---

When the man first blocked my path in the alleyway,

the first thought that crossed my mind was that I was in big trouble.

I was thinking he might be a drug addict, but what if he was actually a vampire?

Or what if a bunch of ghouls that are rarely seen even in this underworld showed up?

Such thoughts weren’t all that important.

What truly mattered was how on earth he figured out my usual method of leaping over rooftops without leaving a trace.

“I don’t think there are any functioning CCTV cameras around here… Magic? Or some method I haven’t considered?”

If my psychic powers were exposed, that would be the worst-case scenario.

Night Haven is an alien realm filled with all sorts of strong beings and monsters.

But here, a kid using psychic powers is wandering around alone?

I couldn’t escape the countless inundating inquiries from veteran predators wanting to know just how I managed that.

Thus, with a desperate wish that it wasn’t true, I rolled my eyes beyond the fabric and quickly scanned my surroundings.

Then, I noticed a very angry man beside me.

A grotesque puppy with its muscles and intestines exposed caught my attention.

“That’s definitely… like the Corpse Hound I saw in the original work. A bloodhound that can smell blood from dozens of kilometers away. Hmm, which means…”

It must surely be that ugly ring I took from the vampire man.

Mr. Greg said it was made from something’s insides.

What if that ring is marked with that special blood scent, and I, who couldn’t find a place to stay yesterday, acquired it from hanging out on the rooftop?

“That makes sense. Of course, it’s not like I didn’t wash because I specifically didn’t want to!”

At least that was a relief.

I thought about how terrifying it would be if someone had been secretly watching my every move.

If they merely pinpointed my location through the smell of blood, then it’s likely they didn’t catch on to my powers.

Ah, I was unnecessarily tense.

I lowered my internal guard a notch and looked at the vampire man in front of me with a more relaxed mindset.

Upon closer inspection, his appearance was quite a mess.

Definitely, all I did was give him a gentle psychic smack on the forehead yesterday.

Suddenly, he looked terrible, with his face swollen all over and even missing some teeth.

Did he take a nasty tumble down the stairs or something?

Wouldn’t he be better off lying in a hospital bed than in some back alley?

“Damn it! Because of you! I lost my ring! I lost my father’s credit! I lost my subordinates! Everything, it’s all your fault! You’ve ruined my life!”

The man screamed, clawing at his throat as if he had swallowed boiling metal.

His emotions were so heightened that blood began to flow from his eyes.

Well, I don’t know the details, but it seemed like after getting beaten up and losing his belongings, he must have been lectured harshly by that father of his.

Seems like the ring was an important item for them.

It looked awful, but perhaps it held some significance among their kind.

However, hearing the background didn’t tug at my heartstrings much.

He should have lived honestly.

The rules say that whoever fires a gun must also prepare to get shot.

By the same logic, being a bad person means you have no right to complain if you get victimized by someone worse.

Who told him to do something bad?

“Anyway, that’s that. I was just on my way to get something to eat, and look what I got myself into.”

I was on my way to enjoy a steak sandwich.

How could they bring a herd of ghouls along and ruin my appetite?

None of them seemed appealing at all.

So, with a pinch of personal satisfaction,

I used my psychic powers to grab the air right in front of the shouting vampire man.

“This is becoming a hassle. I need to clear this out quickly and get back to my plans. They’re giving out cheese on top of the meat as a service if I arrive soon.”

Wait a minute. What if he knows the secret of the psychic smack?

If you try hitting your palm with just your fingers without using your arms,

you’d realize that no matter how hard you hit, it doesn’t hurt at all.

The pain from a smack originates from applying pressure with your thumb in the opposite direction, building up the force.

So, what if I simultaneously grabbed two pockets of air with my psychic powers and pushed them against each other tightly while keeping them balanced, then let go of one?

I’d achieve a psychic smack that could never be produced with simple telekinesis!

Whack!

“Waaaah!”

A squawk similar to that of a chicken’s neck being snapped escaped from the vampire’s mouth.

The shock compressed into the size of a coin struck the already bruised spot like a thunderbolt.

Still, vampires are generally much tougher than regular folks.

I figured this wouldn’t put his life at risk.

…Right?

“Grrr?”

“Eek?”

The ghoul and the corpse hound tilted their heads as they watched the man collapse, frothing at the mouth.

