Chapter 104 — Selene, Goddess Under the Moonlight
[Ding! Mission detected: Intercept Selene and Michael Corvin's romantic encounter.]
[Reward: Mental Shielding]
[Mental Shielding: Negates any ability, skill, or law that attempts to read the Host's thoughts.]
"Corvin…?"
William stared at the man in front of him—the guy looked slightly slow in the head, almost like he had Down syndrome.
"So this is the Underworld universe?"
"Hey… you okay?"
Michael waved a hand in front of William's face, snapping him out of it.
"I'm fine." William shook his head.
Seeing William wasn't about to collapse or anything, Michael turned and continued walking toward the subway entrance.
William hesitated for half a second, then followed.
"System. Is this world purely the Underworld setting?"
[No]
Short answer—yet loaded with meaning.
So it wasn't just Underworld.
That meant this was a composite world, a stitched-together universe where multiple settings overlapped.
---
William had watched Underworld a long time ago.
The story itself wasn't complicated—just two immortal races locked in endless bloodshed:
Vampires and werewolves.
Their hatred traced back to around the year 1400.
Among the werewolves imprisoned by vampires, a mutation was born—
A new kind of creature: Lucian, the first Lycan, a species capable of freely shifting between human and wolf form.
Victor—the vampire elder—could've killed Lucian immediately.
Instead, he did what tyrants always do:
He trained him into a slave.
Not only that—Victor used Lucian as a template to mass-produce Lycans, turning them into disposable tools to serve vampire rule.
Immortal like vampires… but unlike vampires—
Lycans weren't afraid of sunlight.
So they became the vampires' perfect daytime guardians.
---
But nothing stays obedient forever.
Lucian—a slave—committed the ultimate sin:
He fell in love with Sonja, Victor's daughter.
And worse…
He got her pregnant.
A hybrid child.
To Victor, a hybrid wasn't just a scandal.
It was an existential threat.
A creature that could inherit the strengths of both races was something Victor feared down to his bones.
Rage, betrayal, danger—everything collided.
Victor made his choice.
He burned his own daughter alive in the sunlight.
---
That execution shattered the world.
Lucian escaped.
And for the next several centuries, he held that hatred like a blade against Victor's throat.
He didn't just want revenge.
He wanted the perfect revenge.
So he spent hundreds of years trying to create a new hybrid—
A weapon.
A monster.
A judgment.
---
And in the mission prompt, the name that mattered had finally appeared:
Michael Corvin.
A direct human descendant of the two races' shared ancestor—
Alexander Corvinus.
Which made Michael more than just "a guy."
He was the exact kind of genetic material Lucian had been hunting for.
---
William didn't remember every detail of the films.
But he remembered enough.
As long as he followed Michael, he would eventually meet Selene.
And Selene…
Selene's story was its own tragedy.
Her father had once designed the prison meant to contain the werewolf progenitor.
Six centuries ago, Selene's entire family was slaughtered—
Not by werewolves…
But by Victor.
Selene survived only because Victor had just lost his daughter.
Maybe guilt.
Maybe sentiment.
Maybe obsession.
Whatever it was—
He spared her.
Then he did something even more twisted:
He framed the massacre as a Lycan attack.
And then, in the same breath—
Victor became her "savior."
He turned Selene into a vampire, granted her power, and fed her a lie so convincing that she swallowed it for centuries:
That her family had died to Lycans.
That Victor had given her a purpose.
That her rage had direction.
Selene believed it with absolute certainty.
Because she'd never even imagined…
That the man she served—
Was the one who butchered her bloodline.
She had risen through Victor's ranks, becoming one of the very best within his elite force—
the Death Dealers.
---
Inside the subway station…
William trailed behind Michael at a careful distance—not too close, not too far.
And as he followed, he noticed something else.
There was another group tailing Michael.
At the front of them was a powerfully built Black man, broad as a truck and moving like a predator.
Then—suddenly—
A breathtaking figure appeared in Michael's line of sight.
His pace slowed instinctively, as if his body was reacting before his mind could.
Behind him, William also caught sight of her.
