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A pale-skinned vampire lunged at Niesen, who was frozen in fear on the ground.
"Move, kid!"
A voice suddenly shouted, and a strong hand yanked Niesen out of the way. In the chaos, his flashlight slipped from his hand and rolled across the floor.
As it spun, the light flickered—briefly revealing a figure with a white skull painted on his chest who kicked the vampire aside.
Frank pulled a pistol from his belt and fired.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several shots hit the vampire, but they didn't seem to do much.
"Damn it. Why is every freak these days bulletproof?!"
He kept cursing, but his hands didn't stop. While regular bullets couldn't kill vampires, they could at least slow them down.
"Move, kid! Unless you wanna be vampire chow, get your ass up!"
Frank's yelling snapped Niesen out of his fear. He scrambled to his feet and bolted toward the stairwell.
But just then—
Ding!
An elevator arrived at the 8th floor.
The doors opened, and a figure in a security guard uniform stepped out.
"Mike!"
Niesen immediately recognized him. But just as he called out, Mike's body collapsed out of the elevator. His face was twisted in horror—his body completely drained of blood. His neck had several holes, his muscles were shriveled, and it looked like a dried-up skin suit hanging off bones.
Then, the blood-covered girl from earlier—the one who asked for printer help—lunged out after him.
"AAAHHH!"
Niesen screamed and ran back, crashing into Frank.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Frank yelled, still firing behind them.
"There's another one! In the elevator! Another vampire!!"
As he spoke, the blood-soaked vampire girl was already coming at them.
"Shit! Take this!"
Frank cursed and shoved his pistol into Niesen's hands. Then he swung his rifle off his back.
He didn't want to use it—it wasn't silenced, and it was loud as hell. But now, that didn't matter. The louder it was, the more likely they'd survive.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT—!!
A burst of fire brought the vampire girl crashing down.
"Lead the way!"
Niesen didn't argue. Holding the pistol tight, he led Frank toward the exit.
They fought their way through the halls, but instead of attracting the police, the gunfire only drew more vampires.
"This way, sir!"
Now wasn't the time to take elevators. Niesen led Frank to the fire escape.
Just as Nathan opened the door, a few bloodthirsty vampires charged toward him—they'd already taken over the emergency stairwell.
"Get down!"
Frank shouted, and Nathan ducked just in time.
RATATATATATA!
A burst of gunfire pushed the vampires back for now, but it was clear—they couldn't take the stairwell anymore.
"Any other way out?" Frank asked while laying down suppressing fire.
Nathan fired his handgun at the oncoming vampires and shouted back, "There's one more emergency exit, but it's not on this floor—it's on the ninth!"
Frank gritted his teeth, pulled a grenade from his belt, and tossed it down the stairwell.
"Lead the way!"
BOOM!
The explosion created chaos, and while the vampires were disoriented, Nathan led Frank upstairs.
Meanwhile, on the upper floors, a black-clad figure wielded a blue-and-white blade. One clean swing—and a vampire dropped dead.
Erik flicked the blood off his blade, eyeing the remaining vampires around him, who were clearly losing their nerve.
Suddenly, gunfire and an explosion caught his attention.
"More people in the building?"
Following the noise, Erik started heading downstairs. These vampires were nothing but cannon fodder to him now.
On the ninth floor, in the central office of the Yuster Building, a pale-faced man sat calmly in a lavish office. A cup sat on his desk—not of coffee, but of crimson blood.
"Tch... Bunch of idiots. Who told them to stir up trouble now of all times?" he muttered, annoyed, and got up to leave.
Back on the stairwell, Nathan led Frank up to the ninth floor landing.
"Dammit, what the hell are these unkillable freaks?!"
"Vampires, sir. Normal weapons won't do a thing to them unless they're made of silver."
"You've got time to tell bedtime stories now? Sh*t, even when I took on an entire gang singlehandedly, I didn't have this much trouble."
Frank cursed as he panted, his bulletproof vest failing to protect a nasty gash on his exposed right arm—courtesy of a vampire during their last charge.
"Sir, we need to move. You blew the staircase, but vampires can still take the elevator."
Frank frowned. "Yeah... I know."
He patched his wound quickly, then used the butt of his rifle to smash open the emergency exit door.
But the second it opened, both of their faces froze.
The entire ninth floor was a vampire den. Just the ones in the hallway outnumbered every vampire they'd run into on the lower floors—combined.
The vampires turned, like hungry wolves spotting fresh meat, and charged. Frank and Nathan didn't hesitate—they pulled their triggers.
"What now, sir?" Nathan asked. He was terrified, but the fear only made him more focused.
"Where exactly is that emergency exit?"
"Right next to the big office. It's in the center of the floor!"
Frank looked at the two spare mags he had left. "Not a lot of bullets. We're charging through!"
"Got it!"
Nathan had found his fighting spirit. He was still scared, but now he had the guts to go down swinging.
They rushed toward the center of the floor and soon reached the main hall.
Vampires swarmed in, nearly all of them crowding in from every corner, surrounding Frank and Nathan. But oddly, none of them attacked just yet.
"Well, well... I was wondering what little rats dared to cause trouble in my house. Turns out, it's the famous Punisher."
A man in a suit stepped out—it was the head of the company, and clearly a high-ranking vampire.
"And hey—aren't you that new employee? Surprised you're still alive."
Nathan was stunned. He'd finally landed a job… only to find out it was in a vampire nest.
"Yuster Alanka, you've committed quite a few sins," Frank said coldly. This guy was already on his kill list.
"Haha, I've heard all about the Punisher. The guy who kills anyone with a guilty conscience. But tell me—can you kill me today?"
Yuster clapped his hands—and the vampires attacked.
RATATATATATA!
Frank emptied his clip into the crowd, but there were just too many of them now. The bullets didn't even slow them down.
CLINK!
Just as they were about to be overwhelmed, a metal canister rolled into the crowd—then burst into brilliant light, turning dozens of vampires to ash.
"Who's there?!"
"Someone here to end you."
"....."