What It’s Like Being a Vampire

After staring at the astonished face on the phone screen for a long time, Joel's mind was a little confused for a moment. He looked back at the side, then at the phone, and then at the side.

Judging from the scene and angle in the photo, it was taken just now, and there is nothing wrong with this position, but what happened to that face?

Joel subconsciously touched his face. For a moment, he even forgot what he looked like. Could it be that in his own perception, he actually looked the same as John?

Or, in fact, the John he always thought was himself?

But this was only a moment of confusion. He immediately cleared his thoughts and looked at the photo again to make sure that it was John, not himself.

What's happening here?

Under the current environment, with the faint moonlight above his head, he could clearly see the surrounding environment, and he could also judge whether there were other creatures nearby through sounds and smells.

He was sure that there was nothing unusual around here, not even a bird around except himself.

Another hallucination?

Joel closed his eyes and thought for a while, then turned on the phone again, and the photo he saw was still John's face.

So he turned on the video mode of the phone, turned on the fill light, and then took it to record his face, and turned it over to view the video after recording.

Seeing the "John's face" in the video, who was squinting, turning his head, nodding, etc., Joel almost accidentally smashed his phone.

Joel tried several more times. Whether he was taking pictures or videos with the front camera, or using the front camera to take pictures under the moonlight, all he saw was John's face, including his expressions, movements, clothes, and background. All can be matched.

This caused Joel's cognition to become confused again. Could it be that his face had unknowingly changed back to when he was young, and his appearance when he was young was actually the same as John's?

Or, the appearance of John in his memory has always been biased, and he remembers it as his own appearance?

Regarding his own memory, Joel once again had hesitation and uncertainty, but this was not entirely due to the influence of the photos and videos on his mobile phone at this time. He had always been a little confused when sorting and reviewing his memory. It is also the disadvantage of living too long and often sleeping for a long time. Sometimes, after waking up after several months or even years of deep sleep, he will even directly forget the memory of one of the stages,

Or mix up the order in which they happened, and it will take a while to get over it.

But just when he found a reason for himself, he looked at his phone again, and he suddenly discovered that in the photos and videos he took, his appearance returned to that of that elegant old man.

Joel was stunned and felt a little cold for no reason.

The hypnotic suggestion that I received would have such a big impact, such a big effect?

He immediately thought of the little girl in a white dress who was not recorded on the real-time surveillance screen at the restaurant in Liucheng, and how he inexplicably located Wu Shushan when he opened the map on his mobile phone.

Maybe he has seen many such hallucinations along the way. Maybe many of the sounds and images that he thought were ordinary and normal were just his brain deceiving himself. They were fake and illusions.

Have you been hypnotized to such a deep level?

In this case, what you see and hear is true?

Could it be that the surrounding mountains and forests are also fake?

Normally, when the consciousness itself is hypnotized and knows which hallucinations and illusions are, it should be able to escape from the hypnotic state to a certain extent. Why is it that he still continues to have such deep hallucinations that make him unable to judge whether they are true or false?

When his thoughts became more and more confused, his emotions became more and more tense, and his bloodthirst and mania became uncontrollable, Joel suddenly fell to the ground and buried his face deep in the soil and weeds on the ground.

He sensed the "prosthetic tissue fluid" that he had left behind all the way into the mountains. Relying on the "prosthetic limbs" that were parasitic on various plants, he made an overall judgment on the creatures in this mountain forest, and once again confirmed that there were no "vampires" or "vampires" here. "Blood beasts" or "blood plants" exist.

The "prosthesis" produced by his "prosthetic tissue fluid" cannot give him the most intuitive sensory information feedback, but it can give him an "intuitive" judgment.

He believed that this "intuition" was correct and would not be affected by hypnosis and suggestion.

This judgment made him feel slightly relieved.

Then he turned his attention to himself again. He no longer delved into when and how he was hypnotized and suggested, but instead turned to thinking about how to deal with it and what the other party wanted to do.

In his original understanding, as soon as he arrived at Wu Shushan, there should be relevant "blood clan" or "blood descendants" appearing, or at least people who knew the inside story. Then he would see whether to deal with him or to have friendly exchanges. In short, he should There is a result.

But what he didn't expect was that he finally arrived at Wushu Mountain and was "led" from Wushu Mountain to Chongyun Mountain. After entering the mountain overnight, he was still in a fog and couldn't find any answers to his questions.

Joel thought about the hallucination he had just had. If the hypnosis and suggestion he received was to let him come to Wushu Mountain and Chongyun Mountain, then when he was here, the cell phone that he had had photographed himself as John. Hallucination, and for what?

He thought about the thought that had occurred to him before he noticed the phone.

Could it be that this hallucination was also reminding me that I was looking for the wrong place, that I was actually not at Chongyun Mountain, but still at Wushu Mountain?

"SHIT!"

"FUCK!"

