What It's Like Being a Vampire

In “Super Sensory State”, all information that Xiang Kun perceived was from the “Sixth Sense” that ordinary people didn’t have.

Therefore, all the information perceived in this state needs to be “decoded” by Xiang Kun himself by comparing with the sensory information of the real world.

Now, he is able to distinguish the surrounding geographical environment under the “Super Sensory State”. At least, he can distinguish whether it is a building or a natural obstacle, whether it is reinforced concrete or a wooden structure. He can recognize what kind of electronic equipment is around and recognize various organisms, even for people whom he has perceived many times, he can recognize their characteristics and identities.

Just like at this moment, after his perception descended on the “black circle graffiti” brought by Mijoe, he quickly confirmed that the building was a two-story building with six living people inside.

Moreover, he quickly identified the sensory information representing Mijoe’s body.

At this moment, Mijoe should be talking to another person.

By perceiving the sensory information of the other person, Xiang Kun realized that he was also a “familiar face” — wasn’t it the person he perceived the night before last, who was next to the rabbit wood carving?

This person, Xiang Kun also perceived in the team that delivered the rabbit carving to the Qinling Uninhabited Area, and he should have even entered her dream.

At that time, Xiang Kun speculated that she should be a “researcher” who usually stays in the lab.

But according to the previous positioning, the rabbit carving was not delivered to QiCheng City after leaving the Qinling Uninhabited Area, but in another direction.

The location they are currently at was obviously not where the rabbit carving was sent to, and the rabbit carving and the bird skeleton that established the “Super Sensory Contact”, both were not nearby.

After making some “small” impacts and experimental attempts through the rabbit carving and bird skeleton the night before last, Xiang Kun used the gaps to sense the rabbit carving for its surrounding conditions many times yesterday and today.

Xiang Kun found out that since yesterday morning, no one has appeared around the rabbit carving.

It was obvious that after the incident the night before last, the other party “cleared the field”.

In his view, the other party’s reaction seemed a bit excessive. However, judging from the results, it should potentially increase the chances of “Divine Technology” shadow men, whether it is “Mr. Liang”, Lu Cheng’an or possible “vampires” showing up.

But right now, no human or mutant creatures have been sensed around that rabbit wood carving. That “researcher” has met up with Mijoe, and not in QiCheng City, but in a place that seems not far from Xiang Kun. This was a bit strange to him.

Xiang Kun couldn’t help but think back to the traces of mutant creatures he found in the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area. Could it be that Mijoe and others were heading to Wushu Mountain? Or were they now near the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area?

In addition to comparing ordinary sensory information and “Super Sensory State” information to find information “Decoded” schemes, Xiang Kun also discovered another decoding method a few days ago, which was to understand the individual, acting as a bridge for transitioning and translating.

This individual was Mijoe.

Through the “black circle graffiti” the night before last, it triggered Mijoe’s dream, and by summarizing the super sensory information mark in Mijoe’s dream, Xiang Kun entered a “kind of super sensory state”. He successfully summed up a technique to modify other people’s dream information, thus changing their sensory experience in the dream.

The significance of that method not only lies in being able to influence other people’s dreams and change their perceptions in their dreams by changing the details, but more importantly, it enables to understand and interpret the sensory information of the dream master through this process, thus corresponding to Xiang Kun’s sixth sense.

Once he understood Mijoe’s “Kind of Super Sensory State” sensory information to a certain level, he could then “borrow” Mijoe’s senses in a non-dream state, and observe the surroundings.

It’s like Xiao Ming, who doesn’t understand English, living in a purely English-speaking environment. He couldn’t find a Chinese-English textbook, and there were no people who spoke Mandarin around him. But Xiao Ming could speak Cantonese, and so he found a person who knew a little Cantonese to act as a translator. Through limited translations, he could understand his surroundings and gather information, thus helping speed up learning English.

Now, Xiang Kun, through perceiving some of Mijoe’s perceptual feedback, decoded her current emotions and physical state:

At this moment she was in a listening state, and she was quite focused, but her body was not tense; she should have a good feeling towards, and relative trust in, the person she was talking to. The feedback from her visual information was still limited, and only a small part of the scene could be decoded: she was in a small room, sitting on the bed, and a woman should be sitting opposite her. The voice was also a woman’s, which was essentially consistent with Xiang Kun’s previous speculation on the “researcher”.

It was a pity that his degree of perception and decoding of Mijoe was not enough, and he could not identify the sound, so he did not know what they were talking about.

This made him a bit itchy because he intuitively judged that what they were discussing now was related to mutant creatures.

