"Please, let me go!"

A man begged, sprawling on the ground.

With his clothes torn apart, he looked closer to a beggar than anything else.

"Human, human. You could have just cooperated at the start, and things wouldn’t have turned so bad. Still... don’t resist now, or else your death will be far more painful."

An individual with red eyes stood just before the man as he licked the corner of his lips in anticipation.

"You surely enjoy hunting."

Another individual with similar red eyes commented as he leaned against a wall, his hands crossed near his chest.

Both of the individuals were at Platinum 3, with the man on the ground too being at the same rank.

Despite his strength, the human couldn’t fight against two individuals who were at the same rank as him, coupled with the fact that both of them were vampires.

"Who, me? Nah, nah. I was just trying to train myself. Don’t speak as if I am some beast... Thinking about it, you could call me a well-cultured man."

No. 120 spoke like he indeed believed the words that he had just uttered.

"Really? I didn’t know cultured men were so wild that they would go as far as to hunt a Platinum 3 only because they craved his blood."

No. 121 had an amused smile on his face.

"That... it’s my food. What can you expect? And see, drinking his blood will only increase my strength. I am just following the rule of the jungle."

"Sure."

No. 121 knew that there was no use debating with his friend.

Though vampires could increase their power by drinking the blood of others... it was just a quick method and definitely not the only one at their disposal.

Vampires too could cultivate like the other species, which was why many laws were made against killing fellow individuals from any intelligent race in the world, as that was considered a disgraceful and unworthy thing for their race.

The royalties of the vampires all around the world had specifically made laws against it.

That was how the wars in the past had been stopped.

Though drinking the blood of your enemies in a war wasn’t illegal, as it was a kind of reward for the vampire who had killed his enemy.

That was what made the vampires one of the strongest races in the world, as with every battle, all of their troops advanced in their respective power levels.

As for the matter regarding blood being their food... nowadays, packaged blood was available for anyone who couldn’t control their cravings, so there was no need to hunt people like No. 120 had done here.

And... blood was just a thing of interest for the vampires, not a necessity.

They could survive fairly well on the food eaten by the other races.

But—

"What? Do you think I am committing a crime?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

No. 120 asked in a tone of disbelief that looked too fake in this situation.

"You are. If this is not a crime, then I wonder why we have always been on the run from our own people. Why are we being treated like criminals?"

"Fuck off. If you were such a coward, then why the hell did you even tag along with me?"

No. 120 crossed his arms, giving a small pout.

"My apologies."

No. 121 sighed in defeat.

He could never win in a war of words against his friend.

No. 120 had such cravings for wild hunts for a long time, and that had led to the Authorities tracking him down in order to neutralize such a dangerous individual.

No. 121, being a childhood friend of No. 120, had decided to tag along with his friend, so both of them ended up becoming wanted criminals.

And... it didn’t end there.

No. 120 once killed a civilian in one of the deserted streets, who ended up being a member of royalty from some empire.

After that, both of them became wanted criminals across the entire world.

In the end, due to several circumstances, they ended up joining an organization called D.X. that was similar to a haven for individuals like them.

But along with the benefits came the obligations that they had to fulfill.

They were now being summoned to the headquarters to participate in some mission that seemed to be an important one.

Many of the other numbers like them were called too... and there were some rumours that the top leadership of D.X. was going to participate along with everyone in the operation that they were being mobilized for.

That was too big of a thing for both No. 120 and No. 121, as being in the top 200 numbers, they had been able to learn more about D.X. than everyone else.

Though they still didn’t know about the leader of D.X., other than the fact that he was called X.

Still... they had seen some of the top fighters of D.X., and each of them was a force to be reckoned with.

No. 121 didn’t know what the aim of D.X. was... but he wasn’t in a place to care about it.

He and his friend had been saved due to the existence of such an organization, so it was only natural for them to complete their part of the deal.

Though No. 121 was still curious about how an organization on the scale of D.X. had been formed out of nowhere without anyone noticing a single thing.

Maybe... by the end of this coming operation, he would learn more.

"Haa... this feels good."

No. 120 commented before wiping the blood off his lips.

The human, who had once been a Platinum 3, now lay dead on the ground, with the entirety of his blood having been extracted from his body.

He had tried to resist until the very end, but after having his mana reserves depleted, there was only so much that he could do against vampires who had insanely strong physiques even without using their mana.