Chapter 80

At a pension near Gwangalli Beach in Busan, another vampire group had established itself.

Unlike the faction led by Ahn Sang-hyuk, this group didn’t follow a single leader. Instead, five mid-level vampires each controlled their own faction, forming a council-like structure.

“The humans around here are completely gone.”

“We can’t keep increasing the number of vampires. At this rate, we’ll all starve to death.”

They had reached a standstill. Every nearby survivor group had already been subdued. The remaining humans in the area had either been killed or turned into vampires.

“Oh Yeoreum,” the only woman among the vampires gathered, sighed in frustration.

“I told you, Lee Jun-young, stop mindlessly increasing your numbers like an idiot.”

“What?”

“Am I wrong? Isn’t this mess because your underlings have been turning people into low-level vampires left and right?”

Lee Jun-young’s expression twisted as he glared at Oh Yeoreum before speaking.

“My method isn’t wrong. I’ve achieved the best results among us.”

“Only because you’ve got more mouths to feed, you idiot.”

“You bitch—!”

Lee Jun-young gritted his teeth and looked ready to pounce.

“Enough,” said a middle-aged man who had been watching the argument with his chin resting on his hand. He stepped in to mediate.

“Hmph. You’d better watch it. Someday, I’ll smash that smug face of yours,” Lee Jun-young growled.

“Oh, please. With your bunch of halfwits who can’t even think for themselves?” Oh Yeoreum scoffed.

Though she was sarcastic, the hostility between them didn’t escalate further. The others continued the meeting as if this argument were a routine occurrence.

“What if we relocate to an area with more humans?” one of them suggested.

“I’ve thought of that too.”

But the man who had intervened earlier, Kim Jun-ho, quietly shook his head.

“No.”

The response was immediate.

“Why not, Jun-ho? Why are you so obsessed with staying here? You’ve been against leaving from the start. If we stay, we’ll all starve together.”

Kim Jun-ho’s authority carried weight. As one of the original vampires who had formed the group, his influence was second only to Ahn Sang-hyuk. Unlike Ahn, however, he preferred a horizontal hierarchy, allowing others to voice their opinions freely.

But his silence frustrated one of the others, who slammed his chest in agitation.

“This is insane! Even if you were the one who turned us and gave us new lives, I’m not dying here without a reason. I’m leaving.”

At that moment, a voice interrupted.

“You can’t do that.”

“Who’s there?” The man declaring his departure turned toward the source of the voice.

Thunk!

“Gah!”

A stranger leaped from the shadows and sank his fangs into the man’s neck.

“Guh… guh…!”

The victim’s body shriveled like a desiccated husk as his blood was drained.

The vampire, now finished, withdrew his mouth and smirked. “Hmm. Well-aged.”

The mid-level vampires, who had been frozen in shock, erupted in anger.

“You lunatic!”

“Kill him!”

Lee Jun-young, sitting closest to the intruder, swung his fist.

But—

Thunk!

Lee Jun-young’s attack missed, and the stranger’s hand pierced his chest, gripping his heart.

Still holding Lee Jun-young’s heart, the vampire sank his fangs into Lee’s neck and began to drink deeply.

A mid-level vampire watching from behind drew a kitchen knife from his coat and crept toward the stranger’s back.

“Haaah!” He thrust the knife into the intruder’s back with all his strength.

“Got you, bastard!”

But his victory was short-lived.

Squelch!

Blood burst from the wound like a crimson tendril, piercing the attacker’s throat.

“Guh! Gah!”

The blood tendril wriggled and consumed his body greedily.

The vampire, whose throat had been punctured, rapidly withered into a lifeless husk.

At the same time.

Lee Jun-young, who hadn’t even had the chance to resist, dried up completely, ending his life as a withered husk.

“Not bad. Not bad at all,” the stranger muttered while smacking his lips.

Clang!

The sound of the knife falling from the man’s back echoed loudly as it hit the ground.

“Running like a little rat, are we?”

In an instant, a tendril of blood shot out from the man’s back, stretching toward Oh Yeoreum, who had been stealthily trying to escape.

“Eek!”

A sharp scream escaped her as the tendril pierced her back.

“Did you think you could survive?” the man sneered, his lips curling upward.

“P-please! I was wrong! Spare my life... ack...”

But mercy was not on offer.

Squelch!

Oh Yeoreum, like the others, dried up into a shriveled husk without a chance to resist.

“Hmm, not bad at all,” the man remarked, savoring the taste.

Kim Jun-ho, who had been silently observing the scene unfold, finally broke his stunned silence and addressed the stranger.

“It’s been a while, Yeong-hoon.”

The monster who had devoured four of his comrades in mere moments—Jeong Yeong-hoon—beamed with a bright smile.

“It has, hasn’t it? A month, I think?”

“...It seems about that long,” Kim Jun-ho replied flatly.

“Well, how have you been?” Yeong-hoon asked casually, as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

---

“Thanks to the power you granted me, I’ve managed to survive so far,” Kim Jun-ho said calmly.

“I see. Good work.”

Kim Jun-ho then asked, with no trace of hesitation, “Is it my turn now?”

“That’s right.”

“Was that why you ordered me to stay here without moving?”

“Exactly.”

Kim Jun-ho let out a deep sigh, the kind that seemed to sink the ground beneath him. Then, he pleaded, “Please spare me.”

At that, Jeong Yeong-hoon burst into hearty laughter before responding, “You still don’t understand why I’m doing this?”

“I do. It’s because drinking the condensed blood of mid-level vampires like us is more beneficial than going around hunting humans one by one.”

“Oh? You’re quite perceptive.”

