What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 325: Chess Player

Chapter 325: Chapter 325: Chess Player

Translator: 549690339

Merely through Xiao Pingguo’s emotions, Xiang Kun couldn’t accurately guess what she was doing or what she had encountered.

However, judging from the type of emotion, he could roughly guess that she had not encountered any danger. Her excitement and agitation seemed to be because of the development and use of this new ability.

Although he couldn’t be sure of the specifics when Xiao Pingguo uses her abilities, he was well aware of how she calls upon his power, including how the “Golden Sparkle” functioned and the specific abilities it called upon.

Therefore, he had a basic assumption about the effect created by Xiao Pingguo’s power— merely making people see illusions, and these illusions were based on the fear emotion that the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” stimulated. However, the way these illusions were created used to be one-on-one, only directing towards one person. Now, under the influence of “Golden Sparkle,” these illusions seemed to become a group effect.

After Xiao Pingguo “developed” this ability, Xiang Kun had also tried to use it.

Last time he went to Tongshi Town, he used it to deal with the friction he encountered with Liu Feibao and Boss Qi.

Essentially, he “packaged” the fear emotion generated by the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” as a whole, called upon it through direct eye contact, and “projected” it into Boss Qi’s consciousness.

As a result, Boss Qi saw the illusion created by the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving and felt the fear it brought. However, other people around him neither saw the illusion nor felt the emotion.

Now, it seemed as though Xiao Pingguo called upon the emotion of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” and then gave up her restriction and control over it, allowing it to directly affect the surroundings. Under normal circumstances, this would not be very effective. However, “Golden Sparkle” provided a boost, amplifying this effect.

The most amazing thing was that the “Golden Sparkle,” which had just been integrated into Xiang Kun’s “super sensory system,” did not call upon any emotion-related abilities. Instead, it called upon magnetic field control abilities among others through Xiao Pingguo’s super sensory connected coin, which had a reverse effect on itself, thus giving it a special ability in a short period.

This special ability allowed its multiple organs to send out a unique kind of sound wave, which affected the living creatures within the range, making them more susceptible to the emotional influence of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” called upon by Xiao Pingguo.

For example, it was as if Xiao Pingguo had thrown a small bag of lime powder. Initially, she could throw it right into someone’s face. Now, “Golden Sparkle” had transformed itself into a powerful electric fan. After Xiao Pingguo threw out the bag of powder, it spread the lime powder everywhere, and everyone who saw it got their share, being sprayed in the face.

Xiang Kun could directly use the abilities previously “developed” by Xiao Pingguo, and he could even further improve upon them because he was the original user of these abilities.

But this time, “Golden Sparkle” created a special effect through its own body structure after using his abilities through the “super-connected object.”

“Golden Sparkle” needed Xiang Kun’s permission to use that ability to create that special sound wave, which he was fully aware of.

However, if he wanted to recreate this ability, he was unable to do so—for he was not a bird!

The cooperation between Xiao Pingguo and “Golden Sparkle” both surprised and delighted him.

But what about those who were influenced by the fear emotion of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving?” The feeling probably wouldn’t be good. Did Xiao Pingguo, who should be aware of the possible effects, choose not to call upon and propagate the happiness emotion of the minions because the people affected had offended her?

Xiang Kun picked up his phone, intending to call Xiao Pingguo, but then he decided not to call her at this critical time. Instead, he would enter a “super sensory state” to observe the “scene.”

So, he leaned against a tree by the roadside and said to Xia Libing, “I’m going into a ‘super sensory state’ now to figure out the situation with ‘Xiao Pingguo.’ Please watch over me.”

Speaking in a flow, he almost said “protect the law” for “watch over me.” Generally, no one needs to watch over him when he enters a “super sensory state.” It looks like he’s just napping with his eyes closed, and he’s not in any danger since he’s not standing in the middle of a road. But since Old Xia was there, he needed to let her know.

Xia Libing nodded in acknowledgment.

She was quite interested in Xiang Kun’s state when he entered his “super sensory state,” offering a chance to observe from the side.

For both of them, this was normal.

However, for passers-by who happened to walk by, the scene seemed a bit strange.

A bald man with glasses was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, as if he were in deep thought, while a tall, pretty girl with a ponytail was closely watching him from not far away.

If their states were reversed, one could say that the girl was closing her eyes anticipating a kiss. But with the bald man closing his eyes, the scene was indeed strange.

So, passers-by tended to cast strange glances at them. Some even turned their heads back frequently, wanting to see what would happen next.

But the two of them were as still as statues. One leaned against a tree with his eyes closed, the other stared intently at his face.

Xia Libing, of course, didn’t care about others’ reactions. If she had the relevant equipment, she would have liked to monitor Xiang Kun’s brain waves and EKG in real time.

As for Xiang Kun, under the “super sensory state,” he had temporarily blocked traditional sensory information from around him.

Through the sensing of the minion wood carving on Xiao Pingguo, his perception descended to her side in the “super sensory state.”

Judging from the cognitive information around him, Xiang Kun knew that Xiao Pingguo was not indoors. There was water nearby, a lot of it, and there were many trees. Recalling the park he had visited with Xiao Pingguo before, he assumed that it should be nearby.

About seven or eight meters away from Xiao Pingguo, there was a bird and four people. Xiang Kun was very familiar with the bird’s cognitive information—it was “Golden Sparkle.”

As for those four people, they were under the influence of the fear emotion from the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving.”

No, actually, only three of them were affected. One was under anesthesia or unconscious, with sensory blocking, and was not affected.

From the cognitive information of these four people, none of them are known to Xiang Kun.

By relying on the surrounding cognitive information, Xiang Kun roughly figured out the situation at the scene. Xiao Pingguo likely had a conflict with the three affected people due to some reason. She might also know the unaffected person, who might be unconscious or asleep.

