What It's Like Being a Vampire

Even without entering the “Super Sensory State”, Xiang Kun could use the Infrared thermographic vision mode to locate the surveillance cameras on the company’s perimeter walls.

They were not only numerous, but also strategically placed, both overtly and covertly, leaving little to no blind spots.

In principle, an ordinary person trying to penetrate the wall without damaging or being captured by the surveillance equipment would either have to approach from the air or use enough disguise so it wouldn’t matter if caught on camera.

Of course, a riskier approach would be to enter over the wall quickly when the guards in the security booth were not paying attention to the surveillance feeds. If one didn’t make any suspicious noises or touch anything, there might not be a need for anyone to review the surveillance footage afterwards.

However, Xiang Kun had no intention of proceeding in such a manner—at least not at the moment.

Beyond the exterior surveillance, it was evident that the facility behind the walls would not be undefended—more security apparatus would most likely be present.

Through his infrared thermographic vision mode, and an analysis of sound and odor, Xiang Kun discerned at least five security guards on the night shift, with one accompanied by a patrolling dog.

Given the nature of this enterprise and the size of the complex, the number of night shift security guards seemed excessive.

However, if Xiang Kun’s previous assumption that this was a research base for Divine Technology’s study on mutants was correct, this security arrangement was rather inadequate.

From his current distance, he couldn’t discern anything unusual about the buildings themselves and whether there was an underground facility—after all, in movies and TV shows, such secret organizations always seem to locate important facilities underground.

Based on the building’s age and structure, Divine Technology only acquired it three years ago and probably didn’t have time to construct any large-scale underground facilities.

He speculated that this building was probably just one of Divine Technology’s research bases.

But if so, where are the rest?

Why weren’t they all grouped together?

Regardless of their different types and directions, as long as they have a common goal, these labs should be congregated in one regional area for easy communication and control by whoever was behind all this.

According to Alice’s previous findings, QiCheng City did not have any similar corporations acquired by Divine Technology—at least none that could be found in publicly available data.

Could it be that there was something special about QiCheng City that attracted the person behind Divine Technology, prompting him to build a branch here?

Xiang Kun pondered these possibilities while stepping out of the shadows on the sidewalk.

From this point, he could no longer glean any more information. However, he didn’t head towards the target buildings. Instead, he moved to another side, still keeping a significant distance from the group of buildings.

Xiang Kun cautiously avoided the occasional surveillance cameras along the street. However, most of them in this vicinity were decoys and not functioning. This area was quite remote; there weren’t even 24-hour convenience stores in the vicinity and the area was rather deserted. It was no wonder Zhou Rui preferred to commute over twenty kilometers every day rather than live nearby.

He stopped at a street corner. The place was only about twenty meters away from the outer wall of the Divine Technology owned enterprise but was out of the surveillance coverage. Furthermore, the place where he stood was pretty concealed, and there were no street lights. Even if someone passed by, they might not notice him.

Xiang Kun continued to observe the buildings in the distance while taking a slingshot from his coat pocket. He picked up a small stone he had just scooped off the ground, positioned it in the slingshot pouch, pulled back the elastic band to the fullest, aimed it up high, and after aligning it for a second, let go. The stone traced a parabolic arc, then dropped within the wall.

The stone was too small and it was only due to Xiang Kun’s night vision ability and his dynamic vision that he could see where it wound up. After all, it was just an ordinary little stone; he hadn’t established any “Super Sensory Contact” with it.

After looking up at the sky, gauging the wind speed and direction, and through the perception of the atmospheric electric field, he got a sense of the changing trends. After calculating in his head for a while, Xiang Kun took out a tiny ballpoint pen bead and placed it in the slingshot pouch. He picked an angle and shot it out.

This bead was one of the objects with which he had previously established “Super Sensory Contact”. With the calibration earlier provided by the small stone, the bead’s landing point was basically within the range Xiang Kun anticipated—in the green belt near one of the buildings.

Up next, Xiang Kun shot another bead inside, then moved to a different location. From a new direction and a higher point, he continued to shoot beads towards the buildings inside the walls.

