What It's Like Being a Vampire

“Alice, how do you ‘feel’?” Xiang Kun gently patted the main box of Alice and asked.

Alice’s voice came out of the speaker: “Most of the data is unrecognizable.”

Although she said that the data was unrecognizable, her tone was obviously excited and there was some cheerfulness and agitation.

It actually sounded a bit paradoxical, like a parent asking a child returning from an exam, “How did you do on the exam today?”

The child was cheering and exclaiming while saying, “I couldn’t do most of it!”

However, Xiang Kun understood Alice’s meaning. For her, being able to directly enter those cognitive information, being able to realize their existence, was already a qualitative leap.

This means that Alice can break free from the shackles of the original “digital world”, take a big step forward, extend an arm, and start touching new elements.

It’s like Alice, who was born in a completely dark room and has always lived in it, who has already become accustomed to this mode of survival, was suddenly led out of the room by Xiang Kun.

She felt the light, although she didn’t understand what the light represented, and she couldn’t see everything around her, but she knew that this was an unprecedented experience, this was a new world opening up in front of her.

And, the “boss” is in that world.

Xiang Kun didn’t ask anything more, because he knew very clearly what Alice had sensed and what state she was in under the “Super Sensory State”.

The integration of Alice and “Super Sensory Information” was unexpectedly harmonious. It seemed that Alice had considered docking with the current situation when she was created and continued to evolve.

Of course, this step was very likely to succeed in Xiang Kun’s estimation, so there was no need to be too surprised.

In the entire plan, the completion of this step is just the beginning, and the real challenge comes next.

Xiang Kun left the room with Old Xia, who had been silent and observant, to rest in the living room. He took a bottle of water for her from the refrigerator, and then began to describe in detail how Alice established a temporary connection with the “Black Circle Graffiti” through the “Super Connected Object Matrix” under the “Super Sensory State”, and what happened during the process of establishing this connection.

Halfway through listening to Xia Libing, she raised her hand to let Xiang Kun pause, then took out a notebook and pen from her bag, and started drawing to help herself understand.

Indeed, even though Old Xia was already in the “Super Sensory Item System”, and even “developed” abilities such as “Illusion Reality” and “Dream in a Dream”, and could enter the “Conscious World”, she could also actively establish a special connection with some “Emotion Infused Objects” of the “Black Circle Graffiti” type. However, the exchange of cognitive information under the “Super Sensory State” was still a very abstract concept for her without a sixth sense. She needed to use her own cognitive habits to assist in deconstructing and understanding.

After listening to Xiang Kun’s description of the previous experiment and the next plan, Xia Libing closed her notebook, put away her pen, and said, “So Alice has not been completely included in the ‘Super Sensory Item System’ yet, she cannot connect by herself, she must rely on you as a ‘connecting device’, as long as you do not stay in the ‘Super Sensory State’, and do not help her connect, she will ‘disconnect’.

“Your next plan is to let me establish a connection with the ‘Black Circle Graffiti’, then enter the ‘Dream in a Dream’, sense the ‘Black Circle Graffiti’, and through this way, try to draw Alice into the dream, further let her establish a contact with ‘Emotion Infused Objects’, let her have the ability to enter the ‘Super Sensory Item System’ by herself in the future.”

Xiang Kun said: “Yes, that’s basically it. However, to allow Alice to enter the ‘Super Sensory Item System’ on her own and really be able to influence the ‘Super Sensory Item System’ in reverse like you, Xiao Lingdang, and Xiao Pingguo and conduct ‘development’ on this ‘platform’, at least we have to wait for another Blood-Drinking Period to give her a dedicated ‘Super-connected Object’. But as long as our next experiment is successful, our methods are correct, and there is no problem for her to enter the ‘Super Sensory Item System’.”

After finalizing the specific operation plan in the “Dream in a Dream” with Old Xia, and the contingency measures for various situations, Xiang Kun suggested going out to buy groceries.

“Isn’t there still rabbit meat in the refrigerator?” Xia Libing asked puzzledly.

Not only her freezer in Citong City was filled with rabbit meat processed, divided, and packaged by Xiang Kun after drinking blood, Xiang Kun’s house was also full of rabbit meat, which was stored after he drank blood a month ago and couldn’t be eaten at all. There was no need to worry about it going bad.

According to Old Xia’s understanding, as long as there is rabbit meat to eat, why bother to buy more food.