Tendrils of blood extended from Jeong Yeong-hoon’s body, splitting into several strands that slithered toward Kim Jun-ho. One sharp strand darted forward, piercing Kim Jun-ho’s face. A drop of blood trickled from the wound and was absorbed into Yeong-hoon’s body.

“You’re smart, but surely you also realize begging for your life won’t change anything. If anything, you’d have been better off throwing everything you had at me.”

“I don’t engage in fights I know I can’t win.”

“Heh. Amusing.”

Kim Jun-ho continued, his tone steady. “Currently, this organization consists of numerous low- and lowest-level vampires. While their blood is certainly more nutritious than that of ordinary humans, I assume it’s not worth your time to hunt them personally. By the time you return, I will have created three more mid-level vampires.”

“I heard there aren’t any humans left in this area. How will you manage that? Are you planning to leave?”

“Not quite. But there are still plenty of vampires.”

Kim Jun-ho elaborated further. “The largest group belongs to Lee Jun-young’s faction. My plan is to declare him a traitor and offer his remains as food to the others.”

“...Continue.”

“Once they taste the blood of their own kind, they’ll realize how much more efficient it is to cannibalize their fellow vampires rather than prey on dozens of ordinary humans. Left to their own devices, they’ll naturally devour each other and evolve into mid-level vampires.”

After listening to Kim Jun-ho’s explanation, Jeong Yeong-hoon erupted into laughter.

“Hahaha! You’re something else! You’re really planning to claw out a few more days of survival like that? Impressive, I’ll give you that.”

“If I can prove my value to you, perhaps I could relocate to another place and continue serving as a farm manager.”

“Oh? So, that’s what you’re thinking?”

“If you spare me, I’ll become your golden goose.”

“Pwahaha!”

After laughing for a long while, Jeong Yeong-hoon tilted his head slightly and offered a word of advice.

“Just in case, don’t entertain the idea of stalling for time to become like me. High-level vampires aren’t born from lowly beginnings like yours. You have to be chosen directly by Him. I was a high-level vampire from the start, and no matter how hard you try, you’ll never reach that level.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The blood tendrils slowly retracted back into Jeong Yeong-hoon’s body.

“Good.”

Still chuckling, he added, “I’ll be expecting great things from you, farm manager.”

With that, he disappeared into the shadows.

For a long time after Jeong Yeong-hoon left, Kim Jun-ho remained motionless. He simply sat in the dark, staring ahead as if time itself had stopped.

Clatter.

Eventually, Kim Jun-ho stood from his chair and began inspecting the corpses of his fallen comrades. His expression, which had remained blank up to this point, twisted into something monstrous.

“...That bastard.”

With rage burning in his eyes, he began gathering the remains of the vampires he had personally raised.

Crunch.

Grinding his teeth, he thought to himself, I wonder… will you still wear that smug look when you’re on the verge of death?

It was clear to him that the only reason Jeong Yeong-hoon had spared him was out of sheer whimsy—confidence that no matter what Kim Jun-ho did, he would never pose a threat.

You’re a nuisance.

As Kim Jun-ho vowed revenge, Jeong Yeong-hoon was already deciding on his next destination.

“Hmm. Where was it again? Some apartment complex, I think.”

Meanwhile, the party led by Ha Dong-geon assembled in under an hour. In room 2901—a mess of discarded bottles and garbage thanks to Kang Deok-su and Kim Geon’s indulgences—they were briefed on the vampire situation.

“...And that’s why I called you here,” the protagonist explained after detailing the circumstances.

After hearing the explanation, Ha Dong-geon asked, “Are they still there?”

“Yes, they haven’t made any significant moves yet.”

The protagonist was currently keeping a close watch on the vampires through the Absolute Eye. Seo Ye-jin’s mice had completely taken over the sewers of the apartment complex, making it easy to track their movements.

“With your skills, it should be no problem to handle them. Even their strongest member, Ahn Sang-hyuk, is only a level 38 mid-level vampire. None of them can stand against your team, where everyone is at least level 40.”

For Ha Dong-geon’s party, this mission was little more than a walk in the park.

“Seo Ye-jin’s mice will guide you to the apartment complex. It’s closer than you’d think, so you’ll be there in no time.”

Even if unexpected complications arose, it was unlikely they would pose a threat to Ha Dong-geon’s party.

“The only concern is that these creatures were once human,” the protagonist added.

Ha Dong-geon replied calmly, “But now they’re just monsters that prey on humans.”

“...Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

Having faced the low-level vampire Jegal Seong-gyu before, the protagonist understood all too well how similar these creatures looked to humans. Even while knowing they were malevolent beings, he couldn’t shake the discomfort he felt when they were exterminated en masse with gas explosions or poison.

He suspected Ha Dong-geon’s party might feel the same.

Though it gets easier the more you kill, the protagonist thought, he remained concerned for the mental health of the already weary party members.

“Are you really sure you’re okay with this?” he asked again.

Sensing the concern, Ha Dong-geon met his gaze and spoke earnestly. “I understand what you’re worried about, Jae-hyun. But I think it’s something we have to go through if we’re to survive in this changed world.”

“...What do you mean?”

“There may come a time when we’ll have to kill not just monsters that look human, but actual humans. If that day comes, I won’t hesitate.”@@novelbin@@

With a faint smile, Ha Dong-geon continued, “Think of this as practice for when that time comes. It’s fine. If the pressure gets to us, we’ll take a break, like today. Even drowning in a bottle like those two isn’t a bad way to cope.”

His tone was full of conviction. “Don’t worry too much. Neither I nor my team are that fragile. Even if we falter, we’ll pick ourselves back up—just like today.”

The protagonist chuckled and replied, “I suppose I was worrying for nothing.”

Ha Dong-geon’s resolve was clear.

“Let’s rely on you once again for this mission.”

The ace party was back in action.