I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords-Chapter 81 - 080.【Underwater Breathing】_1
Chapter 81: 080.【Underwater Breathing】_1
Chapter 81: 080.【Underwater Breathing】_1
Sitting on his own bed, Lu Ban still felt a sense of unreality. That small town in the fog, the monstrous creatures with fish-headed bodies, the unappetizing dinner, the muddy silt exuding a metallic stench, and that pristine divine idol—all seemed like a nightmare that would reemerge before his eyes whenever he closed them, tormenting his sanity.
He looked at the morning sunlight and felt, for the first time, how quiet and peaceful the world could be.
But Lu Ban knew that beneath the calm lay even darker shadows.
In Jiangcheng Grand Theater, Merely being bathed in the brilliance of distant stars was enough to erode one’s sanity, suggesting that the world also harbored such bizarre and powerful, indescribable evils.
At least in Lu Ban’s understanding, there were already more than four great beings that exceeded the might of mortals.
“It’s not safe…”
Even though this world has the internet, electricity, all kinds of modern facilities, and people don’t have to twist into strange monsters or sacrifice relatives for safety—is it truly so?
His thoughts turned to Du Danping.
To be honest, when he first heard the name Du Danping from Cui Siter’s mouth, Lu Ban had not reacted.
But upon careful consideration, he sensed something amiss.
Du Danping had died twenty years ago, his soul bound to the Jiangcheng Grand Theater, contending against the grandeur of Aldebaran.
However, Cui Siter claimed the most recent message from Du Danping was just two missions ago. Considering the nature of Silent Lands, the interval between two missions couldn’t possibly last twenty years. And Cui Siter himself seemed to be just over thirty!
Was the Du Danping that Cui Siter encountered not the real one, but some entity disguised as him, or was there a significant disparity in the flow of time within Silent Lands?
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It brought to mind that each time he entered a Foreign Domain, Silent Lands would provide a conversion rate for the flow of time between the two worlds. Could it mean the time in those domains passed quicker than in the reality where Lu Ban existed?
Or could it be that Silent Lands was capable of traversing time to reach past or future domains?
Lu Ban couldn’t figure it out.
Of course, he didn’t tell Cui Siter that his former boss had been burned to death and that his soul’s head had been smashed to smithereens by Lu Ban.
He did this for Cui Siter’s own good, maintaining a sliver of hope to enhance his will to survive in Silent Lands!
Lu Ban also inquired about the information on Du Danping that Cui Siter had mentioned. According to him, Du Danping’s last contact was in He Dao, a part of the Foreign Domain. After that, there was no further news.
However, Lu Ban was aware that Du Danping must have then returned to reality, only to later encounter tragedy and perish.
“So, if there’s a chance later, I can go to He Dao to look for clues about Du Danping, and incidentally, ‘Sigh of the Indefinite Mist’ is a material from He Dao. If I could get it in one go, it would be a huge win.”
Lu Ban made up his mind that if he were to choose a Foreign Domain in the future, He Dao would be his first consideration.
Facing a world that might drive people mad, Lu Ban knew he had to strengthen himself. At the very least, if he encountered fellow Walkers in the future, he could help them to some extent, just as Cui Siter had helped him this time.
Setting Du Danping’s matter aside, Lu Ban began to tally his gains from this mission.
“Nearly thirteen thousand Silence Points, I’ve struck it rich.”
Lu Ban couldn’t help but remark.
Based on a typical completion of nine thousand, this was a nearly forty percent increase—effectively earning an entire mission’s profits extra.
If he hadn’t explored those stone figures or the grotesque walking dead in the fog, if he hadn’t delved into the faith of the Black Queen Mother, if Lu Ban and Cui Siter hadn’t understood the connection between Hai Family and Black Queen Mother, it’s unlikely the mission exploration rating would have been this high.
Of course, this was on the [Corrosion] difficulty.
Lu Ban was skeptical that had he chosen the [Mortal] difficulty, he might not have even made it through the gates of the Hai Family and would have ended up just watching the wedding procession from the streets.
“The last five percent must be related to the cause and true identity of the deceased of the Hai Family in that cave, right?”
Lu Ban mused. Although the information obtained from that individual indicated that the fish-headed monsters were essentially humans who had undergone Mutation, and the causes of the Mutation involved the silt that reeked of metallic odor, the identity of that particular fish-headed person, why he died there, and how he died—all remained unknown to Lu Ban. There must be some secrets yet to be revealed.
But this probably had no bearing on the ultimate outcome. The destruction of the Hai Family People was inevitable, nothing more.
As for conventional video footage, it had already been transferred to Lu Ban’s computer.
“It’s so big… it’s going to burst.”
Lu Ban looked at his 2TB hard drive, which had plenty of space before, but now it was already full.
How massive was this material?
If the following missions required him to gather more for a few more days, wouldn’t he indeed risk bursting his hard drive?
Lu Ban hurriedly went online and purchased several large-capacity hard drives as backups.
In case the System decided his hard drive was too full and forcibly deleted some of his movies, that would be bad.
Lu Ban didn’t check the contents of the hard drives for the time being but first glanced at his account balance.
16,836 Silence Points.
The total accumulated Silence Points also neared 30,000, and once he completed his career development task and did one more mission, he estimated he could break through the 50,000 total points mark and unlock the next tier of the store.
If luck was on his side and he could harvest materials on every mission, then after about three more missions, Lu Ban would be able to unlock the next phase of Essence Extraction for “Testament.”
“…Thinking about it like this, I’m so poor.”
Just the Essence Extraction alone would cost 50,000 points and if Lu Ban didn’t save up, he might soon be unable to even draw from Madman’s Knowledge.
For the moment, Lu Ban didn’t plan to spend any points, at least not until he completed his career development task and faced the next choice.
He checked the skills he had acquired.
[Underwater Breathing]
“The ability to breathe underwater just means you can breathe underwater, right? Or does it have other effects?”
Lu Ban went straight to the bathroom, plugged the sink, turned on the tap, and quickly filled the basin with water.
The Lu Ban in the mirror seemed a bit puzzled as he saw himself sticking his head directly into the basin.
At that moment, Lu Ban felt something unusual.
Humans generally can’t see clearly underwater, but now, Lu Ban could clearly make out the fine cracks on the ceramic of the sink.
The sounds coming through the water were especially clear.
Initially holding his breath, Lu Ban let go and breathed.
First, he sensed a whiff of bleach entering his nostrils, followed by the icy water.
The water flowed into his lungs, where the alveoli extracted oxygen from the water, converting it into the energy Lu Ban needed, and then he exhaled the water back out with his breath.
Lu Ban was clear in his understanding that, as long as there was oxygen in the water, he could breathe continuously as if he were on land.
At the same time, complete swimming knowledge appeared in his mind, allowing him to navigate through any complex waters at speeds surpassing those of athletes in sharkskin swimsuits.
This sensation felt wonderful, as if he had opened the door to a new world, and Lu Ban immersed himself in it.
Until the oxygen in the sink ran out.
“Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey–”
Nearly becoming the first Chosen by Gods to drown in his own sink water despite having Underwater Breathing, Lu Ban lifted his head.
In the mirror, Lu Ban saw his reflection; on his cheeks, near his throat, the skin had split, resembling the gills of a shark, slowly opening and closing. The gills gradually smoothed over and disappeared as he left the water.
“I could be a breath-holding champion in the future!”
Lu Ban excitedly said to his reflection in the mirror.
