What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 135: Guo Tianxiang’s Abilities

However, after reconsidering some of Guo Tianxiang’s memories and comparing it with his previous fight, Xiang Kun realized that this vampire of at least 9 years wasn’t as weak as he thought. Guo Tianxiang was indeed ‘bold enough’ to hunt him down.

When he had fought the vampire Guo Tianxiang, Xiang Kun was deeply impressed with the transformation of Guo into a creature over two meters tall that startled him considerably.

Now, by analyzing fragments of memory, Xiang Kun had an inkling of just what it was.

He went to the very spot where they had fought and confirmed that there were only their footprints and no trace of the two-meter tall creature.

This was clearly an illusion conjured up by Guo Tianxiang, who seemed to have a unique ability. When someone stared into his eyes, the person would visualize him as their deepest fear.

Guo Tianxiang’s memory contained scenes where he made people look into his eyes, scaring them to the point they defecated or urinated themselves and ultimately surrendering any resistance.

During these instances, his memories were spliced with glimpses of chaotic images which only showed parts of people or monsters.

Initially, Xiang Kun thought that these images were due to Guo Tianxiang’s memory disorder, but reflecting on his own experiences, he quickly realized what these images signified—they were likely illusions that others saw after being affected by Guo Tianxiang.

So, Guo Tianxiang didn’t make people see a predetermined illusion but instead made them visualize their deepest fear and tricked their brains into thinking it was real, prompting them to fill in other details by themselves.

If one tried to verify it by smell, they would smell it.

If one tried to verify it by touch, they could perceive it.

If one looked for a shadow, they would see one proportionate to its form.

Xiang Kun was sure if he wanted to see its footprints then, even though the footprints didn’t actually exist in reality, he’d have seen them!

Then, when one takes a hit from it, one might feel as if one has really been hit, enhancing the illusion of pain.

Although one wouldn’t physically get severely injured, one’s abilities might get reduced due to the brain’s miscalculation.

After all, every external perception is ultimately judged by the brain.

Unless it was an entity that wasn’t afraid of anything and recklessly charged forward, for most people or creatures, confronted with an entity of their deepest fears, their first instinct would be to avoid a fight, to flee.

But recalling when he saw the creature, Xiang Kun didn’t feel much fear, but instead, more like a surprise. So, he still managed to instinctively slash at the spot where Guo Tianxiang’s neck was in his memory. His subconscious took control and judged that the creature didn’t exist.

Clearly, Guo Tianxiang’s ability had less of an impact on Xiang Kun than it had on those ordinary people in his memories.

Maybe it was because Xiang Kun was a vampire and mutant, or maybe he was just more courageous, but there seemed to be nothing that he truly feared, especially after mutation.

Now, he understands that the two-meter tall, eight-armed monster he saw was an embodiment of the fear deep within his subconscious, the fear of what he might mutate into.

However, facing the monster he feared to become will not make him too afraid to fight.

I’m scared of becoming you, but I wouldn’t mind killing you…

While this is true for Xiang Kun, for other creatures or normal people, the effect would undoubtedly be significant.

‘l’ne question IS, now long can ne sustam tms ability(

No wonder he dared to go to war-torn areas to commit his crimes.

No wonder he was so confident, acting like he had total control over the situation.

Of course, if he had used this ability right from the beginning, Xiang Kun might have…most likely turned tail and ran. A strategic retreat.

Given the physical capabilities Guo Tianxiang demonstrated, it would be virtually impossible for Xiang Kun to catch up with him.

But Xiang Kun also understood that Guo Tianxiang was not careless; at the beginning, he was using another ability on Xiang Kun – he was hypnotizing him.

Among the memories were some instances where Guo Tianxiang was ‘curing’ diseases.

Like when he was diagnosing an old man alone in an office, talking about his symptoms and liver conditions, quite professionally, then suddenly he would say, “I’ve just treated you. You’ll start to feel ** next, and after two days, come back for a follow-up.”

After uttering these outrageous words, the old man’s painful and haggard expression brightened up instantly. Even his slightly bent back straightened up; his physical condition visibly improved.

Xiang Kun understood that Guo Tianxiang couldn’t possibly have immediate-healing powers; he must have hypnotized the patient’s brain to believe that they were cured.

In addition, other memory fragments showed Guo Tianxiang having strange conversations with people and persuading them in the most absurd ways, yet always succeeding.

His wealth was probably accumulated this way too.

Obviously, this Guo Tianxiang possesses some sort of hypnotic ability through eye contact, enabling him to make others believe his words.

That’s why he initially spoke such a peculiar pile of words to Xiang Kun, starting with truth, then moving on to his clearly false promises in an attempt to numb him. He probably believed he could “hypnotise” Xiang Kun this way, causing him to lose his resistance.

