"Kill... kill them... kill the invaders..."
Unidentifiable words, accompanied by the sound of wind from high above, entered Yang Tao's ears.
[HP 173340 / 330000]
This octopus's HP was continuously decreasing, slowly but steadily.
However, looking around, Yang Tao did not see any other beings.
'Can't it communicate?'
Yang Tao frowned, looking at the giant octopus floating in the air, and couldn't help but think of Hatchan's takoyaki.
"..."
Damn it, he must have been affected.
Suddenly, he noticed something: all the eyes on the octopus's body and tentacles were wide open, but where its original eyes should have been, they were tightly shut.
"Save... save me... Yang... Tao..."
Yang Tao: "!!!"
The voice was intermittent, but Yang Tao was sure that the voice was indeed calling his name.
'What's going on???''
Watching the octopus's health continuously drop, a thought flashed in Yang Tao's mind. He took out the milk from his backpack, aimed it at the giant octopus in front of him, and silently chanted:
'Use!'
The white liquid in the bucket instantly disappeared.
In an instant, the golden eyes on the octopus in front of him disappeared, and its originally tightly shut eyes slowly opened.
Those were completely different from the eyes that had just been on its body. Its eyes were pitch black with no expression or reflection, like a black hole attracting the surrounding light.
Suddenly, an absurd thought popped into Yang Tao's mind.
'Can octopuses close their eyes?'
"Thank you, Yang Tao."
This time, the other party's voice was no longer intermittent like a radio. Although he couldn't tell if it was male or female, the voice sounded quite pleasant.
Looking at the green-bordered health bar above its head, Yang Tao was no longer in a hurry. He stopped in mid-air and asked the octopus in front of him, "Wait... let's sort things out one by one. How do you know my name?"
"The parrot named Jerry came to find me. It mentioned you to me..."
Damn, how many places has the Blue Bird been to? He definitely has to ask it when he gets back.
Also, is that Blue Bird a social butterfly? How did it survive so many levels?
"And I can also see the memories of the Wanderers who come here..."
While the octopus spoke, its body and tentacles were still constantly moving, as if swimming in water.
Just then, a large amount of blue storm clouds suddenly appeared in the black sky. The storm, accompanied by lightning, instantly cleared the mist below.
Large crabs were exposed under the lightning.
Rumble...
Silver snakes danced wildly.
The Entities gathered below were submerged by the white lightning.
Yang Tao swore he smelled grilled seafood. These guys not only looked like crabs, but they even smelled like seafood.
The octopus extended several tentacles, and surging energy gushed out, suppressing the continuously spreading blue storm clouds in the sky.
The next moment, the Blue Knight's figure appeared beside Yang Tao. Instantly, accompanied by rolling thunder, his body began to grow rapidly. In a flash, a giant made of lightning appeared before the octopus.
'Why is he always summoning a Gundam now?'
"Wait..."
Currently, this octopus had no hostility towards him. He needed to figure out the whole story first; the other party's situation just now was clearly not right.
Hearing his words, the Blue Knight's lightning sword, which had already been raised, stopped in mid-air.
"Long time no see, Blue Knight."
"Squidward, why did you leave your world?"
Yang Tao looked up at the Blue Knight. Although he thought it was impossible, he still felt that the Blue Knight was scolding the other party...
"I came here unintentionally. There was a... I don't know how to describe It. I don't even know what It is. It broke into my world, and I only discovered It, and then I was affected by It, and finally came here in a daze..."
"My energy has affected this world, Blue Knight. I did not do it on purpose. I will find a way to compensate you for the trouble I caused. I have to go back and see how my world is doing."
Saying this, the giant octopus looked at Yang Tao and said, "Yang Tao, thank you for your help. If you need my help, you can come to the deep layers to find me anytime..."
At this moment, the giant octopus extended a relatively slender tentacle towards Yang Tao, and a golden eyeball squeezed out from it and flew to Yang Tao's front.
Yang Tao reached out and caught this eye, which was even bigger than him.
[Eye of Squidward]
'Squidward? This guy's name is quite good...'
"Yang Tao, when you are in the Backrooms' shallow world, just hold the eye and I will know. I'm leaving now..."
After speaking, the giant octopus, preoccupied with its own world, urgently swam away into the distance, just like in real seawater.
As it moved further away, its figure became increasingly transparent, eventually disappearing above the mist.
Seeing the other party leave, the Blue Knight's body immediately shrunk back to its original armored form.
"Thank you, Yang."
Hearing the Blue Knight's thanks, Yang Tao smiled, reached out, and put his arm around his shoulder, saying, "No need to be polite? We're buddies~"
Hearing Yang Tao's frivolous tone, the Blue Knight nodded lightly without speaking.
"Oh, right, how's things at Stormstone Keep?"
"Not good... Even if I prevented the two levels from continuing to merge, Level 69 still has a path leading to Stormstone Keep..."
"Humans who accidentally enter this level only need to drive a vehicle for a certain distance in Level 69 to see Stormstone Keep."
Yang Tao was stunned when he heard this and said, "Isn't that good? Don't you like helping Wanderers?"
"I like helping people who need help, but that doesn't mean I want Stormstone Keep to become a vegetable market..."
The Blue Knight's words were filled with helplessness.
"As the Lord of the Level, you can't close the way into Stormstone Keep?"
Yang Tao was very puzzled by this. You're the Lord of the Level, and you're still worried about such a small matter?
The Blue Knight shook his head gently and said, "The fusion of the two worlds cannot be reversed, not even by me. At most, I can prevent a deeper fusion of the two worlds."
"Lancelot, you don't have to worry about this. I'll arrange for someone to set up a transfer station in the forest between Level 28. Any Wanderer who enters Stormstone Keep, as long as they spend some Almond water or something of equivalent value, will be sent to Level 1 or Level 11."
Using a key to open a door costs 15 energy points, so him earning 150 points would simply be a conscientious business.
The Blue Knight had no other choice and immediately nodded in agreement with Yang Tao's suggestion.
This way, there would be no need to worry about Stormstone Keep becoming a vegetable market, as well as the safety of the Wanderers themselves.
"Lancelot, wait for me, I'm going down to collect some crabs..."
The seafood smell lingering in the air truly made Yang Tao unable to resist. Before he transmigrated, his home was in a landlocked city in the north, where crabs were already scarce and ridiculously expensive, not to mention having pitifully little meat.
Today, he definitely had to try eating crab roe with a shovel!