AMAZON Cells

Glancing around, Bill the vampire noticed that the upper half of a partition wall inside the factory had been knocked through and replaced with a glass wall.

On the other side of the glass, the large production equipment that had once filled the space was gone, and the room had been renovated.

The original concrete walls had been reinforced with soundproofing, bulletproof steel plates, and flexible cushioning. Except for the side facing Doctor Death, which was made of bulletproof glass, the other three sides had been fortified to the level of a World War II pillbox.

Through the observation window, Bill and Victor, watching from the other end of the tablet, saw several people in masks and tight-fitting combat suits ready beside the firing range. They wore simple exoskeletons, whose structure closely resembled a human skeleton. They were extremely lightweight, looking like white patterns against their black combat suits. Each of them held a different firearm, clearly preparing to take part in an experiment.

At the very center of the shooting range stood a metal bed. A man dressed like a street thug was strapped to it, his body firmly bound by restraints. Medication from several IV bags was continuously being injected into his veins.

The street thug wasn't human. He was a vampire—not a pureblood aristocrat, nor a one-in-a-million hybrid like the Blade Warrior, and certainly not one of the non-pureblood Blood Clan transformed from high-ranking vampires, like the human elites who had thrown in their lot with the vampires.

Human and vampire genes weren't completely compatible. Even after being transformed through the First Embrace, traces of their original human genes always remained. As a result, humans turned into vampires were naturally inferior to purebloods, and the lower the rank of the vampire who transformed them, the lower their status among the non-pureblood Blood Clan.

The vampire strapped to the iron bed belonged to the very bottom of that hierarchy.

The existence of social classes was inevitable. Even if you were an exceptionally individualistic, creative, and intelligent genius, put you in a city made up of ten thousand versions of yourself, and in the end you could only become one cog in its workings: either an oppressor or one of the oppressed.

And among vampires, class wasn't determined by wealth or anything like that. It was determined by bloodline. Aside from things like blood magic and Progenitor's Blood, your status in vampire society was decided at birth.

The vast differences in what rich and poor people ate were almost enough to make them two separate species. Vampires were no different.

Low-ranking vampires could only drink the blood of homeless people on the street, half of it tainted with cheap alcohol. High-ranking vampires were particular about the blood they drank, and the people they fed on were specially raised for that purpose.

Their sex, race, their parents' genetic condition, and their blood type were all selected while they were still embryos.

Even the year they were born, the education they received, their vaccinations, physical training, artistic cultivation, emotional development, daily diet, and countless other details were carefully managed. Even the hormones they secreted in response to their emotions before being fed on were entirely under control.

If a high-ranking vampire suddenly wanted a change of taste and took a whim to become a "vegetarian," there were even specialized laboratories that could synthesize artificial blood.

So this wretched non-pureblood vampire, though he was a high-end tool who could be sacrificed at any time, had never mattered to Bill. Even if it looked like his fate was to serve as ballistic gel for testing weapons.

"I discovered a remarkable plant in the Amazon jungle of South America. The locals called it Blood Orchid. Its flowers contain a peculiar substance that, once absorbed by a living organism, breaks through its natural limits and grants it the ability to evolve without end. The pythons living near the Blood Orchid evolved into Titan Pythons thanks to it."

"But that peculiar substance is highly toxic. While it can promote an organism's evolution, it also has a high chance of killing it. The shamans among the locals experimented over generations, combining extracts from various plants, animals, and insects with minerals to neutralize the Blood Orchid's toxicity. They developed a superhuman drug that only the tribal chief was allowed to use."

"After our Shocker organization learned about it, we acquired the formula at the cost of every life in that tribe. We analyzed and optimized it with modern technology, then used mammals, amphibians, insects, and other organisms to neutralize the toxins. The result was a drug resembling active cells—which I named AMAZON cells."

Doctor Death couldn't help smiling as he continued. "After being injected with these cells, a living organism is enhanced. Its strength, speed, and recovery all increase severalfold, and its lifespan is extended. Its hearing, sight, and even its sixth sense become sharper than its natural limits."

"The most suitable creatures for AMAZON cell injections are vampires. They already have lifespans, strength, speed, and healing abilities beyond those of humans, making them an exceptionally impressive species. Injecting them with AMAZON cells takes them to a whole new level. The combination can even evolve an ordinary vampire into an entirely new species, which I've named the Fang Vampire!"

Perhaps noticing that Victor, who had been called a vampire all along, looked displeased, Doctor Death changed his wording. "Silver weapons, garlic, sunlight, and things like holy water—the Vatican promoted as part of its dealings with the Blood Clan—will no longer be a problem for Fang Vampires. As for just how far they can evolve, Mr. Victor, what comes next will be a truly miraculous experiment!"

The experiment began in the next room.

A man in a white lab coat and a hood pressed a gun-shaped injector against the unconscious vampire's neck and injected a dark brown substance straight into the carotid artery. As soon as the syringe was empty, he darted away and quickly left the room through a door in the corner, leaving behind only the vampire serving as the test subject and the armed combatants.

In less than half a minute, the vampire, who had been in a deep coma, suddenly awoke. He opened his blood-red eyes wide and looked around, then bared two fangs and roared at the people watching him like a beast, trying to intimidate his enemies.

Then the vampire began to tremble all over, the shaking worsening until he was convulsing. Even the iron bed welded to the floor began to rock violently. Though three layers of bulletproof glass separated them, Bill could still hear the vampire's agonized roars. But the boss, Victor, showed no disgust on the tablet screen. If anything, he seemed rather intrigued.

Bill could only stand there and watch, constantly adjusting the briefcase's position so Victor could enjoy the spectacle from the best possible angle.

With a thunderous bang and a vast cloud of billowing smoke, the transformation was finally complete. The vampire, who had once looked just like a human, was now unrecognizable.

He had grown much taller, and his entire body was covered in a substance resembling an insect's shell, divided into colorful patches arranged in a regular pattern. It was like he was wearing a distinctive suit of armor styled after stained-glass church windows. His face no longer resembled anything human. It consisted of two parts: a pair of huge compound eyes on the upper half, and a fearsome mouth lined with fangs on the lower half. Together with the jointed limbs formed by the bony spikes growing from his arms and back, he looked like a humanoid spider.

Doctor Death raised his beer and gave a sinister chuckle. "Congratulations. The experiment was a great success. Here's to making Shocker great again!"