What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 557: 557: The Arrival of the Sea God (Part 2)

Chapter 557: Chapter 557: The Arrival of the Sea God (Part 2)

This bizarre situation was naturally something no one had ever seen before. For a moment, everyone was confused and instinctively fell silent.

Even Jiang Chun was taken aback, unsure whether to seize this opportunity to dash into the sea first and then figure out a plan, or to blindly go over and rescue the two children and an old man first.

But what could he do once he rescued them in the dark? He couldn’t take them into the water, could he? Or grab a speedboat?

As Jiang Chun hesitated, the tide at the waterfront suddenly became turbulent. The speedboats weren’t given the time to react, and were directly overturned.

The many gang members on the beach were also unable to evade in time. The waves reached their chests, almost washing them away.

The sky suddenly darkened; there was no light from the stars or the moon, and the whole scene was pitch black, with wild winds blowing everywhere.

The booming thunder echoed, and distant electrical lights shone over the sea. Within their light, the sharp-eyed people saw a gigantic creature rising from the sea and striding towards the shore.

“It’s… it’s the Eight-eyed Deity!” the young man with the earring, who had just been silenced by “Brother Hui”, couldn’t help but exclaim. Despite his terrified tone, there was a hint of excitement.

The gang members who followed “Brother Hui” were somewhat disturbed. In the lightning and thunder over the sea, more and more people could see the giant, eight-armed figure as tall as a mountain. It seemed that the colossal waves by the sea were caused by this giant creature.

Even those who hadn’t experienced the group illusion event in Myitkyina knew about it. Everyone in Burma was aware of it because it was buzzed about on the internet, the news, various television programs, newspapers, and all sorts of rumors in the countryside.

Therefore, in just an instant, almost everyone believed that this was the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Giant Illusion” that had appeared in Myitkyina.

But what they were witnessing now, the giant striding from the sea in the flashes of lightning and thunder, and turbulent waves, didn’t feel illusory at all. It was incredibly real.

Even from afar, the oppressive feeling was intense enough to be suffocating, as if a mountain was moving towards them.

And considering the torn picture of the eight-armed, eight-eyed giant that “Brother Hui” had shredded, along with the heavily accented but clear words from a man on the beach, they naturally linked everything together— the “Eight-eyed, Eight-armed Deity” had truly descended!

No one noticed that in their phones, the rhythmic drumming sound of “dong! dong! dong!” was still ringing. This sound was drowned out by the thunder and the roar of the waves, and they had no attention to spare for it.

From the time the lights went out, to the rise of the waves, to the darkening sky, to the flashes of lightning and thunder, to the arrival of the giant from the sea, it all took just two or three short minutes.

In that instant of distraction, the giant had already reached the shore. The enormous figure as tall as a mountain caused the ground to shake violently the moment it set foot on land, causing most people to stumble and sit on the ground.

The gigantic creature strode over them without any sense of awe, crushing everything under its feet—trees, rocks—all flattened under its disregard.

Tons of seawater fell from its body, drenching everyone underneath as if they were being baptized in a rainstorm.

In the moment when it had passed over them, those who were looking up at the giant felt their scalps tingling, their bodies losing their center, as if they were falling through the sky.

At the same time, a kind of fear was evoked that seemed to spring directly from their bodies and the depths of their hearts, sweeping over them. Each of them was too terrified to move.

“Brother Hui”, the leader of the gang who was just bragging, “I have never believed in ghosts and gods” and “I am the biggest ghost, the biggest god” behaved the worst. He sat on the ground, shaking uncontrollably. His pants were already soaked through even before the seawater had drenched him.

Luckily, the darkness around shielded him, and no one paid him any attention. Everyone was immersed in their own horror.

Even the two children and the old man were gripped by corresponding fear, but the impact they experienced was much less than that of the gang members. Deep in their hearts, along with the fear of the appearance of this “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Giant”, there was also awe, excitement, anticipation, and joy.

Apart from a bald man hiding in the distance, only Jiang Chun experienced anything different out of all the affected people.

In the flashes of lightning and thunder, as soon as he saw the giant appear from the sea, Jiang Chun saw a different scene from the others.

In his view, the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Giant” was much more substantial than what the others saw, almost reaching the sky. And behind it, a huge moon rose slowly from the sea level, illuminating the giant’s back, as if merging with it.

