Werewolf. 

Gary had seen the concept of the mythological creature being used in books and movies, but he had never really been the type to pay too close attention to these things. Thinking back to the few films he had watched with such being, a certain thought came to his mind.

‘Am I now an Altered?’

It sounded a bit strange, because from what Gary knew becoming an Altered should be a long and difficult process. However, perhaps the thing inside the suitcase might have been a new product from some company that had discovered a way to speed up the process.

Looking around him, the suitcase itself was long gone, probably left behind at the construction site.

‘Maybe it’s just called a ‘Werewolf’, because it has made me into an Altered based on a wolf-type beast? Who knows maybe all Altered have such a ‘system’ and have just kept it a secret or maybe it’s something new that was in the suitcase? Either way, if I am an Altered, then my body should have changed!’

Gary knew for a fact that his vision had suddenly improved, so why not other things?

When a human became an Altered one of the big changes he would undergo would be getting superhuman strength. To test his theory, he walked up to one of the trees, looked at it for a few seconds and then started to shake his whole arm.

Gary was confident, all the signs were telling him he had become an Altered. With no doubt in his mind, he threw out his fist and hit the tree with great force. 

For a few seconds, there was nothing and then an almighty scream travelled throughout the forest.

“Ahhhh!” The tree was completely fine, but the same could not be said about Gary’s knuckles. Looking at them he could see they were grazed and slightly bleeding. The skin was starting to peel off. It was apparent he hadn’t held back at all when throwing the punch. 

[You have been injured]

[- 2HP]

[98/100 HP]

‘Minus 2 HP for that? I’m not sure if I should complain about this being a lot or be happy about it not doing more damage to me… Also what happens when I hit 0 HP? Will I just instantly die? Well, I suppose hitting it 49 more times at full strength would eventually break my fists and lead to severe blood loss…Maybe‘ 

It was clear that the system itself was quite complicated

[Your heart rate has increased]

[50 BPM] 

It seemed kind of useless to Gary that the system showed off his heart rate. He didn’t see any need in it as it didn’t seem to affect anything else.

After the pain had subsided Gary wanted to run a few more tests. He planned to check if he was now faster or could transform parts of his body. Unfortunately, being in the middle of a forest, he lacked any equipment to measure his speed and just running felt the same as always. Gary also had no idea how to change parts of his body.

He tried concentrating on his arm, wishing for it to turn into something else, but nothing happened. It didn’t make any difference when he tried to do the same with his legs, nose, ears, eyes or any other parts. Eventually, he sighed and gave up for the time being.

He was interested in the quests, but it was already starting to get late, so he couldn’t go to the gym at this time to see if there would be any improvements. The food quest was theoretically the easiest to complete, but given his family situation, it would be a tough one. Meat was expensive and eating two kilograms a day would be near impossible. There was half the payment upfront, but if he could he would have still liked to help his mother with that.

Finally, there was the other quest that would arrive in fourteen days. He had an idea of what would happen on this day, but he couldn’t believe it. So far, there had been no signs of his body drastically being altered other than what the system was telling him.

At least he had fourteen days to figure out what to do about it. It was dark out and if he stayed out any later his mother would probably be worrying about him, so he decided to exit the woods.

It didn’t take long as he could clearly see a pathway with his improved vision and when he was out of the woods he knew exactly where he would be. From there he started to jog.

He had become quite the good runner, working as a transporter and being cheap with his money. The journey from where he was would take around twenty minutes. 

Finally, he had arrived back home and could hear the sound of his sister singing from outside the door. When he went to open it he noticed something. His breath.

‘I just ran for twenty minutes and I’m not even tired. Maybe I AM an Altered after all!’ 

This thought excited Gary more than anything. Checking his heart rate it had also lowered down to 45 BPM.

Entering inside, he immediately started to take off his clothes. They had been torn ragged and some of them had signs of blood on them. He headed into their room and his sister was a little surprised that her brother had just started to strip in front of her. She immediately closed her eyes and turned around. 

“What the hell?! Gary, hurry up and put some clothes on!” Amy shouted.

He quickly stuffed his clothes into a school sports bag and placed that in the bottom corner, before throwing the rest of his belongings on his bed and finally changing into something new.

“Oh, you’re back, Gary! The food is ready for you whenever you need it, just warm it up in the microwave!” His mother shouted.

“Thanks, but I’m not hungry,” Gary replied. “Feel free to have seconds if you want.”

“That’s strange, you usually come back starving. Did you eat at Tom’s?” She asked with some motherly worry.

“Err, yeah!” Gary shouted back. 

It certainly was strange, every time when he came back from his work Gary would be hungry, and he hadn’t eaten before leaving. The last meal he had was from lunch, but he didn’t feel hungry at all.

Going through multiple drawers, Gary was looking for something. Without noticing it, he eventually searched through Amy’s side of the room. 

“What the? A diary?” He murmured to himself, picking it up. 

“Hey, stay away from my things!!!” She snatched the diary and immediately went over to his side of the room. “Just tell me what you’re looking for.” 

“Bandages, plasters or something for my han-“ When looking at his hand he noticed that it had completely healed. 

‘When did that happen?’

[100/100 HP]

[99/100 Energy]

[Eat more meat to restore your energy. When idle, energy points will be used to restore HP]

It looked like super healing could be added to the list of abilities he might possess.

“Did you go to the doctor? Your nose looks better,” Amy pointed out, noticing it wasn’t crooked anymore. 

“Err, yeah,” Gary replied, which seemed to be his go-to response today. It was hard for him to process everything that was going on around him.

*Ding* *Ding* *Ding*

Multiple notifications sounds were coming in one after the other. When Amy turned around, she noticed that they were coming from her brother’s phone. Since she was closer to it, at the moment she passed it to him, but not before sneaking a peek at what the messages were.

[Bastard, I’ll kill you!!!] was the preview message. The rest of it was cut off. 

“Gary, are you in trouble?” She asked while handing over the phone.

He snatched away his phone and left the room in a hurry. “It’s nothing, must be Tom playing a prank on me. Don’t worry about it. Before his sister could ask any questions he already locked himself on the toilet. 

Sitting down, he started to read the messages coming through one by one and his hands couldn’t stop shaking. 

[Where are you?!]

[Answer now!!!]

[The item is missing! You know the rules!!!]

[You have until the end of today to return back with the item!!!]

[If you’re not here, you can say goodbye to your family.]

‘Oh SHIT!!!’ Gary was unsure what exactly had happened to the item, but he could come up with a few guesses. The item was currently with him, or more accurately speaking, it had combined with him.

After a person became an Altered it was impossible to reverse the process. 

If he returned to the gang and tried to explain to them what had happened, he would be killed for sure. That or they would enslave him and make him work as an Altered, although he first would have to prove to be one, which ironically he was unable to.

Alternatively, the real item might still be in the suitcase, but if so it must have long since been taken by the other group after his stabbing. However, it would mean that his current situation would be unrelated, which seemed more than unlikely.

Either way, at the end of the day he had failed his job, and that meant that his end wouldn’t be a pretty one.

It was the first time this had ever happened to Gary, yet he had seen what had happened to others in the gang who had failed the Underdogs. Going back there would just be suicide.

‘It’s a good thing I gave them a fake address. They don’t know where my real home is, but what do I do if they find out? What will happen to Amy and Mum?”

*****

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