Chapter 122 : Chapter 122
Chapter 122 : Same Kind
“Do you know what you look like right now?”
“What?”
“When you instinctively try to defend her, you look like someone who has drowned in the river of love—a complete lovestruck fool,” Annabella teased, crossing her arms and tilting her head. Then she sighed and continued walking forward on her own.
Eve followed behind her, vaguely hearing Annabella muttering things like “no chance anymore,” “forget it,” and “if melancholy were a talent.”
As they ventured deeper into the Old District, the sky gradually became obscured by the crisscrossing buildings overhead. That was why they had not driven in. There simply was not enough space, and even walking required constant detours.
For someone unfamiliar with this place, getting lost until nightfall would mean only one thing—being dragged away from behind in an ambush, eventually turning into merchandise sold for two thousand… without a student ID.
Eventually they stopped in front of an unremarkable iron door. Eve looked around, but it did not appear as if anyone was inside.
The next moment, however, Annabella knocked on the door. A small hatch above it opened with a click, revealing a pair of cautious eyes peering out.
“Password,” said a man with a heavy smoker’s voice.
Annabella replied impatiently, “I have come here so many times and you still cannot recognize me?”
“Sis, I am just following the rules. It is only a formality. Please do not make things difficult for your little brother, alright?”
“Tch… fine, fine.”
Annabella cleared her throat. She glanced back at the white-haired maid behind her, as if hesitating for a moment, then awkwardly lowered her voice toward the hatch.
“Bring some young girls.”
The man behind the door immediately responded in the same lowered voice.
“Not interested in mature women.”
Eve: ?
Click… creak—
The rusty iron door opened with an ear-piercing sound. Before Eve could even begin searching for where these “young girls” were supposed to be, a staircase leading downward came into view.
So mysterious… could they not do this in a slightly more dignified way?
Then again, this was the Old District. If a person could manage to wear their clothes properly here, that already counted as dignity.
Annabella tilted her head, signaling Eve to follow, and they descended together. Meanwhile, the man stepped outside to close the door and stand guard.
Following the staircase downward, they soon arrived at a large basement-like space. Their footsteps—two different rhythms—triggered the overhead motion-sensor lights one by one.
It was relatively clean, not nearly as miserable as Eve had imagined. There were no puddles of unidentified liquids or terrible stains everywhere, nor any overwhelming stench…
Well, Eve had been mistaken.
The deeper they went, the stronger an indescribable smell filled the air. Faint wails could also be heard echoing from ahead.
Just around a corner, the source of the wailing revealed itself.
A row of men and women stood there in neat lines, completely naked, their bodies covered in wounds.
Their chained shackles clanked together as they shifted. Beside them stood a man holding a firearm, shouting at them to be quiet. Judging by his attire—shirt, vest, and beret—he was clearly a member of a mafia gang.
Hearing footsteps, he turned around. Upon seeing Annabella, he showed no surprise and merely nodded expressionlessly.
Annabella returned the nod without stopping her steps. Calmly, she explained to Eve beside her,
“They are all hopeless gamblers who could not repay the gang’s usurious loans. Or people who could not control themselves and got addicted to filthy substances. Lives already ruined.”
“Then why gather them here?” Eve asked.
Annabella chuckled. “To squeeze out the last bit of value from them, of course. As long as they are still alive, they make excellent experimental subjects, do they not?”
She raised an eyebrow and gave Eve a knowing look.
“We are here. My deeply respected teacher is inside.”
She pointed to a pair of double doors. Just as Annabella was about to knock, the doors opened from within.
Before they could react, several figures walked out one after another.
First came a mature woman wearing a purple dress.
Behind her followed a bunny-girl dancer.
Those two were already impressive enough—but then came someone even more astonishing.
Annabella grabbed the arm of a short figure with short hair, a delicate face, and animal-ear accessories on the head.
“Excuse me,” Annabella asked cautiously. “Are you… male or female?”
“Male. Cannot you tell?” he replied casually.
Eve & Annabella: …
How could anyone possibly tell?
Wait… why does he have a tail as well? Is that an attachment or an accessory? What a unique taste.
“Do you need anything else? If not, please let go of me,” he said.
Annabella silently released him. She and Eve watched him leave with slightly pigeon-toed steps. The shock left both of them speechless for quite a while.
“…Is that normal?” Annabella finally asked.
“I do not know…” Eve replied. Although she could determine a person’s sex through scent, she still found it difficult to comprehend.
This world was truly absurd. Good men were already hard to find, and now even men were competing with women for them.
Just then, something even more shocking happened.
Annabella swallowed loudly.
“I suddenly… feel like asking him whether he had a painful childhood.”
“What do you mean?” Eve asked.
That was the highest-level dialogue option in the conversation window, so Annabella did not answer. The meaning was already clear.
Retracting their gazes, they pushed open the door and entered a room filled with ticking machinery. The pungent smell of chemical reagents was so strong it practically soaked into the air.
“Teacher! Where is my teacher?!” Annabella shouted.
Her voice echoed through the room. A few seconds later, rustling sounds came from behind a tall row of metal shelves. A figure in a white lab coat slowly emerged.
Annabella’s first thought upon seeing the person was:
Did she overdose on something?
She stared blankly as the figure approached step by step.
The person was slightly hunched over, wearing a white lab coat. Her long hair faded from pink to purple, and her half-lidded red eyes were surrounded by heavy dark circles. Yet they could not conceal the unnatural pallor of her skin.
She simply glanced at Annabella and Eve from close range, then waved a hand.
“Bring in another batch…” she muttered slowly.
“Huh? Teacher, take a closer look! I am not a prostitute—I am your most valued student!!!”
“Ah…?”
The woman called “teacher” turned back, squinting her eyes. She had to take a pair of glasses from her pocket and put them on before finally nodding.
“Oh… it is Bella… You are still alive… how wonderful…”
Annabella covered her face with her hand, shaking her head in speechless resignation. Then she turned to Eve and pointed at her teacher.
“My teacher. Just call her Selina. Oh right—she is also one of the Organization’s earliest players. Impressive, right?”
Eve’s nose twitched slightly.
At the same time, Selina was also observing her.
A peculiar scent filled the air—something only the two of them could perceive.
Dangerous.
Ancient.
After a long moment, the atmosphere began to grow tense, as though violence could erupt at any second. Eve’s hands, folded before her lower abdomen, slowly clenched.
She was ready.
Within half a second, she could kill this fellow Vampire.
“An ancient royal direct bloodline… no… a progeny,” Selina murmured, narrowing her eyes as she stroked her chin.
“This fellow Vampire… are you feeling disgust?”