Vampire

Over the next two days, Lu Qi led the Shadow Legion to conquer three small dimensions, but none of them contained coordinates that could lead to other worlds.

The lords of those dimensions generally did not carry high-level equipment. Any such equipment brought into the Dark Dimension would be continuously corroded by Dark Energy and drop in rank. Low-level equipment, on the other hand, came in piles, greatly enriching Kamar-Taj's stockpile of low-level gear.

Kamar-Taj did not lack high-level equipment, but Lu Qi was in the Marvel world himself, so he did not need that equipment as coordinates.

With a sigh, Lu Qi flipped through the coordinates in his notebook and found that there were not many left. Countless dimensions existed within dimensional space, but only some small dimensions could be observed. Kamar-Taj generally focused on defending against medium and large dimensions, as well as Dormammu's top-tier Dark Dimension, and did not place much importance on observing dimensional space. As a result, fewer and fewer dimensions remained for Lu Qi to explore.

I need to find a way to discover other Dark Dimensions...

Lu Qi sighed. Kamar-Taj was not particularly skilled in dimensional observation technology either. They could only observe these few dimensions, so he might as well see whether the remaining dimensional lords had any methods for observing dimensions.

After grinding dungeons for two days straight, Lu Qi raised his forces' strength a little further. He increased the number of Ninja Soldiers to 3,000 and purchased some other troop types as well.

But he could not just sit around and burn through his resources. Maybe he should wait until Thor's story began and ask Odin?

That seemed feasible. Asgard appeared to be quite adept at spatial observation. Even Loki himself could observe many spatial rifts.

Having made up his mind, Lu Qi decided that once Tony completed the new-element reactor, he would call Coulson every day to see when he was going to check out the hammer.

Lu Qi simply gave Tony a call.

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

"Lu? What are you talking about?"

"Uh, Pepper?"

This was awkward. Pepper was the one answering the phone.

"Uh, Pepper? Where's Tony?"

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

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

"Who knows? But working out is good for him. Do you want to come take a look? I can send a car to pick you up."

"Mm, not for now."

Lu Qi hung up. It seemed Tony was doing fairly well now.

But the moment he set down his phone, it rang again. It was Coulson. Why was he suddenly calling?

"Hey, Coulson. What's up?"

"We need your help, Lu Qi!"

"Uh, what happened?"

After a long time, Lu Qi finally left the Big Apple and flew to Los Angeles. Outside the airport, he found Coulson, who had made the urgent call, and asked curiously, "So what happened? Why didn't you explain it over the phone?"

Coulson led Lu Qi into a nearby car and started driving. He cautiously circled around several times before finally bringing Lu Qi to a safe house.

"What's going on? You're being so careful. Come on, you're starting to scare me." Lu Qi looked helplessly at the tense Coulson.

"Do you know about Vampires?" Coulson asked Lu Qi carefully.

"The kind of monsters said to originate in Europe, who like drinking human blood, can live forever, and reside in castles deep in the wilderness?"

Lu Qi looked at Coulson in confusion, not understanding what he meant.

"All right, suppose Vampires really existed. Do you think you could beat them?" Coulson asked as he walked toward the basement door nearby.

"Probably. My Ninja Soldiers don't even have blood."

"That's exactly why I called you here. Come in."

Lu Qi had already formed a guess, but he was still curious.

There were Vampires in the Marvel world? He honestly had not known that. But even if they existed, it was no big deal. Those guys barely got any screen time in the movies, so they were probably not very strong.

Following Coulson into the basement, Lu Qi saw a man bound in iron chains. The man had a huge rotten hole in his stomach, with his intestines and other organs spilled all over the floor. Yet he looked quite spirited. When Coulson entered, he even glared viciously at him.

Lu Qi watched as the man, who had lost nearly half the organs in his body, not only remained alive but became even more ferocious. He pulled the chains around him taut, producing a creaking sound as though they would snap apart at any second.

But Lu Qi had seen plenty of uncensored live-action scenes in Hell's Kitchen. He looked at the man without changing expression, though getting him to eat another two bowls of rice was impossible.

"This guy is a Vampire? He doesn't look like much." Lu Qi glanced disdainfully at the man's intestines and waved a Ninja Soldier into existence.

