───「 GODZILLA POV 」───
Headless, I swam in the depths of the Pacific, using sonar to sense the world beneath the ocean.
This time, I had sustained quite a bit of damage. Humans were indeed formidable opponents.
Even I had suffered significant injuries from having my head blown off and undergoing continuous nuclear bombardment.
While I wasn't afraid of the radiation from nuclear explosions erasing my genes, the sheer heat generated by these explosions would undoubtedly harm me. Otherwise, if no heat could harm me, I could swim into a cosmic singularity.
Twenty-one nuclear weapons, each weighing millions of tons, had saturated me with bombardment, releasing an incredibly terrifying amount of heat.
It even caused my weight to decrease by tens of thousands of tons, essentially giving me a rapid weight loss treatment.
Although I couldn't currently see my own physical appearance, through sonar, I could still discern my body's detailed shape.
My size had shrunk considerably due to the scorching fireballs; my whole body had reduced by a full circumference.
I would probably need to evolve to regain my previous size.
Navigating through the depths of the Pacific Ocean, I chose not to return to my home in the Mariana Trench.
This evolution was crucial, and I didn't want to undergo it while being scrutinized by humans from all directions.
I didn't want to be exposed to any strange substances being poured into my fusion reactor while I slept.
In the past, it wasn't a problem when I had a head. Now, without a head and just an open neck, anything could be poured inside. If humans managed to get some strange substances into my fusion reactor via a small submarine, things could go badly.
So, I decided to skip that and find a more secluded spot to rest.
Instead of returning to the Mariana Trench, I followed my memory's guidance and used sonar to head towards the Kermadec Trench near Australia.
Despite lacking a head, I could still produce sounds. After all, my vocal cords were intact; I generated sound through vocal cord vibrations, which were still functional.
My ability to roar amidst the nuclear rain was possible because my vocal cords hadn't been entirely obliterated.
Swimming underwater and evading human submarines, I took over a day to reach the Kermadec Trench near Australia.
Then, I swiftly descended into the trench, reaching its deepest point.
Deep within the Kermadec Trench, I maxed out my sonar, spending several hours searching beneath the trench until I located a crevice on the seabed cliff.
The crevice was over 300 meters in diameter, around 700-800 meters deep, and a staggering 2-3 kilometers long. Among seabed fissures, it was unusually large, able to accommodate my current form standing upright inside.
Straightening my path toward the trench's deepest point, following sonar guidance, I dived into the heart of the Kermadec Trench.
This fissure had once been the dwelling of a particularly powerful Titan, and even the Godzilla of that time would have struggled to defeat it.
That Titan had vacated this location hundreds of thousands of years ago. Then, over a century ago, humans had managed to kill it.
Now, the trench no longer resembled a Titan's nest. But that wasn't why I was here.
I hadn't come here because it was once a certain Titan's lair. It was because something here intrigued me.
This was the place.
At the trench's deepest point, I found what I sought.
Using my short arms, I smashed the deepest rocks and threw them aside, exposing a hidden space even deeper within the trench.
A crustal cavity.
That's how humans described the space before me.
Crustal cavities were various types of hollows within the Earth's crust, reaching depths of over a dozen kilometers underground, inaccessible from the surface.
Humans hadn't yet discovered a way to access any of these crustal cavities. Now, I had found one.
Actually, it couldn't be said that I found it. In reality, this was a place Titans had discovered together.
And there isn't just this one cavity; Titans had discovered many crustal cavities accessible by them.
I came here mainly because it was relatively close and spacious enough for me to stretch comfortably.
In terms of pure secrecy, I had better options, but they were too far away. Reaching those locations would require circumnavigating the Arctic and traveling to the Atlantic Ocean.
That would be too troublesome.
So, I chose this spot.
The underground cavity behind the trench was enormous. This cavity in the Kermadec Trench took an elliptical shape, about 2-3 kilometers wide and 7-8 kilometers deep.
Its deepest point had already reached the mantle. I chose to start my new evolution within this mantle's fiery glow.
All tasks were completed.
In the deepest trench, Godzilla looked at its interface. Except for the main quest, all tasks were now completed.
Although it lacked eyes, it could still visualize the interface, a strange sensation indeed.
Apart from the main quest, the four side tasks were also finished, and Godzilla had already collected their rewards. These tasks were:
[Evolution of Body Material Strength: Rain of Nuclei (Completed). Evolution requires 25 days.]
This was the nuclear explosion task. It had initially thought it wouldn't complete it, but humans managed to finish it for it in the last moment.
[Evolution of Breath Attack: Incarnation of Destruction (Completed). Evolution requires 3 days.]
[Evolution of Regeneration Ability: Immortal Monster (Completed). Evolution requires 1 day.]
[Final Form Evolution: Evolution of the Grand King. Evolution requires 10 days.]
I was experiencing simultaneous evolution of multiple functions for the first time. I pondered how to handle these multiple evolutions. Should they all occur simultaneously, or should I complete one before moving on to the next?
I opened the task pages for the four evolutions and soon understood.
[Four-task Completion Reward: One Body Strength Evolution, One Breath Evolution, One Form Evolution, One Regeneration Evolution. Do you want to use them now?]
Note: This evolution will take 35 days. During this time, the host will enter a deep sleep. Please ensure safety before initiating the evolution.
Hmm, it seemed I could evolve all at once. Moreover, the time for these evolutions would reduce after consolidation.
Originally needing 39 days, now it is only 35 days. This might be because the scope of the effect during evolution overlapped. Evolving them all at once eliminated unnecessary repetitions.
Yes.
With a mental confirmation, I, lying on the magma of the mantle, entered my deepest slumber.
This time, I would evolve all four aspects of my body simultaneously. When I awakened next, I would step into a completely different level compared to my former self.