Both of them were merely instinct-driven undead monsters.

As their controller suddenly collapsed, they seemed quite confused.

If the man didn’t wake up, they’d instinctively wander around looking for blood and flesh.

However, since they lacked strength despite their numbers, they would soon be subdued.

In the meantime, though, countless victims would surely arise.

“That’s problematic. I’ve actually grown quite fond of this place over the past month.”

I double-checked that there was no one passing by in this vicinity and without hesitation threw off the cloth that covered my body.

How many days had it been since I faced the sunlight directly?

Even though the light that streamed into this deep alley was faint, it felt quite sharp to my eyes for a moment.

“Grrk!”

“Eek!”

All the heads of the ghouls and hounds turned towards me.

As far as I knew, the living are the most desired prey for corpses, especially women or young girls.

Being a young girl with nice skin who doesn’t require much maintenance, I must appear mouthwatering as a special treat for them.

So, the ghouls that were sneaking out of the alley started drooling and turned back inside, as if it were a scene from a comedy.

What a foolish decision that was.

If they had just dashed away without worries, they might have at least tasted a living being before dying.

“If I’m facing dead bodies… I don’t need to hide my power, right?”

I took a deep breath.

Then, I exerted my full psychic power, saturating the entire space of this alley.

It was the maximum output of my psychic powers, much stronger and more refined than when I first used them a month ago.

“Gruhh?”

The ghouls seemed to ponder their suddenly immobile bodies.

Some were shaking around trying to get closer to me, but

once caught in my grasp, they’d never escape from here.

Crunch, crack.

And one by one, starting from the closest ghoul,

their heads began to turn clockwise.

Of course, the human body isn’t like a Lego toy.

The heads of the ghouls based on corpses soon began to pop off.

Thud, thud. Thud, thud, thud.

The heads of the ghouls fell like rain.

“Kyah! Kyah!”

Yikes!

Finally, when the last ghoul and hound became headless, I drew back and collected the psychic powers I had spread across the alley.

The weakness of the ghoul is that it requires its head and body to be together.

Could that even be considered a weakness? One might say that sounds obvious.

But ghouls are persistent creatures that can still move even if their heads and bodies have blown apart.

Thus, the fact that separating the head from the body definitively ends them turned out to be more beneficial than expected.

I might as well shred them to pieces until they die!

But separating the head from the body was much easier.

“Phew, still… this takes quite a toll. I should be careful about using maximum output based on time and place.”

Is telekinesis draining my mental energy? My head throbbed quite a bit.

It felt like having solved ten difficult math problems in quick succession, draining my energy.

It seems if I use it continuously without rest, the power would inevitably diminish over time.

“Now, shall we go? The cleanup crew can take care of the mess.”

I took a big look around the alley filled with headless corpses.

The only consolation was that because the ghouls are semi-dried corpses,

the alley wasn’t in a completely horrific state.

If those had been real people, this place would already be drenched in blood.

In fact, I should feel relieved that they were ghouls. The distinct smell of bodies lingered, but still.

I used my psychic powers to retrieve the cloth I had tossed aside earlier and wrapped it around me again.

At last, a familiar sense of discomfort and slightly musty smell surrounded me.

“Right, hiding my appearance and identity was indeed the right choice. I knew something like this would happen eventually.”

After silently commending my past self again,

I stepped over the fallen ghouls and approached the exit.

Suddenly, I spotted the vampire man lying on the ground.

“Well, I’ll pass on being ambushed again.”

If I have learned anything, it’s to not repeat the same mistakes.

Using my psychic powers, I shredded the man’s clothes into strips.

Then, I tightly secured his arms and legs using the fabric I wove together in layers.

I lifted up a conveniently located ghoul’s head lying around and made it bite the man’s shoulder.

Then, I tossed the man out of the alley, making sure he looked appropriately placed.

Anyone from this underworld could easily recognize the ghoul,

so if that guy gets bitten by the ghoul, they’ll likely pinpoint him as a vampire without second thought.

“Vampires are known to inject blood to increase their ranks, meaning they generally have many enemies. I wonder if they’ll take care of him.”

That should be enough.

I was satisfied with the appropriately cleared scene.

All the ghouls were dead. There were no witnesses.

On top of that, I had dished out a lesson to the one who came to bother me.

