Sage sat inside an office, two guards outside watching alertly.

"Sergeant Sage Reze, your report for the incident is inconclusive, however as you are a great soldier, the higher ups decided to grant your request. From henceforth, you are no longer apart of the Shadow Operatives. Your rank will be reset to Private should you seek to re-enlist in the military." 

Sage saluted the man and left after taking the Shadow Operations badge from his chest and placing it on the table.

The man's eyes landed on Sage's wrapped arm and a strange light flickered in his eyes, however the commander just sighed and reported to the higher ups.

...

Sage sat in a window seat on his flight back to the United States, looking out at the clouds below.

His report was deemed inconclusive as he failed to bring out the V-03 sample. During the fight with the strange creature, he had lost the sample.

Not knowing where it was made him anxious, but he did his best to explain what happened. 

'At least I can still keep my pistol. If they wanted to be petty and took it, I'd probably just forget about them.' Having spent two years in service, he was ready to go back to a peaceful lifestyle.

"Yo. Are you a soldier?" A youth next to him asked with curiosity in his eyes.

"I was. I'm flying back so I can go home." Hearing his answer, the youth started asking about his experience and then topped it off saying he'd join the military when he was old enough.

After chatting with him, the flight wasn't as boring, and before he knew it, the plane had arrived in the skies above the United States.

When the plane touched down, Sage started to gather his things and get ready to leave. The youth also grabbed his tablet and phone and got up.

After majority of the people left, Sage exited the plane and walked to the baggage claim area.

Unexpectedly, he bumped into the youth again, and with pleasant surprise on his face, he came over and started asking things about the military.

Sage answered his questions as they walked out of the airport. His pistol would arrive after being shipped back to the United States.

"Were you kicked out the military?" The youth asked and Sage shook his head. 

"I asked to leave. My arm as nearly torn apart, and until now, it still hasn't healed fully." Sage said as he grabbed a duffle bag and waved to the youth.

'I don't have to worry about money much as I got four years of wages for my farewell gift. I guess I should find an easy job and earn a bit of money.'

Having served for two years on classified missions, he rarely had time to go home, so he looked forward to seeing his two aunts and his three little sisters again.

After waving down a taxi, he got on and told the driver to head to the train station. The taxi driver's old weather beaten face made him sigh.

'Nothing escapes the clutches of time. How good would it be if no one aged? Of course, Earth would then be overpopulated.'

When he got off the taxi after paying his fare, he bought a train ticket and sat on a bench, waiting for the training arrive.

After he came back from a mission, he found a wonderful thing called webnovels, where he could read and write whatever he felt like. 

Though he wasn't a great author, he still liked to try as it gave him time to himself. When the train arrived, he sat in the back of the train.

After an hour, he felt a strange tingling in his arm, where the wound was. He carefully unwrapped the gauze and nearly shouted in disbelief. 

His arm, which was shredded by the jagged fangs of the creature looked good as new, and the scars were quickly fading as well.

On the gauze was black liquid similar to the thing he killed. His heart turned cold as he thought about turning into something like that creature.

'If it comes to that, I'll just kill myself.' Sage calmly thought, however a massive rejection entered his mind.

It was as if the thought of ending his life went against the very fiber of his being. If he were able to see cells, he'd see the missing V-03 sample inside his body, slowly converting his DNA into something other than human, but by the time it finished, he'd have long since died of old age.

The process was smooth, as the V-03 broke several strands of DNA and then rebuilt it according to it's own DNA matrix.

He looked at the smooth skin on his arm with amazement, and realized that he wasn't normal as he was before.

'First of all, the wound was gone deep, yet such a large wound healed without me noticing until the skin started to heal. Second, my blood isn't regular, it's dark red, nearly black.'

He thought about having his blood drawn and imagined people experimenting on him to find out why he was different, especially if they found out about his ridiculous healing factor.

'I won't go to the hospital even if I am dying. I just need to be careful.' His eyes closed as he basked the gauze up and put it in his pocket.

'I don't know if my blood is infectious, so I better keep it with me so some poor soul doesn't get infected like me.'

He knew he most likely was infected and decided to put off returning to Maple County to keep his 'family' safe.

'I'll go to Mist City and get a job and wait to see if I'm a carrier.' According to the logs, he should begin to see some changes in mentality and physique.

'If I show signs of heightened aggression, I'll know I'm infected.'