What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 75: A Visit

After buying various condiments, Xiang Kun pushed his shopping cart towards the drinks section.

Besides mineral and pure water, he naturally didn’t need any other drinks, and his need for water was significantly less compared to when he was still human.

The reason he was buying drinks was for Tang Baona and her friends.

They had agreed in a group chat a few days earlier to meet at Xiang Kun’s house for a card game on Sunday afternoon, which was tomorrow.

Initially, he wanted to refuse, but he reflected that recently, whenever they went out to hike, play cards, horse ride, or archery, it was always them who suggested these activities and settled upon the locations. It seemed unkind of him as a friend to remain detached.

So, he agreed. After all, apart from raising three meat rabbits, there weren’t any secrets in his house that he couldn’t reveal.

He didn’t have any drinks or snacks at his house, and while he didn’t need them because he lived alone, he thought it proper to prepare some when expecting guests.

After buying the drinks and snacks, Xiang Kun was ready to checkout when he spotted a child running from the front aisle out of the corner of his eye. So, he instinctively kicked the case of mineral water to the side.

The next second, the child rushed past, and his mother, pushing a shopping cart, hurriedly called his name while catching up.

Watching the mother-daughter pair walking away, Xiang Kun momentarily blanked out.

If he hadn’t shoved the case of mineral water aside, the child would surely have tripped and fallen.

At first glance, this action seemed insignificant. If other people saw the child coming, they might instinctively clear the obstacles in the way too.

The moment before he stepped on the case of mineral water, he already knew that from the moment the child entered the supermarket, he had been nagging his mother to buy a remote control tank. After his mother promised, he dashed straight to the toy section, and based on the route he chose, the child was clearly familiar with the supermarket and knew where the toys were.

The child, with his eyes and attention fixated on the toy section, didn’t see the box of mineral water in the aisle, and he would have certainly tripped over it given his speed and direction.

If he tripped, he would have tumbled to the left and crashed into the discounted goods in the middle of the aisle, causing products to fall. Although there wouldn’t be any glass containers to hurt him, it would still make quite a racket.

Ftventy-four people, including the salesperson in the range affected by the sound, might turn to look. However, there was a girl picking snacks behind Xiang Kun who probably wouldn’t turn around because she was wearing headphones and listening to a fast and loud Korean song, so she wouldn’t hear.

That’s right; in just the previous moment, Xiang Kun’s mind had processed all this information.

He hadn’t consciously paid attention to the naughty child rushing to buy a toy, all the information came from his brain’s “unintentional” simple judgment made by collecting sensory data since entering the supermarket.

To describe it, it was as if his brain separated into Brain 1, Brain 2, Brain 3, each one having no main consciousness but capable of cooperating with sensory organs to collect sensory information, doing calculations, and making simple judgments.

Brain 1 was in charge of the naughty child and his mother, Brain 2 of the salesperson and customers nearby, Brain 3 of…

When something happened or when Xiang Kun shifted his attention to related information, the related content and information would quickly “connect” and be available for his judgment.

While the amount of information that can presently be collected simultaneously by his subconscious and the judgments that can be made are still limited, for Xiang Kun, this was already a very satisfactory breakthrough.

You have to remember that from the time he started training in this aspect with intent to now, it’s only been a little over two weeks, only two Blood-drinking Periods. Of course, the prior targeted training in smell and hearing, and the ability to process a large amount of sensory information, laid the necessary foundation for this.

One could say that having achieved this effect now is beyond his expectation, and he’s quite satisfied with it.

He thought back to a movie he saw in college called “Limitless,” where the protagonist ate a drug called NZT, which allowed for extreme brain performance.

At the end of the movie, he told Robert De Niro about a car accident that was about to happen in a few seconds: “The truck is moving at 80km/hr while the driver is texting. He will hit a taxi 18 feet away.” Because there were people on the side of the road waving for a cab.

A few seconds later, the car accident happened, and Robert De Niro was stunned.

He then told Robert De Niro: “I am 50 steps ahead of you. I am ahead of all of you.”

Xiang Kun, now, could recall most of the scenes from that movie and remembered the lines from those scenes. He believed that as he further trained his brain, he could probably recall everything else he has heard, seen, or experienced clearly.

Some content in that movie seemed too exaggerated, yet his condition now was similar in some ways. Perhaps he wasn’t 50 steps ahead of everyone else, but still being 4 or 5 steps ahead was significant. Many times, being 4 or 5 steps ahead could play a decisive role. This advantage wasn’t limited to timing —it also applied to strategy.

What’s more, he was still constantly evolving.

At 1:10 PM on Sunday afternoon.

Tang Baona, Yang Zhen’er, and Xia Libing arrived at Xiang Kun’s house as promised.

After entering, Tang Baona asked Xiang Kun to show them around as they already knew that this house was the one he had bought.

After looking around, Tang Baona frowned and asked: “Why is your furniture so sparse? You don’t even have a sofa…”

While the house was tidy and clean, the lack of furniture and appliances made the not-so-big house seem very spacious.

“I just moved here recently and didn’t have time to buy any new furniture,” Xiang Kun explained casually. Of course, the actual reason was that he had been contemplating whether to sell the house, and besides, furniture and appliances weren’t all that necessary for him.

“Wow! Such cute rabbits!” Yang Zhen’er quickly noticed the three meat rabbits kept in the kitchen.

Tang Baona also went over, holding a leafy vegetable to play with the rabbits, she praised, “Such big, fat rabbits! How did you raise them?”

“Er, just overfeed them…” Xiang Kun reminded, “Don’t touch them, they bite.”

In fact, the three rabbits were all very afraid of people, and they now cowered into a corner.

“Really didn’t expect that you would raise pets, especially rabbits.” Tang Baona shook her head and laughed.

Xiang Kun scratched his nose and didn’t say anything.

As there were no sofas, the four of them naturally sat around the dining table in the living room.

Tang Baona mentioned that they were not going to play Fight the Landlord today but change to Texas Hold’em instead. She had brought a box containing cards and chips.

The rules were as follows: each person received 200 chips, and the first person who lost all their chips had to promise one favor to the other three people or pay one of them 500 yuan. The last person who had all the chips could command each of the remaining three to do one thing, or they could choose to pay 500 yuan each. If there was more than one person who had lost all their chips at the same time, they needed to promise the remaining people one favor each or pay 500 yuan each.

Of course, like the game Truth or Dare they had previously played, the favor that they asked of the others couldn’t be too outrageous.

However, Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er had already stated that if Xiang Kun lost, they would definitely ask him to treat them to a meal! And he couldn’t avoid it by paying them off!

Xiang Kun was indifferent. If they were playing Fight the Landlord, it would be hard to say, but if they were playing Texas Hold’em, his chances of winning were higher, and the chances of him losing were slim..