[Episode 14] Vampire (4)
From the moment he openly hunted people within the homebound area, I knew Jegal Seong-gyu was a man without fear.
Dududududuâ
Jegal Seong-gyu openly stormed into the apartment complex, brandishing his gun whenever he spotted vampires.
Iâm sure I only gave him about 100 shots, but he was shooting like it was a machine gun instead of a rifle.
âIs he crazy?â
I heard that intelligence would reach a normal human level when they become lower vampires, but looking at this, could it actually be lower?
âKiaaaek!â
In any case, Jegal Seong-gyu cleaned up the lesser vampires guarding the entrance with his shooting and entered without hesitation.
âSeems like there arenât as many vampires as I thought?â
But that wasnât the case.
âGraaaah!â
As soon as he entered the first-floor corridor, the lesser vampires rushed at Jegal Seong-gyu.
Dududududuâ!
âDie!1Kick the bucket/croak.â
Jegal Seong-gyu fired at them, emptying one magazine.
Considering that he was firing randomly, the fact he killed nearly ten vampires so far was a good result. Perhaps it was because he had shot at the group in the corridor.
Click! Click!
âYou bastard!â
After confirming that the bullets didnât come out, Jegal Seong-gyu didnât think of reloading and instead extended his nails.
âKyaaaack!â
Jegal Seong-gyuâs nails pierced the heart of a lesser vampire that was already stumbling after getting shot.
âHeâs crazy!â
Watching him continue the melee, I could understand why he was abandoned by the guy named Ahn Sang-hyuk, the guy who had turned him into a vampire.
âArgh! Let go!â
He only barely suppressed two lesser vampires in the melee.
One of them was in a shaky state from being shot. In reality, he had caught only one with his ability.
Then, he was overwhelmed by the increasing number of lesser vampires.
âWarehouse storage.â
Immediately, I confiscated the gun and magazine Jegal Seong-gyu had.
âLet go of me! Hey!â
A woman approached the subdued Jegal Seong-gyu, making a fuss.
âI heard a huge noise so I was wondering who it was. It was you, Seong-gyu oppa?â
âYeah! Itâs me, you bastard!â
The woman sighed deeply and said, âOppa, oppa, do you even know why you were abandoned?â
âWhat?â
âItâs because youâre so stupid. Look at you now. You canât even handle the lowest-level vampires. Youâre just wasting food.â
âArrrghhh!â
At the sight of Jegal Seong-gyu yelling in anger, the woman covered her ear exaggeratedly and said, âOh, thatâs loud. But there were gunshots just now, right? Did you come in with a gun?â
Although the woman was scanning Jegal Seong-gyuâs body, it was already impossible to find the gun and bullets that had disappeared into my warehouse.
The woman approached the lesser vampire shot by Jegal Seong-gyu and inspected the wound.
âDid you get shot?â
ââŠYes.â
The lesser vampire nodded dully.
The woman turned back to Jegal Seong-gyu and said, âSo where did you hide it? The gun.â
âPfft!â
Jegal Seong-gyu spat at the woman.
The woman was hit accurately in the face with saliva and pointed firmly with a hardened face.
âKill him.â
With her permission, the lesser vampires hastily began sinking their teeth into Jegal Seong-gyuâs body.
âAGGHHHHHHH!â
That was the end of Jegal Seong-gyu.
[Citizen Jegal Seong-gyu has died.]
And then.
âGrah, grahhhh!â
One of the lower vampires who had sunk their teeth into Jegal Seong-gyu began trembling violently.
âHm?â
The woman watching this smirked and said, âWhat? Seems like he was more nutritious than I thought? I didnât expect one to evolve.â
The body of the lesser vampire swelled up, emitting white steam from all over its body.
âSearch for something like a gun around here.â
The female vampire looked down at the scene expressionlessly and then sniffed the air.
âWhatâs this smell?â
At that moment, I used the Communication Ring to tell Seo Ye-jin.
[Ms. Ye-jin, get ready.]
Get ready to cut off the connection.
Fwoosh!
Flames roared to life, and the gas that filled the hallway reacted.
Rumble rumble rumble rumble!
All the vampires gathered there, including the mouse hiding in the corner, were wiped out.
Screechâ!
With the death of the mouse, the situation came to an end.
[You have hunted a lesser vampire (Lv. 18).]
[You have hunted a lesser vampire (Lv. 18).]
[You have hunted a lower vampire (Lv. 28).]
âŠ
The notification of the hunt rang loudly.
âIt was a lot closer than I thought!â
If I leveled up again and expanded the territory, there was a high chance that the area they were in would be included.
âIf it werenât for Jegal Seong-gyu, I wouldnât have even known about their existence.â
Without knowing about vampires, I would have granted them citizenship without much thought.
It seemed to be quite large in scale.
The thought that dozens of vampires with citizenship could wander around my territory was terrifying.
âIâm glad I found out now!â
I planned to eradicate them before they were incorporated into my territory.
There was no need for anyone else to get involved.
Now that I knew their location, all I had to do was use Seo Ye-jinâs mice and Yoo Hye-rinâs poison mist to annihilate them.
[Seo Ye-jin, Yoo Hye-rin, please come to my house.]
After using the Communication Ring to call them, I got up from my seat.
Choi Hyeong-jun, who had been sitting quietly next to me, spoke up.
âAre you leaving already?â
âYes. Please take care of the kids for me.â
âDonât worry.â
The rescued kids were temporarily left in Choi Hyeong-junâs house.
Currently, Choi Hyeong-junâs wife, Park Hye-won, was diligently bathing the children in the bathroom.
Just as I was about to go home to start the vampire extermination operation in earnest, I ran into Yang Ha-yoon, who had finished showering alone.
