The sea breeze brought a salty scent, and on the beach below, many small animals were busily moving about, such as crabs and turtles, needing to return to the sea before the tide receded.
These animals were busy with their lives, living days of endless repetition.
Dracula was probably the same.
"I can probably understand your thoughts." Su Ming softly exhaled a puff of smoke: "Caught between myth and reality, inhabiting an eternal shell, viewing everything in the world as a bystander yet powerless to change it, like the endless hell spoken of in the East."
Dracula extended his hand, his pale fingers fiddling with the tobacco, and placed the cigarette in his mouth: "Eternal torment, sometimes I wish I could just drink tomato juice.... Do you have something to light this? I'd like to try it."
Su Ming took out a lighter to light his cigarette, and he took a couple of deep drags; despite having no lungs, vampires are indeed adept at sucking things.
But Dracula soon shook his head: "No taste, no sensation; what stimulates your brain is just a smoking toy to me."
Despite saying this, he still had no intention of discarding the cigarette, only keeping it in his mouth, hands on the ground, watching the sea.
Su Ming sat cross-legged and steady, the sound of waves echoing in his ears: "Can't you transfer your power to someone like Varnae, and then just die?"
Dracula shook his head with a smile: "That's the crux of the problem; Varnae didn't teach me the secret technique of power transfer. He dumped everything on me and then vanished."
"But you were happy at first, right?" Su Ming looked at his face, that youth seemingly frozen hundreds of years ago: "Endless life, ageless appearance, things many dream of."
"But not what I desire, maybe..." Dracula said calmly amidst the swirling smoke, his gaze seemingly unfocused: "I was indeed happy at first, even as an ordinary vampire I could achieve what you said, but the Ancestor is more powerful and can do much more. Yet, after 800 years, I found that power and immortality are but illusions; I want to regret but there's no way back..."
"800 years, huh? If I had only liquid food for that long, I think I'd have gone crazy."
"I was once human, tasted the flavors of various foods, had all kinds of human experiences, what's lost after once possessing it is the most painful."
Dracula gave a bitter smile; as a vampire, he couldn't even sigh; his lungs had long degenerated.
Entering luxury is easy, returning to simplicity is hard, though vampires can distinguish between various flavors of blood, isn't it all still blood?
The taste of other foods still lurked deep in Dracula's memories, often surfacing to remind him.
"In the future, there will be many masked people seeking you out, then you won't be bored." Su Ming flicked his cigarette ash.
"I hope so, haha." Dracula replied in a charming voice, then changed the topic: "How's Master Gu Yi recently? We are about the same age; she probably has lived enough too?"
Su Ming stroked his beard, looking into the distant darkness: "She disappeared, maybe went on vacation, maybe died, I don't know."
"When everyone leaves, it's the same, suddenly dropping everything." Dracula smiled, continuously shaking his head, watching the cigarette ember flicker.
Su Ming crushed the cigarette butt against the rock, brushing the rock fragments from his hands: "Maybe they're just imitating ordinary people; after all, death is suddenly like this."
"Indeed..." Dracula fell silent.
At the end of the darkness, where sea and sky met, a golden light burst forth, and the sky instantly reddened, as the burning fireball gradually unveiled its face.
Rolling, writhing, the sea's moisture made it seem as if it were trembling incessantly, emerging from the cocoon.
The vast and boundless sea, everything appeared serene, even the sound of the tide receded, as if between heaven and earth only sunrise light filled the world.
But beauty is always fleeting, as if in the blink of an eye, the blazing fireball disengaged from the sea surface, hanging in the sky.
It's over.
Dracula vigorously rubbed his eyes, although he could survive in sunlight, the ultraviolet rays still made him uncomfortable, though he rubbed his eyes red, not a single tear fell.
Vampires likewise do not cry, no matter what sorrow they face, they can only smile.
For this, Su Ming had no thoughts; he only knew that Wilson Enterprise's sunscreen would need a price increase in the future, as would sunglasses.
These days, few vampires use such means to counter ultraviolet rays, but in the future, it will be more common, making it increasingly rare for Dracula to quietly watch the sunrise alone.
As technology develops, the line between vampires and humans will blur, even if Su Ming doesn't sell sunscreen and sunglasses, someone else will.
It's impossible to require real name registration for buying sunscreen, let alone the black market would take over the business, so it's better to slightly raise the price for the products with the best UV blocking effects.
"I suggest you control the blood flowing through the tear ducts, that might make you feel better." Su Ming said blandly: "Of course, mix it with some saliva, to prevent the blood from clotting in your eyes."
"Thank you, but there's no need, only pain makes me feel I'm still alive." Dracula stood up, tidying his collar: "If there's nothing else, please allow me to take my leave."
"Do you know the Dracula Hunter is looking for you?" Su Ming also stood up, the sea breeze blowing past, taking in a deep breath of fresh air: "How did your feud with Van Helsing begin?"
Dracula glanced at him, discarding the cigarette butt burned to the filter: "We both fell in love with someone we shouldn't have, it's as simple as that."
