My Almighty Werewolf System

Chapter 3

Kai woke to a rhythmic hum. The ceiling above him was stark white, glowing faintly like a low sun behind clouds. A mechanical limb passed into view, jointed with silver wires, its fingers whirring as they adjusted something on his forehead.

“Subject stabilizing,” a voice said ........genderless, clipped and not human.

Kai shifted. His muscles felt like jelly and needles. His eyes darted sideways.

Three figures stood around his bed. One had no face, only a screen where features should be, displaying graphs and pulsing data streams. Another had an exposed chestplate where gears rotated beneath translucent skin. The third, somehow worse, looked almost normal, except for the silver gleam of his skeletal forearms and the blue light flickering behind his pupils.

"You're in the Rainbow Medical Wing," the faceless one said. “Tissue repair at 47%. Neural instability detected. Anomalous energy spike logged.”

Kai opened his mouth. His throat was dry, tongue sticking to the roof. “W-What happened to me?”

“Efficiency,” said the second, adjusting a dial near Kai's wrist. “Humans are inefficient.”

The third leaned closer. “You triggered an undocumented awakening protocol,” he said. “We are........investigating.”

Kai’s head throbbed. A pulse like static buzzed behind his eyes, and then, without warning, something flared across his vision.

A tone chimed in his skull. Then came the voice again, cold and familiar.

[SYSTEM ONLINE.......]

Kai jerked.

[WELCOME BACK, HOST.]

 [INITIALIZING RECOVERY QUEST...]

 [OBJECTIVE: REPLENISH BLOOD CORE]

[“You have been trampled on; you have been embarrassed and disgraced. But now that you are rising to take back what is yours, take a life to replenish yours and rise to the top”]

 [TASK: CONSUME 125 LITERS OF ANIMAL BLOOD]

 [DURATION: 12 HOURS]

 [FAILURE WILL RESULT IN CELLULAR DETERIORATION]

“What the hell...?”

No one else reacted. The doctors continued their mechanical evaluations, tapping on data pads and injecting Kai with clear fluid. But Kai's vision split. Two layers overlapped: the sterile room, and behind it, a growing red bar. His thirst. The counter blinked at him.

[CURRENT BLOOD LEVEL: 2%]

 [WARNING: CRITICAL HUNGER IMMINENT]

“Do you guys...feel that?” he asked, voice trembling.

They didn’t answer. One just said, “Vitals spiking,” and tried to inject him again.

But the thirst hit then ......sharp and sudden. A gnawing ache in his gut. Then deeper. Like fire in his veins. His hands trembled. His jaw clenched.

[HUNGER LEVEL: 12%… 19%… 28%…]

He swung his legs off the bed and nearly fell. The robotic staff moved to intercept, but he shoved past them, heart hammering.

“I need air,” Kai gasped, barely upright.

Alarms followed him into the hallway, but the door hissed open before him like it feared him.

Jace was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. “You’re alive. Good. I was gonna steal your boots if you died.”

Kai pushed past him.

“Hey....hey! Kai? Where are you going .........”

“I need to feed,” Kai growled, surprising even himself.

Jace blinked. “That’s...really vague and really vampire-ish.”

“I don’t know what’s happening, there’s a quest or something, it says I’ll die if I don’t.......” Kai’s voice cracked. “I just have to move.”

And he did. Fast.

He tore through the outer courtyard, passing shimmering wards and arcane lanterns, leaping a hedge without thinking. Jace cursed behind him and gave chase.

“Kai, wait! That direction leads to......”

Kai didn’t hear. His mind was a furnace now. Thirst screamed inside him; it was more than he could control or explain. Everything looks strange to him, the air tasted wild.

[HUNGER LEVEL: 52%… 58%… 62%…]

And then ......he saw it. A stag, tall and elegant, grazing in a clearing bathed in silver light. Its antlers gleamed like polished bone.

Kai didn’t hesitate. He dropped low, instincts not his own firing in his limbs. Muscles tightened. His feet barely touched the ground.

