The Chase

Bang! Watching the beautiful woman at his feet, whose legs had been twisted and broken, burn to ashes after being struck by a Holy Light Bullet, Meng Zu switched on his earpiece. "Your intelligence was wrong. There's no cult at all, just a few unruly vampires hunting for food."

"Evan, find those vampires and eliminate them all." Coulson's voice came through the earpiece.

Meng Zu said bluntly, "Coulson, my mission was only to investigate the cult. Now that it's been cleared up, you people at S.H.I.E.L.D. can handle the vampires yourselves."

"Evan, you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent too."

"An external contractor."

Hearing that, Coulson said with some frustration, "What will it take for you to be willing to act?"

Meng Zu's lips immediately curled upward as he smiled. "Simple. Pay more!"

"Fine. As long as you deal with those vampires, your mission bonus this time will be tripled." Coulson agreed to Meng Zu's demand.

After hanging up, Meng Zu cheerfully set off after the two vampires who had escaped earlier.

It had been half a month since Meng Zu last saw Coulson. That afternoon, Coulson had called and arranged to meet him, then assigned him his first mission at a coffee shop: investigate a newly emerged cult in New York.

Meng Zu was rather speechless at that and mocked Coulson on the spot. "Heh! You need me to investigate something like this? Doesn't S.H.I.E.L.D. always boast that nothing can be hidden from you?"

Coulson ignored Meng Zu's sarcasm and began introducing the information on the cult. It had appeared in New York only within the past week. Every night, two or three people disappeared. When those who had vanished at night were found the next day, they were already dead. Even stranger, every corpse was missing its head.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had guessed that a new cult was active. They had even tried using bait to catch its members. Though agents openly went alone into the cult's suspected territory at night, all they caught were gang thugs. There was no trace of any cult at all.

To catch this cult, Coulson had thought of Meng Zu. According to the investigation reports, Meng Zu was particularly skilled at finding people, so Coulson had arranged to meet him.

After some bargaining with Coulson, Meng Zu accepted the mission when the reward was raised to thirty thousand dollars.

That night, Meng Zu went alone to investigate the location Coulson had provided. Before long, he encountered four vampires. After exchanging blows, he took out one vampire, broke another's legs, and the remaining two fled when they realized things were going badly.

After interrogating one of them, he learned that the so-called cult was simply these four vampires hunting humans for blood. To avoid anyone realizing vampires were responsible, they had cut off and destroyed the victims' heads along with their necks. As for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents acting as bait, the vampires had long since recognized them as government personnel and had avoided attacking them to prevent a direct conflict with the government.

Not long after, Meng Zu caught up to a vampire running and leaping across the rooftops ahead. Without a word, he raised his pistol and fired a Holy Light Bullet straight into the vampire's head. Seeing him burn to ashes, Meng Zu immediately turned and chased after the last vampire.

Ryan was a bartender at a nightclub. To others, that identity was utterly unremarkable, but his coworkers would never have guessed that he was a vampire. Ryan had become a vampire several years ago. After teaching Ryan how to survive in modern society, the vampire who had turned him left New York.

For the past few years, Ryan had lived exactly as he had been taught. He worked as a bartender at night and hid inside his home during the day. Whenever he was hungry, he bought hospital blood bags on the black market. He had thought life would continue like that forever, until he met three vampires from out of town, and his habits were suddenly changed.

Those three vampires had been turned by the same vampire a year ago. Unlike Ryan, they did not want to keep buying hospital blood bags. They wanted to drink the blood of living people directly. After hearing them describe the wonderful sensation of drinking fresh human blood, the inexperienced Ryan was tempted. He wanted to taste it for himself.

So the four of them began hunting lone young men and women at night. After drinking living human blood for the first time, Ryan fell deeply in love with that exquisite taste. To avoid attracting the police's attention, the four hunted very carefully each night—until they encountered Meng Zu tonight.

Pale-faced, Ryan ran frantically through an alley toward his home. He had only one arm left. After his other arm was struck by Meng Zu's Holy Light Bullet, he had ruthlessly torn it off to save his own life.

Ryan lost his footing and crashed into a garbage can. Panting heavily, he pushed himself upright with one hand against the wall. He realized he was too weak and desperately needed blood, or he might pass out. If he lost consciousness, then even if Meng Zu failed to catch him, the rising sun would kill him once daylight came.

It was as if heaven could not bear to watch Ryan's miserable state. As he slowly moved forward with one hand against the wall, he encountered a young woman who had gotten drunk after breaking up with her boyfriend. Watching her stagger along under the effects of alcohol, Ryan could not help smiling.

Ryan forced himself over to the young woman and pretended to help support her. Once she leaned against him, fangs emerged from his mouth. Staring at her neck, so close it was within reach, Ryan opened his mouth and bit down without hesitation. The drunken girl had no idea what fate awaited her.

Just as Ryan was about to bite her neck, Bang! A bullet glowing faintly gold flew from the darkness and struck him in the head. Ryan instantly burned into a pile of ashes, while the drunken girl, having lost her support, collapsed onto the ground.

Meng Zu stepped out of the darkness and said to Coulson on the other end of the call, "The last vampire has been taken care of."

"Mm. Your bonus will be transferred to your bank account tomorrow morning."

After hanging up, Meng Zu looked at the girl lying on the ground, drunk as a puddle of mud, and frowned. After standing there and thinking for about three seconds, Meng Zu made a decision.

He grabbed the back of the girl's clothes with one hand and lifted her whole body up. Getting drunk like this in an alley made it easy for someone to take advantage of her, so Meng Zu decided to do a good deed and toss her out onto the street. That way, someone would surely see her and call the police. The police could handle everything after that.

Just then, a strand of webbing suddenly stuck to the girl's back. Before Meng Zu could react, a black shadow leaped down from the rooftop and yanked the girl from his grasp.

Peter Parker, dressed in a red-and-blue bodysuit, held the girl in his arms. The moment he landed, he said to Meng Zu, "Hey, buddy, what are you doing carrying a girl around in the middle of the night? Or were you planning to invite your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to a three-way party?"