"Wait! What are you doing? Are you… sucking my blood?"
Kanrutia stretched out both hands, trying to push Kurose Akira away.
But the side effects of [Bloodthirst] had already taken hold. Right now, Akira wanted nothing more than to savor that sweet, delicious blood.
He didn't care how he obtained it. As long as there was blood to drink, he wouldn't let the opportunity slip by.
And with Kanrutia weakened by the Curse of Death, she simply didn't have the strength to resist his overwhelming surge.
In the end, sharp fangs pierced tender crimson skin. Blood flowed out—sweet as a mountain spring.
"You… y-you… you…"
"Bas… bastard!"
Kanrutia's voice trembled. Her body trembled too, powerless. Her small hands tried to push Akira away, but the effort amounted to little more than a soft pat against his back.
Eventually, her slender arms fell limply to her sides. Her scarlet eyes rolled faintly upward as the last of her resistance faded.
All she could do was lie there… and let Akira drink her blood.
Meanwhile, within the Holy Light Church, Lucia was intently flipping through books related to the Goddess of Death, searching for a method to remove the Curse of Death.
"The Curse of Death… can be transferred?"
After a long search, she finally found what might be a solution.
However, this method couldn't eliminate the curse completely—it could only transfer it.
Unwilling to accept that, she turned several more pages, hoping to find a better option.
Unfortunately, she found nothing else.
This left her hesitating deeply over whether she should tell Akira about the method.
After a brief moment of consideration, Lucia made her decision.
"I should tell him. He'll make the right choice."
She intended to use the faint trace of magic she had left on Akira to activate a voice transmission spell and remotely inform him of the solution.
But when she lightly waved her fingertip and the scene from Akira's side appeared before her—
Her beautiful eyes widened instantly.
Half a minute passed before Lucia finally snapped out of her stunned silence.
"This man!"
She glared at the image of Akira, lightly biting her teeth.
Naturally, she couldn't see his face clearly—because his head was buried in a pool of blood, enjoying its sweetness.
But still…
Lucia knitted her brows. She almost turned her head away, but in the end she forced herself to watch the entire thing.
Her emotions at this moment were difficult to describe.
After all… Akira had never done something like that to her.
Cough, cough.
This man was becoming more and more perverted!
"Wait?"
Suddenly, Lucia saw Akira finish drinking. When he licked the corner of his mouth, her body trembled slightly.
"Th… that… why is his tongue so long?" she murmured in surprise.
"No wonder that vampire had that kind of expression…"
"Wait! What am I thinking about!?"
Lucia suddenly realized her thoughts were drifting in a very inappropriate direction. She hurriedly patted her cheeks, trying to clear her mind.
She was the Pope of the Church—how could she possibly become fascinated by something like—
"What a terrible scene!"
Frowning, Lucia raised her hand, preparing to shut off the image from Akira's side.
But just as she was about to do so, her gaze suddenly froze.
Because she noticed something.
A faint black aura had stained the tip of Akira's tongue.
"That is…?"
Lucia leaned closer to the image, her eyes locked onto that trace of black energy.
She could confirm it instantly.
That was the curse of the Goddess of Death!
Although Lucia had no idea how Akira had managed it, this man had actually peeled the Curse of Death off the vampire.
But—
That also meant the curse had now infected Akira.
With his physical strength, he probably wouldn't last more than a few hours!
"What a troublesome man…" Lucia sighed softly, opening a teleportation portal and preparing to head to the guild to help him suppress the curse.
Yet just as she was about to step through—
She suddenly stopped.
Because she saw something unbelievable.
The black curse that had been clinging to the tip of Akira's tongue was slowly…
disappearing.
"How… how is that possible?"
Lucia stared at his tongue in disbelief.
That was the curse of the Goddess of Death.
How could Akira possibly dissolve it so easily?
His tongue… how could it be that powerful!?
At the same time, Akira regained control of his body.
