The morning sun bled across the rusted rooftops of Sector 12, casting long, jagged shadows through the grimy windows of the orphanage. Dray Ballack stood by the edge of his narrow bed, fingers trembling, breath slow and uneasy. The night had been sleepless.
A new life had been forced upon him. One he never asked for, never dreamed of. But deep inside, something long dormant stirred.
He blinked, and the familiar translucent interface appeared before his eyes, hovering silently in the air like a sentinel.
Name: Dray Ballack
Bloodline: Locked
Race: Human (???)
Level: 3
Class: None
Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Endurance: 1
Vitality: 5
Skills: Night Adaptation (Passive)
Inventory: Broken Pipe (1)
System Shop: [Locked]
Next Level: 76 EXP
Status: Stable
The interface glowed with an eerie calm, indifferent to his confusion and anxiety.
"System," Dray said aloud, voice hoarse from disuse. "What do I need to do to awaken my bloodline?"
Response: Information unavailable. Access requires progress through system levels. Not all information is free.
Typical. Just like every government record he had ever searched for—closed doors and denied access. He didn't even know if he was entirely human anymore.
Dray pulled his hood up and left the orphanage, avoiding the glances of other orphans and the warden. He needed space. He needed answers. The old scrapyard at the outskirts of the zone would give him both.
The scrapyard sprawled like the corpse of a mechanical giant—towering spires of rusted satellite dishes, scorched battle drones, and fractured skycars. It was silent, save for the caw of scavenger birds overhead and the soft hum of discarded tech still stubbornly clinging to life.
Dray climbed over a rusted engine core, slid down the hull of a ruined dropship, and found himself near the sealed entrance of an old maglev transit tunnel—abandoned since the last orbital war.
His system pinged.
New Quest Available
Quest Title:Echoes of the Past
Objective: Investigate the electromagnetic anomaly beneath Sector 12.
Warning: Danger Level: Unknown. Progress may alter system trajectory.
Reward: +50 EXP, 1 Attribute Point, Memory Fragment (Locked)
Accept Quest?
Dray hesitated for only a moment. "Accept."
The tunnel entrance hissed open with a burst of cold vapor, revealing descending stairs lined with flickering red glyphs.
The Subterranean Vault
Dray's footsteps echoed down the corridor, each step feeling heavier than the last. The air thickened, saturated with something old—ancient even—something that vibrated with dormant power.
He reached a chamber carved directly into the Earth, yet unlike anything made by man. The floor was metallic, polished, engraved with symbols pulsing softly.
In the center of the room stood a tall pod, half-buried in crystal and obsidian metal. The system interface reappeared.
Source Identified: Ancestral Memory Vault
Entity Classification: Dormant Bloodline Container
Status: Weak Containment. Memory Fragment Detected.
A whisper slithered through Dray's mind—alien and intimate all at once.
"To find your path, you must remember what was taken."
System Prompt: Engage Memory Transfer?
"Yes," he breathed.
A flash of red light engulfed the chamber. Symbols burst to life, swirling into the air like burning ash. Dray clutched his skull as pain lanced through his head. The world bent sideways—and the vision began.
Memory Fragment - 01: Crimson Thrones
He stood in a realm not of Earth.
Twin moons hung over a sea of black sand. Red banners fluttered in an ash-swept wind. Below a tower carved of bone and obsidian, armies of pale warriors knelt in reverence.
Dray wasn't himself—he was someone else. Taller. Stronger. Regal.
A throne sat before him, massive and pulsing with blood-forged power. Two figures flanked it—one wearing a crown of bone and the other holding a blade that shimmered like shattered starlight.
There was betrayal. Screams. A plunge into darkness.
And then—
Silence.
Back to Reality
Dray collapsed to the vault floor, sweat pouring down his face. The pod's glow dimmed. Yet something had changed. The system buzzed again.
Memory Fragment Acquired: 1/100
+50 EXP
+1 Attribute Point
Level Up! Level 4
Name: Dray Ballack
Bloodline: Locked
Race: Human (???)
Level: 4
Class: None
Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Endurance: 1
Vitality: 5
Skills: Night Adaptation (Passive)
Inventory: Broken Pipe (1)
System Shop: [Locked]
Next Level: 80 EXP
Status: Stable
Dray rose slowly. Something new was on his palm—a faint sigil: two wings wrapping around a teardrop of blood.
Ancestral Mark: Dormant State Active
He exited the tunnel under the bright morning sun. Everything looked the same. And yet—nothing was.
His journey had just begun.
But in the distant reaches of space, far beyond Earth's solar system… forces stirred.
Meanwhile, On the Crimson Planet
A vampire emperor sat upon a jagged throne of starlit bone, his eyes burning with quiet fury. Screens hovered before him, displaying data packets, energy spikes, and scrambled stellar charts.
A servant knelt. "My lord. The signal reemerged."
The emperor's lips curled slightly. "Where?"
The servant hesitated. "Unknown. The star signature is corrupted. It originated from a Class-4 planet in a dead sector. The exact location—uncertain."
"Unacceptable."
"But the blood resonance… it matches the lost emperor's son."
The room fell silent.
"Send the Watchers. They are to scour the outer rings. Leave no world unchecked. But speak of this to no one—not even the Council. Those who betrayed him must not know he lives."
The vampire emperor's hand tightened on his throne's edge, clawed fingers leaving marks on the bone.
"Let the galaxy remain blind a little longer. But if he truly lives…"
His voice dropped into a whisper. "Then retribution has begun."
Back on Earth, unaware of the shadow now stretching toward him, Dray Ballack looked to the sky.
The bloodline was silent, the system mysterious.
But the signal had been sent.
And the old enemies had started to stir.