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nIt was difficult for Nick to accept what had just happened.

nHe was just about to undergo his ability advancement, and now, he had been abducted by the Maw.

nThere were several things that were hard to accept.

nFirst, Nick had been safe inside Aegis’ headquarters for years by now, and now, he suddenly got taken away.

nSecond, this had happened right after the Technician had warned him. In a weird way, it would have been easier to come to terms with it if the Technician had simply said it.

nThird, this was an Eternal!

nEternals were always very special, and interacting with any of them was something that happened extremely rarely.

nPeople rarely interacted with the Nightmare since they avoided it constantly.

nIf people interacted with Nurse Alice, it was almost always only once in their lives.

nNobody interacted with the Null.

nThe Sun was ever present, but its presence was barely felt since it was almost like a law of nature. It was just always there.

nAnd not many people interacted with the Maw.

nAfter all, it was only interested in Extractors, and the vast majority of Extractors were never kidnapped by it.

nIn Crimson City, some of Nick’s employees had vanished without any trace.

nNaturally, this could have happened due to other Specters or Manufacturers, but there was also a possibility that they had been kidnapped by the Maw.

nNick had not met anyone in Crimson City who had been kidnapped by the Maw and had survived.

nBack then, Nick had simply thought that being abducted by the Maw was very rare, but that was not the entire reason why he had never seen anyone who had survived.

nIn general, the Maw kidnapped a number of people with a multiple of eight.

n8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and so on.

nIf some people in Crimson City had been kidnapped by the Maw, at least one of them should have been able to win and survive, right?

nAccording to the odds, yes.

nHowever, there was an issue.

nAnyone below the level of Hero that managed to win would basically die anyway.

nWhy?

nBecause the Maw didn’t care about where it released its winner.

nThe Maw didn’t put the people back from where it had abducted them.

nNewbies and Johns would very quickly die to any wild Specter.

nVeterans and Experts might be able to reach the closest city, but they wouldn’t have any way to get home.

nMost of the time, they were just killed on sight or absorbed by one of the local Manufacturers.

nThere were some reports about surviving Specialists, but not that many. Naturally, that was for the same reason.

nA powerful Specialist that a Manufacturer could kill without incurring any enmity from a powerful Manufacturer?

nGreat!

nThat was some good Specter fodder!

nHeroes were the only ones that could return home with a high level of confidence.

nFirst of all, they could fly and were very fast.

nSecond, fighting a Hero was always dangerous. Even for an entire city.

nLuckily, Nick had a Barrier and a uniform from Aegis, making it much easier to survive.

nAs long as he found a city, he could just walk in, and nobody would dare to attack him.

nBut he had to survive first.

nNick was engulfed by an extending hole filled with teeth and eyes.

nHe could barely discern any flesh since everything was covered in teeth, eyes, teeth-filled eyes, eye-filled teeth, teeth growing out of teeth, eyes growing out of eyes, eyes growing out of teeth, and so on.

nNick felt watched by all of his surroundings, and obviously, his ability had already deactivated.

nThe Maw was watching him closely.

nNick didn’t dare to attack his surroundings.

nAngering the Maw might cause it to kill him.

nThe floor below Nick opened, and he began to fall into a long hole filled with teeth and eyes.

nThe teeth touched his Barrier, making it fuzz and spark.

nNick felt his Zephyx reducing and refilling rapidly.

nThe teeth definitely damaged his Barrier, but they did not do enough damage to use up Nick’s Zephyx.

nTZZZZ!

nMore and more sparks came out of Nick’s Barrier, and it became extremely fuzzy.

nAs Nick continued to fall, his Barrier distorted.

nBANG!

nThen, the white Barrier surrounding him broke apart, and its white shell was immediately absorbed by the eyes.

nAt the same time, Nick felt something explode on his chest.

nNick’s heart nearly stopped.

nHis Barrier had broken!

nAs in, it was ACTUALLY broken!

nThe device just exploded!

nThe entire device had become useless, and Nick was stuck without a Barrier until he could purchase a new one!

nAs soon as Nick’s Barrier broke, the teeth and the eyes began to retreat as the hole widened significantly.

