What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 582: Chapter 582: Absolute Control

While reading Xiang Kun’s document, which recorded various mutation data and characteristics at different stages, Mr. Liang was simultaneously comparing it with the various life trajectory records of Xiang Kun after he transformed into a “blood-eating creature” on July 11th of the previous year, collected by “Tyre”.

These records included text, related data, photos, videos, and even some chat records and screenshots from social media.

Although they had only just started to investigate and monitor Xiang Kun, in modern society, digital recording devices can be found almost everywhere. As Xiang Kun had not completely severed his original societal connections and still predominantly lived in urban areas— even in Chongyun Village, his regular place of residence that had been filled with surveillance after his transformation—there were plenty of digital records left behind.

By reviewing these records and basic information, Mr. Liang learned that Xiang Kun had a harmonious family. After his mutation, he continued to maintain frequent contact with his parents, even returning home for a few days during the Spring Festival.

Even on the day of the mutation when his company went bankrupt, Xiang Kun quickly found a few friends after a period of solitary life, and began to socialize and interact more often.

Based on the frequency and timing of his social activities, he was comparatively more active post-transformation than he was before. Moreover, these social interactions seem to be pure socializing, unlike that of Guo Tianxiang and John, these so-called “bloodline vampires”, whose interactions with people are all for a specific purpose.

In conclusion, it seems the people around Xiang Kun haven’t noticed his mutation. Despite significant changes to his appearance and habits, his consistent and regular Blood-drinking Period and restraint in using his abilities, coupled with his respect and upholding of social order, all allow him to continue his life as usual.

Xiang Kun hasn’t utilized any of his emotional and mental influence capabilities from his Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving to profit in any way. Every penny he has spent has been from his own savings or obtained by legal means, which has been clearly accounted for.

This is quite rare for a human “blood-eating creature”.

However, Mr. Liang speculated that Xiang Kun’s girlfriend, Dr. Xia Libing, who resigned to assist him in setting up an Intelligent Breeding Research Base in Chongyun Village, is likely aware of Xiang Kun’s secret as a “blood-eating creature”.

The reason why Mr. Liang directly assumed Xia Libing to be Xiang Kun’s girlfriend was because, according to the information found by “Tyre”, Xiang Kun had lived with her in Citong City, Shenhai City, and Chongyun Village.

Furthermore, according to the timing, it was inevitable for her to be with Xiang Kun during his Blood-drinking Period while they were cohabiting. It’s almost impossible for her to be unaware of Xiang Kun’s peculiarity.

“Tyre” even found the supplier of the meat rabbits Xiang Kun used in Citong City. Their breeding farm’s surveillance video had captured Xia Libing going to buy meat rabbits for Xiang Kun’s blood-drinking purposes— she even paid for them.

In addition, “Tyre” found out that the upfront costs for construction and equipment at the breeding base Xiang Kun was setting up in Chongyun Village were paid by Xia Libing.

From this, it was evident that not only was Xia Libing aware of Xiang Kun’s condition, but she was also fully supportive of him.

When Mr. Liang first learned of this information, his initial reaction was that Dr. Xia Libing was influenced by Xiang Kun through some form of hypnosis, similar to the manipulative abilities demonstrated by Guo Tianxiang and John— the such “bloodline vampires” who could alter people’s psychological perceptions and judgements through sensory contact.

However, after discovering today that Xiang Kun does not rely on human blood as his blood source, coupled with the fact that Xia Libing’s behavioral pattern differed from previous individuals who were hypnotized by the so-called “bloodline vampires”, and reading through Xiang Kun’s mutation report, Mr. Liang realized that the relationship between Xia Libing and Xiang Kun was likely very different from how Guo Tianxiang and John manipulate and control ordinary people.

Perhaps Dr. Xia thought the bald vampire Xiang Kun was cool and developed feelings for him, just like the female protagonists in Mary Sue novels?

However, as long as Xiang Kun does not illegally control others through his “blood-eating creature” abilities, Mr. Liang sees no issue with their actions.

Beforehand, Mr. Liang had been tracking the “bird”, while “Taia” and the information gathering team had been continuously collecting various information related to Xiang Kun and his surroundings.

This time, after getting authorization from Old He, the performance of “Taia” was somewhat better than Mr. Liang had expected, uncovering plenty of information that he would likely overlook or miss if he were conducting the investigation himself.

