What It's Like Being a Vampire

When they were eating the late-night meal, unusually, everyone was slurping their noodles without talking. Even the liveliest among them, Yang Zhen’er and Little Fatty Girl, were focused on their food. Xiang Kun could clearly sense that they hadn’t had enough for dinner, and his late-night meal was like sending charcoal in snowy weather.

After they finished eating and chatted for a bit, everyone started feeling sleepy, especially Tang Baona, who had only gone to bed at four o’clock in the morning and had not made up for her lack of sleep during the day.

When everyone was getting ready to go to bed, Xiang Kun decided to go with Old Xia and Little Fatty Girl to check on the recovery of the injured canary.

In fact, Xiang Kun didn’t need to physically touch or see the canary to understand its condition in detail, he could even remotely accelerate its blood circulation and enhance the healing of its wounds under the Super Sensory State by controlling nearby Super-Connected Objects.

However, Little Fatty Girl and Xiao Pingguo couldn’t fully understand this yet. They only knew that Xiang Kun had a way to treat the canary, and seeing him personally check and touch the canary made them feel more at ease.

When Xiang Kun returned from Peng City yesterday, he had already examined the canary’s injuries before his blood-drinking slumber. Now, after more than a day, the canary’s recovery was even faster than Xiang Kun had originally expected.

When he saw the canary yesterday, it was languishing, but now it was already able to raise its neck and chirp at Xiang Kun.

Xiang Kun understood what it meant: it was saying that it didn’t lose to the “mutated big bird”, it was ambushed and injured. The opponent was cunning and clever, not that the canary was incapable!

Xiang Kun held the canary for a while, then instead of putting it back onto the recuperating padding, he placed it back into its cage.

“The canary can stand up now, it doesn’t need to lie down anymore, it can stand steady. Restore its feeding, feed it more, it will be able to fly around soon.” Xiang Kun instructed Xiao Pingguo.

The little chubby bird, with its big appetite and abundant waste, would be easier to manage back in the cage.

With the help of Alice’s sensory augmentation, Xiao Pingguo knew that the canary was standing up again in its cage and rushed to bring out the bird food they had prepared before leaving Chongyun Village to feed it.

Actually, according to Xiang Kun’s understanding of the canary under the Super Sensory State, it has become very different from ordinary canaries. Although there is a fundamental difference from “mutants”, due to the influence of the Super Sensory Item System, it can not only establish a certain connection with “Super-Connected Objects” and “Emotion Infused Objects”, but even on a physical level, it has broken through the limits of ordinary canaries, as if it has unlocked a genetic lock and awakened some ancient genes.

Such a canary, even without the super healing power of a “mutant”, could recover more quickly with Xiang Kun’s help.

Seeing Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er going back to their rooms to sleep, Little Fatty Girl, standing next to Xiang Kun, lightly pulled on his sleeve.

Although no matter how softly Little Fatty Girl spoke, Xiang Kun could hear her clearly even from where he was standing, he still squatted down to look at her eye to eye.

Liu Shiling asked softly, “Uncle Bald, when are you going to eliminate the bad guy monster that hurt the canary?”

“Don’t worry, Xiao Lingdang. It can’t escape. I’ll eliminate it sooner or later, and I’ll let you know when I do.” Xiang Kun said, gently pinching Little Fatty Girl’s cheek.

Liu Shiling twisted her two small hands together, seeming a bit conflicted and hesitant as she said, “Uncle Bald… Can I help?”

Xiang Kun laughed, “You’ve already helped a lot. If it hadn’t been for you and Xiao Pingguo the other night, the canary would have been finished!”

The canary, now standing again in its cage, let out a sharp chirp, clearly expressing its displeasure. However, Custard Pie meowed at the canary, seemingly expressing agreement with what Xiang Kun said.

Since Xiang Kun had complimented Liu Shiling once yesterday when he came back, although she was somewhat flattered, she still said shyly, “Actually, Xiao Luosi, Sister Baked Chicken Wing, and Sister Xiao Pingguo were the powerful ones…”

Xiao Pingguo, who was feeding the canary, said, “You’re already very powerful, Xiao Lingdang. You can summon lightning. It’s amazing. It’s like you’re a fairy from a fairy tale. If that bird… that bug wasn’t so good at running, you would have eliminated it long ago!”

“And your ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Ice Cream’, they are also very powerful. Without them, Alice wouldn’t have been able to defeat… It wouldn’t have been so easy to defeat that bug! You are much more powerful than me!”

“Right, Xiao Lingdang is super powerful,” Xiang Kun said, looking towards Old Xia, “Old Xia, right?”

