What It's Like Being a Vampire

At seven in the evening, Fang Pingfang sat in the departure hall of Bao Wang City Airport, waiting for her flight.

When “Mr. Liang” told her last night that there was an unusual situation in Haixi Province and asked her to check it out, although he didn’t specify a departure time, she still packed her things that night based on her previous experiences and the mission content described by “Mr. Liang”. She briefed Dr. Yang and prepared herself to be ready at any moment.

As expected, she received a call with flight and travel arrangements the next morning, and she would fly to Jianzhou City in Haixi Province in the evening.

Since joining the secret department of Divine Technology, Fang Pingfang has gone on field explorations more than once, but she could tell that this time was different from all the previous ones. Apparently, this was a last-minute decision made by “Mr. Liang.”

She realized that because of the trip to Qinling Uninhabited Area and the situation she discovered the night before last and the report she made last night, “Mr. Liang” seemed to be ready to let her in on more secret department research projects and classified information.

If this were before, Fang Pingfang would be very excited. The exploration of the mysterious and unknown was the reason she joined Divine Technology.

But after the incident on the night before last, her attention and curiosity were entirely drawn to the rabbit wood carving and the possible entities or phenomena hidden behind it.

For the past day longer, she’s been thinking and reasoning about the possible causes of those strange phenomena. In addition to the guesses she reported to “Mr. Liang,” she had a few new ideas. Still, she lacked practical observations and experimental evidence. Hence, she was very much hoping to return to D2, go back to Laboratory No.9, and assist “Mr. Liang” in dealing with the wood carving.

Even if she was not allowed to participate, watching how “Mr. Liang” handled it would also be a good choice.

But it was clear that, whether for safety or other reasons, “Mr. Liang” didn’t seem to want her to get involved.

By the time Fang Pingfang arrived in Jianzhou City, it was already midnight. A short, young man from the secret department of Divine Technology picked her up at the airport. Still, he didn’t take her away immediately. Instead, he continued to wait at the airport because other people would arrive later, and everyone was to leave together.

By around midnight, looking at the newly arrived four people, Fang Pingfang laughed. Just as “Mr. Liang” said, the members of the interim team indeed included her “old acquaintances” — two of the four people were familiar to her.

One was Team Leader Li, Li Shibao, who had visited the Qinling Uninhabited Area with her previously. The other one was Zhou Rui, a member of her team in QiCheng City, and technically was her subordinate.

The other two, one man and one woman, just briefly introduced themselves by name. It was a common practice within their department during cross-regional collaborations.

But Fang Pingfang still managed to glean some information. A man named Gao Shu, tall and robust with a resolute demeanor, likely was a security or field operator like Li Shibao. The other one, a young woman with short hair named Chen Tianhua, looked like an executive, but from the smallest details, such as her fingers, makeup, and posture, Fang Pingfang could tell at a glance that she was a technical professional.

The short, young man who was in charge of picking them up drove them away from the airport in an MPV. After a journey of more than an hour, he led them to a secluded villa area on the outskirts – rather than booking a hotel for them, he rented a stand-alone villa.

Upon arriving at the villa, everyone left their luggage in the living room on the first floor instead of settling in their rooms. They sat around nibbling on the soup noodles the young man brought back from the road while listening to his briefing on the situation.

“Yesterday morning, between nine and nine-thirty, an accident occurred at Wushu Mountain Scenic Area, where two tourists were attacked and frightened by an unknown bird species, falling off the cliff. Based on my on-site investigation today, inquiries to the witnesses, and the collected video information, the specific situation seems to have started with a bird-like insect, about twenty to thirty centimeters in body length, flying into the crowd causing a stir. Following this, a large bird of prey swooped into the crowd to attack the ‘small bird’, causing further panic within the crowd; this would be when the two tourists fell off the cliff. Both the ‘small bird’ and the ‘bird of prey’ flew away soon after, with their whereabouts unknown. From some of the tourist videos shot by other tourists in different areas at the time, and from the footage of two surveillance cameras in the scenic area, we can vaguely see the ‘bird of prey’ parting scene. Even though the clarity is poor, we could roughly estimate the wingspan by referring to surrounding objects for comparison…”

The short young man was earnestly reporting the information he had gathered. As Fang Pingfang listened, she put down her chopsticks without realizing she had stopped eating, and thought hard as she listened, her eyebrows inadvertently furrowing.

Watching the small young man playing a few video clips through the simple projector in the living room, and listening to his analysis scripts and image materials along with his explanation, Fang Pingfang quickly understood the purpose of their trip to Jianzhou City, and the term “abnormal situation” that “Mr. Liang” mentioned last night.

