Surviving These Unfair Scenarios [LITRPG - DIMENSION HOPPING]

The oppressive, soul-crushing pressure of the Undead Empress, a suffocating miasma of ancient malice, descended upon Adam, a weight so immense that it was as though a mountain had been placed upon his shoulders, demanding that he kneel and submit his will to her dominance. His very essence screamed in protest, his limbs trembling with the effort to remain standing, yet he stubbornly refused to buckle.

He felt the air grow thick and heavy, the dust motes dancing in the perpetual twilight of the inner world swept away by the invisible force, but he would not yield. The spectral skull of the Spectronomicon began to sink under the sheer weight of Evelyn's power, its ethereal chimes transforming into a low, pained groan. However, Adam, with a strength that defied his physical state, caught the skull in his arms, holding it close to his chest to prevent its descent.

It was a strange, almost impossible sensation, the tangible feel of an intangible being, a paradox he could somehow grasp, and in this world, such contradictions were the only reality. A raw determination surged through him, an iron will forged in the crucible of his experiences, and he would not let it be broken now.

The raw power of the Empress was not a burden his companions could share. Nikolai, Abbess, and the Guardian of Envy, who had ventured just past the broken doorway to observe the unfolding confrontation, were caught in the sudden onslaught. They collapsed to their knees, their forms trembling under the immense, crushing force, their heads bowed in an involuntary act of supplication.

Nikolai's face was a mask of terror, his usual smirk wiped clean by the primal fear of a ghost facing its true ruler. Abbess, even with her loyalty raging on, fought the urge with every fiber of her being, her sculpted form shaking as she tried to rise, but the force was too great. The Guardian of Envy, with his golden armor gleaming faintly in the oppressive gloom, fell with a silent grace, the brilliant blue flame in his chest flickering and dimming as the Empress's overwhelming power pressed down on him as well.

A slow, chilling smile touched Evelyn's lips as she watched Adam's struggle, a flicker of genuine curiosity in her cold blue eyes, as though she were observing a fascinating, stubborn insect.

"It seems your will is as strong as ever, my little Lich."

She murmured, her voice a silken whisper that was filled with an ancient, possessive pleasure.

"Perhaps even stronger than when I last encountered you. It is a pity you were in such an imperfect state. But do not fret. This time, I will make you whole. I will transform you into a complete Lich, and you will not have to suffer anymore."

Her words were both a promise and a threat, a twisted form of affection that implied his previous existence was a mistake she intended to rectify, like a profound and unsettling declaration of ownership with clearly malicious intent.

Adam gritted his teeth, the muscles in his legs screaming as he fought against the overwhelming force. He managed to force himself to take a single, agonizing step forward, the scraping sound of his boot on the dusty floor echoing like a gunshot in the heavy silence. His strained voice let out a defiant growl, a testament to his struggle.

"I didn't come here to be transformed. I came to talk to you."

The Empress's subsequent laugh was a dry, dismissive sound that echoed hollowly in the vast chamber.

"What you wish is of no importance to me. I have told you already: you belong to me. Your destiny is my decision alone."

Rising from her simple chair, she extended one of her delicate hands toward Adam, and the pressure in the room intensified tenfold. It was an invisible, suffocating weight that pinned the boy in place, his entire being straining just to remain upright. He felt the cold sweat bead on his brow, his muscles screaming in protest as the Empress's miasma-shrouded hand drew closer. He tried to think, to find a way out, but his skills remained dormant, locked away by the nature of this inner realm.

His mind and his voice were frozen in place, a silent scream trapped in his throat. He could only wait, praying that the risky theory he was clinging to would prove correct. The shadow of the ghostly hand, wreathed in the dark energy of death, loomed before him, like an inevitable touch that promised a fate he refused to accept… His only recourse was to bet everything on a single hypothesis born from a conversation with Nikolai.

The moment Evelyn's hand touched Adam's forehead, it was instantly and violently rejected. A sharp, stinging pain, like a surge of electrical current, caused her to recoil, her hand snapping back to her side as if she had touched a live wire.

"Ahrg!"

The suffocating pressure vanished at once, and the room was filled with a sudden, liberating silence. Adam gasped, taking in a ragged breath, the relief washing over him as he lowered the Spectronomicon to float freely by his side, its ethereal chimes now joyful and relieved.

