I Revived My Maid, Now She Hungers for My Blood

That smell... was something on fire?

He looked around, wary. But it didn’t look like smoke from a fire. It hung somewhere between thick and thin, drifting in like an early morning fog. Even with the sunlight pouring into the hallway, the view was hazy.

The male teacher hesitated, then decided to just get to his office.

He had absolutely no idea that in the few seconds he’d stood there wondering, Poppy had strolled right past him—less than half a meter away, her steps light and practically soundless.

Wrapped in that special smoke, practically fused with the ambient light, she was all but invisible to ordinary folks and most low-rank extraordinaries.

Walking through smoke was like a fish in water. This was her home turf.

As far as Poppy was concerned, the outcome of this impromptu “friendly match” was already a done deal. Through the subtle ripples fed back by the smoke saturating the building, she’d already locked onto the “Gunman Anomaly’s” exact coordinates.

Fourth floor, near the end of a hallway.

Its aura felt like a chaotic, violent mess—a cocktail of negative emotions forcibly shoved into a single shell.

As for its power level? Probably peaking at Rank-2, maybe scraping the bottom of Rank-3.

At that level, even the six-person support squad could’ve taken it down easy if they played their cards right. This was a free win.

Too easy...

Poppy chuckled inwardly, not slowing her pace for a second. She’d wanted to use this match to poke at Pandora and the maid, Elsa, but if the Anomaly was this weak and got one-shot, it wouldn’t tell her anything useful. Might as well just follow her gut and pocket an easy, breezy win.

Moving forward, she soon spotted a classic horror movie setup through the pale blue haze. To the left of the crossing ahead, a terrified girl was stumbling their way. Tears streaked her face, her expression peak terror. Her lips were trembling, trying to scream “help,” but the fear had choked her voice down to short, wheezing gasps.

About a dozen meters behind her, the Anomaly’s aura clung to her like a parasite, hot on her heels.

Poppy didn’t step out to meet them. She pivoted, soundlessly slipping into the shadows where the T-junction intersected. It was the crossroads where the horizontal hallway met the vertical one—the perfect blind spot for the Anomaly chasing the girl.

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What she had to do next was simple.

A few seconds later.

The girl’s sobbing breaths grew closer. She bolted blindly down the stairs without even noticing the figure standing in the shadows.

Shortly after, the “Gunman” showed up.

It was a tall humanoid creature. Its face was a blurred mess, as if someone had smudged its features, leaving only sunken holes. It carried a bizarre long gun—thick, short barrel, gleaming with a dull metallic sheen. It walked with a lurching gait, its joints clicking with an eerie stiffness.

The exact moment it passed the junction, turning its back to Poppy’s shadow—

Poppy moved.

She blew a soft smoke ring. The pale blue haze flooding the hallway seemed to catch a silent command and instantly boiled!

The smoke converged in front of her at breakneck speed. In the blink of an eye, a massive, translucent Smoke Fox materialized, taking up half the corridor.

The beast had crisp outlines, a sleek body, a fluffy tail, and eyes glowing with a pale blue light. It made the cramped hallway feel oppressively claustrophobic.

The giant fox dipped its head, jaws wide in a silent roar, and lunged!

“ROAR—!”

The “Gunman” didn’t even have time to lift its weird gun. It didn’t even have time to react. Its body was yanked off the floor and swallowed whole by the massive smoke construct!

Immediately following, a sickening crunch echoed through the hall—like rocks being ground up mixed with tearing fabric. The chewing lasted about two or three seconds.

The Smoke Fox began to thin out, leaving only debris on the floor before dissolving back into pale blue smoke and melting into the surroundings.

The hallway was quiet again.

Poppy stepped lightly out of the shadows. She looked at the empty hallway and the closed classroom doors that hadn’t even flinched at the commotion, a confident smirk playing on her lips.

“Done.” She dusted her hands off, brushing away nonexistent dirt. “Looks like I win.”

The smirk widened. It was even faster and easier than she’d expected.

She turned to head back and link up with Ophelia and the others.

However, she hadn’t made it far before—

Bang!

A muffled gunshot cracked through the air again!

It came from the other side of the building. Right after, an agonizing scream, dripping with pain and despair.

Poppy’s feet froze to the floor.

That sound was identical to the Gunman’s shot. Even the scream had a creepy, echoing similarity.

She snapped her head back, staring down the empty hallway, her brow furrowed tight.

She’d just crushed that Anomaly to pieces with her Smoke Fox. How...?

Was there a second Gunman in the building?

..................

Meanwhile.

Right next door to Poppy’s building, connected by an enclosed walkway, was the high school’s art building.

Unlike the smoke-filled academic building, the art building was still eerily quiet. The faint sound of music drifted in the air—a piano practice piece floating from one of the music rooms.

Ophelia Sterling was currently strolling down the empty corridor of the art building.

Her footsteps were light, practically soundless.

But with every step she took, a faint mark appeared on the pristine tile floor.

It wasn’t dust.

If you looked closely, it was a thin layer of frost, slowly melting.

The Fragment World they were in was smack in the middle of summer. The afternoon sun blazed through the tall glass windows along the corridor, unobstructed. It was the kind of sweltering heat that made the bugs outside sound lethargic.

Yet, with the arrival of this white-haired girl, the temperature of the entire hallway was plummeting at a rate that defied common sense.