茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Just before they reached the airport, the smile gradually faded from Xiang Kun’s face. He knew he had once again submerged himself in a certain emotion and had probably induced “Emotional Assimilation”.

At that moment he wasn’t really paying attention to other vehicles around him. In his high-speed driving, the wind noise, road noise, and the isolation of the car body made it difficult for him to hear too many sounds from other vehicles.

But the instinct to collect perceptual information from his surroundings, still allowed him to pick up some signs, proving that his “Emotional Assimilation” ability could still affect people in the surrounding area, even on a rapidly moving vehicle, unaffected by the moving speed or the isolation of the vehicle body.

To some extent, his current “Emotional Assimilation” ability had undergone significant changes compared to when he first started.

Initially, according to Xiang Kun’s observation, after he deeply immersed himself in a particular emotion, “Emotional Assimilation” would only occur if other people noticed him and had their eyes on him. The intended target of the assimilated emotion could only be him.

It was just like when he carried his violin case on the street. Only those who accidentally noticed him would experience the same emotion. And in their minds, the lonely person marching forward in that emotion was still Xiang Kun. On the night of Tang Baona’s birthday, when he sang a song in the KTV, the reason why “Emotional Assimilation” took place was because everyone’s attention was on him. In their perception, the source of the emotion was still Xiang Kun himself.

Therefore, he once believed that when he was immersed in a certain emotion, it was his demeanor, expression, body movement, and various signals he emitted that hypnotically affected those around him who noticed him, and unknowingly led them into the same emotion. Because the focus was on him, the carrier of the emotion was still him.

However, with the passage of time, the frequency of blood drinking and mutation increased. Unknowingly, the way and degree of “Emotional Assimilation” both experienced significant changes.

Now, after he immerses himself in an emotion, he can influence and assimilate those around him indiscriminately, without them noticing him.

Just like on the train, he sat in his seat, and in fact, not many people on the train noticed him, but they were still affected by his emotions and had the same emotional target, focusing on the person who had taken up extra seats.

At that time, if there were also people outside the train within the area of influence, they would probably be assimilated by the emotion, but due to the absence of a common emotional target, their responses would vary.

Just like on the highway just now, some people in the surrounding vehicles were affected by Xiang Kun, but they hadn’t seen Xiang Kun and didn’t even know he existed, their responses would certainly be somewhat different.

After entering the “Super Sensory State” and observing extensively multiple times, Xiang Kun speculated that when “Emotional Assimilation” took effect, it must be the same kind of special “energy” that he used to establish connections with various related objects that played a key role.

However, this specific emotion was quite unique. After reaching the airport, he vaguely felt that under the influence of this emotion, his body seemed to have undergone a slight change. He could intuitively feel this change, but he was unable to describe it specifically.

It was as if he had gained even better control over his own body, and the energy and power he had absorbed were quickly being assimilated and integrated.

Why is this so?

Even Xiang Kun himself was somewhat unclear about exactly what kind of emotion he was experiencing when he was laughing on the road just now, and what the target of that emotion was.

He was just reminiscing about his college life and some thoughts, then thinking about the few months since his mutation that felt like several years, and found it to be absurd and funny, yet also somewhat frustrated and melancholic. Various feelings intertwined, but in the end turned into anticipation, pleasure, and excitement.

What would the people in the other cars on the highway feel when affected by this emotion? Even when they were not aware of Xiang Kun’s existence.

It was somewhat difficult to imagine, but it shouldn’t be anything too negative.

At least he was feeling pretty good right now.

Shortly after Xiang Kun arrived at the airport, he saw Peng Xiao and their old head class representative Tan Lulu, who had arrived on the same flight.

He did not pull any pranks like he did a few months ago with Chang Bin when they picked up Zi Cheng. Some jokes should be told depending on the relationship. If the relationship is not that close, or it is clear that the person can’t take that kind of joke and you play it anyway, it would be annoying.

“Laopeng, Lulu, over here.” Xiang Kun waved at them and came forward to help Tan Lulu with her suitcase.

Seeing their bewildered faces, Xiang Kun didn’t keep them in suspense, laughed and said, “Can’t recognize me, can you? I am Xiang Kun.”

“Xiang Kun? Damn! What happened? You’ve changed so much. When you were walking over just now, I was telling our old rep that if that bald guy took off his glasses and put on a suit, he would look just like Hitman 47.” Peng Xiao joked.

Xiang Kun smiled and replied, “Just worked out a bit more.” Then he led the two to a resting area. They still had to wait for another college classmate. His flight wouldn’t arrive for another forty minutes.

For Peng Xiao and Tan Lulu, Xiang Kun naturally also established corresponding cognitive models. Most of them were based on memories from their college days. Just from their brief initial greetings, he can basically revise their character profiles and make targeted judgments.

