Heart of the Ocean (15): Jellyfish

Brother Xu, also known as Xu Xu¹, was too close to Tan Xiao and Wen Yi. Despite his considerable speed, he couldn’t survive the terrifying crushing force.  

Wen Yi, even in his rage, retained some rationality. No matter who was eliminated, he would never allow the man who tried to kill Tan Xiao to remain alive.  

It was an unstoppable force, like a massive hydraulic press. Xu Xu was instantly flattened into a thin sheet, losing all consciousness in that very moment.  

The system declared his death, but he still had revival opportunities. For the first time, Xu Xu, now in the system space, felt a surge of relief: Thankfully, his luck was good enough to enter this instance only after the system update. Before entering, he exchanged his past ratings for two revival items and one revival card.  

Revival-type items were sold at exorbitant prices. Xu Xu had toiled through four games, earning one S-rank rating, two B-rank ratings, and one A-rank rating. The maximum he could purchase was five revival items. If he didn’t buy a revival card, his four ratings could be exchanged for four revival-type items.  

The limits for revival cards and revival-type items didn’t conflict. Considering cost-effectiveness, Xu Xu used two B-ranks to exchange for two revival items and an A-rank for a revival card, binding it to his account immediately. He kept the S-rank unused—what if the system updated later and released even rarer items? Besides, revival cards could be used to exit the instance. If he ever had to use one, it would be for escaping the game instance, meaning only once per round.  

In short, Xu Xu had two revival-type items and one revival card on him.  

The moment he died, the system issued the following prompt:  

[Detected multiple revival-type items on the player. Please make a selection within 30 seconds.]  

[Use revival-type item (Revive on the spot / Revive at a random location within the instance)]  

[Use revival card (Revive at a random location within the instance / Exit the game)]  

[If the countdown ends, the highest-tier revival item will be used by default, and the player will be teleported out of the instance.]  

[After using a revival-type item, the player gains 30 seconds of absolute protection. During this time, the player cannot actively attack NPCs or other players, or the protection will vanish.]

Xu Xu instinctively chose the first option: Use a revival-type item to revive on the spot. Who knew if the random location would be a death trap? They were on an island—what if he got teleported straight into the ocean?  

Besides, he had died in the middle of a fight. As the vice-leader of the Black Tiger Guild, he didn’t care about the two resident NPCs or the lone players from other guilds. But he still had some responsibility toward his own guild members.

But he soon realized this was a very wrong choice. After reviving in place, he appeared directly beneath the jellyfish.  

Thanks to that 30-second special protective shield, he wasn’t crushed by the giant jellyfish. Instead, a circular shield with a radius of one meter and a height of two meters formed around him.  

The bottom of the shield flattened against the ground, but it remained intact—no blind spots from any angle, top to bottom, left to right.  

This absolute shield, crafted by the system, was unbreakable even for someone as powerful as Wen Yi. Attacking it would only rebound the same force onto the attacker.  

The transparent tentacles merely coiled around the pale golden shield, unable to squeeze or strike it. The cunning jellyfish seemed to instinctively understand what it was dealing with—keeping a certain distance, giving the shield space, yet refraining from attacking it.  

The beautiful, translucent tentacles wrapped around like a blossoming flower, neatly encasing Xu Xu.  

According to Xu Xu’s original plan, 30 seconds should have been enough to escape the battlefield. But there was an unexpected complication—Wen Yi had immediately used his tentacles to form a cage, perfectly trapping Xu Xu inside the shield.  

If he attacked the tentacles, the shield would vanish instantly. But if he did nothing, he’d remain stuck.  

After a brief moment of consideration, Xu Xu drew his long blade and unleashed his execution skill, slashing mercilessly at Wen Yi.  

His full-force strike severed two of the giant jellyfish’s tentacles. But unlike ordinary creatures, which would react violently to such pain, Wen Yi, as an immortal jellyfish, had no brain—no pain receptors.  

Two tentacles lost meant nothing. The remaining ones remained firmly rooted around him, even tightening inward. The tips of the tentacles sharpened into blades, stabbing straight at Xu Xu, now unprotected by the shield.  

The jellyfish was not only immensely strong but also venomous. In its enraged state, even a trace of its toxin could kill an elephant. Xu Xu clearly hadn’t awakened any immunity to poison. He died a second time in the instance, and this death was far more gruesome than the last—his limbs and internal organs were crushed to pulp. The venom paralyzed his nerves, preventing any struggle or even suicide, yet magnified the agony.  

