When my eyes opened, I wasn't in the world I knew.
There was no pain. No blood. No cold air scraping at my lungs. Just... white. Endless white. Like floating through warm milk, but without a body, just being. I couldn't feel my arms or legs. I didn't even feel breath in my chest.
But I was aware.
"Ah You're awake, lovely"
The voice boomed softly from nowhere and everywhere, bouncing around the emptiness like it belonged here more than I did. It sounded bored or tired.
I turned, or maybe I didn't, but suddenly, in front of me, stood a man. He looked human, maybe a little too perfect. Clean-shaven, olive-skinned, his short hair shining black. A crimson toga clung to his tall frame, flowing as if moved by a wind that wasn't there.
His eyes looked me over in anticipation.
"I was starting to get sad that you'd died permanently," he said, hands on his hips.
I blinked, stunned. "What the hell? Who the hell are you?"
He tilted his head, as if genuinely confused by the question. "Oh... yeah. I forgot about that part."
With a sudden snap of his fingers, light exploded behind his head in the shape of a triangular halo, and his body began to emit a soft, golden glow.
"I'm God. I guess. Well sort of."
He grinned like a man who just won a drinking game. The sheer weight of his presence pressed into my mind like a mountain made of whispers and flame.
I just stared at him. My jaw moved, but nothing came out at first. This was… insane.
"You brought me back," I finally managed. "Was that a mistake? Is that why I died again? Like that? Like a dog?"
God chuckled, a deep, musical sound that echoed with stars and time itself.
"What are you even talking about?"
I frowned. "You know. Earth. The guy named Max who died from a heart attack in his kitchen. That was me. That's how it started. That pathetic story."
The glow around him dimmed slightly, and I saw something flicker in his gaze. Recognition. Memory.
"Earth?" He said
Then a slow smile curled his lips.
"Well then... Tell you what," he said, raising a finger. "Let's try this again. I'll send you back and give you a little boost while I'm at it."
"Wait, what are yo—?"
Before I could even finish the question, he snapped his fingers again, and. FLASH.
The world cracked apart like glass shattering in reverse.
Darkness.
But not the empty kind. This void had weight. It was thicker somehow, like I was submerged in something not quite liquid, not quite air. I couldn't move. Couldn't feel.
Then I heard it.
A voice. Cold, mechanical, and distant. It echoed in my skull.
[Host detected. Acquiring energy to activate system.]
What?
[No energy detected.]
[Salvaging for materials nearby…]
[Ding.]
[System activated. Initiating self-healing protocols.]
"Hello?" I tried to speak, or maybe think. There was no answer sadly. The voice kept talking, like I wasn't there at all.
And then slowly I felt something.
Pain.
Tingling warmth in my fingertips. My chest heaved violently, as though the world had punched air back into my lungs. Sound returned in faint echoes. Dripping water. A low hum.
My eyes fluttered open.
The light was a dim gray, twilight. A dank, musky stench filled my nostrils. I shifted slightly, something crackled under my hand.
I turned my head.
Wolf corpses.
Dry. Emaciated. Their fur was patchy, most of their lips were curled back in snarls even in death. Their bodies were twisted as though they had died in pain. One of them had one eye socket hollowed out.
I scrambled back instinctively, my limbs trembling. The stone beneath me was cold. My muscles ached. My back stung, right where the spear had hit me before.
Was I really alive?
"Where... am I?" I muttered hoarsely.
None of the wolves answered. They just lay there, a haunting reminder of what might've awaited me if that strange, smug god hadn't interfered.
I pulled my knees to my chest. My fingers still trembled, but the sensation of having a body again was... exhilarating. Terrifying. Miraculous.
"System?" I whispered cautiously.
No reply.
"Hey! You said something about healing. Are you, are you still there?"
Nothing.
Just the sound of water dripping from a stalactite into a shallow puddle.
So much for that "boost."
I took a deep breath, shaky, but mine. The air was cold, and every inhale stabbed at my lungs like tiny knives. I looked down at my body. I was still wrapped in the same leopard skin, torn at the edge. My arms were thinner than I remembered, and my legs...
Bruised. Scarred. But whole.
"Guess... we're doing this again," I muttered to no one in particular.
The wolves' presence was unsettling. I couldn't tell if they had been dead for hours or days. Why was I here? How had I survived?
And then a memory hit me, like a javelin through the chest.
Khabo. The attack. My uncle was dead, good. The rival tribe. The red-painted skulls.
I clenched my fists.
And now? I was alive again. With this strange system voice in my head. Some kind of second chance? Or just another cruel trick
I couldn't stay here.
