---
title: "Chapter 1: Awakening as a Progenitor"
slug: "ch-1"
novel: "the-progenitor-vampire"
number: 1
views: 980000
likes: 72000
wordCount: 2900
createdAt: "2019-06-10"
---

Lee Shin-Woo's first sensation upon awakening was hunger—an all-consuming, desperate, primal hunger that made his previous life feel like a distant dream. His second awakening sensation was power—an overwhelming surge of physical capability that made him wonder if he was somehow transformed.

His third sensation was complete disorientation. Because the world around him was broken.

The building he lay within was partially collapsed, its support beams twisted at impossible angles. Through the exposed sections, Shin-Woo could see a sky that was wrong—discolored, filled with strange geometric patterns that didn't match anything he remembered. The world outside was a wasteland of crumbling infrastructure and twisted nature.

He stumbled to his feet, each movement surprisingly fluid despite his weakness. A shattered mirror nearby showed his reflection—and Shin-Woo recoiled.

His eyes were crimson, pupil-less, glowing faintly in the darkness. His skin had taken on a pale, almost translucent quality that made him look like a corpse. When he opened his mouth, fangs extended from his gums—long, curved, perfectly suited for piercing flesh.

"What am I?" he whispered.

A notification materialized in his vision, similar to game UI but far more realistic:

*[SPECIES: PROGENITOR VAMPIRE]*
*[CLASSIFICATION: S-RANK ENTITY]*
*[NOTICE: YOUR EMERGENCE IS PROPHESIED]*

Shin-Woo touched his face in horror. Vampire? Progenitor? The terminology belonged to fantasy novels, not reality. Yet his reflection was undeniably inhuman.

Exploration of the abandoned building revealed several things: first, that this was Seoul, but Seoul transformed by decades of some kind of apocalyptic event. Second, that monsters roamed the ruins—creatures that had never existed in his former world. Third, that he was phenomenally powerful compared to these monsters despite his hunger-weakened state.

The hunger drove him deeper into the ruins. His body screamed for sustenance in a specific form—he didn't need food or water, but rather energy itself. Living energy. Blood.

When Shin-Woo finally encountered a monster large enough to satisfy his need, his body moved without conscious direction. Combat was instinctive, supernatural power flowing through him like water. The creature fell before he could even process the fight.

And as he fed... memories surfaced. Not his memories. Someone else's. Thousands of someones'. Visions of ancient times, of civilizations that rose and fell, of wars between beings of unimaginable power. He saw himself—or rather, the being his current form was descended from—in ages past. A progenitor vampire, ruling over lesser beings, commanding power that shaped reality.

Then catastrophe. A convergence of worlds, a breaking of barriers, and then... nothing. Darkness, silence, the void.

And now, awakening in a future age as the last surviving member of his kind.

"Why?" Shin-Woo asked the empty ruins. "Why have I awakened now? What am I supposed to do?"

The system provided no answer, only updated notifications showing his power rankings and potential evolutions. But the truth was clear—he was a relic, a being from an ancient era that had somehow survived into the present. And his emergence would change everything.

Somewhere in the ruins, others were beginning to notice his presence. Hunters, military personnel, government agencies—all drawn by the sudden spike in mana density that announced his awakening.

Shin-Woo stood amid the wreckage, hunger finally sated but purpose still undefined, and understood that his life was now fully complicated. As the sole surviving Progenitor Vampire, he would have to navigate a world that both feared and coveted him.

And unlike human survivors, he couldn't hide what he was. His very existence was a declaration of war.
