"Yuyuan! Stop pretending! Your eyes say everything!" the tea dolphin shouted dramatically.
"Yuyuan, marry me!" he cried, dropping to his knees with fervor.
But before he could fully kneel, the tea dolphin's face froze in shock.
In an instant, a searing pain shot through him, like a force powerful enough to split mountains and rivers rising from below. It was as if the very world was collapsing—a cataclysmic eruption that consumed his senses.
On his old, wrinkled face, every muscle stiffened, his features locked in agony. Blood drained from his skin, leaving him with a darkened, purple hue.
Everything else faded into irrelevance in that moment.
"Ohhh!!"
The entire square gasped in horror as they realized what had just happened. Every onlooker's mouth hung open in shock, eyes bulging with disbelief. They couldn't fathom how Vice Admiral tea dolphin, with his heightened senses, had failed to detect the person sneaking up behind him.
All anyone could feel was a sympathetic jolt in the pit of their stomachs, instinctively clutching their lower backs, cringing at the imagined pain.
"Hiss! What if that had been me?" Marines whispered, each imagining the excruciating pain that had just been unleashed.
Momousagi, standing nearby, was in complete disbelief. Her delicate hands covered her mouth as she processed the scene. Why was this young man doing this? Was it to help her? Should she be thanking him for this audacious act?
But the tea dolphin...
After a brief, horrifying pause, he erupted with rage.
Despite being a Vice Admiral, the sheer pain overwhelmed him, and he let out a piercing, high-pitched wail—a cry more fitting for a eunuch. His feet involuntarily shot up onto their toes, as if an invisible force had lifted him off the ground.
His eyes rolled back in his head, and his body collapsed to the floor like a deflated balloon.
"Uh... what just happened to the tea dolphin Vice Admiral?" one Marine stammered, staring in disbelief.
"That was brutal!" another cried out. "Who is this guy? He just took down a Vice Admiral!"
"Isn't that the kid who claimed to be Garp's grandson earlier? No way he's this strong!"
"Yeah, right! Like I'd believe that," someone scoffed.
While the crowd buzzed in confusion, the tea dolphin struggled to push himself up. His hands trembled as he pressed them to the ground, trying to stand, but his strength faltered.
And then... the sound.
An ominous, unnatural noise filled the air, capturing everyone's attention.
Everyone turned to see the tea dolphin Vice Admiral's back... and what they saw left them speechless.
"Pfft! My god!" a soldier exclaimed, recoiling.
"Mom, my eyes!" another cried in horror, covering his face with his hands.
Laughter rippled through the crowd.
"The great Admiral candidate, disgraced in front of everyone like this?"
"I came here to record the tea dolphin's 93rd failed proposal, and I ended up witnessing... whatever this is!"
"It's over! His reputation is ruined! He can never show his face in front of Momousagi again!"
"If that were me, I'd dig a hole and bury myself!"
As the tea dolphin tried to rise, something went terribly wrong. His back... burst like a dam, and a terrible stench filled the air. Marines gagged and recoiled, unable to believe what they were witnessing.
"That's it! This has gone way too far!" Finn, seeing the disaster unfold, decided it was time to make a swift exit.
He slipped away, discarding his gloves as he went. Momousagi, however, watched him retreat. Though the young man's method had been... unconventional, he had saved her from another humiliating proposal. She smiled to herself.
"This young man might be a little... extreme," she thought, "but thanks to him, I won't have to deal with any more of the tea dolphin's embarrassing proposals. I owe him one. Perhaps I should treat him to dinner as thanks."
Momousagi felt no sympathy for the tea dolphin. From the moment of his first proposal, she had made it crystal clear that there was no chance. Yet, despite her constant rejections, he persisted, publicly chasing her in a way that disrupted her life.
Now, because of this strange young man, it was finally over. No more proposals. No more awkward confrontations. For the first time, she could breathe easy.
As she headed back toward the female soldiers' quarters, a weight lifted from her shoulders.
Meanwhile, Finn was far away, his steps quickening as he made his escape. Just as he rounded a corner, a system notification popped up in his mind:
"Ding! Congratulations to the host! You have been rewarded: 100x Mission Card!"
Finn grinned. "Perfect. Just what I needed."