The Chosen One (Part 2)

After waking up from his blood-sucking slumber, Xiang Kun first learned from "Little Apple" why Officer Zhao was concerned about the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster, as well as some information related to the case of the corpses in the mountains.

That evening, using the known details of the case, they obtained more case details from Officer Zhao through Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream" mode.

These details allowed Xiang Kun to refine his guesses about the previous "Mutated Parasite's " movement trajectory and improve the establishment of his cognitive model of it.

It can be basically determined that the male victim in Purple Huan Mountain was one of the former hosts of the "Mutated Parasite".

His act of luring two girls to the depths of Purple Huan Mountain to murder them was also influenced and guided by the "Mutated Parasite".

Normally, either one of the two female victims would become the next host, allowing the "Mutated Parasite" to leave Purple Huan Mountain, or the male host would "drink blood" and leave Purple Huan Mountain after murdering the two girls.

Judging from the parasitic pattern of this "Mutated Parasite" on the "vampire patient," it has a tendency to continuously modify the host, so the latter possibility is more likely.

But in the end, the host and the two girls all died in the cave, while the "Mutated Parasite" left Purple Huan Mountain after some time, by parasitizing a "vampire patient" who was visiting the mountain through the flowing water.

It's highly likely that something went wrong during the "blood-drinking" process, causing it to change its plans.

As for what went wrong, Xiang Kun deduced from the "mutated giant bird" he had discovered "ambushing" and "staking out" in Purple Huan Mountain a few days ago that it must have been the host of the "Mutated Parasite" that the giant bird had targeted—but the giant bird failed to understand the "parasite's" survival mode and mistook the host for a "Mutated Creature." Only after the "parasite" abandoned its host and fled, and the host committed suicide, did it realize that the host was not a "Mutated Creature," but it still thought that the "Mutated Parasite" would return, which is why it came to stake out the mountain after so long. Unexpectedly, it encountered Xiang Kun and was almost captured.

Xiang Kun originally intended to trace back to the point where the host was parasitized by the "Mutated Parasite" based on the host's identity information, and then deduce the Qidian and process of the "Mutated Parasite" mutation step by step.

But when he tried to find out online how much information the police had released about the Purple Huan Mountain case, he inadvertently found a crucial piece of information that directly changed the direction of his investigation.

The night he returned to Citong City, he and Lao Xia strolled around the place where the "vampire patient" was arrested and unexpectedly discovered a video taken by a florist nearby, showing the "vampire patient" and his accomplices being arrested after a failed kidnapping attempt.

Based on that video, combined with the information Lao Xia had helped him obtain in the "vampire patient's" Dream Within a Dream, Xiang Kun had several guesses about the whereabouts of the "Mutated Parasite".

One of them was the passerby who peered through the window of the van for a while after the "vampire patient" was taken off the bus—the "Mutated Parasite" had a certain chance of attaching itself to him and leaving, only to parasitize again in a "safe" location.

To determine whether a passerby has been infected by a "Mutated Parasite" or has become a "stepping stone," we must first identify them and locate their whereabouts.

The video revealed very limited information, but Xiang Kun could still deduce some criteria for judgment:

For example, the passerby was wearing slippers, casual clothes, and carrying a convenience store bag, and considering the time of day, it was deduced that he was probably a resident living nearby and on his way home. From other details, it was further deduced that he might have an occupation, age, personality traits, etc., and Alice was to use this as a basis to help with the search.

However, in Xiang Kun's original assessment, the possibility of the "parasite" attaching itself to the passerby and leaving was relatively low, since the passerby only stayed by the car for a very short time, so this direction of investigation was also of relatively low priority.

But to his surprise, before he could even search through Alice, he found the stranger's identity information online himself.

Moreover, that information was a wanted notice issued by the police.

Xiang Kun immediately recognized the man in his forties on the police wanted poster as the passerby who had been peering out of the car window in the video taken by the florist.

According to the wanted notice, this man committed a murder in Citong City last May and fled. Because the body was well hidden, it was not discovered until more than half a month later, so the police were unable to apprehend him immediately.

However, Xiang Kun searched for related information and found that this person had accidentally fallen to his death in June during a joint arrest operation by police from both cities in Yang City.

