After what felt like half a day, Brian realized that he had somehow transformed into a small octopus.
Eat an octopus, become an octopus?
He began to suspect that he might be in the deep sea.
His current state was very odd.
Aside from his vision, he had no other senses; everything looked as though he was dreaming.
"No, it seems I was already dreaming, probably because I ate that little octopus..."
Brian imitated the swimming style of octopuses he had seen before and moved toward the place emanating red light below.
Since there were no other sources of light around, he could only judge the distance to it by the changing size of the red-lit area.
He didn’t know how much time had passed.
When the red-lit area expanded to seven or eight times its size, about the size of a soccer field, Brian finally saw more: the surface of the red light was connected by dark protrusions resembling chains, as if they were locking up a giant red gemstone.
It seemed to sense Brian’s arrival.
The red gemstone moved suddenly.
Before he could think any further, in the next moment,
The red light flickered and vanished instantly.
Complete darkness and silence surrounded everything.
Just as Brian’s Consciousness became uncontrollable and a bit panicked, the red light re-emerged bit by bit, growing from small to large, and restored to the size of a soccer field, radiating light all around and bringing the only brightness to this place.
Brian let out a sigh of relief subconsciously.
During the brief disappearance of the light, he felt as if he were in an eternally silent, pitch-black prison, unable to see light, seemingly forever sinking...
This interruption also broke the train of thought he had a moment ago.
He was just about to continue forward, to find out what that red light really was.
There was another flash, and the red light disappeared again.
This was just the beginning.
In the time that followed, the frequency of the red-lit area’s flickering increased.
After repeating hundreds of times,
Accompanied by a wave that disturbed the entire space, Brian was shocked to discover that the original red area had split into two...
These two red areas were quite far apart, and they no longer flickered but... stared straight at him.
Those things Brian thought were black chains also began to move, like the natural twitching of nerves.
What the hell, this wasn’t a red area; it was clearly two eyeballs!
Eyeballs the size of a soccer field!!
This damned thing was watching him!!!
Brian was completely numb.
Was it really necessary, just for eating a little octopus, to conjure up a monster with eyeballs the size of a soccer field to scare me in my sleep?
Calculating the proportions,
The creature itself must be several kilometers long.
If this were a creature from this planet, Brian might have thought he was mistaken for a character in a monster-filled action-fantasy script.
"Too scary, I’m out of here~"
Surprised as he was, Brian’s reactions were quick.
As soon as he felt something was amiss, he turned around agilely, spread his eight tentacles, contracting and flexing, wanting to make a getaway.
Two red ’spotlights’ converged into a beam of red light that shone on him.
An invisible force acted on Brian’s Consciousness, turning him back around and then rapidly pulling him forward.
This force, which even carried a binding effect, made it impossible for Brian to resist.
He could only watch helplessly as he got closer and closer to one of the giant eyeballs until he collided with it!
The moment of collision,
Brian felt as though he had passed through a warm membrane, comfortable and peaceful... All the negative emotions in his heart vanished, as if he had returned to a child in the womb, filled with an unreal sense of security...
When he regained his senses, the entire scene around him had changed.
He saw a fantastically azure-blue sea.
Various small octopuses were happily swimming in the water.
In the distance, he could see giant shell-like cave rooms, with massive Big Octopuses coiled inside some open shells, and others tightly closed, seemingly without their owners inside.
The shells were organized in order from small to large.
The largest shell, like a mountain on the sea floor, stood among a field of magma, dominating the seascape, leaving one clueless about its true size or length...
What was bizarre was,
After arriving here, Brian heard an inexplicable voice calling in his heart: Come, your home is here, come over...
Brian knew very clearly that at this moment, he should be dreaming.
This strange dream encounter likely had something to do with the octopus Consciousness he had eaten earlier.
Sadly, he didn’t know how to leave.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
He waved his tentacles and swam towards the place the voice in his soul was guiding him to.
On the way, some curious little octopuses looked him over, then came up to rub against him as if to greet him.
Unfortunately, Brian didn’t have time to deal with these little octopuses; he just lashed out wildly with a flurry of octopus tentacle whips, smacking them into crying out and scurrying in all directions.
After bullying these small octopuses, Brian continued on his way in a good mood.
But he hadn’t gone far when one of the little octopuses he had bullied came back with an even bigger octopus, then pointed a tentacle at Brian and made a bunch of noises that Brian couldn’t understand, but could grasp the meaning of: "Mom, he hit me!"