39: You're not dead? (Seeking monthly votes and requests to continue reading)

Due to the influence of the earlier bell, the entire Vampire Base was under complete lockdown.

Even the main gate had a few extra Vampire minions standing guard.

Watching Locke saunter over, these few Vampires immediately raised their guns at him upon seeing his face:

"Hey, stop."

"Friendly fire," Locke said, raising his hands voluntarily to explain, as he didn't want to burn bridges yet.

"Hehehe, kid, do you think we don't recognize you?"

"It's precisely because you're one of us that we've got our guns pointed at you."

The few Vampires looked at him with cold sneers, their eyes filled only with a yearning for power.

The three of them were subordinates of Kraven.

Because they knew of Lord Kraven's hatred for Locke, they planned to take advantage of this moment, while everyone else was off at a meeting and no one was paying attention, to shoot him.

Of course, the main reason was that low-level Vampires like them hadn't yet received the news Kraven had spread.

Otherwise, they definitely wouldn't have dared to point their guns at Locke like this.

It was a very simple logic.

Because the five elite Vampires who went to carry out the mission, as well as Elder Emilia and her subordinates, had all died, yet Locke, a Vampire who had just joined, appeared before them completely unscathed.

Anyone with a normal brain could figure out how strange that was.

"Oh?"

Locke's eyes glowed red, the smile on his face faded, and he no longer held his hands up, letting them drop to his waist.

"Since you recognize me, why do you still dare to point your guns at me? Aren't you afraid that Lady Serena will come looking for you afterwards?"

The few Vampires looked disdainful:

"There's been a major upheaval in the Vampire castle right now; who would notice what happened here?"

"As long as we kill you and throw you under the sun, there won't be a single trace left. Who would know it was us who did it?"

"By then, Lord Kraven will surely promote us."

The three Vampires spoke one after another, smug smiles on their faces as they talked.

It seemed they were already certain they could kill Locke.

After all, in their eyes, they had three guns pointed at Locke's head, and Locke hadn't even drawn his weapon yet—how could he possibly be a match for them?

Locke remained calm and indifferent, then lowered his head slightly and said in a deep voice:

"Have you never considered what the consequences would be if you failed to kill me?"

The three Vampires were stunned for a moment by the aura and confidence he suddenly exuded, and then they almost laughed out loud.

Perhaps they hadn't expected him to be so full of confidence while facing three guns alone.

"Huh? Consequences? Kid, you must be joking. We've got three guns on you; do you think you're an Elder who can survive this?"

"Hahaha, I think this kid is crazy."

"Alright, enough nonsense with him. Let's send him on his way. After killing him, we'll take something distinctive from his body, and we can go claim credit from Lord Kraven later."

Having said that, the three Vampires made a move to pull their triggers, but how could Locke let them have their way?

Shaking his head, he expressed his pity for their upcoming fate.

At the same time, with a wave of his hand, the revolver XVR460, which had already been stained with the souls of many Vampires, instantly appeared in his palm.

Seeing the gun suddenly appear in Locke's hand, the three Vampires naturally realized something was wrong.

They hadn't even seen how the gun appeared.

Their pupils couldn't help but shrink, and they felt an inexplicable terror in their hearts.

They wanted to pull their triggers immediately, but it was already too late; they had lost the chance to fire.

With Locke's speed, it was impossible for him to give them a chance to react.

He simply flicked the hammer with his right hand repeatedly,

Bang, bang, bang...

The successive gunshots shattered the silence of the night, startling a flock of black bats.

Three silver bullets, like meteors streaking through the night, passed through their eyes and shot into their brains, right before their disbelieving eyes.

Then, the three men's heads exploded violently like watermelons.

It was a good thing Kruto wasn't there; otherwise, seeing the three Vampires dare to be so arrogant when facing Locke, he would probably have been unable to resist rushing up and tearing them to pieces.

While shouting: "You are disrespecting a powerhouse."

The main thing was that anyone who had seen Locke's marksmanship would never hesitate after drawing their gun if they faced him again.

They wouldn't even dare to draw their guns and point them at him.

Because the moment you made a move to fire, Locke would fire his bullet first, sending you to hell ahead of schedule.

With that kind of firing speed, no one could react in time.

Looking at the corpses lying on the ground, Locke couldn't help but sigh:

"Sigh, why did you have to meddle? Wouldn't it have been better to just let me in?"

"I didn't want to kill you originally."

It was mainly because he found it troublesome.

Because if he shot and killed Vampires at this time, he would still have to find a way to dispose of the bodies.

Although he only needed to hide the bodies, and wait until sunrise to completely eliminate any lingering trouble.

But he felt his time was precious and didn't want to waste it on such trivial matters.

If he were killing a Vampire like Kraven, that would be one thing.

Dealing with three small fry gave him no sense of achievement at all.

After all, killing the three of them meant getting no benefits, while also wasting time disposing of the bodies; in Locke's mind, this was a losing deal.

But now that he had already killed them, there was nothing he could do; he could only grumble while dragging the bodies into the dense forest.

As for the remaining bloodstains, he couldn't be bothered to deal with them either; once the sun came out, the ultraviolet rays would make them disappear automatically.

After finding all three shell casings fired from his gun and discarding them in a hidden place, he strode into the castle.

Every Vampire he saw while walking through the castle looked worried.

Locke naturally had his own guesses.

"It seems Lucien passed the fake news of Emilia's death to Kraven."

"But the corresponding news of my death should have been spread too, right? Those three shouldn't have had that kind of reaction?"

He just couldn't have imagined that Kraven, upon receiving the news, had tried to be clever and waited until now to spread it.

And he had only told the high-ranking people, others didn't know yet, only that something major had happened within the Vampires.

Unable to come up with an answer, Locke stopped dwelling on it and quickly ran toward Serena's room.

This time, of course, he came up empty-handed.

Serena was still sitting blankly in the conference room, thinking about what she should do next.

Seeing no one in the room, Locke turned and headed toward the conference room.

While walking on the road, he remembered he hadn't checked the rewards from the previous temporary mission, so he shifted his thoughts and summoned the system.

【Bat Affinity: Your performance has gained the slight attention of the Vampire Progenitor. This is a blessing bestowed casually by Him; now you can easily control bats and understand some of their bat language.】

"Progenitor's blessing? It seems Marcus is truly not the Vampire Progenitor in the real sense."

Locke didn't pay attention to the latter part about being able to control bats and understand their language, because he could already guess most of that just by hearing the name of the skill.

But the information revealed in the first sentence was more important; that was what he was focused on.

As he obtained more and more rewards, Locke had an increasingly profound understanding of this American Horror Story World.

I'm afraid the waters behind this world are very deep, far from what is presented on the surface right now.

And he only had one life; he couldn't afford to mess up.

After all, these entities that appeared in the descriptions of extraordinary items would very likely become the targets of his missions in the distant future.

He had to be cautious and careful to have any chance of winning; otherwise, even with the system, he might become a pawn in someone else's hands.

Thinking of this, Locke couldn't help but admonish himself in his heart:

"I must be even more careful in the future. Without absolute certainty, I cannot easily reveal any flaws."