Chapter 35
Chapter 35
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Earth's Vampires (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
‘Huh, this is getting interesting?’
The betrayal I’d half-suspected.
I wondered if that guy was under Gamma’s mental control, but there didn’t seem to be any sign of it.
“...Kuhk, Minyoung! Why you... Why?!”
Jin Soran rolled across the floor, her spine shattered.
With enough time, a vampire’s regenerative powers could heal it, but that wasn’t happening right now.
Meanwhile, Gamma’s underlings rushed at her, brandishing long skewers.
“Kuhk, [Get lost!]”
Boom—!
A shockwave erupted with her shout.
The charging vampires were flung back.
But her resistance didn’t last long.
“Kuhuh— You bastards...”
Skewers pierced her body from head to toe, her wounds froze solid, and pitch-black iron chains sealed away her ability.
No matter how strong she was, taking on everyone here after an ambush was impossible.
“Phew, that’s why I called you a greenhorn.”
Gamma sneered as he stepped forward.
Minyoung, who’d led the initial ambush, stood there with her arms crossed, just watching. Another comrade kept his eyes shut, pointedly ignoring her.
Her eyes trembled as she looked at her comrades, then she glared at Gamma as he approached.
“Peace? Sounds good. But you need power to protect it.”
He loomed over her slumped form and lectured her like a preacher.
“We’re strong. Way stronger than those livestock humans crawling all over the place. But we have to hide and watch our step around inferiors. All because of those disgusting hypocrites.”
“You’re out of your mind. Denying the days when you were human yourself? Just because you’re a vampire now?”
“Well... there was a time like that.”
Gamma flashed a bitter smile.
He didn’t seem to care what excuses she made.
“But we were chosen. We survived battlefields and endless slaughters to stand here today. All of us, right?”
He bellowed like he was giving a speech, glancing around.
Not just his comrades, but even the ones who’d come with Jin Soran nodded in agreement.
“So why should the likes of us put up with this? Forever? We can’t stand tall, can’t make a name for ourselves. Just hiding away, scraping by. Is there any meaning in a life like that?”
“Bullshit! It’s because you hardliners keep causing incidents that things turned out this way! If we’d compromised and talked it out from the start, we could’ve coexisted just fine!”
“Maybe that’s just your opinion. Could’ve been, who knows.”
Surprisingly, Gamma stayed calm even in the face of her retort.
“What do you think the moderates you’ve been running with all this time have to say?”
Jin Soran followed his gaze and turned toward the people who’d been her comrades.
One still had his eyes closed, ignoring the scene. Minyoung stood with her arms crossed, staring right at her.
Minyoung met her gaze steadily before speaking.
“We tried everything under the moderate policy, but nothing changed. So yeah, we got disillusioned. How long are we supposed to live like this? Our whole lives? After barely surviving that hell?”
“What’s done is done. This is the best we can do now.”
The one who’d kept his eyes closed finally muttered a few words.
Jin Soran squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head at their reactions.
Gamma savored her response for a moment before stepping forward again.
“We’re predators, to begin with. So why should we be the ones bowing? Yeah, our numbers are too low. That’s the biggest problem. Headcount is the real measure of influence, after all.”
Jin Soran hung her head while Gamma ranted, lost in his own world.
I leisurely sorted through the information as I watched the farce unfold.
A solid grasp on their criminal motives was valuable intel, after all.
“To get past that, we need power. Overwhelming power, more than we have now!”
But this wasn’t the other world.
I’d grown fast there thanks to growth bonuses, but coming back to Earth meant giving that up.
“We can’t rack up Karma anymore, can’t power-level like before! We’re stuck steadily sucking blood like the native vampires. And now they want to restrict even that? Ha! Blood packs?”
There was something ritualistic about directly sucking blood.
It wasn’t just about drinking blood for power. It was about stealing the victim’s life force, accumulating karma in the process—a ceremony of sorts that granted strength.
Blood packs without any mana could sate hunger at best, but they wouldn’t increase your power.
‘So it’s like a diet, huh?’
You could survive on blood packs alone.
But it was closer to mere subsistence, and over time, even your existing power would slowly fade.
“So we scoured for a way to grow fast, and we finally found it.”
Anyone with a brain could guess what he meant.
Jin Soran was no exception.
“You... you bastard. Did you touch the taboo?”
Where else would all those kidnapped vampires have gone?
Cannibalism.
The fastest, most reliable way for a vampire to grow strong.
But the side effects were worse than the gains.
It was the same in Outerica, but the stigma on Earth was on another level.
“It’s a taboo for a reason! Are you trying to repeat that tragedy?!”
Back in the early days of the returnee crisis.
There was chaos worldwide, including plenty of incidents caused by vampires.
Cannibalism was an unwritten rule across all dimensions, but some overcame it, grew strong, and returned to Earth.
Already half-mad, they kept attacking fellow vampires to get stronger even after coming back. And the result...
“You trying to create Mad Blood Vampires again?!”
Taking in blood from vampires of other dimensions caused their vampire factors to combine and evolve.
