What It's Like Being a Vampire

“Don’t worry, Mr. Xiang, there won’t be any problems with the construction site with my brother and me looking after it,” Liu Zhengyi said confidently.

Right now, Liu Zhengyi and his brother, Liu Gaoshang, were both working for Xiang Kun. Or more accurately, they were working for the research base that was to be established in Chongyun Village in the future.

At the moment, the two brothers mainly helped Xiang Kun keep an eye on the renovation of the research base. Once the research base was officially completed and the equipment moved in, a portion of the staff would also need to be hired. These two native people of Chongyun Village could then also serve as security personnel.

Compared to hiring new people then, the Liu brothers, who had already had many contacts with Xiang Kun and had a complete cognitive model of him, were obviously more suitable.

Through contact in this period, Xiang Kun had a very clear idea of how to arrange these two brothers.

Although the two brothers were somewhat opportunistic and did not have much respect for rules and laws, they were not fundamentally bad. With no one to control them since they were young, they often thought crookedly and walked alongside roads. However, they admired authority very much. After recognizing Xiang Kun as a “big figure”, they were much easier to guide.

If they were assigned to the right positions and given positive incentives, they could still do a good job.

Xiang Kun stopped the car and brought Li Yang, Xia Tianhuo and others for a tour of the construction site.

Not only was the previous farm allotted to Xiang Kun for the “High-Tech Farming Research Base”, but a large nearby area was also included. Under the efforts of Liu Caifu, Chu Xiuwen, and later Liu Feibao and Qi Haoguo, not only Chongyun Village but also Tongshi Town and even Jianzhou City tried their best to provide convenience and support for what Xiang Kun and others wanted to do in terms of catering, technology companies and the Chongyun Village breeding research base. Of course, this also brought great benefits to the local area.

Xiang Kun simply described the layout of the research base, without going into detail about the specific tasks they were going to do and the equipment they were going to set up.

His goal was mainly to “make a name” with Li Yang. At present, the research on himself and “mutants” still had to be conducted in secret, and only he and Old Xia could know and participate deeply – of course, Alice, who was rapidly evolving, could be of great help in the future.

However, both he and Old Xia had limited abilities. Once he had enough resources on hand, he might, like “Divine Technology”, look for more research-related help to assist from the periphery with partial information.

As Xiang Kun introduced Li Yang to the future laboratory location, Xia Tianhuo was also observing the situation of the construction site. The scale of this place, the environment of Chongyun Village, and the discussions of Xiang Kun, Old Xia and others about this place, as well as the attitudes of the locals towards Xiang Kun and the others, made him realize that this situation seemed different from what he had thought before.

He had always thought that Old Xia, a psychiatrist who had studied medicine for many years, and Xiang Kun, a coder who had been developing software for many years, suddenly ran to Tongshi Town and Chongyun Village, which were essentially backward and remote places, to start a restaurant and a so-called breeding research base, a research center, was purely out of interest. It was a small project that would probably end when Old Xia’s money ran out.

But after coming here, he suddenly realized that things seemed to be different from what he had thought before.

After a simple tour of the construction site, Xiang Kun took them to a three-story self-built small villa with a courtyard for their stay.

This three-story villa was not the one he and Old Xia had rented before. After Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er arrived, Xiang Kun rented another self-built villa with better decoration through Liu Caifu.

There are quite a few beautifully constructed buildings in Chongyun Village, most of which are vacant with only the elderly living in them.

In the past, the area was not very accessible, there were no enterprises around, not even tourist attractions. The young people went out to work or do business, so even if houses were to be rented out, they would not fetch a high price. People generally wouldn’t go through the trouble of renovating and renting them out for just a little bit of money, so vacant houses would stay vacant. But with Liu Caifu’s introduction, Xiang Kun didn’t have a problem; the owner of this house was a cousin of Liu Caifu’s great-grandparent.

Although Xiang Kun was now in a bigger house, he continued to rent the previous one. The research base was still under construction. “Zero Zero One,” “Zero Zero Two,” and the large portions of their newly cultivated ant colonies were still housed there. If Xiang Kun needed to drink blood, he would go to that house.