The Ninja Soldier glanced at the Vampire and swung his blade, directly cutting off the Vampire's head. The Vampire immediately turned into flying ash.

Seeing that the Vampire had stopped moving, Lu Qi smiled. "I thought these guys would be impressive. So they still die when their heads are cut off."

Coulson explained, "These Vampires are formidable because of their stealth and speed. They can also use blood supplies to heal rapidly. And now, many wealthy people crave the Vampires' immortality and have become traitors to humanity. We generally call those people Vampire Fanatics."

Lu Qi nodded, not particularly worried. His Ninja Soldiers were not necessarily inferior to these guys when it came to stealth. What concerned him was the Vampire Fanatics Coulson had mentioned.

"Are there many Vampire Fanatics?" Lu Qi asked. He did not want to somehow gain a huge group of enemies because of these Vampires. He was not afraid of them, but they would be annoying. What if some blind fool ruined his little treasury again? That would be infuriating.

"There are quite a few Vampire Fanatics. After all, as you know, wealthy people can buy many things with money, but lifespan is something they can only long for."

Coulson said with a headache, "But those people cannot show their faces, and they do not dare expose themselves, so you do not need to worry about annoying flies. With us watching them, they will not dare make any rash moves."

Lu Qi nodded. That put his worries to rest, but he looked at the pile of ash left behind and found something strange.

"You aren't planning to report these guys' existence to the authorities?" Lu Qi could not understand it. Why call him in for a battle between races? Shouldn't they tell the official authorities and send in the military to wipe these guys out?

Coulson shook his head. "That's the difficult part. Vampires have the ability to turn large numbers of ordinary people into Blood Servants. While these Blood Servants are not strong, they lose their sanity and can spread the infection. The Vampires are also very good at hiding, and the higher-ups do not know where they might be concealed. If a fight breaks out and the Vampires create a Blood Servant disaster in cities like the Big Apple, it will become troublesome."

With a sigh, Coulson continued, "So the higher-ups reached an agreement with the Vampire Twelve Elders. Both sides would coexist peacefully."

Lu Qi could hardly believe it. "These guys treat us as food! And they still made peace with them?"

"There's no choice. Completely eliminating the danger posed by these guys would be too risky. The higher-ups do not have any good solution right now, so this is all they can do for the moment. But the authorities also told the Vampire Elders that they would provide artificial blood plasma for the Vampires to survive on. If any Vampire is found killing humans, people will be sent to hunt them down. S.H.I.E.L.D. even has a department dedicated to handling Vampire criminals."

Lu Qi sneered. "You think these guys won't drink human blood in private? I don't believe it for a second! Besides, if S.H.I.E.L.D. has a department to deal with Vampire criminals, why are you asking me to handle these Vampires?"

Coulson shook his head. "We found that many people have gone missing in this city recently. A great deal of blood was left at the scenes. There is no doubt that Vampires did it, but without conclusive evidence, S.H.I.E.L.D. cannot casually send official forces to handle this matter."

"So you need someone without an official identity?" Lu Qi nodded, more or less understanding what Coulson meant.

"Fine, I'll take the job. I'll wipe out all the rats in this city as a civilian Vampire hunter. I haven't had much to do lately anyway. I've been bored to death."

Lu Qi flexed his fists. At last, he had something to do.

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

Coulson nodded. "The director takes this matter very seriously. These guys have been reaching beyond their limits in recent years, and he hopes this can teach the Vampires a lesson. So the reward is quite generous: one thousand dollars per Vampire."

Lu Qi pursed his lips. Fury was so stingy. These rare creatures probably were not that numerous to begin with. A thousand dollars per Vampire—how much could he even make? Then he suddenly realized something. "Not just this city?"

Coulson smiled and gave Lu Qi a look that told him to figure it out himself.

Lu Qi rubbed his hands together, ready to make a big move, 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 here before were attacked repeatedly, and quite a few agents died. That's why we had you take a civilian flight here. You must be careful while operating in this city."

Only then did Lu Qi understand why Coulson had been so cautious. But his current strength had long surpassed the information S.H.I.E.L.D. had on file. Coulson did not know that.