The acid damage was the worst part of dying.
Not because it hurt more than the bite, though it did, but because it was incremental. The bite had been total and immediate, a single overwhelming input that the brain could not fully process before the next thing happened. The acid was patient. It arrived in measured intervals, each notification a small precise reminder that the process was ongoing and intentional and that I had designed it this way.
LEE ZHANG TAKES 12 ACID DAMAGE. LEE ZHANG TAKES 15 ACID DAMAGE. LEE ZHANG TAKES 8 ACID DAMAGE.
I had designed mimic digestive chemistry to be aggressive for a specific reason: players who survived a mimic encounter through lucky extraction still needed to feel the consequence of the mistake. Lingering acid damage was the consequence. A lesson t