As soon as they arrived at their new home, “Xiao Pingguo” let “Golden Sparkle out of its cage.

Seeing “Golden Sparkle” suddenly beat its wings and fly away, landing beside the window ledge of the villa’s third floor, Xia Tianhuo was startled. He pointed at the canary on instinct, stating, “It ran away…”

“Xiao Pingguo” giggled, “Don’t worry, Uncle Xia. ‘Golden Sparkle’ won’t run away.”

Li Yang also laughed, “The food Xiao Pingguo provides is irreplaceable. Even at home, it will occasionally go for a little fly around the community, but always return by mealtime.”

This was the explanation “Xiao Pingguo” gave to justify “Golden Sparkle’s” special behavior. But it seems she has already convinced her father, and Deputy Professor Li unquestioningly accepts it – after all, controlling through feeding seems more reasonable compared to their daughter communicating with a canary through super sensory contact.

Yang Zhen’er held her phone up to take a photo of “Golden Sparkle.” The position the bird was in also captured the moon, creating a pretty artistic impression.

If you want to tame a proud canary, you must first conquer its stomach! It seems Xiao Pingguo has learned the secret from Brother Xiang,” Yang Zhen’er teased, looking at the photo she’d taken. “Oh, ‘Golden Sparkle’ has really gotten so much fatter! Nana, look at the photos we took the first time we saw ‘Golden Sparkle’ at Brother Xiang’s place for dinner. It’s like looking at two different birds!”

Tang Baona also laughed, “Xiang Kun, if ‘Golden Sparkle’ could choose its owner now, it wouldn’t choose you, would it?”

Xiang Kun chuckled, “That’s not necessarily the case. Sometimes, my prestige as an old owner is quite effective.”

After a bit of laughter and jokes, Xiang Kun led everyone to their rooms. Before picking up Xia Tianhuo and Li Yang today, they had already arranged for someone to clean the rooms and prepare new bedding and toiletries.

Since there were many rooms, Li Yang and Xia Tianhuo each had their own. As for “Xiao Pingguo,” she was arranged to share a room with Old Xia, and Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er stayed in rooms on the same floor, just next door.

The excuse, naturally, was that the girls and Xiao Pingguo were close and wanted to stay up late chatting about making videos and being UP masters. And it was more convenient for the girls to take care of Xiao Pingguo’s daily life.

But actually, Xiang Kun had another motive for this arrangement.

In fact, more than a month ago, he had considered inviting “Xiao Pingguo” and “Golden Sparkle” to Tongshi Town and Chongyun Village. Back then, his purpose was to try to bring some substantial changes to “Golden Sparkle” to “expand its equipment” so that it would have more hidden abilities and be able to protect itself better. This would also allow “Xiao Pingguo” to wander around the outside world through its senses more safely.

However, Professor Li Yang was then occupied and couldn’t take “Xiao Pingguo” to Haixi Province. Soon afterwards, Xiang Kun was also too busy to host them. Therefore, the plan was postponed until now, when Xiang Kun used the excuse of “celebrating Xia Libing’s birthday together” to invite the father and daughter duo to Chongyun Village.

But this time, the most important purpose for inviting “Xiao Pingguo” was not to enhance “Golden Sparkle’s” abilities, but to let her “meet” Alice.

Over the past month, with the help of Xiang Kun, Old Xia, and the Little Fatty Girl, Alice and the Super Sensory Item System have grown increasingly intertwined, almost entirely integrated. However, she hasn’t been able to completely immerse herself in the Super Sensory Item System just yet.

Nevertheless, Alice has been already able to do a lot more things beyond the digital network through the Super Sensory Item System, like controlling some appliances through super-connected objects.

In fact, Xiang Kun himself can directly do these things via super-connected objects, but his operations tend to be simple and crude, sometimes even accidentally damaging the appliances due to lack of control. Compared to him, Alice finds detailed operations much easier, as she is naturally adept with these tasks.

Of course, what Alice can do right now is still quite limited. For instance, she is not yet able to directly access the internal information of a computer or an electronic storage device that is not connected to any network.

