What It's Like Being a Vampire

Aunt Yang’s attitude towards Xiang Kun, who had come again, was much better than when she first met him. Since the last time they met, Professor Li and Xiao Pingguo had spoken highly of Xiang Kun, which naturally gave her a good impression of him.

So when Xiao Pingguo proposed to go to the park at the edge of the community alone with Xiang Kun and “Golden Glitter” while Professor Li Yang was absent, she agreed.

Sitting side by side on the chairs by the artificial lake in the park, Xiang Kun listened to Xiao Pingguo talking about her special perception on the “Eight-Armed Monster” that appeared again this morning.

The reason Xiang Kun came to find Xiao Pingguo first after drinking blood this time, besides entrusting “Golden Glitter” to her, was that not long after he woke up this morning, he sensed the connection between Xiao Pingguo and the wood carving through the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving”. That was similar to what he sensed the night he successfully mastered electric flight.

Obviously, the ability “support” he provided for Xiao Pingguo had become stronger again after Xiang Kun’s evolution through feeding on blood this time.

Therefore, he wanted to communicate with Xiao Pingguo to see what changes he had perceived from her perspective this morning.

“Uncle Xiang, I feel that my perception of that monster is clearer this time. I can count exactly eight arms and eight eyes. I didn’t ‘see’ it, but I just knew it. It’s hard to describe this feeling…”

No need to describe, I understand.

Xiang Kun asked, “Did you communicate with the monster? Besides sensing its ‘appearance’, did you have any other perceptions?”

“No communication, but I can feel that it is very scared. I have a feeling that it was not originally like that, but it changed into that later, I don’t know why I have such a feeling…” Xiao Pingguo said, tilting her head in thought, her delicate eyebrows frowning.

Of course, Xiang Kun knew why she had such a feeling, but this could not be explained. He said, “Try to sense it now and see if you can sense that monster.”

Xiao Pingguo nodded, took out the small Minion wood carving that she always carried with her, held it in her hand, started to focus, and used the method of “Object Sensing” practice during this period to start perceiving. She first established a connection with the Minion wood carving, then perceived the surroundings through it, and further perceived the “Eight-Armed Monster”.

Xiang Kun, sitting next to her, leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes, starting to relax his body and enter the “Super Sensory State”.

Soon, his hearing, sense of smell, and other senses were temporarily blocked, he lost the feeling of his body, and his senses started to immerse into that special state.

In the “Super Sensory State”, Xiang Kun began to observe Xiao Pingguo’s location, continuously switching the observation mode. The surrounding environment was constantly changing. This was his perception range continuously switching under this special sensory state, just like normal people’s hearing range which is 20HZ-20KHZ. If you change this range, the information you “hear” will be very different.

Xiang Kun was switching the mode under the “Super Sensory State” to find the best mode to observe the changes when Xiao Pingguo was perceiving were taking place.

More than ten minutes later, Xiao Pingguo successfully established a connection with the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving”, and Xiang Kun also successfully observed the changes on Xiao Pingguo during this process – he once again perceived the situation he accidentally sensed on the night of the lightning storm.

He felt a feedback similar to the “Emotional Infusion” items from Xiao Pingguo’s body, and observed the energy transmission between her, the Minion wood carving in her hand, the set of three wood carvings inside the CPU motherboard kept at her home, and the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” hundreds of kilometers away.

Xiang Kun knew that although there were great differences in specific details and abilities, fundamentally, his perception of those “Emotionally Infused” items in the “Super Sensory State” was similar to Xiao Pingguo’s perception of those wood carvings at this time.

Watching Xiao Pingguo’s process of perception, to some extent, was like observing his own perception process from another perspective.

The energy that is being transferred between Xiao Pingguo and the “Emotionally Infused” wood carvings is probably the fundamental reason why Xiang Kun was able to sense various connected objects. He even suspected that his ability to enter the “Super Sensory State”, to “master electric flight”, to evolve into a “vampire” by feeding on blood, were all because of this energy.

“Uncle Xiang, I sensed that monster again.” Xiao Pingguo disconnected herself from the perception. Her eyes seemed to be looking at the front without focus. For some reason, when Xiang Kun sat next to her, she felt particularly assuring and confident in practicing “Object Sensing”. In fact, she even sensed the “Eight-Armed Monster” more clearly than she did in the morning.

