Becoming a God Starts with Acting
Chapter 140: [The Corpse Collector] (16)

Chapter 140: [The Corpse Collector] (16)

Silas’s boat quickly entered the area where the upturned corpse lay.

The closer they got, the more Silvanus could sense the abnormality surrounding it. The water near the corpse was darker than the rest of the lake.

Though the lake was already murky, the water around the upturned corpse was even murkier—so dark it was practically black, more like a swamp than a lake.

"There’s no turning back once we go in," Silas said, eyes lowered as he looked at Silvanus. His tone wasn’t so much a warning as it was a threat.

Silvanus turned to him and smiled. "You still want my eyes, don’t you? You wouldn’t want whatever’s under that water to gouge them out first, would you?"

Silas smirked. "Thinking you’re clever, huh."

Silvanus ignored the mocking tone. All that mattered was knowing Silas wouldn’t let him be buried at the bottom of this lake. Although something strange had happened earlier, hinting he might still be able to use his powers without the system, Silvanus wouldn’t rely on that completely—just as he wouldn’t entirely trust Silas.

[We’re here, we’re here, we’re here!]

[I heard that in paranormal stories, these upside-down drowned corpses usually carry a ton of resentment. If you’re not careful, they’ll rise and drag you down with them!]

[Be scientific. It’s just that there’s a whirlpool under the corpse.]

[But why do whirlpools always show up where there’s a corpse? There’s something weird about it! You don’t have to believe in the supernatural, but you can’t completely dismiss it either!]

[Talking to dumb people is exhausting.]

[...there are two kinds of people in the world.]

[Please, Silvanus, be the protagonist—don’t die in this scene!]

The closer the boat got to the corpse, the more Silvanus could feel its increasing speed.

It seemed like a whirlpool beneath the body—but it was much bigger than Silvanus had expected!

He glanced at Silas, who calmly took out his tools with his usual unbothered expression.

Of course. The man had been retrieving corpses for years—he’d seen this before and knew exactly how strong the vortex under the body was.

Silvanus didn’t say anything. He grabbed a paddle and began rowing hard. Only then did he see the shape of the whirlpool.

The pitch-black water around the corpse had formed a vortex, and within it, there seemed to be countless ghostly faces screaming silently, their hands stretching out to push the boat—trying to drag its occupants down with them.

The boat rocked violently, on the verge of capsizing. Silvanus struck the water forcefully, trying to control the oar.

But even the paddle had grown heavy, each movement up and down a struggle.

"I told you—we can’t go back," Silas’s emotionless voice returned. His sharp tool had already latched onto the corpse. But just then, something changed—the whirlpool surged with unprecedented force. The upturned legs began to spin at an alarming speed, stretching unnaturally before being sucked into the center of the vortex.

"Pull your tool out!" Silvanus shouted.

Silas looked at him and smiled. "Didn’t you say you wanted to meet what’s down there?"

At that moment, the tool Silas had lodged into the corpse was sucked into the whirlpool with impossible speed. The current’s power was so strong that the boat—tied to the other end of Silas’s tool—was dragged forward with terrifying force.

The inertia threw Silvanus backward before he could react. The entire boat surged forward and then flipped completely over!

Silvanus fell straight into the water. Before the whirlpool could drag him off somewhere unknown, he raised his hand and gave Silas a friendly middle finger.

And at that very moment, Silas was smiling. Silvanus swore to himself—he would make that man cry once he got out of this dungeon!

The powerful whirlpool pulled Silvanus down as if trying to drown him immediately. This must be what it felt like to drown after falling into a whirlpool.

At first, Silvanus panicked a little, nearly choking on a gulp of water. But once he realized he could breathe underwater, everything suddenly became much easier.

This was an ability only Nerio was supposed to have. And yet, here he was, using it—even though he wasn’t in Nerio’s form.

Silvanus’s calm demeanor underwater understandably stunned the viewers.

[Hold on a sec. I knew Silvanus wasn’t normal, but now I must reevaluate him!]

[He’s breathing underwater? Wait, could Silvanus also not be a normal human? Since when did dungeons like this come with setups like this?!]

This dungeon got assigned to the wrong server. Silvanus should’ve been sent to Drake’s server. He’d drive Drake insane, lol.]

No matter how much the viewers speculated, they couldn’t find the answer. After all, none of them could have guessed that Silvanus was Nerio—or the Prophet.

To them, he was just a poor, ordinary guy who had somehow stumbled into protagonist-level plot armor.

Silvanus easily swam out of the whirlpool. With his current physical state, it posed no real difficulty.

Whatever that thing was, it had probably tried to kill him with the whirlpool—but Silvanus decided to take this opportunity to see what was at the bottom of the lake.

The lakebed was pitch-black, littered with mud, random debris, and even human skulls.

Silvanus wasn’t here for anything else—he was looking for the girl Ciel had seen.

His body moved smoothly through the water as he searched quickly in all directions. By now, the roles of hunter and prey had reversed.

[He still looks beautiful, but I’m starting to worry about the monster family...]

[I swear Silvanus has got to be connected to Nerio. There’s no way two completely unrelated people could give off the same vibe like this!]

[Haha, at least Silvanus is more normal than Nerio. No one else is going to match Nerio’s chaotic energy.]

The viewers kept theorizing as they pleased. Meanwhile, Silas had climbed back onto shore. He frowned, his expression unusually grim.

He’d searched the entire whirlpool and still couldn’t find Silvanus. That shouldn’t have happened.

Silvanus was just a normal person—where could he have gone? Could that thing have taken him?

Silas narrowed his eyes, cold and sharp, but the thought of Silvanus’s beautiful eyes being destroyed brought a flicker of satisfaction to his face.

Yes, something that beautiful deserved to be ruined if it couldn’t belong to him.

But on second thought, he could always gouge out Silvanus’s eyes once this was all over. That made letting him die here feel like a waste.

Silas took a deep breath and dove back into the water with that in mind.

[Even without saying anything, I can feel Silas’s twisted thoughts, lol.]

[He’s obsessed with Silvanus’s looks, though that obsession is... not exactly healthy.]

[I don’t think he likes him. It feels more like jealousy—he can’t stand someone else having what he can’t.]