The Lab Assistant
The world was thoroughly severed from the outside.
At its center stood the laboratory.
Seowoo’s days began in the blindingly white laboratory.
Life as an assistant at a laboratory that kidnapped humans for experiments had already entered its third year.
Just as always, he began his work.
“260th clinical reagent. Administer it.”
The director’s voice came from beyond the partition.
“Yes.”
Seowoo raised the syringe and slowly approached the experimental subject.
The restrained man thrashed wildly.
“Ugh! Ugeugh! Uguueugh!”
His veins bulged and his eyes burned with fury as he struggled.
His glare toward Seowoo was murderous.
Yet with every step closer, the rage in his eyes gradually dissolved into terror.
He wanted to beg for his life.
Still, he could not break free from the restraints that tightly bound his limbs.
“Ugh—!”
Seowoo finally reached the subject and lifted the syringe filled with serum.
With his back to the glass partition, he quietly opened his mouth.
“...I’m sorry.”
Those few words conveyed his wretched state of mind.
Though emotion was present, Seowoo’s expression never changed.
He remained completely expressionless.
One must never show emotion in front of predators.
Even at the bottom of the food chain, he had to prove he was not swayed by such things.
Only by appearing more useful could he survive longer.
Behind that one thin wall, a vampire watched.
Should he slip up, the next person in restraints might be him.
“Ugueugh—!”
Ignoring the subject’s desperate gaze, Seowoo injected the serum into his carotid artery.
The serum flowed through the bloodstream, and the subject’s eyes slowly rolled back.
Seowoo stepped back slightly at the clear signs of abnormality.
[Vampire blood has surged, causing rapid muscle expansion and morphological changes...]
“Kuh... kuh!”
The restraints, which had boasted of their strength against the swelling muscles, tore apart.
Simultaneously, the subject foamed at the mouth and lost all his hair, his ears unnaturally pointed.
The grotesque sight sent a chill down Seowoo’s spine.
“Kiaaaak!”
Whether he had fully transformed or not, the subject, who had been sniffing with a bent nose, turned to Seowoo and lunged at him with sharp fangs bared.
Seowoo instinctively closed his eyes.
Thud!
With a dull sound, the body of the mutated creature exploded.
Seowoo, standing in front, was splattered with the creature’s blood.
The foul, acrid smell of the mutated blood filled his nostrils.
Before he could even calm his racing heart, the laboratory door burst open.
The familiar voice he had heard through the speaker moments ago called out to him.
“Yoon Seowoo, assistant? This experiment also failed.”
“...Unfortunately, that is the case.”
Recognizing the owner of the voice as Director Lucia, Seowoo quickly lowered his head and answered.
In the vampire world of Nectar, one could never even meet the eyes of the superior high race.
If their gazes met, even a single moment of displeasure could be fatal.
As a mere assistant, he could only look up at their shoulders.
Lucia looked down at Seowoo, whose body was stained with blood, and her brows furrowed.
Since vampire blood was their food, it appeared to her as if food were smeared all over his body.
“Submit the report on this reagent within one hour.
Today is ‘that day,’ so prepare properly.”
The “that day” Lucia referred to was the day she would receive her attendant.
From their perspective, it was an act of kindness to allow contact with them.
In reality, it was no different from being a slave or servant.
Still, it was not entirely hopeless.
After all, it could be seen as an opportunity to suck the director’s dick.
If done well, one might receive slightly better treatment in daily life.
On the contrary, it was also the most dangerous thing that could kill one.
Seowoo had heard many times that many victims had been sacrificed.
“...Understood.”
Even as she slowly turned and left, Seowoo’s head remained bowed.
Kong.
The heavy laboratory door closed, and the strength in his legs gave out.
Seowoo collapsed onto the floor with a thud.
He clutched his chest.
His pounding heart.
His sweaty hands.
No matter how many years had passed, he still could not adapt to facing the vampires of the Five Great Families.
“Haah...”
Vampire physical abilities far exceeded the human realm.
Seowoo’s tension level had long since been obvious from the sound of his racing heart.
How many more lives would he have to take with these hands before it ended?
How much more guilt would he have to endure before it was over?
He was always grateful to be alive, but he could not shake the emptiness that came from living under suppression.
But what could he do?
Seowoo’s position and status had not changed...
He briefly looked at the mutated creature that had become a slab of meat and left the laboratory.
With only an hour left to write the report and wash away the blood smell on his body, there was no time to complain about his fate.
***
The lowest floor of the laboratory, modeled after a new moon shape.
The basement was Seowoo’s room.
Ten pyeong of a single room for the laboratory’s food source—vampire blood.
Given that the kitchen and bedroom were clearly separated, it was an exceptionally generous treatment even by the standards of company-provided dormitories.
Still, it was fortunate he was an assistant.
If not, he would have been living in a human farm treated like livestock.
Tap tap.
[Vampire blood has surged, causing rapid muscle expansion and morphological changes...]
Seowoo’s hands moved faster as he wrote the report.
The Gene Modification Plan.
A project created to ensure the survival of the species in accordance with the prophecy left behind by the ancient ‘Vampire of the End’.