Leaning casually against a pillar, scanning the station like she was searching for prey—
Selene.
That signature skin-tight leather suit made her impossible to mistake.
Even if William had forgotten every other detail of Underworld, he would never forget her.
Selene's gaze swept across Michael… then across William…
And then moved on without a pause, as if neither of them mattered.
William's mission target had been confirmed.
Michael, at that moment, became irrelevant.
So he stopped following Michael and shifted course—walking straight toward Selene.
---
But at that exact moment…
The Black brute stalking Michael suddenly halted.
He turned around sharply, eyes locking onto someone behind him.
A pale, skinny man—gaunt and sickly-looking, like he'd been living on powdered drugs.
The brute's pupils contracted.
His whole body tensed.
"VAMPIRE!!"
He roared the word like it was a curse.
Then he yanked out two submachine guns and opened fire.
---
The vampire's reflexes were terrifying.
He dodged almost instantly, slipping away from the incoming barrage like a shadow.
Selene reacted just as fast.
She vanished behind a pillar in a single smooth movement.
But her teammate on the other side…
He wasn't as lucky.
Bullets punched into him—several clean hits.
Normally, a vampire could survive gunfire without much issue.
The body would eventually force the bullets out, regenerate, and return to normal.
But this time—
It didn't happen.
Instead, purple-blue light began blooming inside his wounds.
His flesh crackled.
His body started disintegrating—
turning into ashes before their eyes.
Selene's pupils snapped tight.
William, unlike the other civilians, didn't scream or panic.
The bullets weren't headed for him.
So he watched calmly as the vampire turned to dust.
"UV rounds…?"
A flash of memory surfaced from the movie.
A banished vampire had developed those bullets and sold them to the Lycans—
ammo that simulated sunlight.
Devastating to undead-type creatures.
---
But William wasn't just thinking about plot details.
He was furious.
Because what if those rounds hit Selene?
If she died, then what?
The mission reward would vanish.
Sleeping with a British vampire goddess wasn't the point.
The point was the reward:
Mental Shielding.
In a supernatural world, that wasn't just useful.
It was practically mandatory.
Who knew when some Professor X-type monster might show up and start rummaging through his memories?
So at that moment—
William made his decision.
He was joining the fight.
---
A full-length M4A1 materialized in William's hands, purchased directly from the firearms procurement shop.
A magazine packed with 5.56 rounds clicked into place.
Kachunk.
He chambered a round, flipped it to full-auto—
and in the chaos of the station,
his rifle instantly became the strongest firearm on the field.
BRRRRT—!!
The M4 roared.
Copper-jacketed rounds tore through the air, hammering into the Black brute—Raze—over and over.
At the same time, Selene's other teammate finally entered the fight.
He pulled a handgun loaded with silver-tipped rounds and fired alongside William.
Both Selene and her partner were stunned—
Where the hell had this man come from?
Why was he helping them?
But there was no time for questions.
In the exchange of gunfire, a stray bullet struck a civilian nearby.
The woman collapsed with a choked scream.
None of the monsters cared.
Not the vampires.
Not the Lycans.
Not even William.
Only Michael reacted.
Because Michael wasn't a monster.
He was a medical worker.
Pure reflex.
He sprinted over, dragged the wounded woman behind cover, and tried to stop the bleeding.
And at that exact moment—
Another Lycan burst through the gunfire like a charging beast.
He grabbed Michael by the throat, trying to abduct him.
Selene spotted it immediately.
Her gun snapped up—
aimed right at the Lycan.
Under that level of fire suppression, the Lycan knew he couldn't escape with Michael.
So he abandoned him—
and fled into a subway carriage.
Selene chased without hesitation.
William saw his target moving.
He didn't even glance back.
He abandoned Selene's partner entirely, leaving him to deal with Raze alone—
and followed Selene into the train.
But the instant William stepped into the carriage…
A shadow moved.
Fast.
A sleek, lethal figure slipped behind him like a blade cutting through air.
One arm locked him in place—
and the cold mouth of a pistol pressed hard under his chin.
A voice, sharp as ice:
"Who are you?
Why are you following me?"