A crowd had gathered around the side of Starbucks, and officers were yelling orders at them, telling them that they need to move back and give the police some room so they can work on their case. The scene was surrounded by yellow caution tapes as the lights on the police cars and the nearby ambulance shone brighter than the street lamps.

A languid woman on a stretcher was carried inside the back of the ambulance. Her eyes were in a daze. Staring at the distance. The paramedics tried to get a response from her yet their voices fell deaf on her ears. Even shining their penlights didn’t twitch the pale woman’s eyelids.

“What kind of psycho did this to her?” the paramedic scowled at the sight of the woman’s bloody neck. The bite mark near her carotid had been hidden by the bandage, but the hardened and dried blood around the area was a sickening sight to see.

“You’ll never know, man,” said the other paramedic. “People these days are fucking nuts, you can never be too careful these days.”

Near the ambulance, two people heard and saw everything. They looked at each other and nodded. Leaving the premise, the tall one between the two nudged her short partner. SK, the man with a clean-cut beard, glanced at his partner, noticing her line of sight staring at the CCTV near the crime scene.

SK grinned. He pulled out a hard drive from his back pocket, showing off at his tall partner. “I’m a hundred steps ahead of you, Griner,” SK said. “And you can’t even fathom the depth of my genius.”

Liz Griner scoffed and rolled her eyes upwards. “Let’s just get back, and look through the footage,” Liz said.

“No sweep?” SK asked. “That’s rather unusual of you.”

“Baguette is on it. He’s sweeping around the area as the bloodsucker might be close,” Liz said. Their eyes met for a brief second.

“Weird isn’t it?” SK opened up. Noticing the obvious peculiarity of this case. “The girl.”

“Yea,” Liz nodded. “She shouldn’t be alive, not unless something happened . . . And I don’t like it.”

“FYI, I’m not going to do the dirty work this time,” SK raised his hands in surrender.

Liz frowned. Glancing at the ambulance behind her as she knew what she needed to do. Same as her partner, she too was unwilling. But a job was a job. Seeing the bigger picture was one of the mottos these people had to adhere to. “Fine. I’ll do it,” she said.

They got inside their rental Perodua Myvi, a small car, a brand from Singapore’s neighbor, heading back to their base of operation. The car parked in front of a rundown hotel with its LED signboard barely flickering to life. Passing through the narrow lobby, the old Chinese lady at the counter cared less about these suspicious-looking foreigners as her eyes were glued at the late-night soap opera.

They got inside the most expensive room of the hotel, and decent was overrating it. The queen-sized bed leaned on the wall as they used the much-needed space for all their gadgets and miscellaneous boxes with cables and wires all over the old stained carpet floor.

SK booted the laptop and plugged in the hard drive. He worked his magic and blew up the video wide. Two pairs of eyes stared at the bright screen under the dim light of the room, trying to find any sort of clue about the incident.

“There,” Liz pointed. Noticing through the fast-forwarded video.

“I saw it first,” SK said. Prompting a light shove from Liz.

“Cautious like always,” she said. The video barely showed the edge of the alley, and by chance, both of these people managed to see a slight glimpse of the victim pinned to the wall.

“Let’s see what happens next,” SK pushed a button, and the video went forward two times its speed. Then the frame stopped. SK and Liz finally saw why the girl was left alive.

“There’s another victim,” Liz uttered.

“This is bad,” SK chimed in. Watching a man with flip-flops coming for the rescue. Liz was already on her phone, trying to connect with Baguette. Another variable just had to appear and they had to deal with it before the situation escalate to worse.

“That damn Viet Cong wannabe isn’t picking up,” Liz was getting impatient. What was supposed to be an easy mission for them was starting to turn into a prelude to a nightmare.

“Wait, there’s something else,” SK’s words weren’t making it any easier for Liz.

“What now?” Liz rushed to his side. Wandering her eyes around the whole screen.

SK pointed at the blurred image of a man. “He’s alive,” SK said. Disbelief was in his tone. “The flip-flop dude just survived an encounter with a fucking vamp.”

“What’s he doing?” Liz asked. Their eyes followed the movement of the flip-flop dude. He was checking the victim and judging from how he was on the phone, the guy must have been the one that called for the ambulance and the police.

“Please tell me I’m drunk,” SK grew curious. “How could he survive without having any sort of weapon on him? Do you think he hid a Remington RM380 in his boxer or something?”

“Don’t be an idiot. You know how strict the gun law in Singapore is, and even if he has one, without silver bullets, he won’t do a thing against those bloodsuckers,” Liz said.

Their eyes focused back on the video.

“I’m a genius, and I’m just figuratively saying it,” SK said. “Do you notice it?”

“What?”

“His clothes. There are signs of being torn apart,” SK showed to her the difference before the man in flip-flop went off the screen and after a possible encounter with the vamp.

Liz narrowed her eyes. “You think he really fought against it?” she asked. Entertaining the possibility that it could have happened.

“Well, it’s not that rare to find someone who survives against a supernatural,” SK said. “And you know well how we got recruited into this shit.”

“But not against vamps,” Liz stressed. Staring at SK with her fierce eyes. “You know that no one could survive an encounter with a vamp, not without proper equipment. And even if they did survive, it’s too late.”

“What about the Chief?” SK threw a curveball at her.

Her left eye twitched a bit, not knowing what to say for a while. “He’s different,” she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “You and I know the Chief isn’t the type of guy who goes to Starbucks for a coffee . . . That man is built different.”

“And I can say the same to this guy,” SK pointed at the flip-flop guy who sat on his moped. “You should never judge a book by its cover, Griner,” He smirked at Liz.

