Absolute Dweller

[Episode 14] Vampire (2)

“S-Save me…”

Bite!

Ignoring the woman’s tearful plea, two sharp fangs pierced her neck.

“Urk, cough–”

The woman had no strength to resist and just blankly stared into the air.

She could feel her blood being sucked out in real-time, feeling nothing but despair.

“So cold…”

As a large amount of blood was being drained, her body temperature was rapidly falling.

On the other hand, the vitality of the vampire that was absorbing the source of life, blood, was getting stronger.

Before long, life vanished from the woman’s eyes.

Plop.

“Haha….”

Lesser vampire Jegal Seong-gyu wiped the blood from his mouth, feeling satisfied.

It was because he had succeeded in a large-scale hunt for the first time.

He was also intoxicated by the fact that his power had become strong enough to hunt over ten people at once.

“Eat as much as you want.”

Jegal Seong-gyu smiled proudly as he watched the lesser vampires sucking the blood of the fallen humans.

‘This place is a gold mine.’

It was purely by chance that he had obtained citizenship and set foot in this safe zone.

At first, a transparent wall blocked his way, but suddenly it proposed something called ‘citizenship’.

Jegal Seong-gyu accepted it without much thought, and when he entered the area, he was astonished.

‘Humans everywhere I go.’

The staple of vampires was human blood.

And they became stronger as they ate more humans.

Naturally, the more humans there were, the better.

Furthermore, not only were there many humans here, but the quality was also good.

It seemed to be almost several times better than the ones they hunted outside.

Thanks to this, Jegal Seong-gyu was able to quickly become stronger.

‘I can soon advance to intermediate. Like that person.’

That guy who treated him as useless and discarded him.

He was about to obtain power equal to that guy.

‘But being equal is not enough.’

He needed to drink more human blood to surpass that guy.

To make him pay for treating him as worthless.

‘Revenge…’

For that, it was necessary not only to become stronger but also for the group he led to become stronger.

‘Did one of them die?’

At his current level as a lower vampire, Jegal Seong-gyu could control up to five lowest-ranking vampires.

One of them died during the large-scale hunt, but it didn’t matter.

It wasn’t difficult to create one lowest-ranking vampire.

‘Humans spread far and wide here.’

When he reached intermediate level, his subordinates would also be promoted to lower vampires.

If they too produced more lesser vampires, his coven would grow rapidly.

‘Then, I’ll hunt down that guy after eating the humans around here.’

By that time, he would have power to overwhelm him.

Where he was originally, finding a human was like trying to pluck a star in the sky.

That was why he was kicked out.

But on the other hand, this place was like paradise.

A paradise overflowing with prey.

While he and his coven grew here, that guy would remain stagnant.

‘I’ll eat them all.’

He licked the blood around his mouth, imagining the bright future ahead of him.

At that moment.

Click.

“?”

The door suddenly opened, revealing a man standing there.

An unexpected guest came.

At first, he didn’t pay much attention.

The man who had opened the door to this place without knowing anything was pitiful.

‘How sad. Coming here to die with his own two feet.’

Without the need for a separate command, the lesser vampires immediately reacted to the fresh prey.

“Kyaakk!”

“Gyaaa!”

As the lesser vampires snarled and rushed toward the man.

Boom!

The heads of the remaining four lesser vampires exploded simultaneously.

‘Huh?’

Heavy silence fell.

Without any warning.

Without any battle.

It took Jegal Seong-gyu a little time to process the situation.

His mind was rejecting understanding of the current situation¹Was going to put ‘refused to understand the current situation’ but that’s not completely right..

‘What on earth just happened?’

He couldn’t understand the series of events that unfolded before his eyes.

‘Did I see that right?’

However, he clearly witnessed it with his own eyes.

As soon as his subordinates showed hostility towards that man, their heads exploded as if receiving divine judgment.

Upon realizing this blatant reality, Jegal Seong-gyu couldn’t help but panic.

Fear engulfed his brain.

‘T-That’s ridiculous!’

One thing he knew for sure was that the power possessed by the being in front of him was beyond his comprehension.

Revenge for his subordinates?

Blood vengeance?

Such thoughts had long disappeared from his mind.

In the face of overwhelming power, his personal feelings were insignificant.

All that remained was an intense desire to survive.

Jegal Seong-gyu knelt down and barely managed to open his mouth.

With all his strength, he made an earnest plea.

“P-Please spare me.”

The plea of the weak, which he had heard while he was the predator, was now coming out of his own mouth. A small struggle to survive.

Jegal Seong-gyu was making the best choice he could.

“P-Pleaᅳguh!”

At that moment, he felt something grabbing his neck and lifting him up. Soon, his feet couldn’t reach the ground.

He struggled futilely in mid-air.

“How dare you…”

In front of him was the face of an angry man.

At that moment, he instinctively knew.

There would be no miracle of forgiveness from this man.

Even worms wriggle when stepped on, but he was so insignificant that he couldn’t even resist. When a worm was trampled by an elephant, it was destined to die instantly.

Jegal Seong-gyu gave up everything and closed his eyes tightly.

There was nothing he could do except accept the choice of the being in front of him.

“Urk?”

It was then.

The pressure he felt in his throat suddenly decreased, and his feet touched the ground.

Jegal Seong-gyu collapsed to the ground weakly, shuddering as he looked up at the man.

The man said, “From now on, answer my questions with utmost sincerity.”

Jegal Seong-gyu nodded frantically.

He didn’t care about the quest notification warning of severe pain if he didn’t answer truthfully. He had no intention of defying the man in front of him in the first place.

“…Yes.”

He did his best by lying flat on the ground to beg for his life.