He finally looked directly at Evelyn, a flicker of triumph in his eyes, a stark contrast to her shocked and pained expression.

"It seems I was right… I don't belong to you anymore."

He said, his voice now steady, the words ringing with an undeniable truth in the silent chamber. The Empress's brow furrowed in a mixture of profound annoyance and genuine confusion.

"Impossible! You are a part of me, my essence made you what you are now!"

She spat, her voice laced with venom, her cold eyes narrowed in disbelief.

"That would be true if I were still a simple Undead."

Adam countered with a cold smile on his face.

"But from the moment those ghosts outside started attacking me, I knew something had changed… They no longer recognize me as one of them. They see me as something different. I am not human, nor am I simply undead anymore. I am a 'Sacradevil Demi-JiangLich'."

A moment of profound, almost comical silence descended upon the chamber. Evelyn blinked, her head tilting slightly, a look of pure bewilderment on her face.

"A… what? What does that even mean?"

She asked, a genuine note of confusion in her voice. The name, which Adam himself found cumbersome, was obviously alien to her as well. Adam paused, his cheeks flushing slightly as he felt a wave of self-consciousness. He coughed in a soft, dry sound, and adjusted his glasses.

"I'm still… investigating that."

He admitted, the moment of tension broken by a touch of his old, socially awkward self.

"But what matters is that I am no longer a pure undead. There is even a fragment of divine energy within my being, which directly repels your cursed influence. It's a core contradiction of my existence that you can't overcome."

Evelyn's expression turned to one of pure, unadulterated fury. Her delicate features hardened, and her lips curled into a snarl.

"That makes no sense!"

She shrieked, her voice resonating with a raw, ancestral rage.

"I felt that contradiction when I possessed your body, but it didn't affect me then! I held your very essence in my hands, and you could not stop me!"

But the boy answered with a cold stare.

"That's the key."

Adam explained, his voice calm and precise, laying out his theory like a final, devastating proof.

"After I spoke with Nikolai, I theorized that the system makes a very clear distinction between an individual's soul and their body. The reason you were able to possess my body and use my skills was that it was made to withstand my new race influence... But now, what you are facing is my soul, not my physical body. There is no filter here, so what you are touching is my core being, and this is no longer purely undead. It is tainted by something I don't fully understand, but that is why you were repelled."

Evelyn understood, and a terrifying explosion of rage erupted from her. The air around her twisted and condensed into a tangible miasma, a suffocating shroud of dark energy that flooded the chamber, so thick it felt like breathing water. Her beautiful form blurred with power, her hair whipping around her like a storm of ice.

From outside the building, the distant snarls and shrieks of a thousand ghosts grew louder, their roars indicating that they were all converging on the laboratory, drawn by the furious psychic scream of their empress. Her face, a moment ago so serene and elegant, twisted into a horrifying mask of pure malice, her beautiful features becoming a monstrous caricature of her former self, and with a guttural roar, she lunged at Adam, her long black nails extended like talons, her intention a simple, violent act of reclamation.

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Nikolai, seeing the terrifying charge, stumbled backward and fell, his face a mask of pure and absolute terror, the knowledge of the Empress's power rushing back to him in a flood of horrible memories. However, Abbess, the Guardian, and the Spectronomicon all leaped forward, their movements a blur of protective motion, but they were too far away. Evelyn was so fast that she seemed to teleport, her hand already reaching for Adam, and her dark miasma was already touching the tips of his hair.

Everything seemed lost in that fraction of a second; his companions would not reach him in time, and Adam, for all his defiance, was utterly defenseless. But then, the boy, with a speed born of pure desperation, extended his arm.

A small, intricately carved pendant, the one he had found minutes before, the one whose existence was so strange and unsettling, dangled from his outstretched hand, and in the moment Evelyn's eyes fell upon it, her monstrous form froze. The miasma surrounding her began to recede, the terrifying mask of malice melting away, her features slowly returning to their perfect, chilling beauty. The raw, unfiltered rage in her eyes was replaced by a profound expression of confusion and shock, a look that spoke of a memory she had long forgotten. She stopped just inches from Adam's chest, her outstretched hand hovering in the air.

Her gaze was fixed on the pendant. After a few seconds of silent, intense scrutiny, a question, half-shriek, half-whisper, tore from her throat, her voice filled with a raw, disbelieving anguish.

