What It's Like Being a Vampire

Yangcheng.

On the last day of July, the outdoor temperature at noon had already hit 38℃.

As usual, Zhongshan Hospital in Yangcheng City was bustling with cars and people.

However, the hospital’s original main medical building was practically deserted because it was undergoing construction and work had been halted for the day.

Two hospital staff members were pushing a cart into the main building, taking the elevator straight down into the basement.

In the elevator, the taller of the two glanced at the silhouette covered by a cloth on the cart and wondered, “Usually, aren’t bodies supposed to be sent to the funeral parlor?”

Indeed, what they were pushing on the cart was a body.

Although the main building was under construction, many facilities had long been moved to the new building, or replaced if they were inconvenient to relocate or too costly to move.

However, some “facilities” did not exist in the new building.

Due to new regulations, they generally took bodies straight to the funeral parlor, so no morgue was built in the new building. Only the old main building still had a “morgue” which was kept operational for special reasons during the refurbishment of the old structure.

The other staff member in the elevator shook his head, made a sniffing gesture and said, “This one overdosed, couldn’t contact any family or friends.”

The taller staff member was puzzled, “Shouldn’t it be sent to the Medical University for autopsy then? Where are the police?”

“I don’t know, all we were told is to bring it here by the dean.”

Once the elevator reached the basement, the two stopped chatting and pushed the cart through a long corridor to reach the morgue. Unexpectedly, the two people guarding the morgue were unfamiliar faces—one of them a foreigner.

“Who are you…?” The two staff members were confused, “Where’s Old Xie and Old He?”

“Oh, they’ve been reassigned. We’re in temporary charge here,” said the man in his twenties. He glanced at the cart they were pushing and opened the door for them, “You can place it anywhere inside, except in the very back.”

Without questioning any further, the two hospital staff members instinctively thought that the area had been outsourced to a “funeral home”. But since when did funeral homes hire foreigners to guard the door?

When they walked through a passage and into the morgue, the two became astonished. The interior of the morgue had been completely transformed into something much larger, perhaps two or three times its original size. There was even a large, bank-vault-like metal door at the end. When did this happen?

Inside the morgue was bit chilly and something felt off. Feeling uneasy, they quickly placed the body and made their way out.

Watching as the hospital staff disappeared down the corridor and exited via the elevator, the foreigner with brown hair and grey eyes whispered to his companion, “Old Qian, won’t there be a problem with them bringing bodies in? You know what’s in there…”

His companion was nonchalant, “It’s all arranged by our superiors. What’s there to worry about? We have Mr. Liang and Dr. Xia leading the team on this operation. All the elites from the research base are involved. If it weren’t for us transporting that thing from Slovakia, we wouldn’t have been stationed here today.”

These were Korowin and his companion “Old Qian”, who had been tasked with cleanup and transporting the captured “Old Vampire” as part of the mission led by Tang Baona, Yang Zhen Er, and Xiao Pingguo in Bratislava.

Originally, they were responsible only for transporting the “Old Vampire”. Once outside of Europe, it was supposed to be out of their hands.

However, their superiors abruptly changed the plan. They were made to escort the “Old Vampire” back to their homeland, where at the local airport, to their surprise, they were met by Mr. Liang from the Research Center and Divine Technology hub.

Naturally, their five-man team joined the special mission led by Mr. Liang.

For the next two months, they were tasked with keeping an eye on the “Old Vampire”.

Initially, the “Old Vampire” was sent to a research centre affiliated to Divine Technology in Yangcheng City. After a month of being studied by research personnel, it was secretly transferred to Zhongshan Hospital.

Using the construction of the main building as a cover, the hospital had secretly repurposed the morgue to imprison the “Old Vampire”.

At that point, they learned that the mission was led not only by Mr. Liang but also included the top personnel of the Research Base—Dr. Xia and Director He from the Non-Research Center—as well as the formidable Miss Tang, whom they had previously encountered. It was undoubtedly the highest-ranked mission of the Research Base in the post-Antarctic Crisis Era.

Being able to participate in such a mission was undoubtedly of great benefit to them.

After the body was delivered, they were both a bit anxious because Mr. Liang had told them to be extremely vigilant whenever a new body was brought in.

“Could that body be a ‘mutant’?” Korowin quietly speculated.

As they spoke, Korowin was subconsciously fiddling with his wristwatch—this was given to them by the base after their team confirmed to take part in the mission. The base provided a plethora of accessories for them to choose from, all supposed to be tools for the “spiritual test”. He chose a stylish sports watch, while Old Qian picked out a ring.

“No idea.” Old Qian shook his head, his hand instinctively reaching for the ring on his left thumb.

At first, neither of them felt anything special about the “spiritual test” items given to them. They thought that they probably wouldn’t pass the “spiritual test”, making them unable to study “Spirit Control Theory” established by Dr. Xia, or become powerful “Spirit Controllers”. They were quite dejected.

Unexpectedly, after being in the hospital’s “morgue” for a week, they began to feel a peculiar connection with the environment through the watch on their wrists and the rings on their fingers. It was an odd sense of connection.

This feeling was very hard to describe explicitly. It had no direct sensory perception, yet it undeniably existed, getting Korowin and Old Qian quite excited about the mission.

Seeing that Korowin still looked worried and apprehensive, Old Qian reassured him, “Don’t worry, the base always puts safety first in all its operations. For many years, there has never been an accident. Despite the constant danger, no field investigators have ever died in the line of duty. Not even a single instance of serious injury during a mission. If there’s danger, the strongest will always be at the front.”

At this, Korowin’s mind was drawn back to Bratislava two months prior. The giant, menacing “Old Vampire” sitting in front of the stone coffin, and the sight of him shrinking himself down unbelievably to fit into a box under the threats from Miss Tang.