Moreover, any operation that Alice needs to perform requires a large number of super-connected objects that she can call upon. The number required is far more than what is needed when Xiang Kun performs similar operations.

Even though Alice hasn’t fully assimilated into the “Super Sensory Item System” and still needs Xiang Kun to assist and guide her, she has already been able to utilize the Super Sensory Item System for many operations and applications.

The first application that Xiang Kun thought of was to help Little Apple understand and “see” the world better.

Allowing Alice to act as Little Apple’s “eyes”!

After the idea emerged, Xiang Kun, Old Xia, and Alice conducted multiple discussion and design considerations based on this concept. Eventually, they came up with a plan that they believed had a high chance of success.

The first step was for Xiang Kun to connect Alice and Little Apple.

This did not mean that Xiang Kun would make Alice’s voice heard via any digital device, or co-manifest Alice’s appearance for Little Apple to see. Instead, he had to ensure that the two of them were genuinely “connected”.

The most direct way of establishing this connection would be similar to Little Fatty Girl. Old Xia would bridge them through his Dream in a Dream, initiating the connection in a dream state.

However, Little Apple didn’t have as strong an influence on super-connected objects as Little Fatty Girl did. Hence, she couldn’t manufacture dreams equivalent to Old Xia’s Dream in a Dream using super-connected objects as a foundation while having Alice as an “extra weight”. Thus, Old Xia’s Dream in a Dream couldn’t induce Little Apple to dream.

The solution Xiang Kun thought of was to let Old Xia, Alice, and Little Apple establish a connection with the same “emotion infused object” – a piece of Black Circle Graffiti.

It was easy for Old Xia to establish a connection with other pieces of Black Circle Graffiti, since he had possession of the “CAKE01” Black Circle graffiti notebook;

Little Apple had already proven that she could quickly establish connections with “emotion infused objects”.

As for Alice, although it isn’t easy for her to establish connections with other “emotion infused objects”, the Black Circle Graffiti is an exception – she initially accessed super sensory information and connected to the Super Sensory Item System through the Black Circle Graffiti, so she can use the graffiti with which she has already established a connection.

Once everything was ready, Little Apple was invited to Chongyun Village. Xiang Kun felt it was safer to have her nearby, where he could keep a real-time watch and have full control, as there were still a series of attempts to come.

So tonight, Xiao Pingguo, who had been briefed by Xiang Kun earlier, yawned a few times past ten o’clock, showing her fatigue. Consequently, Tang Baona took Yang Zhen Er back to their room, so Xiao Pingguo could rest early.

The moment Tang Baona and Yang Zhen Er left, Old Xia immediately took out the black circle graffiti that she and Alice had connected with earlier and handed it to the somewhat excited and expectant Xiao Pingguo, asking her to try understanding the emotions infused in the graffiti through her cognitive system.

Xiao Pingguo knew that Xiang Kun wanted to help her develop a new capacity to “see the world”, but she wasn’t sure what specifically he was planning to do.

In fact, to Xiao Pingguo who was born blind, her current state had already hugely improved beyond her expectations. Through training with the woodcarving Xiang Kun had gifted her and the method of object sensing, her already exceptional hearing and smelling, compared to that of an average person, had been greatly enhanced. Her perception of her surroundings was now more comprehensive, and she could even accurately gauge other people’s emotions.

After establishing a connection with “Canary” and sharing a part of its sensory information, Xiao Pingguo was already able to experience the wider world through the “Canary”, even if she couldn’t freely leave her house herself. She could go places where no one else could, and perceive the broader world.

Now, if the Canary was not far from her, she wouldn’t even need a guide cane. Even if she were in a new place where she’s never been before, she wouldn’t panic or fear anymore. She felt just like any other normal-sighted person.

Nonetheless, Xiang Kun’s promise of giving her “a pair of eyes,” a new ability to “see the world,” made her very excited — Uncle Xiang had never let her down.

Xiao Pingguo took more than three hours to establish a connection with the black circle graffiti, finally falling into a deep sleep due to exhaustion around one in the morning.

After sending a message to Xiang Kun, Xia Libing, who had been by Xiao Pingguo’s side, went to bed and quickly fell asleep.