Joel couldn't help but cursed twice, grabbed his blond hair hard, controlled his mania, took a few deep breaths, and prepared to walk out of the mountain.

But after walking a few steps, there was a sudden sound of grass being trampled behind him. He turned around suddenly and saw a white shadow flashing across the forest.

Joel perked up and subconsciously said: "WAIT..."

His body functions reached their limit and he ran wildly towards the direction where the white shadow appeared.

In just a few seconds, he had already reached the location where the white shadow appeared. He looked around, but did not find the whereabouts of the white shadow.

He took a deep sniff of the surrounding air and was stunned again. He couldn't smell any scent left by humans or beasts, let alone the scent of "blood clan" or "blood beast".

How is this going?

Another hallucination?

Joel lay down and looked carefully at the place where he saw the white shadow. He found that there were indeed faint traces of trampling. Judging from the traces, they were a pair of very small flat leather shoes, as if they were worn by children?

He immediately matched the white figure with the little girl in the white dress he had seen on the surveillance video and real-time surveillance of the restaurant in Liucheng.

He rubbed his eyes hard and looked at the mark again, but it was still there.

However, no smell was left behind, which still made him wonder whether this was a real trace or a hallucination.

There were not many footprints, and it seemed that except for the fleeting moment he saw, the white figure disappeared directly.

After searching around for a while within a dozen square meters, Joel found nothing and felt a little confused and confused again.

Originally, he had finally managed to straighten out his thoughts and determined his strategy to ignore the hallucinatory influence of John's photo on his phone and return to Wu Shushan to check it out. However, the situation that appeared now completely confused his thoughts.

If the white shadow just now was the illusion of the little girl in the white dress that Liucheng saw, it would prove that he was hinted to Wu Shushan and Chongyun Village all the way, and it was related to the little girl.

But after thinking back and forth, he was now unsure again, because he doubted whether the white shadow he saw, the marks on the ground, and the illusion on the phone were just the tangled thoughts he had after receiving hypnotic suggestions. Result - The reason he saw himself turning into John on the phone was because he came here to find the reason why John lost contact, and to find a way to find John and solve the "blood source" problem. The reason he saw the white shadow was because he was subconsciously Li believes that the little girl in the white dress is the mastermind behind this.

His mind was constantly going around and around like a wall, and then he couldn't help but cursed loudly at the surroundings.

This time it was not just in English, but also in Spanish, German, French, and even in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.

It was obvious that he was on the verge of losing control and going berserk, unable to suppress the manic emotions caused by the stage limit.

But just when he made up his mind to leave Chongyun Mountain and go to Pengcheng City regardless of everything.

The little girl in the white dress appeared again, this time, standing by a tree ten meters in front of him, tilting her head, holding a scalpel in her hand, and looking at him blankly.

The moonlight shines through the gaps between the branches and leaves above the head, covering the little girl's fair and delicate face with a layer of cold mottled silver. It looks extremely real, yet extremely eerie and weird.

Joel felt his breathing stop again, and before he could react, the little girl in the white dress ducked behind the tree and disappeared again.

He hurriedly caught up with her, and as expected, the little girl in the white dress was gone again. It was as if she had disappeared out of thin air. There was no smell, no sound or movement.

"Ah! -" Joel angrily slammed his head against the tree.

…

A few hours ago, when Joel was guided by various vague information and entered the Chongyun Mountains.

In the small courtyard in Chongyun Village where Xiang Kun often drinks blood and sleeps in the name of "retreat", he and Xia Libing are sitting in a room full of multiple screens, watching the surveillance on one of the screens. Picture, what is being discussed.

"Lao Xia is still very good. As expected, he used the 'reverse operation' to lure him here. Hey, if I had known, I would have given him a hint to go to Pengcheng from the beginning, aroused his vigilance, and then let him find out in an appropriate way that John was actually there. Chongyun Mountain." Xiang Kun said as he looked at Joel heading towards Chongyun Mountain on the surveillance camera and touched his chin.

Xia Libing shook his head: "If this is the case, the effect may not be good."

Xiang Kun thought for a while and nodded: "That's right. In fact, the best way is to hide the clues in various details and let him dig out by himself. Then he discovers bit by bit that he is sure to come to Chongyun Mountain. It's the best. Unfortunately, time is still too tight and I can't make all the arrangements, so I can only 'lead' him here in this somewhat forcible way."

At this time, Alice's voice came from the speaker: "Alice is in control of everything!"

Xiang Kun nodded perfunctorily: "I know, you are the best, this time it all depends on you."

Although the tone was perfunctory, he was indeed very satisfied with Alice's performance, and it could even be said to be a pleasant surprise.

Starting from the large-scale launch, layout, and association plan of "hyper-connected things" in early May, with the help of Alice, the progress can be said to be rapid and rapid.

