What It's Like Being a Vampire

But in reality, she was in the “conscious world,” carefully establishing a connection with the black circle graffiti in the GL8 parked in the nearby open-air car park, which was Mijoe’s car.

Contrary to Xiang Kun’s assumption, although she had seen Zhou Rui’s photo and knew what this researcher who worked for the secret department of “Divine Technology” looked like, she originally noticed Zhou Rui and Mijoe and others at the airport not by recognizing Zhou Rui, but by heading to the “conscious world” while waiting for the car, and then vaguely sensing other “super-connected objects” and “emotion infused objects” nearby.

She had found out on the plane that in the “conscious world”, she could sense other “emotion infused objects,” but only “black circle graffiti” of this type could be connected and further influenced by her. She used this way on the plane, with the help of the “black circle graffiti” Xiang Kun had given her before, to guide the person sitting next to her into a dream.

After leaving the “conscious world”, Xia Libing recognized Zhou Rui, who walked out of the airport terminal, and then inferred that the young woman who came to pick up Zhou Rui was Mijoe, carrying both Xiang Kun’s “black circle graffiti” and “super-connected objects” and having a relationship with Zhou Rui. The only person who could be her was Mijoe. Moreover, her appearance was consistent with Xiang Kun’s previous description.

As for the people of “Divine Technology,” Xia Libing was naturally very interested, but she also knew that until the backers of “Divine Technology” were identified, their ultimate goal and their exact attitude towards other vampires were understood, exposing herself to the “line of sight” of “Divine Technology” would pose a great risk to Xiang Kun.

So she asked Xiang Kun to temporarily disable the GL8, not because she wanted to go directly to meet Mijoe and others, or even to observe from the sidelines, but simply to establish a connection with the “black circle graffiti” on Mijoe in the “Conscious World”, which would facilitate her subsequent attempts to perform some remote operations.

Unlike Xia Libing and “Xiao Pingguo” who could directly cover thousands of miles to connect with the previously unseen “eight-armed, eight-eyed woodcarving”, Xia Libing had to stay within a certain distance in the “conscious world” to connect with other “emotion infused objects”, at least within sight, and it took a certain amount of time, approximately between 10-20 minutes.

In the bathroom of Tang Baona’s house, Xiang Kun, who had entered the “Super Sensory State,” sensed the arrival of the “black circle graffiti” near Mijoe and used the “super-connected objects” piece secretly stuffed into Mijoe’s notebook cover to create an influence and disrupt the circuit of the GL8, causing it to momentarily fail to start.

He couldn’t carry out overly complicated operations, but he was quite adept at temporarily disabling a car.

Because Xia didn’t specify how long he needed Mijoe’s car to stop, Xiang Kun persisted for over twenty minutes until he could no longer maintain it, left the “super sensory state,” and then checked his phone.

He found that a few minutes ago, Xia had sent an OK emoji, indicating that she had established a connection with the black circle graffiti of Mijoe in the “conscious world”.

She also told Xiang Kun that she had a plan for the night that needed to be executed in a dream. She would contact him once she got home, and he was home too.

Although he didn’t know what Xia was going to do, Xiang Kun was quite expectant. He thought Xia might surprise him again with her approach to “decoding” the black circle graffiti.

Upon exiting the bathroom and returning to the living room, everyone else had stopped chatting and discussing and was looking at him.

“Ah Tu, are you constipated? Or did you fall asleep on the toilet?” Even Zi Cheng, who was connected via video camera, gave Xiang Kun a strange look, and his voice came from the Bluetooth speaker, “You’ve been in the bathroom for almost an hour, right?”

Chang Bin also joked, “I thought you had sneaked away!”

Xiang Kun laughed and scolded, “What one hour? It was only 20 minutes in total. I was just browsing on my phone. I came across an interesting article, and I accidentally finished reading it.”

Tang Baona’s prospective brother-in-law, Gao Yao, seriously said, “It’s best not to use the phone when you’re in the restroom, and don’t stay too long, otherwise it’s easy to get hemorrhoids.”

“Speaking of hemorrhoids, I recommend a good way to treat hemorrhoids. You don’t need to take medication or have surgery, just exercise the sphincter every day. Really, I’ve personally tried it and it works,” Yang Zhuo suddenly said, causing his girlfriend Xiao Min to try to hold back her laughter.

Liu Caifu, who was connected through the video, also laughed and said, “Exercising the sphincter really works, as does drinking more water and exercising more.”

Zi Cheng nodded, “Yeah, we really need to pay attention, especially since we have to sit for several hours when we work… Oh right, Ah Tu, you’ve been sitting on the toilet for so long, would your poop have dried up? Wouldn’t it be hard to clean…?”

“Hey, hey, hey! Stop!” Yang Jie interjected, trying not to facepalm, “Gentlemen, please note, your conversation is getting way off track!”

Zi Cheng rubbed his head with an embarrassed smile, “Just discussing health issues, hehe.” In the moment of enjoyable conversation, he almost forgot that people on the video call were in Tang Baona’s living room with many women around.

It was already past one in the morning, and the yawns of You Meng and Liu Caifu on the video showed they were exhausted. So everyone had supper, chatted a bit, and then went home separately.

Xiang Kun still hitched a ride with Chang Bin and Wang Han.