Xiang Kun once again scrutinized the perceptual information of the other four people in the building. Besides the “researcher” who appeared next to the rabbit wood carving, and Mijoe, there were three other “familiar people”.

Two of them, like the “researcher”, appeared in transporting the rabbit wood carving out of the Qinling uninhabited area. They might have also been affected by the dream influence of the rabbit wood carving.

The other one was the “High Assistant” who was in QiCheng City, staying by Mijoe’s side and helping her drive.

Xiang Kun didn’t stay in the “Super Sensory State” too long, after all everyone in the room was waiting for him to play the game. If he exceeded fifteen minutes, they would probably knock on the door to check if he had fainted in the bathroom.

After Tang Baona, Yang Zhen’er, and Xia Libing hastily familiarized themselves with the heroes they were going to play and the basic mechanics, Xiang Kun sent a message in their newly created 11-person group saying he was ready. Then in the game, Zhang Qian started to pull them into the game room.

Unlike Tang Baona and a few who were “cramming at the last minute” and playing purely for fun, in another hotel room, Zhang Qian, Yang Jie, Yang Zhuo, Zi Cheng, and Xiao Min, holding mobile phones, were discussing tactics very seriously and solemnly, as if they were about to engage in a major battle.

The wager didn’t matter, but Zhang Qian and Yang Jie were somewhat obsessed with winning against Xiang Kun once. Yang Zhuo and Xiao Min were also very much looking forward to defeating Xiang Kun.

Of course, logically speaking, with three beginners on Xiang Kun’s side and You Meng’s level not being very strong, they should be able to win anyway.

The only thing to be cautious about is the X factor, Xiang Kun.

When it comes to arranging tactics against Xiang Kun, as his college roommate & buddy for four years, Zi Cheng naturally had a say: “I’m way too familiar with Xiang Kun’s game-playing habits, whether it’s moba games, real-time strategy or ARPG games, he always focuses on getting stable and farming. He won’t take action unless there’s an advantage. So, we can focus on their weak points early on. Depending on which route Miss Tang or Miss Xia plays, we will focus on that route. Uh, with their arrangement, Xiang Kun should be playing jungle…”

When they saw the game loading screen showing that Xiang Kun, represented by his ID, had chosen Ju Youjing and brought the refraction skill, Zi Cheng looked at Yang Jie and the others with satisfaction – his guess was not wrong.

And Xiang Kun’s team had two mages, Zhen Ji and Wang Zhaojun, the shooter was Luban, with only one warrior Arthur, clearly too many squishy characters, his Ah Ke would massacre them!

However, when the game started, when his Ah Ke was about to attack the blue sentinel, Yang Zhuo, who was controlling the bull head in the river, immediately shouted: “Big brother Liu, run! Wind is tight, pull firewood!”

Zi Cheng hadn’t reacted yet when he saw four enemy heroes suddenly rush out, he was shocked and immediately called for help from Xiao Min in the middle lane and Zhang Qian on the top lane.

But after they abandoned the half-cleared soldier line and came over, Xiang Kun and the others retreated again. They only stole a small monster and didn’t even steal the blue sentinel.

After being diverted by Xiang Kun’s invasion, the rhythm of Zi Cheng and his team was obviously disrupted. Soon, they were forced to initiate the first team fight in front of the Tyrant.

Unexpectedly, in this four-on-four team fight, they were ruthlessly crushed, paying a price of 3-0 and losing the Tyrant.

Xiang Kun’s team’s play style was not conservative as Zi Cheng said, but very aggressive.

Moreover, no matter what time, they always seemed to be in a group and always managed outnumber their enemies, they repeatedly invaded the jungle, causing Zi Cheng a lot of trouble.

Then, the advantage gradually tilted towards Xiang Kun’s team. As long as Xiang Kun was involved in any team fight with three or more people, they never won.

Every time Zi Cheng’s Ah Ke was about to catch someone or GANK, it was as if the opponent knew in advance. Every time, they shrank back to the tower and if they were blatantly standing on the soldier line, a huge group of people would be hiding in the bushes. Once Ah Ke showed up, he would be controlled to death.

After another team fight defeat, Xiao Min couldn’t help howling: “This is not right! Sister Nana, Sister Zhen’er, are you guys lying? You call this never having played? You call this being new players? This is not reasonable at all!”

Yang Zhuo also looked strange: “It really doesn’t make sense! Both of their mages went for Extreme Cold Storm, Luban went for Anti-armor first? No wonder they can’t die after being targeted for so long… What kind of strange play style is this?”

The first game ended, Zi Cheng and his team lost without any resistance, but also unwillingly, so they started another game, making it best two out of three.

