The lowest deck of the liner had been completely submerged.
Locke stared at the stairs leading to the bottom-most hold, partially flooded with seawater, and found himself puzzled by one thing: why hadn't this ship sunk yet?
*Splash!*
The water surged, and massive tentacles flickered beneath the surface. As a muffled roar vibrated through the hull from the depths, the tentacles churned the water, almost as if taunting Locke: 'If you've got the guts, come on in.'
Locke took a step forward.
His Sixth Sense screamed a frantic warning.
Locke went silent for a moment, then took another step forward until the tips of his boots just brushed the surface of the seawater.
The warning vanished instantly.
The reason? Locke had switched classes.
The Locke who took the first step was Assassin Locke; the Locke who took the second was Witch Locke.
For the Assassin, this environment was a death trap—a major crisis triggering a warning. But for the Witch, the raw power at his disposal meant the threat was negligible. No danger, no warning.
"Damn it," Locke muttered, his face cold as he watched the water level slowly rise. He was annoyed. "Of all the ships in the world, you had to pick this one. You really have a death wish."
A reward of 5,000 Achievement Points and 5,000 Potential Points was no small sum. Locke had promised himself he wouldn't switch to the Witch class unless it was absolutely necessary.
And now? It was necessary.
To finish this mission as an Assassin, he would have to rely on high-risk maneuvers and his Resilience talent to engage in a life-and-death struggle underwater—the monster's home turf. Or, he could switch to Witch and end it from a distance.
The choice was obvious. Locke wasn't an idiot; he was practical. While he wouldn't transform into a Witch in daily life for anything, this was a professional necessity. Besides, "Witch" was just a class title; it didn't mean he was actually turning into a woman.
If you have the power to one-shot an opponent, playing a war of attrition for the sake of "pride" is either because the opponent is a lover, or because you've been hit by a stupidity debuff.
Locke knelt down and placed his hand into the seawater.
Next second: My energy! Limitless!
[Transcendent!]
The infinite energy within Locke's sea of consciousness was released instantly. Like a spiderweb, it shot out from his fingertips, racing through the water to cover every corner of the lower deck.
*Buzz!*
Locke closed his eyes, and a mental image appeared.
In the bottom hold of the Argo, a massive breach yawned in the hull. A grotesque, mutated octopus—bloated and terrifying—waved an endless thicket of tentacles. In the dry pockets of the hold, sticky acid-like fluids coated the walls, trapping dozens of crew members who hadn't been consumed yet, their bodies partially dissolved and fused to the ship.
Their endless wailing and agony were being suppressed by the rhythmic, heavy breathing of the monster. Locke could capture the raw supernatural fluctuations coming from the creature's core.
It wasn't just a mutant; it was an awakened entity with its own consciousness, using its tentacles to puppet humans as thralls.
"ROAR!" The octopus, with half its head above the waterline, let out a psychic-tinged howl: "Come down... come down... I will eat you... I will melt you alive!"
Locke's brow twitched. He gave a soft, cold laugh. His boundless energy expanded, forming a tightening circle around the portion of the octopus exposed to the air.
"Eat me?" Locke opened his eyes, staring at the hidden tentacles waiting to ambush him. "I'm afraid your appetite isn't big enough."
With a single thought, the compressed energy detonated.
*BOOM!*
In the lower hold, a massive explosion of thick green blood and shredded flesh erupted like a depth charge. Seawater, gore, and filthy chunks of meat sprayed in every direction, instantly polluting the flooded deck.
Locke withdrew his hand, watching the strangely colored blood drift toward him. His lips curled into a smile.
...
[Ding!]
[Mission Accomplished: "Deep Rising"]
[Reward: Achievement Points 10,000, Potential Points 10,000]
[Hidden Mission (First Transcendent Battle) Reward: Achievement Points 5,000, Potential Points 5,000, Mystery Item Box 1]
[Current Status Updated!]
Name: Locke Broughton
Class: Witch (Switchable to Assassin)
Achievement Points: 108,000
Potential Points: 85,000
...
Locke stood up and switched his class back to Assassin.
'That's it?'
He looked at a giant eyeball bobbing toward him on the surface of the bloody water. He drew his gun and fired once.
*Bang!*
The eyeball burst.
"No more problems now, I hope." Locke holstered the Silver Dancer and headed back up. He felt a bit helpless. He had come out for a vacation, only to end up playing Left 4 Dead followed by a monster hunt.
'When I get back, I am never stepping foot on a boat again. I'm sticking to school and grinding missions in peace..
...
Back on the deck, Locke's "distraction" clone which had supposedly gone to find a bathroom, timed its disappearance perfectly as the real Locke swapped back in. He did a quick bit of "cleaning" to ensure he didn't smell like monster guts and stepped back out.
The others hadn't heard the explosion; the thick hull and the water had muffled the sound, leaving only the monster's dying shriek to vibrate through the metal.
Now, the ship was deathly silent.
Happy Hogan was still standing guard with his pistol, eyes glued to the fuel pipe where the tentacle had emerged. The others were huddling near the elevated helipad.
As Locke sat back down, Gwen smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her tired eyes. They hadn't slept all night. The sudden silence from the monster was a blessing—they needed to recover their strength.
Locke looked over at Pepper. "Any signal yet?"
Pepper, clutching her tablet, looked up. "Same as before, no—wait!"
Everyone snapped their heads toward her.
"Tony, look! There's a signal!" Pepper shook Tony, who had actually managed to doze off.
Gwen was instantly wide awake. Tony blinked away his sleepiness as Pepper shoved the tablet in his face. He grabbed it, his eyes widening. He quickly opened the encrypted protocols to reconnect with JARVIS.
"Sir, it is excellent to see your signal return," the AI's voice crackled through the speakers.
"JARVIS! Lock my coordinates! Get here now!"
"Understood, sir. Triangulating..."
The screen suddenly went black. Dead.
"Motherf—!" Tony gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to smash the tablet on the deck. 'That's it. When I get back, I am perfecting the miniaturized Arc Reactor.'
Despite the dead battery, the group was ecstatic. The direct confirmation from JARVIS was the proof they needed.
Gwen looked at Locke, beaming. "We're going to be okay! I just hope that monster doesn't come back."
Locke smiled back. 'Don't worry, honey. That octopus is currently sashimi.'
...
High above in a Quinjet, the atmosphere was tense.
"Ma'am," the SHIELD pilot said, glancing at his console. "The radar and satellite interference has vanished. Everything is back online."
Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff exchanged a look. "Vanished? Did we fly out of the zone?"
"No, ma'am. It's like whatever was jamming the magnetic field just... stopped existing."
At that moment, Hill's satellite phone rang.
"Hill here."
"Director," a SHIELD agent from the New York command center reported. "911 just received a relay from Stark Industries. They've made contact with Tony Stark. I'm sending the coordinates now."
Hill hung up and looked at the pilot. A blinking red dot appeared on the Quinjet's center display.
It was close. Very close.
***
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