What It's Like Being a Vampire

Xiang Kun, following his intuition, sensed the pair of chopsticks he had given to Liu Shiling.

Next, he gained a burst of dream perception information, just like in the past when he would perceive others’ dreams through objects infused with emotions.

What was different here was that Xiang Kun clearly felt that this was an ongoing dream.

In the past, no matter when he performed the sensing, as long as dream perception was triggered, it would be due to a dream induced by an object with “Emotional Infusion”.

It reminds him of watching a video where “Emotional Infusion” was the switch to turn on the video, so Xiang Kun’s perception is like the action of turning it on, every time it starts from the beginning, sharing senses and experiences with the dreamer.

But now, Xiang Kun distinctly felt that this dream was not initiated by an object with “Emotional Infusion”, nor did he have that same first-person emotional perception he experienced when entering other people’s dreams through objects with “Emotional Infusion”.

The visuals before Xiang Kun’s eyes were moving rapidly, and once he adjusted to this perspective, he realized that “he” was being jostled around.

Then he found out that he was being jostled around by a chubby little hand; the owner of the hand was a short figure wearing a black robe with gold trim and a hood.

On closer inspection, the chubby little face hidden beneath the hood could only belong to the Little Fat Girl Liu Shiling.

Xiang Kun instantly understood. His perspective was that of the chopstick that the Little Fat Girl was waving around.

This was undoubtedly Little Fat Girl’s dream. So, was he intervening in a dream that was already in progress?

Through “Emotional Infusion” objects, Xiang Kun had perceived many people’s dreams before. But every time, it was the dream triggered by “Emotional Infusion” objects, always entering directly from the perspective of the dreamer, gaining access to both emotional and sensory experiences. He had never intervened in existing regular dreams. According to his understanding, with the “Emotional Infusion” object’s dream connection mode and emotional perception mode, either you directly use the inherent emotion to trigger the target’s corresponding dream, or there would be no perception at all.

So it was clear, Liu Shiling’s dream was anything but ordinary.

Xiang Kun’s attention returned to the Little Fat Girl who was waving “him,” only to see Liu Shiling, in the dream, wearing a black, gold-trimmed magic robe. The hem of the robe trailed all the way to the ground.

The hood had two straps hanging down on either side, similar to a hoodie, and it even had two black decorative cat ears on top, making it adorably strange. Even the buckle of the waistband on the robe was a round Garfield head.

Her face was tilted slightly upward as if the hood was too large, obscuring her view, so she had to tilt her head back to see what was in front of her.

Liu Shiling was on top of a hill where a chilly wind howled with no shelter in sight. Above, dark clouds were accumulating, pressing low. Lightning was brewing within, and from time to time, the rumble of thunder could be heard.

Directly below at the front, a large heap of monsters were making threatening gestures. But these monsters looked, somewhat adorable, reminiscent of the shadow of the Big Bad Wolf.

Liu Shiling pointed the “Magic Wand” in her hand forward, and Xiang Kun’s perspective lifted along with it. Then he heard Liu Shiling yell at the group of monsters down the hill, “Listen up, minions of the Dark Demon King! This is the territory of our Light… umm… Great Archer and Super Cute Magician! I will not allow you to hurt our rabbits!”

Only then did Xiang Kun notice this side of the hill was covered with countless fat, trembling white rabbits.

So, was the Little Fat Girl the king, no, queen of the Rabbit Kingdom?

But why rabbits?

Hold on, if I’m looking from the perspective of a chopstick… can a chopstick see? Can it hear??

“Receive the judgment of thunder! Ha—hoo~!” Liu Shiling abruptly pointed her magic wand at the sky, shouting loudly.

Just as Xiang Kun began to question the oddities in the dream, the dream underwent a drastic change. It seemed that the thunder inside the dark clouds had heard a call and was falling in succession, like an Electric Dragon face-planting onto the ground, pounding the dark monsters.

Whether it was the sound, the visuals, or the perception of the air, everything felt extremely realistic. Liu Shiling lowered her head, hiding her face completely under the hood, while stuffing her ears with her fingers. As for the chopstick she was using as a magic wand, this moment, it found itself tucked under her armpit.

