Chapter 44: Upside down

"One, two. One, two. One, two. One, two. One, two," chants Charlotte as Neo moves his feet into deep waters. Holding onto the edge with his hands, Neo finds himself learning very fast. A sensation in his subconscious reacting strongly to the stimulus.

Reforming bit by bit, without thought, he lets go of one hand . . . then the other hand and is now floating on the surface of the deep waters.

"Oh, wow! You got it! You are a fast learner, I didn't expect you to learn how to float this fast!" comments Charlotte in surprise.

But his brain doesn't stop there and keeps on rebuilding. It isn't learning, it is relearning and using a network that already has the framework and foundations are already in place.

Neo suddenly feels a huge urge to perform a movement to swim and he makes the choice to follow the sensation. At an above normal pace and surely, he starts to swim with more technique.

As he does, he starts to drift away from the edge he was holding onto a minute ago without realizing it.

"Neo, maybe not too far. Don't get carried away, we don't know what's closer towards the center or is on the other side," calls out Charlotte.

Neo hears her and heads her advice.

"Okay, I am coming back," he says, diving underwater and heading back towards the edge he was holding onto.

The instant he dives, he looks around and then straight down.

. . .

The bottom is dark and . . . there are two eyes looking at him. They are very . . . alluring.

Neo is practically fully enchanted by them and can't take his gaze of them. So much so that he starts swimming down towards them in curiosity and fascination. His guard is completely dropped by their beauty for a few seconds.

He gets close.

Then closer.

Then close enough for different senses to turn back on.

Wait, maybe I should ─

Sprout!

Multiple fluffy tails emerge from the darkness.

"Crap!" Neo's voice is muffled by the water, and he attempts to flee, swimming upwards in panic.

He tries to swim as fast as he can to the surface . . . to the light. But alas, it is too late. The tails reach and entangle with his body fully.

Their fur is soft, fluffy, and somehow, very comforting. So much so that it almost makes Neo's panic fade away.

He shakes his head.

Wait . . . no!

"Charlotte!" screams Neo but his cries go in vain as the water muffles them.

One tail entangles his neck, one for each leg, one for each arm and two of them wrap around his waist, the last two acting as a comfortable bed and wrap all around him. All of the tails pull him down into the dark slowly.

Looking up, his arm stretched toward the light, Neo falls.

Swoosh!

Neo hears a familiar sound after entering the dark entirely.

A sound he can never mistake, a sound he has heard almost all his existence.

The sound of the air as you fall.

Neo is falling.

He looks in the direction that he is falling towards.

He is falling straight towards a bunch of rocky hills at full speed.

He puts his legs first to act as cushions and braces himself for the severe pain he is about to feel.

Can't be worse than ─

He crashes into the ground, breaking his legs completely. Then proceeds to roll forwards and down the hill.

. . .

Aaahhh!

Neo moans in severe pain.

Should have just splattered myself headfirst and gone unconscious. But nooooo, I have to remain conscious in case someone shows up and tries to kidnap my body. I might have to protect myself, so I'll sit here in pain for a while instead. This hurts so much I almost regret my decision, not like I can do much with broken legs and no points anyway. . .

Neo's legs have almost regenerated to the point that he can stand.

Nah, I would have at least gained info that might be helpful if someone did show up. Do what you can, right Arcat? Thanks to your advice, I am feeling this pain.

He chuckles, getting up and looking around . . . the place has the usual ground light sources of lamps.

"Wait . . . what the?" Neo tilts his head in confusion after seeing a jellyfish light source flying in the distance. But, what is strange about this one is that . . . it is upside down?

"Huh?!"

In his moment of speechlessness, he notices a purple mist flowing in a direction a bit further.

"Well, any other ideas?" he muses.

Woosh!

"No? Follow the mist it is then," he says, following the trail while staying away from it. He keeps walking until . . . there is no more ground to walk on. He finds the edge but decides to stay away from it.

"Well . . . so much for that," murmurs Neo, looking around.

He turns around and takes one step.

"Step on the walls . . . of the edge and walk towards the entrances," he hears. He looks around to see who said those words but . . . no one is around.

"Anyone out there?" he calls out loudly.

He turns around and carefully walks towards the edge, he looks down and sees something he has never seen before . . . it is a wall . . . of water?

It is a wall of water all the way down till his sight limit. There are a lot of jellyfish upside down in the water and floating around it.

"Step on it?" questions Neo in confusion. He dangles one leg down and places it on the surface on the water . . . it feels like stepping on solid ground. The instant he does this, Neo feels his body being pulled by a force.

"Woah!" he exclaims, regaining his balance. He is standing on the water completely fine. And the jellyfish have become sideways instead of upside down.

He shakes his head, "What is going on? Was I . . . was I falling up?" he questions as he starts walking on the surface of the water sideways continuing to follow the purple mist.

Step, step, step.

After looking around above, Neo decides to look down towards the crystal clear water to check what's inside.

. . .

What the . . . what's all this?!

Inside the water are areas where people are standing upright in the same direction as the jellyfish and . . . they are doing all kinds of sexual acts. There is a lot going on in there, so much that Neo's brain feels overwhelmed, and he takes a few steps back at the start, but then, he takes a few steps forwards after a while.

He hears a woman's giggle.

The same alluring eyes that attracted him before are opening gently at the surface of the water in front of where he is looking . . . down? Sideways?

"You!" says Neo.

Swish!

The water starts to rise, and the eyes come up with it. Nep backs up and prepares himself for whatever it is that will show up.

The eyes follow him as if a head is moving to look at him and a pillar of water forms momentarily.

. . .

Swoosh!

The water flies all over as the white tails that are wrapped up like a cocoon, bloom open. They spread fantastically and reveal what they are hiding.

Neo covers his eyes momentarily from the water . . . and then finally gets a clear look at what he is facing. Her beauty unlike anything his eyes have ever seen so far.