Xiang Kun checked some media reports. According to the suspect's family, he started acting strangely in March of last year. He refused to go to the hospital for a checkup, which eventually led to his divorce from his wife and a falling out with other family members, cutting off all contact. He then borrowed a lot of money from online loans and loan sharks, leading everyone to suspect that he had developed gambling or other vices.

Based on the timeline, Xiang Kun judged that the suspect was very likely a victim of the "Mutated Parasite," becoming its host, and his behavior was guided and influenced by it.

In that case, following the "vampire patient" model, it must have already broken free before the host was captured and died.

Therefore, Xiang Kun set off for Yang City the next day to investigate.

Normally speaking, if the suspect who fell from the building was indeed the host of the "Mutated Parasite," there would still be an eight-month time difference Xiang Kun and the parasite's location node, and the parasite might already be no longer in Yangcheng City.

Therefore, he did not expect to find the exact location of the "Mutated Parasite" on this trip, and he was prepared to return empty-handed after a period of blood-drinking.

But sometimes, things are like that: you may try to plant flowers, but they won't bloom; or you may plant willows without intending to, and they will thrive.

The day after investigating the location where the suspect fell, he went to a tea restaurant near a university in Yang City and tried their signature stir-fried beef noodles.

He had heard Yang Zhen'er say that every time she and Tang Baona went to Yang City, they would always go to that restaurant to eat stir-fried beef noodles, and that the taste was unmatched by any other restaurant to this day.

So even though Xiang Kun didn't need to eat, he made a special trip to try it and see what was so special about the stir-fried beef noodles here.

With his current sense of taste and understanding of seasoning, he can easily deduce the basic seasoning and cooking methods from the taste.

Of course, he might not be able to accurately recount the cooking process, but Xiang Kun was very confident that the flavor he adjusted would definitely be more to Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er's liking—after all, he customized and adjusted it according to their tastes, and there was certainly no one in the world who understood their tastes better than him.

As Xiang Kun habitually switched his visual mode to observe his surroundings and unexpectedly discovered a passerby on the street with a faint blue light spot on his body.

Since he began to deliberately and specifically train and guide the evolution of his various senses, Xiang Kun has developed the habit of "seeing in all directions and hearing from all sides." Whenever he arrives in a new environment, he must first collect enough sensory information, which has become his instinct.

To be honest, when Xiang Kun first saw that blue spot of light, his initial reaction was that he was seeing things.

But he soon realized that it was indeed a "Mutated Creature" embedded in a human body.

And it's highly likely that it's the "Mutated Parasite" he tracked all the way to Yang City —unless there's another "Mutated Parasite" in Yang City.

Xiang Kun didn't dare to get too close, because judging from the experiences of the "vampire patient," the male victim in Purple Huan Mountain, and the passerby, the "Mutated Parasite" always managed to escape before its host was in trouble, and was very sensitive to changes in the host's situation.

It is highly likely that there are special ways of acquiring sensory information that are not part of the host's original sensory abilities.

This was actually Xiang Kun's biggest curiosity about this "Mutated Parasite".

From a normal perspective, once this "Mutated Parasite" enters the host's body, its sensory range is limited to the host's local organs.

One possibility is that the "Mutated Parasite" gains the ability to share and acquire the host's sensory information through mutation, and through mutation, it gains the ability to process this information, allowing it to judge the host's environment on its own. However, Xiang Kun thinks this possibility is unlikely because the required information processing capacity is too great. For a creature that originally did not have those sensory organs, to evolve the relevant information processing capabilities from scratch, even if it can evolve through blood-drinking mutation, would take a very long time.

Another possibility is that it does not directly acquire sensory information, but rather makes judgments based on the emotional feedback of the host after processing the sensory information, such as "fear," "panic," and "tension"—judging by the subtle changes in the body's condition when these emotions arise.

However, these explanations cannot account for how it escaped from the watchful eyes of the "mutant giant bird" on "Purple Huan Mountain." Therefore, Xiang Kun speculates that the "Mutated Parasite" may have another unique and special way of perception that can surpass the host's perception ability.

If such a perception ability truly exists, Xiang Kun wants to figure out what it is, as this should help enhance his already exceptionally strong perception system.

