The Fetal Movement of Cthulhu Abyss: The Taboo Files of the Secret Keeper Cat
The Freedom Clinic's teleportation array activated amidst a piercing alarm. Xiaodou, held in Lin Shen's arms, passed through a dimensional rift woven with data and tentacles. Landing on the sandy black beach, thick as blood, inverted cuneiform characters drifted in the air, each grain of sand whispering, "Don't look... Don't listen..."
The mechanical cat's fusion form flickered violently, and its fiber optic tail stretched into a straight line: "Warning! 'Unspeakable Force' contamination detected, it is recommended to immediately activate the 'cognitive filtering mode'!" It popped out holographic goggles, and a mosaic filter was automatically generated on the lenses - transforming the giant tentacles wriggling in the distance into "pink cotton candy" and marking the flying jellyfish hovering in the sky as "glowing balloons."
Xiaodou peeked over the edge of his goggles, only to see the debris of various worlds scattered across the beach: a Coke can from the apocalypse twisted into tentacle shapes, a sword tassel from the immortal realm entwined with an eyeball-shaped tumor, and the energy core from the interstellar arc dripping with silver slime. Lin Shen clenched his claws, the three soul patterns transforming into a scale-covered black windbreaker. The "∞" symbol on his sleeve oozed golden foxfire, burning the shadow that tried to wrap around his ankle. "Don't be afraid, my foxfire can burn through 'conceptual pollution.'"
Navigating with the robotic cat, they found a cave hidden behind a coral-like boulder. A rotten wooden sign hung at the entrance, scribbled in simplified Chinese: "Cat Bookstore (Coffee Inside, No Credit)." Pushing open the door, they found a wall of bookshelves filled with loose-leaf files, each page turning on its own, its edges thick with fine fuzz.
"Meow—" A bandaged black cat emerged from the pile of files, a rainbow of data streams seeping through the cracks in its bandages. It removed its wizard's hat, revealing a pair of cyberpunk earrings. "Finally, the Concept Rat King." Its voice, alternating between male and female, sounded like countless cat meows combined. "I'm the Secret Keeper Cat, responsible for the Old God's 'Stomach Diary.'"
The filing cabinet suddenly slid open, revealing the forbidden archive deep inside. The cover was inscribed with the words "14-01" made of scales. Upon opening it, bloody words slowly emerged from the blank pages.
"Inside the digestive cavity of the ancient god Azathoth lies a hatching egg. It has absorbed the 'sweet energy' of various worlds. Its outer shell is a fragment of the Heavenly Furnace, and its core... is an 'unfinished story.'"
"Bang!" The cave was smashed open, and a group of deep divers with fish heads and human bodies roared in. Their scales were engraved with the milk tea recipe from the campus chapter, and they brandished tridents forged from Xiuxian flying swords. Lin Shen stuffed Xiaodou into the filing cabinet, and his three soul forms instantly switched:
- Ling Yuan's gun spewed out Foxfire bullets, exploding the Deep One's gills;
- Bai Yan's fox tail turned into chains, tying up the monster that tried to escape;
- Lin Shen's syringe shoots out cyberpunk antiviral agent, dissolving the monster's scales into data fragments.
Amidst the chaos, Xiaodou's gear runes suddenly heated intensely. The bloody words within the file began to twist, transforming into a miniature Sky-Swallowing Rat that burrowed into his claws. The Secret-Keeper Cat erupted in anger: "Right now! It's resonating with you!" It leaped onto a bookshelf and tore down a star map. All the stars on the map formed the shape of a rat, and the black hole at its center pulsed rhythmically, like a heart.
"That egg is Heaven's final trump card." The Secret Keeper Cat licked its bloodied paw, revealing a mechanical prosthetic eye beneath its bandages. "It holds all the 'unspoken regrets' of your fourteen lifetimes—the half-empty can of Coke you couldn't share at the end of the world, the fox fur you didn't give away in the world of immortal cultivation, the unfinished contract in the interstellar chapter... These regrets condensed into a 'fourth soul,' destined to be reborn in the stomach of the Ancient God, replacing Lin Shen's three souls."
Xiaodou suddenly remembered the spilled pearl milk tea in the school arc, and the unreached pastry beneath the osmanthus tree in the demon realm. Transparent tears oozed from the gear runes. Lin Shen had just finished off the last Deep One, and as he turned to embrace him, the scales on his windbreaker suddenly fell away, revealing a new pattern on his chest—a translucent egg, a vague shadow curled inside.
"It's imitating me." Lin Shen's voice trembled slightly. His fingertips touched the "egg pattern" and felt a familiar warmth. "But it doesn't have a 'now'." He bent down and kissed Xiaodou's forehead. "Every time we meet, every time we stand side by side, we give it a reason why 'birth' is impossible."
A thunderous heartbeat sound came from deep in the cave, and the secret-keeping cat pointed to the secret door on the wall: "That is the entrance, and it can only be opened with the 'sweetest memory'." Xiaodou hesitated for a moment, raised his paw, and the gear rune projected the scene of the rooftop in the campus chapter - Lin Shen clumsily caught the falling cherry blossoms with his school uniform, and he was stealing the chocolate in the other's pocket.
The secret door swung open, revealing a bloody passage. The walls were streaked with glowing veins, coursing with rainbow energy (the sweet energy of each world). The Secret Keeper cat shoved two cans of Coke into their hands. "This is the 'Reality Anchor.' One sip will help you remember who you are and stop being assimilated by the Old God's consciousness." Its tail wrapped around Lin Shen's wrist. "By the way, the shadow in the egg is afraid of this—" A cherry blossom petal fell from the tip of its tail, with the word "Now" written on it.
The moment he stepped into the passage, all sound vanished. Xiaodou suddenly heard countless tiny whispers, as if his fourteenth-life self were saying, "It's not bad to end it this way." Lin Shen's three soul patterns began to flicker, and the "egg pattern" on his chest became clearer and clearer, almost threatening to burst through his body.
From the deepest darkness, a baby-like cry was heard. An egg as big as a football was suspended in the air. The face of Lin Shen Sanhun was printed on the shell, and on the top of the egg was a leave note from the campus chapter, with the signature area blank.
Xiaodou's gear rune and the egg lit up at the same time. This time, he clearly saw the shadow in the egg - it was the lonely Lin Shen who had not met him.
Lin Shen clenched his claws and pressed the cherry blossom petals onto the eggshell: "Xiaodou, tell it that we don't choose 'regret'."
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