Chapter 17: A Frightening Lake Tour
Even during the daytime,
A thick fog lingered on the surface of the lake,
Making it impossible to see the opposite shore, let alone the center of the lake.
This old-fashioned pedal boat was very laborious to operate. Each rotation of the axle produced a harsh grinding sound,
The pedaling sensation transmitted to the legs gave a feeling of being trapped in a quagmire.
As the boat gradually ventured deeper into the lake, everyone increasingly felt the enormity of this green lake... like a giant mouth with no visible edges, ready to swallow any intruders at any moment.
On the boat
The large-built man carrying a great sword and the woman wearing a feather-decorated hat sat in front,
Yi Chen and the blonde Edmund were seated side by side in the back.
The staff member sat backwards at the bow, eyes wide open, staring intently at the four people, especially focusing on their pedaling behavior, giving a sense of supervising slaves.
"Although nothing happened to the previous boaters,
This lake gives me a very bad feeling~ If something goes wrong midway, we may be forced to cooperate.
Let's introduce ourselves again,
I'm Edmund, from the Mariano family."
He continued to introduce his two companions, patting the broad back muscles of the man in front,
"He's Dagbert, a warrior from the Northern Territories. This physique is partly from bloodline, partly from the carving and polishing of extreme cold... He will definitely be a strength-type gentleman in the future.
As for this beautiful lady, she's a good friend I met at the training ground, Yuliana."
"William,"
Yi Chen softly reported the name of the body's original owner, then continued:
"Also, I don't recommend chatting idly here..."
"Alright."
After the introductions,
Everyone focused their attention on the lake,
Due to potential disease risks and boating rules, everyone behaved well, not doing anything reckless like touching the lake water, only observing the surface with their eyes.
During the long period of staring at the lake surface,
Yi Chen unexpectedly sensed a gaze from the depths of the lake... as if something terrifying was staring at him from the bottom.
When this feeling was transmitted to Little Grape, it salivated profusely out of appetite.
"There seems to be something delicious down there!"
As everyone was observing and being vigilant about the conditions of the lake.
Crack~
The pedal boat suddenly jammed, the main paddle seemed to be entangled by something.
"Seaweed? Or some debris?"
Considering the unknown dangers,
Yi Chen didn't recklessly stick his head out to observe the water surface, but instead extended his right arm, using Little Grape hidden in his sleeve to observe the situation under the boat.
Through the relatively clear lake water,
A large amount of disturbing things were seen clearly—hair.
Thick black hair entangled the paddle,
Corresponding to a swollen corpse beneath the hair.
After Yi Chen briefly explained the situation, the three members of Edmund's team also became alert, with one hand already gripping their weapons
At this moment,
The staff member, who had been staring unblinkingly with a blank expression the whole time, instinctively fulfilled his duties.
He put on a pair of plastic gloves reaching his elbows, half of his body leaning out of the stern, starting to clean the entangled objects on the paddle.
Seeing this,
Yi Chen and Edmund, sitting in the back row, also grabbed the young man's clothes together, to prevent him from accidentally falling into the lake.
As they watched the black hairs being pulled out one by one, just as they were about to get free.
The staff member's body suddenly froze,
An unimaginably strong force came... The strength was so great~ hiss!
Yi Chen and Edmund were left with only torn cloth in their hands,
The young staff member fell into the water instantly, disappearing without a trace.
Snap!
The blonde Edmund changed from his usual friendly demeanor, his eyes determined, snapping his fingers at the same time,
Everyone on alert,
Vigilant of their surroundings,
However, the calm lake surface didn't reveal any terrifying things for the moment.
Drops of sweat slid down Edmund's forehead as he said somewhat embarrassedly:
"Even though nothing happened to the previous tourists, it just had to go wrong with us... Is it a coincidence? Or has someone among us been targeted by something in the lake?"
These words immediately reminded Yi Chen of last night's lakeside stroll, when he accidentally threw the 'sheriff' into the lake.
However,
Edmund quickly confessed on his own,
"The three of us killed a few diseased individuals in the town after the party ended last night, which might have angered the entities behind this.
We've unintentionally involved you, William, I'm really sorry."
