What It’s Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 10: Training Regime

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Back at home, Xiang Kun switched on his laptop and recorded the data of his strength circuit workout earlier at the gym. Then he went to check on the rabbit.

He replenished its food and water and then paid no more attention to it. After all, it was his food, not his pet. There was no need for too much interaction.

Xiang Kun decided not to drink blood any time soon. He wanted to find out how long he could last after feeding before the hunger set in again.

He then checked his WeChat, only so he would know who had texted him, because he had muted all messages.

Chang Bin had already forwarded him the girl’s WeChat account and her phone number, as well as the place where they would meet in two days.

Initially, Chang Bin planned to accompany him together with Wang Han, as the presence of familiar faces might make things less awkward for them.

But Xiang Kun refused, explaining that they would hinder their interaction, making it more difficult for the two of them to get to know each other.

Chang Bin did not insist. Instead, he urged Xiang Kun to create a good first impression through good manners, and said that he should be more talkative, easygoing, and gentlemanly.

Of course, Xiang Kun responded to Chang Bin’s concerns positively. Deep down, though, he was pondering how to end this matchmaking politely as soon as possible.

Shortly after, he realized that it was an unnecessary concern, because it was highly unlikely that the girl would ever be interested in him if she was really as good as Chang Bin had described.

This had been proven right by his earlier matchmaking experiences. In terms of either personal charisma or material conditions, Xiang Kun was clearly insufficient at attracting decent, young girls.

Besides, he did not have much relationship experience himself, and he was terrible at interacting with women.

Hence, simply by being himself, he would be able to end it soon without being too obvious and embarrassing Chang Bin and Wang Han in the process.

…

Xiang Kun inspected the information he had gathered online using the crawler. With fiction-related reviews and comments discarded, he had collected many “symptom descriptions” about regrown teeth after adulthood, large-scale skin shedding and skin renewal, as well as improved eyesight. However, even for those who grew new teeth, only particular permanent teeth that had failed to grow properly were automatically replaced. As for cases of skin shedding and corrected myopia, they were extremely rare, and impossible to complete in such a short time.

There was no information at all about concurrent occurrences of all the symptoms that Xiang Kun was exhibiting, plus details of his unusual diet.

Xiang Kun ended the program, though he knew that there was more data that the crawler had yet to reach. He understood that the current script would not yield anything helpful, given what it had found so far.

He edited the code to exclude all irrelevant information similar to what had been shown, then he ran the program again.

However, no single case with similar “symptoms” surfaced, which made Xiang Kun increasingly anxious.

After all, it would not do him in any favors, be it that he was the first person to undergo physical changes due to X, or that related information had been hidden or censored on purpose.

At first, Xiang Kun considered sending an anonymous reply to those relevant Quora questions. By describing some of the conditions he had, he hoped that those in similar situations would reach out to him. Else, he could post questions on medical forums or bio-tech platforms with the hope of obtaining certain explanations. Students and researchers of those professions definitely knew much more about “clinical symptoms” and “pathology” than Xiang Kun.

But after some serious thought, he decided not to release any information about himself, even online.

It was another sleepless night.

Now Xiang Kun realized that he would only sleep after feeding on blood, probably due to digestion. On other days, there was no need for rest at all, and he would not feel sleepy whether it was day or night.

Certainly, though, it could also be due to the short duration he had been awake this time. Maybe he would feel tired after a few more days without blood.

The good thing was that he now had almost twice as much time for work and thinking.

Not only did he have no need for rest and food, his physical strength and energy were much better than before too. This made it easier for him to concentrate.

Looking at the document and photos he had collated, and his bodily changes after the two feeding times, a thought caught Xiang Kun’s attention.

The two feeding activities had both strengthened his physical abilities to a certain extent.

But did that strengthening follow a fixed pattern, or would it change according to the type of blood or his actions before feeding?

As an analogy, when people participate in muscle-building workouts at the gym, they often aim to destroy their muscle fibers with intense strength training, followed by protein replenishment that will recover the muscles with improved strength.

Exercises like bench presses focus on muscle groups concerning triceps and the chest. That exercise targets a specific area of the body to induce regional improvement of the muscles.

After his second time feeding on blood, there was a significant enhancement in his strength. Could it be directly linked to the immense amount of workouts he had engaged in earlier on?

If so, was there a limit to such improvement? Could he break the limits of a normal human body?

Besides muscles, could he better his other abilities?

There was already a huge difference between his current body and that of a normal man’s, as well as with his way of muscle training and strength enhancement. Yet the mechanism should be more or less the same—upon sensing its limits, the body would regulate itself through hormone release to better its performance in certain areas for a better chance at survival.

As a result, Xiang Kun decided to engage in targeted “training” before the next time he drank blood, so as to deduce how his body would change after every feeding session.

As for the details of his training, Xiang Kun created a new document:

“1. Left arm strength training: dumbbell bicep curls.

2. Eyesight training: practice looking at objects from afar.

3. Lung capacity: practice breath holding.”

The first item had to be completed at a gym. But the next two could be done right now.

In fact, Xiang Kun could not even be sure whether the regime would work. He was simply being experimental.

He put three books at a distance where he was just unable to see the words. Then he recorded the distance in the document and looked from book to book, trying to see the words.

After ten minutes, he started to practice holding his breath, and recorded in the document the maximum length he could hold.

The cycle repeated until dawn.