The Cub Raised in a Horror Game - Chapter 12 - Snatching the Baby with Speed

Two months ago, the heartless baby wiped her mouth clean after feasting at the vampire’s estate and left. She had no idea how those intervening days felt like years to Dreist.

The mental link between Inia and the Lords was a unique power belonging to her world, and the entire system was utterly foreign to Dreist. This wasn’t necessarily a problem, for Dreist had spent his life pursuing greater power. Since a new system had appeared, he would simply study and specialize in it.

What unsettled him was his complete lack of knowledge regarding anything related to Inia. What if the link disappeared one day because his progress was too slow?

Dreist didn’t even have the mood to deal with the incoming players. He devoted all his time to studying the mental link, taking a full month and a half until the vampire finally found a way to contact Inia.

As a bloodline being operating in a pseudo-Medieval world, the difficulty of learning a new power system entirely unrelated to his own magical foundation, starting from zero, was immense.

Fortunately, it was all worth it. Dreist sighed in relief, watching the annotation floating before him.

[Mental Link (Grade:?)]: Anyone who has had a soul interaction with the Lord will receive a Mental Link. Knock, knock, knock, call her to play! Remember to prepare toys and sweets. (Note: If multiple guests invite the Master simultaneously, the first one to connect takes precedence.)

The vampire immediately used this ability, but a pop-up informed him the baby was not yet asleep, so he could not invite her. Dreist waited patiently until night. When he tried again, a sentence appeared before him.

[The Master has already been invited. Please try again tomorrow night, guest.]

Though unhappy, Dreist was not surprised; he had already anticipated this outcome. Since the baby could appear randomly in his world, she would naturally encounter other Lords.

It didn’t matter. He would simply try harder the next night.

Dreist tried for several consecutive days, and most of the results indicated that Inia had already been invited. A few times, the baby was resting and closed to guests.

—After all these days, he hadn’t succeeded even once!

Inia’s sleeping time didn’t fluctuate too much. Dreist started frantically sending invitations half an hour early every night, determined to be the first to call the baby over.

He applied non-stop. When the message [The Master has not yet fallen asleep. Please try again later] from his hundreds of continuous attempts instantly turned into [The Master has already been invited], Dreist snapped.

Damn the God of Light! Which hateful creature is so fast? He can’t even beat him at clicking, and the baby kept getting monopolized by him!

The vampire was so angry he blew up his rooftop several more times.

Half a month passed in a flash. Dreist still tirelessly tried to send invitations every night, the entire specter becoming numb to the failure.

Then, on this particular night, the expressionless vampire, who had been sending continuous requests, watched the persistent pop-up: [The Master has not yet fallen asleep.] Perhaps the string of failures had caused him to develop a complex; even though it was only approaching Inia’s bedtime, Dreist was already becoming anxious.

Ding—

Just then, a pleasant bell rang in his ear, and a message Dreist had never seen before appeared in front of him.

[Invitation has been sent. Please wait.]

The vampire froze, his beautiful eyes widening in disbelief.

He… he actually succeeded? He beat that quick-handed, hateful fellow?!

Dreist spun his head sharply. A familiar tiny figure was lying on his bed, her large amber eyes looking around with confusion and curiosity.

“Inia!”

The vampire’s magnetic, melodious voice rang out. The baby’s vision blurred, and she was immediately scooped up by the vampire.

The forgetful baby had somewhat forgotten Dreist, but she felt familiar with his scent. In his embrace, she looked up at the vampire, her eyes shining in the moonlight, looking adorably like, “Let me see who you are.”

Dreist had never loved a child as much as he did at this moment. To express his yearning, the vampire, who had never flattered anyone, spoke sweet nothings for a full three minutes, which sounded like a long poem, barely managing to express the excitement in his heart.

Although she couldn’t understand what he said, the baby smiled, her eyes curving as she watched his softened expression.

After suppressing his excitement, Dreist finally took time to look at Inia. It seemed the baby had developed well during this time; she had grown a lot since their last meeting and was no longer as thin as a kitten.

In contrast to Inia’s good condition, two months without seeing her had left Dreist’s emotional state unstable, and his spirit seemed to have accumulated another thick layer of black snow.

The baby’s stomach immediately began to rumble again.

She reached toward the Vampire Lord, trying to stealthily bite his neck again as she had last time, but Dreist, catching her in time, pulled her away.

He suspected that Inia’s appearance in his and the other Lords’ worlds in her dreams was likely to seek nourishment she could absorb. If she ate her fill, she would leave, just as she did last time, so he needed to find a way to prolong her feeding time.

