Splat.

  There was no crisp splash.

  Slayer's heavy combat boots smashed into the "water" surface, producing a dull, viscous sound, like smashing into a pool of rotten meat paste.

  There was no light here. The only illumination came from the faint glow of runes on Slayer's Praetor Suit, and the occasional phosphorescent fire surging from beneath the "sea surface."

  This was the Netherworld Blood Sea.

  It was not composed of water.

  Looking around, the dark red liquid was as thick as glue, floating with countless bleached skeletons, severed limbs, and still-squirming fragments of internal organs.

  There was no sound of wind, only a maddening background noise—the overlapping wails and whispers of billions of sinful souls sinking here.

  "Hiss... save me..."

  "Meat... fresh meat..."

  "Stay... merge with us..."

  Countless pale arms formed of filthy blood reached out from beneath the sea like water weeds, grabbing at Slayer's leg armor, trying to drag him into that bottomless abyss.

  Slayer stood on a massive skull of some unknown creature, half-submerged and half-floating (this was probably the only foothold he could find in the Blood Sea).

  He looked down at the bloody hands clutching his legs.

  The shield value of the Praetor Suit began to drop slowly. This blood water possessed extremely strong corrosiveness, not just physical corrosion, but eroding the energy layer of the shield.

  Slayer raised his leg.

  Snap!

  Those withered blood hands were snapped directly.

  He showed no panic, didn't even rush to draw his gun.

  He activated the Equipment Launcher on his left shoulder.

  Switch Mode: Flame Belch.

  Whoosh————!

  A stream of scorching flames spewed from the shoulder cannon, instantly covering the blood water within a five-meter radius around him.

  Sizzle sizzle sizzle!

  The blood water boiled instantly. Those outstretched ghost hands twitched violently and charred in the fire, emitting ear-piercing screams, then turned into black ash and sank to the bottom of the sea.

  A suffocating smell of burnt flesh mixed with a fishy stench filled the air.

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  Slayer strode forward in the flames.

  He didn't need a boat.

  Wherever he walked, the blood water was evaporated by high temperature, turning into hardened blood scabs. In this boundless liquid hell, he forcibly burned out a path.

  ...

  "Beep... Signal Lost... Beep... Reconnecting..."

  At the edge of the cliff thousands of meters above, Daoist Singularity lay prone on the ground, holding a signal receiver that looked like a fishing rod, trying hard to capture the image below.

  The picture on the Heavenly Dao Tablet was full of static snow, caused by the interference of the high-concentration malevolent aura of the Blood Sea on electronic equipment.

  "This environment is too harsh." Singularity wiped his sweat. "This isn't a sea; this is 'Liquid High-Level Nuclear Waste'!"

  Finally, the picture flickered and cleared up.

  Singularity saw that green dot of light.

  In that vast, despairing dark red ocean, that light dot was as insignificant as a speck of dust.

  But it was this speck of dust that was boiling the surrounding ocean.

  "Warning: Giant Biological Reaction Detected." Singularity's tablet suddenly alarmed. "Something is coming up from the deep sea!"

  ...

  Center of the Blood Sea.

  Slayer stopped.

  The bone island beneath his feet began to shake violently.

  The originally viscous and calm sea surface suddenly exploded.

  A "Blood Sea Demon Whale" (a giant beast aggregated from countless corpses), immense as a mountain, broke through the water. It opened a maw large enough to swallow an aircraft carrier and let out a deafening roar.

  "ROAR——————!!!"

  Accompanied by the roar, countless "Blood Imps" jumped off its back, pouncing toward Slayer like red fleas.

  Slayer looked up.

  Facing this size difference, he didn't retreat half a step.

  Click-clack.

  Double-barreled shotgun loaded.

  At this moment, the surrounding soul whispers became noisier, trying to drill into his brain and interfere with his judgment.

  Slayer's movement paused.

  Too loud.

  He didn't like this noise.

  So, he decided to make some bigger noise to drown them out.

  [BGM: BFG Division - (Intro Riff)]

  Slayer put away the shotgun and drew the BFG-9000 from his back.

  He didn't aim at the giant beast's head, nor at those small mobs.

  He pointed the muzzle downward, aiming at the Blood Sea beneath his feet.

  Pulled the trigger.

  Hum————BOOM!!!

  The green destruction energy ball drilled into the depths of the Blood Sea.

  Since he was in water, let the water conduct the energy.

  The BFG energy ball exploded beneath the surface. Green lightning spread at light speed in all directions along the viscous blood water.

  In this instant, the entire Blood Sea seemed to be electrified with high voltage.

  Zzzzzzzzzzzzt!!!

  The blood water within a one-kilometer radius instantly lit up with eerie green light.

  The Blood Sea Demon Whale that had just rushed out didn't even have time to close its mouth before being penetrated by the current. Its body structure composed of corpses disintegrated instantly, and countless corpses composing it exploded simultaneously.

  Those Blood Imps pouncing in mid-air were directly burned to ash by the green electric arcs.

  Field Cleared.

  Slayer lowered the gun.

  The whispers disappeared. The wailing disappeared.

  The world went quiet.

  Only the gurgling sound of boiling blood water remained.

  Slayer stepped on the still-smoking blood scabs and continued forward.

  He didn't even look at the disintegrating and sinking giant beast.

  ...

  On the cliff.

  Singularity looked at the red dots instantly cleared on the tablet, and the green mushroom cloud that blasted a huge vortex in the Blood Sea.

  He silently put down the "fishing rod" in his hand.

  "Insignificance vs Vastness."

  Singularity wrote in his notebook:

  "Normally, facing the ocean, humans feel insignificant."

  "But if this ocean meets him..."

  Singularity glanced at the ever-spreading green ripples.

  "This ocean should feel fear."

  Slayer's figure gradually disappeared into the distant blood mist.

  He didn't look like a survivor in desperate straits.

  He looked like a deadlier virus that had just been injected into this massive organism.

  "Next chapter, Awakening of the Ancient God. Slayer made too much noise and woke up the old landlord here."