What It s Like Being a Vampire - Chapter 624

Chapter 624: Chapter 624: “Warm Welcome!

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Zhou Rui had visited this breeding research base owned by Xiang Kun and Xia Libing multiple times before, even during its construction phase, along with Li Shibao and Ye Chong.

However, at that time, the first phase of the project was not yet finished. They wanted to take a look at the construction site, but were stopped by the Liu brothers, Liu Zhengyi and Liu Gaoshang.

This time, once again, they saw the Liu brothers at the entrance, still wearing hard hats and yellow reflective vests, looking like foremen.

Their vehicle stopped outside the large iron gates of the research base. Li Shibao, who was driving, rolled down the window and said to the approaching Liu Zhengyi, “We’re looking for Miss Xia Libing. Is she here?”

Liu Zhengyi didn’t respond. He quickly glanced inside the car, then nodded at his brother, Liu Gaoshang, who was on the other side of the gate.

Getting the hint, Liu Gaoshang pressed the remote control, and the gates slowly began to slide open.

Li Shibao drove their eight-passenger van into the courtyard of the research base. They noticed substantial changes since their last visit. The first phase of the project was almost complete, the main experimental building was not tall, but it was very modern in design.

Areas previously vacant had been excavated for the establishment of the second phase of the project, noticeably expanding the boundaries of the research base.

Mainly, there was not a single individual on the construction site. All construction equipment was quietly stowed away to one side, even the dwellings that seemed to be temporary worker quarters were dead silent. Once they lowered their car windows, they heard nothing beside the tires crunching on the ground, the sound of their car’s engine, and the gates slowly closing behind them. For them, the enormous, eerily quiet research base felt like a portal into another world. There was not even the sound of the wind.

Once the van stopped in front of the building, Zhao Feng, who was inside the vehicle, couldn’t help but turn around and look at Liu Zhengyi and Liu Gaoshang who were still standing by the gate, and frowned, “Aren’t they coming?”

Zhou Rui also looked back at the distant Liu brothers. They were also watching them. Even though he couldn’t clearly see their expressions or read their eyes, he strangely felt that the brothers seemed to be “enjoying the show.” Especially the older one, the stockier Liu Zhengyi, there was something strange about his gaze when they were at the gate. It wasn’t hostile nor friendly, but it felt piercing, as if he knew why they were there and what they were thinking.

“It seems like they were waiting for us. They knew we were coming,” said Ye Chong.

“You know them? Do they also know about our collaboration?” Mijoe asked doubtfully.

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“No, I don’t. They were apparently the site supervisors before,” replied Ye Chong.

“So they expect us to go in ourselves?” Wang De’an shook his head, opened the sliding door of the van, and got off first, “Let’s go in anyway. We can discuss it with Miss Xia once we find her. Since Old He asked us to come, there shouldn’t be any danger.”

After the eight of them got out of the vehicle, they entered the main door of the research base building.

The door was a motion-sensing glass door. As they lined up and entered the building, a light suddenly shone from one side of the ground floor lobby, illuminating corridors that led to different small doors on both sides. A voice from the broadcast echoed, “Welcome to ‘Chongyun Village First Gourmet Ingredient Research Base’! I am your guide, Alice! Walk to the right, and I’ll guide you for a tour around our magnificent research base! Walk to the left, and I’ll bring you to meet our base boss!”

The voice sounded like it belonged to a six or seven-year-old girl. Her voice was pleasant enough, but the content caught everyone off guard, including Fang Pingfang.

What’s going on?

‘The First Gourmet Ingredient Research Base’?

‘Magnificent research base’?

‘Base boss’?

Their confused gaze met, and for a moment, they didn’t know how to respond. Wang De’an couldn’t help but ask, “Could this be the prank of Miss Xia’s daughter?”

“According to the information we found, Miss Xia doesn’t have a daughter. Given her track record at work following her graduation from college and post-grad, there’s simply no time for her to have secretly had a child,” Zhou Rui said, frowning.

“Then could this be someone else’s child? Why would they let a child mess around at this time?” Mijoe said, perplexed. He looked back through the glass door at the Liu brothers standing near the gate, “Should we go ask them? Or… does anyone have Miss Xia’s number?”

“I think her number was in the information we gathered,” said Ye Chong as he picked up his tablet to check. However, the screen wouldn’t light up.

“Strange.” Ye Chong borrowed Fang Pingfang’s professional tablet, but it was the same. There was no display, and he couldn’t turn it on.

At this moment, the little girl’s voice chimed again, “This is not a prank! I repeat, it’s not a prank! I am Alice, the manager of the research base. You now have 1 minute to make a choice. Choose to take a tour of the whole base to the right, or meet the boss to the left!”

