Chapter 6208: Soul Machine Ideal Land (75)

However, the Ancient One didn’t linger for long. He first put on a set of equipment himself—unsurprisingly, it fit him perfectly, wrapping around his entire torso. Then he added a few tentacles that might have been for attacking, and most importantly, he took the laser weapon. In the blink of an eye, he dragged the rest of the equipment and disappeared into the ocean.

The peculiar currents were increasing in number. Shiller realized that they might be mixed with the blood of the Ancient One, but he didn’t dare to dive any deeper because below was a completely lightless environment. A cat’s night vision ability still requires some faint light to work, and in total darkness of the deep sea, there’s nothing to see at all.

Moreover, this vehicle seems to lack attack capabilities, at least it can’t fight the Shuggos, and he’s not the Ancient One, so he’s not as adept at operating the vehicle. Going down would just create chaos; it’s better not to go and screw things up.

In the meantime, Shiller used his tentacles to operate the vehicle and discovered it was indeed designed for tentacled creatures. With tentacles, it’s incredibly agile, moving through the water like a giant jellyfish, swimming however it pleases.

Shiller actually doesn’t like ships very much. Partly because he gets seasick, and partly because human ships aren’t really all that safe. Drifting on the sea feels no different from a metal coffin; if anything goes wrong, it’s like an isolated island, nowhere to run, making him feel very insecure.

If humans could also create such single-person submersibles, their fear of the ocean would diminish significantly. No wonder the Ancient One isn’t afraid of Cthulhu; these are just small vehicles. If they drove their Thunder super-submarine over the top of a giant octopus’s head, who knows, it might just think it’s a speed bump.

Indeed, the more you’re in such a cosmos, the more you need to fiercely develop technology. Classical warships with sails and masts might at best make Cthulhu stumble; an ammunition-loaded aircraft carrier can zoom as fast as a spaceship, headbutting the giant octopus back to Lalaiye.

After playing for a while, Shiller suddenly remembered—where’s Bat Cat?

He wasn’t too worried. The Ancient Ones are dead, and Bat Cat wouldn’t die either. Besides, Bat Cat is inherently a dream creature, it likely has a teleportation scroll; otherwise, it wouldn’t have come to the rescue. Shiller thought for a moment and decided to drive towards the direction of the strange currents. Even if he couldn’t dive that deep, he could provide cover from the surface.

He swam over and realized it seemed like the place where he had encountered the krill swarm earlier. Then he understood Bat Cat’s plan. It must have been that when the Shuggos attacked, Bat Cat guided the Ancient Ones to find the krill swarm.

The krill swarm had somehow been transformed into monsters, making them some sort of outer god’s followers. More importantly, the krill swarm and the Shuggos had similar states of existence and can counterbalance each other. If the Shuggos were truly besieged by those strange krill, it might not end well for them.

Sure enough, as soon as Shiller arrived, he saw Bat Cat flying above the water, seemingly using some device to observe the situation below. Perhaps a camera had been installed on the Ancient One. He was so engrossed that Shiller quietly floated to the surface and then, with a big leap, popped right in front of Bat Cat—this was the first time Shiller saw Bat Cat with its fur bristled.

Bat Cat’s claws were spread, the fur on its back stood up, and its pupils were dilated to the limit. Upon seeing Shiller in the cockpit, it took a deep breath, maneuvering its equipment to dive down, unleashing a round of rapid cat punches on the cockpit.

Shiller laughed so hard he was out of breath. It was the first time he’d seen Bat Cat act so much like a cat. Normally, Bat Cat was composed and exhibited almost no instinctual cat reactions. But now, it indeed seemed like a cat.

Shiller opened the cockpit, inviting Bat Cat inside. Bat Cat tilted its head to bite him, but unfortunately, its snout was too short, and Shiller deftly dodged it.

“No, no, no, you can’t hit teammates,” Shiller quickly retreated to one side. He didn’t want to fight with Bat Cat; he remembered Peter and Little Superman fighting, with cat fur flying everywhere, and each cat had a mouthful of fur. He didn’t want to be bitten bald.

Bat Cat meowed at him a few more times before finally calming down, grumpily saying, “Don’t mess with me.”

Shiller laughed again. Indeed, Bat Cat’s essence is more cat than bat. If it were a human Batman, at most he’d just walk away with a grimace and wouldn’t have such a big reaction. But cats are much more neurotic. Shiller had no doubt that if he had activated his spinal dragon mode just now, they’d be fighting in the next second.

Bat Cat quickly calmed down and was even a bit embarrassed. Cats, when embarrassed, also pretend to be very busy. He started studying the vehicle’s control panel and quickly found the method to operate it with tentacles.

Initially, Shiller taught him how to use it. In less than a few minutes, the vehicle under Bat Cat’s control became the most agile crab in the ocean, capable of performing all sorts of stunts. Shiller had to use his tentacles to fix himself to the floor to prevent getting seasick from all the shaking.

“We need to go down and help,” Bat Cat said. “Hold on tight.”

Shiller quickly grasped the handlebar behind him with his tentacles and secured himself with a seatbelt. He wanted Bat Cat to drop him off first and then go by himself, but it was clearly too late to say that now. Given their recent skirmish, Bat Cat certainly wouldn’t let him out either.

Bat Cat’s control over the vehicle was phenomenal. Anyone unaware might think he was born a tentacled creature. He dived into the sea hundreds of meters deep. As the depth increased, visibility decreased, and the penetration of light diminished. Everything turned dark and murky with nothing visible.

