ATAPOW Chapter 1
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“Huff, huff…” A series of weak and delicate gasps echoed inside the sealed off prison. Ji Bai powerlessly sat on the dried blood-stained floor tile, unceasingly gasping for breath.
“Not bad, you’re indeed my fancied successor. You truly have quite the potential!” A puerile voice, whose intention to tease or ridicule was unknown, reached Ji Bai’s ears. He slowly raised his head up, and saw a silver haired loli with an innocent smile threw herself into his vision. It was shockingly the devil that had brought him unforgettable pain!
Ji Bai moved his body to the back continuously in a panic. “Don’t…Don’t come over…” A weak, soft and puerile voice as mellow as the calls of a black-naped oriole came out, and Ji Bai was instantly stunned.
I-Is this…Is this my voice?？What is going on?!
“Oh dear, it seems you still haven’t realized what exactly is going on?~ Anyway, welcome to the world of darkness, my heir.” The corners of her lips naughtily lifting up to form an arc, Lilias revealed a crafty smile. She then reached into her long skirt, fished out an expensive silver mirror filled with decorations, and threw it near Ji Bai’s feet.
Who is that?! At that moment, Ji Bai felt as if the icy winds that accompanied the twelfth lunar month were blowing against him and freezing him solid—he was completely stunned.
In the mirror, a delicate silver haired lolita that was like a doll was looking at herself currently. The look of astonishment was written all over her flawless, small face, while her ruby-like eyes was filled with disbelief. Her fair skin made it impossible for people to believe she was human.
“Are you somewhat satisfied with your new appearance? Hehehe, welcome to the world of vampires. My heir.”
With Lilias’ seemingly ridiculing or teasing words echoing in his ears, Ji Bai felt as if a pot of boiling oil had been poured into his brain.
“N…N,No!!…”
………..
In a small rented house, a teenager with incomparably messy hair was struggling to lie face down on a bed, his eyes laid an inexhaustible amount of fear within. If one looked closely, they would realize that the clothes he was wearing had already been soaked with sweat.
He had dreamt about that incident again…A year had passed, yet to date, he was still unable to cast off that nightmare.
A newspaper which was dated more than 10 months ago was stuck right next to the bedside cabinet. Its headline shockingly wrote ‘An isolated force suffered ambush! Pioneer hero ‘Radiant Knight’ perished in battle!’.
That newspaper was a year ago. According to the version that was going around in human society, he was already executed in that battle a year ago. It was absolutely impossible for him to appear in such a rented house intact.
That’s right. The person that was currently lying down on the bed was Ji Bai, who was captured by the vampire queen a year ago. Within the past year, he had been abiding by the manner of the race he hated the most, obeying the thirst of fresh blood that came from his bodily instincts, as he led a massive vampire army waging war on all sides. Werewolves, demons, succubus, vampire rebels, and even…humans. He had been stained with the blood of these creatures before.
After repeatedly using discreet schemes, as well as making use of the trust that he’d slowly gained in the vampire’s faction, he was able to seize an opportunity to escape. Finally, he was no longer in the City of Eternal Light; he’d managed to escape that place where light never shone.
Ji Bai had immediately turned back into a human form when he had escaped towards the boundary line where the human cities were. He had successfully stepped into his hometown, where he had not returned to for a year, enjoying the feeling of the bustling human cities that he had long missed.
When Ji Bai had been a radiant knight, he’d always been fully covered in his ‘Radiant Judgement’ armor.As both his head and body had been clad in the suit of armor, very few people knew his true appearance. In fact, only a few of his closest friends—those who’d been willing to go through the fires of hell with him—knew his true appearance. Because of this, the first impression that most people had of radiant knight was their fully clad metal armor.
Ji Bai, who had suffered strenuous hardships and returned to the human cities, had originally wanted to go to the temple and find his close friends. But when he reached 100 li away from the temple, his feet stopped and couldn’t take a single step forward. He stood at his spot stunned, his thoughts sluggish.
Do I, as I am now, really have the qualifications to enter this place? Me… whose hands have been stained with human blood? I wonder… just how much I’ve become like a vampire over the past year. Am I a threat to humanity now?
It was as if those questions were interrogating Ji Bai’s conscience. They lingered in his mind for a long time, refusing to disperse.