“What do you feel?” Xiang Kun asked.

“It’s still locked up, all around it are walls. And I don’t know why I feel the place where it’s locked up is not a cement or a stone house but a wooden one. It seems like it’s locked in a wooden house. But it didn’t seek my help this time, it’s like I’ve become it.” Xiao Pingguo mumbled.

“Apart from the ‘channel’ leading to the ‘Eight-Armed Monster’, you didn’t find any other ‘channels’?” Xiang Kun asked again.

Xiao Pingguo was a little bit embarrassed, “Sometimes I can sense it, but I’m afraid to go, I’m afraid I might encounter other scarier monsters.”

Xiang Kun was a bit helpless, Xiao Pingguo, that “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” is the “scariest” monster you can encounter. Apart from it, none of the other wood carvings or “emotionally infused” items have such strong negative emotional infusion. The most bizarre should be that rabbit wood carving – because the emotional projection is rabbit meat.

“It’s okay, be assured, you have to believe in yourself. In that realm of thoughts, you are the master, no matter what kind of monster or evil spirit, they are illusions, if you think it exists, it exists, if you want it to disappear, it disappears,” Xiang Kun said.

Xiang Kun was almost sure that Xiao Pingguo’s perception and connection between various “emotionally infused” items were safe as long as she was not mentally affected or obsessed. In the realm of this “Super Sensory”, he was the creator and controller. Xiao Pingguo was as stable as a gamer who was supported by the game development team and the GM team.

Hearing Xiang Kun’s words, Xiao Pingguo nodded her head.

Previously, she was worried that what she perceived might be hallucinations and feared that she might have mental problems if she got too immersed in “Object Sensing”.

But starting from last week, the perception information she obtained through “Object Sensing” had become more and more, more detailed, even like a radar at some point, being aware of all the changes around her, much stronger than relying on sound to judge.

And at some point, it could also strengthen sound feedback information, like when she hears birds chirping while in the “Object Sensing” state, she can quickly determine the exact location of the bird that made the sound, while she could only feel a direction before.

For many blind people, what they fear most when moving in a familiar area is “change”, such as sudden cars, fast running people, dogs, or suddenly appearing obstacles which were not there before, which could pose a big threat to those who are moving alone.

But recently, Xiao Pingguo has been trying to walk on her own when she comes to the park – of course, her father or Aunt Yang is always following. They won’t really let her walk on her own.

Now she discovered that when she successfully established “Object Sensing” with the Minion wood carving, she felt as if she could sense a surrounding “field” through the Minion, having basic recognition and judgement of all objects.

She no longer felt the uncontrollable nervousness and insecurity that used to plague her when she walked alone. Even without her guide stick, she could walk confidently. Of course, so far, she had only tried it in familiar parks and residential areas.

Originally she guessed that she had triggered some kind of ability similar to bat’s ultrasonic detection through the minion wood carving, but after learning more about it online, she realized that bat’s detection ability and her perception were still different, her “Object Sensing” could sometimes even sense the emotions and intentions of people around her.

No matter what this ability was or how it worked, in brief, it had brought substantial and real benefits to her.

Because of this, she knew that the information she sensed through “Object Sensing” was not simply an illusion.

Moreover, in her heart, Xiang Kun had become the most trusted person, besides her father.

“This time ‘Goldie’ will have to stay with you for a while.” After getting the observation information he needed, Xiang Kun was also ready to leave, he looked at the bird cage next to Xiao Pingguo and said, “I’ll come and get him after the Spring Festival, is that alright?”

Not only is he going to QiCheng City this time, and won’t be able to take care of “Goldie,” but after returning from QiCheng City, he will also need to go home for the Spring Festival. It will not be convenient to take “Goldie” with him either on the way home or after arriving. Leaving “Goldie” with Xiao Pingguo to keep each other company, would make both “Goldie” and Pingguo happier.

On his way here, he had already mentioned this matter on WeChat with Professor Li Yang and got his promise. Naturally, there would be no problem with Xiao Pingguo.

Sure enough, Xiao Pingguo nodded immediately: “No problem at all! I will always welcome ‘Goldie’. You can come to get him whenever you want!”

