‘Hello World!’ I replayed the robotic voice that one of my computer lab seatmates mimicked a couple years ago. I later discovered that it was a reference to a song; I must have disappointed him severely with my blank stare.
It was not a very consequential memory, but I liked it. There was a sweet spot for good memories that kept you sane in a situation like this. Too good and I’d just end up having a break down at how distant am from it.
The faint image of an LED monitor flashes in my mind, presiding over a blurry, brown background. My brain was trying to form the image of a desk; it felt like a lost heirloom at this point.
Will I ever touch one again? If I was in a completely alien world, perhaps the other day was the last time I would ever touch something of human creation.
Ah, I should stop moping around.
Today, the water is very cool around my skin, even if the blood that pumped through my heart is just as cold. It's time to warm up, a good day for a little adventure.
I shook my elongated body, stretching my tail and jaws as if I was doing an odd morning exercise. I didn’t actually feel the water around me. It was more like what I imagined living in zero-gravity would be like.
My thoughts were still hazy from the feeling of having just woken up, so I subconsciously ‘turned on the lights’ since it was dark.
Thankfully, there was no big, scary monster that leaped up to me out of nowhere; it was still the stickshrimps and deep sea mushrooms I saw from yesterday.
I can forgive the fungi, but these thin shrimps really live a sedentary lifestyle, huh? They should exercise a bit and not only laze around all day, moving just to eat.
I gazed to the heavens above, making an attempt at a knowing expression with my current face.
I slowly propelled myself towards one of the mushrooms, this time I didn’t scare away any of the stickshrimps since I was more subtle than the last one.
Once I was close enough, I tries to focus my eyes beyond the snow of death from above. My sight wasn’t really made for close observations, as it turned out seeing everything in red didn’t exactly help with observing minute details.
Still, I could make out some features, like how with a closer look I recognize that it was a little different from a mushroom. Unlike the usual ‘umbrella’ shape I had in mind, this had more of a bowl like shape, if I nudge a little closer, I can make out some thin tendrils that wave around on the outer edges.
Well, that’s a plus one to the tentacle count.
Although, I felt like there’s some sort of protrusion at the center of it. Was that an eye of some sort? Fascinating.
Against all my rational judgement, I give it a little nudge. Well, at least nothing seems to be happening. Perish that thought actually, my front now itches like hell.
Now I know it was also poisonous in one way or another, not that I would actually attempt to eat it. Gah, I should have been careful, there could be things down here that give me a lethal dosage on touch.
In my defense, contact poison generally won’t come from fungi! Here’s to not getting a disease of some sort, though. I was not offered a better immune system; else I would have chosen that above all.
The ebb and flow of the water was now taking me elsewhere, so I decided to follow it. I did not have any desire to make a permanent home down, so exploring was always a good prospect.
As I roamed around for a few dozen minutes, I notice that the ecosystem of this place was very… monotonous. I know deep sea life was barren, but I was sure it wasn’t this barren. Maybe the inedible fungi grew so dominant that no one bothered setting up shop?
I was nearly certain there is microbial life here, but I am a bit taken aback at how there aren’t at least any other animals I could see.
There were always the stickshrimps to feed on; at least I was sure I could make a meal out of them. Aside from that, I guess this can be the territory of a very big creature or more likely, a group of creatures that drove away anything that approached it.
I’d just say I lack knowledge on how ecosystems work and this was entirely possible, no need to think of such scary things.
Thankfully, my fears were unfounded as I soon found myself in front of a massive isopod. I could only get a view of its rigid exoskeleton, but it was definitely more than five times as large as me.
I hovered quite far from it as a precaution, even though it seemed mostly content crawling peacefully on the ocean floor. As curious as I am, I would not go anywhere near that thing’s face in fear for my precious little life. It might just devour me whole!
Huh, is it just me, or did the big guy seem like he’s struggling? He’s heaving up and down, as if he was trying to raise himself to walk, but was too heavy to do so.
Sorry buddy, if I still had hands, I would have happily helped you. Now was most definitely a no go.
Should I go try and feed it? No, I was sure it would be fine; I heard things like him can last months without a meal.
I swim a little faster, perhaps confident of my safety in my surroundings. The deep sea was hostile, but it seemed that my encounter with the Giant Siphoner was an exception, not the norm. I would for sure be unable to survive fighting for my life every hour of the day.
Sure, I may have ended up in quite a shitty situation right now, but if there’s one caveat: I can enjoy this exhilarating view of the ocean floor. I should try to envision it from a human perspective.
As I wandered through the white detritus that dotted the overpowering black of the abyssal deep, I find myself beholden to a marvelous sight. The bottom of the abyssal depths presented itself to me with a dull, grey clay flooring. Nevertheless, the beauty of life still shone through it.
A bright blue glow emanated from these tiny mushrooms that had a reversed canopy. From the edges of these undersea lamps, I could spot thin fibers that sported tiny orbs at the end of their protrusions. A dark blue slit sat at it center, sitting there like an eye that mocked me. Creepy, but beautiful in its own way.
From their intense glow I could barely make out the shape of light-brown, mostly opaque stick-like creatures. They sported tiny legs that allowed them to move around, as well as thin antennae that spilled down from their little head, perhaps they used them to communicate.
