Chapter 30 – Caught

Rea​d on K​a​tR​eading​Caf​e

To replenish my blood supply, to reduce the number of “monsters with no reason to live,” and to experiment on whether monsters can be turned into vampires.

I walked to the location where the Rabbit’s Foot branch was, as Suhyeok had informed me.

The reason I walked instead of flying flamboyantly was mainly because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of making up excuses if Radiant White caught me while I was emitting starlight.

I had already said with my own mouth that I belonged to Rabbit’s Foot, so if I was then seen hunting down and killing members of Rabbit’s Foot, what would that look like?

Since I still planned to use the name of Rabbit’s Foot for a while, getting caught by Radiant White or Suhyeok would make things unnecessarily complicated.

So, even though it was a hassle, I had no choice but to take the long way and handle things personally.

For the sake of entertainment, sometimes I had to endure inconvenience and boredom.

As I made my way through the deserted streets toward the hidden Rabbit’s Foot branch inside a garbage dump, a thought crossed my mind.

What exactly is my ability as a monster?

As a vampire, my powers included blood manipulation and absorption through blood. As a dragon, while I hadn’t fully grasped all my abilities yet, I currently possessed overwhelming physical capabilities and a unique, otherworldly body.

Then, what power did I gain from becoming a fallen magical girl-turned-monster?

It couldn’t possibly be just flying.

If a former magical girl and now a high-ranking monster could only use starlight to fly, that would just be regression.

…Well, in reality, turning from a magical girl into a monster could be considered half a regression. Maybe “downgrade” would be a better term.

The way it was set up, magical girl transformation was essentially a stabilized, mass-usable version of monster transformation, having copied and modified the original process.

Going deep into its origins and history would just be a headache, so to put it simply, both magical girls and monsters drew their power from the same source.

In even simpler terms, magical girls were like Monsters 2.0.

And while monster transformation was the technology of the defeated, magical girl transformation was the technology of the victors.

This wasn’t a particularly interesting topic, so I stopped there.

In any case, I had to have at least one absurd ability.

Considering the upper limits of power, monsters were slightly superior, so I should have something like luck manipulation—like that damn rabbit.

…But I had no idea what it was.

Even when I tried to use starlight, I couldn’t get a grasp on how to control it, making me wonder if I should temporarily hand my body over to Shining White to learn how to use it.

Not that I was particularly eager to learn right now, since I didn’t urgently need power.

As I pondered this while walking through the night, I finally arrived at the concealed entrance of their base.

The air was thick with the stench of rotting garbage and decaying corpses left to fester, making it an utterly filthy place.

But that made it a fitting home for monsters who were better off dead.

I easily dispatched two monsters that rushed at me, drained their blood, and tore off the iron door.

The moment I tossed it aside, loud sirens blared throughout the base. It was strangely nostalgic.

Back then, I was the one crawling my way out. Now, I was the one breaking in.

As I pushed deeper into the facility, red warning lights flashing, monsters began wriggling out from within.

Yep, these must be the rabbit’s private troops.

Not that they were any match for me.

Fighting them one by one was a hassle, and I was curious whether this would work, so I marked a single monster as my target, accelerated toward them, and skewered the others with blood-made threads and needles.

Then, through those very threads, I absorbed the monsters’ blood.

“Guh…!”

“Wha…t…?”

It worked.

The ones strung up like a row of sausages rapidly shriveled into dried husks, their blood flowing into me.

Drinking blood felt… really good.

Not as satisfying as sucking it directly, but still.

…Wait, what kind of thoughts am I having? Get back in there, you bastard. Stop trying to crawl out.

Suppressing the Elder who was trying to take advantage of my lapse in focus, I continued wiping out the monsters.

I experimented by draining multiple mutants at once, manipulating blood shards I had embedded in their bodies to make them fight their own comrades, and testing the limits of what I could do with my power rather than just killing them outright.

Just like what Illya did to me, I even attempted to phase my body into an intangible state to let attacks pass through and then devour the attacker—though I could only absorb memories from when they became monsters, nothing from before that.

By the time I was done, only a few were left, the ones I planned to turn into vampires.