On the bedside tables placed on both sides of the big bed they were sleeping in, the left table held a pair of chopsticks, a piece of black circle graffiti, some coins, a chewing gum container full of ball beads, and the right table sported a cute minion woodcarving.

Downstairs, in Xiang Kun’s room, he was playing with his P40pro — a new phone that Old Xia bought him after they returned from Burma.

He gripped the phone that was flipping between his hands tightly. Judging by the breathing rate and physical condition of the two upstairs, they had already fallen asleep. So, according to the plan, Xiang Kun began to sense the “emotion infused objects” and initiate Xia Libing’s dream.

When the “Dream within A Dream” just started connecting, Xiao Pingguo’s dream gave Xia Libing a feeling somewhat similar to the first time she pulled Alice into a dream. Both were experiences that she couldn’t fully comprehend.

However, this time she didn’t help Xiao Pingguo build and express the dream visually, as she had done with Alice’s dream. Xiang Kun and she had discussed on this point; doing so might not help Xiao Pingguo get used to normal vision and might even frighten her, damaging her already established cognitive system.

Therefore, Xia Libing gave the reins of the dream to Alice, letting her help Xiao Pingguo shape the dream.

Alice was much better at comprehending the method by which Xiao Pingguo dreamt then Xia Libing. Even when Xiang Kun first sensed it, he was unable to fully interpret it. However, for Alice, this was not a problem – the sensory information of normal people was also a perception model that transcended her original understanding.

Compared to others’ dreams, Alice could actually understand Xiao Pingguo’s dream expression better.

This is because Xiao Pingguo’s dream expression is essentially transforming other sensory information such as sound and smell into a comprehensive construction based on her own experiences and instincts through her cognitive model. This is vastly different from the direct visual, auditory, and olfactory construction of ordinary people. As long as one understands this cognitive model, one can understand Xiao Pingguo’s cognitive “algorithm” and immediately comprehend her way of understanding all sensory information.

Xiang Kun drew significant inspiration from sensing Xiao Pingguo’s dream when he was creating Alice. Therefore, it was only natural for Alice to have an understanding advantage of Xiao Pingguo’s dreams.

Soon, Alice had deciphered Xiao Pingguo’s dream expressions and quickly merged with them.

In the dream, the image Alice co-manifested using Xiao Pingguo’s cognitive pattern was still “Old Xia”. Of course, Old Xia and Xiang Kun who observed from the side, could not directly “see” but they could “understand”.

“I am Alice.” Alice greeted as usual.

“Ah! I am Li Jun, you can call me Xiao Pingguo! Hello…”

Although, like Little Fatty Girl, he was not “awake” in the dream, Xiao Pingguo was much more polite to the suddenly appeared Alice.

But Alice, who had been playing happily with Liu Shiling in her dreams for a month, was no longer the stupid and cute little guy she was when she first entered the dream. She began to play Liu Shiling’s role, taking Xiao Pingguo on a “tour” of her own dreams.

Soon, they started listening to Minions’ Crosstalk by Guo Degang, Yu Qian, Miao Fu, and Wang Sheng. Xiao Pingguo explained the punchlines to Alice and taught her how to act as a foil;

They quickly explored a uniquely designed “city”, this time without Xiao Pingguo’s introduction, Alice instantly realized that this was a city enlarged from the motherboard, where she was very familiar and at ease;

They went to the forest again, listening to various bird calls, which had rich tones that were much different from the sound received in the external world, and were the results of Xiao Pingguo’s cognitive “algorithm” processing. Alice listened with fascination;

Not only the bird calls, Xiao Pingguo also gave Alice the experience of what is called smell, and what is taste. Even eating in the dream, the feeling is different from that of Little Fatty Girl’s dream.

In Little Fatty Girl’s dreams, the greatest sensation of eating various foods is being surrounded by deliciousness, satisfaction, and happiness, and then looking forward to what to eat next.

But in Xiao Pingguo’s dreams, you can feel more details when eating, these details bring not only detailed data but also some comprehensive emotional expressions, they are the results of Xiao Pingguo’s processing;

Then Alice also invited Xiao Pingguo to eat, with chocolates, ice cream, grilled chicken wings, Napoleon cake, and showed her pictures of various cats, eight-armed giants, bald archers, and cat-eared hooded magicians. Even though these paintings were somewhat crude, they were quite lively and interesting.