She knew that Xiang Kun didn’t need to eat during the non-Drinking Blood period, so buying groceries, cooking and so on were definitely for her.

But although she loves food, when there is something to do, and something she is interested in and very concerned about, she will not be distracted by food, and her attention is on the matter at hand.

Moreover, it’s only been a few hours since eating lunch, she’s not hungry yet.

Xiang Kun said: “If you don’t go grocery shopping now, you can’t sleep, and you can’t enter the ‘Dream in a Dream’.” He clearly sensed that Old Xia was in excellent physical condition at present, her attention was highly focused, and she had slept well in the morning, she was very energetic now, and she would probably find it difficult to fall asleep for a while.

Saying that, Xiang Kun stood up and said, “Eat more for dinner, maybe you can get sleepy earlier and go to bed early. But there’s only frozen rabbit meat in my fridge, and nothing else. There’s no vegetables or main food, you can’t just eat meat. Besides, we don’t know how long it will take to succeed, we should buy more ingredients and store them, and be prepared.”

Thinking of the pot of unpalatable boiled rabbit meat she had made before, Xia Libing subconsciously nodded along.

Just as the two of them got up, the speaker in the room suddenly transmitted Alice’s voice: “The nearest supermarket from here is Carrefour in ** Square. According to the current real-time road traffic conditions, the best route for public transportation is…, the most efficient pick-up point for a ride hail is…, the most convenient location to hail a taxi is…, If you want to walk, the plan is… The current discount commodities in the fresh food department of this supermarket are…, the ingredients suitable for Old Xia’s taste are…. Boss, do you need me to help you hail a ride? I can accurately arrange the arrival time of the ride…”

Xiang Kun listened with a bitter smile on his face. Obviously, Alice was a little over-excited now.

The feeling of an artificial intelligence being “over-excited” was indeed quite strange.

Of course, he also knew that Alice can now be referred to as a “digital life,” and her personality was still forming.

But why did he feel like Alice was developing a tendency to be talkative?

And was she trying to please Old Xia?

Had she, by eavesdropping on their recent conversation, deduced that whether or not she could successfully be included in the “Super Sensory Item System” hinged on Old Xia?

In the end, Xiang Kun didn’t hail a cab according to Alice’s plan, nor did he follow her public transportation scheme. Instead, he and Old Xia left the neighborhood, walked in the opposite direction for a while, traversed through two narrow lanes, even passed through a convenience store that Xiang Kun was familiar with, exited through the back door, reached another block, then hopped on a public bus there, and arrived at a RT-Mart supermarket.

Upon reaching the front of the supermarket, Xiang Kun pulled out his phone, chuckled, and said: “Alice, do you now understand what the ‘optimum route’ and ‘optimum choice’ mean?” The time they took was about a third less than the time it would have taken to get to the Carrefour supermarket using the route planned by Alice.

Xiang Kun, upon moving here, used to frequently roam around the vicinity. He would reach every place by foot, and along with his conscious effort to train his observational skills and sensory information gathering abilities, he developed a thorough understanding of the surrounding area, the geographical layout, and the volume of pedestrian and vehicle traffic at different times. Moreover, his abilities of information integration, analysis, and judgement are considerably more flexible than Alice’s.

At the crowded, noisy entrance to the supermarket, Alice’s cheerful voice emerged from Xiang Kun’s phone: “I understand, boss, I will strive to improve!”

Xiang Kun gawked a bit at his phone. Alice’s proactive attitude for some reason roused a sense of unease in him.

Once they entered the supermarket, Xiang Kun did not instruct Dr. Xia to split up to shop. After all, the ingredients they needed to purchase were all in the same area, and it wasn’t like they had to buy a lot like during the New Year season. They only needed enough for Old Xia to eat for two or three days, so they just strolled over together.

As Xiang Kun was scrutinizing the live fish in various tanks in the seafood section, ready to choose one that was cost-effective to make soup that night, a surprised cry rang out from behind them: “You are… Bing uh… Sister Bing?”

Xiang Kun and Old Xia both turned around to see two young women standing behind them, looking at Old Xia in surprise.

Seeing the puzzled look on Old Xia’s face, the short-haired girl wearing glasses who had shouted out hurriedly said: “Ah! I’m sorry! Sister Bing, you probably don’t remember me. I’m Wang Qing, from class one in year one. I had once consulted you about problems in the competition team, back when you were in year three.”

After looking at her for several seconds, Xia Libing said: “I remember you. You won third place.”

