What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 240: An Abnormal World

When Liu Shiling’s “runaway plan” fails only a few hundred meters away from home, Li Jun, better known as “Xiao Pingguo” who had been asleep for over an hour, suddenly sat up.

Her eyes wide open, “staring” straight ahead, those blind eyes seemed shiny like black gemstones.

In her sleep, she had heard what seemed to be the faint rumble of thunder, followed by the feeling of being amidst a thunderstorm.

She had never seen lightning, nor experienced a thunderstorm before.

In the past, her understanding of these natural weather phenomena had been constructed solely through listening to the sounds of thunder, as well as various related verbal or textual descriptions.

But the thunderstorm she perceived in her dream felt vastly different from what she had known before.

She could even vaguely feel the tremors in the surrounding air after a rumble of thunder, the slight movement of her hand hair under the influence of static electricity, and a tingling sensation on her skin.

However, her dream was not limited to just this thunderstorm. The thunderstorm seemed to merely serve as a sort of “opening ceremony”, opening a door for her in her dreamland.

Next, she didn’t know how it happened, but she inexplicably seemed to have passed through a “portal”, arriving in a different space, initiating another “dreamland”.

In that “dreamland”, she was sitting in front of a computer, watching a variety of humorous animations and dramas, one after another, guffawing aloud from time to time.

Sometime later, she went through another “portal”, entering another dream. She crouched on the ground, fiddling with components inside a computer case, figuring out, according to the knowledge taught by Xiang Kun, that she was now messing about with jumpers to overclock the device. After the powering-on failure and hearing the machine’s beeping sound, she started planning to modify the CPU cooling.

She then left this dream and entered a “portal” once more, wandering a long time inside before finally discovering another dreamland.

In this “dreamland”, she had turned into a monster, not only gigantic in stature but also possessing many arms, pursued by many people, and instinctively forced to keep fleeing. Fortunately, she was able to run very fast.

Awakening from the sense of fear that this dream had instilled, Xiao Pingguo sat up from her bed.

Despite these several peculiar dream scenarios, including an inexplicable thunderstorm and the last one filling her with intense fear, the emotions she mostly felt after waking up were not just stress and fear but more of excitement, exhilaration, and curiosity.

In those three “dreamlands”, she experienced numerous perceptions she never used to have.

Like when she was sitting in front of the computer watching movies and animations, she could not only listen to the sound but also perceived some peculiar images.

Those images were vastly different from what she usually inferred from sound alone. They may seem bizarre and surreal, but this sensation was utterly novel, and for the first time in her head, a real sense of imagery was formed.

Although she didn’t know to what extent these images from her “dream” were different from real-world scenes.

Besides the images on the computer screen, she also sensed the scenes from the other two “dreamlands”, “seeing” the monster-like CPU case with the wide-open mouth and those “people” chasing after her monstrous self. In her perception, those who chased her, akin to monsters themselves, looked exceedingly bizarre.

Remaining seated on the bed, Xiao Pingguo constantly replayed what she “saw” in her few dreams. She didn’t lie back down to sleep, not because of fear of dreaming again, but because of the fear that if she were to fall asleep straight away, she might forget these “dreams”.

Luckily, she awoke with vivid impressions of her “dreams”, which allowed her to recall them readily.

While lost in her thoughts, Xiao Pingguo sensed something and bent down to pluck the minion wood carving she had kept by her bedside.

After learning the “object sensing” method from Xiang Kun, this minion wood carving had practically become inseparable from her, being taken wherever she went – although she seldom ventured out of her home, mostly staying indoors, sometimes sitting in a nearby park for a short while.

Caressing the minion in her hand, Xiao Pingguo suddenly felt a deeper connection between herself and this wood carving.

In fact, even a day ago, she had sensed a unique bond, stronger than before, between her and the minion wood carving. Not only could she focus better and enhance the sensitivity of her senses like listening to surrounding sounds and sensing the environment with the help of the wood carving, but she seemed also to predict the movements of people or objects around her more accurately with it, giving her a sixth sense-like “subconscious reaction”.

