Kill the Sun

Nick walked out of the Containment Unit, and the people in the hallway watched in surprise.

This new guy went through all of the level one, level two, and level three Specters in a single day!

That was extremely rare!

In just a single day, he earned 40 points, securing his stay here!

It was important to note that the points per category for Specters didn't add up.

This meant that Nick didn't earn one plus five plus ten points in the danger category, but just ten since he managed to complete level three.

Everyone knew that it was almost impossible for Nick to fail.

At least when it came to having too few points.

He might very well fail by dying to a powerful Specter.

Some of the people started to approach Nick as he walked towards the main hall again.

But before they reached Nick, he turned towards his left and entered another Containment Unit.

When the others saw that, they took a deep breath.

This madman actually directly went for level four of pain!

"He's going to regret that," one of them said with a worried expression.

"Why? Is that one bad?" another guy asked.

"Really bad," the first guy said. "He won't die, but he won't dare to enter again."

Meanwhile, Nick entered the locker room in front of the Containment Unit and looked at the rules.

'Don't need to remove my shirt for once,' he thought. 'Wonder what kind of Specter is in there.'

The manual only included Specters up to level three.

Level four and level five Specters were generally kept secret.

It also wasn't possible to enter their locker rooms unless one had completed the level preceding this one.

Trainees were also told not to talk too much about the high-ranking Specters, which was why the vast majority of people didn't know the specifics of the level four Specters.

Even more, some Containment Units required the trainee to have earned a certain number of points in a specific category.

After all, while danger was a constant companion while working with a Specter, Aegis wanted to make sure that the Extractors could actually survive.

Nick looked around the locker room and didn't find any sort of manual for the Specter, which meant that he still didn't know what kind of Specter was in there.

After some seconds, he approached the door.

That was when he noticed a sign on the door.

Apparently, in order to work with this Specter, someone needed to have earned at least two points in all of the fitness tests.

This meant that somebody needed to be above average in physical fitness in order to work with this Specter.

On top of that, it also required a successful session of work with the Unmoving One, the level two focus Specter.

'Things are getting strict,' Nick thought as he touched the door.

His Barrier shone green, and the door was unlocked.

When Nick entered, he immediately saw the Specter.

It was a big white rock sitting in the middle of the room.

Nick could tell what kind of material the rock was made of since his nose was assaulted with the thick scent of salt.

'A Possession Specter made of salt, huh?' Nick thought as he noticed some illustrations hanging on the wall.

The first illustration showed an Extractor putting some sort of cuff with a chain on one of their legs.

The second illustration showed a healthy Extractor touching the stone.

The third illustration showed the Extractor falling to their knees and becoming thinner.

The fourth illustration showed a husk lying in front of the salt rock.

The last illustration showed the chain on the cuff becoming taut and pulling the Extractor away.

'Alright,' Nick thought as he looked at the cuff and the chain coming out from a small hole in the wall.

The next moment, he walked over and put the cuff around one of his ankles.

Finally, Nick approached the stone and touched it.

As soon as he touched the stone, he became thirsty, which was extremely strange since he hadn't been thirsty in over a decade.

It was an alien feeling to him.

Then, Nick's muscles felt like they were burning.

'It's pulling all the moisture out of my body,' Nick thought as he started to grit his teeth.

It was one thing to just pull the stored water out of somebody's body, but this Specter was also pulling the water out of the molecular makeup of Nick's body.

This meant that Nick's molecules were being denatured, turning from one kind of molecule into another one.

While the chemical process wasn't identical, the denaturing of molecules also happened in processes like being submerged in acid or being burned.

And that was what Nick was feeling right now.

His skin was becoming brittle.

His organs dried up.

His eyes sank into the back of his head.

Nick's senses distorted, and a strong feeling of vertigo and weakness enveloped his whole body.

He was dying.

He felt like he was dying.

He felt like a sickly old man who was about to draw his last breath.

A moment later, Nick fell to his knees, but his hand still stuck to the rock of salt.

In fact, Nick couldn't pull his hand away, even if he wanted to.

For the first time in a long while, he was reminded of the Nightmare.

He felt like every part of his body was burning!

It was like he drank highly concentrated acid!

Even worse was that Nick felt helpless.

He couldn't let go of the salt rock, and it just kept destroying him!

The only thing that kept him from going crazy was the thought that Aegis wouldn't let their trainees die like this.

If even Nick, with his higher level and powerful body, couldn't free himself from the Specter, none of the trainees could.

And sure enough, three seconds later, a green light appeared inside the Containment Unit, and the chain leading to the cuff on his ankle violently pulled back.

Nick was torn away from the salt rock, but the burning pain didn't vanish.

PSSSSSH!

An instant later, streams of water came out of the wall, showering Nick's entire body.

Surprisingly, the water vanished almost immediately after entering the room.

The salt rock was also absorbing all the moisture in the air.

The pain slowly vanished, and Nick regained his strength.

Slowly, Nick stood up again.

For a couple of seconds, he didn't move.

Then, he looked at the salt rock.

To be honest, he was a bit intimidated by it.

If he could avoid it, he wouldn't want to work with it again.

Nick could deal with going through this event once, but he wouldn't be able to stomach going through it regularly.

That was just too much.

In fact, it was so bad that Nick would even sell the Specter if he owned it.

After all, it would be almost impossible to create Zephyx with this one since working with it was so insanely difficult.

Such a Specter was only good for one thing, and that was to give someone the experience of being in an absolutely horrible situation.

However, it could also be used as a form of torture.

In the end, Nick sighed and walked out of the Containment Unit.

He wouldn't be coming back into this Containment Unit.

There were enough Specters to work with.

When Nick left the Containment Unit, he saw almost 30 people looking at him with impressed expressions.

"Pretty bad, huh?" a girl with a sharp expression uttered.

Nick looked at her and just nodded.

"That's the worst one from what I know," she said.

"What about pain level five?" Nick asked.

"Nobody does pain level five," the girl said with a frown. "People who manage to pass level four are not very likely to even enter level five, and people who could deal with level five won't pass level four."

"It's not about pain tolerance. It's about not being human anymore," she said cryptically.

Then, she gestured to the door leading to the fifth level of pain. "Go in. You don't need to have any requirements except succeeding in level four."

The girl's words piqued Nick's interest, and he walked towards the fifth level of pain.

"What's the fifth level of pain?" a bystander asked the girl.

"Trust me," she said. "You don't wanna know."

When Nick entered the locker room, he saw several illustrations showing him what he needed to do.

Nick looked at the illustrations for a while.

Then, he shook his head and left the locker room.

He would not even attempt level five of pain.

When everyone saw Nick coming back out again, they became shocked.

This guy had just completed level four and was willing to attempt level five.

Yet, he came out almost immediately after!

Was level five truly that bad?!

"I see what you mean," Nick said to the girl.

The girl nodded knowingly.

"I would've lost respect for you if you actually went through with pain level five," she said.

"I understand," Nick said.

Inside the locker room, Nick had seen several illustrations of a sickly-looking old man having different kinds of sexual relations with Extractors.

The Specter was called the Revulsion, and based on the illustrations, it transformed into the most disgusting and vile form imaginable and forced itself on any Extractor.

Sure enough, withstanding something like that without any lasting mental damage required being not human or a very broken human.

Or a very specific fetish.

If it were a life-or-death situation, Nick could force himself to go through with it.

But it wasn't.

This was for a measly 15 extra points.

There was no point in going through with that.