Into the Creations 25

Chapter 25 – 025. Vampire Detective

025. Vampire Detective

“Wow. Life is worth living. Seriously. It would be the best if this was real. Heh heh.”

I mumbled, staggering through the dawn streets. A little ways from the bustling entertainment district, the streets became deserted, with not a soul in sight.

Normally, I would have just gone to a nearby motel to sleep. For the past ten days, going back and forth between rooms and motels had been my routine.
But today, I was deliberately staggering through the streets, pretending to be drunk. I felt like I’d downed about five bottles of whiskey, but my mind was perfectly clear, and my vision was sharp.

‘Three of them, huh? Two are following carefully on foot, and one is driving a van.’

The moment I left K-Plex, I was tailed.
As far as I know, I haven’t made any enemies in this world. I did have a scuffle with Yeong Hye-jeong’s gatekeeper, but that’s over and done with. There’s no way Park Chan-seong, the security chief, wouldn’t be able to manage one of his underlings.
The girls I had sex with in the rooms? I never forced them to do anything. I paid them for their services.

‘A vampire sent by Kang Wook-seong? …No, that old man wouldn’t do something so sloppy. Besides, we still have a legitimate business relationship. We haven’t fallen out.’

My mind was racing. I was narrowing down the suspects one by one using the process of elimination.

The worst-case scenario is that my identity as a Taker has been exposed. If that’s the case, it’ll be hard to move around openly from now on.
Could it be a vampire hunter from the Black Cross Society? Did they find out about the bus terror attack? There’s no way they could have found out.

‘They’re too low-level to be vampire hunters. They look like the thugs from K-Plex.’

Then I remembered the backpack I was carrying.
The money bag. To be exact, there’s 320 million won inside.

‘Ah. It’s the money. When I first paid the madam, that thug was watching.’

300 million won. If the three of them split it, that’s 100 million each.
And it’s in cash. It’s only natural that they’d be greedy.

‘How annoying. Should I just use cards from now on? …No, I can’t do that. Then I can’t hand out tips.’

I decided to deal with them properly. If word gets out about this, the small fry will keep their heads down. The bigger guys won’t bother me for just 300 million won.
I moved towards an alleyway without CCTV. It was a narrow alley between stores. The people who worked at the stores would all be gone by now, so it was a good place to make noise. It was a place where people didn’t usually go, so there was quite a bit of trash.

I thought they’d attack right away, but they didn’t.
They only showed themselves when they were deep inside the alley.
Three of them, including the guy who was driving the van.
Their weapons were a hammer, a baseball bat, and a sashimi knife.
I stared at the man with the sashimi knife. He was the thug I saw at the store earlier.

“You bastard. You’re going to die here today.”
“……Why are you saying I’m going to die out of the blue? Just be honest. You’re after my money, right?”

I dropped the backpack I was carrying on my back to the ground as if tossing it aside. The two thugs’ eyes were on the backpack, but the guy with the sashimi knife was glaring at me.

“It’s not just about the money, you need to die. You bastard. Taking pictures like that?”
“……Ah. Did you see that? Was there a camera in the room?”

It seems like his goal isn’t the money after all. Then what is it? I thought for a moment and then chuckled. The only one who took pictures properly was Ra-yeong, who I made a bet with.

“Is it because of Ra-yeong? Were you her boyfriend? I’m jealous. Man, Ra-yeong was so tasty. Her pussy and tits were so tight.”
“You bastard…”

The hand of the man holding the sashimi knife tightened. Trembling. He must want to stab me in the gut right now.
The thugs next to him were glancing back and forth between me and him, looking like they didn’t know what was going on. I think I have a rough idea. He’s the ringleader.
I curled up the corners of my mouth into a sly smile and slightly shook my phone.

“I’m planning on threatening Ra-yeong and fucking her every day. Someone like Ra-yeong is too good to just use once and throw away. …Damn. Just thinking about it makes me excited. When I slap her ass, her pussy gets so tight…”
“Kill that bastard!”

