Pause System: Harem In The Apocalypse

The world of frozen time was silent.

Gray sometimes would wonder, what if there were no limits to his ability? What if he could stay in this world for as long as he wanted?

And what if... What if he were to be trapped there?

Whilst he commuted from floor to floor, Gray couldn't help but have such absurd thoughts heading to his mind.

But could you blame him? Being all alone in a world as quiet and as still as this.

After enough time, it would drive any sane person crazy.

*SLASH!*

"That makes six..." He muttered before charging out of the room and down the floors.

[Time remaining until time resumes: 3 seconds.]

Gray had so far gone through all the top floors as fast he could but even with all the time he had and [Detect], finding the cocoons were the most troublesome part.

Detect couldn't accurately pinpoint their location, it worked by tracing any signs of unusual activity based on what he was looking for.

The cocoons themselves were mostly well hidden from view despite their large size. It was clear that whatever was causing this knew what it was doing.

Gray who was in a rush to get back to the two girls, was about to stop time consecutively for the third time upon reaching the third floor was forced to come to a stop at the obstacle ahead of him.

[Timer: 0]

His eyes widened as he stared at the nauseating sight before him.

[Time will now resume.]

The colours which were once gone, suddenly returned to the area.

Gray's eyes were flashed by the bright light as the colours returned all at once.

The air, the smell, it had all returned back to normal.

And unfortunately for Gray, the timing couldn't have been worst. His nose was filled with a skin-scrawlling scent which made him want to puke.

Befre him were countless strands of the gooey skin flesh connected to one another as if they were some sort of cobweb.

This cobweb was blocking his passage down the staircase to the third floor.

And even if he made it through, he could see clearly through the gaps that the entirety of the walls, celing and floor of the third floor wasall covered by the gooey flesh.

It looked like the inside of a disgusting alien's stomach.

*SCREEEEEECHHH!!!*

Loud inhuman screeches came from the floors above, forcing his ears to ring in pain. His ears drums felt as if they were going to burst.

As he moved his arms up to cover his ears and looked up, notifications flashed by his eyes.

[You destroyed a hibernating cocoon!]

[You destroyed a hibernating cocoon!}

[Total cocoons destroyed: 6]

[Total XP Earned: 340]

His pupils dilated from the shock and if that wasn't enough, through the notification screens in the upper floor, with [X-Ray] active, he could see the cocoons themselves vibrating.

They were most definitely the source of the screeching.

He needed to stop time as soon as possible before they could alert whatever the hell was causing this madness.

"Time St-

*Thump*

*Drop*

Gray looked down only to see blood flowing down his nose, his words got stuck on his throat and he was forced to his knees from severe fatigue.

It happened out of nowhere.

'Shit... Even with the mark active, I still get after effects this bad after stopping time twice in a row?' He questioned.

Just as he wondered such, the cobwebs before him, all extended towards him in the form of spinning drills.

The faster they spun, the more they sent chunks of their flesh at the walls and stairs around them.

Upon coming into contact with these stairs they would partly dissolve before solidifying and spreading through them.

This was way worse than in the upper floors.

Gray's brows were raised as two drills were right before his eyes, with a chunk fo their flesh just ahead of his stomach, it was going to crash right into his stomach.

"Time Stop!"

Everything froze.

[Pause Level 4: Incomplete Time Stop.]

The drills In front of his head, the chunks of flesh on his stomach.

Gray's muscles trembled along with his legs as they struggled to lift him up but he managed to do so.

Upon getting up, he felt a chill go down his spine out of nowhere.

Confused by this, he looked around only to see, the shape of a hand emerging from one of the chunks of flesh which had somehow made their way to the celing above him.

The entrance and exit were also on the verge of closing up.

"Really fucking troublesome..." Gray muttered

He walked down the stare case but not a sound came from his steps.

'If I hadn't stopped time just now... Things would have gotten bad...'

'Do I risk it and go to the second and possibly third stage of the mark's awakening?'

Gray cut himself a gap through the cobwebs with his swings.

They were much harder the the pieces of flesh upstairs, he had to put a lot more power into the swing to cut through it.

But to him it was a fortunate sign, a sign which indicated that he was closer to finding it.

"No... I still haven't found that thing's body."

"But when I do..."

Gray wiped the blood running down his nose with his wrist before tightening his grip on the sword's handle.

"I'll kill it."

With everything frozen in time once again, Gray continued his commute through the floors in search of it.

-

"..."

First he looked left, then he looked right.

Another long hall with rooms on both sides.

Thanks to [Detect] Gray knew better than to go to the left. He rushed towards the right with a desperate expression as he searched for it.

The last of the remaining three cocoons.

There was a 1/3 chance that it's body was in this one.

This floor was completely covered in the disgusting flesh thing so the chances were much higher.

Gray stomped his way through, not giving a shit in regards to what he had been stepping on with nothing but the image of slaying the monster in his mind.

'The longer I take, the bigger the risk for them.'

'If things get bad I'll buy a potion, I doubt I could manage another time stop after this one without it.'

*FWOOSH!*

Gray kicked open the door where he detected the activity and upon doing so, he could instantly feel it.

The overwhelming pressure crippling against the back of his skin.

Time was frozen, but he was certain of it, it was in there.

Gray took a step into the dark apartment room, the walls and floors were covered in the gooey flesh justl ike outside.

He looked around the living room and kitchen which were the closest to the entrance just like most of the other rooms.

This apartment room had three different rooms inside.

Gray rushed through each room individually and in each and every one of them, there was a large wall of gooey flesh blocking it, preventing them from entering.

*Slash*

He cut through the gooey flesh walls.

What he saw on the other side shook him.

Countless little cocoon eggs and cocoons surrounded by each other and tightly packed together in all two of the rooms.

With diluted pupils, all he could think about was burning them all to the ground with [Thermal Energy Manipulation.]

But before he could, something even more interesting caught his eye.

...And that was the giant cocoon in the third room. It's size somehow managed to occupy the entire space, preventing him from entering.

It was the real deal.

"Looks like this is the one.." He muttered with a nervous grin

*Swing*

Gray swung his sword down at the eggs walls, aiming to cut it off in that instant, but instead of doing such, he was surprised to hear a *Clang* as his sword was knocked back.

"What the..."

The egg felt like harden diamond, it was impossible to cut through with a regular swing.

Seeing this, Gray raised his other arm, placing his palm on the egg.

[Break.]

*Shatter*

*Thump*

The space before him shattered, creating a small entrance into the monster's egg, while a sharp ache surged through his heart.

Gray almost collapsed onto his knees because of it. But with his will, urging him to go on, he continued.

[Race: Chronos Noble]

[Effect: You suffer far less drawbacks from using time-related abilities, however, overusing it can still be fatal.]

"I know..." He responded before stepping inside of the egg.

When he did, he froze up.

Before him was a humanoid creature with the bottom half of a snake's body embedded into the floor. It's face had horns coming out of it, and it's mouth was filled with fangs.

It had no eyes and instead had a massive grin manifested in it's face as it stared in the direction of the staircase where Gray once was.

'Did it detect me after I unfroze time?' He wondered.

[Time remaining until time resumes: 10 seconds.]

'Either way, it doesn't matter... That thing is already dead.'

"I went through a lot of shit because of you... Die."

Gray quickly leapt at the monster with one arm swinging at it's neck whilst the other was prepared to use [Break] once more to get things over with.