Confusion hit me like a bullet as my eyes snapped open. The garish glow of neon pulsed above, spelling out "Velvet Pleasure" in an obscene font. What was this place? More importantly, who was I?
A searing pain lanced through the back of my head, a primal scream of danger echoing in my mind. Instinctively, I rolled onto my back, pulled out a pistol from its holster, and pointed it forward in one motion.
At the foot of the bed, a young girl, with cascading auburn hair covered half of her naked body, knelt in terror. Beside her, a curvy woman in tattered clothes trembled, clutching a bloodied baseball bat in her shaking hand. Both looked at me as if I were a monster, their faces etched with desperation and fear.
I gestured the voluptuous woman, trying to get her to put down the bat first.
The girl with auburn hair suddenly rushed over and wrapped around my legs. Like a desperate little animal, she cried out, "Please, Sergeant! I'll do anything, just don't hurt my mom."
A sergeant, huh? I sat up and noticed a uniform jacket lying on the bed with Pinewood County Police printed on its logo.
A dull thud followed by the clatter of the bat hitting the floor. The woman crumpled against the bedframe, the fight draining from her eyes. Tears welled up, threatening to spill. She had used up the last drop of her strength.
I waved my hands as if shooing away flies and rasped, "Get lost." A vision swarm, the strike from the bat must be causing hallucinations. I rubbed my temple, but the hallucination became clearer.
[Fighting Techniques:
Standard Police Training (Master)
Shadowstrike (Apprentice)]
Life Expectancy Bonus: (These techniques can be enhanced by sacrificing your remaining lifespan. Below one year, further investment is impossible.)
Remaining Lifespan: 34 years.]
Strangely, even though I could hardly remember anything, these skills were etched in my memory, my muscles tingling with the urge to employ them.
Standard police training in this desolate world included techniques to fight beastvamps (vampiric fauna). But it paled in comparison to Shadowstrike, a technique imparted to officers by the Hazardous Anomaly Response and Mitigation Division, H.A.R.M. for short.
Yet, somehow, I didn't believe these trainings were the reason that kept me alive in this harsh world.
So it's not a hallucination. But how useless is this gift? Isn't the point of learning fighting skills to survive longer? What's the point of getting better at them if it sacrifices life expectancy? Can't I just practice at my own pace?
With a sigh, I looked up from the panel, only to find the two women still frozen in place.
"I told you to get out of here..." I bared my teeth and pressed the back of my head. Then I realized that this was their home, their brothel.
"Okay, I'll get out then." Embarrassed, I rolled my eyes, stood up, picked up my uniform, and walked towards the hallway. But where to? I didn't even remember my own address.
The little girl followed me to the hallway. She stared at me in disbelief, surprised that I didn't retaliate or take advantage of them.
Yet, there was no relief in her eyes. As I neared the exit, her gaze hardened, her breath held in suspense.
The door creaked open. I took a deep breath of the dry night air.
A musky smell wrinkled my nose. Did I forget something?
"Finished? My turn then." A gruff voice spoke, and the musky stench intensified.
I stiffened, glancing sideways at a hulking figure squatting at the entrance. Muscles rippled beneath its black fur, its jackal head tilted forward.
It rose, towering over me, shoulders twice my width. "Be faster next time. Hunger makes me angry."
A wave of nausea washed over me. I remembered my survival strategy: colluding with beastvamps, providing them with rations.
We closed missing persons cases, keeping the vampiric fauna fed and H.A.R.M. in the dark.
Revulsion twisted my stomach. How had I sunk so low? I needed redemption.
I forced a smile and nudged the jackalvamp beside me. "Hey, you know my stamina. They're spent, and won't taste any good."
Desperation fueled my attempt at bravado. I grabbed its arm, intending to steer it away from the door. "Let's go, bro, let me buy you a drink as my apology for ruining your supper." But my hand might as well have been on a mountain. The creature didn't budge.
Its head swiveled slowly, cold yellow eyes locking onto mine. "Think I'm a drooling ghoul, Kane?" The words were a low growl, dripping with contempt.
Before I could stammer a reply, the world tilted. With a roar that shook the building, the monster ripped half the roof off the parlor. Moonlight streamed in, illuminating the disarray inside. My hand shot out, a pathetic attempt to stop the inevitable. It never reached its target.
The jackalvamp whirled around, rage contorting its features. "Forgotten what I am, human? I can hear every whimper, every desperate plea!" Its voice boomed, a physical force that rattled my teeth. "You dare betray me?!"
The fury in its eyes was a tangible thing. Then, with a speed that defied its bulk, a monstrous leg lashed out.
The world went supernova. Pain, white-hot and all-consuming, erupted in my abdomen. My vision swam, a crimson tide blurring everything. A broken marionette, I arced through the air, crashing through the splintered doorway like a ragdoll.
"You spineless cur," the jackalvamp snarled, the floorboards groaning under its immense weight. "I'll chew you alive!"
I scrambled to my feet. Pistol materialized in my hand, the weight a familiar comfort. Aiming at the doorway, I squeezed the trigger.
The roar of the 9mm echoed through the room, a futile attempt to defy the monstrosity before me. The bullets slammed into the creature's hide, slowing down the vampiric beast. Yet, the wound quickly knitted itself back together.
Panic clawed at my throat. I emptied the clip into its head, each shot a desperate prayer. But unlike the mindless undead, this beast shrugged off the assault. It grinned, a grotesque parody of a smile, revealing a maw dripping with fetid saliva.
The image of my head being sucked into that dirty mouth, chewed bit by bit, and then swallowed mixed with sticky saliva filled me with dread. I scrambled across the hallway, rolling into the room. My breath hitched, my heart pounding, adrenaline surged up to my brain.
"You want to play? Let's play," I snarled in my mind, the thought laced with a cold fury that surprised even me. This thing craved a fight? Fine. I'd give it one. Hell, considering the throbbing in my head, I probably should have been dead anyway. Might as well gamble this borrowed life against yours.
The panel quickly unfolded before my eyes. Sacrificing life expectancy for martial training. Let's do it.
"System. Fill up the Shadowstrike for me!"