Cad had met with that shadowy being after his death in the colosseum, and he had thought it was a devil seeking to devour him.
But mysteriously, he had awakened, and he remembered vividly what had happened before he did.
The ominous tower object had been sent flying into his forehead at the last moment.
Upon his arrival here, he could vividly recall being welcomed into the End Battle Tower and being called Unworthy.
From this, he could easily piece things together:
Weak and helpless as he was, he had been given a treasure, one most definitely powerful, akin to a golden finger, just like the web novels he had read on Earth.
But this wasn't a system that he could just own at default.
This was something he had to prove that he was worthy of obtaining, and the first step to that was to complete the first floor.
The only challenge in here was the eggs holding the Abyss Cents, and that naturally meant the test was to destroy every one of them.
'Perhaps this is karma.'
Cad thought quietly,
'I've read more than I can count of these pathetic human MCs, given power beyond everyone else for suffering a pain everyone else suffers.'
'Acting as if their pain was the first in their cruel world, or that only they had ever had to suffer such pain.'
'I've always thought they needed more pain to prove their worthiness of the system or whatever they acquired, and now...Here I am.'
SCREEEEECCCH!
A sonic shockwave slammed down upon him, but this time, he expected it.
His feet dragged upon the ground as his only arm crossed over, blocking the air from destabilizing his eyesight.
After its shockwave, as expected, the centipede shot forward, its abyssal mouth following quickly to devour him.
Cad slammed into the wall, and in that moment, he jumped high into the air.
BAAAAAANG!
The wall fractured as the creature slammed its abyssal maw into it.
The force of the collision sent one of its pincers falling off, and Cad landed on its head, running on its back.
The creature immediately flung its head upward, but Cad quickly jumped off the head,
Landing on the ground,
CREAAAK!
His knees creaked from the pain of the landing, sending him onto all fours, but he used the momentum to roll back toward the ground where the fallen pincer lay.
Pick it up, he ran off into the distance.
The Abyssal cent chased down mercilessly, as Cad ran as fast as he could.
I need to see how truly wide this hall is…
He mused to himself, continuing to run, but it wasn't long before he felt the dilation in space, and his face slammed into what seemed to be a glass barrier.
The resultant force of the slam sent him flying back like a rag doll, straight into the abyssal maw of the centipede.
Slamming his leg to the side, he forcefully halted his straight-line momentum, though his back slammed into the pincer.
RIIIIIP!
Skin was ripped apart into a gory mess, and the abyssal centipede tried to lick off the blood and flesh on its pincers.
Cad rolled on the ground a couple of times before coming to a stop.
His teeth clenched from the burning pain in his back, but he got what he wanted.
'Fifty meters. It's wide enough,'
He mused, holding the pincer tight in his hands as he faced the approaching centipede with renewed confidence.
Cad took a step forward, preparing to dash forward, when all of a sudden shadow covered him, and he halted.
Slowly turning his head, he was faced with an abyssal maw, and in the next moment,
CLAAAAAMP!
Cad was devoured up to his waist.
CRUSSSSH!
The abyssal maw bit down, and his upper was separated from the lower, leaving blood and organs spilling onto the ground in an agonizing mess.
What had appeared behind him was a second centipede that had managed to escape its egg.
The first centipede quickly devoured the two legs that had fallen, though the blood still streamed off toward some other eggs.
Just like that, Cad died, but
...death here was an undeserving mercy.
All of a sudden, time froze, the centipedes stuck in their motions, and then the voice echoed.
YOU HAVE FALLEN ONCE, BUT YOU SHALL NOT KNOW DEATH!
YOUR PUNISHMENT FOR BEING UNWORTHY WILL BE ENDLESS DEATHS INDUCED BY BEING TORN TO PIECES BY ABYSSAL MAWS.
THAT IS ALL THAT WILL HAUNT YOU UNTIL YOU COMPLETE WHAT HAS BEEN STATED UPON YOU!
THE UNWORTHY WILL NOW BE RAISED!
And in the next moment, the same sensation repeated itself.
The fall, the crazy spinning, and he opened his eyes to find himself kneeling.
the same pitch-black hall, the crimson-red blood stains on the ground, and the eggs.
He had barely arrived for a second when two eggs began cracking at once, and the creatures burst out.
Two centipedes, each with flaming red pincers.
"So… I will never die. Forced to continue the same circle."
"And the more I allow myself to be killed, the more these creatures will devour my body to grow stronger and stronger, until eventually, they overwhelm me in a second, and I will have no choice but to drown in this repeated cycle… eternally!"
ONLY ONE THING WILL SAVE YOU:
FIGHT!
SCREEEEEEEECH!
SCREEEEEEEECH!
The centipedes screeched loudly, rushing towards him with maws bared wide.
Cad did not wait, running forward with speed.
His hand reached out, grabbing a broken pincer at the side.
Appearing before the wide-open mouths of the creatures, he slid on the ground, pushing his hand against the ground to avoid both maws, instead sliding underneath one of the Abyssal cent's underbelly.
CRAAACK!
His hand bone shattered from the force of the push, but his second hand gripped the tentacle.
Stabbing with all of his strength, he tore straight down the soft underbelly of the centipede.
The entire stomach was cut open, and Cad exited from the other side, covered in pitch-black blood.
SCREEEEECCCH
The centipede delivered a painful screeching before it collapsed onto the ground.
'I killed one.'
Cad thought to himself, exhaling slightly in relief, but then he watched as the centipede suddenly turned into a pile of blood, and that blood slowly crawled toward about fifteen eggs on the walls.
Abrupt silence and then,
CRAAAAAAAAACK!
A sharp cracking noise as 7 eggs all suddenly cracked open, all at once.
"Holy… shit!"