SSS-Tier Extraction: From Outcast to Overgod!
Chapter 37: Nightmare

Chapter 37: Nightmare

Ryan felt like he was moving through molasses, underwater, in a dream. His "Temporal Disjunction" debuff was a nightmare.

Every thought was slow. Every movement was a struggle. The eight accelerated Temporal Hounds were coming at him, looking like angry, time-traveling comets. He knew he had to move, but his body just wouldn’t listen properly.

Come on, legs! Move! he screamed in his mind. It’s a really, really bad time for a nap!

His Phase Gauntlet, a piece of advanced Precursor tech, seemed to be struggling too. It flickered weakly, as if the chaotic time energy was confusing its systems.

But it hadn’t failed completely. His unstable Phase Step skill, the one that felt like being put through a blender, seemed to actually work a little better in this chaotic environment, as if it felt right at home in the temporal mess. It was his only chance.

Two of the Hounds lunged, their forms blurring as they tried to flank him. Ryan, relying on pure instinct and the faint warnings from his Temporal Sense, forced his body to react.

He activated his Phase Gauntlet. The "Short Blink" was sluggish and delayed, teleporting him a half-second later than he wanted, but it was just enough.

He reappeared a few feet away, stumbling as the Hounds’ claws ripped through the empty air where he had been.

He didn’t have time to recover. Another Hound was already on him, its jaws, which seemed to flicker between solid and ghostly, snapping at his throat.

He brought his knife up to parry. The clang of his blade hitting its teeth echoed strangely, the sound arriving both too early and too late.

The impact jarred his arm, but he held on. He shoved the creature back and, in a desperate move, used the brief opening to kill it with a quick, messy stab to the chest. It wasn’t clean or precise like the first kill, but it worked.

The Hound dissolved into another shower of glittering time-sand.

"+250 god Points!"

"You have acquired x20 ’Temporal Shards’!"

Another "Cracked Hourglass Pendant" clattered onto the floor.

The death of their packmate seemed to give the remaining seven Hounds pause. They had expected him to fall over, helpless. But he was fighting back. He was slow, clumsy, and clearly struggling, but he was still dangerous.

Ryan’s Neural Symbiote Map, which had been flickering and showing static like a broken TV, suddenly flared with a burst of light.

It seemed to be absorbing some of the chaotic energy from the battlefield, analyzing it, learning from it. A small notification popped up in his vision: "Temporal Disruption Resistance: +1%." It wasn’t much, but it was a start. He felt a tiny bit of the mental fog lift.

The Hounds, sensing his unexpected resilience, seemed to change their strategy. This strange, two-legged creature was too tough to take down with a simple rush.

They became more hesitant, their movements more cautious. They started to flicker in and out of existence again, not to attack, but to retreat.

They began to fade back into the temporal distortions in the air, trying to escape into the cracks in time from which they came.

"Oh no, you don’t," Ryan growled, his thoughts clearing slightly.

"You started this party, you’re not leaving until the goodie bags are handed out." He wasn’t going to let them get away. They were too dangerous, and frankly, he wanted their loot.

He pushed his sluggish body forward, chasing after the nearest fading Hound. It was half-phased into a shimmering rift in the air when he reached it. He lunged, stabbing his knife into its shimmering flank.

The Hound howled in pain and surprise as it was pulled back into solid reality before dissolving just like the others.

"+250 god Points!"

"You have acquired x20 ’Temporal Shards’!"

Another Cracked Hourglass Pendant dropped. His collection was growing.

This seemed to throw the remaining Hounds into a full-blown panic. They scattered, fleeing in different directions, their accelerated forms leaving trails of light all over the chamber.

It was no longer a coordinated pack; it was a desperate scramble for survival.

This was Ryan’s chance. He focused on one at a time. A Hound tried to create another Stutter-Time field, but it was a rushed, sloppy attempt.

Ryan, now slightly more resistant to the effect, powered through it and took the creature down. Another tried to phase through the floor, but he managed to land a crippling blow before it could fully submerge.

Three more kills, in quick, messy succession. Each one gave him more points, more shards, and another pendant. His pockets were starting to jingle.

Now there were only three Hounds left. They gave up on fighting or hiding. They turned and fled, not into random rifts, but towards a single, specific location at the far end of the Labyrinth chamber.

It was a massive, fortified Precursor doorway, even larger than the one he’d entered through. The door itself was sealed, but it was protected by a shimmering, translucent energy barrier that rippled like heat haze.

It hummed with a powerful, rhythmic energy. The god Interface identified it: "Chronal Barrier. Highly advanced temporal defense field. Physical passage is impossible."

The three remaining Hounds, in their desperation, didn’t slow down. They ran straight at the barrier. Two of them passed right through it, their forms distorting for a moment before they vanished on the other side. They were safe.

The last Hound, however, was a little too slow. Ryan, pushing his debuffed body to its absolute limit, was right behind it. Just as the Hound’s front paws touched the shimmering Chronal Barrier, Ryan leaped.

He tackled the creature, his knife plunging deep into its back. The Hound dissolved instantly, its forward momentum carrying Ryan right into the energy field.

It was like running into a brick wall made of pure, concentrated wrongness.

A violent shockwave of energy threw him backward. He flew through the air and landed hard on the stone floor twenty feet away, the air knocked from his lungs.

His whole body ached with a deep, resonating pain. It wasn’t a normal physical pain; it was "temporal whiplash," as his system helpfully informed him. It felt like every cell in his body had been vibrated out of sync with every other cell. He lay there for a moment, groaning.

Despite the pain, he had managed to kill the last Hound just before it escaped.

"+250 god Points!"

"You have acquired x20 ’Temporal Shards’!"

A pendant dropped near the barrier, along with something new: a "Minor Temporal Cache," a small, ornate box that shimmered with the same blue energy as the Hounds. Loot box! The pain suddenly felt a little more worth it.

He checked his experience bar. He was now Level 6, with 2030 out of 2200 god Points. He was so close to Level 7 he could almost taste it. One or two more decent kills would do it.

He staggered to his feet, collecting his loot. He looked at the shimmering Chronal Barrier. The last two Hounds were gone, hidden behind its impenetrable defense.

He tried to touch the barrier again, gently this time. His hand was repelled by a soft but firm wave of energy. He couldn’t get through.

A new announcement from the god Warden echoed in his mind, its voice calm and informational as always.

"You have discovered a ’Time-Locked Vault.’ The Chronal Barrier is keyed to a specific temporal resonance. To bypass its defenses, a ’Resonant Chronometer Key’ is required."

The Warden then added a helpful hint: "Such a key can be crafted by combining multiple temporal components, such as ’Chronometer Shards’ and ’Hourglass Pendants.’"

Ryan looked at the Chronometer Shard in his pouch and the five Cracked Hourglass Pendants he had just collected. He grinned, despite the aching in his bones. He had all the ingredients. He just needed to figure out the recipe.

Just as he was about to get to work on his new crafting project, another, much larger announcement came through, not just to him, but seemingly to a much wider audience.

"SECTOR-WIDE ANNOUNCEMENT: As two individuals from Genesis Outpost #7 have now reached Assimilation Level 5 or higher, the ’Sector CommNet’ protocol is now activated. Ten nearby Outposts will now be linked into a single communication channel designated: Sector Gamma."

Ryan blinked. He knew he was Level 6. The other person must be Scarlett. She had been Level 4 when he last checked, so she must have leveled up recently.

This was big news. Their little, isolated Outpost was about to be introduced to the wider neighborhood. He had a feeling the neighbors might not all be friendly. His quiet little corner of the god Verse was about to get a lot more crowded.