What It’s Like Being a Vampire

Latest website: In the car going home, Tang Baona looked at the passing night scene outside the car window, thoughtfully.

The little girl's simple self-introduction contained a huge amount of information.

She has a formal name, Alice, and she also knows that Tang Baona has always called her "elf" and recognizes this title.

In addition, she also said that she was "little bell's little screw", proving that she knew Liu Shiling.

Tang Baona also immediately remembered that she had indeed heard Xiao Lingdang mention her exchanges with a friend named Xiao Luosi before. For example, when she painted the oversized painting as a birthday gift for Lao Xia, she had mentioned that Xiao Luo's help was involved. .

At that time, both Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er and others thought that "Little Screw" was just a child with whom "Little Lingdang" had a good relationship. They all knew that Little Lingdang had several close friends in kindergartens in Shenhai and Xingcheng. Her friends now often communicate with her through the Internet and discuss painting with her, such as a girl named "Da Lu" and a girl named "Xiao Mei".

Unexpectedly, the little screw was not a "real child", but an "elf" that came and went without a trace, as if it did not exist and seemed to exist everywhere.

If she only had these few words, Tang Baona might have thought that the connection shown by "elf" Alice's protection of her came from Little Bell's closeness to her.

But there is another key word from Alice - "she is the boss's assistant".

Who is her "boss"?

Although Alice didn't have time to say it at that time, a name came to Tang Baona's mind instinctively:

Xiang Kun.

She remembered the speech synthesis tool that Xiang Kun mentioned to her not long after she met Xiang Kun. She helped provide a large number of speech samples. Later, she made an mistake. When Xiang Kun sent her the demo version of the tool, There is a voice sample of "Xiang Kun, you are so handsome".

She suddenly realized now that the reason why she felt the voice of the "elf" sounded familiar to her was because the voice was actually her voice becoming juvenile, but normally there would be some distortion when she heard her own voice. , and the recorded voices were basically singing, so I couldn’t tell the difference for a while.

She remembered that Xiang Kun had said that the voice synthesis system would be applied to an AI assistant, but there had been no follow-up updates.

She originally thought that the AI ​​assistant should be the basis for the "Voice Genesis" they later made, but now it seems that Xiangkun may have used another method to create an "assistant" Alice that transcends the digital world. ?

Maybe the reason why Lao Xia looked like she was when she was a child is because Lao Xia, like her, provided materials or samples for Xiang Kun's AI assistant project?

But how is this done? Can this really be done?

If this kind of highly intelligent performance appeared on a computer, a mobile phone, or other digital information carrier, or even a robot, she might be surprised, but she wouldn't find it weird.

But now that little girl, the elf Alice, that kind of transformation between virtuality and reality, that kind of elusive form of existence that seems to be everywhere and can appear at any time, is too mysterious and has exceeded her. A range that can be understood and explained using past cognition.

She was very sure that the little girl was not her hallucination, because when she was in Chongyun Village, the little girl hugged her legs to prevent her from rolling down the stairs. A few hours ago, the little girl touched the back of her hand. The touch was real and even warm. Just now, she pinched the little girl's cheek.

Why can such a real and living existence appear and disappear again?

Moreover, she can be outside the window one second, appear in the corridor the next second, and perform on the wing of a passenger plane. This extraordinary performance that ignores spatial distance is not like "programming" or what electronic equipment can do. coming out of existence.

But thinking about her own experience, thinking about the magical melody of emotions and the perception of the melody of objects, thinking about the lightning storm and the firework show that seemed real and illusory a few days ago in Chongyun Village, she felt that "little elf" Alice's appearance seemed... natural.

Could it be that Xiangkun is really a "great wizard" or "great monk" hidden among programmers?

Is he taking me, Lao Xia, Zhen'er, little bells, and little apples into a world of magic or supernatural powers?

After returning home, Tang Baona naturally couldn't fall asleep immediately. She started calling the "elf" on her mobile phone again, and specially sat in the living room to call - because the "elf" appeared in the living room before.

