What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 599: Chapter 599: The Door to the New World (Lower Half)

On the ride home, Tang Baona gazed at the rapidly passing night scenery outside the car window, lost in thought.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The little girl’s simple self-introduction contained an enormous amount of information.

She has an official name, Alice, and she also knows the nickname Tang Baona has used for her all along – “Little Elf”, and even accepts this moniker.

Additionally, she mentioned that she was “Xiao Luosi of Xiao Lingdang”, proving that she is acquainted with Liu Shiling.

Tang Baona immediately recalled that she had indeed heard Xiao Lingdang mention her interactions with a friend named Xiao Luosi before. For instance, when she drew the super huge painting for Old Xia’s birthday gift, she mentioned that she got some help from Xiao Luosi.

Back then, everyone including Tang Baona and Yang Zhen Er, believed that “Xiao Luosi” was just a little friend of “Xiao Lingdang” with whom she had a good relationship. They all knew Xiao Lingdang had a few friends in both Shenhai and Star City nurseries, with whom she still keeps in touch online and occasionally discusses drawing with, such as a girl named “Da Lu” and another called “Xiao Mei”.

But they hadn’t anticipated that Xiao Luosi was not a real human kid, but the elusive “Little Elf”, who seems to appear and disappear out of thin air.

If this were all Alice had said, Tang Baona might have thought that the “Little Elf,” Alice, established this connection because of Xiao Lingdang’s fondness of her.

But Alice had said something crucial- that she was “the boss’s assistant.”

Who was her boss?

Although Alice didn’t get to elaborate then, a name instinctively surfaced in Tang Baona’s mind:

Xiang Kun.

She remembered not long after she met Xiang Kun, how he mentioned to her a voice synthesis tool for which she provided many voice samples, leading to a mix-up where a demo version of the tool included a sample saying “Xiang Kun, you’re so handsome.”

She thought back on why the voice of the “Little Elf” sounded familiar to her. It was because her own voice had been turned into a child-like version. However, because there usually is a discrepancy when one hears their own voice, and most of her recorded voices were singing, she didn’t recognize it at first.

She remembered Xiang Kun mentioning the voice synthesis system would be applied to an AI assistant, but there hadn’t been any updates since then.

Initially, she assumed that this AI assistant was the basis for their later creation, Genesis of Voice. But now, could Xiang Kun have created an “assistant” Alice that transcends the digital world in another way?

The little girl was modeled after Old Xia’s childhood appearance, maybe because Old Xia, like her, provided material or samples for Xiang Kun’s AI assistant project?

But how was this achieved? Was it even possible?

If it was on a computer, a mobile phone, or any other digital information carrier, or even a robot displaying this level of intelligence, she might be surprised but wouldn’t find it strange.

But the little girl, the Little Elf Alice, who moves in and out of existence as if going from illusion to reality was hard to fathom. Her elusive presence, seeming nonexistent and yet existing everywhere, appearing out of the blue, exceeded her comprehension and could not be explained by her past experiences.

She was sure that the little girl was not an hallucination, for the girl had grabbed onto her leg in Chongyun Village, preventing her from rolling down the stairs. Moreover, mere hours prior, the little girl had touched her backhand, a touch so real that it even had warmth. Just a while ago, she had even pinched the little girl’s cheek.

How could such a tangible, lifelike presence appear and disappear in an instant?

Moreover, she could be outside the window one second and in the hallway the next, or appear on the wing of an airplane—these extraordinary behaviors that ignore spatial distance didn’t seem like something that could be “programmed” or produced by electronic devices.

However, considering her own experiences, her perception of magical emotional melodies and object melodies, and the lightning storm and illusory fireworks show she saw in Chongyun Village a few days ago, the appearance of the “little elf”, Alice, seemed…rather expected.

Could Xiang Kun be a “great wizard” or “great practitioner” hiding among programmers?

Is he leading me, Old Xia, Zhen’er, Xiao Lingdang, Xiao Pingguo into a world of magic or superpowers?