Within two hundred years, humanity would perish due to a pandemic.
Starving vampires would resort to cannibalism and self-extinction.
Some argued that simply raising humans like livestock would suffice, but it was quickly rejected.
Because vampires originated from humans.
A virus that began with the pandemic had evolved into a genetic disease that killed vampires first, leading to their extinction.
Ultimately, the solution proposed by the prophecy was to evolve existing vampires through gene modification.
Keeping their overwhelming abilities and physical durability intact, they would become a new humanity that could survive on ordinary food rather than human blood.
Everyone who was brought to Nectar was a subject of this experiment.
“Damn it...”
After finishing the report, only about ten minutes remained until the time Lucia had set.
Seowoo washed up in a hurry and left the room without even having time to properly tidy himself.
On the top floor of the laboratory, when he arrived at the director’s residence, the clock precisely pointed one hour later.
Lucia, wearing silk pajamas on her snow-white skin, sat on the bed waiting for Seowoo.
“You were quite late.”
“...I’m sorry.”
If he had arrived even five minutes earlier, it would have been perfect.
But Lucia did not scold him.
Seowoo, kneeling on one knee out of respect for her height, respectfully submitted the report.
Lucia carefully read the content and suddenly called his name.
“Yoon Seowoo.”
“...Yes, I’m listening.”
At the moment his name was called, a slightly delayed reply came from his chest.
His head instinctively lifted, but fortunately the report hid his gaze.
“How has your work been lately?”
Lucia often asked this question.
If he could see her face, he might guess what she was thinking, but in a situation where he could only judge by voice, he had no idea what the director intended.
Was she asking how he felt about working normally?
It was like conducting a job satisfaction survey in a place where one might have their throat cut at any moment.
What could he do?
Since he had no desire to end his life, he had no choice but to speak the words that came to his lips.
“Thanks to the director always watching over me warmly, I feel strength.”
Feeling strength? What nonsense.
In reality, it was the opposite.
While she showed no interest in other assistants, Lucia was particularly persistent with Seowoo alone.
According to Nectar’s laws, assistants could not be owned, yet she completely disregarded that.
At first, he felt aversion to the head of the department boldly breaking the law.
But it did not take long to realize it was merely nominal law.
After that, resignation and compliance naturally followed.
“You do seem to be working quite hard.
Your complexion is good, and you even have the leisure to look up at me?”
His mind went blank.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice that?”
“I-I’m sorry!”
Seowoo immediately slammed his head to the floor.
With a loud thud that echoed.
This was the best he could do now.
As an assistant at the laboratory.
Just because their situation was slightly better than the experimental subjects did not mean they were outside the category of livestock.
They were mere disposable items that could be replaced with new manpower at any time.
That was their position.
Thud!
Lucia stepped on the back of Seowoo’s head.
An excruciating pain that felt like his skull would shatter traveled through him.
“...”
He had to endure it.
He had to endure it...
He had to endure it to get through it!
Crack.
His teeth ground as he desperately held back the whimper that kept leaking out.
His fists were clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms.
A slight trickle of blood ran down his palm.
“Because you are me, I will let you get away with this.
From now on, be more careful.”
“...Understood.”
“Close your eyes and stand up.”
His head was spinning and his expression was about to collapse, but only his brows twitched.
He endured it with all his might.
What Lucia wanted was blood.
Specifically, the vivid blood of a human in extreme tension.
What she was referring to as her attendant was exactly that.
Seowoo, even with his eyes closed, skillfully unbuttoned his shirt.
Exposing his neck completely.
“As expected, there is value in taming.
Then...”
Thud!
Lucia gently embraced him and bit his nape.
Seowoo’s blood was ruthlessly sucked out through his skin.
Soon, her nipples moved up and down, letting out excited breaths.
“Haah... haum...”
Seowoo had to hold back the urge to flee from the faint cherry scent that emanated from Lucia.
To avoid collapsing from anemia caused by the bloodsucking, he twisted his own flesh as hard as he could.
With the other hand, he covered his mouth, hoping it would end as quickly as possible.
“Huaa... Today’s taste is particularly good.”
“...Thank you.”
Lucia, apparently pleased with the attendant, let out a somewhat intoxicated voice.
“The duty is over, so you may go.”
“...Understood.”
Feeling that she had moved away from his arms, Seowoo straightened his shirt and spoke.
“Ah, wait a moment.”
“Yes...?”
It was a moment when the tense atmosphere, which had been tight, was about to loosen with Lucia’s permission.
Was there a mistake he had made unconsciously?
With that one word stopping him, Seowoo’s mind froze.
“That hand. Let me see it.”
“...Understood.”
An ice-cold hand guided his.
Slurp.
An alien warmth swept across his palm.
“...It is not good to bleed like this.
This is like going around naked, don’t you think?”
“I will remember...”
“If you understand, then you may go.”
“Yes.”
Seowoo bowed his head in respect and slowly left Lucia’s chamber.
Quietly, so as not to displease her even at the end.
“Haah... you bastard.”
A low curse spilled from Seowoo, who let out a deep sigh.