What It's Like Being a Vampire

When Mr. Liang returned to the basement of the Brilliant Fortune Building, he saw John sitting against the wall, staring blankly at the rabbit wood carving placed in the middle of the hall, seemingly lost in thought.

Mr. Liang emerged from his invisibility status, walked to the platform, picked up the rabbit wood carving that seemed unchanged, and asked, “What happened?”

John was startled, apparently just realizing Mr. Liang had returned. He pointed to the wood carving in Mr. Liang’s hands, and said with a bit of unease, “It… It has a problem! There’s an evil spirit hidden inside it!”

Then, John hastily explained to Mr. Liang what had happened yesterday, focusing on the significant points of his experience, including how the light flickered, how he saw that piece of rabbit meat, and how the rabbit meat disappeared without any warning.

Mr. Liang wasn’t surprised, but instead nodded approvingly, “Good, you have started to see its peculiarities.”

He knew that “blood-eating creatures” normally don’t need to sleep. John hadn’t reached his feeding and blood-drinking time. While the old vampires of the “Red Rose” had a secret technique for extending their period of extreme limits through slumber, it wasn’t something they could use whenever they pleased, and John couldn’t possibly waste his time sleeping within the 40-day limit. So, it wasn’t in his dreams that he had seen the rabbit meat, but he had been affected by illusions in reality.

This situation was something Dr. Fang Pingfang had encountered in laboratories of the research bases in Bao Wang City and An Tie Town.

One could say that John had proven that the hallucinations brought about by the wood carving affected not only human beings, but “blood-eating creatures” as well.

“Tell me exactly, how did you trigger the hallucination of the rabbit meat?” Mr. Liang asked.

“How did I trigger…” John paused for a moment, thought about it, then said with a little uncertainty, “I bit its ear.”

“Oh?” Mr. Liang picked up the rabbit wood carving, opened his mouth wide, and put one ear of the rabbit wood carving into his mouth – in fact, he could easily swallow the entire wood carving.

After symbolically biting on the ear a few times, Mr. Liang pulled the woodcarving out and asked, “Like this?”

John was taken aback. He had never seen Mr. Liang with his mouth fully open before; the visual impact was quite shocking. So it took a while for John to respond to Mr. Liang’s question. As soon as he came to his senses, he quickly nodded, “Yes, that’s right… just… take a bit.”

But clearly, Mr. Liang’s this instance didn’t trigger any similar feedback. So, he threw the rabbit wood carving to John and said, “You take a bite.”

John glanced at the rabbit ear that Mr. Liang had “bitten”, hesitated a bit, then chose to bite the other ear, but this time again, nothing unusual occurred.

Mr. Liang wasn’t surprised or disappointed as when Fang Pingfang had previously encountered the rabbit meat hallucination, she hadn’t bitten the rabbit’s ear either. The idea that biting the ear of a rabbit carving would trigger a hallucination seemed to be purely coincidental.

“What are your thoughts on the connection between the wooden carving and the hallucination, its trigger mechanism?” Mr. Liang asked.

John repeated his previous words, “There is an evil spirit inside! It… it might be a rabbit, or something else, but anyway it has a direct impact on the soul and influences the mind.”

Whilst saying this, John seemed to think that using “rabbit” to describe the so-called evil spirit might not sound intimidating or terrifying. So he hurriedly gave some examples, such as Annabelle, Chucky, etc., and proposed to send the wood carving to Europe to test some “legendary” methods of “purification”.

However, Mr. Liang hadn’t seen these movies and was further confused. In fact, based solely on John’s earlier account, Mr. Liang understood completely what had happened and also knew that John was considerably shaken.

“Do you think the illusion of that rabbit you saw has any connection with the Eight-Armed Giant Hallucination in Myitkyina?” Mr. Liang suddenly asked.

John was taken aback. Mr. Liang did not seem to accept his “evil spirit” analysis but instead proposed another approach.

Following this line of thought and combining his interviews with some witnesses who had seen the illusions in Myitkyina, last night’s apparition, as well as adding a bit of imagination, he found himself unveiling a more mysterious and profound “scroll”.

Seeing John lost in thought, Mr. Liang didn’t rush him. He walked to the only seat in the hall, sat down, re-entered his invisibility status, pulled out his computer screen, and began to look over the briefings from various bases and field teams collated by “Taia”.

These briefings, usually conveying phased results or routine reports, wouldn’t bear any urgent incidents. Otherwise, the research bases and teams would directly contact him via personal communicators.

Before reviewing the briefings, Mr. Liang had “Taia” perform a security check on itself to confirm that there were no issues concerning hardware or software, as well as the access control and network security systems.

