What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 220: Chapter 220 – Well Done, Alice

Translator: 549690339

Actually, when Xiang Kun arranged “Task 3” previously, he had already allowed “Alice” to get acquainted with, and improve upon the “Vampire Mutation Model” to a certain extent.

Xiang Kun knew that the “Vampire Mutation Model” he wrote himself still had a very low completion rate. This was because the data and samples it could provide were very limited, and there were problems with data standardization and comparability. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be able to provide him with a lot of useful feedback or references.

He wondered what kind of feedback could be given now that “Alice” had learned, improved, and supplemented it with so much data.

“Alice” didn’t respond immediately. Xiang Kun wasn’t in a hurry either, so he opened his notebook, logged into his work email and checked the emails he had received during this period.

According to the scheduled progress emails from Director Lin and Ma Hongguo, the progress of the project was very smooth. Even if he were to “disappear” again for half a month, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Next, he went on Bilibili and saw that the video, which Tang Baona had re-edited and made, was released online two days after he left for the Qinling Uninhabited Area.

In addition to the 2-minute edited version on Bilibili, a 10+ second condensed version was also released on TikTok. They had both been shared on Weibo and WeChat public accounts, although the fan base for those accounts wasn’t large, so it didn’t cost much.

In the final video uploaded, Tang Baona refined it further by adding some sound effects.

You Meng’s lines were removed from start to end, and the types of ingredients, quantities, cooking time, and precautions were displayed using subtitles. The font of the subtitles and their placement were specially designed and arranged by Tang Baona, so the overall visual effect was quite good.

You Meng’s shots merely showed him with an aloof expression and swift actions. Accompanied by sharp cuts, sound effects, and the BGM rhythm, along with his clean, fitted chef’s uniform and his photogenic face, it seemed to give off the aura of a vibrant professional.

Especially the shot where after processing the rabbit meat, he threw the knife aside without looking, and it landed firmly on the chopping board, giving off an aura of a master showboating. Of course, this was achieved through the camera shots and editing.

According to the strategy discussed with the You Meng couple and Tang Baona, the first one or two videos they released just needed to guarantee quality. There was no need for deliberate spreading or hyping. Once a certain level of attention was garnered and the direction of netizens was identified, they would attempt to heat things up according to the previous plan.

Of course, apart from the video’s quality, this also required a bit of luck. Even if a pig had wings attached, it would not fly high unless it was thrown into the wind.

However, to his surprise, when Xiang Kun checked the video posted on Bilibili at that moment, it already had over 600 danmaku (bullet screen comments), over twenty thousand click-throughs, and quite a few coins in just a few days.

The Bilibili ID “Youlong Play Rabbit”, which had only uploaded the video, had already gained more than 3800 followers.

Such popularity was beyond what he had expected. After all, their publicity wasn’t substantial enough, and since the video was also on Weibo and public WeChat accounts, traffic wouldn’t be directed towards Bilibili.

There were over 600 danmaku for the two-minute video, which was already a considerable quantity.

After taking a look at the content of the danmaku, Xiang Kun opened the homepage of “Princess Tangdou” with a realization.

As expected, her most recently published video was a humorous compilation related to You Meng’s cooking video.

This compilation of the same more than 2-minute length used many clips from You Meng’s cooking video, mixed with other movie clips and dubbing, and came out looking very absurd and amusing. For instance, after You Meng cut the rabbit meat and casually threw the knife, the scene cut to the movie “East Meets West” where Wang Chongyang was killed by a boot to the head, making it look like she’d replaced the boot with the knife; she had also mixed scenes of You Meng and scenes from the American TV show Hannibal cooking together, quickly edited, the colors adjusted, so that it strangely didn’t feel out of place.

Xiang Kun laughed out loud watching the video. The absurd danmaku took up half the screen throughout the video, comments like “Never thought you were that kind of queen”, “Thought you were a sweetie, didn’t know you were a goofball”, “Is the music category going to challenge us in the remix category again?”, “A famous music uploader has stooped to making spoof videos to please fans, is this a distortion of human nature or a degeneration of ethics?” all entertained him to no end.

