What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 53 Model

Yang Zhen’er was momentarily stunned and responded, “Didn’t the bald guy reject your invitation last time? Didn’t we say, we’ll just play on our own? Do we have to invite someone else, like Xiao Qing?” Xiao Qing was a longtime friend and local, with whom Tang Baona and she often hung out.

Tang Baona shook her head, “We don’t need to call anyone else. Xiang Kun will be joining us.”

Yang Zhen’er widened her eyes, “Didn’t he reject your invitation last time?” Then, pausing, she pointed to her friend in realization, “Nana, you… you contacted him again?”

Tang Baona evaded her gaze: “No, he contacted me!”

“Really? Let me scan through your chat records on your phone.” Yang Zhen’er was skeptical.

“He called me…”

“When? Can I see your call history?”

Defeated, Tang Baona admitted, “Alright, it’s true that I initiated contact. Didn’t Sister Yun tell us in the gym the day before yesterday that Coach Shen and Coach Yang from the boxing gym wanted to talk to him? Wasn’t I just passing the message to him?”

“Really? They could have definitely contacted Xiang Kun themselves. If he has a membership card for the gym, there’s no way he didn’t leave a phone number!” Yang Zhen’er commented with a frown, “Nana, it’s clear that his interest towards you…”

Tang Baona hurriedly interrupted her, “I know, I know. It’s clear that he’s not interested in me. I didn’t say I like him either. I’m just curious. Weren’t you the one who was always saying how mysterious he was and insisted that I ask him out? And that Old Xia should take a look at him, and we should play cards together. It was all your ideas. We’re just normal friends. If he’s busy, then he’s busy. If he’s free, we hang out. It’s all pretty standard. If he wasn’t free before and now he is – no big deal.”

“I mean, you’re right. I was also curious about him before, especially that time we went hiking together… But the fact that he keeps rejecting you, and how you’re always the one taking the initiative to ask him out, I can’t help but feel like you’re not getting what you deserve…”

“If we’re just normal friends, why should we care about who takes the initiative? Why talk about who is deserving or not deserving? If he has things to do and can’t respond to me, that’s normal, right? Nobody owes anyone anything. Old Xia is your cousin. When we were kids, we would often sleep in the same room. But now every time you want to hang out, it’s always you who initiates, and often times she’s can’t make it.”

Yang Zhen’er looked at her friend with a puzzled expression, “After the last hike when he carried you back, you were the one who said ‘we might not contact each other in the future’, right? Are you sure you haven’t fallen for him?”

Tang Baona rolled her eyes, “How many times do I have to tell you before you’d believe me? I’ve only met him one more time than you have, and we barely chatted on WeChat. He’s not exactly a heartthrob or a genius, and I’m not some lovesick woman who has never seen men before. Don’t tell me just because of this you think I’m having a crush on him.”

Yang Zhen’er muttered quietly, “Maybe you’ve awakened some latent masochistic traits. The more he ignores you, the more he rejects you, the more you’re obsessed..

“What?!” Tang Baona glared at her.

Suddenly, Yang Zhen’er said, “You think Baldy… or should I say Teacher Saitama, might be gay? He’s a thirty-year-old man, and a beautiful woman like you keeps throwing herself at him, yet he remains indifferent. You mentioned that he has peculiar eating habits and is not fond of dining with others. Plus, he’s obsessed with keeping fit, cares a great deal about his appearance. He barely ever sweats, yet his head is always shining bright. Maybe he has OCD too…”

“Stop making wild guesses,” Tang Baona sighed, shaking her head.

However, Yang Zhen’er gained newfound enthusiasm, pulling out her phone as she replied, “Yes! Let’s let Old Xia take a look at him, and analyze whether he might be gay!… Hey, is that you, Old Xia? It’s your cousin here!”

After agreeing to Tang Baona’s card game, Xiang Kun went to the kitchen to check on his rabbits. Of course, he was unaware that on the other end of the WeChat conversation, Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er were already debating whether he might be gay.

Those four rabbits. They seemed just the same as ever. It aneared the only

ones capable of absorbing his blood were mutants like him.

Perhaps, not long after his blood had been injected into the rabbit’s body, it turned into that kind of grey powder.

However, it seemed that, even turning into grey powder hadn’t had any fatal effect on the rabbits.

Or maybe next time, he could try to feed it orally?

All in all, the four rabbits were still eating and excreting. After one day, there was another pile of feces in their cage.