After calling a few times this time, she didn't get any response. She looked around the living room left and right and even up and down, but she didn't see the little girl in the white dress.

Tang Baona is not anxious about this. In the past few months, she has "summoned" the "elf" countless times. Most of the time, there was no response, so she is quite used to it. .

Of course, whenever she gets into trouble or danger, or even her family is in danger, the "elf" can always appear in time to help her and protect her.

Since "elf" Alice calls herself the "boss's assistant", then she must have received instructions from her "boss", Xiang Kun, to protect herself?

Thinking of this, Tang Baona suddenly felt something in her heart. She closed her eyes, touched the beads on the string on her left wrist with her right hand, felt the melody expression of various objects in the room, and then looked for the unusual hint in these melodies. Rhythm.

When her father had a heart attack, she naturally couldn't have the mood or time to perceive the melody of things. But later in the hospital, her father was fine. After she saw Alice in the corridor, she had a sudden impulse. To feel the melody and emotional melody of things around me.

Of course, at that time, Alice had disappeared due to the sudden appearance of her mother, but she still caught a trace of unique rhythm and melody in the melodies and emotional melodies of various objects around her.

At that time, because her mother was nearby, she did not perceive it too deeply. But now that she returned home, she used that rhythm and melody as a sample to search around her surroundings, and found that she had found it again!

And that rhythm and melody seem to be everywhere and can be felt everywhere.

Tang Baona was a little excited, as if she had found a thread, and began to pull hard, and kept pulling, along these special rhythms, to have a broader perception, as if she wanted to complete it and form a complete song.

But when she focused on this, discarding other emotional melodies and object melodies, and only had that special rhythm in her mind, suddenly a distant and vast feeling filled the air, as if the rhythm she was exploring expanded and was boundless. The universe and the mysterious deep sea.

Tang Baona was startled, but she refused to give up easily at this time, and still followed the rhythm for in-depth perception.

…

After coming out of the subway station, Tang Baona squinted at the bright sun above her head, and then walked quickly along the shadows of the roadside.

When she arrived at the door of a coffee shop, she looked at her phone. Well, it wasn't the appointed time yet, so she wasn't late, which was good.

Although she didn't originally want to go on a blind date, Sister Han had to give her face, so she just wanted to get to know one more friend and go on this trip. Since you are coming, you must not be late. It will leave a bad impression on others and make people think that the person introduced by Sister Han is not polite.

Pushing open the door and walking in, the cafe was very deserted. She glanced around and saw that there was not a single customer, not even the bar or service desk. Could it be that this shop hadn't opened yet? impossible?

She found a seat in the corner and sat down. A little waiter appeared out of nowhere, came over with a menu, and asked in a coquettish voice: "What would you like to eat?"

Tang Baona looked up and found a chubby and cute little girl who looked about 5 or 6 years old. She couldn't help but stretched out her hand to pinch the little girl's chubby face and said with a smile: "Are you the boss's daughter? Why are you so small? Just come out to help?"

"Be serious, we're ordering food here." The little girl shook her head, shook off her hand, and said with a serious expression.

"Okay, give me an Americano first. My friend isn't here yet. I'll order it when he gets here."

"What is American food? The dishes here are all beautiful, and there is nothing ugly." The little girl looked at her with wide eyes.

"Ah?" Tang Baona was stunned for a moment and couldn't help laughing: "Then what do you have here?"

The little girl looked at the menu and read: "There are chocolate, ice cream, lemon tea, Shaqima, mung bean cake, and egg yolk pie."

Tang Baona was about to say a cup of lemon tea, but the little girl continued to read: "Our griddle rabbit meat, spicy rabbit meat, ribs soup, Napoleon cake, grilled chicken wings, and crispy pork knuckle are also delicious..." As he thought about it, he took a sip of saliva.

Tang Baona couldn't help but laugh: "Are you a coffee shop or a Chinese restaurant?" As she said that, she wanted to reach out and touch her fat face.

