Washington D.C.'s vampire population was about to have a very bad night.
The alley was the kind of place where bad things happened to good people, narrow, dark, reeking of piss and rotting garbage. Normally, it was quiet except for the occasional homeless person looking for shelter or a vampire looking for an easy meal.
Tonight, it was crowded.
A young vampire sat sprawled against a dumpster, terror written across his pale face as he tried desperately to scramble backward. Six hunters surrounded him in a loose semicircle, along with two bats circling overhead.
To an outside observer, it would've looked like a mugging. Which, technically, it was.
Mario held his diamond sword casually, like someone might hold a kitchen knife while cooking. He drove the blade into the vampire's abdomen, then pulled a rag from his inventory and stuffed it into the creature's mouth before it could scream.
"See the health bar above his head?" He gestured with the bloody sword. "It's simple, just like a video game. You need to get him down to fifteen percent. That's the magic number."
He pulled the sword free and struck twice more in quick succession.
Thunk. Thunk.
The vampire's health bar dropped to a sliver of red.
Mario patted down the vampire's pockets, finding forty-three dollars and a decent watch. "Not bad. Always loot the bodies, people. Vampire hunting doesn't pay well."
He pocketed both items, then gestured to Abigail. "Your turn. Use the stake I gave you and finish him."
Abigail didn't hesitate. For someone who looked barely out of college, she handled the wooden stake well. She drove it into the vampire's chest.
In the game, you needed a backstab to trigger the instant-kill effect. In reality, Mario had learned the rules were more forgiving, as long as the target was below fifteen percent health, the stake would do the job.
The vampire's health bar vanished completely. His body ignited. When the flames died, two items remained on the ground: a bottle of Vampire Blood and a pair of Vampire Fangs.
The hunting team stared in silence.
"Damn..." Hannibal breathed. "That actually worked."
"It's incredible," another hunter added. "But isn't this more complicated than just using silver weapons? One shot with silver, and they're done."
"Yeah, and why does a bottle appear? If it was just blood, fine, but why is it in a glass bottle? Where does the bottle come from?"
"Shut up," Whistler cut in. "Mario already explained this. Don't ask why. It's just how things work."
Mario nodded approvingly at Whistler's intervention, then addressed the group. "If you're facing a large group or you're unsure about winning, use whatever deals the most damage. Silver weapons, explosives, whatever. I don't care if you use a missile launcher, as long as you can get your hands on one."
He picked up the vampire blood and fangs, adding them to his inventory. "But when you're dealing with weaker vampires you can handle easily, use the stakes. You'll need the materials they drop to get stronger."
The team nodded, finally understanding the resource economy of Mario's system.
Hannibal raised his hand like a student in class. "So how much material do we need to level up?"
"Level one costs six bottles of vampire blood. Level two is twelve, level three is eighteen, and so on. That'll get you to level four. After that, you'll need higher-grade materials from tougher vampires. Oh, and I'm taking a two-bottle commission fee each time you level up. That way I can boost new recruits without having to farm basic materials all over again."
The explanation was transparent, and the commission fee was reasonable. His real goal was simple, strengthen this team fast so they could hunt more efficiently.
"Alright, let's find the next bloodsucker."
A slim bat that had been circling overhead suddenly spoke in Blade's voice. "I want to split off on my own for a while. Test out these new abilities."
The bat, which was indeed Blade, now a full vampire after Mario had convinced him to class-change, executed a loop-de-loop before landing on a fire escape.
Mario had worked hard to sell Blade on the idea. The promise of flight had been tempting, but the clincher had been his assurance that the change could be reversed later if Blade wanted. After that, Blade had agreed almost immediately.
The classic "this is actually pretty great" realization had kicked in fast. Using the Altar of Inspiration, Mario had boosted Blade to level 4. The power increase was great enough that any lingering doubts had vanished.
"Sure thing. While you're at it, see if you can figure out which vampire family runs this city. We should pay them a visit."
The night's training session was brutally efficient. Washington D.C. turned out to be an excellent grinding location, plenty of low-level vampires, minimal organized resistance, perfect for power-leveling the new recruits.
Mario lost track of time, caught up in the hunting. It wasn't until he noticed the sky lightening on the horizon that he realized dawn was approaching.
"Alright, we're done. Back to base."
By the time they returned to Blade's underground hideout, the team had accumulated an impressive haul: twenty-seven bottles of Vampire Blood, two Vampire Book, and one bottle of Pure Blood, a rare drop from an unusually strong vampire they'd ambushed near the Capitol building.
"I'm keeping the materials for now. If you want to level up, you'll need to come with me to New York. I can't enhance your abilities here."
Nobody objected. After a night of successful hunting, the team was riding high on adrenaline and new confidence.
Blade flew in through an open window, transforming back into human form mid-flight. The seamless shift from bat to man drew impressed looks from everyone except Mario, who'd seen it dozens of times already.
"Take them to New York first. Once they're stronger, hunting here will be way more efficient."