Xiang Kun cleaned the rabbits’ cages, fed them, and checked the past 25 hours worth of footage from the surveillance camera for any changes in the rabbits’ condition. After confirming that there were none, he began the usual routine after every blood-drinking sleep – checking various physical data.

Weight 96.1KG, temperature 27.20C, no change in height, slightly thicker thighs and calves, wound healing time reached 9 minutes, down to 8 minutes 18 seconds, suspected to be the cause of the numerous injuries from walking barefoot in the mountains, and the cut made during yesterday’s experimentation – convincing his body that it was “frequently injured” and in a “harsh environment”.

After taking a photograph of himself for archiving, Xiang Kun did some Russian push ups and some handstand push ups. His movements were slow yet steady, and he could slowly sense the power of the core muscles of his body and overall coordination, providing a rough estimate of the increase after this blood-drinking. Given his current weight, being able to perform these exercises demonstrated his significant strength.

Next, he performed simple tests on various sensory abilities, including his vision in night mode, and could feel a certain level of improvement.

As Xiang Kun recorded the document on his computer, he thought about whether to buy a bench press rack and weight barbell and some assembled sports flooring after getting the rewards from the police tomorrow, turning the current empty room into a simple gym. This way, he could conduct strength training at home directly, and barbells and dumbbells alone had various methods of variation. Moreover, when it was necessary to test his strength after blood-drinking, he could have more accurate data.

But he quickly rejected this idea because he was not sure how long he would stay in this city. It was possible that he would sell his house and go back home soon. By then, moving these heavy gym equipment would be difficult, and it would also be challenging to sell them at cost.

He didn’t go out or train until the next morning. Instead, he used Python to create a “Vampire Mutation Model” based on gathered physical data, test data, training, types and quantities of blood consumed since the mutation.

According to this model, the degree of mutation after each blood-drinking is positively correlated to the intensity, frequency, and duration of training during each blood-drinking period, and the frequency, quantity, and quality of blood-drinking.

However, training time, frequency and quantity of drinking blood all have a threshold. Before reaching this threshold, increasing these aspects can significantly improve mutation.

If this threshold is reached, even if these aspects are enhanced, the increase in mutation is very limited. Significant improvements can only be made by increasing concurrently on training intensity and blood quality.

For example, in terms of blood-drinking quantity, if he drinks more blood after his hunger has subsided, his mutation level increases negligibly unless he drinks the blood of another mutant creature – like the giant owl, which would cause a quantum leap in mutation.

If the data from the giant owl were used in this model, it would appear that the owl’s real mutation level was much less than it should have been, given that it drank blood each time it made a successful kill, and also much less than Xiang Kun’s mutation level.

By rights, it should have easily crushed Xiang Kun.

Using the “Vampire Mutation Model” for estimation, the giant owl’s average efficiency of mutation could be said to be extremely low each time, with the key variable being training between each mutation.

Although the owl knew how to sharpen its talons on rocks, using mutation to increase the sharpness and hardness of its talons, it likely did not undertake comprehensive and targeted training like Xiang Kun did.

Also, the owl’s overly frequent hunting and blood -drinking probably played a role.

It might not have fully utilized the time of each blood-drinking period.

The key distinction between Xiang Kun and the owl lay in two areas: While most of the owl’s actions were impulsively driven, Xiang Kun thought, controlled, and made decisions consciously.

Of course, this model is currently quite rudimentary, given that there are only 1.5 samples – being himself, and to a lesser extent, the giant owl, since most of its data could only estimated using the memories, images, and information collected from the previous mountain trip.

Even with Xiang Kun’s own data, it was difficult to be very precise about many aspects, such as the real improvement of vision, smell, hearing, agility, balance, and coordination after each mutation. Many aspects were hard to accurately express in terms of data.

And up until now, he hasn’t had more than 10 mutations in total, meaning the overall amount of data gathered is still insufficient.

However, he believed that with time and a deeper understanding of himself, and as more data accumulates and more observable samples become available, this model would become increasingly sound and optimized.

Then, using this model, he could plan his training and blood-drinking periods in a more targeted and efficient manner, fully utilizing each blood-drinking period, increasing the mutation degree each time, and controlling the direction of mutation.

Glancing outside, Xiang Kun noticed high sunshine. He glanced at the time in the bottom right corner: 9:45.

The sub-bureau should be at work now. Xiang Kun dressed to go out and collect his reward..