Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 24 Humanity? Bestiality?
Meanwhile, in the endless depths of the sea, an unimaginably enormous serpent lay resting quietly at the deepest part of the ocean floor, watching the girl's weeping with great interest. It sensed the complex emotions emanating from the girl's heart, such as regret, fervor, jealousy, resentment, and fear. The complexity and variability of her emotions fascinated this serpent, which possessed human thought patterns but lacked complete human memories.

"interesting."

The giant serpent, sensing all of this, was extremely satisfied with the choice it had made.

The serpent had no ambition or desire; all it sought was to satisfy its hunger and sleep soundly. And since it swallowed the sun, it had indeed stopped feeling hungry. In fact, the infinitely hot sun, which always radiated endless light and heat, was still completely inside its belly.

Compared to the food, this warm stove that made the serpent feel extremely comfortable not only satisfied its insatiable hunger, but also gave it time to think about and pay attention to other things it had previously ignored.

For example...

Those tiny sounds that often echoed in his ears.

Those tiny sounds had appeared not long after the giant snake was born, but the giant snake, which was constantly hungry and had no idea where its next meal would come from, had neither the time nor the energy to pay attention to those tiny sounds that were not much louder than the buzzing of a mosquito.

After the serpent swallowed the sun, these tiny sounds suddenly became much more numerous and kept increasing.

However, just as the serpent was full and satisfied, it finally had the leisure to think about what these sounds were, and began to pay close attention to the tiny sounds that were constantly swirling around its ears.

"Please give the sun back..."

"hope……"

"..."

Countless murmurs, both chaotic and fragmented, surrounded the serpent's ears. Some voices begged him to return the sun, others worshipped him, still others made wishes to him, and some even arrogantly commanded and rebuked him.

The owners of these voices are diverse: some are scholars, some are kings, some are prophets, and others are ambitious usurpers, generals, nobles, pirates...

The serpent heard a variety of voices, and all of them mentioned the name of Jormungandr. However, after listening to some of the prayers with interest, the serpent quickly lost interest, because too many of the prayers were the same, asking for power, asking for wealth, or trying to offer him sacrifices of cattle and sheep.

Before the giant serpent devoured the sun, it might have been quite interested in the sacrificial cattle and sheep, since they could fill its belly. But now, with the ever-burning sun inside its belly, the giant serpent has lost all interest in the fattest and freshest cattle and sheep.

However, the serpent wasn't completely uninterested in all prayers and sacrifices; there were some things that it found quite interesting, such as...

"Powerful and wise being, a lowly mortal offers you this sacrifice..."

As he fell into a deep sleep, a murmured prayer reached his ears.

Normally, such offerings would not be of any interest to the serpent, and that is exactly what he did. However, this murmured prayer was different; the other party was extremely stubborn and persistent.

If one sacrifice is not enough, then two; if two are not enough, then three.

But mere persistence wasn't enough to move the serpent. Speaking of persistence, there was another king who, after listening to his priest, offered a hundred bulls daily for over ten days, hoping to exchange them for the sun. However, the serpent simply sneezed, transforming into countless raging tornadoes that destroyed the entire kingdom under that wise king's rule. The reason? The king's prayers were simply too annoying.

But the most crucial element was the other side's sacrifice...

A Norse warrior, wearing only a few pieces of armor and wielding a battle axe, was engaged in a life-or-death struggle with a black bear.

The Norse warrior was brave; the scars all over his body proved he was indeed a skilled warrior. However, in the fight, he was caught off guard and the black bear seized the opportunity, knocking him to the ground with a paw and then biting off his throat.

Excitement and cheers erupted from the surrounding crowd.

What came from that prayer was not just the sound of prayer, but also the negative emotions of a warrior's unwillingness and despair before his death. It was this emotion that made the serpent find it somewhat interesting.

He was well aware that he possessed the memories of a human being, or rather, the memories of a human transmigrator. He thought about things in the same way as a human. However, what puzzled him was that he could hardly feel the complex and multifaceted humanity he had as a human. The root and methods that drove his actions were still more like the bestial instincts of a beast than the humanity he remembered.

He was even a little confused about this, wondering whether he was a transmigrator named Meng who had transmigrated into the body of a giant snake, or a giant snake that had gained the memories of a transmigrator named Meng.

