Chapter 20: Chapter 20 – Too Much
Silence.
Nick just looked at the ceiling in silence.
He had expected that things wouldn't be as bad the second time.
He had been wrong.
Things had been even worse the second time.
Back when Nick had been underwater, the Nightmare had used subtle influences.
The next time, it had used horrors to stop Nick from moving to where he wanted.
Then, it created illusions of Nick losing control and being swallowed.
And now, it had just directly inflicted an unending amount of pain on him.
The Nightmare had lost all its subtlety.
It had transformed from horror into terror.
Nick just looked at the light at the ceiling.
He wasn't sure what he was feeling.
Fear, apprehension, relief, anxiety.
This wasn't like the last time.
The last time, Nick had been happy that he had managed to do it.
But this time, Nick was not happy.
The pain had been bad.
Real bad.
For several minutes, Nick didn't do anything.
He just looked at the ceiling with a worried expression.
He didn't want to feel such pain again.
He never wanted to feel something like that again.
Just now, his body had been torn apart one piece at a time.
This was a pain that should have killed someone.
But he was still alive.
…
…
Nick gulped in worry.
'I don't want to do this again.'
'How many times do I have to do this?'
'What will happen next?'
'I can barely swim for a bit more than ten meters in pure darkness, and it's already this bad.'
'This is one of the smaller blocks of houses.'
'There are blocks with no toilets, which means I have to look at the ceiling while under illusions.'
'And then, I need to go back.'
'Also, what about when I actually find the Dreamer at the ceiling in one of those?'
'At that point, I need to climb one of the pillars in pure darkness and catch it.'
'The Nightmare could easily show me illusions and make me move in the wrong direction.'
Nick just floated on the liquid as he looked up.
Silence.
'I don't know.'
'I have no idea how to find and catch the Dreamer.'
For over ten minutes, Nick didn't do anything.
Naturally, Nick knew that he couldn't spend the rest of his life in the light of this little toilet.
He had to leave at some point.
Yet, he just couldn't.
The terror he had felt just now was too much.
The pain was too much.
He was only 16 years old.
He had never undergone something this painful or terrifying.
This was not the work of some random weak Specter.
No, this was the Nightmare.
One of the only five level nine Specters.
Even the strongest Zephyx Extractors couldn't remain in the darkness for an extended period of time.
The Nightmare's power was absolute.
It had killed tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people just by mentally breaking them.
It had killed people far more experienced and tenacious than Nick.
'I can't do it.'
Silence.
'I just can't do it.'
'I have to do this one more time to get out, but I don't think I can enter another block of houses.'
Nick felt his chest shiver and hurt.
Regret, frustration, self-loathing.
'I'm not strong enough to do this again.'
'I want to turn my life around, not end it.'
'If I go through something like this again, I don't know if I will ever recover.'
'What then?'
'I want to try my best, but if I fail, I fail.'
'It's fine.'
'I can become an Inspector.'
'It's not like I have some lofty and idealistic goal that requires me to become the strongest person in the world.'
'No, I just want to live a good life.'
'But what's the point of living a good life when I wake up in a cold sweat because I keep re-experiencing the things I have seen and felt here every night for the remainder of my life?'
Nick looked to the side at the block of darkness waiting for him.
And then, some tears appeared in Nick's eyes.
'I'm sorry.'
'I just can't do it.'
'I'm not strong enough.'
Silence.
The only sounds down here came from the quiet scratching of the rats' claws and Nick's crying.
It was just too much for him.
Nick had just started his journey as a Zephyx Extractor, and he had already confronted one of the five strongest Specters several times.
This wasn't something that he could deal with.
This was far beyond his current level.
He gave up.
For the next couple of minutes, Nick looked at the darkness around him.
Then, he moved his head into the darkness and did a routine scan of the ceiling.
Maybe he was lucky, and the Dreamer was actually here.
It wasn't.
Nick took a deep breath.
He only felt fear right now.
He didn't want to enter the darkness again.
But he had to.
He couldn't remain here for the remainder of his life.
Nick took another deep breath.
It took a couple minutes for him to gather his courage, but eventually, he shot into the darkness again.
As soon as Nick entered…
Nothing happened.
However, Nick didn't let down his guard and just kept swimming forward.
Silence.
Nick just kept rapidly swimming forward in silence.
After a bit, Nick opened his eyes.
He saw the light of the "street" of the Dregs in front of him.
He was almost there.
Nick continued swimming.
And then…
He entered the street.
Nick was now in the light of the streets of the Dregs.
Nothing had happened in the darkness.
Nick turned around to look at the block of houses behind him with suspicion.
Had the Nightmare given up?
He doubted it.
Yet, Nick was back in the light again.
The Nightmare had no influence over Nick here.
BANG!
Suddenly, something hit Nick's head!
Splash! Splash! Splash! Splash!
Nick quickly shook his head and looked around him.
Rats!
"Don't wanna give me bodies, huh?" one of the rats spoke.
"How about you give me your body then!"
And then, the rats all charged at Nick.
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Chapter 21: Chapter 21 – Target
As soon as the rats fell on him and attacked him, Nick gritted his teeth in fury.
They had an unspoken agreement!
