After reading the reversal effects on the Panel, Evan rose from the bed.
He clenched his fists.
His once-shrunken, sunken veins bulged as surging blood filled them, running from the backs of his hands to his forearms. Blue veins twisted beneath his pale skin.
He could feel every heartbeat pumping strength into his limbs. The sensation was solid, full, and burning hot.
At last, he had brushed the edge of the Beyonder.
"It only mentions strengthening the body and Regeneration. Nothing about drinking blood or fearing sunlight?"
He stared at the words "Basic Sanguine" on the Panel, his pupils narrowing slightly.
Could I become an ultimate life-form that can withstand sunlight?
Excitement flared in his chest, but a bucket of cold water followed close behind.
Put the two Magic Potions and the Beyonder Characteristic together with Professor Pulis's habits: keeping his skin out of the light, wearing a hooded Trench Coat year-round, walking without a sound...
He's almost certainly a Vampire.
Evan pressed his lips into a thin line.
A noble Vampire who can openly conduct Magic Potion experiments at Sage University is far beyond someone like me, who's only just reached the threshold.
The thought cooled most of his excitement in an instant.
He got up from beside the bed, his gaze sharpening with alarm as he quickly searched every corner of the room.
The table, the chair, the wardrobe, the floor, the walls, the window.
His gaze stopped on the window.
The old gray curtains were drawn tight, just as they had been before he slept.
But something was wrong with the window frame behind them.
Evan never cleaned the windows.
Everything in the apartment was coated in dust, especially the window frame, since he almost never opened it.
But now the dust around the window hinges had been disturbed.
The mark was faint. Unless someone deliberately looked for it, they would never notice.
But it was there, like a silent signature telling him someone had opened the window while he slept.
Now I know.
A cold glint flashed in Evan's eyes.
Pulis was here.
He probably came to check my condition after I took both medicines together.
He paused, thinking it through.
Probably not just to look.
He turned up the Kerosene Lamp, raising the wick to its highest setting.
Warm yellow light spread through the room, illuminating every corner.
Evan held his arm before the lamp and turned it, carefully inspecting every inch of skin.
His fourfold concentration proved its worth at that moment.
His gaze swept over his wrist, forearm, and inner elbow like a powerful microscope, missing not a single pore.
Then he saw it.
On the inside of his elbow, among the old needle marks left by selling blood, was a new puncture so tiny it was almost invisible.
There was no bruising or swelling around it, and the angle of entry was as precise as if it had been measured with a ruler.
It blended into the rough old needle marks like a grain of sand on a beach, perfectly concealed.
Without the threefold boost to concentration from Phenobarbital, he never would have spotted it.
He drew my blood.
Shock flashed through Evan's eyes, then quickly faded.
Someone that important came all the way to this dump to draw my blood. Looks like he thinks I'm worth the trouble.
He sat back down, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the almost nonexistent puncture on his inner elbow as his mind raced.
It makes sense. Everyone else suffers terrible side effects from the medicine. That severe anemia alone could kill a person or two.
But I'm not just fine. I'm full of energy.
Which means I'm very valuable to him right now.
He isn't willing to kill me—or eat me—yet.
A thread of tension rose from the base of his spine, but he quickly forced it down.
I need to be more careful about how I act after taking medicine.
I can't be sure whether a Beyonder is watching me from the shadows, or how far his senses reach.
There's no need to confront Professor Pulis, and no need to fear him.
I'll keep playing dumb and keep getting Magic Potions out of him.
I have the Panel, after all. I don't have to worry about him tampering with the medicine.
Besides, I need to make more connections.
If Vampires are this brazen, I wonder whether this world has a proper official Beyonder organization.
He etched each plan and precaution into his mind, then looked at the Attribute Panel again.
At this point, Evan finally counted as a fully normal person.
