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nAs soon as the hole appeared in the wall, the walls surrounding Nick started to enclose him, forcing him out of the room.

nNaturally, Nick quickly jumped out of the room and looked through his surroundings.

nIt was like Nick was inside some kind of surrealist painting.

nNick wasn’t in some kind of room or hallway.

nIt was more like a surreal cavern.

nThere were almost no paths or streets, just vertical, horizontal, and diagonal columns made of flesh and eyes.

nNick was on top of a horizontal fleshy column that went from one wide vertical column to another.

nWhen he looked over the edge of his column, he saw more columns randomly placed everywhere.

nThe same pattern seemed to endlessly continue downward, upward, and sideward.

nIt was just chaos.

nThe furthest Nick could see was 150 meters in one direction before that one was blocked by a column as well.

nFinally, the columns were not static.

nThey pulsed.

nThe eyes moved.

nEven the columns themselves became wider and thinner at random intervals.

nSometimes, new columns were made while old ones vanished.

nEverything was alive.

nNick felt like he was inside of one gigantic organism of untold power and proportions.

nHow big was the Maw?

nNobody knew.

nThey only knew that it had to be absolutely gigantic.

nAnd sure enough, Nick could confirm that it was humongous.

nNick’s mind was still reeling from his revelation that he now, apparently, was a Specter.

nWhat about his future?

nWould he be humanity’s enemy?

nCould he use a Barrier?

nWhat would Aegis do if they found out?

nWould anyone believe him if he told them that he was human?

nHow could he prove that he was human or had been human?

nThere were many Specters that looked and acted like humans.

nHow was he supposed to prove that he genuinely felt and thought like a human when there were so many Specters that were amazing at acting like humans?

nNick’s mind was filled with doubts, uncertainties, and fears.

nFinally, Nick shook his head.

n‘I can’t think about this right now!’ he thought with gritted teeth as he pushed his worries into the back of his mind. ‘The Maw’s contest has already started, and the other people are already searching for their opponents, most likely.’

n‘I can think about my future after getting out of here!’

nAn instant later, Nick turned into mist.

nSince the Maw’s eyes were illuminating Nick’s surroundings, he couldn’t become ethereal or fly normally.

nOn top of that, the Maw’s eyes were constantly keeping watch over him.

nSadly, Nick would most likely not be able to use his main ability during this entire competition.

nHis blinding light definitely wasn’t strong enough to blind the Maw, and his new ability from upgrading his mist-ability also wouldn’t help much.

nNaturally, this gave Nick a huge disadvantage in this competition.

nHowever, not everything was bad.

nSince this was not open terrain and since no contestant had a Barrier, Assassins were naturally favored in this competition, and Nick was exactly that.

nThere was plenty of confusing terrain that worked as escape routes and ambushes.

nAdditionally, every competitor was an Initial Specialist, and Nick doubted that any of them had a depth of fighting experience that could rival him.

nNick wasn’t the biggest fan of killing innocent humans, but he was forced to.

nHe would not sacrifice his life for only one guy.

nNick was not opposed to sacrificing his life for others, but his sacrifice needed to have a purpose.

nThe mist that was Nick flowed along the pillars and carefully navigated the confusing environment.

nWhile he was doing so, Nick’s perception covered his surroundings in detail.

nSince his Zephyx Synchronizer had fused with his Specter Core, there were no more issues regarding his abilities.

nThis meant that Nick could use his newest ability as well.

nThe one he had gotten from the Maw.

nSadly, as with most of his abilities, its true power could only be exhibited if no one was perceiving him.

nLuckily, it still had a minor effect while being perceived, making it not completely useless in this environment.

nThe sheer power of an Eternal made them useful in basically every category.

nThe Nightmare could manipulate, torture, scare, stun, kill, sense, and so on.

nTherefore, if somebody advanced their ability with the Nightmare’s help, there was a very high likelihood that the Nightmare’s ability had a high compatibility rating with the Extractor’s base ability.

nThe Maw was the same.

nThe Maw could extend towards great distances, was physically extremely powerful, had powerful sensing abilities, could suppress people, could vanish from seemingly any spot, and so on.