nThis change was so sudden that it couldn’t be a coincidence.

nThese teeth and eyes were explicitly designed to destroy Barriers!

nA moment later, Nick saw something approaching from the bottom.

nBANG!

nNick was hit by a huge wall of moist flesh.

nFor a moment, he wasn’t sure what this wall was, but then, it moved.

nThe wall moved upward in a rolling motion, and Nick fell behind the wall.

n‘That’s a tongue!’

nYes, the big wall of flesh had been a huge tongue.

nBANG!

nAn instant later, Nick was hit by another tongue.

nBut this time, he didn’t fall past the tongue immediately.

nInstead, countless smaller but very long tongues broke out of the big tongue and encased him.

nThe tongues went through his clothing, licking his entire body.

nNick felt a cold shudder going throughout his body.

nHe was helpless!

nHe couldn’t do anything against this!

nSurprisingly, Nick had stopped falling as the tongues tasted him.

nHe felt like this wasn’t supposed to happen.

nA moment later, Nick’s heart nearly stopped, and he gritted his teeth.

nOne of the tongues was trying to get into his mouth, and he refused to let it in.

nCRKSH!

nBut it didn’t care.

nIt pushed Nick’s teeth in, ignoring the shards and traveling down his esophagus and windpipe.

nNick had to heave uncontrollably, but that didn’t help.

nCRKSH!

nThen, Nick felt a strong pain from inside his body.

nThe tongue had pierced past his stomach and lungs, stretching and exploring the insides of his other organs.

nThey were tasting all of him!

nNick tried to bite down on the tongues and tear at them, but they were indestructible!

nAt the same time, several other tongues made their way into his body through his other holes.

nThey were all digging through his body, searching for something.

nAnd then, one of them touched his Specter Core, and immediately after, all the tongues went towards it.

nA normal human would have long since died, but Nick was an Extractor.

nHe still had his Zephosis, and as long as he wasn’t out of Zephyx, he could survive something like this.

nWhen the tongues gathered around Nick’s Specter Core, he realized what was happening.

n‘They are confused by my Specter Core!’

n‘They’ve never seen anything like this and don’t know what to do with it!’

nNick’s body was suspended in the air, over 20 long and thin tongues keeping him there.

nHe was bleeding profusely as his arms and legs helplessly flailed in the air.

nThe tongues wound around his Specter Core, and Nick felt immense pain.

nThey were compressing it!

nNick felt like he was a tiny insect in the hands of a curious toddler.

nHe was completely at its mercy.

nIf the toddler became bored, he would be killed.

nMaybe the toddler would tear all of his limbs off just to watch what he would do first.

nFor several seconds, the tongues just tasted Nick’s Specter Core as they increased their strength.

nNick’s panic increased.

n‘I’m going to die!’

n‘It’s going to kill me!’

nIts grip strengthened.

nCRK!

nA crack appeared in Nick’s Specter Core.

nWhen the crack appeared, some of Nick’s human Zephyx broke past the Specter Core for the first time and entered his body.

nNick’s Zephyx Synchronizer was no longer perfectly isolated by the Specter Core.

nThe tongues let go of the Specter Core and focused on the crack.

nThey all gathered in front of it and consumed the Zephyx.

nTwo seconds later, they all pulled back, and finally, they left Nick’s body.

nBang!

nThe big tongue Nick was lying on moved, and Nick fell past it.

nNick continued falling weakly, his body filled with blood and saliva.

nYet, at this moment, Nick could only feel relief.

n‘I’m not going to die!’

nIn this case, falling further represented entering the Maw’s competition, which meant being viewed as human, which meant having a chance to survive.

nIf the Maw deemed him a Specter, he would have already been killed by the tongues.

nBang!

nNick landed on another tongue, but this one wasn’t like the others.

nIt was filled with razors!

nThe tongue moved Nick around and tore his clothes off, as well as quite a bit of his skin.

nAfter falling past several more tongues, Nick was left without any clothing.

nHe was only left with his two blades and about ten throwing spears that were stored as small cylinders.

nBANG!

nAnd then, Nick hit the ground.

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