"Cortana is right, the Cyclops really is a grind to build," PureWhite's voice continued.
"This beast can carry both the Seamoth and the Sea Mantis at the same time, and it's faster than the Seamoth. The downside? Its massive size makes it useless in cramped or rugged terrain. Still, if you want to progress in the game, this is a must have vehicle."
"Alright then, we're officially piloting the Cyclops to the Disease Research Center!" he announced, starting the engine.
The colossal submarine began its descent, heading for the research facility buried 1,200 meters below the surface.
About twenty minutes later, the scenery started to change. The glowing mine plants vanished, and the soft blue illumination faded away.
Yet it didn't become pitch black. Instead, the seafloor opened into a vast cavern hundreds of meters wide, and at its bottom flowed a luminous green river.
It was this eerie glow that lit up the entire area.
"Damn… a river under the sea?"
"And it's glowing green!"
"This looks like something out of a nuclear disaster site!"
"Say what you want, but that glow is actually kind of pretty."
The chat marveled, but PureWhite cut in, "Don't be fooled by how beautiful it looks, this river is pure acid. I call it the Lost River."
"The name sounds poetic, but knowing it's strong acid makes me nervous."
"One dip in there and you'd be dissolved instantly!"
"It's fine, as long as you don't go jumping in like an idiot."
Ignoring the chatter, PureWhite guided the Cyclops deeper along the Lost River. But within ten minutes, the sonar picked up a lifeform ahead.
It had a humanoid upper body, an octopus-like tail. "A Crabsquid!" he identified.
"There's a Crabsquid ahead!"
"Relax, one of those alone isn't dangerous."
"Yeah, it can't kill you by itself, it needs other predators to finish the job."
"So what's it doing here? A beginner's combat tutorial?"
PureWhite's tone turned serious."Pay attention, people, this is a trap. The devs only put one Crabsquid here, no other threats nearby. Looks like an easy solo kill, right? But remember, the Lost River is right here."
"If you charge in to fight, the Crabsquid will grab you and dump you straight into the acid. Instant death. Don't ask how I know… I've been there. It's not a fun way to go."
Realization swept through the viewers.
"So that's the trick!"
"Without him pointing it out, I never would've noticed!"
"The devs are evil, death by Leviathan, death by piranha, now death by acid bath!"
"So here's the strategy," PureWhite continued. "Stick close to the cavern wall, keep your distance from the Crabsquid, and gun it. The Cyclops is faster, it can't catch you."
He proved it by flooring the engines. The Crabsquid shrank into the distance.
Before long, the river ahead ended in a sheer drop. The acid poured over the cliff in a glowing green waterfall.
"Eyes up, a high energy zone is ahead!" PureWhite warned.
And there it was, a massive skull lying in the riverbed. It resembled a crocodile's, but scaled up to nightmarish proportions. The head alone was over 200 meters across and nearly 100 meters tall.
"Holy hell, that's huge!"
"That thing's terrifying!"
"If it were alive, it could probably chomp a Reaper Leviathan like a snack!"
"When I first found this, it scared the life out of me," PureWhite admitted. "I scanned it with Cortana, it's the remains of an Ancient Leviathan. And this is just the head. Whole, it would've been kilometers long."
Speculation exploded in chat about whether the dev might one day add a living version.
"But there's more to this spot than sightseeing," PureWhite warned again. "Inside that skull, there's a predator, a Ghost Leviathan. It hides perfectly, blends in with the bones, and the sonar won't detect it. Swim too close, and it'll rip you apart. Even the Cyclops can't take that."
To demonstrate, he launched a creature decoy.
"ROAR!"
A translucent, blue scaled Leviathan shot out of the skull's mouth, chasing the decoy. Nearly 90 meters long, snake bodied, with a hammer shaped head like a pair of bull's horns, it was a weaponized nightmare.
"Yup, there it is! Another damn trap!"
"That thing's a monster!"
"We'll lure it off with decoys, then push through at full speed," PureWhite said, executing the maneuver and leaving the Ghost Leviathan far behind.
Past the skull, the Lost River split. The main flow continued downward, while a smaller branch led into a side cavern.
The Disease Research Center was inside. The tunnel was too narrow for the Cyclops, so PureWhite switched to the Sea Mantis.
With practiced skill, he navigated the twisting rock passages. After turning a sharp corner, the massive structure came into view, a tilted alien cube of black green metal, like a toppled Rubik's Cube fused with a fortress, half buried in debris at the seabed.
Seeing the strange building ahead, the audience immediately began guessing.
"That's got to be the Disease Research Center!"
"Yeah, but it looks like it collapsed."
"Pioneer architecture… still creepy as ever."
"This is indeed the Disease Research Center," PureWhite confirmed. "It's where the Pioneers studied the Kharaa disease. You can see the structure has collapsed, there's a narrow gap where the wall caved in. We can get inside through there."
