Into the Creations-Chapter 45: World of Vampire Detective [27]

"Superpowers...! Were you a progenitor?"

It wasn't surprising. There are more progenitor Vampires than one might think.

When a vampire drinks the blood of five other vampires, they awaken as a progenitor. These are called Wild Progenitors, but since their awakening is achieved through cannibalism, they are despised and targeted even by other vampires.

This is because if an ordinary vampire drinks the blood of a progenitor, they immediately awaken as a progenitor themselves.

"Yeah. But are you really human? How can you block all my attacks? That's not human reflexes."

The whip-like dagger that had fallen to the ground shrank back.

It seemed the dagger could freely extend and retract.

The guy swung the dagger at me again. The blade extended like a whip. He wielded two daggers simultaneously, and his skill was no joke.

Clang! Clash! Clang!

Blocking the whip-like daggers with my sword wasn't difficult. The problem was getting close. Whenever I tried to close the distance, the curved daggers would wrap around me like a lasso.

'Damn it. This is annoying. Should I take a risk? ...No. Let's keep it simple and quick.'

I stepped back. If I hadn't been in an accelerated state, even that would've been difficult.

"...Running away?"

"Who's running?"

I pulled out my smartphone from my pocket. I exited the game, returned to reality, and retrieved an item from my inventory. This created a slight opening, but fortunately, the guy was also adjusting his stance.

"...A revolver? Did you pull it out of your smartphone? What kind of trick is this?"

"No trick. What you see is what you get."

I aimed the revolver at him. It was a vampire hunter's weapon. The bullets were silver, a vampire's weakness. Even for a progenitor with enhanced physical abilities and superpowers, silver remained their Achilles' heel.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

I fired all six rounds from the revolver.

Just one shot. If even one bullet hit, he'd be like a mosquito hit by Raid. But he dodged every single bullet. He frowned as he looked at the bullets scattered on the ground.

"Silver bullets... huh?"

"...Damn, you're good at dodging."

"If you shoot head-on, of course, I can dodge. And it's your fault. Even if I didn't dodge, only two would've hit. How can you miss so badly at this distance?"

"It's my first time shooting a gun..."

"Even for a first-timer, that's pathetic. You have no talent for shooting, unlike your swordsmanship."

"Ah... Yeah. You're right."

I casually replied and threw a grenade at him, the pin already pulled.

"It's a holy grenade!"

It was a specially designed fragmentation grenade filled with tiny silver pellets. Extremely lethal to vampires. I quickly moved up the stairs to avoid the blast.

Boom!

The grenade exploded. I went back downstairs. No matter how skilled he was, the space was too confined. There was nowhere to hide, so he had to take the hit.

'It's not just any grenade—it's an anti-vampire grenade. Even a progenitor would at least be severely injured.'

But contrary to my expectations, he was unharmed.

He had expanded the blade of his dagger like a wall to block the explosion.

"So you can control not just the length but also the width...!"

"That's right."

He took a stance. His demeanour had changed. The once passive guy had become aggressive.

"I was planning to gather information while fighting you... but you're more dangerous than I thought. I'll stop holding back and kill you now."

He charged at me. He was slightly slower than me in my accelerated state. I had four minutes of acceleration left. Plenty of time.

I used Byeokgye on him.

Clang!

His dagger deflected my sword. It worked halfway, but his combat sense and reflexes were better than I expected.

"What is this? Superpowers... no, swordsmanship? Shaking the sense of distance... I didn't know such a technique existed. Interesting."

He laughed. He was enjoying the fight itself.

And so was I. It wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, but it was somewhat entertaining.

'The guys upstairs were too boring.'

He wasn't weaker or stronger than me. We were evenly matched. Physically, he was slightly superior, but I had acceleration and the Yeongcheon Style.

'If he were overwhelmingly strong, I would've run away immediately... but this level is worth trying.'

He maintained distance, swinging his whip-like daggers instead of engaging in close combat. A sign that he feared my swordsmanship, the Yeongcheon Style.

'...That ability is really annoying.'

The daggers would suddenly extend or retract. I couldn't let my guard down. The moment I lost sight of his dagger, the extended blade would surely wrap around my body.

'Should I use that? I didn't think I'd ever need to use it.'

Yeongcheon Style Practical Technique: Swallow's Dance.

My movements changed. Before, I had been focused solely on closing the distance at top speed, causing my body to tense up. Now, my posture was relaxed and upright.

I moved as if dancing. Unlike before, my movements weren't sharp, but there was a hidden sharpness within the fluidity.

Clang! Clash! Clang!

While deflecting his daggers, I slowly closed the distance.

"...Huh?"

He seemed flustered and swung his daggers again. The speed increased, but I dodged or deflected every strike.

Swallow's Dance is a technique focused on evasion and defense. It maximizes footwork and body movement, making it look like a dance.

Jin Seyeong might be able to use Swallow's Dance for offense, but I wasn't that skilled yet.

Before I knew it, I was right in front of him.

"This is ridiculous..."

My sword cut through his body. Staggering, he swung his dagger at me. I ducked under the enlarged, club-like dagger and swung my sword again.

The sword cut his leg, slashed his shoulder, and then pierced his heart.

"Ugh!"

He collapsed to the ground. Still trying to swing his arm, I stepped on his wrist with my sneakers.

"Just asking... do you know the safe's password?"

"49685817361."

"...Oh! You're actually telling me? Is that for real?"

"The password is real. It just needs fingerprint and iris recognition too. You can't move the safe alone, and even if you try to destroy it here, it'll take time. By then, reinforcements will arrive and turn you into Swiss cheese."