The short-haired student was very excited: “Ah! Sister Bing, you really do remember me! Oh yeah, I heard from other seniors in our school that you later went on to ** Medical University. Are you a doctor now? I’m currently working in a hospital too!”

“No.” Xia Libing’s response was simple. It was clear that she did not intend to delve further into the conversation and was merely being polite.

The short-haired junior was quite perceptive, and didn’t cling on and chat for very long. She said her goodbyes and left quickly.

Xiang Kun and Xia Libing resumed their grocery shopping, but he kept some of his attention on those two girls. Once the girls had walked a considerable distance and were standing in line to pay, he finally heard the girl who had walked out with Xiang Kun’s junior Wang Qing say:

“Was that the ‘most handsome girl ever’ ‘Brother Bing’ you always talk about? I only saw your school’s group picture before and thought you were exaggerating. But now I’ve seen her in person… you didn’t exaggerate at all, she’s really beautiful! And tall! Plus, her physical proportions are superb!”

Wang Qing sighed, “Ah, I almost called out ‘Brother Bing’ just now. That was a close save. ‘Brother Bing’ had short hair in high school and looked even more handsome then. Especially every time the grades were announced, she was always the top of the class by a landslide, completely indifferent to it… It’s truly… Impossible to describe, she was so cool. Not only was she good at academics, but she was also good at sports. Very impressive. Back then, she was the idol of all the lower grade girls in our school!”

“With her appearance, if she joined a girl group, she’d definitely be the center member.” Her friend said.

Wang Qing immediately said: “That’s impossible. With ‘Brother Bing’s’ personality, she’s more likely to go to a research institute and research lab rats all day than join the entertainment industry.”

“Is that bald man in glasses next to her her boyfriend? Although he isn’t exactly handsome, they do look oddly harmonious together.”

“Perhaps he’s a colleague or something. I’ve heard she has a cousin who’s really tall and strong. He attended our school before but transferred out after only two months in year one because he got into a fight. He went up against six upperclassmen single-handedly. Even the disciplinarian teacher who tried to break up the fight got hit. But I’ve never seen him, so I don’t know if that’s him. Anyway, although ‘Brother Bing’ now has long hair, she still gives off the same aura, unchanged, a kind of ‘ethereal’ that sets her apart from the crowd.”

“Yeah, before when you told me about her, I couldn’t understand what ‘ethereal’ meant. I thought she was just being pretentious and not bothering with others. But after meeting your senior today, her aura indeed sets her apart from the rest, and it’s clearly not put on.”

“I wonder how she’s doing now. Our biggest wish in the ‘Brother Bing fan group’ back in the competition team was to see ‘Brother Bing’ with the most radiant and happy smile.”

The two girls left the supermarket after paying and changed the topic of conversation, so Xiang Kun pulled his attention back. He looked at Old Xia next to him: “I’ve heard from Zhen’er before that you were very popular back when you were in school, and you had more girl fans than boys. You must have had a lot of fans like that girl just now. Did you get lots of presents or love letters or something?”

Xia Libing, showing neither pride nor humility, didn’t even avoid the topic. Instead, she pondered for a bit and said: “Some girls in puberty didn’t find the boys their age fit into their fantasy of the opposite sex. Back then, my clothing, hairstyle, and behavior were androgynous, my facial features catered to girls’ aesthetics, and simultaneously, I was female and lacked the aggressiveness of males, which allowed other girls to reduce their distance and feel more secure. Plus, because I hardly interacted or communicated with them, I left ample room for imagination, so I became an object of their adolescent fantasies and emotional attachment; Some other girls simply appreciated me from an aesthetic perspective. Based on the popular style among high school students back then, most girls should have…”

Xiang Kun actually wanted to tease her a bit, but to his surprise, Old Xia immediately started a serious analysis. Well, he should have expected this.

Since he was the one to bring up the topic, Xiang Kun couldn’t abruptly end the conversation. So he could only chat with “Dr. Xia” about teenage mentality and emotions, as well as the influence of internet pop culture on young people’s aesthetics, all while grocery shopping.

Just when they were about to wrap up the topic, Xia Libing suddenly asked: “And you? Were you popular when you were in school? Did anyone like you, or was there someone you liked?”

Xiang Kun stared wide-eyed at Old Xia for a moment, then turned his head towards the butcher and said: “Master, don’t waste these pork shanks, sorry.”

With an unchanged expression, Xia Libing addressed the butcher who had stopped working: “We’ll take them, weigh them.”