The Eternal Winter - Chapter 10 - Appearance Changes (Patreon)

                                                        Alexander North

Of course I chose the wrong place to start digging.

But at the very least, I did manage to make it into the base. So there’s that.

But…

My thoughts pause as I look around the ventilation shaft that for some reason has rust all over it.

…whoever is supposed to be maintaining this did a shit job. That said, it’s the only reason I was able to get inside in the first place. Considering the large hole in the ventilation shaft that I managed to dig into.

Then again, I wouldn’t want that job. So I can’t technically blame them. Even if I really can and do.

I navigate through the shaft until I find a branching path that goes straight down, which I quickly jump down through to find myself in a bathroom. A private one at that, considering the lock on the door and the fact that there’s only one toilet in it.

Guess there were worse places that I could have come out i-

My thoughts cut off as I get a sight of myself in the mirror.

Are you kidding me? How did I not think about that being a possibility?

After all, I have the same infra-red vision as the creatures…

I stare at my reflection in the mirror for several seconds, focusing first on the pure black eyes with light blue rings – the same as the monsters outside – before looking at the pure white hair, which I already knew about, and the incredibly pale skin.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume I was a vampire from mythology…

Actually, I quickly pull up my lip to look for any fangs, only to find that my canines do actually look sharper than they used to. And in addition to that, the rest of my teeth seem to have sharpened a little bit as well.

Although they still look relatively human and flat. Just that all of them look just a tiny bit more like the fangs of a beast instead.

Okay, this is most likely going to put any soldier I see on alert.

I mean, I would go on alert if I saw something like me walking around, even if it wasn’t the middle of the apocalypse.

But how to cover this up…

At this thought, I remember the helmet that is still up at the tunnel I had made because it was too thick to fit into the hole in the ventilation shaft.

That’ll work.

I quickly jump back into the ventilation shaft before moving back through it backwards until I reach the hole and begin kicking at it.

Let’s see if I can’t widen this entrance.

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After quite a bit of kicking, and some awkward moments where a spider that was hiding who-knows-where tried biting my neck, just to freeze alive in the attempt, I finally manage to get the opening wide enough to pull my helmet through. After that, I deal with a large hassle involved with getting the thing and myself out of the very narrow ventilation shaft before walking to the sink.

Please work, please work, please woooork…

Fortunately, the water begins to come out when I turn the dial, making me sigh in relief.

I then quickly begin to splash my face and neck with water to wash up before putting my helmet back on again. Then I move on to splashing the water over my armor to clean it of the dirt, snow, and other muck that it had gathered while outside.

Although I mostly just want the blood cleaned off. Because it smells pretty bad.

After I finish up with that, I quickly put my gloves on and look back at myself in the mirror again.

Good. No signs of not being a human. Just a regular second lieutenant in our standard black cybernetic armor.

At least the other soldiers won’t shoot at me on sight anymore. Although that wouldn’t be much of a problem at the moment. Not with the guns acting up as they are.

Still wouldn’t be nice of them though.

And with that in my head, I turn to the door and open it.

Just to find a wraith passing by the door on the other side.

Are you kidding me?

The wraith lets out a shriek and rushes at me, but I pull out my knife and turn slightly to make it fly straight past me before I slice upwards during its passing, chipping its own blade while doing the same to mine. I then grunt while pushing back its blades with mine and kicking out at its feet, knocking it towards the ground while its blades are still facing forwards, making it land face first on its own blades.

It lets out a horrified shriek at the pain, but I stop it by stabbing down with my other knife straight into the back of its skull and into its frozen brain. However, the knife doesn’t go all the way in at first, so I stomp down on it with my other boot, sending it splitting straight through the brain and killing it in an instant.

I definitely prefer the wraiths over the other two types of monsters. They’re so much easier to kill.

The stupid wendigos are too berserk and unpredictable for my taste, while the brutes can probably fling me several meters away with ease.

But the wraiths? They’re just really fast with relatively sharp blades. And they’re also rather bad with enclosed spaces, considering how easy to kill this one was.

Although I get the feeling I wouldn’t be saying that if I was still just a regular human being, but whatever.

I reach down and place my hand on the creature’s back, drawing the light blue energy into my body before standing up again and walking into the hall.

This should be floor BF1, while throughout the base there are nine floors, with two of them being above ground and the rest of them being below ground. Meanwhile of the ones below ground, two of them are for higher ups only. Which doesn’t normally mean me, but I really need to find the base commander.

After all, he’s the only one on this base that can deactivate the limiter on my terminal, letting me contact dad directly.

I’m still surprised dad let him put that limiter in in the first place. But I guess he finally decided to let me get some real combat experience in where I couldn’t rely on having him as a backup if something went wrong.

Which was about time.

It’s just rather awkward that I need that backup now.

I shake my head at the thought before beginning to make my way towards the elevator.

Only to stop after just three steps and instead begin to make my way over towards the stairs instead. Because obviously the elevator isn’t going to be working right now.

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