What It's Like Being a Vampire

Most of the time, it doesn’t directly absorb the host’s blood, but drives and guides the host to actively obtain fresh blood from other organisms. After absorbing this blood, it ‘transforms’ the host’s body to a certain extent.

However, based on Xiang Kun’s research, the relationship between the “mutated parasite” and its host is not “mutualistic”, but still “parasitic”.

Aside from its impact on the host’s mind, altering the host’s normal thinking and behavior patterns, causing the host to unknowingly fall into danger, the changes it induces are not entirely beneficial for the host’s body.

As Xiang Kun had previously speculated, the “mutated parasite” essentially regards its host as its “vehicle” or “tool” for “transformation”. The stronger the host, the greater its willpower, the more advantageous it is for the parasite to absorb more types of fresh blood.

However, a “vehicle” remains a “vehicle”. When it ‘transforms’ its host, it only considers efficiency and convenience, without considering the long-term health and benefits for the host.

Therefore, the “mutated parasite” would induce hallucinations in the host, inflating the effects of the physical transformation and causing misjudgments.

These transformations could likely cause after-effects such as accelerated aging, increased risk of cancer, and the like, greatly differing from the mutations of the “mutant” organism itself.

So, it’s correct to call it a “parasite”.

But why does it adopt this method? Why doesn’t it just drain a person or other organism of its blood, then find a new host?”

Why not evolve to not need to parasite, but rely on hunting and bleeding on its own?”

After thinking, Xiang Kun considered that it should be the choice of the “mutated parasite” to adapt to the environment.

This mode of parasitism firstly masks its existence, reducing the probability of discovery and pursuit;

Secondly, it enables the parasite to accomplish things that it couldn’t do by itself, or would be difficult to do, thereby raising its upper limit;

Thirdly, after drinking blood, it provides a relatively safe place for it to sleep.

Xiang Kun’s idea of “Parasitic Environment” has no direct connection with the “mutated parasite” itself. It’s merely an approach to integrating mutated abilities inspired by its parasitic method.

It’s like “object-oriented” in programming development.

The hosts of the “mutated parasite” include various organisms including humans. The ways they impact and transform aren’t clear, but it can be guessed that they use those tentacles sprouted after parasitism.

Xiang Kun’s “hosts” could be any space or environment, or even an object, an organism, or a group. His ways to influence and transform are by his “Super-connected Objects system”, various derived abilities, and the special perception and control in a “Super Sensory State”.

Actually, when Xiang Kun uses “Emotion Infused Objects” to change others’ emotions and “Super-connected Objects” to create magnetic fields, his actions have been in this pattern.

But previously, these actions emphasized specific implementations and separate analyses for different problems. They were in the exploration phase and didn’t have an overall, continuous consideration.

Xiang Kun got the idea of “Parasitic Environment” on the plane, and when he spoke to Xia Libing about it, it was also to improve the direction of his thought.

During the red light, Xia Libing rhythmically tapped her slender fingers on the steering wheel and suggested, “If your influence on the ‘host’ isn’t detrimental, it shouldn’t be called ‘parasitism’. Should it be called mutualism, or commensalism?”

“‘Parasite’ here is just a concept for reference. We don’t necessarily need to abide by its biological definition strictly.” Xiang Kun explained.

Xia Libing slightly tilted her head to look at Xiang Kun in the passenger seat, “In that case… from the perspective of ‘Illusion Reality’, I am in a ‘parasitic’ relationship with you, aren’t I?”

“Huh?” Xiang Kun paused, scratching his nose, “Indeed… that’s one way to put it. Of course, another way to see it is that I am ‘parasiting’ you through ‘Super-connected Objects’ and ‘Emotion Infused Objects’.”

The red light turned green. Xia Libing stepped on the accelerator, nodding, “I understand what you mean. You want to have a greater influence on the environment and objects around you, in a more enduring and extensible way. You haven’t developed the ability related to the ‘mutated vine’ that you gained from the ‘mutated spider’. Maybe this time, you got an ability to transform animals internally from the ‘mutated parasite’. This could be a chance to develop abilities in this respect.”

“Yes.” Xiang Kun was relieved, Old Xia really understood what he was thinking.

Xiang Kun continued, “Like a few days ago when I encountered the ‘mutated big bird’ on Zi Huan Mountain, if I had transformed Zi Huan Mountain into a ‘host’ beforehand, I wouldn’t have needed to take the trouble to induce a thunderstorm beforehand or give it a chance to escape.

“Even if the location I transformed isn’t on Zi Huan Mountain, I could still lure it over.

“Also, ‘Divine Technology’ could become my ‘host’.

“Mijoe, Fang Pingfang, Zhou Rui, even that ‘Mr. Liang’, could all be regarded as ‘organs’ or ‘cells’ of that ‘host’.

“My various ‘Super-connected Objects’ and ‘Emotion Infused Objects’ are just like the tentacles of that parasite.

“The influences we produce through the first-level dream and ‘Dream in A Dream’, as well as the illusion in reality, are similar to the illusions and emotions that the parasite induces in its host.”

“When the influence accumulates to a certain degree, I will not only know the secret of Divine Technology and their situation, but I will also be able to ask them to probe into the investigations I want to conduct but inconvenient to do so and to carry out the research I want to do but can’t do for the time being.

“Even they will not be aware of my existence. They will only think that these are things they want to do, much like the hosts who are ‘parasitized’ by the ‘mutated parasites’.”

