The Protagonist Already Knows

In the next moment, I found myself looking down at a lily-covered pond, with soft ripples on the greenish-blue surface of the pond muddling my reflection.

Standing atop a massive circular lilypad, I looked around, noticing various small patches of grass floating in the pond and a small drawbridge, made out of green plant tissue, in the distance.

The bright-yellow sun shone above the entire pond, warming me up and making it feel like a cool summer day.

Unsheathing my Dao and sticking it in the pond, using it as a paddle, I leaned over the ledge of the lilypad and slowly pushed myself forward with my sword.

Below the surface of the pond, various dark figures swam through the lake around my lilypad; however, I ignored them for now.

Algae stretched up from the bottom of the pond and all the way into the air, swaying in the wind and casting shadows on the pond’s surface for the dark figures to hide under.

Navigating my lilypad through a forest of algae, I took a deep breath and gripped my Dao tightly as I continued paddling forward.

The demonic sea beasts in this dungeon would not do anything to harm the lilypad, so, for now, they were just watching me.

Finally reaching a patch of floating grass, I hesitated for a moment before stepping off the lilypad.

As soon as my feet touched down on the grass, the pond’s surface around the grass began trembling rapidly.

In an instant, countless fish with jagged and sharp teeth flew upward out of the water and into the air toward me.

Not skipping a beat, I raised my right arm, which held my mechanical armband, and in an instant, a death-mana sphere appeared in my palm.

*SPLASH*

*SPLASH*

After sending the sphere about two feet forward, I imploded it, watching mana scatter in all directions and send all the flying fish backward, as they lost their momentum and dropped back into the pond.

Immediately, I activated Anubis’s Ferry and flew through the air to the next lilypad floating in the pond.

One by one, I began moving all the massive lilypads placed randomly in the pond together.

...

...

...

Now having almost every Lilypad within jumping distance of each other, gathered in a circle around that first patch of floating grass I had stepped on, I glanced forward at the vivid-green drawbridge in the distance.

Directly under it lay a single lilypad, hiding under the shadow of the drawbridge.

After taking a deep breath and a moment to recover, I once again turned intangible and flew forward.

Recalling the cutscene soon to occur, I couldn’t help but pause for a moment as I landed on the edge of the drawbridge.

The drawbridge’s floor was extremely elastic, the ground bending down beneath me and snapping up when I moved, making me feel as if I were walking on a trampoline.

On both sides of the drawbridge, there were green bamboo sticks shooting up into the air, partially covering the bridge from the sun.

Additionally, various purple and pink flowers stretched from the two pieces of floating grass the green drawbridge connected, hanging right above me.

For a moment, I stood at the edge of the drawbridge, peering over the pure-green railing and at the beautiful sight of pink lilies covering the serene-blue pond under the summer sun and perfect light-blue sky.

I patiently waited for my cooldown on Anubis’s Ferry to expire, embracing the occasional soft breeze with a clear and serene mind.

I actually recognized the real place back on Earth this dungeon was based on.

Monet’s Garden.

Feeling the cooldown finish, I slowly scaled the drawbridge, eventually reaching the highest spot and middle point of the drawbridge.

*SPLASH*

As the sound of water chaotically rippling sounded beneath me, I took a deep breath and counted down from three.

*BANG*

The entire drawbridge suddenly began shaking desperately as I saw a massive shadow form in the water before me.

As I felt my body fly up into the air, the ground below me snapping upward, I activated Anubis’s Ferry...and in the next moment, the world suddenly turned pitch-black.

I immediately flew forward and looked backward.

There...in the middle of the bridge where I had been standing a moment ago, a massive green serpent, about the height of a three-story house, appeared.

Perhaps noticing my gaze, the green serpent, which had been attempting to swallow me whole, tilted its head down and gazed at me with its golden eyes.

Not wasting another moment, I flew downward and landed on the lilypad that had been blown forward by the serpent’s appearance.

The serpent didn’t hesitate, diving back downward into the water, sending a massive wave of water crashing onto me and the lilypad.

Millions of water droplets attacked my body, tearing apart my clothes and rushing against my chest, but withstanding the pressure, I leaned over the edge of the lilypad.

Desperately, I paddled forward with my Dao, watching as a dark cylindrical figure approached me underneath the water’s surface.

However, just like the normal creatures in the dungeon, it wouldn’t harm the lilypad.

Instead, it kept headbutting the bottom of the lilypad while underwater, inadvertently helping me push the lilypad toward the others.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

At that moment, as a bestial scream erupted through the air, the jade-green serpent suddenly resurfaced behind the lilypad, towering over me.

In its open mouth, a large green sphere began to take shape, starting at the size of a basketball and slowly growing and growing.

In the next moment, the sphere, now big enough to cover me whole, surged diagonally downward at me.

"..."

Not wasting a moment, I leaped off the lilypad and straight into the water, the green ball phasing through the lilypad, leaving it unharmed, and going underwater as well.

As the now-submerged green orb headed downward to the pond’s floor, I found hundreds of piranha-like fish surrounding me.

"..."

They all simultaneously raced toward me, their teeth ready to tear apart my body.