The Vampire Appears
The Irish Pub.
It sat on a neon-lit street in the eastern part of town. Women in revealing clothes lingered outside under glowing signs, waiting for customers. From time to time, men approached, whispered about prices, and slipped away with them into back rooms.
Xu Mo walked leisurely, his eyes roaming over the decadent scene.
"Why, are you interested?" Hill teased, watching him look around.
"I was just wondering if SHIELD reimburses this kind of thing," Xu Mo shot back.
Hill gave him a flat stare, speechless. She knew he was joking—after all, a billionaire with more than a hundred billion to his name hardly needed cheap entertainment.
Soon, they reached the entrance of the Irish Pub. From outside, the bar looked shabby, but stepping in revealed an entirely different world.
The bar was underground and sprawling. Dim lights glowed over a sea of people—hundreds of them. Music pounded, glasses clinked, laughter echoed.
Hill frowned. "What now? There are too many people. We can't tell who's human and who's not."
Xu Mo glanced around, unimpressed. "Leave it to me."
From his pocket, he produced a small sphere—an ultraviolet grenade from SHIELD's kit. Without hesitation, he armed it and lobbed it into the center of the bar.
"Close your eyes!" he barked at Hill.
Hill's eyes widened in horror. "Wait—!"
Too late.
Bang!
The grenade burst, flooding the underground chamber with blinding white light. The bar, once gloomy, shone like midday.
Screams erupted instantly.
"Ahhh!"
Dozens collapsed, writhing in agony. Xu Mo's HUD flickered with notifications.
> Killed hostile entity. +160 points.
Killed hostile entity. +210 points.
Killed hostile entity. +190 points.
More than a dozen prompts lit up in succession.
Xu Mo's eyes gleamed. So, vampires really are a goldmine. Easier to kill than people, worth more points.
When Hill dared open her eyes, she saw chaos. Nearly everyone was on the ground, clutching their faces, crying out in pain.
She glared at Xu Mo. "You blinded the entire bar!"
Xu Mo shrugged. "They'll recover. And SHIELD will file it as collateral damage from a counter-terrorist operation. They'll probably get paid vacations out of it. Some of them might even thank me later."
Before Hill could retort, Xu Mo surged forward, moving toward a far corridor.
He had seen it clearly—the ultraviolet flash had incinerated more than a dozen vampires instantly, reducing them to ash. But three had escaped by ducking into the corridor. Two were badly burned, their skin sizzling with smoke. Another, unscathed, dragged them deeper inside.
Hill sighed and followed, shaking her head.
---
Inside the corridor, the wounded vampires staggered, hissing in pain. Smoke curled from their charred flesh. They needed blood to heal, but dared not turn back—the man chasing them carried vampire-killer weapons.
"Go! I'll hold him!" snarled the uninjured one—a female vampire with feral yellow eyes. She shoved the others forward and whirled around. Her fangs extended, gleaming in the dim light.
She roared and lunged. "I'll drain you dry, boy!"
Xu Mo barely moved. A casual flick of his hand bent her limbs grotesquely. Bones snapped, her body crumpling to the floor. Even in agony, she snarled and tried to bite him.
"You really are good at sucking," Xu Mo muttered coldly. He shoved the muzzle of his silver-loaded pistol into her mouth.
Bang!
She disintegrated into ash.
> Killed hostile entity. +180 points.
Xu Mo holstered his weapon and smirked. "Three seconds. That's all my pistol needs."
Then he advanced.
---
The two scorched vampires were fleeing in blind terror. The echoes of gunfire and screams behind them only spurred them faster. They barreled into an elevator at the end of the corridor, hammering the "close door" button frantically.
The doors inched shut. Relief washed over them—until the "open door" button suddenly lit up on its own.
The doors slid back.
"Wardfa!!" one howled, panic twisting his face. They slammed the close button again, but the moment the doors began to seal, the "open" button glowed once more.
"Damn it! If I survive this, I'll tear the bastard who installed this elevator apart!"
A cold voice answered from outside.
"I'm afraid you won't get that chance."
Xu Mo's silhouette loomed at the threshold, his figure ghostly in the dim light.