Xiang Kun had prepared many beads for establishing “Super Sensory Contact” beforehand, and he had brought more than twenty on this trip. By frequently establishing “Super Sensory Contact” with the same type of object, he could significantly speed up the connection process with similar items, especially if they were from the same brand or batch of ballpoint pen beads.

Although he was now able to establish “Super Sensory Contact” with a variety of objects, Xiang Kun found Coins and ballpoint pen beads to be the most practical. Especially the latter. Not only were they small and unnoticeable, but also quite durable and difficult to break. This made them suitable for all kinds of positioning, akin to miniature GPS.

More importantly, after killing the mutated spider and harnessing some of its abilities, and after having an initial grip on “Electric Mastery Flight”, Xiang Kun subtly felt that he might be able to derive more powers that employ electricity and magnetism in the future. In such a case, these beads might be the ideal carriers.

If he could bestow the ability of “Electric Mastery Flight” onto the “Super Sensory Contact” beads for a certain period, and project them into the air, they might stay airborne for a long time. He might also locate and even control these beads through Super Sensory Contact.

If he could utilize electric field force in a more concentrated way, the beads could potentially serve as formidable “weapons”.

Of course, these were just future prospects. For the time being, these “Super Sensory Contact” beads served only as “locators”.

Xiang Kun shot seven beads inside the wall, then placed another bead not far from the wall outside, under a small shrub in the roadside green belt, to serve as a distance reference for the other seven. After all, he hasn’t entered the wall, so his judgment of their exact location inside might be inaccurate.

He then got a good sense of the local terrain before heading to the vicinity of a breakfast diner after dawn.

He wasn’t there to have breakfast, but to observe the customers—the diner was where Zhou Rui used to buy breakfast before heading to work every morning.

Xiang Kun had previously checked; this breakfast diner was well known in QiCheng City and had several branches. Many working people from around here with a certain means of consumption preferred to go there for breakfast.

Although Zhou Rui should still be with Xiang Kun’s rabbit wood carving in the Qinling Uninhabited Area, not all of his colleagues might have left. Given the distance between the breakfast diner and the company acquired by Divine Technology, it’s highly probable that some of his colleagues might come here for breakfast.

What Xiang Kun needed to do, was to identify these people.

He stood by the bus stop not far from the breakfast diner, seemingly engrossed in playing with his cell phone, though his attention was actually on the pedestrians buying breakfast at the diner.

Suddenly, he identified his target. He pocketed his cell phone and made a show of preparing to buy breakfast himself, seamlessly blending into the queue.

As the people who had bought breakfast in front came out, Xiang Kun and the diner next to him moved aside to give them space.

Taking advantage of this moment, Xiang Kun covertly slipped a small square, folded out of two pieces of paper, into the side pocket of a nearby diner’s backpack.

Next, he nonchalantly followed the diner with the backpack and bought breakfast using cash.

What he had stuffed into the diner’s backpack were two pieces of paper, both cut out from an A4 sheet:

One 3cm x 3cm, with a “Super Sensory Contact” established – this was the smallest size through which he could sense clear location information by setting up a “Super Sensory Contact” with the A4 paper;

One 8cm x 8cm, with an “Emotional Infusion” established – although the paper was small, he spent over an hour during the last Blood-drinking Period, drawing a sketch on it with a pencil, successfully infusing it with the emotion of “focus”.

These two pieces of paper, folded together, were for Xiang Kun, equivalent to possessing the attributes of “Super Sensory Contact” and “Emotional Infusion” at the same time.

After purchasing breakfast, Xiang Kun casually strolled down the street. He soon sensed the folded paper entering the gate of the target company, confirming his suspicion.

When he was searching in front of the breakfast store just now, Xiang Kun smelt a special scent from the backpack of the young man; a smell he had also detected on Professor Li Yang. He later discovered it was the special disinfectant used in the microbiology laboratory for certain specific equipment and utensils.

Through his physical observation the previous night and assistant searches by Alice, he confirmed that within a five-minute walking radius there were no other businesses except the one acquired by “Divine Technology” which would use this disinfectant.

Of course, he couldn’t be 100% certain with this judgment. But if it was wrong, he was ready to accept it too.

Fortunately, his luck was good.

Xiang Kun found a secluded, deserted spot, sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and attempted to enter the “Super Sensory State”.

