The fox was waiting for him.
Daniel wasn't sure what disturbed him more: the fact that the animal had spoken, or the fact that his first instinct had been to follow it.
Either way, he was beginning to suspect that his survival instincts had been damaged during transmigration.
"Found you," he repeated under his breath.
The words still echoed in his memory.
He stood at the mouth of the alley, staring into the narrow passage between two weather-beaten buildings. The fox had disappeared around a bend, leaving only a smear of blood on the cobblestones and the faint smell of something rotten.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder.
The market square remained busy. Merchants shouted prices, children darted between carts, and an elderly man was having a passionate argument with a cabbage seller over three copper coins.
Normal life.
It was almost offensive.
"Right," Daniel muttered. "Let's review our options."
He raised one finger.
"Option one: walk away. Find food, find shelter, and pretend I didn't just hear a fox speak English."
He raised a second.
"Option two: follow the suspicious fox that apparently knows me in a world where giant naked people eat civilians."
He considered both possibilities.
Then he sighed.
"Why do I always choose the stupid option?"
He entered the alley.
The smell hit him first.
Blood, wet stone, and the sour stench of rotting refuse. The buildings leaned inward overhead, blocking much of the afternoon sunlight. A broken barrel lay on its side near a wooden door, spilling scraps of vegetables into the gutter.
Daniel moved carefully.
He had no weapons. No combat training worth mentioning. No idea whether the body he'd inherited was even capable of running for more than a minute without collapsing.
His only advantage was a supernatural system that seemed to have been designed by someone with a particularly nasty sense of humor.
A blue window appeared.
\[QUEST OBJECTIVE UPDATED\]
Investigate the anomalous organism.
Optional objective: Acquire your first evolutionary trait.
Reward: 10 Evolution Points.
Failure penalty: None.
Daniel stopped.
"Hold on. Optional?"
\[AFFIRMATIVE.\]
"So you're telling me I can walk away?"
\[AFFIRMATIVE.\]
He looked into the alley.
Then back toward the market.
A hot meal, a bed, and a peaceful night suddenly seemed like the greatest luxuries imaginable.
He took one step backward.
The system chimed.
\[WARNING: ANOMALOUS ORGANISM IS APPROACHING.\]
Daniel froze.
Something scraped against the stones behind him.
He turned.
The fox stood at the far end of the alley, its reddish fur matted with blood. It was smaller than he had initially thought, barely reaching his knee. Its ears were pointed, its muzzle narrow, and its tail bushy.
Ordinary.
Except for its eyes.
They were too focused. Too deliberate.
The fox tilted its head.
Daniel stared back.
"Listen, mate. I don't know what your problem is, but I'm having a fairly terrible day."
The fox opened its mouth.
"Daniel Cross."
Every muscle in his body tightened.
He hadn't told anyone his surname.
He was certain of it.
"How do you know that?"
The fox blinked.
Then it spoke again.
"You're late."
Daniel's blood ran cold.
"Late for what?"
The animal turned and disappeared around the bend.
A long silence followed.
Daniel rubbed his face.
"Of course. Of course, the fox is giving me cryptic messages. Why wouldn't it?"
He took a deep breath and followed.
At the end of the passage, the alley opened into a small courtyard enclosed by old stone walls. A dead tree stood in the center, its bare branches scratching at the sky. Several wooden crates had been stacked against one wall, and a rusted iron gate hung crookedly from its hinges.
The fox sat beneath the tree.
Waiting.
Daniel approached slowly.
"All right. We need to establish some ground rules."
The fox's ears twitched.
"First, no more creepy one-liners. Second, if you're some kind of demon, spirit, or government experiment, I'd appreciate knowing that before you eat me."
The fox stared at him.
Then it yawned.
Daniel narrowed his eyes.
"You're enjoying this."
The animal rose and walked toward a pile of discarded meat near the wall.
Daniel watched it sniff the scraps.
His stomach twisted.
He hadn't eaten anything substantial since waking up, and the smell of meat made him painfully aware of the empty space inside his belly.
Then the system activated.
\[BIOLOGICAL SCAN COMPLETE\]
Organism: Red fox.
Classification: Mammal.
Potential trait: Enhanced olfactory perception.
Estimated trait compatibility: 72%.
