The character creation screen shattered like glass in Marcus's vision, fragments of code scattering across his awareness. Other players around him were enveloped in glowing auras—silver for werewolves, crimson for vampires, emerald for sorcerers. Transformations rippled through the crowd as abilities activated.
Marcus saw nothing. Felt nothing.
Then the pain started.
It began in his chest, a sensation like ice water injected directly into his heart. Marcus gasped, stumbling backward into a destroyed car. The rusted metal crumpled under his grip—wait, when had he become strong enough to dent metal?
His vision flickered. Status screens appeared and disappeared too quickly to read. Numbers scrolled past faster than thought, thousands of calculations happening in milliseconds.
[ERROR: CLASS INITIALIZATION FAILED]
[ERROR: BLOODLINE CORRUPTION DETECTED]
[ERROR: SYSTEM CONFLICT - RESOLVING]
[WARNING: ADMIN ATTENTION REQUIRED]
The words meant nothing to Marcus. He was too busy screaming.
His bones felt like they were breaking and reforming. His skin burned and froze simultaneously. Hunger opened inside him like a cavern, vast and bottomless, demanding to be filled with something he couldn't name.
Blood. He wanted blood. But also... something else. Something that didn't have a word.
Around him, players were already forming parties, testing their new abilities with excited shouts. A werewolf's howl echoed across the ruined cityscape. Lightning crackled from a sorcerer's fingertips.
Nobody noticed Marcus convulsing against the car wreckage.
The error messages stopped. His vision cleared.
A new screen appeared, unlike anything he'd seen in the tutorials or beta footage. The interface was corrupted, pieces of code visible behind the text like looking through a cracked window into the game's programming.
[INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
[CLASS: ERROR - DESIGNATION UNKNOWN]
[BLOODLINE: VAMPIRE (CORRUPTED) + ############ (DATA EXPUNGED)]
[YOUR SYSTEM HAS EXPERIENCED CRITICAL FAILURE DURING CHARACTER CREATION. COMPENSATORY MEASURES IMPLEMENTED. ADMIN REVIEW PENDING.]
[WARNING: YOUR CHARACTER MAY BE DELETED UPON ADMIN INVESTIGATION.]
Marcus blinked at the screen. Deleted? After three months of saving? After he'd sold his laptop, his TV, everything?
"No," he said aloud. His voice sounded different—rougher, with an edge that hadn't been there before. "No way in hell."
He dismissed the warning with a thought. A new interface appeared, more stable but still glitched around the edges. His character sheet.
NAME: Marcus Chen
LEVEL: 1
CLASS: [CORRUPTED VAMPIRE]
TITLE: The Glitched One
HP: 150/150
ENERGY: 100/100
STATS:
Strength: 12
Agility: 15
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 14
Perception: 13
Charisma: 7
ABILITIES:
[BLOOD DRINKER] - Consume blood to restore HP and gain temporary stat boosts. WARNING: Glitched. Effects may vary.
[NIGHT STALKER] - Enhanced movement and perception in darkness. WARNING: Glitched. Additional effects unknown.
[CORRUPTED EVOLUTION] - Your growth path is unstable. Abilities may mutate unpredictably.
[????????] - ERROR: ABILITY DATA CORRUPTED. DISCOVER THROUGH USE.
WEAKNESSES:
[SUNLIGHT SENSITIVITY] - Reduced stats during daylight hours.
[HUNGER] - Must consume ######### regularly or suffer penalties. (NOTE: Not just blood?)
[SYSTEM INSTABILITY] - Your abilities may malfunction. Critical failures possible.
Marcus read the sheet three times, his mind racing. A corrupted vampire class. Abilities that could mutate. An unknown power the system couldn't identify. Weaknesses that didn't quite match standard vampire lore.
This was either the worst possible start, or—
"Hey! You okay?"
Marcus looked up. A young woman approached, maybe twenty, with bright purple hair and the telltale crimson aura of a vampire player. Her character sheet was visible above her head—"Luna | Level 1 | Vampire."