No wonder the young man arranged for them to stay here; this villa area is very close to the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area.

Fang Pingfang knew that in the secret department of “Divine Technology”, led by “Mr. Liang”, in addition to a large number of field teams and supporting facilities, secret research centers and research bases, there is a team specifically dedicated to collecting and analyzing various kinds of information on the Internet.

She was not exactly sure what the full name of this functional team was or where it was located. When they get in touch and contact, their members do not provide a full self-introduction. They usually just discuss task-related information without unnecessary talk. In the absence of fieldwork, even those in the secret department do not know about these teams.

The people who join the “secret department” do not have a clear and intuitive understanding about their department’s organizational structures, unlike the people from other divisions or branches of “Divine Technology”. The information they know varies according to different levels of confidentiality, but most of it is limited to their specific projects.

However, judging from Fang Pingfang’s past interactions with these people, they are spread around the country and even the globe. The investment in related hardware and technology must also be significant, and it wouldn’t be inferior to the resources invested in research centers and laboratories, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to achieve such effective information collection.

Similarly, the team members’ confidentiality levels aren’t low either.

However, Fang Pingfang believed that based on “Divine Technology”‘s consistent style, the things they know may not be much more than what she and Dr. Yang, these researchers, know, only differing in perspective and direction. As for the real purpose and the ultimate goal of “Divine Technology” in establishing this “secret department”, they are also likely to be uncertain.

Just like these researchers who are immersed in the laboratory all day, the direction and depth of their research are entirely controlled by “Mr. Liang”. Many of them even don’t understand what the use of their work is or why they are doing it.

Fang Pingfang was certain that the short young man introducing the situation to her now, named “Ye Chong”, is from those information collection teams. His way of doing things is exactly the same.

From what the small young man said, “Mr. Liang” had just roughly learned about the accident at Wushu Mountain Scenic Area when he contacted her last night, and immediately defined it as an “abnormal situation”, and asked her to “read up on it” immediately.

The small young man was also ordered last night but he rushed over immediately, started the investigation today and a lot of the later information resulted from his investigations today.

Fang Pingfang also knew that although he looked like a lone operator, there was definitely a team support and collaboration behind him in technical and other aspects. The information wasn’t collected by a single person’s investigation.

What she was more curious about was what information “Mr. Liang” had based on when determining the accident at Wushu Mountain Scenic Area was an anomaly worth “reading up on”. Keep in mind that this young man had not yet been dispatched for a field investigation at the time, the information that “Mr. Liang” could have obtained was not much, nor necessarily accurate. There must have been some key piece of information, or some background knowledge she was unaware of, that allowed “Mr. Liang” to make a quick judgment.

After Ye Chong roughly introduced the situation and handed the tablet containing the information directly to Fang Pingfang, he told her, “According to ‘Mr. Liang”s instructions, the Wushu Mountain investigation team will be led by Dr. Fang. I’ll provide logistics and information support. Any equipment, tools or funds that are needed, you can tell me directly.”

Fang Pingfang nodded without asking any more questions, as she knew very well that what Ye Chong knew, or was allowed to say, had been said of his own accord. If she were to ask questions like “how did ‘Mr. Liang’ determine there was an anomaly in the Wushu Mountain Scenic Area?” or “is the investigation mainly focused on the ‘small bird’ or the ‘large bird’?”, she certainly wouldn’t get an answer.

In the tablet, in addition to the relevant materials for Ye Chong’s investigation, there were also more detailed information on the members of this temporary investigation team.

There was no need to mention Li Shibao and Zhou Rui. She had just cooperated with one of them, and the other was her old subordinate, so she knew both of them quite well.

As for Gao Shu, just as she had guessed at the airport, he, like Li Shibao, was a professional tasked with security.

However, the information on a young woman named Chen Tianhua was extremely sparse, almost non-existent, with only three words “observer” attached and no introduction to her educational background or role. This puzzled Fang Pingfang.

Fang Pingfang instructed the others to rest first, then kept her old subordinate Zhou Rui back to briefly inquire about what had happened in her absence.

Actually, Zhou Rui hadn’t been back in QiCheng City for long, and since he was on vacation, he only returned to QiCheng City yesterday after his leave. To his surprise, the moment he reported back to the office, he was notified to go on a business trip again.

Honestly speaking, the last trip to the Qinling Uninhabited Area had scared him quite a bit, and now the mention of an outside mission would trigger strong resistance on his part.

However, he knew that such a high salary and bonus weren’t being given by Divine Technology for nothing. If he could not provide a sufficient reason to reject tasks assigned by the company, there would be a lot of trouble that followed, and he was simply unwilling to give up this job.

