What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 121: Paranoia from Persecution

Has Lv Xiaoxia, after her mutation, fearing to disclose her identity, started answering on Zhihu using her account from five years ago?

But that doesn’t make sense, since now everything is real-name registered, you need to associate your mobile phone to reply and answer. If she’s using a phone that can’t be traced back to her, why not simply register a new profile?

Or perhaps she just wants to avoid acquaintances following her on account “Dawn Light”?

Xiang Kun gently tapped the table with his index finger, narrowing his eyes at “Kasumi of August” answers posted two days ago, and then at “Dawn Light” more than a hundred answers – indeed, this girl’s new account can definitely be labelled as “chatty.” She posted over a hundred answers, though most of them were just pure fun and banter.

The textual style in the couple of answers by “Kasumi of August” was starkly different from Lv Xiaoxia’s,

If it was just different from five years ago, one could argue that the change from a junior high school girl to high school senior naturally comes with a lot of alteration.

But now Xiang Kun had her other Zhihu account to compare, the words she used across various social platforms to compare, it can be largely confirmed that those two answers weren’t posted by the real Lv Xiaoxia.

Even though the person he spent half a day locating wasn’t the real one behind the answers, Xiang Kun didn’t feel the least bit discouraged. A negative answer is an answer in itself, and sometimes it may convey more information than an affirmative answer.

Xiang Kun had basically ruled out the possibility of someone around Lv Xiaoxia using her old account. Five years’ time, let alone someone else, even she herself might not remember the password. Also, in all likelihood, when she used it, her junior high school self didn’t bind the account with her phone, which is why she registered another new account to use afterward.

Then why would anyone use this account to publish such answers?

Looking at that answer, the person who published it is likely a mutant or a vampire, same as Xiang Kun. If they only wanted to establish contact with their fellow kind, they could have simply created a new account, no need to go through the trouble of getting someone else’s account.

Moreover, both answers have a careful reading that gives away an intentional imitation of a girl’s tone. Maybe behind the screen, there’s a bulkier dude scratching his feet than Kun…

Using an account with a used history of a young girl, to publish content in the tone of a young girl, meant to persuade the fellow “kind” into believing that the one answering is a newbie vampire whose transformations have just begun?

Compared to a profile with no history, an ID with a usage history seems more persuasive.

Xiang Kun thought about the feeling he first had when he saw that “Giant Owl,” about the “Giant Owl”‘s actions risking human attention as it approached human settlements in search of him. Two words came to his mind:

“Hunting,” “Fishing.”

But, in Xiang Kun’s judgement, it shouldn’t be official behind this.

Reason told him not to contact that author, to act like he knew nothing, saw nothing, would be the best way to avoid danger.

Quietly observing this answer, observing that author, would be the safest.

However, after only thirty seconds of hesitation, Xiang Kun made a decision.

Since he had already intuited a possible attempt by the other party, it is unclear who would be in the light or dark any longer.

He can first observe for a while, to see what’s up with the other party.

As he was considering, Canary flew onto the table, chirping twice. Only when Xiang Kun looked back out the window did he realize it was dawn.

Signifying Canary to fly onto his shoulder, Xiang Kun went to prepare food for it, then changed his clothes, took off his glasses, and went out.

As he was putting on his shoes, he surprisingly found that his toes hit the front end – were the shoes a bit too small?

Xiang Kun immediately realized that it wasn’t that the shoes were small, but his feet had gotten a smidge bigger?

Thinking back, it seemed like during this time he went mountain charging at night, he had weighted himself up to 80KG running barefoot, which intensified the whole process, after a lot of running, his feet naturally grew a bit larger in order to adapt to all-terrain running?

But Xiang Kun didn’t care much, it didn’t grow by much, far from needing to change shoes right away.

With the sun rise, Xiang Kun, in shorts, sleeveless shirt and sports shoes, ran out of the block towards the busier area. He wrapped a turban around his head and took off his glasses, which made him look a lot different from usual.

Of course, he wasn’t out for a morning run or exercise, but mimicking the appearance of a runner, making some necessary observations and “checking spots”.

All day long, Xiang Kun wandered all over the city till midnight, and the next morning, he departed for another city more than two hundred kilometers away, spending there an entire day as well.

Upon returning to the city, it was already evening. After seven, Xiang Kun took his laptop to a dumpling restaurant, ordered a big portion of dumplings, and sat in the corner. He turned on his computer, started a virtual machine, changed the MAC address, and connected to a nearby coffee shop’s WIFI.

He then proceeded as per his previous plan and preparation, logged on the TOR browser through a double jump, opened Zhihu, registered a new account, and used a trial verification code receiving software for phone verification. The principle of this software is the same as that of Taobao’s code reception. At the back-end, there are equipment like cat pools, stocked with a number of phone cards from various channels, which can be used for batch registration, verification, and other tasks like army brush comments, batch theft of discount coupons, etc., which are all involved in the black industry.

However, Xiang Kun was just giving it a trial, he could use it once in 24 hours, and he couldn’t use the same number for verification again. If anyone wanted to check that number, they most likely wouldn’t be able to locate it, and even if they could, they wouldn’t be able to trace it back to Xiang Kun. He hadn’t paid any fees, so he just wouldn’t use the Zhihu account bound with that number.

Using the newly registered account, he sent a private message to “Kasumi of August” and then began to wait.

If the vampire preparing to “fish” really is behind “Kasumi of August,” his reply shouldn’t take too long.

After mutation, Xiang Kun always had a bit of paranoia from persecution. No matter what happened, predictions were always focused on the worst possible outcome.

If the vampire suspected behind the curtain of “fishing” managed to get someone else’s Zhihu account, then he should have certain knowledge related to the internet, thus assuming him as a powerful hacker.

Although the likelihood of the other party being able to trace Xiang Kun’s specific IP using Zhihu’s private message exchange is slim, especially given all his careful preparations, Xiang Kun still assumed that the other party has the means to access official channels and could trace his real IP.

Under such circumstances, the first physical target for the other party would be the coffee shop whose WIFI he’d used. Maybe they would search for customers through the coffee shop’s surveillance video and then check the device access record on the router.

But in Xiang Kun’s case, firstly, he wasn’t in the coffee shop, and secondly, the

MAC address of the device connected to WIFI was modified. After the matter

was over, deleting the virtual machine wouldn’t trace back to him.

Even this dumpling shop was carefully chosen by him – because there was no surveillance, the two surveillance heads in the corner of the shop were just decorative!

In addition, he was wearing a cap along with a new set of clothes and shoes. He had previously checked spots on the road and knew how to avoid security cameras on the way and those on the sides of the shops, so even if he was captured, it would only be his back.

He had considered basically all possible scenarios, feeling like he was in an invincible position.

If he was asked for infiltration, hacking, etc., he might not be able to pull it off, but defending his computer’s grounds was not an issue at all..