Retsu leaned on the window of the police car, not bothering to escape his handcuffs as the wave of tiredness consumed him.
[Warning: HP is low]
The notification was giving him a headache, constantly flashing red in his line of sight over and over again and all he could focus on was the smell of the humans in the front seat in front of him, making him salavate and struggle to control his instincts.
[Your hunger grows]
The system stated the obvious. He didn't know what would happen if he lost his remaining 5 percent of HP, but he also didn't want to try eating them which would make his situation worse.
He probably couldn't even subdue them in this state.
"Hungry" he said, his words coming out all scratchy from his dry mouth.
The officers didn't seem to hear him.
"Hey, I need something to eat." He plead a bit louder.
"You just ate." The officer in the passenger seat said without looking at him.
"I know." Retsu said, struggling to look up, "but I have a peculiar health condition." He said, I mean it's not a lie. He thought to himself. "It's…terminal." He said to make himself more believable, which wasn't a lie either. If he didn't replace thst HP he lost, he feared he might kill someone. Or maybe he would die trying.
The officer tossed a granola bar at him. He eagerly snatched it and then he was out of his handcuffs and swallowed the whole thing in one bite. It tasted like cardboard. +1 hp. The system updated once he had finished it. 'You have gotta be kidding me!' He groaned in hunger.
[Your hunger grows.] The system nagged, and the [warning: HP is low] continued flashing as if nothing had happened.
Now that he thought about it, his dinner at the diner hadn't satisfied him much at all either. He would have to eat 100 of those granola bars to regain even half of his HP.
And then a notification that he wasn't expecting popped up.
[Congratulations! A new member of the pack has been created. Please select the class.]
A list of different options flooded his vision. All of them faded out as if to say unavailable. He didn't even know what they meant either.
Why was he unable to assign a class like last time? And who was he assigning it to? Had Rori picked someone to join them? He had to tell her that in the future she had to ask permission.
[system override, user's aura is too weak to dominate new member, allowing new member to choose his own class. Awaiting decision…]
Panic swept over Retsu. "What? no! You can't do that!" He yelled outloud.
His breathing began to pick up the pace as he tried to back out of the screen he was looking at and it didn't let him.
[loading…..]
He began waving his hands, trying to swipe the screen back, or to click on the exit button, using his fingers since his mind wasn't working well enough.
But it wasn't a touch screen and his hands only hit air. "Shit shit shit shit!" He cried out.
The police officers were visibly upset at his sudden crazed behavior.
"Sit down!" They yelled at him as he moved about in his seat, not paying attention to them at all.
"I said sit down!"
Then the system sent him the worst news he had recieved so far.
[User was unable to dominate over new member. Member has been allowed to select his class, he has chosen Revenant. New member will be considered a rogue if user is unable to dominate him within 12 hours. A Rogue is able to issue an alpha challenge. To avoid classification of Rogue, please dominate new pack member within 12 hours.]
The countdown then began. Next to the countdown of Retsu's active Essence absorption skill.
[Essence absorption: time remaining 1:45:59. Uses remaining: 3]
[Time remaining to dominate new pack member: 11:59:59]
[warning: HP is low]
[Your hunger increases.]
All of the notifications in front of him caused his anxiety to grow.
He tried to look at the stats of the new pack member, but it was blocked off. Who was it? Why now? Where was Rori? How strong were they? What if he couldn't regain enough HP to dominate the new memeber before twelve hours had passed? Would he have to fight them?
And then a thought came to him, maybe Rori had turned someone so that they could rescue Retsu?
No, he doubted she had even finished getting a hotel room yet, and probably she didn't know he was missing.
"What's a Revenant?" He asked his wolf out loud, forgetting about the cops in the front seat.
His wolf just shrugged his shoulders. I don't know, I've never heard of such a thing. It's not a werewolf class as far as I know. And then he added, you know I only know what you know, right?
This took Retsu by surprise. 'But aren't you an ancient mythical being?' like he'd heard about from watching tv.
His wolf laughed. I was born yesterday, all I know is that you are hungry.
His wolf was not going to help him out. Great. Just great.
He turned his attention finally to the police officers in front of him. "Hey! What's a revenant? Is it a zombie?" He asked urgently. Hoping they would look it up on their phones.
"You are a weird guy you know that?" The cop said, he turned to his partner, "we need to stop, he's escaped his handcuffs."
The driver groaned, "we're almost there, why do I gotta deal with a looney in the middle of the afternoon? Can't people save it for the middle of the night when I'm off work?"
Then he slid over to the side of the road and came around the car to Retsu's door. He looked at him seriously, he pointed a gun at him and opened the door, his partner got out and proceeded to try putting the handcuffs on him, but before he could do that, Retsu snarled against his own will and clamped down on his arm.
At first, Retsu planned to object to his wolf's sudden action, it could get him shot anyways. He knew not to assault a police officer, but the taste of his blood left him utterly weak. Once again, like before, he heard a gunshot and everything went dark.
Retsu came to, a while later and looked around to see the carnage before him. The two police officers had left this world, he was sure about that.
[Congratulations, you have leveled up, you are now level 2] the notification appeared before him. HP has increased to 350.]
He now had a full HP bar resting at 350, and the notifications telling him to eat were gone. But his joy was short-lived when he noticed that his Essence absorption feature had timed-out and he hadn't even gotten to use it. He looked down at his hands and the bones were showing at the tips of his fingers. His wrist was showing the joint as well. Crap. Now he didn't have a way of concealing his appearance.
He noticed that the sun had gone down. Crap. What time was it? He didn't have a watch, but he knew five hours had passed because his timer had lost a lot of time.
[Time remaining to dominate new pack member: 7:01:35]
He had seven hours left. His attention returned to the meal he had just had. Shit. His problems were just getting worse. Why had he lost control again? He really wasn't planning to do that to these nice people. He had never killed a person before, and even though he didn't remember doing it, he regretted what he was with his whole soul.
"I'm so sorry." He said to them. "I've never wanted to be what I am. As soon as I can find a cure, I will change back into being a human. There's got to be a way."
He focused on the police officer closest to him and expected the cold system to just say
[substance is edible]
It did, but it also said, [Subject still lingers, absorb essence?]
He looked at the other cop and his body didn't give him that option.
"Huh? What do you think wolf?" He asked his wolf.
Eat more food maybe? It wondered.
Maybe you will level up? Food will make you more strong. It added when he hesitated. His wolf could read his mind and he was thinking about how his HP bar was full, so wasn't he full too? But he was always hungry, his hunger was insatiable. Even now, after he had eaten, the system was notifying him that the bodies were still edible.
But he did want to level up though. "Yes, absorb the essence." He said. 'And then I will bury the bodies to show my remorse.' He thought.