"U...u...ugh..."
Adam woke to a crawling agony. Well, when has he not? The only difference was the level of agony.
In this case, the pain started in his pelvis and spread downward straight through his toes. Yes, through. His body was even more of a mess than when he got plowed by the truck the other day.
He groggily tilted his head, blinking away the haze, only to see his lower body—a mangled mess of twisted flesh and shattered bone. They pulsed and squirmed with each heartbeat, already slowly knitting itself back together.
Muscle fibers stretched across gaps like spider silk. Bone fragments clicked into place with wet, grinding sounds.
"Great... just great," he whispered, looking around his room this time.
He found himself sprawled across a nest of eggs, their shells warm and slick beneath his palms.
"Again...?"
He tried to get up, but when he did so, a sharp pain lanced through his side. He glanced down again, only to see the pair of verdlecks’ fangs he’d looted earlier now buried deep in his stomach, their tips poking through his back.
"Perfect. Ugh... just perfect," he muttered, wrapping his fingers around the protruding bone. Blood bubbled from the wounds as he casually yanked them free, the fangs coming out with a wet sucking sound. He pressed his hand against the holes, sighing and raising his eyebrows in exhaustion as he felt it heal.
Adam shook his head, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, before just lying on the murky bed again.
Great plan, Adam. Great plan. Why didn’t the snake swallow you, is that what you’re thinking? Think, just think—the Verdant Snake swallowed you last time because it was bringing you to its nest for its babies to eat.
Guess where you are now?
Adam looked at the eggs surrounding him.
That’s right, Adam. You’re already at the nest. You stupid, stupid fu—
Something rustled behind him, completely pushing him off his thoughts and back.
He turned, expecting to see an egg beginning to crack, but instead found himself staring into a pair of enormous golden eyes that reflected the entire clearing of the swamp like mirrors. The Verdant Snake’s massive head rested less than twenty feet away, watching him.
And from the way it didn’t move at all, from the way it stared, Adam could feel a semblance of intelligence.
He held his breath, rising slowly to his feet. His legs wobbled, still finishing their repairs, but held his weight. He gripped the blood-slicked fangs tight, ready to drive them into those large, hypnotic eyes the moment the creature moved.
But the snake just stared, even slightly tilting its head. Most probably curious as to why Adam was even alive... again.
Adam began to stare back, squinting as he studied the patterns that swirled across the scales of its snout. His eyes strayed toward one of its eyes, and in those golden depths, he saw his own reflection—small... alone.
Still the same way he’d looked in every mirror ever since he escaped the Hospital. Has... he even changed?
Soon, Adam also tilted his head to the side. The silent rage slowly building up in him, the frustration, the helplessness, the endless cycle of violence—it all suddenly felt distant.
Right now, there was only him... and this large, majestic creature in front of him.
Peace... between two monsters.
"You too, huh?" His shoulders sagged, and he carefully lowered the fangs to his side and attached them to his belt.
"We don’t want to be here, do we?" he whispered, taking a hesitant step forward. Both of his palms extended toward the creature’s massive snout, showing that he wasn’t a threat at all.
"Neither of us chose this."
The snake’s large forked tongue flicked out, tasting the air between them. Adam’s hand trembled as he reached closer, his fingertips barely brushing the cool scales of its nose.
"Are you also trapped here? In this... little world of yours?" His voice cracked. "Did... the Administrators also do this? Cage you in this Leak? For... what?"
For a moment, something passed between them. Recognition. Understanding. Two monsters trapped by forces beyond their control.
"I know what you feel, Ma’am..." Adam gently pressed his hand on the scales, closing his eyes as he whispered. "You and—"
Then suddenly, fire erupted in Adam’s chest.
He looked down, only to see the snake’s thick tongue buried through his sternum, and surely coming out of the back. The venom they had burned through his organs like acid.
"W...why?" He said, blood showering out from his lips. "I thought... we were having a moment."
Adam’s eyes started to twitch, trying his best to stay calm as he looked at the patterns of the scales in front of him.
"Why... does everything want to kill everything?" He wheezed, blood spattering the eggs below. And then, he grabbed the fangs from his belt and drove them deep into the massive tongue sticking through him.
