Vampires

Over the next two days, however, Luke led the Shadow Legion in conquering three Small Dimensions without finding any coordinates that could take him to other worlds.

Those Dimension Lords generally carried no high-grade equipment, because bringing it into the Dark Dimension would expose it to constant corrosion by dark energy, causing its grade to drop. Low-grade equipment, on the other hand, came in heaps, greatly enriching Kamar-Taj's stock of low-grade gear.

Kamar-Taj actually had no shortage of high-grade equipment, but Luke was already in the Marvel World and did not need that equipment as coordinates.

Sighing, Luke flipped through the coordinates in his notebook and found that only a few remained. There were countless dimensions within Dimensional Space, but only some Small Dimensions could be observed. Kamar-Taj generally defended against medium and large dimensions, as well as Dormammu's top-tier Dark Dimension, and paid little attention to observing Dimensional Space. As a result, Luke had fewer and fewer dimensions left to explore.

I need to find some way to discover other dark dimensions...

Luke sighed. Kamar-Taj was not particularly advanced in dimensional observation technology, either, and these were the only dimensions it could observe. He might as well see whether the remaining Dimension Lords had any methods for observing dimensions.

After grinding dungeons for two straight days, Luke had strengthened his forces a little more, increasing his Ninja Soldiers to 3,000 and purchasing some of the other troop types as well.

But I can't just keep living off my reserves. How about waiting until Thor's storyline starts and asking Odin?

That could work. Asgard seems pretty good at observing space. Even Loki can detect plenty of spatial rifts on his own.

Having settled on that plan, Luke decided that once Tony finished the new element reactor, he would call Coulson every day to see when he was going to look at the hammer.

Luke simply gave Tony a call.

"Tony, how have things been with Pepper lately?"

"Luke? What are you talking about?"

"Uh, Pepper?"

This was awkward. Pepper had actually answered the phone.

"Uh, Pepper? Where's Tony?"

Pepper glanced at Tony, who was rearranging things at home. "He's picking out furniture. He wants to install some exercise equipment at home."

"Really? Doesn't he have Iron Man? Why does he still need to work out?"

"Who knows? Still, getting some exercise is good. Do you want to come over? I can send a car for you."

"Hmm, not for now."

Luke hung up. It seemed Tony was doing pretty well now.

But just as he put his phone down, it rang again. He checked and saw that it was Coulson. Why was he suddenly calling?

"Hey, Coulson, what's up?"

"We need your help, Luke!"

"Uh, what happened?"

Luke left the Big Apple for the first time in a while and flew to Los Angeles. Finding Coulson, who had urgently called for help, outside the airport, Luke asked in puzzlement, "So, what happened? Why wouldn't you explain it over the phone?"

Coulson took Luke into a nearby car and started the engine. After warily driving around in several circles, he finally brought Luke to a safe house.

"What's going on? Why are you being so cautious? Come on, you're starting to scare me." Luke looked helplessly at the tense Coulson.

"Do you know about vampires?" Coulson asked Luke cautiously.

"Those monsters from European legends that like drinking human blood, can live forever, and live in castles deep in the remote mountains?"

Luke looked at Coulson in confusion, unsure what he was getting at.

"All right, assuming vampires really exist as a species, do you think you could beat them?" Coulson asked as he walked toward the basement door nearby.

"Shouldn't be a problem. My ninjas don't have any blood in them."

"Your ninjas are exactly why I called you here. Come inside."

Luke already had a guess, though he was also a little curious.

He really had not known that vampires existed in the Marvel World. Still, even if they did, it was no big deal. These guys barely appeared in the movies, so they probably were not very strong.

Following Coulson into the basement, Luke saw a man bound in chains. There was a gaping hole in his stomach, with intestines and other things spilling all over the floor. Still, the man seemed quite spirited, even glaring viciously at Coulson when he entered.

Luke watched the man, who was missing nearly half his internal organs yet was not only alive but even more ferocious, strain his chains taut until they creaked as though they might snap the next second.

But Luke had seen plenty of live, adults-only scenes back in Hell's Kitchen. He looked at the man without a change in expression, though eating two extra bowls of rice was out of the question.

"So this guy's a vampire? Doesn't look like much." Luke glanced disdainfully at the man's intestines and summoned a ninja with a wave.

