The room remained quiet for a moment, as Quinn and Vorden processed what Tsukuru was insinuating.
"So what you're saying…" Vorden replied. "...Is that this 'salvage team' was attacked by other Vampires?"
Quinn felt a cold dread go down his spine. He could only imagine how powerful a properly trained Vampire was. While he had only been a Vampire for a few weeks, they most likely had been training for all their lives. Going up against them would be like a Level 1 going against a Level 8.
"Looks like you dodged a bullet there, Quinn," the blonde-haired man replied, his voice ringing in Quinn's head. "If you and your friends had run into other Vampires while you were on that planet…things would have ended up going very differently."
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
"Additionally, I have discovered that my System can block that strange 'glowing eye' trick that Sergeant Faye used on Shizuka," he replied.
Vorden raised an eyebrow in confusion.
''Glowing eye trick'?" he asked.
The two other boys glanced over at him.
Vorden had not been there when Sergeant Faye had used the Influence Skill on Shizuka, mind-controlling her into dragging Quinn away from Sergeant Faye and Tsukuru.
As such, the two explained what Sergeant Faye had done to Shizuka.
"Wait," Vorden replied, still somewhat confused. "So Vampires can…hypnotize people?" he asked.
"Apparently," Tsukuru replied.
"Maybe his System does have a form of firewall," the blonde-haired man replied. "I can assure you that if you had gone in his place, you would not have been able to resist it."
"Anyway, while she was trying to hypnotize me, she had unintentionally given me some information," Tsukuru replied, his face turning serious. "Apparently, there's something called the 'Vampire Families'."
Vorden put his finger under his chin and began to think.
"'Families'," he muttered. "You mean like our Original Families?"
Tsukuru also put his finger under his chin.
"Quite possibly," he replied. "Sergeant Faye wanted to know which of these 'Vampire Families' Quinn was from. She also told me that these 'Families' are not all united. I guess that, similar to how there are good Original Families like the Bree Family and badOriginal Families like the Sunshield Family and the Trudream Family, there are also good and evilVampire Families."
Tsukuru then looked up at the two.
"Sergeant Faye told me that these 'Families' seem to be split into two major groups. Or, I guess you could say factions," Tsukuru replied. "One wants to protect Humans. Let's call this the 'Guardian Faction'. The other sees us as nothing more than food. Let's call this group the 'Predator Faction'."
Vorden's eyes narrowed.
"Did Sergeant Faye happen to mention which of these two factions she fell under?" he asked.
Tsukuru gritted his teeth.
"Unfortunately, I didn't learn of the two factions until just as I was leaving," Tsukuru replied grimly. "So I couldn't ask."
He then turned towards Quinn.
"Quinn," Tsukuru replied, causing Quinn to turn to him. "Faye had one of those rings. The ones that let Vampires stay out in the sun."
Quinn's eyes widened upon hearing this.
Upon hearing his words, Vorden snapped his head towards Tsukuru.
"Wait, there's a ring that can do that?" he asked. "Can you make one of them? You know, like how you made us both a set of your gauntlets?"
Tsukuru glanced away.
"I tried," he replied, a somewhat depressed tone in his voice. "But for some reason, my System was incapable of scanning it. Apparently, the ring was 'incompatible' with my Ability."
Quinn raised an eyebrow.
'Is it because of how many Crystals it requires?' Quinn thought.
"Maybe," the blonde-haired man replied. "But the way we made those rings was always special. You could almost call it magic in a way."
Vorden let out a sigh.
"Well, that's a disappointment," he replied.
Internally, both Tsukuru and Quinn agreed.
The room was quiet for a moment, until it was broken by the sound of Tsukuru's stomach rumbling.
Tsukuru felt a deep hunger filling him, and he rolled his eyes.
He brought his hand up to his chest and activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference filled the room, and pixels began to appear in his hand. The pixels clustered together into the shape of a long rectangle.
There was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru was holding a thick wrapper that was as wide as his hand. The wrapper was red with white edges.
Tsukuru could feel the heat from the food inside the packaging, and he then ripped open the top of the wrapper.