Luckily, upon arriving at Jianzhou City, he found that the person in charge of the operation was his superior Fang Pingfang.

“I heard from Old Han yesterday that Miss Chen was sent by Mr. Liang to QiCheng City for study. They say she’s a good person and easy to get along with, and she hasn’t meddled with the lab’s affairs, only occasionally asking questions and checking some materials,” Zhou Rui reported what he had learned from his colleagues to Fang Pingfang.

“That Assistant Gao Shu also went to QiCheng City with Miss Chen and seems to be her personal security and assistant. Boss, uh, I mean, Dr. Fang, it appears that Miss Chen must be Mr. Liang’s trusted aide!” Zhou Rui quickly corrected himself after remembering Fang Pingfang had once told him not to use the term “boss” when collaborating with people outside their team.

After briefly chatting with Zhou Rui and obtaining some information, Fang Pingfang also returned to her room to rest.

But just as she returned to her room, the door was knocked. When she opened it, a short-haired Chen Tianhua in loose sportswear was standing at the door, holding two cups of hot drinks.

“Dr. Fang, sorry for bothering you. I know you must be tired, but there’s something I need to ask you about, or else I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep,” Chen Tianhua said somewhat apologetically.

“No problem, I don’t usually sleep this early anyway.” Fang Pingfang let her in and took the hot milk from her hand.

“I just arrived in QiCheng City last Sunday, and I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t meet you, Dr. Fang. But I didn’t expect to meet you in Jianzhou City this week. This is my first time participating in an external investigation, so I might need some guidance from you.” Chen Tianhua made some polite remarks before stating her purpose, “Mr. Liang asked me to learn about what happened in Qinling and An Tie Town from you. You can confirm this with him.”

Fang Pingfang was slightly surprised and made an instantaneous judgment: This “observer” was indeed Mr. Liang’s trusted aide as Zhou Rui said, and her level of confidentiality in the secret department was probably higher than hers.

Even though she believed what Chen Tianhua said was true, Fang Pingfang still took out her tablet and logged onto the software used for internal communication to contact Mr. Liang. After asking the confirmative question, she quickly received a three-word reply from Mr. Liang:

“Tell her.”

At this moment, about twenty kilometers away from where Fang Pingfang’s team was, Xiang Kun had just brought back a large group of people to their hotel in Tongshi Town.

They had essentially been at the Youlong Restaurant the entire day, according to plan filming the second video for “Youlong Play Rabbit.”

Other than You Meng who was primarily in the video, Tang Baona, Yang Zhuo, Xiao Min who were assisting with filming, Liang Yulong who was preparing food, and Xiang Kun who was in charge of everything, the others were there to join in the fun.

However, with all the laughter and food, everyone was far from bored. Moreover, watching the filming process live seemed more entertaining than watching the finished product.

After returning to the hotel, the nine people gathered in two different rooms.

One room housed Zhang Qian, Zi Cheng, Yang Zhuo and the other two who had spent two nights consecutively playing the game “King”, and in the other room were Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, and the remaining three.

They planned to compete against each other in the game “King”. The loser would have to serve the winner by carrying their bags, buying water, and treating them to meals during their trip to the scenic area the next day.

Of course, to Xiang Kun’s side, there was another player who was ready at his home: You Meng.

From the perspective of gaming skills, excluding Yang Zhuo, the other four on Zhang Qian’s side had low skills. However, Xiang Kun’s side was worse-off: You Meng occasionally played the game but his highest achievement in ranked matches was only Diamond tier, making him on the same level as Zi Cheng. Yang Zhen’er and Tang Baona had only played the game a few times years ago and were no different than novices, and Xia Libing had never even played the game once.

Essentially, this was a contest of “noobs”.

While Tang Baona, Yang Zhen’er, and Xia Libing were familiarising themselves with the game operations and hero skills, Xiang Kun casually sensed the objects with which he had established “Super Sensory Contact” as if he was checking new messages on WeChat. He discovered that the 3×3 cm piece of paper he had placed in Mijoe’s notebook cover was no longer in QiCheng City.

Although he couldn’t precisely locate its specific location, it proved that she was in a place he had never been to before.

However, based on his intuition regarding the direction of the sensed object, Xiang Kun had a hunch that Mijoe was not too far away.

Looking at the three who were still researching the skills of Luban, Cai Wenji, and Angela, Xiang Kun got up and walked into the bathroom. After closing the door and lowering the toilet cover to sit on, he entered the “Super Sensory State”.

Using the sensed connection with the “Black Circle Graffiti” near Mijoe, Xiang Kun successfully arrived next to the paper in his “Super Sensory State”.