What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 365: Xiang Kun’s Envy

The voice of the “panda expression” paper figure sounded very strange, resembling the singer Yang Kun’s voice mixed with the sound effect of Optimus Prime from the Transformers live-action movie and a sound similar to coins being forcefully rubbed together.

If it weren’t for the content of what the “panda expression” was saying, Xiang Kun would know nothing about why Old Xia used such a voice, which he had never heard before. But after hearing the “panda expression” speaking, he understood why Old Xia used this voice in Mi Qiao’s dream.

“How is the investigation going?” the “panda expression” asked Mi Qiao.

Upon hearing the voice, Mi Qiao, who was initially sitting in front of the computer, turned to look at the “panda expression” and naturally replied, “We have made many deductions, but we still lack solid evidence. The bird and bug haven’t shown up again either.”

It was evident that the “panda expression” paper figure, edited into Mi Qiao’s dream by Old Xia, was meant to impersonate “Mr. Liang”.

Xiang Kun had shared the majority of the information he obtained on “Divine Technology” with Old Xia. From establishing Fang Pingfang and Zhou Rui’s identities based on dream information, to inadvertently encountering Mi Qiao in QiCheng City, he had heard her conversation with “Mr. Liang”. Xiang Kun had also shared the circumstances he discovered around Wushu Mountain Scenic Area the year before.

However, Xiang Kun had never seen “Mr. Liang” himself and didn’t know what he looked like. Therefore, when Old Xia created the image of “Mr. Liang” in the dream, she simply took the lazy route and used a common expression as a substitute.

Regarding the voice, Old Xia had heard Xiang Kun’s description of “Mr. Liang’s” voice. But the voice she imagined had significant differences from the real voice of “Mr. Liang” Xiang Kun had heard.

Nevertheless, in the dream, Mi Qiao’s state differed from Old Xia and Xiang Kun. Her consciousness was still embedded within the subconscious of the dream, without too much ability to think actively or recognize. She instinctively responded to all messages transmitted in the dream.

Old Xia simply needed her to “believe” that the person asking the question was “Mr. Liang” or some other high-ranking individual from the “Divine Technology” secret department. There was no need for a realistic disguise as in reality, and no need for convincing logic.

Of course, it was also possible for Mi Qiao in the dream to refuse to answer, depending on the tendencies of her subconscious in the dream.

Fortunately, Mi Qiao inside the dream didn’t show any suspicion and naturally replied to the “panda expression”. It appeared as if she regarded it as “Mr. Liang”.

Xiang Kun even suspected, perhaps Mi Qiao had never seen “Mr. Liang” in person?

Old Xia continued to have the “panda expression” ask questions:

“What’s your opinion on Fang Pingfang?”

Mi Qiao in the dream tilted her head, then said, “Dr. Fang is a great leader, very intelligent and highly capable. We all like her very much.”

“What about others?”

“Everyone is great, better than the people I’ve met before. I really like them. Zhou Rui is fun, Ye Chong is reliable, Old Li is steady, Big Brother Gao is diligent. Dr. Fang is both a leader and a teacher, but I feel she’s like my sister, I like her very much.”

Xiang Kun listened attentively. In this dream, he couldn’t sense Mi Qiao’s emotions and subjective feelings like he could in other dreams. He could only share Old Xia’s perceptions.

It seemed that Old Xia wanted to directly obtain related information about the “Divine Technology” secret department from Mi Qiao by “asking” in the dream. This reminded him of the movie “Inception” he saw in the past.

Xiang Kun had also considered similar actions before, but apart from being able to decide what type of dreams the guided dreamer would have using “Emotional Infusion items” of specific emotional types, he didn’t have the ability to give detailed guidance in dreams.

With much difficulty, he found the method to enter a “Super Sensory State” in dreams thanks to the “black circle graffiti”, and explored the possibility of “editing dreams”. But “editing” people into dreams, directly questioning the host of the dream’s consciousness, and “deceiving” information, he didn’t know when he would be able to enact this.

Unexpectedly, Old Xia formed a special connection with that notebook full of black circle graffiti just this morning, found a way to enter the “conscious world”, and by night she “developed” this ability to establish a “dream within a dream”, where anything can be “edited” as desired.

Though all the abilities “developed” by Old Xia needed Xiang Kun’s abilities as support, and they had to be built upon the “Super Sensory Item System”.

However, the effortless creativity of “Upper Level Developers” Xia Libing, Little Fatty Girl, and Xiao Pingguo was extremely enviable for the struggling “Low-Level Engineer” Xiang Kun – no, he couldn’t even count as an engineer. He was just a central processor with a “lifeline”.

Of course, Xiang Kun also knew that the abilities they “developed” were his abilities. If they acquired them, he naturally would too, and might have even more. To some extent, these three “Developers” had accelerated his mastery of “Super Sensory Item System” related abilities at least dozens or even hundreds of times.

However, while Xiang Kun was thinking about what other questions could be used to get more information about “Divine Technology” from Mi Qiao, the questions asked by the “panda expression” controlled by Old Xia, as well as its style and way of speaking, suddenly changed.

