The man in the middle fell to the floor, clutching his neck, while his two buddies struggled against the snake wrapped around their necks.
They fought desperately to pull it off. Then the snake suddenly shrank away from both of them and turned back into his hand. The two men collapsed to the floor, joining their friend in clutching their necks.
"I'm not here to bully you. Do whatever you want. Talk however you want. Laugh, just don't force it. Act normal, like everyone else… or I'll make your life here a living hell. And trust me, you won't be sleeping alone. My snakes will keep you company."
"What did you do to me?" the man who got bit said. "Is it poison? I feel very dizzy. What did you do to me?"
"The effects will go away after some time. I didn't poison you, but if you bother me again, I will. Now get the fuck out of my sight. I want to sleep." Then he turned to us and said, "Sorry to bother you guys. Have fun. Talk as you want."
Then he went back to his bed, lay down, and closed his eyes.
"Seems like we are not the only awakened," said Ben.
"Do you think I can beat him?" Tom said.
"I don't know, but for me, if it's night? Of course. His snakes are fast, but I am faster at night. He can't catch me with them. I will bite him before his snakes bite me."
"My hands are fast," Tom said. "I can attack his snakes with my claws, but I don't know if that will work. If he is level 1, maybe I can win. What about you, Leo?"
"I haven't tried my spider sense yet, but I think I have pretty good reflexes. I think I could avoid that bite, but I don't know. I'm still not very experienced with my powers, you know. We should train together and help each other get used to them."
"I already trained with Tom before coming here," Ben said. "We trained using our powers, preparing for this. Tomorrow or on the weekends, if they give us time, we will train. Do you think you can beat me?"
"In daylight, 100 percent," I said.
"Bro, it's so hot here," said Ben. "I should find a solution for this flaw of mine or I'll have trouble."
"I told you to buy sunscreen but you didn't want to," said Tom.
"Bruh, I feel hot, not like my skin is burning. I don't know why, and the air cooler is on. I didn't feel that in Fourtiz."
"Maybe you are sick," I said.
"I feel kinda sick, maybe."
Then we continued playing Ludo until the sun went down. We went to eat dinner together again, and Tom and Ben only took meat again, so I asked them about it.
"We can only eat meat, unfortunately," Ben said. "But blood is better for me. Talking about blood, I asked Tom to let me try his blood, but he refused. Can I ask you something, Leo?"
"Yeah, what?"
"If you can let me drink your blood."
"What?" I said.
"I want to try an awakened's blood. You won't get hurt. I will just, you know, bite you on your hand or just cut your finger a little bit and suck some blood. Just to taste it and see what happens If I drink awakened blood, we can go to the toilet and try it. If you accept to do me this favor, I will owe you one."
"That's weird as shit," Tom said, dropping his meat. "For god's sake, Ben, what the fuck do you mean by 'let's go to the toilet so I can suck your blood'? That's gay as shit, bro. Fuck."
"Where should we do it then?" Ben said. "In the room so the others can see?"
"I told you, bro," Tom said. "You shouldn't drink human blood. Just stick to animal blood. When we get our hands on monsters, drink their blood and you'll get stronger. Why do you want human blood?"
"Because it's written in my system," Ben said, pointing in front of him like there was a screen. "It said that if you drink awakened human blood of level one, you will level up to level two. That's what I am excited about, bro. I just wanna level up, bro. Why did you make it weird?"
"Who made it weird, Leo? Me or him?" said Tom.
"Okay, okay," said Ben. "Sorry, Leo, if I made it weird or anything. So will you let me drink your blood?" He whispered the last words.
Suddenly my system screen popped up in front of me, between my face and Ben's face.
[Let him bite you if he lets you bite him first.]
I read it twice, surprised, my eyes opening wide.
"What's wrong?" asked Ben.
I made the screen disappear.
"I just opened my system screen to read something. I can... I have something like an ability to bite too, but it's so vague. It said 'bite to know' or something like that. I didn't want to mention it before because it was weird, but now, I will let you bite me and drink my blood only if you let me bite you too."
"What the fuck," Tom said, turning his head and slapping the table in cringe.
"That's great!" Ben smiled very happily. "But your power is a spider. Won't you poison me or something like that?"
"I don't think so. I don't have any poison ability yet."
"Okay, let's go now. I'm so excited. Come on, Tom."
"Why should I go with you?" Tom said.
"You're gonna stand lookout and don't let anyone enter. Come on, bro, can't you even do that."
"You know what it sounds like you're going to do, right?" Tom said.
"Come on, bro, see, you are the one who is making it weird."
Tom sighed, and we went, the three of us, to the bathroom while a lot of people were still eating dinner. The bathroom was empty.
Tom stood at the door so he wouldn't let anyone enter.
"Okay, here is my arm." Ben extended his arm to me. "Come on, bite," he said.
"It's so weird," I said.
"Go fast now or it becomes even weirder."
I held his hand and opened my mouth. I bit his hand slowly. I felt something piercing his skin right away.
"Ouch!" Ben yanked his arm back immediately.
I lifted my head and saw two red dots on his arm, blood coming from them.
"Look at your teeth."
I looked in the mirror. I had two big curved black fangs.
The system screen opened in front of me.