The snake’s jaws flew open in pain, releasing a hiss that shook the trees, the eggs, and the murky ground they all rested on.
Adam didn’t care anymore, however, not wanting to waste this opportunity at all.
He leaped forward, diving into the gaping maw while stabbing the second fang through more tongue muscle. The moment he landed inside, he began stabbing with both weapons, shredding the soft tissue around him.
And soon, the tongue was ripped apart.
He yanked the ruined tongue still attached to his back, then continued his assault, carving his way deeper into the creature’s throat. The esophageal muscles contracted, trying to force him down, but each time they squeezed, Adam’s blades opened new wounds that gave him room to breathe.
Unlike his previous experience inside a massive creature, the pressure felt manageable. After all, each time he stabbed, the snake’s muscles loosened.
Every stab created space. Every cut weakened the snake’s ability to crush him.
Adam gritted his teeth, his head shaking with frustration. All the people he’d killed to get here. The people, the children.
Grace, Samantha, Joseph, Donald—their faces flashed before him as he drove the fangs deeper.
He’d been fine as a scavenger. Surviving. Hidden.
But the Game changed everything.
The Game gave him Grace, then ripped her away. Gave him purpose, then made him more of a monster than he already was.
His thoughts spiraled as rage built in his chest. And soon...
"Aaaah!" A scream tore from his throat—raw, primal, echoing through the snake’s body and out its mouth. He didn’t stop screaming even as blood and the snake’s digestive acid flooded his mouth.
He screamed and stabbed. Stabbed and screamed.
Seconds became minutes. Minutes stretched into what felt like hours. His arms moved on their own, tearing through organs and muscle until his hands cramped and his shoulders burned.
But of course, for Adam, cramps and burns only lasted seconds before he turned back to normal.
He was, right now, an unstoppable force tearing through the giant snake.
Finally, the massive body around him went completely still. But Adam didn’t notice this, and he continued his path of destruction for several more minutes before the silence got to him.
The only heartbeat, the only muscle he could hear now was his.
"Oh..." he whispered to himself. He looked down at his hands, and he could barely recognize them from all the loose flesh that was pushed out while they healed.
He stayed there for a few seconds and finally decided to walk through the carnage he’d created, follow the path of destruction back toward the head.
And when he finally emerged from the snake’s mouth, he collapsed onto the blood-soaked ground.
The clearing was devastated. The Verdant Snake’s death throes had crushed dozens of eggs, their insides mixing with the creature’s blood in a soup.
Adam’s breathing stuttered as he surveyed the destruction. He looked back at the massive corpse, unsure what to feel. Triumph? Guilt? Emptiness?
He didn’t let the thought linger, as there was a more prevailing thought in his mind.
Why... is the Leak still here?
He looked at the snake, and he was sure it was completely dead.
[Verdant Snake | HP: o%]
Yes. Completely dead.
Hm?
His gaze caught something glinting beneath the floating words, right on the snake’s forehead that wasn’t there before—a large Blue Crystal, pulsing with the same light as the Leak’s entrance.
"Oh... right."
Adam wearily climbed the snake’s head, using the fangs between its scales. Parts of his body were still healing, but he pressed on until he stood atop the creature’s skull.
He looked out over the swamp one final time. Then, with a tired sigh, Adam raised both fangs above the Crystal.
Then drove them down.
***
"What the—?!"
"Something’s happening!"
Outside, the veteran creeps who were readying to explore the Leak all started panicking. How could they not, when the Leak was starting to fluctuate?
Vincent and the other members of the Nightraptor Guild also started emerging from their tents, rushing to the Leak.
"Huh?" Vincent’s eyes widened before his eyebrows began to furrow. "Wait. Who’s inside?!"
He asked his companions, but none of them could answer them. The only thing they could actually do now was step back and watch as their investment slowly faded away, literally.
The Leak started to close. And true to its name, the light around it that looked like water gushing calmed down as it closed... and soon, it was just... gone.
And the only thing left on its spot was Adam.
Adam blinked several times upon realizing that he was at the center of everything again.
"Oh..." he whispered.
"...Fuck."
Didn’t think this through, huh?