The target was a dilapidated, heavily fortified industrial warehouse near the docks—a known hub for illegal trade in everything from black-market weaponry to experimental vampire blood and stolen artifacts. The Vigil wanted it sterilized.
Dr. Caine, via a holographic communication projected onto the walls of the transport van, gave Acheron his orders. His Handler, Kellan, was still on probation and remained at the facility.
"The System Lockdown is active, Acheron," Caine's cold voice resonated. "You are restricted to your baseline Hunter protocols. You will use non-Hybrid methods—smoke, flash-bangs, and suppressed conventional rounds. Your current 15\% Vampire Equilibrium is adequate for rapid evasion, not brute force. This operation is designed to test your tactical obedience."
Her message was clear: she expected minimal performance and maximum compliance.
Acheron, armed with standard Hunter gear, exited the van. The Psychic Stagnation debuff was a constant, frustrating dullness, and the underlying Bloodthirst was a continuous, gnawing pain. He was slow, but his mind, thanks to the System Glitch analysis, was sharp.
The interior of the warehouse was a maze of stacked shipping containers and improvised stalls, all pulsing with illicit activity. The air was thick with the scent of cheap liquor, stale sweat, and—most importantly—the intoxicating, varied scent of dozens of different blood strains.
[CURRENT OBJECTIVE: CLEANSE AREA AND NEUTRALIZE ALL NON-VIGIL PERSONNEL.]
Acheron moved through the first checkpoint, using the standard stealth he had been trained to employ. He engaged a group of human thugs armed with crude pistols. He used cover, aimed for center mass, and dropped them efficiently. Obedience.
But as he secured the area, he moved toward the nearest downed thug—a large man who had bled onto the concrete.
This is a perfect distraction.
The Vigil's monitoring focused on his actions—his firing rate, his position, his movement. They weren't focused on a micro-action during a period of high chaos.
Acheron knelt as if checking the body for weapons. In a single, fluid motion, he briefly touched his lips to the blood on the ground. It was human blood, common and mundane, but it was fuel.
[SANGUINE FEAST: INITIATED]
[EQUILIBRIUM SHIFT: VAMPIRE +0.01%]
[CORRUPTION DEBT ACCRUAL: 0.1%]
It was a negligible gain, but it was untraceable. The act of feeding was the violation, not the amount. He had successfully earned a tiny bit of power and a tiny bit of Debt, proving the System could be gamed in micro-increments.
He proceeded deeper. The fight escalated into a large storage area where several individuals were actively dealing in vials of crimson liquid. These were blood brokers—humans infected with a low-grade, stabilized vampiric virus to handle the merchandise.
Acheron unleashed a flash-bang grenade, plunging the area into blinding chaos. As the air cracked and the targets screamed, his System was momentarily overwhelmed by sensory inputs.
Now.
He focused on the System Glitch, triggering the Error window. For two hundredths of a second, the Psychic Stagnation debuff flickered off. In that brief window of clarity, Acheron didn't move fast; he simply thought fast, flawlessly calculating the vectors for the next three shots and the most efficient path out.
The Glitch wasn't a speed hack; it was a cognitive overdrive.
He dropped the three brokers with silent precision. He knew he couldn't leave the chaos without harvesting a high-value skill. The brokers were infected—their blood was tainted, but carried valuable data.
He reached the nearest broker, a man whose hands were covered in strange symbols—a sign he handled powerful artifacts. He committed a desperate, larger Unauthorized Feed.
The System immediately screamed in his mind: [CORRUPTION DEBT ACCRUAL: 5% (HIGH RISK)]
But the reward was instantaneous: [SKILL INHERITANCE: LINGUISTICS (LVL 1) - MINOR COMPREHENSION OF ARCHAIC RUNES.]
A completely unexpected, but potentially invaluable skill.
A new warning flashed, forcing a cold spike of dread through his chest: [DEBT THRESHOLD REACHED. MEMORY FRAGMENT PURGE IMMINENT.]
He had successfully harvested a skill, but the cost was here, and it was due now, in the middle of a chaotic raid.