After a while, once the thunder had subsided, Liu Shiling looked up again, shaking her magic wand and shouting, “Ice cream, chocolate! It’s your turn now!”

So, Xiang Kun saw two short, chubby knights fly up, fully clad in silver armor, charging towards the smoking black monsters who had started to retreat. But their armor was quite strange, with large chrysanthemums blooming on the back of each one and a large number “1” on the front along with a line of smaller Arabic numerals, one reading “2006” and the other “2008”.

Just as Xiang Kun was observing the details of the armors, his perception suddenly detached from the dream and the scene inside the train carriage reappeared before his eyes.

It appears that Liu Shiling’s dream ended?

Star City, Liu Shiling’s home.

The Little Fat Girl, groggy, slowly opened her eyes. As she opened her eyes, she also slowly opened her mouth, and then suddenly sneezed loudly.

“So cold…”

Liu Shiling found herself wrapped in curtains, hanging from the window, which was wide open, and the cold wind was blowing directly onto her face.

Why did she suddenly fall asleep?

Her mind was still switching between the dream and the present and took a moment to adjust.

After gazing blankly through the window for a few seconds, she recalled what happened before she “fell asleep”. But from her current location, she could no longer see the orange cat and stray dog on the non-motorway outside the residential area, nor could she hear any dogs barking or cats meowing in the vicinity.

I wonder how that orange cat is?

She rubbed her itchy nose and looked at her hand: “Eww! Snot…”

And then she sneezed again.

At that moment, she sneezed, bending her body forward with the effort. The curtains wrapped around her, unable to bear her weight, broke off their hooks and fell to the ground with her.

“Ouch!” The little fatty girl, wrapped in the curtains, let out an instinctive cry as she landed on the floor. However, having fallen with the curtains wrapped around her, the drop wasn’t much and she wasn’t hurt.

In the living room, Shiling’s mom, who wasn’t really paying attention to the television, faintly heard the noise. She came to investigate, only to see the wide-open window, the curtains fallen to the floor, and no sight of her daughter in the room. Remembering the faint cry she had heard moments ago, a chill ran up her spine.

Panick-stricken, Shiling’s mom rushed to the window and peered down. The grass below held none of the horrors she had imagined. Then, she realized that even though the window was open, the window bars were still intact. With her daughter’s size, there was no way she could’ve slipped through the gaps.

As she was retracting her gaze in confusion, the pile of curtains at her feet began to writhe about.

Looking at her daughter, who was rolling about on the floor trying to free herself from the curtains, Shiling’s mom couldn’t help but chuckle, feeling both relieved and amused.

“Mom! Help me!” After some futile struggling, Liu Shiling could only look up and extend a hand towards her mom for help. A clear line of snot was trickling out of her nose.

Upon seeing her daughter tangled up in the curtains she had ruined, instead of feeling the expected anger, Shiling’s mom burst out laughing.

Well, even though she had recently developed an interest in “science,” Liu Shiling was still the same old Liu Shiling.

On the train, Xiang Kun, who had just exited Liu Shiling’s dreamland, couldn’t help but chuckle as he thought back to what had happened. Liu Shiling’s dream had indeed been like something out of a children’s fantasy film.

But he was puzzled. Why had he “entered” this ordinary dream that wasn’t triggered by an “emotional infusion” object?

Was there something special about Liu Shiling’s dream?

Following his usual “make bold assumptions but verify carefully” approach, he theorized, based on his understanding of dreams induced by “emotional infusion” objects, that Liu Shiling had just developed a new “ability” with the use of three “super sensory contact” items, then promptly fallen asleep in a certain unique state, and dreamt.

Liu Shiling’s dream was probably different from the ordinary dreams others have.

The emotion projected by the “emotion-infusion” object probably still existed within this dream – that would be the set of chopsticks in Liu Shiling’s hands, which served as her magic wand.