"You'll regret this!" Nick shouted.
This was different from the Nightmare.
The Parasite only had a limited number of rats, and Nick could cause real damage to the Parasite by killing them.
However, the rats could also cause real damage to Nick. After all, they were real.
Five rats immediately jumped on Nick.
Nick's right hand grabbed one of them and squeezed.
CRKSH!
The rat was squeezed into a thin sock of wet meat.
At the same time, Nick's left hand turned into a fist and punched a second rat.
BOOM!
The rat shot into the distance and hit the water over 50 meters away from Nick, skipping twice on the surface.
However, the other three rats reached Nick and immediately bit into his body.
One of them bit his right biceps, and the other two bit his chest.
At the same time, Nick saw several more rats coming out from the water around him.
Nick gritted his teeth in pain and hatred.
Nick grabbed one of the rats and pulled.
CRKSH!
The rat's body was torn off, but the head remained stuck in Nick's biceps.
BANG!
Another rat was turned into paste by another one of Nick's punches.
The last one let go and dove into the water while the other rats came closer.
Just a second later, three more rats were jumping at Nick.
Nick released several more attacks, but the rats just kept going after him without pause.
Even more, the rats even started to attack him from below the surface.
Nick's rage grew as he kept tearing the rats into pieces.
It was never-ending!
Some seconds later, Nick had already killed over 15 rats.
Yet, they just kept on coming!
The Parasite really went all in!
'I would already be dead without my ability!'
And then, Nick's eyes widened.
'My ability?'
Nick stopped resisting the rats.
'My ability shouldn't be working right now.'
'Yet, I am tearing these rats apart like they are paper.'
'My ability is still active!'
'This can only mean one thing.'
The realization had positive and negative aspects to it.
On one hand, Nick wasn't being attacked by the real Parasite, which meant that he had not actually been injured.
But on the other hand, Nick had spun around so many times during the battle that he didn't even know which direction he was facing.
In the end, Nick could only grit his teeth as he took one of the tubes from his thigh and broke it.
CRKSH!
All the rats vanished as Nick was swallowed by light.
Just now, Nick had been in the "street" of the sewers, but as soon as the light appeared around him, Nick saw that he was still about two meters away from the real street.
Nick had still been in the darkness.
'The Nightmare had made it seem like I had already reached the end when I actually hadn't.'
Nick immediately swam over to the street, which wasn't difficult with only two meters between him and it.
Now, Nick was actually back in the street of light.
'The Nightmare can even create illusions of light,' Nick thought with anxiety and fear.
'This is not something I can compete with.'
Nick looked back at the dark domain he had just left behind.
'At least I'm out now.'
The next moment, he looked around the sewers.
There were over a hundred similarly big domains.
Nick had gone through hell and had used two Arclights after going just through one of them.
'This is beyond my level.'
Silence.
Nick had been down here for several hours now, and he had become quite familiar with the sewers.
But in the end, he had to leave without any gains.
Even worse, Nick had even used two Arclights.
'Guess I'm going to become an Inspector now.'
'It's probably not a bad job.'
'I get to leave the Dregs, and I can probably also get a normal home.'
'Maybe I can even build a family.'
Yet, no matter how enticing the position as an Inspector seemed to Nick, he still felt regret.
For a while, Nick just looked at the ceiling of the sewers.
This would be his last excursion as a Zephyx Extractor.
Wyntor had already used up all the money he had access to.
He had bet everything on Nick.
Sadly, Nick would only disappoint him.
Silence.
Nick just watched the ceiling in silence.
A bird flew past him.
Suddenly, Nick's eyes widened.
A bird?
Nick's eyes immediately locked onto the bird as it entered a black domain representing a block of houses.
Just now, Nick had been set on giving up.
But now, he was hesitating again.
'A bird!'
'That must have been the Dreamer!'
Nick's heart rate rose rapidly as adrenaline shot through his body.
'After hours, its old target must have woken up or died, and it had to go to a new one!'
Nick's eyes locked onto the black domain where the Dreamer had to be in right now.
There were no toilets in this block, and the block was about fifty by fifty meters.
In the center of the block was the ruin of a stony tower, which supported the block of houses above it in the middle.
As Nick looked at the domain, images of what had happened to him earlier reappeared in his mind.
Pain, deceit, horror, death.
Nick was finally free!
He could finally leave the sewers!
He no longer needed to go through the darkness again!
But the Dreamer was right there!
Just once more!
Just one more time!
But what if he didn't succeed?
He might be risking his life for nothing.
After all, the Dreamer was obviously at the ceiling of the sewers.
Nick would need to swim for about twenty meters in pure darkness, climb ten meters of the structure, and then catch the Dreamer.
And he had to do that all in pure silence so that the Dreamer wouldn't notice him and in the Nightmare's illusionary hell.
He couldn't even use the last Arclight since that would immediately draw the Dreamer's focus to Nick, which would deactivate his ability.
At that point, Nick wouldn't be any stronger than a normal human.
In such a state, the Dreamer could probably just kill Nick without relying on the Nightmare or the environment.
If the Dreamer noticed him, he would die.
No matter how Nick thought about it…
It was impossible.
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