"Where… Where did you get that?! Where did you find it?!"

Adam sighed with relief and replied, his voice still a little tight, but with a quiet confidence in his eyes.

"I will tell you, but you have to talk to me. This is important to you, isn't it… Evelyn."

The name hung in the air like a frozen dagger, a word that had not been uttered in this inner world since… since when? The Empress's body went completely rigid, her piercing blue eyes locking onto Adam's, a look of profound incredulity stealing across her features. Her mind, a vortex of grief and power, seemed to seize… But before she could utter another word, however, a bulge, impossibly large and unnatural, erupted from Adam's forehead.

It grew with alarming speed, pushing through the space like a physical entity, as if someone had used the boy's head as a portal. The bulky form slammed directly into the distracted and stunned Empress, its momentum pushing her back with a comical force that sent her tumbling backward, her graceful form landing on the floor with a soft thud.

Everyone froze, their mouths agape, their minds unable to process what had just happened. But when the bundle untangled itself, a figure sat up with a groan, rubbing her head, her pink hair slightly disheveled.

"Eh? … Where am I?"

Chloe mumbled, her eyes blinking open as she took in the unfamiliar, desolate surroundings. She looked up and saw Adam, her expression shifting to one of profound surprise.

"Adam?! What happened?! How did you…?"

But the boy didn't answer her, his own mind reeling from the impossible sight of his teammate. The girl followed his gaze, looking down, her eyes widening in utter disbelief as she realized she was sitting directly on top of a beautiful, white-haired woman.

"Oh, my god! I am so, so sorry!"

She yelped, leaping to her feet in a flurry of embarrassed apologies. But her words were drowned out by Adam's shocked cry, finally finding his voice once more.

"Why…? How are you even here?!"

————————

A couple of hours back, in the white-walled lobby, Chloe had been having a difficult time. She had arrived at the secluded corner with Sebastian a while ago, but there was nothing for her to do. Her [Lifeweaver's Gaze] skill was useless; Adam's vital signs were perfectly stable, and had been for more than an hour. The quiet hum of the system was the only sound for what felt like an eternity, and the stillness was becoming unbearable… There was nothing for her to do.

Emir, sitting quietly on the floor, was absorbed in a book, his young face lit with a rare, quiet excitement. Adam had lent him the book, a text on cursed energy that the boy, with his dark fruit and void ki, was finally able to comprehend, the complex symbols and diagrams seemingly making perfect sense to him. Chloe, feeling a bit lost and useless, had tried to engage him, hoping to find a distraction from the gnawing sense of inadequacy.

"What are you reading?"

She asked, a cheerful smile plastered on her face, trying to project a sense of normalcy in the weird situation. Emir, with a focused expression, looked up from the book, his eyes shining with happiness.

"It's about cursed energy!"

He said, his voice bright and filled with an enthusiasm that was rare for him.

"Adam said it would help me understand my abilities better, and it does! Look, here's a diagram of how it flows through different mediums. The book explains that cursed energy isn't just 'darkness'. It's a complex, chaotic force with different properties. There's a distinction between 'corrupted' energy and 'void' energy, and it says here that while they both stem from negative emotions, void energy is a… a conceptual absence, not just a negative presence."

Chloe, listening at first, maintained her polite smile, nodding along, her mind trying to keep up.

"Oh, that's… that's really interesting."

She said, her voice a little strained. Emir, encouraged by her feigned interest, flipped a few pages with a soft rustle.

"And here! It talks about the pathways! It says you can't just absorb cursed energy. You have to create a compatible pathway for it, like a riverbed for water. My Void Ki is like a… a black hole that pulls it in, but the book says if I refine it, I can make it more like a vacuum, where I control what gets pulled in and what doesn't!"

His small hands gestured excitedly as he explained the diagrams, pointing at intricate drawings of energy flow.

"And it says that cursed energy is linked to emotional states, so the purer the negative emotion, the stronger the cursed energy. It's like a battery!"

As the kid continued, his words growing more and more technical, Chloe's polite smile slowly faded into a look of sheer agony. Her mind, a place of simple topics, was utterly unable to keep up with the scientific jargon and esoteric concepts of cursed energy; she couldn't even comprehend how on earth Emir was able to get all of that in the first place… She felt the polite grin frozen on her face, and the urge to scream in frustration grew with every word he spoke. She could feel a headache forming behind her eyes, a sharp, throbbing pain as she tried to translate his explanations into something she could understand, but it was like trying to catch water with a sieve.

