However, the truth was that my gloating actualy saved my life. If I had rushed forward to kill Xu Wu Cheng immediately without saying that line, I would have been caught by the explosion when the adult vampires broke into the gymnasium and get struck by them. The only reason why I survived being swatted by them was because I could react in time, having seen the a.s.sailant swinging his hand toward me and there was quite a distance for him to cover, thus allowing me the time I needed to defend myself.

If I had charged at Xu Wu Cheng a little earlier, I wouldn't be able to defend myself when the veteran vampire swat me, and most likely I would have died from that blow, my neck broken or my skeleton shattered. Such was the strength of the adult vampires. They truly were not an enemy I could afford to underestimate.

No matter what I did, Xu Wu Cheng would have survived. And people said I had plot armor. f.u.c.k this. Xu Wu Cheng surviving this ordeal was very bad news for me. He would definitely seek revenge in future, and when he did, he would surely develop a countermeasure against my summoning magic the next time we met. It was going to be a much harder fight in the future.

I was so not looking forward to it.

I could just wash my hands off this whole thing and not chase after him. On one hand, if I pursued the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan, fighting Xu Wu Chen would be inevitable, but on the other hand, I really had no reason to rescue Nan Gong Zhao Yan other than her being my friend. I could just walk away from this whole b.l.o.o.d.y affair and no one would be able to blame me.

Like h.e.l.l I would. My ideals might be borrowed…they might be "fake" but they weren't superficial. I looked up to my dad and wanted to be a hero like him. I had grown up wanting to save others, without asking for anything in return. That was what it meant to be a true hero – to risk one's life helping other people in need. To never abandon the innocent and the helpless, to save them from despair and evil. Evil such as Fan Le Lao and the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Sect. it didn't matter whether Zhao Yan was my friend or not. If she required saving, then it was my duty as a hero – or at least someone pursuing the ideals of a true hero – to save her.

And for those readers calling me stupid in the comments or in the forum because they were demanding for ruthless, selfish, anti-hero protagonists who didn't give a f.u.c.k about anyone…well, they were delusional idiots. Come on, it had been over 500 chapters, and from the very beginning I already stated that these were my ideals, that it was my goal to be a hero like my dad, saving the innocent civilians from monsters and villains. Why the f.u.c.k are you still here more than 500 chapters later complaining about my so-called naivety or stupidity? If you didn't want to be a hero and if you wanted to be a self-centered, cold-hearted b.a.s.t.a.r.d who didn't care about other people, suit yourself. Don't push your f.u.c.king ideals onto me. I'm not your b.l.o.o.d.y clone or a mirror reflecting your desires or edgy personalities. I am Richard Huang, a hero wannabe. If you still couldn't accept that, then you could f.u.c.k off and read some of those edgy stories with "ruthless," psychotic main characters who had no qualms murdering their enemies and abandoning their allies.

Don't a.s.sociate me with those sc.u.m. Or with you.

Putting my ideals of heroism aside, I also knew that abandoning the fight now would defeat the whole purpose of this parody. Besides, I wanted to go kick some vampire a.s.s. No, I needed to kick some vampire a.s.s. This was a fight that Xu Wu Cheng started, and so I intended to finish it. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Honestly, I didn't buy into these edgy principles of vengeance, but leaving that b.a.s.t.a.r.d alive was like having an unhealed sore. One way or another, one of us was destined to die at the hands of the other. I had to ensure that I was the one who survived the inevitable death-match.

Plus there was the whole thing with Fan Le Lao. With his father dead, he would surely be the new leader of the vampire clan, and that was very bad news. From what I saw of him, he was one crafty b.a.s.t.a.r.d who came up with schemes to cover up his other schemes. And those schemes were definitely not good. Also, I suspected the vampire clan to have links to the Federation's main foe, the Dark Church.

And Fan Le Lao had abducted Zhao Yan. Most likely Ji Yan was also taken into the Crimson Bood Demonic Night clan��s sanctum. After betraying the Guang Zhi Yi Sect and her triplet sister, there was no other place she could go to. I doubted she could just nonchalantly return home like this.

