The Feral’s breath was a cocktail of rotting meat and old copper. Its teeth were centimeters from my carotid artery, and for a split second, I saw my life flash before my eyes—not the highlights, but the mundane bits. Delivering cold pizza in the rain, staring at a blank Word document for a biology essay, and the weight of a bicycle that I could never quite afford to fix.

  ?I am not dying in a subway tunnel for a job I didn't even apply for!

  ?Adrenaline—or the supernatural equivalent flowing through my B+ veins—surged into my lower body. My leg muscles didn't just tighten; they coiled like steel springs under high tension.

  ?"GET OFF!" I roared.

  ?I slammed my boot into the Feral’s chest with a force that surprised even me. There was a sickening crunch of ribs, and the creature launched backward, tumbling onto the rusted tracks like a discarded ragdoll.

  ?I didn't wait to see if it would get back up. I didn't reach for the fallen VX-4. I didn't even look for my flashlight.

  ?I scrambled to my feet and ran.

  ?I ran harder than I ever had in my life. Every step felt like I was swallowing ten feet of ground instantly. My charcoal-gray suit hissed against the humid air, the Ichor-polymer weave glowing faintly as it processed the stress of my movement.

  ?I didn't look back. I couldn't. I knew if I saw those glowing red eyes gaining on me, my legs would give out.

  ?Hana! Jin! Anyone! I screamed internally, but the silence of the tunnel was deafening. My earpiece was still dead, producing nothing but the hollow hum of static. Was I even in the same tunnel anymore? The L-train line was a labyrinth of maintenance shafts and abandoned platforms. In my panic, I had taken three turns without thinking.

  ?The sound of my own footsteps echoed off the damp walls—thud-thud-thud. But then, I realized there was a second rhythm.

  ?Skitter-skitter-skitch.

  ?It was behind me. And it was getting faster.

  ?"Why me?" I gasped, my lungs burning even though I didn't technically need the oxygen anymore. "I was just a delivery boy, for God's sake! Why am I the one being hunted?"

  ?The realization hit me like a physical blow: I was alone. Hana was gone. Jin and Mina were nowhere to be found. I was just a "Premium Starter Pack" vampire who didn't even know how to throw a punch, and I was completely on my own.

  ?The skittering sound grew louder, echoing from the walls and the ceiling.

  ?I rounded a corner and skidded to a halt.

  ?The tunnel ended. A massive, rusted iron gate blocked the way, locked tight with a heavy chain. Behind me, the shadows began to coalesce into pairs of crimson eyes.

  ?I was trapped.

  ?The cold iron of the gate pressed against my back, the rusted chains rattling as I leaned into them. There was no more running. The shadows in front of me shifted, and those crimson eyes grew larger, reflecting the dim, flickering light of the tunnel.

  ?"It’s now or never," I hissed through gritted teeth.

  ?I faced the monster, forced my hands to stop shaking, and closed my eyes for a split second. I needed a weapon. I pictured everything Claire had shown me back at the HQ. I reanimated the scene in my mind like a frame-by-frame biological study: the way she had nicked her skin, the precise flick of her wrist, and the fluid, calculated movement of her shoulders as the blood obeyed her will.

  ?Focus, Eun-Woo. Command the Ichor.

  ?Taking a shaky breath, I bit into the tip of my index finger. The metallic taste of my own B+ blood hit my tongue, and I felt that familiar surge of heat. I focused on the crimson liquid spilling from the cut, willing it to pull into a long, serrated whip—just like hers.

  ?The lead Feral skidded to a halt, its claws scraping against the concrete. It tilted its head, nostrils flaring as if it could sense the sudden change in the air—the density of the power I was trying to manifest.

  ?I drew my arm back. The blood stretched and swirled around my hand, glowing with a faint, dangerous light. I was ready to release it. I was ready to finally be the hunter.

  ?But then, the monster did something no one had told me it could do.

  ?"P-please... don’t..."

  ?The voice was raspy, broken, and barely audible over the hum of the tunnels. It didn't sound like a beast. It sounded like a man—a terrified, starving man begging for his life.

