Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: 045. Vampire Detective
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“Superpowers...! You’re a progenitor?!”
It wasn’t surprising. Progenitor vampires were surprisingly common.
A vampire who sucked the blood of five fellow vampires would awaken as a progenitor. These were called wild progenitors, but since their awakening came from cannibalizing their own kind, they were despised and shunned by other vampires. A regular vampire sucking a progenitor’s blood would awaken as one immediately.
“Yeah. But are you really human? How can you block all my attacks? That’s not human reflex speed.”
The whip knife slumped on the floor shrank back down.
Extending and contracting. It seemed he could control it freely.
He swung the knife at me again. The blade extended like a whip. He handled two knives at once with insane proficiency.
Clang!Clang!Clang!
Parrying the whip knives by angling my sword every which way wasn’t hard. The problem was getting close. Whenever I tried to close the distance, the curved knives would sweep around in a circle, trying to lasso me like a noose.
Damn. Annoying. Should I just go for it...? No. Let’s end this quick and clean.
I fell back first. Without Acceleration active, even that would’ve been tough.
“...Running away?”
“Who’s running.”
I pulled out my smartphone. Ended Playful Life, returned to reality, and took an item from my inventory. There was a slight opening in the process, but luckily he was readjusting his stance too.
“......A revolver? From your smartphone? What’s the trick?”
“No trick. What you see is what you get.”
I aimed the revolver at him. A vampire hunter’s weapon. The bullets were silver rounds, a vampire’s weakness. No matter how much physical prowess or superpowers a progenitor had, silver was still their kryptonite.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
I emptied all six rounds.
Just one solid hit, and he’d be like a mosquito splattered by a flyswatter.
He twisted his body, dodging every bullet. Then he spotted the casings on the floor and frowned.
“Silver rounds...”
“......You bastard, you dodge like a pro.”
“Fired straight at from the front? Nothing to it. You’re the one who sucks at this. Even if I hadn’t dodged, you’d have only hit me with two. How do you miss so badly at this range?”
“First time shooting a gun...”
“Even for a beginner, that’s abysmal. You’ve got top-tier swordsmanship but zero talent for shooting.”
“Ah. Yeah. Sure.”
I casually replied and lobbed a grenade at him, pin pulled.
“Holy grenade!”
A custom triple-threat grenade packed with tiny silver pellets inside. Deadly to vampires. I bolted up the stairs, out of the blast radius.
BOOM!
The grenade exploded. I headed back down. No matter how good he was, the space was tight. Nowhere to dodge—he had to take the hit.
Not just any grenade, but an anti-vampire one. Even a progenitor’s gotta be at least moderately wounded.
But he was fine, against my expectations.
He’d expanded his knife blade into a massive wall, blocking the blast.
“Not just length... you can adjust the width freely too...!”
“That’s right.”
He assumed a stance. His aura had changed. The passive foe was now on the offensive.
“I was gonna probe for info while fighting... but you’re more dangerous than I thought. Time to go all out and kill you.”
He charged. Slightly slower than me with Acceleration. Four minutes left on the buff. Plenty of time.
I unleashed Wall Stream from Yeoncheon Style on him.
Clang!
The knife batted my sword away. It worked about halfway. But his combat sense and reflexes were better than expected.
“What’s that? Superpower...? No, swordsmanship. Messing with my distance perception... I didn’t know a style like this existed. Fun.”
He grinned. He was enjoying the fight itself.
And so was I. Not laughing-out-loud fun, but entertaining.
The guys upstairs were way too boring.
He wasn’t weaker or stronger than me. We were even. His physicals edged mine out a bit, but I had Acceleration and Yeoncheon Style.
If he’d been overwhelmingly strong, I’d have bolted... but this? Manageable.
He kept his distance, no close quarters, whipping the knives like lassos. Proof he feared my Yeoncheon Style.
...That ability. Such a pain.
Suddenly stretching, suddenly shrinking. Couldn’t let my guard down. Lose sight of the knife for a second, and that extended blade would coil around me for sure.
Time to use that. Never thought I’d need it.
Yeoncheon Style advanced technique: Swallow Dance.
My movements shifted. Before, I’d been tensed up, focused only on max speed to close in. Now my stance opened up, back straight.
I moved like I was dancing. No longer purely sharp aggression, but softness hiding lethality.
Clang! Clang! Clang-clang!
Parrying his knives, I inched closer.
“...Huh?”
He seemed flustered, swinging again. Faster this time, but I dodged or parried it all.
Swallow Dance focused on evasion and defense. Maximized footwork and body techniques. That’s why it looked like dancing.
Jin Se-young might use it offensively too, but I wasn’t that skilled yet.
Suddenly, I was right in his face.
“This is ridiculous...”
My sword sliced his body. He staggered but swung his knife at me. I ducked the club-thick blade and swung again.
