Chapter 62: Neural Abomination (2)
Nobody stared at the floating brain monster cautiously.
The creature had completely stopped attacking directly. Instead, it simply floated there in the middle of the gigantic arena.
Then suddenly....
BZZZZZZZZZZZZ
A horrifying sound echoed throughout the stadium.
The giant brain began trembling violently. Its fleshy folds started shifting apart in opposite directions. Wet neural tissue stretched open slowly.
Nobody immediately backed away. "...Okay....my danger-sense is telling me this thing is gonna get even more ugly."
The brain continued opening wider. Something was moving inside.
Nobody’s grip tightened around his crowbars. "...What the hell is going on?" Then...he saw it.
A gigantic eyeball slowly emerged from the center of the brain. The eyeball had red pupil and bloodshot veins.
The massive eye rotated slowly before locking directly onto Nobody. His entire body froze. "...Why is an eye popping out of it?!"
The system rapidly flashed warnings.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[WARNING] ⚠︎⚠︎
Entity Reaching Phase 2
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The eyeball suddenly glowed deep crimson.
BZZZZZZZZZZ...
Nobody’s vision distorted instantly.
The arena disappeared, the lanterns vanished, the stone walls vanished. Everything became black.
Then....
...
...
...
A beautiful wedding hall appeared. Warm lights glowed softly from expensive chandeliers. Elegant music played in the background. People were smiling happily everywhere.
A massive stage stood ahead decorated with white flowers.
Nobody blinked slowly. "...why?" He looked around in a depressed look.
Then he was sitting alone on a chair holding a glass of juice. He slowly drank from it again.
And again.
And again.
"...Why...why..its...happening...?"
For some reason...his chest felt unbearably heavy. Like sadness had already existed there before he even understood the situation.
On the stage....people suddenly began clapping.
Nobody slowly looked upward. His body froze.
From the left side, Aiden walked onto the wedding stage wearing a black wedding suit with his calm, handsome, perfect look.
People cheered happily. "Wow...They look amazing together..."
Then..from the opposite side Toma appeared wearing a beautiful white wedding dress. Her hair flowed softly behind her. She looked genuinely happy. The entire hall glowed around her.
Nobody silently stared. His faceless reflection faintly appeared against the juice glass.
Akib smiled nearby. "Finally....Aiden and Toma are getting married."
Farjana wiped fake tears dramatically. "I waited for this moment for YEARS."
Jiniya laughed softly. "They seriously look perfect together."
Nobody lowered his head slightly.
The music continued, people smiled, everyone looked happy.
Except him.
For some reason....
his chest hurt badly. Worse than any monster attack. Worse than broken bones. Worse than the centipede claws.
A slow realization began sinking into him. "...No." His voice came out quietly.
He slowly stood up. "...No no no." He suddenly threw the juice glass away.
CRASH!
Everyone turned toward him.
Nobody rushed toward the wedding stage desperately. "Toma!"
People became startled. Aiden narrowed his eyes slightly.
Nobody grabbed Toma’s hand desperately.
"Toma please!"
"Don’t marry him!"
"Please...!"
The entire wedding hall fell silent.
Toma suddenly pulled her hand away violently. Her face filled with fear. No..to be more precise fear with disgust.
She backed away quickly toward Aiden. "What is this thing?!"
Nobody froze.
Toma pointed at him while trembling. "Someone save me!..From this hideous faceless monster!"
The words pierced directly through him. "...Monster...?"
Nobody stood there motionless. "...Me...?"
The guests slowly started whispering.
"...What even is that thing?"
"Disgusting..."
"Why does it not have a face..."
"No wonder she chose Aiden..."
Nobody’s hands slowly trembled. The world around him felt blurry. It was heavy and meaningless.
Even Toma looked terrified of him now. Like he truly was just some faceless creature standing where he didn’t belong.
Nobody lowered his head slowly.
"...I..."
His voice cracked.
"...I really am..."
Then suddenly....
THUMP.
A soft little kick hit the side of his head. "...Eh?"
The wedding hall shattered instantly.
CRAAAAACK..
The illusion broke apart into countless fragments.
The music, the people, Toma vanished. Everything collapsed into darkness.
Then....
FLASH.
Nobody suddenly returned back into the arena. "HAAAH!" He stumbled backward breathing heavily.
The floating brain monster was directly in front of him now. Its giant eye glowed intensely. Long tentacles were inches away from touching his skull.
Nobody instantly jumped backward. "What the hell?!"
Beside him, Blossom Bunny stood bravely. "ATTA!"
Nobody blinked rapidly. "...Blossom?"
The system appeared immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Notice] ╭(°ﾛ° )╯
The Eater Of Brains Is Using
"Mind Depressor" Skill 𖡎
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody slowly realized what happened. "...That...was an illusion?" His breathing still felt shaky. The emotions from the fake world still lingered painfully inside him.
Nobody looked toward Blossom. "...Did you kick my head to break me out?"
Blossom Bunny proudly nodded. "Atta!"
Nobody stared silently for a second.
Then suddenly grabbed Blossom carefully. "...Buddy...You seriously saved my mental health right there."
His breathing still hadn’t stabilized properly.