After watching it twice, Xiang Kun searched the entire site again and indeed found several other compilations that used scenes from You Meng’s cooking video. The play counts varied a lot, from a few thousand to a few hundred, but so far none of them had higher quality or more creativity than the one made by Tang Baona.

Although Tang Baona did not proactively mention You Meng’s video from start to end, those who found the spoof video amusing and interesting would naturally look for the “source of all evil”. Also, other uploaders with sharp senses would join in when they realized that this material had potential.

After all, as a somewhat famous uploader on Bilibili, “Princess Tangdou” was known for more than just her covers; she also frequently made some pretty decent mixed-cut videos, but this was her first time making a spoof video of this genre. The stark contrast to her usual style actually attracted even more attention.

Xiang Kun felt touched inwardly because he knew Tang Baona was actively helping to promote the video he and You Meng made.

Although the video, after being edited and processed by Tang Baona, had great quality, was well-crafted and unique, it would be hard for it to suddenly gain popularity without preliminary promotion and paid advertisement. After all, the production of this short video didn’t amaze people.

However, Tang Baona knew the viewing habits and preferences of users. She knew humorous videos were more likely to be shared and go viral among internet users. She decided to use her own account to promote this video, greatly speeding up its spread and saving a lot of time and money for Xiang Kun and You Meng’s upcoming operations.

Xiang Kun was fully aware that although the video seems simple, making it wasn’t necessarily easier than producing their original short video. There were tons of footage that needed to be processed, in order to ensure the seamless transition between scenes, and this required a lot of time and painstaking effort. It was almost certain that Tang Baona had put all her spare time into making this video.

Yet, she never mentioned this to Xiang Kun, nor did she brag about it, she just quietly did all the work.

As Xiang Kun was pondering, he wondered how many meals he owed Tang Baona already?

Without her, Xiang Kun’s estimated promotional plan would be prolonged. At least, they might still be struggling with the final video production, let alone its popularity after release.

As Xiang Kun was considering how to express his gratitude to Tang Baona, the voice of “Alice” came through the speaker next to him,

“Boss, I have some thoughts.”

Xiang Kun was energized and asked: “Tell me your thoughts.”

“I have two points to make. First, you can only gain new ability models from the blood of mutants, but the abilities you gain may not solely come from the mutation.”

Upon some reflection, Xiang Kun understood her point.

Her point was that although Xiang Kun couldn’t obtain abilities from drinking the blood of normal rabbits or chickens, when drinking the blood of mutants, he could gain their abilities, not only those which came from the mutation. For instance, the night vision ability of the Giant Owl — since normal owls also possess this ability.

Xiang Kun nodded. He had realized this point before, but he was still pleased that “Alice” could summarize this.

“What about the second point?”

“Secondly, the trend of your mutation and ability pattern does not comply with the model of the owl and spider mutation. Your human form is restricting your mutation. The type of abilities you gain from absorbing the blood of other mutants is also related to this pattern.”

The second point was somewhat unexpected for Xiang Kun, as well as a bit exciting, because this perspective “Alice” provided was something he had not taken into account before.

“Tell me about your analysis process,” Xiang Kun said.

“Based on the forms and abilities of the mutated owl and spider, along with the results of your targeted training and multiple blood mutations in the past few months, my newly built model analysis believe that should your exterior changes follow the normal mutation results, your body should have diverged significantly from the human form for a stronger evolutionary function by now.”

According to Alice’s interpretation, due to Xiang Kun’s continuous targeted training and multiple instances of blood mutation, his body should have already deviated significantly from the human form for the sake of stronger function and evolution.

For instance, by constantly training his sense of smell, if the mutation is meant to continuously enhance olfaction, his nose should have enlarged to distribute more olfactory cells, enabling it to detect more odorant particles.

Also, by constantly climbing hills and doing various high-difficulty strength and agility training, his muscle distribution should have undergone significant changes. For instance, the proportion of thigh and buttock muscles would increase significantly and the structure of his skeleton would change accordingly.

