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Chapter 8
‘What did he mean by that?’
On the way to the dormitory, Claude’s words kept circling around in my head.
You’ll die before you even get eliminated.
Was Acan really that dangerous?
I had only seen him briefly beside me during the first impression mission. His blunt expression and huge build had made him feel intimidating, but he didn’t look like the kind of person who would hurt someone else…
‘Come on. I shouldn’t judge someone based only on what another person says before I’ve experienced it myself. He went to the dormitory without mingling with the other contestants first, so maybe he’s just introverted. And the reason he did nothing during his first impression… could it be because he was shy?’
As soon as I reached that conclusion, my natural friendliness began to kick in.
As an extrovert like me, whenever I saw someone shy like that, I felt a strange urge to challenge myself!
[B-0124]
Here it is.
The dormitory where I’d be staying from now on…!
With my heart fluttering with excitement, I placed the back of my hand against the door lock.
The chip in my hand screen was recognized, and the automatic door opened.
“Hi! I’m Tamina from Earth—”
My cheerful greeting echoed faintly through the dormitory without ever reaching its end.
The room was so dark that I couldn’t see what the inside looked like.
Then the entrance door closed behind me, cutting off even the hallway light that had been illuminating my surroundings.
Everything was swallowed by darkness.
‘I guess he hasn’t come in yet.’
He hadn’t already given up on adapting to this place and gone to request withdrawal, had he?
It would certainly be nice not having to worry about my disguise and being able to change clothes freely and relax.
But living alone would be a little boring.
First, I decided to find something like a light switch, so I slowly moved forward along the wall.
‘What kind of strange room is this?’
Just then, something hard touched my face.
It had too much elasticity to be a wall, and its uneven curves made it feel like I was sinking into a firm cushion.
Why is there a cushion at face level…?
‘And why… is it warm?!’
I carefully felt the unidentified object with my hands.
The inside was firm, but the surface was soft.
The upper part was flat, while the lower part had lots of small, uneven bumps…
‘…What is this slightly protruding bump?’
At that moment, my eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, and I began to make out the outline of something.
‘A man’s body…!!!!’
A solid chest and clearly defined abs.
My entire body went cold as I slowly raised my head.
Amid the fresh scent of someone who had just showered, I met a pair of golden eyes staring straight down at me from beneath a towel wrapped around his head.
“What are you doing?”
A deep, low voice sent chills crawling over my skin.
So the thing I had just been feeling with my hands…
That bump…
For a nineteen-year-old who had never even dated anyone, this was an overwhelming level of stimulation.
My vision seemed to spin.
“Uh… uh…”
Only strange, idiotic sounds came out of my mouth, while Acan’s cold gaze remained fixed on the hand I still had planted squarely on his chest.
“Ah…! S-sorry!”
I hurriedly pulled my hand away, but Acan’s face twisted slightly.
Well, of course he’d be angry.
I’d heard that men absolutely hated even accidental skin-to-skin contact with other men.
If some guy I’d met for the first time suddenly buried his face against my chest and started feeling me up, I’d want to punch him too!
“Ah, so you were inside…! The light was off, and you didn’t answer, so I didn’t know you were here! Hahaha!”
“……”
“Oh, I’m your roommate, and you’re my Tamina…! No, no…! I’m Tamina, and you’re my roommate…!”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
My words had gotten completely tangled up at the worst possible moment, and blood rushed to my face, making it burn with embarrassment.
I’d just been grabbed by the collar by an alien who could literally shoot flames from his entire body.
And now, the moment I arrived at the dormitory, I had touched my roommate’s chest.
Could the first day of a survival show really be this eventful?
“Kh…!”
That was when Acan’s expression changed.
His vertically elongated, snake-like pupils suddenly expanded, and the whites of his eyes instantly turned black.
Golden eyes set against a black background.
They were completely different from ordinary eyes.
And they were terrifying.
“Your eyes…”
“Kh… Haa…!”
He covered his face with one hand and staggered backward.
At first, I thought he was acting that way because he was angry with me.