To verify this, he decided to use this group of human tribes as his experimental subjects.

The experiment was a success. When the prophetess, who was presiding over the ritual and in a serene, spiritual state, attempted to make contact with her, he instantly saw part of her appearance...

However, it seems that for a mortal, encountering a colossal being that is so vast that she cannot even describe it in words is still too overwhelming.

The fear and shock instantly pulled the other person out of that ethereal state. However, the serpent had ultimately left a mark deep within her soul, a mark that caused the prophet to gradually transform into a half-human, half-serpent form, and incidentally affected several clans centered around her.

Fanatical sacrifices, bloody rituals, and ever-increasing worship and faith...

Compared to the serpent's consciousness, human consciousness is far too humble and insignificant. Even just by watching, the serpent's will, projected upon them, gradually and profoundly influences and distorts the nature of these mortals, causing them to display more complex personalities and darker sides under the serpent's observation. As the serpent observes the conspiracies, betrayals, feuds, and deceptions among these mortals, it gradually matches its fragmented human memories with these behaviors, which greatly satisfies the serpent.

but……

"As expected, I still can't get into it."

Once again witnessing a conspiracy and betrayal between humans, the plot is nothing more than two former friends who, in this predicament, one of them takes advantage of the other's unpreparedness and strangles him to death by a dark path. The various hesitations, doubts, and inner torment involved are naturally unremarkable and quite commonplace.

But looking at the world before him, a world from when he was still human, a storyline large enough to be made into a thirty-episode TV series, the serpent clearly realized that he couldn't immerse himself in it at all. Watching what happened between these humans was interesting, but just like when he used to watch "Animal World," it wasn't that it was uninteresting, but no matter what it was, it couldn't make him feel any empathy.

Lust for beautiful women, greed for gold and silver, and a thirst for power...

It's hard to find any kind of desire in the giant serpent, not because the serpent has no desires, but because the serpent's desires are completely different from human desires.

The serpent was chasing after its own hunger, which is the most primal and fundamental desire, but humans are chasing after all sorts of more complex desires.

"Is it because I have absolutely no sense of identity as a human being?"

The serpent couldn't figure out the deeper reasons behind this, nor did it intend to. As for him, he wouldn't deny his former identity as a human named Meng, nor would he deny his current identity as a giant serpent.

Or rather, both are him; he is himself, a giant snake with human thought patterns and beastly nature.

He didn't intend to pursue those fragmented human memories, nor did he care about his past or origins. After all, they were all in the past, and he couldn't be bothered to deal with them.

After silently comparing the human emotions he had witnessed with the human emotions he remembered, this clan lost its value in the eyes of the giant serpent.

The only thing the serpent hadn't expected was that there was actually someone who could resist its mental infection. This greatly surprised the serpent, and out of curiosity, it didn't hesitate to manifest a phantom avatar. However…

Mortals are still mortals after all. Even mortals with special talents are still just mortals. It was only because he was on the verge of death and his mental defenses were compromised when he saw the appearance of the giant serpent that all his mental defenses were instantly shattered...

It's completely broken.

Although slightly disappointed and bored, the serpent still generously swallowed the offerings that frantically worshipped and sang praises to him. The girl, however, was not devoured by him. After all, she was not infected or driven mad by his will, nor did she offer him any of those crazy and perverse evil desires. She could not be considered an offering at all.

Unlike the prophetic woman's self-righteous understanding, although she vaguely sensed the serpent's attraction to human desires, she didn't realize...

The serpent did not consider the offerings placed on the altar as offerings at all; the real offerings were always the crowds who frantically sacrificed themselves to him.

Their evil, twisted, and depraved souls and actions are the sacrifices that the serpent is truly interested in and desires.

The true sacrificial ceremony is always a single, one-time event.

A group of humans gradually going mad, degenerating, and twisting—this is the true ritual and sacrifice.

"Since you want the sun, then I will give you the sun... From now on, you can be with the sun forever."

The serpent is quite generous; as long as the sacrifice is successful, it is happy to fulfill the wishes of mortals and will not break its promise.

However, besides that, Orochi was also thinking about something else...

"I... Jormungandr?"

"Thor? Odin? Have I been transported into Norse mythology?"

After a long period of time, the great serpent finally realized, through the prayers of its worshippers, that it was actually in Norse mythology.

(End of this chapter)