Chapter 26: Ghost Town?

It took Neo three more hours of trekking through the deserted road to finally find a sign of civilization.

Just far off in the distance, he could see lit lamps in what appeared to be some sort of town, the lights were pretty scanty but it was enough to confirm that there were people there.

The supposed town was about a kilometer away from where he was standing which meant that it was going to take him a little while to get there.

"I just hope I can find a place to stay."

He had only gone halfway through the required distance when he suddenly stopped and turned to the right.

Fewer trees were blocking his view now which was the reason why he could see what looked like a warehouse just a little distance away from him.

"Hmm."

He derailed off the road without much thought and pressed on toward the warehouse.

It didn't take him long to get to the building and just standing there looking at the tall building, he was able to confirm his initial thoughts.

It was an abandoned warehouse, the warehouse was mostly made of metal which made sense since it was a building meant for keeping valuables safe.

However, since it was no longer being used, some of its parts had started falling off.

The windows at the top were barely clinging onto their last hinges and the same could be said about the huge metallic double doors sealing the entrance, they were both missing their top hinges and the chain sealing them seemed to be on the floor.

"Insurance."

He moved closer to the doors after saying that and slowly pushed them open.

Right at that moment, he saw a flash of bright light projecting a vivid memory right in front of him.

A memory of both of his parents staring down at him with smiles on their faces and the three maids standing by the side.

It only lasted for a second before everywhere turned dark once again.

Multiple rats quickly ran past him at that moment but he didn't even notice them as he was staring off into the distance, his mouth wide open and tears beginning to fill up his eyes.

He had been trying so hard to distract himself and not think about it since he started his journey down that road and he was doing it to avoid feeling the way he was feeling now.

This heart-wrenching feeling that made him feel like it was pointless to continue living.

"Seriously, what's the point?" He muttered in a sad faint voice before crashing down on his knees. "Is a peaceful life with a family that's not dead so much to ask for?"

He felt like crying out loud, letting out all the pain he was feeling now in screams but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't do it, it was like he had lost the ability to scream.

'I see, I'm not even allowed to have that.'

After a while, he cleaned his tears and slowly got up on his feet, his heavy sigh resounding through the room, forcing the rodents that failed to notice his presence to scurry away.

'I have a lot of questions, especially for you, Mom but I guess I might never get the answers to those questions now?' He said inwardly, his gaze shifting to his left wrist which had been free of any bracelet since he woke up. 'What exactly was your connection to that bracelet, how did this system come about and why was that vampire after you?'

Aware that no one would step forward to answer those questions he began to head toward the only tangible items inside the warehouse, his eyes looking colder than they did just a few minutes ago.

There were a couple of cardboard boxes stacked close to the wall on the right, and just after getting to them, he was able to confirm that they were all empty.

"I guess they'll do." He muttered before turning toward the exit.

[ Active quests ]

[ Find a sustainable blood source ]

'I guess I still have to take care of that, how to do it is a problem though.'

He continued his journey to the town because he still needed to get himself well-grounded about the place.

He got to the town a few minutes later to find out that there were even fewer lights now than what he had seen when he was viewing the area from a distance.

Despite the fact that there were a few street vendors out selling their products, mostly food, the closest description he could come up with for the place was a ghost town.

The streets were dry with only one person standing in front of the boot of the barbecue stand toward the left.

Also, he could tell there were a few more people hiding in the darkness toward the left.

The atmosphere was quite eerie, a feeling of unrest and danger in the air.

'This place is not safe.'

He could feel the gaze of the street vendors and those hiding in the shadows on him, they could tell from the way he was just standing there looking around that he wasn't really from around there but none of them bothered to say anything to him.

"Thank you." The lady who was purchasing the barbecue said before hurriedly walking past Neo.

Neo's gaze shifted to the man standing behind the stand at that moment as he proceeded to quickly make his way to him.

"Excuse me, sir." He said just after stopping in front of the stand.

The scent of the barbecue was quite intense with how close he was standing now but contrary to most people, he found the smell nauseating.

"Yes, what is it?" The man responded, a hint of disinterest in his voice as he turned one of the barbecue sticks around to cook the other part.

"I don't mean to bother you, I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions."

The man's gaze dropped to his feet at that moment before he slowly dragged it up to his face once again, his eyebrows now furrowed.

"If you're not interested in buying anything, leave." He stated, his cold eyes bearing warning.

'Oh, I see, not going to talk till I buy something.'

"Well, let me see."

He reached for his pockets at that moment to see if he could find anything but after an extensive search, he wasn't able to find anything.

'That's right, I never had any reason to carry money with me.'

"You're still standing here?" The man grumbled, crossing his arms.

'Well, this is a problem, and I'm sure I won't get anyone else here to tell me anything easily.'

"Hey, let go of my bag!"

He quickly turned to the left where he heard the voice come from to see a lady whose bag was in the middle of getting snatched by someone in a black outfit.

She tried to stop him from taking it but he was just too strong for her and in the end, he ended up snatching the bag from her and quickly running into the alleyway with it.

"Bastard!" She screamed.

Neo slowly looked around to see if anyone would help her but they all pretended not to see anything.

"Hmm."

A couple of minutes later, the man could be seen walking out of the alley from the other side with the bag in his hand and some kind of low-light flashlight stuck to his waist to make sure he didn't trip on anything.

"Oh, this is more than I anticipated." He smiled in satisfaction as he stared into the bag.

He was just about to dip his hand into the bag when it was quickly swept off his grip.

"Huh?" He muttered in confusion before turning to the right to see a boy whose face he couldn't make out because his light was low but he could tell he was the one who took the bag because he was the only one there.

"Yeah, this is also more than I anticipated," Neo remarked after looking into the bag.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" The man asked, his voice filled with annoyance. "Give that back, it's mine."

Neo's reaction was one of oblivion as he stared at the man for a few seconds before he turned and started walking away.

"Hey, are you ignoring me?!"

The man pushed forward toward him in rage, throwing out a punch as soon as he got close enough to him but he ended up hitting nothing but air as Neo had stepped to the side before he could hit him.

Seeing as the man had already thrown out the first punch, he worked fast to deny him the chance of regaining his composure. He grabbed his arm as it was gliding past him, pulling it down before raising his knee to connect it with his falling face, his movement swift and gentle but the blow delivered quite devastating.

The sound of his nose getting crushed resounded in the man's ears as the force of the knee pushed his face back.

Neo let go of him after that, allowing him to crash to the floor grunting while clutching onto his face. He was in too much pain to say anything.

He stood there and stared at him for a while before turning around, his gaze fixated on what was inside the bag.

After a while, he pulled out the money notes in the bag and quickly counted them before dropping the empty bag on the man's face.

"Yeah, this should be enough." He muttered as he slowly walked away, his body disappearing in the darkness.