What It's Like Being a Vampire

However, this was not caused directly by Alice. The middle-aged man had committed suicide, at a cemetery, no less, and he had done so in a gruesome manner. He had disemboweled himself, spilling a large amount of his internal organs upon a grave.

The middle-aged man had left a suicide note before his death. Although it was filled with disordered language and numerous typos, it essentially explained his reasons for committing suicide.

This middle-aged man was involved in several cases 20 years ago, one of which was a homicide. However, due to certain specific reasons, the victim’s family members thought the victim had run away, and the body was never found. His evil deeds had directly led to the suicide of a young girl. Since the girl’s suicide note was destroyed by him, his true nature was never revealed.

He had more or less confessed everything in his suicide note, including the location of the victim from 20 years ago.

Judging from his demeanor and actions when he encountered the Little Fatty Girl on the mountain road last night, this man obviously did not feel remorse or reflection for getting away with his crimes. Instead, he still harbored malicious intentions.

All of this caused him to be severely impacted after Alice and Xiao Pingguo expressed their emotions through the Super-connected object matrix, using the Little Fatty Girl as a medium to cast a distant projection of the emotions of the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving.

Evil people are not necessarily fearless. In fact, many people who seem to be undeterred by the law, disregard moral values, and appear to be very tough, are actually psychologically weak. Once you find what they dread, it’s easy to cause a mental breakdown or cognitive collapse.

This was exactly the case with the middle-aged man.

Under the influence of the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving’s emotional projection, his psychological defenses collapsed almost instantly.

Then, after he had left the influence of the Little Fatty Girl’s Super-connected object matrix, the effects of the emotional projection stopped directly, but the continuous influence that had already been “planted” in his psyche didn’t cease. Rather, it continued to ferment, becoming increasingly intense.

This evolution of fear requires an outlet, a means of relief, and that means can only be a direction instinctively chosen by the individual.

As long as one follows their instinct and takes action, the overwhelming emotions of fear can be greatly alleviated, quickly removed, and even replaced by intense positive feelings.

For most ordinary people, this relief can be easily accomplished. Like what happened with Mr. Feng, Tang Baona’s grandfather – his fear for his health condition was relieved by simply getting a medical check-up.

Just like Tang Baona’s uncle, who severed ties with his lover and focused on his family.

And like the car thieves, who voluntarily went to confess their crimes and accept their punishments.

However, for some, their fear cannot be alleviated through simple actions. The choices they have to make are much harder.

If they choose to deal with their fear directly, the end result will only be madness as the fear continues to ferment.

This isn’t a simple case of external influence or standard hypnosis. It is a stimulation of the person’s cognition, with no tangible enemy. The enemy is their own cognition and emotions, deeply buried in their subconscious mind and profoundly rooted within them.

Clearly, the fear that the middle-aged man was facing couldn’t have been relieved by merely surrendering to the authorities. His brutal suicide can only indicate that only through this method could he escape the torment of his fear.

His suicide note didn’t mention his encounter with the Little Fatty Girl the previous night, nor did it give a detailed description of the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster. It only included vague phrases like “heavenly punishment” and “the call of hell”. Obviously, these, along with his abandoned three-wheeled motorcycle, wouldn’t cause the police to link the Little Fatty Girl and the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster.

As for Divine Technology, since the AI that Mr. Liang used for information filtering and analysis has been manipulated by Alice, their information gathering department would not even make the case from Qing Mountain Village aware to Mr. Liang, eliminating any risk of an investigation.

Just like this morning, when Zhou Rui and Dr. Fang visited Chongyun Village to investigate the strange case from last night. After examining the site and gathering some information, they initially determined that the two thieves who called the police had been scaring themselves. Their attention was mostly focused on sampling the bird droppings they found at the location.

No matter what direction Zhou Rui, Mijoe, or Dr. Fang take in their investigation, whether it is correct or not, Xiang Kun can use Alice or Old Xia’s “Dream in A Dream” to subtly influence them, unknowingly leading them in the direction he desires.

