Ever since he had gotten the Werewolf System, Gary had wondered what would happen if his HP reached 0. After all, they represented his Health, so in a way it was the most important stat that he needed to keep track of. Given that his system had a lot of game-like features, such as his need to gather EXP to Level Up to allocate stat points, he theorised that if he lost them all it would be ‘Game Over’, and he very much doubted, he would get a chance to have a ‘Continue’.
Some time ago, he had still considered the possibility of merely fainting, but ever since he had seen the description of the Last Stand skill, he was sure that it was the worst case scenario, something he had to avoid at all costs.
One thing that he hadn’t thought of too much, though, was his Energy. His Werewolf body somehow used it to passive heal him when he was out of a fight, emergency heal his broken bones during a fight, and was also the fuel for a variety of his skills.
Of course, he was aware that it was of great importance to him, and when his Energy went down to extremely low levels, Gary would experience one of two things, sluggishness and extreme hunger. He had never questioned it, since eating meat would restore it, which in turn allowed him to heal. Now, he felt like he had somewhat figured it out.
When the Underdogs had used their Anti-Altered weapons against him, they had drained his Energy to the point of depleting it, and when the electric charge had been used once again, although it hadn’t killed the Werewolf, it had made him pass out.
Waking up, he felt a cold chill on his face, and his body seemed to be sore all over. For a moment, he was reminded of the time he woke up in the forest after that fateful night at the construction site. Slowly opening his eyes, the teenager managed to make out a dark surface in front of him. He tried moving his hands to touch his head, when he heard the sound of chains rattling against the floor, and worst of all his arms felt incredibly heavy.
[Warning, warning]
[Energy has been depleted]
[Please replenish your Energy by consuming meat]
[1/300 Energy]
[Health reserves will now be used to keep the user awake.
-1 HP every thirty minutes]
[56/160HP]
‘Those aren't the best messages to wake up to.’ Gary thought. ‘How long does that even mean I have…my mind is all cloudy, I can't even think properly to work that out…either way…where am I?’
Finally opening his eyes fully, Gary could see a single light in the ceiling but more importantly, he could see metal bars in front of him. The room he was in was relatively small and had nothing inside, and as he thought, his hands and legs had been cuffed.
On top of that, they had been chained down to the floor as well, attached deep into the ground. Gary could only see through the bars into the sky as well as the hallway in front of him, there was no one there, nor was there anyone else in the cell with him. It reminded Gary somewhat of when he had attempted to tie up himself. Only back then it hadn’t really worked.
Gary tried to tug on them, but the chains were thick and with his strength, he was practically weaker than he was when he was a human.
‘The Underdogs, Damion, now that I'm no longer transformed it means they saw my face. They must now know who I am… is that why they’ve kept me alive?
‘Well, at least that's good news, I think. Are they going to ask me about the package? What do I do? Should I keep quiet, so they keep me alive as long as possible? … but then what? Shit, what the F*ck situation did you get yourself into Gary.’
Thinking about this, Gary felt guilty, extremely guilty because right now he was hoping that Olivia, or maybe someone from the Underdogs would come and save him, yet at the same time he felt like he didn't deserve their help. It was solely due to his stupid pride that he ended up in this mess. If he had only asked for help, or listened to Kai, all of this could have surely been avoided…
“Hey!” Gary shouted, hoping to get the attention of whoever might be nearby. He had gotten himself into this situation, so he needed to figure out a way out, and time wasn’t exactly on his side.
The teenager’s call seemed to do its job, as a man smoking a cigarette walked past. Seeing the gang member in front of him made Gary realise how much his senses had dulled compared to his usual state. He was completely unable to hear the adult’s heartbeat, nor the man’s scent. Even the waft of the cigarette had only entered the nose once he had been close enough.
“Please bring me some food, I'm starving!” Gary pleaded. “You don't want me to die down here, do you? You kept me alive for a reason, you want information, right?”
In this type of situation, one would give food to the prisoner at least to show that they weren't completely bad. This actually wasn't something that Gary had picked up from movies, but what he had seen Damion do. The gang leader would always treat his captives nicely before either ripping their hearts out or extending a hand out to them.
Although the Werewolf doubted Damion would work with him, as long as he got a meal, it might allow him to regain enough Energy to break out of these chains and escape. Unfortunately for him, the man completely ignored his pleas and went off.
Some time had passed, although it was hard how much exactly, because Gary could hardly think on his empty stomach. Going hungry was nothing new to the teenager. He still recalled how bad things had been after his father had disappeared. It had taken his mother some time to find a stable job to provide for her family on her own, especially since it had happened without prior warning.
Those days, they had barely had enough food for two meals a day. As the man of the house, he had often only taken a few bites and insisted that his mother should take the rest, believing that to be the proper thing to do as ‘the man of the house’.
However, this hunger now felt far worse than those times. It was if a hand was reaching into his stomach, and pulling parts of his inside out of him bit by bit. The worst part was that there was nothing he could do about it.
Eventually, though, the man returned and in his hand was a tray with food, nothing too fancy but Gary nearly started salivating when he looked at a small piece of meat. His warden placed it on the floor, and the teenager was ready to plunge towards it. Unfortunately, it appeared that it was slightly outside his reach.
Gary thought that this was done on purpose, some sick way to torture him, yet he was willing to endure it, as long as he got to eat it eventually. Unfortunately, his hopes got crushed before he could put them into action, as the sounds of another person echoed through the room. A few seconds later the one person he wanted to avoid seeing at all costs had a wide grin on his face.
“Well Greeny, I heard you were hungry, but too bad for you this is a prison and not a resort.” Damion said, stepping on the food before his foot really hard, then kicking it away from the teenager. “You know, I used to believe that you were one of the more promising Transports. I could have even pictured you joining the Cheetah Squad in your future. However… You single-handedly caused me more trouble in the span of a month than the Grey Elephants managed to do since their inception.
“You don’t get the privilege of an easy death, and I’ll make sure that you suffer until the extraction!”
*****
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