Apocalypse: Building And Hoarding My Way Through.
Chapter 157: Death Sequence.

Chapter 157: Death Sequence.

WARNING: This Chapter contains graphic and disturbing content, including descriptions of violent deaths, torture, and bodily harm. Reader discretion is advised. Proceed with caution.

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{The death sequence begins now...}

As soon as the system’s words faded away, Scarlett felt an eerie sensation wash over her. The room around her blurred and distorted. A strange force lifted her off the ground, making her feel weightless yet impossibly heavy at the same time.

She tried to struggle, to move even an inch, but her body refused to obey. It was as if she had become a prisoner within her own skin conscious, aware, yet utterly helpless. The sensation reminded her of being trapped in a dream, yet she knew with certainty that she was still awake.

Without warning, her surroundings shifted again, and she suddenly found herself standing at the very edge of a rooftop. The wind howled around her, whipping her hair into a frenzy as if mocking her impending doom.

Scarlett’s breath hitched as she forced herself to glance down. A fresh wave of terror surged through her as she realized she couldn’t even see the ground. Thick clouds swirled beneath her like an endless abyss, hiding whatever lay below. Her entire body tensed.

Damn it! She cursed inwardly, her heartbeat hammering violently against her ribs.

She had always been terrified of heights. And now, the system expected her to fall no, plummet from a twenty-four-story building. The very thought made her feel nauseous.

{Does host wish to be pushed, or would you prefer to fall on your own?}

Scarlett swallowed hard as the glowing words appeared on the holographic screen before her.

Pushed? Or fall by myself? she echoed in her mind. It wasn’t much of a choice. Either way, the outcome was the same.

Her fingers twitched at her sides. Every fiber of her being screamed for her to fight back, to refuse, but she knew better. The system wouldn’t allow her to escape this fate.

"I... I’d rather be pushed, but... "

Before she could finish the thought, a forceful hand pressed against her back.

Scarlett barely had time to gasp before she was shoved off the rooftop.

"No!" she screamed, but her voice was lost in the howling wind.

The air rushed past her in a brutal torrent, her body twisting uncontrollably as she plummeted through the sky. Her stomach lurched violently, the sickening sensation of free fall making her head spin.

The clouds swallowed her whole, obscuring everything. There was no city, no streets, no lights only the endless, suffocating white void.

Dizziness overtook her, nausea clawing at her throat, but she forced herself to suppress it. Her elemental powers had been sealed temporarily disabled until she endured the full cycle of death.

This was it.

This was how she was going to die.

And yet, even as the thought gripped her, she knew it wasn’t truly the end. The system would bring her back.

GBAM*

She slammed into the ground with bone-shattering force.

A brutal explosion of pain ripped through her as her limbs were crushed upon impact. . Blood pooled beneath her broken form, staining the ground in a red horror pattern. She could see the twisted remains of her own limbs scattered around her, severed, shattered, unrecognizable.

Scarlett let out a strangled, gasping sob, her vision blurring with agony. The pain was unbearable. It burned through every nerve in her body like wildfire.

Her head, however, remained intact.

Of course.

The system needed her alive, conscious to endure every last ounce of suffering.

{Congratulations on completing the first death.}

A bitter, humorless laugh bubbled up in her throat.

"Congratulations?" she croaked, her voice barely more than a whisper. She scoffed, the sound laced with sheer disbelief. "Are you kidding me?"

She had foolishly thought that once the first death was over, she wouldn’t have to linger in the pain for long, that the second death would follow immediately, sparing her from fully experiencing the torment.

She was wrong.

The system wanted her to feel every second of agony.

{Is the host ready for the next death?}

Scarlett clenched her jaw, tasting blood on her tongue. She already knew hesitation would get her nowhere.

"Sure," she spat. "Let’s get this over with."

The moment the words left her lips, her body convulsed.

Her mangled limbs, her arms, her legs began to regrow.

It was a slow, excruciating process. Bones cracked, realigning themselves. Muscles stretched and wove back together. Skin mended itself over the fresh tissue, but the pain remained, lingering like a cruel aftershock.

Scarlett barely had time to process the agony before the shadows around her shifted.

Then, she heard it.

A sickening squirming, the sound of something wet and writhing.

She turned her head ever so slightly

And froze.

From the darkness, they emerged.

Worms.

Not ordinary worms. These creatures were monstrous, larger than anything she had ever seen. Each was fat, their bodies bloated to the size of two human fingers pressed together. Their slick, segmented forms pulsed with unnatural life, stretching up to six feet tall.

Scarlett’s breath caught in her throat. There were thousands of them. No...millions. Billions.

They moved as one, a churning, seething mass of hunger.

And they were coming for her.

The first worm lunged, its gaping mouth stretching unnaturally wide.

The moment its razor-lined jaws sank into her flesh, Scarlett screamed.

Pain unlike anything she had ever known tore through her as the creatures swarmed, burrowing into her skin, tearing away muscle, gnawing down to the very bone.

Her cries echoed in the vast emptiness, swallowed only by the relentless sounds of flesh being devoured.

Her body thrashed, but it was futile. The worms continued their feast, their slimy bodies wriggling deeper and deeper into her flesh, hollowing her out piece by piece.

Her vision darkened, her mind slipping into the abyss of unbearable suffering.

Even as she felt the excruciating agony of being devoured alive, Scarlett knew this wasn’t the end.

She would return. The system would resurrect her.

The worms numbers continue to multiply as they stripped her flesh down to the bone. Scarlett’s body began to dissolve piece by piece, her skeleton gradually being exposed as every last shred of muscle was torn away.

Then just as suddenly as it had begun, the torment ceased.

The worms vanished, slithering back into the shadows as if they had never been there, leaving behind only a pile of bloody, skeletal remains. The eerie silence that followed felt almost worse than the pain itself.

Then, it happened.

Scarlett’s body began to regenerate again.