[Profession: None] [Status: None] [Characteristic: Basic Sanguine 2%] [Physique: 0.903] [Spirit: 1.004] [Spirit Vision: 0] [Talent: Power of the Nine Dragons] Beyond the basic Panel, two sub-panels had appeared. [Specialty Panel] [Regeneration: 108%] (Three rounds of Magic Potions +6% / Beyonder Characteristic +2%) [Blood Quality: 104%] (Blood Potion +2% / Beyonder Characteristic +2%) [Status Panel] [Syphilis: 46%] [Pneumonia: 9%] [Liver Damage: 41%] [Digestive Tract Ulcers: 10%] [Neurological Damage: 15%] [Mercury Pill: Digesting. Syphilis rash slowly fading. 2 hours remaining.] [Night Demon Potion: Digesting. Physique +0.2. 3 hours remaining.] [Blood Potion: Digesting. Physique +0.1. 3 hours remaining.] [Blood Wine Enhancement: The prepared Blood Wine is nourishing your body. Duration: 3 hours.] [Phenobarbital: Active. Concentration increased by 300%. 4 hours remaining.]
Evan's gaze first settled on the Blood Wine.
The Blood Potion's effects follow the same curve as ordinary medicine. They don't stay steady. It hits hard at first, but by the end, it barely does anything.
The Blood Wine has three hours left, but the urge to exercise is almost gone. All that remains is a pleasant warmth.
Then he scanned the entire Panel.
Looking at its exhaustive detail, Evan felt reassured.
The more detail, the better. That way, I can track every change in my body precisely. Nothing will catch me by surprise.
He was extremely pleased with the Nine Dragons Panel.
The digestive tract ulcers and neurological damage will slowly heal if I take Mercury Pills. No rush there.
Aspirin can take care of the pneumonia.
The main problems now are Syphilis and Liver Damage.
Syphilis was at forty-six percent, Liver Damage at forty-one.
Syphilis was the troublesome one.
For now, it was only a rash. But if he let it drag on, warty growths would appear around his privates.
If I remember right, Arsphenamine, which can treat Syphilis effectively, has already reached clinical trials...
I'll see if there's a chance to test it!
As Evan thought, his gaze drifted to the row of medicine bottles on the table.
Twenty Aspirin tablets remained.
Six Phenobarbital tablets remained.
Together, that was only enough for three or four days.
Sixteen Mercury Pills remained.
They cost three cents apiece. He had bought twenty in one go, spending a full sixty cents.
I need to get more medicine.
He turned and crouched before the wardrobe, opened a hidden compartment at the bottom, and took out a battered biscuit tin.
The words "Unida Biscuits" on the lid had worn down to a ghostly trace.
He opened it. Inside lay a scatter of coins and a few crumpled small-denomination bills.
He counted every coin, down to the last cent.
Including the thirty-two cents he had earned at the Harbor last night, he had four dollars and sixty-two cents.
That was everything he owned.
I need to make some money, too.
Evan poured the change onto the table and started counting his expenses on his fingers.
His fourfold concentration kept his mind racing, each expense calculated to the cent.
Monthly property tax on the tenth: a dollar eighty.
Water bill on the eighth: fifty cents.
I'm almost out of kerosene. Another can will cost a dollar.
The Notebook and ink are nearly used up too. About eighty cents.
Now that my body burns through more, I'll need to raise my food budget from fifteen cents a day to forty if I want to keep improving steadily.
I'm out of brown sugar. Two pounds will cost ten cents.
He tapped his fingers on the table and added all the figures together.
Three minutes later, the calculation was done.
Even the bare minimum this month will cost twenty dollars.
Four dollars sixty-two against twenty dollars.
He was short by more than fifteen dollars.
A skilled worker's weekly wage.
Looks like I need to find another drug-testing contract fast.
A fire burned in Evan's eyes.
He put the change back in the tin and hid it in the wardrobe's secret compartment.
Then he took a textbook from his schoolbag, spread it on the table, and used the rest of his heightened concentration to study.
The Fountain Pen scratched across the paper. The Kerosene Lamp's flame swayed quietly, while the sky beyond the gap in the curtains turned from black to deep blue.
Then deep blue faded to gray-white, and finally to the cool, pale gold of an early winter morning.
At seven, that extraordinary focus faded right on time.
Like the tide, it came on schedule and left on schedule.
Evan set down the Fountain Pen and flexed his aching wrist.
The Mercury Pill, Night Demon Potion, and Blood Potion had all finished digesting. Their three Progress Bars on the Panel hit zero at the same time.
He glanced down at his arm.
The Syphilis rash had visibly faded.
The copper-red patches that had once run together were breaking apart at the edges, their alarming dark red fading to a light pink.
With the Magic Potions fully digested, his Physique rose another 0.1.
1.003.
At last, he was above the baseline for a normal person again.