"If you fight with the Hunter squad, Rachel Van Helsing will die."
"I won't kill her, without Van Helsing, it would be too boring to be a vampire, but she's very likely to die at her own comrades' hands, if you want to save her, it's best to kill her fool friends."
Dracula bowed gracefully, bidding farewell with a smile, then transformed into a swirl of black smoke and disappeared.
Hel approached, the sea breeze lifting her hair and skirt hem: "Is it over?"
"Someone once told me, a pimp is the loneliest person in the world."
"Although I don't know what a pimp is, everyone tends to think of themselves as lonely."
"How about you? Have you ever felt lonely?"
"We're talking about people, and I am a god."
"Dracula is quite stable emotionally, he truly doesn't know about the plans of other families. I have no need to provoke an undying opponent, nor do I want to become his living amusement." Su Ming brushed off the dust from his backside, his mask returning to his face. "He's an interesting fellow; I originally wanted to remind him to be strong in the future."
"What do you mean?" Hel squinted at the sea, golden light shimmering on the white waves.
"Nothing much, just a green hat," Su Ming gestured for Satanah to open the Teleportation Gate.
"What does a green hat mean?" Hel looked at her green clothes and pondered the meaning of green without finding anything amiss.
"Wilson Enterprise Headquarters, Satanah." Su Ming didn't explain the meaning of the green hat.
...........
As they emerged from the Teleportation Gate, Su Ming found Gin pointing a gun at him.
"Relax, it's me."
The armor peeled away, he tidied up his clothes, walked to the desk, and picked up a bottle of wine.
"The color of this Teleportation Gate isn't quite right." Gin put down the gun and looked at the few people walking out behind Su Ming. "What do I see, isn't this the Netherworld Goddess?"
"Mist." Hel greeted Gin with a chill. "You seem well accustomed to life in Midgard."
"It's none of your business, nor Asgard's." Gin replied with a smile.
Su Ming waved his hand; there was no deep hatred between them, just that Hel had imprisoned Gin's sisters for a few hundred years?
"Go get me some food; I have some things to discuss with these friends." As he assigned Gin the task, Su Ming took a swig of the wine, wiped his mouth, and picked up the phone. "Hamill, come over."
A golden Teleportation Gate opened, and the well-dressed Great Mage stepped out.
Kama Taiji is accustomed to using meditation instead of sleep, making him someone who can be on call twenty-four hours.
Satanah immediately occupied the sofa, throwing herself onto it, removing her coat which left her in lace-trimmed underwear.
"Oh, the transaction is over, but we're still friends, right?"
Su Ming walked over to the opposite couch, his eyes brushing across her body. "Don't pretend to be an innocent young lady. Some might misinterpret your external behavior, thinking you're cute and pure, but I'm not among those people."
"Hmm, I can't understand what you're saying." Satanah showed a very puzzled expression. "Even if I kill people, do drugs, and run a brothel, I'm still a good woman."
"Heh."
Su Ming invited Hel and Palham over to sit. In the dim room, they took a moment to rest. He picked up the report left on the desk by Gin earlier.
Gin appearing in his office in the middle of the night must mean there was news from the Vegetarian Faction she was investigating beforehand.
Sure enough.
Most of the contents could be verified with the intelligence Su Ming had acquired, and the few families of the Vegetarian Faction did not attack Mutants or Inhumans.
From combining both pieces of intelligence, it's clear that while Vampires have killed many, they distinctly haven't targeted Superpower Users. Even the most likely Giovanni hasn't, so it's even less likely for other unprepared Vampires.
Su Ming had previously suspected whether it was some street tough who did it?
After all, those newly turned into Blood Race not only experience extreme thirst but their consciousness is unclear.
However, the Vegetarian Faction report refuted such guesses; Gin also brought news from Horn Daily. They could affirm that in recent years there have been no corpses apparently killed by Vampires in New York.
Someone threw a Black Pot on the Vampires, inciting war between them and the Inhumans, even at the expense of involving all humanity, why?
Is it the Dracula Hunter squad?
Unlikely, they lack that level of vision or power; Kim and Quincy aren't that smart, nor are they that foolish.
If they really did it, arranging the World War between the Inhumans and Blood Race, there'd be no need to toss a corpse to Dr. Richards afterward, attempting to drag SSR and the United States Military in, as it's completely redundant.
Would you arrange a battle between Ultraman and monsters, then try to get White Rabbit involved in the battlefield?
So after the meal, Su Ming planned to run over to Atlan, from the angles of both Inhumans and Blood Race, to observe the situation.
The Dracula Hunters had presented photos back then, judging the death as a Vampire attack through the neck bite marks, but at that time Kim also said.
The blood in the corpse wasn't fully drunk.
This should be an important clue; it was likely just someone imitating Vampire crimes, using preconceived notions to mislead the Hunters.
Once someone is killed, attaching specially made metal false teeth with rubber tubes and pumps can easily extract blood from the body.
But without the anti-coagulation factor present in Blood Race saliva, it's unrealistic to drain blood through two small holes, making it hard to drink clean like Vampires would.