Help Me, Great Aunt

The Principal slowly raised his head, gazing at the sky as he spoke. "It was summer. The sun was scorching, as if it wanted to bake the earth dry… Back then, I was still thin, and my head wasn’t bald yet…"

Before he could finish, a bullet struck the ground near his feet, sparks flying. Ye Chuan twirled the revolver in his hand and said coolly, "Keep it short."

The Principal immediately replied, "Because of her, we all ended up like this!" He added hastily, "That’s all, young man."

"Too short!" Ye Chuan suspected the monstrous Principal was just stalling for time. He held a revolver in one hand and a spirit sword in the other.

Since the Principal was being so evasive, Ye Chuan decided to deal with him right then and there.

He wasn’t sure how strong the Principal was, but given how terrified he seemed of the revolver, he couldn’t be that formidable—at least not compared to the little dragonfolk.

Seeing Ye Chuan ready to strike, the Principal finally got to the point. "A monster… She was a monster from the start. It wasn’t because of our experiments!"

Hearing something of value, Ye Chuan paused. "Go on. What do you mean, ‘she was a monster from the start’?"

"…" The Principal sighed, his hunched frame shrinking further, looking even more frail and aged.

"That day, the academy received a call about a student with a strange illness. When we arrived, we found her already transformed into a monster—half her body was covered in crimson tissue, with things like eyes growing out of it."

Not only that, her mental state was bizarre, muttering incomprehensible words.

"Honestly, it was horrifying," the Principal said. "To investigate, we took her to the lab and began our research."

"At first, everything went smoothly. We found that her tissues regenerated no matter how much we cut them, so we tried every method to control the division."

"But when we attempted to cut away the strange flesh to save her, we discovered something unsettling."

Ye Chuan asked, "What?"

"Madness," the Principal said.

"…?"

"Every researcher who came into contact with that flesh went insane without exception." The Principal shook his head. "Every single one. They babbled about immortality, then turned into complete monsters."

"She seems to have some ability to distort perception. Even a single glance from an ordinary person would drive them mad."

Ye Chuan hadn’t expected such an answer. "You…"

The Principal continued, "She killed everyone—every living thing, including us."

"This world is entirely false, a construct of her making."

"We’ve been dead for a long time, forced to exist here as monsters, surviving by the rules she set."

"And she… sleeps in the basement…"

Ye Chuan: "…"

"What about her…?" Ye Chuan pointed at his unconscious sister on the ground, unsure whether to believe the Principal’s words.

Perhaps because it was so absurd, it somehow felt true.

"She’s… special. She seems to share memories with the one in the basement…?" The Principal hesitated. "More like a kind-hearted split personality."

"She has an intense fixation on family… Maybe because she lost her parents and brother in a car accident. So we sent two to play the roles of parents while keeping an eye on her."

"…" The Principal glanced at the writhing tentacles stretching toward the sky, as if ready to tear it apart. "Now that she’s awakened, this world is collapsing. It’s over."

"And it’s all because of you." The Principal stared at Ye Chuan.

"My fault?" Ye Chuan raised his gun.

"Well, not entirely." The Principal sighed, deftly shifting the topic. "If you don’t have a way to escape this world, we’re all just waiting to die here."

"Mm…"

Just then, the sister on the ground finally stirred. She struggled to open her eyes, immediately spotting the Principal and Ye Chuan.

"What are you doing to my brother?" She stood up, wrapping her tentacles tightly around Ye Chuan. To him, she still appeared as a pale, fragile girl clinging to him—pitiful yet endearing.

"Little sis, look over there," Ye Chuan said.

Only then did she seem to snap out of it, turning her head. When she saw the tentacles emerging from the ground, her face paled. "So… that’s how it is."

"Little sis, you—"

"I’m the original consciousness," she murmured. "But…"

Her gaze drifted to the distance, where the crimson world was crumbling, dissolving and shrinking bit by bit.

"Brother… this world can’t hold on much longer. Can you find a way to escape?" She forced a weak smile.

"Escape?" Ye Chuan was stunned.

"Yeah. She’s looking for me too." She nodded, then suddenly pushed Ye Chuan away. "Brother…"

"I want you to live. Thank you… even if it wasn’t for long…"

"I really loved having you as my brother."

Before she could finish, the ground beneath them cracked—a tentacle shot up, piercing straight through her body!

Right before Ye Chuan’s eyes, her form began merging with the tentacle. She gasped out,

"Bro… run…"

In that instant, something inside Ye Chuan twisted painfully. He reached out, but the tentacle retracted into the ground before he could grab her.

"…" The Principal’s face turned ashen. "It’s over."

The next moment, the earth itself began to wail.

The ground shattered. Under the blood-red moon, a colossal crimson entity rose—

It was an indescribable monstrosity, a mass of infinite flesh, radiating pure brutality.

Seeing the ground collapse into the abyss, Ye Chuan leapt onto his hoverboard and soared into the air!

Hovering midair, he stared at the creature—no, at what had once been his sister.

"This boss… seems kinda terrifying."

"Little sis…"

Ye Chuan noticed a familiar figure embedded in the monster’s massive form. Even dyed red and fused with the abomination, he recognized her instantly.

His hoverboard flared with propulsion as he closed the distance, firing a missile launcher without hesitation.

"Boom!"

The missile struck the creature’s body—only to dissolve like a peanut sinking into mud, leaving no trace.

Ye Chuan was stunned.

So was his revolver.

For the first time, he felt powerless. This thing was beyond him, even with his spiritual energy.

No… at the very least, he had to save his sister.

Suddenly, dozens of tentacles erupted from the monster, sealing off every escape route as they lunged for him.

"Auntie, save me!"

Cornered and with no other options left, Ye Chuan decided to play his last card. Without hesitation, he pulled out a single purple strand of hair and shouted at the top of his lungs!