In Xiang Kun’s view, Peng Xiao still had the same show-off and friendly personality as before. That’s why he didn’t give him too enthusiastic a response, but remained formally polite and appeared a bit mysterious and not easy to provoke. This way he could avoid a lot of trouble.

This does not mean that he didn’t like Peng Xiao, it was just a choice in his social strategy that would allow him to save more energy.

Just like Zi Cheng also liked to joke around, and his jokes could be particularly sarcastic, but Xiang Kun would give him strong feedback and retort. This could be considered another choice of social strategy, or a true response without any strategy, more emotional and direct.

After chatting with the two of them for a while, another classmate, Xie Jun, also arrived. After a brief exchange of greetings, they headed for the parking lot under Xiang Kun’s direction.

“Xiang Kun, are you still working at your old company?” Tan Lulu asked after getting in the car.

“No, I’m doing my own thing now.” Xiang Kun responded simply.

“Did you start your own business? That’s great. What field is it in, related to software engineering?” Peng Xiao also asked.

“Just small time hustle.” Xiang Kun laughed: “Whereas I heard from Chang Bin that your company, Laopeng, is doing well. Seems like you’ve obtained several rounds of financing? Are you planning to go public soon? Perhaps one of our classmates will be the next billionaire.”

“Billionaire my ass. I’m the smallest partner. It’s much harder now than the past few years. Capital is no longer willing to burn money and are starting to be careful. Ay, starting a business these days is not easy, having a stable job like the old rep is much more comfortable.”

“These days, what stable job is there left? Laopeng, don’t whine. I heard you just bought a villa in September and also bought a sports car for your girlfriend?”

“Damn, Boss Peng! Let me know when I can come over and experience the billionaire lifestyle.” Xie Jun, who sat in the passenger seat, also turned around and laughed.

Having successfully diverted the conversation to Peng Xiao, Xiang Kun no longer participated actively, focusing instead on driving.

Upon entering the city, while waiting for a red light, Xie Jun suddenly said, “Xiang Kun, your driving skills are pretty good.”

Before Xiang Kun could answer, Peng Xiao, who was sitting behind him, leaned forward, resting one hand on the back of the front seat, and asked curiously, “What do you mean? I didn’t see Xiang Kun driving very fast.”

Xie Jun explained, “Driving skills aren’t solely about how fast one can go in a short time. The city is congested, and there’s a speed limit on the highway. How fast can one really go? The main thing about Xiang Kun’s driving is that he has a ‘sense of rhythm’. I observed for more than ten minutes, his anticipation is very accurate, and he’s very steady. I know many skilled drivers, and they all drive like this in daily life. He has actually been overtaking non-stop on the way, the overall speed of the journey was quite fast, and he even took the racing line in the corners. But you seated in the back didn’t feel any sense of aggressive driving, right? That’s what’s most impressive.”

“Now that you mention it, Xiang Kun’s driving is indeed steady.” Tan Lulu agreed, nodding her head.

Xiang Kun chuckled, “After all, I have been a licensed driver for nine years, and I’m familiar with Chang Bin’s car. But Xie Jun, aren’t you also a website developer? How come you ‘know many skilled drivers’?”

Indeed, he had been licensed for nine years, but in fact, he had only driven a handful of times in the past two years. However, he was familiar with Chang Bin’s Magotan, having driven it numerous times and already established a cognitive model for it. He also had associated cognitive modeling for driving. With every drive, he constantly revised this model. Given his visual abilities, response capabilities, and information processing speed, improving his driving skills naturally wasn’t a problem.

He even speculated that if he drove this car for a period, he might unknowingly establish “super sensory contact” with certain parts of it.

On the drive back from the airport, he was subconsciously practicing. But, he drove very gently. And as he original thought, the three passengers didn’t perceive anything unusual. After all, from a sensory point of view, he didn’t have a fast and furious driving habit, accelerating and braking constantly. Instead, he drove very steadily.

Xie Jun chuckled, “Because I work on a website that reviews cars. Even though I’m mainly responsible for online development and maintenance, I like cars and typically don’t have much to do. So occasionally, I follow the team to evaluate new cars, help them shoot videos, and if I have free time, I go to the racetrack with colleagues, so I know a lot of test drivers.”

Tan Lulu and Peng Xiao were both very interested in Xie Jun’s industry and started to ask him many questions—one moment asking him which car company invests the most, another asking him which brand or model he would recommend among a certain price range of cars on the market.

Xiang Kun also chimed in from time to time, helping to advance the topic and trying to direct their attention to Xie Jun.

However, one thing that Xie Jun mentioned immediately attracted Xiang Kun’s attention.

