For a long, terrifying moment, Lu Chen did what any reasonable person would do when submerged in burning goo.
Yes he panicked.
He thrashed. Or at least, he tried to. His limbs moved through the thick fluid like he was swimming through cold honey, only that this honey was perverted and was actively trying to melt his clothes then skin off. Every frantic movement he made just sloshed the corrosive gel into new places, making the burning worse. He had to squeeze his eyes shut tight. Losing his eyesight in here sounded like a bad way to start being digested.
This is it, he thought, the despair cold and clear. This is how I die. At least it's not butt-naked, like those dudes that died while gooning in their baby suits. Wait—my robes are dissolving. I AM going to die naked! My dignity!
His mind was screaming a chorus of 'I don't wanna die!' when something impossible happened.
A calm, blue box popped up in his vision.
[Rock Body (Lv. 9) EXP +1]
Lu Chen's brain froze. His thrashing stopped. He just hung there in the burning perverted honey-like substance that was still trying to leave him in his baby suit and then dead
"…Huh?"
Another box. Unhurried.
[Rock Body (Lv. 9) EXP +1]
He stopped breathing.
A third one.
[Rock Body (Lv. 9) EXP +1]
"…It's… giving me points," he whispered in his mind totally and utterly baffled at what just happened.
New text scrolled down, its tone quite smug as if the whole world was beneath it.
[Your dermal layer is undergoing corrosive degradation.]
[Rate of disaggregation is sub-lethal.]
[Sub-lethal damage constitutes stress training.]
[Congratulations. You have stumbled into grinding.]
Lu Chen floated. He was still hurting all over. But a wild, stupid hope was now bitch-slapping the panic aside.
"So… this works too?" he asked the void.
A slow grin spread across his face, which probably looked insane given the current circumstances.
Still the numbers didn't stop.
[Rock Body EXP +1]
[Rock Body EXP+1]
[Rock Body EXP+1]
Pop. Pop. Pop.
It was like a very slow, very painful heartbeat.
He stopped trying to swim. What was the point? He was in a vat of free experience points. A disgusting, painful, yet free-experience-points vat.
He settled in. The initial terror was gone, replaced by a dull, burning ache and the gentle, regular pop of blue notifications. Time got weird. Was it minutes? Hours? Who cared. There was only the burn to count and the count to count.
After what felt like forever, a new emotion crept in like any human it was profound boredom.
"…This is the worst spa treatment ever," Lu Chen muttered. Excitement wanned after it got riddle with holes all over by time.
"Hey, System."
"How many points to Level 10? Why am I not a superhero yet?"
A status bar materialized.
[Rock Body Lv. 9]
[EXP:587 / 2560]
Lu Chen stared at the number in his mind's eye. "Two thousand? I'm being digested at a rate of one point per… whatever, and I need over two thousand?"
The +1s kept coming. But then… they started to get shy.
[Rock Body EXP +1]
A long wait.
[Rock Body EXP +1]
Lu Chen frowned. The burning sensation was changing. It wasn't the sharp, biting acid pain from before. It was more of a… warm, tingly discomfort. Like a bad sunburn in a warm bath.
"…Oh no," he muttered. "This is terrible."
His skin was getting tougher. The acid wasn't working as fast. He was becoming acid-resistant.
"Wow. Look at me," he said to no one, a hint of manic pride in his voice. "I'm marinating successfully."
Another message followed.
"No! No, no, no!" Lu Chen protested, twisting in the gel. "We were on a roll! Don't do this to me!"
The danger was fading. But so were his precious, stupid numbers!
He couldn't have that.
With renewed, greedy purpose, he began to awkwardly paddle through the goo. He wasn't trying to escape. He was trying to find a worse spot.
"Come on… give me the good stuff… the extra-spicy region…"
He kicked downward, pushing against the thick pressure. Suddenly, the warm tingle spiked back into a proper, eye-watering BURN.
"HAH! THERE!" he yelped, a pained but triumphant sound. "That's the stuff! That's premium-grade corrosion!"
"It's not an addiction, it's dedication!" Lu Chen argued, settling into the new, hotter spot. The glorious +1s resumed their regular pop. "This is what peak performance looks like!"
To pass the timeless, burning eternity, he started talking. The System was his only conversational partner, and it was a supremely sarcastic one.
After another small eternity of pops, he spoke again.
"So…where'd you come from, anyway?"
The reply was instant and withering.
"…Right. Forgot I was talking to cosmic royalty." He paused. "You're really stuck with me, huh?"
The +1s continued their slow, steady march. Then they slowed again. He swam deeper, found a new "spicy" zone, and continued his bizarre, self-torturing grind.
He lost all sense of time and space. There was only the rhythm: burn, pop, adapt, seek a deeper burn.
Until, without warning, the entire world of gel shifted.
A massive, slow, rolling pressure moved around him, lifting him and tumbling him through the thick fluid. It wasn't like swimming. It was like being in the wash cycle of a giant, sloshing, acidic stomach.
"Whoa! What's happening?!" Lu Chen blurted, disoriented. "System? Is this a new grinding feature?"
Lu Chen, now tumbling helplessly in a dark, burning, muscular tube, could only sigh.
"Well," he muttered, as a +1 popped up from the impacts. "At least the scenery's chang–."
Before he could complete his comment a new overpowering odor assaulted his senses, no, assassinated his senses.
"Cough! Ugh,"
"What's this horrible stench? System was it you?"
[TO BE CONTINUED…]