Killing the vampire ancestor to solve the problem was exactly what Earth side wanted most. After all, fixing the space tunnels was the most important thing for the H-country right now!
As for the visitors from parallel worlds, they couldn't go back for a while. But that wasn't Earth's main worry now. Once we return to our Eldoria Continent, we believe there will be a solution in the magic world.
"But is this all you could come up with after researching?" I said.
To me, Reed's results this time were a bit disappointing. With so many versions of her from different worlds working together to solve this problem - something that never happened before! But the result was just what we knew from the start.
Transport is super developed on Earth nowadays. It's totally normal for vampires to run off to other countries! I pointed out the biggest problem with the plan: "I get that killing the ancestor will make all the dark elements disappear. But where to find him? Earth is so big, if that guy really wants to hide, it's basically impossible to find him fast!"
"We already know M-country got infected by vampires, so that ancestor is probably hiding somewhere in M-country, right?" Wayne Peng said.
"M-country is still very big, and we can't rule out the neighbor countries yet. We might be able to narrow it down somehow, but it's still super hard to find exactly where that ancestor is hiding," General Lee said.
Even though going to M-country was for sure, General Lee didn't seem very hopeful. The top officials in M-country now were probably all replaced already, so it's even harder to get in. Vampires aren't like humans - they're super loyal to their bosses. So using spies to get info is almost impossible now.
"That's why we made a special gadget that can track down the ancestor!" Reed number 0 suddenly said after being quiet for a long time. She took out a phone from her pocket and gave it to me.
"A Pear phone?"
I knew this phone super well. It was a top brand I always wanted but could never afford before.
But it was kinda awkward - with everyone watching, I played with it for a while but couldn't find anything special. It had the usual apps, nothing fancy. Did Reed mean we could just call the vampire ancestor's phone directly or what?
"Try the compass feature!" Reed number 6 couldn't take it anymore and told me.
"The compass?"
I opened the compass app. But besides the needle always pointing in one direction, I still couldn't see anything different. Adrian was more careful and noticed something weird.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"This direction seems wrong. I often look at maps of your world, and I don't think that's south, right?" Adrian said.
"It's not north either!" Wayne Peng added.
The needle on Reed's phone was stuck pointing east. That's super weird - it seemed to be pointing roughly where M-country is!
"So the needle is actually pointing to where the vampire ancestor is?" I asked.
Even a dummy would get it by now. To make this change, they must have messed with the phone's hardware! After checking carefully, I could feel a tiny bit of dark element energy inside the phone.
"The vampire ancestor must use some dark element trick to connect with his followers from far away! You can think of it like the light magic 'Spiritual Convergence' spell. Once we figured out how it works, we used the dark element sample from that vampire we caught before Cyra purified him. That let us track their boss - the ancestor!" Reed number 12 explained proudly. She was clearly very pleased with herself as she told us how it works. "How is it? It took us lots of time to combine Earth tech with magic. This is a groundbreaking invention! I guess only by working perfectly with all versions of me could we come up with this. It's super rare to have a chance like this!"
True... The potential from so many Reeds of different worlds coming together is amazing. I totally believe in their "research" skills!
"But if the distance is too far, it gets pretty inaccurate. Just using the needle to search isn't very user-friendly! And it seemed wasteful to use this only to find the ancestor's location. So we made a more people-friendly software!" our Reed number zero said more emotionlessly.
"Now when you open the maps app, it can show all vampires within 3 km as red dots on the map! The darker the color, the more dark element they have, and of higher rank!"
"Wow, that's awesome!"
Looking at the 2-3 light pink dots that showed up north of where we were on the map, I realized once again - Reed never disappoints. This isn't just some Pear phone, it's a full-on vampire radar!
Vampires have always been super tricky because they can hide so well! They keep all the memories and personality from before they turned, so every vampire can hide perfectly without anyone noticing!
Until now, only human light magicians and angels could sense them directly through the dark element energy. There was no other good way to spot them! But sensing dark elements has distance limits and you might not notice if you're not careful. Often, if the vampire is low level, even angels might not notice them up close!
"See that? There should be a few targets that slipped through about 2km from our base. Hurry to tell Shine City police to help catch them. Don't let them get away!" General Lee said.
This invention was clearly not what General Lee expected at first. As soon as he saw those red dots show up on the map, he immediately ordered Wayne Peng to go catch them.
This was actually the first time Earth people could actively track vampire locations. Wayne Peng was super excited when he got the order. He quickly remembered where those red dots were and hurried out of the meeting room.
"Three kilometers!" I couldn't help but say in awe.
That range is huge, basically covering half of Shine City! I suddenly realized that even I, an eight-winged angel, might not be as good as this combo of tech and magic.
But Reed said 3km is already the limit for accurate detection. Once it's over 3km, the vampire locations can't be very precise.
"Can we mass produce it?" General Lee asked. That's what he cared about most right now.
Wayne Peng just left, but General Lee already got several calls from him asking if the targets moved at all.
"Sorry, normal humans can't sense elements at all. At most we can rush to make one more before the mission start!" Reed said.
H-country is deep in the vampire disaster too. Reed wanted to help, but she had to shake her head and crush that idea.