What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 146 Retrieving Memories

If Guo Tianxiang’s memory was to be compared metaphorically, it currently resembled tens or hundreds of thousands of random txt files, titled unpredictably, each merely part of a larger textual narrative.

Each txt file recorded diary entries that might span over a few hours or minutes, although these entries carried no date and weren’t arranged chronologically. The actual time and place could only be deduced from the details mentioned within the content.

Now Xiang Kun could conduct folder-wide keyword searches. For example, if he searched the name of the dreadlocked female hacker, Mijoe, he would find content related to her.

Or having been familiarized with a particular file, he could bookrnark it for direct access when needed.

The understanding of these txt files as various first-person memory scenes and fragments describes the current state of Guo Tianxiang’s memory storage in Xiang Kun’s mind.

Chaotic, intricate.

In Xiang Kun’s first impression, these memories did not contain any imagery suggestive of targeted training. He also had no idea of how to search for such content. After all, he couldn’t surmise what area of training Guo Tianxiang would undertake, even if there was any.

However, it’s like his targeted training; to hone a particular skill, one must execute a vast amount of high-intensity repeated practices.

This principle could also be utilized in retrieving Guo Tianxiang’s memories.

After retrieval, Xiang Kun found out that apart from blood-drinking, the thing Guo Tianxiang did the most was having sex with various women…

Hence, Xiang Kun had no choice but to study these memory fragments and scenes with an academic perspective.

It were Derore tne mutation, acquiring tnese memory rragments Incidentally would have excited Xiang Kun… What a wealth of VR resources!

However, after the mutation, he could suppress those desires as long as he willed it.

Not long after the mutation began, he secretly verified if there was any change in his sexual abilities. As a man, this was a matter of acute interest.

Fortunately, there were no problems. He was still capable of experiencing pleasure in that regard and even seemed to have improved along with his physical fitness.

However, like the rest of his body, anything he produced would turn into grey powder within a few minutes. Whether he could still propagate from it was now questionable.

Moreover, unlike before, he could now wane the effect of his sexual desires anytime he wished.

Such as when he saw certain images or videos, he would be aroused, energized, and guided by desire. Unless engaged, it required a long time to divert his attention. And despite his efforts, he would inevitably recollect those images or scenes, partaking in a vicious cycle.

But now, as long as he wished, he could relinquish himself of those desires, meaning he could control his desires rather than being controlled by them.

Sexual desire was an evolutionary reward mechanism for a species to procreate and spread its genes. When the concept of intercourse with the opposite sex was conceived, the brain would reward with copious amounts of dopamine and endorphins, reinforcing one’s anticipation. It was an instinct engraved into the genes.

Xiang Kun speculated that perhaps his body had now accepted the idea that he no longer needed traditional intercourse to reproduce and spread his genes.

But why was Guo Tianxiang so keen on having sex?

Out of mere boredom?

Xiang Kun zeroed in on the visual representation of Guo Tianxiang’s physical interactions with several women in the memories, studying them academically and rationally for any discernible patterns.

He aimed to observe if Guo Tianxiang, having had so numerous sexual encounters, displayed any mutated or evolutionary abilities in that area. This could provide clues into Guo Tianxiang’s potential ability to direct mutations.

Although there was no chronological order, making it hard to tell which scene took place before the other, any noticeable difference could serve as a point of comparison.

One inevitably gets better with practice, right? A vampire should at least have that going for it!

But after studying those memory fragments the entire evening and even drawing up a detailed table for comparison, Xiang Kun found that apart from a wide range of women Guo Tianxiang had been intimate with, there was no major change.

Could it be that an evolutionary advantage in this area was exercised in the brain’s neural activities, resulting in increasingly satisfying pleasures?

In the end, Xiang Kun gave up on his plan to research Guo Tianxiang’s evolutionary capabilities from this angle, choosing to study other memory clips instead.

He wasn’t able to find an effective way to search for “Direct Eye Hypnosis” or “Establishing a One’s Own Fear Projection” memory clips. It was impossible to seek out and lock onto these memories the same way he did for the scenes involving the female hacker Mijoe or other similar scenarios.

It seemed that searching within memories couldn’t be done on too conceptual a level. It had to be concrete, pertaining to scenes and stills, unless he had previewed all the memories and categorized them based on his memory tags.

Just like the pieces of “Direct Eye Hypnosis” memory fragments that Xiang Kun had already found and labelled, now if he wanted to find them, he could do so immediately.

After reassessing some hypnotic methods performed by Guo Tianxiang, Xiang Kun felt that his continuous failure in achieving “Direct Eye Hypnosis” might be due to his voice.

Guo Tianxiang’s voice was unique. It was magnetically low and masculine, pleasant to the ears and easily trust-invoking.

Subsequently, Xiang Kun attempted mimicking it. Alas, it concluded in a failure much like his previous efforts to impersonate the canary’s song. His Pronunciation system hadn’t yet undergone targeted evolution.

Could it be that there was something special about Guo Tianxiang’s vocal system? And since Xiang Kun hadn’t yet gained the corresponding abilities, was that why Direct Eye Hypnosis was unsuccessful?

Upon pondering over it, Xiang Kun decided to tackle the retrieval of Guo Tianxiang’s memories in a different way. He sought the possibility of overlooked crucial points. Thus, he decided to visit places where Guo Tianxiang had been before and interact with those who knew him. This could summon corresponding memory scenes, and anchor points could be established more accurately.

However, this carried a certain degree of risk, so caution was necessary.

From the memories associated with the female hacker Mijoe, Xiang Kun knew that Guo Tianxiang was now an unlicensed private doctor. He only provided medical assistance to the affluent few who managed to seek him through connections, and appointments needed to be made in advance. Moreover, for over a month, he had turned down all appointments and was prepared to disappear anytime, having made all subsequent provisions.

So even if he vanished out of the blue, nobody would report it to the police.

However, it couldn’t be said that no one would search for him, be they patients who discovered issues with their treatment after the fact, or their family members, check-point police officers, undiscovered enemies in his memories, or even other vampires who might want to kill him. All these were possibilities.

First, Xiang Kun wanted to check Guo Tianxiang’s phone content. However, rather than turning it on at home, he took the device with him and returned to the neighboring city where he found a remote monitoring-free area to turn on the phone.

That way, in case someone was indeed tracking or monitoring Guo Tianxiang’s phone, they would be under the impression that he had never left the neighboring city..