Chapter 622: The Bizarre Encounter
by xennovel?
A sudden, cold remark from the other side left Lu Xin—who had been quietly adapting his mindset for a big fight—completely stunned.
He looked incredulously out the windshield at the girl with golden hair, sporting an eye patch and a sexy, form-fitting dress. It took him three or four seconds of staring before he finally reacted. Lowering his voice, he slowly began:
“Strip and dance?”
“…”
Inside the car, his Sister and Father looked at him in astonishment from different angles.
Lu Xin had no choice; he was a proper man, but that was the code.
Outside, the woman’s face broke into a satisfied smile. She walked straight to the car window, extended her hand toward Lu Xin in the driver’s seat, flashed her cute, pristine little tiger tooth, and said, “Hello, brother. I’m Dracula.”
“?”
A huge question mark seemed to hover over Lu Xin’s head once again.
Dracula!
Could she really be Dracula?
Lu Xin couldn’t help but wonder—how could the Dracula who always acted like a big shot in the group chat be a golden-haired girl?
Embarrassed, he reached out to shake her hand and murmured, “Hi, I’m Family Portrait.”
“Eh?”
The golden-haired girl—Dracula—glanced at him in surprise, “So it’s you…”
Lu Xin nodded sheepishly.
Originally, his club name was Single Soldier. But Dracula insisted on three-character names to match everyone else. Lu Xin had been reluctant, even a bit angry, but after losing a lot of money because of her, he felt he owed it to her. So he changed his name to three characters, fulfilling her tiny wish.
Luckily, the change prevented any awkwardness when they met.
Feeling closer now that he knew she was Dracula—and admiring her beautiful golden hair and features—he quickly asked in a low voice:
“What’s going on?”
“…”
“I was about to ask you the same.”
Dracula unhesitatingly opened the back seat of the car, climbed in, and said, “How did you just barge in like that?”
“I had no choice…”
Lu Xin, sounding a bit aggrieved, explained, “I arrived in the Chaos Zone and found that only Flame’s internal transit network could get me to Flame City before the gathering. But when I went to get a permit from an agent at the entrance, they hit me with an astronomical fee. With no other option, I had to break in…”
“Heh, Flame is all about profit. Their whole system has been rotten for ages.”
Dracula listened, clearly understanding, and added, “What outrageous fee did they charge you?”
“Three…”
Just as Lu Xin began, he faltered and sighed, “It was a lot, anyway.”
“Never mind.”
Dracula didn’t press further. Waving her hand, she said, “As long as we get someone aboard, that’s good enough. Now, just drive ahead—leave the talking to me.”
“Hmm?”
A bit surprised, Lu Xin looked ahead and asked, “What about those guys?”
In the light of the Red Moon, he could see that at a steel structure ahead—where a human-shaped spiderweb hung in midair—a group of dark, dense soldiers and vehicles were staring intently at him.
Among them were about a dozen dark, multi-barrel rotary guns and several towering black armored vehicles.
Clearly, that was Flame’s main force coming straight at them, right?
“Ignore them.”
Dracula said, “Just follow my orders—focus on driving; I’ll handle the rest.”
As she spoke, she shivered slightly, complaining, “What season is this? Why is there such blasting air conditioning in the car?”
“Oh.”
Trusting her as one of their own, Lu Xin pressed the accelerator and slowly drove forward.
He didn’t try to explain that it wasn’t air conditioning—it was just that she was sitting too close to Father.
……
The car inched toward the Steel Drawbridge. Under the glow of the Red Moon, he could sense the silent army below tense up; one pair of suspicious, frightened eyes after another peered through the glass, yet no one fired.
It wasn’t until Lu Xin’s car was about twenty meters away that someone switched on a flashlight and emerged along with a group.
A man with a shoulder badge engraved with a flame advanced, flanked by two soldiers wielding oddly designed firearms.
He raised his hand to signal for Lu Xin to stop, cautiously glanced at him in the driver’s seat, then cast an appraising look at Dracula in the back, his calm voice edged with doubt: “Is this really resolved?”
Dracula, sitting in the back seat, replied impatiently, “He’s just a madman. What more do you want?”
“…”
The man was briefly at a loss for words before saying, “But I didn’t see you make a move earlier…”
Dracula’s gaze turned cold as she retorted, “If I wanted you to get home and immediately grab a gun to murder your wife, children, lover, your lover’s mother, or even the entire litter of puppies you just had—and then commit suicide…”
Pausing, she suddenly flashed a strange smile, “You wouldn’t witness my strike anyway.”
“Swish!”
