Endless Evolution As A Skeleton In A Game-Like World

The windows, walls and pillars of the continental hotel room burst apart in a burst of fire and fury.

Smoke oozed out of the smothered building, embers left over by the blast shimmering as the cold wind poured in.

Clack—

A wire flew from the darkness outside, planting itself inside the building, and then dark figures followed the line, stepping into the building.

There were five in total, players hard-bred by the association for the sole purpose of carrying out assassinations.

The leader of the party stepped forward, a cloth covering his face to ward off the smoke. On his shoulder were three iron stripes, indicating that he was an Iron Rank warrior.

But so was the woman who had come before him. He could no longer contact her, so she was presumed dead.

North’s eyes scanned the room, piercing through the smoke to find the target. The room had been turned into a complete mess, so he did not see her right away.

”Was this level of damage really necessary? Aren’t we being too loud?” One of his subordinates asked.

She was the Bronze Level player responsible for the spell. Using one of the association’s artifacts, they were able to buff her magic ability several-fold.

But in doing so, they had exhausted all their uses for that day...

North shook his head. ”It was necessary.” Lyra was one of the sharpest agents in Iron Rank, and yet she had been killed in this room.

He already knew that Thalia was dangerous, but he had never known she would be able to defeat someone a rank above her.

Now North finally understood why the association had dispatched six agents just to hunt one player.

”Found her...” North said in a gruff tone as his eye locked on the woman.

She was at the other end of the room, covered by burned debris and furniture. Parts of her skin had been melted off by the fire, her scales charred halfway beyond recognition.

And yet—

North’s face twisted with rage. ”How is that bitch still moving?”

He could hear the faint beat of her heart, he could see her chest rising and falling slowly...

She was clearly at death’s door, still, she was trying to crawl out of the mess, her hands drifting weakly through the darkness.

”After all the evil you have done, how is it that you still have such a strong will to live?”

He frowned. Perhaps it was not herself she was trying to preserve?

North pulled out an artifact from his inventory and sheathed his sword so that he could hold it with both hands.

His subordinates were visibly disturbed at the sight of the artifact.

The association has studied Thalia enough to know that her weakness was her heart, it was the same for most regeneration types.

Their original plan had been to paralyze her with poison, and substantial damage to the heart...

Players could not be permanently killed while in a safe zone, so they would then drag her body out of Issen by carriage, where she would be executed away from the public eye.

But that plan had fallen on its head, so they had to switch to plan B. An artifact so vile that the very sight of it caused the players’ skins to crawl.

North lifted the object and stared at it with a stiff expression. It was a pitch-black ball with swirly patterns in the shape of demonic eyes.

Crimson lines were splayed across its surface, each one detailing the countless ways blood could spill from a slit throat.

And a soft eerie energy hummed around it, causing a buzz to fill the air.

— Curse Capsule

Curse Capsule was one of the only artifacts that could be used to kill a player outside Eden. It worked by using spatial magic to create a subspace around the player’s soul...

But most players abhorred the artifact because of the intense, maddening pain it brought the players before they died—

North twisted the artifact open, and steam gushed out of the opening. Inside it was a demonic beast, a worm-shaped monster riddled with eyes.

He ushered one of his subordinates forward and handed him the monster. ”Finish the mission—”

Bang—Bang—

One of the doors in the room rang as someone slammed into it from the other side.

”Isn’t that the Harrow child?” Someone asked North.

He nodded. ”The previous agent made sure to seal her in the room. She isn’t going anywhere...”

The agent walked up to Thalia and grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet, her serpentine body thrashing around weakly.

Her eyes were still closed, and her wounds had barely healed, courtesy of what they had mixed up with the spell.

The agent yanked her mouth open, his face tight with disgust as he shoved the worm into her mouth.

The monster slithered into her throat, and the moment it vanished inside her, Thalia screamed at the top of her voice.

It felt as though she was being ripped apart from the inside, as though a thousand razors had been given free roam inside her body, thrashing around her organs, ripping apart her flesh and bones.

She fell to the ground and thrashed around the burned floor, clasping her hand tightly around her throat as spittle drifted down her lips.

Thalia tried to vomit whatever they had fed her, but no matter how hard she tried, it stuck inside her as though it had been stitched into her person.

The agent that had fed her the worm stepped back in shock, as he heard the sound of Thalia’s harrowing screams.

He had heard of how maddening the demonic worm felt, but he never thought it was to this extent.

Was this... was this really right?

”What are you doing?!” North suddenly barked out in rage, causing him to flinch.

”Finish her! Kill that bitch right now!”

The man’s eyes sharpened and he summoned his sword, raising it up into the air. And then he brought it down with a battle shout.

But before the sword could make contact...

Tzzzz...

Sparks filled the air, dancing from wall to wall. The wind turned turbulent, as though a storm had been let into the room. And then a thin stream of lightning, no bigger than a pencil, tore right through his head.

BANG!

A thunderclap cut through the area, blowing the ash into the air, followed by a bright flash of light that exploded out of the other side of his head, causing brain matter to spill out of his shattered skull.

The man’s headless body fell down knees first, before falling down lifelessly.

[Anthony has died]

”...”

”What the fuck do you think you are doing?”

North frowned as he stared in the direction the voice had come from, his heart boiling with rage.

’Damn that fool!’ He cursed internally as Olivia stepped out of the kitchen.

The door that had been holding her back was melted, her wings alight with sparks of lightning.

The moment she saw Thalia writhing on the floor, Olivia immediately ran over to her, her eyes wide in fear and shock.

”T-Thalia?! Thalia, are you okay?! What the fuck did you do to her?!”

North unsheathed his blade and took a step forward, his silver eyes gleaming with cold, murderous intent.

The other agents unsheathed their various weapons as well, their eyes locked on Olivia as they slowly circled her, cutting off any possible escape routes.

”It’s a shame that you had to see this, princess,” North said without a hint of compassion in his voice.

”But I must please ask you to step away from the condemned....”