The vampire bar

Half an hour later, Luke walked out of the safe house and looked at this "City of Angels." He had never expected such evil creatures to lurk beneath it.

Coulson had just told him about some of the vampires' traits, habits, and common hunting methods.

Vampires feared ultraviolet light, silver, and garlic. Honestly, even children knew that, yet those really were their weaknesses. Humanity's higher-ups had probably spread that information deliberately to stop vampires from indiscriminately killing ordinary people, giving them at least a little power to fight back.

Having learned from Coulson that vampires generally only came out to hunt at night, and that people usually disappeared near bars, he decided to find a hotel and sleep until evening.

Luke picked a hotel at random and slept until nightfall. Then he left his room, asked an attendant which nearby bar drew the biggest crowd, and headed there.

Luke walked down the street. Nights here in Los Angeles were much livelier than in the Big Apple, with more people out after dark. Still, he kept feeling that this was a scene the vampires had deliberately created to lure people outside for them to hunt.

As he walked, he sent out Shadow Ninjas. By now, Luke's effective range had reached 160 meters. Within that range, the Shadow Ninjas could turn into shadows and follow him.

Beyond the sight of ordinary people, agile ninjas leaped and darted across the rooftops. With physiques sixteen times stronger than an ordinary person's, they could cover nearly twenty meters in a single leap, maintaining their high mobility even in built-up areas.

Arriving at a street lined with bars near the hotel, Luke received a message from a Shadow Ninja as he walked and turned into an alley.

A white male vampire was holding a woman, his head buried against her neck. They looked deeply affectionate, as though their next step would be something unmentionable.

But the rusty scent in the air, one Luke had long since grown accustomed to, told him things were not as simple as they looked.

"Lift your head." Luke addressed the man. The man glanced at Luke, then slowly raised his head. Looking at Luke, he gradually broke into a smile, as though mocking him for not knowing what was good for him.

His bloodstained mouth spread open, revealing sharp teeth, and the vampire tossed the woman, whose body had lost its warmth, onto the ground.

As he slowly approached Luke, the man's eyes began to change. The stimulation of the blood made his entire body start trembling like an addict's.

His eyes finally turned an evil green, his ears lengthened backward, and his fingernails gradually extended.

"Has your mother ever told you how ugly you look right now? So ugly even she wouldn't recognize you?"

As though he could not see the vampire approaching, Luke kept taunting him.

The blood had already left the vampire somewhat muddled, and now the food before him kept insulting him. He could no longer hold back. He lunged at Luke, but while he was still airborne, shadows solidified into human forms and used his momentum to slam him into the ground. Cold flashes of steel swept past, severing his hands and feet.

Luke planted a foot on the vampire's head and watched fear finally begin to appear on his face.

"So you can feel fear too. I thought you rats were all utterly fearless. Otherwise, how would you dare slaughter ordinary people? Now tell me where your base is, and I might spare your life."

The vampire rasped, trying to say something, but his bloodline superiors had already forbidden them from revealing their base's location.

He rasped for a long time without managing to say anything. In the end, he could only beg for mercy, even tempting Luke with eternal life.

Luke had not expected the man to be unable to say anything. He shook his head, pressed down with his foot, and crushed the vampire's skull. Watching the corpse turn to ash without leaving even a trace of blood, he could not help marveling at how environmentally friendly vampires were. Even when they left, they took all their trash with them.

Looking at the corpse in the alley, Luke sent Coulson a message asking him to deal with it.

He had encountered a vampire shortly after coming out. It seemed this city had quite a lot of trash. It needed a thorough cleaning.

"Where are we going?" Christina, who was visiting from out of town, held her companion's left arm as she spoke to a handsome young man beside them.

"A fantastic bar. The atmosphere is wonderful, and there are great performances every day. Once you go in, I guarantee you won't want to leave," the man replied. Every movement was gentlemanly, making him extremely likable.

"Thanks for showing us around, Mr. Local Expert. Haha." Christina made a little joke. Her companion watched them chat but kept feeling something was wrong.

Tightening her hold on Christina's right hand, Carrie whispered in her ear, "Be careful, Nana. There's something strange about this guy."