He watched his prey like a predator and pounced on it heavily like a well-trained predator, that’s when he realized that he is not alone.

A shadow dropped between him and the deer, fast as a blink. Another to the left. And then a third.

“Interesting, I think we caught something more than a deer guys”, said a smooth, sharp voice.

Kai froze.

Three vampires stood before him. Not the ones from cliché, these wore suits woven from shadow and silk. Their skin shimmered faintly like polished marble, and their eyes held ravenous fire.

The tallest, Valen, radiated cold dominance. Beside him, Roger cracked his neck, claws already half-drawn.

“Oooh brother,” Valen purred, “I lose appetites easily, but It’ll be very rude of me to reject an evening snack”, he mumbled with a devilish smile curling down his lip.

“Haaaha, I told you I have a good feeling coming to this angle for hunting”.

But the third one among them watched Kai with open curiosity, a girl. She was younger, though that word meant little in vampire terms. Her hair shine like white flame, and her gaze lingered not on his face...... but on his shadow, which crawls silently behind him.

“But why does his shadow growl?” she asked, curiosity etched in her voice.

“Another mutt,” Roger spat. “Do we need to care about his shadow here? Let’s bleed him and send the pieces back to the headmaster of their faction”, Valen said flatly.

Kai stumbled back, arms raised. “I didn’t know.... I was just....”, Kai stutter when he sees Valen’s countenance changing. Sweats have already covered him from head to toes.

Just when Valen was about to reach for his neck, Selene stepped forward and interfered.

“No.”

Both brothers turned to her, startled.

“He’s not a threat,” she said quietly. “And I’m curious.”

“Curious? That’s surprise coming from you, baby sister. Never seen you care for some human kids before. Stop these humane shits lets enjoy the snacks together” Valen said through clenched teeth.

But Selene’s countenance holds them off, so he stepped back.

So did Roger, with a dissatisfying snarl.

Selene gave Kai one last look. “You should learn never to enter a vampire territory, so you don't lose your head.”

“And stay safe.........I’ll see you around soon”, she whispered before she left the scene.

And then they were gone. A blink. A rush of air.

The deer lay dead, its neck already pierced by Roger’s vampiric claws. But Kai was beyond caring. He dropped to his knees, eyes wide, breath ragged.

Then he sank his teeth into the still-warm flesh.

Blood filled his mouth, hot and metallic, and then the voice returned.

[QUEST COMPLETE.]

 [BLOOD CORE: RESTORED]

 [SYSTEM UPGRADING STATS...]

A warm surge blasted through him. His limbs stopped shaking. His breath steadied.

[NEW TRAIT UNLOCKED: HUNTER'S SCENT]

 [NEW RANK: F-RANK INITIATE]

[SKILL UNLOCKED: BLOODSENSE I | PASSIVE]

 [NEW TITLE: FIRST BLOOD]

[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST. YOU ARE NOW A BETA 001]

Kai stared down at his hands, slick with blood. He wasn’t shaking anymore.

But he wasn’t calm either.

“What the hell... am I?” he whispered.

“You’re lucky to still be breathing,” said a new voice behind him.

He turned.

The Werewolf faction headmaster stood in the clearing, cloak fluttering like something alive, and beside him is Jace, panting, mud on his boots.

Kai looked at him from head to toes, it was his first time meeting with him.

“I told him you were about to die,” Jace confessed.

The headmaster’s eyes glowed faintly. He looked at Kai, the dead deer and the blood.

“At first when I heard about you, I thought you are useless, but it seems you're not just useless, you are also stupid”, he muttered, wrath etched in her voice.

“I’m sorry sir, I just couldn't ......’ Kai tried to explain, but the headmaster turned his gaze away from him and turn to Jace.

“Take him back. Contain him. Notify the Archives.”

Kai stared up, chest rising and falling.

Inside his head, the system buzzed again.

[STAGE ONE COMPLETE.........]