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Henry's first meeting with the vampires had ended unpleasantly, but it hadn't escalated into a mortal feud…
Had it?
Henry couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.
According to most movies and novels, vampires were vengeful creatures, the kind that would retaliate over the smallest slight.
But their long lifespans also meant something else:
they often became fascinated with anything that could relieve their boredom.
Until the vampires made their stance clear, Henry couldn't justify attacking them first under the excuse of "prevention."
If he misjudged the situation and it escalated into full-blown war with no room for retreat, that would be incredibly foolish.
In the martial worlds of old, striking first might have been considered smart.
But in modern society?
Strike first and you bear all the responsibility.
And since this was Henry's first real contact with vampires, he couldn't draw firm conclusions yet.
The reckless thug-like vampire certainly matched the grotesque stereotype Henry had imagined.
But the other one—the elder—was completely different.
Deep, composed, calculating.
That one was far more dangerous.
And with Henry's current knowledge, he simply couldn't predict what methods such a person might use.
Expecting them to simply forget everything was unrealistic.
Otherwise Old Charlie from the Continental wouldn't have described them with the phrase:
> "They'll pester you endlessly."
Charlie Fisher had his own motives, so not everything he said could be trusted.
But that particular warning?
Probably worth believing.
Unfortunately, Henry had no suitable personnel for surveillance, and no effective monitoring network for this situation.
So the only option was to wait passively for the vampires to make a move before deciding how to respond.
Or—
He could personally monitor everything 24 hours a day with Kryptonian senses.
…Right.
And never live a normal life again?
Was staring at vampires all day really going to make life better?
With that lingering anxiety, time slowly passed.
Spring faded into early summer.
---
Henry was currently lounging in the CEO office of Stark Pictures.
Officially, he was "reviewing development progress on Git."
In reality, he was slacking off.
The internet in 1996 was still primitive compared to the future.
Resources were scattered and limited, but the basic framework already existed.
At this time, portal websites controlled the flow of information.
Sites like:
Yahoo!
MSN
Lycos
Excite
They acted as the main gateways directing internet traffic.
Search engines built around web crawlers hadn't yet taken center stage.
People often assumed that if someone had simply invented Google early, they would have become unimaginably rich.
But it wasn't that simple.
Portal sites were important because they guided users into understanding the internet.
They were like a table of contents in a book.
They told readers what information existed and where to find it.
But only within that book.
Only when users grew dissatisfied with the limited information available through portals would the internet eventually shift toward search engines as the main navigation tool.
That transition required time.
For someone like Henry, however, the limited recommendations on portal homepages were far too restrictive.
To be fair, most sites featured there were legitimate and high-quality.
Advertising dominance hadn't yet completely taken over.
At this stage, most internet companies were still fueled by passion and investment money, not profit.
They hadn't even figured out sustainable business models yet.
So the internet still felt relatively free of commercial stink.
But some websites could never appear on portal homepages.
And they wouldn't show up in internal searches either.
These fell into two categories:
1. Sites that refused to cooperate with portals and used technical methods to block traffic redirection.
2. Sites that portals refused to list, due to legal or reputational concerns.
These places formed the proto–dark web.
Some sites were even more aggressive.
Just like Henry's old Joker BBS.
If your cybersecurity wasn't good enough, simply connecting to the site could result in your system being counter-hacked immediately.
Henry, of course, ignored such limitations.
He simply scanned every responsive IP address and monitored internal traffic across connected servers.
Internet information was messy and unreliable.
But it was still the fastest and least restricted communication channel in existence.
Which meant valuable intelligence could definitely be found there.
For years, Henry had quietly monitored online information and refined his own search engine.
Now, with vampires possibly targeting him, and lacking other leads, the internet became an obvious place to look.
Unfortunately, most results were just fabricated vampire stories.
Of course, real vampires wouldn't openly announce themselves online.
Neither would their thralls or human followers—the ones hoping to become vampires someday.
Only a few arrogant individuals dared to hint at their identities.
And even then, people usually dismissed them as lunatics.
Most communication occurred through cryptic language and subtle clues.
Sometimes, deeper conversations revealed hints.
Sometimes someone simply slipped up.
So Henry constantly adjusted his algorithms, trying to identify meaningful patterns rather than relying on crude keyword searches.
What he didn't realize was that the vampires had already begun applying pressure.
Just not on him.
Instead—
They targeted the people around him.
Those people had endured it for quite some time before finally reaching their limit.
---
Bang!
The door to Henry's office burst open.
J.J. Harris stormed inside, dragging along a barely restrained Charlize Theron.
Henry had already detected their approach with his super-senses, so he wasn't startled.
But when J.J. slammed both hands on his desk, her fury was undeniably intimidating.
"What exactly did you do?!"
Her voice was low and vibrating with anger.
Henry blinked calmly.
"That depends."
"I know what I've done."
"But I don't know which of those things affected you."
He gestured toward the chairs.
"So let's sit down and talk."
Then he spoke toward the door.
"Miss Williams, please bring coffee for my guests."
Outside the office, Henry's secretary—the chubby Black girl—had been half-peeking through the doorway hoping to overhear gossip.
Henry's sudden call startled her.
"Y-yes, Mr. Brown!"
She hurried off toward the coffee machine.
It wasn't really her fault she hadn't stopped them.
Henry never required her to block visitors.
The CEO's office was usually open to employees, and anyone could come discuss work matters unless a meeting was already underway.
And besides—
One of the visitors was Charlize Theron.
She had come to Stark Pictures many times before.
Everyone recognized her.
Which was exactly why Charlize and J.J. Harris had been able to storm straight in without resistance.
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