1 The Treasure Chest System

In the Vampire nation of Nehekhara Empire!

In a castle dozens of miles away from the city of Lahmia.

In a tiny room in a corner stood Ye Ming. He stared at the clothes on his body, his deathly pale skin and the unbelievably sharp nails on his fingers in confusion.

Had he actually been transported to another world?

And right then, as if on cue, a surge of memories flooded his mind.

It took a long time for him to fully integrate all these additional memories he suddenly found himself with. Only after that did Ye Ming know for sure that he had really transmigrated.

And that he had become a Vampire.

But the sad thing was, the him now was only a Last Generation Vampire, the lowest class in the Vampire hierarchy.

(T/L note: Vampire Hierarchy = Last Generation < Traditional < Baron < Viscount < Count < Marquis < Duke < Prince)

But even more tragic than that was the fact that he was only a servant in the castle of Count Osrhein.

His daily job was cleaning the castle.

Of course, it was a really big castle, so he was not the only servant.

But a transmigrator who cleaned someone else's residence every day? What kind of transmigrator would he be?

After digesting some of his new memories, Ye Ming could not help but sigh.

This world was full of danger. Many other races inhabited the world aside from Vampires -- Goblins, Beastmen, Elves and so on.

Every race fought for themselves. They see all other races outside of their own as aberrations.

Vampires were especially unpopular.

They were often viewed as rats hiding in the dark. Whenever one of their kind was exposed, they would become a target to be hunted down.

Among the humans, there were many bounty hunters who hunted Vampires for a living.

Besides that, the Beastmen Empire on the other side of the Gudela Mountain Range were also constantly at war with the Vampires.

As a Vampire, the current Ye Ming was just a Last Generation that had neither strength nor wealth.

His only choice was to hide under the wings of a powerful figure.

He probably did not even have the strength to survive if he left the Count's castle.

The law of the world was survival of the fittest. This was especially true among Vampires, who idolized power.

There was a very strict caste system in place. The weak were worthless, not even worth the Empire's protection.

A Last Generation Vampire like Ye Ming had it even worse than the humans living in the Nehekhara Empire.

At least there were establised laws to protect humans in Nehekhara.

The unlawful killing of a human was prohibited. Violaters would be prosecuted by the Empire.

Of course, such protection came at a price. Humans living in Nehekhara had to pay a tax every month.

The tax was paid in the form of blood. The amount differed according to the individual.

Considering his options, it was safer for Ye Ming to remain in the Count's castle. Although he was only paid a few silver coins every month, at least he was provided with blood once a day.

If he left, he might not even be able to obtain any blood for himself. A Vampire who could not drink blood would not last long.

But Ye Ming was unsatisfied.

He was a transmigrator. Would he really be a servant for life?

Even a Last Generation Vampire had a life span of centuries. Was he really just going to be a servant for several hundred years?

Without a doubt, he was unwilling to do that.

He just did not have any good ideas at the moment.

Move to a human city?

The moment the idea popped up in his mind, he immediately rejected it.

He was a Vampire now. The moment he stepped outside the Nehekhara Empire, he would definitely be targeted by bounty hunters, eventually becoming the gold coins in their pouches.

And as a Vampire, what was his greatest fear?

Sunlight, of course.

For a human, sunlight usually brought good mood.

But for a Vampire, sunlight was a deadly venom.

Leaving the Vampires' midst would only make him a recluse, and sooner or later, he would be targeted.

After a while, Ye Ming finally managed to put aside all the distracting thoughts from his mind and made the conscious decision to adapt to his new body.

Night fell, a time for Vampires to be active.

It was also time for Ye Ming to go to work.

His job at Count Osrhein's castle was to clean the courtyard and the study.

He needed to clean those places once in the morning and once at night, every day. Mistakes would not be tolerated. Count Osrhein held the absolute right to take away his life as punishment!

Forcing himself to concentrate, Ye Ming tidied up his room a little and left for work.

But not long after he started cleaning the courtyard, the flash of a treasure chest caught his eye.

Ye Ming subconsciously peeked at a few other servants who were tending to the plants near him. They were going about their business as usual, as if they did not see the extremely conspicuous treasure chest at all.

This situation perplexed Ye Ming a little.

Who would casually place such a valuable-looking treasure chest in the courtyard?

Not only that, the servants nearby all acted as if they could not see it. Ye Ming's curiousity was piqued.

He scoured his memories for any information regarding the treasure chest but found none.

Maybe Count Osrhein had placed it here not long ago?

But why would Count Osrhein put a treasure chest here for no apparent reason?

Driven by curiosity, Ye Ming gradually approached the treasure chest.

The servants around him did not try to stop him, nor did they show the slighest bit of surprise at his action.

The moment Ye Ming came into contact with the treasure chest, a clear sound suddenly echoed in his mind.

*Ding* [Congratulations for activating the Treasure Chest System!]

*Ding* [The Treasure Chest System is successfully bound to the host, Ye Ming.]

*Ding* [Basic ability of the Treasure Chest System: The host can discover treasure chests within five meters of himself.]

　　...

The string of announcements left Ye Ming frozen on the spot.

The Treasure Chest System?

That means the treasure chest was only visible to himself?

Ye Ming once again looked around at the servants nearby. They did not seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary.

That further confirmed Ye Ming's suspicion.

He started wondering what he would find in the treasure chest.

But since it was a treasure chest, the content should not be too terrible, right?

*Ding* [You have found a silver treasure chest. Would you like to open it?]

The system's notification tone once again sounded in Ye Ming's ears.

"Open it!" Ye Ming replied without thinking.

*Ding* [Treasure chest successfully opened. Congratulations, you have obtained a drop of Viscount Blood Essence.]

Following a flash of light, Ye Ming felt a separate mental space forming in his mind. The Viscount Blood Essence that he obtained from the treasure chest was lying quietly inside.

To Ye Ming, the sparkle of the blood drop seemed like a ray of hope of him getting stronger.

His face could not help breaking into a grin.

"What are you standing around in a daze for, Ayerd? Not slacking off, I hope! Hurry up and get back to work! The study hasn't been cleaned yet, and the Count will be reading there later!" At that moment, a voice of rebuke came from the back.

Even without turning around, Ye Ming knew the voice belonged to Count Osrhein's butler.

The rebuke pulled him back from his daydream. After reaching out with his senses for the last time to verify that the Viscount Blood Essence was still sitting in his mental space and that he was not actually dreaming, he quickly went back to cleaning.

Now that he could actually see the hope of getting stronger, he performed his tasks with a renewed vigor.

Both his speed and efficiency improved tremendously.

He quickly finished cleaning the courtyard and rushed straight towards the study.

He had only one thought in his mind: to finish the cleaning as quickly as possible so that he could start testing out the effect of the Viscount Blood Essence!