PureWhite skillfully maneuvered the Sea Mantis down to the base of the fallen structure. The audience could see the gap, but it was barely wide enough for a single person to slip through. The Sea Mantis wouldn't fit.
PureWhite ejected from the cockpit and began swimming toward the opening. "Here's where the dev teams malice shows again," he warned. "There's an electric eel hiding right under the gap. It can release a high-voltage shock, if we just swim in carelessly, we'll take a full blast of a hundred thousand volts. Trust me, it's not pleasant." His tone carried a trace of remembered pain. "So instead, we use the Stasis Gun."
He drew the gun, aimed at the gap, and fired. A pulse of shimmering energy bloomed, locking the area in place. PureWhite slipped inside, passing over a motionless eel frozen beneath him.
It was nearly two meters long, arcs of lightning dancing across its body. The crackle of energy echoed through the water, the blue-white light casting eerie shadows.
"That's not like any electric eel on Earth."
"Touch that and you're dead, probably burned, too!"
"Yep… PureWhite's definitely been shocked by that thing before."
Past the eel, PureWhite swam into the research center. The interior was flooded, pitch black, the collapse had destroyed the lighting. He switched on a flashlight, illuminating a wide hall filled with massive machines.
They resembled assembly lines from a factory… except what lay on the workbenches was unsettlingly familiar: octopus-like tails, hooked claws, faintly glowing blue tissue, and pieces of machinery no one could identify.
"You guessed it," PureWhite said grimly. "This is where the Pioneers manufactured the Warpers. They're not fully organic, they're part creature, part machine."
Realization swept the chat.
"I knew those parts looked familiar, they're Warper parts!"
"Mass-produced? On an assembly line?!"
"Pioneers really don't mess around. First they blast you with alien turrets, then they send these things to finish the job."
"No wonder no one's found a Warper egg… they're not born, they're built!"
Just then, Cortana's voice interrupted:
"Ding. Incoming extraterrestrial transmission. Playing now."
A calm, middle-aged voice came through.
"This is the NUSA government, to survivors of the Aurora. We received your distress call. A rescue craft is en route, but it can only reach the nearest Phase Gate. You must leave the planet and rendezvous with us in space.
We've transmitted the rocket blueprints to your onboard computer. According to black box data, the terminal in the Aurora's captain's quarters is still functional. Go there, download the blueprints, and use the captain's code, '2200' to access the room."
The transmission ended.
PureWhite turned to address the audience. "Hear that? The message we sent before heading to the Aurora actually got a reply. Now we can return to the captain's quarters, download the rocket plans, gather the materials, and print the rocket on the fabrication platform. Once that's done, we can finally leave this planet."
"But before we even think about launch, we'll have to shut down the alien canon, otherwise, the moment our rocket takes off, it'll be blown out of the sky."
The chat exploded.
"NUSA tech is insane, they just send you rocket blueprints!"
"Wait, what's a Phase Gate? Sounds high-tech."
"Not gonna lie, I'd actually want to launch just to see what it's like getting blasted out of the air…"
"You're insane."
"Alright, let's keep moving," PureWhite said. He swam through the Warper production hall, following a passage until a vast, empty chamber opened before him. Pioneer machines and instruments lined the walls.
"This is the core research area of the Disease Research Center," he explained. "I've already scanned everything in here with Cortana, none of it can be analyzed. Don't bother scanning."
He swam to a corner where a data terminal sat beside a small, glowing green object. "Here's a Pioneer data terminal, and another key. We can download the research logs from here."
The screen flickered to life. "These files record how the Pioneers deliberately infected local lifeforms with the Kharaa bacterium and documented the results. Let's take a look."
Cortana projected a list into the water.
Spadefish – dead after 120 hours of infection
Bigeye – dead after 76 hours of infection
Reefback – dead after 21,888 hours of infection
Reaper Leviathan – dead after 7,982 hours of infection
Ghost Leviathan – dead after 8,770 hours of infection
Sea Dragon Leviathan – dead after 12,310 hours of infection
The chat went silent for a moment, then.
"Holy crap… they tested every major species."
"I bet they've done this on other planets, too."
"My Reefback… how am I supposed to play basketball without you…"
"Wait, why does the Reefback last longer than a Leviathan?"
"Also, what's this 'Sea Dragon Leviathan'? I haven't seen one yet."
The audience stared in disbelief, but at the very end of the data log, they found an astonishing entry.
"Sea Emperor Leviathan – subject still exhibits normal vital signs 15,230 hours after infection."
Following that was another note.
"After repeated experiments, it was determined that the Sea Emperor Leviathan is naturally immune to the Kharaa Bacteria. The creature secretes a special enzyme, designated Enzyme 31, capable of curing the disease."
