Meng still had no idea what was going on.
He had appeared out of nowhere, inexplicably turned into a snake, and was then inexplicably thrown out by a burly man whose strength was simply beyond Meng's imagination. He only remembered being flung out, spinning dizzily, and losing all sense of direction.
However, the only thing Meng was thankful for was that he had somehow survived...
Of course, what Meng, who had no interest or understanding of Norse mythology, didn't know was that the body he had attached himself to would later be regarded as the Midgard Serpent, the earthly giant python that wrapped its body around the entire human world, and was the earliest origin of various settings such as the World Serpent.
Even though he had just been born, as a descendant of Odin's sworn brother Loki and a heavyweight supporting role in the war of Ragnarök that governed the gods, ordinary injuries were meaningless to Meng. This was precisely why the thunder god Thor dared to ignore Loki's attitude and directly throw him from the top of the world tree Yggdrasil to the human world, because it simply wouldn't be hurt.
However, Meng naturally didn't know all of this. Until now, he still hadn't figured out the situation and didn't even know who those people were.
Although thanks to the special rules of the Norse mythological world, he could understand the conversations between the gods without any obstacles and heard names like Thor and Loki, but... for someone who neither watched Marvel movies nor read Norse mythological books, the transliterated name "Thor" made him unable to associate it with the name "Thor" spoken by the gods, so until now, he was still trying to think about who those guys were...
However, very soon, he no longer needed to think about this matter.
Because...
He was hungry.
"Gurgle gurgle..."
Although he didn't actually hear his stomach growling, the feeling of hunger made Meng seem to hear the sound his stomach would make when he was still human.
Generally speaking, snakes are cold-blooded animals and often eat only once every ten days to half a month, but Meng strangely became hungry very quickly.
It felt as if his stomach was being tightened, his intestines were constantly rolling and twisting together, and the intense feeling of hunger quickly spread, as if he hadn't eaten anything for several years, causing a few drops of snake saliva to flow from Meng's mouth.
"Drip..."
The venomous snake saliva dripped into the ocean, instantly turning the originally dark seawater below Meng into a deep ink color. If there were any living creatures nearby, they would have likely been poisoned by Meng's venom.
However, this happened to be the bottomless abyss where no life existed.
"Hungry... hungry... hungry..."
His entire body was crying out the same scream to Meng.
"Wait... wait..."
The vague memories of being human and a bit of rationality made Meng instinctively try to resist this feeling of succumbing to instinct.
"What's going on..."
Meng tried hard to break free from the hunger and primal beastliness that was surging from his body to his heart.
But at the same time, the flicking forked tongue keenly captured a hint of unusual flavor from the damp and salty sea breeze, and that flavor was simply the ultimate delicacy to Meng at this moment.
Delicious food and hunger...
Instantly, like a insignificant mantis trying to swing its sickle to block a war chariot, without any suspense, the rationality of being human perfectly succumbed to the beastly instinct.
"Hiss~"
With red eyes and snake venom flowing down like a waterfall, without any hesitation, following its instincts, the snake darted towards the direction where the smell was coming from.
Its speed was exceptionally fast. In the blink of an eye, it had shot out dozens of meters, disappearing from the surface of the sea in no time, leaving only a string of ripples in its wake.
...
At the same time, nearby.
"Splash..."
The wooden oars slapped the surface of the sea, stirring up waves on the dim and dark water, slowly propelling the boat forward.
Under the sunlight, on the narrow and long leather raft on the vast and dark sea, a middle-aged sturdy man wearing rough cloth was slowly rowing with long oars.
Beside him, another young man with a full beard stood at the bow, gazing at the sky overhead, observing the sun, and occasionally looking into the distance.
"Karl, stop looking. Even if you're anxious, your Lina won't appear in front of you right away."
The middle-aged man rowing the boat couldn't help but laugh as he looked at the young man.
"D*mn it, old Buzz, if it weren't for you insisting on catching more fish, how would we have gotten lost in the fog for so long?"
But then, the young man turned his head and said angrily.
In Norse custom, it was common to drive a canoe out to sea to fish, which was why the newly-married Karl was accompanying the old fisherman Buzz to go fishing at sea in this early summer season.
The fishing over the past few days had yielded quite a lot of big fish, but the ocean is always so unpredictable. A sudden heavy fog caused them to be unable to find their way back for half a month, and unknowingly, the boat had been blown to who knows where by the wind.
The sea beneath them was completely different from the familiar blue ocean, being extremely dark, with hardly any creatures to be found, and no sign of any land or islands, almost making them suspect that they had inadvertently sailed into the underworld.
If it weren't for the old fisherman vaguely recalling the legend about the dead silent bottomless abyss, the two wouldn't have known what to do.
But now, they could only helplessly steer this leather raft, looking at the sun during the day and the stars at night, hoping to use the positions of the celestial bodies to guide them out of this dead silent abyss that even the sea god was said to never visit.
Knowing it was his own greed that had cost them time, old Buzz gave an embarrassed grin and didn't refute the young man's anger.
After venting his frustration, Karl took a deep breath to suppress his dissatisfaction and calm down.
At this point, although there were quite a few fish caught earlier on the boat, they were limited after all. After consuming them for over half a month, about half were nearly gone, and even the fresh water they had brought when setting out was running low. If they still couldn't see land, it would be trouble...
"Lina..."
He couldn't help but utter, and his heart suddenly tightened.
Lina was his childhood playmate, and the two had always had an excellent relationship. It hadn't even been a month since he married Lina. If he...
"No, no."
He muttered, his hand involuntarily gripping the pendant around his neck made of grass rope with a crudely carved stone in the middle.
Lowering his head, he silently prayed.
"Merciful sea god Njord, may you bless us to safely return home."
However, as he lowered his head and prayed, he failed to notice something vaguely appearing on the horizon.
But just because Karl didn't notice didn't mean old Buzz, who was rowing, didn't.
"Karl, look!"
An urgent voice rang in his ears. Karl instinctively raised his head, and then...
He saw the most terrifying scene he had ever witnessed in this world...
"Splash!!!"
The huge sound of something leaping out of the sea suddenly resounded, the waves rolled, and countless splashing water droplets reflected a rainbow of colors under the sunlight.
The massive monster that had leapt out of the water almost blocked all light from Karl's vision.
And in Karl's stunned pupils, black scales, a thick body, and those ferocious snake eyes...
And that giant snake mouth that grew larger and larger in his vision, trying to devour everything like an abyss.
"Roar!"
Then, Karl's world plunged into darkness...