Chapter 169 Brain Monster and Queen

Hao Ren instinctively felt a strange sense of disharmony from the giant brain in front of him, but he wasn't sure if it was just his imagination. All he could do was be vigilant and concentrate on preparing to resist the mental shock that might come at any time.

The giant brain looked similar to the one he'd seen in the Dragon Spine Mountains, a bizarre mass of flesh and blood with a bunch of tentacles extending from its floating body. It seemed impossible to tell the difference between the main body and the clones of these brain monsters from their appearance alone. It cautiously observed the enemies who had suddenly broken into the secret room, its tentacles gathering in front of it in a defensive posture, and a strange sensation that made his skin crawl came from the water around them, as if a strong magnetic field was scanning the entire space.

Hao Ren gave the order: "Go! Try to catch it alive!"

If possible, he still wanted to capture this guy alive—although killing it directly seemed to be the easiest way to resolve the Nathaton incident, obtaining a brain monster sample was undoubtedly more attractive. After all, he couldn't completely rely on the knights from Holleta being effective. What if Ofra and the others didn't catch a brain monster?

A white shadow flashed past. Lily, as the berserker in the team, was still the first to rush forward. The husky girl brandished her ice and fire double blades and slashed at the brain monster, which immediately raised several tentacles to meet the attack. A layer of light floated on the surface of the seemingly fleshy tentacles, and they actually blocked the slashing of the two claw blades. However, Lily's brute force still managed to smash the brain monster dozens of meters away—not by cutting, but by smashing.

The brain monster let out a strange hissing sound, and waved its tentacles quickly as if convulsing, while Vivian was already brewing a powerful ice shock. Actually, she preferred to use lightning arrows to solve battles, but unfortunately they were in the water now, and a lightning arrow would easily result in a team five-kill.

While Vivian was preparing her magic, another swift figure suddenly pounced on the giant brain. It was the stupid cat. "滚" (Gun, Roll) seemed to have finally adapted to the atmosphere here after following Hao Ren all the way in and understood what everyone was doing. The simple-minded cat girl was now actively fighting—just like when she led the cat pack to fight dogs in the southern suburbs, rushing in front. She screeched sharply, desperately scratching at the brain monster's tentacles and skin, dodging several attacks with her nimble movements, and then turned her head and bit the tip of one of the tentacles. Her combat was so valiant, but it startled Hao Ren: this silly cat could fight evenly with ordinary siren soldiers, but she dared to face the giant brain head-on?!

"Idiot! Get back!" Hao Ren shouted loudly while rushing forward with his silver-white spear. He desperately blocked several tentacle strikes. "滚" (Gun, Roll) saw this and happily let go, returning behind her master. In this chaotic situation, Hao Ren's fingers and one of the brain monster's tentacles accidentally touched.

In the next second, his face changed drastically.

At this moment, a chill was rapidly spreading from the air in the secret room. Vivian's ice shock had been charged to its limit. A large cloud of bats swirled into a vortex like a cone, pointing at the brain monster. Super-low temperature magic, enough to freeze steel into powder in an instant, was compressed within the bat swarm. Vivian was just waiting for Hao Ren and "滚" (Gun, Roll) to leave the brain monster's side before launching her attack, but just before she was about to release the magic, she suddenly heard Hao Ren shout, "Cease fire! Cease fire!"

Lily was already ready to rush up again, and was almost injured from holding back when Hao Ren called a halt. Vivian was even frozen by her own magic when she dissipated it, and a large group of bats frozen into small ice cubes fell to the ground like hail. Shakira looked at this scene in astonishment, turning her head to look at Hao Ren: "What's wrong?"

Hao Ren was now facing the giant brain less than three meters away, holding "滚" (Gun, Roll). He quickly waved his hands in front of the brain monster to signal a temporary truce, while connecting to the communication device on his life-sustaining collar and shouting, "Old Wang! Sanba! Watch out for mental attacks! The brain monster is on your side!"

A chaotic sound of explosions and electrical noise came from the communication device, followed by Elizabeth's voice: "Nangong Sanba has fainted! Sister Wuyue has also been injured! Dad is fighting that demon hunter named Tutanin. We're dealing with..."

