The pitch-black passage, walls woven from fungal threads all around.

Norris carefully crawled upward inch by inch, afraid he'd slip back down if he wasn't cautious.

Today was a special day for Norris.

The Yellow-covered Book was tucked into his pants, and though it had often stressed its noble status as the Holy Scripture, not to be treated so casually, Norris truly had no spare hand to take care of it.

Finally, light appeared above him; he was about to reach the exit.

As Norris climbed out halfway, he was greeted by a Mushroom Forest!

The tender branches planted by the Tree Demons hadn't yet grown into Demon Woods, but the fungal threads planted at the same time had grown into enormous Mushroom Trees.

Norris couldn't tell if he was on the Fifth Floor or the Sixth Floor for a moment.

After Norris came out, a group of Puki surrounded him, including even a Big Black Mushroom.

At the same time, the leader in the Fungal Network shouted, "Congratulations on your release!"

The Puki immediately tossed a large number of petals into the air, which, upon closer inspection, could be recognized as petals from the Flower Demon.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

It seemed that some glass shards were mixed in among the petals, hitting Norris' scales...

The Puki extended their fungal tentacles, lifting Norris out completely.

They patted him with tentacles, brushing off the dust and clinging fungal threads.

Despite knowing the leader controlled the Puki, Norris felt an unprecedented emotion—a feeling of being cared for.

If only the Big Black Mushroom hadn't hit so hard, nearly knocking him to the ground...

Addressing the newcomer, Lin Jun solemnly said:

"Norris, now that you're out, you must mend your ways and start anew.

Next time you plan to kill someone, remember to report and apply for approval before you act.

Don't act without organization and discipline anymore.

You must believe that the Mushroom Garden will always stand by you; it is your home!"

Hearing the word "home," Norris couldn't hold back his tears any longer, crying and exclaiming excitedly, "Yes, Leader!"

A Puki suddenly brought out a bowl of soup.

"You've suffered eating only mushrooms down there every day, have some meat soup!"

Norris wiped away his tears, not being pretentious.

Holding the bowl with a slice of meat on top, he first took in the long-missed scent of meat, then drank it in one gulp.

After finishing, he smacked his lips, realizing it was mushroom meat soup, thinking it would be pure meat soup; nonetheless, it was good.

The meat and soup in the bowl were gone, leaving only two mushroom slices; not wanting to waste the leader's intention, Norris decided to eat them clean.

Hmm?

Picking up a slice of mushroom... why is it green...

Norris' eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground.

A few Puki wrapped up the unconscious Norris—he was due for his second round of strengthening.

The Yellow-covered Book at Norris' waist was also taken out; during Norris' days lying around, it went back to the happy little house.

Besides routine physical enhancements in the second round, Lin Jun planned to add some additional features to Norris.

The current list: [Rolling Charge Level 7], [Sound Wave Detection Level 6], [Evasion Level 7], [Acceleration Level 6], [Saliva Arrow Level 5].

[Saliva Arrow] was intended to complement the Neurotoxin Norris already had.

As for [Rolling Charge]... Lin Jun was really curious to see how humans would use it!

The Puki lifted Norris away, and Xiao Hai enthusiastically went to help.

While helping, he accidentally knocked off two silver scales; seeing no reaction from Norris, he unintentionally knocked off two more...

By the time Norris returned to the Mushroom House, a small patch on his back had gone bald.

...

After dealing with Norris, Lin Jun returned his focus to the Seventh Floor.

Through diligent "fishing" during this period, Lin Jun had gathered the minimum required skills for underwater exploration.

The first batch of diving Puki had been produced.

[Underwater Adaptation Level 6] + [Wake Jet Level 3] + [Water Flow Perception Level 4] + [Sound Wave Detection Level 6] + [Swimming Level 4] + [Scale Armor Level 6] + [Infrasound Attack Level 6]

Seven skills, even raising Agility to 10 points, definitely counted as an expensive variety among cannon fodder.

Among them, [Scale Armor] was a must-add; without scales, any small fish would want to bite, with scales mainly acting as a deterrent.

One can't just kill everything with infrasound along the way while swimming.

Through [Water Flow Perception], not only can dangers be discovered, but water leaks, if any, can also be sensed nearby.

Then, due to the [Swimming] skill, in the absence of Lin Jun's interference, the lower half of the Puki all turned into fish tail shapes, albeit composed of fungal threads.

By the world's naming convention, calling them Puki Fish now seems fitting.

These diving Puki can only lie flat on the shore, requiring other Puki to help push them into the water.

The first batch of diving Puki consisted of 60, grouped into fives, exploring from different locations.

Under Lin Jun's unified command, now, it's time to officially dive!

Tentacles pushed the diving Puki down.

At one dive spot, a large catfish waited unknowingly for how long, emerging to swallow five diving Puki whole.

!!!

Don't give me face, huh!

In a fit of anger, Lin Jun... changed perspectives.

55 diving Puki successfully went underwater, starting exploration!

The Seventh Floor, unlike other levels, take the Fifth and Sixth Floors with the largest area; without layers, though the space is vast, the actual explorable area isn't exceedingly large.

However, on the Seventh Floor, over 80% of space is underwater, with an ecosystem distributed in three dimensions.

Even though the total size is slightly smaller than the Sixth Floor, fully exploring it takes several times the effort compared to the Sixth Floor.

The underwater space of the Seventh Floor roughly divides into three layers.

The topmost is the sewer-like area, a network of waterways with mountain peaks hanging into the water from the ceiling.

The middle layer is an area of pure water.

The lower layer, at the Seventh Floor's bottom, houses ancient structures covered in aquatic plants.

These buildings evidently weren't originally underwater; why they became so is unknown.

Could it be that the Seventh Floor was originally a dry layer?

The initial exploration focused on the upper waterways, considered the smallest and easiest area to explore.

But even in this simple area, almost 20 diving Puki were lost before the survey completed—no rifts were found.

When the Puki reached the Middle Area, the survival difficulty increased.

Due to terrain constraints, fish sizes were limited in the Upper Area; without those limits in the Middle Area, the Puki soon encountered larger and more dangerous demons.

They either relied on size and speed to catch up and consume the Puki.

Or they were armed with special skills.

Like pulling Puki over from more than twenty meters away or having an extendable 30-meter accurate feeding mouthpiece.

Many creatures made Lin Jun nearly develop a fear of the deep sea.

Within just two hours of entering the Middle Area, Lin Jun was down to three remaining diving Puki.

Lin Jun also entered the strongest manual control mode!

Two minutes later, the first batch of diving Puki perished...

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