ATDIWR Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Secondary Bonding and Supplies

“Mr. Ji, would you like this?”

Ji An looked down and saw that Tang Ning was handing him an egg. Tang Ning, still drooling from craving, had nevertheless offered the egg.

In the Apocalypse, eggs were not something to make do with; they were extremely valuable. Animals had mutated in the Apocalypse, and even the most ordinary chickens before the Apocalypse had astonishing combat power after. Raising them in captivity for humans to lay eggs was even more difficult. Not to mention that some chickens were contaminated by the zombie virus and couldn’t be eaten.

Eggs naturally became even more precious.

This egg was something Tang Ning had scavenged from Tang Tang. Such a good thing, if someone else got it, they would wish they could eat it shell and all.

But Tang Tang had so many that she didn’t eat them all, just boiled them and threw them around casually.

Such luxury was beyond even Ji An. His eggs were rationed, four a month, which was already considered luxurious in the Base.

With Tang Ning’s ability, she could not possibly support such a lavish life, so where did her extravagant life come from?

Don’t tell him Chen Chen wasn’t behind it!

“You eat it, I don’t need it.” Ji An had plenty of eggs to eat, so he didn’t crave them. Especially holding this egg with dirty hands, thick mud under his fingernails, he had even less appetite.

Although Chen Chen and Tang Tang were a pair of scum and a lowlife, Ji An’s life wasn’t bad; otherwise, Ji An would have left long ago.

It was precisely because the scum and lowlife usually hid their true nature so well, and Chen Chen acted as if he was deeply devoted to him, that he, Ji An, was deceived.

If he hadn’t hit the scum and lowlife’s soft spot yesterday, Chen Chen probably wouldn’t have revealed his true colors and would have continued pretending to be deeply in love with him.

Tang Ning secretly glanced at Ji An’s hand. He only held a necklace; he had nothing else.

Ji An was alone, without even a bag on him, so where would he hide food?

Moreover, Ji An was different from her. She lived with Chen Chen and Mother Chen, so even if she wanted to escape, she couldn’t hide things beforehand. Mother Chen, that old shrew, was notoriously stingy in the Base; she would probably know if someone ate one more grain of rice than the day before.

Tang Ning also knew she was dirty all over, and Ji An probably disliked things that had passed through her hands. But this was a special situation. Just as she was about to persuade him again, Tang Ning suddenly saw Ji An show a strange smile, and then a large chicken leg appeared out of nowhere in his hand.

Ji An had just used his mental power to secondarily contract the necklace. He wasn’t afraid of the necklace being destroyed.

Anyway, if he couldn’t open it, only Tang Tang could. Letting him leave these supplies for Tang Tang was worse than destroying them all.

As for killing Tang Tang and then trying to contract the necklace, Ji An couldn’t wait. He still wanted Tang Tang to live, to live a long, painful, suffering life.

Most importantly, after thinking it over, Ji An felt that with Tang Tang’s cowardly nature, her mental power couldn’t be strong enough to imprint the kind of devastating mutual destruction contract on the jade.

At most, it would be a gentle contract that could be erased at any time with a secondary attempt. As expected, he had guessed correctly.

Tang Ning’s mouth was wide open, large enough to stuff the egg she held directly into it.

“Mr. Ji, Mr. Ji, how can you make things appear out of thin air? Did you awaken a space ability?” Tang Ning didn’t know the secret of the necklace; what she overheard was vague, and the only thing she clearly heard was that Ji An was a mental-type Power User.

Ji An didn’t reply yes or no. He took another large chicken leg from the space and threw it to Tang Ning, “This is for you.”

Tang Ning wanted to refuse in her heart, but she was too craving meat. She hadn’t eaten meat in years and had almost forgotten what it tasted like.

Her hands were faster than her brain; by the time she reacted, the chicken leg was already stuffed into her mouth.

Wuwuwu, meat, this is meat, it tastes like meat, it’s really fragrant!

Unlike the wolfing-down Tang Ning, Ji An ate the chicken leg slowly and methodically. Anyone who didn’t know would think he was leisurely enjoying a candlelit dinner, not escaping.

This chicken leg didn’t have outer packaging; it wasn’t food from before the Apocalypse. It must have been freshly made in the Apocalypse, and it waslu zhu braised. Because there was no time flow in the space, the food could stay fresh forever, tasting just as it did when it was first cooked.

It tasted good. Such a delicacy was truly luxurious in the Apocalypse. Even Power Users who didn’t lack meat would at most boil it with salt.

Tang Tang, however, could still be picky about the taste of food and makelu shui braised dishes.

Ji An had never known that Tang Tang’s life was originally so luxurious.

Perhaps because of this, the food in her space was so abundant, almost as much as the stored grain in their Base’s warehouse.

There were also over a dozen space crystal cores and five or six healing-type crystal cores in the space.

Additionally, Ji An found a stack of paper in the corner. He discovered they were the rewardling qu dan claim forms he had received for missions at the Base, signed by the claimer Tang Tang and the Base commander Chen Chen.

Ji An’s eyes darkened. Didn’t they say he had been working for free all these years? Then why were there these claim forms?

The claim forms precisely recorded which year and month he did which mission and what the rewards were.

Some missions, Ji An had an impression of, and found the rewards to be fair.

“February 16, 2132: Mission to cull edible livestock, reward: half a mutated pig, two whole mutated rabbits, five mutated eggs, ten catties of grain.”

“May 2, 2130: Outdoor mission, reward: one hundred catties of grain, one hundred catties of flour, five barrels of cooking oil, ten catties of white sugar.”

Ji An had some impression of this mission; they found a small grain store with grain inside.

