Chapter 32: So to Speak, Facing the Echo-Jellyfish! (Part 2)

Unlike Chen Bing’s composure, Lin Yu was on edge.
(The Echo-Jellyfish… Succubus spectrum… Danger Level D…)

Instinct forced his memory into overdrive, flipping madly through that brick-thick corporate training manual he had once crammed.
(…Traits: no direct physical attack capacity. Its entire threat stems from the psychic spores it disperses…)
(…Spores continuously release high-frequency psychic induction waves and hallucinogenic fragrance… entities with weak mental defenses fall into extreme comfort and bliss, losing all will to fight… their mental bulwark is forcibly “softened,” leaving them puppets on its strings…)

Lin Yu compared those words to what he was seeing.
He sniffed.
Yes—there was a scent.

A cloying perfume, like tropical blossoms left to rot and ferment together. Even a brush against it stuffed his brain with warm, syrup-soaked cotton, muffling even the most primal instinct of fear.

He screamed silently inside, forcing his jaws shut until he bit down on his tongue.
The sharp iron taste of pain nailed his drifting consciousness back into place.

He forced himself to look toward the center of the exhibit hall, at the towering cylindrical coral tank.
There—twelve tourists who should have been evacuated still stood frozen in place.

They weren’t twisted into monsters, nor did they scream in pain.
They were… smiling?

Each wore a rapturous smile of bliss Lin Yu had never seen before.
No weariness. No anxiety. Only untainted, total satisfaction.

A chill seized him.
He saw—

A fashionable young mother cradled her toddler before the massive glass wall. She hummed a broken lullaby over and over, her face glowing with maternal purity.
But the child’s wide eyes held no focus, only a hollow giggle syncing with her song.

Nearby, a couple in matching outfits pressed foreheads together, locked in an eternal embrace, their faces lit with the joy of a wedding day.
But their posture was rigid, like statues frozen in wax.

An elderly man with silver hair sat cross-legged on the illusory beach, serene, smiling, tears running from his shut eyes. He had found, in that false dream, someone long gone.

(Help me…)

Lin Yu’s terror surged higher than with any tentacled abomination.
This tableau of bliss and dream was more horrifying than any grotesque horror of flesh.

“This is… creepier than any monster,” he muttered.

“Gray Crystal. Focus.”

Chen Bing’s voice cut through like a blade. Her eyes, sharp and steady, dissected the situation:
“They’re spiritually linked to the Echo-Jellyfish—its batteries, its shields. We can’t open fire here.”

She gestured to the massive circular dome above.
“Behind that glass is ten thousand tons of seawater. Any psionic impact above C-class could crack it. Then all fifteen of us will be paste in under a second.”

Her finger traced a red-marked maintenance tunnel on the holographic schematic.
“Our only option is to infiltrate through here—enter the main tank from below, and neutralize that impostor jellyfish directly.”

Before her words faded, the air shifted.
“Swish—”

The twelve dreamers rose in eerie unison.
They still smiled.
Still hummed the lullaby.

But their bodies twisted unnaturally, necks cracking ninety degrees, limbs jerking like marionettes forced into impossible joints.
Their eyes, once human, now clouded into milky emptiness, brimming with counterfeit happiness.

No longer hostages.
They were puppets. The jellyfish’s most loyal, most revolting shields.

“Don’t kill them!”

Chen Bing barked. Her face remained carved from ice, the focus of a soldier at war.
“Their mental bulwarks are eroded but not gone! Non-lethal takedowns only!”

And she charged first—

Like a black panther, she closed in on the smiling mother.
The woman’s arm bent backward, five fingers lancing like knives toward Chen Bing’s throat.

Chen Bing pivoted, her shoulder rotating mere millimeters clear. Then—her hand struck the woman’s neck.
“Thud.”

The body collapsed, smile unchanged.

(She’s so precise…)

Lin Yu’s heart pounded.

“Don’t freeze, Gray Crystal! Left side!” Chen Bing’s roar jolted him.

The young man from the couple staggered toward him, fist raised.
Lin Yu’s body, drilled by weeks of torment, moved before thought. He ducked, rammed his shoulder low—

(Eat my Chicken-You’re-So-Beautiful tackle!)
“Wham!”

The puppet toppled. Lin Yu swept a clumsy leg to pin him down.

The fight raged in the suffocating dreamscape.
Chen Bing was the fortress, dropping puppet after puppet. Lin Yu flailed at stragglers, barely keeping pace.

But by the seventh puppet—something was wrong.
(She’s slowing?)

A fractional lag. A bead of sweat. A breath too heavy.
(Not exhaustion… B-class elite shouldn’t falter… It’s the psychic contamination…)

Inside, Chen Bing fought another battle.
Her mental bastion, once steel, now cracked under the sweet poison.

Images clawed into her mind—her stamina test slipping, a rookie besting her, a birthday where she failed to transform at all, abandoned by her era.

“No… it’s not time yet! I can still fight! That curse is just rumor!”

She bit her lip till blood flowed. Reality returned in metallic tang.
Her eyes sharpened once more—
“Wham!”

The last puppet fell.
Silence. Only the ocean above remained.

“Haah… over?” Lin Yu panted.
He turned to her.
“Chen Bing? You okay?”

No reply.
She turned slowly.
Her lips curved in a serene smile.

“…Chen Bing?”

His blood froze.
Her eyes—empty. Smiling. Vacant.

On her neck, under her collar—clung a tiny, translucent jellyfish, glowing faint rainbow.

(When?!)

Panic shredded Lin Yu.
She was gone. Corrupted.

“Chen Bing!!”

His scream cracked through the hall.
The puppets rose again, circling him.

Chen Bing smiled, oblivious, lost in a perfect dream.
A black statue, corrupted by happiness.

(She’s been taken!)

Desperation drove him to the comms.
“Red Fox! Respond! Iron’s been compromised! Repeat—Iron is infected! I need backup now! Red Fox, answer, damn it!”

Only static replied.
White noise.
Cut off.

He was alone.
Dread swelled, crushing. His eyes lifted toward the coral tank—

There, the jellyfish pulsed, luminous, colossal.
And then… the lights on its bell twisted, coalescing into—
A face.

A massive, warped human-like face.
Its mouth stretched into a cruel, mocking smile.

Time froze.
(It’s laughing at me.)

The thought annihilated his defenses. This was no beast—this was a demon.

A sting touched his neck.
(Eh?)

The world spun. The lullaby swelled, engulfing him. Darkness closed in.

And in that last moment, he heard his own corrupted voice humming, soft and satisfied, along with the devil’s song.