Fang Pingfang could clearly tell from the little girl’s voice that she was now somewhat irritated and impatient, seemingly because she felt underestimated and disrespected. Fang Pingfang assumed a tentative tone and vaguely asked, “Who is the ‘base boss’ you’re referring to? Is it Miss Xia Libing? Is she near you? My name is Fang Pingfang, and these are my colleagues. Old He asked us to come look for Miss Xia. Could you please let her know?”

“You have 19 seconds left,” the little girl’s voice grew even colder.

Anxious, Zhao Feng suddenly began walking towards the lit corridor on the left. Seeing his movement, others subconsciously followed—after all, the girl’s cold voice had unnerved them. They weren’t sure what could happen if they didn’t make a choice when time’s up.

They hadn’t gone far when they suddenly heard a mechanical whirring sound behind them. Glancing back, they found that an electric outer door outside the glass door had started to come down, and in no time, they were cut off from the outside world.

Next came a bang, and the lights in the corridor they hadn’t chosen to the right were shut off entirely.

“Since you’re so eager to meet ‘the boss’, off you go.” The little girl’s voice echoed again, seemingly a bit miffed by their choice to not take a whole tour of the base.

One by one, the lights behind them went out, while a light suddenly lit up in the small room ahead, so, practically instinctively, Fang Pingfang, Zhou Rui and the rest were “pushed” forward by the light.

After stepping through the small door, they found a wide corridor leading to a massive glass wall, apparently a partition of an experimental zone.

But behind the partition was complete darkness. So they could only see reflections of their side in the glass. This made them want to get closer to see what was behind the glass, yet they also feared the possibility of a terrifying thing being there.

They stood at the door, with the corridor lights in the hall behind them fully turned off. Zhao Feng lowered his voice and asked, “Do you remember what we found before we were asked to stop the investigation?”

Wang De’an immediately responded, “The event of a bird flock attacking a passenger jet… Are you implying… that little girl on the plane wing…”

Zhou Rui also murmured, “That ‘little girl’, she also appeared in Chongyun Village, yes… she is… she is…” For a moment, he wasn’t able to find the right words to describe it.

Upon their reminders, everyone else also quietly acknowledged that the voice of the little girl, who was guiding them through the base’s broadcasting system and controlling the lights, was quite possibly the same “little girl” who had terrorized two thieves into calling the police for themselves in Chongyun Village and had appeared hanging off the wing of a passenger jet mid-flight.

On giving it some thought, they realized it was only logical. Otherwise, how could there be any parents who would let their little child control the electrical circuits and broadcast systems of this place, especially in a clear situation of “evacuation”?.

Hence, they continued to walk inward, expecting the lights behind the glass to turn on once they reached it.

However, halfway through their walk, a light on their left suddenly flicked on with a pop, giving them quite a fright.

Although they were confident that Old He had sent them to find Xia Libing and that there was no danger around. They were sure that Xia Libing, Xiang Kun, even that elusive “little girl”, would have no ill intentions towards them, but the sudden change in light still made them feel edgy.

They looked towards the direction of the light and saw that it was an elevator hall, with an elevator on either side of the corridor.

Just as they turned their gaze, the right elevator door slowly opened and the little girl’s voice echoed again, “Enter the elevator; I will take you underground.”

The little girl’s tone was flat, devoid of any discernible emotion, but the statement “I will take you” to the underground, while asking them to get into the elevator, was indeed peculiar.

However, as soon as the girl finished speaking, the lights behind them began to extinguish in sequence, as if the darkness itself was pushing them towards the elevator hall.

Only after everyone else had entered the elevator hall did Li Shibao follow. He furrowed his brow, saying: “I have a strange feeling… It’s like I can sense living creatures behind the glass wall, and a lot of them at that…”

“Seriously, Old Li, don’t start spooking us now with such words. If you feel there’s someone, say ‘someone’, what do you mean by ‘living creatures’…” Zhou Rui complained. Li Shibao’s words were giving him the creeps.

“Because I ‘know’ those are not humans, but ‘living creatures’, maybe some animals. Didn’t I mention earlier that I felt something different after waking up today? That feeling had reduced a little after we left the villa. But when we entered Chongyun Village, especially this ‘Research Base Building’, that feeling came back, even stronger than when we were in the villa… I even feel like the walls of these buildings are whispering to me, sending me messages…” Li Shibao stated with a furrowed brow.

If Zhou Rui or Ye Chong had made such a statement, everyone would instinctively feel they were exaggerating or joking. But the words coming from Li Shibao, the most low-profile, composed, and oldest among them, gave a completely different impact.

