Ch.41Change

Clop- clop- clop-!

“Ahahahah! Charlotte! Hwang-gu is so fast!”

In the end, Aurel and I decided to ride on Hwang-gu, who had transformed into a wolf.

Since it was what she herself wanted so badly, there was no particular reason to refuse.

As Aurel said, Hwang-gu was incredibly fast.

Hwang-gu runs while thinking for herself.

In other words, if you just tell her the destination, she’ll run toward it on her own without me having to steer her.

She was faster and more convenient than any motorcycle could ever be.

“Woof!”

Hwang-gu ran excitedly.

As if she was very happy to have me riding on her back.

For some reason, my thighs felt empty.

I hugged Hwang-gu’s fluffy neck.

It was warm and cozy, making me feel drowsy as I held on.

As we were racing along on Hwang-gu’s back…

Boom-! Rumble-!

A massive roar began to rise from beneath the ground.

At that ominous sound, Hwang-gu, who had been running well, stopped in her tracks.

Rumble-!

A new boss appearing? Or was it just an earthquake?

I looked around while firmly holding Aurel’s hand.

At that moment, the asphalt roads began to split with a tremendous roar.

What was emerging from below was a withered, skeletal tree.

“A tree…?”

The tree grew rapidly, reaching toward the sky.

How much time passed like that?

The massive earthquake began to subside.

“Grrrr!”

Hwang-gu bared her teeth at the suddenly sprouted tree.

She was showing wariness toward the strange object.

But somehow, the appearance of that tree seemed familiar.

I tilted my head and patted Hwang-gu’s back.

“Hwang-gu. Let’s go to that tree.”

“Woof…!”

After hesitating briefly at my command, Hwang-gu eventually nodded and approached the tree.

I got off Hwang-gu’s back and examined the tree.

Its texture was no different from an ordinary tree, and judging by its withered appearance, it looked like it could die at any moment.

However, strangely enough, I could feel vitality from this tree.

“What on earth is this?”

“This is…”

“Woof!”

I touched the tree and activated my Mystic Eye.

I thought I could identify this tree through my Mystic Eye, which reveals information about everything that exists in this world.

Swoosh-!

As soon as I activated my Mystic Eye, my left eye began to burn hot.

Blue flames rose up, and half the world began to turn blue.

[object_001252]

–

“What is this…”

I groaned as I checked the tree’s information.

Object 1252?

Judging by its appearance, this tree was clearly one that bears Blood Fruit.

But the information my Mystic Eye provided about this tree was absurd.

The 1252nd object without even a name.

Of course, I could understand why the tree’s name was in this state.

This world was directly using Blood Carnival’s information.

“Do you know what this tree is, Charlotte?”

“It seems like a tree that bears Blood Fruit…”

I trailed off in response to Aurel’s question.

And at that moment.

Crackle-

A sudden noise.

Just as the faint sound tickled my ears, the tree’s information was updated.

[Blood Fruit Tree]

–

I was startled by the suddenly changed information and removed my hand from the tree.

Could this be what they call a real-time patch?

Although the tree’s name had been updated, the field describing the tree itself was still blank.

“Charlotte…?”

“Wait, I was just surprised.”

I slowly caught my breath. The tree’s name had been updated in real-time through a patch.

And it happened right when I revealed the tree’s identity.

A very suspicious situation.

I looked up at the sky.

Perhaps the god who created the world like this was watching me.

“Do you see something in the sky?”

“They might be watching.”

“Who?”

“God.”

“God…?”

“Yes. The god who made the world like this.”

“Gasp…!”

Aurel was startled by my answer.

Hwang-gu also curled her tail into a circle as if surprised.

“Ah…! Charlotte! Look over there! Something is growing on the tree!”

While I was glaring at the god who might be in the sky, Aurel tugged at my clothes and pointed at the tree.

I turned my head to examine the tree as Aurel said.

The tree began to move slowly, like branches swaying in a gentle breeze.

Red fruit was forming at the ends of those branches.

At that moment, information about the fruit was transmitted through my Mystic Eye.

[Blood Fruit]

A fruit that calms the thirst for blood.

It contains components similar to human blood.

Indeed, the description was just like in the game.

Its performance would be identical as well.

I stood on my tiptoes and reached out.

Stretch-!

“Ugh…!”

“Charlotte?”

“I can’t reach it…”

I frowned.

Yes, the tree was too tall. There was no way my hand could reach it even on tiptoes.

Of course, it didn’t matter if I couldn’t reach it.

Because I had a wonderful shadow.

“Ha!”

As I stretched my hand toward the tree, black shadows began to rise from beneath my feet.

Like climbing up the tree that soared high into the sky, the shadow plucked the bright red fruit with a snap.

“Sniff sniff!”

Hwang-gu showed deep interest in the fruit she was seeing for the first time.

Judging by her rapidly spinning tail, she wanted to taste it too.

I took a bite of the fruit, partly as an experiment.

Crunch-!

