The cafeteria became dead silent again.
The pressure lifted.
The Chosen gasped for air.
Like drowning victims surfacing.
"Wha... what happened?"
"The noise stopped?"
"We're saved?"
Everyone looked toward the center table in shock.
Staring at the sleeping nun.
And the man beside her.
"Did... did she just moan?"
"An S-rank anomaly having a wet dream saved us all?"
"Is this the solution?!"
"This is too absurd!"
The Dragon Country stream exploded with laughter and relief.
[Hahahaha! Chen Shi's service pays off!]
[The monsters ran away! Scared by a moan!]
[This is the power of the Queen! One noise suppresses all ghosts!]
[Brother Chen's tongue saved the world!]
In the corner.
Elena panted heavily.
Sweat dripping from her forehead.
Her eyes regained clarity.
She looked at Annie.
Then at the silent windows.
Her brain spinning fast.
I see.
It's not just about power.
It's about the medium.
The attack was sonic.
Mental pollution through sound.
So...
Only magic can defeat magic!
To fight sound, we must use sound!
Louder sound!
More intense sound!
To disrupt their frequency!
Elena's eyes lit up.
"I have a weapon too."
She reached into her pocket.
Pulling out a black, military-grade micro-recorder.
This was a rare item she obtained in a previous dungeon.
Capable of recording and amplifying sound loops.
"If I play a high-frequency recording..."
"I can create a noise barrier around us."
"Blocking out the whispers."
She pressed her thumb on the play button.
Ready to activate it.
But suddenly.
Her thumb froze.
Her face turned bright red instantly.
Burning all the way to her ears.
She remembered.
The giant chef's words earlier.
"Eight dirty thought a minute..."
The recording inside...
Wasn't military orders.
It was the "material" she used for her "training."
Hours of it.
Extremely explicit.
If she played this in the quiet cafeteria...
Her reputation is gone forever.
Elena shoved the recorder back into her pocket.
Her face burning.
No.
I can't play this.
I still have my dignity.
I am a National celebrity.
If I play this...
I might as well jump out the window myself.
So she took a deep breath.
"Noise!"
"Everyone! Make noise!"
"Don't listen to the voices outside!"
"Use your own voices to drown them out!"
"Disrupt their frequency!"
"Magic defeats magic!"
The cafeteria fell silent for a second.
Then.
The Chosen reacted.
"Noise?"
"Right! Disruption!"
"Fuck it!"
A burly man climbed onto his table.
"Ahhhhh!"
He started screaming.
Like a dying pig.
"Come on! Is that all you got?!"
Beside him.
A woman started singing.
Badly.
Off-key opera.
"O sole miiiiooooo!"
It was terrible.
But effective.
Another group started gossiping loudly.
"Hey! Did you know the Chef wears pink underwear?"
"Really? I heard he likes to watch soap operas!"
"And Jack! That dead guy owed me twenty bucks!"
Some started reciting math formulas.
"Three point one four one five nine!"
Others just cursed.
"Fuck your mother! Fuck your grandmother!"
"Get out of here!"
Even little Amy joined in.
She hugged her doll.
Screaming in a high-pitched voice:
"Mom! Mom! Mom!"
"My mom is at home!"
"You are ugly! You are not my mom!"
The cafeteria turned into a chaotic market.
A symphony of madness.
Screams.
Songs.
Curses.
Gossip.
It was a sonic weapon of pure human chaos.
And it worked.
The sticky whispers at the window.
They were all drowned out.
Submerged in the ocean of human noise.
The scratching on the glass slowed down.
Hesitated.
And finally stopped.
The heavy pressure on everyone's brains lifted.
Their eyes regained clarity.
"It stopped!"
"I can't hear them anymore!"
"We made it!"
People wiped sweat from their foreheads.
Laughing nervously.
Continuing to shout while eating.
But amidst the noise.
There was a chilling silence.
Scattered across the cafeteria.
About a dozen people remained quiet.
Like Sarah.
And the man who stood up earlier.
They didn't scream.
They didn't sing.
They didn't even look up.
They just ate.
Rhythmically shoveling food into their mouths.
Deaf to the chaos around them.
Under their skin.
Black veins were spreading.
The Dragon Country stream was buzzing.
[Elena is a genius!]
[Quick thinking! She saved everyone!]
[But wait... didn't she pull out a recorder?]
[Yeah! Why scream manually when you have a speaker?]
[Maybe the battery died?]
[Upstairs is too naive. Remember the chef's leak?]
[That recorder probably contains her 'training material'!]
[Hahahaha! If she played that, she'd die of social shame instantly!]
[Better to lose your voice than your dignity!]
Then.
The conversation shifted to the haters.
[Hey, where are the foreign dogs who wanted Brother Chen dead?]
[Come out and bark!]
[Without Brother Chen, you'd all be fertilizer!]
[Exactly! Without his 'Golden Tongue' making the Queen moan and breaking the first wave, everyone would have been possessed!]
[One lick saves the world!]
[Respect the tongue!]
Foreign comments popped up.
[Bullshit!]
[We would have figured it out eventually!]
[Our chosen are elites! They don't need a pervert to save them!]
[It was Elena's idea! Don't flatter yourselves, Dragon Country!]
[Jack would have screamed louder if he was alive!]
[Yeah, keep dreaming. Jack is dog food now.]
In the cafeteria.
Chaos reigned.
Screams, bad singing, and curses filled the air.
But at the center table.
It was a tranquil island.
Protected by the lingering S-rank aura.
Chen Shi sat comfortably.
He didn't scream.
Because he didn't need to.
His hand was under the table.
Holding Annie's small, pale hand.
He rubbed his thumb against her hand.
It was incredibly soft.
Like high-grade silk.
Cool to the touch.
But warming up under his friction.
He traced her slender fingers.
Feeling the delicate bones underneath.
So smooth.
So fragile yet deadly.
He stared at her sleeping face.
His mind wandering into dangerous territory.
If this hand...
Wrapped around something else...
If it was flushed pink all over...
Sweating under him...
Chen Shi swallowed.
His thumb pressing harder on her palm.
Kneading her soft flesh.
"Mmm..."
A lazy sound broke his fantasy.
Annie's long eyelashes fluttered.
Like butterfly wings.
She opened her eyes slowly.
Her gaze was hazy.
Unfocused.
Still lingering in the afterglow of that overwhelming pleasure.
She looked at Chen Shi.
Her red lips parted.
Voice cold.
"You..."
"Why are you holding my hand?"