Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Vampire Detective
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: 018. Vampire Detective
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“Fuck!”
The curse escaped my lips before I could even process the frustration boiling over in my chest, a raw outburst of pure disbelief that echoed through the thin walls of my room. Almost instantly, the man living in the unit right next to mine screamed back with equal ferocity, barking at me to shut the hell up and keep my voice down. For a fleeting, heated moment, I genuinely considered bursting through his door and slamming a fist into his face to silence him permanently, but I forced my muscles to relax and let the impulse fade because I knew that, regardless of my anger, this pathetic situation was my current reality.
‘You little piece of shit. Just you wait; I’m going to hack into your life again later, and this time, I won’t just stop at you—I’ll find a way to wreck your entire family’s reputation while I’m at it.’
I dragged my focus back to the potential check results, trying my absolute hardest to find a silver lining in the cloud of disappointment that had settled over me.
‘If I’m being honest with myself, all of my true potential was already concentrated within the Playful Life app anyway, so maybe this doesn’t matter as much as it feels like it does.’
With the Playful Life app at my fingertips, I possessed the unique power to acquire legendary skills and boost my physical and mental stats to heights most people could only dream of, and hell, the app had even managed to physically enhance the size of my dick. In a very literal sense, the Playful Life app wasn't just a tool; it was a potential-granting ability that surpassed any natural talent I could have been born with.
‘I’ve got the most powerful app in existence, so why should I care about some arbitrary potential rating... fuck, it still stings though.’
Even with that logic, staring at a screen that told me I had absolutely zero potential felt like a massive load of bullshit that was hard to swallow.
Someone looking from the outside might call me greedy for wanting more when I already had so much, but the truth is that human greed knows no bounds, and once you have something, it becomes a given, leaving you to crave only the things that remain just out of your reach.
‘Ah, the tragic comedy of humanity.’
I tapped on the app management icon, deciding it was time to check in and see if my digital avatar was successfully raking in the cash I desperately needed.
I lifted the pause on the Vampire Detective play scenario and hit the auto-play button to see how the simulation would unfold.
On the screen, my avatar glanced briefly at a piece of paper sitting next to his monitor, let out a mocking smirk, crumpled the note into a tight ball, and tossed it into the trash can with complete indifference.
-Ah, I really want to head back to Yeonghyejeong again, but I’m completely broke and this work is becoming such a tedious drag... Should I just say screw it and call a call girl with my remaining 300,000 won?
The avatar immediately fired up his high-level hacking skill, remotely seizing control of the computer to start a serious, dedicated search for call girls operating in Seoul, looking like he was moments away from actually making the call.
“...Yeah, look at that. The avatar is literally just mimicking my own impulses and actions with terrifying precision.”
I slammed the pause button before he could actually go through with the transaction, realizing I had more important things to focus on first.
“I can deal with the money situation later, but for right now, I absolutely need to rewatch Vampire Detective from the very first episode to refresh my memory.”
I had caught the premiere of the show live last year when it first aired, and while I remembered the broad strokes of the plot, I realized I was completely blank on the specific details, side characters, and the deeper lore of that world.
My plan was simple: rewatch every single minute from episode one to gather as much actionable intelligence and information as possible.
“If the universe is going to let me snag future information this easily, then I would be an absolute idiot not to use it to my advantage.”
I dove headfirst into the drama, but as I watched, I couldn't help but realize how much it actually sucked; I used to stay up late for the live streams, glued to the screen in anticipation, but now it felt as dull and uninspired as dishwater.
The lead actress didn't have any real appeal back then, and she certainly didn't have any now, though I did recall that while Kim Jung-mi had relatively small breasts, she managed to look incredibly hot in several other roles she had taken on.
‘Maybe she just feels boring here because she’s playing such a bland, cookie-cutter heroine that doesn't allow her to show any personality.’
Then, a very familiar face suddenly popped up on the screen, catching me off guard.
“Whoa... Shin Hye-jin. Just seeing her face on the screen immediately makes me think of her tits and her pussy; I remember her areolas were surprisingly large... I wonder what the real-life version of Shin Hye-jin actually looks like down there.”