nBecause of that, the diversity of abilities the Maw could grant people was crazy.

nNaturally, the Maw had advanced Nick’s ability in the most useful way for him.

nSensing.

nNick had plenty of ways to escape and stay hidden, but his sensing abilities were not that great.

nYes, he could feel whether or not somebody was perceiving him, but that was still rather limited.

nThe ability the Maw had given Nick was as simple as it was effective.

nIt passively increased the sensitivity of all of his senses.

nNick’s vision was stronger, he could hear better, his sensitivity to Zephyx was higher, and he could feel vibrations much more strongly.

nThe sensitivity of his senses could be compared to the senses of a Hero.

nAnd that was only the passive effect.

nNaturally, there was also an active ability Nick had gained, but he could only use it while not being perceived, making it useless in the current environment.

nIn his mist form, Nick continued to move forward, continually scanning his surroundings.

n‘I have no idea how big the arena is, but it can’t be too big. After all, the Maw is doing this mainly to gain Zephyx. Entertainment is only secondary.’

nSeveral minutes passed.

nYet, Nick hadn’t found anyone else.

n‘That’s unusual,’ he thought. ‘With my powerful senses, I should be able to find at least one of them, but I didn’t.’

n‘Additionally, I’ve already traveled several kilometers in here. I believe I should have come across someone already.’

n‘So, why didn’t I?’

n‘Either the arena is much bigger than I thought, or everyone else is extremely good at hiding.’

n‘Or I just have bad luck?’

n‘Nevertheless, I should continue searching.’

nNick kept moving across different columns, scanning all of them for any hidden enemies.

n‘I don’t think there are more than eight contestants. If there were more, I would have found one already.’

nMore minutes passed. freeweɓnovel.cm

nStill nothing.

nNick’s mood became more solemn.

n‘What is going on? There are supposed to be enemies, right? Even if every enemy is an Assassin or Runner, I should have seen one already. With my newly improved senses, not many Specialists should be able to hide from me.’

nClk.

nAt that moment, Nick heard a very subtle sound.

nWithout his improved senses, he would not have been able to pick it up.

nNick carefully but quickly slithered towards the origin of the sound.

nFinally, he found it.

nAnother competitor!

nOn a horizontal pillar, about 20 meters below Nick, was a woman with black eyes, black hair, and two black daggers.

nJust as Nick had expected, the Maw had also destroyed all of her belongings, including Barrier and clothes.

nJust like Nick, she was armed and naked.

n‘I don’t feel any Zephyx coming from her,’ Nick thought as he took a close look at her. ‘That’s probably one of her abilities. She has to be an Assassin.’

nThe woman slowly moved around the pillars, sticking to them like a spider.

nNick moved after her.

nEveryone else had to die anyway for Nick to escape.

nThe woman was moving with impressive subtlety, and if Nick hadn’t heard that noise earlier, he wouldn’t have found her.

nIt was extremely difficult to perceive her for some reason due to the fact that she seemingly didn’t give off any Zephyx.

nIt was almost like she was just an illusion or an afterimage.

n‘Very impressive ability.’

nNick closed in on her.

nHe was extremely careful.

nShe stopped for a moment to look past one of the pillars.

nBANG!

nNick transformed into his physical form, unsheathed his blades, and rammed his blade through her head!

nHer expression changed to terror, but there was nothing else she could do.

n‘One down,’ Nick thought.

nNick pulled his blade out.

nThe corpse fell forward.

nCRKSH!

nAnd split apart into sheets of flesh and eyes!

nNick’s eyes widened.

nThat was not a human body!

nIn an instant, Nick could tell that this sheet of flesh and eyes looked exactly like the Maw but without its unnerving and impossible power.

nThis was the ability of an Extractor!

nThis had to be the ability the Extractor had received from the Maw!

nA flesh clone!

nThis was a trap!

nBANG!

nYet, before Nick could react, a dagger came out of his forehead.

nThe same woman from earlier had reappeared, and she had buried her dagger in Nick’s head.

nThis was a huge miscalculation.

nNick’s opponent was not an Initial Specialist.

nIt was an Initial Hero!

nSHING!

nAnd then, a second dagger cut Nick’s head off.

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