Once she returned home, Tang Baona naturally couldn’t fall asleep right away. She started calling out for the “little elf” with her mobile phone, sitting in the living room on purpose. The previous appearance of the “little elf” was in the living room.

This time, after she called a few times, she didn’t get any response. After looking left, right, and even up and down around the living room, she didn’t see the little girl in a white dress.

Tang Baona wasn’t anxious though. Over the past few months, she’d tried calling out for the “little elf” countless times and most times, she received no response, so she was pretty used to it.

However, whenever she was in trouble or in danger, or even if her family was in danger, the “little elf” would always appear on time to help and protect her.

Since the “little elf”, Alice claimed to be the “boss’s assistant”, her protection of Tang Baona was presumably carried out under the orders of her boss, Xiang Kun?

With these thoughts in mind, Tang Baona suddenly got an idea, closed her eyes and touched the beads on the string around her wrist with her right hand. She sensed the expression of the melody from various objects in the room and then, within these melodies, she looked for an unusual rhythm.

When her father had a heart attack, she didn’t have the emotional space to sense the melody of things. But later in the hospital, after her father was alright and she saw Alice in the hallway, there was a moment when she whimsically perceived the melody of the surrounding objects and emotional melodies.

Of course, by the time her mother suddenly appeared, Alice had already vanished, but she still captured an unusual rhythm and melody among various object melodies and emotional melodies.

At that time, because her mother was near her, she didn’t delve too deeply into her perceptions. But when she got back home and started searching the surroundings for the same rhythm and melody, she discovered it again!

Moreover, that rhythm and melody seemed to be everywhere; she could perceive it wherever she was.

Tang Baona got excited, just like she had found a thread to pull on. She earnestly tugged at it, continuously unraveled it, and followed these unusual rhythms, trying to fill in the gaps and form a complete song.

But when she focused solely on it, and put aside all the other emotional melodies and object melodies, leaving only that unique rhythm, a sense of ancient vastness enveloped her. It felt as if the rhythm she was exploring expanded into an infinite universe and a mysterious deep sea.

Tang Baona was startled, but at this point, she was unwilling to give up so easily, and she continued to delve deep into the rhythm.

…

Upon exiting the subway station, Tang Baona squinted at the sun overhead then quickly walked in the shade along the street.

Once she arrived at the entrance of a coffee shop, she glanced at her cell phone, and satisfied that she hadn’t arrived late for their scheduled appointment, entered the shop.

While she didn’t really want to go on this blind date, she had to save face for Sister Han. She considered it an opportunity to make a new friend. If she had to attend, then she certainly couldn’t be late and leave a bad impression, giving off the sense that the people Sister Han introduced were impolite.

She pushed the door and entered. The coffee shop was very quiet. She couldn’t spot a single customer around, and even the bar counter and service counter were unstaffed. Could it be that the shop hadn’t opened yet? How could that be?

She found a spot in the corner and sat down. Suddenly, a short waiter appeared out of nowhere, holding a menu. The waiter asked in a tender, childlike voice, “What would you like to have?”

Tang Baona looked up and found a cute little girl who seemed to be about 5 or 6 years old, chubby and adorable. She couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch the little girl’s chubby cheeks, smiling, “Are you the owner’s daughter? How come you’re helping out at such a young age?”

“Let’s be serious. We’re ordering here.” The little girl shook her head, pulling away from her hand, her expression serious.

“Alright. I’ll have an American coffee for now. My friend has yet to arrive, so we’ll order more when he gets here.”

“What’s American? All our dishes here are beautiful, nothing ugly.” The little girl stared at her with big eyes.

“Ah?” Tang Baona was taken aback, and could not help but laugh: “What do you have here, then?”

The little girl read from the menu, “We have chocolate, ice cream, lemon tea, sachima, mung bean cake, and custard pies.”

Just as Tang Baona was about to ask for a cup of lemon tea, the little girl continued to list: “Our dry pot rabbit meat, spicy rabbit meat, rib soup, Napoleon cake, roasted chicken wings, and crispy pig’s elbow are also very delicious…” As she read, she couldn’t resist but swallow her saliva.

