The wind was high, the night moonless, the sky gloomy and deep.
The north wind continued to whine.
Along the tall, massive city walls, soldiers paced back and forth in nervous vigilance, but they could see nothing of what lay concealed in the dark.
In the shadows beneath the ramparts, a rustling arose, followed by pairs of blood-red eyes gleaming with eerie light.
Their skin was deathly pale, and they wore pure black tailcoats, their chests bearing a scarlet crest of a dagger crossed with a violin—this was Nocturne, the unit that moved in the shadows.
However, all the vampires gathered here were players.
Touching the stone of the rampart, a player named Anyezhilang asked nervously, "Brother Lang, this is a whole city, with tens of thousands of people living inside. Can we really take it with just our handful of people?"
"Who told you we're mounting a frontal siege?"
Langlibaitiao scoffed, smacking the back of this newly duped rookie's head with a heavy palm.
"Ouch!"
Langlibaitiao shook his head, looking utterly exasperated. "Do you have any idea what an assassination is? We're vampires, elegant killers of the night! Slipping into the city and taking out a few nobles is child's play.
"And don't call me Brother Lang. Call me Boss. Where are your manners? You joined Nocturne, so why haven't you learned the rules yet?"
Rubbing his head, Anyezhilang asked, "Then Brother Lang—no, Boss... is it still an assassination if someone spots you?"
Langlibaitiao chuckled. "Are you stupid? Of course not! If there's an eyewitness, how can you call it an assassination?
"According to Nocturne's creed, if we're spotted during a mission, all operations must be aborted immediately."
Anyezhilang pointed up at the top of the wall and whispered, "Then I don't think this counts as an assassination anymore. We made a bit too much noise just now. Someone saw us."
The grin froze on Langlibaitiao's face. He whirled around and jerked his head up toward the ramparts.
A soldier was peering down, locking eyes directly with those crimson pupils.
The soldier began trembling violently, sheer terror overtaking his face, and cried out involuntarily, "Th-there's—"
*Thwip!*
Before the words left his mouth, a sharp black bolt tore through his throat, ripping through his vocal cords and choking off any further sound.
Langlibaitiao lowered his hand crossbow and turned around, flashing a spine-chilling grin. "There. Now it's still an assassination."
He patted Anyezhilang on the back and said earnestly, "Little Wolf, you just lack mission experience. How can you go making noise in the middle of an assassination?"
"Wait, Boss, that was obviously you—"
"Fine."
Anyezhilang started to retort, but catching sight of Langlibaitiao's smiling face, he swallowed the rest of his words.
Langlibaitiao glanced at the twenty-odd vampire players he had brought along, deliberately lowering his voice: "I took down the sentry, but the patrol will notice soon. We need to slip inside fast."
"Yes, Boss."
Using their racial ability, Spider Climb, the vampire players scurried up the wall.
Their postures, however, were hardly elegant; clinging to the stone with their rears stuck out, they looked for all the world like a pack of humanoid spiders.
Soon, the players reached the top of the rampart, poised to vault over according to plan.
Then an unexpected hitch occurred.
"George, wake up.
"If the captain comes by, he'll slap you twice across the face. He hasn't been in a good mood lately.
"George?"
A patrolling soldier holding a lantern noticed the figure lying on the ground and began walking over.
At this point, he did not realize it was a corpse, assuming only that the sentry was slacking off.
Clinging to the wall, Anyezhilang whispered, "Boss, what do we do?
"That's an eyewitness too."
When the patroller drew near and caught the scent of blood hanging in the air, he finally realized something was amiss.
"What's this...? George, what's wrong with you?
"Are you hurt?"
"Kill him."
Langlibaitiao squeezed the command from his throat.
"On it."
A vampire player beside him vaulted onto the wall, slipped silently behind the patrolling soldier, and cleanly slit his throat.
*Snap.*
With a thud, the soldier collapsed right beside the sentry, the two bodies lying side by side.
However, the patrolman's startled shout had been rather distinct in the quiet night, catching the attention of sentries in the nearby watchtowers.
"David, did you hear that?"
"Sounded like Stephen."
"Could it be an enemy?"
"Is something wrong over there? We should check it out."
A clamor of voices rose as dozens of nearby soldiers moved toward where the players were hidden.
A novice through and through, Anyezhilang panicked.
He turned to Langlibaitiao and asked anxiously, "B-Boss, there are more and more eyewitnesses! What do we do?
"If the assassination is blown, do we... abort the mission?"
"No. Who told you we've been blown?
"If we kill them all, won't there be no eyewitnesses left?"
Langlibaitiao gnashed his teeth as he watched the approaching soldiers.
Realization dawned on Anyezhilang, and he nodded vigorously. "You're totally right, Boss! Why didn't I think of that?"
"Eliminate all witnesses."
At Langlibaitiao's command, the vampire players surged out en masse, lunging toward the soldiers.
They darted through the shadows, firing bolts from delicate hand crossbows, dropping soldiers into silent death before they could even see what hit them.
"David?"
"Damn it, arrows! Enemies!"
The soldiers finally realized foes were among them.
Yet it was already too late. The vampires were already upon them, lurking quietly in the shadows.
"Haa... haa..."
Anyezhilang took deep breaths, his hand gripping the dagger trembling slightly.
*Thrust—*
Closing his eyes, Anyezhilang drove the blade with all his might directly into a soldier's right chest from behind, wrenching a wail of pain from the man.
Yet the man wasn't dead.
In the next instant, a bolt pierced the soldier's throat.
Skulking deftly in the shadows, Langlibaitiao casually slit the throat of a soldier in front of him and chided exasperatedly, "Damn it, a human's heart is on the left!"
Anyezhilang gave an awkward grin. "Sorry, Boss. First time killing someone, not quite used to it."
Exploiting their racial traits and veiled by the darkness, the vampire players prowled through the crowd, effortlessly dispatching one soldier after another.
"Monsters! There are monsters in the dark!"
"What are those things?!"
"Help me!"
"G-gods, they're all dead!"
Vampires stalked and slaughtered through the shadows while the soldiers descended into utter chaos in the dark.
They shrieked and prayed in mindless panic, but none of it availed; it served only to breed greater terror and nightmare.
Before long, a thick stench of blood hung heavy in the air. Over a hundred corpses lay piled upon the ramparts; not a single soldier was left standing.
"Damn it, no more eyewitnesses now. That's what you get for sticking your noses where they don't belong.
"Infiltration mission successfully accomplished."
Standing amidst the piles of corpses, Langlibaitiao wiped off some blood that had splashed onto his head and muttered resentfully.
"Yeah, Boss..."
"Truly a flawless infiltration."
Anyezhilang chimed in from beside him.
He felt like something wasn't quite right, but he couldn't put his finger on it, so he just nodded along repeatedly.
However, the commotion from the massacre on the ramparts had drawn the attention of the soldiers down inside the city, and a squad was already preparing to climb up and inspect the situation.
"Damn it, more work.
"Kill 'em all."
Langlibaitiao peered down at the soldiers below and let out a long sigh.
Chapter 349