After listening, Xia Libing ‘hmm’ and said, “It’s a good idea.”

Xiang Kun smirked, he, of course, understood the practical meaning of these four words is: “You wish.”

Although Old Xia can understand his ideas, relatively speaking, what she is more concerned about is the specific implementation of abilities and the details of the mutation.

In fact, in addition to what was mentioned before, after this idea came up, combining with the previous ideas that “the more objects are established with ‘super sensory contact’ and ’emotional infusion’, the greater the influence on the world and the stronger the own ability”, and “edit everything, program everything through ‘super sensory state’”, as well as “build a network and connect all objects through the ‘super-connected object’, ’emotion infused objects’”, Xiang Kun had a flash of inspiration.

This feeling, he had experienced it before when he created Alice, and when he sensed Xiao Pingguo’s special dreamland through “Emotion infused Objects”.

However, this time the feeling is even stronger.

He vaguely felt that if he could grasp this “light”, the inspiration he could gain, the things he could discover, should be stronger than the last time.

But even though the feeling was strong, he couldn’t catch a glimpse of that light, Xiang Kun could only continue to try and test with various thought processes and directions, hoping to “bump” into it.

Xia Libing, who was driving, changed the subject and asked about the things she really cared about: “I’ve watched the video you sent several times. After the bug left your body, it did not regain its health through its own repair capability. It seems that it was continuously injured. I suppose that when it was inside your arm, it got ‘tangled’ by some substances in your blood and carried it outside of the body. Did you have any special feelings during this? Did you feel that you had a connection with something inside the bug’s body or did you feel that something left the body?”

Xiang Kun thought about it for a while and shook his head: “No, I didn’t feel anything.”

His judgment is the same as that of Old Xia. He also believed that the reason why the “mutated parasites” gave up parasitizing him and continued to deteriorate and die fast after leaving his body was because of the immune system’s counterattack and continuous biting in his blood and body tissues.

However, there was no way to judge and discern it in detail at that time, and he could not specifically confirm how the “mutated parasites” were killed. So, to prevent “waste”, he decided to eat it as soon as he made sure that the worm was killed.

Xia Libing asked again: “What does the bug feel like when you eat it?”

Earlier when they communicated by phone, Old Xia had asked what the bug tasted like, and Xiang Kun had answered this question so he knew that the “sensation” Xia Libing referred to did not mean taste and texture.

Swallowing the “mutated parasite” this time was different from swallowing “mutant have” in the past in that he swallowed it whole.

“I didn’t feel anything when I bit it. After swallowing it, about fifteen seconds later, it felt the same as when I swallowed the blood of other ‘mutated beasts’ during my previous Blood-drinking Periods – a sense of comfort radiating from the root of my body, followed by an intense sleepiness. Compared to ordinary animal blood, the blood of ‘mutant creatures’ should not be measured by volume, but by the individual proportion.” Xiang Kun analyzed.

“In this case, if there is a ‘mutant’ that is extremely large and has thousands of liters of blood, then even if you drink two liters, you may not meet the minimum requirement of the Blood-drinking Period?” Xia Libing thoughtfully said.

Xiang Kun shook his head and said, “It should not work.”

Xia Libing fell silent for a few seconds, then asked again, “The sensation you spoke of, the sense that all the cells in your body seem to be ‘cheering’, what is it like? Is it similar to the feeling when you eat something delicious when you are very hungry?”

“No, it’s different.” Xiang Kun thought about it, but didn’t know how to describe it, so he could only say, “This sense… should not be experienced by normal people. Moreover, this cannot be shared through ‘Emotional Assimilation’.”

“Oh.” Xia Libing nodded, seeming a bit disappointed.

Just then, Xiang Kun had an idea and suddenly took out his cell phone and said, “Actually, I thought of a way to try and ‘train’ your emotional perception. You might be able, in the future, not to need me, and you could also have a part of the emotional perception capability.”

“What way?”

“Do you listen to music? I have a constitution that is easily affected by music, my emotions are easily influenced by music, and after being influenced, I naturally produce emotions, there will be ’emotional assimilation’, you can also feel the same emotion as me, and you also listen to the same song at the same time. If you experience this repeatedly, your body may become accustomed to this emotion and the external stimulus, even if I’m not around, you may still produce the same emotion when you listen to music by yourself, and… over time, this emotion might be transformed into your own, without being the same as mine.” Xiang Kun explained, “Of course, this is just my speculation for now, I can’t say for sure whether it will succeed.”

Xia Libing continued to steer the wheel and look at the road ahead, but she gave a slight nod: “It’s worth a try.”

So Xiang Kun started the music app on his phone to play a song, but after hesitating for two seconds, he put away his phone.

“What’s wrong?” Xia Libing looked at Xiang Kun in the passenger seat in surprise.

Xiang Kun shook his head and said, “You are driving at the moment, it’s better not to have too much emotional fluctuation. We can try when we get back home.”

Just now, he intended to play the song “Shrimp Catcher”, but immediately thought of the safety hazards it might possess. Even though Old Xia is always rational and she’s pretty good at driving even though she doesn’t drive much, it’s hard to say what state she would be in after emotional assimilation.

Xia Libing simply answered with an ‘Uh-huh’, seeming to accept Xiang Kun’s statement, but she did speed up a bit, clearly wanting to hurry back home.

But just half a minute later, Xiang Kun suddenly said: “Old Xia, let’s change directions.”