Jiang Chun watched in fascination, unknowingly kneeling on the ground. As he watched the giant striding from the sea and passing overhead, he couldn’t help but close his eyes.

He faintly felt a mysterious connection in his heart, but this connection didn’t stem from the giant, instead it seemed to come from a far-off place.

And the pathways of this connection seemed to spread across the entire beach, scattered throughout, shining like stars, connected by starlight, converging into a galaxy.

No one knew how much time passed when everything finally settled down.

The spotlight lit up again, the dim light in the wooden hut also returned, and the flashlights in the gang members’ hands were back to normal.

Some people seemed to still be trapped in fear, clutching their heads and mumbling to themselves, while others were looking around in a daze, doubting whether what they had just seen was real or a hallucination.

Overhead, the moon shone bright, the night sky was clear, and the clouds had cleared away, showing no signs of the previous storm.

The huge footprints left by the giant had already disappeared, and the crushed trees and big rocks were intact again, as if the giant never existed, and it was all an illusion.

But as they harbored this thought, they noticed they were all soaking wet, and there were puddles all around. The speedboats that had been overturned by the waves were real too, with several people still struggling to swim to the shore.

So, was it real or illusory?

Regardless of whether what they saw was an illusion or reality, the intense fear they had just experienced influenced nearly everyone’s subsequent actions and thoughts.

A gang member suddenly walked up to “Brother Hui,” who was sitting on the ground, and tried to pull him up. But “Brother Hui” was as limp as a rag and couldn’t get up.

Another gang member came over with a machete and swore in the Burmese language, “What are you trying to do? You want to hurt our boss!”

The gang member who was trying to help was caught off guard and got slashed on the shoulder. “Brother Hui” fell on the ground again, and the man who was slashed held his arm and shouted, “What’s wrong with you? I was just trying to help the boss up.”

However, as soon as he finished speaking, another man knocked down the one who was in the process of hacking someone else, and chaos ensued as a brawl broke out.

Some were wrestling with their companions, some dropped their weapons and ran directly to the side. The earring-wearing youth who had been glared at by “Brother Hui” several times prior was just standing there, staring towards the sea. Suddenly he burst into raucous laughter.

“Eight-eyed, eight-armed Deity! There is really an Eight-eyed, eight-armed Deity! I see it! I see it! He descends to cleanse the world of sin! I want to atone for my sins! I want to offer my soul! I want to…”

His words stopped abruptly, as he saw a disheveled, shirtless man, wearing loose hemp pants, and barefoot, moving closer one step at a time.

Then he had a sudden realization, this man was the Chinese tourist who had been drowned at sea by “Brother Hui” previously. He had been on that boat too and had witnessed the whole process, though he hadn’t participated in it.

He didn’t die?

How is this possible?

The earring-wearing youth remembered the legends that had been circulating on the seaside recently and what that man had just said; after he declared the punishment from the “Eight-eyed, eight-armed Deity,” the Deity did appear from across the sea.

The earring-wearing youth kneeled down subconsciously, though Jiang Chun glanced at him indifferently. He realized something and stumbled up to run away. He kept muttering, “It’s the Sea God, the Sea God has landed…”

When Jiang Chun arrived at the entrance of the wooden house, several Burmese men rushed over with various weapons, looking ferocious. Some of the machetes were still stained with fresh blood, suggesting that a bloody fight had just taken place.

Their target wasn’t Jiang Chun though, it was “Brother Hui” who was languishing on the ground with a vacant look, stuck in a state of idiocy — initially he was the toughest, most fearless person, but after the appearance of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Giant illusion,” he was the one most greatly affected by fear, such that he had yet to recover.

When the group saw Jiang Chun, they hesitated momentarily and unconsciously slowed down.

Jiang Chun glanced at the little boy and girl standing by the door of the hut, next to the old woman. Even though “Brother Hui” was technically the enemy who had killed their father, he didn’t believe that the two kids should witness such a scene.

So, Jiang Chun gestured forcefully to those men. Understood, they cautiously stepped forward and started dragging “Brother Hui” away via his collar.

As this was happening, “Brother Hui” seemed to understand something. He looked up towards Jiang Chun, who was coldly looking back at him from not too far away. He finally recognized him as the Chinese tourist he had drowned. In that instant, his face went as pale as death.

