Chapter 1 Lexler Building

The Lexler Building, constructed in the mid-twentieth century, stands in the heart of Frankfurt, towering over 370 meters high with over 90 floors, a prominent landmark in the city.

Caesar Tzimisce sat by the floor-to-ceiling windows of the high-rise, overlooking the brilliantly lit cityscape, a hint of sinister amusement playing on his handsome face with his sharp eyebrows and bright eyes.

He was a domineering CEO, a billionaire, a noble and promising vampire viscount.

This world is full of different species lurking behind the scenes, abnormal creatures stemming from an ancient past unrecorded in history – mysterious, evil, and little known.

Especially in this era of thriving technology and waning mystery, even the most powerful异类 (yi lei, different species) cannot contend with guns, cannons, missiles, or even nuclear weapons, and must hide themselves, lying dormant in dark corners,

Except for the vampires.

Thousands of years ago, vampires, like other extraordinary life forms, were hunted by the Church.

Demon hunters with holy water, iron swords, and silver crossbow bolts searched the gloomy castles all over Europe,

Driving wooden stakes into the hearts of "noble" vampires, dragging them out of their coffins like dead dogs, and exposing them to the sun until they turned to ashes.

In the most difficult times, nine out of ten vampire elders perished, the bloodlines of the thirteen clans were on the verge of extinction, and even vampire artifacts such as the Corrupt Amulet and Spirit Scepter were seized by demon hunters and hidden in secret stone cellars.

Just when the surviving vampires were plunged into despair and attempted to launch a suicidal counterattack against the Church, a genius dissuaded the clan and proposed a new way to contend with the Church.

That was to become capitalists.

Under the leadership of this genius, vampires began a large-scale migration, emerging from the dense forests and ancient castles and heading to Spain and Portugal, the first two countries to emerge from feudal fragmentation.

The early stage of capitalism was mercantilism, and the most essential and fundamental need of mercantilism was gold and silver.

The strong demand for gold and silver prompted Spain and Portugal to become the first kingdoms to explore the ocean, and at this point, vampires acted as sailors, carrying out geographical discoveries while spreading their branches and leaves to the outside world, preserving some of their near-extinct bloodlines.

Because of the gold and silver brought back by the vampire captains, the human rulers of Spain and Portugal were willing to turn a blind eye and allow them to survive.

Subsequently, the genius keenly sensed that mercantilism, which only pursued gold and silver, could not accumulate wealth, and turned his attention to some countries and regions with a higher degree of commercialization.

For example, the Netherlands.

The Netherlands was originally a region composed of merchant cities, where the forces of feudal remnants were not strong.

Under the command of that genius, the vampires hidden in the forests began to kidnap and raise some human children.

These human children would not receive the Embrace, but would be taught by vampire elders in human form, learning the vampire heritage,

And under the personal education of that genius, they became outstanding scholars and businessmen, creating an early credit system and financial system in the Netherlands, and transforming money houses into banks.

Subsequently, the genius had the bankers, guaranteed by the national credit of the Netherlands, absorb idle funds from all over Europe, accumulate huge wealth, and build countless ships, making it the world's shipping and financial trade center.

At this point, the vampires were no longer the poor "kneeling nobles" cowering in gloomy castles. They made money through shipping and finance, extorted protection fees from the rulers of the European feudal kingdoms, and even paid a large sum of money to the Church to beg for forgiveness.

For the sake of real money, the Church's demon hunters temporarily suspended their pursuit of the surviving vampires.

Then, that genius keenly realized that although the Netherlands had become the carriage driver of the sea, it did not have a special advantage over those continental European countries that possessed large areas of land and resources.

Capitalism itself is a giant flood that will wash away the feudal remnants in the dry ditches, but the flood itself cannot be stopped or controlled, it can only be guided.

Therefore, this vampire turned his attention to Great Britain and France. Both countries had a strong thirst for gold and silver, and their approach was to encourage handicrafts that were superior to agriculture.

Due to the relatively small land area, the handicrafts in these two countries showed a trend of clustering, and the continuous expansion of overseas markets increased product acceptance, further promoting the demand for production.

The vampire genius keenly realized that in order to expand its living space, capital would naturally begin to seek the guarantee of social, economic, and political systems, so he sought out talents among the youth of England and France, manipulated them to carry out the earliest bourgeois revolutions in Europe, and made Great Britain and France maritime and land powers.