Even if everyone had made clear investment intentions and unanimously believed that the game Xiang Kun was making was promising, the discussion wouldn’t yield instant results. Xiang Kun didn’t comment much to avoid the risk of “emotional assimilation” from his excessive excitement and cause everyone to over-invest and over-expectation in the project, which wouldn’t be right.

From now on, though, there would be no need for so many people to discuss together. This matter would mainly be headed and handled by Zhang Qian, Zi Cheng and Liu Caifu, with Tang Baona and Yang Zhen Er representing him in the discussions. After they finalize the details, when it’s time to execute, they can gather everyone to give them a briefing.

Of course, in reality the person responsible for implementing the project would likely be Zhang Qian, who was the most invested, with the most ideas, and resources.

In due course, she would be the public face of the company. This was something Xiang Kun was pleased to see.

Zi Cheng would be hurrying over soon, and Chang Bin and Wang Han would lend their support. Tang Baona and Yang Zhen Er had already quit their jobs, ready to devote themselves to the project full time. Xiang Kun believed they could handle it, and he only needed to ensure the quality of the game. But to disguise for Alice, he would request the separation of the production company and the publishing and operating company.

Xiang Kun itself is not particularly interested in running a game company, this is just a means for him to obtain funding support and to conduct some experiments.

His real focus is still on the laboratory that he will conduct with Old Xia back in Tongshi Town, and Chongyun Village.

It was nearly three in the morning when he got home, Old Xia had already sent a sleeping emoji at two o’clock, obviously, he had gone to bed.

Xiang Kun knew this was to tell him that when he was free, he could induce a dream directly.

So Xiang Kun sat on his computer chair, and began to sense the chopsticks he had given to Old Xia, using this to guide the dream.

Even though Old Xia now has a very special connection with a notebook full of black circle graffiti, which she named “CAKE01”. She could even enter the “Conscious world” and contact other “Emotion Infused Objects” through it. Actually, “CAKE01”, full of black circle graffiti, cannot induce Old Xia’s dream like chopsticks or the Eight-Armed, Eight-Eyed Wood Carving. Essentially, Old Xia does not really resonate emotionally with “CAKE01”.

So to make Old Xia dream, it still depends on the chopsticks.

In the dream, Xia Libing, who was already proficient, soon woke up in the dream.

Then Old Xia projected the notebook “CAKE01” into the dream through Nine Coins and One Bead, ten “Super-connected Objects”, and then surprisingly tried to enter the “Conscious world” in the dream.

Watching this, Xiang Kun also hesitated, but the next moment, he found that he could enter another dream through the perception channel of Old Xia in the dream.

Xiang Kun and Old Xia observed this dream in the posture of onlookers.

From the surroundings, it seems to be a small room where a woman with dreadlocks is sitting at the table, quickly typing on the laptop keyboard, pausing from time to time to click her mouse a few times, and contemplating for a while.

Xiang Kun naturally recognized this woman with dreadlocks, it was Mijoe!

That is to say, it’s Mijoe’s dream, did Old Xia induce Mijoe’s dream in her dream?

Dream in a Dream?

Is this the plan Old Xia mentioned before?

Xiang Kun, if he senses Mijoe’s “Black circle graffiti”, can also guide her into a dream, and perceive the dream through Mijoe’s perception.

But now he is perceiving Mijoe’s dream through Old Xia’s perception. He can’t perceive Mijoe’s emotions or other direct sensory information, but more like an observer, even… he and Old Xia are dream, like a container or platform, and the Mijoe in the dream is just data that is wrapped and carried by this dream.

Then Xiang Kun found that the bed in the room was gone and turned into a desk, and the closet was gone and turned into a refrigerator.

Whether it’s a desk or a refrigerator, they are all the desks and refrigerators from Old Xia’s rented house in Citong City.

He immediately knew that this was Old Xia trying to edit the dream!

Old Xia can do these in her own dream, but now it’s Mijoe’s dream…

Wait, no, strictly speaking, this is still Old Xia’s dream, a dream in a dream.

Xiang Kun was somewhat astonished and admired of Old Xia’s “creativity”, and was even more shocked by the current state, wondering how it was done and how it was accomplished!

He used to be able to edit the dream in Mijoe’s dream by “Super Sensory State”, but after a lot of effort, he only extended the screen of the laptop in Mijoe’s dream.

But now it seems that Old Xia is completely doing whatever she wants in Mijoe’s dream!

Xiang Kun realized that Old Xia accomplished all this by relying on the special characteristics of the “Black Circle Graffiti”, and the special nature of the “Black circle graffiti” lies in the cognitive information expression under the “Super Sensory State”.

That is to say, by understanding the way Old Xia edits the dream in the “Dream in A Dream”, he can assist him in directly editing other people’s dreams. And by using this method, he may be able to better “decode” the cognitive information under the “Super Sensory State” in reality through the “Super Sensory State” in the dream!

While thinking about this, a “person” was edited by Old Xia in the middle of the room, opened her mouth and spoke to Mijoe at the table with a very weird voice.

After seeing the look of that “person”, if he was not currently in a “dream”, Xiang Kun would probably laugh like a pig.

That “person” is clearly the panda emoji that Old Xia often posts, looking like a paper man who was pulled from the 2D world into the 3D space.