  ?"Shit!"

  ?My concentration—the delicate thread holding the Ichor together—shattered instantly. The glowing blood that was halfway to forming a whip lost its cohesion and exploded, splattering hot liquid across my face.

  ?"..."

  ?I stared at the monster, who watched my failure with a mix of hunger and desperation. The failure told me one thing: I was done.

  ?The monster didn’t hesitate. Despite its plea, the hunger in its gut was louder than the ghost of its humanity. It hissed—a wet, guttural sound—and leaped.

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  ?I braced for the end, squeezing my eyes shut as the creature’s weight slammed into me, pinning me against the iron gate. But just as I felt its breath on my neck, a deafening BANG echoed through the tunnel.

  ?The weight on my chest suddenly went slack. The Feral didn't scream; it just slumped, its lifeless head rolling onto my shoulder. A single, perfect hole had been punched through its skull.

  ?I shoved the heavy corpse off me, gasping for air that I didn't even need. My hands were shaking as I looked up. Standing ten yards away was Jin, his tactical sidearm still raised, a wisp of smoke curling from the barrel. Mina and Hana were flanking him.

  ?"Jin... thank you," I choked out, wiping the Feral’s black bile from my suit. "If you hadn't shown up—"

  ?I stopped.

  ?The words died in my throat as I looked at their faces. There was no relief. No "are you okay?" No friendly smile either.

  ?Their eyes were glowing—not the soft glow of a teammate, but a deep, predatory crimson. They weren't looking at me as a comrade who had just survived a brush with death. They were looking at my torn suit, at the small cuts on my arm, and the B+ blood smeared across my chest.

  ?"What?" I whispered, taking a step back against the gate.

  ?"Let's be honest. You’re just a weakling with premium-grade blood," Jin said, his voice devoid of any emotion. He lowered his gun, but his body remained coiled, like a snake ready to strike. "A perfect meal."

  ?"Huh?"

  ?I looked at Hana. The girl who had held my hands and smiled so warmly just an hour ago now looked at me with total indifference—or rather, the kind of interest a starving person shows a steak in a butcher's window. She didn't move to help me. She just watched, her nostrils flaring slightly as she caught the scent of my open wounds.

  ?"Guys? What’s going on here? We’re a team, right?"

  ?As I stared at them, a buried memory surfaced. I knew that look. It was the same expression I’d seen a thousand times during my part-time shifts—the look of a dissatisfied customer glaring at a waiter. A look of pure superiority.

  ?But this time, their eyes held something far more terrifying than arrogance.

  ?Hunger.

  ?Suddenly, the static in my earpiece cleared. The high-pitched whine of a connection established echoed in my skull, followed immediately by Vaughn’s deep, gravelly voice.

  ?“Eun-Woo,” Vaughn said. He sounded tired, bored even, as if he were watching a rerun of a bad movie. “Don't bother asking questions.”

  ?“Vaughn, what the hell is this?”

  ?“Just get back to HQ. Now,” Vaughn commanded, his tone brokering no argument. “I’ll explain everything when you get here. But if you stay in that tunnel for another minute, the Ferals won't be the ones you have to worry about.”

  ?I flicked my eyes to Jin. His fingers were twitching toward the hilt of his blade. I looked at Mina, who was slowly, deliberately licking a drop of fresh blood from her glove.

  ?I didn't wait for a second invitation.

  ?I turned and scrambled into the darkness, the sensation of three hungry predators burning holes in my back far more terrifying than any monster I had faced so far.

  ?The air in the HQ lobby was freezing—shockingly sterile compared to the humid, iron-scented darkness of the L-train tunnels. Vaughn and Claire stood near the elevator, arms crossed.

  ?There were no cheers. No "welcome back" nods. Only the cold, clinical silence of a post-mortem examination.

  ?"First, Kang Eun-Woo," Vaughn said, his voice echoing like a judge's gavel. "You've been ranked based on your performance today. The Council doesn't care about your 'potential' anymore. They care about results. Check your watch."

  ?I looked down at the obsidian device on my wrist. The screen flickered, refreshing with a set of new, brutal parameters.