But when I saw him gritting his teeth so tightly that the muscles of his face stood out while desperately suppressing his ragged breathing, it seemed like he wasn’t angry.
He looked like he was suffering.
As if he were desperately trying to hold back something writhing inside his body, something trying to burst out.
His breathing grew faster and faster.
Something was seriously wrong.
I should have checked whether he was okay, but my instincts were sending me a danger signal, telling me to get out of here as quickly as possible.
“Ah, I left something outside…! I’ll just step out for a moment!”
With trembling hands, I searched along the wall for the door.
Suddenly, the back of my neck turned cold.
“Grrrgh…!”
Crack. Crunch…
A strange, horrifying sound came from behind me, like something tearing and breaking.
I needed to run.
But my feet wouldn’t move, as if they were trapped in a swamp.
Feeling a vivid killing intent that seemed to descend upon my entire body, I slowly turned around.
‘Did he… get bigger?’
It wasn’t an optical illusion.
Right before my eyes, Acan’s body began swelling to an enormous size.
It was as though his bones and tissues were growing and being reconstructed one after another.
Muscles bulged and writhed across his back, arms, and legs.
His shoulders spread out to an absurd width, and pale fur began growing from his body.
In an instant, it covered his entire body.
*’What… is that…?’
Faced with the unbelievable sight unfolding before me, my entire body stiffened.
Along with my instinct to run, it felt as if all my common sense and reason were being crushed to pieces.
“Grrrrr…”
A low growl rose from deep within his chest and scraped across the floor.
The creature glaring at me from across the dormitory was no longer Acan.
Golden eyes filled with nothing but the instinct to tear apart the prey in front of him.
Pointed ears.
A muzzle protruding long and forward.
Long, sharp fangs exposed beneath it.
Its entire body was covered in silver fur.
Although it was standing on two legs, it was far closer to a beast than a human.
“Haa…!”
I was so shocked that I couldn’t even scream.
If that beast charged at me in this narrow room, it would all be over.
I knew that, yet my legs had gone completely weak, making it difficult even to stand properly.
Suddenly, golden eyes moved in the darkness.
Two glowing eyes left afterimages as they silently charged straight toward me.
“AAAH…!”
A huge shadow crashed down over me.
Amid a dizzying noise of things breaking and shattering, my body was lifted into the air before crashing down onto the floor.
Pain spread across my entire back.
“Ugh…”
When I barely managed to open my eyes, the beast was right in front of me, staring straight at me.
The beast climbed onto my stomach and trapped me with both arms, making it impossible for me to move.
Pinned beneath its massive body, I felt like nothing more than a laughably helpless piece of prey.
“Grrrrr…”
When the beast brought its muzzle close to me, large, sharp fangs flashed before my eyes.
I recoiled in terror and turned my head away, but the beast approached as if it intended to devour me.
It buried its nose into the back of my neck and inhaled my scent.
Its damp, hot nose brushed across my neck.
As if it were checking whether I was something worth eating.
*’I have to get away…!’
Don’t be afraid.
Find a way.
I gathered my scattered thoughts and looked around.
Broken furniture was scattered across the floor.
Not far away, I saw a desk lamp lying on its side, its weak light flickering.
*’If I can just buy enough time to escape… even if it’s only for a moment…’
Without letting the beast notice, I stretched out my trembling hand and grabbed the lamp.
The beast still seemed completely absorbed in inhaling my scent.
I raised the lamp and brought it down toward its head with all my strength.
“……!”
My wrist stopped in midair.
The beast had caught my wrist so effortlessly that it didn’t even seem to require any effort.
It stared at me.
It took the lamp from my hand and casually threw it aside.
It crashed into the wall and shattered with a loud crash.
The sound startled me so badly that I froze, no longer even daring to resist.
An eerily low growl.
Rough breathing.
Its relentless gaze was still deeply fixed on the back of my neck.
“Gwaaah…!”
Before I had even a moment to resist, the beast opened its mouth.
