When you were a kid there was one question that was asked just for fun.

“If you get the chance to get a superpower, what will it be.”

Of course, this question allowed you infinite possibilities. With so many movies for inspiration and from your own imagination, just the thought of gaining that power felt… well, powerful.

There were many popular answers, from invisibility to flight, to laser eyes; just because of one superhero guy. But there was one unpopular answer once someone explained to you just how sad it would be, “Immortality.”

No one picked immortality, well other than insane people who were either edgy or were actually insane.

It was explained in the normal earth terms as the loneliest power in the world… if you ever go through the extremes of the word’s meaning, living for eternity watching ever person you loved die as you age like nothing, it truly is depressing.

But what most people never thought of when they say immortality, was not only the emotional pain, but it would also be painful… in the physical sense.

Of course, a lot suspects immortality to just never age other than never actually dying, whatever you depict it as, in any aspect, in all three pains of the world, an immortal… would always suffer.

***

Inside the tiger’s body. In the span of a millisecond, Tian opened his eyes and was submerged underwater.

“BlewlghlkwBlehgh!” Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

…

He fainted again.

And once again he opened his eyes.

“Krwerrrrrr…”

He was submerged under water, and once again he fainted.

Then he woke up.

Aghhhh, wha-! He looked down at his skeleton exposed through some holes in his rotten skin.

Then from the pain he fainted.

And lastly, he woke up once more.

“...”

Tian laid upon his toxic skin that constantly burned. His entire body felt so much pain, yet he endured. He had faintly remembered the moments of extreme pain that instantly made him pass out.

He looked down and up thoroughly, he was inside something. It was the color of skin or more like inside flesh. Tian’s eyes flickered from the pain that came to his eye. Though this random action of his eyes wasn’t something he even knew.

From the constant pain, he couldn’t even feel his body. He knew it was in pain, so much so that only a few seconds passed and he once again fainted. But if your entire body burned in acid and you couldn’t die, can you still really feel your body?

Tian’s last memory was the moment his body was eaten by a giant tiger. It was only normal to assume that the place he was in was the tiger’s stomach, inside this toxic field that burned and killed him for an unknown amount of time.

“...” Tian woke up again.

His hand raised out the acid and clutched onto the walls. It was a wall that he could grab easily. But other than that, it was the only thing he could grasp.

Then he fainted again.

And he woke up.

Tian looked down at his body and at his arms, he had gone down to the bottom again. He raised his arms and clutched onto the walls with both his hands.

Then he fainted… then he woke up.

Tian did the same thing, but this time he was able to launch himself up from the acid, and was actually out, or was he?

Tian fainted again.

On repeat, Tian woke up for a few seconds and then immediately fainted right after.

This infinite cycle continued. One interesting thing about being an immortal was the infinite time you had to experience things. Despite the young, or whatever you really looked like on the outside, you would always be much smarter in one or more aspects.

It was normal, as time passed, people grew, doesn’t matter where, but they did.

***

“Tsk, I’m fucking hungry again that I will die!” Tian grunted and poked the flesh to his side and pulled a piece out. He started biting it and then pushed an entire piece down his throat with both his hands.

“Bleh!” Tian coughed and smacked his chest multiple times.

“Fucking hell, how long has it been here, I don’t even know if this animal is still alive. Whatever animal it was, fuck I forgot! Ahhh!” Tian punched the ground and sighed as he flipped his hair to his back.

A few hours, or days, or months, or even years may have passed. Tian didn’t know, all he had done for the fast few days he had been awake was to try his best to get out of the tiger’s stomach.

But that task was much harder than it sounded. Tian became a little bit insane when he was awake for more than a few days, his walls had engravings of the tally of days that he had spent awake, though the time he just screamed and cried was not included.

It took… however long it did, Tian was finally sane again, or mostly, he was never really sane to begin with.

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“Ughhh…” Tian stared at nothingness and sat in a crossed manner. He scratched his head until it bled and stood up. “Guess I should try to climb the throat again.” Though it wasn’t really an up… direction.

It wasn’t even the throat, or I guess it is the throat when you think of the butt.

Tian jumped down, jabbed his hand to his chest, and smashed both his lungs. He crawled down the tight space and stared at the brown-colored wall. The inside flesh was kind of brown, but not exactly, it was more of a light brown, this wall was completely brown, or more exactly, it was just poop.

“I mean this is definitely enough proof that this animal is dead,” Tian said. He pushed himself in and dived into the wall of poop.

