Vampire—
In many historical records and legendary stories, they are often described as handsome men.
Ah, indeed.
At least ten seconds ago, the “vampire” in my brain was firmly fixed by this framed cognition.
But the guy in front of me—
She was doing some actions symbolizing maturity, and her posture did carry an undeniable composure; however, that appearance no different from a child’s forced me to reposition her identity, and incidentally overturned my old impression of “vampire” this fantastical creature along with it.
“…Elementary school student?”
I couldn’t control my mouth.
I clearly knew this was very impolite—but the shock dragged the thought straight out of my throat, unable to stop it.
“Ha~~~? Elementary school student? We are already an adult! Adult!”
Bloody Lotus’s expression suddenly turned ferocious, and the smile that seemed casually picked up earlier also disappeared together, as if thrown into the darkness.
I blinked, confirming once more.
—Bloody Lotus’s appearance was really very small.
Her hair color was as deep as blackcurrant, but the overall impression she gave was closer to cherry: round, vivid, with a “sweetness” visible at a glance, yet hiding thorns.
Due to the vampire’s characteristics, her skin was pale almost to transparency.
But that didn’t destroy her beauty; instead, it made her like a finely crafted figure that one couldn’t bear to touch—exquisite, cold, even carrying a certain unreal perfection.
“Adult? …Unbelievable.”
“You this guy! I’m already 18 years old! 18 years old! Already within the standard adult range!”
18… years old. One year older than me.
I exhaled shortly, forcing my brain to swallow this setting.
But thinking carefully, I didn’t have much qualification to mock Bloody Lotus.
The “me” covered under the black cloak wasn’t much better compared to her.
Moreover—her voice sounded much more mature than my virtual character’s.
The voice-changing armament hanging on my neck was unique, and the Night Witch’s true original voice… that tenderness enough to make certain potential criminals with special fetishes have dangerous associations was simply my nightmare that I least wanted to expose.
“Ah, then, the great THE KING OF LANCER miss.”
I pressed my tone steadier, trying as much as possible to make myself sound like I was politely negotiating, rather than trembling.
“May I ask what important matter brings you specially to find me?”
I quietly released “Voodoo Doll,” letting it escape along the other end of the shadows—while I pretended to relax and continue chatting, but in fact didn’t dare to slack off at all.
“As you can see, there actually aren’t any armaments in the coffin… Today I just came up empty-handed.”
I tried hard to package “retreat” as “misunderstanding.”
“Between us… can we treat it as a misunderstanding and end it here?”
“No way, we refuse!”
She restored her elegant posture, like picking up the smile from her pocket and casually hanging it back on her face.
I swallowed.
Just as I wanted to raise my hand to wipe the sweat simulated in the BHAO virtual world, I found Bloody Lotus gathering the blood overflowing from the coffin toward her palm.
That blood converged and swirled as if conscious, seemingly obeying her breath.
“Sorry, everyone.”
Her gaze passed over me, cast toward the distant spectating players, her tone light as if announcing an insignificant activity.
“We need to have some private conversation with the Night Witch—so please leave for a while, yo, EVI ORDER!”
This wasn’t a simple threat.
This was a restriction ability possessed by lords in BHAO:
It could only be used once a week, issuing a warning-nature command to non-member players within the territory area.
Players who complied with the command and left the territory range within the eviction time could still maintain a “friendly” relationship with the territory.
But if they didn’t leave within the EVI ORDER time—the system would automatically determine that player’s relationship with the territory as “hostile.”
It wasn’t considered forced eviction, but its meaning was more practical and cruel than a warning:
As long as labeled as hostile to BLOODY CASTLE, no matter where they encountered BLOODY CASTLE’s territory members, they might be attacked.
Because—
Killing hostile players would grant extra points.
At the same time, a program frame also floated in front of me.
“Do you wish to leave the BLOODY CASTLE area?”
Below it appeared a countdown as long as 120 seconds.
The tick-tock, tick-tock sound hammered the eardrums like a hammer, urging me to leave here.
Since that’s the case, then I have no choice but to log off… Eh?
The idea of escaping was interrupted by a red long spear inserted into the ground beside me.
The spectating players had already dispersed.
Of course they didn’t want to become enemies with Bloody Lotus.
As one of the KINGs with the highest individual combat power, her strength might just be written in the forums—
But even if just text, it was enough to make people remember those suffocating details.
Her long spear was forged from blood.
Although that was one of her skills—but there were also rumors that the long spear was a powerful armament she obtained after killing a certain wild lord BOSS.
She could fly.
The long spear could be thrown.
Even in certain situations, she could simulate multiple long spear consecutive throws.
For enemies who could only move on the ground, facing such an opponent was simply terrible to the extreme.
“We said, we won’t let you leave easily, oh~ Night Witch.”
She hovered in the air, like a true nocturnal creature overlooking prey.
“You must understand this principle too— the rule that you can’t log out during battle?”
That’s right.
In the ENDLESS WORLD, as long as entering “battle state,” during the state duration—and 20 seconds before and after it—logging out was impossible.
This was almost a rule locked by the system.
She threw the long spear earlier.
Even if it didn’t hit, it would be determined as launching an attack on me, thus pulling me into battle state.
In battle state, I fundamentally couldn’t log off.
“E3 district’s KING, what exactly is your purpose?”
While questioning the vampire in the air, I paid attention to the “Voodoo Doll’s” position.
Dueling with a KING had almost no chance of winning.
And the mechanism that could teleport me to the Voodoo Doll’s location became my only method to escape this place.
“Ha! Don’t play child’s house games, oh, witch!”
Another blood-red long spear whistled out.
The previous long spear that dragged me into battle state hadn’t disappeared yet, and the new long spear had already precisely nailed toward the shadow trajectory where the Voodoo Doll was.
The next second—
A cluster of purple data streams exploded and dissipated.
My only “doll escape plan” thereby declared bankruptcy.
The countdown on the program frame was still approaching “0.”
Even if double digits remained, every beat was enough to make me terrified.
Damn… Think of a way quickly, Yoruichi…
The tension in my heart rose continuously like tidewater.
For a Tier 4 character, I temporarily had no plans to become enemies with an entire territory.
“Hey, are you thinking something like, ‘What should I do’?”
Hey, is this guy a psychic?
“Don’t treat me as a psychic.”
“…You really are!”
I gritted my teeth, quietly submerging into the shadows.
The world seemed to erase my existence in an instant, and my body also sank into a two-dimensional state—like being kneaded by darkness into a thin sheet of paper.
Now, this was my only barrier.
“No need to worry so much.”
Bloody Lotus’s voice was light and fluttering, even carrying a certain unsettling gentleness.
“We won’t hurt you, witch!”
“Then you—”
In the two-dimensional shadow, I could still speak.
This mechanism was hard to explain.
But what made me more irritable was— the voice-changing armament at my throat was already approaching its limit, the electric current sound making the timbre gradually hoarse, like reminding me that the “disguise” was about to break.
“Solving this state, the EVI ORDER—isn’t it very simple?”
“…What?”
She smiled, like finally handing the answer to me.
“Join my BLOODY CASTLE.”
“Become a member of my territory.”
“The EVI ORDER will treat you as our subordinate, naturally it won’t have any effect on you!”
Ah… So that’s how it is. I understand.
This was a trap.
It was a trap that Bloody Lotus had set up from the beginning.