From Company Slave To The Prince Of Darkness - 3 Chapter 3 ~ Confusing Events

Flying awkwardly into the night was the figure of Shiro, or rather – Vlad.

Unlike in the game, he could truly feel his wings flapping together at the same time as he tries to descend up into the sky.

The devices used in the so-called “Advanced Generation” were mostly ‘Voice-Activated’ and ‘Neuro-Activated’; where one can connect his mind to a computer, and by generating the correct Output, he will be able to command a PC. But even if the PC was connected to the brain itself, they won’t be able to feel anything as the Programs played/used inside were just “Programs”, “Numbers”; you can only see them, but other than that, you won’t be able to.

That’s why the sensation of the wings that were flapping behind the back of Shiro has confused him. He does not know how it works yet in his mind, there was the feeling that it was normal; like he had used it already before; like it was already a part of his body since the day he was born. He also has been flying for a lot of time now, in some manners, he had already figured out how his wings work.

( Now that I think about it… These wings were also a Legendary S-Class Item… If I remember correctly, its name was “The Wings of the Immortal Dark Lord”… )

“The Wings of the Immortal Dark Lord” that was currently behind his back, as he recalled, was a gift from the Local Server he has played a lot in before. In that server, he was called the “Prince of Darkness”. It was the nickname they had given to him because of the appearance of his in-game character – Vlad Alucard.

If he remembered correctly, after they had given him these wings, it was then the start of him becoming famous to not just that one server, but also to many others.

That’s why for Shiro, the wings that were currently on his back were the symbol of his uprising inside the game “SOUL ADVENTURES!!!”.

As he tried to reminisce about the past, the outline of a large city came into his view. He was not able to see the city properly because of the mists that were covering it, but still, he can at least figure out that the city was big.

[ Echolocation! Advance Appraisal! ]

Using the same spell he had used just a while ago, and a spell that lets him appraise the people in his vision, he tried to analyze the entirety of the city.

( Advanced Appraisal: Result: )

( Altair City – )

( Population: 146095 – Humans96%/Anthropomorphs3%/Heteromorphs1% )

( MaximumLv:76 MinimunLv:1 )

[ This is… ]

Seeing the result of his magic, he realized many things:

First was the level of the people inside the city – it was too low. If levels work the same as it was in the game, then there’s no chance that they could even penetrate the level of his armor.

It also seems that the city mostly consists of humans. If he wants to blend in, he clearly needs to remove his wings, horns, and fangs. Vlad is in the race of Anthropomorphs which is only 6% of the city’s population. In his guess, there might be some kind of discrimination against them.

If he wants to find out more about his current situation, Shiro needs to try to look for clues in the people of the city, and the city itself too.

And so he needs to blend in –

[ ShapeShift! ]

ShapeShift – A Lv5 skill that lets a player remove or add changes to their character’s appearance. A higher level of ShapeShift can also change the entirety of the character: not just the appearance, but also its stats.

Removing only the horns on his head, the wings on his back, and the sharp fangs in his mouth, he slowly descended into the ground.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he saw the sun rose up.

( Buff Removed: Red Moon )

In the corner of his eyes, the words appeared.

( Debuff Activated: Burning Light -50% to all stats )

Then, the biggest weakness of his character appeared, replacing the earlier text in the corner of his eyes.

Burning Light – While it only decreases his natural stats, not the stats of his equipment, it still weakens his overall stats for at least 35%.

This debuff was the reason why there were only a few people who have characters with the Vampire race which possess the highest regenerative abilities of all races. But for Shiro – he knows a lot of possible countermeasures to advance his level without minding the debuff.

( Hmm… If the strength of the people here is the same as it was in the game, then I will have no reason to cast any countermeasures… It’s risky but I also want to know the difference myself…. )

[ Anyways… I should prepare myself… ]

Expecting that the people won’t be able to see through his disguise, Shiro walked with confidence towards the city.

***

Soon, Shiro finally arrived in front of the gate.

[ Gulp* ]

Raising his head to the appearance of the large, white gate, he gulps in amazement.

The gate and the walls beside it were made with very fine details; it was not something that exists in the current generation of his world. Furthermore, unlike in the game, even though its graphics were very realistic, it won’t be able to hold a candle against the mighty walls and gate that were in front of Shiro.

Lowering his gaze to the gate, he saw many people who were lining up in front of it. They were dressed like those in the western Medieval Era, which he was only able to see in western movies.

Looking at them – there were people that have their heads down, there were others who were talking with each other, and there were those angry ones who were arguing with the guards inside; everyone and everything felt too real.

…

…

…

[ This is… ]

Surprised by the action and the expressions on the faces of the people he thought were NPCs, the words came out of his mouth unintentionally.

The situation is so unreal that his brain just refuses to acknowledge that this is the reality yet.

( Haah… I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore… Everything I’ve seen so far is real and not in any means fake… For now, it’s easier to think that this is reality… )

[ … ]

Realizing that thinking about all these kinds of stuff only hurts his head even more, he chose to just ignore everything and decided to walk towards the back of the last person in the line.

[ So this is the city, huh? Altair City… ] muttering those words with his gentle and appealing voice, the line of people that were lining up to the gate turned their heads at him.

Even though it was said in a quiet voice, everyone has seemed to be able to hear it.

…

…

( …Wha… What is this… Why are their stares so sharp…!? )

Everyone was looking at him with a sharp and intense focus in their eyes. The first thing that came out of Shiro’s mind was they were like Zombies ready to ingest their prey.

( Maybe it was my clothes… Now that I think about it… My clothes… They’re… Pretty well-made. ) – Shiro thought.

Everyone was quiet. Shiro was too.

Shiro then started to also fix his stare to everyone one after the other.

Old men, women, grandpas, grannies, mothers, fathers, girls, and boys. Everyone was looking directly at him.

It was then when he locked eyes with a certain girl.

She seems to be fidgeting a lot so she was the first person that Shiro had to fix his stare for a long moment; figuring out why she was like that.

The girl then turned her head down and then raising it up again to lock eyes with Shiro for another time.

…

…

3 seconds had passed before –

The girl removed her gazed at Shiro with a huge blush on her face.

Seeing this, he finally realized what was going on…

It was his face.