Tang Baona couldn’t hold her laughter: “Is this a café or a Chinese restaurant?” she already reached out again to touch the chubby cheek.

Just then, there was a loud roar outside, followed by a piercing bird noise. Tang Baona instinctively covered her ears, but the little waitress, Little Fatty Girl, let out a scream, put on her hood, and ran straight out of the café.

Tang Baona was startled and quickly got up to chase after her, trying to pull Little Fatty Girl back.

But once she got outside, the trace of Little Fatty Girl had disappeared. A shadow flew overhead, blocking out the sun. She instinctively looked up and saw a terrifying giant bird flying over the city, casually touching the nearby buildings with its claws, immediately knocking chunks of brick from the sky.

Tang Baona too late to cover her head in protection, a huge stone was about to crash into her. Suddenly, she was held by someone, who promptly moved her aside, and narrowly escaped the danger.

Regaining her composure, she looked at the person who saved her—a cute girl with sunglasses, her expression determined. She turned and pointed her finger, and suddenly countless golden pigeons flew in from somewhere and, working together, blocked and pushed away the falling rocks.

Wait, they’re not pigeons?

While she carefully distinguished whether those plump golden birds were pigeons or some other species, a female warrior wearing silver armor swung her great sword at the giant bird in the air.

The great sword carried with it arcs of electric light, exploding into a roar and creating an arc of lightning in the sky.

However, the next moment, the silver-armored female warrior was flung off by a light flap from the giant bird. She tumbled and fell from the sky, letting out a wail, and landed not far from Tang Baona.

She hurried over, but found the warrior, whose helmet had split into two halves and who was tearing up, was slowly picking herself up from the ground.

“Ah! Zhen’er? What…you actually…” Tang Baona recognized the female warrior as her close old friend, Yang Zhen Er.

Yang Zhen Er sniffled, wiped her tears, and was taken aback for a moment. Then she screamed, quickly covered her face with her hands, and ran away shouting, “I’m not! You got the wrong person!”

“Wait! Zhen’er, it’s dangerous!” Tang Baona saw the giant bird in the sky circling back. Its claws stretched out as if ready to swoop down on Yang Zhen Er who was running away. The buildings on both sides were disintegrating as if from a nuclear blast wave.

Suddenly, all the noise disappeared, the diving action of the giant bird seemed frozen, as if the whole space was paused.

The next moment, a bald man dressed in yellow overalls, red gloves, red boots, wielding a white cloak, punched upwards from down below. He also rose with his punch to face the giant bird.

A burst of light exploded, and the giant bird was swallowed in a terrifying scream and struggle.

In just an instance, Tang Baona recognized him as Saitama Sensei, the main character of a cartoon series she used to watch. However, the name she unintentionally yelled in shock was: “Xiang Kun!”

After the explosion of light, suddenly a rhythmic melody rang out – the tapping sound of drums, followed by a symphony, and then various instruments joined in, followed by a long and melodious female voice.

Such a familiar melody?

“Sister Nana.”

A female voice called her.

She looked to the left, a white light, nothing else.

“Sister Nana.”

She looked to the right again, still nothing but the vast white.

“Sister Nana, Sister Nana, Sister Nana…”

As the voice called out and the melody continued to play, she suddenly felt her consciousness becoming clearer and clearer.

Wait, why did I say “wake up”?

Could it be that I wasn’t awake before?

Tang Baona froze for a moment, realizing something. She raised her head and found herself back in the café where she had been sitting before. The sun was shining outside, and all the buildings were intact. There was no sign of the terrifying giant bird or world-shattering destruction.

She focused her gaze on two girls sitting in front of her – one young, one old. The older one, with her hair tied in a ponytail, was the familiar Old Xia. The younger one, who looked much younger and also resembled Old Xia, was wearing a white princess dress – Alice.

“Sister Nana.” Old Xia softly called.

“Sister Nana.” Alice echoed in a light voice.

“Was I…dreaming?” Tang Baona instinctively blurted out.

All of a sudden, everything around her became both concrete and elusive at the same time.