âMister? Where are you going?â
There was anxiety in the childâs eyes.
It hadnât been long since she got to know me, and she was afraid of being left alone.
Probably because of what she had been through.
I smiled broadly like a clown and spread out both hands.
And.
âShop open. Buy chocolate!â
Like a skilled magician, I summoned chocolate out of thin air and handed it to Yang Ha-yoon.
âIâm going to work for a while.â
Yang Ha-yoon took the chocolate and looked up at me.
âThatâs right. Since youâre a rescue worker, you have to go save people again.â
ââŠYeah.â
I stroked her head and said, âIâll be back soon.â
It was then.
âUnni, Iâm Choi Na-yeon! Whatâs your name?â
Choi Na-yeon stepped forward and approached Yang Ha-yoon first.
âOh, me? Iâm Yang Ha-yoon.â
âI want chocolate too!â
This time, Choi Seo-yeon interrupted from the side.
Looking at Yang Ha-yoon surrounded by little sisters2Mightâve been mentioned a lot especially if you read other Asian novels, but you can refer to unrelated people as brothers or sisters., I asked, âCan you take care of your sisters?â
Yang Ha-yoon smiled lightly and nodded.
âYes!â
âIâm counting on you.â
With that, I entrusted the children to Choi Hyeong-junâs family and headed home.
While waiting for Seo Ye-jin and Yoo Hye-rin, I meticulously checked citizen information one by one. I wanted to confirm if any other monsters like vampires had mixed in.
Seo Ye-jin arrived first.
When I looked at Yoo Hye-rin with the Absolute Dwellerâs Eyes, it seemed that she was working at another public facility, so it would take some time for her to get here.
Click.
As I opened the door, Seo Ye-jin entered the house familiarly.
âExcuse me.â
Seo Ye-jin sat on the sofa, glanced at my face and cautiously asked, âMr. Jae-hyun, do you have something youâre concerned about?â
Since there was still time before Yoo Hye-rin arrived, I talked to Seo Ye-jin, âI was checking the citizen information window. Did you just see it too, Ms. Ye-jin?â
âYes. What were they? They didnât seem like ordinary peopleâŠâ
âThey are monsters.â
âWhat?â
I explained to Seo Ye-jin, who widened her eyes in surprise.
âYou saw them drink blood at the end, right? Theyâre vampires.â
âBut wasnât that man a citizen? I remember he started from inside the territory.â
âItâs also news to me, but vampires can be granted citizenship.â
Seo Ye-jin thought about my words for a moment and then asked, âDoes that mean human-like monsters such as zombies or ghouls can also obtain citizenship?â
âIâm not sure yet.â
There hadnât been any zombies included in the territory yet.
âBut that manâs case was somewhat special. He was originally a normal human like us.â
âWhat?â
âSo, I think thatâs why he was able to gain citizenship. Although he was bitten by a vampire and then became one, he was a human before.â
Seo Ye-jin who was listening to the story asked, âIsnât that similar to the zombies we saw in Nampo-dong? They must have been humans at one point tooâŠâ
From what Seo Ye-jin said, it seemed likely that they would also be granted citizenship.
âThatâs why itâs a headache. Maybe there are still vampires somewhere in the territory sucking peopleâs bloodâŠâ
Checking random citizen information screens and also confirming the new ones flowing in was busy enough. I also had to withdraw the system that automatically gave citizenship.
Moreover, as the number of citizens reached 30,000, it was becoming difficult to distinguish between those who had been confirmed and those who had not simply by their name.
Then, Seo Ye-jin said, âWhen I first accepted citizenship, you teleported me here forcibly, right? Canât you do the same now?â
It wasnât something I hadnât thought about.
There had been times when I had used emergency quests to treat people who were suffering from malnutrition or dehydration and had lost consciousness, or had teleported them here in a hurry.
âBut it costs 30 million won to teleport one person.â
As the territory expanded, the cost of bringing people from the outskirts here was increasing.
Teleporting a thousand people would cost 30 billion.
âIâd rather spend the money to alleviate their conditions.â
Immediately improving dehydration and malnutrition symptoms and delivering supplies would allow people to survive on their own.
Explaining the shop and monster hunting systems to people was also the same.
In the past, I used to give quests to find Kim Dabin, but now the population has grown too large to handle it that way.
âExpanding the relief team is much better than using quest assignments!â
Currently, the relief team was operating by giving simple system explanations to able-bodied people and sending those in need of rescue to the medical team.
However, due to a chronic shortage of people, they couldnât handle the growing population.
âAnd I also donât want to announce that I can set death as a penalty.â
No one would welcome the fact that they could be killed at any time.
âItâs a headache.â
It wasnât just because of the vampires. There were many times I worried over this issue.
Iâve thought about giving quests to everyone and penalizing those who harm citizens with citizenship, but that was too extreme.
What would you think if someone stamped you as a âpotential criminalâ?
âI would lose peopleâs trust.â
I didnât want to do unnecessary things.
âIn any case, it looks like Iâll have to intervene personally.â
However, there were limits to what I could do alone.
I couldnât focus solely on this issue.
âIt would be nice if there was a way to distinguish the inclinations of the citizens.â
Thatâs when it happened.
[A being satisfying the conditions to be recognized as a citizen has been found.]
[Would you like to offer citizenship?]
As soon as I turned off the system that automatically granted citizenship, this annoying message resurfaced.
I sighed inwardly and checked the information of the new citizens.
âNo problem. Offer citizenship.â
The moment they accepted citizenship,
[The number of citizens has reached 30,000.]
[As the number of citizens has reached a certain level, the âAchievement Systemâ is now unlocked.]
It was the emergence of a new function to overcome this situation.