However, if they had heard Xiang Kun’s instructions, they wouldn’t have any doubts about the operations of Tang Baona and others.

In the room where Xiang Kun was.

The second game started one and during the hero selection, Xiang Kun directly said: “Old Xia, you go jungle this game, pick Hou Yi.”

“What?” Yang Zhen’er instinctively raised her head and exclaimed: “It’s only Old Xia’s second match!”. Although she and Tang Baona could be considered beginners, at least they had played a few rounds a few years ago. But Old Xia is really the real newbie today. And for jungle, picking Hou Yi? How’s he supposed to gank and dictate the game’s tempo?

Tang Baona chuckled, “Even Old Xia, who just played his first game, performed better than you.”

Xiang Kun continued: “Nana plays Arthur, go to the top lane. Zhen’er plays Zhen Ji, go mid lane. You Meng plays Lubu, go bot lane. I’ll play Zhang Fei, play support.”

Since they had won the first game easily following Xiang Kun’s guidance, the others had no doubts about his commands and followed accordingly.

After they entered the game, Xiang Kun’s voice was virtually non-stop:

“Nana, go back to your tower, Zi Cheng and Yang Zhuo are coming over.”

“Old Xia, follow me, overlap with me, crouch in the grass. Use your second skill first after three seconds, then press the normal attack key. Be prepared, Zhen’er, come over to help. Use your second skill then go back to clear minions. Don’t worry about anything else. Alright, Old Xia go. Focus fire, nice.”

Zi Cheng, who had just peered out from the river, was slowed down by Old Xia’s Hou Yi second skill and was left with half health after Old Xia’s normal attacks. Attempting to escape, he was knocked back by Xiang Kun’s Zhang Fei first skill and grudgingly gave up First Blood.

“Zhen’er, place your first skill in the position above-left of you, pressing against the wall, Yang Zhuo is there,”

True to his word, Yang Zhuo was forced out by their action and sulkily left the bush.

“You Meng, be careful. Zhang Qian is going to the bot lane. Move towards the tower, lure them over. Yes, don’t clear the minions, keep them for using your second skill and shield. We’ll arrive in about nine seconds, hold them up.”

Just as he said, You Meng was dancing around in the minion line with half health left.

“Zhen’er, use your third skill first. No need to drag it, just press it in 3, 2, 1… Nice! Old Xia, send your ult. Aim it over my head, yes, that’s right! Beautiful!”

Old Xia’s Hou Yi’s ult successfully stunned Zhang Qian, and then Xiang Kun and the others swarmed up.

“You Meng, you directly jump on Xiao Min, she has used her flash. Nana, follow up, press your ult first, then combo with your 1st and 2nd skills. Old Xia, follow me, focus on whoever I’m attacking. Don’t worry about Zi Cheng, he will die as soon as he showed up.”

The rhythm of the team fight was entirely “directed” by Xiang Kun.

“Nana, buy equipment, that gold Money Bag, go into the defensive items tab and choose the Red Lotus Cloak.”

Xiang Kun had a masterful understanding of everyone’s economy.

“Team fight in about 20 seconds. Zhen’er, release your ult. Aim your arrow towards the upper left corner direction in my direction. When I say release, you release. When Nana sees Zhen’er’s ult go off, press your 1st, 2nd skill, and rush. If you see someone, hit them, then follow up with your ult. Old Xia follow me. You attack whoever I attack. You Meng, don’t show yourself yet, jump in after I use my ult. OK, they’re coming. Zhen’er, prepare yourself, 3, 2, 1…”

Xiang Kun’s voice was very steady. Even though he spoke at a normal pace, there was no sense of urgency or panic in his tone. Moreover, he always gave orders in advance, so Tang Baona and the others were prepared and not flustered.

Though they had three newbies, the game wasn’t too difficult, many skills are auto-locked. Just follow Xiang Kun’s command, and they played very smoothly.

Everyone else was pretty much silent. Actually, they didn’t need to speak because Xiang Kun had almost considered every situation which he had organized carefully and thoroughly.

Only Yang Zhen’er occasionally murmured: “I got a kill!”, “Triple Kill!”, “I got a Triple Kill too!”, “Ah, Old You, you took my kill!”, “Xiang Kun, move, I’ll duel him!”

Of course, even though Yang Zhen’er shouted arrogantly, she still mostly followed Xiang Kun’s orders. She didn’t dare to pop out and duel someone alone, because she knew that if she did, Xiang Kun would certainly abandon her.