Liz stared at the guy riding a moped with a Starbuck in his hand. Seeing the demeanor and action of the guy on the screen didn’t strike Liz as a guy who could fight against a vamp. “Then find him,” Liz turned. Heading to one of her suitcases. “We’ll see what kind of cover does he has.” She pulled out a Desert Eagle and armed it with a new ammo clip.

* * *

The door behind him close as Zane found himself a seat on the couch, slouching. Staring at the ceiling, Zane was trying to come to terms with what just happened. “Did I really kill a vampire just now?” he asked himself. As he felt too surreal to him. This place. This earth. It was a place that assured him he had a safe place to return to after adventuring through the fantasy world. But all of that had been broken tonight.

“It can’t be due to me, can it?” he asked himself. As the most plausible and nonsensical he could come up with was a vampire tagging along with his wrap. But that was impossible. Considering he had never met one before in the fantasy world.

“No, that’s not possible,” he reasoned with himself. “If monsters could come along, then that freaking big spider should be the one here and not a bald-headed vampire.”

He thought about it and entertaining the possibility of the giant spider here on earth made him shudder. Thank goodness it couldn’t tag along even with the spider thread connecting them both. He assumed that bringing something alive from the fantasy world might not be possible at the moment unless there was a certain rule to it.

“Fuck this. I’m going to bed,” Zane buried those thoughts deep at the back of his mind as all he wanted right now was a good night's sleep.

The next morning, he woke up with the best of dreams. Smiling with stretching his body, Zane got out of his apartment, attending to his usual routine. From breakfast to selling sapphires to the first pawnshop he went to. Luckily for him, Mr. Phua didn’t ask any questions and bought those gems from him at a good price with a wide smile as if he was the one who hit the jackpot.

Before he left the pawnshop, he asked Mr. Phua, who was an old-timer of this neighborhood, “Do you think vampires exist, Mr. Phua?”

“Uh?” Mr. Phua adjusted his glasses a bit. “You mean langsuir or is it jiangshi?”

“Not our local ones, Mr. Phua. But the abroad one, the one with fangs that can turn into a bat,” Zane clarified.

“Oh, you meant the weak one. The one that dies easily from simple sunlight,” Mr. Phua threw a jab at the western vampires. “You know vampires in our country are a lot more powerful than those western ones. Our one can even fly even without turning into small little bats. And them? tch,” Mr. Phua showed a disgusted face. “Some of them even sparkle like a diamond. Does that even sounds scary to you?…”

The rant from a proud Singaporean went on as Zane stood there and just nodded. He let the old man have his fun and after half an hour of bragging and story-telling from Mr. Phua, Zane finally got to leave. If his ears could bleed, it would have done so already.

Rather than going straight back to his house, Zane did some shopping. The cold-hard cash he earned from the pawnshop was then invested back through buying a middle-grade smartphone with a few power banks to go along with it. A gift for someone who almost killed him from a little peek.

Afterward, he paid a little visit to the batting cage and did some perception training. The little boost in agility and perception helped him a lot in dodging those slow balls. He cranked it up by a notch and the difficulty went up by a bit. Adjusting his timing, Zane managed to dodge everything in a row, and by the time the two-hour session ended, Zane came out a happy man.

[Break the limit! You have gained +1 Perception.]

The workers there weren’t even shocked anymore as if they grew accustomed to Zane’s inhumane feat. While heading back, he bought takeaway and returned back to his apartment.

He was feeling good at the moment, caring less about the giant spider that was in the back of his mind. Yet he stopped at the corridor. Noticing something at his apartment’s door. It was barely noticeable, but Zane caught it. The door was slightly open and he went full red alert. Frowning, he set aside his lunch on the floor and approached his apartment. His lips mumbled in a whisper, a wave of mana subtly erupted with him at the center. The Sense spell detected two bogeys in his home, rummaging through his living room and his bedroom. He couldn’t see them clearly through his Sense spell, but whoever was in the bedroom scared him to death. If that person discovered his secret stash then his life here in Singapore would be over. Anxiety rose from the depth of his heart, clouding his mind from forming a logical plan. Emotion took over and Zane went for it.

He slipped through the door silently, keeping an eye on the intruder in the living room. If he was him from before, he wouldn’t dare try such a reckless attempt, but his inflated stats raised his confidence. He crept up on the intruder in the living room who was ransacking his living room like she owned the place. Zane aimed his open palm and blasted the battle to open. Force Beat crashed against the intruder, lifting her off the floor, sending her slamming at the wall. She groaned, and Zane moved in with lightning speed.

His fist up in the air readied to deliver a rain of blows. But his eyes widened. The gun in the intruder’s hand alerted him as before she could aim it at Zane, he changed his plan. Going for her back, his amateurish hands restrained her. His right hand grabbed tight over her gun hand while his other arm choke-hold her neck from behind.

The intruder groaned. Struggling in Zane’s choke-hold, slamming her elbow behind her. While at the same time tried to get up on her feet and use the advantage of her tall height to overpower Zane. But it was futile. Even with such amateurish skill from Zane, she still couldn’t outplay him from such incredible strength.

Rustling noises came from the bedroom, and the second intruder came out. Aiming his gun right at Zane from the middle of the bedroom’s door.

Zane’s eye met with the Caucasian that was aiming a gun at him. And glancing at the one he was holding, the African lady wasn’t the usual daylight robbery combination that he expected to see in his apartment in Singapore of all places.

Right there and then, he asked himself, what the fuck is going on here?