Eventually, she held up a hand, interrupting him mid-sentence.

"That's okay! You don't have to bother."

She said, her voice strained with the effort not to appear completely clueless.

"I'm sure it's very interesting, but I… I think I've got it."

It was a lie, and the boy's expression of mild disappointment was a small prick to her conscience, but she simply couldn't listen anymore.

Finding no comfort there, she had moved on. Li was half-asleep against a wall with a scowl on his face, a clear sign that he did not want to be disturbed, and Gregor was still in deep meditation, his form rigid and unmoving in front of Adam. With a sigh of resignation, she had gravitated towards Sebastian, observing with a peaceful fascination as he meticulously worked on a small, intricate clock. It was relaxing to a certain extent, the soft, rhythmic clicks and scrapes of his tools, and the delicate dance of a watchmaker's fingers. The soothing repetition of the sounds almost put her in a trance, a welcome distraction from the oppressive quiet of the lobby. She felt a small, pleasant tingling in her head, a gentle relief from the mental chatter and the frustration.

After a while, Sebastian looked up at her with a kind smile on his wrinkled face.

"You know, you might have more fun doing something else."

He said gently, his voice a low, grandfatherly rumble. Chloe sighed, a sound filled with the weight of her helplessness.

"There's nothing to do! You told me to stay here because I might be important, and that's why I didn't go to the Trade Nexus with the others, but I don't feel like I can do much. I'm just… in the way."

Sebastian considered her words for a moment with a thoughtful gaze and a small screwdriver held delicately between his thumb and forefinger.

"You are right. There is nothing you can do right now, but your ability might be needed at any moment, and that is why you are here. Hmm… Perhaps, in the meantime, you could go and browse the store. After all, we all have points, and we'll have to spend them before the next scenario anyway. It would be a productive use of your time."

Chloe's face lit up, a wave of hope washing over her.

"That's true!"

She exclaimed, jumping to her feet with a sudden burst of energy, the thought of a new task was a welcome relief from the silent purgatory. She hastily jogged towards the white structures of the lobby's store section, her spirit lifted by the thought of a new skill to buy.

Once there, she opened the menu and went straight to the skill-buying option. She only had 2,000 points from the last scenario, a modest sum, but it was more than she had ever had at once. She scrolled through the list, her eyes scanning for something that might make her feel useful, but nothing seemed to fit. The skills were all too combat-oriented, or for gathering, or for some niche purpose she couldn't comprehend. Maybe she should look in the 'Idea Forge' for a custom skill? No, that wouldn't work since she didn't even know what she wanted.

She continued scrolling through the endless list of skills, a wave of familiar insecurity washing over her. She felt so useless compared to her teammates, who were all so impressive in their own ways. Adam was a brilliant strategist with a dark and powerful skillset, Drake was a kind-hearted powerhouse of martial arts, Kazue was a force of nature with an endless cheerful attitude, Katya was terrifyingly strong and could summon those terrifying monsters, Li had those awesome spells, Gregor was a seasoned soldier veteran, Sebastian had those amazing inventions and even little Emir had now a freaking demon god trapped like a pet… All she had was a measly healing skill and a transformation skill with her needles.

What good was that now, when everyone was healthy? She wasn't even sold on the idea of being the team 'healer', it was never something she would choose willingly. It was in the middle of this self-deprecating thought, as the familiar feelings of inadequacy threatened to consume her, that her eyes, by pure chance, landed on a particular skill in the list.

Several thoughts raced through Chloe's mind at once, a fire of inspiration igniting her soul. It was true that one of the reasons she felt so useless was that she didn't have a powerful skill, but if she could just borrow one from her teammates… could she finally be strong and useful? Could she become a powerhouse like Drake or a terrifying warrior like Katya, even for a brief time? Could she help her team in a more direct, physical way, instead of just waiting in the background?

The idea, a simple and wishful solution to a complex problem, was so appealing that she didn't think about it for a second more before she pressed the purchase button, a flicker of pure hope and desperation in her eyes, a final, desperate gamble on her own worth.