With that, the case was completely resolved!

No need to worry about second or third waves after such a perfect conclusion.

“Now to go enjoy my sandwich. I’m starving after using my powers so drastically.”

I lightly jumped and headed back to the rooftop.

Then I leaped over the buildings, heading directly for the sandwich shop.

A cheese steak sandwich was waiting for me.

*Nighthaven’s underworld is vast.

This is because Nighthaven itself boasts an unprecedented gigantic scale.

If you overindulge, you’ll likely face some trouble.

Thus, the various organizations that control the underworld had no choice but to divide the outer districts among themselves.

The western outskirts were once the intended area for aggressive expansion by Nighthaven.

The remnants of the past lingered, where buildings and structures were stacked without much thought.

The buildings were clinging to each other uncomfortably, and the hastily constructed skyscrapers made it hard for even the roads to appear orderly.

Hence, the western outskirts of Nighthaven were also known as the Western Maze.

It was truly a prison of concrete.

“So, what happened? I heard a vampire and ghoul showed up. I was really shocked and had to leave my meeting right away!”

“Miss Wang Qian. It’s…”

The western maze was solidly the domain of the beastman organization from China, the Black Pearl Society.

The key figures from the Black Pearl Society, a rabbit-eared beauty and a lizard beastman, hurriedly entered an alley.

“What is this…?”

“When we arrived, it was already like this.”

What Wang Qian saw was the sight of ghoul corpses scattered around the alley.

There were no traces of a struggle on the walls or floor; the neatly decapitated ghoul corpses seemed far removed from reality.

“Wait a second. I’m having trouble understanding this. So… who just left the ghoul corpses here? It doesn’t seem like anything happened.”

“No. There are eyewitnesses who saw a group of living ghouls moving in this area.”

“Then was there a group we didn’t know about? Fixers? Mercenaries? No, there can’t be many people in this narrow alley…”

Wang Qian furrowed her brows as she explored the wall and floor.

It was narrow. This alley would’ve been too tight for ghouls to fit through.

At the most, it could accommodate three people. Considering the number of ghouls, even two would seem tight.

Just as she was struggling to organize her thoughts, the lizard beastman spoke.

“I believe it’s a solo action. If many people came and went, it would be impossible to remain unnoticed.”

“That’s ridiculous! So, they just popped off the ghouls’ heads here without any resistance? Like some sort of mercenary king?”

A legendary mercenary king who famously cut through lightning but only realized too late.

Such an unrealistic scene couldn’t have been created unless a strong individual was involved.

Wang Qian shouted, her ears perked up in distress.

However, the lizard beastman looked at her calmly, without a hint of concern, and said:

“Miss, there’s an interesting story in this world. When you exclude all impossibilities, whatever remains, no matter how absurd, must be the truth.”

“Ugh, I mean, this is…”

This has gone too far…

Wang Qian couldn’t help grabbing her own hair out of frustration.

Ghouls may look incredibly shabby on the exterior,

but their lack of pain and tendency not to fall unless decapitated are traits that make them formidable opponents for single average members.

Therefore, the sudden emergence of dozens of ghouls had already caused her headaches.

And now, to think a creature surpassing that was roaming around?

This was a headache that made her want to cry.

Did the lizard beastman understand her state of mind?

He offered a bitter smile and said sympathetic words.

“Yet, by this ghoul corpse, there lies a bound vampire. We can ask him for the specifics once he wakes up.”

“Oh, a vampire is bound too! Thank you! Now the fear of that monster has increased even more!”

“Haha…”

Of course, it didn’t seem to provide any solace.

Wang Qian shed tears from the corners of her eyes while voicing her despair.

If we were to categorize ghouls, they might be elite member-level opponents, whereas vampires are rather strong individuals in organizations regardless of their weakness.

Yet, to capture one rather than killing it?

Just how strong was this person? Why did they have to appear here?

Wang Qian’s long ears flickered with annoyance.

“I heard something interesting. There’s been talk of something strange wandering around the maze lately.”

“Ugh… something strange?”

“Yeah… I think they called it a ghost.”

The lizard beastman opened his mouth, expressing great interest in the fact.

This was the first moment the existence of ghosts strongly imprinted upon the western maze, and furthermore, in Nighthaven.