Sofa and Bed

Due to air traffic control, many flights at the airport were delayed, and Xiang Kun was not able to board the plane back to Citong until after 6 p. m.

At this point, almost twenty hours had passed since he felt the urge to drink blood.

Although it is daytime now, the mania and violence brought about by the bloodlust are not as strong as at night, but the continuous and prolonged suppression is like accumulating flammable gas, which is in danger of being ignited and exploding at any time.

I witnessed a lot of bloodshed and violence in Montamira. If it were Xiang Kun, who had only recently mutated, he would probably have "exploded" by now.

Therefore, even though he could occasionally stay calm and clear-headed by sensing Lao Xia's "emotional-like" states, he couldn't maintain this state for too long or too frequently. Otherwise, he might feel like he was going to have a "split personality." After all, he was only using "emotional-like" states to suppress his emotions psychologically, but his physiological need for blood would only intensify.

Of course, under normal circumstances, without any unexpected events or strong external stimuli, he is fully confident that he can suppress his bloodlust for another 24 hours and maintain his rationality.

Once on the plane, just like when he had flown many times after his mutation, Xiang Kun fastened his seatbelt, closed his eyes, and pretended to be asleep.

As before, when Xiang Kun was "feigning sleep," he also entered a "Hyper-Sensory State," and then memorized and judged the cognitive information of the aircraft's mechanical and electronic components.

He does this every time he flies, and so far he almost always flies on 737-800 Winglets. Apart from a few minor differences, most of the structure and electronic components are similar, which makes it easier for him to understand and process information.

Furthermore, he has already reviewed all the relevant materials he could find for this model, including blueprints, design manuals, operation manuals, and repair manuals, making it easier for him to match the cognitive information in the "Hyper-Sensory State," the component structure in reality, and the information on the blueprints.

If Xiang Kun wanted to, he could already influence all the electronic components of the aircraft while in his "Hyper-Sensory State".

At present, the only things he can precisely do are turn the reading light on and off, and control all the indicator lights to turn on and off. He cannot perform other more specific operations, especially things like controlling an airplane to fly, which is not possible for the time being.

Of course, he had no such intention and would not try it, as affecting the flight of the plane would threaten the lives of all the passengers on board.

Therefore, on the plane, after entering a "Hyper-Sensory State," he basically only distinguished and understood various cognitive information on the plane, without attempting to exert any influence through "Super-Linked Object."

The reason he did this was not because he wanted to pilot the plane after understanding all the cognitive information about it, or for any other purpose. The main reasons were, firstly, interest, and secondly, when he had a blood-drinking urge, entering a "Hyper-Sensory State" and concentrating on what he was doing allowed him to better temporarily eliminate the influence of the blood-drinking urge.

After exiting the "Hyper-Sensory State," he would sense Lao Xia's "emotional-like" states again. After sensing them, he would enter the "Hyper-Sensory State" again. This alternating cycle ensured that he remained in a peaceful and stable state, preventing his emotions from being ignited by mania and violence.

After the plane landed and he left the airport, Xiang Kun hailed a car and went straight to Lao Xia's house.

He didn't ask Lao Xia to pick him up because he knew that Lao Xia was struggling with sleepiness, just like he was struggling with his bloodlust, and it would be too dangerous for Lao Xia to drive now.

When they arrived at Lao Xia's house, Xiang Kun rang the doorbell, and the door opened.

Lao Xia, who came to open the door, could barely keep his eyes open. After confirming it was him, he sat back on the sofa, slowly slumped down, and pulled his legs up, falling asleep instantly.

Clearly, after seeing him return, Lao Xia stopped trying to stay awake and succumbed to the call of sleep.

Xiang Kun wasn't surprised at all. Calculating the time, Lao Xia hadn't slept for more than 30 hours, longer than the time he had felt the urge to drink blood.

Although Lao Xia possesses abilities such as "Fantasy Manifestation" and "Dream Within a Dream" through the "Super-Sensing Item System," he is essentially still an ordinary person.

Therefore, Xiang Kun often monitors and analyzes Lao Xia's physical condition through infrared thermal imaging visual mode and various sensory information to ensure that Lao Xia's physical condition is fine. If she is too tired, her immunity is low, or there is a risk of illness, she has to adjust her work and rest schedule and lifestyle, and she cannot continue to stay up late with him.

Perhaps because Lao Xia is a medical student, he has a good understanding and management of his own body, and he also has good methods and skills for adjustment. At least so far, although Lao Xia has helped him guard the blood-drinking sleep period several times, and he often goes to bed very late when conducting other related research, and he often has to perform "Dream Within a Dream within a dream" operations in his sleep, basically every time he is tired, as long as he sleeps well and eats well, his body recovers quite well, and no trend of organ lesions has been found.

In terms of talent for staying up all night and physical recovery ability alone, Lao Xia is definitely SS-level among ordinary people.

If Lao Xia were his employee, he would definitely be criticized as a heartless boss; this level of work is almost 24/7.

Of course, this analogy isn't quite accurate, since Lao Xia is much wealthier than him, and the money for setting up the laboratory and research center is all being paid by Lao Xia.

Xiang Kun didn't need to go to the kitchen to check; as soon as he entered, he could tell from the smell alone that Lao Xia had prepared several meat rabbits for him.

So even though his bloodlust intensified again after nightfall, Xiang Kun didn't immediately begin drinking blood and falling asleep, since the blood supply was already prepared. Instead, he took Lao Xia's notebook, sat down next to Lao Xia's feet in the corner of the sofa, and checked the online discussions about the Montamira incident from last night.

