I walked until the noise of the plaza was a memory and the air tasted like ordinary city smog instead of fear.
By the time I reached the quieter streets, the adrenaline had thinned. Fatigue settled into my muscles, dragging at my limbs. My body still remembered the hospital. Every step reminded me that this flesh was only human again.
For now.
The hospital gown clung to my skin, sticky with dried sweat and faint traces of blood. It stole warmth and dignity with every gust of wind.
I needed clothes.
More than that, I needed somewhere the world did not exist for a few hours.
There was only one place that still belonged to me in this timeline.
The old apartment.
It sat above a small convenience store that never closed. In my first life, this was where I learned how to count money properly. Where I learned to live off instant noodles and cheap takeout. Where I learned to sleep lightly and hide blades within two steps of the bed.
Later, when the underworld bent its knee to me, I abandoned this place.
I thought I had outgrown it.
Now it felt like a bunker waiting for its rightful owner.
I climbed the narrow staircase and found the door exactly as I remembered. Same peeling paint. Same crooked number nailed into the wood.
I lifted the mat.
The spare key was still taped underneath.
Some things refused to change, even when time itself was rewritten.
The lock clicked and the door swung inward. I stepped inside.
The room was small. A bed against the wall. A desk with a single chair. A wardrobe that leaned slightly to one side as if tired of pretending to be sturdy. Thin curtains that did little to keep the city light out.
It smelled like dust and old paper.
It smelled like the start of my first empire.
I closed the door and exhaled for what felt like the first time since holy fire had eaten my skin.
The Sin Mark pulsed faintly in my palm, a warm reminder that the past would not repeat itself unless I allowed it.
The system spoke in a quieter tone.
[Quest update][The First Mark remains pending][Refusal will trigger penalty][Delay is permitted]
Good.
Time was a resource now. I intended to use it properly.
I dropped onto the edge of the bed and stared at the ceiling.
If I Marked Lucas, everything he built would become mine, thread by thread. His growth would no longer be a threat. It would be a reservoir. I could leash his mind, chain his pride, make him kneel not just once but for a lifetime.
If I Marked Evelyn…
The thought hung there.
The system had promised a hidden bloodline if I corrupted her. Bloodlines sat at the peak of the supernatural hierarchy. They were not just power. They were access. Doors that only opened for certain names.
My phone vibrated on the blanket beside me.
A message notification.
Sender: Evelyn BlackWhere did you go? I can still help you.Do not make me file a report.
I stared at the name.
In my first life, that name had been my anchor. My weakness. The voice I believed when she said she would stand beside me.
Now it was a variable. A tool. A future relic.
Police academy. Latent power. A conscience that would not stop bleeding. A savior complex that would drive her to walk into hell if she thought she could pull someone out.
I did not reply.
Let her worry.
Worry breeds desperation. Desperation makes people malleable.
I would use her when I needed her. Not when she thought I did.
I stood and opened the wardrobe. Old shirts hung neatly from wire hangers. Faded jeans were folded on the lower shelf. A jacket with a frayed collar slumped in the corner.
I dressed slowly, trading the gown for fabric that felt like a life I had already survived.
In the cracked mirror above the desk, a normal eighteen year old boy stared back. Dark hair. Calm eyes. A face that had not yet been carved by a decade in the underworld.
The eyes were wrong, though.
They were old.
The system chimed again.
[Side Quest unlocked: The First Follower][Investigate the disturbance in the Western District][Reward: New contact. Potential ally][Hint: A bloodline is about to be hunted]
Bloodline.
Again.
I closed my eyes for a second and let the memory surface.
An alley.The smell of wet stone and iron.Eyes like fresh blood.A girl with silver hair chained to a wall.Later, a rumor of a half vampire slave.Later still, the report of her death.
Seraphina Night.
In my first life, she never had a chance to stand on her own. She moved from cage to collar to corpse without ever being allowed to be what she could have been.
This time, I had an address.
"Western District," I said under my breath.
The Sin Mark warmed faintly, as if amused.
The system responded.
[Quest tracked][Estimated time to critical failure: 40 minutes]
I smiled.
"Then we should not be late," I said.
I slipped the phone into my pocket, checked the room once more, then switched off the light.
As I closed the door behind me and stepped back into the night, the apartment felt less like a hiding place and more like something else.
A starting point.
The city stretched ahead, dark and hungry.
The Western District waited with rusted teeth and buried secrets.
And I was no longer the boy who had once walked into it hoping to survive.
I walked toward it this time intending to claim it.