MMPS Ch. 48

Chapter 48: The False God’s Salvation

“Ran-ge?” Yu An immediately leaned over the other side of the boat, peering into the water for any trace.

The stalled boat began drifting with the current again, as if it had merely snagged on a reef beneath the surface.

The water was crystal clear. Yu An could see a black wooden plank buried in the sandy bottom, though its full shape was unclear.

As the boat drifted deeper into the hollow of the iceberg, Yu An noticed countless black planks buried in the white sand along the riverbed. They had been silently corroded by the water, their surfaces riddled with holes, the gaps filled with glowing plankton. The light gathered in the corroded crevices, casting an eerie glow.

Then one of the planks tilted upward, revealing the faint outline of a cross etched into its surface.

The riverbed was littered with coffins.

Remembering the pale hand that had rested on the boat’s edge earlier, Yu An frowned, his sense of caution growing. Was it the hand of a corpse? The scent of blood from the frozen meat offerings on the boat had seeped into the water, luring them upward. Folklore often spoke of drowned victims reaching out to drag the living underwater, drowning them in turn. In this town, where logic seemed to have no place, anything was possible.

Tap.

Another soft sound echoed. Yu An quickly turned toward the source and saw it. Sure enough. There was a pale, lifeless hand resting on the edge of the boat. The boat jerked to a halt, the sudden stop sending Yu An stumbling and falling among the offerings.

The strength of that hand was immense, able to stop a drifting fishing boat with ease.

Yu An gripped the Armor-Piercing Awl and crawled toward the hand. Before he could react, more tapping sounds came from behind him. He turned to see two more bony hands gripping the boat’s edge.

This was bad. There wasn’t just one water ghost.

The slender, pale hands groped around the boat, pausing when they touched the frozen meat. Then they grabbed the edges of the meat and dragged it into the water.

With a splash, a chunk of frozen meat fell into the water, quickly thawing in the warm current. Blood spread through the water, the scent of food attracting more monsters. Dozens of corpse-like hands greedily gripped the boat’s edge.

“So many…” Yu An held his breath, trying to move away from them, but the boat tilted dangerously, one corner nearly submerged. The offerings slid down the incline into the water. Yu An stabbed the Armor-Piercing Awl into the boat’s floor, using it to anchor himself and avoid being tossed into the water.

With a loud crash, the boat flipped over. Yu An, along with the frozen meat offerings, was thrown into the water, the splash echoing through the hollow.

Warm water flooded his ears, plunging him into a silent, bottomless abyss, and the world fell silent.

Yu An kept his eyes shut, afraid that opening them would reveal countless pale, bloated corpses floating around him, their lifeless faces pressing close to feast on this rare, living meal.

With so many of them, how could a single infant each year be enough?

Yet the surroundings were eerily quiet. The warm, gentle water buoyed his heavy body, and something bright illuminated his closed eyelids, like a flickering flame. It felt less like falling into hell and more like sinking into the place where the sun rose.

Yu An opened his eyes underwater, and the sight before him made him forget his dwindling oxygen and impending suffocation.

Buried in the sandy riverbed was a black wooden coffin, its lid slightly ajar, a pink-orange glow spilling from the gap. A hand pushed the lid open, like a beautiful figure lazily opening a bedroom door after waking up in the morning.

A massive, tangled ball of arms emerged from the coffin, swaying like a jellyfish’s tentacles as it rose from the depths. Its skin was covered in glowing plankton, its countless fingers shimmering as they moved, resembling a blazing sun rising from the ocean floor.

The offerings from the boat spilled into the water, the thawing meat releasing trails of blood. The monster reached out with three hands, grabbing the meat and pulling it close. At the base of its arms, a bloody slit opened, lined with shark-like teeth. This must be its mouth.

The meat was ground to pieces by the jagged teeth and swallowed. The monster closed its gaping maw and continued to drift, enjoying the unexpected feast that had fallen from above.

Yu An was stunned. His ankle suddenly tightened, snapping him back to reality. Countless arms stretched from the sandy bottom, swaying like seaweed. Two of them firmly gripped Yu An’s ankles. These arms were likely the monster’s hunting tools, capturing prey and waiting for the main body to feast.

The instinctive fear of being grabbed underwater overwhelmed Yu An. He struggled desperately, choking on a mouthful of water in his panic. The bubbles from his thrashing obscured his vision. The last thing he saw was the multi-handed monster swimming toward him at incredible speed.

He was doomed. A few water ghosts, Yu An could handle. But this monster looked invincible, like one of those aliens from movies that even nuclear bombs couldn’t kill.

Soon, his body was seized by one hand after another, a sense of being bound by something unyielding enveloping him. He was powerless, just like the time he had returned to the interviewer’s villa alone and been pinned to the ground by those furious little hands.

His body grew lighter, as if a force was lifting him upward. The surface grew closer, and suddenly, his head broke through the water. Sound rushed back into his ears, the splashing of water loud and chaotic. A strong hand supported his thigh, lifting him back onto the boat.

Yu An was drenched, water streaming from his hair and pure black hoodie. He leaned over the side of the boat, coughing violently, expelling the water he had swallowed.

Through the clear water, he saw the multi-handed monster picking through the offerings, stuffing the edible meat into its mouth. The inedible items, like fur and metal bowls, were tossed back onto the boat. The pixelated baby, floating in an iron basin, was also deemed unworthy and disdainfully thrown back.

“It doesn’t eat living things…” Yu An stared in disbelief.

After finishing the meat that had fallen into the water, the monster still seemed unsatisfied. It slowly floated to the surface, resting its arms on the boat’s edge, searching for more food.