According to the Base rules, seventy percent was handed over for public use, and the remaining thirty percent was allocated as rewards based on contribution.

“November 25, 2133, Base mission, reward: fifty catties of grain, twenty liters of oil, ten catties of meat, ten catties of sugar cubes, one catty of vegetables, five apples.”

Ji An only roughly glanced at a few sheets and didn’t look any further; there were simply too many forms.

However, he already knew how much he had earned all these years just by glancing at these!

With just these resources, not only could he live very well himself, but he could also support several kept individuals comfortably.

But he didn’t lose out. The things in this space were far more than what he had earned himself.

Those supplies, aside from what Tang Tang and Chen Chen earned, the rest must have been embezzled by the two of them.

Now, it had all gone to him cheaply.

With so much food, even if he started eating and drinking extravagantly now, spending money recklessly every day, it would be enough for him for several lifetimes.

Ji An let out a cold laugh, withdrew his mental power from the space, and performed a secondary forced contract.

It was the most overbearing kind of contract: if he died, the space would also be destroyed.

Just then, he had finished eating the chicken leg. After drinking a few sips of water, he said to Tang Ning, “I still have a few barrels of oil in my space. Let’s find a car with keys and drive.”

“Okay.” Tang Ning suddenly felt that Ji An was very mysterious and had many secrets.

When everyone at the Base thought he was an ordinary person, he had already secretly awakened a mental-type Power User ability. And when she thought he had only awakened a mental ability, he also awakened a space-type ability.

Perhaps Ji An had discovered Tang Tang and Chen Chen’s strangeness a long time ago. Although as far as Tang Ning knew, the two currently didn’t have anything illicit going on, the way they occasionally looked at each other was enough to suggest a close relationship; it was only a matter of time before something happened?

Perhaps Ji An knew too, and so after an accidental awakening, he kept it a secret. This was so he could endure hardships and save enough money for escape. This was a very normal procedure; he couldn’t possibly confront Chen Chen head-on, could he?

Not to mention whether Ji An could defeat Chen Chen, Chen Chen himself was the Base commander. Opposing him was opposing everyone in the Base. A good tiger can’t defeat a pack of wolves. Among the Thirty-Six Stratagems, fleeing is the best. As long as you have life, there’s hope for recovery.

Tang Ning thought she knew the truth of the matter and felt quite smart. She lifted her head and then started searching through the cars parked along the street, trying to find one with keys.

“Over here, come here.” Ji An beckoned, and Tang Ning hurried over.

Ji An filled the gas tank and said while driving, “Can you drive? If you can, you can take turns with me later. If not, I’ll teach you; it’s very simple, just distinguish between the brake and the accelerator.”

Anyway, in the Apocalypse, it was like a ghost town; except for Power Users on missions, ordinary people didn’t leave the Base at all. As for Power Users, there was almost no one on the road. Power Users had strong physical constitutions; even if they crashed, they wouldn’t die and might not even get scratched.

“I have a driver’s license, but I haven’t driven on the road.” Tang Ning swallowed; was he that wild?

Ji An nodded; that was enough. In the Apocalypse, people without licenses drove everywhere anyway.

The two of them took turns driving along the way. Tang Ning drove only on simple sections, and Ji An told her beforehand how to go and where to call him to switch.

If they encountered a single, solitary zombie, they would also stop and deal with it.

After all, there were crystal cores in zombie brains, and crystal cores were hard currency, equivalent to money before the apocalypse; they could be exchanged for supplies.

The reason why crystal cores replaced money as hard currency was that Power Users needed crystal cores to level up their abilities.

However, not every zombie brain had a crystal core, just as not everyone is a Power User.

Moreover, the level of crystal cores in zombie brains differed; zombies were also evolving. Higher-level zombies were more powerful and reacted quickly. Lower-level Power Users fighting higher-level zombies alone had lower combat power than the higher-level zombies. In the case of equal levels, who won or lost depended on individual ability.

Power Users who wanted to advance their ability level needed to absorb zombie crystal cores with the same ability attribute. However, this method of advancement could only go upwards, not downwards.

Power User abilities were divided into seven levels, each level divided into three stages: Initial stage, Mid-stage, and Peak.

In the Initial and Mid-stages, one could improve their ability by absorbing crystal cores of the same level. Once at the Peak stage, absorbing crystal cores of the same level would no longer improve the ability; one needed to absorb crystal cores of a higher level to advance.

Power User abilities were like human stamina; long-term use would exhaust the ability. At this time, abilities could be restored through rest, or by rapidly absorbing crystal cores.

Higher-level crystal cores could rapidly restore stamina, same-level crystal cores were secondary, and lower-level ones were the slowest.

Ji An and Tang Ning took turns driving like this, driving non-stop for four days, finally reaching their destination when the stored gasoline in the space was completely used up.

This was a small rural village far from Jing Shi. The houses in the village were very dilapidated; it was impossible to tell what they looked like before the Apocalypse arrived seven years ago.

“Hiss… Ha…” A slow-moving zombie turned a corner. This zombie probably hadn’t seen a living person for a long time, and when it suddenly saw two living people, it let out strange excited cries.

“Get rid of him!” Ji An said, “Don’t let his cries attract more zombie companions.”

Zombies had almost no eyesight; they primarily relied on their noses and ears to distinguish the location of living things.

Any living, fleshy life, whether human or other livestock, was blood-food that zombies liked.

“Yes.” Tang Ning jumped out of the car with an axe. It was her turn to show what she could do. Even though she was an ordinary person, she wanted to prove to Ji An that she wasn’t a useless person who only knew how to rely on others for protection.