SSS-Rank Bloodline: Wolf Evolution

Chapter 1: Prologue

Tick!

Inside a narrow, old apartment filled with silence, a clock hanging on the wall struck loudly, as though it were a heartbeat saying that there is life in this gloomy place.

Creak!

Arthur opened the apartment door, and walked inside hunched over from exhaustion, he threw his bag aside, and took off his shoes which had been hurting his feet, and only then did he feel a little relief.

"Finally, I’m home, what an exhausting day, as usual" he let out a long, weary breath.

Without giving his problems any more attention, he lifted his spirits, and walked to the kitchen which contained nothing but a few pots and pans.

He looked through the kitchen window, and found that night was about to fall, he turned on the light, then opened the small refrigerator, and took out a cheap frozen chicken and rice meal.

The plastic wrap was very cold so he faced a little difficulty opening it, after that he poured the meal into the microwave’s glass dish, and watched it silently as it heated up.

The microwave made a strange humming sound, as though it too was tired, well that was normal, for all the appliances he buys are old and used, because new ones are too expensive for him.

After a short while, the meal was ready, and the orange light turned off, his face’s reflection appeared on the dark black glass, dull brown eyes surrounded by small dark circles, short black uncombed hair, and pale skin.

Arthur felt sad upon seeing his reflection, he froze in place for a moment while memories of his miserable life passed through his head.

In general his life was very harsh, he lost his parents at a young age and because of that he spent most of his adolescence moving between foster homes, he suffered from bullying and academic failure and ended up living in a narrow apartment, working for minimum wage.

"Why am I thinking about this now, what has passed has passed I cannot change anything in the past, tsk, this damned mind of mine always tries to ruin my day with these memories" he cursed irritably.

He searched for a clean spoon among the pots, then carried the plate and headed to his room which was located directly across from the kitchen, the apartment’s space was narrow and he barely found enough space to put his things.

This was the life of the poor, so he endured it, and worked hard hoping to change his living situation.

In his room there were not many things, a comfortable single bed, a wardrobe, and a large table, on which he placed his computer, and at the same time ate his meals on it.

He played video games and read web novels a lot in his free time, so out of habit he turned on the computer, placed the food on the table, and when he was about to sit down, he frowned a little, and muttered: "Damn, I forgot the soda."

Even though the kitchen was nearby, he felt annoyed for from all his exhaustion, he badly wanted to sit down to rest.

He pushed his body to move, and headed toward the kitchen quickly, the moment he stepped out, something strange happened, the computer screen glitched and turned black and green, strange writing appeared on it in a strange language as well.

But this abnormal activity did not last long, for when he returned, everything was normal.

Arthur sat down, and began eating and browsing the internet at the same time, the chicken and rice was almost tasteless, but he did not mind anyway for he had grown accustomed to this cheap food.

Click!

Time passed slowly, and little by little his eyes began to close, and he felt drowsy, he took a sip of the soda, and sighed: "I am very tired, perhaps I won’t be able to play today either."

Anger rose inside him "This damned job, it consumes all my time and energy, when will I be rid of it? No, rather when will I be rid of this miserable life altogether?"

Suddenly, the computer screen glitched a second time, and this time Arthur noticed it, he stopped chewing his food and froze in place for a moment. "No, not you too, don’t break down now you piece of junk."

Quickly, he pressed various buttons on the keyboard, but nothing changed, no, more precisely the computer’s behavior grew more erratic and it began making an annoying humming sound.

"Damn, this is not good" Arthur felt a little panic, and quickly reached out and pulled the plug, yet the computer did not turn off.

"How is this possible?" What was happening was very strange, and he had difficulty understanding it, then suddenly the humming stopped, and the computer screen turned blue.

A few mysterious words appeared in a strange language, then the words changed one by one into English, forming an understandable sentence.

[ Host found ]

"Hah!" he gasped loudly, stood up quickly and immediately stepped back a few paces.

[ Loading...1%...2% ] frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

He stared at the screen on which a loading bar appeared, it was progressing quickly, with a suspicious expression he watched what was happening, his reaction was natural, for any person in his place would do the same thing.

Anyway, when the loading bar reached forty-seven percent the screen turned blood red.

[ Error ]

[ Data loading failed ]

"What now, has this computer gone mad, or has someone hacked it, whoever this bastard is that is messing with me he won’t gain anything, my bank account is empty anyway."

He clenched his fist and let out a displeased laugh, moved a little closer to the computer, and tried to think of a way to restore it to normal or at least turn it off.

[ Reinitializing... ]

Great heat emanated from the computer, and smoke began rising from its hard drive, it swelled and several cracks appeared on its surface.

"Damn!" Arthur instinctively realized what was going to happen next, he felt sorry for his small apartment, and quickly fled, but the moment he reached his room’s door the computer exploded with an unbelievable force as though it were a bomb.

Thick flames spread throughout the room, and several incomprehensible sounds echoed, and within moments Arthur disappeared completely leaving no trace of him, then the apartment returned to its silence, the sound of the clock ticking was the only remaining sound.

....

"Mmm" Arthur’s eyelids trembled before he opened his eyes, which strangely had turned blue in their pupils.

’Ah, what happened?’ he let out a muffled groan and felt a severe headache, he shook his head slowly, and when he regained a little clarity of mind he noticed that his surroundings were completely different.

For he was inside a slightly dark rocky cave, some light entered it from a small opening at the front. ’What? Where am I, what is this place?’

He felt panic, and stood up quickly, and in that moment, he felt that his body was not normal, he bowed his head and examined himself, and found that he was no longer human, and had turned into a grey wolf.

"What?"