Hence, he inferred that if normally, Xiang Kun could get involved in and perceive others’ dreams by triggering them with “emotion-infusion” objects — similar to two terminals networking via the “emotion-infusion” object and using QQ to interact and conduct unidirectional video communication, then Liu Shiling’s dream would be her developing a new application, which could still connect to Xiang Kun via the “emotion-infusion” object, using the same protocols and rules. Xiang Kun could then log in with his previous QQ account and operate it.

Furthermore, Liu Shiling possibly created a new “dream platform” based on the “emotion-infusion” chopsticks. Even though the fundamental existence of the dream was still due to Xiang Kun’s ability, this mechanism of creation undoubtedly provided Xiang Kun with more operational space to utilize.

No matter which of these two suppositions is more accurate, both confirm that Liu Shiling now has deeply integrated, on a conscious level, into the system of Xiang Kun’s “super sensory items”.

Not only the “super sensory contact items” that she had already established a deep connection with, but now also “emotion infusion items” such as those chopsticks, were being brought into her perceptual system.

What use does such a relationship have?

Xiang Kun doesn’t know yet.

But he believes that with Liu Shiling’s creativity and imagination, she will soon develop new abilities based on “emotion-infusion” objects.

Just like how Xiao Pingguo “developed” the ability to use a physical projection of an “emotion-infusion” object combined with emotional effects directly.

He had used this ability to frighten Qi Haoguo before, later frightening Fang Pingfang in the underground laboratory in a “super sensory state,” giving her hallucinations. These were flexible uses of this ability.

Centered around “emotion-infusion” objects, there are certainly many more abilities waiting to be developed and Liu Shiling could give him some surprises.

Of course, she’d already surprised him tonight.

Before entering Little Fatty Girl’s dream, Xiang Kun already knew she had “developed” a new application ability.

Xiang Kun, sensing the numerous “super sensory contact items” on his body and in the bag on the luggage rack, including coins, marbles, and pieces of paper, with a total number exceeding twenty.

Then, using the same sensing ability that the little fatty girl had “developed” before, he simultaneously influenced these items.

Affecting so many “super sensory contact items” at once was a bit strenuous, even for the current Xiang Kun, causing his head to feel a little dizzy. But before he lost his capacity, he successfully experimented with the new ability that the little fatty girl had “developed”.

Under his influence, these “super sensory contact items” started to affect each other, joining the weak influences to generate a magnetic field.

In the midst of it, Xiang Kun used the derivative ability related to “Electric Mastery Flight” to disturb this “magnetic field,” to “control” it, making it perform some specific actions.

For example, at his command, all cell phone signals, WIFI signals, and Bluetooth signals within the train car were blocked. If he wished, he could even concentrate his attention to make a specific person’s cellphone or tablet freeze or become inoperable.

He believed that if his willpower could sustain it, and if there were enough “super sensory contact items,” it should be possible to use the force field generated by these items to trigger the environmental magnetic field, electric field, and add enough charge to himself even in non-rainy weather, borrowing enough electric field force for “Electric Mastery Flight” or other related ability applications.

Xiang Kun had realized earlier that there was a fundamental connection between the influences exerted on “super sensory contact” items, the electromagnetic influences in the “super sensory state” by “super sensory contact” items, and utilizing atmospheric electric potential to use environmental electric fields for Electric Mastery Flight.

So Xiang Kun had actually been trying to find the core of this connection, digging into its fundamentals. The main effort was the analysis and summarization of the information perceived in the “super-sensory state,” looking for information corresponding to the magnetic field, and electric field, then finding specific methods to modify and “edit” it.

Once he found the method, and once he understood their commonalities and rules in the “Super Sensory State”, he could definitely use it to significantly expand his abilities and provide more flexible “combinations”.

However, this would obviously take a lot of time following Xiang Kun’s method, with many experiments and accumulations needed. It was uncertain how long it would take to begin real applications.

The ability that Liu Shiling helped him “develop,” on the other hand, could be put to use immediately, even though he didn’t yet fully understand its fundamental principles and hadn’t found the specific general pattern. Based on this, he could derive applications.

As Xiang Kun continued to experiment with Liu Shiling’s newly “developed” ability and torment the train passengers who were using their phones and other electronic devices, the train slowed down and arrived in Citong City.