Team C, which had taken over the survivors from Teams A and B, arrived in front of the Prosperity Bridge.
However, crossing the bridge was no simple task.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Gunfire erupted from the other side, aid directly at them.
It was an understandable reaction. From the perspective of those guarding the bridge, every entity that had attempted to cross until now had been a vampire.
Moon Ji-hoon and Moon Sang-hoon turned to the leader of Team C, Kim Min-ho, with troubled expressions.
"What should we do?"
"They’re too aggressive. They won’t even listen to what we have to say."
Kim Min-ho grinned at them and answered, "What else? We break through."
"Break through?"
The twin brothers looked bewildered.
Sure, breaking through was possible. They had enough firearms, and the retainers had special abilities that could help.
"But those people aren’t vampires; they’re regular humans, aren’t they?"
Killing humans was not an option.
"And even if we have powers, one bullet is all it takes to end us!"
They couldn’t guarantee how much damage their side would sustain in a direct confrontation.
This assessnt was based on their lack of understanding of Kim Min-ho’s ability.
"You two haven’t seen it yet, have you?"
"Seen what?"
While the twins looked confused, Kim Min-ho’s already muscular fra began to swell further, his skin texture changing visibly.
In monts, his body exuded a presence as solid and imposing as stone itself.
Kim Min-ho opened his mouth to speak. "Stay here and wait."
Even his lips had hardened, causing his pronunciation to sound slightly off, but his voice only seed more solid as a result.
And then—
Thud. Thud. Thud!
Kim Min-ho charged toward the other side of the bridge like a tank.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
A hail of bullets greeted him, but he didn’t so much as flinch as he surged forward.
Ting! Ting!
The concentrated barrage of bullets struck his chest and bounced off harmlessly.
Like a bulldozer, Kim Min-ho pressed onward, causing panic among those on the other side.
They had never encountered anything like this while dealing with vampires.
"Retreat! Fall back!"
As the defenders attempted to flee in chaos, Kim Min-ho stomped the ground with imnse force.
Boom!
The asphalt cracked, and his massive body shot forward like a cannonball.
Crash!
With a ground-shaking impact, Kim Min-ho landed right among the defenders, standing before the one who had just issued the retreat order.
"Nice to et you."
His solid voice echoed heavily in the stunned silence.
"I’m Kim Min-ho from the supply team of the Sports Complex Group."
The stunned combat team leader, caught off guard by the unexpected introduction, instinctively responded.
"Han Kang-min, Combat Team 2 Leader of the Central District Group."
"Nice to et you."
Still struggling to grasp the situation, Han Kang-min listened as Kim Min-ho continued.
"We’ve been rescuing survivors from vampire-occupied areas. Please clear the way."
Elsewhere, in a dimly lit chamber:
The ruler of the vampires, the progenitor Vlad Tepes, was unlike the typical vampires inhabiting Ulsan. Unlike those who had once been human, Vlad had inherited noble blood from the very beginning.
How could this be...?
Vlad looked down at his trembling hand. His right hand, which had been charred to ashes while breaking through the barrier protecting the World Tree, had regenerated new flesh. Yet, despite healing all his wounds, he felt as if the searing pain was returning.
The reason was clear.
The energy that had just spread across the area—it was identical to the one that had burned his hand.
Am I... afraid?
He shouldn’t have been. As one who carried noble blood, he was bound to maintain his dignity.
Vlad clenched his hand, forcibly halting its tremors.
Even so, this energy...
He couldn’t understand it.
That kind of power is supposed to remain confined to that place, bound to the World Tree.
And yet—
Why am I sensing it nearby?
Though he couldn’t determine its source, he had unmistakably felt a surge of energy rippling outward with a resonance similar to that of the World Tree’s power.
"Hmm."
Vlad Tepes pondered, knowing that he should investigate the origin of the energy wave imdiately. Yet, the fear of this unknown power held him back.
"Park Jae-chan, Lee Yeon-do, and Choi Jeong-il are dead."
Almost simultaneously, three higher vampires had lost their lives. Whether this was intentional or not, their deaths seed unusual.
These higher vampires had been personally blessed by Vlad’s blood. Though fundantally limited due to their lesser origins, they were selected because they could partially withstand the power of his blood’s blessing. They weren’t the type to die easily.
Yet they had died.
"And once again, the power of the blessing has completely disappeared."
It was the sa as what had happened with Jeong Yeong-hun and Go In-seok in Busan.
Normally, when a higher vampire perished, the amplified power of the blessing—fueled by the life force they had consud—should have returned to Vlad.
That was the natural order.
But this ti, nothing ca back.
It was as if their existence had been completely erased from the world.
"I must find out what’s going on."
