Chapter 2 – Awakening of the True Blood Progenitor

“It can’t be…”

The voice that came out of his throat wasn’t the one he remembered.

A deeper, velvety sound reverberated through the hall.

What was happening?

Was he dreaming?

No.

If that were a dream, he should have woken up from the shock!

Mark raised his arms, bringing his hand in front of his face.

His fingers were long and thin. His skin was as white as snow, with black, sharp nails gleaming under the dim light of the environment.

When he unconsciously passed his tongue over his lips, he felt the sharp tip of something that seemed like fangs brushing against his lower lip.

His mind was working to process the information.

‘Think…’ Mark gripped the arms of the throne, his nails digging into the cold stone.

He had been in his apartment playing Tower Defense: Age of Blood.

After defeating the 4th Division of the Army of Light, he claimed the login bonus and locked the screen. The weight of the phone on his chest and sleep pulling him down were still clear as day.

But now, the couch had disappeared.

The stained ceiling had been replaced by a stone vault that vanished into darkness, framed by red curtains.

This wasn’t just a place that looked like the game.

“I… I entered the game?” Mark felt a dry laugh rise in his chest, but the sound that escaped his lips came out as a low growl, making him shut up immediately.

The thought left only one plausible explanation.

Even if it was the most absurd explanation.

So… what was different today?

His mind fired off in search of a trigger.

“The 1,460 days…” he murmured, tightening his grip on the arm of the throne.

Exactly four years.

One thousand four hundred and sixty days of uninterrupted logins.

Was it possible?

A loyalty bonus that, instead of a rare item or an exclusive skin, gave the player the very world he had spent so much time in?

He was pulled into the game just because he hit the daily login milestone.

Impossible, right?

Mark felt cold sweat slide down the back of his neck.

If that was the reward for his dedication, it was a truly cruel prize.

Then again, his life outside the game wasn’t any less cruel.

No friends or family, no prospects for the future, and trapped in a monotonous routine that drained his energy day after day.

He would probably repeat that cycle until the day he died.

Even so!

Despite liking and investing years in that game, Mark didn’t want to live in it!

He needed to find some way to get out of the game!

‘Game…’

How had he not thought of that? If he was inside the game…

Mark opened his mouth, moistening his lips.

“Menu!” he commanded, his voice echoing through the empty hall.

Nothing happened.

“System!” he tried again.

…

“Exit game.”

…

“Logout.”

…

“End session.”

…

“Log out!”

…

Nothing was working!

Panic began to take hold, but Mark forced his mind to work at its limit in search of alternatives.

If the basic command didn’t work, maybe technical commands would!

“Open Settings.”

…

“Help Menu. Report Bug!” he tried again, raising his voice. “Server integrity check!”

No loading bar.

No sign that the developer was listening.

It was as if he were trapped inside a box.

Taking a deep breath, Mark tried the most basic command, the one that should be rooted in the very soul of the avatar.

“Status.”

Suddenly, the air in front of his eyes vibrated.

A window of crimson light, translucent and sharp, leapt out of the darkness, illuminating his pale face with a familiar digital glow.

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***

Name: Vaelin

Unit: Heroic.

Level: 500 [Max]

Race: Vampire (Ancestral), Class: True Blood Progenitor.

Current Title: Lord Of The Crimson Ziggurat.

[ HP: 600,000 ], [ BE: 2,400,000 ], [ MP: 1,200,000 ]

[ BLD: 240,000 ], [ INT: 120,000 ], [ VIT: 60,000 ], [ STR: 40,000 ], [ AGI: 40,000 ]

[ M.DEF: 1,200,000 ], [ P.DEF: 400,000 ]

[ … ]

[ Skills ]: [Blood Rule: Absolute Command], [Scarlet Abyss Judgment], [Gaze of the Sovereign], (2,447…)

[ … ]

Mark froze, his breath catching in his throat as the crimson light of the window floated before him.

His gaze rose to the top of the window, where the name glowed.

Vaelin.

That was the name of his character.

The command had worked!

If there had been a spark of doubt left, it was extinguished there.

That wasn’t just a hallucination or a particularly detailed lucid dream. The interface was identical to the app’s, but now it wasn’t compressed into a five-inch screen.

It was right in front of his eyes.

It felt real.

He looked at the massive numbers and swallowed hard.

In the world of Age of Blood, level 500 was the absolute ceiling, the peak of any player’s journey.

Maybe because it was a game focused strictly on defense, the developers had compensated that limitation with unprecedented freedom of customization and technical detail.

That freedom of customization kept the community alive, but the real addiction lay in the evolution system.

In Age of Blood, almost every unit — whether obtained through gacha, event drops, raids, or achievements — had the theoretical potential to reach the cap.

The problem was that not all units were worth the effort.

Turning a common card into something minimally useful required an amount of resources and time that would make most players give up halfway.

But the Heroic Rank… that was the pinnacle.

Being a Heroic Unit came with a growth multiplier that left any epic unit eating dust.

Vaelin was a heroic unit.

He was the spoil of one of the most brutal events in the game’s history: The Blood Invasion.

Back then, the entire server was flooded with invasions of noble vampire families, bloodthirsty servants, and creatures of shadow.

While other players saw their defenses pierced like paper, Mark endured.

Vaelin was a rare and unique drop with a 0.01% chance to fall after stopping one of the blood invasions.