He charged at me first, and the thugs next to him, startled, belatedly ran after him.
I took a small breath, clenched my fists, and walked towards them.

“Die!!!”

The sashimi knife came stabbing towards my abdomen. I moved to grab his wrist and twist it to take the knife away.

Thwack!

I succeeded in grabbing his wrist. Just as I was about to twist it, a hammer came flying from the side. I had no choice but to step back in a panic. But then, I had to raise my arm to block the baseball bat that was swung at me. If I didn’t block it, I’d get hit in the head.

Bang!

“……Ugh.”

It seems like they’ve been training consistently, because the force behind the baseball bat was no joke. I think I might have a slight fracture in my right wrist bone. I swallowed my scream and quickly stepped back.
I thought I could easily handle three thugs. But the actual combat was different from what I expected.

‘…Damn it. These guys aren’t normal?’

If I was barehanded, I would have definitely beaten them. But they have weapons, and they’re not just acting recklessly. Those are trained movements.

“Do you know how many times we’ve buried guys like you?!”

The man with the sashimi knife charged at me again.

‘Shit. This wasn’t my plan.’

I dodged the sashimi knife that was trying to slash through the air. If it was a one-on-one fight, I could easily win. The problem is that they’re not fighting one-on-one.
If I focus even a little bit on the sashimi knife, the guys next to him attack me as if they were waiting for it.
I’ve had real combat experience with goblins one-on-one, but I’ve never experienced a one-versus-many situation, even in training. On the other hand, these guys were working together like clockwork.

‘If I stay like this… I’m going to lose. Shit.’

The sharp sashimi knife grazed my right forearm. Red blood soaked my shirt.
The wound was burning, and I felt like something was draining out of my body.

“……”

As the blood drained, my head cooled down rapidly.
I saw the face of the man with the sashimi knife. He was grinning with a sweat-soaked face.

“You shouldn’t have messed with Ra-yeong. We’ll take good care of your money. And your phone, too.”

The expression on my face disappeared. And I charged at him.

“What, you think you can do anything by charging at me?”

He was sure of his victory.
I admitted it. I had been arrogant. I thought I had become strong with my higher stats compared to normal people. But I was wrong.
If it was one-on-one, maybe. If they didn’t have weapons, maybe. But those assumptions were meaningless. Reality always laughs at my imagination.
I muttered lowly.

“…There’s no such thing as ‘enough’. I’m going to kill you.”

The sashimi knife came stabbing in. And the hammer and baseball bat were timing their attacks from the side.
I willingly gave up my right arm. I grabbed the blade of the sashimi knife tightly with my left hand. Blood was coming out of my hand, but I didn’t care. The sashimi knife couldn’t get away. My physical abilities were superior.

“……Kill him!”
“Yes, boss!”
“Die!”

I raised my right arm to block the hammer and baseball bat. I gritted my teeth and endured the pain, then kicked the sashimi knife man in the groin.

“……!!”

In immense pain, he couldn’t even scream and collapsed. The hand holding the sashimi knife lost its grip, and I picked up the sashimi knife with my left hand.

“Boss!”
“This bastard!”
“Complete recovery.”

I muttered softly. In an instant, my right arm was fine, and the pain disappeared. Having recovered my stamina, I ducked my head to avoid the hammer and then stabbed the sashimi knife into his neck and pulled it out. Blood gushed from his neck. The man with the hammer collapsed.

“Cheol-woo!”

I didn’t stop. I slightly turned my body to the side to barely avoid the baseball bat and repeatedly stabbed the man in the abdomen.

Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!

“Aaaaaaah!”

After stabbing him a total of seven times, I slit his throat to make sure he was dead.
I immediately turned my body. The boss, whose groin was crushed, was still kneeling on the ground, trembling. The fact that he hadn’t passed out showed how strong his will was.

