Practical thinking. It's not something bad.
It's just that people don't get it. They're delved in things like—emotions. Some might say emotions are something everyone has. Well, I agree. Even I have them.
But believe me, these people… they're vultures.
I am—was—Han. A 21-year-old man working in a convenience store as a cashier. You might think I'm talking too great while being just a cashier. That… that's exactly the face value I'm talking about. Your looks and position carve your future interactions with people.
I'm an orphan. Not by some tragic accident, but by an accident from a young couple who couldn't abort me early and pretty much sold me. Yes. I was a slave in this world of so-called freedom.
I was playing "MMA" and "Their Butler" with my 16-year-old friends from the orphanage when I was ten. Until I realized in my second year of high school what had really happened to me.
You show a single weak side and this world abandons you like you never existed. It's like that one question mark at the end of a newspaper headline can decide whether it's true or an assumption, but is thought to be true anyway.
Tonight, I was on the night shift. I'm not one to talk much with people. Or rather, they don't want to talk with someone of my face.
What's wrong with my face? A burn scar I got from a house fire. It wasn't even my room, but the neighbours'. They left while leaving the gas on.
And boom.
I now look like a war veteran from the novels I read. Novels—maybe my sole emotional realm. I thought, if maybe I lived long enough, I could understand such things as emotions, family, reputation.
Well, that's what I wanted to say.
But I died.
I was just trying to be a hero. Maybe, I thought, maybe if I saved this kid from the robbers, maybe he'd accept my face and say… "Thank you."
Hah. What a fool I am.
He ran away. Used me as a scapegoat, pushed me towards those robbers. They would've left me alive if I'd just watched that kid give them all the cash.
But now, look. My job, my salary… it's gone.
A void.
Is this real death? Quite interesting, even for a person like me.
I opened my eyes.
Nighttime. Oh, maybe I'm alive after all.
I saw my own hands. "Aah! What are these hands!"—is what a normal human would react like. But now, I've totally become what my emotional quotient is. I've become a ghoul.
I'm in a jungle now. I can't talk, can't see clearly, can't smell anything but rot and blood, but I can hear things. Somehow, I've become so hungry that I've eaten three boars in this jungle since my… reincarnation here.
A sudden sound. I growled. A growling sound returned.
Huh. Is it another ghoul? How rare.
But I felt a sense of camaraderie. It was like we were adventuring through this black world together. I'd even touched this ghoul a few times, a clumsy, shuffling contact in the perpetual gloom.
My chest tightened. Is this what happiness feels like?
We continued our conquest. After eating a few more animals, we could now communicate with each other through the number and pitch of our growls. Interesting, isn't it? The first time someone was talking to me without considering my physical and social appearance.
We were primal beings now.
Bushes sound.
I froze. Huh? What's there?
People talking.
Man 1: "Hey, I told you I sensed it here, the dark energy!"
Female: "Maybe you're just tired. How could ghouls from the Dark Continent cross into this jungle?"
Man 2: "But the Dark Continent is in an uproar nowadays. All species there are coming out. Something ominous is happening."
I hid behind a tree, the rough bark scraping against my desiccated flesh. Humans. They're maybe here for ghoul hunting, like in those RPG games.
Wait. Where's the other ghoul?
Oh no. Where did that guy go?
I heard sounds from the people.
Man 1: "Hey! That's a ghoul!"
Man 2: "See, I told you guys!"
Female: "Let's kill it and go home now."
I panicked. But I… what can I even do? I don't even know where they are precisely.
After shuffling for what felt like fifteen minutes, drawn by the sounds, I found my friend. But wait… how is it still alive?
Man 1: "Hey, look. The second one's here."
Female: "Took this guy long enough."
Man 2: "Let's put the silver spikes in this one, too."
Silver spikes? This one, too?
Did they not kill him, but… incapacitated him? I don't find a relief in this.
A searing, holy agony erupted through my own body. They moved too fast! I was pinned, impaled by cold, burning metal. They didn't kill me. A sort of fun. They want me to be out here until the sun comes up and burns me.
I heard weak, pained growls from the other ghoul. I understood him. I growled back, a sound of shared suffering.
Hm. Wait.
He… he's not growling back for some time now.
Did he… No… How… How could he?
I cried for the first time in my cold-hearted life. Well, second life. My growls were loud enough for every animal in the jungle to hear me. I wanted to curse those humans. But I can't deny I would've done the same if I had been in their position, back when I was human.
But this guy had done nothing wrong. So why?
My first… friend.
Then, I heard a sound. A chime. A screen, glowing blue and ethereal, materialized before my mind's eye. I've seen these in manhwas.
It's a system. I have one, too.
[Abnormality discovered.]
[Emotions have surged in a lifeform void of emotions.]
Huh? What is happening?
[A backlash has been given to the Origin God.]
[The lifeform has been designated to evolve.]
Evolve?
[The Slave System has been bound to the host.]
[Host has a free, first-time chance to bond a slave.]
[Slave #1 will be the Absolute Leader and Commander of all future slaves. Their authority and potential will be unparalleled.]
I thought for a bit. Although I wanted to save my friend, the pragmatic part of me—the part that had kept me alive in two lifetimes—whispered the truth. My own survival is at risk right now. He is already gone.
I asked the system, my thought a silent, calculated probe. Can… I become a slave… of myself?
A loophole. If the first slave is to be so overwhelming, then I will become it myself. Why give the chance to someone else? And they said the first slave chance was free. Meaning I will have another chance to enslave others later.
The system was silent for a moment, as if processing the paradox.
[Host has enslaved Host.]
[Host is now evolving.]
[Choose Evolution Path:]
[ - Barbarian]
[ - Wraith]
[ - Human]
[ - A New Species]
One might think 'Human' was the right choice. But well, if I have the chance… I will become a species that lives long enough that even if deceived by a kid, I will live to see empires turn to dust.
I choose the last option.
[Name the new species.]
A name. A legacy. Something eternal, feared, and dominant. A name from the stories of my old world.
Vampire.
[Congratulations.]
[Host has become the first being of the species: Vampire.]
[Title Unlocked: The Primordial Vampire.]
[Skill Unlocked: Noblesse Oblige.]
Agony, a thousand times greater than the silver spikes, erupted through every cell. I felt my ghoul body breaking, dissolving into ash. My form was being reforged. The spikes clattered to the ground, useless. Pale, flawless skin stretched over new, powerful muscle. My senses exploded to life—I could see the individual veins on a leaf a hundred yards away, smell the damp earth and the fear of the hunters who had long since fled. My hair grew, a cascade of white, and in the reflection of a nearby puddle, I saw them—crimson eyes, gleaming with cold, detached power.
I was no longer Han. I was no longer a ghoul.
I was Vale. And this world would learn the price of abandoning me.
(Chapter End)