Estimated evolutionary energy yield: Low.
Daniel frowned.
"Why is the compatibility so high?"
\[HOST BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE IS NOT ENTIRELY HUMAN.\]
He stopped breathing.
"What?"
The message vanished before he could ask another question.
A new window appeared.
\[SYSTEM ERROR: INFORMATION RESTRICTED.\]
Daniel stared at it.
Slowly, his earlier excitement began to sour.
He'd assumed the system had given him the ability to transform into a Titan. That was extraordinary enough.
But apparently, something about his body had been unusual before the system even entered the picture.
Or perhaps the system had changed him.
He couldn't tell which possibility was worse.
"Fine," he whispered. "Keep your secrets."
The fox began chewing on the discarded meat.
Daniel watched it for several seconds.
Then he noticed something strange.
The animal wasn't actually eating.
Its jaws moved, but the meat remained almost untouched. Worse, its reflection in a puddle beside it showed a second fox standing several feet away.
Daniel blinked.
The reflection vanished.
His pulse quickened.
"Okay. That's new."
The fox stopped chewing.
It looked directly at him.
And smiled.
Not a natural animal expression. Not a baring of teeth.
A smile.
Daniel took a step backward.
"Absolutely not."
The fox lunged.
He barely had time to raise his arms before the animal struck his chest and sent him crashing into the courtyard wall.
Pain burst through his shoulder.
Daniel grunted, slid down the stones, and kicked wildly as the fox snapped at his face.
"GET OFF ME!"
He caught the animal by its scruff and hurled it aside.
The fox hit the ground, rolled, and sprang upright.
Daniel scrambled to his feet.
His heart hammered against his ribs.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
The fox's body began to tremble.
Its fur rippled.
For one horrible moment, Daniel thought it was transforming into something enormous.
Instead, its jaw stretched wider than any ordinary fox's jaw should have been. The skin around its muzzle split, revealing rows of small, needle-like teeth.
Daniel stared.
The creature made a sound like a person laughing underwater.
Then it spoke.
"You're not supposed to be here."
Daniel's mouth went dry.
"Join the club."
The fox charged again.
This time, Daniel ran.
He sprinted toward the iron gate, shoved it open, and stumbled into another narrow passage. Behind him, claws scraped against stone.
He didn't look back.
He ran until his lungs burned, his legs threatened to give out, and his shoulder throbbed with every movement.
Then he reached a dead end.
A brick wall blocked the passage.
Daniel stared at it.
Then he looked over his shoulder.
The fox emerged from the shadows.
Its body was changing.
Its legs lengthened unnaturally. Its spine arched, and the reddish fur along its back began to fall away in clumps. Beneath the fur, dark, sinewy muscles shifted like worms beneath skin.
Daniel backed against the wall.
"No. No, no, no."
The creature opened its jaws.
A translucent blue notification flashed before his eyes.
\[HOST IN DANGER.\]
\[EMERGENCY FUNCTION UNLOCKED.\]
\[PARTIAL TITAN TRANSFORMATION AVAILABLE.\]
Daniel's eyes widened.
"Now you tell me!"
\[TRANSFORMATION REQUIRES A CONSCIOUS DECISION FROM THE HOST.\]
"THEN TRANSFORM ME!"
\[CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.\]
"YES!"
The world exploded.
Heat tore through his body.
Daniel screamed as his bones seemed to shift beneath his skin. His muscles tightened, then swelled. His fingers curled inward, and a violent pressure built inside his chest.
He fell to his knees.
For an instant, he thought his heart had stopped.
Then something roared inside him.
The sound was so deep that the bricks beneath his hands vibrated.
Steam burst from his skin.
His vision blurred.
And the alley disappeared beneath a flood of white light.
When Daniel opened his eyes, the world had become very small.
The wall in front of him reached only to his chest.
His hands were enormous.
Dark, sinewy fingers pressed into the cobblestones, each tipped with thick nails. His forearms were covered in exposed muscle, and faint lines of steam curled from his shoulders.
He looked down.
His body was no longer human.
He was a Titan.
Not one of the grotesque giants he'd seen in the anime, with their vacant smiles and awkward proportions. His form was leaner, more compact, and disturbingly athletic. Muscles layered over his frame like braided cables, while a ridge of hardened tissue ran along his spine.
