Second Layer of Diyu.
Hell of Mountain Knives
A towering mountain stood at this layer. No one could see through what was inside the black forest. There is a fog partially hiding the mountain to the naked eyes of the human beings but one could never ignore the painful groans and screams coming from such an eerie mountain.
AAAAAHHHHHH!
NOOO!!!
GYAAAAHH~~
SOMEONE SAVE ME!!!
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!!?
Upon closer look within the mountain, one could see that everything inside the mountain is made of sharp knives and blades. The leaves of the trees were made with small knives in the form of leaves. The grasses that look average and common in the forest can cut off anything that bumps on it, its long leaves were made of the blade and some of it had turned black due to too much blood that soaked on it. This is not an ordinary mountain hidden within the corners of this place are corpses full of cuts and a pool of blood that had longed turned black.
On the other hand, the chaos left behind after Chu Mo left the first layer was something he didn't know much less care about. He looked around and saw a humongous mountain before him. He couldn't see through the mountain at all because he could feel intense danger coming from it. He saw a player behind him falling even faster than him.
This player was the lucky one who had successfully passed through the hole he left. This man just nodded his head at him and used some kind of bloodline for a pair of bat wings to appear behind his back and control his fall. This player was wearing a mid-grade cloak that hides his face.
Based on his reactions, skills, and bloodline, this man must be a veteran player at least. Both Chu Mo and the player with Vlad's Bloodline dropped on the foot of the black mountain. In there another man with long red hair tied behind his back with deep crimson slit vertical irises wearing pure black ancient and a pair of black feathered wings that followed by two monsters was waiting for their arrival.
This man is obvious of the fallen race. A humanoid one that looks like a fallen angel with high authority.
The fallen spoke, "Welcome to the Second layer of Diyu. I am Fa Yue. Here to congratulate Player Mr. Reaper and Player Mr. Blood for leaving the hanging bars layer. The two players' managers have their stamp cards please."
With those words, a little cloud and a little bat floated towards the fallen who called himself Fa Yue. He took their stamp cards and stamped a hanging card with a cute figure on it. He looks like staff in an amusement park waiting for children to line up asking for his stamp. As soon as he completed his duties, Fa Yue bid his farewell.
Fa Yue said, "Congratulations once again, and welcome to the second layer of Diyu. The Hell of Mountain Knives. I shall leave now. Let's meet again in the third layer."
After saying all he wanted to say he disappeared before Chu Mo and the Player called Mr. Blood.
Chu Mo said, "He must have left to welcome the others who successfully passed like us."
"I shall take my leave now. Once again thank you for making that crater to the first layer of this duke… I mean I, Blood, is thankful to Mr. Reaper." said Mr. Blood.
Chu Mo responded, "No need for thanks. I'm in a hurry so as for who follows my path is their choice."
[Sir, I found where the doctor is… He's in the sixth layer. The Hell of Beasts.]
"I see. Then let's hurry it up a bit and find him as soon as possible," said Chu Mo to his supposed manager, the little sub-system of Yue.
He once again covered himself with wind and dashed through the mountain of knives with wind protecting his whole body. His figure flashed and anyone could see him climbing up the mountain with unimaginable speed unhindered by the blades on his way. All the knives or blades on his way were either blown away or shattered by the impact of his wind elements.
Mr. Blood who was looking at Chu Mo's figure was dumbfounded at where he was standing. He finally recognized the name Reaper.
"Isn't he the number one's player, Abyss's Subordinate? The ranked second most powerful player in the Black Zone. Why is he here? And as always the scent of blood coming from him and Abyss is really weird. Not that of humans as all… It smells so delectable~" mumbled Mr. Blood.
[Duke. I remembered the one that little cloud called doctor. I heard rumors saying that the Reaper is courting someone from the red zone. The veteran player is a mad surgeon with an infamous reputation in the red zone. He might be here to look for him again.]
"I see. That mad doctor is also here. We can take advantage of them. The sixth layer was it?" said Mr. Blood as he turned to a cluster of blood mist and climbed up the second layer of hell without problems.
—
Meanwhile at the 7th layer of Diyu.
Hell of Oil Cauldron.
Screams of agonizing pain echo in this layer mixed with the bubbling sound of a boiling liquid. Those who see the scene of countless humans chained upside down being dipped in the huge cauldron are a sight-to-be scene. The demon minions would fish them one at a time.
BUBBLING~
GYAAAAAAHHHH~
Stop! STOP! I don't what to enter that pool of oil anymore!!
ARGH~ Someone kill me already!!!
They would either fish a barely alive human or a living skeleton instead. Those who had completely become a skeleton are deemed failures and they would forever stay in hell as either workers or imprisoned sinners.
Han Ya was dipped inside the boiling pot of oil three times. After surviving the prerequisite the chains on his legs were finally unlocked. There are some demon minions looking at him. As among those who passed this layer only Han Ya looked unharmed.
Though they knew he wasn't completely unharmed as they had witnessed Han Ya get his skin and flesh melted when drowned in the oil, the scene of his fast regeneration and recovery had also left these demons stunned.
A demon ogre approached Han Ya with a grumpy face and said in broken human language.
"Undead. Not. Bad. Completed. Trial. Go. Elevator. Choose. Up. Or. Down. Congrats!"
Han Ya glanced at the ogre and gave him a simple nod. The ogre pointed in the direction of the elevator. As Han Ya was the only healthy Player that survived this layer. The others who had passed with him are still busy healing themselves.
