What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 544: 544

Xiang Kun has ample experience resisting the urge to drink blood, so he is extremely sensitive to the nuances of this feeling.

He assessed it closely, trying to identify the source of this difference.

The average person’s control and perception of their own body are very limited. For example, apart from feeling hungry, discomfort, or the sensation of eating, it is tough to perceive the presence of the stomach and nearly impossible to control its movements actively.

Not to mention more intricate organs or smaller parts that due to physiological structure and nerve distribution are hard to perceive and control. The same applies to muscles we don’t often use, parts that can be compensated by other sections, which we often cannot feel. Just like how someone who hasn’t exercised much doesn’t feel their pectoral muscles engage when they first start doing push-ups.

However, for Xiang Kun, not only has he achieved extreme control over each muscle and exceptional sensitivity of every patch of skin, but when he channels his superb sensory abilities back onto himself, he can examine parts ordinary people couldn’t discern or control.

For instance, he can now locate and feel his blood vessels by listening to the sound of his blood flow. After activating ‘Oxygen-saving Mode’, he can significantly enhance his body’s internal neural sensitivity and scrutinize his own condition.

Having undergone this ‘self-inspection’, Xiang Kun can’t discern what differentiates this recent bloodlust from previous bouts through these senses.

But he was absolutely certain that a fundamental difference existed.

Before the onset of this bloodlust, what was he doing?

Reflecting on this question, Xiang Kun recalled the process he undertook to create the Super Sensory Information for that bush.

Then he entered the ‘Super Sensory State’, using the characteristics of knowledge he had as a target to examine himself retrospectively.

Xiang Kun had attempted more than once in the ‘Super Sensory State’ to perceive his knowledge, only to be overwhelmed time and again by a vast amount of knowledge exceeding his perceptual limit.

In the ‘Super Sensory State’, the information representing himself seemed more substantial and complicated than all other knowledge in the world, like a black hole of massive information, devouring his consciousness.

When Alice, the “third party”, attempted to inspect and perceive the knowledge, no meaningful results were produced.

Xiang Kun believed this wouldn’t have anything to do with the ‘mutant’ characteristics. He had already been in contact with the knowledge of another ‘mutant,’ and while deepening the perception would also lead to volumes of information too great to bear, he could at least take control of the depth of perception and discern information.

Alice’s inability to perceive his knowledge probably arose from the fact that, fundamentally, Alice was operating with his abilities.

However, presently, using the knowledge as a reference, Xiang Kun successfully perceived his knowledge.

Of course, not in its entirety, just a portion that closely resembled his reference knowledge.

This confirmed that, like other creatures he had observed, a part of this particular knowledge existed within him.

Xiang Kun began to try to influence this part of the knowledge. But the moment he had the thought, the relevant knowledge violently changed, and he was then promptly ejected from the ‘Super Sensory State’.

Having exited the ‘Super Sensory State’, Xiang Kun no longer felt the urge to drink blood.

It was explicit, his bloodlust was tied to that extraordinary knowledge.

Curious, Xiang Kun entered the ‘Super Sensory State’ once again, using that knowledge as a reference to retrospectively examine himself and sense his knowledge.

He was then met with an empty void, and there was no information feedback, proving that this piece of knowledge no longer existed within him.

This further confirmed that his bloodlust had been triggered by manipulating the bush’s ‘special knowledge’—the ‘special knowledge’ in the plant and his own must have come from the same source.

This knowledge existed in various creatures and had certain ‘mutant’ characteristics. These two features made Xiang Kun think about the ‘Ultimate Predator’ from Mr. Liang’s secret documents.

Xiang Kun pondered, did the creature have a bunch of ‘super-connected Objects’ hiding in many beings, or did it disintegrate into countless smaller units scattered throughout the entire ecosystem?

Xiang Kun recalled his original ‘Parasite Everything’ theory. It seemed this creature already accomplished this?

Xiang Kun squatted down again in front of the bush. After a thorough comparison with another bush nearby—the former from which he had ‘cleared’ the extraordinary super sensory information, and the latter that still contained it.

