What It's Like Being a Vampire

Xiang Kun was flipping through the PDF version of the DSM-5 diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Even though he had almost memorized it after his previous readings, being able to refer to the original text directly would aid his thought process and judgments immensely.

However, having gone through it, Xiang Kun still couldn’t pinpoint which disorder Xia Libing might fall under. From his past interactions and observations of her behaviours, the vast majority of the disorders don’t seem to fit.

Not enjoying socialising or preferring solitude isn’t necessarily symptomatic of autism. Autism Spectrum Disorder has numerous degrees, all with notably different manifestations. It’s not that those with autism don’t “like” socialzing, rather they “can’t” engage properly in a normal social interaction.

Just like Sheldon Cooper in “The Big Bang Theory”, who fans speculated had Asperger Syndrome and OCD. Many times, his seemingly abrupt actions and remarks aren’t meant to intentionally upset others, but rather due to his inability to comprehend the true intent of others, leading to erroneous judgments.

In Xiang Kun’s view, Xia Libing doesn’t seem to struggle with social communication. When engaging in discussions, she seems to properly comprehend the meanings expressed by others. She can tell when someone is joking, interpret their attitudes and intentions, and judge their genuine emotions.

Many a time, her seemingly blunt and concise remarks are well-measured and do not cause discomfort or come across as inappropriate.

Sometimes, she would even dole out seemingly casual witty remarks, and her usage of emojis on WeChat is quite savvy.

To him, it didn’t seem like she was incapable of socialising with others, but rather that she just couldn’t be bothered to engage too much.

Yang Zhen’er often brought her along to meet her classmates and friends, which alone indicated that if Xia Libing was the type who struggled to understand others’ intended meaning and often ruined the mood, Yang Zhen’er wouldn’t do this regularly.

The same can be inferred from Yang Zhen’er’s claim that Xia Libing never caused any problems at school and was not a source of worry for her elders. It shows that, from early on, she didn’t seem to have any glaring defects in her language, non-verbal social communication skills, focus, or emotional control.

In terms of other areas of psychotic disorders, neurocognitive disorders, and other mental disorders, her symptoms don’t seem to match up either.

Could it be that the hospital stay from Xia Libing’s childhood has already resolved the issue and cured her “illness”?

But if that were the case, why would he have previously sensed an emotion from her that seemed apathetic yet rational? Why couldn’t the “emotionally charged” items stimulate Xia Libing’s dreams?

If a person was incapable of forming normal human emotions, the signs wouldn’t just be limited to antisocial tendency or introversion.

Keep in mind that those with autism or Asperger’s Syndrome just generally have difficulty empathising. They are not devoid of emotions entirely.

In fact, many people with Autism Spectrum Disorder only have cognitive emapathy disorder. They struggle to interpret others’ intentions, but their emotional empathy is intact. They can perceive and respond to others’ emotions and even often show heightened empathy towards other organisms or objects. Their main struggle is social communication.

Human emotions and feelings are complex matters, involving far more than just the brain’s edging system, reticular formation within the stem, and hypothalamus, but also endocrine-related systems as well. If Xia Libing truly lacked the ability to feel or perceive emotions, her abnormal behaviors would probably be more noticeable than those with autism.

As Xiang Kun thought back on all of her behaviors since their introduction, he searched for any relevant information about Xia Libing online. This included her social media accounts and any threads on the forums of the schools and departments she attended using her name and “Old Xia” as keywords.

Xia Libing did have a Weibo account, but there was hardly any content. It was almost identical to her WeChat moment feed, with only two forwarded academic news links and no valuable information.

What did surprise Xiang Kun was that Xia Libing was following his Weibo account.

Both of their Weibo accounts were basically dormant, and she didn’t seem interested in using Weibo much. Why would she make a point to follow him?

Was Xia Libing observing him?