Everyone had witnessed Han Ya's unbelievable regeneration.
'Tsk! He had awakened such a rare bloodline. Undead. I wanted to have it too.' said a player with his whole arms turned to white bones.
A player with white bone legs said, 'But that bloodline is under the rare category. It's harder to awaken it without losing your mind.'
Then a man with a half skull melted spoke, 'Stop caring about others and heal yourselves first!'
'You should heal your head first, why are you starting your healing at your foot first then your skull!'
'Shut it! I do what I want!'
'Mind your own business!'
The injured players were bickering with each other but under anyone's eyes, they would only see some skeleton with few limbs talking and grinding their bone jaws as if talking.
These are some players who had successfully survived being dipped in that boiling oil three times but were fatally injured and so they needed time to heal themselves.
The ogre who was friendly with Han Ya just now bellowed at them and said, "3. Hours. Healed. Leave. Not. Stay. Forever!"
In front of the elevator, Fa Yue appeared once again. Upon seeing Han Ya he was more respectful than before. Though he didn't recognize Chu Mo's identity when wearing Player Reaper's face, Han Ya is a different story. Unlike Chu Mo and Yan Lou who have System Yue to support them, Han Ya had no means to hide his aura as an undead general. Fa Yue lowered his head and greeted Han Ya.
Fa Yue, "Greetings to one of the generals of King Yan Lou!" He was speaking in the abyssal language and only a few can understand their words. "But… Undead Knight Lord. Why are you in a human being's vessel?"
"Hm, Orders from the Evil God," responded Han Ya. Though this isn't the full truth, at least it is true that before he overtook this human's identity he was indeed under the order to kill all players in the game Haunted Asylum.
He couldn't even beat Player Hei and he couldn't kill An Yuan. Plus, Sui Rou cannot be killed as Player Hei had a temporary contract with her and so he ended up failing his orders. No, he had no face to return and see the Evil God in fear of being eliminated.
On the other hand, once Fa Yue heard that it was the King's orders, he no longer questioned Han Ya further. He politely asked for the card stamp and stamped all of his cards in progress.
Manager Tian's eyes were glowing at that sight. This means regardless of whether his player threw the layers with this stamp card full, he can be considered someone who had experienced all layers. He only needs to reach the end of the 18th layer to leave this place.
Han Ya said, "There is no need to do that. We would be meeting often as this identity I have had signed a contract with few more human players."
Fa Yue was astonished. He couldn't believe he was hearing this undead general who hated humans the most to bind himself to other human players.
"Have you gone insane, General?" asked Fa Yue, ignoring all decorum.
Han Ya frowned for a bit but he is used to this aide of the Evil God losing his manners whenever he is shocked.
"No! I'm still under orders," said Han Ya as if talking of an excuse. "Anyway, resume your duties. I heard Abyss is here."
"For real!? No wonder Reaper is also here and here I thought he was going after the mad doctor," mumbled Fa Yue.
"If the Reaper is here then Abyss is indeed here as well. Though I wanted to say this is our chance to eliminate then it might seem impossible," said Han Ya as he remembered Hei Anjing being here as well.
Han Ya's thoughts: 'Though he couldn't defeat the man in his weakened state, this didn't mean that Fa Yue wouldn't be able to do so right? It's better to have Fa Yue clean up the possible bad variables. There is no way that the abyssal world would allow a second Abyss to exist.'
"Fa Yue, there is something I want you to do. If you found a player named Hei Anjing, eliminate him if you could. He is one of my targets. My human body restricts my original capabilities. I couldn't kill him at the moment." said Han Ya.
Fa Yue was interested that there's a human that exists that the undead general could not kill. But after observing the human figure before him, it seems true that the Undead General is completely restrained inside that body. He couldn't even use half of his full potential unless he upgraded the vessel itself.
"Is there something wrong with this human? His name doesn't seem to be included in Top 10 rankings," said Fa Yue.
Han Ya replied, "He is a newbie player but… The aura coming from this human is extremely powerful and dangerous. You should just take a look. Don't get yourself killed."
"The general is worrying for this little one. How rare~" said Fa Yue.
Han Ya's expression turned cold as he said, "Just die if you want to. Who is caring for you." then he went inside the elevator and moved up in layers as he heard that An Yuan is in the fifth layer according to what his manager had said.
As soon as Han Ya left, the friendly smile on Fa Yue disappeared. The two demon followers behind him start to tremble as they can feel their Master's change in mood.
Fa Yue murmured, "I thought Abyss and Reaper would be the only interesting humans that entered this hell. Hei Anjing was it? I wonder how powerful you are, that the undead general deemed you as someone powerful."
"Lord Duke, we found where this Player Hei Anjing is."
"He is the only remaining player alive in the Hell of Ice."
"He is our next target for the stamp as he completely stayed in the Ice Hell for a few days."
Reported to him by his demon followers. Fa Yue remembered that he came over not only to send stamps to players but also to investigate something. This world's consciousness had issued him an order to appease the dangerous being who could destroy the whole abyssal world in one of his whims. To prevent this, he was sent down to look and find the source of that domineering aura from before.
Fa Yue murmured, "They can't be the same person right?"
Only then does he take his leave to go to their next destination, the Ice Hell on the tenth layer of Diyu.. Land of never-ending winter and the realm of Ice and Snow.