So, people can indeed come back from the dead, the “Eight-eyed Deity” truly exists, and his supposed fearlessness was a farce after all. It turns out his men were not truly loyal to him in the first place.

CEven after amassing so much wealth and indulging in so much pleasure, and yet feeling eternally anxious and restless, now he realized he did not truly need or want these things. What he really wanted, he had lost back in his childhood.

Those people whom he had directly or indirectly killed, he thought he did not care about them, yet every face was imprinted deeply in his memory.

And then he realized, he was going to die.

In that instant, he experienced a sudden enlightenment, mingled with despair and sorrow, fear surged in him. He couldn’t help but burst into tears.

However, the men dragging him away, who happened to be his former subordinates, showed no mercy.

However, for those underlings, killing “Brother Hui” did not alleviate their fear. Their hell had only just begun.

…

Afar, standing on a high platform some distance from the beach, dressed in his clothes and shoes and with his phone restored, Xiang Kun was looking thoughtfully in the direction of the small cabin.

Everything that just happened was his doing, or more accurately, a major enhanced reality illusion he and Alice had jointly created.

Xiang Kun had changed significantly from a few months ago when he created a wide range illusion at Myitkyina. Not only had he gone through dozens more blood-drinking sleep cycles, but his understanding and refinement of the “Super Sensory Item System” had also reached a new level. More importantly, he now had Alice, a super aid.

Xiang Kun now had a better grasp of the origins of “mutants”, the potential dangers he could face, and the possible threats from other “mutants” and relevant forces. Basically, he had mapped everything out. Also, with Alice’s control of the digital world, he had a basic control range for the effects of his actions, unlike in the past when he had many concerns.

No matter whether Jiang Chun was a linker to Xiang Kun’s secondary Emotion Object Network, whether he was “one of us”, or whether he was a “mutant”, Xiang Kun wouldn’t stand by — the little boy who drew the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Giant” reminded him of the Little Fatty Girl.

Xiang Kun had many solutions, but after “Brother Hui” spat on the drawing of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Giant”, he decided to bring back the “Barbie Warriors” to Burma.

This time, calling upon the emotional projection of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” for large-scale remote projection, was not something Xiang Kun did alone. He had Alice to assist him.

Previous experiments had proven that the closer the audience’s emotions were to the emotion of interest before emotive projection, the easier they were to affect and the better the projection effect.

Therefore, prior to the official projection of the “Barbie Warrior” emotion, Xiang Kun and Alice carried out a “warm-up” for the group’s emotions.

Xiang Kun was responsible for manipulating the weather, creating small-scale thunderstorms, showers, and huge waves. The seaside area, rich in moisture, and the season’s temperature and humidity were most suitable for him to manipulate — along with the numerous “Super-connected Objects” pre-arranged, he achieved the desired effects effortlessly.

As for Alice, influencing the area’s electronic devices was a piece of cake.

And controlling everyone’s phones to simultaneously play a simple melody that further influenced emotions and unified the atmosphere was a minor revelation Alice had from analyzing Nana’s “Emotion Infused Songs” for a period.

After all, to execute Nana’s “Emotion Infused Songs”, Alice had to use “Super-connected Objects” spread across the world. She naturally had an advantage in analyzing this ability.

However, for now, the simple melody that Alice played through the phones compared to the emotional impact created by Nana’s songs through the “Super-connected Objects” had a far less effect. But as a warm-up before the arrival of the “Barbie Warrior” and for constructing a fearful atmosphere, it was more than enough.

So when the “Barbie Warrior” finally arrived and the fear emotion swept across, the effect of this semi-real, semi-emotionally induced sensory illusion was far more powerful than that in Myitkyina.

The moment the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Giant” stepped onto land, several people were linked to the secondary Emotion Object Network.

Another unexpected gain was that after being influenced by the fear projection of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” once again, Jiang Chun seemed to have undergone some changes. His link within the secondary Emotion Object Network became even stronger, and he seemed to have a mild connection and relation to the surrounding “Super-connected Objects” through the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving”.

Based on his understanding of how Little Fatty Girl and Apple were using in the Super Sensory Item System, by witnessing the fear emotion and “Barbie Warrior” illusion for the second time, Jiang Chun seem to have further refined his understanding of these phenomena and his own transformation. He appeared to have a self-consistent theoretical framework that could be applied in practical ways.