His face—
He didn't want to think about his face.
A notification appeared.
### \[TITAN FORM: AWAKENED\]
Height
### 4.8 meters
Classification
### Adaptive Titan
Control
### Unstable
Evolutionary traits
### 0
Warning: Prolonged transformation will rapidly deplete the Host's available energy.
Daniel stared at the information.
Then he stared at his hands again.
A slow, incredulous laugh escaped him.
"I'm a giant."
His voice emerged as a deep, distorted growl.
He paused.
"I'm a bloody giant."
The sound reverberated through the alley.
A window shutter slammed somewhere overhead.
Someone screamed.
Daniel looked up.
A woman leaned out of a second-story window, her face drained of color.
For three seconds, they stared at each other.
Then she screamed louder.
"AAAAAAAH! TITAN!"
Daniel flinched.
"WAIT! I'M FRIENDLY!"
His voice came out like a boulder being dragged through a tunnel.
The woman fainted.
Daniel stared at the window.
"...Well, that could've gone better."
A bell began ringing in the distance.
Once.
Twice.
Then a rapid succession of frantic clangs.
People shouted in the streets.
Footsteps thundered across the cobblestones.
Daniel slowly turned toward the fox.
The creature had stopped moving.
For the first time since their encounter began, it appeared uncertain.
Good.
Excellent.
Daniel clenched his enormous fists.
"All right, you little nightmare. Let's see how you like fighting something your own size."
The fox's mouth stretched into that unnatural smile again.
Then it spoke.
"That's better."
Daniel hesitated.
"What?"
"You finally woke up."
Before he could respond, the fox sprang at his throat.
Daniel reacted instinctively.
He caught the creature in midair.
Its teeth snapped inches from his face.
For one brief moment, the world slowed.
He could smell the blood on its muzzle.
He could hear the frantic beating of its heart.
He could feel every movement of its muscles against his palm.
And beneath those sensations, something else stirred.
A hunger.
Not the ordinary hunger of a man who hadn't eaten.
Something deeper.
Something that seemed to recognize the creature in his grasp.
Daniel's eyes widened.
"No."
The fox struggled.
Its claws raked across his forearm.
Daniel tightened his grip.
The creature's body began to distort, its limbs stretching and twisting as if it were trying to escape a shape that no longer fit.
The system chimed.
\[EVOLUTIONARY OPPORTUNITY DETECTED.\]
\[TARGET BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL IS COMPATIBLE.\]
\[CONSUMPTION MAY REVEAL AN ADDITIONAL SYSTEM FUNCTION.\]
Daniel stared at the creature.
The fox stared back.
For the first time, its smile disappeared.
"Don't," it whispered.
Daniel went still.
The creature's voice had changed.
It no longer sounded amused.
It sounded afraid.
"Don't eat me."
Daniel's grip loosened slightly.
"What are you?"
The fox's eyes flickered.
For an instant, they were human.
Brown. Tired. Terrified.
Then the creature smiled again.
"Your first mistake."
Its body convulsed.
A burst of black smoke erupted from its skin, forcing Daniel to recoil. The creature dropped to the ground and scrambled toward the alley entrance.
Daniel stumbled after it.
But the system's next message stopped him cold.
\[ANOMALOUS ORGANISM ESCAPING.\]
\[WARNING: HOST'S CURRENT TRANSFORMATION IS UNSTABLE.\]
\[ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL COLLAPSE: 00:02:17.\]
Daniel looked at the fleeing creature.
Then at his enormous hands.
Two minutes.
He had less than two minutes before his first transformation ended, and he still had no idea what the fox was.
He also had a growing suspicion that the system wasn't telling him everything.
Again.
"Of course," he growled.
He charged forward.
The fox darted around a corner, but Daniel was faster than he'd expected. His longer stride carried him across the courtyard in seconds. He slammed one hand against the wall to turn, sending bricks scattering across the stones.
The fox leapt onto a stack of crates.
Daniel lunged.
He caught its hind leg.
The creature shrieked.
For a moment, it sounded almost human.
"PLEASE!"
Daniel hesitated.
That single word struck somewhere deep inside him.
He had killed nothing since arriving in this world. He had never transformed into a Titan before. He had no idea whether consuming the creature would hurt him, change him, or make him something he could never come back from.
