Chapter 13 The Vampire Count

Half an hour later.

As the late-night clock struck one in the morning, a bedroom in Lichtenstein Castle felt particularly warm.

The brown solid wood floors, the antique carpets, and the luxurious textiles exuded a comfortable, homey fragrance under the lamplight. On this cold, late autumn mountaintop, their mere presence offered an intangible warmth to those in the room.

In the bedroom, the atmosphere between Lan Qi, Hypolitian, and the priestess Stissella was no longer as hostile as before. Now, they seemed like classmates on a trip, casually chatting.

As long as Lan Qi was truly regarded as an ally, his reassuring aura would be clearly felt.

After talking with Lan Qi, Stissella felt her future was bright.

It was as if she had truly been reborn.

Perhaps this was the miraculous effect of accidentally swearing to the Goddess of Fate that afternoon.

And Lan Qi was the angel sent by the goddess to redeem her.

"It's getting late. Let's call it a day," Lan Qi said.

Lan Qi closed his notebook, clipped the pen to the cover, picked up the book, and looked like a teacher about to leave after class.

There were still a few days to slowly ask Stissella about the specific matters of the Resurrection Church.

Hypolitian was also very aware of her role as a teaching assistant, ready to leave with Lan Qi at any time.

She saw a hint of reluctance on Stissella's face when she heard Lan Qi say that the conversation was over for today.

When brainwashing is done with sincerity and kindness, it looks like winning people over with virtue. But if winning people over with virtue is full of purpose, it is actually brainwashing.

Say he's doing good deeds, and he looks like he's committing a crime. But say he's committing a crime, and he hasn't actually broken the law.

Never mind, he can't change in this lifetime.

Hypolitian has always been a quiet girl.

"By the way, Stissella, what are your bloodline abilities and mission objectives as the betrayer in this Shadow World?" Lan Qi asked as he stood up and pushed the chair back under the table.

This was the last question he cared about.

"Please look at me."

Instead of answering the question directly, the priestess Stissella's entire appearance began to change. She became slightly taller and gradually transformed into the image of Princess Alexia.

Hypolitian stared at Stissella in amazement, realizing that there was no difference between her and Princess Alexia!

"My blood master, Count Sebernar's ability, [Blood Disguise], can completely disguise me as a target I have touched and will remain so until I actively dispel it," Stissella explained to the two. Even her voice had become exactly the same as Princess Alexia's.

Moreover, because she was familiar with Princess Alexia, she imitated the princess's tone perfectly.

If one hadn't witnessed Stissella using her bloodline ability to transform, even Lan Qi wouldn't have been able to tell that the Alexia in front of him was a fake.

"..."

Lan Qi was silent for a moment.

This ability, which seemed to have no combat enhancement, was actually the most powerful bloodline ability he had ever seen.

It had an unlimited upper limit in any situation other than direct combat.

As the gradually reviving vampires in the real world devoured the Keritis Empire at an unimaginable speed, Count Sebernar was probably constantly replacing the identities of the empire's high-ranking officials.

In the end, perhaps even the emperor of the empire would be replaced by Count Sebernar.

After understanding Stissella's bloodline ability, Hypolitian felt a trace of fear.

Thinking about it carefully, in the context of this Shadow World, according to the normal process, or the true story progression in the original history, if the holder of [Blood Frenzy] started killing on the first night, then even the identities of the dead could be replaced by [Blood Disguise]. From the second day onwards, the difficulty of deduction for the challengers would increase countless times. In the next four days, everything would be a mix of truth and falsehood, full of suspicion, becoming an increasingly cruel game of ultimate mental and psychological warfare!

Hypolitian couldn't help but rejoice that Lan Qi and Frey, this pair of prodigies, had killed the game in half a day.

They had directly changed the nature of this Shadow World.

"The betrayer's mission objective 1 is to identify the werewolves and the witch. Mission objective 2 is to obtain fresh blood from the werewolves and the witch, no more than three hours old, and then go to the secret room under the castle's wine cellar to remove the seal on 'Augustine, the long-lost vampire viscount', subdue him, and enslave him as a test subject, using him to wash away the vampire affiliation mark on myself and break free from the blood master's control. Once this task is completed, I will also lose the right to use the blood master's ability," Stissella continued to explain in detail.

At the same time, the mission information panel that Lan Qi and Hypolitian, as challengers, could see also began to update.

But the Shadow World seemed to lag for a moment.

Because the challengers' [Mission Objective 2] should have been deciphered and deduced as the Shadow World progressed, rather than being voluntarily and completely explained by the betrayer after being moved to repentance.

Gradually, key changes appeared on the mission panel.

[Mission Objective 2: Explore the secrets and dangers hidden in the castle - Intelligence completion unlocked]

[Phase 1: Please protect the werewolves and the witch, and prevent the betrayer from removing the seal on Viscount Augustine.]

[Phase 2: If Viscount Augustine's seal is broken, resealing him will return to phase 1.]

[Phase 3: If Viscount Augustine is under the control of the betrayer when the Shadow World's time limit expires, the mission objective will fail.]

At this point, the challengers could finally understand the original appearance of the entire Shadow World's story background.

Many years before the Holy Church banquet, Viscount Augustine was sealed here by the combined forces of the witch and the werewolves.

Many years later, the master of this castle, High Priest Caligula, summoned twelve members of the anti-vampire secret society to gather at this castle on the cliff during this late autumn season.

However, two of the twelve were vampire dependents with ambition. They learned from elsewhere about the secrets under this castle, as well as the existence of witches and werewolves in the church.

They didn't want to continue to succumb to the vampires, nor did they want to be enemies with the vampires. They wanted to break the seal on Viscount Augustine here, control him, remove the blood master's mark, and even further study the mysteries of the vampires.

The anti-establishment church, which had already taken shape, was thus dealt a devastating blow.

"Alas, it seems that the prototype of this Shadow World is actually a tragedy," Lan Qi sighed as he closed the translucent Shadow World information interface. In that era without magic cards, when even human magic texts were not yet mature, the [Holy Church Villain Banquet] should have been a rather tragic and forgotten historical fragment. How many people survived in the end, and who ultimately won between the church members and the betrayers, was unknown, but it would never have been as easy as it was for them.

"I didn't expect that in this era, the biggest obstacle to anti-vampirism would actually be humanity itself," Hypolitian said with a complex expression.

Absurd laws, dark and sunless captivity, power that even the demons dared not confront. It was hard to imagine what price humanity would have to pay to resist these immortal, fully flourishing vampires. Yet, even on this path of certain death, there was absurd infighting.

"I don't know how humans won in the end. The story will have to be left to the remaining two Blood Moon Apocalyptic Shadow Worlds. As long as this Shadow World can achieve an SSS rating, we can continue to enter the Blood Moon Apocalyptic era series of Shadow Worlds," Lan Qi said, not feeling too emotional.

As an ecologist rather than a historian, his job was to investigate and improve the problems that vampires might bring.

He was a pragmatist.

He carefully read the content of Mission Objective 2 again.

Then, he thoughtfully asked Hypolitian:

"As long as we don't let the betrayer control Viscount Augustine, then we win this Shadow World, right?"

"...That's right," Hypolitian confirmed after reading it again.

Although she didn't know what Lan Qi meant by asking her this question, she gradually had a bad feeling in her heart.

She felt that Lan Qi's manic phase tonight might not have ended, but had just begun!

Thus, just as Hypolitian's heartbeat gradually accelerated, she heard Lan Qi tell her—

"In other words, it's okay for us challengers to control Viscount Augustine, right?"

Lan Qi adjusted his suit, still so sunny, and very confident in his rigorous logic.