There were 98 vampires in total, but most were of the lowest rank. Their physical stats were barely better than an average human's. Due to chronic malnutrition from a feast-or-famine lifestyle, some were even weaker than regular people.
Once everyone arrived, Makiya headed to the most prominent spot on the second floor. He shouted for their attention and unleashed a single Genjutsu to bring them all under his control. After spending some time ensuring everyone was deep in a hypnotic trance, the entire blood bank and the adjacent bar were completely under Makiya's command.
Exploiting the chaotic environment of Hell's Kitchen, the bar had earned quite a lot for the vampires at the blood bank. Now, it all belonged to Makiya. Using Iris's name, he purchased a significant amount of raw materials.
Finished scientific instruments were incredibly expensive. A scanning electron microscope could easily cost millions. Without hundreds of millions in funding, a cutting-edge lab was out of reach—and even then, that was just the startup cost; the subsequent investment was a bottomless pit.
But Makiya could rely on himself!
Thanks to the vast knowledge provided by the Erotica Makiya and the Hacker Makiya, along with the incredible manual dexterity granted by the Tabby Cat Makiya, he could easily bring the ideas in his head to life.
Thirty meters below the blood bank, Makiya used Earth Style to excavate a massive underground space.
Hell's Kitchen didn't have as many skyscrapers as other districts; the surrounding area was mostly old residential buildings, so he didn't have to worry about hitting any foundations.
"Lord Makiya, the last batch of materials you ordered has arrived."
Iris called down from the only shaft connected to the surface.
The shaft was empty and lacked any installations. It was a straight drop of thirty meters. Even with a vampire's physical constitution, jumping down would result in broken bones. Having grown accustomed to a life of luxury, Iris had no intention of trying it.
"Coming."
Makiya created a clone that took flight. Under Iris's envious gaze, he floated leisurely to the surface. Turning around, he saw his number one flesh... maid staring at him in a daze.
"What are you standing there for? Lead the way."
"Oh, yes, Master. Please come this way," Iris said with a blush as she bowed.
The goods were unloaded in the first-floor warehouse. Makiya waved his hand and cast a Levitation Charm. Tons of materials floated steadily in the air and, under Makiya's direction, drifted into the underground laboratory on their own.
"Master, can I go down and take a look?" Standing by the shaft, Iris blinked her large eyes with hope.
"Sure, come if you want." Makiya didn't care. His experimental methods were impossible for others to learn anyway. Furthermore, this group was deeply trapped in his complete hypnosis; there was no possibility of betrayal.
"But I can't get down there... Master, hold me." Iris began to act coy, her voice turning so sweet and high-pitched that it gave Makiya goosebumps.
"Crap, stop that. Speak normally; that style doesn't suit you." Makiya shuddered, silenced Iris, and carried her as he flew down the shaft.
Iris stood obediently to the side, curiously watching a group of Makiyas busy themselves. Soon, the complex operations left her dizzy, and her thoughts began to wander.
'So many Masters... one, two, three... more than twenty Masters. Hehe, I can't handle them all by myself; I'll have to call number two and number three to join me...'
Iris's mind was filled with countless lewd thoughts until she was interrupted by a sudden rhythmic tapping.
*Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!*
She saw Makiya pile up a heap of plastic, copper wire, tin, various chips, and components. Then, he pulled a massive hammer out from behind him, gripped it, and began hammering the raw materials. A few seconds later, a circuit board of unknown purpose was finished!
Iris: "???"
Although she had been addicted to carnal pleasures for the past decade or so, she had at least attended university in her youth and knew a bit about engineering. Were circuit boards made like this? This was completely different from what they taught in school!
Also, where did Master pull that hammer from? Could it be...?
Iris felt she had discovered a major secret. Master truly was Master; he was terrifying. She could only fit a 1.5-liter bottle of cola with all her effort, yet Master could fit a giant hammer without batting an eye!
"Hmm?" Makiya looked suspiciously at Iris standing nearby. For some reason, she had started rubbing her thighs together. He didn't know what had gotten into her.
Forget it, he'd ignore her; work came first.
Over twenty Makiyas scrambled for the hammer, pounding away. Professional instruments appeared one after another in the underground lab. Following the plan in his memory, Makiya quickly prepared a batch of genetic serums intended to remodel a body to be part Demon and part Ninja.
Two low-level vampires were brought down—a man and a woman. Their clothes were removed, and they were strapped to surgical tables.
Holding a syringe, Makiya spoke kindly, "This is a cardiac injection, so it might hurt quite a bit. I'll count down from three when I inject. You must be prepared."
"Yes, Master," they both replied.
Iris watched from the side, swallowing hard. Her intuition told her these two wouldn't meet a good end. After all, what kind of serum skips all the preliminary stages and leaps straight into human trials? It would be a miracle if nothing went wrong.
Makiya looked solemn and said in a low voice, "Get ready. I'm counting down. Three... one!"
*Stab!* Before they could even react, Makiya plunged the needle into their hearts. The drug was injected into their bodies at a visible speed.
The two vampires trembled violently. The female vampire gritted her teeth in protest, "Wh... where's two?"
Soon, she could no longer speak. Their skin gradually became smooth and pale. Their coarse Caucasian skeletal structures shrank and warped amidst a series of cracking sounds. However, their stomachs began to bloat inexplicably, and they vomited large amounts of blood and black matter mixed with organ fragments.