Furthermore, from the repeated injuries, his skin should harden, or a shell might cover him to offer better protection.

Moreover, he gained the night vision ability from the Giant Owl. The principle of night vision in owls is that they rely on a large number of rod cells, hence their eyes are cylindrical, not spherical. Hence, their necks are highly flexible and can turn 270 degrees.

But even under night vision mode, Xiang Kun could still move his eyes flexibly.

However, in night vision mode, in the dark, his eyes would appear different from those of a normal person, glowing anomalously and looking quite eerie. But generally, his form had not exceeded the bounds of a normal human.

Compared to him, the massive owl’s talons and body shape had well beyond its original form, not to mention the mutated spider, which had almost transformed into a different species.

For their mutation abilities, they underwent colossal adaptation changes in their forms.

As for Guo Tianxiang? His abilities were all within a human society, and he doesn’t remember any targeted training like Xiang Kun’s, so it’s hard to say.

It seemed that in order to keep the human shape, his body is limiting its mutation to some extent, and is selecting and modifying the obtained abilities?

Could it be that humans, due to their superior intelligence, would impose such restrictions – the body believing that maintaining a normal human form in human society would provide better living conditions?

However, Xiang Kun thought that perhaps it was related to his subconscious unwillingness to become an inhuman monster. After all, through Guo Tianxiang’s abilities, he knew that his greatest fear was becoming a monster with eight arms and eight eyes.

It’s like a framework and rules of a system. All functions and applications under this system must follow and be modified and assimilated to fit the rules, become part of the framework, before they can be used.

Xiang Kun suspected that many abilities and mutation patterns obtained from the giant owl, the mutant spider, and even Guo Tianxiang’s blood might not have directly mutated because they did not fit his own “system rules”. Because his body does not allow mutation of related alien organs, or because they conflict with his existing abilities, they can only be consciously improved and assimilated into his system little by little.

Of course, it’s possible that both his subconscious and his body think this “system” is a more powerful and efficient direction for mutation, so they don’t want to change the overall direction for other “minor” abilities.

Regardless of why he has this “system framework and rules” for mutation that “follows the basic human form”, Xiang Kun felt relieved after realizing this, at least he no longer has to worry about becoming a monster.

Alice’s voice was still detailing her analysis process, but Xiang Kun had already thought over what she was saying, so he asked her to stop.

Honestly, Alice’s performance this time was quite surprising, and pleasantly so.

This is the kind of helper and assistant he needs!

“Well done, Alice,” Xiang Kun praised.

“You did a good job too, boss,” Alice immediately responded.

Xiang Kun stiffened his smile, alright, there was still room for improvement: “You should say: ‘Thank you, boss. I will keep up the good work.’

“Thank you, boss. I will keep up the good work.”

“New task 1: Under the premise of ensuring that online behaviour is not detected and personal safety is ensured, gather information on Divine Technology and its founder Lu Cheng’an, collect news and discussions related to the death of the broadcaster with surname Xue and his three companions in the Qinling uninhabited Area.”

…

On the afternoon of December 24th, Xiang Kun, carrying various processed and marinated rabbit meat, went out to Tang Baona’s house.

Tonight was “Christmas Eve,” and Xiang Kun had already made plans with Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er the day before yesterday to cook for them and celebrate “Christmas Eve” together.

In fact, this foreign festival held no significant importance for them; it was just the festive atmosphere created by merchants everywhere on the streets and on the Internet, and they’d take this opportunity to gather.

Originally there were only the three of them, but after Tang Baona’s sister heard that Xiang Kun was going to cook, it wasn’t just a two-person world anymore. She dragged her fiancé along to join the fun. Then Chang Bin and his wife, Wang Han, came along, followed by two friends of Tang Baona and a classmate of Yang Zhen’er. It suddenly became a big gathering of 10 people.

Xiang Kun now has his own unique way of dealing with people, so he doesn’t care too much. Besides, out of the ten people, he had met everyone except Yang Zhen’er’s classmate before. Most of them could even be considered his closest friends in this city.