Christina glanced at the man beside them and whispered into Carrie's ear, "Relax. He definitely wants to sleep with us. Once we get to the bar, we'll order plenty of expensive drinks and get him drinking. Once he's drunk, we'll leave. Don't worry, I absolutely won't get drunk!"

After reassuring her companion, Christina continued playing along with the man. It was her first time doing anything like this, and she found it thrilling!

The young man's expression remained unchanged, as though he had heard nothing, and he kept chatting with Christina. But there was a trace of disdain and hunger in his eyes.

His gaze involuntarily drifted to Christina's neck. He swallowed and quickened his pace as he led the way.

He could not be late for tonight's gathering.

He led the two women onto the street of bars, but instead of stopping there, he took them through it to a very secluded door.

He knocked, and a horizontal hatch slid open. A pair of eyes looked at the young man and the two girls behind him, who were whispering to each other and beginning to sense something was wrong.

The door opened. Two people passed Christina and Carrie as though heading out to buy something, but quietly blocked their escape route.

"What are you trying to do?!" Christina could no longer stay calm. She pulled pepper spray from her pocket and handed it to her best friend, then took out a stun baton and waved it threateningly.

But a burly man strode up in two steps and grabbed the stun baton without the slightest fear. Under Christina's incredulous gaze, he knocked her unconscious with one punch. Beside her, her best friend sprayed pepper spray at the other man, only to discover that he walked straight through it, crushed the canister in one hand, and knocked her unconscious too.

The young man seemed unable to restrain himself and wanted to drop to the ground and take a few bites.

But one of the men kicked him in the stomach and hauled him up.

"These two will be allocated with the rest. Don't break the rules."

The young man did not dare show the slightest anger after being kicked. He was only a lowly vampire, barely above mindless Blood Servants in status. Even some higher-ranking Vampire Fanatics could order him around.

The suppression of his bloodline kept him from fighting back. Wiping the saliva from his mouth, the young man went through the door to await the revelry to come. The others outside carried the two women into the building as well.

Beyond the door was a meat storage room, hung with a mass of dead cattle frozen solid. It sent a chill down one's spine.

The vampires passed through the frozen meat and came to a wall. Their fingernails lengthened and slid into several holes in it. They pulled the wall open, revealing two paths.

Music drifted out, invigorating the young man. He headed down one path while the other vampires took the other.

A shadow quietly followed them inside, hesitated, then headed toward the two women being carried away.

The vampires carried them upstairs. Unconscious people hung upside down here, tubes inserted into their bodies. But rather than drawing blood, the tubes kept their blood as fresh as possible.

They were about to treat these two the same way when shadows appeared and finished them off with two slashes.

Luke revealed himself, his face expressionless but his eyes brimming with anger and killing intent.

Treating humans as food?

The killing intent in Luke's heart grew stronger. Shadows appeared and turned into ninjas, who rescued all the people. Looking at them, he had them laid to one side for now.

There was no telling how long these people had been hanging there. Luke first called Coulson and explained the situation.

Coulson was also deeply shocked. He had not expected so many victims and said he would immediately request S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Forces to come.

After bringing the victims outside, Luke also caught several vampires arriving with people in tow. There were men and women among them, all quite attractive, but all serving the vampires.

Luke had the ninjas cut them down at once. Seeing their guides turn to ash, the people who had been lured there screamed and tried to run.

Luke had the ninjas restrain them and took out his credentials to quiet them down. But they knew nothing about S.H.I.E.L.D., so he simply knocked them unconscious too.

Coulson moved quickly, soon arriving with a convoy. Over a hundred people rapidly assembled.

After handing the victims over to the accompanying medical staff, Luke went over to Coulson. Watching them quickly analyze the building's layout with high-tech equipment, Luke told them to guard every exit while he carried out a Great Purge of the vampires inside.

The vampires inside gradually noticed something was wrong and seemed somewhat panicked. Luke simply walked toward the place the music was coming from.

It resembled a large bar. Several huge speakers blasted stirring music, while a great crowd of people below... no, vampires, swayed to the music, waiting for the coming feast. They had not noticed at all that the same song had been playing for a long time and the person changing the music had long since disappeared.