“…” Yu An sat in the boat, soaked and staring at the monster (if it even had eyes). No wonder the villagers believed in legends. Covered in glowing plankton, the monster truly resembled a sun from a distance.

A plausible guess suddenly struck Yu An. Could this mass of arms be an Aberrant? Had the interviewer killed this monster in his hometown, Riyu Town, and taken its Aberrant Core, embedding it into his own body to gain its multi-armed abilities?

The interviewer had never fully revealed his strength, but based on what Yu An had seen, it wasn’t impossible for him to have defeated such a creature.

The monster finished the last piece of meat but lingered by the boat, rubbing against it and causing the boat to rock violently.

“What is it doing…” Yu An struggled to steady himself, observing the monster closely. The glowing plankton clung tightly to its countless arms, its pale skin pitted and scarred. The monster slammed into the boat, scraping off some of the glowing creatures along with patches of skin. Blood seeped out, staining the surrounding water and attracting more plankton to settle.

It seemed troubled, like a whale plagued by barnacles.

Yu An pulled out the Armor-Piercing Awl and cut a rectangular piece from his soaked bear fur coat. He cautiously approached the monster, using the fur to wipe the glowing parasites from its arms.

At first, the monster resisted, but once it realized the pleasure of being scrubbed, it settled down to enjoy the sensation. The rough fur felt much better than scraping against the boat. It laid a row of arms on the boat’s edge, waiting for Yu An to continue.

“You have so many hands. Why don’t you do it yourself? Why should I work for you?” Yu An cut the bear fur into smaller pieces and handed them to the monster, teaching it how to scrub.

The monster, simple-minded, instinctively tried to stuff the fur into its mouth. Its mouth was as wide as a zippered backpack, slowly splitting open. If it really tried, it could probably bite through the fishing boat in one go.

“You have so many hands, and you can’t even scrub yourself?” Yu An smacked it impatiently. “Watch and learn.”

The monster, inexplicably slapped, slowly covered its face (if it had one) with one hand and began mimicking Yu An’s movements, scrubbing its arms with the fur.

Once the glowing parasites were scrubbed away, the monster’s true form was revealed. A tangled mass of arms. It didn’t glow on its own; the light came from the plankton that had accumulated on its body over time. Under the glow, the monster looked weak and pale, like a decaying corpse.

Stripped of the plankton, its battered body appeared frail and worn.

How had it come to be? Where had it originated? Yu An had no idea.

The monster, delighted, floated around the boat, reluctant to leave. Several hands pushed the boat, guiding it deeper into the current. Finally, land came into view. It wasn’t ice, but frozen soil, where hardy plants struggled to grow.

The monster pushed the boat to the shore, lifting Yu An by the armpits and placing him on a giant seashell by the rocks. It leaned over the shell, studying Yu An.

Compared to the monster, Yu An was tiny, like a puppy to a human. The monster curiously examined the small figure before it, tentatively reaching out to touch Yu An’s face with its fingers.

“Are you hungry again?” Yu An cautiously backed away, pushing the pixelated baby in the basin toward the monster. “Here, have this.”

The monster picked up the basin with several hands, lifting the pixelated baby and gently pushing it away on the water’s surface.

The baby floated downstream in the basin. At the end of the narrow stream was a village where several women were washing clothes by the water.

Judging by the direction, the village was likely Rihuan Town, the next stop after Riyu Town. According to the father, Rihuan Town was prosperous and resource-rich, perhaps thanks to this monster.

The superstitious beliefs of Riyu Town led them to offer an infant and various goods to their so-called deity each year. Unbeknownst to them, the monster only ate the frozen meat, letting the rest, like infants and supplies, drift downstream to Rihuan Town.

Over countless years, had those infants, now grown, ever realized their parents were just a sea away?

Yu An usually disliked being touched, but this time, he didn’t mind. Perhaps it was because he was so cold, and the monster’s fingers were warm. Soaked and shivering in the cold wind, his teeth chattered uncontrollably.

“Do you know a place out of the wind? Take me there.” Yu An gestured, unsure if the monster understood.

The monster suddenly gathered its strength in the water, leaped onto the seashell, and wrapped its arms around Yu An. The arms were warm, densely packed around his cold body.

Thankfully, Yu An was no stranger to “hands.” He didn’t feel afraid. Exhausted, a wave of drowsiness washed over him. He relaxed, curling up in the monster’s arms, resting his head on one of its limbs.

The monster, overjoyed, cradled the small figure in its arms, swaying back and forth.

Several hands draped over Yu An, but he felt a draft on his shoulders. He picked up one of the monster’s hands and adjusted it to cover the gap.

“…” The monster made a gurgling sound, its fingers turning red from the tips.

“There’s some candy in my pocket. Do you want it?” Yu An half-closed his eyes, pulling out the heart-shaped gummies Zhao Ran had drawn and placing one in the monster’s palm.

The monster opened its tooth-filled mouth, swallowed the candy, and chewed. It savored the sweetness, then began waving its arms excitedly, emitting a low, hoarse “Oh! Oh!” from some unknown vocal organ.

“You like sweets? He does too.” Yu An took out two more gummies, giving one to the monster and eating the other himself.

The monster held the sacred candy stiffly, reluctant to eat it, continuing to gurgle happily.

*

The giant seashell beneath them creaked open slightly, a row of eyes peeking out from the crack. They watched as the multi-armed monster cradled a strange little human, rocking back and forth on the shell.

“Hei—tui.” The seashell made a sound like a dismissive spit.