Time passed.

Hours passed, in which Nick just kept thinking about things.

At some point, Nick's stomach even started to hurt, which made him remember that he hadn't eaten anything for quite a while.

But it seemed so unimportant.

He just didn't care.

Also, in a certain way, the pain of hunger felt justified to Nick.

Nick was just too consumed by regret and guilt.

Feeling happy in any way felt unfair to Horua.

After taking away Horua's happiness and future, Nick believed he didn't deserve to have one of his own.

It was only fair.

"Man, you look like shit."

Usually, Nick would jump up in surprise at the voice that had suddenly appeared behind him on the bed.

Yet, Nick just didn't care a lot, and he also quickly realized who it was based on the voice.

Nick didn't answer.

A moment later, a rat entered Nick's vision, and he saw it looking down at him with interest.

"What happened to you?" it asked.

"Don't you already know?" Nick answered with a deadpan and lifeless voice.

"No, I don't," the Parasite said. "I might have many eyes and ears, but it's difficult to check the Outer City. Too many guards and Extractors, you know?"

"Why are you here?" Nick asked emotionlessly.

"Checking up on my favorite Extractor," the rat said with a big grin. "I usually see you walking around from time to time, but you haven't shown up in a while."

"Why would you care?" Nick asked.

"You're my important business partner," the rat said with a smile as it rubbed its little claws together. "Your health is important to my business."

Nick snorted. "You tried to convince me to kill myself more than once before."

"Yeah, but that's in the past," the rat said dismissively. "Things change, you know?"

Nick just kept looking at the ceiling without answering.

"Man, life really got you by the ass, eh, Nick?" the rat said as it leaned on Nick's elbow.

Nick didn't move.

"Oh, wow," the rat said in a bit of surprise. "You're not even angry that I'm touching you. That's a new one."

The next moment, the rat jumped up on Nick's chest and looked at his vacant and disinterested eyes.

"Huh," the rat uttered after a bit. "To think that you would actually reach that point. After that one incident two years ago, I thought that you would never consider suicide."

"Things change," Nick said. "You said so yourself."

"And so they do," the rat said as it moved around Nick for a bit, looking at him with interest.

"Can't bring yourself to go through with it, huh?" the rat asked.

Nick weakly nodded without looking at the rat.

"You know, those are my favorite customers," the rat said. "Like, I don't even have to convince them. They just let me do my thing."

The next moment, the rat started to scratch its tiny chin with one of its claws.

"But things are tricky in this case."

"First, you are worth far more than just your corpse. You are a business partner that can bring me tens, if not hundreds, of corpses, you know? Having you die right now would be a huge waste."

"Also, you're already no longer a normal human. Look at this."

Then, the rat suddenly bit Nick's arm and started to tear at it while trying to scratch it with its claws.

Nick felt like someone was pinching him.

"Can't get through," the rat said after stepping away. "This body is just a rat. I can kill a guy, but I can't kill an Extractor."

"Sure, if I claw out your eyes and crawl up your skull, I would be able to do so, but you would never let me. Even the most depressed and suicidal person goes crazy when a rat tries to eat their eyes. Trust me, I tried."

"I mean, you could try traveling to my main body" the rat said as it trailed off.

"Nah, forget it. You'll never survive the journey," it said a bit later with a dismissive wave.

"Also, I don't want you to die. I still need me some corpses, you know?" the rat said with a wide grin.

Even though Nick didn't care a lot about anything right now, he still noticed the irony of his current situation.

"You're trying to convince me to stay alive," Nick stated.

"I mean, sure," the rat said with a shrug. "Why not? Maybe you'll donate some corpses later when you feel better?"

"A rat's gotta make a living, you know?"

Nick almost felt like this wasn't real.

The Parasite.

A powerful Specter.

Someone who tried to convince as many humans as possible to let it consume them

Was trying to convince Nick not to kill himself.

How had things turned out like this?

"So, what's been bugging you?" the rat said. "By the way, where's your little statue boy? He's usually positioned right here."

Nick took a deep breath.

"Ah, there it is," the rat said after seeing Nick's reaction. "I get it."

"Little statue boy broke."

"So, you broke a statue. Big deal. Make a new one," the rat said.

Nick's eyes narrowed in anger.

The rat immediately jumped away from Nick. "Oh boy, someone's getting uppity."

"His name was Horua!" Nick shouted at the rat after explosively sitting up. "He was a real human with a real name! He's not a statue, and he's not just a boy!"

The rat blinked a couple of times in surprise. "I feel like that was only partially targeted at me."

Nick snorted and looked to the side. "It doesn't matter anyway. He's dead now, and I killed him."

"So?" the rat asked.

Nick clenched his fists again. "He was an innocent boy, and I killed him!" he said through gritted teeth.

"What? So if you killed him seven years later, things would be different?" the rat asked. "Dead is dead. Who cares?"

Nick just looked forward with furrowed brows, not facing the rat. "You wouldn't understand. You're a Specter."

The rat scratched the side of its head a bit in thought.

"I guess so?" it answered with uncertainty.