Chapter 1 : I want to live

During a routine health check-up.

“Ms. Kim Jian, I’m sorry to say this…”

“…but I think you need to prepare yourself.”

The doctor said that to me with a grim expression.

Well, I had kind of expected it.

Because no one knew better than me that my body wasn’t normal.

I was born with anemia and every possible blood-related disease.

I always knew I was destined for a short life.

‘I just wish he didn’t look so grim.’

Looking at the doctor’s dark expression, that’s all I could think.

I have no regrets about the rest of my life.

Both my mom and dad passed away from leukemia long ago.

My mom died when I was in middle school, and my dad passed away just before I graduated high school.

The effects of blood cancer came for me too.

“You don’t have much time left.”

To that, I calmly replied.

“…I see.”

“If you start treatment now, there’s still a slim chance you might survive.”

The doctor said that, trying to keep me clinging to this hellish life.

Honestly, I have no attachment to life.

No, it’s easier to say I’ve already given up.

I wanted to live, desperately.

But God never answered that plea.

A body too weak to exercise, I was even forcibly taken into the military, only to be medically discharged.

Why they took me at all, I’ll never understand…

“If you start treatment now…”

If this had been discovered just a year earlier, I would’ve accepted without hesitation.

I would’ve gone through life support, even.

But not long ago, even the lover I trusted abandoned me.

She said watching someone sick made her own heart ache.

‘…What a load of crap.’

She just cheated on me with a healthy person.

I turned a blind eye even after seeing it—but even that last shred of hope betrayed me.

This is hell.

That’s what this life has always been to me.

And then the doctor’s death sentence fell on me.

Only then, for the first time in a long while, I smiled faintly.

“…It’s fine.”

“Are you really giving up on treatment? It’s late, but if you start now…!”

The doctor trying desperately to keep me tied to this life.

I was starting to see him as a devil.

But right now, I felt better than ever.

A crushing headache hit me, but still—it was okay.

“I said it’s fine.”

“Even if I live, I’ll need dialysis for the rest of my life.”

“My body is already too broken—I don’t have the strength to endure treatment.”

“…Even if I live, what’s the point?”

Dreams, hope—I gave up on all that long ago.

It feels like I’ve never seen anything in this world that wasn’t gray.

“Just let me die.”

I’m sorry to those who try to help me, but I said it firmly.

Maybe the doctor saw the emptiness in my eyes—he didn’t try to persuade me anymore.

Yeah, that’s good enough.

What’s the point in living in pain, living as half a corpse?

I’ve got nothing left—so why keep going?

If I had a dream, if I had even a sliver of hope—I would’ve fought to stay alive.

‘…If there’s a next life, please let me be born with nothing.’

Maybe then, I’ll feel more at peace.

Thinking that, I went home.

In a house full of trash, I took a drag from a cigarette and exhaled.

Hoping my life would end just a little bit sooner.

“…I hate the idea of suicide.”

If I tried, I felt like I’d struggle to live again—so I couldn’t do it.

Saying that, I let out a few coughs from the rising pain.

Cracked lips.

A haggard face.

Looking at that reflection, I grinned.

“…Ha.”

And then—

[Glory of Victory: The Empire Awaits You! (Ad)]

The game I was obsessed with as a kid blared out.

Glory of Victory.

It was a strategy game that once stirred the mobile gaming world.

The story? The protagonist’s family is massacred by the vampire kingdom, and he takes revenge.

In the end, he becomes a colonel of the empire and topples the vampire kingdom with great achievements.

Man, a few years ago I was totally addicted to that.

I stared blankly at my phone.

Maybe it was nostalgia—

But I couldn’t look away. Something about it pulled me in.

‘…It says it’s waiting for me.’

Ridiculous.

I thought I had no attachments to this life.

The fact that something as trivial as a game stirred something in me—was just absurd.

‘Why are you waiting for me?’

Because of that stupid ad copy that says you’re foolishly waiting for me.

That ad copy, probably written without much thought by some marketing person, felt like it was speaking directly to me.

I was dumbfounded by it.

With a hollow laugh, I clicked the ad.

[Pre-registration for a massive update]

[To the one who conquered the vampires—fear is nothing to you!]

[Advance! For the Empire!]

[Soon, offer yourself willingly to the crusade that will make the Empire great!]

On that site, filled with aggressive phrases, I found myself entranced, entering my phone number and personal info.

Then I threw my phone far away again.

“Not that I could do it anyway, so who cares.”

A game I wouldn’t play anyway.

It didn’t matter.

And then, maybe three days passed.

I was suddenly awakened from deep sleep by excruciating pain.

“Khak…?!”

A gush of red blood spewed from my mouth.

“Urgh..! Uwaagh…!!”

This is insane.

Dark crimson blood—clearly not a healthy color.