Mario grinned. "I'll take good care of them in New York. So... how are you liking the new skillset?"
Blade smiled. "The abilities are fantastic. Flight especially. And I can feel my physical strength improving too."
Gone was any trace of his earlier hesitation about becoming a vampire. The transformation had worked out better than he'd hoped.
Mario's laughter echoed through the basement.
After some discussion, Abigail, Hannibal, and the others said their goodbyes and left, they had their own places in the city. Mario looked around the cramped basement and turned to Whistler and Blade.
"You guys mind if I expand this place? It's way too small. With more people, we'll be tripping over each other."
Blade scanned the space. "Do what you need to. But dig deeper first. If you expand sideways at this depth, you might break into someone else's basement."
"Fair point." Mario pulled out his pickaxe. "I don't want to end up staring at some random homeowner through a hole in their floor."
More importantly, he wanted to build a Nether portal here to test travel times between D.C. and New York. If the fast-travel system worked as expected, it would revolutionize their operations.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Within thirty minutes, he'd excavated a new chamber about thirty feet below the original basement, roughly nine hundred square meters of empty space.
Not huge, but it'll work, he thought, wiping nonexistent sweat from his forehead. Now I need to build the portal.
"Blade, you're coming with me somewhere. I want to know if you can survive in the Nether."
The Nether was full of lava, hostile mobs, and environmental hazards. His body couldn't feel temperature, so he needed a test subject. Blade's enhanced physiology made him the perfect guinea pig, tough enough to survive if something went wrong, but still organic enough to react to actual danger.
Probably won't die immediately. Probably.
Blade had been admiring the newly excavated space, already planning to have Mario dig similar hideouts in other cities. Having that kind of construction ability and not using it would be criminal.
"Portal? Nether?" he asked. "Where exactly are we going?"
Mario excavated a smaller room off the main chamber and started placing obsidian blocks in a rectangular frame. "Another dimension. Probably very hot. I can't feel it because of my... condition. So I need you to go in first and tell me if it's survivable."
He used sticky pistons to create a hidden 2×3 doorway in front of the portal frame.
Blade looked skeptical. "Another dimension? How is that even—" He stopped mid-sentence, remembering Ghost Rider. If Hell existed and demons could make deals with humans, why couldn't other dimensions exist too?
"Alright, I'm in."
Mario finished the frame and pulled out flint and steel. He struck the obsidian, and flames appeared for less than a second before being replaced by the shimmering purple surface of an active Nether portal.
Blade's jaw dropped. "That's it? That casual? This feels even more anticlimactic than the strengthening process."
When he had leveled up yesterday, at least there had been dramatic lightning effects. This gateway to another dimension had just... appeared. No fanfare, nothing.
Mario looked at Blade's stunned expression. "Don't just stand there! I'm going in first to scout. If it's safe, I'll come back for you."
"Alright. I'll wait here."
Mario stepped into the portal. Three seconds later, he emerged in the Nether. And immediately wanted to go back.
"Basalt Delta? Are you kidding me?"
He stood in one of the Nether's least pleasant biomes. White ash particles drifted through the air like snow. Massive pillars of basalt and blackstone jutted up from the ground at irregular angles, making navigation a nightmare.
The only inhabitants were magma cubes, ghasts, and striders. No piglins, no zombified piglins, just monotonous hostility.
At least there was a bastion remnant visible in the distance. That was something.
Mario scanned for ghasts, saw none, and quickly walled off the portal with obsidian blocks. No point giving the floating terrors an easy target.
"Alright, let's get Blade."
He stepped back through the portal and nearly collided with Blade, who'd been examining the purple particles drifting out from the gateway.
"Mamma Mia! Personal space, Blade!"
"Sorry," Blade said sheepishly. "I was just curious what these particles are."
"Visual effects. Nothing more." Mario gestured toward the portal. "Come on, let's go together."
They stepped through side by side.
The Nether's landscape unfolded before Blade's eyes, and for a moment he just stood there processing it. Endless caverns stretching in every direction, a ceiling hundreds of meters overhead, everything made of the same blocky material Mario had been mining for weeks.
"Is this... underground? Did you dig all this?"
"No, this is a naturally occurring dimension. Self-sustaining ecosystem, if you can call it that." Mario watched Blade carefully, one hand holding a fire resistance potion, the other a bucket of milk. "How do you feel? Any discomfort?"
Blade did a quick self-assessment. "Nope. Actually feel fine. Maybe even good."
"Perfect." Mario opened the wooden door he'd placed in the obsidian wall. "Stay close and watch—"
AHHHHHHH!
A ghast's shriek cut through the air. Mario's response was instantaneous, shield in one hand, diamond sword in the other.
Blade turned toward the sound and froze.
Floating toward them was a creature that looked like someone had taken a jellyfish, made it the size of a minivan, and given it the face of a crying child. Tentacles dangled beneath its cube-shaped body, and its mouth opened impossibly wide.
"What the hell is that thing?!"