Now with the help of “Object Sensing,” she could do many things herself. When Aunt Yang and her father were busy, she could also take care of “Goldie” by herself.

“Uncle Xiang, I want to learn some knowledge about psychology.” Xiao Pingguo suddenly said.

“Oh? Why do you suddenly want to learn about psychology?”

“I feel that the ‘Object Sensing’ method you taught me seems to be able to sense the emotional changes of others by talking to them. I want to learn more about this.” Xiao Pingguo continued speaking and suddenly remembered something and hastily added, “Of course, I won’t give up on computer knowledge!”

Xiang Kun got up, smiled, and patted Xiao Pingguo’s head, saying: “I support whatever you want to learn. Although Professor Li will certainly also have many resources and can help you find many Braille textbooks and audiobooks, you can also ask me when you need anything. Although my university major was not related to psychology, I later developed an interest in it and even had a little talent, despite it being insignificant, and understand the basic content. Also, I know a very accomplished person with dual master’s degrees in psychology, who taught me a lot of knowledge.”

Since Xiao Pingguo wanted to try more methods of applying “Emotional Infusion” to objects, Xiang Kun would naturally support her.

The new abilities and applications that she developed would also become Xiang Kun’s new abilities and applications, and they would also give him new hints and different ways of thinking.

Sitting on the train to QiCheng City, Xiang Kun was reading the information about Dr. Fang Pingfang that Alice had found.

Dr. Fang Pingfang was a very distinctive person, which could be seen from her masculine English name, “Bruce”.

The content she published on foreign and domestic social media platforms, besides academic news and discussions, mainly consisted of various challenging outdoor activities, such as mountain climbing, rock climbing, triathlons, winter swimming and so on.

This Dr. Fang Pingfang was undoubtedly a tough woman.

From her research experience, published papers, and achievements, if she works at “Divine Technology” in charge of related mutant research departments, her position should indeed be important, and she may even be solely responsible for a specific field. This can be inferred from Zhou Rui’s identification of her as the “Boss.”

Alice didn’t find information about Fang Pingfang being employed by “Divine Technology.” After she returned to China, both her foreign and domestic social media accounts stopped being updated.

However, Alice found out through the information her classmates from both China and abroad had posted on social media that she had been living in QiCheng City in the past year.

Knowing this, it was basically certain that previous assumptions were correct.

Moreover, as Xiang Kun was looking at this information, Alice told him that she had obtained Fang Pingfang’s phone number in China by hacking into one of her classmates’ computers and mobile phones in China, and it wouldn’t take long for her to find more information and complete the first stage of “deep mining.”

His basic purpose of tracking Zhou Rui and Fang Pingfang was to find out the research content they were conducting for “Divine Technology,” and he didn’t harbor any ill intentions towards them.

Zhou Rui was definitely in the uninhabited area of Qinling with Xiang Kun’s wooden rabbit. But he wondered if Fang Pingfang, as his superior, was also there, or if she had stayed in QiCheng City’s “Divine Technology” research facility.

Arriving in QiCheng City at midnight, Xiang Kun naturally didn’t need to find a hotel. After going away from the airport by taxi, he soon started to walk.

Just like before meeting Guo Tianxiang, Xiang Kun needed to familiarize himself with the location beforehand and establish several plans for escape or ambush in his mind. Since he knew that there must be a research base for mutants under “Divine Technology” in QiCheng City, he also needed to prepare in advance before starting any investigation.

It was essential to establish a basic understanding of QiCheng City, an unfamiliar city, and to connect the satellite maps online with the actual streets, scenes, and buildings.

He didn’t need to create a cognitive model of the entire city. He just needed to familiarize himself with the area near the company acquired by “Divine Technology,” which he had previously found out about, and some other places he had seen on the map that he might go to.

Around 4 a.m., Xiang Kun saw the company acquired by “Divine Technology” from a distance.

This place was already in the suburbs, spread out over a large area with walls and gates separating it from the outside world. You could see several office buildings and a small part of the factory buildings inside, but those factories had obviously been abandoned for some time.

At a glance, Xiang Kun knew he hadn’t come to the wrong place–because the security here was tighter than it should have been for such a company.