The ninja glanced at the vampire and swung his blade, cutting the vampire's head clean off. The vampire turned to ash.

Seeing that the vampire had stopped moving, Luke smiled. "I thought these guys were supposed to be tough. Turns out they still die when you cut their heads off."

Coulson explained, "Their strengths are their stealth and speed. They can also heal rapidly with a supply of blood. And plenty of wealthy people now crave the vampires' immortality and have become traitors to humanity. We generally call those people 'Vampire Fanatics.'"

Luke nodded, not particularly worried. His ninjas were not necessarily any worse than these creatures at stealth. What concerned him was the "Vampire Fanatics" Coulson had mentioned.

"Are there a lot of those Vampire Fanatics?" Luke asked. He did not want to inexplicably end up with a huge pile of enemies because of these vampires. He was not afraid, but it would be annoying. If some blind fool wrecked his little stash of money again, wouldn't that be irritating?

"There are quite a few Vampire Fanatics. After all, as you know, those wealthy people can buy plenty of things with money, but a longer lifespan really is something they can only dream of."

Coulson sounded somewhat troubled. "Still, those people can't operate openly and don't dare expose themselves, so you don't need to worry about any annoying flies. With us watching them, they won't dare make any rash moves."

Luke nodded, his concerns put to rest. But looking at the handful of ash the man had left behind, he felt a little puzzled.

"Aren't you going to report their existence to the authorities?" Luke could not quite understand. Why call him in for a fight between species? Shouldn't they tell the authorities directly and send in the military to wipe these creatures out?

Coulson shook his head. "That's where our hands are tied. Vampires can turn ordinary people into Blood Servants in large numbers. Although those Blood Servants aren't very strong, they lose their minds and can spread the infection. And vampires are good at hiding. The higher-ups don't know where they might be concealed. If fighting breaks out and those vampires unleash a Blood Servant outbreak in cities like the Big Apple, things could get troublesome."

Sighing, Coulson continued, "So the higher-ups reached an agreement with the twelve vampire elders for both sides to coexist peacefully."

Luke could hardly believe it. "These guys treat us as food! And they're still making peace with them?"

"There's no choice. Completely eliminating them would be too dangerous, and the higher-ups don't have any better ideas at the moment, so this will have to do for now. Still, the authorities also told the vampire elders that they would provide artificial plasma to sustain them, but if vampires were found killing humans, people would be sent to hunt them down. Our S.H.I.E.L.D., for instance, has a department specifically for handling vampire criminals."

Luke sneered. "And these guys won't drink human blood in secret? I don't believe that for a second! Speaking of which, if S.H.I.E.L.D. has a department for handling vampire criminals, why do you need me to deal with these vampires?"

Coulson shook his head. "We've confirmed that a lot of people have gone missing in this city recently, and plenty of blood was left at the scenes. There's no doubt vampires did it, but without conclusive evidence, S.H.I.E.L.D. can't simply deploy official forces to handle this."

"So you need someone acting unofficially?" Luke nodded, roughly understanding what Coulson meant.

"All right, I'll take the job. As a civilian vampire hunter, I'll wipe out every last one of those rats in this city. I haven't had anything to do lately anyway. I've been bored to death."

Luke flexed his fists. Finally, he had something to do.

"But what about payment? This counts as a private job, right?"

Coulson nodded. "The director takes this very seriously. These guys have been reaching a little too far over the years, and he hopes this will teach the vampires a lesson. So the rewards are very generous: a thousand dollars per vampire."

Luke pursed his lips. Fury was such a cheapskate. There probably were not many of these rare creatures around. At a thousand dollars each, how much could he make? Then he suddenly caught on. "Not just in this city?"

Coulson smiled and gave Luke a look that left him to work it out himself.

Luke rubbed his hands together, ready to get to work, but Coulson stopped him.

"These vampires have quite a few fans in this city and a large intelligence network. Some investigators S.H.I.E.L.D. sent earlier suffered all sorts of attacks, and quite a few agents died. That's why we had you come on a commercial flight. You need to be careful while operating here."

Only then did Luke understand why Coulson had been so cautious. But his current strength had already far surpassed what S.H.I.E.L.D. had on file, something Coulson did not know.