The Highest Developed

Chapter 0: Prologue

The night city was lit by bright neon lights, creating a noisy and chaotic atmosphere. People were going about their business - some were having fun, others were working, and some were drunk. But none of them looked up, where there were no bright neon lights. There, on the roof of a building, where only the moonlight shone, you could make out the faint silhouette of a man named Nero. His eyes expressed curiosity, confusion, and even fear. Nero had been in this world for five days, but he did not notice any difference from the past world.

He could not claim that this world had no hidden secrets, but he gradually accepted it. The last thing he remembered was playing a game on his computer after working late, but he fell asleep and woke up in a different body. He had nothing to remind him of the original owner of the body, except that he understood the language of this world. However, he brought something with him into this world that had not previously existed in any form in this worold - a virus, but not the usual kind.

He raised his right hand and a pale palm opened under the falling light of the moon. Under his manipulation, his hand slowly began to deform. Something blood red and incomprehensible appeared on the hand, and underneath this phenomenon, the hand gradually took on a dark red hue. It was as if blood vessels had popped out, distorting the original human hand. Now, an intimidating and considerably larger hand opened before Nero's eyes. It was dark red and black, and soon after another manipulation, the claws on the arm lengthened and turned into blades.

The only thing that could make it change so much was the virus from the game, what he played. Nero seemed to have some luck, since he did not lose his memory like the hero of the game, and he could clearly control the virus. Although he tried to imitate other things from the game, other than this change of hands, it did not work. Biomass consumption was very high.

The initial shock and fright gradually turned into curiosity, but still, the fear lingered in him. Nero did not want to turn into a mad and cold-blooded monster devouring everything around him. He estimated that the virus was not parasitic and easily controlled. He also bought a dog with the original owner's money and put it in a cage at home to see if the virus could be airborne as in the game. There was a risk that when he did this, he could infect someone. There was nothing he could do about it, but he still took precautions. So he also wore a mask all those days and dressed tightly.

The result was that there was no dangerous animal behavior during those few days. Although it required the use of equipment for a more detailed analysis, the original owner was not visited or called by anyone, which also calmed Nero's nervous heart.

As soon as he came into this new world, Nero had a panic attack that was stopped by a simple thought - his whole body was completely under his control. Other factors also intensified many times over, the more he ate meat, the more he felt the difference. Under his manipulation, the virus that could cleave the biomass was too terrifying. What's even more amazing is that under his thoughts, his body gradually built up strength and endurance.

He realized that he had become something of a monster and controlled the virus only on the second day when, under his thoughts, his arm changed slightly. At that time, having already noticed that his body obeyed him literally, he thought it would be good if he could imitate what the hero of the game was doing. And so, under his astonished eyes and the growing fear within him, he realized that he was no longer human.

Now looking at the city, he sometimes had different thoughts, such as what will happen next, and whether or not he can use the virus for good. However, he still needed to know for sure if the virus is spreading. If it is and he can't do anything about it, there are several options. Either purge those who have been infected and get out of here in mountains or somewhere else. Or the second option is just to put up with it. Fortunately, all this time there was none of that.

He needed to find a job; maybe the original owner wasn't working since there were no calls. But having partially confirmed that the virus was not dangerous, he thought he should find a job as soon as possible since he was already running out of money. And so, he got his hand back to normal, looked at the city again, and breathing in mask, turned and walked towards the stairs.