Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 189: Episode : A Difficult Trade
Huddled in the pitch-black crawlspace behind the pile of leviathan ribs, Roxy pressed her hands over her ears, curling into a tight ball.
She squeezed her eyes shut, but it didn’t help. The terror wasn’t something she could shut out; it was in the air, in the rock, in the very marrow of her bones.
The floor beneath her jumped three inches. Dust and rock chips rained down on her hair, coating her in the debris of the ocean floor.
She couldn’t see anything. The crawlspace was dark and crawly.
She could only hear. And what she heard was a sound that wanted to tear her eardrums.
It was a sonic blast, unmistakably Caspian’s voice, followed by the sickening wet sound of meat impacting meat.
It sounded like a semi-truck slamming into a wall of wet clay.
"Please," Roxy whispered into her knees, her voice trembling and small in the dark. "Please be okay. Please don’t die."
Another impact. This one was closer. The entire cave lurched sideways. A stalactite crashed somewhere in the main chamber, the sound of shattering stone echoing like a gunshot.
Then, silence.
Not a peaceful silence. A vacuum. The kind of silence that happens when a scream is suddenly cut off.
"Nimue?" Roxy called out, her voice cracking. "Caspian?"
Nothing but the groan of straining rock.
[Alert: High-Decibel Combat Detected.]
[External Entity: Class SS (Kraken). Status: Enraged.]
[Ally Entity: Caspian (King). Status: Critical Damage Detected.].
"Critical?" Roxy choked. "What does that mean? Is he fighting?"
[Ally Entity is no longer engaging. Life signs are fluctuating.]
Roxy’s heart stopped. No longer engaging. That meant he was down.
Was he fucking dying?
Water, cold, freezing, high-pressure water, began to seep into her hiding spot. It was a fast-rising flood, soaking her silk robe and chilling her skin instantly.
"The bubble," Roxy realized with horror. "It’s breaking."
She couldn’t stay here. If she stayed here, she would drown in the dark, crushed by the pressure before she even took a breath.
She scrambled forward, clawing her way out from behind the massive ribcage. She tumbled onto the sand of the main cave.
The scene was a nightmare. The fire was dead, extinguished by the rising water level. The only light came from the dying pulses of the bioluminescent moss on the ceiling and the terrifying yellow glow of the monster’s eyes through the wall.
The cave was flooding. Massive spiderweb cracks ran through the membrane, jetting streams of seawater into the air pocket like fire hoses.
And Nimue...
The mermaid princess was slumped against the far wall, half-submerged. She wasn’t moving.
Blood leaked from her nose and eyes, dissolving into the rising water. She had burned her life force to hold the shield, and she had failed.
[Structural Integrity: 4%. Collapse Imminent.]
[Environmental Pressure: 14,000 PSI.]
[System Shield irrelevant. Physical structure is compromised.]
"Then get me out of here!" Roxy sobbed, backing away as a massive jet of water knocked the coral table over. "Teleport me! Anything!"
[Teleportation blocked by Abyssal Interference.]
[User Survival Probability upon collapse: 0%.]
The words hung there. Zero percent.
Roxy looked at the water wall. Through the distortion of the cracks and the murky water, she saw a shape drifting just outside.
It was Caspian.
He was limp. His silver hair floated around him like a halo of blood. He was suspended in the current, broken and defenseless. Behind him, a shadow the size of a building was moving, the Kraken, coming to claim its meal.
He had fought a god for her. He had taken the hit meant for the bubble.
"I can’t die," Roxy whispered, trembling violently. "I have kids. I have a family. I can’t die here."
[Warning: Collapse in 20 Seconds.]
The System window pulsed red, matching the frantic beating of her heart.
[Searching for Survival Protocols...]
[Scanning User Biology...]
[Detected Catalyst: Seaweed in bloodstream. Assimilation: 100%.]
The text stopped scrolling. It flashed white.
[Alternative Protocol Available.]
"What?" Roxy yelled at the air. "What protocol?" 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
[Protocol: Force Evolution.] [Option: Trade Human Morphology for Aquatic Adaptation.]
Roxy froze. The water was now at her waist. The cold was seeping into her organs, making her teeth chatter.
"Trade... what?"
[The Seaweed has altered your respiratory system. With a massive infusion of LP, the System can accelerate the mutation. You can shed your legs to acquire a Tail.]
[Cost: 500,000 LP.]
[Transformation Time: Instant.]
Roxy stared at the window, her brain short-circuiting.
"What in the name of Little Mermaid are you on about?" she shrieked, hysteria bubbling up in her throat. "A tail? You want to turn me into a fish?"
[Logic: Bipedal movement is inefficient in hydro-combat. Your legs are dead weight. They cannot swim fast enough to evade the Kraken, nor can they withstand the pressure shock of the collapse. To save the target (Caspian) and survive, you must become an Apex predator.]
[Warning: This Evolution is biologically binding to the Environment.]
"Binding?" Roxy gasped. "What does that mean?"
[It means the mutation will revert ONLY when the User returns to dry land and the seaweed toxins are purged from the blood.]
The System paused, letting the weight of the next sentence settle.
[If you do not reach the Surface... you will remain in Mer-Form indefinitely.]
"Indefinitely?"
The panic hit her harder than the cold water.
She looked down at her legs beneath the purple silk. Her human legs. The legs that had walked through the forest with Zarek.
If she did this, she might never walk again. She might be trapped in this dark, wet hell forever, floating in the abyss, forgetting the feeling of grass between her toes. She would be a monster. A freak.
"I can’t," Roxy whimpered. "I want to go home. I want walk."
The cave groaned. A massive chunk of the ceiling fell, splashing into the rising water. The crack in the wall widened.
Outside, the Kraken’s beak opened. It was inches from Caspian.
[Time to Collapse: 10 Seconds.]
The countdown began.
[The Subject (Caspian) will be consumed in 8 seconds.]
[User Roxy, you have two choices.]
The text blocked her vision, glowing bright red against the encroaching darkness.
[Option A: Keep your legs. The bubble breaks. You drown. Caspian is eaten.]
[Option B: Pay the LP. Evolve. Save him.]
Roxy looked at the dying King. She remembered the way he had awkwardly tried to sing to her.
She remembered him washing her back, his touch gentle and curious.
She remembered him throwing his body in front of the monster to protect her.
He was alone. He was dying. And she was the only thing standing between him and the void.
But her legs...
[5 Seconds.]
The water reached her chest.
[So, what are you going to do? Trade your legs for a tail, or leave Caspian alone out there to fight the Kraken?]