Moreover, she noticed that during conversations with others, the wood carving seemingly helped her better sense others’ emotions and intentions.

Having only recently developed this feeling, Xiao Pingguo wasn’t too sure whether it was all in her head but got no reply from Xiang Kun when she sought his advice on WeChat.

However, at this moment, clutching the minion wood carving, she was absolutely certain that her sensing capability had improved significantly.

She could even use the minion wood carving to sense the CPU, motherboard, and memory wood carvings kept in a drawer.

She clearly sensed the general environment within the table, then extended her thoughts through the three wood carvings and vaguely sensed an entity resembling a multi-armed monster gazing at her from an indeterminate distance.

She could sense that this monster was in an enclosed space, as if it had been locked up.

Given the few dreams she had had earlier, which were immersive and filled with inexplicable emotions, did they have something to do with the wood carving?

Xiao Pingguo’s immediate thought was that the monster she could sense might just be a figment of her imagination, an illusion arising from her over-concerted attention to the minutiae of her dreams.

After all, whether it’s the monster’s appearance or the action of it watching her from a distance, both were constructions of her own cognition, devoid of any sensory information that led to this cognition. Neither sound, smell, nor touch – strictly speaking, such inadequate and baseless cognition could only be defined as a “hallucination”.

At seventeen years of age, she was no longer naive enough to believe in the existence of monsters and spells. In fact, perhaps because of having a father who was a university associate professor, she never indulged in such fantasies when growing up. She was much more willing to approach various phenomena with a scientific mindset rather than assume the existence of magic.

But this time, she really hoped that what she sensed was not a hallucination.

“Or maybe, after accepting Xiang Kun’s ‘Object Sensing’ theory, she had already begun to anticipate some kind of miracle that transcended current human knowledge.

If this was not an illusion, if the multi-armed monster that she projected into in her dreams, the one she had just faintly sensed, truly existed, then were the previous dreams deliberately induced by it to attract her attention, as if asking for her help?

And perhaps, the reason why that monster could influence her, was due to the ‘Object Sensing’ method taught to her by Xiang Kun unexpectedly playing a role? Perhaps it also had some relationship with these woodcarvings?

If the monster truly existed, did that mean she was now in contact with some abnormal world?

In that abnormal world, there might be a way for her to truly see things?

Could it be like in the three previous dreams, which allowed her to ‘see’ those bizarre scenes?

Xiao Pingguo tightly clutched the Minion Wood carving, a hope slowly rising in her heart.

If such a world truly existed, would her mother be there?

In the woods, Xiang Kun, barefoot and in tattered dirty clothes, had been standing in the snow looking skywards for more than half an hour.

Just now, he had sensed something suddenly, and so he tried to sense the two coins that Little Fat Girl Liu Shiling had, which resulted in something unexpected — he sensed not only the position of the coins, but also another existence.

This was a very special and strange sensation, different from the ‘Super sensory contact’ he had established with other objects, and different from the ‘Emotional Infusion’ objects. Not only could he sense its location, but also he could sense its current state — but this state was neither an emotion nor a form, but rather some sort of energy form.

Although uncertain, based on logical reasoning, Xiang Kun instantly judged that this sudden additional sensed existence should belong to Little Fat Girl Liu Shiling.

According to the strength feedback from the sensing, it was indeed comparable to the sensing strength lost from the coins and the A4 paper.

He not only sensed Little Fat Girl, but also sensed a ‘communication’ of an energy level between Little Fat Girl and one of the coins.

Although he couldn’t see the picture, and there was no sense of sound and smell, through the flow of energy, he knew that the coin was being controlled by a magnetic field and had moved a certain distance.

The source of this force was actually very complicated. Although Xiang Kun could sense the energy exchange between Little Fat Girl and the coin, he could not make a very accurate judgment. He could say it came from the surrounding electric field, and also he could say it was controlled by Little Fatty Girl, but fundamentally it should have originated from Xiang Kun’s abilities.

After a moment of energy flow, the sensing that was suspected to be from Little Fat Girl disappeared, with only a deep sense of the position of the coin.