At this stage, the vampires no longer had to worry about survival – their disciples were everywhere in the court, and the overseas colonies of European countries also needed vampires to manage and coordinate.

But that vampire genius was not satisfied. He believed that with the development of capital, capital itself would begin to seek new technologies and new forms of production organization.

Just as he had predicted, capital forced technological growth, triggered the Industrial Revolution, and Great Britain leaped to become a world hegemony.

Capitalism spread like a plague, the thirst for wealth replaced traditional beliefs, the sacred monarchy was pulled down from the altar, and even the light of the Church was overshadowed by the smoke and dust brought by the steam engine.

Vampires became the possessors of wealth. They lent money to various kingdoms, used financial games to plunder wealth, and were even richer than the Church.

However, the birth of capital also spawned a monster called the "Red Spectre," which haunted Europe, wandering in the areas where capital bloomed, and even the vampires could not wipe it out – the Red Spectre itself was the death knell of capitalism since its birth.

A demon hunter, who also possessed outstanding talent, sensed the tide of the times. He betrayed the Church and went to the banks of the Volga River in Tsarist Russia, spreading his ideas in this vast country where oppression was the strongest and gray livestock abounded.

Ideas, ideas cannot be eliminated. As long as there is a class system, exploitation, and oppression, the Red Spectre will surely exist.

The vampires could not tolerate the existence of anything that could threaten their free financial country,

So they dragged the entire force of old Europe, trying to extinguish it.

They failed.

Only ideas can fight against ideas. This demon hunter with a slightly sloping head and his followers cleared everything in old Tsarist Russia,

And through the inheritance of the demon hunters, established a committee composed of demon hunter squads called "Cheka" to resist the assassination attempts of the vampire elites.

After losing the blessing of money and organizational forms, the vampires were merely a group of half-human, half-bat monsters with some martial arts skills. They could do nothing about the rising Red Spectre in the Far East.

If it cannot be strangled in the cradle, then it must be annihilated in a dignified manner.

The vampires created chaos in Europe, spreading the seeds of struggle, and spurring an unprecedented world war, trying to extinguish the Red Spectre with torrents of steel.

They failed once again. Not only did they fail to completely eliminate the other party, but they also allowed the Red Spectre to grow vigorously in the war of iron and fire, igniting sparks all over the world.

Just when all the vampires thought that the general trend was over, that vampire genius came forward again. He proposed to manipulate yanlunziyou (freedom of speech) through the media, using "ideas" and "slogans" to spread the seeds of chaos in those areas that refused to accept the rules of the financial game.

Only ideas can contend with ideas.

The vampire genius wanted to use media tools to promote the ideology of freedom in the countries ruled by the northern demon hunters.

For example, replacing things that the enemy values with fakes and making them believe in these fake things.

Eliminating the social essence of their literature and art, separating their artists from the masses, making them unwilling to describe and understand what is happening within the people, and allowing their literature, drama, and movies to portray and praise the most contemptible emotions of people.

Violence, betrayal, all kinds of immorality, encouraging willfulness and corruption.

Praising lack of principle, bureaucracy, and procrastination as virtues;

Worshipping the pursuit of money as the truth, mocking honesty, integrity, and perseverance;

Causing the originally united people within the Red Spectre's territory to instinctively fall into suspicion, hostility, and hatred towards each other.

All these things should be cultivated in a clever and imperceptible way so that they can blossom into colorful flowers.

Only a few people can guess or even understand what is happening, but the media tools under the vampire genius will try to put these people in a powerless position, make them an object of public ridicule, and find ways to slander them and declare them as social dregs.

The vampire genius succeeded. The Red Spectre collapsed on its own and disappeared from then on – what grew out of that pile of ruins was just a fruit that had been poisoned by vampire thought since its inception.

This is the history of the vampires, from a group of bat monsters living in dense forest castles to the rulers standing on top of the world today.

Caesar Tzimisce sat on the sofa, holding a wine glass in his hand, his eyes filled with the glow of lights.

The surname of that vampire genius was Tzimisce.

His great-grandfather was the genius who saved the vampires and allowed them to rule the world.

"One day, I will make the world submit to my feet."

Caesar Tzimisce murmured, drinking the scarlet liquid in his glass in one gulp.