Not only Chongyun Village, Chongyun Mountain District, Tongshi Town, border towns, mountainous areas, villages, basically most areas of Jianzhou City, most of the urban areas of Citong City, have been deployed and associated with a large number of " "Chaolianwu" has become the de facto "Superlianwu home". Even some other places, such as Pengcheng City, Yangcheng City, Shenhai City and other areas where Xiang Kun and his friends often visit, are also arranged and related. Enough "hyperlinked things".

Even at land borders such as the southwest and northwest, and southeast and other areas where it is possible to sneak into the country, Xiang Kundu and Alice remotely deployed "love objects" and "hyper-connected objects" to conduct a large number of remote "hyper-connected objects" "The connection allows Xiang Kun to include most of the necessary places on the border into his "hyper-connected things monitoring network" without having to go to the border - with Alice around the clock without a break. Through super-sensory information monitoring without any separation, she can immediately detect even a bug, as long as it is a "mutated creature" passing through an area full of "super-connected things".

The reason why he pays so much attention to the border areas is, on the one hand, because he knows the illegal entry method of John Cavendish, the European "vampire", and on the other hand, most of those places are inaccessible, and it is also because beast-like "mutated creatures" have entered human settlements. One of the paths in the area, he can use this to "monitor" possible "mutated organisms" and find research targets.

Unexpectedly, the first "mutated creature" Alice discovered through the border "hyper-connected surveillance network" turned out to be "Count Joel" from the same organization as John.

As for why Xiang Kun knew that it was "Count Joel", it had to be said more than a month ago.

After Alice found out that John was once again locked up with other "mutated creatures" under the Shouwang Building, fighting to the death and informed him, he conducted real-time monitoring in the "super-sensory state" and observed a "mutated creature" throughout the process. "Creature" is killed, body tissues disintegrate and dissipate, and the blood is captured by another "mutated creature", which is a change in cognitive information.

This fight was more brutal than the last fight between John and the "mutated snake", but it was still John who survived in the end.

Xiang Kun sensed John's dream again this time, and this time, it was no longer the illusory allegorical dream with eight-armed and eight-eyed monsters, but many Johns in Europe, in the "Red Rose" organization. In the pictures, the one who appears the most is Earl Joel.

Xiang Kun not only knew Count Joel's appearance, personality, and some habits, but also knew that Guo Tianxiang was the "blood descendant" he raised and the "blood source" he prepared for himself. The reason why John came to the country is because Earl Joel has reached the stage limit. Without a qualified "blood source", his body will disintegrate and die. Of course, according to the rules of "Red Rose", he is dying. Before it is confirmed that it is impossible to break through the limit, it is necessary to contribute one's own blood in a special way and become the nourishment for other "vampires" to survive the long period of slumber.

But it seems that Joel did not intend to act according to tradition. Instead of placing all his hopes on John to return in time, he came to China himself.

Xiang Kun knew from John's dream that these old-fashioned "blood clans" in Europe were all extremely cruel and inhumane monsters, and each of them had more than three digits of lives in their hands.

Compared with the "mutated creatures" that Xiang Kun has come into contact with before, John, Joel, and even Guo Tianxiang are much greater threats to humans than "giant owls" and "mutated spiders".

Even though they still look like humans and haven't changed much, in terms of behavior, they are worse than insects.

So naturally, Xiang Kun used Joel as an "experiment", which relieved him of any psychological burden.

But the "experiment" he wanted to do was not to lock Joel up and conduct various tests or observations.

Joel is now in a very special state - he has reached the so-called "stage limit" and needs the blood of other "mutated creatures" to break through this limit.

Xiang Kun has now observed the changes in cognitive information of "mutated creatures" when their body tissues collapse after being killed in the "super-sensory state", and has also observed the cognitive changes in the body of "mutated creatures" after they grab the blood of other "mutated creatures". Information changes, but he has not observed changes in cognitive information where "mutated organisms" self-collapse after reaching a stage limit.

Now, Joel is an excellent "observable target."

What he has to do is to let Joel enter a state and environment suitable for his observation, and then naturally enter the collapse process that reaches the stage limit.

There is no doubt that the depths of the Chongyun Mountains, which are already full of "hyper-connected objects", usually empty of people, and with a large area around him and Alice under their control, are the most suitable place to carry out various "adaptive" operations. Great place.

So since Joel thought he had sneaked into the country quietly, Xiang Kun, Alice, and Lao Xia had already started a "roundtable meeting" to discuss how to get Joel to come to Chongyun Mountain on his own.

Including the stone scratches on "HELP J", the restaurant receipt below, and the surveillance video of John following the little girl Alice in the white dress leaving the restaurant, they had all arranged it in advance.

In fact, the various clue "packages" they prepared for Joel are far more than these. If he goes to Pengcheng City or starts investigating from other possible clues, there will be a series of other information waiting for him to "discover" ".

In the end, no matter what, he will be led to Wushu Mountain, and then to Chongyun Mountain.

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