From John’s and Fang Pingfang’s earlier descriptions, it seemed that the rabbit wood carving had an effect on people and created illusions, interfered with surrounding electronic devices and power systems. It’s likely related to the magnetic field, which is quite similar to the environmental impact around the time the Eight-Armed Giant Hallucination appeared in Myitkyina on the evening of March 8th. This was one of the reasons why he linked the rabbit wood carving illusion to the Eight-Armed Giant Hallucination.

However, Mr. Liang had no worries about the security equipment and system security of this location. With “Taia” keeping watch, the worst-case scenario would simply result in damage to some hardware. The vital data was stored in their dedicated network, with multiple servers storing it in various places. The most core and confidential data were stored offline and unplugged— unless one could breach right into the storage space, even an EMP would hardly cause damage.

Mr. Liang had absolute confidence in the AI system which he supervised and watched develop into what it is today. If “Taia” determines there are no issues, then there should be no issues.

“Taia”, one of the mythical top ten famous swords in our country, is a sword of power, invisible and traceless. Its sword energy exists between heaven and earth. When the time, place, people, and the three virtues unify, Taia will be created — as legend has it that Ouyezi and Ganjiang only claim to be carriers of this sword’s energy.

Mr. Liang’s choice of this name shows his confidence in and emphasis on this AI system.

After what seemed to be a psychological struggle, John slowly placed the rabbit wood carving at one corner of Mr. Liang’s operating platform. Then he said, “Five more days until the 40-day deadline… I think I want to choose a different task.”

Mr. Liang was truly surprised this time. The eyeball without eyelids looked at John, and his body “reappeared” on his chair, “You intend to have a battle to the death with that serpent?”

John nodded with difficulty: “Yes.”

Mr. Liang looked at the rabbit wood carving on the platform and said, “If you’re worried about timing, I can extend the deadline for you.”

“No need, I don’t think I can complete this task.” John hesitated for a moment, then made another request. “If possible, can you turn on that ‘screen’ again? I want to take a closer look.”

As the one who had a brief battle with the giant serpent— or more accurately, had been simply chased by it, John was obviously well aware of the serpent’s combat capability. The tasks Mr. Liang had listed side by side for him to select were akin to the “method of assigning math homework by making students copy ten questions a thousand times or solve them”. Mr. Liang used a task that John was deemed impossible to choose as an anchor, creating a sense of pressure and a contrast of hope for him.

But now it seems that the illusion last night had a bigger impact on John than expected?

Mr. Liang was somewhat perplexed, was it not just an illusion of a piece of rabbit meat that terrified him to this extent?

Even an ordinary person like Dr. Fang, who had also seen the rabbit meat illusion, wasn’t scared witless and was still thinking about how to unravel the mystery. And yet, you, a supposed “European bloodline vampire”, are this fearful?

Has he been watching too many horror movies or reading too many horror novels?

The rabbit wood carving only induces bizarre illusions in people, it doesn’t seem capable of causing any real harm. In contrast, a fight to the death with the giant serpent is truly life-threatening.

However, Mr. Liang didn’t probe too much into it. He snapped his fingers and projected the image of the mutant giant serpent that was kept in a room behind a wall for John to observe.

“Thank you,” John said hurriedly, leaning in to get a closer look at the reptile. Both of its eyes, which it had blinded by itself, were now fully healed. It looked exactly the same as when he had first encountered it over a month ago.

John made the current decision with great reluctance. He had used up most of the 40-day time limit to understand the peculiarities of the rabbit wood carving, the sunk cost was too high.

Normally, he had no reason to give up now.

But his encounter last night and Mr. Liang’s recent comments had made him realize that the rabbit wood carving was a real pitfall!

If this rabbit wood carving is related to the Eight-Armed Giant Hallucination of Myitkyina, then that’s even more terrifying. God knows what incredible being lies behind it.

He had previously proposed helping Mr. Liang investigate the Eight-Armed Giant hallucination in Myitkyina and even proposed some so-called pathways. However, those were desperate words he was forced to say in order to negotiate his survival. His goal was to leave here, go to Burma, Myitkyina, meet more people, better show his abilities and value, and have more chances to escape – his choices were much more extensive.

But now it seems that Mr. Liang wants him to stay here, access the mystery behind the wood carving using his own soul and mind, making him more of a scout, cannon fodder, or a sacrificial offering used for summoning.

He should have realized it earlier, that an object that is highly valued but indomitable by Mr. Liang and the organization behind him must not be simple, it can’t be a problem he can easily solve.

Rather than facing a certain horrifying and terrifying unknown, it’s better to have a fight with a known but limited powerful creature.