By the time he lost consciousness and returned to the system space, he wasn’t even sure whether he’d been crushed to death or simply died from the overwhelming pain.  

Once again, the system presented him with the same choices: revive in place with an item, revive randomly, or leave the mission instance entirely.  

Back in the instance, Xu Xu’s body was fully restored, all attributes at their peak. Yet his fingers still trembled uncontrollably. The memory of death’s torment lingered, even if the pain itself had vanished.  

This was why players increasingly descended into madness. After enduring so many life-and-death struggles in the instances, most survivors developed severe psychological issues—growing colder, more bloodthirsty, and slowly losing their humanity.  

A few managed to adjust, but they were the rare exceptions. At least until the countdown ended, Xu Xu’s body still shuddered from the lingering echoes of pain.

At the very last second before the 30-second countdown ended, Xu Xu made his choice: “Use the revival item—random revival.”  

If he revived in the same spot, he’d only die a third time, pointlessly wasting a precious revival item. But if he used the revival card to leave the instance outright, he couldn’t accept it—his eyes burned crimson with rage. He wanted revenge. He needed to tear that jellyfish and the man beside it into pieces!  

If he died one more time, then he’d use the revival card to escape. After all, that would be his last life—once the final revival card was gone, there’d be no more chances.  

As for the other players in the guild? When he couldn’t even guarantee his own survival, he couldn’t care less about them.  

Luck seemed to favor Xu Xu this time. He successfully revived—not on the island, but at his previous stronghold: the home of that young couple.  

This was one of the hidden rules of the revival item: random revival had a range, limited to areas the player had previously visited.  

Xu Xu gasped for air, his mind ablaze with vengeful fury. Struggling to calm himself, he began plotting his retaliation.  

Players who had achieved a B-rank evaluation received one revival card. The remaining players still had a chance to revive after death. One player, who had earned an A-rank, chose to use their revival card to leave the instance—”I don’t even know how I died just now. This is too hard. Better to run.”  

Out of the eight players, only two had ever scored A-rank or higher—Xu Xu being one of them. The other six had only managed B-rank at best, with two of them having just a single B-rank evaluation.  

This meant that after reviving once, those two players would have no second chance.  

The two with only one revival item chose random revival without hesitation—but their luck was terrible. They respawned right in the courtyard.  

The moment they appeared, Tan Xiao trapped them under a massive water tank. He emptied it, dropped it from above, then flipped the lid to pin them down.  

Players in invincible defense mode could easily break out—after all, the tank wasn’t an NPC or another player.  

Tan Xiao’s move didn’t hold them for long, but the delay was enough. Wen Yi descended from the third floor, his tentacles weaving a cage just like before.  

He had 99 tentacles in total. Even after losing two, 97 remained, and the severed stumps had already regrown two new ones.  

At his enlarged size, just six tentacles were enough to completely immobilize a person.  

The two unlucky players, along with two others who had chosen revival in place, met their final deaths in the instance once the 30 seconds expired.  

Two more survivors respawned outside the courtyard. Drenched in the storm, they took one look at the massacre inside and, braving the typhoon, fled back to their original hideout.  

“This courtyard is way too dangerous—we have to get out of here!”  

Unless in a special instance, dead players’ bodies would vanish after 30 minutes. Wen Yi piled them up at the entrance, using the corpses to barricade the gate.  

It took him a while to calm his anger, but eventually, he pouted and whined, “My tentacles broke earlier… it hurts…”  

Jellyfish don’t actually have pain receptors—he wasn’t in pain at all. But Wen Yi wanted to act spoiled. After all, the book said: “A jellyfish who acts cute lives a charmed life.”  

“Which two broke?”  

With so many tentacles—all crystal-clear and nearly identical—it was hard to tell at a glance.  

Shrinking down to human size, the jellyfish raised two noticeably smaller tentacles. “These two. See? The new ones are shorter.”  

A look of genuine concern flashed across Tan Xiao’s face. Gently cradling the “injured” tentacles, he blew on them softly, then pressed a tender kiss to each.  

“A kiss to make it better.”

Notes

1. 徐旭 (Xú Xù) ↩︎