As the night turned a dark red… the sky looked like it was bleeding, turning thick and murky like mosh.
[Forced Activation]
Monsters hunched over, gnawing on the flesh of their victims while dragging them across the ground. But it wasn't enough…
Adam stepped back—then ran. The noise of his movement alerted the creatures. They bolted after him, crawling on all fours. Yet they made no sound—no breath, no howl, no animalistic scream.
They didn't cry out like beasts. And they were faster than Adam could ever hope to be.
"Rehan! Can you analyze these monsters?!"
[Roger]
Adam couldn't help but feel grateful—grateful that someone was with him, even if not physically. Being alone felt like psychological warfare.
He was being surrounded. In the distance, he finally saw it: a pixelated portal gate, kilometers away.
[I'm sorry, Adam. These monsters are beyond my comprehension... Their joints and appendages are twisted and deformed. If they ever had normal bodies, they'd be screaming in agony. Analyzing further…]
[They lack any functional organ systems. They don't have a nose or respiratory tract—just a large mouth. Their bodies are filled with holes. In my world, such beings would be parasitized or decaying from bacterial or viral infections.]
[I'll need assistance from your second system—whatever it is.]
[Starting Initial Setup…]
[Mutated Timous]
Level: 10–20
HP: 200
MP: None
Skills:
Absorption – Sucks nutrients from enemies to nourish the host
Red Tongue – Fires internal digestive matter to trap the enemy (ineffective against high defense)
Stats:
ATK: 20 (25)
DEF: 20 (10)
AGI: 10 (15)
WIL: None
LCK: None
INT: 10
STA: 20
Weakness: Magic
Description:A creature born in the Timeout Room, disfigured and mutated by the Fuhai. Though their agility and attack power have increased, their defense suffers. As abominations, their luck has been reduced to zero.
[][]
I was running toward the gate...A Mutated Timous grabbed my hand. My body accelerated—Empower activated. My strength doubled. I realized then: Rehan's system had actually assimilated with mine...
But one of them—its tongue—latched onto my neck and yanked me backward. I was thrown and slammed onto the ground. Many others lunged for me like hyenas. I tried grappling, punching through them—but I was only chipping away tiny bits of their health...
This was truly hell for Adam.
He realized then, as he was surrounded, that he might die. He tried to use everything he had.
"No..." "No..."
This is a dream, he thought. So there might be hope, right? He's not gonna die, right?
But as his waist, legs, and arms were tied down by scraping tongues... he was mutilated and eaten alive. His face was gouged. His skin, peeled.
(-12 HP)(-12 HP)(-12 HP)
The only thing seen through his eyes was fear and horror...Before everything turned white and dim.
...
...
Suddenly, Adam woke up—on a bed, in the house of those people of this world.He could still see the deep shade of tripes—those streaks of red in the sky.
No no no no—There's no hope. He's going to die.What happened? WHY IS HE HERE?WHY AM I ALIVE?
I laughed a little. I smiled, thinking of what to do."That was a dream, right...?"No.
I saw the weird person with no face sitting quietly beside me, eating cereal. My hand stretched out as the door began to open—my fear returning. My eyes widened in mania.I was terrified.I didn't want to die.Will I truly die if I die next time?
What if that last time was just a lucky shot?
Am I truly me?Or am I just a fake Adam—personified as the real one that's already dead...?
I don't care. I don't care.
I just don't want to die.
I stood up and ran toward the door, slamming it shut. My teeth were shaking like they'd crack.I didn't know anything.I didn't know what to do.I didn't know what would happen next...
Someone help me.
I knelt down and covered my face with my fingers.
The door opened again.
A monster. Face to face with me.
"NO, PLEASE!!!"
I fought back using Empower—tried to activate it twice, hoping to somehow hack the system—but it didn't allow me to. Worse, it drained 1% MP every second...
DIE DIE DIE DIE—
With fear in my eyes, I just wanted to kill it.The Timous outside, seeing that it was taking too long, began to circle the house. Their eyes—like wax-covered fish eyes—watched, glowing.
And then they mauled me again.
Just before it happened again...
I woke up. On the bed.
The same house. The faceless person now washing dishes.
My teeth had finally cracked from the shaking.The pain of being absorbed, of being eaten alive—I feared it.The door creaked...
[Adam... Calm down.]Rehan, having watched Adam get eaten over and over, was in turmoil herself.[You can get out of this. Just one kill is enough.]
Adam: "Yeah..."cough
The window shattered. The faceless person was grabbed by the throat and yanked out—glass shards ripping into their body.
An idea struck me.
I screamed as loud as I could, hoping someone—anyone—would come. Minori or whoever else.
But there was silence.
Then soon monsters gouged into my intestines with their sharp fangs.
It was disgusting to become part of them.
Over and over and over. Again and again.
I was trapped in a cycle of death and misery.
My hair was turning pale—already nearly white.The pain was numbing.I could finally think.
I ran out again—tried to find the portal gate.And there it was.
Right before I was trampled by the monsters.
I smiled crazily.
Sat up in bed again.
Before the door opened and another monster stepped in.
But something was different.
This time, I had respawned in the same place I died.
My flesh and intestines were still there on the ground.And so was the damage I had done to the monster.
I ran.
Tried to pierce it using Empower.
I didn't care if I died or got surrounded.
The only thing I could think of—was getting stronger... and killing all these monsters.
BIT. BY. BIT.
Dying and coming back.My flesh was scattered across this world...
But as long as I kept returning—As long as just one of them died—It didn't matter.
I sat up again on the bed where I respawned.I saw the same monster I'd met three times before.
I grappled it.
More monsters grappled me.They bit into me.Tore through me.
But I didn't care.
Just one kill is enough.
Slowly.Finally.
I managed to pierce the head of a Timous, striking it repeatedly.
[Level 4–10]
Ha... haha... ;}
I smirked.
So what Minori said—about repeated hits—was true after all.
My stats were empowered.
I stood up.