"You were screaming," she said, concern in her eyes. "Bad spawn? The transition can be rough for first-timers."
Marcus straightened. His body felt wrong, like wearing clothes that didn't quite fit. Everything was sharper—the smell of smoke, the sound of distant combat, the way shadows moved at the edge of his vision.
"I'm fine," he said.
Luna's eyes narrowed. She was looking at something above his head—his own name display, he realized. Whatever she saw made her step back slightly.
"Your class..." she started. "It says 'Corrupted Vampire.' I've never seen that variant."
Before Marcus could respond, a massive screen appeared in the sky again, the Admin message returning.
"OUTBREAK PROTOCOL PHASE ONE: ESTABLISHMENT. PLAYERS HAVE 72 IN-GAME HOURS TO FIND SHELTER AND RESOURCES. NIGHT CYCLE BEGINNING IN 30 MINUTES. GOOD LUCK."
The message faded. Immediately, the relaxed atmosphere shattered. Players began running, forming groups, heading toward buildings that might offer protection.
"Thirty minutes until night?" Luna said. "But we just spawned. What's—"
"The game has its own day-night cycle," Marcus said, memories from the forums surfacing. "Separate from real time. Night in Eclipse Online is when the worst stuff spawns."
Luna paled. "We need to find shelter. Form a party? Vampires work well together, and you look like you could use—"
"No."
The word came out harsher than intended. Luna blinked, hurt flashing across her face.
Marcus softened his tone slightly. "Solo player. Thanks though."
He walked away before she could argue, moving toward the ruins of what had once been a shopping district. Other players flooded the streets, their excited chatter grating against his raw nerves.
His phone—no, his interface—showed a minimap in the corner of his vision. Thirty minutes until nightfall.
Thirty minutes to figure out what he'd become.
Marcus smiled, and even without a mirror, he knew his teeth were sharper than before.
Time to evolve.
The character creation screen shattered like glass in Marcus's vision, fragments of code scattering across his awareness. Other players around him were enveloped in glowing auras—silver for werewolves, crimson for vampires, emerald for sorcerers. Transformations rippled through the crowd as abilities activated.
Marcus saw nothing. Felt nothing.
Then the pain started.
It began in his chest, a sensation like ice water injected directly into his heart. Marcus gasped, stumbling backward into a destroyed car. The rusted metal crumpled under his grip—wait, when had he become strong enough to dent metal?
His vision flickered. Status screens appeared and disappeared too quickly to read. Numbers scrolled past faster than thought, thousands of calculations happening in milliseconds.
[ERROR: CLASS INITIALIZATION FAILED]
[ERROR: BLOODLINE CORRUPTION DETECTED]
[ERROR: SYSTEM CONFLICT - RESOLVING]
[WARNING: ADMIN ATTENTION REQUIRED]
The words meant nothing to Marcus. He was too busy screaming.
His bones felt like they were breaking and reforming. His skin burned and froze simultaneously. Hunger opened inside him like a cavern, vast and bottomless, demanding to be filled with something he couldn't name.
Blood. He wanted blood. But also... something else. Something that didn't have a word.
Around him, players were already forming parties, testing their new abilities with excited shouts. A werewolf's howl echoed across the ruined cityscape. Lightning crackled from a sorcerer's fingertips.
Nobody noticed Marcus convulsing against the car wreckage.
The error messages stopped. His vision cleared.
A new screen appeared, unlike anything he'd seen in the tutorials or beta footage. The interface was corrupted, pieces of code visible behind the text like looking through a cracked window into the game's programming.
[INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
[CLASS: ERROR - DESIGNATION UNKNOWN]
[BLOODLINE: VAMPIRE (CORRUPTED) + ############ (DATA EXPUNGED)]
[YOUR SYSTEM HAS EXPERIENCED CRITICAL FAILURE DURING CHARACTER CREATION. COMPENSATORY MEASURES IMPLEMENTED. ADMIN REVIEW PENDING.]
