But Jon had also accidentally demolished the Nagas’ home.
For a moment, he did not know if his visit made him the Nagas’ savior or their curse.
Fortunately, the adult Nagas remained numb.
They showed no emotion over the destruction of their temple, as if they were neither sad nor happy, long accustomed to this recurring cycle of fate.
The young Nagas, however, hailed him as a hero.
They first cheered and leaped for joy at the temple’s collapse, then swarmed him, gazing up with bright, vertical-slit pupils.
“The King’s soldier! So strong!”
“Big Brother! Teach Vashj! Vashj wants to join the National Guard! I want to follow the King!”
“The prison! It is finally destroyed! Let’s go out and hunt!”
Before Jon could speak, the adult Naga who had first led him there pushed the younglings aside, his gaze still hollow.
“The sea is protection. Children cannot go out. The wind will blow them away; the snow will melt them.”
He shielded the children behind him.
‘But…’
Jon hesitated for a few seconds before speaking.
“Lord Demon King has issued a new military order to recruit an army for the Thousand Rivers disaster area. They are to collect human captives trapped by the flood. The strict requirement is that you must not harm the humans.”
“The children are the last; they must stay. The sun… I am willing to take the punishment.”
The adult Naga remained stubborn, his words carrying the weight of a life-threatening plea.
Jon was stunned, but a sudden idea struck him.
“How about… the children stay, and you come out with me?”
The adult Naga froze.
He had intended to shake his head, but then he snapped to his senses.
He looked back at the temple turned to rubble and his coral workbench that had long since been swept away by the seawater.
“I can do that. I am unemployed now. In place of the children, I am willing.”
The adult Naga nodded decisively.
And so, inexplicably, Jon recruited an army composed of adult Nagas.
Because the temple had been destroyed, these idle adults were very easy to persuade, all willing to join the Demon King’s army in place of the children.
The remaining adult Nagas—those who were career-oriented or had no offspring—were bribed by Jon using Elder Remains.
He promised that as long as they were willing to follow him, he would share the remains with them, allowing them to feast.
It would be a gluttonous banquet, a magnificent meal.
The first adult Naga, named Falus, tried to share his portion of the fatty elder meat with the children, but they pushed it away in disdain.
They looked at Jon resentfully.
“We want to follow the King, too!”
Falus impatiently picked them up and tossed them into the distance one by one.
“The sea is protection. The King is a hypocrite.”
“You are not allowed to speak of the King that way!”
“There is snow on the shore, and stars, and the moon, and heroes.”
Falus shook his head.
“The King knows. The King stays silent.”
Jon, hearing his name implied, subconsciously straightened his back.
‘Uh…’
Recalling that war, a flicker of pity suddenly rose within him.
He should not have felt mercy for his enemies, yet now he needed these former “enemies” to help him save the disaster victims.
He suddenly felt that he was also quite a hypocrite.
Nagas, with their serpentine lower halves, were not entirely unable to go ashore.
However, upon reaching land, they would lose their supernatural mobility in the water, and their strength would be greatly diminished.
Furthermore, as aquatic creatures, they would quickly become withered and lethargic if they stayed away from water for too long.
Jon guessed that the Long-leg Potion prepared by Demon King Lear was intended to allow the Nagas to engage in prolonged combat on land.
Fortunately, the current Thousand Rivers Territory lacked many things, but it did not lack water.
This group of Nagas moved through the flooded river channels as fast as ghosts, capable of patrolling the entire river in a few minutes, picking up stranded victims who had fainted from fright along the way.
With their massive seven or eight-meter-long bodies and two pairs of arms, their efficiency was much higher than that of rescue boats.
“Small snack. Eat.”
Falus held up a disaster victim, trying to stuff the person into Jon’s mouth.
Jon quickly waved his hands, signaling the Nagas to place the people on the shore.
After observing secretly for a long time, Jon discovered that these adult Nagas truly seemed to have no interest in human flesh.
Compared to humans, they coveted the remains of the dead Elders far more.
Perhaps it was because the power of the Demon God within human bodies was too thin.
