The bodyguard fell to the ground, his body beginning to burn. Under a dense hail of bullets, he'd been struck in the heart. An ordinary vampire's skin couldn't stop small-caliber bullets.
Mo Yu blew the smoke from his gun barrel.
He was satisfied with the result.
Ordinary vampires were still weak. Holding justice in hand, one could easily kill them—provided one's marksmanship was good enough to hit the heart.
Ordinary, Elite, Knight, Baron...
These were the power-tier titles from the Vampire Era, corresponding to increases in Life Level on the Panel.
He checked the Monster Compendium.
There was an information update.
An extra Vampire Compendium entry had appeared, but the entry was grayed out, its description empty. Below, the kill count showed:
【Ordinary Vampire: 1（Settlement in 4 hours 51 minutes）】
Mo Yu clicked his tongue.
This countdown was the time Rewind could shuttle through. He had to genuinely kill the monster—only after the rewind time passed would the kill be settled. No exploiting bugs allowed.
He now had a rough sense of an ordinary vampire's strength. If he came across one alone, he could ambush it.
Next was intelligence.
Rewind!
The bodyguard spoke with an air of arrogance. "What do you want to ask?"
"Sir, how many Companions do we have? How many people does the Young Miss command now? Are there other enemies? How large a territory do we control? Are there still Human resisters?"
Mo Yu rattled off question after question in one breath, like beans pouring from a bamboo tube.
None of this could be found online.
The bodyguard looked slightly awkward and explained, "Ahem, don't be so overambitious—keep a low profile and bide your time, understand? Stay discreet! That's our family motto. The Young Miss isn't in a hurry to rule this place."
"Why not rule it? Doesn't she like it?" Mo Yu asked back.
The bodyguard's expression twitched. "Dazhou is where the Blood Race congregates, and Black City is the very central area. It's home to the strongest of the Blood Race in the world. There are two Blood Race members stronger than the Young Miss."
Mo Yu understood at once.
So she simply couldn't win against them.
Vampires clustered together in family units, built around one powerful vampire. Or rather, a powerful vampire would infect ordinary people and grow a family lineage from there.
Once the vampire at the family's center died, the family would scatter. Wandering vampires found it hard to join other families, and even if they did, they'd only be given menial work at the bottom.
Vampires placed great importance on bloodline lineage.
That was the root of their Power.
The bodyguard warned, "Keep a low profile. Don't expose the Young Miss's existence, understand?"
Mo Yu: "Understood!"
The bodyguard continued, "If you run into the Nade family or the Keduo Family while out, be sure to avoid them. Just say you're a wandering vampire... no wait, you're not a vampire. Anyway, don't cause trouble, and if you do, don't bring it back here."
Mo Yu asked, "Are there still Human resisters?"
The bodyguard's expression grew somewhat awkward. He coughed. "Hmph, mere food, that's all. There really are a few formidable Demon Hunters, though. Just steer clear when you see them."
Mo Yu asked, puzzled, "Why not kill them and get rid of the threat?"
The bodyguard said at once, "If you want to die, don't drag us into it!"
Mo Yu: "..."
This bodyguard wasn't being sincere with his answers.
Judging by the fear on his face, Humans seemed to be quite strong.
Mo Yu kept pressing.
From the bodyguard's evasive words, he still managed to gather quite a bit of intelligence.
The main supernatural force active in the Central Continent were the Demon Hunters, who had already formed a massive organizational system covering every city. Vampires normally hid in the shadows—if there was nothing to do, it was best not to wander outside, since it was easy to die that way.
Mo Yu pressed further about Elise.
"Don't pry too much into the Young Miss's affairs."
"If you want to curry favor with the Young Miss, go get some type O blood—high in oil, salt, and sugar. Blood from fat otakus and diabetics is the first choice, but avoid the old Butler."
"The truly good stuff is Demon Hunter blood. That's the real treasure, rich in Magic Power—absorbing it lets you rapidly increase your strength. But there's no way you could ever get your hands on that."...
Mo Yu asked everything he could think to ask. They talked for half an hour, and the bodyguard drank all the blood in the fridge, still looking like he hadn't had enough.
Intelligence gathering complete.
Rewind!
The bodyguard knocked on the door.
Mo Yu opened it, took the item from his hands, and closed the door without a word.
"Alpha, come record this."
Mo Yu called Alpha over and, while the memory was still fresh, had him record the main points of the conversation, so as not to miss any details.
Recalling Alpha's brainless behavior earlier that day, Mo Yu added some safeguards and set a command: no talking when outsiders were present—information could only be relayed secretly through the earpiece.
With that done—
Mo Yu checked the time.
11 p.m.
The night was still long, and he didn't intend to waste it. He decided to go out and take a look. But the moment he opened the balcony window, a string of Blood Text appeared, along with an arrow pointing outward.
【A total of 32 Bloodthirsty Bats, weak in strength. Killing them will unlock the Monster Compendium.】
The night wind blew, the moonlight was bright and clear, and the pitch-black forest rustled softly.
He couldn't get out.
There was simply no way out.
Mo Yu tried the front door.
The moment he stepped out, a bodyguard blocked his way. He glanced down the corridor, and blood-red text popped up—inside the seemingly empty corridor lurked over a dozen ordinary vampires, along with three Elite Vampires.
He gave up.
Under such tight surveillance, there was no slipping away quietly without first creating an opening.
Time to sleep.
He was actually a bit tired.
Mo Yu drifted off to sleep.
Alpha crouched by the bedside, standing loyal guard.
Meanwhile, in a room within the manor—
Elise sat on the sofa, legs crossed, a cup of type O blood in hand. In the dark room, several vampires stood before her.
"Young Miss, there's something odd about this human. We should just kill him, to avoid any trouble later."
The vampires clamored with their suggestions.
Elise took a sip of blood and said, "Leave him be for now."
One vampire asked, "Young Miss, do you... really believe what he said?"
"If he really could shuttle back to the past, that would be the most terrifying weapon imaginable—people from the future would keep showing up here, trying to change the future. But have you ever seen anyone from the future? Is there any record of such a thing?" Elise asked back, her expression calm and indifferent.
The vampires asked, puzzled, "Then why keep him around, Young Miss? You clearly know he's lying."
Elise explained, "At first I suspected he'd awakened some kind of teleportation ability, and I was planning to kill him. That type of Ability User is uncontrollable—too many variables."
"Asking him questions was just me toying with him. But his answers surprised me. He knows a lot of things he shouldn't know. No matter how I questioned him, he always managed to give me a satisfying answer. He might be Sequence 133—a Strategist, or something similar—an ability that lets him unconditionally obtain intelligence on a target."
The vampires suddenly understood, and lowered their heads in deference one after another.
"The Young Miss is so wise."*n
Elise rose and said, "11, 12—you two go probe that Mechanical Dog tomorrow, and send the Thousand-Faced Monster to make a move. I'll draw him away. This human thinks with careful logic—the first thing he did after crawling out of the water was stop the Mechanical Dog from talking. That dog... there's something odd about it."
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