The wail of approaching Apex Enforcer sirens was a razor-sharp goad, slicing through Kai's horrified paralysis. He couldn't be found here. Not like this. Not with this carnage surrounding him.
He stumbled away from the scene, his new, unfamiliar strength making his movements jerky and uncoordinated. Every shadow seemed to pulse with unseen threats, every distant shout sounded like it was meant for him. He ripped off the most blood-soaked parts of his outer jacket, his mind a chaotic whirl of terror and disbelief. The coppery tang of blood was a phantom on his tongue, a taste he suspected he'd never forget.
Getting back to his cramped District 7 apartment was a nightmarish blur. He stuck to the deepest shadows, the most derelict back alleys, his senses – now unnervingly sharp thanks to the System's unsolicited "Perception +1" – screaming at him with every rustle of refuse or distant footstep. The journey that usually took twenty minutes felt like an eternity. He was a mess – clothes torn, smeared with drying blood and grime, his face a mask of exhaustion and wild-eyed fear. He prayed he wouldn't run into Leo, or worse, his mother or Elara.
By some miracle, he made it to his building undetected, slipping through the perpetually broken security door and up the creaking stairs. His small apartment was dark and quiet. His mother and Elara were likely asleep. He crept into the tiny, shared bathroom, the cracked mirror reflecting a stranger.
The boy staring back was still recognizably Kai, but harder, somehow. The new muscle mass wasn't overt, but it filled out his usually frail frame, giving him a wiry resilience he'd never possessed. His eyes, though, were the most alarming. The amber glow was still there, pupils slitted, giving him a predatory, inhuman cast. He scrubbed at the blood on his skin with a desperate, frantic energy, the water running pink, then red, into the stained sink.
Once relatively clean, clad in a threadbare but fresh set of clothes, he collapsed onto his thin mattress in the tiny alcove that served as his bedroom. Sleep was impossible. His mind raced, replaying the alley, the screams, the impossible messages scrolling across his vision.
System…
He focused on the word, the memory of the internal prompts. Could he… interact with it?
Tentatively, as if speaking to a ghost in his own head, he thought, 'System? Are you… there?'
A cool, familiar text overlay appeared in his vision, as clear as if projected onto a screen:
[System Online. Conduit Acknowledged.]
Kai's breath hitched. It was real. It responded. 'What are you?' he thought, a tremor of fear and morbid curiosity running through him.
[Designation: Anima Symbiotic Interface System. Purpose: Facilitate Host Adaptation, Growth, and Survival.]
'Host? Conduit? Is that me?'
[Affirmative. You are the Conduit. The System is integrated with your biological and Anima core structures.]
Anima core? He remembered the term from MBL broadcasts – the source of a MOD's power. So, he had one now. Born from that crate.
'The… stats,' Kai thought, remembering the disturbing rewards. 'Can I see them?'
A new overlay appeared, surprisingly detailed:
[STATUS – KAI (CONDUIT)] Level: 1 Anima Core Stability: 78% (Satiated – Recent Sustenance Acquired)
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength (STR): 13 (Base 5 + Exposure 5 + Sustenance 2 + Mission 1)
Vitality (VIT): 13 (Base 5 + Exposure 5 + Sustenance 2 + Mission 1)
Stamina (STA): 13 (Base 5 + Exposure 5 + Sustenance 2 + Mission 1)
Agility (AGI): 7 (Base 5 + Exposure 1 + Mission 1)
Perception (PER): 7 (Base 5 + Exposure 1 + Mission 1)
Anima Affinity (ANM): [ERROR – DATA CORRUPTED/INCOMPLETE – AWAITING FURTHER EVOLUTION]
Cognition (COG): 6 (Base 6)
NOTES:
Exposure Bonus applied post-integration.
Sustenance values reflect recent assimilation of bio-compatible matter.
Anima Affinity requires further manifestation events to calibrate.
Kai stared, his mind struggling to comprehend. Base stats? Exposure bonuses? It was like a character sheet from one of Leo's pirated RPGs, but this was him. His body. His life. The "Sustenance" values were a chilling reminder of the alley. The "Anima Affinity" error was ominous. What did "further manifestation events" mean? More transformations? More… feeding?
He noticed his base stats were pathetically low – a 5 for most physical attributes, a 6 for Cognition. That was the old Kai, the frail, unremarkable courier. The "Exposure" bonus, a hefty +5 to his physicals, must have come from the initial blast from the crate. Then the +2 from… eating. And the +1 across the board from "surviving." He was significantly stronger, tougher, more resilient than he'd been just hours ago.
'What does Anima Core Stability mean?' he asked the System.
[Anima Core Stability reflects the integrity and available energy of your emergent Anima. Sustenance is crucial for maintaining and increasing stability, especially during nascent stages. Low stability can lead to uncontrolled manifestations or Anima backlash.]
Uncontrolled manifestations. Anima backlash. The System's calm, clinical explanations did nothing to soothe the dread coiling in his stomach. He was a walking time bomb, powered by… whatever that crate had unleashed, and apparently, by consuming living beings.
He lay there for hours, the first grey light of dawn seeping through his grimy window. He was a MOD now, but not in any way he'd ever dreamed. He was something new, something dangerous, tethered to a mysterious System that quantified his existence in cold, hard numbers, rewarding him for acts that made his soul scream. The path ahead was terrifyingly unclear, but one thing was certain: the old Kai was gone, shattered like the mirror reflecting his glowing, predatory eyes.