"Kuk!"

I couldn't help but laugh at how seriously he spoke even while dying.

"What's so funny?"

"It feels like the heavens are on my side."

[Hacking successful.]

[You can hack the safe for 2 minutes.]

Click!

The massive safe door opened.

"What?!"

"Fingerprint or password, it didn't matter. I was just asking."

I swung my sword. His head rolled off. He had been planning to counterattack by extending a hidden blade in his pocket, but I had noticed his subtle movements early on.

I kicked his corpse aside and looked into the safe.

It was about half the size of my real-life studio apartment.

I couldn't store the entire safe in my inventory. The inventory's condition was limited to items I could carry. No matter how big, if I couldn't lift it, it wouldn't go in. I had confirmed this before. On the other hand, even if something was large, if I could carry it, it would go in.

I had once stored a 5-meter-long Styrofoam box in my inventory, which was quite fascinating.

"Wow..."

I let out an exclamation as I stepped inside the safe.

The safe wasn't just filled with cash. There were paintings, ceramics, jewels, and gold bars. The stacked bills were in both won and dollars.

"Wow, there are over 200 gold bars, each 1 kg."

I didn't know the exact price, but I remembered seeing on TV that a 1 kg gold bar was worth around 60 million won.

"I'll sell the gold bars in the real world. It's about time I moved out of my studio apartment."

As I gathered the items, I thought about where to use them.

First, I'd move to a high-end apartment. Having gotten used to Hera's place, I was drawn to the idea of a luxury apartment.

I'd keep the jewels for now and exchange the dollars for won. I had no plans to go to America.

'As for the artworks... I'll have to visit Kang Wook-sung.'

Since they were stolen goods, it'd be tricky to handle them openly. It'd be safer and easier to leave them to a professional broker, even if it meant losing some money.

After gathering everything from the safe, I got into the Benz parked in front of the village hall. The car keys were near the entrance, so I didn't have to search the corpses.

"Making money is this easy! Kuhahaha!"

As I left the village, I stuck my hand out the window and flipped off the CCTV camera. I hoped Kim Chun-suk would be furious when he saw it.

'Wow. Now I get why people rave about foreign cars.'

Having driven it a bit, I realized it was superior to domestic cars in every way.

'Kyah! This is fun.'

The mountain road was winding, but I maintained 70 km/h, barely seeing the road ahead with the headlights. For someone else, it might've been dangerous, but my reflexes made it possible.

One small mistake, and the car could flip or crash into a tree. Maybe even roll down the cliff.

'That's what makes it thrilling.'

I was as focused as I had been during the sword fight with the progenitor Vampire.

Screech! Thud!

While taking a curve, something jumped out and hit the car. It was unavoidable. A dark night, a mountain road curve, and something suddenly appearing—there was no time to react.

"What the hell!"

Startled, I stopped the car and got out.

"Damn it. A deer!"

The deer's legs and neck were shattered, and it was biting its tongue as it died. I grimaced.

They say deer in Gangwon Province are particularly crazy.

'This is beyond crazy. Damn it.'

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The front of the car was badly dented. I clicked my tongue and got back in. I planned to drive slower because of the deer.

But after about 30 seconds, the car suddenly stalled.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

I turned the key to restart the engine, but the car was unresponsive. The deer must've damaged something.

After several attempts, I finally got out. Hacking was on cooldown and unavailable.

'It's too late to go back up... I'll have to walk down.'

Fortunately, the mountain road wasn't too long, and my car was just a short distance away.

"Damn mosquitoes. I want to catch and burn them all. And those deers too. Tear them apart... Damn it."

Annoyed, I bought a bicycle in reality and brought it over to ride down.

I had originally wanted to buy a bike, but I didn't have a license.

While pedalling down, I spotted a deer.

I pulled out a pistol from my inventory and aimed at it.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The muzzle flashed, and shell casings fell to the ground. I fired 17 shots but didn't hit a single one.

"...Tch!"

The deer dodged, but my shooting skills were also terrible. Just as the vampire guy had said, I had no talent for shooting.

"Ugh! What am I doing?"

Feeling a strong sense of regret, I decided to ignore the deer. Today was a good day. I could be generous with a deer.

But the damn thing didn't run away. Instead, it smirked at me.

It wasn't my imagination. It really smirked. It really sneered at me.

"You bastard!"

In the end, I pulled out Korea's time-honoured K-2 assault rifle.

It was night, and we were in a forest full of trees. The deer was surprisingly fast. I ended up using five magazines before I finally caught it.

My shooting skills were truly despair-inducing. I sighed deeply and pulled out my smartphone to store the rifle in my inventory.

[Conditions met.]

[You can unlock the 'Marksmanship' trait.]

[Spend 30 points to unlock the 'Marksmanship' trait?]

[Yes / No / Hold]

"Of course I need this!"

I was about to unlock the trait when I noticed I only had 12 points, so I chose to hold.

'It costs three times more than Yeongcheon Style.'

After a bit of thought, the reason became clear.

The Yeongcheon Style trait was limited to the martial art itself. But Marksmanship encompassed not just firearms but any act of firing or shooting. The scope of shooting was broader than the Yeongcheon Style.

'I need to gather points quickly and unlock the trait.'

My mood improved. I had made money, caught a deer, and could unlock the shooting trait as soon as I had enough points.

I hummed a tune. The mosquitoes were annoying, but I could be generous.

At least until I ran into another damn deer.

***

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