Vampiric Path Unlocked! Bloodflame Dragon Acquired [1]

The white light enveloped me, as if I were drowning in a sea of artificial purity.

I tried to raise a hand to shield my eyes, but I couldn't move a single part of my body.

It felt as though I were merely a thought, floating in this glowing void.

And then… the sounds began.

Distorted noises, cryptic whispers murmuring things I couldn't understand, but they made my skin (or what was left of my sense of a body) crawl. Something else was happening…

Something was wrong.

[Loading Data… 67%...]

I felt a terrible pressure inside my head, as if my old memory was being ripped out to be replaced by a new one. Strange scenes flashed before me:

A man standing before a giant screen, typing code at a frantic pace, sweat pouring down his face as he muttered incomprehensible words.

A hand gripping a computer mouse, clicking the "Activate" button.

A scream… a scream coming from the depths of the digital void itself.

Then everything cut out.

I found myself on my knees, breath ragged, sweat pouring from me. I was somewhere else now. A place that didn't exist in the original game.

A dark room, its walls pulsing as if made of living flesh.

I slowly raised my head, and there, in the center of the room, was a mirror… but it wasn't reflecting my image.

It was reflecting the face of the mad old man.

But that wasn't the worst part.

He was smiling.

"Well now, Lloyd… or should I call you by your real name?"

The blood froze in my veins.

My real name?

I had completely forgotten it. Until now, I had no identity other than Lloyd, a minor character in a forgotten beta.

But what the old man said woke something inside me. Something I wasn't supposed to remember.

I approached the mirror, and slowly, my true image began to form on its surface. I wasn't the man with white hair and red eyes, nor was I Lloyd Reinhart… I was someone else entirely?

My fingers began to tremble, and the air felt heavier, as if the room were closing in on itself.

Then, another voice struck me in the head.

"Stop the download. Stop it now!"

A familiar voice, but it wasn't mine.

I saw my own hands move, as if something inside me was trying to take control. I tried to resist, but I wasn't the one in charge.

"He's not ready yet… We have to erase him and start over!"

Erase me? No… no, that's not right! I'm not just data! I'm a person!

I started to scream, but suddenly, everything vanished again.

I found myself back in the mansion. The mansion I knew so well… but it was different now. The walls were covered in something black, as if they were rotting, and the lights flickered erratically. Everything was pulsing, like a dying organism.

Then I heard footsteps.

I spun around, and there, at the end of the long corridor, I saw my other self.

Lloyd Reinhart… but not as I remembered him.

His face was decayed, his eyes utterly vacant, and a twisted smile was carved onto his lips as if with a knife.

"What… what do you want from me?!" I yelled, but the sound didn't come out right. My voice was distorted, like I was hearing myself through a wall of glass.

He answered in a cold, inhuman voice, "You're too late, Programmer."

I felt my heart (or whatever passed for one in this digital world) clench in my chest.

"What do you mean?"

He pointed a finger at me. "You still don't understand? You became the game. You… are no longer real."

I took a step back, but my foot hit something. I whipped around to see.

A corpse.

A corpse wearing the same clothes I had been wearing before I entered the game… the same coat, the same shirt, the same everything.

It was my real body.

And then, for the first time in ten years, I understood the truth.

I wasn't a programmer who had entered the game… I was a programmer who had died inside it.

This digital hell I was in? It wasn't just a bug. It was a curse.

I had been living in a nightmare, an endless loop of torment where everything repeated over and over. Each time, I would forget everything and experience it all from the beginning.

I was just a piece of code, trapped in the memory of a corrupted system.

Then, suddenly, I remembered who the old man was. He wasn't a character in the game. He wasn't even a digital being. He was the error itself. The void.

But now that I knew the truth… was there any escape?

I turned back to the other Lloyd, but he was gone.

In his place was another mirror.

But this time, it reflected nothing. It was completely black, absorbing all light, like a gateway to the abyss.

I walked toward it, hearing new whispers, incomprehensible words, but they were calling to me, inviting me in.

I took a deep breath, and then… I stepped inside.

[System Activated.]

[Assigning New Heir…]

[Confirmed: Lloyd Reinhart is the chosen Heir.]

I felt the blood boil in my veins. "This system… it destroyed my entire life, and now it wants to play with me again?!"

The darkness swallowed me whole.

Then I heard the final voice.

[Rebooting System again…]

But this time… there was no loading. No missing memories.

There was only the void.

…

When I opened my eyes again, I was in the ruined mansion.

Again.

This cursed place… but this time it was different.

There were screams.

The sounds of burning.

The stench of death was everywhere.

I looked out the window and saw the city collapsing under a strange attack. Armies were fighting, people were dying by the dozens, and flames were consuming the buildings.

"Status!"

[Name: Lloyd Reinhart >> (Lloyd Amora)]

[Race: Royal Vampire (Dual)]

[Innate Traits: Anomaly, The Rational Savage, Celestial, Child of the Legacy]

[Titles: "Scion of Selenium", "The Royal Disaster"]

[Main Class: Primordial Magic Magus]

[Sub-Class (1): Spell-Weaver]

[Awakening State: Bronze Dormant - Level 1]

[Statistics]

Royal Blood Essence: 10.0 Units (Acquisition Rate: 100%)

Aether: 1.0 Units

Strength: Level 1

Agility: Level 1

Defense: Level 1

Dexterity: Level 1

Vitality: Level 1

Endurance: Level 1

[Legacy Points: 110 Mission Points]

[Blood Gems: None]

[BP: 1300 RBP]

I stood there for a moment, watching the scene as if it weren't real.

Then another window appeared before me.

[New Quest Assigned: Survive.]

I closed the notification and pulled an axe that was hanging on the wall.

"Oh, I get it now… you want me to play the villain to the very end, is that it?"

I walked out into the battlefield. Everyone was fighting like mad, but I didn't care whose side was whose. I was going to kill them all.

Enemies? Innocents? Who cares?!

Everyone was just a target in the path of my rage.

I gripped the axe with both hands and took my first swing.

Swoosh—!

A head went flying.

The blood that splattered on my face wasn't real blood… it was just data. Just like me.

I laughed… laughed so hard my stomach started to hurt.

"Alright, my dear System. Let's play!"