Played By The Tendrils

Ren didn't dare to move. He couldn't let her discover him, and he didn't want her to uncover everything.

In the darkness, he watched the small tendril that hadn't detected him yet. He was aware that betas differed from alphas; they didn't have the heightened senses that alphas possessed. They couldn't pick up on slight sounds, odors, or distant movements.

Betas had their strength on the psychic plane. Like the tendrils in front of him, they didn't have eyes and couldn't see him. However, they could detect the minor emotional fluctuations of living beings.

"As long as I can control my emotions and avoid any emotional leakage, they won't find me," Ren thought. "If they haven't seen me in person, they can't detect me. Stay silent. Psychic silence. I can do this."

He crouched down, making himself appear like a piece of stone or metal in the ventilation duct, an object devoid of life and emotion, motionless. His psychic sea shielded the garden deep within. The roiling waves on the surface gradually eased, slowly forming a layer of floating ice. The ice sealed off the entire ocean.

The ocean was silent and still, without a single ripple.

The little tendril extended into the ventilation duct, groping left and right, exploring all around. It didn't detect any emotions here, therefore no living things. In its simple-minded brain, this kind of place was available for the taking, its host wouldn't get upset.

Suddenly, it touched an unusual object. The tendril bent, forming a shape like a question mark.

It found this very odd. There was clearly no emotional fluctuation here; however, this lifeless object gave off a familiar sensation. All living beings had emotions; they could experience pain and joy. The tendril had never come across something capable of sealing away its emotions.

Another companion poked its head out from the duct. The two tendrils bumped into each other, exchanged opinions, and decided to jointly investigate this "thing" in front of them.

Ren knew he could handle this tough spot. No matter how hard life got, he'd always managed to tough it out.

Once, he had to hide out in the Polluted Zone for three full days, lying in wait to ambush a powerful mutant. He spent those three days and nights stuck in a muggy, damp marshland, wearing a hot camo suit, barely able to move.

There were leeches that sucked his blood, giant mosquitoes, and even snakes. He was able to shut off all his feelings in that situation, enduring those three days with patience. Birds landed on him, thinking he was just a branch, frogs croaked on top of his head, and he thought of himself as just an object.

Only when the strong mutant let its guard down, passing right above him, did he finally take his chance and attack.

After that mission, he found out that his legs were almost falling apart because they had been soaked. That experience was much worse than being in this duct.

It was just a tiny tendril. He could deal with it, it would go away soon.

Ren closed his eyes, took a deep breath, bottled up all his emotions, and sunk them deep into the sea, strengthening his psychic barrier.

Inside his psychic landscape, the once rough sea was now completely calm. A thick layer of ice covered the surface of the ocean, locking away the slightly nervous garden at the bottom of the sea.

When he opened his eyes again, there was another tendril…

There were now two tendrils right in front of him, nearly touching his nose, staring at him with curiosity.

He could clearly see the soft suckers on the tendrils wriggling. The two little creatures bumped against each other, as if figuring out who should go first. One of them began to move towards him.

It was climbing up. Ren wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn't. In this situation, if he lost his vision, the feelings brought on by touch and sound would be stronger and harder to control.

He could only watch as the soft appendage slowly approached, its tiny end stood upright, bent over, and poked his face.

"Don't move," Ren told himself. "Don't be scared. It's okay. It won't even hurt."

He held his breath, slowing his heart rate down as much as he could. His powerful alpha body allowed him to do this, making him seem lifeless.

After a tentative poke, the moist sucker latched onto his face and began to climb. It crawled over his eyebrow, its tip slipped under his headscarf, messing up his hair. It was as if it were treating him like a kid, touching his head, playing with his hair.

"Don't move, just put up with it," Ren told himself.

Another tendril, at some point, had slithered to his foot. It felt cool as it wrapped around his ankle, started to pull off his sock, and slowly coiled around the arch of his foot.

The slight yet persistent tickle cut through his skin, soaking into his bones, and drilled its way into his heart. The underwater plants in his psychic garden squirmed uncomfortably. This was worse than any physical torture.

In the cold, quiet depths of his psychic sea, Ren's psychic incarnation, the orca, opened its eyes. With the tentacle's gentle touch, the injured orca made a small, happy sound. It was a short sigh, quickly stifled.

Betas had a natural ability to comfort alphas' psychic hurts. Even such an unintentional touch could ease the pain of the orca, whose tailbone was exposed.

"It feels so nice, I wish it would keep touching me," the lonely orca thought, not caring about Ren's wishes.

Psychic injuries were hard to heal. At times like this, an alpha would crave the comfort of a beta more than anything else.

The tendril playing in his hair seemed to hear something. It suddenly lifted from his messy hair. Just a moment ago, it thought it heard a pleasant sound, a vibration from a psychic being, but then the sound suddenly disappeared. The tendril was confused and didn't understand, so it called for backup.

Deep in his psychic sea, Ren changed into a half-man, half-orca figure, covering his psychic self's mouth, but it was too late. In the dim tunnel, more tendrils kept appearing, popping up in front of Ren's eyes.

They wriggled, full of curiosity, excitedly surrounding Ren. They all looked like small pieces, happily twisting and flexing their tiny suckers. It looked like they weren't dangerous, but Ren knew better. Hidden in that unseen, nameless space, their bodies were waiting to appear—big and scary, more than able to overpower him.

Ren felt a cold sweat trickle down his forehead.