The man’s face paled as he stepped back, his eyes now filled with suspicion directed entirely at Dracula.
Too wary to question further, he glanced at Lu Xin and said, “Should we take him in for questioning?”
“Hmm?”
Lu Xin grew tense but maintained his grip on the steering wheel, feigning calm submission.
Dracula, scrutinizing him from head to toe, suddenly asked, “Which department do you belong to?”
After a moment of silence, the man replied, “I’m Wang Changwei, deputy commander of the Level 1 Response Team, 4th Battalion of Flame Company Security.”
“Deputy?”
Dracula chuckled coldly, “At your rank, you don’t have the authority to demand personnel from our True Church. We agreed—whoever captures someone owns them. If you really want people, send your commander over yourself…”
Glancing at him with a peculiar smile, she added, “If by then he still has a full body…”
The deputy commander’s expression visibly changed as he subtly leaned back.
Dracula fixed him with a piercing gaze; in her lone, unmasked eye, a strange gleam shone.
Her tone softened as she continued, “Or, you could send me three of your men right now in exchange—make sure they’re alive, healthy, free of any contagion, non-smokers, and non-drinkers…”
She said this while grinning, her tongue briefly flicking over her sharp little tiger tooth.
“You…”
The deputy commander trembled visibly and instinctively stepped back.
Looking at Dracula, he clearly regarded her as a lunatic.
“Let’s go!”
Dracula suddenly went expressionless, rolled down the back window, and coldly ordered Lu Xin.
Lu Xin complied, adopting a blank look as he started the car slowly and drove forward.
In his rearview mirror, he could see the commander’s conflicted expression.
But as Lu Xin’s vehicle nearly collided with the guards, the commander gestured with his hand in a safe signal.
Soon, everyone began to move aside.
They actually cleared a direct path for Lu Xin to drive straight across the Steel Drawbridge; even the gun barrels slowly shifted away.
After crossing the drawbridge, a clear road opened up leading directly to that bustling metropolis.
Not a single obstacle remained.
……
“They actually let you pass?”
Lu Xin held his breath until he was sure they couldn’t hear him. Then, surprised, he murmured while glancing at Dracula in the rearview mirror, unable to hide his amazement and admiration, “How did you do that?”
“Easy—just exploited a small psychological loophole,”
Dracula’s lips broke into an undeniably proud smile, though she casually waved her hand, “I arrived before you. I anticipated that club members might use a few direct, if not entirely reasonable, methods to reach Flame. So as the organizer, I prepared a reception by blending in as an external ally of Flame…”
“…”
Lu Xin was utterly dumbfounded, “You just blended in that easily?”
In the rearview mirror, Dracula’s smile grew even more apparent, her little tiger tooth flashing subtly, but her voice remained deliberately calm:
“Just figure out how Flame’s emergency response works, and you’re set.”
“Most of Flame’s ability users are split between two departments—one handling mysterious incidents and the other in the special response team. Typically, one deals with special pollution while the other contains rogue ability users.”
“One department is specifically in charge of handling those shady, unsavory tasks for Flame…”
“When both departments are stretched thin, they resort to borrowing ability users from the Black Box.”
“So after I arrived, I studied Flame’s operational structure and learned through some secret channels that:”
“Currently, most of Flame’s key ability users—whether from the mysterious incidents department or the special emergency unit—have been redeployed to guard a mysterious location. If assistance is needed elsewhere, they’ll borrow in some ability users from the Black Box. While Flame’s organization is highly controlled, the Black Box is surprisingly loose…”
“So once I infiltrated the Black Box, I had a chance to blend in…”
“…”
Listening in awe, Lu Xin remarked, “So you pretended to be an ability user from the Black Box?”
“I went in directly, making sure I wouldn’t get caught.”
Dracula said with a beaming look, “I posed as a Ritualist to get in…”
Lu Xin was even more astonished, “That’s possible to fake?”
“Simple.”
Dracula explained, “Inside the Black Box, there’s a Ritualist who loves weaving people into spiderwebs—especially young girls. So I blended into the bar he frequented, and with just one look, he took me to his hideout…”
“Then I just took him out, grabbed his communicator, his corneal tissue, and all ten of his fingers. That worked, right?”
“After all, hardly anyone has ever seen a Black Box Ritualist up close…”
“…”
Listening with a mix of admiration and unease, Lu Xin asked, “So what about that Ritualist?”
“He’s lying in a bathtub—hasn’t even had time to dispose of the body…”
Dracula replied, “What’s wrong?”
“…”
Lu Xin fell silent, a surge of alarm rising in his heart—this was a murderer, after all…