The Unknown Creature

Simon swam towards another room, the wall behind him vibrating violently as one of the Nightmare Beast's claws created a gaping hole. Another claw reached out, ready to tear the wall apart completely. Suddenly, its tentacles recoiled, as if struck by terror, and withdrew. The water outside trembled intensely, indicating a fierce struggle.

Witnessing this, Simon's heart skipped a beat. He quietly approached the wall, peering through the hole created by the Nightmare Beast. Outside, the beast was thrashing wildly, its tentacles flailing in a frenzy. Embedded in its unprotected belly were numerous semi-transparent tendrils.

The Nightmare Beast grappled with these tendrils, attempting to wrench them out. "It has finally arrived," Simon thought, his feelings a mix of shock and resignation.

In the water, he saw the floating corpses, each pierced by a semi-transparent tendril. Now, these tendrils were retracting from the bodies and converging on the Nightmare Beast, winding around it.

A mass of tendrils intertwined, forming an ever-tightening net with the Nightmare Beast at its center. Despite its immense strength and furious attempts to break free, the beast was ensnared by more and more tendrils. Its efforts to tear through the forming net were in vain.

The battle between the Nightmare Beast and this unknown entity raged on, but it was clear the beast was losing ground. However, if two minutes passed and it could unleash another supersonic attack, the outcome would still hang in the balance.

Simon took one last look, confirmed the situation, and quickly swam towards another window. He contemplated two conflicting thoughts: should he head to the surface and escape, or dive deeper into the depths?

The emergence of this unknown creature, attacking and entangling the Nightmare Beast, was not entirely unexpected to Simon. In fact, it had been partly anticipated.

From the moment Simon lured the Nightmare Beast to the rooftop, he had been calculating the mass of corpses piled up there. Based on Long's research, the more bodies thrown into the water, the more powerful monsters would be attracted. Last night's experiment confirmed the validity of this theory.

Thus, Simon's strategy served a dual purpose. Firstly, it provided Long and the others a chance to escape and later regroup with him. Secondly, by throwing the rooftop corpses into the water, he hoped to summon a powerful creature. His observations had shown that these monsters did not solely target humans; they also competed amongst themselves, with the flesh of high-ranking or rare creatures being more tempting than that of humans.

When they had thrown the carcass of the second-tier leader monster, the Monocular Frog King, into the water, it attracted numerous corpse beasts and sea spiders. These creatures prioritized devouring the Frog King's corpse, attacking the humans only when they couldn't get to the prized body.

If the flesh of a second-tier leader was so alluring, how much more enticing would the Nightmare Beast be? The Nightmare Beast, a leader-level creature of unfathomable rank, possessed flesh far more desirable than that of the Frog King or lower-ranked spirit source beings like Simon and his companions.

Thus, if the thrown corpses could indeed attract a powerful entity, the Nightmare Beast would be a far more appealing target. Conversely, the flesh of this powerful entity might also be more tempting to the Nightmare Beast.

Previously, Lily had mentioned seeing corpses, flowers, and treasures underwater. When Simon dived to investigate, he found numerous floating corpses, each with semi-transparent tendrils extending into the depths. Due to fear, they did not explore further and chose to leave.

Simon had suspected a terrifying monster lurked in the depths. Perhaps due to their low rank, it had not shown interest, or maybe it was asleep and didn't notice them, allowing them to leave unscathed.

Simon cast the corpses from the rooftop, aiming to provoke the unknown monster lurking in the depths. He intended to pit this creature against the formidable Nightmare Beast. Should these two titans clash, Simon hoped to play the role of the fisherman reaping the rewards from the conflict between the crane and the clam.

Undoubtedly, this plan was fraught with peril, teetering on the edge of fatality, with no certainty of success. Yet, being targeted by the Nightmare Beast, the four of them had no chance of escape together. The inevitable outcome would likely be death at the hands of the Nightmare Beast, or worse, capture and a fate more horrifying than death.

Faced with certain doom, taking a risk seemed the only viable option for a slim chance at survival. Thus, Simon chose to send the others to flee while he alone ascended to the rooftop to divert the Nightmare Beast.

Now, as he watched the countless semi-transparent tendrils emerge, weaving into a net, it was clear that the unknown creature in the depths had been fully awakened. True to his expectations, it ignored the insignificant Simon and sought to ensnare the Nightmare Beast.

The Nightmare Beast, formidable and fierce, fought back with all its might. Both combatants were locked in a brutal struggle; although tendrils pierced the Nightmare Beast's belly, it tore apart many of them in retaliation. This fierce battle was far from over, and the mysterious creature would not easily capture the Nightmare Beast.

Seizing the opportunity, Simon darted out through a window on the opposite side of the building, swiftly rising to the surface. He exhaled deeply, took a long breath, and submerged once more.

Moments ago, he had made a resolute decision—not to flee immediately but to dive deeper instead. Observing the protracted battle between the unknown creature and the Nightmare Beast, he realized they were too preoccupied to notice him.

With a bit of time on his side, Simon decided to take the risk, aiming to discover the treasure Lily had mentioned.