The fact that the surviving teachers and students of Saint Teresa Academy couldn't find her was even more evidence of her betrayal. Teresa Taylor had apologized to me again for refusing to believe me when I told them everything, but it was too late. What was the point of her apology now? The dead wasn't going to come back to life.

That said, I doubted it would have changed anything. Knowing Fan Le Lao, even if Nan Gong Ji Yan and Xu Wu Cheng were exposed, caught and apprehended by the Hunter a.s.sociation or whoever, he would have backup plans in place or other operatives to continue the task in their stead. The a.s.sault on Saint Teresa Academy was inevitable. Actually…I honestly didn't understand the whole point of Xu Wu Cheng infiltrating the school and doing that whole betrayal thing with Ji Yan. What exactly was his purpose? He didn't do anything except maybe weaken the defenses in the north of the academy – defenses that wouldn't have been set up in the first place because of the Guang Zhi Yi Sect's stupidity and if the vampires hadn't announced their presence by attacking the other academies. Other than that…he did absolutely nothing to further the plan of the Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan's a.s.sault. Okay, he weakened the Guang Zhi Yi Sect by getting Ji Yan to drug them, but she failed in that mission. In the end, Zhao Yan wasn't drugged but she still got subdued so easily by Fan Le Lao that I wondered what the h.e.l.l the point of drugging them was. Fan Le Lao could easily solo the whole Guang Zhi Yi Sect by himself, never mind the fact that he had Xu Wu Cheng and an army of elite young vampires to help him.

It was almost as if he was solely in Saint Teresa Academy just to create shoujo drama with Ji Yan and seduce her into an abusive and toxic relations.h.i.+p that so many female readers love.

"Richard?"

I wasn't given any time to ponder on that mystery. I glanced at the video image of Kufa on my computer screen, who had contacted me to discuss on how to proceed from here. The news had spread like wildfire online, and he was the one who sent me that video clip of Teresa Taylor versus Fan Fu Qing in the first place. Given how I missed the latter part of the climactic battle, I was grateful to him for providing the link to YouTube.

"Sorry. Just…in awe over the fight scene. I can't believe they have the video online."

"It's all over the news," Kufa agreed. "The number one trending news on the Internet right now. People are posting up images and stuff on social media. Just look at the video I sent you!"

"Yeah, about that…" I felt apprehension nagging at me. "How the heck did the guy fim the whole thing? Is he crazy? If he got caught in the crossfire, he would have died!"

"Yeah, well…he's not the only one. Just search around the Internet."

Under the chat window, Kufa provided me a bunch of links. I reluctantly clicked on them and found myself scrounging through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, where many Saint Teresa Academy students were posting photographs of the attack. One picture on Facebook showed the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan vampires lunging at the photographer's fellow students, with the caption, "wow! I don't believe it! My school is under attack!"

Even more ridiculous was a student taking a selfie with vampires in the background, and written under was her comment, "something you don't see everyday!"

You got that right. Taking a selfie while being attacked by vampires was certainly something I didn't see everyday. My heart sinking, I clicked on the Twitter links.

"LOL! Bunch of idiots attacking our school right now! Can't wait to see them die. #toostupidtolive."

"I'll update you guys when I get out of this alive! For now, too busily running away for my life! #runforyourlife."

"Omfg! The headmistress is killing the vampires! So cruel! Stop! Vampires are humans too! #alllivesmatter."

Uh…what the f.u.c.k? You do realize that your fellow cla.s.smates and teachers are being killed by the vampires, right? Do their lives not matter?

Some even posted a photograph, where vampires had burst into the cla.s.sroom. "They're in the cla.s.sroom!"

And even more absurd was one Twitter account saying, "h.e.l.l yeah, we'll probably get holidays for the next two weeks! #Iwantmoreattacks!"

I closed the tabs, moved onto Instagram and almost regretted it.

"Suckers bloodsucking!" – A photograph of a vampire sucking someone's blood.

There was another photograph of the moon and the vampires soaring through the night sky. The photographer wondered if this would win him or her a photography award.

"There are even more videos! They look so intense!"

Kufa continued speaking to me through chat. I sighed and clicked on the videos, only to see the same amateurish, shaking footage of students yelling and screaming as the vampires attacked. But the cameraman, who was offscreen (for obvious reasons), was cheering.