[WARNING: YOUR CHARACTER MAY BE DELETED UPON ADMIN INVESTIGATION.]
Marcus blinked at the screen. Deleted? After three months of saving? After he'd sold his laptop, his TV, everything?
"No," he said aloud. His voice sounded different—rougher, with an edge that hadn't been there before. "No way in hell."
He dismissed the warning with a thought. A new interface appeared, more stable but still glitched around the edges. His character sheet.
NAME: Marcus Chen
LEVEL: 1
CLASS: [CORRUPTED VAMPIRE]
TITLE: The Glitched One
HP: 150/150
ENERGY: 100/100
STATS:
Strength: 12
Agility: 15
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 14
Perception: 13
Charisma: 7
ABILITIES:
[BLOOD DRINKER] - Consume blood to restore HP and gain temporary stat boosts. WARNING: Glitched. Effects may vary.
[NIGHT STALKER] - Enhanced movement and perception in darkness. WARNING: Glitched. Additional effects unknown.
[CORRUPTED EVOLUTION] - Your growth path is unstable. Abilities may mutate unpredictably.
[????????] - ERROR: ABILITY DATA CORRUPTED. DISCOVER THROUGH USE.
WEAKNESSES:
[SUNLIGHT SENSITIVITY] - Reduced stats during daylight hours.
[HUNGER] - Must consume ######### regularly or suffer penalties. (NOTE: Not just blood?)
[SYSTEM INSTABILITY] - Your abilities may malfunction. Critical failures possible.
Marcus read the sheet three times, his mind racing. A corrupted vampire class. Abilities that could mutate. An unknown power the system couldn't identify. Weaknesses that didn't quite match standard vampire lore.
This was either the worst possible start, or—
"Hey! You okay?"
Marcus looked up. A young woman approached, maybe twenty, with bright purple hair and the telltale crimson aura of a vampire player. Her character sheet was visible above her head—"Luna | Level 1 | Vampire."
"You were screaming," she said, concern in her eyes. "Bad spawn? The transition can be rough for first-timers."
Marcus straightened. His body felt wrong, like wearing clothes that didn't quite fit. Everything was sharper—the smell of smoke, the sound of distant combat, the way shadows moved at the edge of his vision.
"I'm fine," he said.
Luna's eyes narrowed. She was looking at something above his head—his own name display, he realized. Whatever she saw made her step back slightly.
"Your class..." she started. "It says 'Corrupted Vampire.' I've never seen that variant."
Before Marcus could respond, a massive screen appeared in the sky again, the Admin message returning.
"OUTBREAK PROTOCOL PHASE ONE: ESTABLISHMENT. PLAYERS HAVE 72 IN-GAME HOURS TO FIND SHELTER AND RESOURCES. NIGHT CYCLE BEGINNING IN 30 MINUTES. GOOD LUCK."
The message faded. Immediately, the relaxed atmosphere shattered. Players began running, forming groups, heading toward buildings that might offer protection.
"Thirty minutes until night?" Luna said. "But we just spawned. What's—"
"The game has its own day-night cycle," Marcus said, memories from the forums surfacing. "Separate from real time. Night in Eclipse Online is when the worst stuff spawns."
Luna paled. "We need to find shelter. Form a party? Vampires work well together, and you look like you could use—"
"No."
The word came out harsher than intended. Luna blinked, hurt flashing across her face.
Marcus softened his tone slightly. "Solo player. Thanks though."
He walked away before she could argue, moving toward the ruins of what had once been a shopping district. Other players flooded the streets, their excited chatter grating against his raw nerves.
His phone—no, his interface—showed a minimap in the corner of his vision. Thirty minutes until nightfall.
Thirty minutes to figure out what he'd become.
Marcus smiled, and even without a mirror, he knew his teeth were sharper than before.
Time to evolve.