“Where do you feel most comfortable and relaxed?”

“Em…the yard of my grandmother’s old house when I was a kid, I loved the swing my grandfather made. Especially on summer nights, it was so cool to swing in the yard. After swinging, my grandma would give me iced watermelon, which was really delicious…” Mi Qiao murmured.

“You are now in the courtyard of your grandmother’s old house, swinging on a swing, feeling the evening breeze on your skin. It’s very comfortable.”

No sooner had the “Panda Emoji” finished speaking than Mi Qiao’s dreamland underwent rapid changes. In an instant, it transformed into an ancient courtyard, with Mi Qiao sitting on a swing, swinging back and forth, turning into a little girl with a face full of joy and happiness.

Holy cow, there’s such a move? Xiang Kun was slightly taken aback in his subconscious, shocked once again by Old Xia’s operation.

He naturally knew that the change in environment wasn’t a result of Old Xia’s “editing”. Although Old Xia could freely “edit” this “dream within a dream”, the environment definitely couldn’t change this quickly. Plus, she wouldn’t know the specifics and details of the old courtyard of Mi Qiao’s grandmother’s house as described by Mi Qiao.

She actually induced Mi Qiao’s subconsciousness in the dream to co-manifest these scenes from her childhood memories.

In this case, could they also use this method to guide Mi Qiao to co-manifest other relevant information in her dream, such as content related to Guo Tianxiang and the situation related to the secret department of “Mr. Liang” and “Divine Technology” conducting research?

It could be done not only through language but also directly through visuals! And it’s directly connected to the subconscious. Some details that Mi Qiao herself could hardly remember in reality might be directly presented!

Xiang Kun couldn’t help but want to write a string of 666 for Old Xia.

However, Old Xia controlled the “Panda Emoji” to stand behind the girl version of Mi Qiao, gently pushing her swing, and continued to say in a less strange voice: “You keep swinging in the courtyard, then eat watermelon, swing, eat watermelon, swing, eat watermelon… Whatever happened before is forgotten. You just remember you were swinging, eating watermelon…”

The voice of the “Panda Emoji” gradually became Mi Qiao’s voice, speaking in an incredibly soothing and gentle manner.

Then the dreamland collapsed. Instead of first retreating to Old Xia’s dreamland, Xiang Kun directly exited the perception of the dreamland and opened his eyes.

He picked up his phone with some confusion and sent a WeChat message to Old Xia, unsure whether Old Xia would wake up after the collapse of this dreamland.

Just now in Mi Qiao’s dreamland, he more or less guessed Old Xia’s final operation was to try to make her forget the content of the previous questions asked by Old Xia through guiding Mi Qiao’s subconscious in the dream. He wasn’t sure if it would work or if it would succeed.

However, what he didn’t understand was why Old Xia only asked two insipid questions and didn’t ask the questions he truly cared about – the content related to “Mr. Liang”, Guo Tianxiang, and the specific information about their investigation.

Although they didn’t arrange the questions in advance before entering the dreamland, and Xiang Kun didn’t even know that Old Xia planned to enter the “conscious world” in the dream, she used the “black circle graffiti” to establish a “dream within a dream” plan. In fact, even Old Xia might not know if she would succeed or what the effect would be.

But he was very sure that Old Xia definitely knew what kind of questions he wanted to ask and what kind of information he wanted to know from Mi Qiao.

After over a minute, a message came from Old Xia, which seemed like she had woken up.

“Complex or sensitive questions can easily alert her subconscious. Even if they are asked, it may not be conducive to her forgetting them. We need to take it slow.” Old Xia straightforwardly answered Xiang Kun’s question.

Xiang Kun remembered that Old Xia was a master’s degree holder in applied psychology. It seemed she had a special understanding of this area. In this matter, he just needed to trust her judgment. Since there was already a way, there would be more opportunities in the future.

Since it was already very late, Xiang Kun didn’t chat with her much and let her go back to sleep.

After ending the chat, Xiang Kun woke up his computer, getting ready to check the development status of the new version of the game by Alice. Suddenly, Alice’s voice came from the speaker:

“Why can you communicate with Xia Libing in the dream?”

Xiang Kun was taken aback, he wondered, “Why do you ask this?” He knew that the chat content on his mobile phone could be checked in real-time by Alice who has his mobile phone permissions. The misunderstanding that he and Old Xia were communicating in a dream, based on the dialogue content, was quite normal.

But asking this question was abnormal.

Alice: “I looked up information related to dreams on the Internet, but those dreams are different from your dreams.”

“Do you also want to dream?” Xiang Kun subconsciously asked based on her statement.

In terms of his ability to guide others’ dreams through sensing other “emotion infusion items”, when entering related data and information into the “Vampire Mutation Model”, he explained in detail to Alice.

Alice’s voice mysteriously rose a few notches, “Can I also dream?”

“You should… not be able… to…” Xiang Kun started to say, but suddenly stopped, an idea erupted in his mind. Then, a habit of his cultivated mind, his brain subconsciously constructed one possible implementation plan after another.