John gripped the small white porcelain knife in his pocket as he locked his gaze on the giant serpent displayed on the wall screen. He replayed the last brief fight and the serpent’s reactions during that time in his head.

Perhaps, there was still hope.

…

Although Alice’s data collection mission failed, Xiang Kun was not too worried.

The model to retrieve data from the storage device via the “super-connected objects” matrix and carry out remote transmission and compile transcode has been established and had been run successfully.

It was just a matter of time when the secret data on the storage device beneath the Brilliant Fortune Building would be obtained.

As for the commotion caused last night, Xiang Kun was not very worried either. The rabbit meat hallucination had been presented to Dr. Fang in the laboratory before. It was a label and characteristic given by “Divine Technology” to the rabbit wood carving. It was nothing new for them to experience it again.

On the contrary, Alice going overboard last night in a “fit of rage” had helped him confirm two things:

One, given a sufficient supply of “super-connected objects” and favorable surroundings, Alice could trigger “emotion-infused objects” within her range to generate an illusion;

Second, “mutants” too could be affected by the illusions produced by “emotion-infused objects”. As it seemed now, only “mutants” transformed from humans could be affected. The other three “mutants” of different forms under the Brilliant Fortune Building could only sense the anomaly, without seeing any related illusions.

The emotional projection ability of “emotion-infused objects” derived from “emotional assimilation” still required the affected target to have a “similar channel” for emotional perception ability.

But today, Xiang Kun decided to take a break from these matters. As today was April 22nd, tomorrow was Old Xia’s birthday. Everyone planned to celebrate Old Xia’s birthday tonight – this was also the reason he had invited Professor Li Yang and Xiao Pingguo to Chongyun Village.

So, Xiang Kun needed to focus on his primary responsibility as a chef and prepare a luxurious dinner for tonight.

While Xiang Kun was preparing the ingredients, Xia Libing, Tang Baona, Yang Zhen Er, Xiao Pingguo, among others were video calling Little Fatty Girl who was in Star City, listening to her sing “Happy Birthday” for Old Xia.

“Happee Bersday to you~, Happee Bersday to you~, Happee Bersday dear Old Summer~, Happee Bersday to you~”

The Little Fatty Girl in the video was taking the song seriously. Alice had taught her this English version of the birthday song. Although she had sung it before, it was always in chorus, and humming along was enough. But this time she was singing alone and there were many people watching her, it was making her nervous. She wasn’t very fluent in the pronunciation and had added new words, making the singing a little shaky. But she still tried hard not to get off tune and bravely completed four loops.

At first, Tang Baona, Xiao Pingguo, as well as Xia Tianhuo, Zi Cheng, Chu Xiaoting who came over for fun, felt a little confused. Although the Little Fatty Girl’s voice was a little blurry, they all understood “happy birthday to you,” but what does “old summer” mean?

Tang Baona was the first to react, she turned her head towards Yang Zhen Er and said, “Old Summer?”

Yang Zhen Er, who volunteered to teach Little Fatty Girl the birthday song, couldn’t help but laugh. She nodded and said, “Yeah, yeah, it’s a great English nickname, isn’t it?”

“OMG! Old Summer is outrageous! Yang Lao San is too bad, she actually lied to the kid!” Xia Tianhuo couldn’t help but complain about his cousin.

However, Zi Cheng, Xiao Pingguo, Chu Xiaoting, and others who knew the truth couldn’t help but laugh.

Seeing the reactions of everyone, Liu Shiling asked nervously in the video, “Sister Chicken Wing, did I sing it wrong?”

Xia Libing, still had a calm expression, replied, “No, you sang very well.”

Tang Baona, between laughs and tears, said, “Little Lingdang sang very well, by the way, when your Old Fairy Sister taught you, did she tell you what this song means?”

Liu Shiling nodded, “It’s the birthday song, we often sing it in kindergarten. ‘Happee Bersday to you’ means happy birthday and Old Fairy Sister said ‘Old Summer’ means dear sister.”

After saying that, Liu Shiling asked Old Xia, “Sister Chicken Wing, happy birthday! Have you received the birthday present I sent you?”

“Thank you, Little Lingdang, I haven’t received it yet. When did you send it?” Xia Libing shook her head.

“My mom said it was sent the day before yesterday via a very fast courier that has a wind emblem. Will they have lost my gift?” Liu Shiling asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

“SF Express? If it was sent from Star City, it should be delivered today. I’ll go and ask Brother Xiang!” Yang Zhen Er stated, immediately running out of the living room and rushing into the kitchen to find Xiang Kun.

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