Old Xia, on the other hand, although she had just learned the game today, in terms of psychological quality, reaction speed, finger flexibility, and learning ability, she was undoubtedly the strongest player besides Xiang Kun. Although she played Hou Yi as a jungler, under Xiang Kun’s protection and command, the hero’s weaknesses were perfectly avoided and she kept an outstandingly high and consistent output efficiency throughout the game. For Zi Cheng and the others, it felt like this fragile Hou Yi always appeared and disappeared mysteriously, and it was impossible to catch him. During team fights, even though he felt close by, they were always perfectly controlled and it was impossible to kill him quickly.

For Xiang Kun, such a game was an ideal “sandbox” for him to test the prediction of his cognitive model and further influence others and the overall situation based on it.

Of course, the main reason he was willing to play this game was to entertain his friends.

After two games in less than forty minutes with a difference of over 20 kills in each game, it was basically a total domination.

After it ended, Zi Cheng and Yang Zhuo immediately came knocking, expressing strong doubts about the newbie status of Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er.

After some laughter, it was already past two in the morning, and everyone went back to their rooms to sleep.

At 2:30, after Zi Cheng fell asleep, Xiang Kun left the room, went downstairs to the parking lot, started up the Volkswagen Sagitar, and guided by the feeling of super sensory contact from the slip of paper in Mijoe’s notebook, determined his direction and set off.

Although Xiang Kun had never been to the place where Mijoe and others were, he couldn’t immediately determine their exact location through his senses, but intuitively, he felt that they weren’t far away. If he followed the direction for a while and got close enough, he could directly locate the position.

Xiang Kun’s original plan was to drive in the intuitively sensed direction for an hour. If he couldn’t find the location, he would turn back.

Unexpectedly, he had barely been driving for half an hour when he could basically determine their location.

He could also conclusively say, with pretty high certainty, that Mijoe and co were probably after the mutant creatures in Wushu Mountain Scenic Area. Because their location was in a villa complex built close to the scenic area. Indeed, it was very close to the tourist site.

Xiang Kun didn’t drive straight to the villa area, but turned off his headlights, drove his car into a little path next to the road, parked, and walked over.

There weren’t many buildings around, and street lights were lit up only near the villas.

The occupancy rate of the villa area didn’t seem great – in Xiang Kun’s perception, most of the buildings were eerily quiet.

There was only one security guard snoozing in the security cabin at the entrance of the villa area. Although there were many surveillance cameras set up, only a few were actually running. Such a security measure was, in Xiang Kun’s eyes, completely transparent and ineffective.

Once he had jumped over the wall of the villa block, he quickly used his sense of the slip of paper to locate the target – a villa with an MPV parked in front, where Mijoe and the slip of paper were located on the second floor.

Xiang Kun didn’t go straight closer because, with his infrared thermographic vision mode, he found that there were multiple cameras functioning outside the villa. It was clear that these were installed by Mijoe and the others. Presumably, other security devices were also in place. Moreover, according to his sense, there was someone awake among the six people in the building.

Xiang Kun could find the blind spot of the surveillance cameras, sneak in slowly, observe and look for the security devices set by them, try to decode or bypass them. So it was not impossible to get closer without alerting them.

But his original goal was simply to confirm Mijoe and others’ location, so he didn’t need to sneak in or get closer.

After observing for a while, Xiang Kun prepared to leave. But before leaving, he had a sudden idea, found a secluded corner, and evoked a dream in Mijoe by using the emotion infusion on the piece of black circle graffiti.

Inside a room on the second floor of the villa, Mijoe opened her eyes in bed, checked the time on her phone, seeing that it was just past three in the morning, she yawned, turned over preparing to continue sleeping.

But as soon as she closed her eyes, she thought of the dream she had just had and suddenly sat up from the bed, knitted her brows.

She had just had a dream in which she and Dr. Fang were discussing the special phenomenon that took place at the secret research center of Divine Technology in An Tie Town a few days ago.

This was quite normal – what has been thought of in the day will be dreamt of at night – after all, she had just discussed these things with Dr. Fang before going to sleep, and it was also information she was very interested in and had been pondering about.

However, the strange thing was that the figure of Dr. Fang, who in the dream was explaining the potential issues with the rabbit woodcarving, gradually changed into a man with a slicked-back hairstyle.

Although the features of the man in the dream were somewhat fuzzy, she recognized instantly that this was the ‘vampire’ Guo Tianxiang, whom she once ‘followed’.

What was even stranger was that after Dr. Fang turned into Guo Tianxiang, he said to her:

“Save me… beware of Mr. Liang…”

The voice was neither Dr. Fang’s nor Guo Tianxiang’s, but it was hoarse and unpleasant, somewhat like Mr. Liang’s.

This gave her a creepy feeling.