The result was obvious: the experiment had failed. The two vampires died miserable deaths on the spot.
Vampires in the Marvel world usually turned into ash and vanished in a flash of fire upon death. But now, their corpses remained intact. Only the vomited internal organs retained their vampiric traits, dissolving into flames.
This indicated that the genetic serum had already altered part of their physical structures, but the systemic collapse was caused by a violent conflict between the genes.
Under normal experimental procedures, Makiya would now gather data and conduct extensive testing and analysis on the remaining specimens. The resulting data would be processed through various professional software to calculate and deduce different influencing factors using mathematical tools, thereby designing the next step of the experiment.
But this method didn't apply to Makiya—or rather, it didn't apply to the geniuses of Marvel. A genius was a genius not only because of their superior intellect but also because of their ability to cut through countless distractions and wrong options to accurately grasp the only successful solution.
Makiya hadn't been a genius before, but after sharing a massive amount of skills and memories, his knowledge alone qualified him as one. Not to mention, he was a cheater.
Like an executioner, Makiya cut open the two corpses. After careful observation and research, he quickly thought of a way to optimize the serum and began preparing it.
"Oh, right. Iris, release the humans still alive in the blood bank like I told you before," Makiya instructed while he was busy.
"But Master, if those people go out, they're likely to call the police. Although we have our people in the higher ranks of the police department, it might attract the attention of vampires in other regions. I'm worried..."
"It doesn't matter. Let the other vampires come if they want," Makiya chuckled indifferently. "I was just worrying that 98 test subjects might not be enough."
"Yes." Iris shuddered, feeling the pressure from the top of the food chain for the first time. In the past, they had viewed humans as food, but now the roles were reversed.
Makiya's orders were carried out by the vampire high-ranking members. Among the thousands of living hematopoiesis machines, the vast majority were brain-dead. Only about two hundred still retained their consciousness.
However, their bodies were severely overtaxed. If they lost the support of the nutrient solution, they would die within an hour.
After the vampires took them down from the steel frames, they looked after these "food items" with extreme care, ensuring their bodies were gradually recovering. They were terrified that if even a few died accidentally, it would provoke the demon below.
Time passed, and a month flew by in the blink of an eye.
Makiya's experimental progress was rapid, but it had recently hit a stalemate. Because a vampire's constitution was too different from a Demon-Ninja, the entire transformation process required too much remodeling of body tissues, making it easy for genetic collapse to occur.
"I need to find a way to bridge the gap," Makiya muttered to himself.
Iris's eyes shimmered. "Master, don't think about the experiment at a time like this..."
Steam rose as Makiya lay half-submerged in the pool. His head rested on Iris's lap, while six graceful female vampires—three on each side—massaged him with their delicate hands.
Makiya: "/(V//ω//)/"
The mountain peaks were treacherous, beyond the reach of ordinary men. One could easily risk suffocation. Fortunately, Makiya had discovered Iris's "vicious plot" in time and punished her severely.
Midway through, Makiya suddenly felt something was off. He thought to himself that he was unconsciously being corrupted by the beauty and hedonism of capitalism. Spending all day either doing experiments or getting intimate with girls—was that really okay?
*Slap!*
Makiya gave himself a slap.
"What am I overthinking for while I'm enjoying myself? I haven't even entered Sage Mode yet!"
As the blood bank stopped collecting blood, Makiya's rate of consuming vampires was also increasing. Although the bar was still operating normally during the day, keen observers eventually noticed something unusual about this place.
It was worth mentioning that despite such a large change, not a single vampire faction had noticed anything wrong. Perhaps a month was too short to catch the attention of the vampire high-ranking officials.
For these long-lived beings, a month was no different from a day. Some high-ranking vampires still maintained the habit of long-term hibernation, sleeping for half a year at a time, only to wake up for a bout of revelry and gorging before going back to sleep.
It was the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who first noticed something was wrong and reported it to their Hydra superiors in a timely manner.
S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't changed its name yet; its full title was the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division.
As an ancient race with a long lineage, the vampires were naturally within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance. Whenever there was a disturbance in supernatural forces, they had to step in.
Many gangs in Hell's Kitchen secretly received financial support from Hydra, exchanging intelligence for resources. Since Hydra occupied the vast majority of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s organization, what Hydra knew was essentially what S.H.I.E.L.D. knew; there was no difference between the two.
The control exerted by various organizations over a chaotic place like Hell's Kitchen varied. Generally, the ranking was: Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of the local criminal underworld > local superheroes > Hydra > S.H.I.E.L.D. > street-smart grandmas > the government and the police.
Alexander Pierce, the Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the nominal leader of all Hydra members within the agency, gave the intelligence a few glances after receiving it. Finding no profit to be made, he dispatched his subordinates to deliver the information as is to Director Nick Fury.
Inside the Director's office on the top floor of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Triskelion headquarters.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, dressed in a flashy black leather coat, stood by the floor-to-ceiling window. He watched the busy agents in the plaza below with a surging sense of pride.
As a Black man, he truly had reason to be proud of his ability to rise through the ranks in the social climate of that era and reach the position of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director.
The roles were reversed now. As the Director, he was the one holding the whip. Numerous white employees worked under his command, laboring diligently to harvest cotton... intelligence for him.
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