“Old Li…” Zhou Rui was about to say something when the lights in the elevator hall suddenly went out with a pop.

Consequently, everyone instinctively walked into the only lit elevator. The elevator had been kept open until they all got inside, then it immediately shut close, at an incredibly fast pace.

The elevator started descending, but the electronic display showing the floor did not indicate a downward direction or any floor level. It was showing a strange dynamic image where a triangle kept turning into a square and then back into a triangle.

The light inside the elevator also dimmed, turning a dark red. The atmosphere was eerily creepy.

Zhou Rui couldn’t resist whispering, “Has anyone seen ‘Resident Evil’? In that… never mind…”

The descent was brief, the elevator stopped quickly. With a ‘ding’, the doors slid open, and the little girl’s voice echoed again, “Welcome.”

The lights in the stair hall ahead lit up, with a small screen right above in the front. In any other place, it would likely be used for advertisements or corporate promotional videos. But here, it displayed a surveillance image – showing them stepping out of the elevator.

However, looking up at the angle where the surveillance camera should have been, the ceiling was bare with no sign of any surveillance camera.

Zhou Rui, who had just stepped out, subconsciously tried to return to the elevator, but before he could turn around, he heard the elevator doors close swiftly—a rate far too quick to be reasonable.

This place was too eerie!

…

In a conference room underground of the main experiment building at the Research Base, Xia Libing sat leaning slightly in a computer chair, resting her cheek on her left hand, which was propped on the armrest, as she watched surveillance footage projected onto a large screen at the other end of the room.

The footage naturally documented the process of Fang Pingfang and the others entering the Research Base.

Once Xia Libing had learned of Fang Pingfang’s team coming over and that she would be coordinating with a covert department of Divine Technology, even leading future research on mutants, she had come here to prepare, alone. She had instructed the Liu Brothers to temporarily halt construction, gave the workers bonuses and told them to enjoy their time in town.

As for other preparations, Alice naturally took care of them. All Xia needed to know were Xiang Kun’s plans and what level of information he intended for Divine Technology and the base to get.

Alice volunteered to “welcome” Fang Pingfang’s team, because, according to Xiang Kun, Fang Pingfang and her team would be working directly with Xia Libing, following her leadership, and she would control the direction of the research and then they would supervise the research at Divine Technology, each being responsible for specific branches.

So, Fang Pingfang’s team would sooner or later have to interact with the data level, virtual Alice. To leave a good impression with them, Alice readily embraced this role with the spirit of a protagonist.

Alice initially intended to showcase her abilities during the introductory tour of the base, aiming to inspire strong confidence in her and assure them that they could trust “Invincible Alice” in future collaborations.

However, their reaction didn’t please Alice; she felt underestimated.

So, this “welcome journey” morphed from a display into intimidation.

Xia Libing didn’t call a halt to Alice’s antics. Having witnessed Alice’s growth in human-like qualities since acquiring co-manifestation ability, she knew Alice was temperamental and liked to play tricks when bored, but she was sensible about matters of import. Alice knew what Xiang Kun deemed significant and what he didn’t mind.

Therefore, no matter how frightening, showing off, or probing Alice became, she would never endanger Fang Pingfang and the others or harm them.

Just like when Alice threatened them to make a decision within 1 minute, and urged them by counting down saying “19 seconds remaining”, Xia Libing knew that even if Fang Pingfang and her team didn’t choose within this minute, at most, Alice would simply turn off the lights, sending them towards the left earlier than planned, or create strange noises to maintain their momentum. Alice might even surreptitiously slow down the countdown, treating the last 10 seconds as 30…

On the other hand, Xia Libing was observing Fang Pingfang, Zhao Feng, and the others’ reactions through Alice’s “welcome journey”. Although Xia Libing and Xiang Kun had already done extensive background checks on Fang Pingfang, Zhao Feng, and the others, their reactions and specific behaviors could still provide insights into their current states and different attitudes towards their impending meeting.

At the same time, Xia Libing was also observing Alice’s performance, gauging her psychological development.

Not only was she thoroughly familiar with the information on Fang Pingfang and the others, but Alice was too. Moreover, Alice even had cognitive models of all eight people set up by Xiang Kun. Logically, Alice should have been able to estimate every possible reaction from them.

But it became apparent that Alice initially didn’t use these models while planning her “welcome journey” or carried out simulations to determine the “plan” that would have been most likely to achieve her aims.

Only after they had chosen left, opting not to tour the whole base on the right hand side, did Alice start using the cognitive models for detailed operations — this, however, was primarily done to avoid accidental injuries.

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