2026-04-01 14:58:45The first rays of the morning sun didn't feel like a blessing. it felt more like they a blowtorch.
I tried to yawn, but the motion was just a sickening vibration of my chitinous jaw. Last night was a fever dream. A blurred montage of shadows, the metallic tang of human life on my tongue, and the terrifying rush of playing god. I still couldn't wrap my head around it. I was a man who used to order expensive steaks and vintage wine... And now, I was a parasite lurking in the weeds. As the sun climbed higher, my skin began to sizzle. To a human, it was a pleasant morning. To me, the light was a searing radiation that threatened to cook me from the inside out. I scrambled into the damp, dark safety of a hollowed-out log, my tiny heart hammering against my ribs. "What now?" I croaked into the silence blaming my bad luck. I was bored, terrified, and fueled by a singular, jagged purpose: I had to make Xena bleed. I had to see the light leave her eyes just like it almost left mine. But as I prepared to take flight, the world exploded in a sound like a cracking whip. Crooooak. What is it? My compound eyes swiveled. A big shadow loomed over the log...a monstrous, pulsating throat and eyes like golden orbs of death. Zip. A five-inch tongue lashed out at 0.07 seconds. It was a pink blur of muscle and sticky death. Survival instinct, sharper than any human reflex, kicked in. I spiraled upward, the tip of that wet muscle missing my hind legs by a fraction of a millimeter. The frog didn't give up. It's prehistoric face locked onto me with a hunger that mirrored my own. "Heaven have mercy!" I buzzed, pushing my wings until they screamed. I had to get out of here. I had to get my body back before the food chain finished what Xena started. [System Notification: Host, you have exactly 5 days of lifespan remaining.] I nearly crashed into a tree trunk. "Five days? You told me I had ten days to pay the tax!" [Correction: You have ten days to complete the 'Human Ascension' cycle. However, your current biological stability is failing. Without a power boost, your organs will liquefy in 120 hours.] "You crazy, glitching piece of junk!" I hissed. "At this rate I'm dead meat either way!" [Not necessarily. A Side Quest has been generated. Success will grant you a double-tax credit, effectively buying you time. Failure results in a 'Brutal Expiration.'] I felt a cold shiver. "Fine. What's the task?" [Not all blood is equal, Host. The System craves the Rare. Behold the Power Structure:] Rh- Null: The Crimson King. Rarest. Most Powerful. Ab- Negative: The Blue Blood. A Type: The Golden Standard. B and O: The Common Yellow and Green. [The Circle demands a drop of Rh- Null 'Crimson' blood. Do this, and you will receive a two-drop pay reward. To assist, I am installing the 'Hemoglobin Detection Lens into your eyes.'] Suddenly, my vision shifted. The world turned grayscale, except for the people. As I flew toward the edge of the park and into the city, I saw humans walking around with glowing halos of color above their heads. A businessman passed by with a bright Golden aura. Type A. A group of teenagers sat on a bench, their heads glowing Green and Yellow. Types O and B. I spent an hour darting through a crowded market, my wings aching, my vision scanning hundreds of faces. Nothing. No Red. Though there's fewer with Blue above their head. Looks like what system said was true. I was exhausted, my energy reserves flagging. I landed on a soft, warm surface to catch my breath, my mind drifting toward the abyss of failure. "Mom, mom! Look! A tiny mosquito sat on me!" A child's voice boomed like a cannon. I looked up to see a giant hand descending like a falling sky. "I'll get it, honey! How dare it bite my son!" Whap! The mother's palm missed me by a hair's breadth. I felt the air pressure from the strike tumble me through the air. I saw a glimpse of the afterlife in that split second. I didn't stop to look back. I flew until the sun dipped below the horizon, the urgency of my five-day death sentence clawing at my soul. I reached the City General Hospital. If there was Red blood anywhere, it was here. I drifted through an open window on the third floor, navigating the sterile, bleach-scented hallways. I checked room after room. Yellow, Green, Gold. Then, I stopped at a private suite. A man and a woman were entwined on a sofa in the corner of the darkened room. I recognized the man... It's Roy, a local real estate mogul and a known associate of Arsh. "What if your wife finds out?" the woman whispered, pulling him into a chef kiss. Roy laughed, a sound like grinding gravel. "Even if she does, she'll be long gone by the time she can speak. Let's just hope she finds her way to heaven quickly." "You're terrible," she giggled. "But Teresha is your wife. She's literally in the next room, she giggled again as if it was the most amusing thing she said ever." "And she's useless to me now," Roy sneered, his hand sliding up her leg. Baby, give me a kiss, he placed his cheek shamelessly. A sharp knock at the door shattered the mood. A doctor stepped in, his face haggard and pale. "Mr. Roy. It's Dr. Andre. We have a crisis." Roy didn't even stand up. "What is it now?" "Your wife... At the emergency C-section... she's lost too much blood. The hospital bank is out of Rh- Null." Fortunately, your records show you are a match. We need you to donate, right now, or she won't make it through the hour. Roy looked at the doctor with a cold, mocking smirk. "Are you being serious? Me? Poke myself with a needle for her? Never." The doctor froze. "But she is your wife! She is carrying your child!" "And so? If she dies, she will be able to reincarnate faster," Roy said, checking his fingernails. The woman beside him, smirked. "How does a mere doctor dare to use that tone with you, Roy? She placed a hand on his chest." "If you don't give blood, she will die!" the doctor roared. "Then let her die," Roy replied. The doctor looked at those two monsters helplessly, unable to do anything. Till now, I sat on the curtain rod, my compound eyes fixed on the glowing, Deep Red aura hovering over Roy's head. He was the one. He was the Crimson blood the system demanded. But it wasn't just about the blood anymore. The rage that had started on the rooftop with Xena surged back, a triple-fold heat that threatened to melt my wings. You want to watch your wife die for a mistress? I thought, my proboscis twitching. I'm going to make you wish you were never born to dirty the earth. An inhuman living trash! I took off, a silent, invisible karma of vengeance. ---