Recessive factors died out, dominant ones expressed, making them overwhelmingly stronger.
‘The problem is the extreme mental corruption that comes with it.’
An evolution at the genetic level naturally came with a price...
In the end, Mad Blood Vampires rampaged, drunk on blood, and the world raised alarms about the danger vampires posed.
That incident no doubt played a huge role in why vampires faced such persecution.
“The higher-ups won’t stand for it! No matter what strings you’ve got, you’ll all go down!”
Afterward, cannibalism became taboo on Earth, and Mad Blood Vampires became targets for extermination—even by other vampires.
To take on that kind of risk...
“Hear me out. Yeah, we used cannibalism.”
Gamma smirked with utter confidence.
“But after endless research and collaboration, we found a way to strip out the grudges in the blood as much as possible and grow safely. The effect’s weaker, sure, but it’s worth it.”
An achievement born from blood magic, black magic, shamanism, curses, alchemy—knowledge from every dimension.
They’d gotten plenty of outside help along the way, but if it worked, who cared?
‘...No wonder he was yapping like an exposition machine. He was scheming again.’
Standing back a step, I could clearly see the group reacting to his words.
The weak grew even more blindly devoted to him, and the strong were influenced too—the faint guilt lingering in Jin Soran’s betrayers had vanished.
“That satisfy your curiosity? And don’t worry about the leftovers. I don’t want to fight fellow bloodkin either.”
Time to wrap it up? Gamma knelt by her side and grabbed her by the hair.
“Those two agreed to cooperate, so your alibi’s covered. We’ll say you got killed by a Guardian on the way back.”
“Keep your promise. We risked getting caught following her here.”
“Of course. And thanks to you, we got some prime material. I’ll prioritize you for the medicine.”
He answered briskly, then looked down at Jin Soran’s pathetic state.
A woman whose values had clashed with his since their Nocternia days, constantly butting heads.
Knowing this was the end brought a mix of relief and regret.
“Well, it’s your last trip, so I’ll make it easy. Just sleep a bit, and it’ll be over quick.”
“You...!”
She tried to shout something, but she soon lost consciousness under the blood magic he poured into her.
He stood and ordered his men to drag her to the inner room.
“Sorry for the wait—unexpected stuff. You get the gist, right? My bad.”
Gamma turned to me with a smirk.
He was finally acknowledging my presence.
“Nah, it was pretty entertaining. No need to apologize.”
I lowered my mask and replied leisurely. His face stiffened for a split second.
He gave a quick glance to the subordinate at his side.
“...Level 5. Regeneration’s on the strong side, but nothing special.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Gamma regained his composure and walked over.
His lackey must have some kind of level-appraisal ability...
Purebloods from Outerica were roughly Level 5 or 6, it seemed.
“Bluffing? I don’t know how you shook off my suppression, but you think a lone Level 5 can escape this?”
Fair point.
I didn’t know their exact levels, but there were four Purebloods here, and the rest were at least Lesser Bloods.
If I’d planned to bolt, I should’ve moved while Jin Soran was still resisting.
‘Not that I need to anymore.’
I hadn’t planned to in the first place.
I’d gotten good intel this time. Time to put it to use myself.
“Let’s see... nine of you? If it’s that effective, I can’t wait to see how strong nine servings will make me.”
“...What the hell are you babbling about?”
My calm demeanor left Gamma looking uneasy.
“Didn’t you just explain it all so enthusiastically? The Mad Blood crisis happened for that reason. Learning this little secret’s made today pretty informative.”
“Just a lunatic after all...”
He gestured to his men like he was done talking to me.
They started closing in slowly at Gamma’s signal.
But their steps didn’t get far.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Shhh—
A sudden chill spread through the air.
The atmosphere grew heavy, pressing down.
Everyone present unconsciously held their breath, and for a moment, silence blanketed the room.
Those who snapped out of it late scanned their surroundings warily, but...
The entire inner wall of the building was already shrouded in darkness.
🗣️ VOICE FROM THE DARKNESS Your stealth was decent enough, but the security? Laughably poor. Hans slowly revealed himself from the shadows.
He’d gotten a little help from Heinz inside to pinpoint the barrier, but that hardly mattered now.
“...Hahoe Mask? How are you here?!”
Gamma cried out in shock.
He’d been supremely confident in his stealth, yet the barrier he’d painstakingly set up had been found out.
As he panicked and scanned the room, his eyes landed on Heinz—who’d been conspicuously calm from the start.
“You, you...! You brought him in...!”
He didn’t know what trick was used, but it had to be that guy’s doing.
Nothing else explained the attitude.
Someone else was just as rattled...
“G-G-Gamma-nim...!”
It was the guy who’d reported Heinz’s level.
Hans showed no sign of moving yet, so Gamma flicked his eyes toward him.
“T-This aura’s a first for me too, so I’m not sure...!”
“Spit it out already!”
Stammering under Gamma’s bellow, he squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.
“Level 8...! At least Level 8!”
The room froze over once more.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