The fake wedding, Toma’s terrified face.
Those words. "Hideous faceless monster."
Even after escaping the illusion, the feeling still lingered painfully inside him. Like the monster’s skill had left invisible wounds directly inside his mind.
Blossom Bunny lightly tapped his chest. "Atta..."
Nobody slowly looked down at the bunny. "...Yeah...I know it wasn’t real."
But somehow it still hurt.
The floating brain monster pulsed again nearby.
BZZZZZZZZ..!
Its giant red eye stared directly at him. The fleshy folds around the eye twitched slowly while the tendrils floated through the air unnaturally.
Nobody immediately pointed one crowbar toward it angrily. "...You ugly psychic walnut...you’re officially my most hated tutorial monster."
The system suddenly flashed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Warning] ⚠︎
Mind Depressor Skill Can Cause:
• Emotional Collapse
• Illusion Entrapment
• Loss Of Battle Focus
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody blinked. "...Emotional collapse?...That’s literally depression damage."
The system remained silent.
Nobody looked toward the floating brain again carefully. "...So this thing attacks mentally first...then physically later."
That made the monster even more dangerous. Against the centipedes he could dodge. Against the wolves he could counter. Against giant orc he could adapt.
But this thing? This monster attacked thoughts themselves. And honestly that scared him more than claws or teeth.
The giant eye glowed faintly again.
BZZZZZZZZ
Nobody instantly took several steps back.
"Nope."
"NOT AGAIN."
Blossom Bunny immediately jumped onto his shoulder protectively. "Atta!"
Nobody looked at the bunny quietly for a second. Then sighed. "...You know...I think you’re carrying this entire tutorial harder than me."
Blossom proudly puffed its tiny chest out. "Atta!"
"...Yeah yeah."
The giant floating brain suddenly released a strange pulse across the arena.
FWOOOOOM
The lantern flames flickered violently.
Nobody’s vision distorted briefly again. Small whispers echoed inside his ears.
"...Monster..."
"...Faceless..."
"...Unwanted..."
Nobody immediately grabbed his own head. "...Shut up."
The whispers continued.
"...Toma fears you..."
"...You don’t belong..."
"...You are fake..."
Nobody gritted his teeth harder. "SHUT UP!"
The pressure in the arena intensified further. Even the floor beneath him trembled slightly.
The system window rapidly flashed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Mental Resistance Under Stress]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody breathed heavily. "...This thing...is trying to mentally break me first."
The brain monster slowly floated closer again. Its tendrils stretched outward unnaturally. Like roots searching for his skull.
Nobody instinctively stepped backward.
But then his expression slowly changed. "...Wait." He suddenly realized something.
The monster wasn’t physically rushing him. It wasn’t trying overwhelming attacks.
Instead it kept targeting his emotions. His insecurities, his fears, his loneliness.
Nobody slowly narrowed his eyes. "...You know what? That’s actually kinda cheap."
The giant eye pulsed again. Another illusion almost started forming.
But this time....
Nobody slammed one crowbar directly against his own forehead lightly.
CLANG!
"Ow!"
The illusion immediately destabilized.
The system flashed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Minor Self-Inflicted Pain Disrupted Mental Interference]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody blinked. "...Wait."
Then suddenly....a grin slowly appeared on his faceless head."...HAHA....No way...no fu*king way.."
He looked toward the monster proudly. "So your illusion can be interrupted if my focus gets disrupted?"
The brain creature pulsed again. More aggressively this time.
Nobody immediately smacked himself again using the flat side of the crowbar.
CLANG!
"Ow!"
The distortion vanished again.
Nobody pointed dramatically.
"I FOUND THE COUNTER! All I need is just smack my head."
Blossom Bunny looked shocked. "Atta?!"
"...Don’t judge me. I am not crazy."
"If self-head bonking works then self-head bonking works."
The monster suddenly released stronger waves. The entire arena distorted repeatedly now. The walls bent strangely. The lantern flames stretched unnaturally.
Whispers echoed louder.
"...Nobody..."
"...Worthless..."
"...Monster..."
Nobody immediately slapped his own cheek.
SMACK!
"Nope."
Another distortion came.
He hit his forehead lightly again.
CLANG!
"Nope again."
Blossom Bunny stared silently. "...Atta..."
"...I know I look insane right now. But it’s working."
The system suddenly flashed another notification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[User Adapting To Mental Interference]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody grinned proudly. "...See? Tutorial certified anti-depression tactics. Just have to smackity smack myself."
Far away inside the tutorial chamber Ren was watching through the monitor while trying not to laugh. "...He’s countering psychic horror with self-inflicted stupidity."
Ren slowly covered his face. "...Amazing...his stupidity is helping him in a way."
Back inside the arena....Nobody slowly repositioned his crowbars. His breathing finally steadied again. The emotional damage from the illusion still lingered.
But now he understood something important. This monster wasn’t unbeatable. It is just terrifying.
The giant floating brain pulsed once more. Its eye glowed brighter. The tendrils expanded wider. The atmosphere darkened heavily around it.
And then multiple smaller neural flesh masses slowly started growing around the arena walls.
Nobody’s smiled and what he does next we all know...
SMACK!!
