What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 206: Chapter 206 Various Speculations

Translator: 549690339

Looking at the video, there were indications of a struggle around the wild boar, but they were not noticeable.

Given the weight of this boar, even if it were shot by a hunting arrow, it surely wouldn’t drop dead instantly, especially considering the wound location was neither in the heart nor the brain – it wasn’t fatal.

There should have been more signs of a struggle if the boar, agonizing from pain, had gone into a rage.

Could it have been a poisoned arrow that took effect quickly?

Or perhaps, this wasn’t the first place the boar died. What if the hosts killed it elsewhere, waited until it entirely bled out, and then dragged it here? This could explain the absence of blood and struggle marks.

But in the wild, without any tools, moving such a hefty wild boar wouldn’t be easy, and there should be noticeable drag marks. Yet the video doesn’t provide any evidence to support such a theory.

Xiang Kun started looking into other video clips and online discussions involving Host Xue.

Host Xue and his two companions entered the secluded deep mountains of the Qinling Uninhabited Area on the 15th of October. After exiting on the 20th, they posted the wild boar video, along with a few other exploration videos, in a nearby town and hosted a live stream. They expressed intentions to return and search for the blood-sucking monster that potentially killed the boar.

After watching all the exploratory videos, Xiang Kun started believing that the hosts might not have killed the boar.

An wilderness survival expert was indeed among the host’s companions. Putting aside his level of expertise, he certainly had basic survival experience, and it’s improbable he wouldn’t have known the dangers of a boar that size. The gimmick of using a boar for show effects may not have been more impactful than using a wild rabbit or other smaller animals.

Moreover, the broadcast comments and host’s explanations revealed that they knew the boar was a national secondary protection animal. Consequently, there were no videos of them dissecting it or roasting its meat. If they had indeed killed the boar, would they dare to upload the video and risk getting into trouble?

People were posting comments like “illegal hunting of national secondary protection animals”, “imprisonment for a term of more than three years” and “video dissemination, particularly serious circumstances, imprisonment for five to ten years,” despite them explicitly stating they had stumbled upon the boar’s carcass in the video.

Was it possibly someone else who killed and dumped the boar, and they just happened to find it?

Continuing through the live-streamed video from the night of the 20th, Xiang Kun found Host Xue explained the reasoning behind their blood-sucking monster theory. It wasn’t just a wild guess, but a conclusion drawn from no visible animal tracks around, the apparent decrease in the boar’s blood volume, and the lack of blood stains nearby. It was as though something had sucked the blood out through the wound.

Host Xue emphasized that the wilderness survival expert, who had also never encountered such an odd method of hunting, found it peculiar.

The expert was quite certain there were no other human footprints around the boar’s carcass, except theirs.

Xiang Kun acknowledged that even if the boar’s carcass wasn’t a hoax set up by the broadcasters and was genuinely stumbled upon, it was possible they didn’t really believe in any “blood-sucking monster”. They might just be intentionally creating such an atmosphere and setting to attract more attention and get their viewers more engaged.

Compared to simply exploring the remote and deep areas of the Qinling Uninhabited Area, an adventure headline featuring a “blood-sucking monster” was decidedly more appealing.

Otherwise, if they genuinely believed in the existence of a mysterious “blood-sucking monster” capable of silencing a wild boar without leaving a trace, they wouldn’t have so casually ventured back into the unpopulated region, disregarding their own lives.

Xiang Kun looked up the news report of when the broadcasters’ bodies were found. Naturally, photos of the bodies weren’t in the news. The report speculated they died of freezing and starvation after consuming a certain wild poisonous fruit and losing their bearings in the woods.

However, the news did mention that the search and rescue team first found the wilderness survival expert’s GPS, then after a long time, located the three bodies.

Does that mean, they discarding the GPS because of hallucinations caused by the poisonous fruit?

No details about the autopsy results were shared – whether it had been released or would ever be released to the media was uncertain. Were any anomalies reported?

Xiang Kun followed this news because he heard the suspicious phrase “blood-sucking monster”.