Tian had been “awake” for 17 days. His life had been an absolute hell. The first thing he woke up to was inside a pipe squished in. He was stuck into the intestine of the tiger. There was only one reasonable thing to do at that moment, and that was to mine through it.

The flesh of the tiger was hard as fuck. His hand broke multiple times just to endure a few dents. But with the pain he had already felt throughout this experience, just a simple yell was enough for him to endure the pain.

After 10 days, he had finally excavated enough space to atleast move around for a little bit. Whenever he got hungry though, that was something he hated. Tian was immortal, you would think that he wouldn’t die of hunger, and yes, you are right, but it is painful.

Even with an immortal body, it still yearns for food, and the only food that exists is his own flesh or the flesh of the tiger. Of course, he wasn’t that insane to eat his own flesh, simply because he was scared if it didn’t regenerate.

So, Tian was left with no choice; but to eat the walls, and it was disgusting.

“Ughhh, unsuccessful today again… and I fucking smell so bad.” Tian dug through his chest again and destroyed both his lungs. Each time his face twitched and his teeth cracked from the bite.

“Another one to the wall.” And that was his day. That also showed that his tally of days was also not even accurate. Who knows how many days it had actually been? Has it just been 18? Or has there been less or worse, more?

In reality, there had always been an easy escape; the throat.

“Ughh…” Tian’s body shivered. Even though the throat was just visible above him, there was one simple thing that stopped Tian. That was obviously his trauma. The fear of the acid just below his feat.

The days had made it bearable to look at but Tian couldn’t dare to go touch the acid. His body just wouldn’t allow it, his body was far too scared to even try in the least.

But… he just can’t be scared anymore… the amount of times he had crushed his lungs just because of the unbearable smell is far too much pain a conscious man should even go through. He also constantly bled with just a scratch of his fingers. His hands had become too powerful because of the mining he had done to the fleshes, if Tian wanted to get out and start a fresh life, he had to do something.

Tian looked up and down multiple times till his neck broke. One thing that may have gone past his “day counting” was the number of times he had “died”. Whenever Tian’s neck breaks, he doesn’t just wait for it to heal back, he just instantly faints and wakes up like nothing happened.

Of course, he was aware of this one though, he wasn’t stupid, just a little brain damage. Tian’s goal was to get up the hole from above. If he was too scared to even jump down close to the acid to get some height, then he has only one choice, to mine through it.

Tian is not someone to be underestimated in his ability and determination. If you thought about it carefully, how the fuck would a hole that went to the excrement of the body be above the stomach. Of course, it’s a tiger so it was not stood up, if you think about it, it’s normal. But that’s just stupidity.

The only reason a path to the excrement of the tiger exists is because he mined it. Tian was a little stupid, if only he thought of mining to the top, he would have been out already.

“Kekeke… I’ll get out of this bitch.” Tian bit the flesh and ripped it out as his teeth broke in the process. He smashed his hands and feet into the tiger’s flesh.

It took a very long time to make a path up to the open hole, but Tian never really noted down anything nor did he sleep. But of course, the occasional fainting did happen, but that was really nothing.

“Yes!!! I did it bitch!” Tian immediately jumped up the hole and grabbed onto the walls. As he slowly climbed up the hole, his arms broke and he fell.

“Shit! Wait! What! Wait!!!!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. Tian fell… to the bottom of the acid.

Tian’s body shook uncontrollably as it burned. He panted heavily and his body didn’t even move. It shook and shook until his bones broke with just vibration. To Tian, it felt like a few moments, but in reality, he fainted and woke up in the same position as a vibrating statue.

As time passed, Tian looked down at his body as the burn soon lessened. Soon enough his body had resisted the acid more, and something happened that Tian had completely forgotten, and something he had always missed.

[Your Skill “Immortal” Has Leveled Up To 4]

What? Tian’s mouth opened and the acid flowed inside. Ahhhhhhhh!! Tian screamed and fainted again.

Soon, after a few more repetitions of fainting and waking up, Tian had gotten over his fear. As his body slowly made its way to move, he flapped his arms. He then flapped his legs. Then Tian swam up the acid and clutched to the walls.

He grabbed tight and stared straight up. His mouth was burned to a crisp as he had no response. The only thing he did was climb up like a monkey up the throat of the tiger. As his mind turned completely blank and his body moved on its own.

With a little more perseverance, Tian woke up finally once more, into the view of a beautiful sunset, surrounded by giant trees…

“I’m… out…” Tian’s body started to shake again. He fell to the ground and bent his leg to break. Tears fell on his cheeks and at that moment, Tian wailed… as loud as he could.