Although Xiang Kun was far away, he still knew very well that the current host of the "Mutated Parasite" was also tracking someone else.

Recalling the experiences of the known previous hosts, Xiang Kun naturally guessed that this guy was probably looking for targets to extract blood under the drive of the parasites.

Although being able to observe the behavior patterns of another "Mutated Creature" besides himself excited Xiang Kun, it was a rare opportunity.

But no matter what, if the controlled host really wanted to harm other humans, he would never stand idly by and watch them die.

Fortunately, the host did not intend to take immediate action against the target. After following the target to their residence, the host turned and left.

Xiang Kun followed him from a distance to a small building in an urban village, and determined by the sound that his room was on the third floor, facing south.

Xiang Kun used his phone to ask Alice to help him search for information about the host—on the way back, the host received a phone call, and the brief two-minute conversation contained a lot of traceable identity information.

Around 6 o'clock, Xiang Kun determined from the dozen or so search results provided by Alice that the current host of the "Mutated Parasite" was a junior college student named Fan Jiading.

Judging from the content posted on this student's social media, he also does live streams and makes videos on various themes, ranging from games to pranks about life and food.

However, this content abruptly stopped at the beginning of last month; videos were no longer updated, live streams ceased, and no new content was posted on social media.

Alice even found posts by Fan Jiading selling cameras and other equipment on Xianyu (a Chinese online marketplace).

Clearly, he had already been influenced and guided by the "Mutated Parasite" at that time, and his behavior was severely affected.

Xiang Kun observed the surrounding environment and waited until around 9 p. m. when there were few pedestrians nearby before quickly climbing up the outer wall of the small building to the third floor where Fan Jiading lived, and looking inside through the window.

Xiang Kun noticed that Fan Jiading was organizing the contents of a backpack. He saw a folding knife, rope, and duct tape, clearly preparing for the follow-up operations of today's surveillance.

It wasn't too late yet. Although this place was remote, some residents would inevitably come out, so Xiang Kun didn't dare to linger by the window for too long. He flicked the Black Circle Graffiti he had crumpled up earlier through the window crack into a corner, then quietly crawled back to the ground and huddled in the shadows between the two buildings to wait.

If Fan Jiading is going to make his move tomorrow, then Xiang Kun will only have tonight to observe, so he needs to make arrangements in advance.

Xiang Kun the shadows, pressed against the wall, closed his eyes and entered a "Hyper-Sensory State," descending to Fan Jiading's side through the Black Circle Graffiti that had just been placed.

Through his perception of cognitive information, Xiang Kun noticed that besides the "Mutated Parasite" "embedded" in Fan Jiading's lower back, there were other differences between Fan Jiading's body and those of ordinary humans. However, he was unable to describe the specific differences at the moment.

This cognitive information felt to him like observing a "vampire patient" for the first time in a "Hyper-Sensory State"—at first glance, he couldn't distinguish them from ordinary people, only vaguely sensing that something was wrong. Ultimately, it was because his ability to interpret cognitive information in a "Hyper-Sensory State" was insufficient.

These differences clearly stem from the modification of the host by the "Mutated Parasite".

Based on the host's previous experiences, Xiang Kun could basically conclude that this "Mutated Parasite" seemed to be modifying the host as if it were a vehicle, making its "performance" better, giving it stronger abilities, and helping it obtain more blood sources.

It's also clear that it's obsessed with human blood; almost every time its host dies, it's because it's trying to obtain human blood.

However, it is clearly unwilling to directly drain the blood of one host and then transfer it to another. It seems to believe that "modifying" or "cultivating" a powerful host to help it extract blood is the best solution, and it has been following this route.

After forcibly memorizing some of the cognitive information about the "Mutated Parasite," Xiang Kun exited the "Hyper-Sensory State" and then picked up his phone to contact Lao Xia.

In addition to observing cognitive information through "Hyper-Sensory State", Xiang Kun also needs to use Lao Xia's Dream Within a Dream mode to reconstruct Fan Jiading's true memories of being parasitized after Fan Jiading falls asleep.

But after sending a WeChat, I waited for twenty minutes and still didn't receive a reply.

