After taking off his shirt yet again, Nick walked into the Containment Unit.
As soon as he entered, he saw a thin wolf that looked like it was going to starve to death any minute now.
Naturally, this was the Specter, and it was called the Hungry One.
The wolf carefully eyed Nick but didn't dare to get close.
Just like all the other Specters in here, it knew that killing any of the trainees would end very badly for it.
Nick took a deep breath and laid down on the floor.
"You can start," Nick said.
The Hungry One carefully walked closer and stopped beside Nick, who was just looking at it with neutral eyes.
Then, the Hungry One bent down its head, opened its maw, and bit into Nick's torso.
Nick's muscles hardened out of reflex, but that didn't accomplish anything.
The Hungry One ripped and tore at Nick's abdomen until it tore off a big chunk of muscle.
Nick gritted his teeth.
He could deal with the pain, but it definitely wasn't pleasant.
The next moment, Nick clenched his fists.
He knew that it wasn't over yet.
After swallowing the muscles, the Hungry One continued tearing off more of Nick's abdomen.
When all of Nick's abs were consumed, a green light appeared, and the Hungry One moved back.
An instant later, a faucet came out of the ceiling above Nick and started to leak regenerative fluid.
The fluid hit Nick's body, and his abdomen healed rather quickly.
About a minute later, Nick had fully recovered, and he could stand up again.
The Hungry One grew more powerful by eating human flesh, and in order to get through the test, one needed to feed the Hungry One their abdominal muscles.
Doing that for a living was quite rough, and Nick wouldn't expect all of his Extractors to do this.
After throwing a last glance at the starving wolf, Nick left the Containment Unit.
Pain level three, complete!
As soon as Nick came out, he immediately walked to Focus level three.
'I have to be careful with this one, or I might not be able to do anything for multiple days,' Nick thought.
Nick walked into the Containment Unit and saw an old, depressed man, who was just sitting in the middle of the Containment Unit.
"Are you here to listen to my story?" the old man asked.
Nick approached the old man and sat down in front of him, his eyes focused on the downtrodden elder.
"I was very young when I became an Extractor," the old man said. "I had a meaningful conversation with somebody I considered an enemy."
Nick's first conversation with the Parasite popped into his mind.
"Luckily, with the help of someone strong, I managed to find my way," the old man continued.
The image of Albert popped into Nick's mind.
"And three years later, I met someone I considered a friend."
Wyntor Melfion popped into Nick's mind, but at the same time, his eyes shone.
It was beginning!
This Specter was called the Aging One, and it gained power by changing somebody's memories.
It achieved its goal by siphoning out information from the Extractor and then telling it back to them with very subtle changes.
Over a long period of time, somebody's memories would get muddled.
Just now, the Aging One said that it took three years to find Wyntor when it actually was two years.
Nick had to focus on his memories and not allow the Aging One to change even one of them.
If he managed to resist the Aging One for three hours, he would pass the test.
As the Aging One kept talking, Nick felt his mind becoming hazier.
It was almost like there was some kind of drug in the air that made him lose focus.
Yet, Nick kept focusing.
It definitely wasn't easy, but he managed to retain control until the green light appeared.
As soon as the green light appeared, Nick immediately stood up and walked out of the Containment Unit.
After he left, he felt his mind recover, and he took a deep breath.
'I nearly lost myself there,' Nick thought. 'This was no joke.'
Nick rested for a bit and went over to discipline level three.
Inside the Containment Unit, Nick saw a big manufacturing machine.
There was only limited information about the discipline Specters in the manual, which was why Nick didn't know what this machine could do.
Luckily, there was another manual here, and this one actually included the Specter.
Nick went over and read through it.
'Interesting,' he thought while reading it. 'So, I can let it create an extremely powerful weapon in exchange for one year of my Zephyx, and if I choose the weapon, I am actually allowed to keep it. The only bad part is that I wouldn't gain access to levels three, four, and five of discipline for my remaining stay here.'
Powerful weapons were very difficult to manufacture.
Most cities couldn't create weapons that could compare to the weapons the Assembler could make.
Even if someone was sent back to the city, as long as they got a weapon from the Assembler, their time here wouldn't be wasted.
Nick considered using it shortly before his time here was up.
But he only considered it.
'I can just get one from Aegis. I have enough confidence in my ability to earn contribution points. The Assembler is probably more for people who are confident that they can reach the second stage of the trainee program but not confident that they can become Agents.'
'It's not worth it,' Nick thought as he walked out of the Containment Unit.
Discipline level three, complete!
Nick walked over to danger level three and stopped in front of the Containment Unit.
By now, more people had gathered in the hallway.
They were all here to watch the new guy.
After all, it rarely happened that someone went to all four level three Specters.
Even more, by the looks of things, Nick was actually succeeding with all of them!
That meant he had already earned 30 points!
On top of that, just based on the way his body looked, he probably also got far more than the minimum points in the fitness test.
Everyone in the hallway knew that Nick would not get kicked out in his first month.
Well, unless he was an idiot and didn't score any points in the academic part.
After Nick walked into the Containment Unit, one of the people in the hallway turned to his neighbor. "You think he's gonna come out?" he whispered.
"I don't know," the other guy said. "I saw several people die to this one."
"Die?" the first guy asked in surprise.
The other guy nodded. "Yeah. The danger level three Specter is the first one that has an actual chance at ending your life."
Meanwhile, Nick looked at the Specter in the middle of the Containment Unit.
It was a small girl with a frown.
"And why are you here?" the girl asked.
"You know why," Nick said.
"Another one of you blind fools," she said with a sigh. "Well, I won't say no."
Then, she looked at Nick for a while. "You seem like your life isn't a lot of fun."
"It's not," Nick answered.
"Is it because of the unending guilt that's eating you up inside?" the girl asked as if she already knew the answer.
"I live to redeem myself," Nick answered evenly.
"Redeem," the girl repeated in a mocking tone. "I've seen thousands of people like you, and I can tell when somebody chases an unreachable goal."
"Tell me, do you truly believe you can be redeemed?" she asked.
Nick's insides strained a bit.
"I don't know," he said, "but I have to try."
"What's the point in trying?" the girl asked. "You know exactly that you can't redeem yourself. So, why continue suffering?"
The atmosphere seemed to become heavier and darker.
"Because I refuse to be a coward," Nick said. "Killing myself will only make all the sacrifices meaningless."
"They are already meaningless," the girl answered. "Have you ever heard of the sunk-cost fallacy?"
Nick knew what the girl was referring to.
This girl was the Hopeless One, and she was essentially like the Parasite.
She gained power by making people commit suicide, and she achieved this goal by making them believe that everything in their lives was hopeless.
Naturally, she also used her Zephyx to create an oppressive atmosphere that seemed to suck all the positivity out of the world.
She didn't need to make Nick fall into a depression.
She just needed to make him say the Sentence.
Just one moment of weakness was everything she needed.
The Hopeless One had been responsible for the deaths of many trainees.
Many of the trainees had never truly felt any significant setbacks in their lives, which meant that they didn't know how to recover from a seemingly hopeless situation.
That was where the Hopeless One was at her deadliest.
However, while she was doing her best, she would find Nick to be unkillable by that method.
While Nick might not be the most stable person, words were not things that could easily destabilize him.