Feeling Daniel's blatant look of contempt, even Blade—known for his cold and aloof demeanor—showed a brief flicker of awkwardness on his face.
To deal with these dark creatures effectively, every pellet in his shotgun shells was coated with pure silver.
Emptying a single magazine meant a loss of at least a few hundred dollars.
As a perpetually unemployed vampire hunter, Blade couldn't afford this "spray bullets" approach.
So, why did he spend all day hacking vampires with that silver longsword?
Was it purely for style and show?
…Well, okay, maybe a little.
"Give me the gun," Daniel said, holding out his hand.
Blade hesitated, "My gun's already out of bull—"
"Five thousand dollars. Consider it bought."
"Catch! The gun and the remaining twenty rounds are yours!"
Blade instantly made up his mind and, without hesitation, tossed the shotgun and all of its silver shells to Daniel.
Daniel: (•_•)
Bro, your cool-guy act fell apart way too fast.
Daniel caught the shotgun steadily, loaded the shells, aimed, and fired at the vampires.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshots rang one after another, and the heads of several vampire gunmen exploded instantly!
The headless corpses swayed, collapsed to the ground, and quickly turned to ash.
Seeing Daniel's precise marksmanship, the remaining vampires ducked behind cover, too terrified to show their heads.
Daniel calmly pulled out a few grenades, pulled the pins, and hurled them toward the cluster of cover without even looking.
Boom!!
A massive explosion erupted!
A few unlucky vampires were blown away, their skin and flesh torn apart, falling to the ground screaming in agony.
Vampires' vitality was indeed tenacious; even with such severe injuries, their screams remained vigorous.
Daniel raised his muzzle and finished off the vampires on the ground one by one. Mission progress shot up by several points.
Seeing Daniel's ferocity, Quinn swallowed hard and forced himself to shout with fake composure:
"Don't be afraid! Let's go together! He can't possibly kill all of us at once!"
The few vampires looked at each other, seemingly convinced, and simultaneously aimed at Daniel.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
As the gunfire stopped, another layer of ash was added to the floor.
Facts were clear: Daniel could certainly do it.
Bang!
Daniel slightly lifted his muzzle, landing a precise shot on Quinn's legs as he tried to flee in the chaos.
"He's all yours now."
Ignoring the wailing Quinn on the ground, Daniel walked toward the vampire Blade had just knocked down and finished him off with his watermelon knife.
[Current Vampires Killed: 665]
Seeing the number, Daniel frowned, feeling a bit uneasy.
He looked at Blade, who had just finished a brief interrogation of Quinn.
"Want this kill?"
Blade shook his head: "No."
Shing!
With a flash of the knife, Quinn's head instantly changed location.
[Current Vampires Killed: 666]
"Ah, that's better!"
Daniel exhaled a long sigh of relief, as if a great burden had been lifted.
"…"
Blade looked at Daniel's relaxed expression and thought this guy might have some kind of strange fetish.
Daniel put away his watermelon knife and asked,
"What's the plan now?"
Blade answered solemnly:
"Quinn said Deacon Frost is planning something big soon, but he doesn't know the details. I'm going to search Frost's territory and draw him out."
When Frost's name was mentioned, Blade's voice was filled with deep-seated malice.
Frost had killed his birth mother; their feud was irreconcilable and demanded revenge!
Daniel grinned:
"I'm hunting vampires anyway. How about we team up for now? You look for Frost, and leave the kills to me."
"Alright."
Blade thought for a moment and agreed.
He wasn't stubborn; having a strong ally would make the search for Frost much easier.
As soon as Blade agreed, the system notification rang in Daniel's mind:
[NPC Eric Brooks has joined your team]
[You can view your teammate's character panel]
Daniel was surprised:
"This game actually has a team-up function? Why didn't it show up before?"
He recalled fighting a BOSS with Tony not long ago; there had been no such prompt then.
[Teaming up with an NPC requires the player to send an invitation. The NPC must accept. NPCs cannot initiate a team-up.]
Daniel muttered in exasperation:
"Then why didn't you say so earlier!"
The system added:
[This game features extremely high freedom and aims to provide the most authentic experience. All gameplay and plot developments are to be explored by the player.]
Daniel pouted curiously and clicked on Blade's character panel.
[NPC: Eric Brooks (Blade)]
[Race: Half-human, Half-vampire]
[Stats: Strength?, Agility?, Constitution?, Spirit? (Cannot be viewed without sufficient Favorability)]
[Equipment: Cool-Guy Sunglasses, Bulletproof Armor, Silver Longsword, Silver Dagger]
[Favorability: 0]
Daniel was a little surprised:
"So this guy is actually half-human, half-vampire.
Does that make me half a vampire too?
If I killed him, would mission progress increase by 0.5?"
Then he noticed Blade's equipment slots were interactive and curiously clicked on the Silver Longsword.
[NPC's Favorability toward the player is insufficient. This equipment cannot be removed.]
Daniel's eyes widened instantly.
He immediately asked the system:
"So if the NPC's Favorability is high enough, I can freely take their equipment?"
[Yes]
"Hiss~"
Daniel gasped, seemingly contributing slightly to global warming.
He had accidentally discovered a god-tier mechanism of this game!
Daniel looked at Blade with a suddenly warm gaze:
"Bro, any quests or places you need help with? I'm free anytime!"
"No."
Blade felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine as he looked at the suddenly enthusiastic Daniel; it felt like some sort of conspiracy awaited him.
The two didn't linger in the nightclub.
After agreeing on the location and time for their next move, they left separately.
Before leaving, Blade meticulously searched for the scattered silver shotgun shells, even using his dagger to pry out those stuck in the walls.
These pure silver bullets were extremely precious to him; he could melt and recast them for reuse.
This was the bitter truth of being a superhero.
Daniel also asked Blade for some specialized vampire-hunting equipment.
Blade hesitated at first, since his equipment was expensive to make.
But Daniel silently pulled out a large stack of Benjamin Franklin bills.
Seeing this, Blade immediately snapped, grabbed the cash, shoved it into his pocket, and unhesitatingly handed over all his equipment and weapons to Daniel.
If Daniel hadn't said he wasn't interested in Blade's iconic sunglasses, Blade might have even taken those off to give him.
It was no wonder Blade reacted strongly.
After all, the price of pure silver had skyrocketed recently, and he was running low on resources to continue protecting New York from vampires.