  ?[Evaluation Report: Suppression Unit - First Field Test]

  ?Subject: Kang Eun-Woo

  ?Overall Combat Rank: E- (Trainee / Liability)

  ?Combat Instinct: F

  ?Mental Resilience: E

  ?Blood Weaving: E

  ?Improvisation: F

  ?"E-minus..." I whispered, my voice cracking.

  ?"As you can see, you barely scraped a passing grade—and that’s being generous," Jin said. His voice cut through my self-pity like a scalpel. He stepped closer, his ocean-blue eyes filled with utter contempt. "This is the natural consequence of dragging dead weight into the field. Your situational awareness was zero."

  ?"What do you mean?" I snapped, looking up, desperation rising in my chest. "I followed orders! I went into the tunnel!"

  ?"You didn’t even notice when Hana stopped walking with you, did you?" Jin countered, leaning in until he was inches from my face. "You just kept stumbling forward like a lost puppy, completely oblivious to the fact that you were alone in a kill zone."

  ?Shocked by the realization, I whipped my head around to look at Hana. She was leaning against the wall, casually inspecting her pink tactical gloves as if checking for a chipped nail. The "friendly girl" from the lounge was gone. Dead and buried.

  ?"So, when you asked me if I had a girlfriend...?" I asked, the realization crashing down on me.

  ?Hana looked up and let out a sharp, mocking breath. "Ah, that? Distraction 101. It’s the oldest trick in the book. Although, honestly? With you, it wasn't even necessary. You were barely holding it together."

  ?She saw the look of hurt on my face and actually started to laugh—a high, melodic sound that felt like ice water poured down my spine. "Don’t tell me... did you actually think I’d look your way? Pfft. Ahahahah! You’re incredible, Eun-Woo. Truly. Why would I go for a guy who smells like panic and cheap kimbap?"

  ?I felt my face burn. I had been played. Every "warm" smile, every hand-hold—it was all part of the evaluation.

  ?"And another thing," Jin interrupted, his tone cold and clinical. "Today's entire operation was a setup. A stress test."

  ?"A setup?"

  ?"That Feral wasn't a wild hunter," Jin explained, holstering his sidearm with a smooth, practiced motion. "He was a captive. A starved runt. One of the weakest specimens in our inventory. We released him into that sector specifically for you."

  ?The indignation boiled in my chest, hotter than the hunger. I looked at Vaughn, then at the others, my hands trembling with a volatile mix of shame and fury.

  ?"You didn’t explain anything! You dragged me into this 'operation' without a word of warning, nearly got me killed by a 'runt,' and now you're laughing in my face?" My voice rose to a shout, echoing off the cold, metallic walls. "You've gotta be kidding me. Screw this. I'm done."

  ?I turned on my heel, ready to storm out of the room, to go anywhere that wasn't here.

  ?But before I could even take a full step, a sharp hiss cut through the air.

  ?THWACK!

  ?A spike, crystallized from dark, crimson blood, slammed into the wall inches from my nose. The force of it sent a vibration through the metal that rattled my teeth. It didn't just hit the wall; it hummed, the Ichor pulsing with terrifying, latent energy.

  ?"Kang Eun-Woo."

  ?Jin’s voice was a low, dangerous rasp behind me.

  ?"Let me remind you: you are no longer a human being. You are a vampire. You'd better start acting like one."

  ?I froze. I couldn't even open my mouth to retort. I hadn't seen him move. I hadn't even sensed the blood manifesting. Against his sheer aura, I felt like a child standing in front of a hurricane. I couldn't even register his attack before it nearly took my head off.

  ?"Alright, let’s dial it back, shall we?" Vaughn’s voice broke the suffocating tension. He stepped into my line of sight, hands in his pockets, looking as relaxed as if he were strolling through a park. "Jin, dismiss the team for now. I’m going to have a word with the rookie."

  ?Jin didn't take his eyes off me for a long second, his ocean-blue gaze piercing through my skull. Finally, he straightened his posture.

  ?"Fine. Team dismissed."