Chapter 536 - 11.62 First Green Star - Punishment World: 'Hell' (28)
Han Ya returned to the camp after killing the demonic being in the center of the oasis. Meanwhile, at the riverside. Following the shaking of the land is a loud banging sound coming out of the river.
The water shoot together with some ice fragments hidden within the veil of water is two huge white heads of a mutated snake. It was twice as large as the Anacondas in the movie. Just straightening up its body is enough to match the height of a six-floored building in modern times.
SSSHHHAAAA~~
Lan She stared at the two huge white snakes before him. He was as calm as if nothing would be able to move him even if the sky collapses.
"It finally appeared ha? What's its current state, An?" asked Lan She.
An Yuan said, "Give me a moment to check."
He once again activated his skill and checked on the monster bosses.
---
Two-headed River Snake
An experimental animal was born with two heads in one body. It's a failed experiment of a hydra.
Weakness: Ice. It can also die by cutting its heads off.
Current state: Weakened. My body is frozen and it's in rage.
---
An Yuan reported what he saw, "It's completely weakened that half of its body had fallen in a frozen state. But be careful it's in a rage!"
"Half of its body is already frozen? Its greatest weakness is indeed ice," said Lan She as he threw a few more Ice crystals in the river, seeing that half of the body of the snake was still submerged.
But one of the stupid snake's heads had chomped on the crystals not realizing that it was those crystals that frozen the river which made them weak.
CHOMP!
One of the heads tried to bite and swallow Lan She together with what he had thrown but of course, Lan She had flown away and avoided the big mouth coming for him. As soon as the Ice crystal was wet with the snake's saliva, it had activated and spread a cold qi that could even freeze the surface of the river.
SHHHAAA!! HISSSSS~ SHHAAA~
Inside the snake hits, fluids slowly turn into a frost from within. Cold is the greatest weakness of these snakes and all they can do is struggle. The iciness spread from within his throat to his head and made it yell in agony.
SHA! SHAAAASSS~
An Yuan was startled by the sight of one of the snake's heads wriggling in pain, he could see its scales slowly dulling as it slowly got covered in ice.
"What's wrong with it?" asked An Yuan.
Lan She answered, "It ate something bad for it."
"Did you give it some ice crystals? Is it stupid? Why eat something deadly to itself?!" said An Yuan.
Lan She said, "I didn't feed it? I was planning to throw some more ice crystals on the river and completely freeze their lower body. That snakehead blocked it and chomped on it. Serve it right. Once the head completely turns into ice, rain some ice arrows on the other head. I will destroy the frozen one."
"Okay~" replied An Yuan.
While An Yuan was preparing his second round of ice arrows, Lan She flew towards the snakeheads. He could see one of the heads which were unharmed blocking his way to protect the other head. For a moment, Lan She was stunned. Such a protective gesture would be done by a monster at all.
SSSHHHHHAAAAA~~~
Then he recalled that episode where Lord Hei had dissected the Snow Oni and saw human organs inside the monster. A frown finally appeared on his calm face when he thought of a certain probability.
Lan She yelled, "Stop! An Yuan! Don't attack anymore!"
An Yuan who was about to release his mana had stopped his movements and his preparations for the next attack broke. He looked at Lan She who tried to reach out his hand towards one of the snakeheads. He was frightened that the snake might swallow Lan She whole and kept an arrow ready in case the monster chomped on his friend.
Lan She spoke in the direction of the snake, "Don't move. If you can understand my words, eating the fire crystals would melt the ice inside the body of the other snake."
SHAA~ HISS~
"If it does not eat it. He would turn in an Ice statue sooner or later. The ice crystals he ate are something a True God of winter had made. It has divinity in it even though it's too little. Eat these fire stones if you don't want to die." said Lan She.
SIGH~
Seeing the snakes isn't making a move. He decided to show its effects. He threw some fire stones in the river and the ice on its surface slowly melted away. The temperature of the river slowly turns back to its normal warmness.
Lan She's thoughts at the sight, 'Thought the Ice Crystals were left behind residue energy when Lord Hei was still asleep in that world of fantasy. It still has a minimal yet similar effect to everlasting ice. This is why its effects are stronger than a regular crystal stone and it needs high-grade firestone to melt it. Plus it wasn't like the original Everlasting Ice that cannot be melted by normal means.'
Looking at the ice crystal he had gathered in that world became something extremely useful, Lan She hides it in case it gets confiscated by that person. If Lord God Ye learned about this ice crystal made from his wife's divine energy it wouldn't be surprising that he would take possession of it all. Anything that had a connection to his wife, this man would be over-obsessed with it regardless of what it was.
Pulling out another firestone from his storage he looked at the snakes that felt a bit better when the rigidness of their lower half had slowly faded.
Lan She spoke, "Eat it. Only then the ice inside your body would melt. Unless you want to drink lava to melt the iced parts in you and accidentally killed yourself, just eat this firestone to return to normal. I know you can understand me."
The two-headed snake nods towards Lan She showing that they indeed understand his words.
Hissss~ The frozen snakehead opens its mouth and Lan She throws firestone inside. It only took a few minutes before one could see white steams coming out of its mouth. Obviously, the ice was slowly being melted from within.
