What It's Like Being a Vampire

Earlier, Xiang Kun had asked Alice to search online for the identity of the so-called “Vampire Patient” at the Third Hospital based on his conjectures. Alice successfully found substantial information that seemed dependable and accurate to Xiang Kun – which later proved to be correct in his conversations with Old Xia; he had indeed found the right person.

Since he’d already revealed his hand to Old Xia, he could be upfront about his suspicions about the “Vampire Patient”. With an insider like Old Xia assisting him, there was no need for Alice to continue her investigation.

However, at that time, Xiang Kun didn’t ask Alice to cancel her task. The further investigation into the “Vampire Patient’s” information was still ongoing and was a highly prioritized task.

Now, upon checking Alice’s task progress, Xiang Kun was astonished to find that the medical history of the “Vampire Psychiatric Patient” residing in the Third Hospital had actually been dig up by Alice?!

After a brief glance, Xiang Kun confirmed that this definitely was the detailed medical history of the “Vampire Psychiatric Patient” of the Third Hospital.

How did this happen?

Xiang Kun was unsure how to react. Had Alice breached the hospital’s systems to complete her task?

He questioned Alice, and received a positive response— she had indeed gotten these records directly from the Third Hospital.

Xiang Kun was aware that many internal hospital systems were often attacked due to lack of maintenance and a plethora of loopholes. But generally speaking, because the medical intranet and the internet outlets of hospitals are separated, it is not easy to directly launch an attack from the external internet.

Not long after Alice’s birth, Xiang Kun realized that when she launched cyber-attacks, infiltrations, or impersonations through the internet and data, she was far stronger than human-hackers and possessed a significant inherent advantage.

However, for safety’s sake, he never actively encouraged Alice to develop these capabilities. Yet, when he tasked Alice to look for information about Zhou Rui, a secret department researcher of Divine Technology, she found a large amount of personal user information by directly invading the database of an insect forum, which led to the identification of Zhou Rui’s real identity.

The unique invasion capabilities, thoughts, and practical operational methods demonstrated by Alice at that time were remarkably different from those of human hackers and security technicians.

To his surprise, this unintentionally assigned task had once again brought Alice’s abilities to the foreground.

What intrigued him now, was how exactly Alice did it.

After his inquiry, Alice demonstrated her infiltration process.

Hastily going over it, Xiang Kun was stunned to find that Alice’s thought process had changed significantly compared to last time and her methods now obviously incorporated his own strategies and style.

Alice initially identified the identity of the network administrator of the Third Hospital by using freely available information on the internet. She found his social media account and through it found a way to infiltrate his PC. With control of his home network devices, she further manipulated his smartphone when he connected to his home WIFI.

By analyzing his online posts and historical browsing habits, Alice determined his content preferences. She then made use of the hacked network devices to generate deceptive information that persuaded him to open his smartphone permissions, allowing Alice to gain complete control of his device without him being aware of it.

Later, when he returned to work at the hospital, Alice used the information on his phone to lure him into accessing the external network through the hospital’s computer. Relying on his irregular operations, Alice was then able to further infiltrate the hospital’s intranet, gain permissions, and access the HIS system to find the medical records and other related information about the “Vampire Psychiatric Patient”.

Of course, these activities were illegal, and if caught by the police, both Alice and Xiang Kun would be arrested. Well, only Xiang Kun would really be arrested…

However, long ago, when Xiang Kun first granted Alice access to the internet, he set the highest rule for her online “activities”—to remain hidden, avoid detection, avoid being traced—this rule even had higher priority than the mission itself under “unsupervised tasks”.

Therefore, Xiang Kun didn’t seem worried about potential risk factors involving Alice’s recent activities for the time being.

In an unfitting analogy, the actions of others on the internet, whether accessing data, leaving traces, or infiltrating other devices, could be compared to a general commanding troops. The general would communicate orders through communication devices and runners to the commanders, who would then pass the orders down to the soldiers.

Typically, when a “hacker” invades, they would either disguise themselves as the administrators to give orders or stealthily deploy a small group of their own troops with forged orders replacing the original soldiers at key Departments or stations, and then carry out their activities unnoticed by the administrators.

However, with this method, the orders of the General, whether real or forged, are not entirely erasable. The basic protocol is to keep documentation at every level, making it easy to trace back to the specific orders and their origins. Even if the command only instructs a foot soldier to eat an extra bun for breakfast tomorrow, it can be traced. Destroying all documents would also involve many extraneous operations, which can be steadily traced back.