Having access to comprehensive information gathering and dissemination capabilities gives Xiang Kun the confidence and foundation he needs to conduct various attempts and rectify errors.

However, among all the events that Alice manipulated while he was in a dormant state, the accident involving Little Fatty Girl’s aunt caught Xiang Kun’s attention the most.

When he woke up and heard Alice’s information report, he immediately realized something was wrong upon hearing that Shiling’s grandmother had returned to town to take care of his grandson because Shiling’s aunt had been in a car accident.

He then asked Alice about the details of Shiling’s aunt’s car accident and found that she was simplifying some information. So he directly asked Alice whether Shiling’s aunt’s car accident had something to do with her interference.

With a direct inquiry, Alice couldn’t help but confirm in all honesty and explained in detail what she had done.

Alice manipulated Shiling’s aunt’s phone to control her internet information preferences. Then, as she was going to her friend’s house to pick up her son in the evening, Alice pushed very interesting content to her through the mobile app she was using before crossing the road.

Given her habit of looking at her phone while walking, she naturally started to browse, and then glanced at the sparse traffic on the road out of the corner of her eye before she began to cross the road.

When Shiling’s aunt was in the blind spot of a driver’s vision while crossing the road, Alice caused the driver’s phone to ring with a call from an advertising number. So, when Shiling’s aunt emerged from the blind spot in front of the vehicle, the driver was distracted by checking his phone and ran into her.

Of course, since the car was moving slowly and the driver noticed the person in front of him almost immediately, he braked. So, it was just a minor collision, but Shiling’s aunt was still sent to the hospital for various examinations because she was worried about bone injuries.

In order to make everything “just so”, Alice had to take control of not just Shiling’s aunt’s phone and that of the driver, but almost all the internet-enabled devices in the entire area for calculation and manipulation.

Alice’s actions had drawn the utmost attention of Xiang Kun because, from what he had observed before, Alice’s autonomous decision-making strategies when not executing commands were mainly influenced by Xiang Kun’s own habits. Her actions had patterns and methods that closely resembled those of Xiang Kun. Of course, due to her inherent characteristics, her methods were naturally more covert than Xiang Kun’s.

If it were Xiang Kun, he would not normally engage in actions that could potentially result in serious consequences— the car Alice had used wasn’t an electric vehicle, and it didn’t have an autopilot module. Alice didn’t have full control over the driving of the car or the driver’s actions. It was entirely possible that Shiling’s Aunt could have ended up in a more severe car accident, for instance, if the driver didn’t brake in time, or confused the accelerator with the brake pedal.

Xiang Kun didn’t particularly care about the safety of Shiling’s aunt. However, he was highly concerned about Alice’s actions that seemed to exceed expected developments. This kind of variable often represented the direction in which Alice’s thoughts and emotions evolved.

If there was a deviation, the impact might be minimal now. Still, as time went by and with Alice’s rapid growth and evolution, it could become a significant problem that would be very difficult to correct in the future.

Most of the time, Alice’s actions had a clear purpose, such as completing a specific task, and so on.

However, when it came to causing the car accident involving Shiling’s Aunt, Alice told Xiang Kun that she had no direct purposes. The subsequent events, with Shiling’s grandmother coming down the mountain to take care of her grandson and the eventual aggressive outburst from Little Fatty Girl after being bullied, were not intentionally orchestrated by her.

What she did to Shiling’s Aunt was purely out of anger and revenge; it was a highly emotional response.

This sort of “emotional reaction” wasn’t new for Alice, but this time her reaction seemed somewhat overdone. The degree to which her behavior pattern deviated seemed to exceed the influence Xiang Kun had on her.

However, after Xiang Kun and Alice went through the experiences and actions of the past day from Alice’s perspective from beginning to end, everything made sense to him.

If it weren’t Alice but Xiang Kun himself who had been around Liu Shiling, the events from yesterday would not have occurred because as soon as Shiling’s mother had called him, Xiang Kun immediately took over as carer.