The curiosity was gnawing at me, making me feel like I was dying to know the truth of the matter.
I wanted nothing more than to be able to pin her down right this second and check every inch of her body to see if the simulation was accurate.
“Oh Ji-hye! I remember now, she’s got a distinct mole right on her asshole!”
Of course, that specific piece of information came directly from my experiences within the play world.
“Na A-yeon! She has inverted nipples that only pop out and become firm when she’s really turned on!”
The actress Na A-yeon was a married woman and a mother in the real world, yet I clearly remembered seeing pubic hair growing near her asshole in the simulation; the idea of a top-tier, elegant actress having ass hair seemed so bizarre that I wondered if it could possibly be for real.
Then the madam of Yeonghyejeong, Kim Mi-ok, appeared on screen, and a quick internet search revealed her real name was Yoon Kyung-joo and she was currently 48 years old.
“Whoa. Are you kidding me? To have a face that looks like that at 48 years old is absolutely insane; is she an actual vampire in real life or something?”
Yoon Kyung-joo didn't have any of the ass hair that Na A-yeon possessed, but her pussy was notably bushier and more lushly covered.
Online, she was always seen wearing long, elegant skirts or conservative pants, never once exposing her legs to the public, and she had built a reputation for being one of the most modestly dressed celebrities in the industry.
Her most revealing look to date had been at the year-end awards where she wore a dress with just a slight cutout in the back, which was hardly enough to confirm if the real actress’s body matched her digital counterpart with total accuracy.
But what if it did? What if these real-life actresses possessed the exact same physical traits and private details as the characters in the play?
‘...I need to check out the idol group content too. Do variety shows count as playable creations? They probably do. Or maybe music videos would work...’
I continued to watch the drama with only half of my attention, my mind racing with the possibilities.
“Huh, wait, that’s her...”
I pointed at one of the girls working at Yeonghyejeong who was just a passing extra in the background; specifically, she was the one who had sucked my dick during the king’s game, and I vividly remembered the mole under her left nipple and her unusually large clitoris.
“And there’s the other one...”
It was the girl who had ridden me fifty times during that same king’s game, and I remembered she had a very distinct butterfly-shaped burn scar on her inner thigh.
From that moment on, all my lethargy vanished and I sat up ramrod straight, my eyes laser-focused on every frame of the drama.
Yeah, I realized now.
Dramas aren't just about the big-name stars; they are filled with supporting roles, extras, and cameos, and while most might not be stunning, you never know what kind of hidden gems you might find, so I began to memorize every single one of them.
Memorize them all. Mem... Wait. Didn’t I actually manage to get Shin Hye-jin’s phone number during my time in the play world?
A wild thought occurred to me: maybe that number actually worked in real life too?
An impulsive urge hit me, and before I could talk myself out of it, I grabbed my smartphone and dialed the digits I had committed to memory.
The line connected with a faint click, and my heart skipped a beat when I realized someone had actually picked up the call.
-Hello?
The voice that answered was unmistakably male, and the disappointment hit me like a physical punch to the gut.
“Is this Shin Hye-jin? Did I dial the wrong number?”
-Nope, you definitely didn't.
“Sorry, I must have misdialed.”
I hung up the phone and let out a long, frustrated sigh, thinking that maybe the physical reality of Shin Hye-jin and Hera were totally different after all; the discrepancy was so vast I couldn't even begin to imagine how it worked.
‘Wait a second.’
Another realization struck me with the force of a lightning bolt.
‘Actresses don’t just stick to one single project their entire lives.’
Popular leading ladies easily shoot four or five different projects in a single year, and even with breaks, doing only one per year was considered a very light schedule in the industry.
I Googled Shin Hye-jin’s filmography and found way more dramas and films than I had initially expected, though she had only done two movies and both were very minor bit parts.
I fired up the Playful Life app once more and began skimming through the list of playable creations to see what else was there.
