Hiro missed memes.


    As he fell, likely plummeting toward his death to the streets below, the stupid memes his friends used to share with him flashed across his mind’s eye. Of all things. Raunchy, dumb, defeatist yet funny memes. What would his friends think now? What would they think about his final moment, leaping from a rooftop with a monstrous tiger hot on his heels?


    Hiro should have splattered against the pavement. He should have died upon impact. Instead, he instinctively shifted his position, heels now directly beneath him.


    Boing!


    His {Bounce} skill sent him springboarding off the pavement, his arms suddenly flailing as he shot up to the building across from the parking garage. The sound that came coupled with it made the skill seem almost comical.


    Yet it worked.


    Hiro landed on the next rooftop and stumbled forward, where he collided with an air conditioner. That part hurt, but his leap of faith hadn’t.


    “Holy shit. Holy fucking shit.”


    He looked back to the other rooftop to see the horned tiger pacing back and forth, its tail curled, the furious beast gauging if it could make the jump or not.


    Hiro narrowed his eyes on the monster. “Try it, fucker.”


    The creature pressed onto its back legs, licked its lips, and prepared to make the jump as well.


    It’s going to make it. In that case…


    He sucked in a quick breath and ran toward the opposite end of the roof. Hiro used a small hop to propel himself into a larger jump that allowed him to fling himself to a different rooftop.


    Boing!


    He landed and looked back in the direction of the parking garage. “I’m like Spider-Man,” he whispered. “Or Mario?” He heard the beast roar, but it had yet to make the jump.


    Skill level up!


    Yet again, words appeared before Hiro.


    {Bounce}, F-Rank  >  {Bounce}, E-Rank


    Upgrade Available: 0/150 Jumps


    “What does the upgrade do?”


    He looked down at his phone to find the answer.


    <Upgrading {Bounce} will allow you to jump higher and control your ascend and descent better. But that’s not important at the moment. The tiger has your scent. You will need to kill the beast before it alerts the others.>


    “My supplies are in there too, in the garage.”


    His phone didn’t respond.


    “Can you hear me?”


    Once it was clear that he wouldn’t get any response, Hiro considered his options. He could continue to flee, going building to building. New York City was dense. Even if the horned tiger had his scent, Hiro could get away from the beast.


    If he got to the ground, perhaps easier said than done, Hiro could try to sneak into the parking garage, and head down into the fallout shelter from there, where he would be safe.


    But by then, the other monsters would be alerted.


    Or…


    “Why shouldn’t I use my Roulette Skill?” he asked his phone. He watched the countdown timer tick away, and was just about to shake the damn thing when text appeared:


    <Roulette Skills will change during each Interim.>


    Hiro noticed that the word ‘interim’ had been capitalized. “And the Interim is the period between gates opening?”This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    <Correct. This is why it is known as a Roulette Skill. You also have Roulette Accessories, Roulette Boosts, and Roulette Weapons. You only have access to these sorts of things during for a short amount of time.>


    He glanced back to the parking garage. “I don’t think I can kill that thing with a sword. I’m going to use the Roulette Skill. Anything else I should know?”


    <There can be residuals from certain skills even if their duration has ended. {Lupine Shift} would be one of those skills.>


    “What kind of residuals?”


    His phone didn’t answer.


    “I have to do it,” Hiro said, psyching himself up. I have to do this. He shook his arms out, and bolted toward the other side of the roof, where he jumped, and used his new skill to bounce to the next rooftop.


    Boing!


    Hiro eyed the roof of the parking garage, where the horned tiger still stalked, snorting, seething, daring him to join it. He drew his katana and unleashed {Blade Whirlwind}, just to throw the creature off.


    It snapped its teeth and hissed as Hiro triggered {Bounce}.


    Boing!


    He landed on the roof of the parking garage, and dropped his katana beside his backpack. Not out of fear, out of instinct for the transformation he assumed would come.


    If you had asked Hiro at any point in his life, how does one change into a werewolf?, he likely would have given you a funny look. Maybe, if he was drunk, he would have curled over, hunched his shoulders, thrown his head back and howled at the moon.


    Yet mentally activating {Lupine Shift} was nothing like that.


    It began with a ripple, a muscle spasm in Hiro’s arms as they doubled in mass, which tore through the sleeves of his hoodie, his undershirt holding on for dear.


    The horned tiger took a step back in hesitation.


    “Argh!” The transformation became painful, Hiro able to feel his bones elongate, teeth forming in his jaw and breaking free of his gums. The change was bloody and violent. His fingers now bled, his nails several inches long, thick as corks and sharp.


    {Lupine Shift} only morphed his upper half, which Hiro would be grateful for later, but what it would do to his mind was something he hadn’t expected.


    An apex predator was different from an apocalypse survivor, but there were similarities, this desire to survive, to thrive in the face of the unknown was still there.


    Only, it was warped.


    Only, it was hungry.


    The horned tiger lunged for him, its movements slowed down, Hiro able to see the shift in its muscles as the beast brought what seemed like its dominant paw forward, claws extended.


    Now in his lupine form, Hiro sidestepped the horned tiger and sent his own claws over its muscled shoulder, drawing a deep wound.


    The tiger hit the rooftop, pivoted and prepared to come for him again.


    By this point, Hiro had already moved on the attack, midair.


    He struck the tiger, and the two careened into the rooftop exit door. The savage exchange that followed ended with the tiger able to bite into Hiro’s shoulder, the pain present, but nothing like the transformation.


    He easily pushed the beast off and jumped back.


    The horned tiger came for him and Hiro jumped onto its back, dug his claws in, and finally sank his teeth into the back of the horned tiger’s neck, tearing through muscle and sinew even as its tail tried to snap at him.


    Hiro clamped down even harder as the beast tried to buck him off. The taste of the monstrous tiger’s blood invigorated him, inspired Hiro to bite even harder.


    Soon, the tiger gave up its fight, Hiro with such bloodlust that he barely noticed the text that flashed before him.


    You have new followers!


    Title upgrade!


    Performance upgrade!


    Name: Hiro Johnson


    Current Title: Wolf Ronin of Wall Street


    Level: 1


    Followers: 276


    Interim Performance Grade: D


    City Survivors: 982,036


    World Survivors: 395,917,620


    Beast Death Count: 3/791


    What the…? He didn’t know if what he did next was part of this rage, or it was the waning effects of turning into a werewolf.


    But he couldn’t stop himself.


    He flipped the tiger over and bit deeper into its flesh and ripped strips of meat, sucking them down. He kept feeding in a frenzy until his body started to quiver, signaling his transformation back into a human.


    As quickly as he was a werebeast hunched over an enormous, horned tiger spawned by a magical gate, he was Hiro, a survivor, a participant in some twisted game orchestrated by the Doom System that he could hardly understand, Hiro blood-drenched, his stomach throbbing, clothing torn to shreds.


    He fell to all fours and vomited, his mind reeling, head pounding. A red haze twisted away from the beast’s carcass and poured into him.


    “What the fuck?” he whispered.


    Hiro glanced over to his things to see that his phone was near his bag. He didn’t remember tossing it out of his sweater. He stumbled over to his stuff, Hiro ignoring his blood-soaked hands as he read the message.


    <You are being hunted. Get to safety.>


    Thunk!


    An arrow fired over Hiro’s head.


    He grabbed his things, turned to the rooftop exit, reached it, and shut the half-broken door to protect himself.


    “Who the fuck is that?” he hissed at his phone screen as he heard another arrow.


    <Another Survivor. Get to safety, now.>