Luke reached an upper floor of the building and blocked some vampires trying to escape.

"Where are you rushing off to?" Luke summoned Shadow Ninjas to block their paths both ahead and behind. Looking at their panic-stricken faces, he felt waves of disgust.

"Who are you? Vampires and humans have a peace treaty. You can't attack us!" The lead vampire tried to stall for time, but Luke could not be bothered to speak to them. Ninjas lunged forward, cutting down the vampires one after another.

Some vampires tried to fight back, but they were not particularly powerful, possessing physical abilities only three or four times those of ordinary people. The ninjas still cut them down one by one.

Luke walked up, seized the lead vampire by the neck, and slammed him against the wall.

"Tell me, where is your superior? Or rather, where were you going?" The vampire gave him a mocking smile.

"Vampires never betray their own. What are you thinking, blood bottle?!"

Luke's expression turned cold. Waves of dark energy radiated from his hand and spread toward the vampire.

As soon as the vampire touched the dark energy, screams rang out. He watched his own arm being assimilated by the dark energy and disappearing. Waves of excruciating pain came from his arm, and he immediately lost control of his bladder.

Luke tossed him aside in disgust, and a Shadow Ninja lifted the vampire up.

Luke directed streams of dark energy onto him, giving the vampire a 3D surround-sound experience of pain.

"Ready to talk now?" Seeing that the tortured vampire was barely breathing, Luke stopped. But wisps of dark energy still lingered around him, undulating like venomous snakes.

The vampire stared fearfully at the dark energy and mumbled, "Hailier Hotel. I usually meet my superior there."

The man had found a loophole. Instead of telling Luke where their lair was, he had named the place where he met his superior, avoiding his bloodline's suppression.

Luke nodded, looking at the vampire's pleading eyes.

"I don't recall saying I'd let you go."

Despair filled the vampire's eyes. He was about to curse when the dark energy surged over him, erasing him from the world entirely.

Looking at the piles of ash, Luke smiled and headed toward the dance floor below.

The vampires below had also noticed something wrong. Looking at the empty stage, they began whispering among themselves.

But their bloodline's suppression kept them from making any rash moves. They only dared move around within the dance floor.

Looking down at these vampires, Luke did not know what to say.

Instead of being perfectly good humans, they insisted on becoming slaves.

The Shadow Legion appeared above the dance floor. Troll Soldiers jumped down first, smashing into it and crushing clusters of vampires into ash.

Blade Soldiers followed close behind, landing lightly on the ground before beginning an unrestrained slaughter.

These vampires had never seen anything like it. All they ever did was cheat and deceive, and they had barely been in any fights. They were stunned by the attack. Some tried to escape, but Ninja Soldiers had already surrounded the entire dance floor. The vampires were trapped like fish in a barrel.

Watching all the fodder below get cut down in moments, Luke pressed his earpiece.

"Coulson, are there any vampires hiding anywhere else in here?" Although the Shadow Ninjas could find them all too, Luke could not be bothered to search. He had just found a big fish and did not want it getting away.

Following Coulson's directions, Luke killed every vampire hiding inside.

Leaving the building, Luke watched the squads of special operations personnel begin packing up and walked over to Coulson.

"What are you planning to do next? This should count as conclusive evidence, right?" Luke asked casually. He was a security consultant, after all, and could participate in official operations.

For this operation, he had worn a hood the entire time to conceal his face, so he could also continue operating alone.

Coulson shook his head.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. still won't deploy the Special Operations Team." Seeing Luke's puzzled gaze, Coulson explained, "If S.H.I.E.L.D. gets involved, we'll only catch a few small fry thrown out as scapegoats. But if you keep hunting these vampires as a civilian vampire, you can kill their higher-ups too."

"Director Fury said you can hunt the higher-ranking vampires. Going by the vampires' own ranks, each rank up adds another zero."

Luke nodded, understanding Fury's intentions. It seemed Fury had been angered too and needed a few high-ranking vampires killed to vent his frustration.

After saying goodbye to Coulson, Luke headed toward that Hailier Hotel.