Jelly's Final Crunch!
Rizeol swiftly drew his sword, blocking the pointed blade.
"No more!"
Aura flowed through the crown prince's body.
"I won't lose anything else!"
With [Knight Ren]'s training complete, her power ignited.
"Whoa, Your Highness!"
Leaving Versia's startled voice behind, the boss battle began.
The jelly rapidly expanded its body.
A grotesque, disgusting jelly monster filling over half the rooftop space.
The highest training limit for a playable character was level 99, but this was an over hundred level boss.
Yet the crown prince didn't falter.
"Haaaaah!"
Instead, he leaped forward, unleashing the full potential of his leveled-up characters.
-Whirrr
The jelly monster unleashed a barrage of jelly attacks, but Rizeol sliced some apart, dodged others, and struck the core.
-Whiiiir!
As the jelly's remaining health dwindled, its patterns grew more dangerous and complex, but it was no issue.
He was focusing with even greater intensity than during the previous imperial succession struggle.
Crunch!
His manifested sword cleaved the jelly's nucleus, dropping the health bar to zero.
-Whirrrrr!
Like a cutscene, the jelly's body shattered into pieces.
"...Did I get it?"
The abyssal monster looked unmistakably dead.
Rizeol sighed in relief.
This time, he had protected her.
He hadn't lost anything.
-Whirrr
The jelly, thought to be dead, rapidly condensed.
Reborn in a completely different color and form.
A threatening attack shot toward Rizeol from the jelly.
In that instant, the world slowed.
"Researcher! Watch out!"
Versia dashed forward to block the attack.
No.
Not that.
Grip!
"Not that!"
Clang!
As if someone else were controlling his body, Rizeol moved with blinding speed.
His sword blocked the jelly's blade aimed at Versia's chest.
"K-Kyah! Y-Your Highness?"
Rizeol held Versia in one arm, pulling her close as he clashed swords with the jelly.
"Hraaaah!"
Swinging his blade, a burst of sword energy cleaved the jelly in half.
"You okay?"
"...Yes."
Versia's face had turned bright red.
"Jumping in like that is dangerous."
"...You were in danger, Your Highness."
"More importantly, what did you just call me?"
"Your Highness?"
"No, before that."
"...Researcher? Huh, why did I call Your Highness 'Researcher'..."
Researcher.
The title she used for him in her past life.
Since Rizeol had decided not to reveal his memories of their previous life, she shouldn't know that word.
Which meant...
'She's remembering?'
Her past life's memories might be resurfacing.
A mix of joy and bitterness complicated Rizeol's heart.
-Whirrr
The torn jelly began regrouping.
"This thing won't die, huh."
No matter how many times he sliced it, it regenerated.
How was he supposed to deal with this?
-Whirrr!
Seeing the health bar refill completely, Rizeol despaired.
"Your Highness."
At that moment, a warm, soft sensation in his hand.
Versia was holding it.
"I think I can do it."
"...You can?"
In that instant, power surged through the hand she held.
"This is..."
"The fruit of our love... something like that."
Though she lost her previous powers and memories upon reincarnation, reuniting with Rizeol had awakened her heroic potential.
Love had stirred the power within her.
'With this power, I can do it.'
Rizeol gripped his sword again and charged at the jelly.
Versia's power flowed with him.
Nothing can stand in our way.
I checked the players' reactions to the story.
Fortunately, the story landed well.
Act 3 begins, and players meet the reincarnated Mureia-13-07.
Her face unchanged despite reincarnation, so players recognize her immediately.
For reference, her reincarnated name, Versia, was the one the Constellation of Wisdom used before becoming a human test subject.
Following the story flow, after enjoying a date with her, they arrive at her hideout, the final spot.
Like the end of Act 2, as she turns back against a stunning night view, an abyssal entity suddenly ambushes her.
Deliberately triggering PTSD for the player—overlapping with her previous death.
A slow-motion effect kicks in simultaneously.
As the world slows, the player dashes forward to block the abyssal attack.
Clang!
And with that, the boss battle starts.
The previous abyssal assassin used that filthy sludge, but this one's different.
No lab director jelly in this boss.
His punishment is losing his body and living powerless in jelly form—giving him a boss body would be unacceptable.
This jelly boss is merely a means to deliver him as a reward.
Thus, its patterns are simple.
No reference material, so massive health pool and basic patterns.
Added one thing: infinite regeneration.
Considering how tough the real lab director was, it's fitting historically.
Anyway, once the player defeats the boss once, a cutscene plays.
The player sees the world in slow motion.
Versia blocks an attack aimed at the player.
Another death crisis for her.
The player's body moves on its own per the setup, blocking the attack.
Simultaneously, Versia partially awakens her past life's power.
She gains support abilities: stripping enemy buffs and granting massive buffs to allies.
"I think I can do it." "The fruit of our love... something like that."
With hints of recovering past memories, players enter the second boss phase. (This cutscene was shot by me and her at the Constellation of Wisdom's strong insistence.)
A pumped-up, easier final boss battle with Mureia-13-07's help.
-Whirrr!
Once the boss falls, the Abyss Assassin dissipates, leaving a single small jelly.
◈ A fragment of divinity left by a dissipated abyssal entity. The abyss's malice fully purified, freely shapeable.
Added in the last patch for the housing system—a type of furniture.
Unlike other furniture with fixed uses, this one takes any shape the player imagines via dream powers.
As a personality jelly.
The lab director, split into countless jellies.
Now a player furniture, changing forms endlessly.
Good for him.
He wanted to be superior, and now he's a unique existence no one else can dream of.
One of the countless dream spaces comprising the Akashic Archive
Beep.
A player logged in, lights flickering on in their personal housing space.
"Today was so tiringbu."
A player in the avatar of an ordinary female assistant director, but inside was a severely obese human male.
"Did my Dalang-jjang behavebu?"
Ignoring everything else, he beelined to the bed in the center of the housing space.
Atop the bed sat the jelly he'd used yesterday.
Not a plain jelly form, but a curvaceous woman's shape.
Molded into the character Dalang Versia's form per the player's desires.
Twitch!
The jelly squirmed at his touch.
"...Hm? Did my Dalang-jjang feel it from my touchbu?"
-No, you filthy maggot!
-Get your filthy hands off!
The fragment of the lab director's soul trapped in the jelly screamed.
"Buhee... my Dalang-jjaang..."
But the player, unable to hear, rubbed his face against the jelly.
The beautifully crafted female assistant director character, designed to captivate players.
Still, the lab director recoiled in horror.
Not only was it chilling that a lowly being he'd never treated as equal was toying with him at will,
"Buheeet."
But because, with his once-held power of knowledge, he could see through the dream avatar.
A middle-aged man with unkempt stubble, sweat dripping, utterly idiotic appearance.
An form so repulsive that past-life lab director would've deemed it unworthy even as a test subject and incinerated it.
The player began licking the jelly.
Overlapping with the true form inside, the lab director stopped thinking.