“Ugh… ugh….”

I kicked the face of the man who was moaning softly in pain. The man, whose head hit the wall hard, looked at me.

“……Ah. Sh, shit….”

It seems like he finally understood the situation. I squatted down in front of him, holding the blood-stained sashimi knife.

“Thank you.”
“…What?”
“Thanks to you, I know my place. But.”

The sashimi knife slowly pierced his shoulder.

“Kuaaaaaaak!”
“That’s that. And this is this.”

As I twisted the handle of the knife, his screams grew louder. I was thinking of torturing him, but when I saw his face, that thought completely disappeared. It’s a waste of my time to torture a guy like this.
I stabbed the sashimi knife into his solar plexus.
He trembled and then died.

“……Ha.”

I sighed and checked their belongings.
Ma Bong-cheon. Park Cheol-woo, Kim Dae-hyeon.
I was able to find out their names from their IDs.

“……What should I do with this?”

It was impossible to subdue three armed thugs, so I killed them.
The problem is the remaining bodies.
The drama is still in its early stages. I’m still a long way from getting the ‘Orb of Life,’ which is my goal. I didn’t want to become a fugitive wanted for murder.

‘I can’t go to a room while being chased by the police. They wouldn’t accept me even if I did.’

Even in this situation, I was thinking about women, which was a bit absurd, but I couldn’t help it. That’s just who I am.
I thought for a while and then took out my smartphone and launched the Play Life app. To be exact, I opened my inventory.

[Possession List]
1. –
2. Iron Sword
3. Workout Clothes

“Ah, right. I put the sword away. I should have used it.”

I sighed softly. I didn’t think of it in that situation. Even if I had thought of it, I wouldn’t have taken it out. Because at first, I was trying to subdue them without killing them.

“Oh.”

I was just wondering, but Ma Bong-cheon’s body was in the possession list.

[Possession List]
1. Human Corpse
2. Iron Sword
3. Workout Clothes

It seems like the corpse was able to enter because it was no longer a living thing, but an object.
“Even if living people are impossible, I wonder if small animals can enter? I should experiment with that later.”

I took Ma Bong-cheon’s body out again.
I couldn’t abandon the body in reality. That was the worst choice. It was better to leave the body here than to take it to reality.

“Should I dump it in another Play World?”

That was the best option. If there’s no body, the murder case becomes a missing person case. A perfect crime starts and ends with perfectly hiding the body.

“…No. Let’s deal with it in this world. I don’t want to dump it in another Play World.”

I didn’t want to choose another Play World just to dump a body.
Besides, I had an ability that I conveniently called ‘Inventory’. If I used this, a perfect crime was easy. I just had to put in a little effort.

“Then I need to prepare. Let’s go back to reality for now.”

[The Play is ending.]
[Starting experience point calculation.]
[Kim Mi-ok’s Affinity Level is 2.]
[Acquired 1 bonus point for reaching Affinity Level 2.]
[…….]
[Level has increased.]
[Level has increased.]
[Acquired 17 points.]

•••

Back in reality, I first checked my body.
There was no smell of blood, and no wounds. And I paused the time of ‘Vampire Detective’ and sat in front of the computer.
I’ll think about the points I earned later, but for now….

“Body disposal method. Search.”

A list of gruesome murder cases popped up. There wasn’t much that was useful. I clicked my tongue and thought to myself.

‘I can think of two things. Dump it in the sea, or bury it in the mountains. Dumping it in the sea would be safer. But if I want to dump it in the sea, I have to go to the sea.’

I guess I could just tie some bricks to it and dump it.

‘…No. The sea is too far. I have to go to a room, I don’t have time to go to the sea.’

The thought of having to go to the sea made me feel annoyed.

‘Let’s just dump it in the Han River. I just have to not get caught.’

I have the Play Life app. I was confident that I wouldn’t get caught.