The first thing Kai thought when he saw what was coming out of the forest was:
'That's very big.'
The second thing was:
'The system said SSS. Even with my zero video game logic, I can understand that's bad… But interesting.'
The third thing, as the thing kept advancing and the trees around it simply… moved aside, as if the forest itself didn't want any trouble:
'I'm hungry.'
---
It was a she-wolf.
Or she had been a she-wolf at some point. Now she was something that used wolf form the way someone uses work clothes—functional, convenient, not necessarily her natural state.
Three meters tall on all fours. Black fur with veins of silver light pulsing to the rhythm of something that wasn't a heartbeat. Two eyes the color of ice right before it swallows you.
[SSS entity detected — Classification: Primordial She-Wolf]
[Estimated age: 2,300 years]
[Threat level: LOCAL EXTINCTION]
[Recommendation: Flee. Flee now. Please.]
"The system said please," Kai observed out loud. "Interesting."
[GarcíaFTW: KAI RUN]
[NocheEterna99: STOP READING THE CHAT AND RUN]
[StreamerHunter: I put another 10 coins on him dying. I never learn.]
The she-wolf stopped ten meters away.
She didn't attack. She didn't growl. She just looked at him with those ice-colored eyes, an expression Kai couldn't immediately classify.
It took him three seconds.
It was evaluation. The same kind of look he gave a new opponent before deciding how to take them down.
She was sizing him up.
---
"Hi," said Kai.
The she-wolf didn't respond.
"Hey," he said to the system. "Can you tell me what she wants?"
[Intent analysis in progress...]
[Result: UNKNOWN]
[Entity behavior does not match hunting, territorial, or attack patterns.]
[Closest hypothesis: Inspection.]
"Is she inspecting me?"
[Apparently.]
Kai looked at the she-wolf, and the she-wolf looked back at him.
[User_4421: the guy is having a conversation with the system while a 2000-year-old creature stares him down]
[NocheEterna99: HE'S NOT EVEN FLINCHING]
[GarcíaFTW: I would've peed myself by now]
---
The she-wolf took a step forward.
Kai didn't step back.
Another step.
Then another.
Until her head was a meter and a half from Kai's face and the creature's breath smelled like a thunderstorm and something very old that had no name in any modern language.
The ice-colored eyes ran over him from top to bottom, slow and methodical.
Kai held her gaze. Not out of bravery. Simply because backing off in the middle of an evaluation was bad technique.
He'd known that since he was eight years old.
The she-wolf exhaled.
And then something happened that took the system four full seconds to process.
[ANOMALOUS BEHAVIOR DETECTED]
[The SSS entity is... reducing her form.]
[This should not be happening.]
[The system has no protocol for this.]
[Please wait.]
---
The she-wolf shrank.
Not all at once. It was gradual, almost elegant, like water taking the shape of a new container.
The black fur receded. The mass reorganized itself. The silver light running through her body concentrated into specific points until it became something that looked like jewelry against dark skin.
Thirty seconds later, where there had been a house-sized creature, there stood a tall woman with waist-length black hair streaked with silver and a cold gaze.
The woman had the expression of someone who had lived twenty-three centuries and developed a very specific opinion about how the world should work.
Kai looked at her, and she looked back at him.
"Your aura," she said, in a voice that sounded like it came from farther away than physical distance could explain, "is the most interesting I've perceived in twelve generations."
"Thanks," said Kai.
[GarcíaFTW: SHE TURNED HUMAN]
[NocheEterna99: SHE'S BEAUTIFUL??? WHAT STREAM AM I ON]
[StreamerHunter: I lost another 10 coins. I definitely never learn.]
[New viewers: +12,400]
[Current viewers: 54,391]
[Gifts received: 847]
[System points obtained: 847]
---
"What's your name?" the woman asked.
"Kai. And you?"
"Serah." She paused, as if the name were a minor detail compared to what she was about to say next. "I've spent two hundred years searching for a being with a compatible aura."
"Compatible for what."
Serah looked at him with the specific patience of someone who assumes the other person is intelligent and just needs a second.
"To produce offspring that inherit both strengths. Yours, physical. Mine, primordial."
Silence.
[GarcíaFTW: LMAOOOOO]
[NocheEterna99: BRO SHE JUST PROPOSED HAVING KIDS AT MINUTE 8 OF THE STREAM]
[StreamerHunter: I came here for fights. This is better than fights.]
[New viewers: +8,200]
Kai looked at her for a long moment.
"No."
Serah blinked. Probably the first time in two centuries someone had said that to something she proposed.
"No?"
"I just got here. I'm hungry. I don't know where to find food in this world. That's my number one priority right now."
[NocheEterna99: HIS NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IS EATING]
[GarcíaFTW: she proposes kids from an SSS-rank and he's thinking about lunch]
Serah studied him for three more seconds.
Then, with the same neutral expression she'd used for everything else:
"I know a place."
---
[SYSTEM — NOTIFICATION]
[New entity has been registered within user's radius.]
[Classification: Allied — Provisional]
[Name: Serah — Primordial She-Wolf — SSS]
[Note: The entity has indicated intent to remain near the user indefinitely.]
[The system recommends not arguing against this.]
Kai read the last line.
"Is the system advising me not to argue with her?"
[It is a recommendation. Not an order.]
[But yes.]
Kai tucked the Rank B wolf's fang into his pocket and followed Serah into the forest.
[GarcíaFTW: this stream is going to change my life]
[NocheEterna99: next episode WHEN]
[StreamerHunter: I'm going to lose all my money following this stream and I regret nothing]