An overwhelming gap in Cursed Energy. My instincts were screaming at me in a frantic warning.
Even if I possessed a cheat-tier Innate Technique that allowed for adaptation to all phenomena, and even if I'd grasped the fundamentals of Reverse Cursed Technique, my current self couldn't possibly win a head-on collision with that three-headed, six-armed freak.
"I might get crushed before I even adapt…"
'I need to bail!'
Just as I moved to turn away without a hint of lingering attachment, one of the monster's six arms bloated unnaturally. It tore through the air, whipping toward me with violent force.
"Oh, shit."
If not for my phenomenal reflexes, I would have been reduced to a red smear right then and there. I poured every ounce of Cursed Energy I had into my forearms, bracing for the impact.
BOOM—!!
The impact was sickening, the kind of shock that felt like it was liquefying my marrow. Fortunately, the guard held. However, I'd made a fatal mistake. By focusing all my Cursed Energy on my upper body, I'd neglected my legs—the very things supposed to anchor me to the ground.
"Aggghhh!"
My body was launched like a cannonball, skidding helplessly down the seemingly endless corridor. The soles of my sneakers scraped against the tiles, kicking up a trail of acrid friction smoke.
"Haah, haah…"
Finally grinding to a halt, I gasped for air. With that monster guarding the path ahead, a frontal breakthrough was out of the question. Going for broke, I spun around and sprinted in the opposite direction.
Suddenly, my vision distorted strangely. A long exit corridor, looking exactly like the previous one, stretched out before me. However, the monster and its overwhelming stench of blood were nowhere to be seen.
[ ← Way Out: Exit 2 ]
The number on the yellow sign hanging from the ceiling had changed from 1 to 2.
'…Talk about a lucky guy!'
Escaping backward must have inadvertently satisfied a specific "rule" of this space. The tile walls my fists couldn't even scratch, the bizarre spatial warping—everything was clear now. Trying to smash through this domain with pure force was an absolute impossibility with my current power level.
Catching my breath, I began to carefully analyze the structure of the corridor.
On the left wall relative to my position, four bizarre posters were plastered at regular intervals: "No Drunk Driving," "Caution: Slippery," "Mind Your Manners," and "No Smoking." On the right wall, there was a small door for a fire extinguisher, an emergency exit, and a tightly locked janitor's closet.
Clack, clack.
Right then, the sharp sound of high heels echoed from around the corner ahead. My nerves spiked as I raised my guard, shifting into a combat stance.
The figure that rounded the corner was a woman dressed in a sophisticated suit. She possessed a strangely ethereal beauty—a jarring contrast to the malice-soaked Innate Domain that usually isolated its victims.
"Whoa, she's actually pretty… wait! Focus! Hey! Stop right there! It's dangerous to keep going!"
I shouted a warning, but the woman ignored me. Her eyes were hollow, her gait perfectly mechanical as she approached with measured steps.
'A non-sorcerer?'
I was in deep trouble myself, but I hadn't discarded my humanity enough to watch a civilian get turned into mincemeat right in front of me. As she attempted to brush past, I reached out and grabbed her arm firmly.
"Didn't you hear me? I said stop!"
But then.
'…She's not moving?'
Despite the strength I put into the tug, her body didn't budge, as if her feet were rooted deep into the floor. On the contrary, I—a sorcerer channeling Cursed Energy—was the one being dragged along by the sheer momentum of her stride.
"People come first, damn it!"
The physical strength was logically impossible. I surged my Cursed Energy to its peak in a desperate bid to hold her back. It was at that exact moment.
CRACK, SCREEECH!
The woman's neatly arranged head snapped at a grotesque angle. Her skin tore apart in an instant, and she began to morph back into that three-headed, six-armed monstrosity from earlier.
"Holy shit!!"
"RULE VIOLATION!" (Japanese) "You didn't follow the rules!" (English) "RULE VIOLATION!" (Korean)
"RULE VIOLATION!" (Japanese) "You didn't follow the rules!" (English) "RULE VIOLATION!" (Korean)…
I slapped her arm away like I'd been burned and instinctively hit a full-blown sprint. It was time for the legendary Pants-Run.
I ran until my lungs felt like they would burst. The space distorted once more, and as I looked up while gasping for air, the sign came into view.
[ ← Way Out: Exit 0 ]
"Aw, for fuck's sake."
My luck had run out. Because I'd sprinted forward to avoid the woman instead of heading back, the count had reset to zero.
Suppressing my ragged breathing, I formed a hypothesis based on a combination of what I'd just witnessed. This was pure deduction.
That woman in the suit wasn't a poor non-sorcerer trapped in this space. She was merely another shell for the Cursed Spirit—the monster that manifests to tear me apart whenever the rules are broken.
A cold sweat trickled down my spine. I was certain of it now.
Inside the belly of this bizarre, massive Cursed Spirit, I was the only living human left.