Xiang Kun immediately realized that Lao Xia was probably asleep; otherwise, given the content he sent, Lao Xia would have replied instantly upon seeing it.

Normally, Xiang Kun wouldn't bother Lao Xia with ordinary matters and would let her rest well. But if he wanted to stop Fan Jiading from committing the crime tomorrow, he only had the opportunity to conduct in-depth observation of the "Mutated Parasite's " host tonight. If he wanted to capture the "Mutated Parasite," he would definitely have to remove it from its host.

If Lao Xia is asleep now, and is woken up again in the middle of the night, she might not be able to fall back asleep... Without her as the guide in the Dream Within a Dream, Xiang Kun directly triggers the dream, he can only edit the dream, but he cannot provide psychological guidance to the subconscious, let alone conduct deep dream hypnosis.

So after much deliberation, he still had no choice but to "cruelly" dial the number.

Inside Xia Libing's rented apartment in Citong City.

Just as Xiang Kun had guessed, a girl with a ponytail was fast asleep with her head resting on the keyboard of a laptop, while the Word document on the screen kept repeating the same letter over and over.

The sharp ringtone of the cell phone startled Xia Libing awake. She jerked her head up and instinctively reached for her phone.

Above her dazed eyes, her once smooth forehead was now marked with several squares imprinted on the keyboard.

After answering the phone and listening to Xiang Kun say a few words, Xia Libing's eyes quickly regained their clarity.

Before falling asleep, she was looking at documents sent by suppliers of some large laboratory equipment that she was going to order. If she was researching "Mutated Creature"—especially the "Mutated Parasite" that she and Xiang Kun had been tracking before—how could she possibly feel sleepy! You know, she could stay awake for 25 hours straight while Xiang Kun drank blood and slept.

Xia Libing was somewhat surprised that Xiang Kun was able to find the "Mutated Parasite" in such a short time.

After listening to Xiang Kun's introduction of the host Fan Jiading and his thoughts, Xia Libing also offered some of her own opinions and quickly formulated an observation plan for tonight.

It was past 2 a. m.

After Fan Jiading fell asleep, Xiang Kun and Lao Xia entered his dream through a "Dream Within a Dream" by using the "Black Circle Graffiti" that was placed in his room and established a connection with Xia Libing.

To be honest, even the "well-informed" Xiang Kun was somewhat surprised when he first saw Fan Jiading's dream.

The dream was a very high-tech hall, filled with high-end and meticulously detailed electronic devices and holographic projections, like a science fiction movie set built with an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, which was visually stunning.

However, amidst the swirling mist above the hall, eight large, utterly out of place, gleamed with a pale yellow light and appeared extremely rustic:

"Chosen One System Exchange Hall".

Looking at the holographic projections and descriptions, such as the one in front of Fan Jiading in the dream, under the holographic projection of a muscular man named "Fan Jiading," there was a line of description. "Hercules - lv.3 (Price: 2500 Chosen Points) (Effect: Upgrades the Hercules skill to lv.3, greatly increasing the Chosen One's strength)." Xiang Kun immediately understood that, under the guidance of the "Mutated Parasite," Fan Jiading's brain had imagined his process of being "parasitized" and the behavior he was driven to be a kind of adventure similar to obtaining a "system" in a novel.

Based on the experiences of several previous hosts, Xiang Kun knew that, just as the "vampire patient" imagined being parasitized as being embraced by an elegant and handsome Bloodline, and the male deceased from Purple Huan Mountain imagined being parasitized as cultivating the martial art of immortality, the "Mutated Parasite" only guided and drove the host to achieve its purpose and accomplish its intentions. As for how to achieve it and how to persuade the host, that all depended on the host's own imagination.

Just like Guo Tianxiang's ability to "Fear Projection Through Eye Contact," all it takes is to unleash a fearful emotion, and the person affected will imagine and create an incredibly perfect fear illusion projection.

Hosts affected by parasites will also give themselves an explanation based on their different experiences, personalities, knowledge, emotions, and desires, and build a whole set of illusory systems for their behavior, so that they can fill any loopholes.

As for letting people see specific content or scenes, whether in reality or in dreams, Xiang Kun knew very well how difficult that was. Even he had to put in a lot of effort to figure out the trick before he could do it to a certain extent.