'Why...? He's chugging down the water, he'll be dead from drowning within seconds at this rate. So why...?! Why is he smiling!? And what... Just what is he looking at!?'

Seeing his expression only made her become more desperate to drown him, her confusion grew as fear travelled through her liquified body.

At the time she had no idea, nor could she begin to imagine what it was that Gray was staring at.

[Congratulations, You have levelled up!]

[You are now Level 7.]

[Congratulations! Due to the recent level up, the system has been given the opportunity to evolve.]

[By evolving the system, the user too shall be increasing his potential.]

[Do you accept the evolution?]

Two large buttons appeared in front of him.

[Yes.] [No.]

His eyes were glued to the screen in front of him, with his remaining strength he moved his elbows forward to press on the screen.

With his mouth covered in water, and the amount of oxygen remaining in him almost running out, he had no option but to pause both him and her so that he could stay conscious and continue.

[Immobile Fortress.]

[Pause.]

'I can't move!?'

*Thump*

Gray's heart beat one final time before the water flow along with his entire figure froze.

'He used his ability again!? Has he given up? He's also affected by it and based on what I saw, he can't use it forever, is he trying to buy time?'

*Click*

Gray's elbow had just about pressed the option as he paused themselves.

'Yes.'

[Option selected: Yes.]

[Confirmation acquired.]

*Bloom.*

A bright light suddenly flashed before Gray's eyes, the ding sound which would come whenever there was a notification rang constantly inside of his head.

Cracks formed on the tab before it eventually shattered, a new different coloured glowing tab manifested.

It's background was titanium white and the texts were black.

For a moment, just a moment Gray could see the orb manifest behind the next text, the orb took shape of a long-haired person, it's figure resembled a girl's.

But before he could so much as get a good luck at it, after but a single blink it vanished.

The highlighted text stayed and read.

[The System Has Evolved.]

[Achievement: System Evolution.]

[Coins earned: 500.]

[New System Features have been added.]

[You now have the ability to travel to world links.]

[System's Interface has been modified.]

[LV 6 --> LV 7]

The notifications flashed by at fast speeds, it was hard to keep up.

But eventually it all came to a stop on but a single, simple notification.

[(New!) Level Up Options.]

[Options are now selected at random.]

[...Showcasing Options...]

Gray waited patiently, there was nothing he could do but wait.

[Showcased.]

[1 - Full Body Recovery.]

[2 200 Coins.]

[3 Two stat points.

[4 Mystery Wheel Roll.]

With his paused eyes opened wide, he gazed at the options which appeared in separate tabs before his eyes.

They colouring and lighting which surrounded it gave it a divine feeling. He had never gotten these options before, it was obvious.

He was so fixated on the system and the screen that his surroundings seemingly disappeared.

He had one and only one thought in mind.

'Mystery Wheel Roll... Spin it.' He thought to himself with an inward smile.

[Option Selected: Mystery Wheel Roll.]

A flaming wheel manifested itself in front of him, it was split up into ten pieces, with different options and words written on each.

[Spinning The Wheel.]

The wheel began to spin around and around. The options displayed became blurry as it spun faster and faster.

'What's he doing!? How much longer are we going to stay frozen for...? Why can't he just give up already...?'

He grew increasingly more nervous as he watched the wheel spin.

Right before it had spun, he had gotten a good luck at the options.

One of the options was one which he absolutely couldn't afford to land on.

[Instant Teleportation Monster Survival Wave Zone.]

He didn't know exactly what it meant but those four words were clearly not appealing when together.

Still he wasn't worried, after all there was a 1 in 10 chance of landing on it.

Gray waited patiently as the wheel began to slow down, around 15 seconds had passed since he paused everything, the timer was gradually decreasing.

*Click* *Click* *Click*

The slower it got, the more clicks which could be heard.

The clicking became more and more frequent until eventually -

*Clunk*

[Rolled: Random Ability Orb.]

Gray's eyes, widened as he watched an ability orb manifest before his eyes.