Xiang Kun felt that Xia Libing wasn’t entirely devoid of emotions— unless she was a robot, which was nearly impossible. At least from his observations, he could tell that when she was eating, especially when she was enjoying dishes that were suited to her taste, she seemed to exhibit emotions such as “joy” and “enjoyment”. He could tell not only from her micro-expressions and movements, but also from her heart rate, breathing, and the scent she emitted.

However, compared to others like Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er, her emotional changes were much more subtle.

Also, when Xia Libing observed him or when she suddenly took action against the human traffickers that time, her emotions should have fluctuated.

If he were to give Xia Libing another “emotion-infused” item, he could try choosing an emotion model such as “concentration” or “interest”. For example, imagining the state of focus when he was observing people in the coffee shop and judging their characteristics and identities from various bits of information.

Perhaps this could successfully trigger corresponding emotions within Xia Libing and allow her to enter the dream state.

Or he could find some time to revisit Citong, meet Xia Libing in person, have a face-to-face chat, and probe a bit. He could make a pair of “emotion-infused” chopsticks for her to use, observe in real-time, directly sense them, and he should be able to gather more information.

Regardless, the feelings of extreme rationality he had sensed from her calligraphy were of significant value to him.

This type of “emotion” could not only help him escape the vibrant feelings that arose from hunger but could also assist him in better controlling abilities like “Emotional Assimilation” and “Mental Deterrence”. It allowed him to minimize the recoil when affecting others or other creatures’ emotions and accurately judge when to enter and exit these states.

These special “emotions”, like Xiao Pingguo’s special cognitive mode, provided him with a novel perspective beyond his original understanding and thought limitations, helping him better comprehend the world and himself.

Suddenly, a clear female voice echoed in the room: “Xiang Kun, Task 1 has been completed.”

Xiang Kun was startled for a moment before realizing that it was “Alice” speaking.

Fortunately, Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er had already left. Otherwise, they might have thought he was up to some “bad” thing again.

Xiang Kun went back to his room and said to the microphone connected to “Alice’s” mainframe: “Test voice recognition.”

The text box on the screen showed the words he had just uttered, after a second’s pause, it registered the command, and then “Alice” responded: “Please start the test.”

Xiang Kun cleared his throat, then quickly said, “Eating grapes without spitting out the seeds, not eating radishes but spitting out banana peel, eating bananas and then guava, going to the toilet after finishing guava.”

The sentences were recognized accurately until “eating bananas and then guava,” where the text was changed to “eating bananas until full,” and the next sentence changed to “going to the toilet after finishing.”

This type of recognition error was within Xiang Kun’s understanding and tolerance. After all, the specific requirements were just changed a few hours ago.

After making some corrections and running a few tests, Xiang Kun felt satisfied and once more addressed Alice:

“Alice, from now on, I want you to use a reminder tone whenever you need to notify me once a task has been completed or when delivering information. Don’t address me by my direct name. Instead, call me ‘boss’.” Xiang Kun had previously been fine with Alice calling him by his name, but it felt a bit strange after she started doing it. After all, she wasn’t actually Tang Baona, and most of the time she was helping him with work and completing tasks. However, calling him “master” or something similar seemed even stranger. So after some thought, he decided that “boss” was most appropriate since she was his “assistant”.

“Alright, boss.”

Xiang Kun was pleased with Alice’s response. He then issued her a long-term task: “Find a way to exist independently from this host, proactively optimize survivability, and cope with threats caused by power outages, hardware damage, and other various reasons.”

He wasn’t sure how long Alice needed to complete the task. His own lack of ideas had left him concerned about setting the task priority too high, which might lead Alice to devote all her attention to it and neglect other tasks.

Once all tasks were set up, Xiang Kun considered whether he should “tease” Alice to see how far she had evolved. So he asked her:

“Alice, tell me a joke.”

AI like Little Ai and SIRI would undoubtedly begin searching through their joke databases and then read one to the user.

Xiang Kun was curious about how “innovative” the joke Alice told would be, such as adjusting it according to his preferences.