While waiting to check in at the airport, he overheard more than one person in the waiting area discussing Montamira with their friends.

Moreover, everyone's focus on the Montamira incident was on the illusion of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster," while the impact of the riot itself was greatly diminished. After all, under the influence of the emotional projection of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving," no tourists died in the riot last night, and the negative impact was reduced considerably.

While browsing related discussions on various platforms, Xiang Kun was thinking about something else entirely:

If official agencies in various countries were aware of the existence of "Mutated Creature," would they assume that the illusion of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster" projected by emotions was created by these "Mutated Creature"? What kind of investigations would they conduct, and what adjustments or guidance would they make to online discussions?

What actions will a giant like "Shenxing Technology," which tracks, investigates, and researches "Mutated Creature," take?

Could other mutant humans or "vampires" see these news reports and make related connections?

After all, when he first mutated, he couldn't find any useful information when searching for related information across the entire internet, leading him to believe that he was the first mutant or that relevant information was completely blocked.

However, if he had found these news articles online when he first mutated, he wouldn't have felt that they had anything to do with his "mutation" at all.

Following his usual way of thinking, he might speculate that there was some kind of hallucinogenic gas leak in the area, causing people in the small region to hallucinate and, influenced by the same environmental factors, see the same "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster" hallucination, without considering any connection to any "Mutated Creature"—after all, that monster hallucination wasn't drinking blood everywhere, was it?

This incident also made Xiang Kun feel increasingly strange. In today's mobile internet era, the emotional projection of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving," a collective event that can generally be recognized as a hallucination or illusion afterward, can generate such a large level of discussion on the international internet.

If it were another "Mutated Creature," such as that mutated bird, the previous mutated ant, mutated spider, or a "vampire" like Guo Tianxiang, who suddenly got carried away and was driven by a blood-drinking urge, and went berserk in the heart of a human-inhabited city, and someone filmed it and uploaded it online, then there probably wouldn't be a way to completely block or tamper with the information, right?

In the era when television and print media were the main means of communication, and even in the early days of the internet, it was possible to quickly curb the spread of certain news or messages, provided the reaction speed was fast enough, and the message could be restricted to a local area.

However, in today's mobile internet era, everyone is a "self-media" and everyone has a strong ability to spread information. "Small events" are easy to deal with, as there are many ways to influence and interfere with them. But "big events" that many people witness and record are almost impossible to completely restrict.

Like when Chang Bin got married, he heard his old classmate Xie Jun talk about the "long-horned wolf car crash incident" that they encountered when they went to test their car in the wild.

Those "Mutated Creature" that only appear in remote areas and among a small number of people can indeed have their news suppressed if they are dealt with promptly, leaving the parties involved confused and uncertain about what they have seen and heard.

But if the "long-horned wolf" appears at a busy intersection, causes a car accident, and then escapes, the news will be much harder to keep quiet.

Unless... there has never been a "Mutated Creature" going out of control in public before?

Xiang Kun felt that this was the most likely possibility, but he couldn't quite understand why no "Mutated Creature" had gone out of control in public, because based on his understanding of "Mutated Creature," it didn't seem very reasonable.

Judging from the memory fragments he obtained from the mutated spider and the Giant Owl, although they understood the "danger of humans," they all engaged in spying on humans and human cities.

Like Giant Owl, it eventually ventured directly into the first-tier city where he had previously lived.

They create "major events" in big cities, which are witnessed, recorded, and disseminated by a large number of people. Statistically, this is quite likely.

Xiang Kun did not delve deeper into this question, which he had pondered countless times before. It was clear that the information he had obtained was still flawed. However, as his investigation into "Shenxing Technology" deepened, he believed he would soon find out.

After working on the computer for a while, Xiang Kun got up and went to the kitchen to drink blood.

After drinking the blood, Xiang Kun processed all the rabbit meat and froze it in the refrigerator before taking a shower and preparing to go to sleep.

However, after seeing Xia Libing, who was curled up on the sofa because her legs were too long, Xiang Kun thought for a moment, then went over, picked her up, carried her into her room, put her on the bed, and covered her with a blanket.

Based on Xiang Kun's observation and deduction, if she sleeps in that position all night, she definitely won't feel comfortable when she wakes up tomorrow. There's even a small chance she might get a stiff neck, which would be very detrimental to her recovery. So it's better to carry her to bed.

As for Xiang Kun himself, he simply found a blanket and made a makeshift bed in the corner of the room. In any case, given his current physical condition, the sleeping environment didn't matter at all and wouldn't have any impact.

The reason for not letting him sleep on the living room sofa is to avoid relatives and friends such as Xia Libing's third aunt and third uncle suddenly coming to the door before he finishes his sleep period. At that time, Lao Xia will not have the strength to carry him into the room and hide him while he is sleeping.

Lying on the blanket, Xiang Kun glanced at Xia Libing on the bed not far away and realized that this seemed to be the first time the two of them had slept at the same time since he told Lao Xia the secret of the mutation.

So whether they were at Lao Xia's house, his house, or the house in Chongyun Village, they only needed one bed, because only one person ever needed to sleep.

Xiang Kun's eyelids slowly closed, and he too instantly fell into a deep sleep.

However, less than two hours after he fell asleep, Xia Libing's phone rang. After ringing five or six times in a second round, Xia Libing finally opened his eyes.