William stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of his apartment.
The name "Jessica Jones" on his phone screen felt like a hot potato.
Call or not?
If he called, what would he say?
"Hey, you left over a hundred bucks on my nightstand last night, what's that supposed to mean? Looking down on me?"
Just thinking about asking that, he felt his lower back start to ache again.
Ultimately, he still dialed the number.
"Beep... beep... beep..."
The call was forwarded to voicemail. A lazy, extremely impatient female voice spoke:
"This is Jessica Jones. If it's a case, leave a message. If not, hang up. I'm not drunk."
William silently hung up.
Alright, you win.
But he still couldn't resist.
Late at night, he wandered to Hell's Kitchen and stood before that familiar door with "Alias Investigations" printed on its glass.
He raised his hand to knock, then lowered it.
Mechanical Induction quietly activated.
Electronic devices within a fifty-meter radius transformed into translucent blueprints in his eyes.
It was empty inside.
Even the desk lamp's power cord was unplugged.
No one was there.
"Alright, you're tough."
William muttered to the empty office.
"I'll consider that hundred-plus bucks as compensation for emotional distress, and I'll go buy the best back brace later."
He turned and left.
His mood was neither good nor bad.
Walking back to his apartment.
William carried a freshly bought pizza.
As he rounded a street corner, a bone-chilling coldness struck him without warning.
It wasn't a delusion.
It was the locked-on sensation of being targeted by a venomous snake!
His muscles instantly tensed.
He slowly turned his head.
A figure slowly emerged from the shadows of the alley.
Tall, slender.
Wearing a black, form-fitting long dress.
Her pale skin glowed with a moon-like coldness under the streetlights.
She was beautiful, a sickly beauty with a sense of decay.
But William's attention was entirely on her eyes, which flickered with hungry red light, and the two overly sharp canines that showed when her lips parted.
Another Vampire.
And judging by her demeanor, she seemed... a bit more refined than the male one last time?
"Human."
The female Vampire spoke.
"I smell your scent on you. That night, you were with my husband."
The alarm bells in William's head grew louder.
Husband?
He immediately recalled the unlucky fellow who was stomped to smithereens by Moon Knight and then burned to ash.
No, big sister, you need to understand the situation!
"Wait a minute! You've got the wrong person!"
William immediately raised his hands, trying to explain.
"The one who pulverized your husband was a tough guy dressed like a mummy!"
"He even had a big moon on his chest! There's a perpetrator and a victim, you should go find him for a romantic midnight revenge, not me, an innocent, defenseless insurance agent!"
"Shut up!"
The female Vampire shrieked, and her figure blurred instantly.
She wasn't listening to explanations!
A The fishy wind blows in my face came.
A pale hand with sharp nails shot straight for William's throat!
Too fast!
William's pupils contracted sharply due to extreme danger.
But what surged into his heart was not pure despair, but a ferocity born of being cornered.
His brain completed tactical analysis within 0.1 seconds.
Run?
The opponent's speed was clearly overwhelming.
Beg for mercy?
The opponent clearly wasn't listening.
The only way out was in his own fists!
Trajectory Prediction!
The female Vampire's movements were forcibly slowed down in William's eyes.
The trajectory of that pale hand's thrust transformed into a blurry, decipherable red dashed line, pointing directly at his throat.
He didn't retreat; instead, his body suddenly dropped to the left, while his right shoulder slammed forward.
This was a movement completely contrary to a normal person's instinct to dodge, more like a brutal tackle in American football.
"Pfft—"
The sharp nails almost scraped his neck skin, the wind they created stinging his skin.
His shoulder now solidly impacted the female Vampire's ribs.
"Bang!"
A dull thud.
The female Vampire let out a short cry of pain.
It didn't feel like hitting flesh and blood, but more like hitting a rapidly moving brick wall.
Her seemingly elegant figure staggered from the brute force impact, stumbling two or three steps sideways before regaining her balance.
A flicker of disbelief and shock flashed in her eyes.
This human... has strength?
"Crazy woman! I told you, you've got the wrong person!"
William roared.
He didn't pause; seizing the moment of her shock, he stomped his right foot on the ground and lunged back at her!
His current goal was clear.
He had to incapacitate the opponent in the shortest possible time, in the most effective way.
The female Vampire clearly hadn't expected this "prey" to dare counterattack, and after the shock came the furious rage of being offended.
She shrieked and charged again.
This time, her hands transformed into ten deadly cold lights, crisscrossing as they clawed at William's chest and face.
Her speed was still very fast, but with the aid of Trajectory Prediction, William could barely keep up with her rhythm.
He didn't dare to meet her head-on, only able to constantly dodge clumsily by turning sideways and ducking.
"Shred!"
The sleeve of his left arm was torn open.
Three claw marks appeared on the foolproof plan arm guard on his forearm, emitting an ear-piercing metallic scraping sound, with sparks flying.
The sturdy diamond lattice coating on the armor's surface didn't even leave a white mark.
Good thing he was wearing this thing today, otherwise this arm would have been dog food.
"Your toy is good."
A hint of greed flashed in the female Vampire's eyes, and her offensive intensified.
"I'll strip it from your corpse!"
She lunged forward, opening her mouth, those two fangs gleaming ominously in the dim light, heading straight for William's carotid artery!
Too close, he couldn't dodge!
A fierce glint flashed in William's eyes.
No more dodging!
He suddenly raised his left arm, using the foolproof plan's armor to forcefully block the opponent's lower jaw, preventing the fatal bite.
At the same time, his right hand, which had been poised, instantly lit up!
Arc Pulse!
"Sizzle sizzle sizzle—"
A highly concentrated ball of blue-white electric light erupted in his palm, as if he were holding an angry thunderball.
He used all his strength to slam this ball of electricity onto the female Vampire's chest!
"Ah—!"
A piercing, inhuman shriek echoed through the alley.
The female Vampire's body convulsed violently as if struck by high voltage electricity.
Muscles beneath her black dress tensed, her body stiffening uncontrollably.
A unique aura instantly spread.
The agonizing numbness and intense pain instantly drained her of all strength, and William kicked her in the abdomen.
She flew backward, crashing heavily against the wall at the end of the alley, sliding to the ground, her body still trembling slightly.
William gasped for breath, his chest heaving violently.
He looked at the female Vampire collapsed on the ground, without the slightest relaxation.
He knew that this level of attack, for a Vampire, was at most a severe injury, definitely not fatal.
His inner Tucao Soul burned fiercely again:
"Big sister, I'm really not familiar with your husband! I'm an insurance agent, not a matchmaker, and certainly not a one-stop funeral service! This is a typical case of displaced aggression, an extremely irrational consumer behavior!"
The female Vampire struggled to lift her head, her pale, beautiful face now etched with pain and resentment.
The clothes on her chest were scorched, revealing a patch of charred burn marks on her skin.
"You... you're not an ordinary person!"
Her voice was hoarse and trembling, and in her red eyes, doubt and alarm replaced the previous savagery.
"Only just realizing that? Too late!"
How could William let go of this opportunity to hit a dog while it's down?
The front of the foolproof plan, at the knuckle, suddenly sprang open.
"Whoosh!"
A non-lethal stun probe, shimmering with blue electric arcs, shot out at high speed, accurately embedding itself in the female Vampire's thigh.
Another jolt of electricity, instantly dissipating the little strength she had just gathered, causing her to let out another suppressed groan of pain.
William approached step by step.
He wasn't some hero; he was just an ordinary person who wanted to survive.
And the one before him was a monster who wanted his life.
There was no need for mercy towards monsters.
-------------------------------
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