True Apocalypse Game

Dozens of meters below the sea, the light had grown dim. All electromagnetic waves were suppressed underwater, limiting the detection range of Shen Feng’s Silicon-Based Brain.

At Jingwei’s words, Shen Feng snapped his eyes shut. He gripped the glowing sphere of the Quantum Force Field Core tightly and chanted inwardly:

’Granite. I am a block of hard granite...’

The surface of his body rapidly petrified, becoming incredibly hard under the influence of the Quantum Force Field Core.

The next moment, Shen Feng felt something enormous, like a bear trap, clamp down on his body and drag him forward.

It was the massive maw of a shark!

The shark had clearly mistaken him for a tasty meal. It bit down with all its might, trying to sever his body in two.

But with a few muffled CRACKS, over a dozen of the shark’s teeth shattered, and it violently spat Shen Feng out!

He was hard. Impossibly hard.

The shark’s primitive brain didn’t even have time to process what was happening before it felt a sharp pain on its back. The creature that had just shattered its teeth was now riding it, and it had plunged something deep into its flesh!

Shen Feng, a grim smile on his face, gripped a dagger that he had driven firmly into the shark’s spine. His Silicon-Based Brain released a Thought Field, which, amplified by the Sacrificial Metal Helmet, became a violent electromagnetic field that enveloped the shark beneath him.

The simple fish brain, having never experienced such an assault, was instantly hypnotized. It obediently became Shen Feng’s mount.

Taming a shark was a first for Shen Feng.

In a way, because it lacked self-awareness, the creature was actually harder to hypnotize than a human. But this time, by a stroke of luck, Shen Feng had heavily damaged its nervous system and was in such close proximity, which made things much easier.

At the very least, he could still transmit simple commands to move forward.

The shark was now just a tool, beginning to surface under the continuous stream of commands from the electromagnetic field.

As the shark ascended, the surrounding water grew brighter. The light became more concentrated, a vast improvement from before.

Shen Feng clutched the glowing sphere of the Quantum Force Field Core, staring at the luminous metal ball. For a moment, he felt as if he wasn’t holding a piece of technology, but a mythical Water-Repelling Pearl from a Dragon Palace.

The Energy Field it produced was simply too wondrous.

Soon, they were within one hundred meters of the surface, and the number of fish and other marine life increased.

However, the shark’s appearance immediately startled many of the fish, causing them to scatter.

Shen Feng looked up and saw sunlight filtering down from the sea above. Countless fish swam about, making him feel as if he were in an aquarium tunnel. He was momentarily lost in the sight.

Then, he sent out a signal. The shark’s speed instantly increased, and in the blink of an eye, it was in front of an arm-length fish.

Shen Feng’s dagger shot out like a bolt of lightning, instantly piercing the fish’s head.

By now, the world around him was bright; he was near the surface. The shark made another sudden dash, rocketing out of the water with Shen Feng and carving a great arc through the air.

Riding the shark’s back in midair, Shen Feng glanced around. He saw a vista of shimmering waves. The mist of the Fog Sea had thinned considerably, and the sun, shining through the sparse fog, created a series of magnificent rainbows.

SPLASH! The shark fell back into the water, but this time it kept Shen Feng above the surface, not submerging again.

Shen Feng began to scrape the scales off the fish and slice it into sashimi. As he ate, he scanned his surroundings, trying to determine his location.

He had no idea how long it had been since he first fell into the water. The former Paradise Island was long gone, a clear sign the World Beast had left the area. His current position was definitely no longer in the core of the Fog Sea.

Judging by the surrounding mist, he seemed to have reached the outer edge of the Fog Sea.

He had been carried a long way by the tsunami, so it was only natural that he had drifted out.

Suddenly, a few objects floating in the water caught his attention.

He patted the shark’s back, and it immediately swam over to the floating debris.

The empty box of a military MRE, a tattered piece of plastic with an eye painted on it, and a chunk of rotten wood.

These items must have drifted from the former Paradise Island—the site of the Purification Church.

They had clearly been swept away by the tsunami the World Beast had created.

From the direction of their drift, he could determine the former location of the Fog Sea’s core.

Shen Feng looked up at the sun again, managing to estimate his approximate position.

His Silicon-Based Brain then released an electromagnetic wave. The shark beneath him surged forward, swimming in the direction Shen Feng estimated would lead to a human Floating Island Market.

If he was correct, that should be the direction of the AN-13 Floating Island Market. He might even be able to catch up to the Sail Warship *Hope*.

Feeling the sea breeze, his clothes quickly dried. Shen Feng rubbed the salt crystals from his skin, feeling a little more comfortable. He finally had time to carefully study the glowing sphere of the Quantum Force Field Core in his hand.

It was a silver metal sphere, about the size of an orange. Its surface was covered with dense patterns and circuitry, marking it as a technological artifact at first glance.

But as for whether it belonged to human civilization or something else, Shen Feng wasn’t quite sure.

After all, from what he knew, human civilization didn’t yet possess such advanced technology.

It would be nearly impossible, unless humanity had unlocked a new branch on the technology tree during the war with the World Beast and made a sudden leap forward.

Shen Feng studied it for a while. He saw that although it had various circuits and patterns, it was perfectly seamless, with no gaps whatsoever. It was as if it had been cast in a single piece, yet its operating principle remained a complete mystery.

Moreover, the metal’s weight was erratic, sometimes feeling light, sometimes heavy, leaving Shen Feng baffled.

Just then, two words flashed through his mind:

Beast Gold.

He couldn’t help but raise his arm and ask his wristband:

"Is the Quantum Force Field Core forged from Beast Gold?"

Silence.

Shen Feng shrugged. He was already used to this kind of behavior from the True Apocalypse Game system.

Collecting Beast Gold was one of his current missions. Although he’d never figured out what it actually was, the metal ball in his hand certainly seemed like a candidate.

Unable to figure it out for the moment, Shen Feng found a rope in his backpack. He wove it into a small net pouch, placed the Quantum Force Field Core securely inside, and hung it around his neck.

After all, he couldn’t just keep holding it.

As he ate his sashimi and took in the scenery, the shark carried him completely out of the Fog Sea. Ahead, the sky was sunny and cloudless, and the sea was calm and peaceful.

Shen Feng’s spirits lifted. He casually tossed away the fish bones and was about to stand up on the shark’s back when he suddenly felt it disobeying his commands. It had turned and was swimming back toward the Fog Sea.

Shen Feng frowned. He instantly intensified his Thought Field, forcefully commanding the shark to turn around again, move away from the Fog Sea, and continue forward.

’It seems mental hypnosis is no easier on animals than it is on humans.’

’There are all sorts of relapses.’

’The main reason is probably the difference in brain capacity. Animals can’t process overly complex signals, which in turn weakens the power of the hypnosis.’

Just as Shen Feng was thinking this, the shark beneath him suddenly dove, plunging into the deep sea.

Caught off guard, Shen Feng immediately swallowed a mouthful of water.

He was about to regain control of the shark when he suddenly felt the surrounding water form a massive whirlpool, dragging both him and the shark relentlessly downward!

The dive wasn’t the shark’s intention at all!

He stared down with wide eyes. At the bottom of the massive vortex was a mouth of incomparable size, a gaping maw like the Abyss itself, ringed with circles of teeth far more terrifying than any lamprey’s.

The owner of this giant mouth possessed a pair of eyes dozens of meters in diameter, countless thick and terrifying tentacles hundreds of meters long, and rows of sharp, enormous appendages!