The cave was damp and reeked of death. The air was so still it felt like it had forgotten to move. The entrance wasn't far. I could see it now: a jagged opening in the stone wall where faint light spilled in like golden fog.
I stood slowly, legs shaking. My limbs felt stiff, heavier than I remembered, but I pushed through the ache. The memory of the ambush still lingered in my muscles—my fall, the darkness, the voice.
The voice...
That damn system. It wasn't chatty like the other typical systems from the novels on earth. Thus It didn't help me out
But I didn't care. I just wanted to get out for now.
I took a step toward the light, then another. My breathing was shallow. The smell of sunlight, of warmth and dust, beckoned me. It was freedom.
I broke into a run.
The moment the sun's rays touched my skin.
"AAAGHHHH!"
Pain exploded through me like someone had thrown boiling oil onto my face. My vision filled with red and white streaks, and I stumbled backward screaming. My skin sizzled. Smoke curled from my forearms. My legs gave out beneath me, and I slammed into the rocky floor of the cave, panting like a hunted animal.
My hands were blistered. My arms were burned. I could feel it in my bones. It wasn't just pain. It was like the light hated me. Like the sun itself was trying to peel me from existence.
Then, the voice returned.
[Based on the energy used during system activation…]
[The host's blood system has been successfully activated.]
[Transformation complete.]
"new achievement unlocked: Ouch- turn successfully into a Vampire."
"What?! What the hell are you talking about?!" I shouted, clutching my arms. "so thats why the SUN hurt me?! so can't I go outside?!"
"Hey you s**t talk to me"
The system didn't answer.
Instead, something appeared in front of my eyes or rather in my vision. A semi-transparent blue box shimmered into existence, floating in the air like a thought that had gained form.
Status Window
Name: Azizi / Max
Age: 13 / 37
Race: Vampire
Rank: Lesser
Attributes:
Body: 43
Represents all physical parameters - strength, agility, stamina, and vitality. The average human is 7. An athlete ranks around 10. A peak-level warrior or professional athlete: 13. Your current value far exceeds human norms.
Spirit: 40
Determines your innate arcana capacity and sensitivity to spiritual and magical energies.
Will: 50
Defines control over your body and mind. Will regulates instinct, suppresses bloodlust, and maintains focus under duress.
"Warning: Will must always remain higher than Body to ensure stable consciousness and suppression of vampiric instincts."
[Congratulations, Host. You have returned from the dead as an Undead.]
[New title Earned.]
[Master of death
Description: all things with death energy love you but things with life will want to destroy you.
+ 5 body at night]
I stared at the floating window.
My name… both of them. My old life and my new one jammed into a single line. Azizi / Max. I couldn't breathe. I wasn't sure if I needed to anymore.
"What the hell…" I whispered, heart hammering in my chest—or was it? Did I even have a heartbeat?
I placed a hand on my chest. No thump. Just a hollow silence.
I wasn't human anymore.
I had become something… other. A monster. A vampire.
The word felt alien in my mouth. It echoed through my mind, bouncing off memories of horror movies, folklore, fangs in the dark. But this was real. I was real.
And I was still me.
Wasn't I?
I clenched my jaw and looked back toward the cave entrance. The sunlight still filtered through, golden rays cutting into the darkness. I could feel it from here, the heat. The hate. As if the sun had judged me and found me unworthy.
"Undead…" I muttered, running a hand through my coarse hair. "So that bastard in the red toga thought this was a gift?"
I stared at the status window again. The numbers glared back at me like labels slapped on a lab rat.
Body: 43
Spirit: 40
Will: 50
That warning.
If my Will ever dropped below my Body...
Would I lose myself? Would I become like the red-eyed fiends from old stories? A mindless blood-drinking beast?
I shivered. Actually shivered. Despite the power surging through me, I felt smaller than ever. I wasn't Max anymore. I wasn't just Azizi either. I was... something else. But I was alive. And that meant one thing.
I still had time. Time to grow. Time to understand what I'd become.
Time to avenge my father, take care of my mother and learn more about this world.
I stood slowly, body still aching but no longer burning. The blisters were already fading, my skin knitting together in seconds before my eyes. My hand trembled as I touched my jaw, where ash still flaked off my cheek.
I looked down at the wollves again. Their corpses were rotting, but something about it struck me. The position of its body. Its hollowed look.
Had they died trying to escape this place too?
Or had they... fed me?
I turned away from the thought. One step at a time. One truth at a time. I was trapped inside this cave now. But caves had other exits. And if they didn't, I'd make one. With claws. With fangs. With this strange, twisted gift had received.