Bor Gets Struck by Lightning

In a small parking lot on the west side of Central Park.

"All right, Bor! Wait a moment!"

The instant the blood bottle in Bor's hand filled up, Yang Bo waved for him to stop, then jumped out of the truck.

He took bread out of his inventory and ate as he walked, replenishing his depleted hunger bar. At the Furnace, he collected the glass that had finished smelting, then used the Crafting Table to make a Rallying Altar for leveling up vampires.

It worked much like the Vampire Hunter's version, except it was used to level up vampires.

Three glass blocks, one gold ingot, and three iron ingots.

With the completed Rallying Altar in hand, he walked over to Bor and tried placing it inside the truck. It was no different from placing it on the ground: he could set it down directly. The discovery excited Yang Bo.

"If that's possible, doesn't that mean I could mount beacons and conduits on special rigs and carry them around in the future?"

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier came to mind, and he immediately began scheming. The carrier was rather underwhelming, but at least it could fly, and it wasn't exactly slow.

Borrowing one while S.H.I.E.L.D. is tearing itself apart wouldn't be a bad idea. Otherwise, it'll just get destroyed anyway. What a waste!

Still, I should find some employees and subordinates first. Surely I can't pilot a carrier all by myself?

After letting his thoughts wander for a moment, he said to Bor, "Give me the blood bottle!"

Then he took several empty bottles out of his inventory and tossed them to Bor. "Fill these with blood too. Stop when I tell you to!"

Bor obediently caught the bottles. This blood-draining ability alone had already made him feel vastly stronger. He no longer had to sit in place waiting to die as he had before. Now, he felt he could freely drain the blood of every living creature within three meters.

A blood-red glow appeared in his hand again, and Yang Bo's freshly restored health began dropping rapidly once more. Less than ten seconds later, Yang Bo hurriedly called for him to stop.

"Stop!"

Bor immediately stopped draining blood.

Yang Bo took the blood bottles from Bor again and poured all their contents into the Rallying Altar. Leveling a vampire from levels one through four was very simple: all it took was filling the Rallying Altar with blood and right-clicking it. There was no right-click in reality, but mentally willing it to activate would do.

Jumping out of the truck, Yang Bo pulled Blade and Coulson, who had been watching with interest, away from the altar and shouted into the cargo compartment:

"Bor, focus on this altar and think about using it!"

The moment Yang Bo finished speaking, the blood in the altar's glass vessel began falling at a visible rate.

With a thunderous crash, a bolt of lightning appeared in the clear sky. Ignoring the truck entirely, it struck the Rallying Altar directly. Bor, standing beside it, was caught in the blast. White smoke rose from his body, along with the smell of roasting meat.

The strong-willed Bor didn't make a sound, though that might also have been because the electricity had paralyzed him.

Yang Bo took out more bread and began eating. With a full hunger bar, his health would recover extremely quickly, only a little slower than if he drank a healing potion.

Ignoring the stunned Coulson and Blade, Yang Bo walked toward the truck as he ate. Before climbing inside, he made a point of checking the roof above the altar.

"A lightning bolt that thick didn't even damage the roof. Minecraft lightning really is something else!"

He carefully touched the truck and, finding no stray current, hopped lightly inside. Looking at Bor, whose eyes had rolled back, Yang Bo scratched his head sheepishly. "You can't blame me. With your size, you couldn't have gotten out of the way even if I'd warned you!"

Luckily, Bor had already passed out. Otherwise, he would certainly have cursed Yang Bo in his head.

Sure, I couldn't dodge it, but you could've warned me! At least let me brace myself!

He walked over to Bor, who was still trailing white smoke. Coulson and Blade also climbed into the truck, curious. They mainly wanted to know why lightning had suddenly struck, and, more importantly, why Yang Bo seemed to have known it was coming.

Blade sniffed the air and gloated, "Oh, that reminds me of rare pork chops!"

Beside him, Coulson asked directly, "Yang, why did lightning strike? From the way you acted, you knew about it beforehand, didn't you?"

Yang Bo nodded, his expression turning solemn as he prepared to feed Coulson a load of nonsense.

"You don't understand, Coulson. In our Eastern world, unnatural beings like him are existences that heaven and earth refuse to tolerate. Every time they grow stronger, they provoke the wrath of heaven and earth, manifested as this lightning!"

"But the Great Dao numbers fifty, while heaven unfolds forty-nine, leaving one that escapes. Heaven and earth leave a sliver of uncertainty for every existence. As long as such an unnatural being survives the lightning tribulation and wins that slim chance of survival, his strength will increase tremendously!"

Coulson was thoroughly taken in, mainly because it had happened right before his eyes. Though the stars were hard to see in this bustling city, the cold, bright moon was proof enough that the sky was clear tonight.

Yet lightning had struck the truck containing this vampire without any warning, lending some credibility to Yang Bo's explanation.

Blade, however, wore an openly skeptical expression. As a half-vampire himself, he had never heard of any vampire getting struck by lightning for growing stronger.

"Yang, vampires are humans infected by a virus. They're nothing like those creatures in stories that can turn into bats..."

At that, Yang Bo merely turned and gave Bor a meaningful look. Without explaining anything, he took a Human Heart out of his inventory and stuffed it into Bor's mouth. The instinct to feed made Bor automatically begin devouring it. As he ate, the injuries on his body disappeared at tremendous speed.

At the same time, Yang Bo noticed that a plus sign had appeared beside the health bar above Bor's head.

Curious, he clicked it.

"This... isn't this the vampire skill menu?"

While Yang Bo was marveling at this, Bor slowly regained consciousness. When he opened his eyes and saw Yang Bo, he nearly burst into tears.

"Boss, I think I just got struck by lightning!"

Yang Bo patted the fat on Bor's body and said with a beaming smile, "You don't just think so. You really did get struck by lightning, and there's more coming in a moment!"

Bor: "..."

A few minutes later, the blood in the Rallying Altar once again reached the amount required for a level-up. Yang Bo jumped out of the truck, and Coulson and Blade scrambled out after him.

Rumble...

Another thick bolt of lightning descended from the sky, and Bor's body once again gave off an enticing aroma. This time, he was probably closer to medium-rare.

Now neither Coulson nor Blade could remain calm. Once could have been a coincidence, but twice certainly wasn't.

"Yang... was what you said just now true?"

Blade asked earnestly. Now he was feeling tempted.

If getting zapped really makes you stronger, that wouldn't be so bad...

Unable to hold back his laughter, Yang Bo said, "Of course..."

"I was pulling your leg!"

"You're both at least forty, aren't you? And you actually believed that?"

"If you'd watched carefully, you'd have seen that the lightning struck the altar, not Bor!"