Survival on the Internet: A Bizarre Start at Sea

"Rotting woodland, shadowy pools..."

"Is this the Abyss-Shallow-1, corrupted and eroded by strange forces?"

"The erosion rate is 67%, which isn't too high, but we still need to be careful."

Su Zhisu quickly surveyed his surroundings, his hand already resting on the curved sword at his waist.

Lilia gripped her staff tightly, warily surveying her surroundings, her body slightly tense.

"Stay close to me, Lilia."

Su Zhisu lowered her voice.

"Watch your step and your head, and watch out for those puddles; don't go near them."

"Um!"

Lilia nodded vigorously, moved her feet, and followed closely behind Su Zhisu.

The two cautiously stepped into the decaying woodland.

The soft humus underfoot absorbed the sound of my footsteps.

The surroundings were deathly silent, with only a faint, whistling sound of wind coming from somewhere, passing through the gaps in the withered branches.

After walking for about several dozen meters, the ground rose slightly beneath an exceptionally large and twisted tree.

Su Zhisu raised his hand to signal Lilia to stop and stared intently at her.

Several dark shadows slowly "seeped" out from the raised humus.

They have no fixed shape, but are like a viscous asphalt aggregate, with their surfaces constantly rolling and deforming. You can barely make out the changing outlines that resemble human or animal shapes, but their limbs and facial features are all twisted and misaligned.

At the heart of the shadow, there is a faint, constantly flickering dark red dot, filled with a sense of greed.

[Twisted Remnants - Shadow of Greed] x 5

[Level]: Lv.3

[Category]: Contaminated individuals

[Status]: An aggregate of eroded dream emotion fragments

[Information]: Formed from the remnants of a dreamlike soul consumed by greed, eroded by a strange force. It possesses an instinctive, devouring instinct towards anything containing energy or "value." It moves slowly, but being touched by it may trigger feelings of "greed," interfering with judgment.

Watch out, they're coming.

He whispered a reminder to Lilia that the [Scimitar Towards the Storm] was already drawn.

Although this enemy is not high-level, its attacks may involve mental pollution, so he should be careful when dealing with it.

The five shadowy figures of greed seemed to have "smelled" the presence of living beings. The dark red light at their core suddenly flared up, emitting a silent hiss, and wriggled as they pounced toward the two.

The movements were indeed slow, but the desire to "devour" was almost tangible.

"Lilia, control them!"

"Understood! Mengchen!"

Lilia reacted quickly, waving her staff lightly, and a cloud of dream dust shimmering with a pale pink light drifted out, enveloping several shadows of greed.

The Shadow of Greed, tainted by the Dream Dust, visibly faltered, its tumbling and deforming body momentarily frozen, as if it had fallen into a brief state of confusion.

Su Zhisu seized the opportunity and darted out like lightning.

The scimitar drew a cold arc in the dim light, precisely slashing at one of the greedy shadows influenced by the Dream Dust.

The feeling of the blade slicing into the shadow's body was strange; it didn't feel like hitting a solid object, but more like cutting through a sticky substance.

The shadow let out a twisted shriek, and the severed part thrashed violently, trying to heal, but the Night Watch Heart Flame attached to the blade burned wildly, preventing this healing.

Due to the vast difference in their levels, it was almost an instantaneous destruction. With a flick of his wrist, Su Zhisu unleashed a flurry of blade light, tearing the dark shadow to shreds.

The shadow dissipated, turning into a wisp of black smoke, within which the faint red light flickered a few times before extinguishing.

Several dull, fingernail-sized black crystals were left on the ground, along with a barely perceptible, unsettling thought of greed.

[Network Notice]: Killing [Twisted Remnant - Shadow of Greed] x1 will result in reduced experience gain due to the large gap in experience gain.

"I don't have much experience, but there are definitely drops. But that black crystal..."

"Judging from this monster's information, it seems to be some kind of remnant of greedy emotions? Perhaps it has some research value."

"We'll talk about it after the battle is over."

Su Zhisu continued his attack without stopping, heading towards the second group of Greedy Shadows influenced by Lilia's Dream Dust.

Following the same method, a flash of light appeared, and the second shadow followed suit.

The remaining shadows of greed had by now broken free from Meng Chen's weak influence and rushed forward together. A twisted "arm" formed from shadow suddenly grabbed at Su Zhisu's head.

The dark red light swirling around his "hands" carried a strong sense of "devouring".

Su Zhisu dodged to the side and then slashed off the shadowy "arm" with a backhand strike.

The severed arm fell to the ground and turned into black smoke, but the shadow of greed was completely unaware. Another "arm" grabbed at it, and the red light at its core flickered wildly.

"This thing has no rationality, only the instinct to devour."

"Why don't we try getting hit once and see what reward we get after resisting the talent?"

"I'd better not, it's too much trouble, and I'd have to take care of Lilia."

Su Zhisu stopped pursuing, shifted his feet, dodged the grab attack while getting close to the shadow's main body, and thrust his curved blade upwards, piercing the red light at its core!

"Pop—"

A soft cracking sound. The shadow trembled violently, then quickly collapsed and dissipated, leaving behind black crystals and lingering greedy intent.

Meanwhile, Lilia dealt with a shadow that lunged at her.

The battle was briefly over.

Lilia trotted over and watched Su Zhixu collect the black crystals with some curiosity.

"Your Excellency, what are these?"

"It might be a product of greed. This isn't the place to study it. We can look into it later, or see if the comprehensive network will take it in."

Su Zhisu put away the crystal and looked into the depths of the forest.

"Let's go, let's keep moving forward. Be aware, these things can appear from anywhere."

"good!"

The two continued their exploration.

This decaying woodland was larger than expected, and the terrain was slightly undulating.

During this time, we encountered several more waves of Twisted Residue. In addition to the Shadow of Greed, there appeared another type that moved faster, with its core flashing blue light, and spread fear: [Twisted Residue - Shadow of Fear].

And a [Twisted Residue - Shadow of Wrath] that can release a faint mental shriek and disrupt emotions.

Fortunately, these monsters are not high level, generally between Lv.3 and Lv.5.

With Su Zhisu's overwhelming level advantage and Lilia's increasingly skilled assistance, the battle was won without major incident, and the corresponding black crystals were obtained.

Su Zhisu's level is as high as Lv.9, so she gains very little experience from fighting these low-level monsters.

However, Lilia's level was low, so the experience she gained was relatively considerable. After several battles, Su Zhixu could feel that her aura had become more solid.

"It seems that this dungeon is more suitable for Lilia to level up at the moment."

"For me, the value lies in familiarizing myself with the environment, understanding the types of enemies, collecting special materials, and..."

"To understand the specific degree of erosion."

Su Zhisu opened the instance information panel again.

[Current instance erosion level]: 55% (originally 67%)

"After clearing out several waves of monsters, the erosion level has decreased by 12%."

"It seems our activities are indeed purifying this area."

"I just don't know how much we need to clean to reduce the erosion level of this layer below the safe threshold."

After they cleared away a small group of shadows lurking under a few strange trees, things changed ahead.

The decaying woodland became sparser here, and a small, shadowy pool of water came into view.