However, it was somewhat strange that neither Professor Li Yang nor Aunt Yang were around Xiao Pingguo.

Still, from the current situation it seemed that Xiao Pingguo was not in any real danger. Her ability to influence emotions and illusions on such a scale was reminiscent of the power of his previous “co-manifestation”. Of course, when utilized by Xiao Pingguo, it was limited to the single emotion and illusion that the “emotion-infused objects” she invoked represented.

After a while, two more people came over. Although they were still not Li Yang or Aunt Yang, from the cognitive information seen from their actions, they posed no threat to Xiao Pingguo – she ended her connection and invocation of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” after their arrival.

Xiang Kun exited the “super sensory state”, and upon restoring his normal senses, he immediately saw Old Xia staring at his face.

“Did you figure anything out?” Xiang Kun asked with a smile.

Xia Libing pondered, “After you enter the ‘super sensory state’, do you become less sensitive to your surroundings?”

“How did you know?” Xiang Kun asked with a smile. He was not surprised that Old Xia was able to figure this out.

“I guessed.” Xia Libing said, “Normally speaking, with your hearing, sense of smell, and other sensory abilities, your control over the situation must certainly be much stronger than others. According to your personality, if you can normally control the situation, you wouldn’t say something like asking others to ‘keep an eye out’ for you. Furthermore, there were people yelling on the side of the road just now. From my observation, you didn’t react to that noise at all. Your body was always semi-tense, seemingly ready to accept an attack at any moment. If you were confident about the situation, you would be a lot more relaxed… like right now.”

“That’s correct.” Xiang Kun agreed, and then both he and Xia Libing continued walking forward. He then softly introduced what exactly his “super sensory state” was.

This afternoon when he explained his “evolutionary process”, he mentioned that after dealing with the mutated spider, he had mastered the ability to sense the atmospheric electric field through practice and guidance. He was able to successfully fly in thunderstorm weather using this ability. The magnetic field influence capabilities of various items in “super sensory contact” were also further derivations of this ability. Yet he had not gone into detail about the specifics of the “super sensory state”.

Honestly speaking, other abilities are fairly easy to explain, but explaining the “super sensory state” is indeed quite difficult, since human cognition is based on our normal five senses.

However, Xiang Kun’s “super sensory state”, his sixth sense, is something normal people simply can’t experience and understand.

Unexpectedly, before he could explain further, Xia Libing suddenly asked, “The drawing you gave me last time with various circles and arcs on it, is it related to the ‘super sensory state’?”

Xiang Kun was genuinely surprised this time: “Were you able to discern anything from the drawing?”

Xia Libing shook her head: “Not at the moment, but I know at first glance that it’s not randomly drawn, it’s conveying some kind of information; I just can’t understand it yet.”

Xiang Kun then told Xia Libing how he used a special encoding method to express the various pieces of information he received in his “super sensory state”. Of course, this encoding method was too complex and difficult to understand to yet teach Xia Libing.

“Once you fall asleep again, you can try to see if you can bring that black circle graffiti into your dream, like you did with the coin projection. If you can bring it in, I might be able to use it to enter a ‘pseudo-super sensory state’ in your dream, and observe your ‘super sensory contact process’ when you project and create objects using ‘super-connected objects’.”

“I’ll give it a try.”

When the two of them returned to Xia Libing’s rented house after a leisurely walk and Old Xia was about to lie down and sleep again, Xiao Pingguo sent a video call request.

Upon answering, Xiang Kun saw Xiao Pingguo who was already in her room.

From her flushed cheeks and expressions, it was still evident that Xiao Pingguo was excited.

“Uncle Xiang, I think I might have superpowers!” Xiao Pingguo said excitedly, but when she said “superpowers,” her voice dropped intentionally.

At this point, “Sparkle” also jumped onto Xiao Pingguo’s shoulder. It tilted its head slightly, with a triumphant look.

“Oh? What kind of superpower?” Xiang Kun asked in an astonished tone.

Then Xiao Pingguo told Xiang Kun about how she took “Sparkle” for a walk and tried to hear more voices by making contact with “Sparkle” after dinner.

When Xiao Pingguo told Xiang Kun about how she discovered the evil deeds being committed by the men in the car, hit their van with a stone to stop their criminal activities and called the police, Xiang Kun frowned despite knowing that Xiao Pingguo had not been injured or endangered during that event. He said worriedly, “Never, ever do anything like that again if you encounter something similar in the future.”

Xiao Pingguo immediately agreed, “Uh-huh, I just got a severe lecture from my uncle and the other police officers.”

She then went on to describe how she “summoned” the “multi-armed monster” that seemed to come from another dimensional space, and how she used her contact with “Sparkle” to make it cooperate with her and let the “monster” loose, intimidating those villains.

“Uncle Xiang, when those people were frightened by that ‘multi-armed monster’, I could clearly sense their positions and states! I feel like I can further decide how to scare them, but I… haven’t figured out how to do it yet.

“Uncle Xiang, I felt so powerful at that time, like a superhero… No, like… like a chess player, and those who were frightened by the ‘multi-armed monster’ were like my chess pieces.

“Uncle Xiang, I was so excited and thrilled, I really liked that feeling.

“Do you think this feeling… was the ‘multi-armed monster’ intentionally tempting me, corrupting me, using me?

“Did I… fall too easily, too easily be used?”

The initially excited Xiao Pingguo, as she spoke, gradually fell into a state of melancholy, and was filled with worries, even a bit of guilt.

Xiang Kun said with absolute certainty, “Of course not! Xiao Pingguo, you are a chess player, you are a superhero, and that monster is nothing!”