Location: Inside the Void-Ark 'Beast-Tamer' – The Central Corridor
Time: The Moment the Music Starts
The flute did not make a sound.
When Elder Mei raised the bone instrument to her lips, Aris didn't hear a melody. He felt a vibration in the base of his skull, like a wire being tightened around his brain stem.
The world glitched.
The golden corridor, which was straight and narrow, suddenly twisted. The floor became the ceiling. The walls expanded outward into an infinite horizon of shattered mirrors.
[System Warning: Mental Intrusion Detected.]
[Source: Dao of Illusion.]
[Effect: Sensory Hijacking.]
[Your five senses are no longer reliable.]
Aris looked down at his hands. They were melting. His Tiger-Steel armor was dripping like wax, revealing rotting flesh underneath.
"You are broken, child," Elder Mei's voice came from everywhere at once. "You are a collection of stolen parts. A thief wearing the skin of a king. Let me show you what you truly are."
The Nightmare
Aris tried to step forward.
His foot landed on empty air. He fell.
He kept falling. The corridor was gone. He was plummeting through a void of screaming faces—the faces of the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples he had killed.
You killed us... You ate us...
"It's fake," Aris gritted his teeth, activating his Abyssal Mind. "System! Override sensory input!"
[Error: Input Override Failed.]
[The illusion is bypassing the optic nerve and writing directly to the consciousness.]
Beside him, Nox was whimpering. The massive Eclipse Hound was thrashing on the floor, biting at invisible enemies. In Nox's mind, he was back in the cage where he was born, being tortured by the handlers.
"Nox! Snap out of it!" Aris shouted.
But to Nox, Aris wasn't there.
Elder Mei floated closer, her white robes fluttering in a wind that didn't exist. She looked like a goddess of mercy, gentle and cruel.
"Your beast has a weak heart," she whispered. "And you? You have no heart at all. Just a calculator."
She played another note.
Aris felt his blood turn into spiders. He fell to his knees, clawing at his own chest. The pain was absolute. His brain was telling him he was dying, triggering shock symptoms.
[HP: 98% (Physical body is unharmed).]
[Heart Rate: 200 BPM (Panic induced).]
"I can't... fight... what I can't... see," Aris gasped.
The Gamer's Solution
Aris closed his eyes.
If his eyes were lying, he wouldn't use them.
"System," Aris thought, forcing his mind to focus on the blue text boxes floating in the darkness of his eyelids. "Open Mini-Map."
A wireframe grid appeared in his mind.
It showed the corridor. It was a straight line.
It showed Elder Mei. She wasn't floating in the sky. She was standing twenty meters in front of him, stationary.
It showed Nox. He was rolling on the floor, five meters to the left.
The System didn't have a brain. It couldn't be hypnotized. It saw only data.
"Blindfire Mode," Aris whispered.
He reached into his inventory. He didn't pull out a sword. He pulled out the Abyssal Rifles he had looted from the dead skeletons earlier (or rather, commanded the skeletons to fire).
Wait.
The Skeletons.
Aris looked at the Mini-Map. The green dots representing the Undead Laborers were standing perfectly still.
They weren't screaming. They weren't falling.
"They don't have brains," Aris realized, a cold smile forming on his face. "You can't hallucinate if you don't have a consciousness."
The Hard Counter
"Skeletons," Aris commanded via the System Interface. "Target Lock: Red Dot. Fire at will."
In the real world, the twenty Undead Laborers raised their rifles.
Elder Mei, lost in her artistic performance, frowned. She saw the skeletons raising their weapons.
"Foolish puppets," she scoffed. "Do you not see the dragon in front of you?"
She projected a massive illusion of a Fire Dragon into their minds.
But the skeletons didn't care. They didn't see a dragon. They saw: [Target: Coordinates X-20, Y-5.]
THWIP. THWIP. THWIP.
A volley of Void Bolts erupted.
Elder Mei's eyes widened. She broke her song to dodge.
SLASH.
A bolt grazed her shoulder, burning the silk of her robe. Another hit her flute, chipping the bone.
"Impossible!" Mei shrieked. "Why are they not afraid?!"
The Break
The music stopped for a split second.
The Hall of Mirrors shattered. The infinite void vanished.
Aris opened his eyes. He was back in the golden corridor. He was on his knees, sweating, but alive.
"Because they are already dead," Aris answered, standing up. "And the dead don't listen to music."
He grabbed Nox by the scruff of the neck. "Wake up, buddy. It was just a bad dream."
Nox shook his head, looking around confusedly. When he saw Elder Mei, his confusion turned to rage. He roared, the sound echoing through the ship.
Elder Mei looked at her chipped flute. Her perfect composure cracked.
"You... you use mindless constructs to bypass the Dao?" she hissed. "You have no soul!"
"I have a soul," Aris said, drawing the Shadow Sword. "It's just backed up on a secure server."
He pointed the sword at her.
"Nox. Skeletons. Rush her."
The Gang-Up
This wasn't a duel. It was a raid.
Nox charged, using Shadow-Step to close the gap instantly.
The twenty skeletons marched forward, firing a constant suppression barrage of void bolts.
Aris flanked left, using the Void-Walker's Mantle to phase through the walls.
Elder Mei was a Dao Severing expert, but she was a support class. A glass cannon. Without her illusions, she was vulnerable.
"Get back!"
She waved her hand, summoning a Psychic Wall.
Nox crashed into the invisible barrier, stunning himself. The void bolts dissipated against the mental shield.
"I am an Elder of the Mountain!" Mei screamed, her hair floating wildly. "I can liquefy your brains with a thought!"
She focused her entire will on Aris.
[Warning: Targeted Mental Spike Incoming.]
Aris felt the pressure building. She was going to pop his head like a grape.
He didn't dodge. He reached into his pocket.
He pulled out the Shard of the Fallen Star (The Singularity Fragment).
He didn't unseal it—that would kill everyone. He just... cracked the lead box open, just a millimeter.
The Anti-Mind
A tiny wisp of Singularity Aura leaked out.
It wasn't matter. It was the concept of Infinite Nothing.
Elder Mei's mental probe hit the aura of the Black Hole Shard.
Usually, when a telepath touches a mind, they feel thoughts, emotions, memories.
When Mei touched the Shard, she felt the abyss.
She saw the end of the universe. She saw the heat death of stars. She saw a gravity so heavy it crushed time itself.
"AAAAHHH!"
Mei screamed. She clutched her head, blood pouring from her eyes and ears. Her Psychic Wall shattered.
She had tried to read a book that contained infinite blank pages, and it broke her mind.
The Execution
"Now!"
Aris didn't hesitate.
He closed the lead box and threw it back into his inventory.
He flashed forward. Wings of the Moderator.
He appeared behind the screaming Elder.
"Reverse Refinement: Silence."
He drove the Shadow Sword through her back, piercing her vocal cords and her heart in one strike.
The violet Void Qi flooded her system, devouring her cultivation before she could detonate her Nascent Soul.
Elder Mei gasped, a wet, gurgling sound. She slumped forward, falling into Aris's arms.
[Enemy Defeated: Elder Mei (The Soul-Piper).]
[XP Gained: 500,000.]
[Loot: Bone Flute of Lament (Heaven Rank).]
Aris dropped her body.
"I hate bards," Aris muttered, wiping his blade.
He looked down the corridor. The blast doors to the Engine Room were right ahead.
"One Elder down," Aris said, checking his stats. "Two to go. And the big one, Kong, is waiting at the core."
He signaled his skeleton army.
"Reload. We have a planet to save."