Immediately, steam poured out of it, and a strange, rounded rectangle of some sort of fried dough.
As Tsukuru brought it up to his mouth and took a bite out of it, red saucecould be seen coming out of it.
While he kept eating, Tsukuru then turned back to Quinn.
"There was one other thing that Faye had mentioned," he replied between bites. "Apparently, even before she became this 'Blood Knight' thing, the higher-ups in the school were aware that something unusual was going on."
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
"They've come across multiple students with puncture marks on their necks," Tsukuru replied. "So many, in fact, that Hayley thinks there's a stray Beast on the loose."
Quinn gulped.
"Personally, I don't think this should be a problem for the immediate future, as you're probably just going to spend all your free time for the next week holed up in that VR Pod and thus, won't be getting into any fights," Tsukuru replied. "But I'd thought I'd mention it."
"But…But…I haven't attacked anybody since the incident in the Beast Weapons Hall!" Quinn protested.
"Actually, that's not true, Quinn," the blonde-haired man replied, catching Quinn's attention. "Remember that 'Ian' fellow you attacked on the Red Portal Planet? You probably left the same markings on him."
Quinn froze, hearing this.
Tsukuru kept eating the strange food until it was completely gone. When it was, a System message appeared in front of him.
[Daily Quest 3 completed. 5 XP received. XP: 210/8000]
"Anyway, given how Sergeant Faye is a Vampire now, I get the feeling that she'll try to downplay this little situation," Tsukuru replied. "But that being said, we should probably be careful."
Vorden then noticed the strange helmet Tsukuru had next to him on his bed.
"Hey, Tsukuru," he replied. "What's that?"
Tsukuru subconsciously glanced down at the helmet.
"Whatever it was, it cost Tsukuru all of his Credits," Quinn replied.
Tsukuru gritted his teeth at Quinn's words.
"Don't remind me," he muttered. "Fucking dick."
Vorden raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, all of your Credits?" he asked. "That had to easily be over 10,000. What could possibly cost that much?"
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
"Around 18,000, actually," he replied, picking up the helmet. "And it's a little something I asked Logan to make for me back during our first Sunday here. It's a prototype portable VR Headset."
Both Quinn and Vorden's eyes widened upon hearing this.
Just the other day, Quinn had been racking his brain trying to figure out how he was going to manage to get enough Credits to buy his own VR Pod. And now…Tsukuru just had one?
"Wait," Vorden replied. "So, you can play Power Fighters with that?"
Tsukuru smiled at Vorden.
"Not quite," he replied. "This one isn't actually connected to the Power Fighters mainframe. It essentially just has a bare-bones version of the VR Technology."
Vorden scrunched up his face in confusion.
"What's the good of a VR Headset that can't connect to the game?" he asked. "Isn't that kinda like having a game console with no cartridge?"
Tsukuru smirked at him.
"The 'game cartridge' is right here," Tsukuru replied, tapping his right temple. "It's not designed to be used to play Power Fighters. It's designed for me to fight in my System's Battle Arena."
Vorden's eyes widened. He had almost forgotten that Tsukuru's System was compatible with the VR Pods.
Quinn found himself staring at the helmet, as if he had suddenly found a high-level piece of Beast Gear.
"But…it could be reconfigured to be compatible with the game?" he asked.
Tsukuru thought about this for a moment.
"I guess so," he replied. "I mean, you'd have to connect it to an auxiliary system to transfer the necessary information if you wanted to use your own Beast Gear first, but yeah. It could be done."
Hearing this, a wide smile split across Quinn's face.
Maybe he didn't have to spend 100,000 Credits on a VR Pod after all.
It was then that a knocking could be heard on the door.
"Guys, can I come in now?" Peter's muffled voice could be heard through the door. "Curfew's about to start."
The three boys exchanged looks.
"Maybe it's time we allgot some rest," Quinn replied with a smile. "It'll be morning before we know it."
"Yeah," Vorden replied, nodding his head. "We've only got a few days until the Portal Outing. We should make the most of it and prepare as best as we can."
Tsukuru nodded as well.
"Five days to be exact," he replied, glancing away. "We'll be heading out first thing Monday morning."