"This is cool! I hope I'm capturing all this!"

No wonder Saint Teresa Academy suffered so many casualties. So many students were more interested in capturing footage or pictures to upload to social media that they literally forgot to run for their lives. In one of the recovered footage, the cameraman was attacked offscreen by a lunging vampire and his camera fell onto the floor before blanking out. No doubt a cla.s.smate had picked up his camera and uploaded his footage on his own Youtube account, benefiting from the death of someone else to gain views for his own account.

I was at a loss for words.

"I give up," I groaned, holding my head in my hands. I should have let them die. Well, I didn't do much to save my schoolmates, anyway. The only one I actively helped was Zhao Yan and I failed. Even then, I would like to think that my actions helped a few. At least Rossetti and Kufa survived, thanks to my warning.

But…come on. Getting obsessed with getting online fame to the point of risking your life for a few minutes of footage or a snarky snapshot? Really?

"You really haven't been on social media much, have you?"

"Nope. I don't really use social media."

The only platform I used was Facebook and perhaps Youtube. I tended to ignore the comments on Youtube most of the time, because I only used it to watch anime or listen to anime music. Twitter and Instagram were alien to me and I never bothered to sign up for accounts on those platforms. Taking pictures and tweeting whatever I did was not appealing to me in the slightest. I was too busily training or reading. I did have a blog account for wargaming hobbies and tabletop war games, but no one read it or commented on it.

"I don't blame you. But you've Facebook, don't you? Go check it out! Everyone's talking about it!"

"Yeah, I know I already did…"

I reluctantly opened Facebook again and once again saw my newsfeed flooded by people posting pictures and videos about the Crimson Blood Demonic Night clan's raid on Saint Teresa Academy. I scrolled through them, not exactly eager to revisit the sheer stupidity of humanity – most of them I had already read earlier. I recognized a few posts as those that Kufa linked me to earlier.

And then I stopped, my finger pausing on the mouse scroll b.u.t.ton when something in my newsfeed caught my attention.

"An Quan has marked herself as safe."

"Ping Qing has marked himself as safe."

"Bi Nan has marked herself as safe."

"Tao Zou has marked himself as safe."

There were a few Saint Teresa Academy students who marked themselves as safe in the aftermath of the disaster. Apparently, there was an outpouring of concern and worry after the attack, and the survivors were a.s.suring their friends and families on social media that they were safe. Ironically, the people posting the pictures and videos didn't offer the same a.s.surances. They didn't need to. They were laughing as they replied to comments on their photographs.

I noted that many of them seemed to have disappeared abruptly, shortly after their uploadings. The timing of their lack of response, especially toward concerned parties asking if they were safe, were ominously right in the middle of the a.s.sault. Already, in my newsfeed, there were parents and friends asking Saint Teresa Academy students to help confirm if their child or friend was still alive, if they were still safe and unharmed.

Feeling a pang in my heart, I was about to close the tab when I caught sight of something.

"Richard?"

I snapped up to attention when Kufa called my name. Nodding dismissively, I waved him away.

"Y…yeah, I'm all right."

"You don't look all right."

"Trust me, I'm fine." I swallowed. Kufa watched me suspiciously, but decided not to pursue the matter. He sighed.

"Anyway, Rossetti wants to meet up tomorrow. You had better come too."

"Yeah, I will." I glanced at the door, wondering if Adrian Stuart and Melina Franklin would allow me to. They were panicking when I returned home the other night. It was a good thing that the middle school students were not involved in the Holy Supper or the casualties would have been even higher. They would basically be lambs to the slaughter.

"All right, I'll see you tomorrow then."

Kufa gave me one last worried look before he cut the video call. Even as he disappeared, I continued staring at the computer screen for a long time. Especially at my Facebook tab. My eyes were riveted on a single person's account, which hadn't been updated since yesterday.

Nan Gong Zhao Yan. On her page, her sister, Yue Jian had posted a question.

"Zhao Yan? Are you and Ji Yan all right? Our parents and I just saw the news. Please let us know if you are okay."

Knowing that Zhao Yan would never be able to respond or mark herself as safe, my shoulders slumped and my heart sank under the tremendous weight of failure.

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