“Haa… haa…………..”

A high fever started to consume my body.

My vision began to spin.

“…So this is how it ends…Uwaaargh·”

I let out a bitter laugh, unable to even talk to myself.

So this is how I die.

…So meaningless.

“Damn… Damn…!!”

I wanted revenge on my ex.

I wanted to live happily with my family.

All the things I thought I had given up long ago came rushing back in the face of death.

Honestly, I wanted to live.

If there was even the slightest chance things could get better, I wanted to take it.

But there’s no chance of that.

Even if I live, there’s only hell waiting.

Gripping the toilet again from the pain, I retched once more.

“Urk!!”

The nausea came in waves.

I coughed up blood again.

And again.

Before I knew it, I lost sight in one eye.

Ah, I think my hearing is going too.

It hurts.

I’m sad.

My body kept heating up uncontrollably.

Even in the face of death, my body didn’t know how to stop.

‘…I want to live… I just want to live an ordinary life……..

I can’t accept death.

That’s a natural instinct for any living thing.

Tears streamed down.

There’s still too much I’m attached to in this life.

I don’t want to die.

It’s terrifying—my existence disappearing like shutting down a computer.

“That’s just… that’s just not fair…!!”

I cried out in a hoarse voice from the bathroom.

But my body was already breaking down.

Left eye.

Right ear.

Now even my arm has no strength.

The nausea still came, but I couldn’t even hold myself up against the toilet anymore.

I collapsed on the cold bathroom floor.

Even then, my body didn’t stop vomiting blood.

I want to live.

Even knowing it’s pointless, I reached for my phone with my still-moving right hand and my good right eye.

Just as I was about to call an ambulance—

[This is a message regarding your pre-registration.]

[User Valentine! Congratulations. You’ve been selected as a beta tester.]

[Sincere congratulations.]

[We will now begin monitoring your data.]

[From tls, operator of Glory of Victory.]

Reading that message was the last thing I did before closing my eyes.

I thought I was dying right then and there.

But then—something unexpected happened.

[Valentine, your reincarnation begins.]

‘…Reincarnation…?’

With that message, I fell asleep.

When I woke up again—

I had become a small girl.

A raggedly dressed, beggar-like little girl.

And in front of me—

[You have officially become a beta tester for Glory of Victory 2!]

[Welcome back to our world!]

[Join the army—we look forward to your heroics on the battlefield!]

A message popped up alongside the image of a very cute girl.

But the race name floating next to her wasn’t reassuring.

[Race: Vampire.]

‘That’s me?’

Yes. I had been reincarnated.

Not as a human, but as a vampire.

In a world where the protagonist hates vampires more than anything.

‘…Life.’

I asked the status window, just in case.

“What happens if I don’t join the army?”

[You will die.]

“…Excuse me?”

The brutally concise answer made me ask again.

Then the status window explained kindly.

[If you do not enlist in the army, you will experience the most horrific death imaginable.]

[A predetermined death. Will you still decline?]

If I don’t do it, I’ll meet a terrible death.

That was the warning the status window gave me.

[The vampires are on the brink of destruction, so they’re trying to reduce their numbers.]

[As someone who’s played, you should know that very well.]

Looks like it’s around the middle of Chapter 1 of the novel.

I knew that point inside and out.

Of course, I also knew what happened to all the vampires abandoned by the vampire kingdom.

Go back to the kingdom and you’re executed, return to the empire and you’re beaten to death.

It’s extremely difficult to hide your identity.

In short, the best method is—

“…Join the Imperial Army, which is so short on troops they’ll take anyone during wartime?”

[Correct.]

“Build up merit there and seize power…?”

[You catch on quickly. As expected of you, Valentine-nim.]

To survive, I have to join a group that’s obsessed with killing my own kind.
What kind of insane difficulty is this?

The Empire’s treatment of vampires is absolutely abysmal.

Well, humans and vampires look very similar, so it’s not easy to get caught.

Besides, the way I currently appear on the status screen…

‘…My ears aren’t pointy, and my fangs aren’t that long.’

There weren’t any obvious vampire traits visible.

My ears weren’t that sharp, and my fangs could be hidden if I wanted to.

“Just to ask, what’s the protagonist’s current rank?”

[Currently, Erik’s rank is Second Lieutenant.]

If the protagonist was only recently commissioned, that means he’s still just a rookie filled with vengeance.

Honestly, as long as I didn’t run into that crazy vampire-killing maniac, I was confident I could survive.

That day, I abandoned the name Kim Jian and became Valentine.

Five years passed since then.

I endured desperately in order to survive.

“Captain Valentine, or should I call you slave bitch?”

“…Maj-Major, that’s not…”

“Blood magic, did I see that wrong…?”

I’m now facing the threat of death.