3 Waking Up In A New World

(A/N - Webnovel seems to be bugging out, so I needed to repost this chapter. Sorry if you thought this was a release or something - the next chapter will be coming tonight, so don't fret too much, yeah?)

When I blacked out, I began to dream. About another life. About multiple lives, actually.

A lot of the lives were to do with fighting. A lot of fighting. So many different martial arts, so many different enemies...so much killing.

It was like I was in the driving seat for all of these lives, experiencing it all and soaking it all up. It was quite a novel experience seeing as my old body could never do anything I saw in these memories. It could never experience any of the things in these memories.

But that's all this slideshow of memories was - memories. I knew they didn't belong to me. I could learn from them, sure, but I held no emotional connection to anything that happened inside of them. The memories that came next, however...I felt very connected to them. Like they were my own memories.

...This wasn't a very novel experience. Instead, it felt horrific. Like I was forcefully being merged with another person. An illusion based purely on fear, no less, but it was still an uncomfortable experience. Gaining memories and legitimate emotional attachment to said memories, that is.

I watched a different version of me grow up. We had everything in common other than our last names and the fact that he was completely healthy. He had my intelligence and inquisitive mind but also a body that could match. Tall, robust, good-looking--it was a real eye-opener to see what I'd have turned out like if I wasn't plagued with my genetic disease.

Yet this other-me still followed the same path as me. He wanted to help people. So, he signed up for college, albeit a little later than I did. For personal reasons. It was shown in the memories that this me also had a younger sibling. But unlike my brightly shining younger brother from my old life...this me had a sickly younger sister who reminded me so much of myself. I'd delayed college because I needed the money to pay for her treatments and also to put food on the table. Why hadn't my parents? Because in this life, I lost my parents at the age of 18. Which made me the legal guardian for my younger sister.

Luckily, I was born with a great body in this life which allowed me to take on just about every bit of construction work available.

And after a few months of juggling work, my highschool exams and looking for a college that I could get in via scholarship, I'd saved up enough money to get my sister a full-time nurse to care for her while I went to college.

Then, as soon as this me got to his first class on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology...he fell asleep. That's where the memories end and where I'll no doubt be continuing from.

The fuzzy dream-like state I was currently in was beginning to fade and the slideshow of memories was beginning to fade with it. The memories were still there but they weren't in my face and being imprinted into my brain anymore. Which meant I was left alone in this mental space, allowed to think about my coming moves.

Specifically, what I was going to do for my diet.

I may be a dreamer but I know when to wake up and smell the coffee. If my physiology is changed into that of a Ghoul's...I'm going to have to drink blood and maybe even kill people in the process. The thought was a rather horrific one and I didn't want to think about killing and drinking someone's blood - yet I had to.

As soon as possible as well. Why? Because if I tried to starve myself and refrain from eating...I'd no doubt go berserk at some point and give away that I'm a man-eating monster.

Which is why I need to decide now - how am I going to do it? How am I going to get away with it? Who am I going to...eat?

The first part is quick simple. I'll jump some random criminal in an alleyway at night. This new body is in New York City and New York in the MCU has no shortage of low-life scum. How am I going to get away with it? Drink as much as possible and leave as little evidence behind as possible. The thought sickens me and I can already feel panic building up but I had to stay rational about this whole situation.

Regardless of my disgust for what I have to do...I still have to do it. I already feel attached to that younger sister, so I can't just leave her alone. Especially when I'm her only chance of continuing to get the treatments she needs.

And if I didn't drink anything...I'd have to leave before I hurt her.

Who'd have guessed this other me's platonic love for his sister would be completely imprinted onto me, a total stranger? Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised. From what I can see about his memories he's just as stubborn as me and twice the optimist due to never having undergone the treatment I suffered from other people. His dream was curing his sister in the same way I had a dream of curing myself...for that, I'd say he was a better person than me.

...Well, I am him now. I'm both the old me and the new me. What an utterly confusing set of events.

Finally, I felt like I was beginning to have a body again and that I was fully waking up. The first thing I realized was the noise. People chatting to one another, pages being turned in a book, keys being typed away at on a laptop--I could hear it all with perfect clarity. Weirdly enough...I didn't get overrun by the sudden influx of sounds. It didn't hurt or make my mind buzz - I just took in the sounds, processed them and carried on.

So this is what it's like to be a super soldier, huh? It's like I've always had these senses. I know exactly how to use them as well because of my knowledge from Kengan. There's a few people from that series with outrageously enhanced senses, after all.

But the main thing is that my mind is built to work in tandem with these senses. If my senses were too much for my mind, the super soldier serum wouldn't be all that good, would it?

However, my joy flooded away when my other senses came into play. Mainly my sense of smell.