Then Xiang Kun got similar ‘Emotional Infusion’ contact from Xiao Pingguo and had clear sensing feedback. Then he sensed one after another, the Minion Wood carving, CPU wood carving at Xiao Pingguo’s, all of which showed unusual feedback, even the Eight-Armed, Eight-Eyed Wood Carving at home had a reaction.

This time, Xiang Kun also felt the transmission of energy, but such energy transmission was much more puzzling than what he sensed at Liu Shiling’s.

Xiao Pingguo, the Minion Wood carving, and the CPU wood carving, as well as the Eight-Armed, Eight-Eyed Wood Carving that was far away at home, seemed to be remotely connected by some force and were undergoing that kind of special energy transmission.

And when Xiang Kun traced it carefully, it seemed that he was the energy that established the connection.

Then he suddenly realised that in this situation, he could simultaneously sense multiple objects that had undergone ‘Emotional Infusion’. Before, he could only sense one ‘Emotional Infusion’ object at a time, and to sense another, he had to stop sensing the previous one, so his previous ‘Twelve Yellow Man’s Formation’ could not be simultaneously activated for the experiment.

Xiang Kun could interrupt the connection between several items and Xiao Pingguo at any time, but naturally, he wouldn’t do that. Rather he was very curious and excited about the situation now.

He began focusing his attention on those energies that were exchanging, and then he faintly began to feel the sensation of ‘entering a dream’. He realised that Xiao Pingguo had likely activated the emotions he had attached to the woodcarvings when he conducted ‘Emotional Infusion’, and had ‘actively’ begun to enter relevant dreams.

Like before, Xiao Pingguo had been passively pulled into the game when she was asleep as a player. However, now, she had actively entered the game itself — she had found the game client.

After a while, Xiang Kun had a miraculous feeling. He sensed that the place where the CPU wood carving was located was very oppressive, with flat obstacles very close in all directions. Also, he sensed that the Eight-Armed, Eight-Eyed Wood Carving was surrounded by “walls” on all sides. He felt that the Minion Wood carving was closely wrapped in a layer of obstacle.

He was very certain. The Eight-Armed, Eight-Eyed Wood Carving was placed in the cabinet at home, so it was surrounded by ‘walls’. Therefore, judging from the sensing around the CPU wood carving, it was likely located in a drawer. As for the Minion Wood carving, which according to previous conversations with Xiao Pingguo, was probably either held in her hand or pressed under her pillow based on the basic coverage range of the obstacle — the former was likely the case.

The results of this sensing made Xiang Kun extremely pleased. Although he was unable to sense the picture, sound or any other normal sensory information, he could judge the position of the nearest obstacles around an object, which seemed to be judged by releasing some kind of waves.

The sensing from Xiao Pingguo’s body also disappeared quickly, and his senses for other objects also returned to their previous states.

Xiang Kun’s mind was still thinking rapidly. He knew that Liu Shiling and Xiao Pingguo would have a special connection with those objects at almost the same time period, and the abnormal events that occurred were related to his mutation evolution after several blood-drinkings. Furthermore, they were also related to his flight tonight and the ensuing lightning storm.

Xiang Kun felt that the simultaneous occurrence of the energy-sensing sensations on the two of them was likely related to some evolution of abilities in his body. And tonight, during his flight, he had stimulated that ability to climax, which triggered certain characteristics already present in their bodies. Through those connected items, he was able to exert influence.

Moreover, what they had accomplished, although it was ‘invoked’ through Xiang Kun’s abilities, the methods and results were something that Xiang Kun himself could not achieve.

He was like a server and a platform, while Liu Shiling and Xiao Pingguo were no longer ordinary users or players, but rather developers participating in them.

What the two of them displayed tonight through ‘Super sensory contact’ and ‘Emotionally Infused’ objects were just what Xiang Kun desperately needed but had always been struggling to think about, yet they managed to accomplish it.

Xiang Kun looked away from the starry sky and whispered softly:

‘Indeed, the ancients did not deceive me, in every three people, there must be my teacher, three cobblers equal one Zhuge Liang…’

Even Liu Shiling, the little girl still attending kindergarten, had made great breakthroughs in his ability system.”