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A Promise to the Dead
I pressed my back against the damp plaster, clutching the two-foot chef's knife. My human heart was a frantic bird trapped in a cage of ribs, hammering out a rhythm of pure terror."If you die here, your existence will be erased in all timelines."The System's words looped in my mind like a funeral dirge. I've faced a twenty-seven-story drop. I've lived as a parasite in the dirt. But this? A world where the dead refuse to stay down? This was a different kind of nightmare. I was a man who used to close his eyes during horror movies, and now, I was the lead actor in one. Should I say holy zombie!"Better than dying in Xena's hands," I whispered, a hysterical laugh bubbling up in my throat. "At least these monsters don't pretend to love you before they bite off your flesh."Snap out of it, Zilu, I scolded myself. I had twenty-four hours to survive. Energy was my most precious currency. I needed to find a hole, crawl into it, and wait for the clock to run out. I began to move, d
The Red Zone Hunt
"Yes, of course. Show me," I muttered, my wings twitching with a mix of dread and desperation. I had paid the tax in blood and years of my life. I wanted the prize.[Look at your shadow, Host. Enjoy.]The red glow from the ritual hadn't fully faded when I looked down at the surface of the rainwater puddle. My heart...or the frantic little pump in my chest nearly seized."Holy... what kind of monster is that?" I screamed.On the surface of the water, I was still a mosquito. But the shadow I cast on the stone beneath the water? It was the towering, jagged silhouette of a man. A man with elongated, claw-like fingers and eyes that burned like embers in the dark. It looked like a demon made of cheap ink.[That is your new form, Host. You can haunt the waking world now. Consider it a gift.]"A gift? This is a nightmare!" I buzzed, my voice spiraling into a panic. "Imagine a mosquito flying into a room, but the shadow on the wall is a six-foot-tall reaper. That's not a gift, that's
The Altar of Ascension
The night air was heavy, thick with the scent of damp earth and the electric hum of an approaching storm. I was hovering aimlessly over a stagnant pond, my wings beating in a restless rhythm. To anyone else, I am just a nuisance in the dark (that's actually true though). Anyway, I was an anxious mosquito counting the seconds until midnight.In the hollow space where my stomach used to be, I felt the weight of the prize: the Crimson Tax. The blood of that monster Roy was still warm within me, a pulsing, rare energy that felt like liquid fire. It was Rh-Null. The Red Blood. The kind of rare essence that was supposed to bridge the gap between my bug life and my human soul."System," I buzzed, my tone sounded sharp and impatient. "Midnight is breathing down my neck. Where are you?"Silence.Usually, that cold, robotic voice used to snapped back before I could even finish a thought. But now? No answer came. Just the distant croak of a bullfrog and the rustle of leaves. A cold knot
Blight of the Damned
The transfusion room was a sterile, white-tiled purgatory that smelled of rubbing alcohol. Nurses moved with a frantic urgency, their rubber-soled shoes chirping against the floor like panicked birds. In the center of it all stood Roy or rather, the hollowed-out shell that used to be Roy.I watched from the back of a plastic chair, my compound eyes tracking the jerky, robotic movements of his limbs. Inside that body, the real Roy was howling. I could feel the vibrations of his terror through the System's link; he was a passenger in his own skin, screaming at a wall of silence."Get out! Get out of my body, you freak!" his mind shrieked.I chuckled, the sound came out a low, dry vibration in my thorax. No one gonna noticed me... A mosquito! Hahaha..."Lay down here, Mr. Roy," a senior nurse urged, her voice tight with the stress of the ticking clock. "We need to tap the vein now. Every second we lose is a second your wife doesn't have."Roy stood stiffly, his muscles twitching
A puppet
"Baby, if you don't give your blood, won't she be angry at you?"The woman's voice was like honey dripping over broken glass. She lounged on the hospital sofa, twirling a lock of hair around her finger as she looked at Roy. Her eyes were bright with the predatory gleam of someone watching an obstacle being removed.Roy let out a jagged, ugly laugh. "Angry at me,pfft? Teresha is obsessed with me. Even if she wakes up... which she won't. She'll probably thank me for not ruining my health with a needle. She's a pain, honestly. Always has been.""Baby, look at Dr. Andre," she whispered with a sharp smirk, pointing toward the door. "He's still standing there. Hoping you would donate your blood."Roy turned his gaze toward the doctor. The air in the room seemed to thicken with the stench of his arrogance."Dr. Andre, I believe you value your career, don't you?" Roy's voice was a low, vibrating threat.The doctor's face went from pale to a deep, insulted red. "What exactly are you i
Blood of a Betrayer
The first rays of the morning sun didn't feel like a blessing. it felt more like they a blowtorch.I tried to yawn, but the motion was just a sickening vibration of my chitinous jaw. Last night was a fever dream. A blurred montage of shadows, the metallic tang of human life on my tongue, and the terrifying rush of playing god. I still couldn't wrap my head around it. I was a man who used to order expensive steaks and vintage wine... And now, I was a parasite lurking in the weeds.As the sun climbed higher, my skin began to sizzle. To a human, it was a pleasant morning. To me, the light was a searing radiation that threatened to cook me from the inside out. I scrambled into the damp, dark safety of a hollowed-out log, my tiny heart hammering against my ribs."What now?" I croaked into the silence blaming my bad luck.I was bored, terrified, and fueled by a singular, jagged purpose: I had to make Xena bleed. I had to see the light leave her eyes just like it almost left mine. Bu
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