Yi Chen responded coldly:
"Let's think about how to get out of this lake."
Half of the black hair on the paddle still hadn't been cleared, and if they continued cleaning, they might be dragged down.
At this time,
Dagbert from the Northern Territories voluntarily stood up,
The broad great sword in his hand could serve as a manual paddle, and he also had experience rowing boats when he lived in the Northern Territories before.
The great sword plunged into the lake surface,
Alternating left and right,
With just one person's strength, the boat moved quickly, at a speed more than twice as fast as before.
Notably,
The black hair entangled on the paddle, along with the corpse, was being dragged along, creating a somewhat eerie scene.
However,
The danger had not been eliminated,
The large ripples created by the great sword's movement seemed to have awakened some things sleeping at the bottom of the lake,
As the ripples spread out in circles,
Some black silhouettes about the size of a human body appeared faintly under the water surface... they swayed their soft, slender bodies, approaching the boat.
Seeing this,
Edmund gently patted his companion's muscular shoulder,
"Dagbert, you just keep rowing in a straight line... leave the rest to us."
"Mm."
After saying this,
Edmund took up the feather-decorated pistol in his left hand, loading silver bullets,
His right hand gripped a silver-plated short sword, his eagle-like sharp gaze observing the surroundings.
Yuliana bent down to take out the dagger from between her boots, also assuming a standard combat stance.
Yi Chen pulled out the silver axe from his waist, with Little Grape also installed on his shoulder.
"Here they come!"
Splash~ Water splashed!
An arm covered in fish scales and embedded with shellfish grabbed the edge of the boat.
When a severely swollen head emerged from the water, the cold gun barrel was already pressed against its head.
Bang~ The gunshot tore through the silent veil over the lake surface.
Red bodily fluids spread across the water surface, and the first troublesome fish-person sank to the bottom of the lake.
After completing the kill, Edmund spared time to give a hint:
"To deal with these parasitic types, you only need to destroy the brain... They haven't evolved into true [Infected] yet, so they're not particularly troublesome to handle.
But one thing to note,
Don't let them damage the boat, I don't want to fall into this dirty, disgusting green lake."
As soon as he finished speaking,
Three pairs of arms reached towards the boat from different directions,
Swollen and rotten heads with protruding mouths full of sharp teeth also emerged.
The blonde Edmund, with a precise sword technique, sent the short sword in his right hand into the target's face, breaking through the brain inside.
Yuliana swung her hand back, inserting the dagger horizontally into the target's temple... even faster by a notch.
Compared to these two well-trained individuals,
Yi Chen, this 'halfway' traveler, naturally couldn't match them in many aspects.
However,
Faced with the dangerous situation in the lake,
A strong desire to kill the targets formed in his mind,
Driven by this desire,
Numerous plant tendrils emerged from the back of his hand and palm, entwining around the hand axe, even merging with the walnut wood material of the axe handle.
This allowed Yi Chen to grip it more tightly,
And swing it more powerfully,
Kill!
The silver light flashed, precisely landing on the merman's neck.
Fish scales,
Flesh,
Cervical vertebrae,
All possible obstacles to the slash were ineffective.
Swoosh!
A swollen, rotten head flew into the air, plop~ landing right on the boat.
When this head still wanted to crawl and harm Yi Chen,
A black fleshy ball jumped down from Yi Chen's shoulder,
Instantly swallowing the two 'grapes' of the merman's head, and further drilling into the eye sockets, eating all the fresh sashimi inside the head clean.
Seeing this scene,
Whether it was Dagbert rowing the boat,
Or the other two in battle, all cast surprised glances at Yi Chen, raising their evaluation of him another level.
...
After the group's joint battle,
Having killed nearly twenty diseased mermen from the lake,
The boat reached the shore.
The corpse entangled in the paddle was also dragged ashore.
When Yi Chen clearly saw the appearance of this corpse, his body trembled.
This corpse with thick long hair turned out to be the sheriff he had thrown into the lake... but in his memory, the sheriff had short hair.
It was as if the lake had a cultivating effect, stimulating accelerated growth in any living thing thrown into it.
"So it was indeed because of me..."
(End of Chapter)
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