The alley was deathly silent.
Only William Rodriguez's heavy breathing and the female Vampire's suppressed, current-like groans remained.
The only light source was the dying streetlamp at the alley's entrance.
The dim yellow light stretched the two confronting Shadows long, like two monstrous Beasts with bared fangs and claws, imprinted on the damp brick wall.
The female Vampire raised her face.
Resentment and unwillingness were like two venomous snakes.
Deep in her pupils, a hint of fear, impossible to conceal, lurked.
William looked at her lingering resentment and killing intent, his mind as clear as a mirror.
The other party hadn't heard a single word.
This female Vampire's mind had been burned out by hatred.
What was even more troublesome was...
William thought, this madwoman has seen my trump card—the ability of a 'foolproof plan'.
For someone like me, who treats 'staying alive' as a KPI, leaving such an enemy isn't just signing my own death warrant, is it?
The kind where the beneficiary is the King of Hell.
This risk exposure must be closed immediately.
Not a second can wait.
I'm no saint.
Having been overworked to death in the workplace in my previous life, I already understood one truth.
Showing kindness to someone who wants to kill you is simply asking for trouble.
He just wanted to live.
He wanted to sit on the sofa, with the air conditioner on, drinking an iced cola.
Not debating who was more of a monster with a crazy woman in a dark alley in a godforsaken place like New York in the middle of the night.
Since reason wouldn't work, he could only use his fists to physically shut her up.
The female Vampire struggled.
A low, Beast-like growl, each syllable filled with venom, squeezed from her throat.
"Do you think this will scare me?"
"Foolish human! I remember your scent! I will find you sooner or later, find where you sleep, drain every single person around you, and then slowly enjoy you!"
"Shut up!"
William brutally interrupted her, without a hint of extra expression on his face.
"I'm someone who hates overtime the most, and you are seriously encroaching on my off-duty time, and trying to add future KPIs that I absolutely don't want to deal with."
He was too lazy to utter another word of nonsense, stepping forward.
The palm of his right hand lit up again.
This time, the blue-White electric Light in his palm didn't explode; instead, it seemed to be tightly clutched by an invisible hand, constantly compressing inward.
The dull 'hum' sound made one's scalp tingle just listening to it.
The smell of burnt ozone in the air became even more pungent.
It stung his nose.
The female Vampire's pupils suddenly constricted to a pinpoint.
Resentment and madness instantly receded completely, leaving only the most primal, purest fear, as if seeping from her bones.
She instinctively felt that what was hidden in that ball of Light was not meant to injure her, but to completely 'delete' her from this World.
That thing was no longer electricity, nor Fire.
It could directly 'format' me, leaving not even a speck of dust!
"No... don't!"
She pleaded for the first time, but it was already too late.
"Ah ah ah—!"
A scream tore through her throat.
The sound was so piercing it seemed to pierce one's eardrums.
Just as it reached its highest note, it 'snapped' and broke off.
As if someone had choked her.
William's face was as cold as iron, his hand not hesitating in the slightest.
He directly pressed the extremely condensed thunder-Light into her chest.
The strong Light burst!
The Vampire's body twisted and shattered like an over-inflated doll.
Her black dress was the first to burn to ash.
Then her skin, muscles, bones.
Layer by layer, they were 'eaten' away by the Light.
In the blink of an eye, her entire being, along with her previous scream, was decomposed into the finest dust.
The entire process was clean and swift, taking no more than three seconds.
When William released his hand.
In her place, only a small pile of fine, still slightly warm black ashes remained.
The non-lethal taser probe that had been fired earlier was still stuck in the ashes, all alone.
The night wind blew past.
It stirred the black ashes into a swirl in the air before they completely dissipated into the dirty air of New York.
As if nothing had happened here.
The alley fell silent again.
Only the old streetlamp remained lit.
Like a silent eye, it had watched the entire farce.
"Hoo... hoo..."
William leaned on his knees, breathing heavily.
That last attack had almost drained half his life; he felt as if his entire arm wasn't his own anymore.
Both sore and numb.
He had just... personally vaporized a living being.
Although the other party was a Vampire, a monster who wanted his life.
But no matter what the other party was, the feeling of personally turning something that moved and screamed into ash still made him feel an indescribable awkwardness from his gut to his brain.
He was not a hero, much less an executioner.
He was just an insurance agent who wanted to establish himself in a crisis-ridden big city and earn a little money.
But this damned World always forced him to do things beyond his scope of business.
William silently bent down to pick up the taser probe, wiped it, and put it back into his armor.
He looked down at his hands.
These hands signed multi-million dollar insurance policies during the day.
At night, they could conjure lightning to burn people to ash.
A thought suddenly popped into his head:
How different are you now from that madwoman just now?
But as soon as the thought emerged, it was kicked away by an even more brutal thought.
"Stop being so melodramatic, William."
He muttered to himself in the empty alley.
As if convincing his still nauseated self.
"Internal risk assessment, first point: That madwoman attacked first and threatened to wipe out my entire family, a fight to the death. Risk level: Highest."
"Second point: Reasoning with her is like talking to a brick wall. Peaceful resolution, PASS."
"Third point, and the most crucial: She's seen my trump card. Letting her go is like burying a mine for my future self, who knows when it'll blow me and my apartment sky-high."
"Conclusion: Account termination. This isn't murder; this is risk control, emergency stop-loss. To survive, this is what you have to do."
He thought of the Hawaiian pizza he had just bought, which was probably stone cold by now.
He thought of Jessica Jones's scowling face.
He thought of his apartment with its dazzling city night view.
To continue seeing the screwed-up scenery of this rotten World, doing some dirty work didn't seem like such a big deal.
He was not a Our Lady , nor could he become a hero.
He was just William Rodriguez.
A transmigrator striving to survive.
A meticulous insurance agent.
Thinking this way, the nausea in his stomach really subsided, replaced by the calm after finishing a tricky job.
He straightened his back.
He casually tugged down his torn sleeve.
It truly felt like he had just dealt with a deadly customer complaint and, incidentally, saved the company a large sum in claims.
He looked around.
After confirming that no traces were left, he turned and walked steadily towards the alley's entrance.
He felt as if the woman's resentful gaze from before her death was still fixed on him from the Shadow behind him.
But he was too lazy to even turn his head.
From tonight onwards, some things had completely changed.
His bottom line had once again been pushed back a significant step by this World.
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