Faerith sat in her office, arms crossed, as her assistant finished speaking.
"Yeah, the committee also just called," the assistant said. "They told us to stop looking for test subjects with a lie."
Faerith smirked.
"What lie?" she asked. "I did give them the ERX-89 implant for free, and that thing was expensive, you know.
I even gave them money, and all they needed to do was get close to the blood to see if it showed any reaction."
The assistant looked at Faerith with pleading eyes.
"But Prof, they also threatened to stop our funding," he said. "You know we needed the money."
"Hmph. Money, money," Faerith said, her voice turning grumpy.
"Ever since the dungeons started appearing, every investor wanted quick results.
In the past, it was normal for them to spend years without any results."
After the dungeons appeared, research priorities changed.
Everyone rushed to work on anything that might give an edge inside those strange spaces.
Long-term projects like hers became harder to justify, even if they had potential.
Their conversation was interrupted when Faerith's tablet pinged with a new notification linked to her ERX implant project.
"Oh, the test subject has arrived," she said.
She looked at her two assistants. Both of them had tired, hopeless eyes.
"Both of you should take a break for a few days," she said. "I will talk with the committee myself tomorrow."
They did not argue. As soon as she finished speaking, both assistants left the room.
The only reason they had stayed on this experiment until now was that they owed Faerith favors from earlier in their careers.
The other researchers had already escaped to other, more promising projects.
With the rise of dungeons, there were many new things to study. This pushed the demand for researchers to a new level.
Because of that, no one bothered with a project that showed no results in three months.
They simply moved on to whatever looked more profitable.
Alex sat in the lobby, waiting to be called in.
He leaned back in the chair, busy playing with his phone to pass the time.
In the back of his mind, he was still surprised that he had received a direct reply almost instantly after sending in his information.
Normally, it took days to hear back from clinical trials.
But after seeing the research facility in person, he did not feel worried.
The place looked professional and well-funded.
Instead, he felt something else, a strange sensation he could not explain, as if something inside the building was calling to him.
In another world, a sharp scream echoed.
"Die, you bitch!"
A beautiful woman with long black hair that reached her waist was pushed backward into a dark void.
Her name was Mingyue.
"Just wait, Lianhua. If I survive this, I will come back to kill you," Mingyue shouted.
Her amber eyes glared at Lianhua with hate. Deep inside, though, she knew her chances of returning were very slim.
They had just entered a new secret realm discovered by their sect, Blue Lotus. Both women were prodigies of the sect.
Problems had started when both of them were chosen as prime disciples.
The sect was not rich. It could only fully nurture one prime disciple.
Because of that, the elders often sent the two of them out to obtain their own cultivation resources.
Their rivalry grew stronger every year.
Even though they fought a lot, Mingyue had never imagined that Lianhua would push her into a void crack.
Passing through the void was normal when entering a secret realm.
Sometimes, a void storm appeared and created cracks in the path.
It was not too dangerous as long as people avoided those cracks.
No one had ever returned after entering one, not even immortals.
Some theorized that people who fell into a crack were thrown into another world.
Others believed they were simply shredded to death.
Inside the void crack, Mingyue felt her body being torn apart.
It was as if thousands of needles were slashing over her skin and muscles.
She pushed her qi to the limit to protect her body. Each second stretched and felt like an hour to her mind.
After some time, she was thrown out of the crack and slammed onto cold, dark stone.
Her enhanced robe, which had been made for combat in secret realms, was already torn to pieces.
It barely covered her jade-like, alluring body. Thankfully for her, there was no one else nearby.
Her entire body ached. Pain pulsed through her limbs and torso with every breath.
Mingyue was glad she had spent all her contribution points to get the best protection talisman before this expedition.
Without it, she was sure her body would have been shredded apart in the void.
"That bitch," she cursed. "How dare she push me into the space crack.
Just wait until I return to the sect. I will tell the elders to make your life hell!"
She shouted for a while, then forced herself to stop.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves and steady her qi.
The cold air filled her lungs and helped her clear her mind.
Mingyue pushed herself up and looked around the area.
It was a vast space made from dark rock.
The only source of light came from a large crystal embedded high in the ceiling, glowing with a pale, steady light.
Her eyes froze when she saw the center of the room.
The ground there rose into a low platform. On top of it stood a coffin.
The coffin was made from black metal.
Strange inscriptions were carved all over its surface, but she could not read any of them.
Above the coffin, a black metal goblet floated in the air and slowly turned on its own.
It radiated a heavy, mystical aura.
As if hypnotized, Mingyue's body started moving toward the goblet.
Her steps were slow and unsteady at first, then became more sure as she drew closer.
Her mind felt hazy, but some part of her still watched what she was doing.
Meanwhile, in his world, Alex lay on a bed in a small, clean procedure room.
The ERX-89 implant procedure had just finished.
It had been fast. He had thought they would need to open his skull, but the process was much simpler.
The doctor had only told him to lie still while a cluster of nanomachines was injected into his head with a special needle.
The injection went straight through his skull.
The nanomachines were designed to move through his brain tissue and assemble into the implant on their own.
ERX-89 was supposed to be a neural interface that could interact with unusual energy signatures, including dungeon-related anomalies.
Right after the injection, Alex felt strange sensations.
It was like many tiny ants were crawling and moving inside his brain.
The feeling was unpleasant but not exactly painful.
After a few seconds, his vision blurred. His body relaxed, and he lost consciousness.
Faerith watched the monitors until she confirmed that the ERX-89 cluster had spread as expected.
When Alex was fully out, she took the opportunity to bring a sealed vial into the room.
Inside the vial was a sample of strange blood that was the core of her research.
The ERX-89 implant had been designed partly to interact with this sample.
She wanted to see if the implant could detect and respond to whatever unknown energy it carried.
Before she could begin her planned test, the vial started to shake in her hand.
Fine cracks appeared on the glass surface without any impact. In the next moment, the vial shattered into pieces.
The blood did not spill like normal liquid.
Instead, it held its shape and moved as one entity, almost like a living thing.
It lifted itself from the broken glass and shot through the air at unnatural speed.
Faerith watched in shock as the blood streaked across the room and went straight toward Alex.
It seeped into his body through his orifices, flowing into his nose, mouth, ears, and even his tear ducts.
She froze in place, not knowing what to do. None of her models had predicted anything like this.
For a long moment, she could only stare at Alex's unconscious body and the empty air where the blood had been.
Back at the stone mausoleum, Mingyue's slender fingers now closed around the black goblet.
The metal was cold against her skin, but she did not let go.
A thick red liquid, darker than normal blood, slowly swirled inside the cup. A faint black aura rose from its surface.
Without fully understanding why, Mingyue tilted her head back and brought the goblet to her lips.
With a swift motion, she drank.
The thick red liquid slid down her throat. It felt heavy and cold as it entered her body.
The black aura wrapped around her like smoke for a brief second, then sank into her skin.
At the same time, an ethereal voice rang out in both her mind and Alex's unconscious mind.
[The hosts for Adam and Eve to resurrect the vampire race have been found.]
[Reading both world information.]
[Looking for the best way to link both worlds and make both hosts into the primogenitors.]
In the mausoleum, a strange interface appeared in front of Mingyue's eyes.
Her amber irises glowed red as the symbols and lines formed a clear panel in the air.
In the research room, if Alex had been awake, he would have seen the same interface overlaid on his vision.
[Update Completed.]
[Welcome, Alex Campbell & Mingyue Xueqi, to the Vampire System.]