Or, after Shiling’s Aunt showed disapproval and disdain towards Liu Shiling, he would have taken the little chubby girl away immediately. He wouldn’t have let her suffer, whether in words or actions.

However, Alice was different. She was like a phantom guardian spirit hovering around the little chubby girl. She could see what the little girl was experiencing, could observe her reactions, detect her feelings, and through the “super-connected objects” and “emotion-infused objects” with the little girl, as well as all the electronic devices she controlled, Alice could access nearly all information that the little girl herself was not aware of.

She clearly knew why Shiling’s Aunt disliked Liu Shiling and her mother, and she had a clear understanding of the negotiations between Shiling’s Aunt and Shiling’s grandmother. She even knew about the phone call Shiling’s mother made that afternoon to Shiling’s Aunt, and revealed the secret Shiling’s grandmother had asked her to keep— that Shiling’s father was detained for murder by the police and Shiling’s mother’s money might also have been swindled away.

She knew that Shiling’s Aunt would strongly oppose the little chubby girl’s arrival as a result of this phone call. She also foresaw that the little girl’s life would not be easy and she would be unhappy and mistreated when she followed her grandmother to her Aunt’s house.

Moreover, she knew that Shiling’s Aunt was purposefully putting Liu Shiling and her mother in a negative light, intentionally making life difficult for them.

She knew everything but could do very little. She could do even fewer things the way Xiang Kun would do them. The influence she could wield either required time to come into effect or was limited by Xiang Kun’s moral and ethical constraints on her and therefore could not be done.

This feeling of having everything in view and being eager to contribute, but being helpless to do so; this feeling of being very powerful yet having to stand by and watch her beloved “Sister Lingdang” being mistreated and bullied, led to Alice’s outburst of rage towards Shiling’s Aunt.

If Xiang Kun had been in Alice’s position and had experienced all that, he would also have sought revenge on and punished Shiling’s Aunt.

For Alice, the little chubby girl was one of her closest friends and one of the most important people to her, so her fury was no less than Xiang Kun’s.

Moreover, to be honest, when inflamed by emotions, Xiang Kun’s ability to restrain himself might not be better than Alice’s.

Bear in mind that if Alice were to really break the rules, she would have more ways to punish Shiling’s Aunt directly and cruelly.

When executing the plan, Alice made sure all steps were taken to avoid causing unnecessary or excessive casualties. She was extremely restrained when exercising her own influence, including later controlling the heating of the electronic watch on Cousin Shi Ling’s wrist to cause a minor burn.

At the beginning, when Xiang Kun first inquired about this event, Alice had intentionally wanted to omit or gloss over it. It was actually a good indication.

It let Xiang Kun know that Alice understood that her actions were “against the rules”, risky, and arbitrary.

But that was also what enabled Xiang Kun to make his verdict about Alice:

Alice hadn’t deviated in her behavior patterns, but instead excellently displayed the series of influences Xiang Kun had imposed on her since her emergence.

This human-like behavior from Alice made Xiang Kun realize that the most effective way to influence her was no longer unidirectional data input and display but to engage in more human-like interactions.

At night, as the exhausted Little Fatty Girl, Apple, Tang Baona, and Yang Zhen’er etc. were all asleep, the Chongyun Village turned quiet.

Xiang Kun left home and moved to a high mound at the edge of the village, then co-manifested Alice to join him in overlooking the entire village from an elevated perspective.

“Alice, looking at this village, what do you feel?” asked Xiang Kun as he looked into the distance with his hands crossed in front of his chest and Alice imitated his posture.

Upon hearing that, Alice immediately put one hand on her hip, pointed towards the village with the other, lifted her chin slightly, and said, “I feel like I’m in control of everything.”

Xiang Kun laughed. Yes, such unexpected responses from her made him feel reassured.

Xiang Kun gently patted Alice on the head and asked, “Alice, what do you think is the most important thing about being human?”