NOVEL WEB Chapter 8: CARVED INTO THE FLOOR
"To survive is not to win. It is to outlast the part of yourself they're trying to kill."
Impact.
Jié's fist collided with the Surgeon's jaw — but it didn't give like human bone.It bent like wet wood, then snapped back, sending a spasm of resistance up Jié's arm. The man didn't flinch. Didn't grunt. Didn't even blink.
He just smiled.
The Surgeon raised one arm — its skin splitting open along the forearm seam. A scalpel-spine jutted outward like a second bone, curved and twitching.
Jié ducked low.
The blade whistled past where his throat had been a heartbeat ago.
He pivoted hard, driving his elbow into the ribs of the monster — but again, the response was wrong. The body flexed, absorbed, and reshaped like it wasn't resisting him — it was learning.
The Surgeon stepped back.
A third arm peeled itself out of the back of his shoulder, made entirely of surgical needles braided into tendon.
"Pain is just information," the Surgeon said in Jié's voice.
"You gave us so much of it."
Jié didn't answer.
He couldn't afford to.
Instead, he scanned the room — let his breathing slow — fought like Sunny.
Analyze. Position. Disrupt.
The lights in the ceiling weren't lights — they were arteries.
The table was a nerve-core. Pulsing.
The floor had structure. Weak points. Patterns. Like any body.
He feinted left.
The Surgeon lunged.
Jié twisted, grabbed one of the tubing roots from the floor, and yanked.
The lights flickered.
The floor spasmed.
And for half a second, the Surgeon screamed.
Not from pain.
From glitch.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Floor Instability Detected]Environment Node: DisruptedBoss Response: Aggressive AdaptationEcho Energy: Unlocked (Temporarily)
Jié didn't hesitate.
He reached inward.
Not physically. Not magically.
Willfully.
The stories he used to read weren't real.
But the desperation in them was.
"You don't survive hell by fighting fair," he muttered.
His hands shimmered.
Something within him snapped — not like a break.Like a knot finally unraveling.
And he felt it.
The first flicker of power that wasn't borrowed.
That wasn't given.
That wasn't even asked for.
It was taken.
[ECHO TRAIT AWAKENED: HANDS THAT BITE BACK]
Description: Your fists remember every strike they've survived.Passive: +15% response speed after being hit.Active: Reflects the intent of the last blow received.Duration: 30 secondsCost: 1 Echo Fragment
The Surgeon lunged again.
This time Jié didn't dodge.
The scalpel arm slashed across his chest — shallow, painful, clean.
Jié bared his teeth.
Stepped in.
And punched the bastard so hard his jaw dislocated.
Not from strength.
But from intent.
His body reflected the technique.
The angle.
The purpose.
And answered it.
With violence.
"You're not me," Jié growled, cracking his neck.
"You're a fucking knockoff."
"And this floor isn't hell."
"Hell is where I came from."
The Surgeon reformed.
But he was slowing now. Glitching.
Every time Jié landed a blow, something in the room twitched.
The names on the wall began to burn.
The lights spasmed.
Blood began dripping upward.
And Jié moved faster.
They wanted a climber.
They got a survivor.
They got the wrong fucking one.
The final exchange happened in silence.
No taunts.
No powers.
Just Jié — bleeding, barefoot, broken — dragging the Surgeon to the center of the room and driving his elbow into the monster's throat until it stopped twitching.
The floor screamed.
[FLOOR BOSS DEFEATED]
Jié Dè has survived Floor 1: The Skin That WhispersFinal Status: UnstableRank: ???Mutation Threshold: PassedFirst Echo Trait GainedFirst System Fragment Absorbed
A panel opened in the wall.
Not a door.
An elevator.
This one was steel.
Simple.
But the floor beneath Jié had begun to curl.
The walls bent inward.
The chamber was collapsing — consuming itself.
He staggered forward.
Blood leaking from his mouth.
His right arm twitching. Possibly fractured.
But he smiled.
I won.
He entered the elevator.
The doors hissed shut.
The room behind him — the entire floor — folded into nothing.
Gone.
Just him.
Just silence.
And in the glass of the elevator?
A reflection.
His.
But behind it?
Someone else.
Xiǎorú.
Mouth moving.
But no sound.
Just two words.
"Keep climbing."
[END OF ARC 1 – THE SKIN OF THE WORLD]
REWARDS EARNED:
Echo Trait: Hands That Bite Back
Blood Trait: Whispers Listen
Mask Role: Null Face – Broken
System Fragment: Reflection Reversal: Surgeon Data Absorbed
Echo Potential: Partial Unlock
Hidden Path: Opened
Floor Memory: Incomplete
Trauma Level: 73%
Survivor Count: 11
Jié Dè's UI Access: GRANTED!