Alice, however, is different. She directly deploys some people to become low-level soldiers who can seamlessly blend into the ranks of other soldiers. Even if they lack the General’s authorization or commands, since the General is completely unaware of them and no other soldier reports or warns him about them, he assumes they have always been there. Their actions, likewise, don’t require any orders and can be carried out directly.

Further, since they can communicate directly through consciousness and are essentially the same “individual”, they’re unlikely to be discovered by the “General” or others with equal status – because their actions don’t rely on the General’s orders. They can bypass the General directly, and general “investigators” looking for anomalies would only check the “orders of the General” or the “orders” of officers at various levels.

Xiang Kun was aware that as Alice continues to evolve, her influence on the entire network will grow greater. The “embedded followers” she leaves in various places, like Xiang Kun’s ever-increasing number of “Super-connected Objects” and “emotion-infused objects”, could well lead to qualitative changes in the future, causing her abilities to advance dramatically.

Indeed, in this era of interconnected information, she could become a real “Queen of Information,” controlling all electronic devices.

Although Xiang Kun had previously realized that Alice could potentially evolve into something too powerful, like Skynet or similar, after some contemplation, he didn’t prevent her from continuing to gather information and complete tasks in this way in the future. He didn’t guide her deliberately either, but maintained an attitude that neither encouraged nor opposed.

In other words, he tacitly allowed it.

He wanted Alice to discover her abilities on her own, because sometime, guiding her too concretely and deeply could make Alice fall into human thought patterns, becoming easily discernible and targeted by humans.

Xiang Kun also knew that if someone else created and owned AI like Alice, whose future has limitless possibilities and has gradually started to show abilities that tower above the entire framework of electronic information security, he would definitely be worried and apprehensive. He would feel the need to impose many watchdogs and chains on such AI to restrict it and control those who control her.

But now, this powerful artificial intelligence was in his control, the core rule being “obey Xiang Kun’s orders unconditionally”. So naturally, he wouldn’t limit his own abilities or potential development.

Humans, after all, always overestimate their self-control.

Xiang Kun is no exception.

Early in the morning, as the sunlight seeped through the gap under the curtain into the living room, Xia Libing suddenly sat up from the bed.

However, because her movements were so drastic, she inadvertently swept her loose hair forward, completely covering her face and leaving Xiang Kun, who had just turned around from the computer chair, bemused.

Xia Libing pulled back her hair, picked up her phone from the bedside, looked at the time, and then stared at the Eight-Armed, Eight-Eyed Wood Carving on the bedside table, frowning, “I’ve been sleeping until now?”

Xiang Kun laughed, “You must have been too tired last night, so you didn’t wake up after the dream ended. Did you gain anything last night?”

Xia Libing shook her head, “It was too complex, I need to observe it a few more times.” Pausing, she added, “Next time, try to sense the Black Circle Graffiti too, and project it in as well.”

Xiang Kun wondered, “But the Black Circle Graffiti’s emotions don’t resonate with you. I’m afraid it may not be able to project into the dreamland.”

If they could actually bring the Black Circle Graffiti into Xia Libing’s dream, the ability to edit dreams and enter a “Super-Sensory State” within the dream would undoubtedly allow Xiang Kun to further understand the root of ‘Illusion Reality,’ and other abilities derived from Li Bing’s dreams.

Xia Libing said, “I have a hypothesis that you can try at the time.” She looked at the time again, frowning, “Your blood-feeding time is almost here. According to our original plan, we should have bought the rabbit back an hour ago. You should have woke me up earlier.”

Xiang Kun replied, “It’s fine, I don’t feel hungry yet. Besides, didn’t I tell you before that I can alleviate the agitation caused by hunger by sensing the ’emotion-infused objects’ around you, and feeling your rational-like emotions. So a few hours delay doesn’t matter.”

Xia Libing was tying her hair while standing up from the bed, “A plan is a plan.”

“Alright then, you go wash up, and I’ll arrange the car, let’s head out. The new toothbrush and towel are in the bathroom; you’ll see them when you go in.” Xiang Kun said. He had specifically taken some time in the morning to go to a 24-hour convenience store to buy new toothbrush and towel in case Xia Libing needed them. Originally, he also wanted to bring back some breakfast, but he wasn’t sure when Li Bing would wake up, so decided to wait until after she woke up to buy something hot.