especially after going to the fourth floor, Namichi had to endure the pain of her child being eaten by other members of the team.
"In the end, Namić became a reproductive machine after a long period of pain. She could give birth to a child every day. She would be happy for the birth of the child, but also sad when she knew the fate of the child... Perhaps, it was Nana who brought her into the abyss of the fourth layer. If Nana had left her on the third layer at that time, perhaps this would not have happened." The bunny girl's eyes were already red, but the smile on her face remained unchanged, as if this was the form of her alienated facial muscles. No matter how sad she was, she could not really cry and could only keep smiling.
Zhou Qing did not ask about what happened next. At this moment, he felt very heavy in his heart and could not look at the problem objectively from a God's perspective.
Xiao Wu and Romantina both lowered their heads.
Even though they were not familiar with the bunny girl and had only known her for about an hour, they brought the bunny girl and Nana into the picture, and then associated them with the environment of the abyss ruins.
Who is right?
Who is wrong?
No one can tell.
"Such an abyss is simply hell. If the old me understood these circumstances, my first thought would probably be to destroy this place no matter how many sacrifices were made." Tang San closed his eyes and sighed softly, but he didn't have that idea now.
After all, this abyss has many resources. In addition, it is also an ancient relic. Maybe we can obtain ancient soul guides and use them to learn by analogy.
And from the perspective of human beings themselves, this abyss relic has never actively harmed humans. It’s just that if humans want to explore it, they must accept its invisible test.
The ascending curse is essentially just the peculiar environmental aura produced under the special environment of the abyss ruins.
This is the only test that the abyss ruins pose to explorers. The others, such as the natural environment of each layer, ferocious beasts, poisonous insects, snakes, ants, etc., are just difficulties that humans need to overcome in order to grow and develop.
This is actually no different from the history of human development in Douluo Continent.
However, under these invisible tests, people's hearts will gradually shift. Some people remain firm in their goals, some give up, some want to move forward with the help of others, and some want to help others... and so on.
The expedition team that Na and the bunny girl belong to were all good people at the beginning, but in the harsh environment, it is understandable that they gave up the bottom line of being human in order to survive. It's just that as third parties in the audience, they find it difficult to accept it physically and psychologically.
"This kind of thing cannot happen among us." Zhou Qing looked at Tang San, Xiao Wu, Romantina, and Wang Sheng, his voice deeper than ever.
"Ah."
All four of them nodded heavily.
They knew that what Zhou Qing was talking about was not about their performance after reaching the fourth level, but referred to the entire force that included them and was built around the Holy Soul Village.
At this time, Riko came forward, hugged the bunny girl, patted her shoulders, and hummed a tune:
“Dark sky hangs low ~and high~”
“Bright stars follow in ~the sky~”
"Fireflies!"
"Fiy in~the sky~"
The soothing music made the bunny girl hug Rico's body and lean her head on her shoulder. She sobbed like a little girl whose father was wronged.
The tune of this song also made Tang San, Xiao Wu, Romantina, and Wang Sheng slightly stunned. Unlike the lively and loud folk songs of the Holy Soul Village, this song was quite soothing, as if it was coaxing a child to sleep, but it was inexplicably mixed with a hint of sadness...
(End of this chapter)