Instead of heading directly to the presud origin of the event, Vlad decided to visit the locations where the higher vampires had vanished. It was a way to distract himself from the growing fear deep within his chest.
"Regardless, the Night of the Full Moon is approaching. No matter what they do, they cannot change the tide."
Higher vampires would not have died so easily. Their battles with the enemies would have been filled with blood and death, which would serve as offerings for the upcoming Night of the Full Moon.
The enemies, unknowingly, were aiding the ritual.
"Whether they like it or not, they will beco sacrifices for the Feast of Blood."
For now, identifying the cause of the blessing’s disappearance took priority.
Resolving himself, Vlad moved toward the building where Lee Yeon-do, one of the slain higher vampires, had fallen.
When he arrived—
"…?"
He was t with an intense sense of unease.
"Why is it so clean?"
It was strange.
This was a site where a higher vampire had been killed. He had expected the place to be a chaotic ss from the battle, yet the building appeared as if nothing had happened. There wasn’t even a trace of blood.
"No bloodstains?"
Vlad’s face hardened.
Battlefields were ant to be soaked in death and blood.
Here, however, there was no stench of blood or death. It was as if the vampires gathered here had collectively vanished into thin air.
"What in the world…?"
He scoured the building, but not a single corpse could be found.
The vampire forces that had accompanied Lee Yeon-do had completely disappeared.
"This... this cannot be."
At that mont—
"Hm?"
Vlad felt another connection to a higher vampire sever. Another death.
The scent of blood.
A strong sll of fresh blood wafted from sowhere nearby. Without hesitation, Vlad flew toward the source.
Focusing all his senses on the area, Vlad soon noticed sothing odd.
"…The scent of blood is fading?"
The inexplicable sensation beca clear when he arrived.
"What...?"
Humans were hunting vampires.
Arrows of light pierced vampire hearts, silver knights wielding halberds stabbed their chests, and the humans’ bullets tore through the vampires’ bodies.
That much Vlad could comprehend. Humans of extraordinary strength had always existed in the world.
But then—
Ssshh.
The bodies of the slain vampires vanished almost instantly from the humans’ hands. The blood pooling from their hearts disappeared along with the corpses.
"This is..."
It wasn’t rely that the bodies were vanishing. Vlad, with his ability to sense the flow of energy, could see it clearly.
The humans were devouring everything the dead vampires left behind.
It was then that he understood why the power of the blessing hadn’t returned.
"This power... it’s dangerous."
He had to eliminate those humans imdiately.
Fortunately, despite their power, they were weak compared to him.
"I’ll kill them all here and now."
But just as Vlad moved—
Ssshh—
"!!??"
The humans disappeared without a trace.
"Hah."
A hollow laugh escaped his lips.
Then, his laughter grew louder.
"Hahaha!"
After laughing for a long while, his expression gradually turned cold.
"It can’t be helped."
Reluctantly, he made his decision.
"Let’s start right now, incomplete as it may be."
"Haah, haah…"
It was a close call.
Who would have thought that the enemy would begin moving during a level-up?
"Just a little later, and it could’ve been disastrous."
Despite the pain of leveling up, I managed to use the retainer summoning skill to assist both Teams A and B based on Yoo Han-gil’s updates.
In the end, Vampire 9 was successfully eliminated.
For a first operation, it was a resounding success.
Nearly a thousand low-ranked vampires and four higher vampires had been taken down.
While low-ranked vampires could be handled with enough firearms, the elimination of four higher vampires was significant.
"The problem is, now the enemy is fully aware of us."
The guerrilla operation had succeeded largely because the enemy had no understanding of our strength.
Now that our capabilities had been exposed, the vampires would undoubtedly prepare for us.
"It will be nearly impossible to achieve such results again without taking damage."
We could no longer rely on bold strategies like this one.
Still—
"Chipping away at their forces little by little shouldn’t be too hard."
With Seo Ye-jin’s abilities, most vampires could be wiped out efficiently.
Once Yoo Hye-rin’s ntal strength recovered, we would use Seo Ye-jin’s mice for sabotage while Moon Byeong-ho hunted the vampires hiding among the survivor groups.
"I’ll start by taking control of the northern Taehwa River area completely."
The goal was to build forces capable of fighting the vampires on equal footing, not survivors who rely lived under their shadow.
"By consistently assassinating higher vampires with Moon Byeong-ho’s skills and the Piercing Arrows, we’ll whittle them down."
The results of this first operation exceeded all expectations, and I was satisfied.
However—
"Jaehyun-nim! Sothing terrible has happened!"
Nothing ever goes entirely as planned.
I turned to Yoo Han-gil.
"What is it?"
"The vampires... they’re rampaging!"
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