Quincy touched his stubbly chin; his white beard was slightly dampened by the alcohol. He wiped it away with his rough hand, and there was a lot of food on the coffee table in front of him. He picked up a canned fruit again.
Although he didn't understand why the Supreme Mage knew what he had been doing recently, he had no qualms about the question.
"I heard about SSR from a friend, observed for a while, and finally chose Dr. Richards as the target, because he's often alone, and relatively easy to approach."
Su Ming nodded with a smile, picked up a canned kiwi from the table, and handed it to Rachel beside him, as if everything was expected: "So you hope the United States Military steps in, guiding them to confront the Blood Race, but displaying the matters of the mysterious side to everyone is not in accordance with the rules; you know, matters of the Magic Realm should be resolved within the Magic Realm."
Quincy looked at him, opened the can of mandarin oranges he held, and stabbed the fruit inside with a dagger to stuff into his mouth: "That's Master Gu Yi's rule, but as the newly appointed Supreme Mage, what is your attitude towards this?"
"My attitude? The exposure of vampires is within my tolerance range."
Su Ming tapped his eye patch; he wasn't really concerned whether the Magic Side was exposed. After all, the mainstream of human society is technology, and the threshold for magic is high; not everyone can master its power. Ambitious individuals still target mutants.
Over at DC, many warlocks' identities are openly displayed, making a living out of businesses like exorcism or divination, and they are doing quite well.
Vampires and werewolves are not unfamiliar to Western countries; their legends are long-standing.
As for Su Ming and the Magic Realm, they know the true origin of the Blood Race and the complex ties behind it.
But for ordinary people, the cause of vampires is because Dracula spat at God's statue.
Mythology obscures the truth, so even if the Blood Race's existence is exposed, it's harmless. People can know they exist but don't need to know why.
Quincy quickly finished a can of mandarins; his gaze gradually became determined: "We are just ordinary people. Even the power of Frank and Jin cannot compare to Dracula. We must leverage, rely on the powerful armies of the Second World War's victors to deal with vampires hiding everywhere."
The burly man on the other side of the sofa ate loudly, focusing entirely on his food, while others watched Quincy and Su Ming, paying attention to the changing situation.
If the Supreme Mage doesn't support this behavior, their future will be challenging. Those willing to eliminate the Blood Race are mostly White Mages, and they follow the Supreme Mage's orders.
"An undercover war will surface, and many will die. The development of the situation will likely spiral uncontrollably into unimaginable directions."
Su Ming asked again, wanting to know what prompted Quincy to make such a decisive move.
"During the Second World War, Dracula died at Hydra's hand—rumor has it 'Hive' defeated him—but recently, more and more signs indicate Dracula is about to resurrect, and his descendants are preparing for a major action to exterminate all humans, making Dracula the Blood God."
Harold Harold, wearing glasses, interjected. He removed his glasses, wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand, and placed his super-spicy snack back on the table.
His name is indeed that; whether it's a pseudonym or real name, who knows?
Su Ming shook his head, leaning on the sofa: "Your intel is inaccurate, Mr. Harold; vampires can't wipe out their food source, or they won't survive either."
"No, Supreme Mage, that's because they have found new food." Harold immediately placed his backpack on his knee, started pulling things from within— a notebook and a stack of photos were placed firmly on the table and pushed towards Su Ming.
He turned the pages for Su Ming, signaling him with a flattering smile to take a look.
The photos were of various corpses, their causes of death obvious: the two holes on their necks showed these were people killed by vampires.
But a few particularly peculiar corpses caught Su Ming's attention, as the bodies in the photos weren't human-looking, yet died in the same manner.
"Are these mutants or inhumans?" Su Ming knocked a few photos with his knuckles, showing individuals with heads resembling sea urchins, and skin colors entirely different.
"Both, master." Harold adjusted his trousers, rubbing his hands on his knees, categorizing the photos for them: "This half are mutants; this half are inhumans. They are the new food source the Blood Race discovered."
At that moment, Jin also confirmed Harold's words. The vampire detective had been silently smoking at the far end of the sofa: "The blood in the corpses isn't even fully drained; I tasted a bit, and this blood contains energy highly beneficial to the Blood Race, not only quickly satiating them but also boosting vampire strength."
Su Ming stroked his chin; was it the differing genes between mutants and inhumans causing this result?
He spread out the photos, carefully examining the corpses and further questioning:
"Earth currently has a population of 2.52 billion, but mutants and inhumans combined are less than a few million. Many among them are very powerful, and ordinary vampires can't defeat them; it's not enough to feed."
"As long as they aren't killed, they can be raised like livestock. From over a decade ago, a type of surgery has been used in mental illness treatments, and legend has it the inventor will win the Nobel Prize next year. This simple surgery makes even the most insane mental patients as docile as white rabbits."
Harold answered Su Ming's doubts, explaining the possibility of raising mutants and inhumans, his hands gesturing wildly like someone having an epilepsy seizure.
"I get it, you're talking about the prefrontal lobotomy."
Su Ming pulled out a cigar, lighting it and holding it in his mouth. The human brain has four lobes; the ones near the face are called the frontal lobes.