The texture was like biting into an apple.

At the same time, rich juice burst forth.

An intense fragrance exploded from the pulp that fell into my mouth.

Whoosh-!

The overall taste was not much different from human blood.

It was quite, no, extremely delicious.

I opened my eyes wide and took another bite of the fruit.

Crunch-!

It didn’t take long to devour the entire apple-sized Blood Fruit.

I licked the juice off my hands and smiled subtly.

“Huff…”

“Whine…!”

Aurel and Hwang-gu swallowed dry saliva watching me.

If left like this, drool might start flowing from their mouths.

I picked two more Blood Fruits for the two of them.

“Thank you!”

“Woof!”

Aurel received the Blood Fruit politely with a bright smile.

Hwang-gu also spun her tail vigorously as if expressing joy.

Chomp-!

Hwang-gu opened her large mouth wide and devoured the Blood Fruit in one bite.

“Ah…!”

Crunch-!

Aurel diligently bit into the Blood Fruit with her small mouth.

Both of them seemed to find the Blood Fruit delicious.

Just in case, I hugged the large Blood Fruit Tree.

“Hyah!”

Taking a proper stance, I pulled on the Blood Fruit Tree with all my might.

But the Blood Fruit Tree didn’t budge at all.

All objects in Blood Carnival were indestructible.

It seems they brought that system over directly.

I let out a sigh full of regret.

If I could have uprooted the Blood Fruit Tree, I would have created a Blood Fruit orchard in a secret place only I knew about…

I wiped my lips and climbed onto Hwang-gu’s back, leaving my regrets behind.

“Woof?”

Hwang-gu was startled when I suddenly mounted her.

I scratched her nape.

Now was not the time to worry about the gaze of an unknown god.

In this world, Blood Fruit would become a very important resource for vampires.

Therefore, I needed to record the locations of the Blood Fruit Trees in detail.

I needed crayons for recording.

I reached out to the shadow.

“Yeppi.”

The shadow began to squirm at my call.

Before long, a small girl poked her head out from within the shadow.

The 48-color crayon set she was preciously holding in her arms caught my eye.

It was Yeppi.

“Give me the red one.”

“U-um…”

Yeppi made a sad face at my command.

I sighed and said,

“I’ll give it back when I’m done.”

“Okay…”

But it seems her hurt feelings weren’t soothed.

Yeppi handed over the crayon and then slipped back into the shadow.

“Where are we going?”

“I want to mark the Blood Fruit Tree locations on the map.”

Aurel nodded at my answer and climbed onto Hwang-gu’s back.

Then she came close and hugged my waist.

The position of her tightly hugging hands was quite ambiguous.

I sighed and adjusted the position of her small hands.

“Run, Hwang-gu!”

“Woof!”

Hwang-gu began to run at my command.

Clop- clop- clop- The large wolf paws struck the ground, cutting through the wind as she moved forward.

Hwang-gu ran very fast.

Thanks to that, we could save considerable time looking around all of Seoul.

If we had gone around by motorcycle, it would have taken much longer.

The total number of Blood Fruit Trees identified was 30, spread out from Seoul Station where we had hunted Fenrir.

Since we didn’t look outside of Seoul, it wasn’t exact, but these Blood Fruit Trees probably only grew near Seoul.

Even just a little away from Seoul Station, Blood Fruit Trees couldn’t be found.

While riding Hwang-gu, I fed Blood Fruit to my subordinates.

Seeing small girls pop out from the shadows and crunch into the apple-like fruits, I couldn’t help but smile.

The total number of Blood Fruits harvested while going around the Blood Fruit Trees was 150.

That meant about 5 fruits per tree.

After feeding one to each of my subordinates, more than 100 remained.

I looked at the Blood Fruit Trees from which I had picked all the fruits.

In Blood Carnival, the cycle for fruit growth was very short.

Was it one per day?

Probably these Blood Fruit Trees, which directly imported game data, would be the same.

I also looked around to see if anything else had changed after defeating Fenrir, but for now, these Blood Fruit Trees were the only noticeable change.

***

As I expected, the cycle for Blood Fruit to grow again was 24 hours.

Being able to collect so many Blood Fruits meant that it would be fine to increase the number of subordinates even more.

Of course, this was assuming I monopolized all the Blood Fruit Trees that grew at Seoul Station.

I didn’t monopolize the Blood Fruit Trees.

I transferred ownership of the Blood Fruit Trees to each clan that had participated in the Fenrir subjugation.

I took 10 Blood Fruit Trees, and the remaining 5 clans took 4 each.

Perhaps because of how I distributed the Blood Fruit Trees?

Clans that had been living in areas far from Seoul Station began to relocate their hideouts.

It was a natural choice to harvest Blood Fruit easily and quickly.

Although unintended, I was able to keep vampire clans in alliance relationships around me.

A week after the Blood Fruit Trees had grown.

A noticeable change occurred.

The level-up function, which had been blocked, began to work.

The first to level up was Aurel.