Chapter 353: The Vampire's Night Visit
The night was dark with high winds and a dim moon.
The north wind still howled mournfully.
On the tall, solid city walls, soldiers patrolled nervously, unable to see everything concealed in the darkness.
In the shadows below the city walls, faint rustling sounds could be heard, and pairs of blood-red eyes glimmered with an eerie light.
Their skin was pale and bloodless, they wore pure black tailcoats, and their chests bore a crimson insignia of a dagger crossed with a violin—these were the forces of the shadows, the "Nocturne."
However, all the vampires present were players.
A player with the nickname [Wolf of the Night] touched the city wall and nervously asked:
"Brother Lang, this is a whole city with tens of thousands of people inside. Can we really take it with just this few of us?"
"Who told you—we were going to siege it head-on?"
Langli Baitiao replied disdainfully, giving the newcomer a hard smack on the head.
"Ouch!"
Langli Baitiao shook his head, looking exasperated: "Don't you understand what assassination means? We are vampires, the elegant killers of the night. Sneaking into the city and killing a few nobles is nothing."
"Also, stop calling me Brother Lang. Call me Boss. Show some respect. You're in Nocturne now, learn the rules."
Wolf of the Night held his head and asked, "Then, Brother Lang—I mean, Boss, if we get discovered, can it still be called an assassination?"
Langli Baitiao chuckled, "Are you stupid? Of course not! If there are witnesses, how can it still be called an assassination?"
"According to Nocturne's doctrine, if discovered during a mission, we must immediately cease all actions."
Wolf of the Night pointed towards the top of the city wall and whispered, "Then I guess we're not assassinating anymore. We made quite a noise just now, and someone noticed."
Langli Baitiao's smile froze. He quickly turned his head to look up at the city wall.
A soldier was peering down, locking eyes with the scarlet gaze below.
The soldier began trembling all over, his face filled with fear, and he couldn't help but cry out: "There's, there's—"
"Shhh—"
Before he could finish, a sharp black arrow pierced through his throat, tearing through his vocal cords, leaving him voiceless.
Langli Baitiao lowered his hand crossbow, turned around, and flashed a chilling smile: "Alright, now it's still an assassination."
He patted Wolf of the Night on the back and said earnestly:
"Little Wolf, you still lack mission experience. How can you make noise during an assassination?"
"But, Boss, it was clearly you—"
"Alright, alright."
Wolf of the Night was about to argue but stopped mid-sentence when he saw Langli Baitiao's smiling face.
Langli Baitiao looked around at the twenty or so vampire players he had brought along and lowered his voice deliberately:
"I killed the soldier on watch. The patrol will notice soon, so we must infiltrate the city quickly."
"Yes, Boss."
The vampire players used their racial ability [Spider Walk] to swiftly climb the city walls.
However, their posture was far from elegant—clinging to the walls with their rears sticking out, they resembled a group of humanoid spiders.
Soon, the players reached the top of the wall and were about to proceed as planned.
But something unexpected happened.
"George, wake up."
"If the captain of the guard finds you sleeping, he'll slap you hard. He's been in a bad mood lately."
"George?"
A patrolling soldier carrying a lantern noticed someone lying on the ground and started walking towards them.
At this moment, he hadn't realized it was a corpse, assuming it was a soldier slacking off.
Wolf of the Night, clinging to the wall, whispered nervously: "Boss, what do we do?"
"That's another witness."
The patrolling soldier approached, catching a whiff of the blood in the air and realizing something was wrong.
"What the… George, what's wrong with you?"
"Are you hurt?"
"Kill him."
Langli Baitiao growled almost inaudibly.
"Got it."
A vampire player climbed the wall silently, sneaking behind the patrolling soldier, and swiftly slit his throat.
"Crack."
The soldier fell to the ground, landing right beside the sentry. The two corpses lay together.
However, the patrolling soldier's startled cry had already disturbed the still night, drawing the attention of other sentries in the nearby towers.
"David, did you hear something?"
"It sounded like Stephen's voice."
"Could it be an enemy attack?"
"Do you see anything unusual? We need to check it out."
The murmurs grew louder as dozens of soldiers began moving towards the players' hiding spot.
As a novice, Wolf of the Night started panicking.
He turned to Langli Baitiao and asked anxiously: "Boss, there seem to be more and more witnesses. What do we do now?"
"If we're discovered, does that mean… we have to abandon the mission?"
"No. Who told you we've been discovered?"
"Just kill them all, and there will be no witnesses left."
Langli Baitiao stared at the approaching soldiers, gritting his teeth.
Wolf of the Night suddenly understood and nodded repeatedly: "Boss, you're right. Why didn't I think of that?"
"Eliminate all witnesses."
At Langli Baitiao's command, the vampire players sprang into action, attacking the soldiers.
In the shadows, they moved swiftly, firing bolts from ornate crossbows to silently kill the soldiers before they could react.
"David?"
"Oh no, it's an arrow! We're under attack!"
The soldiers finally realized the enemy's presence.
But it was already too late. The vampires had closed in, hiding in the darkness.
"Huff, huff…"
Wolf of the Night took a deep breath, his hand gripping the dagger trembling slightly.
"Shhh—"
He closed his eyes and thrust forward, stabbing a soldier in the right chest, causing him to cry out in pain.
But the soldier didn't die immediately.
The next moment, an arrow pierced the soldier's throat.
Langli Baitiao, expertly concealed in the shadows, casually slit the throat of another soldier and remarked, "For crying out loud, human hearts are on the left."
Wolf of the Night chuckled awkwardly: "Sorry, Boss, it's my first time killing someone. I'm not very practiced."
The vampires used their racial advantages to flit through the shadows, effortlessly killing one soldier after another.
"Monsters! There are monsters in the dark!"
"What are those things?"
"Help me!"
"Oh my God, they're all dead!"
The vampires continued their massacre in the shadows, leaving the soldiers in chaos.
The terrified soldiers cried and prayed, but it was all in vain, only intensifying their fear and nightmares.
Soon, the area was filled with a heavy stench of blood, and over a hundred corpses piled on the walls. Not a single soldier was left standing.
"Damn, finally no witnesses left. That's what you get for being nosy."
"Mission accomplished perfectly."
Langli Baitiao stood amidst the pile of bodies, wiping the blood splashed on his head, and cursed bitterly.
"Yeah, Boss…"
"What a perfect infiltration."
Wolf of the Night echoed beside him.
He still felt something was off but couldn't pinpoint it, so he just kept nodding.
However, the commotion on the walls had alerted the soldiers inside the city, and a squad was already preparing to climb up to investigate.
"Damn it, more work."
"Kill them all."
Langli Baitiao looked down at the soldiers below and let out a long sigh.