This surgery works by damaging the lobes of the subjects, causing brain damage, thus decreasing their cognition and response to the outside world. Simply put, making them into idiots.
The inventor, Dr. Monis, was originally just an ordinary psychiatrist from Portugal. In 1935, he attended a medical exchange conference where he witnessed an experiment by a professor from Yale University.
After cutting away part of a black ape's brain, the ape continued to live, but became entirely non-aggressive.
He was overjoyed, believing that this experiment could be replicated on humans, and immediately returned to Lisbon to launch clinical experiments. Starting in 1936, he frantically conducted this surgery to obtain more case studies for writing papers.
The patients' families were very satisfied, since their previously insane relatives were no longer having episodes, sitting quietly in a chair every day, drooling and displaying a charming smile.
Thus, the surgery gradually spread, with more and more psychiatrists beginning to use the procedure. The process was quickly simplified, becoming easier than cutting an appendix.
It only required using an iron rod to forcefully pierce above the patient's eye, stirring around in the frontal lobe, hence the lobotomy was also called the 'ice pick therapy', meaning that if the patient's family was interested, they could also 'treat' the patient at home with an ice pick.
Indeed, this was the most reasonable and scientific mental illness therapy during World War II, and the United States even continued this therapy into the 1960s.
After World War II, some soldiers experienced PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, referring to critical mental disorders caused by witnessing or experiencing one or more instances involving death for oneself or others.
Such people would easily feel that they were still on the battlefield, constantly prepared for battle, posing a threat to societal stability, so the military simply performed ice pick therapy on all these individuals, roughly totaling about ten thousand.
Now it was easier, as these individuals wouldn't have further episodes, nor demand pension from the military, each facing life with a smile.
Hence, after 1945, the ice pick therapy received significant promotion, with the vested interests behind it claiming it could cure all diseases.
Stomachache? Perform lobotomy.
Arthritis? Perform lobotomy.
Feel your intelligence is lacking or your appearance unsatisfactory? Then perform lobotomy!
Soon, little clinics offering lobotomies sprung up everywhere, even hairdressers with some idealism and ambition learned this skill, significantly increasing their income, everyone was happy, calling this a blessing to humanity.
Thus, next year's Nobel Prize in Biology or Medicine, the inventor of the lobotomy winning the award was a foregone conclusion, who else would deserve the award for inventing a miracle therapy that cures all diseases?
These ramblings were mentioned once when Holloway and Su Ming were chatting idly, as Holloway felt inserting an iron rod into someone's brain and stirring felt like murder, wanting to hear the mercenary most adept at killing's perspective.
What could Su Ming think?
During that time, he felt many medical techniques resembled cult rituals, he could only advise Holloway not to use such therapy to treat patients, as wiping out a person's consciousness was essentially murder, also cracking a cold joke about 'Human Body Alchemy'.
Unexpectedly, the Blood Race was now keeping up with the times, focusing on this, wasn't it?
If they captured mutants or inhumans, performed lobotomies, and kept them locked in basements or sewers for breeding, milking them for their blood daily like cows, it was indeed a sustainable development path.
Aside from the poor taste and insufficient nutrition of ordinary humans, selecting mutants and inhumans for breeding seemed quite compatible with scientific principles.
Within the Blood Race were numerous scientific prodigies, being the main source of various biological weapons in comics, almost evenly matched with AIM's 'Pioneer Technology'. Various families initiated diverse plans, the famous ones being the 'Necrosis Plan', 'Death Gangrene Plan', 'Black Death Plan', all being major endeavours targeting the entire United States.
Strangely enough, with Earth's current population of 2.5 billion, Asia accounting for 1.2 billion and North America less than 300 million, yet vampires only seemed to have an issue with the United States.
"Is Dracula aware of this?"
Su Ming inquired about this, as in comics, Dracula could even know what his enemies were doing post-mortem, thus preparing for the next plan.
Once resurrected, he could immediately proceed with vengeance plans without needing preparation or waiting.
"Dracula's death and resurrection have always been a mystery, he can even choose his resurrection location post-mortem, no seal or props can trap him, he finds ways to kill himself and resurrect outside the seal, this process is incredibly fast.... Van Helsing killed him once, sealed him twice, yet even using a Dark Magic Prop at the cost of his own life failed."
Quincy rubbed his face, describing the current difficulties, unable to kill, unable to trap, the Master of Undying was truly troublesome.
Regarding whether Dracula was aware of external affairs during his death, Quincy leaned towards the 'knows' option, but couldn't provide evidence.
Su Ming considered the matter of sealing, as sealing what can't be killed was always the first choice, but Dracula was an exception with transformation abilities, magic resistance, and as a member of the Blood Race, adept in both magic and martial cultivation.
He could control his blood to explode his heart and brain for suicide, a nearly unpreventable act unless suddenly confined in a time-stopping cage, like the Divine Speed Plane.
Abrupt freezing might be viable, but afterward must guard against endless harassment by vampire descendants, simply creating trouble.
If confrontation became inevitable, only letting Dracula's mind become his cage was the cost-effective method.
However, the Dracula Hunter squad wasn't worth such investment.