Even John Wick, who had killed countless people, felt a chill as he looked at these expressionless soldiers. The Hotel's technological capabilities seemed even more unbelievable to him.
They could directly implant combat skills, and these guys did not look alive at all. The Hotel's hidden strength was terrifyingly powerful!
"Can you understand what I'm saying?" John Wick asked as he looked at the one hundred and fifty identical bioengineered humanoids behind him.
"Of course, sir. We have been ordered to obey your commands."
"Good! I need you to split up now. Twenty of you will create chaos at the front. The rest will come with me and launch a surprise attack from the rear."
"Yes, sir."
Vampires did become stronger at night, but the boost was limited and nowhere near enough to give them an overwhelming advantage.
Bella's original plan had assumed ten thousand bioengineered humanoids would be enough. Now she had a full thirty thousand bioengineered humanoid soldiers on hand, giving her much more room to maneuver her forces.
She had plenty of troops, and the bioengineered humanoid soldiers carried silver bullets and silver tactical fighting knives. Even if she traded one of them for ten enemies, she would still come out ahead.
The moment the second hand hit exactly nine o'clock, bioengineered humanoid soldiers stationed outside houses, nightclubs, casinos, car washes, and numerous hospital morgues all across New York City launched their attacks at the same time.
John Wick and more than a dozen other elite team leaders were attacking the vampires on Wall Street. The vampires here were older and had hidden themselves far more deeply.
At that moment, John Wick was concealed in the shadows with a sniper rifle set up. He gave the order for the bioengineered humanoid soldiers to attack.
"Who are you?!" A guard at the entrance blocked their way. Under the moonlight, his eyes looked faintly red.
A bioengineered humanoid soldier drew a knife and stabbed. The vampire guard reacted far faster than the bioengineered humanoid. He grabbed its wrist and savagely tore outward.
Pfft! A milky-white stream of artificial blood sprayed all over his face.
"What the hell is this?" Before he could figure out what had happened, the silver tactical fighting knives in the hands of several other bioengineered humanoids pierced his chest. The vampire guard turned to ash on the spot. Watching from a distance, John Wick was stunned. Vampires really existed in this world?!
He kept firing at vampires who tried to escape, while the bioengineered humanoid soldiers carried out their programmed orders with somewhat rigid but methodical precision.
The bioengineered humanoid soldiers had no emotions. They did not know fear and did not care about sacrifice. The vampires were different. They were terrified of dying.
Their fear badly undermined their combat effectiveness. They could not even use seventy percent of their abilities before being driven steadily backward.
Scenes like this unfolded through streets and alleys all across New York. Using the Cauldron of the Cosmos, divination, and interrogations of vampire traitors, Bella had identified more than eighty strongholds. All of them were attacked at once, and the comparatively peaceful night was instantly swallowed by gunfire and explosions.
Once the element of surprise was gone, the vampires began fighting back. Bioengineered humanoids constantly had their necks torn apart, spilling milky-white artificial blood all over the ground. The whole scene looked especially "evil."
Beneath a magnificent building on Wall Street, the attacks on numerous peripheral families and the deaths of large numbers of their descendants forced the surviving clan elders and warriors to gather quickly.
The American media had always said the people on Wall Street were vampires. As it turned out, they had been absolutely right. A number of ancient Camarilla vampires lived here, using the enormous fortunes accumulated by their respective clans to participate in and control the development of the world economy.
Night was already the vampires' most active time. Several impeccably dressed vampires with the air of gentlemen now stood or sat around the hall, listening to reports from their subordinates.
Some vampire elders cursed in strange British accents. Others wanted the other clans to take the blame and bear the brunt of the attack while they themselves reaped the benefits.
Before they could agree on a plan, the doors burst open with a bang. A tall, heavily muscled vampire strode inside carrying a bioengineered humanoid that had been reduced to nothing but a head.
Several vampire elders frowned. The milky-white fluid inside the bioengineered humanoids was a perfluorocarbon-based oxygen-carrying solution that served as artificial blood, replacing hemoglobin's role in transporting oxygen. Humans found its smell sharp and strange, but to vampires it was about as appealing as stinky tofu. It smelled absolutely damn awful!
"Idiot! What are you doing? Do you have any idea what kind of place this is?" several vampire elders shouted.
The tall vampire grew even angrier. "You're the idiots! All you know how to do is sit here and discuss things. What have you actually accomplished? The enemy is about to kill their way in here! We should have slaughtered those humans long ago and terrified them into submission instead of relying on this so-called economic control you fools keep talking about! Where is your control now? Show me!"
The hardliners among the vampires—the younger generation—had long resented the old vampires for monopolizing power. As long as those old bastards remained alive, the younger vampires would never rise to the top. The conflict between the two sides ran extremely deep, and now, with disaster bearing down on them, it finally erupted completely.
"Deacon Frost, remember your place!" an old vampire barked.
Deacon Frost did not retreat even half a step. He met the elder's gaze without the slightest fear, as if he were looking at a mortal enemy.
One old vampire raised a hand and released a cloud of black mist. It churned violently, filled with dense dark magic. Deacon Frost knew how dangerous the spell was and slammed the door behind him as he stormed out.
"Your Highness Hellstorm, we are under attack and now require some assistance from our ally." The oldest vampire in the room, whose skin resembled a dried corpse, spoke toward an empty chair nearby.
A young man abruptly appeared in the chair. He had blond hair and blood-red eyes, and an inverted pentagram symbolizing Satan had been drawn across his bare chest.
His appearance instantly raised the temperature in the room by ten degrees Celsius (eighteen degrees Fahrenheit). Hellstorm glanced at the old vampire and spoke in a slightly hoarse voice. "We allied with the vampires to fight Heaven, not to help you fight your own battles."
Hellstorm's tone was full of displeasure. "Look at what you've done! I warned you before not to provoke that woman, and you promised me you wouldn't!"
The old vampire spoke in a sinister voice. "It was merely the unauthorized action of some young people. They were wrong, but their intentions were good. Several of the progenitors tacitly approved their actions. We had a backup plan, but unfortunately it was ruined by a human who happened to pass by... In any case, let us return to the point. Why have we been so urgently expanding our strength? Is it not all for Hell's ultimate victory?"
Hellstorm was so angry he laughed. "Does Hell need you to do things this way? You couldn't bear to deploy those so-called elites of yours, so you kept playing tricks and trying to be clever. This is the result you brought on yourselves today!"