Although he had not seen “Miss Tang” in action, from that point forward, whenever “mutant” was mentioned, his thoughts would drift to the “Old Vampire”; and whenever anyone mentioned the “strongest one among the base”, it was invariably “Miss Tang” with her black-rimmed glasses and a warm smile on her face that came to mind.

The fact that she could incite such fear in the “Old Vampire” towards himself was conclusive evidence that “Miss Tang” possessed a power and terror far exceeding anyone else’s.

If “Miss Tang,” who had no formal codename or organization and held no direct titles in the base, was this formidable, then “Mr. Liang,” and “Dr. Xia” were all the more intimidating.

Upon recalling that the current mission was under their jurisdiction, Korowin no longer felt the need to worry.

All at once, the lights overhead started dimming, and some noise seemed to be stirring from within the morgue.

Old Qian and Korowin exchanged a look, promptly getting in touch with the team leader through the walkie-talkie. However, the voice that resonated from the device was that of “Dr. Xia”:

“Understood. Keep an eye on the door.”

As soon as her words ceased, the locks on the morgue door automatically engaged from the outside.

The very next instant, the sound of something heavy falling echoed from within the morgue.

…

Inside the morgue, a middle-aged man with a gaunt face and bare upper body was lying on the ground. He was twitching convulsively, eyes rolled back, mouth wide open expelling short gasps of breath.

This was the corpse that had just been placed in the morgue. At that very moment, however, he seemed to have been revived by something, on the brink of “resurrection”.

After a minute or so, the middle-aged man finally ceased twitching. His torso contorted strangely, and he slowly rose to his feet, leaning on the metal table beside him. Head tilted, he looked around the morgue.

He peered down at his hands, his body, his legs, his feet. Then he opened his mouth to speak, making odd and slurred sounds, as if his tongue was constantly knotting up on itself:

“This…is…human…kind…I…Hello…hee…hee…”

As time elapsed, his physical posture gradually returned to normal. His expression was not as perverted as before, and his speech became slightly more articulate.

He neared the door of the morgue, and tried the handle intending to leave, but found that it was locked.

He paused dumbfoundedly, then started tugging, pounding and roaring angrily.

On the outside, Old Qian, and Korowin merely watched the morgue door anxiously. One fingering his wristwatch, the other fondling his ring, neither moving.

Inside the morgue, after pounding at the door for a while and realizing it wouldn’t open, the middle-aged man slowly pivoted and his gaze landed on the large metal door.

He seemed to sense something, his eyes widened, and then, stumbling slightly, he sauntered towards the metal door.

But before he could reach it, the door opened automatically. The temperature in the morgue dropped instantaneously as a cloud of white mist slowly spilled out.

The middle-aged man burst through the metal door, only to meet the sight of a humanoid creature fastened to the metal wall with chains wrapped around its neck and limbs. It was the “Old Vampire” Gerald that Old Qian and Korowin had extradited back to their country.

Gerald, who had taken at least a thousand lives, had the extraordinary star diet sleep that significantly extended his age and periodic limit times, and was a low-transition, low-mutation “creature.” He was sent from Slovakia all this way for one sole purpose: to participate in this mission. He was also kept alive to provide some basic creature data for the researchers to study.

But with his body still embedded with a vast amount of “super-connected objects”, he was still able to hear that judgement voice, and he could still see the “Minion Lv Bu” standing beside him. Seeing a human suddenly enter the room, he was scared out of his wits, and his big mouth on the belly closed tightly in response, believing another scientist was about to experiment on him.

However, the very next second, the “super-connected object” chains embedded in his body shattered, and dozens of tungsten steel balls flew out of his ear cavities.

In the blink of an eye, all the “super-connected objects” stuck to his body left. The judgement voice he had been hearing for two months vanished, the “minion Lv Bu” disappeared instantly. He felt as if he was a prisoner who had his shackles removed, and had regained his freedom.

In front of him, the middle-aged man tipped his head back, eyes glazed, mouth slightly open as he began to drool.

“It’s…good…inside…hee…hee…”

Gerald, slightly afraid, glanced at the chains that were once attached to him and the tungsten steel balls that were now scattered about, then at the seemingly weak middle-aged man. His gaze then turned to the open metal door not far behind the man.

He didn’t know who this person was, nor if his chains were intentionally removed. But he did know that this might be his only chance to escape, and he didn’t want to stay as a lab rat for the researchers anymore.

Giving a low growl, he raised his towering arms high and shoved the middle-aged man aside with full force.

While the middle-aged man didn’t even put up a fight. He was knocked to the side, flying seven or eight meters away before he hit the metal wall, splashing blood all around.

Gerald, originally headed for the metal door, abruptly stopped in his tracks, looked back in surprise at the figure rising from the pool of blood, bodies twisting strangely.

Gerald sensed from his unique fashion that the middle-aged man was part of the “Blood Clan”!

“Are you… here to save me?” Gerald couldn’t help asking in English.

However, the middle-aged man was now halfway off the ground, with half of his head smashed. Staggering towards Gerald, his mouth opened wide, uttering some strange sounds.

Gerald realized that something was off. This “thing” didn’t seem to be a normal human converted into a “Blood Clan” member. A “Blood Beast” or a “Blood Worm”, perhaps, that was parasitic or controlled by another host?

That couldn’t be it either!

But thinking of the three girls in different glasses, the voice of punishment, and the ugly giant, he did not dare to linger. He raised his arm to strike at the middle-aged man again, intending to knock him away.

But this time, the middle-aged man was not knocked away. Instead, like a piece of sticky toffee, he was attached to Gerald’s arm.

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