Without using super sensory information, Xiang Kun could not distinguish any unusual differences between the two. He surmised that this ‘special super sensory information’ was expressed at least at the cellular or macromolecular level.

Combining his perception with Mr. Liang’s secret documents, Xiang Kun hypothesized that those segments filled with ‘mutant’ traits in the super sensory information were most likely part of the ‘Ultimate Predator’.

This is because whether it’s ‘Emotion Infused Objects’ or ‘super-connected Objects’, or the ones that entered the system and were already different from common creatures, like 001, 002, Gold Flash, Custard Pie — their knowledge did not possess any ‘mutant’ characteristics.

The ‘Ultimate Predator’ seemed to have integrated itself into the entire ecological cycle and was already widespread across the planet.

Or perhaps, for the creature, this was the optimal form for maximizing the chance of survival throughout the long and harsh mutation evolution.

By doing so, ‘booby traps’ were cleverly ‘hidden’ in all beings, like Trojans, from which it could draw what it needed, disperse into everything, and significantly modify the regular state of the host, even causing a series of lethal chain reactions.

It did this presumably to guarantee a consistent and ‘qualified’ blood source.

The existence of the beast within countless beings meant that no ‘mutant’ could resist it during a hunt. No wonder Mr. Liang wanted to break away from the basis of carbon-based life and use his ‘High-Dimensional Factors’ as a ‘patch’ to integrate new compounds and create a new form of life.

Obviously, Mr. Liang believed that the existence of the ‘Ultimate Predator’ was primarily based on various carbon compounds.

If this hypothesis proved correct, then the connection between the creature’s numerous sections, or rather the way each segment connected with its consciousness center, should be somewhat similar to Xiang Kun’s ‘Super sensory Item System’.

Because according to the features of ‘mutants,’ it is unlikely to be a group and must be a singular being. Under the objective premise of the absence of complex functional structures and the need to adapt to all forms of life, the only method to ‘connect’ it and allow it to receive unified instructions from a consciousness is through the information transmission mode of the ‘Super Sensory Item System’.

Namely, the consciousness transfer network that relies on ‘High-Dimensional Factors.’

However, it seemed that once this ‘Ultimate Predator’ arrived at the specific consciousness network ‘battlefield,’ it appeared somewhat… frail?

While under the “Super Sensory State,” Xiang Kun had previously perceived a special piece of cognitive information from the shrub that had a hint of “mutant” characteristics. He only tried to influence it through the “Super-connected Objects,” not even having officially begun, when that piece of cognitive information underwent massive changes, as if it had disintegrated.

It was just like planning to eat an ice cream, then the moment you open your mouth, the ice cream is melted to slush by a single puff of hot breath. You’re left with nothing.

If that’s the case, does this mean that Xiang Kun’s influence through super sensory information has an overwhelming edge over each part of that “Ultimate Predator”?

Thinking this, Xiang Kun simply entered the “Super Sensory State” again, this time starting first with “Xiao Luobo,” followed by its adjacent “offspring plants,” then other normal plants, causing a ripple effect across Chongyun Mountain, within the region covered by the “Super-connected Objects”, erasing almost all related special cognitive information fragments.

Through “Emotion Infused Objects,” his consciousness also arrived next to Old Xia, Xiao Pingguo, then his distant parents, Nana, Zhen’er, all the relatives and friends next to his arranged “Emotion Infused Objects,” “Super-connected Objects,” including Jin Shanshan, Custard Pie, and even his ant legion. He erased the special cognitive information fragments from all of them.

Just as he was tirelessly, enthusiastically trying to continue erasing, he suddenly intuitively felt something was wrong, so he exited the “Super Sensory State.”

Xiang Kun stood up and looked up at the sky. Although it was already midnight, using his night vision mode and his enhanced vision, he could see that in the direction he was looking at, a bird was falling down, seeming to have died already.

Xiang Kun frowned. He had a slight idea what his intuition was stemming from.

Alice’s voice rang out from the phone in his pocket, “Boss! Something has happened!”

Xiang Kun took out his phone, the screen automatically brightened, and then a video of clear street surveillance footage appeared.