But Bat Cat seemed to have a locator. He confidently headed in one direction, and soon long tentacles swept past. Obviously, they were the Ancient Ones, entangled in a struggle with something.

A little further ahead, Shiller finally saw what it was. It was a mass of pitch-black liquid, formless, seemingly part of the ocean, yet it shimmered with colorful lights within the darkness. More horrifying were the golden eyes that surged out of the black slime, constantly watching the Ancient Ones.

Seeing the cat join the battle, the Ancient Ones seemed very worried. The strongest one at the front kept trying to use its tentacles to push back the car Bat Cat was driving. But Bat Cat didn’t care; not only did he not retreat, he accelerated and crashed right into the dark monster.

When entering the domain’s range, you could feel a noticeable resistance; it got stickier towards the center. But before getting entangled, Bat Cat controlled the car to suddenly exert force and broke free from the Shuggos’ control, circled to the other side, and bumped into it again.

Actually, Shiller thought this wouldn’t cause much harm to the Shuggos, after all, it was formless and intangible. But it was clearly annoying the Shuggos a lot. It might be because it didn’t know about life forms other than the Ancient Ones, or maybe because they had Nya’s power on them, making the Shuggos feel threatened. This strange creature stopped fighting the Ancient Ones and just chased after Bat Cat.

Of course, the Ancient Ones wouldn’t let it go. A few fully armed Ancient Ones immediately rushed forward. They continuously used their tentacles to divide the Shuggos’ body while using some kind of blue ray to strike the Shuggos’ eyes. Every time they hit the Shuggos, it would freeze, allowing the Ancient Ones to continue splitting its body. Clearly, this was their method of dealing with such a monster.

“The eyes are their weak point,” Shiller said.

“Not necessarily,” Bat Cat replied, “That ray isn’t an ordinary laser. It emits their magic power, a special kind of force that’s usually stored in the Ancient Crystal, which can be converted to energy for spiritual control or ordinary thermal energy when needed.”

Shiller understood. The Ancient Crystal had appeared in the original work as well. It was through the Ancient Crystal that the Ancient Ones controlled the Shuggos, so it seemed this was their universal energy source. No wonder there wasn’t any other energy source found in the armory before; this car probably had an Ancient Crystal embedded in it, and other equipment and vehicles might also be powered by this thing.

The Shuggos kept chasing Bat Cat, and the Ancient Ones were right behind hitting it. Bat Cat kept ascending, and everyone was back at about 400 meters, where the krill swarm had been waiting for some time.

The Ancient Ones obviously didn’t want to provoke these strange little shrimps either; they finally had enough of this shapeless monster and withdrew from the fight. Bat Cat also pulled back a bit, but he didn’t leave because he needed to observe the battle between the Shuggos and the krill swarm to gather information.

It was evident that these two types of monsters were very similar in nature; both were formless, with their smallest units close to molecules, continuously devouring and digesting to consume their enemies. When the two met, it truly was a battle between equals.

Don’t think that seals and penguins could still prey on these krill; they can only eat a part of them and can’t defeat this monster. At most, it’s just suppression through the food chain, but the Shuggos seemed to want to devour the entire krill swarm, and the two sides were fighting fiercely.

“What on earth is going on?” Shiller asked, “Why are they fighting?”

“The Ancient Ones can’t stay on the sea surface for too long,” Bat Cat said, “They need to dive back into the deep sea to feed and recover their physical strength, and they also need to build a temporary base. But to communicate with me, they’ve been shuttling back and forth between the deep sea and the surface, and once during a dive, they encountered this thing.”

Shiller frowned slightly, “They encountered it underwater?”

“Otherwise? Isn’t it already known that there’s one in the sea?” Bat Cat said, “I think maybe they couldn’t resist it any longer and went looking for it actively.”

Shiller thought about it, and it was indeed possible that it wasn’t Reck. The Origin Shugos had grown accustomed to living in human society and had always tried to blend into the scientific exploration team, so it wouldn’t suddenly change its strategy and dive into the sea to confront the Ancient Ones.

This would be a bit troublesome. If Reck really went into the sea, the fully armed Ancient Ones would absolutely make him suffer, and humans would be somewhat safer. But if this guy stubbornly refused to go into the sea, insisting on getting close to humans, humans might not be able to defend themselves.

While Shiller was contemplating, the Ancient Ones had already charged forward in unison. The blue glow flashed continuously as the Shuggos withdrew step by step. Although it wasn’t very clear amidst the roaring sea waves, it was evident that the Ancient Ones had gained the upper hand, seemingly intent on annihilating their archenemy.

Suddenly, the sky brightened. It was from countless pairs of golden eyes emitting light. The Ancient Ones let out buzzing screams, and even Shiller and Bat Cat felt as if they had been heavily struck, with splitting headaches.

When the dark tide receded, everyone faintly heard a certain sound. It was the Shuggos’ call, sounding like “Teke—Teke—li—li——”.

Bat Cat shook his head and listened carefully to the sound, thinking it was odd. The sound was just too regular, without any fluctuation, unlike anything a creature could make.

When Bat Cat turned his head, he found that the usually calm Shiller, who never seemed to show any cat instincts, had his fur completely fluffed up. His black pupils nearly filled his eyes as he stared incredulously in the direction the Shuggos had departed.

“What’s the matter?” Bat Cat asked.

“Mark 5,” Shiller murmured, “…that was the sound of Mark 5 armed.”