Although this information had already revealed Xiang Kun’s “blood-eating creature” characteristics, it wasn’t until now, with the acquisition of Xiang Kun’s mutation record files, that Mr. Liang was able to create a clearer picture of Xiang Kun’s mutation route, social connections, current living conditions, and intended behaviors.

Using Academician Shen’s words, Xiang Kun, the human “blood-eating creature”, regardless of his moral bottom line, identity cognition, knowledge reserve, or his attitude towards himself and other “blood-eating creatures”, is a very suitable “Blood-eating creature researcher”.

Looking at what Xiang Kun is doing, he has set up a restaurant with others in order to conceal his future increased blood-drinking needs. He has also co-founded a gaming company to raise funds. What he really wants to do is the so-called “Internet, Intelligent Breeding Research Base”. According to the type of devices ordered, it is actually used for researching the mutation of himself or other “blood-eating creatures”.

He also has the idea of exploring the mysteries and principles of “blood-eating creatures”.

If Academician Shen had discovered an individual like Xiang Kun when he invited him to join the research project, Academician Shen would have been extremely pleased, and would have extended an olive branch without hesitation.

But now, Academician Shen is no longer with us.

After what happened, Mr. Liang naturally possesses skepticism towards the nature of “blood-eating creatures”. He will not easily trust any human “blood-eating creature”. Because even if they appear to be rational and trustworthy under normal circumstances, when they enter a bloodlust state, especially when they reach periodic limits, they might become dominated by their instincts.

Although from Xiang Kun’s own records and the information found by “Taia”, one could infer that Xiang Kun is a person with high mastery of self-control, tremendous research spirit, and a strong moral bottom line, Mr. Liang still harbours a layer of suspicion, needing more observation and testing.

Under normal circumstances, he would have let “Taia” continue to monitor and observe, and would not hastily come into contact—this year, a large number of surveillance devices was installed in Chongyun Village, where Xiang Kun resides, and has even been connected to the “Bright Project”. Originally, this should have been Xiang Kun’s wish to monitor his controlled area for safety, but now it has facilitated “Divine Technology” and “Taia”, saving them the effort of deploying covert surveillance.

But now, after looking at the relevant information found by “Taia”, he must do something in advance.

Because Xiang Kun’s research base is about to be completed, and by then, he could potentially bring about a catastrophe unprepared.

Xiang Kun may escape this once, but Xia Libing and other ordinary people involved in the research may be implicated.

By then, not only will there be casualties, but Xiang Kun might also undergo psychological changes because of it.

He may turn from a qualified “researcher”/ “successor” into something else entirely.

So after leaving Xiang Kun’s house, Mr. Liang sat in his exclusive black car parked outside, reviewed the relevant information once more, pondered over it, and then prepared to head to Haixi Province, Tongshi Town.

What Mr. Liang didn’t know was that from the moment he began his investigation on Xiang Kun, all his behaviors had been recorded and transmitted to Chongyun Village thousands of miles away by the drone he carried with him.

A little girl, born in the virtual yet able to co-manifest in reality, had been incessantly chattering about his investigation to Dr. Xia, who she believed might be deluded from reading too many vampire Mary Sue novels.

From teams led by Fang Pingfang, Zhao Feng and others investigating the “Eight-armed Eight-eyed Illusion”, “White-skirted Little Girl Outside the Airliner”, to Mr. Liang personally investigating the whereabouts of the “mutated big bird”, “Xiang Kun’s mutation process”, all were part of the overall plan and final goal designed by Xiang Kun, with Alice executing, and Xia Libing supervising and controlling the entire process.

Yes, Xiang Kun was deliberately leading “Divine Technology”, leading Mr. Liang to discover his existence.

Or strictly speaking, allowing Mr. Liang to discover his existence as a “mutant”, and the way he exists.

Although he planned to lay his cards on the table to Mr. Liang, Xiang Kun did not intend to tell him directly.

With his current ability, in the Super Sensory Item System which is already very powerful, the Super-connected Objects and Emotion Infused Objects are spread out over the majority of cities. With Alice’s assistance, and having completely hacked the internal systems of “Divine Technology” and taken complete control of “Taia”, Xiang Kun was fully aware of Mr. Liang’s predominance of mutant characteristics. Thus, he was 100% confident that he could take the initiative, pay a visit, and entirely control Mr. Liang overwhelmingly.

If following the existing plan, he would cautiously distribute and associate his “Super-connected Objects” and “Emotion Infused Objects” globally, improve the connections and applications of various capabilities in the Super Sensory Item System, and then get rid of the trouble caused by the “Ultimate Predator”. Next, he could persuade Mr. Liang in a most straightforward manner. He could also persuade all the organizations and institutions he recognized to cooperate with him, and to acknowledge and accept his existence.