“One time, multiple motor vehicle media outlets went together to test a off-roader. We were short-handed on our website, so I went along to serve as the photographer. The vehicle we were testing claimed to be an off-roader, but it was actually just an urban SUV with limited off-road capabilities and no rear differential lock… Well, that’s not the important part. Anyway, while our motorcade was following the prescribed route, something weird happened— the lead vehicle hit and killed a wolf.” In a side profile, Xie Jun was narrating his story to his two classmates in the back seat.

“Weren’t you guys testing the vehicle in a place with wolves? That’s normal, right? Or were you later surrounded by a pack of wolves?” Peng Xiao asked curiously.

Xie Jun lowered his voice, speaking in a mysterious tone, “Not like that, the wolf was hit badly, we initially thought it would surely die. But unexpectedly, it stumbled up and ran away. Also, the people in the front car said that that wolf had horns on its head.”

“A horned wolf? They must have seen it wrong. A wolf with horns? If the horn came from a horse, then it could have been a unicorn that you hit! But what kind of a monster is a horned wolf?” Tan Lulu couldn’t help but laugh.

“Unicorns are creatures from fairy tales!” Peng Xiao added sarcastically, then asked Xie Jun, “Aren’t you all media people? Didn’t anyone take photos or videos? Weren’t there dashcams in the cars?”

“That’s the strange part.” Xie Jun said, “The dashcam recorded it, some of us in the media were taking pictures of the surrounding scenery, and we caught it as well. I have seen those images and videos, and indeed something with a horn was hit. It looked like a canid.”

Intrigued, Tan Lulu asked, “With videos and images, this should have made quite the news, you discovered a new species!”

“I haven’t even gotten to the weird part yet…” Xie Jun said.

“Come on! My Brother Jun, you’ve been talking about this weird part for ages, what’s so strange?” Peng Xiao teased.

“Your videos, your image files, they didn’t all disappear, did they?” Xiang Kun commented seemingly at random.

“Yes!” Xie Jun immediately confirmed his guess, then said: “When we returned to the camp that night, all the related videos and pictures in our devices had vanished, even the driving records from the car were gone, not just for one vehicle, but for all of them!”

“Were they deleted by someone?” Peng Xiao asked, astonished.

“Unless we deleted them ourselves,” Xie Jun shook his head: “A lot of people had copied videos, I had copied them too.”

“Then you guess you all didn’t manage to copy them?” Peng Xiao suggested.

“Impossible, I had checked them on my own device,” Xie Jun retorted.

Xiang Kun asked: “Did you take any breaks on the road?”

“We did stop a few times, had a flat tire, a broken water tank,” Xie Jun said: “But we actually noticed the issue halfway in. On the car that hit the wolf, all the blood and fur were gone.”

“Could it have been covered by dust or something after you drove for a while? Or washed off by water after passing through a puddle?” Tan Lulu suggested.

“No, even if that’s the case, there wouldn’t be no trace left at all,” Xie Jun said, “When we got back to the camp, we even took off the entire bumper of that car to inspect it, there really wasn’t even a drop of blood, or a single piece of wolf hair! And the camp mechanic said, from the damage on the bumper, it didn’t look like the car had hit an animal, but a rock. But all our videos and pictures that could prove us right were gone. All the driving records from all the cars were turned off, there was no record of that day at all, as if we had never turned them on when we set off, but I’m certain, the team leader in charge of the activity had checked all the car’s dashcams were working before we set off, we had also checked ourselves.”

“This is… too strange,” Tan Lulu commented in amazement.

Peng Xiao also shared her doubt: “So weird! Feels like you’re making up a story, didn’t you all have a collective illusion?”

“There were more than one or two of us that day, there were more than twenty! How could we all have had the same illusion and not noticed anything?” Xie Jun refuted, “But later on, everyone indeed slowly accepted that the car had hit a rock, and we forgot to open the dashcam when we set out, because there’s no other explanation that makes sense… ”

“Xie Jun, are you sure you’re not making up stories to trick me?” Tan Lulu still remained sceptical.

“You can take it as a story, but oh well, I once chatted with a photographer from another media about this, and he had a theory. He suggested that we might have experienced the convergence of worldlines, do you know about the Mandela effect? It’s when the collective memory of a group regarding historical events differs from factual events. This is actually caused by the influence of multiple universes on each other. When our lead car hit the horned wolf, it probably happened in another parallel universe and those memories slipped into our minds. In that universe, we turned on our dashcams and we did hit the bizarre horned wolf. But in our world, the car had only hit a rock, we had forgotten to turn on the dashcams of the fleet, and we did not capture any images relating to the horned wolf… ”

Peng Xiao just stared, baffled: “Holy shit, Xie Jun! You guys go to test a car and ended up jumping from the animal world to horror films featuring monsters, and now you’re jumping straight into sci-fi?”

As for Xie Jun’s story, Peng Xiao and Tan Lulu naturally found it hard to believe. Even Xie Jun himself was not quite sure whether it had actually happened or not.