"System Notification: Host's Strength has broken through the ten-point threshold, surpassing the first critical line. Additional attribute ability unlocked: Vital Resistance — When Health falls to 10%, forcibly removes all negative status effects from the host!"
A glint of satisfaction flashed in Li Ang's eyes as he moved cautiously under the shelter of street-side eaves. Although this Vital Resistance ability didn't directly increase Strength or Health, seemingly offering no boost to offensive power, it was a potential lifesaver in critical moments. A simple example: if an enemy possessed a stunning or confusing skill, this ability could save Li Ang from the peril of being "stunned to death." Regaining clarity when life hung by a thread at 10% Health preserved a chance to reverse the situation. Overall, it suited his intentions perfectly. For a summoner possessing powerful summons, the prime strategy was for the main body to survive at all costs.
The New York of the 21st century was a metropolis of nearly ten million, but the Red Hook district where Li Ang found himself was nearly overrun. Small groups of Strigoi frequently emerged from buildings or sewers, attacking any living human in sight. Li Ang urgently needed to find a safe place to weather his first night in this world, but for a stranger, this was no easy task. Fortunately, after Awakening to Law Power, his perception was sharper than an ordinary person's. Most of the time, he could hear the distinctive footsteps of approaching Strigoi in advance, allowing him to avoid them. While slaying Strigoi yielded Awakening Points to increase his level, now was clearly not the time for reckless advancement. The social structure of the Bloodline resembled the Zerg from StarCraft; all Strigoi could establish a direct connection with the Patriarch behind them. If Li Ang drew too much attention by killing too many Strigoi in a short time, he would inevitably attract the Patriarch's notice, inviting fiercer pursuit.
Over a dozen minutes later, the sign of a jewelry store came into view. After a moment's thought, Li Ang decided to spend the night here. What is most abundant in a jewelry store? Jewelry, naturally. Silver counted among them, and although less valuable, there should still be some silver ornaments. Apart from sunlight, silver was the bane of the Strigoi. Reasoning from their nature, Strigoi would avoid such a place, certainly not congregating inside. Secondly, Li Ang could acquire some silver to potentially craft into weapons later. It was worth remembering that in the main world of Canglan, silver was a highly precious strategic resource, far exceeding the value of gold.
The jewelry store's door was tightly shut, secured by a high-tech coded lock. Channeling his eleven points of Strength, Li Ang directly wielded his steel sword to break it open violently. After a dozen or so strikes, the lock mechanism was shattered, and the door finally gave way. Fortunately, likely due to zombie disruptions, the store's alarm system had lost power. Otherwise, a sounding alarm would have drawn hordes, forcing him to abandon this hard-won refuge.
Moonlight streamed through the large glass windows, illuminating mostly empty display cases. Clearly, the valuables had been evacuated by the owner, leaving only items deemed less worthwhile or inconvenient to move. This worked to Li Ang's advantage, as the least valuable items were those made of silver. Particularly conspicuous, immediately catching his eye, was a silver mask. It seemed part of a custom king's costume, perhaps for a Halloween party, its appearance strikingly similar to the mask worn by the legendary leper king, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, from the film Kingdom of Heaven. The cold, silent mask, when donned, projected an aura of steadiness, mystery, and determination onto the face reflected in the mirror, perfectly concealing the youth's features. Li Ang was instantly fond of it.
The world outside remained decaying and terrifying, but inside it was quiet and peaceful. Seated before a mirror, wearing the silver mask and observing his unfamiliar reflection, Li Ang finally had time to collect his thoughts. Merely surviving the ten-day Abyss trial in this world, whose plot he knew, was insufficient. He needed to gain more here! "At the very least, I must strive to raise my Awakening Level to LV5 to unlock the second skill slot," he thought. "That way, upon returning, I can demonstrate my value to the Abyssal Knights, securing better treatment and avoiding being used as cannon fodder again."
However, increasing his level wouldn't be easy. Advancing from LV3 to LV4 required 400 Awakening Points, and from LV4 to LV5, the requirement skyrocketed to 1000 points. Slaying a LV5 spawn yielded 100 points, so theoretically, eliminating about fourteen spawns would suffice for a level-up. But accomplishing this alone was unrealistic. If surrounded by three or more mutated Strigoi again, he might not have the favorable terrain or luck of the bakery encounter. Furthermore, he still needed to avoid attracting the Blood Patriarch's attention. "Therefore, I must seek help from the storyline characters!" he concluded. "The main protagonist in the plot is just an ordinary doctor of medicine, barely stronger than the average person. However, the elderly Abraham holds considerable combat prowess and knows many ancient secrets. Then there's Quinlan, the top fighter in the storyline, who relentlessly hunts the Patriarch. With his help, leveling up would be straightforward..."
Li Ang fell into deep thought, pondering how to gain the trust of Abraham and Quinlan. To understand these two figures, one had to delve into the origin of the Bloodline. Five thousand years ago, near the Dead Sea, stood the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God sent three archangels—Azrael, Gabriel, Michael—to destroy them. In the city of sin, Azrael was seduced by human wickedness and emotion, falling from grace. After completing the task, he attacked Michael, drank the angel's silver blood, and attempted to replace God, ruling on Earth. But other angels swiftly arrived, pinning him to the ground with arrows of light, tearing him into seven pieces scattered across the land. Buried, these fragments later gave rise to worms, becoming the seven progenitors of the Bloodline. Azrael's head, the most sinful part, drifted long in the ocean before finally spawning the seventh progenitor: the Patriarch now plaguing New York. This origin explained why sunlight and silver were the Bloodline's banes.
Among the seven progenitors, the first six, though having once brought calamity, eventually hid themselves, unknown to the world. Only the seventh progenitor, younger and more ambitious than the others, sought to dominate the entire world, transforming it into a paradise for his kind. The Patriarch's true form was a weak red bloodworm, but it possessed memory and could choose hosts to parasitize. Anyone he parasitized gained great power, and he could change hosts like changing clothes. Abraham, during World War II, was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, where he first encountered and fought the Patriarch. His wife was killed by the Patriarch, and he himself once managed to seal the Patriarch away, until its release decades later. In short, he was this world's genuine, local fiend hunter.
As for Quinlan, born in ancient Roman times, he was a hybrid, half-human, half-bloodline, conceived by a pregnant woman infected by the Patriarch. His blood was white. During Roman times, the Patriarch, parasitizing a teenage boy favored by the emperor, drank only the blood of virgins. One lapse—drinking from a pregnant woman and failing to kill the fetus—resulted in Quinlan. Quinlan harbored no bloodworm and disobeyed the Patriarch, though his blood was indeed the white blood of the Bloodline. Once a gladiator in Rome's arena, he embarked on a two-thousand-year quest for revenge after the Patriarch transformed his wife and adopted daughter, hunting the Patriarch relentlessly. His unique constitution and experiences granted him superhuman combat prowess and cold judgment. In the original storyline, he was virtually undefeated. In some respects, his half-human, half-bloodline nature made him superior to the Patriarch; his resistance to ultraviolet light was much stronger, and he feared no silver, having almost no weaknesses.
Gaining the assistance of these two would make Li Ang's actions in this world significantly easier. The key question was how to secure their cooperation. As he pondered, Li Ang grasped the thread connecting them all. Four words gradually emerged in his mind: the Light of the Fallen!