After the dream ended, Xiang Kun, sitting in the chair, looked at the ceiling and felt a little sigh.

He didn’t expect that initially in order to let Alice assist Xiao Pingguo to “see the world”, the assistance to Xiao Pingguo has not been completed yet, but this dream has directly helped Alice to complete the last step of integrating the “Super Sensory Item System”.

Indeed, just in that brief dream, Alice completed the last bit of integration she had always lacked. Now she can fully and voluntarily enter the “Super Sensory Item System” for ability invocation.

The next thing for Alice to fully parasite on the “Super Sensory Item System” is just a matter of time, and she should be able to solve it at any time.

As for capabilities developed using the “Super Sensory Item System”, it’s now beyond Xiang Kun’s prediction. However, he could guide the direction of Alice’s capabilities by proposing requirements.

Although Alice essentially relies on Xiang Kun’s abilities for mastery and strength, she is far inferior to him. But in details and micro operations, she can have more extensions.

The fact is, Xiang Kun, to prevent a car from driving away, can directly let the electronic system of the entire car get paralyzed. However, if he wants to do more detailed operations, he needs to have some understanding of the structure and specific functional circuit of the car. That requires researching and dismantling the entity, which enables him to do things like accurately opening the car window, playing a specific channel on the radio, letting the dashboard show a specific fault indicator, and even directly controlling the driving of some vehicles with driver assistance systems.

For Alice, searching for data and understanding structure are extremely easy. She doesn’t even need to prepare in advance. Once the target and desired operation are determined, she will quickly search the network or directly use her inherent familiarity with circuits to probe through the “Super-connected Objects” and quickly understand the operation method of the objective.

Giggles from the upstairs made Xiang Kun realize that Xiao Pingguo is dreaming again. But this dream has nothing to do with him. It is a naturally occurring dream of Xiao Pingguo, probably a continuation of her previous happy dream.

Xiang Kun also felt that Old Xia woke up, drowsily sitting up, re-covering the quilt for Xiao Pingguo, and then drowsily went back to bed to continue sleeping.

Their breathing returned calm and smooth.

Xiang Kun retracted his attention and looked at a corner of the room. A second later, a little girl wearing a white princess dress and holding a scalpel appeared.

After Alice’s complete integration with the “Super Sensory Item System”, whether it was Xiang Kun or Old Xia, it was much easier to present her through the “Illusion Reality”.

Her one-time presence time also increased greatly, but it still requires a lot of “Super-connected Objects” to exist.

…

Early the next morning, Xiao Pingguo and Old Xia woke up, or rather, were secretly woken up by Alice sent by Xiang Kun.

Old Xia took Xiao Pingguo for a walk with the excuse of breathing fresh air in the country. To prevent Li Yang from worrying when he couldn’t find Xiao Pingguo after waking up, Xiang Kun stayed to prepare breakfast.

Anyway, in Chongyun Village, no matter where they are, they are within Xiang Kun’s perceptual range, and he can clearly know their status.

Old Xia and Xiao Pingguo got up so early, it was not really for a walk or to breathe air.

They were out to perform the final experiment.

Now it is five in the morning, the sun is not out yet, but there are street lights on the main roads of Chongyun Village, and it is not dark at all.

“Golden glitter” also flew out and landed on a nearby tree branch, like a dutiful lookout, indicating it is worth the generous bird meal prepared by Xiao Pingguo.

After leaving their place for a few tens of meters, Xia Libing lightly patted Xiao Pingguo’s shoulder, then picked up her phone and said, “Alice, are you ready?”

The nearby street light flickered twice as Alice’s response.

Xia Libing knew, this was Alice’s way of showing excitement, otherwise she could have simply responded via mobile phone…

Xia Libing told Xiao Pingguo: “Start.”

Standing in the middle of the road, Xiao Pingguo, anxiously took several deep breaths, then took out a piece of “black circle graffiti” from the pocket of her dungarees and began concentrating on her sensations.