Xia Libing nodded, “Right.”

After a round of confidence boosting and compliments, Xiang Kun coaxed, “But you can’t face monsters alone yet. You still need to learn a lot of knowledge, so that you can better understand and master more powerful ‘magic’ in the future.”

Liu Shiling stared at him and asked, “How much knowledge do I need to learn to learn really powerful ‘magic’? Like… Sister Baked Chicken Wing?”

“No need, your Sister Baked Chicken Wing has two master’s degrees. She’s too powerful, it’s unnecessary.” Xiang Kun laughed.

“Two keys.” Liu Shiling was a bit puzzled and muttered, “Is it because the powerful ‘magic’ is locked in a box and you need to learn enough knowledge to get the key?”

“Uh, well you’re right about that… But it’s not that key, it’s… Xiao Lingdang, do you know what you should read after kindergarten?” Xiang Kun thought and asked.

“Primary school.” Liu Shiling replied.

“Do you know what comes after primary school?”

“Middle school, high school, college.” Liu Shiling replied, counting on her fingers.

Xiang Kun said: “Your sister who can roast chicken wings is even more formidable than a college student, and she made it happen twice.”

Liu Shiling instantly understood the “level difference”, the downtrodden expression couldn’t help but shuttle across her face–as if she realized the distance from the moon to Earth was a multitude of times farther than from her kindergarten to home and extinguishing her scheme to catch the bunny on the moon.

Xiang Kun quickly added: “That’s why I said there’s no need to worry. As long as you can be like your Sister Xiao Pingguo, reaching the level of middle school knowledge, you’ll be able to have a foundation to access the ‘formidable magic’. Of course, if you want to be even more formidable, you’ll need more knowledge. Just like how your Sister Xiao Pingguo and the sister who roasts chicken wings are both still learning.”

The Little Fatty Girl’s eyes lit up once again. The distance from kindergarten to primary school, to middle school, to high school, to university, and then to even more formidable than a university student, times two, seemed too far away. But going from kindergarten to middle school did not require passing so many levels; it seemed like a task she could accomplish.

“Don’t worry, Xiao Lingdang. Once I exterminate the monster that bullied the golden sparkle, I’ll tell you all about it.” Seeing the Little Fatty Girl’s spirited and adorable expression, Xiang Kun couldn’t help but lightly pinch her cheeks and said with a laugh.

After encouraging the Little Fatty Girl and once again instilling in her the concept that constant learning allows for a “magic future”, Xiang Kun entrusted her and Xiao Pingguo to rest early while he and Old Xia went out.

Xiang Kun led Old Xia into the mountain. He took the lead, while Old Xia followed behind with his phone providing illumination.

As they were climbing the mountain, Xia Libing asked: “Are you able to sense the connection between Sister Nana and the ‘Super Sensory Item System’ through the coin?”

“Yes, but I can only vaguely sense the faint connection between Nana and that coin. Nana’s connection with the ‘Super Sensory Item System’ is currently not very strong.” said Xiang Kun. Thinking about the situation he saw before, he asked: “You lent the coin to Zhen’er because you thought she could also connect with the ‘Super Sensory Item System’, didn’t you?”

“She didn’t just borrow from me. She borrowed the coins from Sister Nana, Xiao Lingdang, and Xiao Pingguo for trial, but she felt mine was the easiest to use.” said Xia Libing.

Xiang Kun chuckled. Yang Lao San was rather intuitive. She guessed that the impressive coin flipping skill might be somewhat related to the coin itself, but without any evidence to prove it, she only had a vague guess.

Today, she originally planned to cajole Old Xia into giving her that coin. Naturally, Old Xia wouldn’t agree, so in the end, Xiang Kun gave her a “Lucky Coin” – she felt reluctant at first, believing that Xiang Kun’s coin couldn’t be as good as flipping as Old Xia’s. It was only once Xiang Kun performed incredible flips with the coin right in front of her that she accepted it with a triumphant grin.

On the way, Xiang Kun briefly explained to Old Xia about the tasks he had arranged for Alice to complete during her period of hibernation and the observations on various Super Sensory Information.

Every time he started talking about this topic, Alice applied for co-manifestation, but both he and Old Xia knew why Alice wanted to co-manifest at this time, so neither of them agreed.

When they reached the area where the Little Fatty Girl had successfully invoked a series of lightning strikes the night before last, Xiang Kun stopped. Xia Libing stood next to him, looking at the depths of the distant mountains: “You want to track it down?”