He was prepared to tell the man everything he knew in hopes of a chance.

The man spoke, “How did you get in here?”

“That…”

Jegal Seong-gyu, a lower vampire.

After hearing his story, I felt a headache coming on.

‘Even monsters can be accepted as citizens…’

The system message for granting citizenship was worded as a ‘being satisfying the conditions to be recognized as a citizen²Raise a hand if you expected this development! >u< /‘, not specifically humans.

I didn’t expect this to mean that non-human monsters could also be granted citizenship.

‘To think that even a monster that feeds on humans could be granted citizenship!’

The influx of citizens continued to pour in even now.

In the past, when the number of incoming citizens was small, I would carefully examine and confirm the citizenship information of each person. However, with the huge increase in numbers, it had been set up so that if a person eligible for citizenship approached, they would immediately be eligible for citizenship.

It was a kind of automatic system.

Otherwise, I would have had to accept the continuous influx of citizens while working and sleeping.

But I never thought it would come back to bite me like this.

I thought at most there would be some disturbance caused by dirty-minded citizens or criminals coming in.

But a completely different problem had emerged.

‘A vampire, huh?’

I asked him, “You were human before you were bitten?”

“Yes, that’s right. I was an ordinary human and became a lesser vampire after being bitten by a vampire named Ahn Sang-hyuk.”

The shocking thing was that the vampire in front of me had once been an ordinary human.

‘Maybe that was why he was granted citizenship.’

Anyway, now that there was a flaw, I could not just accept anyone anymore.

At the very least, as soon as someone was accepted, I had to check their citizen information window to see if they were a vampire or not.

Moreover, the information of the citizens accepted so far had to be rechecked.

“You said you have vague memories of the few days you spent as a lesser vampire, and you grew into a lesser vampire by eating humans?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

According to Jegal Seong-gyu, lesser vampires were like beasts with only instincts remaining.

They had enough intelligence to understand commands, but the development of consciousness started at lower vampires.

“The man who turned you into a vampire, Ahn Sang-hyuk, is a higher-ranking vampire than you are.”

“Yes, yes. That’s correct.”

The current lower vampire Jegal Seong-gyu’s level was 28.

That meant that an intermediate vampire would be higher level than this at the very least.

‘And if there are intermediate vampires, it means there are also higher vampires!’

While the exact extent of their ranks was unknown, there would at least be an upper level.

Their levels were also expected to be quite high.

“Where is the base of this intermediate vampire?”

“It’s in an apartment complex in Daeyeon-dong.”

“I see.”

As I seemed to be ending the conversation, Jegal Seong-gyu begged desperately for his life.

“I-I will guide you to where he is! Please punish that villain, the mastermind behind all this, with your own hands!”

[Citizen Jegal Seong-gyu’s loyalty has increased.]

His purpose was clear.

He was desperate to survive.

Moreover, the rapidly increasing trust and loyalty since I met him was making me feel sick.

‘The loyalty of a monster that eats people…’

It was unsettling.

I had heard everything I needed.

“If you want revenge so badly, why don’t you do it yourself?”

Jegal Seong-gyu who had become a lower vampire was once a human, but now he was nothing more than a monster that ate people.

Naturally, I had no intention of accepting or sparing him.

‘Quest Assignment.’

《Quest Assignment》

Quest Details: Kill Ahn Sang-hyuk

Time Limit: 24 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds

Reward: Small amount of experience points

Failure Penalty: Death

“There’s no need to guide me. Go and kill him yourself.”

The time limit was 24 hours.

There was no way Jegal Seong-gyu, who was still a lower vampire, could kill Ahn Sang-hyuk, an intermediate vampire.

It was the same as openly telling him to go die.

Understanding this, Jegal Seong-gyu urgently said, “Wait, then let me drink human blood. If I become an intermediate, I can surely deal with that guy!”

“If you lay a finger on a human, your head will explode instantly.”

Jegal Seong-gyu could not answer and bowed his head deeply.

I decided to give him a little hope so he wouldn’t despair and attack others.

‘Shop open. Purchase M16.’

Ziing—

Jegal Seong-gyu’s eyes widened as he saw the rifle and a set of 100 bullets appear before him.

“I’m giving you a chance. An opportunity to get revenge on the one who made you like this.”

He nodded as he stroked the rifle.

“With this… With this, it’s possible! I will try!”

“Do your best to exterminate all the vampires.”

“Thank you!”

“Once again, if you attack anyone other than a vampire with this, you will be killed instantly.”

“I-I understand.”

“Leave immediately.”

“Yes!”

Jegal Seong-gyu quickly replied and left the building.

The building which he left was littered with bodies. Half of them died with their eyes open, victims of a cruel fate.

As I was about to set their bodies on fire, I paused.

‘They must have had families too!’

In their last moments, shouldn’t they be able to see their families’ faces?

I extinguished the flames and called Seo Ye-jin using the communication ring.

[Ms. Seo Ye-jin, there is a man I want you to follow with mice.]

There were three reasons for attaching Seo Ye-jin’s mice to Jegal Seong-gyu.

First, to determine the exact location of the vampires.

Second, to prevent Jegal Seong-gyu from handing the rifle over to them.

And lastly, if he tried anything foolish, to burn him to death.

‘I should form a team to kill the vampires!’

If there were humanoid monsters nearby, it was only right to eliminate them all for the safety of the citizens.

I’ve never translated a story with vampires before so I ended up doing some research. For now, I’ll be going with these ranks:

Higher Vampires

Intermediate Vampires

Lower Vampires

Lesser Vampires

There’ll probably be more information later on since we’re only up to intermediate vampire rankings. Let me know if there’s a better name or if I swapped the ranks or something.