A chance encounter with Blade

Yang Bo came out of the bustling furniture store looking grim, still muttering under his breath.

"You bastards charge two thousand dollars for a double bed? You make money faster than I can steal it!"

Yang Bo had thought the thousand-odd dollars in his pocket would buy him some furniture. Only after entering the store did he realize that these people could have simply robbed him, yet insisted on throwing in some furniture.

For a moment, he couldn't decide whether capitalists or vampires deserved to be strung up from lampposts. They were clearly two different species, yet their hearts seemed exactly the same.

He walked on and soon reached the crowded Times Square. The enormous billboards, bustling stores, and throngs of people all around left him struggling to take everything in.

"Oh my God!"

Adapting to the local customs, Yang Bo exclaimed like a country bumpkin who had just had his horizons broadened. Before transmigrating, he had lived in a small, third-tier city. When had he ever seen this kind of "high society"? Back in China, he had never even visited Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Shenzhen.

It was summer, and the "scenery" around him was spectacular.

"Holy shit, that woman definitely looks like trouble!"

Yang Bo watched a woman pass by. One gust of wind exposed everything worth exposing. America didn't have those damn safety shorts. Without spending a cent on bride price, he had seen seventy or eighty percent of the goods. No matter how he calculated it, he had come out way ahead.

Come to think of it, they don't seem to have bride prices abroad...

For a while, Yang Bo felt reluctant to leave. He sat on a bench and made a show of taking out a bottle of milk. There was still plenty left from the milk Gore had bought the previous night.

He gulped it down in great mouthfuls.

Suddenly, his brows knitted. He had caught the scent of a vampire.

A vampire out sunbathing in broad daylight?

He followed the scent with his eyes. A young Black man who had maxed out his stealth skill was walking down the street, dressed entirely in black, with a black trench coat over his clothes and black sunglasses on his face. Luckily, it was daytime. At night, dressed like that, all he would have to do was stand in the shadows and keep quiet for perfect stealth.

The instant Yang Bo saw him, he stood up and looked at him in delighted surprise.

"Blade!"

Flowers carefully planted might never bloom, while a willow cutting casually stuck in the ground could grow into a shady tree.

Blade's real name was Eric Brooks. His mother, Miriam, had been bitten by the vampire Deacon Frost shortly before giving birth to him, and had died after he was born. As a result, he was half human and half vampire, and had grown up to become a Vampire Hunter.

In Yang Bo's mind, Blade equaled endless vampires, which equaled endless vampire blood, which equaled vast wealth and upgrade materials.

No longer caring whether he would seem suspicious, Yang Bo hurried over to Blade.

"Hey, handsome!"

At his call, a whole crowd of inexplicably confident men on the street turned their heads at once. Yang Bo ignored them, walked up to Blade, and said, "I'd like to get to know you and discuss those monsters!"

Behind his sunglasses, Blade narrowed his eyes slightly and sized Yang Bo up. He knew this man must know something about him. The question was how.

"Who are you?"

As long as Blade was willing to talk, things would be easy. Yang Bo smiled faintly and gestured for him to look around. "This isn't a convenient place to talk. How about we find a coffee shop?"

The passersby drawn over by the call of "handsome" were watching the two of them, some openly, others discreetly. Seeing this, Blade gave a slight nod. His curiosity had been piqued too, and he wanted to know just what Yang Bo was after.

America might lack other kinds of stores, but it certainly didn't lack coffee shops. The two soon entered the nearest one and found a relatively secluded corner.

"My name's Yang Bo. Nice to meet you!"

As he spoke, Yang Bo held out his hand and shook Blade's.

"Eric Brooks!"

After giving his name, Blade settled back on the sofa and waited for Yang Bo's explanation. He could tell Yang Bo wanted something from him.

Looking at Blade, Yang Bo tapped the tabletop lightly with his fingers and gathered his thoughts before saying, "I need information on those monsters' hideouts. I can help you wipe them out!"

"Why?"

As far as Blade could sense, Yang Bo was nothing more than an ordinary human. He couldn't detect anything unusual about him.

He wasn't surprised that Yang Bo recognized him. Anyone who knew about vampires was bound to know about him.

At Blade's question, the smile faded from Yang Bo's face. He looked at him with utter seriousness and said:

"Why? Hah! You have no idea what it's like to hang in a processing facility like a pig waiting to be slaughtered. From that moment on, I told myself every vampire had to die, no matter where he was or who he was!"

Although Yang Bo had said this right in front of Blade, who was also a vampire, Blade wasn't angry in the slightest. In fact, he agreed wholeheartedly. Still, with surprise and curiosity lingering in his mind, he asked, "How did you escape?"

As far as he remembered, no one had ever escaped the Slaughterhouse on their own.

Yang Bo tapped his fingers lightly against the tabletop, making a soft knocking sound, and said with a cold smile:

"I didn't escape. All I am now is a Hunter returned from hell. A Vampire Hunter!"

"We've only just met, so of course you won't trust me. That's perfectly normal. I don't need you to put yourself at risk. Just tell me where they are!"

Blade fell silent at that.

Yang Bo badly wanted to take out a cigarette and light it, but being a man with "manners," he refrained. Just then, a server brought over two cups of coffee and set them on the table.

He picked up his coffee and took a small sip. The bitter taste instantly twisted his face into a mask of misery. Grabbing the sugar container beside him, he poured in a generous amount of sugar, ignoring Blade's amused expression.

Shit, I shouldn't have let Blade order my coffee. Instant coffee really is better!

Seemingly moved by Yang Bo's unfiltered behavior, Blade took off his sunglasses, set them on the table, and looked at him. "All right. As it happens, I was just heading to one of their hideouts!"

"Thanks. But could I trouble you for one favor? If there aren't too many of them, could you let me do the killing?"

Vampires wouldn't drop vampire blood unless he killed them with the Stake, which was a real headache.

If he wanted to level up now, he had to finish off every vampire himself and obtain as much vampire blood as possible.

The first level required five bottles, the second ten, the third fifteen, and the fourth twenty. Even if the drop rate for [vampire blood] was fifty percent, he would still need at least a hundred vampires. That didn't even include the service fee he had to pay the Hunter NPC before each level-up.

Sigh... When I think of it that way, why does it feel like there aren't that many vampires after all?