She knew that although the “mutated big bird” didn’t cause severe consequences in the end, and the injuries of the golden sparkle weren’t fatal, judging by the current recovery trend, it would be able to fly around again soon. However, Xiang Kun certainly took it very seriously.

“Based on the cognitive model I constructed from the ‘mutated big bird’s’ several acts of decision-making, it got roughed up by you guys this time and should have gone deep into Jiangyou Province on the same night. It’s also unlikely to return to Chongyun Mountain Area or Wushu Mountain Area again. It might run even further and develop its evolutionary mutation more towards concealment and stealth.”

Xiang Kun paused momentarily before changing the subject: “However, no matter how it evolves towards obscurity, as long as it remains a ‘mutant’, it cannot escape from the Super Sensory Information. Finding it is only a matter of time.”

After saying that, a crispy pork knuckle appeared in Xiang Kun’s right hand. He made an exaggerated baseball pitcher’s throwing motion and threw the pork knuckle deep into the forest.

The pork knuckle disappeared after flying only a short distance; however, a tungsten steel ball that was originally wrapped by it, continued to accelerate forward, disappearing into the darkness.

Although Xia Libing couldn’t see the tungsten steel ball quickly disappearing into the darkness after the pork knuckle disappeared, she knew the principle of the “Pork Knuckle Throwing Technique” developed by Alice. She knew that, under the premise that this area had been littered with more than two hundred “Super-connected Objects”, the tungsten steel ball thrown by Xiang Kun could cover a larger acceleration distance and possess a stronger penetration power.

Xiang Kun looked at Xia Libing: “Give me your hand.”

After placing a “Super-connected Object”, a tungsten steel ball, in Xia Libing’s palm, Xiang Kun said: “You try; don’t worry about the tungsten steel ball, Alice will help you complete it.”

Xia Libing nodded. A fragrant tungsten steel ball appeared in her palm. Then, fog filled a few dozen meters area ahead, reducing visibility to almost zero, accompanied by the aroma of roasting meat.

When Xia Libing posed to throw, Alice, who had finally gotten permission to co-manifest, appeared beside her and the two made simultaneous throwing gestures.

With a clear shout from Alice, “Ya – Hey!”, the crispy pork knuckle in Xia Libing’s hand was thrown out, quickly disappearing. The tungsten steel ball continued to accelerate and flew more than twenty meters, piercing through the trunk of a tree as thick as an adult’s thigh and burrowing deep into the soil nearby.

At the same time as the pork knuckle flew, fireworks exploded in the mountain forest along the direction of the tungsten steel ball’s flight.

Seeing this scene, then looking at Alice who had completed the throw assist, protruding her head from Xia Libing’s side to look at him with a “Aren’t I great?” expression, Xiang Kun was somewhat speechless.

The roasted smell of the meaty fog that Old Xia allowed Alice to assist in co-manifesting has the effect of hiding and concealing oneself. After all, her “fire-control radar” is Alice and she does not need to manually target with her naked eye, it is quite useful.

But what was the exploded fireworks all about? That was what he had done before as a birthday gift to Old Xia using “emotion infused artifacts”, borrowing the emotion projection of Old Xia’s wristband. Now, this illusion could only be seen by Xiang Kun and Old Xia, what purpose did it serve?

This flamboyant way Alice goes about her business, definitely did not come from him! Xiang Kun thought to himself silently.

Seeming to figure out Xiang Kun’s complaint, Alice exclaimed: “I was helping Old Xia determine the trajectory, letting her know where the bead she threw ended up!”

Xiang Kun ignored her, turning to Xia Libing and saying: “With Alice’s aid in constructing the Super Sensory Contact Model, it will allow a large number of Super-connected Objects to be related at once. The ‘Super-connected Obstacles’ that I plan to keep spreading deep into the forest are mainly tungsten steel balls as they are small and covert. They can mix with the sand and gravel in the soil, making it hard to be discovered. All the stock I bought before can be related quickly. As for the spreading method, I plan to let Zero Zero One and Zero Zero Two’s secondary ant colony continue to reproduce. Once the third, fourth, and even fifth and sixth level ant colonies have evolved, they won’t need flight abilities, resembling ordinary ants more closely. Compared to ordinary ants, they reproduce, incubate, and grow faster. They should be able to fulfill Zero Zero One and Zero Zero Two’s commands to some extent and would be used to deploy the super-connected obstacles into the deep soil of all forested mountainous areas.”

After discussing his plan for fully relating the Super-connected Objects and deploying them in the mountain with Old Xia, Xiang Kun took her back to the village. Old Xia went back to her cabin to sleep, while he got into his MPV parked at the entrance and headed for Tongshi Town.