In any case, Jon was relieved.
He continued toward another Abyss Gate on the map connected to the Fourth Demon Realm, diving in to recruit more Naga reinforcements.
The process remained the same: first, beat the Elders, kill the Demon God tentacles, and then distribute the Elder meat to use as capital for hiring adult Nagas.
The young Nagas did not even need to be hired.
As soon as they saw the armor on him, they would automatically volunteer to “march for the King.”
However, Jon did not dare recruit them.
For one, the adult Nagas were extremely resistant to him taking the children.
For another, he noticed that these young Nagas seemed to want to taste human flesh even more than they wanted the Elder Remains.
Jon was afraid he would not be able to control them.
At the same time, something surprised him.
Ever since he had blasted four Demon God tentacles into dust with a single punch, the tentacles had vanished, deliberately avoiding direct contact with him.
The Elders were utterly bewildered by this.
Every time they met Jon, they would flick their tongues for ages, confused as to why the “God” refused to appear.
—
The frosty night was dreamless.
For most of the disaster victims in Thousand Rivers, this was a dreamlike and miraculous night.
They had been trapped in the turbulent currents, their cries for help going unanswered by heaven or earth.
Then, they encountered a group of people swimming toward them on “Pudoo boats” or wearing “Pudodo life jackets.”
These “weirdos” lunged forward like Goblins seeing gold, eagerly fitting the victims with “Pudodo life jackets” as if afraid they would be washed away by the water.
The first thing they asked was: “Excuse me, are you a princess?”
“???”
What kind of new greeting was this?
After explaining that they were not princesses, the weirdos would look disappointed.
They would send the victims back to shore and begin explaining things all at once.
Before the victims could even process what they heard, the weirdos would ask:
“Have you used your Pudodo newcomer qualification yet?”
“???”
What kind of new cult code was this?
Only when they reached the “Lucky Pudodo Wheel” prize points established overnight and understood the situation did they realize what was happening.
Subsequently, they were also encouraged to sign the Pay Later Agreement, joining the army of “gold seekers” in the flood.
However, for another segment of the Thousand Rivers victims, tonight was quite bizarre and terrifying.
They had been trapped in the water, only to encounter demons.
They were abducted by these half-human, half-snake monsters and locked in nearby excavated caves, huddled together with other trembling humans.
Their hearts were filled with terror as they worried about when they would become snacks in a demon’s mouth.
Was it more tragic to drown, or more tragic to be eaten by a demon?
This was destined to be the question they pondered most tonight.
As the sky grew pale, Jon finally returned from the Fourth Demon Realm.
He felt a bit frustrated because the further he went, the harder it became to find the Naga temples.
It seemed the Nagas were relocating their entire race under the command of some powerful will, deliberately avoiding him.
Truly insidious.
‘…Is even a Demon God this cowardly?’
Jon could not help but complain.
It reminded him of Demon King Lear.
Back then, Lear was exactly like this.
After his main army clashed with Jon a few times, he refused to fight head-on.
He began moving like the wind, engaging in guerrilla warfare throughout the Thousand Rivers Territory, attempting to wear down the Imperial Army through scorched-earth tactics and mobile warfare.
Of course, in the end, it had been ineffective.
Although the Demon King was strong and cunning, the humans were certainly no pushovers.
As the sun rose, Jon let out a breath of turbid air.
A complex mixture of satisfaction and loss gradually rose in his heart.
The satisfaction came from the fact that he had finally found a solution for the massive muddy ocean of Thousand Rivers; the loss came from wondering if so many people would have died if he had thought of this sooner.
“General.”
As Jon stood in a daze, Falus swam to his side and reported in a flat, raspy voice.
“After a night of hard work, we have stored captives in forty-seven caves for you. Some captives tried to escape, but we caught them. They are all quite well-behaved now.”
“Captives are still being added. Following your orders, General, although we are trying our best to avoid humans who are not affected by the disaster, they have noticed our tracks. Reconnaissance shows that several human armies are already closing in on this area.”
“What is the next move? Should we crush these human armies?”
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