And Xiang Kun’s immobile stance further led him to believe that his hypnosis had been successful…

Even though the hypnosis didn’t work, the ability making people see their own fears did, suggesting that the latter could be a direct cognitive interference ability to the brain.

Since Guo Tianxiang can see what others visualize as their own fears, while exhibiting his own fears to others simultaneously,

It indicates there is a transfer of information between their consciousness, akin to the internet and computers, where two terminals are interacting, a link is established, and data are transmitted.

Xiang Kun was quite excited by this; he was curious whether he had inherited these abilities from Guo Tianxiang’s blood.

Just like when he derived various abilities from the Intimidation Ability of the Giant Owl, he felt that if he obtained these abilities from Guo Tianxiang, he could achieve even more impressive things, or even consciously guide the evolution of stronger abilities.

After buying a backpack for Guo Tianxiang’s belongings, Xiang Kun found a more convenient way to “retrieve” his memories, finding corresponding images and information.

That is, while “perusing” Guo Tianxiang’s memories, he simultaneously thinks of corresponding people or places, or certain events.

As when he recalled visiting the western restaurant on the pedestrian street, he could find the image of Guo Tianxiang with the dreadlocked woman in the cafe from Guo Tianxiang’s memories.

Then he also found out that the other party had indeed, as he thought, controlled the surveillance cameras of multiple shops on the pedestrian street, including the “Long Time No See Cafe”.

And he knew that after they left at 3 p.m., Guo Tianxiang had the dreadlocked woman hacker leave the city first, while he stayed behind and wandered around the city.

After using himself as a reference for memory retrieval, Xiang Kun found that the reason why Guo Tianxiang returned to the pedestrian street at that time was not that the dreadlocked woman hacker was still controlling the surveillance video of the western restaurant and found Xiang Kun behaving oddly, but because he had wandered around the city and happened to see Xiang Kun who was ready to leave.

Upon knowing this, Xiang Kun wasn’t sure whether to bemoan his bad luck, or sigh, “Fate, it’s truly inexplicable.”

The reason Guo Tianxiang “identified” Xiang Kun was because he saw that Xiang Kun was a vampire.

In Guo Tianxiang’s memory images, there were occasional ones very much like thermal imaging, the distribution of body heat of various creatures could clearly be seen.

Clearly, Guo Tianxiang’s eyes had evolved some special ability.

And when he saw Xiang Kun with that vision mode, Xiang Kun’s body was not only much paler in red than normal people, but also mixed with some blue spots spread all over his body, clearly differing from other creatures or objects.

That’s how he discovered Xiang Kun’s identity as a “vampire”.

It seemed that for this guy, Guo Tianxiang, all his “evolution points” were focused on his eyes—eyes that could hypnotize, force others to see feared monsters, and see an object’s infrared radiation.

It was unclear how he obtained these abilities. Xiang Kun did not see any targeted training process from Guo Tianxiang’s memories, and he did not see how he directed mutation and evolution. Surely he didn’t just have these abilities once he became a vampire?

Xiang Kun suddenly remembered the “mental deterrence” ability similar to the one he obtained from the owl, which did not seem to result from targeted training or guided mutation, but rather an ability present from the very beginning of mutation?

What about my abilities? What abilities did I possess after my mutation? Xiang Kun fell into deep thought.

Xiang Kun did not continue to track or contact the dreadlocks woman hacker, as from Guo Tianxiang’s memory, they truly felt they’d been stood up by “Pipikachu” at the time. She did not leave any contingencies in the western restaurant, so she should not have discovered Xiang Kun’s abnormality from the restaurant’s surveillance.

And based on the way Guo Tianxiang contacted her, she didn’t seem very high-ranking, merely a disposable pawn, so she wouldn’t notice Guo Tianxiang’s disappearance so quickly.

Xiang Kun planned to go home first, to organise and summarise the situation after his blood feeding, before considering the next steps.

Through this journey to the neighboring city, Xiang Kun discovered that when he imagined the other party to be strong, they weren’t really;

When he considered the other party weak, they weren’t that weak;

When he figured the other party cunning, their plans were indeed not that complex;

When he thought he had seen through the other party’s plots and controlled the situation, he would again be blindsided by reality.

Although his brain’s computational capabilities had greatly improved, enabling him to consider various possibilities and situations more comprehensively,

The real world was still too complex. The information he could obtain was too sparse, his judgments were often incorrect.

Speaking of which, he really needed a hand.

As the saying goes, three cobblers had the upper hand over a Zhuge Liang. Quite often, having another person’s perspective could indeed reduce a lot of blind spots and prevent one from dwelling on trivial matters..