Are Vampires Real?

Delight... ah, no, mapo tofu. This stuff was practically the natural enemy of chopstick beginners. When Richard planned today's menu, he had never expected Jessica to suddenly decide to put her chopstick skills into practice and challenge herself again. Otherwise, he definitely would not have brought out such a high-difficulty dish.

It felt like Jessica had spent several weeks grinding levels, finally left the beginner village full of confidence, only to run into a max-level gatekeeper boss right at the village entrance. Even Richard felt that was a little too cruel.

Jessica was the sort of girl who refused to admit defeat. Since she had said she would take the challenge, there was no way she would run away before even starting, right? She took a deep breath and solemnly, slowly extended her chopsticks, trying to pick up a piece of tofu... only to snip it cleanly in half, just as expected.

Jessica's stubborn streak immediately flared up. She refused to believe it. Could a mere piece of tofu really be that damn amazing?

So Richard quietly ate beside her while watching the poor piece of tofu go from one piece to two, then four, sixteen, thirty-two...

Jessica seemed to have gotten into a standoff with the tofu. She stopped eating altogether and even refused when Richard suggested switching to a spoon.

After a while, when Richard was nearly finished eating, Jessica finally gave up. She snorted and pointed at the mangled tofu. "What's so good about this stuff?"

After that, she never touched the mapo tofu again and instead focused all her attention on dealing with the other dishes.

Richard watched her for a bit. To be fair, Jessica really had improved quite a lot. At least she had no real problem with the basic motions of picking up food and shoveling rice into her mouth. She had probably put in plenty of practice lately. She was just unlucky—she had barely left the beginner village before running into a boss...

After dinner, Richard gathered the dishes and prepared to wash them. Jessica watched from the side for a while before finally saying, "How about... I help out after all?"

"No need, no need." Richard smiled. After all, he was taking her money for meals, so he had to provide the full service.

Jessica leaned against the doorway, watching him. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "Then how about you teach me how to cook?"

Richard gave her a somewhat surprised look.

What was this? Coach, I want to learn how to cook?

Jessica truly felt a little embarrassed. Though she knew her meal expenses were being deducted, she still felt like she was just holding out her hand for clothes and opening her mouth for food. It made her uncomfortable.

Richard chuckled. "Sure, of course. But the tuition fee is separate."

Jessica's face darkened, and she turned around and went straight back to her room.

Sorry for disturbing you!

With the addition of the super-assassin Bullseye, the gang war instigated by Kingpin finally came to an end. The other family factions in New York had suffered devastating losses, and several families had even lost their supreme leaders. The remaining families had no choice but to bow their heads to Kingpin under the lead of the surviving Silver Mane. In the end, all the other gangs became Kingpin's affiliates, and Wilson Fisk became the true overlord of New York's underworld.

Richard did not particularly care about any of that. It was not like he ran with the New York mob. What truly affected him the most was...

...there were no headlines left to write.

That was right. The gang war was over, and Ultraman, the Daily Planet's biggest attraction, had not appeared in a long time either. After its previous explosive rise, the Daily Planet's sales were now gradually falling back into the normal range.

They needed news urgently! Big news sensational enough to keep readers' eyes glued to the paper!

Early one morning, Richard heard Cathy and the bald editor-in-chief, Stewart, arguing fiercely about something.

"Vampires!?" The editor-in-chief was showing off his booming voice again. "I made you Ultraman's dedicated reporter, and you bring me a vampire story to fool me?"

Cathy, despite being a young girl, did not yield in momentum at all. "But everything I wrote is true! The protagonist is someone I know. I know her. She told me about her experience herself, and every word I wrote is the truth..."

"Vampires!?" The editor-in-chief repeated the word, as though the word itself was enough to prove how absurd her idea was.

Richard walked in. "What's going on?"

"Oh, it's nothing serious, Boss." The moment Stewart saw the boss, his voice immediately dropped. "Just some wild fantasy. It doesn't even count as news."

Cathy was a little angry. "Boss, you know what kind of world we live in. Superheroes, supervillains, and now even godlike beings such as Ultraman exist. Why is this old man so stubbornly incapable of believing in vampires?"

Richard did not rebuke her outright. "Oh? Have you really seen a vampire?"

Stewart did not believe her, but Richard was not all that surprised. This was the Marvel Universe, after all. Forget vampires—even if Cathy said she had seen a monkey that could fly through the sky, burrow through the earth, and wield a staff, he would believe her. (And there really was one in Marvel.)

"No." Cathy looked a little dejected. "If I'd seen one myself, it definitely would've been a headline."

"I told you, it's simply not believable." Editor-in-Chief Stewart started muttering again.

Cathy protested, "But my friend said she was bitten by a vampire herself."

"That's about the same."

Richard asked, "Can I take a look at the article?"

"Of course. Here, Boss." Cathy handed him the completed article. "I guarantee every word I wrote is true."

The editor-in-chief began muttering again. "I said it, this is just a waste of time..."

The story itself was quite simple. It was about a girl who worked at a library and encountered a strange visitor while working the night shift one evening. The person wore black from head to toe, a tall top hat, and looked like an elegant British gentleman. From the moment he began speaking, the girl's memories became hazy and blurred—like she had been drugged into hallucinating. Vaguely, she remembered being led into an alley, after which her entire memory became blurred and chaotic. When she woke up, she was already back in her own bed, perfectly normal from head to toe—except for two round bite marks at the base of her neck.

After only one day, the marks had begun healing and looked like wounds from several weeks ago. Just like in all the movies and television shows on the subject, the wounds naturally made one think of vampires.

Of course, Cathy had taken photographs of the bite marks, but that still was not enough to prove the story was true. However, that was not what concerned Richard most. What surprised him most when he read the article was the name of its heroine.

"Chloe Lee?" Richard was somewhat surprised. "This girl is your friend?"

"Yeah. What, do you know her?" Cathy asked, puzzled.

Richard's expression became a little complicated.

Wasn't this Auntie Lin from the supermarket's precious daughter?