Xiang Kun recognized the street in the surveillance, it was the pedestrian street of Tongshi Town.

A few seconds later, a bird fell from the sky and died in the center of the street. Luckily it was late at night and there were hardly any people on the street, otherwise it might have caused quite a commotion.

The screen on his phone shifted, showing another place where another bird had died.

Next was a pet store that seemed to sell ornamental birds. A large number of birds in the cage had suddenly dropped dead without warning.

According to Alice’s labels, these places captured in the surveillance were all near Chongyun Village or Tongshi Town.

With each surveillance clip that rolled across the screen, Xiang Kun’s eyebrows went further and further into a frown.

Alice then co-manifested, standing beside Xiang Kun, pointing in a direction towards the mountain. Her small face was quite serious and grim.

Xiang Kun quickly traversed through the forest, arriving at the area Alice had pointed out in no time. Actually, the moment he entered the “Super Sensory State,” he could already tell what happened here thanks to the cognitive information, but he decided to come over personally anyway.

This area spanned approximately a hectare and seemed unchanged at first glance. It was just eerily quiet.

Xiang Kun slowed down, squatting down under a tree and picking up a dead bird to inspect. After putting the bird down, he stuck his hand into the soil, dug a bit, and from the moist dirt, he turned over the dead bodies of a few bugs.

All small animals, whether they were birds or bugs, were dead within this one-hectare area.

This area was just outside the edge of where Xiang Kun had erased all special super sensory information from every living thing, centered around “Xiao Luobo”.

Was this a “warning”?

Was this so-called “Ultimate Predator,” which could not affect him, trying to use this method to warn him not to continue erasing its existence distributed among various creatures?

Xiang Kun naturally was not frightened, but this “Ultimate Predator” clearly had the ability to kill a wide range of creatures. If he could not erase all the special super sensory information within all the creatures in a very short time, the creatures whose special super sensory information was not erased might be killed by the “Ultimate Predator.”

It could kill bugs, kill birds, and of course, it could kill people too.

Xiang Kun took a deep breath. He didn’t expect to discover and come into contact with this “Ultimate Predator” in this way and under these circumstances.

It was even somewhat weaker than he had imagined it to be.

But it can’t be denied, it’s pretty accurate with this method of threats.

This “contact” without adequate preparation put Xiang Kun at a bit of a disadvantage.

However, the “Ultimate Predator’s” actions also helped Xiang Kun see its weakness.

For ordinary creatures, even other fierce “mutants,” and even strong individuals like Mr. Liang, the “Ultimate Predator” is an almost invincible existence – the enemy is within themselves, holding the reins of life and death. How can they win?

But for Xiang Kun, in the field of super sensory information, in the world of “high-dimensional factors” consciousness network, within the rules of “consciousness entanglement particles,” he is the more dominant one, the one who has even higher authority.

However, just like Academician Shen and Mr. Liang mentioned in the secret documents, the “Ultimate Predator” and “Mysterious Power” would be particularly attentive to the activities related to “Blood-eating Creatures” under sensitive conditions, and frequently react.

The “Ultimate Predator” is clearly now in a sensitive state, or even further, a hypersensitive state.

He knew that the “Ultimate Predator” must have realized his strong threat to it already.

Without even thinking, as time passes, Xiang Kun’s advantage will definitely grow bigger and bigger. Sooner or later, he will find a way to erase all special super sensory information at once, thus severing its ability to control the “life and death of all creatures.”

It certainly won’t sit and wait for death.

Xiang Kun carefully pondered, dug a hole, and buried the bug and bird bodies in his hands. He got up and headed towards Chongyun Village.

For the time being, he halted his erasure of special super sensory information in order not to provoke the “Ultimate Predator.”

When he got home, Xiang Kun first entered a “Super Sensory State,” meticulously feeling around Old Xia’s cognitive information, confirming that there were no other cognitive information fragments with “mutant” characteristics, ensuring that the “Ultimate Predator” could not control Old Xia’s life and death, he woke the sleeping Old Xia.

Now, a lot of things could be directly discussed with Old Xia.