It didn’t take long for Xiang Kun to enter the “Super Sensory State”. He quickly selected the correct pathway based on the distance and instantaneously sensed the environment around the pencil sketch.

In that exceptional sensory world, Xiang Kun could discern each notable entity, like buoys on the sea — those were the ballpen beads, with “Super Sensory Contact” established, that he had propelled into the walls the previous night, along with the “Super Sensory Contact” piece of paper folded with the sketch into a cube.

Although Xiang Kun couldn’t instantly project his consciousness and senses to the location like when he senses “Emotionally Infused” objects, while in the “Super Sensory State”. However, if a “Super Sensory Contact” object is nearby, he can still sense it very clearly.

Consequently, in the “Super Sensory State”, in that unique sensory world, these “Super Sensory Contact” objects serve as the most explicit reference points that can aid him in anchoring to real locations.

As such, when in the “Super Sensory State” and with the aid of the scenery detected through the pencil sketch, Xiang Kun can discern directions by the positions of a few ball beads.

For instance, it can explore a device, explore a human, explore the local terrain and environment, all accurately noted according to their location.

A dozen or so minutes later, a dizzy Xiang Kun withdrew from the “Super Sensory State”. After resting for a while, he entered the “Super Sensory State” again.

Once his consciousness was projected onto the “Emotionally Infused” object, Xiang Kun’s area of perception extended to about twenty meters. A small movement, and he could perceive the conditions of almost half of the buildings. The laboratory he was in, the nearby related specialist equipment rooms, were all sensed. No matter how thick the walls or the steel plates, they were unable to prevent this perception.

Although he couldn’t determine what surrounding equipment was using this special perception, he could record down their basic features. When he makes this sort of perception on known equipment somewhere else in the future, gets the same feedback, he would come to know what it is.

Most importantly, Xiang Kun did not detect the existence of any mutants.

Although he had never perceived mutants while in the “Super Sensory State”, he was sure that if there were mutants present, he would definitely be able to detect abnormalities while in the “Super Sensory State”.

After repeatedly entering the “Super Sensory State” five times, Xiang Kun finally stopped exploring in this way.

After resting for a while, he found a grocery store, bought a pencil, pencil sharpener and a soft leather pad and then sat down on a public bus station bench and started doodling.

At this time, this bus station was deserted except for Xiang Kun. Otherwise, if someone saw what he was drawing, they would probably think he was crazy – on the leather pad, he was swiftly sketching out irregular black circles with the pencil, sometimes they weren’t even circles, as if he was simply sharpening the pencil on the paper.

He was sketching like this quickly, turning the page when it was full and then continuing to draw, he drew over a dozen pages in no time.

The lines were abstract information Xiang Kun perceived within the building while in the “Super Sensory State” through the “Emotionally Infused” pencil drawing.

It’s an abstract method of representation restructured by Xiang Kun, after all, there weren’t any visual elements present in that special sensory state.

So, speaking accurately, the lines “randomly” drawn out by the pencil were the expressions of this perceived information through “Xiang Kun’s expression”.

Just like recording the melody, rhythm and tune of a song after listening to it, when forming a certain system, it becomes sheet music.

Xiang Kun wanted to use this method to slowly find a conversion formula between “Super Sensory State” and normal senses.

Having acquired some understanding about the structure within the company, he somewhat achieved his goal, and Xiang Kun was ready to leave QiCheng City.

Just as he was about to get off his seat and head for the bus stop across the street to get to dynamic railway station, a black Q7 drove past him.

The car’s back seat window was halfway down, a short-haired girl inside curiously looking outside. Although the car was not moving fast, probably around 50KM, ordinary people certainly wouldn’t be able to tell anything with a swift glance.

However, the one glancing was Xiang Kun, and that one glance was enough for him to observe a lot of information.

“Why is she here?”

Looking at the car turning right into another road at the distance, which led to the company acquired by “Divine Technology”, Xiang Kun instantly changed his plan.

Though he had never seen her in real life and she had swapped her dreadlocks for short hair, Xiang Kun recognized her at once. Sitting in the back of that Q7, was the dreadlocked female hacker who had been with Guo Tianxiang.