‘If Shin Hye-jin’s pussy looks exactly the same as Hera’s in other play worlds, then there’s no way it's a coincidence...’
From now on, I refused to believe in coincidences; my plan was to enter their specific play worlds, track them down, fuck them, and then bail once I had confirmed the truth.
But then reality crashed down on me again; out of all the playable creations currently available to me, none of them besides Vampire Detective featured Shin Hye-jin or any of the other actresses I was looking for. Zero.
“Haa.”
I let out a heavy, soul-weary sigh and went back to the chore of rewatching the drama.
“Ah! Bro! Seriously, I’m absolutely losing my mind these days!”
It was that guy from next door again, ruining the silence with his loud-mouthed problems.
I was almost ready to yell back at him, but then I remembered the dire straits he was in and curiosity got the better of me, so I paused the drama, pressed my ear firmly against the wall, and focused on the muffled conversation.
“...No, I took the pictures, yeah, I admit that... But I swear I didn’t post them to the KakaoTalk group! I wasn’t even drunk! Who the fuck in their right mind would invite all those girls to a single chat and then post that kind of incriminating shit?! I’m telling you, I got hacked!”
Heh heh.
I peeled myself off the wall quickly as a wave of laughter bubbled up in my throat, and I had to clamp my mouth shut with both hands to keep from being heard.
I finally had the full, hilarious picture of what was going on.
“I already tried reporting it to the cyber crimes division! I really did! But No A-young says that if she has to go through with a report, she’s going to report me for taking the photos in the first place!”
No A-young: she was clearly the girl whose nudes he had snapped without her permission.
‘Reporting it would mean having to show the nudes to the actual cops, which would be incredibly embarrassing, and it was likely the same situation for most of the other girls too.’
What an absolute, Grade-A dumbass.
I sneered toward the wall, thinking that if he had just been a bit quieter and hadn't subjected me to his noise pollution, none of this would have ever happened to him.
“Bro! Please! I can work, you know I’m good at what I do! It won’t happen again, I swear I’ll stay quiet! It’s hard to find a mask as good as mine in this business, right?”
It sounded like he was talking to his boss, and from the tone of it, the neighbor was likely getting the “don’t bother coming in tomorrow” speech.
“Bro! Please! We’ve known each other for five years!”
He was pleading now, his voice crackling with desperation.
“Fuck, I’m telling you I didn’t do it! I was hacked!!”
Then came the explosive rage as he realized he was losing the argument.
“...Please. It’s my bad. Please. I really want to keep working there. Yeah? I don’t have any savings to fall back on...”
And finally, the pathetic begging of a man who had hit rock bottom.
“......Fine.”
He sounded completely resigned to his fate, defeated by his own stupidity.
“Fuuuuck!”
He let out a final, agonizing yell, and I decided it was the perfect time to yell right back at him.
“Shut up!!”
“...What the fuck, you asshole?! Do you seriously want to die?!”
The neighbor was clearly furious and looking for anyone to vent his frustrations on.
I got it; he was in a shit situation and was absolutely pissed, wanting to lash out, but he was making a big mistake trying to do that to a total stranger like me.
“You’re the one who looks like he wants to die!”
“Then come out here and say it to my face!”
“You really think I won’t?!”
I grabbed a pair of pants—since I was still completely naked—and stormed out of my room into the hallway.
I was a Hunter aspirant after all, and while official Hunters were required to avoid clashes with civilians per the strict Hunter Law, I wasn't official yet, which meant that legally, I was just a civilian who could do whatever the hell I wanted.
Bang! Bang!
We both burst out of our respective rooms at almost the exact same time, and I immediately smirked when I saw him.
The neighbor had a handsome enough face, but his body was scrawny and weak, and he was at least 5cm shorter than I was, while I possessed a decent amount of hard-earned muscle from my training.
The moment we made eye contact, his blind rage instantly flipped into visible tension, and his entire face went stiff with realization.
I let out a dark chuckle.
“Fuck. Your yelling is echoing all over this floor. If you have to take calls, take them outside the building. If I hear even one more peep of your shitty voice through that wall, I’ll come over there and kill you myself. Do you got that?”