But the fox was dangerous.
It knew his name.
It knew he wasn't supposed to be here.
And it had tried to kill him.
Daniel tightened his grip.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
The fox turned its head.
Its eyes widened.
Then its mouth opened, revealing a second set of teeth hidden behind the first.
"You're going to regret—"
Daniel slammed it against the ground.
The sentence ended in a sickening crack.
Silence followed.
For several seconds, Daniel remained motionless, breathing heavily through a mouth that was not his.
The fox lay still beneath his hand.
The system chimed.
\[HOST HAS DEFEATED AN ANOMALOUS ORGANISM.\]
\[BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL AVAILABLE.\]
\[INITIATE CONSUMPTION?\]
Daniel stared at the prompt.
His stomach turned.
He was standing in a narrow alley in a Titan's body, surrounded by broken bricks, with a creature that had spoken to him lying dead at his feet.
A normal person might have cried.
A sensible person might have run.
Daniel did neither.
Instead, he looked at the system.
"Tell me what happens if I do this."
\[OUTCOME CANNOT BE FULLY PREDICTED.\]
"Will I become stronger?"
\[POSSIBLE.\]
"Will I lose my mind?"
\[POSSIBLE.\]
Daniel closed his eyes.
"You're really terrible at reassuring people."
\[SYSTEM IS NOT DESIGNED FOR EMOTIONAL REASSURANCE.\]
"Yeah, I gathered that."
He looked down at the fox.
He thought of the towering walls.
Of the Colossal Titan.
Of the millions of lives that could be destroyed if he failed to prepare.
Then he thought of the creature's human eyes.
Its fear.
Its warning.
You're going to regret this.
Daniel swallowed.
He had come to this world believing that knowledge of the future would give him an advantage.
But perhaps he had been wrong.
Perhaps the moment he arrived, the future had already changed.
Perhaps he wasn't the only thing that didn't belong here.
He opened his eyes.
"Do it."
\[CONSUMPTION INITIATED.\]
A strange warmth spread through his arm.
The fox's body dissolved into a cloud of dark vapor, which streamed toward his palm and disappeared beneath his skin.
Daniel staggered.
A thousand unfamiliar scents flooded his senses.
Dust.
Stone.
Distant sweat.
The faint trace of horse manure from the market.
A rat moving beneath the floorboards of a nearby building.
He could smell the fear of people hiding in their homes.
He could smell the blood on his own hands.
And somewhere, far beyond the alley, he could smell something enormous.
Something old.
Something that made every instinct inside him scream to run.
The system chimed.
\[EVOLUTION SUCCESSFUL.\]
\[NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: ENHANCED OLFACTORY PERCEPTION.\]
\[TRAIT COMPATIBILITY: 72%\]
\[EVOLUTION POINTS AWARDED: 10\]
Daniel dropped to one knee.
The sensations were overwhelming.
He could distinguish dozens of individual scents, each layered over the next. The world had become a map of invisible trails, each leading somewhere he couldn't see.
Then a new scent cut through everything else.
Human blood.
Fresh.
Close.
Daniel raised his head.
At the far end of the alley stood a man in a dark military uniform.
A soldier.
He held a drawn blade in one hand and stared at Daniel with the rigid terror of someone who had encountered something his training had never prepared him to fight.
Behind him, two more soldiers appeared.
One of them raised a signal flare.
Daniel's heart sank.
"Oh, come on."
The first soldier took a step backward.
"Abnormal Titan!"
Daniel opened his mouth.
"Wait! I can explain!"
The words emerged as a thunderous growl.
The soldier fired.
A red flare shot into the sky.
Its light reflected across Daniel's unfamiliar face.
And as the first soldiers began shouting for reinforcements, a final message appeared before his eyes.
\[HIDDEN QUEST UNLOCKED.\]
\[QUEST: THE THING BEHIND THE WALLS.\]
Objective: Discover the identity of the anomalous organism.
Reward: Restricted system access.
Failure penalty: Unknown.
Daniel stared at the final line.
Then he looked toward the distant wall.
Somewhere beyond it, the future was waiting.
And for the first time, he wasn't sure whether he was preparing to change it—
Or whether something in this world had been waiting for him all along.