The intelligent personnel responsible for maintaining the facility’s complex machinery were behind that vault door, but I left them alone.

I didn’t want the rabbit personally showing up.

Monsters could be replaced, but valuable talent like them couldn’t just be grown like crops.

Approaching the monsters still pinned to the ground with numerous blood stakes, I pricked my finger and drained their blood before inserting a small amount of my own.

Fortunately, since that vampire elder had used my body once, I now had some basic knowledge of vampire lore in my head.

Among those was a method to create new vampires.

Apparently, all I had to do was drain them dry and then inject just a tiny drop of my blood.

I waited as the monsters writhed in agony, their bodies twisting grotesquely…

…But nothing happened.

Huh.

Did I use too little?

I added a bit more, but still, nothing changed.

…Hmm.

I had heard that some humans were naturally incompatible with vampire blood, so maybe these monsters were just like that.

It was too early to assume the worst, so I tried with another one.

Nothing happened.

Another.

Nothing happened.

“Is it impossible to turn mutants into vampires?”

“I… didn’t know that.”

Looking down at the unsightly corpses of the mutants sprawled across the floor, the road ahead felt daunting.

At the same time, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

If I had tried to turn Suhyeok into a vampire without knowing this… he would have died just like that.

…Alright, let’s put this thought aside for now. It’s too soon… to dwell on it.

Sigh. How the hell am I supposed to make this lie sound convincing?

Honestly, I have no confidence.

Even if I try to reassure myself that my future self will figure it out, it still feels hopeless.

…But before that, there’s a chance that my blood is just defective. I should check one more time.

I crushed open the vault door with brute force, dragged out the first person I could grab, drained them of all their blood, and then injected my own.

But nothing happened.

…Huh?

Wait… is my blood actually defective?

This is just a regular human. So why aren’t they changing? It’s not like turning into a vampire takes a long time.

I nudged the corpse with my foot, but of course, nothing happened.

Could it be that my blood isn’t pure vampire blood?

Being only 33% vampire means the other 67% isn’t.

Is that the reason…?

If so, that means I still don’t know whether mutants can become vampires or not.

…Should I consider this fortunate or unfortunate?

In the end, all I learned was that my blood is a useless, defective product.

Just as I was about to leave, abandoning the terrified intellectuals behind—

“These are… mutants. Why would someone do this…?”

“How should I know…? Ugh, can’t we just wait at the entrance? I really don’t have the confidence for this…”

I heard the voices of Sky and Radiant White.

I only briefly wondered how they found this place before remembering—I had completely torn off the entrance door.

…Of course, they saw that and got suspicious.

I had been avoiding a fight with White for the past few days, and if possible, I wanted to avoid it again.

But this time, that didn’t seem likely.

In a confined space like this, it wouldn’t be easy to just speed past and escape.

I could do it, but if I tried, White—now fully enraged—would chase me to the ends of the earth.

In the end, the best choice was to take White down here or at least incapacitate her long enough for me to escape.

Attacking first would be the best strategy, but…

Only the weak who don’t trust their own strength resort to ambushes.

A strong fighter like me doesn’t need such tricks, so I decided to wait for Radiant White to arrive.

No matter how strong she is, I’m stronger.

An ambush? Please.

I conjured a lance of blood and stabbed it into the ground, then leaned back with a relaxed grin, staring at the passage White would come through.

“…Are you the one who killed all these mutants?”

And then, Radiant White appeared.

Before she could even formally declare her challenge, she was too stunned by the gruesome scene before her and asked me that question.

I answered, “Yes.”

“Why?”

Something about her question felt off, and after a brief moment of thought, I realized—White didn’t know these people were part of Rabbit’s Foot.

The only ones who knew this was a Rabbit’s Foot base were Suhyeok and me.

That meant I could handle this situation a little more easily.

Without filtering my words, I said,

“They kept crawling all over me, so I got rid of them. They deserved to die anyway, and since they’re your enemies too, it shouldn’t matter to you, right?”

White seemed to agree. She nodded slightly before declaring that this time, she would defeat me for sure. She raised her wand, gathering light.

“Then entertain me once again.”

As I said that, pulling my lance from the ground—

A gunshot rang out.