Lan She spoke, "Don't worry the firestone would lose effect when it melted all the ice in your body. There might be a bit more ice left, as long as you drink hot water or soaked in warm water you would return."
Once the iciness in their body completely left. Though there's still some stiffness left behind by the cold, they could now freely leave the river. The boss monsters crawl out of the river. As soon as they got out of it, a white mist covered the snake and the area.
An Yuan panicked for a moment and almost fell from the top of the tree.
"Eh!? Eh? What is happening? What's with the mist!? AHH~" An Yuan screamed as he fell.
But he didn't even reach the ground and become a meat paste as someone had caught him. Feeling the warm temperature of the arms wrapped around him, An Yuan opened his eyes in surprise and saw it was Han Ya who carried him in his embrace.
Han Ya has a doting smile on his face as always when looking at his beloved.
"Are you okay, A'Yuan?" asked Han Ya
An Yuan was a bit bewildered, "Xiao Ya? Aren't you fighting with the demon in the center of the Oasis?"
"It's done. The elevator hasn't appeared yet. We can go after eating dinner. I and Chu Mo came to pick you guys up." said Han Ya with his bat-like wings on his back.
Not far from them Chu Mo had longed to appear beside Lan She flying side by side with him.
Chu Mo asked, "Why did you spare them, Honey?"
"There is something I wanted to ask. Plus, they aren't completely monsters but humans instead," said Lan She.
An Yuan and Chu Mo were flabbergasted with what they'd just heard. Han Ya remained silent as if he already knew about it.
An Yuan of course noticed that and asked him, "Did you already know, Xiao Ya? That these monster bosses might be humans?"
"Yes, a guess. I mean even we become inhuman when using our bloodlines. Aren't we still humans in the end?" said Han Ya.
Hearing this An Yuan was speechless with sudden realization. He had some inkling of what is happening with the monsters of this world yet he was still in disbelief hearing such kind of truth.
The white mist finally faded revealing a pair of females wearing gray and blue robes. There are still some snake scales on their neck and cheeks. Even their eyes were still slits like a snake iris would have. But these two females indeed have human bodies. They also looked weakened from the fight just now.
All four of them landed on the ground and looked at the two females who used to be the huge snake boss monsters from before.
Lan She asked, "Is this your real form?"
One of the females' replies, "Yes. Please forgive my younger sister for not being able to speak. Her throat is still hurt."
"It's okay~ so are you guys monsters or players?" asked Chu Mo.
"Former players. My sister and I had Awakened two bloodlines which we had merged together. One is the beast bloodline of a snake and the other is that of a giant. We are now Abyssal Monster."
Chu Mo said, "So that's why you can become that big."
"Why are you considered Boss NPC instead of players? Aren't you supposed to be a player as you said before?" said An Yuan.
"It is simple. Because the world had considered dead players. Dead players can only be converted to an Abyssal Monster. As long as we are inside this world, any monster can be considered immortal. We can never really die in this world."
Han Ya spoke, "Are you saying there is no other way to leave this place and return to the original world the players came from."
A hoarse voice spoke up "I know-how! Hiss~ ouchie~"
Lan She bought a healing potion and gave it to the female with a hurt throat.
"Your throat is not completely healed. Drink this healing potion and take your time answering," said Lan She.
No one stopped Lan She nor scolded him for using their group funds to buy that expensive-looking potion. They also have lots of questions to ask these two females before they could give them to them. Giving them a healing potion in exchange is cheap.
"Thank you."
The hoarseness of her voice got healed instantly by the healing potion. She thanked them for giving away such an expensive gift. They knew one bottle of this potion caused at least 10,000 gold coins. They gave away one so easily to them in exchange for giving some answers.
An Yuan said, "You're welcome. Please tell us anything you know about this world."
"This world had two factions. The players and the Abyssal Monsters. Players are human souls who have the qualifications to become the chosen ones. The games and nightmares are trials they must complete. They had an extra chance at life. If they died in one of the games in the game station, they would fall into this punishment world.
In this punishment world, there are three stages. 18 layers of hell are the first stage. The second stage is the labyrinth and the last stage is Battle Royal. In the end, only one solo player or one group can leave this punishment world to return to Abyssal City.
Once a player completed the Ultimate Nightmare Game, he should be able to ascend and leave this game world. That player can ascend to a much higher world or return to the world they've come from."
Han Ya's face turned serious as he heard about ascension. "Ascension was it? So I don't need to kill that person."
Hearing the word kill come out of Han Ya's mouth, Lan She and Chu Mo couldn't help but give him a mocking glance which An Yuan and Han Ya couldn't understand. But Chu Mo and Lan She who knew the original plot of this world know that Han Ya is the protagonist destined to kill the Creator God of this world which is Yan Lou, who is also the soul fragment of Lord God Ye himself. Would Lord Hei even watch as Han Ya tries to kill his husband? Of course not! That is why Chu Mo and Lan Shen reacted like that.
Chu Mo sneered, "Heh~ I wonder who you are going to kill?"
"It's better to dream when you are sleeping as it sounds ridiculous," mumbled Lan She.
An Yuan was confused by the sudden change in atmosphere.
"Eh? What's happening?" he asked as he looked around, staring at his teammates.
Snorts!
Han Ya just snorted upon seeing the other two's reaction.. The atmosphere in the area had turned awkward and tense.