The girl who was paused in her liquified state while restricting Gray, instantly recognised what it was.

'A power stone!? Where did that come from and why...? What the hell is happening!?'

[Acquired a random Ability Orb.]

[Compatibility: Unknown.]

Gray grinned inwardly.

This was good, even if he couldn't absorb the ability from it he could still converge with it to get a skill point and level up pause.

'Might as well level it up now, I'm getting sick of this restriction.'

Right as he was about to do so however, a notification rang in front of him.

[Ability Orb Analysed.]

[Mythical Rarity Skill Detected.]

[Compatibility: 86%]

[Chance Of Failure: 14%]

[Would you like to learn the skill?]

'Huh?'

Gray was dumbfounded.

Whenever he would grab an ability orb before, he would either get told that it failed trying to absorb the skill in the orb.

But now he could?

'Is this because the system evolved?'

[That is correct.]

The system replied, in a somewhat more feminine but still the same robotic voice.

[5 seconds remaining until pause timer runs out.] It warned.

Gray was speechless, both inwardly and outwardly.

Had his body not been paused, he would without a doubt have heard his heart pounding in excitement.

'I want to level up pause but... His luck had just landed him a Mythical skill. Was one skill point really worth having over a new skill itself?'

He didn't even give it another thought - 'Learn it.'

[Request to learn, confirmed.]

[Executing Skill Absorption.]

[Absorbing SKill Orb...]

The orb slowly levitated towards Gray's forehead before entering right through.

Even whilst paused, Gray felt a burning pain in his own soul as it merged with the Skill.

The female Kessho watched, being unable to do anything as the orb fully merged with Gray.

'...I-It isn't a problem... It's just one skill... I'll complete my mission and kill him...!'

[Skill Orb Absorbed.]

[Mythical Skill Acquired.]

[Timer ended].

[Unpause].

At that moment, Gray dropped down to his knees, his head was hung low and the water instantly expanded, completely submerging his body within a spherical sphere of water.

Gray moved his hand over to his throat, tightly squeezing it as he could no longer hold his breath.

Countless bubbles made their way up the sphere.

Gray struggled slightly, swaying his arms left and right in desperation inside of the water. But no matter how much he tried, it didn't show any signs of breaking.

He had exhausted the last bit of oxygen in him, his movements grew slower.

After his futile attempt, he began to drown in the water as he had inhaled and drank lots of it on his desperate attempt to escape.

[Warning: Health decreasing at an abnormal rate due to lack of oxygen.]

Eventually, Gray's movements completely came to a stop.

The bubbles rushing to the top of the sphere, had become next to none.

'Yes...! He's dead now for sure...! I did it...! I-'

*Splash!*

The girl was interrupted as the water sphere encasing Gray suddenly burst from the inside out.

Her restriction over him was completely severed just like that.

'Huh?'

The water which splattered around to the surroundings slowly merged up before coming together and rising up in a humanoid shape.

'What's going on?' She wondered as she stared at Gray.

His head was hung low, but a strange aura surrounding him.

'How did he...? Escape...?'

She looked down at her body and winced.

The water had completely disappeared around her toes, she was losing control over her ability.

[Liquification.]

Although she tried turning it back into liquid, she had failed. Instead the amount of her body exposed had increased.

Her clothed body was completely exposed to attacks.

She had overdone it and used her ability for too long.

She looked up and her eyes widened, a large palm was inches away from her face.

[Pause.]

With just a touch of her face, her bare exposed body was completely frozen.

Now Gray was free to attack.

*Cough* *Cough*

Now that she was paused he dropped to his knees before hastily coughing out the water which was trapped within his lungs.

A pool of water mixed with blood splashed on the floor ahead of him.

As he looked up a killer glare could be seen on his eyes.

She wanted to move but couldn't her body was completely frozen.

'W-Wait... I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...'

She wanted to talk but her voice wouldn't come out.

When he stood up, she felt her heart sink.

She could feel it. - His bloodlust and desire to kill her.

'W-Wait, please..!'