The sword severed his leg, gashed his shoulder, then plunged into his heart.
“Gahk!”
He collapsed. Still tried swinging his arm, so I stomped his wrist with my sneaker.
“Just to check. Know the vault code?”
“49685817361.”
“......Oh. You actually told me. That’s bullshit, right?”
“The code’s real. Just needs fingerprint and iris scan too. You can’t move the vault alone, and destroying it here takes time. By then, backup arrives and turns you into Swiss cheese.”
“Heh.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at this guy seriously spouting that while dying.
“What’s so funny?”
“Feels like the heavens are on my side.”
Click.
The massive vault door swung open.
“What?!”
“Fingerprint, code—didn’t matter. Just asked to see if you’d spill.”
I swung my sword. His head came off. He’d been planning a counter with a hidden blade in his pocket pants, extending it. I’d spotted the subtle movement and anticipated it.
I kicked the corpse aside and eyed the vault.
It was half the size of my real-world studio apartment.
Couldn’t fit the whole thing in inventory. Inventory only held what I could physically carry. No matter the size, if I couldn’t lift it, no dice. Tested that before. But if I could lift it, even huge stuff went in.
Putting a massive 5-meter styrofoam box in once blew my mind.
“Whoa...”
Stepping inside, I let out a gasp.
Not just cash. Paintings, ceramics, art pieces, jewels, gold bars. Stacks of won and dollars.
“Damn, 1kg gold bars... over 200 of ‘em.”
Didn’t know exact prices, but remembered TV saying a 1kg bar went for 60 million won or so.
“Gold bars for real-world sale. Time to ditch the studio apartment.”
Packing stuff, I pondered uses.
New place: luxury officetel. Got too used to Hera’s pad—nothing but high-end appeals now.
Jewels on hold. Dollars to won. No US plans.
Art... gotta hit up Kang Wook-seong.
Stolen goods, hard to fence openly. Better to take a cut and use a pro broker. Safer, easier.
Packed everything. Hopped into the Benz parked out front. Keys were by the entrance—no need to frisk corpses.
“Making money’s this easy! Hahaha!”
Leaving the village, I stuck my hand out the window and flipped off the CCTV. Hope Kim Chun-seok sees it and rages.
Wow. No wonder people rave about foreign cars.
A bit of driving experience told me it outclassed domestics in every way.
Sweet. This is fun.
Winding mountain road, I kept 70kph, headlights barely lighting ahead. Anyone else? Nah. My reflexes made treacherous drives possible.
One slip, and it’s rollover or tree-smash. Maybe tumble down the cliff.
That’s the thrill.
I focused like during the progenitor knife fight.
Screech! Thud!
Cornering, something lunged out and hit the car. Unavoidable. Pitch-black night, mountain curve—couldn’t react.
“Crazy bastard!”
Spooked, I slammed the brakes and jumped out.
“Fuckin’ roe deer!”
Legs and neck mangled, tongue lolling, dead roe deer. I grimaced.
Gangwon roe deer were notoriously aggressive, they said.
This ain’t aggressive. It’s bullshit.
Front end badly crumpled. Cursed under my breath and got back in. Planned to slow down for roe deer.
Thirty seconds in, engine died.
“Huh? What’s up?”
Turned the key. Nothing. Roe deer impact must’ve fucked something.
Tried a few more times, gave up, got out. Hacking on cooldown.
Too late to head back up... walk down.
Short mountain stretch—soon hit the main road and my ride.
“Damn mosquito shits. Wanna catch ‘em all and burn ‘em. Roe deer too—rip ‘em apart. Fuck.”
Frustrated midway, bought a bike IRL, brought it in, rode down.
Wanted a bike, but no license.
Pedaling down, spotted another roe deer.
Pulled pistol from inventory, squeezed off rounds.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Muzzle flash, casings hitting ground. Emptied 17 rounds. Zero hits.
“......Tch.”
It dodged too, but my aim sucked. Like the vampire said. No shooting talent.
“Sigh. What a waste.”
Post-frenzy clarity hit hard. Ignored it, kept going. Good day—could forgive a roe deer.
But this damn thing didn’t flee. Stared and smirked at me.
Not paranoia. It smirked. Mocked me.
“You little shit!”
Ended up pulling the storied K2 assault rifle, Korea’s pride.
Night, dense woods. Roe deer fast. Burned five mags to drop it.
Sighed at my hopeless marksmanship, pulled out phone to store the gun.
“Obviously need this!”
Was gonna unlock, but only 12 points. Chose Hold.
Three times what Yeoncheon Style cost.
Quick think: Yeoncheon was specific martial art. Shooting covered all projectile firing—guns, launches, everything. Broader scope.
Gotta grind points fast for this.
Mood lifted. Made bank, bagged roe deer, shooting trait ready with points.
Whistling now. Mosquitoes annoying, but whatever.
Till I met another damn roe deer.