After a series of rumbling explosions, Elizabeth's voice came again: "We're dealing with the Queen! We can still hold the line!"

"We'll be there to support you soon!" Hao Ren shouted, turning his head to look at the others beside him, "The brain monster and the Queen switched bodies!"

Shakira's whole body tensed up in fright: "What?!"

Hao Ren pointed at the giant brain in the center of the room, which looked extremely abnormal: "The brain monster didn't control the Queen. Its mental abilities are stronger than expected. That guy directly switched bodies with the Queen—your Queen is trapped inside this guy!"

The giant brain retreated slightly, then stretched out its tentacles. Its current form couldn't express much information, but this was undoubtedly a gesture of peace.

Lily and Vivian were dumbfounded, because they never thought the brain monster would pull this trick. Shakira was dumbfounded, because she couldn't believe that her Queen was trapped inside this sea monster. "滚" (Gun, Roll) was also dumbfounded—because she saw everyone else was dumbfounded.

"Are you sure?" Vivian hesitated for two seconds, unable to help asking.

"I've connected to this brain's consciousness again," Hao Ren nodded vigorously, "Now, one person stays here to watch this thing, and the others come with me to support Old Wang and the others upstairs."

"I'll stay!" Shakira shouted immediately.

Hao Ren nodded: "Take care of your Queen. She's very weak right now, but she's quickly recovering. Here's this collar for you. Its shield can protect you a little. Don't transform casually: the collar won't react in time."

Hao Ren quickly explained a bunch of things. Shakira nodded vigorously, regardless of whether she understood or not. Then, she stayed with the "brain monster", and the others quickly left the secret room and headed to the palace above.

As soon as they left the secret room, Vivian asked: "Wait a minute... If the brain monster can transfer its consciousness into other bodies, how are we going to catch it later? How do we prevent it from invading other people—like our bodies?!"

Hao Ren felt cold sweat break out on his scalp when he heard this. What Vivian mentioned was indeed a terrible and real problem. Before this, he hadn't expected the giant brain to be so difficult to deal with. Now it seemed that the brain monster he killed in the Dragon Spine Mountains was just a clone. The brain monster's main body possessed special powers that ordinary people couldn't resist!

He patted his chest: "Terminal, how much of a threat does that kind of brain monster's mental invasion pose to us?"

"Insufficient data, difficult to assess. But according to the results of scanning the physiological structure of that giant brain just now, its mental power cannot instantly invade your bodies. Your mental strength exceeds that of ordinary people. Even if you encounter invasion, you can resist for quite a long time. The weakest resistance should be from Doudou and '滚' (Gun, Roll). The former is not yet an adult, and the latter has a shallow mind."

"'滚' (Gun, Roll), take care of Doudou and go back to the secret room and wait for us," Hao Ren immediately stuffed the little mermaid into the cat girl's arms, sent the two of them back to the secret room, and then turned back, "Wait a minute... If the brain monster's mental power has these limitations, then how did it occupy the siren Queen? Could it be that the siren Queen's mental strength is weaker than ours?"

Lily reminded him: "It might have taken a hundred years!"

Hao Ren finally reacted. He nodded, continued to lead Vivian and Lily quickly upward, while starting to rummage through his portable space—first throwing out the two siren sentinels who were tied up like rice dumplings, then starting to look for things in his pile of equipment that could suppress the brain monster's mental power.

As an investigator, having a Doraemon-like pocket was a basic skill.

As they were about to reach the exit of the passage, he finally found what he was looking for: a colorful, diamond-shaped crystal.

"What's that?" Lily looked at the "pretty stone" in Hao Ren's hand with surprise, "Can I..."

"No, this is useful," Hao Ren kept his distance from Lily, "This is a protective crystal brought out from the Crystal Core Research Station. It was originally used when researching the First Born, but I was thinking... No matter how powerful the brain monster is, can it be more powerful than the First Born?"

The data terminal's evaluation was only one word: "Appropriate~"