Vampire

Meng Zu drove to the place Officer Ryan had told him about. Sault Ste. Marie was not large to begin with, and the town relied on tourism, so even the outskirts had bars and motels.

However, it was winter, and there were not many people around. Still, since these were all local businesses, they remained open. Meng Zu used Clue Guidance on the photo again, and the red arrow pointed toward a bar in the most secluded area.

Meng Zu drove up to the bar, got out, and looked at the gloomy sky. He muttered, "Coming here for a vacation in the dead of winter... these young people really think strangely."

Meng Zu pushed open the door and entered the bar. He saw a handsome young blond, blue-eyed bartender polishing glasses, along with two men and two women drinking inside. The men were handsome and the women beautiful, but aside from being good-looking, the four patrons and the bartender shared another trait: pale skin.

When he saw the red dotted line pointing at one of the handsome young men drinking, Meng Zu sighed inwardly. Just my luck. I actually ran into this kind of situation.

Seeing Meng Zu sit at the bar, the handsome bartender asked, "What would you like to drink?"

Instead of ordering alcohol, Meng Zu asked the bartender, "Are those four part of your family?"

The bartender's hand paused as he polished the glass. His eyes flickered, then he continued wiping it. "They're not part of our family. They came here from out of town a week ago."

"Are you close to them? There's some trouble involving them." Meng Zu turned to look at the two men and two women drinking, and they were also sizing him up.

The bartender looked at the four of them, then at Meng Zu. After thinking for a moment, he said, "They're only friends one of our family members met outside. They have nothing to do with us."

"Then that's fine."

Seeing Meng Zu stand up as if to head over, the bartender said, "Please don't break the tables."

"Don't worry. If that happens by accident, I'll compensate you."

The four had been watching Meng Zu throughout his conversation with the bartender. When Meng Zu picked up a chair from nearby and sat directly at their table, the red-haired beauty closest to him smiled and said, "Handsome, do you want to have a drink with us?"

"No. I have something to ask you." Meng Zu smiled, then took out Sam's photo and placed it on the table. Looking directly at the long-haired handsome man with the red arrow pointing at his head, he asked, "Where did this kid and his friends go?"

The moment Meng Zu entered the bar, he had sensed a familiar icy feeling. When he saw the bartender and these four people, that feeling became even stronger.

Meng Zu recognized what they were. None of the five were human—they were vampires. After his Spirit reached 4 points, twice that of an ordinary person, he had encountered vampires several times during missions, and they had given him the same feeling. Once he learned that vampires existed in this world, Meng Zu had specifically asked the mercenary bar owner about them in detail.

Because of their various jobs, mercenaries inevitably dealt with vampires from time to time, so they naturally knew something about them. Due to modern society, human technology had advanced rapidly, and all kinds of powerful and strange weapons had been created. As a result, humans had become the strongest force on Earth.

Vampires, werewolves, and the like could no longer act as they pleased like they had in medieval Europe. For various reasons, the human higher-ups had not ordered them exterminated. Instead, they reached an agreement with them. Vampires went from operating openly to hiding in the shadows, no longer able to casually capture living people and drink their blood. If vampires wanted human blood, the human higher-ups said that was fine—but they had to pay for it.

Thus, most vampires went into legitimate business, while the small number unwilling to change were naturally dealt with by humans.

With money, they could buy blood. Over time, vampires adapted to this way of life, which was why there were vampires running bars.

Becoming a vampire was not like in the movies, where being bitten by one turned you into a vampire. Back in the Middle Ages, for example, vampires kept young, beautiful virgins as blood slaves and regularly drank their blood.

To become a vampire, the vampire had to inject a drop of its heartblood into your body while biting you. Only then could you become a vampire. But heartblood was extremely precious to vampires, and turning a new vampire drained them greatly. Therefore, every vampire who transformed someone else would treat that person as family and take them into their clan.

The reason Meng Zu had asked the vampire bartender whether these four belonged to his family was because vampires valued family highly. Sam's disappearance was connected to one of these vampires, and it was impossible to peacefully get an answer from him. If a fight broke out and he provoked an entire vampire family, it would be a real headache for Meng Zu.

After glancing at the photo and Meng Zu, the long-haired vampire said coldly, "I don't know him. You've got the wrong person."

"Fine. Looks like I'll have to use force to solve this." Meng Zu put away the photo and curled his lip. There was no point trying to reason with vampires like this who ignored the rules and preyed on ordinary people.

"Hehe." The four vampires found that amusing. A mere human actually wanted to fight them? The four remained seated, watching Meng Zu with mocking expressions.

Bang! Before the four could react, Meng Zu suddenly stood up, grabbed the long-haired vampire by the hair at the back of his head with his right hand, and slammed his face viciously into the tabletop.

Part of the tabletop shattered instantly. The other three finally reacted. The red-haired female vampire threw the first punch at Meng Zu's head. Meng Zu swayed aside and dodged it, then clenched his left hand into a fist and punched her hard in the right cheek without the slightest mercy. Her body flew into the air, spun three and a half times, and crashed onto a table behind her.

Crack! The table shattered, and the red-haired female vampire lay motionless on the floor.

Meng Zu did not bother looking at the result after throwing that punch, because the other two vampires had already attacked. He released the long-haired vampire's head, shifted aside, and dodged the other female vampire's clawed hand reaching for his face as well as the male vampire's punch.

Meng Zu grabbed the female vampire by the hair and forcefully pressed her head down. He drove his right knee up into her face, then yanked her head back up and pummeled her face with alternating fists. Finally, he kicked her in the abdomen, sending her flying into the other male vampire.

By then, the long-haired vampire had recovered from his daze. But the moment he raised his head, Meng Zu grabbed his hair again. Bang! Bang! Bang! He drove three right-handed punches into his face, then grabbed his head with his left hand and flung him aside. The long-haired vampire collapsed unconscious onto the floor.

Meng Zu walked toward the only male vampire still awake. The vampire shoved the unconscious female vampire off himself, got to his feet, and lunged at Meng Zu. An ordinary vampire might have three times the physique of a normal person, but Meng Zu was stronger. In Meng Zu's eyes, the vampire's attacks were as full of openings as an ordinary person's brawl. In two or three moves, he knocked him unconscious.

At that point, the vampire bartender closed the bar's door and hung a temporarily closed sign outside.

"Do you have somewhere I can question them?" Meng Zu asked the vampire bartender as he shook out his hands. At some point, he had put Tiger Knuckles on both hands.

The vampire bartender said nothing. He stared at the Tiger Knuckles on Meng Zu's hands and frowned.

Noticing the bartender's gaze, Meng Zu smiled. "I spent tens of thousands of dollars to have an old priest personally bless these."

"Mm. Ask them here. I've already closed the door. Also, you'll need to compensate me for the tables and chairs you broke." The vampire bartender expressionlessly pointed at the shattered furniture.

Meng Zu smiled. "Do the math. Once I'm done questioning them, I'll pay by card."

(I don't stockpile chapters. I only write after getting home every day. I'm slow because I'm a clumsy typist.)