AITAMITB Chapter 8

The vampire, deprived of vitality, silently turned into a pile of humanoid ashes.

Zhao Xiaokui frowned and took two steps back. Although the composition of these ashes was similar to that of burnt grass and wood ashes, who the hell would want to touch the bone ashes of a vampire?

The thick fog had not yet dissipated. Zhao Xiaokui looked in the direction of Shen Zhifei, whispering, “Don’t be afraid. It’s okay. I’ve already taken care of it—”

Suddenly, under her foot appeared a round, glass-bead-like object.

Fortunately, she reacted in time; otherwise, she might have stumbled and fallen.

Zhao Xiaokui grumbled, “Darn it!”

Without hesitation, she stomped on it.

The body of a first-order creature, with a hardness surpassing most steel, easily turned into fragments under her foot, just like glass beads.

The black mist scattered in all directions as if it had lost its backbone, and the original light emerged.

Zhao Xiaokui then realized that it wasn’t that there were no lights, but the black mist had blocked them.

After the parking lot regained its brightness, it once again became spacious and towering.

She took a step back, looking thoughtfully at the fragments on the ground. It seemed that this was the device creating the black mist.

The broken black mist generator, similar to ordinary glass fragments, showed no apparent difference. It didn’t look like a component for generating black mist; rather, it resembled a mysterious artifact more than a scientific creation.

Supernatural tools…

Zhao Xiaokui raised an eyebrow imperceptibly.

In a world with the existence of extraordinary powers and a world capable of creating extraordinary tools, these were two distinct concepts.

Zhao Xiaokui might be facing primitive humans who had just learned to make fire, while the latter might be capable of leaving Earth and traveling to outer space.

It seemed that the world she had lived in for eighteen years was deeper than she had imagined.

Pulling back her thoughts, she turned to Shen Zhifei.

“It’s been taken care of. Let’s go back.”

Shen Zhifei’s face was pale, the lingering taste of life and death still affecting her. He looked at the clothes and ashes scattered on the ground in the shape of human bodies and asked, “Don’t we need to deal with these?”

Zhao Xiaokui shrugged. “Someone will handle it.”

The appearance of supernatural tools largely indicated the existence of a supernatural organization. She couldn’t believe that a country as vast as China wouldn’t have the means to deal with such matters.

Shen Zhifei forced herself to shift her gaze away from the ashes of the vampire and looked at the people lying haphazardly not far away. “Do we need to call an ambulance for them?”

Zhao Xiaokui glanced in that direction, withdrew her gaze, and said with some meaningful undertones, “It’s not necessary anymore.”

The girl who was bitten by the vampire had already lost her young life due to excessive blood loss. Her body had cooled long before Zhao Xiaokui fought the vampire.

As for the others, they were merely unconscious and would naturally wake up in due time.

“Let’s get in the car and leave this place first.”

If they stayed any longer, waiting for the cleanup crew, they wouldn’t be able to escape.

Without understanding the position of the vampire she had just dealt with in the world of supernatural systems and before gaining insights into the entire supernatural system, she didn’t plan to expose herself too early.

In an unknown world, exposure always equaled danger.

Shrouded in light, one is inevitably destined to be scrutinized by darkness.

…

Half an hour later, a black SUV silently parked by the roadside.

“The area with anomalies has been detected.”

In the passenger seat, a man wearing a checkered shirt and black-framed glasses, tall and thin, appearing like a programmer, glanced at the tablet in his hand. He looked up at the parking lot ahead and said.

Behind him, the bald man opened a crack in the car window, took a strong sniff, and said, “Decaying mud and withered leaves… vampires… but it’s a bit strange.”

“What’s strange?” The man sitting in the driver’s seat spoke.

He wore a brown leather jacket, had a sturdy physique, and his square-shaped face featured a pair of shining eyes.

The bald man rubbed his bald head. “Uh… I don’t know, Captain. I just feel the smell is a bit strange, like vampires, but also like there’s something else in there.”

The man in the driver’s seat curled his fingers, tapping the steering wheel. “Are you suggesting there’s more than one supernatural being inside?”

This realization made the faces of the entire team become somewhat solemn.

As a mobile patrol team operating at night, they didn’t carry powerful firepower. Dealing with one supernatural being committing a crime in the city should be manageable, but two…

The equation of 1+1 for supernatural beings was never as simple as 2.

“Captain, I don’t think there’s any danger inside.” At this moment, the woman sitting in the far corner of the SUV suddenly spoke.

Although she was wearing a red dress, her presence was extremely faint, and when she spoke, it was as if a person had suddenly appeared in the car.

Others seemed to have already become accustomed to her sudden appearances and showed no signs of surprise.

The man in the leather jacket, addressed as the captain, quickly tapped the steering wheel twice and decisively gave the order, “Lin Bai and Hong Ying stay behind. The rest come with me. Prepare your weapons.”

…

Unaware that the parking lot was soon swarmed by cleaning personnel after she left, Zhao Xiaokui sat with her eyes closed in the passenger seat, replaying the first battle of her life.

Even though half an hour had passed, the thrilling sensation still echoed in her mind.

⌈That vampire didn’t break through the ranks; it should have recently transformed or has a low bloodline… basically, a newbie. Yet, I ended up fighting with it for so long, spending so much time…⌋

The battle of the newbies left Zhao Xiaokui in a moment of bitter silence.