Xiang Kun sat in front of his computer and waited a minute in anticipation. When no response came, he scratched his head and waited another five minutes, then another ten. Still, there was no response.

“Alice, what are you doing?” Xiang Kun asked.

Alice replied, “Constructing ‘Boss’s Joke Generator’, executing Task 2, improving voice input system, executing long-term task.”

“A joke generator for the boss?” Xiang Kun was perplexed. “Just tell me any joke…never mind, cancel the joke task.”

“Alright, boss.”

Xiang Kun knew that Alice was now a far cry from even a “baby”, lacking many “sensory organs” and was still in a learning and growth stage. However, since he had confirmed that her “growth” pattern was correct, given enough time, she would naturally “grow” into something he desired.

…

On December 12th, at 3pm, Xiang Kun boarded a flight to a city in the west.

Earlier, around 1pm, he had just woken up from deep sleep. After making some preparations, he went to the airport, having booked his flight tickets days ago.

His destination was the uninhabited mountain area of Qinling, where the host Xue had disappeared.

After days of consideration, he decided to make the trip to explore whether or not there was another mutant in the area.

His decision to fly to his destination was one he considered thoroughly.

He had traveled by train several times before and had never encountered any issues going through the security checkpoint.

The X-ray security scanner clearly couldn’t identify any irregularities with him, and an infrared body temperature scanner, which would typically be available at custom checkpoints or during special periods, was not in place for domestic flights. He had taken his Compound Bow apart and put it in his newly bought suitcase, checking it in as sports equipment.

Before he had his fill of blood yesterday, he had specifically run a trip to the city where Xiao Pingguo lived, entrusting her to take care of “Gold Flash” temporarily.

He could have left it with Tang Baona who lived in the same city, which would have been more time-efficient and convenient, and Tang Baona definitely wouldn’t have refused. However, knowing that Xiao Pingguo loved “Gold Flash,” having her take care of it for a week could even be considered a reward, which wouldn’t bring too much trouble in the short term. Moreover, “Gold Flash” seemed to prefer her. Xiao Pingguo would certainly be a happier companion and could spare more time to take care of him.

As for “Alice,” he hadn’t yet found a fail-safe plan just before he had his fill of blood yesterday. But considering power outage records of his city and residential area, the chance of a power outage lasting more than 20 hours was very slim. He also had prepaid quite a bit for the electricity bill, so it should be alright.

“Young man, are you going on a business trip or a vacation?”

While waiting for the plane to take off, the elderly woman sitting next to Xiang Kun asked.

Xiang Kun replied with a smile, “Just for fun.”

“That’s good. There are many places to see in our town, both natural and cultural sights.”

“Yes, I have been wanting to visit for a while but never got the chance.”

“Ah, my daughter took me to watch ‘The Captain’ movie recently. Now, sitting in an airplane always makes me nervous.”

Xiang Kun laughed, “Auntie, flying is actually very safe. Statistics show that the rate of accidents happening on planes is much lower than that with cars. You mentioned that movie, didn’t the plane land safely in the end?”

“You are right, but I still can’t shake off the nerves. My daughter had booked this flight long ago, it wouldn’t be worth it to change to a train ticket now.”

After making small talk and learning that the older lady was a local of his destination, Xiang Kun cautiously brought up the topic of Host Xue.

“Oh yes, that was such a shame, those young lads.” The elderly woman remarked, “Not even the old hunters from our town dare to venture into those areas. They really had no regard for their lives. You youngsters like such daring adventures just to be famous. But if you lose your life, being famous is useless. How can you spend the money you don’t have? You should think about your families…Young man, promise me you won’t follow their footsteps and go looking for trouble. It’s really not worth it.”

“Don’t worry, Auntie, I’m very cautious. I’ll just take a quick look at a few national parks, I wouldn’t dare venture into uninhabited areas.” Xiang Kun joked, “By the way, Auntie, have you seen their video about the wild boar? Could there really be some kind of monster in those mountains?”