And since he had consumed a record-breaking twelve rabbits this time, there was no need to worry about running out of rabbit meat.

As he was carrying the foam box filled with prepared rabbit meat past the security guard station of the community, the two security guards greeted him warmly and gave him a thumbs up, saying, “Mr. Xiang’s rabbit meat is indeed superb! The cold rabbit dish is the best I’ve tasted in years! If you open a rabbit meat restaurant in the future, you’re sure to have booming business!”

Xiang Kun chatted with them for a bit with a smile and then took a taxi to leave.

After returning from the Qinling Uninhabited Area this time, Xiang Kun was worried that his blood consumption might increase, so he bought a lot more meat rabbits, a total of 15 at once.

When he was moving the rabbits, the security guards asked him about it. After all, in the past few months, they often saw Xiang Kun transporting rabbits back home. Each time between five to eight rabbits, and this time more than ten. It was definitely not typical pet ownership. They were worried that raising too many rabbits in his apartment might cause a smell or make too much noise, which could disturb other residents.

Xiang Kun explained that he was preparing rabbit dishes for a planned restaurant and showed them the empty cages in his home, telling them that the previous meat rabbits had already been turned into corresponding dishes. Then, two days later, he presented the security guards with a portion of “cold rabbit meat” as a taste test, which won their approval of him as a “rabbit meat chef”.

When he arrived at Tang Baona’s home and saw the two friends that she had invited for “Christmas Eve”, Xiang Kun couldn’t help but pause.

He knew them both, and they left a deep impression on him. They were the couple who had been together since elementary school and eventually got married, that he met at KTV on Tang Baona’s birthday. The man was a game company art director with a small braid, and the woman was Linlin, Tang Baona’s childhood friend.

Xiang Kun was taken aback because, after that day, he heard from Tang Baona that the “childhood sweethearts” who got married ended up quarrelling constantly over trivial matters and eventually divorced.

But now, the two of them were huddled together, laughing and chatting amicably.

When Xiang Kun went to the kitchen to prepare the rabbit meat and other pre-prepared ingredients, Tang Baona took the opportunity to come over to help, and whispered with a smile, “You find it surprising to see them together, don’t you?”

Without thinking, Xiang Kun asked, “They got remarried?”

This time it was Tang Baona’s turn to be surprised, “You knew?”

“Oh, it was a guess,” Xiang Kun chuckled, “They really know how to make a fuss.”

“They made such a big deal before, even going so far as to divorce. Linlin sounded very determined about it, I thought they wouldn’t be able to reconcile this time. But it hasn’t been long and they’re as inseparable as before… I really don’t know what to say about those two… They’re probably closer than most relations by now, probably couldn’t adapt to life without each other,” Tang Baona didn’t find it strange that Xiang Kun was able to guess. In her eyes, Xiang Kun had always been perceptive, always able to see what others couldn’t. Maybe he saw something from Linlin and her husband’s interaction and made this guess.

Indeed, Xiang Kun picked up on a lot of information about the reconciled couple as soon as he stepped foot into the house, and built his cognitive model of them.

But his guess about their remarriage was more of a prediction of what Tang Baona was about to say. When she said, “You find it surprising to see them together, don’t you”, Xiang Kun immediately had an idea of what she might say next.

Xiang Kun found that for people he knew very well, the cognitive model he built was very detailed. Not only was it built through visual, auditory, olfactory information and new cognitive patterns, but also through extensive past observations of behaviors, habits, performances, emotions, and other details. It was a more three-dimensional and comprehensive model.

With real-time information such as tone of voice, facial expressions, and content of the conversation observed, Xiang Kun could instantly predict Tang Baona’s actions, words, and even thoughts to some extent through this model.

Xiang Kun himself did not expect to understand Tang Baona so well.

If he built models like this for Yang Zhen’er or Chang Bin, the results would be less effective. And if he switched the target to others in the room, the results would be even less accurate.