Clearly, her combat skills and awareness were far from satisfactory.

In the mermaid world, she managed to survive to adulthood not because she was exceptionally skilled in fighting but because every time she fought, she was willing to risk her life, adopting an attitude of either dying or surviving.

Other mermaids could have killed her, but they were unwilling to pay the price of killing her—unless it was a crushing victory, any harm suffered during the battle could potentially turn into a future crisis.

⌈Fortunately, this vampire’s skills weren’t much higher than mine. Probably just a brute relying on strength and physical abilities for dominance. If his combat skills were a bit higher and his awareness a bit stronger…⌋

Zhao Xiaokui shuddered.

Vampires belonged to the long-lived species, and many vampires who survived for a long time were polymaths.

Luckily, the vampire she encountered today either hadn’t undergone a transformation for long or had never focused on combat. Otherwise, determining the outcome would have been quite uncertain.

“Thanks for today.”

The car gradually left the dim alley, entering a brightly lit main road.

The bright lights provided a strong sense of security, and Shen Zhifei’s tense back finally relaxed.

Only now did she notice that her shirt was completely soaked with sweat, chillingly sticking to her back.

“No need to thank me; consider it payment for you taking care of me today. I don’t have money to give you.”

Zhao Xiaokui spoke the truth. She thought that being a celebrity, she would have at least a few hundred thousand, if not millions, in her bank accounts. However, when she checked her balance, the money in all her cards combined didn’t even exceed four digits.

After checking the chat records with her agent, she found out that due to the online rumors about “Zhao Zijin” getting involved with the engaged couple Rong Zhen and Shen Zhifei, it had greatly affected her reputation and image. Several collaborators demanded termination of contracts and compensation for breach of contract. As a result, the majority of her contracts had bid farewell to her before they even met.

She was truly going broke, arriving penniless and leaving penniless.

“But you don’t seem to be very scared, huh?” Zhao Xiaokui suddenly asked with curiosity.

Shen Zhifei looked remarkably composed, not at all like someone encountering the unknown world for the first time.

“No, I’m very scared,” Shen Zhifei sighed. “I don’t appear as composed as you do; I’m just good at controlling my expressions.”

“What exactly was that thing?”

When Shen Zhifei could see, the vampire had already turned into ashes. Therefore, she only knew that the creature she fought with Zhao Xiaokui was a humanoid being wearing clothes.

“A vampire, you know, those creatures with fangs that suck blood, like the ones you see on TV… but they probably won’t turn into bats. After all, it’s quite difficult for a human body to transform into other animals.”

“Vampires…” Shen Zhifei had always thought that such creatures only existed in literary works and TV dramas. “I never thought they were real.”

“I thought so too,” Zhao Xiaokui shrugged. “This is the first time I’ve encountered vampires.”

“The first time…” Shen Zhifei was somewhat surprised. “I thought you’ve encountered many things like this before.”

“Of course, it’s the first time. Even a proper fight like this is my first time,” Zhao Xiaokui said, gritting her teeth. “But if I encounter it again, I’ll definitely handle it with ease.”

At a crossroads, the car stopped at a red light. It was only then that Shen Zhifei noticed the bruises and swellings all over Zhao Xiaokui’s face, making her look quite disheveled.

Her fingers, resting on the steering wheel, trembled for a moment. “Does it hurt a lot?”

“Actually, not too much,” Zhao Xiaokui replied genuinely. “My whole body is aching right now, so this injury is nothing.”

“You… haven’t recovered yet?”

Both knew what Shen Zhifei was asking.

“No, it’ll take some more time.”

The red light turned green, and the car started moving. Both of them remained silent, and the atmosphere became somewhat heavy.

The night was already deep. Zhao Xiaokui curled her legs up, leaned against the backrest of the passenger seat, squinted her eyes, and after a while, she said, “It’s really nothing. You don’t have to worry too much. I’ve been living in this world for eighteen years, and this is the first time I’ve encountered something like this…”

She unintentionally let slip some words, but neither of them paid attention at this moment.

“Occurrences like today are similar to the probability of an ordinary person experiencing a plane crash or discovering lung cancer due to smoking. They are all low-probability events that most people won’t encounter in their entire lives.”

As she spoke, Zhao Xiaokui suddenly stopped, her expression becoming somewhat unpleasant.

Because she thought of the two theories she had once come across—the theory of supernatural concentration and the theory of supernatural scattering.

Supernatural concentration refers to the phenomenon where people with supernatural abilities tend to gather uncontrollably, leading to collisions. This theory also applies to supernatural events. If someone experiences a supernatural event, the likelihood of them encountering another one is much higher than for ordinary people who have never faced a similar event. Thinking carefully, including the water ghost Zhao Xiaokui dealt with on her way home, Shen Zhifei had actually encountered supernatural events twice today. If you count the encounter with her, it adds up to three times.

Supernatural scattering, on the other hand, suggests that around people with supernatural abilities, continuous supernatural events occur. These events may not have a direct causal relationship with the supernatural person, but they always end up having some linear connection.

These two theories originated from the realm of fate, a field that Zhao Xiaokui, even in the mermaid world, had little faith in. She belonged to the “My destiny is in my hands, not in the heavens” kind of person, scoffing at the inevitability of fate.

However, the numerous events that happened today made her subconsciously recall these two theories that she had once dismissed.

“Fate, fate…”

She murmured the words softly and suddenly felt a touch of irony.

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