The first three buildings I checked were empty.
By the fourth, song-woo was chewing his lip nervously. "Maybe... maybe it was lying? Maybe we really are the only ones—"
"Shh." I raised a hand.
A sound.
We stopped in front of the collapsed barbershop. "There," I whispered.
We advanced carefully, sticking to cover, until the figures ca into clearer view.
I found soone, Huddled near the skeleton of a stairwell.
But he didn’t rush forward with joy. He didn’t wave or call out or collapse in relief.
He just stared at us. Suspicion is heavy in his eyes.
And I couldn’t bla him. We were thinking the sa thing.
The man’s face was drained of color, his lips almost gray. His skin looked thin as paper, veins showing through, eyes ringed with fatigue.
Vampire signs? Or just the toll of starvation and fear?
The problem was... we couldn’t tell.
Song-woo muttered under his breath, "They already look half-dead."
I stepped forward slowly, hands raised to show I wasn’t holding a weapon.
"We’re alive," I said. "I just ca from outside. Are you alright sir. Is there anyone with you?" I asked cautiously as I approached the entrance. I don’t want to spook him out.
"I’m hungry." The man said, "Please! I need food."
"Excuse sir! But can you please co out first." I asked.
"I can’t." Then he pointed to his legs, they were missing.
"Kim! I’m going in. Be ready, Alright." I whispered to him.
"No. It’s dangerous. What if he is already turned into a vampire? Can you take that risk?"
"We won’t know unless I go inside." I didn’t wait for his reply as I entered the shop. I slowly walked towards him. Then I rembered what my mother said last night.
[ Flashbacks Last Night]
"Listen here. There is actually more description written here. Below the screen". Her eyes were glowing crimson because she was her Nature, "Bloody eyes".
[New Mission Generated]
Event Type: Invasion – Vampire Hunt
Objective: Survive until dawn. Eliminate or expose infiltrating vampires.
Reward: EXP and rare drop scaling by contribution. Hidden rewards possible.
Penalty for Failure: Death
Description of specin 287.
[Race Identified: Vampiric Aristocrats]
The creatures you face are not the myths of old, nor the romanticized nightmares whispered in taverns. These are predators sculpted by the system itself—apex parasites bound by hunger and blood.
Traits:
Pale skin, crimson-irised eyes when bloodthirst manifests.
Sustained by human blood. Without it, they wither but never truly die.
Destruction of the heart is the only confird thod of permanent termination.
Subtypes:
2) Crimson Behemoths
Gifted with monstrous physical strength and inhuman endurance.
Flight capable; leathery wings manifest under strain.
Cannot dislocate or separate body parts—their forms are rigid, honed for brute combat.
Known to crush reinforced barriers and lift prey whole.
2) Sanguine Puppeteers
Sacrifice flight for the ability to dislocate and separate body parts at will.
Even severed halves or scattered limbs remain animated and under their control.
Favor deception and ambush—many intentionally mutilate themselves to bait prey.
Adept in blood magic: manipulating spilled blood into weapons, bindings, and corrosive sigils.
Weaknesses:
Sunlight reveals them but does not guarantee destruction.
The heart must be destroyed to end them permanently.
Paranoia is their ally: they walk unseen until hunger unmasks them.
System Note:
They are not the elegant nobles of folklore. They are butchers, deceivers, and carrion kings. Rember this: if it bleeds and rises again—it is no longer human.
After she finished explaining everything that she could see. We were in a state of shock and excitent.
Everyone was happy with this discovery but I on the other hand was inclined to believe in the words of Owl king again.
[End of Flashback]
As soon as I entered the building, the wall behind collapsed closing off myself and outside.
The vampire stood in the center, his grin wide enough to show the jagged tips of his teeth.
"How foolish of you to actually co inside." The man said following a manical laughter.
"Ye-jun! Ye-Jun! Are you alright? I will try to remove these things just, stay alive." Kim song-woo shouted from the outside.
The vampire inside recovered his legs back to his original form.
"A blood Vampire." I said.
The vampire’s face suddenly hardened. His eyes glaring at my face as if he couldn’t believe that I know of his kind. "How did you...."
"What? Did you think I ca unprepared?" I didn’t wait as I used beastification.
[Do you want to use Beastification]
[Target Pet : Junior The spider Monkey]
[Yes/No]
Without hesitation, I pressed Yes.
I crouched low, my spider-monkey body twitching with raw tension. Four arms flexed, claws ready, while my tail arched behind , silk-thread oozing from its tip. My eight eyes glimred crimson.
But Vampire split himself into two halves. The vampire’s upper body lunges first, dragging itself across the counter with its clawed hands.
I leapt, my tail snapping forward, firing a strand of sticky web that slamd the torso against the mirror. Shards rained down, but the vampire laughed, his bottom half crawling up the wall and springing at from behind.
I twisted—two arms catching the leaping legs, another pair clawing at the exposed flesh.
My tail whipped, pinning one limb to the barber chair, but the vampire’s torso tore free from the web, blood spraying like ink. It slamd into my side, teeth sinking into the fur near my shoulder.
I hissed, pain spiking through him, and flung the torso across the room. The body halves didn’t stay apart—they wriggled toward each other, the vampire grinning wider as he prepared to stitch himself back together.
"Not a chance," I growled, skittering across the ceiling on all six limbs. My tail fired webs in rapid bursts, wrapping the lower half against the broken sink. Another strand shot out, pinning the torso mid-air before it could reattach.
The vampire roared, blood magic flaring—his veins glowing crimson as blood spears shot outward, piercing the tiles like knives.
I dodged across the ceiling, dropping low at the last second. I crashed onto the vampire, all four arms slamming it down, claws digging into its chest.
My tail coiled tight around its throat, jerking hard.
The vampire’s body convulsed, magic flickering. For a heartbeat, it tried to dislocate again—but my claws dug deeper, tearing past ribs until he felt the throb of its heart.
The vampire’s red eyes widened in shock.
I didn’t hesitate. With a guttural snarl, I ripped the heart free and hurled it against the mirror, where it burst like rotten fruit.
The vampire’s scream died in his throat. Its body slackened, then crumbled into blood mist, leaving only the stink of iron and the shattered silence of the barbershop.
I stood there, fur slicked with blood, my tail twitching with leftover adrenaline.
My reflection stared back from the fractured mirror—not fully human, not fully beast, but sothing even vampires feared.
Then I heard the opening of the entrance and I let go of my beast form. I hid Junior in my shirt as Kim song-woo opened the entrance.
"Are you alr..." His concerns stopped In his throat as he saw covered in blood.
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