What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 142 Amplifying Effects

Generally speaking, in such bars, there is an occasional tendency for people to request songs to be sung by staying singers for money.

When there are no artists performing, very few customers would take the initiative to go to the stage and sing. Those who do are often equipped with a decent level of skill, understanding that their singing won’t turn into a joke or noise pollution.

Of course, there were also those, intoxicated by alcohol, yearning to wail on stage, but they were typically deterred by the wait staff to keep them from disturbing the other patrons.

The very first line Xiang Kun sang caused the staff member who led him on stage to raise an eyebrow. Exchanging glances with his comrade, the two planned to find an excuse to remove him ahead of time.

However, the second, third lines and subsequent ones drew their attention. The waiter’s emotions were absorbed into the ambience of the song. He seemed to hear a whole symphony orchestra playing in his ears vividly, stirring powerful emotions that he involuntarily clenched his fist in exhilaration.

Not only the waiter but all the patrons in the bar, including the bartenders, suspended their activities and conversations, their gazes affixed to the bald man with glasses on stage.

Such attention was only ever seen when the bar invited former contestants from talent shows back for performances.

Yang Jie, the girl with glasses who came with a group of friends, recognized Xiang Kun on stage. Filled with amazement, she too was unconsciously drawn into his singing. She envisioned a young man studying hard in the library while everyone around him left, leaving him all alone; she envisioned a young man frantically setting up a venue with colleagues, nearly falling down the stairs due to sheer exhaustion; she envisioned a chubby man glancing at the empty office, shutting the door slowly with a face full of regret.

She could distinctly feel the emotional state of the people she saw in her visions: their pressure, agony, resolve, helplessness, and pride.

When the song reached its bridge, Xiang Kun looked towards her. Suddenly, it felt as though she was in a concert, with an entire symphony orchestra on stage, a female conductor, and Jacky Cheung singing with a microphone in his hand. It felt as though the voice in her ears belonged to Jacky Cheung.

Everything seemed so real that she felt if she jumped onto the stage, she could get hold of Jacky Cheung.

After an unknown amount of time, Yang Jie snapped out of her trance. She realized that her surrounding was just a bar, not a concert.

As she looked back at the stage, she only saw the same bald man with glasses bowing and walking off the stage.

There were no signs of a symphony orchestra, let alone Jacky Cheung.

Was it a hallucination? But everything felt too real!

She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, questioning whether she was experiencing a delusion.

On one side, amidst spontaneous applause, Xiang Kun nodded at the other customers in recognition and went back to his table.

Chang Bin shook his head in disbelief and exclaimed, “What the hell! Xiang Kun, I was wondering if I should summon an ambulance if someone threw a bottle at you or if I should run for my life… When the hell did you learn to sing so well? I was hallucinating while you were singing! When you stuck to the melody of the song, I became transfixed at the sight of you on the stage! No, wait! It wasn’t the present you, but the you from nine or ten years ago! I was bewildered at the sight of you. Did fatigue drive me to hallucinate after drinking just a little bit of alcohol?”

Xiang Kun knew that Chang Bin’s hallucination had nothing to do with fatigue or drinking. Rather, he himself had caused it.

While chatting with Chang Bin earlier, out of his melancholy sentiment, he devised an experiment to test the hypothesis that Guo Tianxiang’s blood could bring about a variation in his ability, ‘Emotional Assimilation’.

During the song, he would “amplify” his emotions through eye contact and project upon the other people, in the hopes of impacting them on a deeper level.

Happily, his experiment did not turn out to be a failure like his innovations from the afternoon to night session. In total, he made eye contact with four people, during which he witnessed a series of blurred images which mirrored his genuine sentiments.

Xiang Kun, while under the state of ‘Emotional Assimilation’, was capable of further impacting people through eye contact, enabling them to experience and literally see the emotional landscapes through their own eyes; much similar to Guo Tianxiang’s ability to ‘-create his own fear projection’.

‘Emotional Assimilation’ could allow others to feel what Xiang Kun feels, envision scenarios similar to his, but during such times, they would know they were under the influence of emotions, the scenes appearing in their minds;

However, after “emotional assimilation” and through the visual

“co-manifestation”, they could see these scenes literally appearing before their eyes.

This clearly was the derived effect from Guo Tianxiang’s blood on Xiang Kun’s original abilities.

Xiang Kun felt that this ability to manifest hallucinations may not be as realistic as Guo Tianxiang’s ‘establishing one’s fear projections’. Guo Tianxiang’s ability directly made the affected target imagine what they were seeing, making their own mind deceive themselves, making the details even more realistic.

But Xiang Kun’s ability was to project the scenes in his emotions into the consciousness of the other party, allowing them to “see” it. While the targeted person may fill in some details, a discerning eye should be able to notice the discrepancies. However, the targets under “emotional assimilation”, veering their emotions, would struggle to maintain sanity to realize these inconsistencies.

Xiang Kun conversed with Chang Bin ligh theartedly, while also paying attention to the ongoing conversations among the patrons he had subjected to his “Emotional Assimilation”. He focused on studying the remaining three people apart from Chang Bin, with whom he had a “co-manifestation”, to understand their feelings at that particular moment.

The waiter cheerfully brought two dishes and said to Xiang Kun, “Brother, your singing was amazing! A customer wants to send you flowers and wants you to sing another song.”

Xiang Kun swiftly thanked the customer and replied to the waiter, “I sang the previous song due to the spur of the moment emotion. Despite barely making it, I cannot guarantee that I can sing every song. I know my limitations, and I do not want to make a fool of myself or drive away your customers.”

Having vented his emotions already, if he went to sing another song, it would put him in a tight spot.

We recommend the new novel ‘Seeking Mortal Dao’ by Old Si Jiji. An excellent immortal chivalrous novel with a fine writing style and exquisite emotional description..