But now, because of the ambush attack by the “mutated big bird”, Xiang Kun realized that the “Ultimate Predator” would not wait quietly for him to complete deployment but would constantly cause problems.

So he had to resort to a more aggressive and risky strategy to deal with the “Ultimate Predator”. Yet, this strategy, this plan, could not be accomplished by him alone. He needed help.

Currently, Mr. Liang appeared to be the most suitable candidate.

He had to make Mr. Liang willingly assist him, so he couldn’t outright dominate him with violence.

Although he had never directly contacted Mr. Liang, through dreams, secret documents, and various kinds of information, he had a basic understanding of Mr. Liang’s current character and behavioral model. He knew that this crude method wouldn’t fully secure Mr. Liang’s trust. Even if he laid all his information out in the open, or even directly explained all his plans and specified all his goals; even if his goals were aligned with Mr. Liang’s and the latter would first use his way to verify.

This process was likely to exceed Xiang Kun’s control and would trigger the “Ultimate Predator’s” excessive reaction.

Therefore, Xiang Kun made a series of arrangements that would allow Mr. Liang to slowly discover him, learn about his information, and uncover his mutant characteristics.

The credibility and the influence varied greatly between getting something directly from a stranger and obtaining it step by step through complicated investigation and analysis.

It was particularly so for Mr. Liang.

For such a long time, Mr. Liang had been controlling the secretive department of “Divine Technology” by himself. He was secretly guiding all the investigations on “mutants”. Having experienced the incident where Academician Shen was murdered by “Xiao Xue”, a quote remained in some secret footage from his secret files: “Don’t easily trust any ‘blood-eating creature,’ regardless of whether they seem human or something else. Don’t forget their essence.”

He inherently distrusted and was suspicious of “blood-eating creatures”.

The goal of Xiang Kun was to let Mr. Liang gradually establish an image of him by investigation and then arrive at Chongyun Village, Chongyun Mountain, to meet and reveal all.

He wanted Mr. Liang to believe that the initiative was in his hands.

However, during this time, Xiang Kun had other things that required his full attention—it was a race against time. Therefore, he left the task of controlling the overall guiding plan and the details to Old Xia and Alice.

Owing to the information provided by Xiang Kun, Old Xia had also made a detailed study and had a good understanding of Mr. Liang’s character.

Thus, knowing what had to be done, he was able to guide Alice in adjusting some details according to the actual situation to make Mr. Liang’s discovery journey and investigation seem more natural.

Now, as per their arrangement, Mr. Liang was on his way here.

After essentially completing the guiding task, Alice, who was standing next to Dr. Xia, suddenly asked, “Old Xia, is Lu Qinliang considered a human?”

Dr. Xia nodded, “Yes.”

Alice, lolling against Dr. Xia, shook her head, “Old Xia, between me and Lu Qinliang, who is more human?”

“Did you inform Xiang Kun?” Dr. Xia asked directly.

“Yes, the boss was notified immediately!” After Alice answered, she continued, “Old Xia, between me and Lu Qinliang, who is more human?”

After glancing at her, Xia said, “To me, you are.”

But after finishing his sentence, he flicked Alice’s forehead, who was clinging to him like bubble gum.

With a joyful chuckle, Alice disappeared.

…

After arriving at Tongshi Town, thanks to the surveillance images of Chongyun Village relayed by “Taia”, Mr. Liang knew that Xiang Kun was not at his home in Chongyun Village or at the research base, but had entered Chongyun Mountain just after nine in the morning.

During this period, Xiang Kun always went into Chongyun Mountain in the morning and didn’t come back until the evening.

Because there were no surveillance cameras in the mountains, they couldn’t tell what he was doing.

However, Mr. Liang had already deployed drones to probe and lay out the area above Chongyun Mountain.

Mr. Liang didn’t drive directly into Chongyun Village. He got off the car two kilometers from the village, entered stealth mode, and sneaked into the village.

He didn’t hurriedly rush over immediately after coming from Shenhai. Instead, he first arranged for some targeted equipment and “biological components” to ensure that he would have absolute control when facing Xiang Kun.

Because he hadn’t taken a plane but had driven here, when he arrived in the Haixi Province, the dispatched equipment had also reached the predetermined location. After making all necessary preparations, he arrived at Chongyun Village.