Instinctively, he licked his lips. The sweet blood swirled across his tongue, bringing him a pleasure that was hard to describe.
But when his gaze fell upon his own "masterpiece," his brows couldn't help but knit together.
He smacked his lips again, tasting a faint salty tang.
I must've been starving…
How did I end up biting… there of all places…
A complicated emotion rose within him.
He lifted his head and looked again at Kanrutia lying in the coffin.
At the moment, she had curled into herself, trembling slightly. A faint blush spread across her pale cheeks.
Her eyes were hazy, as though she had completely lost the ability to resist.
Akira also noticed that Kanrutia seemed to have become smaller somehow—her delicate appearance stirring an inexplicable sense of pity.
"Bas… bastard…"
Kanrutia slowly opened her eyes. Crystal-clear tears slid from the corners.
As a True Progenitor vampire, she had lived for tens of thousands of years.
Never once had physical pain made her cry.
But unfortunately, the reason she cried this time… wasn't pain.
Meanwhile, Akira suddenly noticed something.
It seemed that Kanrutia's Curse of Death had disappeared?
He immediately said,
"Your Curse of Death… did it vanish?"
"Huh?"
Kanrutia snapped out of her aggrieved daze.
To her astonishment, she discovered the curse on her body had truly disappeared.
"It's really gone?" she said, her face filled with disbelief.
But when she raised her head to look at Akira—
Her eyes widened.
A faint black glow was emanating from Akira's tongue.
"The curse! The curse transferred to you!"
Kanrutia quickly warned him.
"?"
"Where? Where is it?"
Akira hurriedly checked his status panel.
But there was no information about the Curse of Death at all.
"It's on your tongue!"
"?"
Akira stuck out his tongue and examined it carefully.
Sure enough, a thin trace of black light lingered at its tip.
But strangely—
Instead of eroding his tongue, the curse seemed to be blocked.
His tongue was wrapped in a brilliant golden light, like a barrier, completely preventing the curse from invading.
"Invincibility… effect?"
Akira immediately realized what was happening.
The Invincibility effect attached to his tongue was activating, allowing him to ignore the curse entirely.
In the blink of an eye, the Curse of Death vanished without a trace. The black aura dispersed into nothingness.
"I never expected there'd be a method of removing curses like this…"
Akira felt somewhat surprised.
He had never imagined that simply licking it could remove the Curse of Death.
"Human… you…"
Kanrutia stared at him intently, her eyes filled with confusion.
She couldn't understand how Akira had managed to dispel the Goddess of Death's curse so effortlessly.
Yet the truth was right before her eyes.
The curse was gone.
She had no choice but to believe this unbelievable reality.
"Anyway, the curse being gone is a good thing."
Akira smiled casually, then turned and walked toward his five-meter-wide bed.
"Now I can finally get a good night's sleep."
He lay down on the bed, pulling Mare Rhein's plump dragon tail into his arms like a pillow and closing his eyes.
"..."
Kanrutia didn't know what to say.
She fell silent, her crimson eyes fixed on Akira until he fell asleep.
"This human…"
She lay across the edge of her coffin and muttered to herself.
Then she prepared to sleep in her small coffin as well.
But the moment she lay down, she suddenly bolted upright.
"Oh no! Everything's completely soaked!"
In the blink of an eye, morning arrived in the real world.
Akira woke up and first pulled the blanket back over Mare Rhein, who had kicked it away in her sleep.
Then he walked over to the coffin and glanced at the peacefully sleeping Kanrutia.
Compared to Mare Rhein's wild sleeping posture, the True Progenitor vampire looked calm and elegant.
Next, Akira went to the room of Alice and Viola, where the two little ones were sleeping soundly.
He quietly closed the door, not wanting to disturb their dreams.
Finally, he went to Loserine's room.
She was sitting on the bed, carefully polishing her Oathbound Sword.
"Do you need something?" Loserine asked, raising her head.
"Nothing important," Akira replied, shaking his head. "I might arrive at the guild a little late today. Could you handle the daily quests for me?"
