Chapter 487: All Eyes On You?

"Why…why did he just do a dive roll while firing the Possesstol like that?," Rianna asked in a mildly concerned tone.

"I’ll be very honest with you, Riana…I don’t know," Jin Fang answered in an equally concerned tone, "I’ve watched him practice it before and he called it a ’tactical roll’...I had no idea what that meant, so I asked him to explain, he just said something along the lines of, and I quote here, move when you’re in the ocean, be still when you’re in a forest."

"I…what?"

"Apparently it’s the idea that it’s easier to be camouflaged in certain areas if one moves in certain ways."

"Huh…I…think that makes sense?"

"I have no idea to be honest."

Despite having been roped into Zhen Liu’s secrets sometime ago, and being exposed to the subsequent eccentricities associated with that, both Rianna and Jin Fang couldn’t help but still be weirded out by some of the odder behaviors Zhen Liu exhibited. While none of these behaviors were dealbreakers, some of them were strange enough to at least elicit some level of concern on their part.

For example, they had just watched Zhen Liu load up Razorstella into the Poessesstol like they’ve seen him do before, but then he followed that up by doing some debatably unnecessary running and diving while firing the damn thing at Sixth Uncle Zhen Ye.

It looked cool to an extent, but it also seemed to be a waste of energy, since it was probably more efficient to stand still and aim the Poessestol properly.

Then again, the Poessestol appeared to have automatically hit its target regardless of how ridiculous Zhen Liu held it, but that was probably due to the "ammunition" being sentient kaijin.

His poses were still fucking weird though.

"Hmmm."

"Hmmm? What’s the matter, Rianna?"

"I don’t think we’re the only ones weirded out by Zhen Liu’s sudden usage of the Poessesstol…over there."

"Oh…how are you so good at noticing these kinds of stares?"

"Eighteen years living in a jungle full of giant ambush predator bugs do weird things to your senses."

"...I will take your word on that…let’s go deal with that guy."

"Aye."

_____________________________________________

[Hmmm. Am I going too far for this little performance? I mean, I am just giving an old man a kick in the pants, metaphorically anyways,] Razorstella asked her fellow kaijin.

[I don’t think so,] Archanidame assured her, [I mean, I had an entire flower web thing going on.]

[True...]

[Wait, why are you asking us for? Isn’t this something you should ask that Ragnarocker trio about or your little bro?,] Lacerage pointed out.

[The former is busy dealing with a giant dragon otter made of lightning and spite and Spring Brawler apparently gets seasick on ships smaller than a steamer.]

[Huh...fair enou-wait, we can get sea sick?!]

[Right???]

_____________________________________________

’No, wait,’ Zhen Ye paused before he decided to dive headfirst into a floor chute that haunted his nightmares for years on end.

’The last time I saw She Yang, she was about to get attacked by a horde of Ravager Otters on a river raft. There is absolutely no way that she also got teleported to this weird distortion of a-’

[Father! Help us!]

’...then again, I could be very wrong and I would have to live with the fact that the last words I hear from my wife and son are the words "help me", so…’

"PAPA’S COMING!," Zhen Ye yelled as he dove headfirst into a chute he once fell into as a child.

Evidently, Zhen Ye was so caught up in the moment, that he didn’t realize he was acting a bit more…attention grabbing than usual.

Whether or not he would realize this was up for debate, but for now, he had other things on his mind.

’Please be safe, please be safe, please be safe,’ Zhen Ye muttered to himself like a mantra, unaware that as he was going down the chute that his surroundings were starting to distort ever so slightly, the stones that made up the chute’s walls taking on a decidedly more…artificial look.

Almost like they were backdrop panels as opposed to proper brick and mortar.

Zhen Ye kept falling for quite some time, at least from his perspective, until he finally landed on the floor, tucking and rolling to prevent injuring himself.

’Alright, now where are…huh?’

It was at this point, Zhen Ye realized something was very wrong about his surroundings.

’This…isn’t the room I was originally trapped in…’

Zhen Ye quickly took in his surroundings, trying to wrap his head around on what the hell was going on here.

The details of the room looked the same as it did last time, a dark, plain room in which laid a whole mess of Sound Eaters sleeping about and waiting for something to come and trigger their fury and hunger.

However, there were several things that stood out about the room that made the whole thing seem...off.

The floor last time was made of stone, this time it was made of wood.

The roof from which he entered was bare last time, this time there were strange metal structures criss-crossing above his head, complete with strange dangling metal bulges on top of that.

The Sound Eater beasts were still present, but for reasons beyond Zhen Ye’s understanding, they had these strange porcelain masks fitted upon their faces, as if to mimic and mock a masquerade ball or some other high society event that he would normally avoid like the plague.

’This room…it’s like someone got into my memories and made a theater stage out of it? Why would anyone do, wait, no, focus…’

All of these changes were enough to throw Zhen Ye off in his understanding of this place, but that didn’t stop him from focusing on what mattered: saving his wife and kid.

’Alright, I know I heard their voices coming from this room, so where could they possibly b-’

[Well, well, well! It’s about time you showed up to the audition! Points for being fashionably late, proper celebrity behavior, but a deduction for not making a more dramatic entrance,] a distinctively sharp, feminine yet powerful voice said in Zhen Ye’s mind. Weirdly enough though, it sounded as if it was actually coming from above him.

’What the fuck?!’

[Up here, mon future star.]

Immediately caught off guard by the voice, Zhen Ye naively looked upward, only to be suddenly blinded by the sudden appearance of bright lights pointed down at him. He didn’t even get a good look on who was talking to him before he got literally blind sided.

*Thoom, thoom!*

’Gah! My eyes! Warn a guy before you shine a spotlight on him, will ya?! Wait...why do I know what a spotlight is?’

One after the other, powerfully bright lights flared to life above Zhen Ye’s position, illuminating him specifically as if he was the star of a performance. All around him though, a more subtle light came to life and illuminated the room in its entirety. It was only then that Zhen Ye could finally see the true nature of this room.

’Wait...I actually am standing on a stage? I’m in some kind of theater?’

[Not just any theater.]

’Huh?’

Now that his eyes were adjusted to the light, Zhen Ye saw that standing on the metal scaffolding supporting the spotlights, was a tall, feminine figure that seemed to be standing on the unstable structure with the greatest of ease.

[Alley-oop!]

With a graceful leap from her perch, the figure flipped through the air multiple times before landing in front of Zhen Ye as if she was an angel or fairy.

Granted, Zhen Ye was fairly certain that angels didn’t look like perfectly made clockwork automatons with sculpted porcelain faces and eyes that seemed to be living jewels, but what did he know, he just learned about half of those words about half a second ago.

[This theater is actually a bit…special,] the automaton said in an unnaturally melodic voice, standing up slowly and dramatically all the while,[It can help one attain some understanding about themselves, find something that they had once lost and perhaps gain something that they never knew they needed until they finally had it.]

Once the automaton had finished this dramatic piece of dialogue, she had also finished her slow rise until she was standing straight and tall, looming over Zhen Ye in both a literal and metaphorical sense. As the automaton stared at him, Zhen Ye felt as if he was being appraised by over a thousand people at once. It didn’t feel good.

[Now then,] the automaton continued while staring directly into Zhen Ye’s eyes, [if I am understanding it right, you want to become the center of attention, yes?]

’What?,’ Zhen Ye asked in a confused tone of voice,’ I don’t want to become the center of attention.’

[Oh?,] the automaton asked in a curious tone, [you mean, you don’t want to become confident and cool, whose very presence distracts even the most rabid of beasts?]

’That…’

It was in this moment, Zhen Ye realized that maybe being the center of attention was what he needed.