Through its rows of sharp teeth, I could see a mouth as dark as absolute darkness.
Crunch.
With an unpleasant sound, it felt as if a heated awl had pierced through my neck.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Ugh…!”
It hurts…!
My vision went dizzy.
My body trembled and convulsed from a strange pain unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life.
I tried to push the beast away, but I wasn’t strong enough.
The pain grew worse and worse, and the area around my neck became hot as if it had been burned.
I could feel something flowing from the fangs embedded in my neck.
Something hot and thick was spreading through my body.
“Hic… Stop… Please… stop…!”
With my other hand, the one the beast wasn’t holding, I tried to push away the creature that had buried its face against the back of my neck.
It was my last desperate struggle.
But instead of moving away, it merely adjusted its jaw slightly, biting deeper into my neck.
It’s over.
There was no way I could escape from this beast.
It felt as though I had already become one with the beast whose fangs were embedded in my body.
As if I would be devoured just like this and become a part of it.
My will to live began to fade.
Suddenly, all the strength drained from my body.
My mind became strangely peaceful, and all my awareness became focused on the hand I had been using to push it away.
Soft…
Between my fingers, I could feel long, soft silver fur.
As my consciousness faded, I unconsciously stroked the beast’s soft cheek.
“Huh…!”
At that moment, the weight pressing down on my body suddenly disappeared.
My breath, which had nearly been cut off, returned.
My fading consciousness came back.
The beast withdrew its muzzle from my neck and looked down at me.
*’His eyes…?’
The whites of his eyes, which had turned black, had returned to normal.
His unnaturally expanded pupils had also returned to their original shape.
Reason had returned to the beast’s gaze.
It seemed that his consciousness had come back.
His eyes looked as though he had realized what he had done.
The beast stared at me, who was still lying beneath him, seemingly shocked.
Then he sprang backward at incredible speed.
“Ugh…”
I quickly pulled myself up as well.
I pressed a hand against the neck where the beast had bitten me, trying to stop any possible bleeding.
But what…?
The pain from a moment ago had disappeared as if it had never existed, and there wasn’t even any blood on my hand.
With pain that intense, I should have been bleeding quite badly…
I had definitely been bitten…
“Haa… haa… Haa… Haa…”
Ragged breathing could be heard in the darkness.
As moonlight seeped in through the window and pushed back the darkness, the silhouette sitting beneath it became visible.
Acan looked exhausted, like someone who had just finished an incredibly difficult and strenuous task.
There was no trace of fur left on his body.
His protruding muzzle and fangs were gone as well.
He looked completely disheveled, as if madness had swept through him.
His silver hair, damp with sweat, was messily tousled, and his eyes, now free of murderous intent, were languid and unfocused.
His face looked gaunt in such a short amount of time that it almost seemed as though the beast had drained all of his strength.
The lines of his face, such as the bridge of his nose and jawline, had become even more defined.
He had one knee raised and an arm resting on it as he caught his breath.
Every time he breathed heavily, his chest rose and fell, making even the muscles hidden deep beneath his body stand out.
Sweat that had trickled down from his forehead gathered at the tip of his chin before falling onto his chest and sliding downward.
Acan slowly surveyed the messy room, which looked as though a typhoon had swept through it.
Then his eyes met mine.
His pupils, which had regained their original golden glow, trembled slightly.
“Ha… Damn it.”
He muttered under his breath.
Perhaps remembering the madness from a moment ago, Acan let out a deep sigh and pressed a hand against his deeply furrowed forehead.
*’That bastard…’
I was the one who had been bitten, so why was he the one cursing?
My fear disappeared completely, replaced by sudden indignation.
He had almost bitten me to death, and this was how he acted?
“Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you bite someone and then fucking—”
“……Imprinted.”
His words were drowned out by my shouting, so I couldn’t hear him properly.
“What…?”
Acan wiped his face with his hand as if troubled, then looked straight at me.
His yellow eyes, glowing like the moon hanging in the night sky, spoke to me.
“I imprinted. On you.”
