[Your poison is successfully planted in Ben's system.]
[You don't have any ability to use that to your advantage yet]
[More explanation: after you bite your friend, your poison is now running in his blood. When you level up and have the suited ability, you can use that in multiple ways, depending on what you choose]
"What the fuck? Did you poison me? What the fuck, bro?" Ben said, holding his head with both arms.
"No, it's... I didn't poison you," I lied. "It's an ability I just awakened when I bit you. It'll only make you dazed for a minute, sorry."
I was terrified of what would happen to him because I didn't fully understand what the system had said.
He washed his face, then turned to me. "Come on, bro. Give me your arm. Maybe this will go away when I drink your blood."
I hesitated, but I didn't have any choice. He grabbed my arm and bit into it. It wasn't as painful as I expected, but I could feel my blood flowing out as he sucked it from my veins.
Suddenly, the system screen popped up in front of me again.
[You got bit by a vampire.]
[The system is being attacked.]
[Your blood is draining.]
[Attack intercepted successfully.]
[Counterattack launching]
[Counterattack launched successfully]
[Now, more poison is planted in your friend System.]
[When you level up, and when you get the ability to use that, it will work with a 100% success]
I was speechless reading all this while Ben drank my blood.
Then Ben stopped and lifted his head. Blood stained his teeth and lips. He was smiling. He had real vampire-like fangs now, and he looked like the vampires from the movie *Sinners*. His eyes were red. He looked terrifying, like a monster. Then he started laughing. I stepped back from him slowly.
"Oh boy, that was delicious," he said. "It worked, bro! Yes, it worked, bro! I leveled up to level two. My abilities leveled up to level two, too, and I got a new ability from you, bro. I got that Danger-sensing ability. Thank you, bro. I owe you one, and my sickness is gone now. Hell fucking yeah, baby."
He came over and hugged me. "Thank you, bro."
Then he washed his mouth and face, and I washed the blood off my arm. We left the bathroom.
Ben told Tom everything that had happened, excited.
—
"Come on, bro. Let me drink your blood too." Ben said. We were still near the bathrooms. "Maybe I'll level up to level three. Please, bro. Come on. Look at Leo, he's fine. He's even better."
"Are you really okay?" Tom asked me. "You feel nothing? Nothing weird?"
"No, actually," I said. "I feel completely okay, to be honest."
Tom sighed. "Okay, but it's not for free. You know what I want when the time comes."
"You got it, thank you, bro," Ben burst out in excitement.
I stood watching the door while they entered the bathroom. After five minutes, they came out.
"It worked," Ben said, smacking my back.
"Bruh."
"It worked, bro! I'm at level three. I shouldn't have leveled up because I needed level two blood, but because he's a werewolf, his blood is more valuable. That's why I leveled up and got his claw ability. Look!" Ben lifted his hand, and claws grew from his fingers.
"Holy shit," I said. "Did you get anything else?"
"I'm stronger now. In sunlight, I don't feel very hot anymore. And look at that." Ben lifted his finger toward the wall, then shot at it. A bullet-like hole appeared on the wall with blood surrounding it. "I can shoot blood."
"Bro!" I pushed him in excitement. "Holy shit! Bro, do it again."
—-
"Thank you, guys. Thank you so much."
We started walking back toward our room and our beds.
"Tell him, Tom," Ben said.
I looked at them, confused.
"I have a bite ability too," Tom said. "If I bite someone, I can make him join my pack, like a team. We can be like a wolf team, feel each other, and whatever. It gives some benefits for leveling up together and everything. But the person I bite has to accept joining, of course."
"That's cool, bro," I said.
"Yeah, I told him," Ben said. "We won't use it now, but when we start entering gates, we'll use it to level up faster together. It's such a great ability."
"Yeah, it is," I said. "So if one of us kills a monster, we all level up from it?"
"Yeah," Ben said, excited.
"Why are we going back to the room?" Tom said. "I didn't even eat well, and you drank my blood. I'm even hungrier now. Let's go back and eat more."
I was glad because I hadn't finished my plate either. We went back, got more food, and then returned to our room.
The man with the long blonde hair was sleeping. The three guys he had fought with were playing, but they made no sound now. The other three hadn't gotten back yet.
"I'm tired from leveling up. I'm going to sleep. Good night, guys," Ben said, then threw himself onto his bed.
"Me too. You made me tired from drinking my blood. You drank a lot," Tom said.
The two of them went to sleep, but I didn't fall asleep right away. I played with my phone a little, or pretended to, while I checked my system. I read the messages I got from biting Ben again.
What did the system mean by that? My poison was running in Ben's blood, and I would one hundred percent succeed in using an ability when I got one that worked with poison. What did that mean?
But I didn't get any answers from the system. So I played some games on my phone because there was no connection here, and we couldn't share anything from the military base.
After just half an hour, I felt tired and fell asleep.
---
I woke up to an alarm. It wasn't my phone alarm. I opened my eyes, got up, and looked around. Everybody was getting up from their beds and looking around, too. The alarm was inside the room, coming from a speaker.
I checked my phone. It was 4 a.m., just like the sergeant said.
Some people were already cursing the alarm, and somebody threw his shoes at it.
"Shut up!" somebody yelled.
Then the alarm stopped.
"If you didn't already wear your military outfit, wear it and stand still beside your bed. I am coming. I don't want to see anyone still on his bed, or I will shoot him with water and make him run until he dries his outfit." It was the sergeant's voice.
This was how the day started. I didn't know that by the end of it, it would become the craziest day of my life so far, and that it was only the beginning of many more to come.