However, the report continued.
"The activity of Enzyme 31 in adult Sea Emperor Leviathans is too low to fully cure the infection. A new research initiative has been established to construct the Sea Emperor Incubation Center, designed to help the creature reproduce. The enzyme secreted by its offspring is far more potent and can eradicate the Kara Bacteria completely. This facility has been built inside a volcanic fortress located 1,600 meters below sea level."
PureWhite turned to the camera and explained, "So from this, we can see that the Pioneers found the cure for Kharaa Bacteria through the Sea Emperor Leviathan. That means our next destination is the Sea Emperor Leviathan Incubation Center."
He picked up a strange-looking key lying next to the terminal. "And this," he said, holding it up, "is the key to open it."
The chat instantly erupted.
"1,600 meters deep? That's terrifying!"
"And that name, Sea Emperor Leviathan, sounds like a super boss waiting to happen!"
"Probably even scarier than Ghost Leviathan or Reaper Leviathan!"
While speculation continued, PureWhite suddenly warned, "Hold on, high energy signal ahead!"
No sooner had he spoken than a deep humming filled the water. Time seemed to slow. The surrounding current froze mid motion, as though the ocean itself was holding its breath.
From the darkness, that colossal, mysterious creature appeared once more. The familiar, calm voice of the intelligent female entity echoed in PureWhite's mind.
"Come to me. I'm waiting for you…"
Her voice lingered in his ears until, slowly, the vision faded and the ocean returned to normal.
The chat exploded again.
"So it was the Sea Emperor Leviathan messing with our brains!"
"That means it's been aware of us all along!"
"Tsk tsk… I didn't expect the Sea Emperor to be a… uh… fish wife?"
"This just got way more interesting."
PureWhite steadied himself. "Alright, time to leave the Disease Research Center and head to the Sea Emperor Incubation Center. It's located directly below here. Follow the main trench of the Lost River and you'll reach it."
He piloted the Cyclops back to the main current and began descending along a massive undersea waterfall.
As they ventured deeper, the river grew narrower, and vents of volcanic steam began erupting from the seabed like chimneys. Clouds of white vapor hissed into the water.
"Everyone, we're entering the volcanic zone," PureWhite said with a grin. "Yes, you heard right, there are multiple active volcanoes here at the deepest depths."
The Cyclops continued downward, and soon the pale glow of the Lost River faded entirely, replaced by the harsh, molten light of flowing magma. Rivers of lava snaked across the seabed, their heat warping the surrounding rock into twisted, glowing shapes.
Even without the Cyclops' lights, the cavern glowed crimson from the molten rivers.
"At this depth, the water temperature is already over 80 degrees Celsius," PureWhite cautioned. "And it gets even hotter the closer we get to the seabed. Do not leave your sub here unless you're in the Cyclops or a Sea Mantis. A Seamoth won't survive, and stepping outside is basically instant death."
The chat filled with exclamations.
"Damn, the devs really made a literal volcanic hell!"
"This place is insane… I've never seen magma look so real in a game."
"Strong acid, electric eels, and now burning to death, this game has all the ways to kill you."
Despite their complaints, everyone was mesmerized by the atmosphere.
Then PureWhite's voice cut in again. "What do you think this is?"
He maneuvered the Cyclops toward the seafloor. There, resting silently, was the massive skeleton of a creature over sixty meters long. Two enormous pairs of jaw like pincers jutted from its skull.
"That looks just like a Reaper Leviathan!"
"Yeah, the double pincers give it away."
"But… how does a top predator like that end up dead down here?"
PureWhite's voice dropped. "It was prey."
The room went silent for a moment before the chat erupted again.
"No way, something ate a Reaper Leviathan?!"
"That's actually terrifying."
"Could it be the Sea Emperor?"
"No, the Emperor's still locked up in the Incubation Center…"
"Wait, the Pioneer data mentioned a 'Sea Dragon Leviathan'…"
"Yeah, that's gotta be it."
PureWhite continued, his tone serious. "You're about to see what it is… but be warned, it's extremely dangerous."
A few moments later, the warning came true.
ROOOOAAAR!
The sound ripped through the water like the bellow of a colossal beast. It was deeper, louder, and far more primal than the cries of a Reaper or Ghost Leviathan, majestic yet menacing, like the roar of a giant predator claiming its territory.
Out of the darkness, it appeared.
Its massive body was a dark, armored green, shaped like an enormous crocodile. Hard, jagged scales covered its length, and its head bore the ferocious features of Earth's ancient tyrant, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
But what stunned the audience most was its sheer size, easily 200 meters from snout to tail.
Next to it, the mighty Reaper Leviathan would look like a snack. The Ghost Leviathan? Barely half its length.
And the Cyclops… compared to this monster, it was nothing more than a child's toy.
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