章 4: Mysterious Red Vial
Lucian turned on the car's built-in AI driving system to let it drive itself to the underground car garage.
Modern technology had increased substantially, and while humanity still hasn't managed to create sentient AI yet, they were only getting closer by the day.
It was already a common feature for high-end cars to be able to drive themselves completely autonomously.
These days people only drove cars to experience the feeling of driving.
Even on the way here, Lucian didn't actually 'drive' his car.
He just took a long nap as the car proceeded to drive itself.
Sauntering over to the door, Lucian unlocked it and entered his house.
"I'm home!" Lucian yelled as he stepped through the doorway.
However, the only thing that greeted him was an eerie silence.
Lucian didn't seem to pay it much mind.
It was as if he was used to the silence that permeated his house, treating it like a regular occurrence.
While most mansions of this size would have a full fleet of butlers and maids, Lucian's house was completely barren.
"Alecia, what's the current status of the company?" Lucian asked while removing his shoes
"On paper, the company seems to be continuing on its downwards trend, but the private investments you made keep the company out of the red." A feminine robotic voice responded
Lucian sighed.
"SanguineCorp is like a leech, constantly sucking the lifeblood from me."
While humanity was in an arms race to create a sentient AI, little did they know that a sentient AI was already 'born'.
Designed by the person viewed worldwide as nothing but a failure.
Lucian Sanguinis.
"I have one more thing to report," Alecia announced, "While cleaning your parent's study I have found what seemed to be a vial of sorts."
Lucian raised an eyebrow.
"Vial? Full of what?"
"It appears to be blood, but it's nothing like I have ever seen before."
Lucian was perplexed by Alecia's words.
"Why would there be a vial of blood in my parent's study? Maybe…"
Lucian shook his head.
He didn't want to get his hopes up just yet.
If he couldn't find them all these years, it wasn't like a small vial of blood would help him much.
For all he knew, his father could have been just some new pet project of his in his study.
Maybe it was some kind of prototype for artificial blood or something.
Lucian put on a pair of slippers and headed toward his parent's study.
Opening the door, he was greeted by the mechanical whizz of a humanoid-shaped robot.
It didn't have any obvious body features, but its overall structure was designed to look like a human.
The screen on the robot's face lit up into a smiley face when Lucian approached it.
The robot handed Lucian the vial of blood.
Taking it, Lucian held it gingerly.
"Did you run any test samples?"
"Not yet. I didn't want to try anything without first informing you."
Lucian's mouth curved into a small smile.
"Thanks."
Lucian inspected it a few times, before handing it back to Alecia.
"Let's go to the lab and run some tests."
***
Alecia and Lucian stepped out of an elevator and were greeted by the sight of a massive underground facility.
The Sanguinis family mansion was equipped with many state-of-the-art facilities, but nothing was able to top the underground research facility.
Located several tens of kilometres under the ground, this facility was quite secure as well.
Lucian took the sample with him to a nearby microscope.
Unscrewing the lid of the vial, Lucian was met with an incredibly sweet smell.
"What is this? Normal blood should not smell this sweet!"
For some reason, Lucian was attracted to this blood, even feeling an urge to consume it.
'What's coming over me? Does this thing have hallucinogenic properties?'
"A-Alecia, how about you handle this one, I-I don't know what's coming over m-ack!"
Accidentally biting his tongue, Lucian grimaced in pain.
This jolt of pain was enough for him to overcome his growing urge to consume the blood.
As he rushed to close the vial, something unexpected happened.
The blood in the vial began moving.
Slowly climbing up the vial.
Lucian watched it in horror.
"Is this some kind of living organism?"
Before he could close his mouth again, the blood from the vial jumped out of the vial and forced itself into his mouth.
More specifically into the small cut, his teeth had made on his tongue.
"AAHHH!" Lucian cried out in shock as the blood forced itself down his bloodstream.
Seeing her master's plight, Alecia tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver on Lucian to separate the blood from his body.
Thinking that he simply swallowed it, Alecia tried to get him to cough it up.
However, no matter how much Lucian coughed or gagged, the blood wouldn't leave.
Sadly at that point, it had already entered his bloodstream.
Lucian began panting desperately.
He could feel something slowly travel up his neck and reach his brain.
The instant he felt it enter his brain, it was as if Lucian could feel it going through his memories.
Almost like his entire life was laid bare before that foreign entity.
The entity didn't take too long going through his memories.
Seemingly 'content' with what it had seen, it dispersed throughout the entirety of Lucian's body.
Something Lucian could feel very clearly for some reason.
When he felt a part of 'it' enter his eyes, he saw something red appear before him.
The red object seemed to be somewhat translucent.
He could still see some things behind it, but it did still cover them.
The red object slowly formed into a rectangular shape.
'Is this some kind of hologram?'
While Lucian was marvelling at the floating red rectangle before him, he began to see text slowly forming on it.
[INTIATING VAMPIRIZATION PROCESS]
[0% COMPLETED]
[1% COMPLETED]
[2% COMPLETED]
Lucian stared at the words in confusion.
"Vampirization process? What the hell is this?"
He turned to Alecia.
"Alecia, can you see a red box of text in front of me?"
Alecia circled around Lucian a few times before pausing.
"None of my cameras can detect anything that matches your description."
Lucian nodded to himself.
"It's as I thought. Something strange is happening to me because of that vial."
As Lucian watched the number slowly fill up, getting closer and closer to 100%, he explained the details of the rectangular system box to Alecia.
"I don't know what will happen when this bar hits 100%, but the bar was labelled 'Vampirization Process'. Just in case, I want you to lock me in the facility on the off-chance that whatever this thing is, causes me to lose control of my body."
"Yes."
Lucian sat down in one of the nearby chairs.
"At this point, all I can do is hope for the best."
He patiently watched the gauge fill up.
[60% COMPLETED]
[61% COMPLETED]
[62% COMPLETED]
All the way until it finally reached the end
[98% COMPLETED]
[99% COMPLETED]
[100% COMPLETED]
[COMMENCING REBOOT]
That was the last thing Lucian saw before he blacked out.
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