At this time, there was a sudden loud noise outside, and then a bird song that irritated the eardrums. Tang Baona subconsciously raised her hands to cover her ears, but the fat waiter screamed, put on her hood, and went directly to the coffee shop. Rushed out.

Tang Baona was startled and quickly got up and chased out, trying to pull the fat girl back.

But after following her out, the little fat girl was nowhere to be seen. A shadow flew above her head, directly blocking the scorching sun. She subconsciously raised her head and stared dumbfounded at a terrifying giant bird flying over the city. Then, its claws randomly touched the surrounding buildings, and immediately entire brick walls fell from the air.

Tang Baona held her head and couldn't avoid it. She was about to be hit by a boulder when she was suddenly hugged by someone and ducked to the side, barely able to avoid it.

She came back to her senses and looked at the person who saved her - a cute girl wearing sunglasses with a determined expression. She turned around and waved her finger. Tens of thousands of golden pigeons flew out of nowhere and immediately swooped down. Go up and work together to resist and push away the falling rocks.

Wait, it doesn’t look like a pigeon?

Just when she was carefully distinguishing whether those fat golden birds were pigeons or other species, a female warrior in silver armor struck the giant bird with a big sword in the air.

The sword was filled with electric light, exploded with thunder, and created an electric arc lightning net in the air.

However, the next second, the silver-armored female warrior was fluttered by the giant bird and flew out. She rolled and fell from the air. She screamed "Oh!" and landed not far from Tang Baona.

She rushed over, only to see the female warrior, who had fallen so badly that her helmet was broken in half, was crying while holding on to the wall to get up.

"Ah! Zhen'er? How...you actually..." Tang Baona immediately recognized that the silver-armored female warrior turned out to be her best friend Yang Zhen'er.

Yang Zhener sniffed, wiped her tears, froze for a moment, then said "Ouch", suddenly covered her face, turned around, and ran away: "I'm not! You recognized the wrong person!"

"Wait! Zhen'er, it's dangerous!" Tang Baona saw the giant bird in the sky coming back in a circle, with its claws spread out, and it rushed down towards Yang Zhen'er who ran over. The buildings on both sides looked like they were directly affected by the shock wave of a nuclear bomb. When it reaches normal, it shatters into pieces in all directions.

Suddenly, all the noise disappeared, the giant bird's swooping movements seemed to freeze, and the entire space seemed to have pressed the pause button.

The next moment, a bald man wearing a yellow jumpsuit, red gloves, red boots, and a white cloak punched from bottom to top, and his whole body rose into the sky to face the giant bird.

A burst of light exploded, and the giant bird screamed and struggled to be swallowed up.

In just a moment, Tang Baona recognized that it was Teacher Saitama, the protagonist of an anime she often watched before, but the voice she subconsciously exclaimed became: "Xiang Kun!"

After the light exploded, a very rhythmic melody suddenly sounded, first the tom of drums, then orchestral music, then various musical instruments, and a female voice singing melodiously.

Such a familiar melody?

"Sister Nana."

A female voice called her.

She looked to her left and saw nothing but white light.

"Sister Nana."

She looked to the right again, but it was still completely white.

"Sister Nana, Sister Nana, Sister Nana..."

As the voice called and the melody continued to play, she suddenly felt that her consciousness seemed to be getting clearer and clearer.

Wait, why "sober"?

Am I not sober to begin with?

Tang Baona was stunned for a moment and realized something. She raised her head and looked forward, and found that at some point, she was sitting in the cafe before. The sun was shining outside, and the various buildings were intact. There were no scary giant birds or ruined buildings. Heaven destroys earth.

She looked in front of her. There were two girls, one large and one small. The older one had a ponytail and was the familiar Lao Xia. The younger one could also see what Lao Xia looked like, but she was much younger and wore the same clothes. The white princess dress is Alice.

"Sister Nana." Lao Xia called softly.

"Sister Nana." Alice also called softly.

"I'm... dreaming?" Tang Baona blurted out subconsciously.

Everything around him suddenly became both concrete and illusory.