Hunger

Hunger

That evening, Xiang Kun received a WeChat message from Chang Bin asking how the meeting had gone.

Naturally, he said the conversation had gone well and that they would continue getting to know each other better later.

However, when Chang Bin learned that Xiang Kun had moved the evening meeting to the afternoon, had not invited Tang Baona to dinner, had made no further arrangements, and that they had gone their separate ways home shortly after five, he gave Xiang Kun a thorough scolding.

A little later, Chang Bin sent another WeChat message. He said he had asked Wang Han to look into it, and it seemed the girl had a pretty good impression of Xiang Kun too. She found him "witty and humorous," "quite interesting," and thought they "could be friends first."

Chang Bin said that sounded promising and told him to be more proactive—chat more, ask her out more, and meet more often.

Xiang Kun naturally agreed without hesitation, but inwardly, he felt that this was probably just Tang Baona's tactful rejection. She meant that Xiang Kun was more suitable as a friend—which happened to align with his own wishes anyway.

Over the next three days, Xiang Kun and Tang Baona had no contact at all. He still spent most of each day at the gym, then trained his vision and lung capacity at night.

Xiang Kun had drunk blood for the first time on July 14 and the second time on July 17, three days later.

Now, a full six days had passed since he drank rabbit blood on July 17. He still was not sleepy in the slightest, nor did he feel hungry.

Over those six days, aside from drinking plain water, he had not eaten anything else, even though he exercised heavily every day.

He had no idea when his next blood-drinking episode would come.

The first two times, he had only begun feeling intense hunger after seeing blood. But this time, he hoped to wait until his body actively "sent out" that demand, so he could find out how long one blood-drinking session could sustain him.

The remaining rabbit had grown plump and healthy under his care. He had even made a special trip to the supermarket to buy food for it. He was really about to become a proper pet owner.

He only hoped he could complete this blood-drinking session before moving.

On the evening of the 23rd, Xiang Kun was practicing his eyesight when he suddenly received a WeChat message from Tang Baona.

"Saitama-sensei, are you there?"

"Saitama-sensei" was the joking nickname Tang Baona had given him when she mentioned One-Punch Man that day.

Xiang Kun thought about it, then replied with a single simple word—"Yeah."

"What are you doing? Want to come out for barbecue?"

Eating... was naturally out of the question.

Xiang Kun was just about to make an excuse to decline when his mouth suddenly watered, and a wave of hunger surged up from deep within him.

It was here!

Since his mutation, this was the first time Xiang Kun had felt hunger before seeing blood. He could not spare any thought for excuses. He simply replied, "Sorry, I have something to do, can't make it," tossed his phone aside, sat down in front of his computer, opened a document to record his observations, and started a timer.

He wanted to see what effect this hunger would have on him, and what other changes would occur as time passed.

During the previous two blood-drinking episodes, when he first went to the market to buy chicken, he clearly remembered the whole process, yet it had felt as though his body had been "making its own decisions."

The second time, when he drank rabbit blood at home, the feeling had been much better.

He wondered whether the difference was simply because the market had been his first time, or because his need for blood had been stronger back then.

That was another question that needed verification.

After recording everything, Xiang Kun sat cross-legged on his bed and began carefully sensing the changes in his body.

Generally speaking, when people felt hungry, it began in their abdomen, with the contractions of an emptied stomach.

But the hunger Xiang Kun sensed now did not come from his abdomen or his stomach. It seemed more as though it came from the depths of his consciousness, from every organ and every cell in his body.

After checking, his physical strength did not seem to have declined much. He was not like an ordinary person whose limbs went weak from hunger.

But with the hunger constantly interfering, he found it difficult to focus on anything else.

Time passed little by little. From the moment he first felt that hunger at 9:08 p.m. until after three in the morning, it steadily grew stronger, until Xiang Kun could barely sit still.

Xiang Kun began getting up frequently. Several times, he walked to the cage in the bathroom where he kept the rabbit, only to force himself to turn back. He tried doing other things to distract himself, but his mind kept imagining scenes of killing the rabbit and drinking its blood, replaying the sensation in his body from the last time he drank blood.

At first, Xiang Kun recorded a video of himself every half hour, reciting a Tang poem to the camera to confirm his condition.

After midnight, he shortened it to one recording every ten minutes, using the method to give himself something to do and distract himself.

Several times, Xiang Kun also wanted to go outside for some air or go for a run. But he had considered it before—he absolutely could not leave the house in this state, lest he do something impulsive when he lost control.

What surprised Xiang Kun, however, was that at around five-thirty, when the sun rose, the hunger and impulse to drink blood suddenly eased considerably.

It seemed that after sunrise, whatever factor suppressed his body's natural functions also suppressed his craving for blood.

Xiang Kun let out a breath of relief. He recorded the changes in his body on the computer while adjusting his breathing and continuing to endure.

His condition was much better during the day, and holding out did not become harder as time passed. But after sunset, the hunger began intensifying again.

At 7:33 p.m., after nearly punching the wall, Xiang Kun gave up on continuing to endure. At incredible speed, he dealt with the meat rabbit he had raised for nearly a week, restrained the urge to guzzle its blood directly, and drained it into measuring cups he had prepared beforehand.

The cups had clear measurement markings. He filled four of them: the first three each held 50 ml, while the fourth held just over 20 ml.

After drinking the first 50 ml, Xiang Kun could clearly feel that his hunger had not been satisfied. He still craved the rabbit blood intensely.

But he did not immediately drink more. Instead, he used his phone to time himself. Only after one minute did he drink the second 50 ml, then continued timing. After another two minutes, he drank the third cup.

After the third cup went down, Xiang Kun could clearly feel that the blood's effect had diminished.

A powerful wave of drowsiness hit him, but Xiang Kun forced himself to stay awake. He cleaned up while timing himself, then drank the fourth cup five minutes after drinking the third cup of rabbit blood.

In truth, Xiang Kun could still feel his craving for blood, but after drinking the final less-than-20 ml, it provided almost no help at all.

Clearly, the fourth cup had already lost the effects rabbit blood could provide.

Xiang Kun had suspected as much last time: once rabbit blood left the rabbit's body, its effectiveness on him dropped rapidly. Now, that had been confirmed.

The second cup, drunk one minute later, was not much different from the first, while the effects of the third had declined noticeably.

From this, he could infer that the decline in effectiveness began one to three minutes after the rabbit blood left the rabbit.

After recording everything, Xiang Kun still did not immediately lie down to sleep. Instead, he sat on the bed and fought against the drowsiness.

He wanted to see how long he could resist the sleepiness after drinking blood.