What It’s Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 40: Prey

When Xiang Kun saw the claw, he knew that he was looking from the point of view of the gigantic owl. It was probably not real-time.

Did this mean that what he had just seen was based on the owl’s memory?

Based on Xiang Kun’s understanding, an animal’s memory should be saved within a certain brain cell. He had only swallowed a little bit of blood and had not consumed the owl’s brain. How was that possible?

He stopped speculating. There was much information hidden within the one second scene.

The rabbit that was inside the torn rubbish bag looked like the rabbit that Xiang Kun had killed for its blood.

Xiang Kun remembered the various vampire legends from films and books. After being bitten by vampires, humans who did not die would turn into vampires too. It was as though there was a virus in the saliva of the vampire that converted anyone who got infected. Perhaps the owl had changed because it had touched the rabbit that had his saliva on it?

However, Xiang Kun immediately rejected this speculation because:

Firstly, when he was collecting the rabbit’s blood, he only drank the blood after collecting it in a cup. His saliva was not on the rabbit.

Secondly, based on the image he had seen, “his” claw was already extremely huge. It was evidently that from the gigantic owl.

Xiang Kun recalled the environment from the image he had seen earlier. He deduced that it should be in the rubbish chute.

Could the gigantic owl have become interested in Xiang Kun after finding the rabbit?

However, if that was the case, the owl should have attacked Xiang Kun directly. Why had it attacked rats and dogs?

The owl could not have possibly used those methods to lure Xiang Kun to a remote area to attack him, right? Xiang Kun’s encounter with the dead rat and his interest regarding the special scent on the dead rat was purely incidental. If the owl wanted to attract Xiang Kun’s attention, it should have thrown the dead rat outside Xiang Kun’s door. That would definitely have attracted Xiang Kun’s attention more easily.

Like Xiang Kun, the owl should have mutated for some reason, right?

As for why the owl had attacked Xiang Kun, Xiang Kun understood it after tasting the owl’s blood — it thought that Xiang Kun was food.

He suddenly realized why the dead rat had died so miserably but was not eaten. The owl was probably like Xiang Kun, its digestive system had changed completely and it only drank blood.

The gigantic body also had to be a cause of the mutation.

As for why the owl had thrown the dead body of the rat into the mountain and the husky’s body into the lake, perhaps… it was destroying evidence?

Xiang Kun looked at himself in the moonlight. His entire body was stained with mud and blood. His t-shirt was almost gone and he was half naked. If he walked on the streets like that and got spotted, the person would definitely make a police report, right… Or take a video of him?

Although it was already past midnight, there could still be people on the streets.

Moreover, if he returned to the area he lived in, he would definitely attract the attention of the security officer. He did not want that to happen.

After thinking about it, Xiang Kun walked towards the lake and jumped into the shallow part. His body sank into the mud and it reached its waist.

After cleaning the blood stains with the lake water, he climbed up and his pants had a layer of mud. The blood stains could no longer be seen.

When he returned to the area he lived in, his embarrassing appearance attracted the attention of the security officer.

Xiang Kun laughed bitterly. “I went for a jog and accidentally fell into the lake.”

The security officer was stunned. Then he looked at Xiang Kun with a concerned expression as Xiang Kun walked past.

Without his top, Xiang Kun reached home with wet clothes stained with mud. He quickly threw his wet pants and shoes into the rubbish bin, took a shower, and sat in front of his laptop.

Based on the search engines, Xiang Kun found out that the biggest owl on Earth was the bubo blakistoni. It was 70-77cm long and weighed 1.5-5.5kg. As a bird, it was very huge. However, it was much smaller than the owl Xiang Kun had encountered.

There were birds that were 1.5 to 1.6 meters tall and weighed up to 100kg. For example, ostriches and emus were such birds. However, although these birds could run very quickly, they were unable to fly, as they were too heavy.

Xiang Kun searched pictures of various species of owls and thought that the gigantic owl looked more like a great grey owl. It had a round and big head and did not have feathers behind its ears. However, compared to the pictures of great grey owls he found on the internet, the color of the gigantic owl was evidently darker and it did not have any white spots. It was nearly impossible to see it in the dark.

If this gigantic owl appeared near the city, it would attract immense attention if anyone saw it!

There were so many surveillance cameras around and almost everyone had cell phones. If it was discovered, it would probably be captured.

Therefore, Xiang Kun began to search for keywords like “gigantic bird”, “gigantic owl”, and “strange bird”. After returning no results, he began to expand his search keywords and began to search within forums too.

However, from the results, it seemed like nobody had seen this gigantic owl before.

The only post that Xiang Kun thought could be relevant was a post stating that someone saw a person standing on a tree and got a shock. However, when he shone a flashlight at the person on the tree, that person disappeared.

Based on his description, it was probably the gigantic owl. Initially, Xiang Kun mistook the owl as a person standing on a tree too.

Unfortunately, the person reacted too slowly and could not take a photograph.

Based on how he had tracked down the gigantic owl and the one-second image, Xiang Kun felt that the gigantic owl was extraordinarily intelligent and was intentionally avoiding humans. It probably only appeared late at night around the remote areas of the city. It probably hid during the day to prevent getting spotted.

The gigantic owl should have mutated recently. Either that or it lived in the forest and did not get discovered by humans.

Or else, it would be inevitable for the gigantic owl to be discovered, as it was so huge.

If it came from the forest, why had it come out? Was the owl intentionally looking for the dead rabbit, or was it pure coincidence?

There were no answers to these questions now.

The gigantic owl thought Xiang Kun was a prey. Now Xiang Kun was also very interested in the gigantic owl.

He felt that he could find out more about the reasons for the changes in his body from the owl.

Of course, the blood of the owl was something he needed too. He could confirm that the amount of energy brought by the owl’s blood was way more than that of the other animals’ blood.

Based on the cycle he had deduced, he should feel hungry that day and would need blood. There were three rabbits in his house now. He would kill two rabbits and drink more blood this time.

He could bring forward the time of consumption of blood and wait for himself to wake up. If he still slept for 25 hours, he would wake up before sunrise the next day. Then he could go and look for the gigantic owl.

After drinking blood and experiencing more changes in his body, his energy, recovery ability, and senses would improve. This would allow him to have a greater advantage when fighting with the owl.

However, Xiang Kun was slightly worried that after the battle that night, the owl had gotten intimidated and left because it had given up. What would he do then?

If the owl went back to the forest that was hundreds of miles away, Xiang Kun was not confident in tracking it down.