I could smell every single college student in the lecture room I was currently in. Usually, this would be a horrifying situation because while a lot of people who go to college practice decent self-hygiene, there's the odd guy or girl who smell of B.O or just smell bad in general. So, to smell everything like that...it would be hell.

...Yet why did it feel like I was smelling an all you can eat buffet? Is this how Ghouls smell humans? Jesus Christ...No wonder Vampires have such a hard time. It's like the best smelling food you've ever had, placed in front of you with the steam it produces wafting into your nose.

Of course, the bad hygiene made them smell like bad food...but the fact they even smelt LIKE food in the first place had horrific implications.

Opening my eyes, I saw nothing but darkness before I backed up and realized I'd been resting my head on my forearms. My incredibly muscular forearms.

...Huh.

Beyond that, I felt a gnawing pit in the bottom of my stomach and I winced as I felt something creeping around my shoulder region, almost begging to be released. Looking around at the classmates, some of which who looked to my awakening with curiosity, my wincing expression got worse as I felt instincts I'd never had before flare.

Well, that'd actually be incorrect. I did have these instincts...but never aimed at other humans before. I'd never wanted to blitz a person and drink from them, you know?

Slowly and with as little effort as I could manage right now, I pushed myself up from the lecture hall seat I was currently on and I did so without crushing the wooden desk which was something I could no doubt do with ease right now. Bending down, I faked a pained groan and acted as if I was nursing some kind of stomach ache - not too far off from the truth - before I grabbed my bag and made way to leave the room.

A hungry Ghoul in a room full of Humans? A disaster waiting to happen. Honestly, it was a miracle I could even hold myself back right now. It felt like my stomach was splitting and trying to eat itself and the pain was immense, so I was surprised when I was able to push through the pain with such practiced ease.

...Then it made sense. I had the martial knowledge of dozens of top-tier martial artists in my head - and their knowledge on how to withstand pain. Unconsciously, I'd been running through mental calculations to keep my mind off of the pain I was feeling.

Secondly, I was a person who'd been given the Super Soldier Serum. A serum that takes everything a person is, and then amplifies it. My tendency to be a genuine person who doesn't wish harm upon others...has been amplified. Yet at the same time, I'd guess my craving for blood and killing was amplified as well, so it's all balanced out. All it's done is make it so I have the barest control over myself even though I'm so utterly fucking starving.

But as I was about to leave, someone put their hand on my arm and I froze as I visibly felt my heartbeat speed up to absurd speeds.

My eyes went wide...and it was almost like I could feel the capillaries in my eyes go bloodshot. I felt something try and rush to my eyes and mouth but I stopped it in a panic, understanding it was some sort of Vampiric change in nature. I can't have that in public otherwise it'd be akin to showing I'm different - and different is bad even in the MCU.

Like I was made of metal, I creaked my head to the side to look at the person who'd grabbed my upper arm. It was for a split second that I realized the utter height and size advantage I seemed to have against literally everyone in the room, including the girl who'd stopped me.

"Yes?" I got out through grit teeth, my tone becoming sharp and blunt as my expression twisting in pain and my mouth salivating as I looked at the person in front of me. In bold red letters, there was just the word 'FOOD' seared into my mind and it took everything I had to stop myself from lunging at her.

Somewhat surprised by the hostility in my tone, the redhead widened her eyes before letting go of my arm, "I, uh, just wanted to ask if you're okay. You look like you're in a lot of pain...and you're sweating a lot," she pointed at my shirt and I looked down to see that she was right. A small stain of sweat was showing on my chest

Looking back up to her, I continued with my earlier tone, "I think I've...I've come down with some sort of fever. I'm gonna go rest in my dorm. Tell the teacher for me," I got these words out quickly before turning around and walking away as swiftly as I could without outing myself as some sort of superhuman.

Time blurred together and my mind began to get foggy because from my perspective, as soon as I left the classroom...I was in my dorm room, locking the door.

Though that didn't matter to me as I dropped to my knees, my hands placed on the floor as I began to retch uncontrollably. Within seconds, vomit was pouring out of my mouth and onto the floor - the contents being barely digested bacon, eggs and toast. The breakfast I'd had this morning.

Human food.

...It tasted disgusting. Even more than vomit should be. Like I was throwing up spoiled milk mixed with piss. All in all it just made me throw up even more.

When the whole ordeal was over, I was left gasping for breath and I collapsed to the floor.

The pain had gotten even worse now that my stomach was completely empty. I daren't move in case I went berserk and just began eating whatever person I saw. So, I just lay at the entrance to my dorm room, trying to resist and ignore the agonizing pain that burned to my core.

I focused on the window of my dorm. More specifically, the sky and how light it was. At first all it did was get brighter...but soon it began to darken.

Nighttime. That's all I had to wait for. Once the moon was out, I could go find something...to eat.