On the opposite end of this spectrum were meter-wide shelled creatures. Their rough exterior divided into three segments, each hiding whatever facet of this creature hid below. They crawled on the ocean floor, feasting on those that succumbed to the harsh environment.
It was a good sight to see that life can flourish even here.
A set of thin, yet impossibly strong legs pierced my chest. Hot blood spilled into the cold waters, a mouth buried itself my back.
I felt my blood drying up within, it felt as if it was pumped out through a faucet. A dull pain coursed through my body as everything went dark.
My last vision was the horrid sight of a spider bleached in white. Its long, tubular mouthpart that dug into my body was the only thing I could recognize from its indistinguishable face.
Wait! Something was terribly wrong with that last line! You know why? Well, there was a giant, spider-like thing right in front of me right now, and I was deathly afraid of spiders.
It did not help that each of its twelve legs spanned half the length of that isopod I saw earlier. It’s body certainly looked small in comparison to the sheer span of its many legs.
Emphasis on was scared, by the way. I was scared no longer! I was no human with irrational fear of arachnids now; I am a cold-blooded, deep sea predator fish.
Surely, the sea spider’s poor senses would not be able to detect my superior stealth.
I swished my tail in shock as the sea spider, craned its head in my general direction. A coincidence, yes. Uhh, maybe not, friendly sea spider?
It suddenly leaped upwards into the waters above, contracting its long limbs and expanding them again to push itself forwards. It was heading straight for meeeeeee. AHHHH!
Oh for Christ’s sake.
I am not going to lie, as scary as this spider is, it did not seem to be unbeatable. I was sure that this would provide me with some orbs, and that was a step towards more beneficial improvements. All it takes would be a little finessing…
Shoot, it almost got me with one of its limbs. The thing had done some sort of undersea backflip to point the sharp ends of its legs at me.
I was definitely faster, but how was it keeping up in the maneuverability department?! Undersea may it be, a spider shouldn’t be more agile than a fish in the water.
I felt a phantom leg brush past me as it tried to rake my face with its multiple legs before I could get away. Had I retreated a moment later, I would be in a tough situation!
I did not want to be fed on by a spider of any sort. The mere thought was mortifying.
It appears to have tapped the tip of its legs together, is it going to retreat?
Suddenly, it started to spin and gains a sudden burst of speed. It was drilling itself through the water, towards me.
Okay, this was most definitely some magic bullshit. The spin seems slow, but it was still very menacing. The disturbances in the water would be sure to shock any ordinary fish, but not me.
I challenge it by flashing my light on and off. I was sure it didn’t rely on its optical sensors, but it was mostly about convincing myself I sent a message.
It was time to make a little gamble, at worst it would cause me a flesh wound. Even so, it would still be quite bad to have one
I wait and wait until I felt that it was a mere half a meter from my face. I muster up all the speed I could gather to turn and duck out of the way, but I wasn’t done.
Good, it seems the sea spider had trouble cancelling out its movements.
I swerve back, and unhinge my jaw. I take a snap at its legs, it was a bit hard, but my teeth were strong enough to cut a part of one of them clean off.
Without pausing, I try to pick off as many parts of its legs as I can before it recovers. Eventually I cut off three of its legs. Well, sizable ports of them at the very least. I could not aim for disassembling the full length of it without wasting precious time.
It swatted me away by threatening to impale me with a good leg. However, it was too late. It was injured, and I was not. It is clear who was at an advantage.
While it seems to still be recoiling from the shock of losing its limbs, I aim straight for the kill, opening my mouth wide to rip off its head.
An intense pain courses through the entirety of my face, reaching into the rest of my body. It felt as if my skin was burning away. My insides stir up, I had definitely inhaled some putrid gas. It stings! It stings!
It did not take more than a moment for me to recognize what was happening. I quickly retreat before the pain got any worse. I was sure I was already bleeding somewhere. Dammit!
The spider released some sort of chemical from its head, maybe it was a defense mechanism that expelled poison when in danger?
My vision was obscured, but words cannot describe how I thankful I was that my eyes did not go blind. I cannot close my eyes to protect them, after all.
I saw a cloud of something around its head; it seemed to be impervious to its own chemicals. I was certainly not going back there to confirm.
It had lost a fourth of its legs, and in exchange it managed to poison me to the point of injury. I can still feel the burning sensation until now. The escape wasn't free of injury either; my tail got caught in the cloud.
AUGHHH IT HURT LIKE HELL!
It was a draw, okay? Not your victory you stupid inferior crab impostor!
Wait, was it clicking its legs together in the distance and doing some sort of victory dance by swinging side to side? Was it perhaps… intelligent?
I must have been imagining things, it was probably a mechanism to taunt predators or prey. Even if it was, it attacked me first. It will be hard to reconcile after that.
Disgruntled, I swam out of the battlefield to find a place to recover.
One orb for all that?! I nearly died there system thingy! Ah, I guess it may only calculate how much I am statistically disadvantaged or advantaged and reward me through that.
So it may mean that it considered that kind of battle to be a fair fight. If these were its standards, then the system thingy sure was brutal. ‘Ranking’ up seemed almost impossible.
Wait, did that mean the sea spider gained an orb for this encounter too? Such a prospect was admittedly worrying.
Especially since I had a hunch that this would not be the last of my problems with that damned spider.