After further investigation, he realized it couldn’t necessarily be ruled out – maybe whatever truly killed the wild boar and potentially the broadcasters in the uninhabited area could indeed be a “blood-sucking monster”.

And it’s very likely this was a non-human mutant creature.

Otherwise, there probably would have been footprints near the boar’s body. Surely, the vampire couldn’t be dangling from a nearby tree, sipping blood from the wound through a straw, could it?

Xiang Kun believed that if he could make a field trip to the site, he would definitely pick up on plenty of details if a mutant creature was indeed residing there. His sensitivity to the scent of such creatures would be far greater than regular beings.

After acquiring information about the area of the Qinling Uninhabited Region that the broadcasters had entered from their videos and relevant news, Xiang Kun pondered,

Should I investigate it thoroughly myself?

There was no definitive conclusion or substantial evidence from the videos, but he had a hunch that, regardless of the death of the broadcasters, there’s a good chance the boar was slain by a mutant creature residing deep within Qinling.

Observing the Giant Owl and Guo Tianxiang’s behaviour, one could infer that after a certain number of blood-drinking mutations, a mutant creature might need the blood of other mutants to survive.

Though he didn’t feel the need for blood increasing beyond what rabbit blood could provide, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Moreover, observing and studying other mutant creatures could potentially aid him in understanding the cause of his mutations, refining the Vampire Mutation Model, and obtaining more data for research.

Given the official conclusion that the broadcasters died after eating poisonous fruit and losing their way, there probably wouldn’t be many investigators left in the area.

Even if someone is still secretly investigating, Xiang Kun wasn’t too worried.

The Yangcheng Police were keeping tabs on the case involving Guo Tianxiang, preventing Xiang Kun from returning to those areas. This was due to, in a large city, no matter how careful he was, no matter how much attention he paid, he could not completely avoid leaving traces, nor could he avoid being noticed, despite all his abilities.

However, in real wilderness areas such as the uninhabited area of Qinling, Xiang Kun had a massive advantage. He discovered this when he explored the habitat of the Giant Owl and spent several days in the forest.

He can function without food and drink, neither requiring supplies nor sleeping, and he can remain active for 24 hours a day without rest, due to his ultra-fast recovery.

By constantly practicing “mountain charging”, he had built strong adaptability to all kinds of terrain, and he was even good at tree climbing.

Not to mention, his sense of smell, hearing, and night vision abilities are all stronger than any wild beast. Plus, his infrared thermographic vision mode which he acquired from Guo Tianxiang is highly effective in forests without building obstructions.

He could detect other people or creatures in advance and always stay steps ahead, whether he needed to hide or do other things, giving him a massive advantage.

Although he didn’t have a 9-to-5 job now, he couldn’t just randomly start an impromptu trip anytime he want.

For instance, the video Tang Baona edited for the “Youlong Restaurant” — they agreed tonight that they would need You Meng to get more sound effects before making the final version. Xiang Kun would also need to participate in deciding where and how they would publish the video.

As for “Alice”, he needed to ensure her host computer’s power supply. When Xiang Kun was home, he had an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), and a small generator equipped with an automatic transfer switch (ATS). In case of a power outage, there would be sufficient time to restore power without any issues. It could ensure that at least 20 hours of power outages would not cut off the main computer, thus creating no threat to “Alice” during Xiang Kun’s blood-drinking period or the occasional trips out of the house.

But if he were to leave for several days, such a setup might not be reliable. He had to figure out a way, maybe letting “Alice” come up with a solution herself, to allow her software to stop relying on and binding to this host computer.

Additionally, he would need to prepare for the possibility that he wouldn’t return home in time for his blood-drinking period if he were away for longer than expected. He must make a contingency plan.

He would also need to handover and arrange the project he was cooperating with Director Lin and his team. It would be normal not to be able to contact him for two days, as it was written in the contract, but being unreachable for a week would be quite problematic, so advanced arrangements were necessary.