Inia, held at a distance, moved her legs, struggling restlessly in his hand.

“Mmm-mm, hungry.”

The vampire thought for a moment. He tried to place his finger against Inia’s small hand, actively transmitting power to her.

The familiar, delicious chocolate cake was absorbed by the baby again, but this time through the contact of their fingers. This method was indeed feasible and easier to control.

However, Inia, who was used to eating with her mouth, received nothing, yet her spirit was absorbing the nourishment… the sensation of her actions and her soul being disconnected felt very strange, and the baby was stunned.

She looked down at the culprit, then suddenly thrust Dreist’s finger into her mouth with a sound of ah-woo. Returning to the familiar feeding method, the young man immediately noticed the negative power in his consciousness flooding out uncontrollably and rapidly.

“Inia, wait a moment…”

The vampire hadn’t expected the small infant’s sucking strength to be so powerful. Fearing he might hurt her, he failed to withdraw his finger the first time. Only on the second attempt did he successfully snatch the food from the baby’s mouth.

Inia licked her lips. She had grown up a bit and was eating more. In just a brief moment, she had absorbed enough power that would typically take at least four or five days to fully absorb.

Dreist seriously educated her: “You can’t eat fingers. Not anyone’s. Do you understand?”

In the last two months, besides researching the mental link, he had tasked his undead subordinates with finding experience related to child-rearing.

He wanted to build a long-term relationship with the baby, so he had to seriously study every aspect of interacting with her.

Although the Vampire Grand Duke was completely unskilled at this, he had resolved to treat Inia with the same attitude he used for pursuing power, at least enough to surpass that bad guy who kept stealing his baby.

The undead, who received the command, confusedly questioned each other but managed to find a zombie mother and her child.

The mother and son died during a great plague and were revived by the zombie virus in the process of death. Besides moving slowly and not looking very pleasant, the mother and son lived reasonably well in Dreist’s territory.

Because he would forever remain the age he was before death, the zombie baby was eternally two years old. This gave his mother deep insights into childcare, earning her the opportunity to meet the Lord on the top floor of the castle.

For the undead of this world, this was a great honor—the zombie mother walked around the entire estate carrying her child, and upon her return, it was as if she were asking, How did you know I met the Lord?

Many skeletons were so envious their heads fell off. Goblins turned into birds and intentionally stole the zombie baby’s hat. Ghosts loudly discussed how they had previously been granted an audience with the Lord hundreds of years ago.

The estate was noisy for a few days until the dungeon reset, and everyone forgot the matter, returning to quiet once more.

In summary, Dreist gained some valuable insights from her, one of which was: don’t let the baby suck her fingers, as it makes her prone to sickness.

Dreist only possessed theoretical knowledge and had never put it into practice. His first attempt involved stiffly reciting the exact sentence.

After eating a little, the baby was no longer urgently focused on food. She looked at the young man’s stern face, seemingly unafraid of him. Instead, she reached out her small arms and hugged Dreist’s neck, nuzzling him.

Feeling the soft little dumpling on him, the vampire, who had no experience with babies, immediately softened his attitude.

He racked his brain for anything the baby might like, hoping to keep her for as long as he could. Fortunately, Inia seemed very interested in his room.

Although Dreist himself was generally indifferent to things outside the pursuit of power, as the sole overlord of this world, his living environment was undoubtedly the finest.

His castle was Gothic in style, but the interior furnishings looked somewhat mismatched.

The entire top floor looked extravagant and lavish. Jewels and silver objects were merely the most common embellishments, casually decorating the corners. Countless unique pieces of art were used as ordinary decorations, and next to the Gothic black bed, there was even a gramophone acquired from a player.

The baby’s eyes were wide as she looked around dazzled. She genuinely stayed in Dreist’s world for the entire night.

It was another night of a dream journey. When Inia woke up again, the first thing she saw was Chu Wang sitting beside her cardboard crib, watching over her.

“Brother, brother.”

The baby, who had been happily entertained by the vampire, woke up full of energy and called out to him.

Seeing her in good spirits, Chu Wang breathed a sigh of relief and held her in his arms.

“Did the baby have fun tonight? Hmm? What is this…”

Inia seemed to be holding something in her tiny hand. As she tried to hug Chu Wang, she let go, and it rolled directly into his arms.

It was an egg-sized ruby, which the Vampire Lord had casually given her to play with in the dream.