What It's Like Being a Vampire

After leaving Xia Libing’s residential area, Xiang Kun inexplicably fell into a certain kind of mood due to a song, his subjective attention all being on his own situation, and not paying attention to his surroundings.

However, this does not mean that he would have no memories of the various sensory information around him, including visual scenes.

With his superior sensory abilities and almost instinctive observation awareness, he still captured a lot of information, but just did not pay attention to it at that time.

Now, going back to those pieces of information, tracing back the images in the corners of his eyes, he keenly noticed the glances and strange behaviours of passersby.

If he’s on the road casually, some gaze occasionally linger on him a little longer, probably attracted by his bald image, but this situation is still very rare —compared to beauties or handsome men, the bald head is not as eye-catching.

In a big city like this, you can see all kinds of dressing styles, and being bald is not unusual. So even if there are brief lingering gazes, they usually sweep over and don’t keep staring at him.

But judging from the previously remembered images, after those glances swept, they quickly returned. It was as if they unintentionally saw a black person on the road, originally did not care, but a moment later suddenly reacted that that was Kobe and hurriedly took another look.

The total number of glances attracted by unexplained attention and cast upon him were not that many, but they had already become quite unusual in terms of probability.

If it was because he was carrying this particularly conspicuous bow and arrow bag today, why didn’t he get those same glances when he later entered the subway station, the subway carriage, and when he arrived at the station and returned to the street later?

Obviously, something quite unusual happened to him between leaving Xia Libing’s house and the subway station.

And Xiang Kun knew very well that the most special thing was that he was influenced by Xu Wei’s song and fell into his imagined emotions.

He cast his eyes on his phone again and began to quickly check the contents on Weibo, especially the earliest tweet.

“…Although he is walking among the crowd, he has a sense of loneliness as if drifting outside the world, like a Lone Ranger carrying heavy secrets…”

Looking at this sentence, Xiang Kun pondered.

If it were someone else, they might think it was a coincidence—the blogger could have the same mood as theirs.

But having gone through all sorts of experiences, Xiang Kun knew that this situation was likely not a coincidence. Instead, it could be an influence he unknowingly imposed on those around him, causing them to unknowingly resonate with his emotions.

The only difference was that the focus of Xiang Kun’s emotions was on himself, and the focus of other people’s emotions was also on him.

After quickly scrolling through the comments from other netizens on the first photo, Xiang Kun judged that the photo could not cause such a resounding effect on people.

However, to confirm it, he still asked Tang Baona on WeChat, “Did you feel anything when you saw that photo?”

“What kind of feeling?” Tang Baona sent a puzzled expression.

Xiang Kun: “Didn’t that blogger feel that my silhouette looks like the Lone Ranger? What do you think?”

Tang Baona: “Hmm, indeed looks like a Lone Ranger, carrying a bow bag, seems like you’re about to hunt something…”

Tang Baona sent a string of laughing emojis: “I’d imagine you going hunting with your bow and arrow for rabbits, pigs, sheep, wild chickens, roe deer… Ah, too much meat, you could also gather some mushrooms and wild vegetables… and then turn them all into delicacies! Bravo Chef Xiang! I’ve decided. For Christmas, I’ll gift you a chef’s hat and a set of kitchen knives!”

Xiang Kun:

He made sure, the photo couldn’t affect anyone else’s emotion, only those around him at that time.

Moreover, this kind of influence doesn’t seem very strong. After all, not everyone who passes by him or who flicks into his vision reacts, overall it is only a tiny part. He isn’t certain of the mechanism behind the influence, this needs further research.

He recalled the time when he couldn’t resist singing along to the music while cooking in the middle of the night, which ended up drawing complaints from the other residents and made the security come to knock on his door.

Xiang Kun realized that his sinking into such emotions doesn’t have an explicit connection with the song itself. Even if he were to play that same song ‘Once Upon You’ now, it wouldn’t be as easy for him to fall into that emotional state.

The trigger for him to enter into his emotions probably does not differ much from normal people. However, once he enters a certain emotional state, he tends to lose touch with reality, ignoring the surrounding environment, completely immersed and engrossed. But this doesn’t resemble the backlash after intimidating the target with a fierce emotion, it isn’t losing control. Even if he’s completely engrossed in a certain emotion, he’s still himself.

As for music, it is inherently an emotional catalyst.

It’s not that he’s easily influenced by music, thus easily absorbed into his emotions, but because he’s easily absorbed into his emotions, he’s more susceptible to the influence of music.

In the future, if he needs to immerse himself in a specific emotion, he could possibly facilitate this process by selecting specific, related music as a guide and aid.

Based on several encounters, Xiang Kun has made a basic judgment and some guesses about his ability to influence and intimidate humans and other animals on a mental level:

First, when he applies intimidating influence to a specific person or animal, the target will be oppressed by his emotions, becoming a recipient of his emotions. The same species within a certain range around him will be subjected to a weakened similar effect;

Second, when he hasn’t targeted anyone and he immerses himself in certain emotions, it will induce emotional assimilation in the surrounding humans, causing them to also experience the same emotions as him. The object of this emotion is the same as his. In other words, when Xiang Kun sees himself as an “emotionless killer”, those affected by the emotional assimilation won’t feel that they are “emotionless killers” themselves. hilt they will also perceive Xiang

Kun as an “emotionless killer”.

Third, the ability to influence other creatures through one’s own intentions and emotions probably comes from the blood of the “Giant Owl”. However, this ability should have mutated somewhat in him. Initially, the capacity carried in the “Giant Owl” was probably just to intimidate other animals within its territory, merely asserting its dominance. It was likely an unconscious “passive effect”. Otherwise, if it could actively apply this to its hunting targets, it would have undoubtedly used it during the two battles with Xiang Kun.

It seemed likely that the brain of the owl had a simple thinking pattern, without as many complex emotions as humans, so this ability hadn’t evolved and developed in multiple directions.

Hence, after making these conclusions, Xiang Kun termed the method of emotionally influencing a targeted object as “mental deterrence”, and the involuntary influence on others by immersing himself in emotions without a target as “emotional assimilation”.

Whether it’s “mental deterrence” or “emotional assimilation” , Xiang Kun decided to use them sparingly in crowds, especially the latter, as it can easily lead to unintentional usage when immersed in certain emotions.

As for “mental deterrence” , unless absolutely necessary, he shall try to refrain from applying it to human targets. He plans to conduct sufficient experiments and summaries on other animals first, mastering enough skills and training techniques to guide the use, before venturing into more application methods. This is to prevent unintentional progress in undesired directions in mutations, as past experiences showed that “mental deterrence” , while affecting other living beings, simultaneously also influences himself, especially after sunset.

He vaguely felt that this ability, presumably derived from the “Giant Owl” blood, still had many aspects to be developed and explored.

Thinking about the possible principles and implications behind this ability made him couldn’t help but feel a little excited and expectant..