The preliminary plan Xiang Kun had was to explore the uninhabited area in Qinling, where Host Xue had an accident, after this blood-drinking period ended. He would decide based on the circumstances.

On one hand, this would allow him to have as long of a break between blood-drinking periods as possible. On the other hand, it would let him establish “super sensory contact” with some tools and arrows, as well as make other preparations.

Checking the time, it was already late at night. Xiang Kun routinely sensed the brush-written lyrics he had given to Xia Libing. There was still no entrance into the dreamland.

Then Xiang Kun sensed the Minion Wood Carving in Xiao Pingguo’s place and immediately entered a “joyous” dreamland, even though there wasn’t any visible scene.

Recently, after Xiao Pingguo had many “computer classes” in her dreams, Xiang Kun felt that he should let her relax more in her dreams, guided by joyous emotions.

What he didn’t expect was that in this joyous dreamland, Xiao Pingguo was the “teacher” giving a “class”.

Utilizing her sensory perception in her dream, from her perspective, Xiang Kun could “see” more than a dozen minions listening carefully to what Xiao Pingguo was saying on the “podium”.

And she was giving a stand-up comedy performance, whose core content Xiang Kun used to explain to her some computer knowledge. It was more fun to convey this in a “teaching” way.

Whenever Xiao Pingguo reached a punchline, the minions would burst into characteristic laughter. Then she would join them in giggling.

Xiang Kun experienced her happiness and punchlines very vividly as he was exploring her dreamland from her perspective.

After leaving the dreamland, recalling the stand-up comedy Xiao Pingguo had created with the things he taught inspired him to laughter.

Whether Xiao Pingguo had this stand-up comedy fully prepared when she was awake, or unconsciously developed it in her dream, it was very well-done, coherent from beginning to end. Xiang Kun had no idea that he would be listening to a stand-up comedy in Xiao Pingguo’s dream, laughing joyfully. Given Xiao Pingguo’s very particular cognitive pattern in her dream, this was indeed an extraordinary experience.

As he was chuckling, he froze. He suddenly realized that the items with “Emotional Infusion” stimulated dreams, making the influenced person dream with the same emotion that was infused into the item.

Yet, this dream, this emotion, originates from the influenced person themself.

This was fundamentally different from Xiang Kun’s “Emotional Assimilation”, which forcefully instills in the influenced person the same emotion and attitude as Xiang Kun’s, making them feel what he feels.

And the dreamland induced by an “Emotionally Infused” item varies from person to person. The “feared form” fear emotion induced by the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving effects people differently. The dreamlands perceived by Tang Baona’s grandfather, Mr. Feng, her uncle, and later, the consulting company personnel, were all entirely different and have different patterns and details.

Then, what if… the person who was influenced had never had the same type of emotion as that infused into the item?

Without emotional resonance, naturally, the item won’t affect the person or induce a dreamland, and Xiang Kun wouldn’t sense anything.

This scenario is unlikely to happen to ordinary people, as everyone has emotions. However, after sensing an emotion on the bus yesterday that was extremely indifferent and rational yet not quite an emotion, Xiang Kun wondered if Old Xia might have never had the emotion infused into the calligraphy. That might be why he could not sense and stimulate her dreamland.

While making the calligraphy, Xiang Kun originally intended to give it to Xia Libing. Based on his previous understanding of Xia Libing, the emotion of “loneliness” should resonate the most with her.

However, now it seems that Old Xia might have no idea what “loneliness” is and never experienced it. That’s probably why his calligraphy, infused with “loneliness”, failed to guide Xia Libing into a dreamland.

“Does Old Xia have some sort of emotional disorder?” Xiang Kun pondered while recalling all of Xia Libing’s behaviors and expressions since their acquaintance.

How should he confirm this? By testing other “emotionally infused” items with different emotional models? By trying to sense that indifferent rational “emotion” again? Or by asking her directly?

Xiang Kun recalled some medical textbooks he read before. He searched online to find out which illnesses might affect a person’s emotional development.