“Y... Yes. S-sorry about that.”
I slammed my door shut and walked back into my room.
A dark, satisfied smile played on my lips now that I had learned his situation was even worse than I had initially thought, and the knowledge made me feel immensely better.
‘Fine, I won’t wreck his family just yet.’
His life was already half-ruined as it was, and watching him suffer like this was enough for now.
Late that night.
The protagonist of Vampire Detective, Moon Ji-hyuk, was currently stuck on a grueling stakeout.
He sat hunched low in the dim interior of the car, his eyes never leaving the house he was watching, while his partner had run off to the nearby sauna, leaving Ji-hyuk hoping that he’d at least have the decency to grab some snacks on the way back.
“...When the hell is this guy finally going to make a move?”
The suspect was a man in his 30s who was the prime suspect in a murder case; he had allegedly pushed a woman to her death in a nightclub bathroom and then fled the scene immediately.
It was a circumstantial slam dunk, but they desperately needed some form of hard, physical evidence before they could secure a proper warrant for his arrest.
“Hoo...”
Ji-hyuk glanced into the rearview mirror, and a handsome but gloomy-looking guy stared back at him from the glass.
His skin was unnaturally pallid, possessing a lifeless quality that didn't look healthy at all.
When he parted his lips slightly, a pair of razor-sharp fangs were visible, teeth that were far too sharp to ever belong to a normal human being.
‘A vampire...’
Just a few days ago, he had been cornered by a vampire in a dark alley, where the creature had sunk its fangs into his neck and nearly drained him dry; only a passing car had spooked the monster off, otherwise, he would be dead and buried by now.
He had survived the encounter, but he had turned into a vampire himself, a secret he had been forced to hide from everyone he knew.
‘So vampires are actually real...’
He had spent the last few days researching and testing the limits of his new, strange body.
The reality of his condition diverged significantly from the popular vampire fiction he was used to.
During the day: he was still able to move around, but his body felt incredibly heavy and drained of energy, and his physical abilities dropped significantly below the human average.
During the night: he possessed a level of superhuman strength that made it absurd to even try and compare him to a normal person.
The first time he tried to jump, he was shocked to find he could clear over a meter without any run-up at all, and if he really focused his energy, he could clear two meters with ease.
‘I can still eat human food, and I can sleep normally at night; the only visible changes are that my fangs are sharper and my skin is paler, and that’s really it.’
He hadn't felt any overwhelming bloodlust yet, and symbols like the cross didn't seem to affect him, nor did garlic, as he had eaten an entire serving of garlic chicken just hours ago without any ill effects.
‘As much as I hate to admit it, this vampire body is objectively superior to my old one.’
The daytime might suck, but at night he felt like he could fly, and he estimated he could probably handle five to seven grown men at once without even needing a weapon.
‘But I don’t want to be a monster.’
In his mind, vampires were monsters and bloodsuckers, and he was a detective dedicated to upholding the law.
‘There has to be a way to become human again, but to find it, I need more information on vampires, and I need to catch the bastard who did this to me.’
The problem was that he had no idea where to start looking, especially since most people in the world denied that vampires even existed, making his investigation incredibly tough sledding.
‘...Should I reach out and ask Taker?’
Taker.
He was a high-level hacker that Ji-hyuk had met while chasing down a scammer last year.
At first, he had intended to bust the guy as a cop, but since it was outside his jurisdiction, he had passed on the arrest and quickly learned that Taker was actually one of the top information brokers in the underworld.
The guy sold top-tier intelligence dirt cheap—charging only 300,000 won for information that would normally take days of pounding the pavement to uncover.
Ji-hyuk had changed his mind about him, realizing that in this world, information power was the only thing that was real, and he decided it was time to make a deal with the hacker.
‘Taker might actually know something about where the vampires are hiding... but how much is he going to charge me for that? 500,000...?’
That was a steep price for an average guy like him, and he pondered deeper as he sat in the silence of the stakeout.