"Mm."
Loserine nodded softly.
Akira smiled, closed the door, and left.
After logging out of the game, he immediately headed to the exam site.
As soon as he entered the campus area, he saw groups of students gathered together, chatting excitedly.
Akira didn't join them.
Instead, he went straight to his exam classroom and waited quietly by the door.
Just then, a familiar figure entered his field of vision.
"Liu Xue?"
Akira looked at her in confusion.
After all, Liu Xue had already received a guaranteed admission to Zhejiang Ocean University, so she technically didn't need to take the national exam.
Liu Xue noticed his gaze and walked over.
"Why are you here at the exam hall?" Akira asked.
"Nothing better to do, so I figured I'd just take it for fun."
"…."
Akira paused for a second.
Diagnosis: bored out of her mind.
Ding—ling—ling!
The bell rang.
"I'm heading in," Akira said as he walked toward the exam room.
"Good luck," Liu Xue said.
"You too."
By the afternoon, the two exams were nearly finished.
For Akira, the questions were practically second nature.
He couldn't guarantee every answer was correct, but he was confident about getting into Zhejiang Ocean University.
After all, any question with a standard answer was basically free points for him.
As for subjective questions…
That depended on the grading teacher.
After finishing the exam, Akira prepared to head home.
Just then he heard Liu Xue calling him.
"Akira!"
He turned around to see her running over, looking slightly shy.
"What's up?" he asked.
She rubbed her hands together and smiled.
"Well… the game's public beta starts in about a month, right?"
"Yeah."
Akira nodded.
"I want my older sister to play it too. When that happens… could you help guide her a bit?"
"Of course."
Akira agreed without hesitation.
After all, Liu Ling had helped him quite a bit before.
"That's great!" Liu Xue said with a sweet smile. "By the way, that game is really strange. Only the player who first binds the game console can log in. Nobody else can enter that world."
"Oh? There's a rule like that?"
It was the first time Akira had heard of it.
But thinking back, there had been a player-binding step when entering the game.
"Still, your leveling speed is incredible," Liu Xue said enviously. "I've been playing for over a month and only reached E+ rank, but you…"
From Akira's perspective, Liu Xue was already progressing extremely fast.
Reaching E+ rank in just over a month—only one step away from D rank.
Give her another month and reaching C rank was very possible.
The only people faster were gold-buyers and cheaters.
"Some of it's luck," Akira replied casually.
Suddenly Liu Xue seemed to remember something.
"Oh right—do you know about this?"
"About what?"
"When our guild level increases, players get player skills, right?" she began. "I heard that some players receive special divine blessings during guild upgrades. And some players even start the game with initial talents."
"Initial talents?"
Akira raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not sure if it's true," Liu Xue admitted. "But it sounds plausible. For example, doesn't Ye Lingxi's quest panel randomly change quest difficulty? Maybe that's her starting talent."
"That… actually makes some sense."
Akira stroked his chin thoughtfully.
If that were the case…
Then maybe his own strange traits could count as an initial talent too?
Still, he wasn't convinced.
If it really were a starting talent, why would the system label it 'Data Anomaly'?
And Ye Lingxi's situation didn't seem like a starting talent either.
What kind of talent randomly changes quest difficulty?
"Anyway, I'm heading home," Liu Xue said.
"Alright. See you tomorrow."
After returning home, Akira took a shower and logged back into the game.
Because of the exam, it was already 11 a.m. in game time when he arrived at the guild.
Lucia and the others were waiting inside.
Only Loserine was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Loserine?" Akira asked Ivsha, who was sitting on the sofa.
"I haven't seen her since I arrived," Ivsha replied, shaking her head. "And I can't contact her either."
Akira frowned.
He immediately opened the Adventurer Vision.
And what he saw made his expression instantly turn serious.
Loserine was… doing the daily quest alone?
His face darkened.
Did Loserine misunderstand something!?