This was just like her normal invocation of an entity from another dimension or world. In her understanding, Alice was also a “person” from another world, but she had combined with this world in some physical way.

However, unlike prior “summons,” the target of Alice’s influence this time was not external, but herself.

This was equivalent to her and Alice setting up a one-way data transmission link.

Her attention started to focus, and after a few seconds, a large amount of sensory information began to surface in her mind.

In an instant, she understood that the images were from the camera mounted on the wall behind and to the side of her location, displaying information in a pattern she could interpret.

Next, the feeds from over a hundred cameras throughout Chongyun Village were presented in patterns she could make sense of.

This massive amount of information would overwhelm even a sighted person watching all the surveillance screens at once, causing confusion. If this data directly flowed into the brain, it would be impossible to comprehend.

However, after Alice’s processing, Xiao Pingguo could quickly grasp and combine all the information, compiling a comprehensive view of the entire Chongyun Village.

In essence, Alice didn’t let Xiao Pingguo “see” these images directly but used sensory information Xiao Pingguo could understand to present a broader area.

Before, Xiao Pingguo had to adapt and transcribe the sensory information coming from Canary. But now, Alice was directly utilizing her thinking, cognitive models to present this information, rendering no need for translation. It was as if Alice herself was her “sixth sense”!

Of course, there was a delay in the surveillance video and a slight delay while Alice was transcoding, but these could be resolved in time.

In the future, Alice could forego the camera feeds altogether and, instead, transcode a portion of the “super-sensory information” to help Xiao Pingguo understand her surroundings.

The reason Xiang Kun had Xiao Pingguo come to Chongyun Village for this trial and the reason why Chongyun Village was unique was not solely due to the hundred-plus cameras installed under his guidance, nor that Alice was in control of all of Chongyun Village’s monitoring centers and networks, but because the village was now scattered with thousands of “super-connected objects,” tungsten steel balls.

When Xiang Kun had the village roads renovated and lampposts and surveillance cameras installed previously, he had secretly arrayed many of the “super-connected object” tungsten steel balls he had brought back.

Some were buried deep at the roadside, some beneath foundational structures, and others within the cement bases of lampposts—scattered everywhere.

These “super-connected objects” provided Alice with the “hardware foundation” to exert influence on the real world.

Upon fully integrating into the “super-sensory object system,” she would even be able to appear at any corner of Chongyun Village at any time. And Xiao Pingguo could project emotions anywhere through this “super-connected object network,” influencing chosen people within chosen areas.

Once this pilot village had perfected the complete system, it could be quickly applied to any place.

Of course, Xiao Pingguo was yet oblivious to all this.

At this moment, this seventeen-year-old girl, blind since birth, was being astounded by the Chongyun Village panorama brought to her by Alice.

Previously, through her Canary, she already could sense her surroundings and move freely to a large extent.

But that had a sense of being one removed and was limited by Canary’s sensory capabilities, both in breadth and clarity of exploration.

Her current experience was like switching from a small monitor stuck on 240p resolution to standing before a giant screen in real 4K ultra-high definition—it deeply stunned her.

She suddenly realized the real complexity of world construction and the intricacies that far exceeded her initial understanding.

If establishing sensory contact with Canary was like opening a window to her world, enabling her to gaze into the distance,

then this moment of contact with Alice gave her a sense of liberation, as if she had broken through the cage, unfurled her wings, and was now free to roam the vast world.

The sun rose slowly from the east, and the morning glow rapidly spread, bathing Xia Libing and Xiao Pingguo in its light.

With her face slightly upturned, Xiao Pingguo felt the temperature of the faint sunshine, and under Alice’s information transmission, she sensed the sunshine and sunrise more clearly.

Before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face.

Xia Libing, who had been watching and protecting her, reached out to wipe away her tears.

Xiao Pingguo turned towards Xia Libing and showed her a radiant smile. Her eyes were still filled with tears, but they also held excitement and happiness.

She turned back toward the direction of the rising sun and started sprinting.

Canary, perched on the tree nearby, flapped its wings and followed its little boss, its “senior farmhand.”