ATDIWR Chapter 43
by VolareThe night shift Power User at Jing Shi Base smiled kindly, “Our Jing Shi Base isn’t a bandit’s den. We’ve always been clear about grievances and debts. Since your base’s people didn’t commit any crimes in our Jing Shi Base, we naturally won’t detain you without reason.”
“However…” The night shift Power User pointed to the brown rice and Chinese cabbage in the hands of the H Country Power Users and said, “Our Commander Zhou gave the order. To alleviate your base’s concerns and prevent trouble for your base, he specifically instructed us to buy back all the materials your base bought at our Jing Shi Base at the original price, lest you worry about the quality of the items sold by our Jing Shi Base after you return.”
The faces of the H Country Power Users turned pale then green. Indeed, a commander had said something like that before, but the H Country Power Users didn’t take it seriously, thinking that commander was just saying it casually to vent his anger. Who would have thought they would actually specifically have people waiting for them at the airport?
If the execution incident hadn’t happened, the H Country Power Users definitely wouldn’t have obediently handed over the items. But since they witnessed the execution, the H Country Power Users understood the tough style of Jing Shi Base. They would fight at the drop of a hat. They didn’t dare to confront them directly.
They dared to swear that if Jing Shi Base were to trade nutrient solutions with their country, then even if Jing Shi Base people wanted to slice them up for research, H Country wouldn’t have any objections. They would even send researchers with their own scalpels to personally assist, afraid of dirtying the clothes of the Jing Shi Base researchers.
After all, even a powerful country like M Country had to bow to the nutrient solutions.
The H Country Power Users didn’t dare to argue at all. They handed over all the materials purchased at Jing Shi Base, including the materials one of the space-type Power Users had hidden in his spatial storage. They didn’t dare to pocket anything, fearing that Jing Shi Base would find out and detain him, and he would never be able to leave.
After all the materials were handed over, the night shift personnel let the H Country people leave, watching the plane fly away.
The night shift personnel reported through the internal intercom, “Report, the plane carrying the H Country people has taken off. All materials have been recovered.”
“Received.”
Only after flying away from the airspace of Jing Shi Base did the H Country people dare to curse loudly, “Jing Shi Base is too stingy! Such a large base, they even sent people to guard and take back such a small amount of things. So petty, they’ll never amount to much!”
Another Power User also cursed, “A bunch of ill-mannered barbarians, wrongly claiming to have a five-thousand-year cultural heritage, they don’t even understand the hospitality of having friends come from afar! They are far worse than our H Country in terms of manners. I will never come to such a barbarian place again.”
“Yes, never again!”
Why exactly those few Power Users didn’t dare to come again was something only they knew. They were simply scared witless by the methods displayed by Jing Shi Base, so scared that they would never dare to come again in the future.
At this time, the people from the Third Base were on their way. Although they did not attend the execution site, the road connecting the Third Base and Jing Shi Base was covered by signal, so they could watch the entire process through mobile phone live broadcast.
After watching, the people from the Third Base were shocked by Jing Shi Base’s tactics, remaining silent for a long time.
Even after the car drove back to the Third Base, Shen Mo and the others still felt lingering fear, a sense of terror towards Jing Shi Base lingering in their hearts for no reason.
This made Shen Mo’s mood very bad.
He was now the overall commander of the Third Base, and it was impossible for him to suppress his bad mood. He wanted to find someone to vent his anger on. This person could not be chosen randomly, lest it affect his rule. After thinking it over, he thought of Chen Chen, the former overall commander of the Third Base who was still barely clinging to life, refusing to die.
Shen Mo’s eyes instantly lit up, filled with eager excitement and deep malice.
Don’t look at Shen Mo seemingly not caring about the powerless Chen Chen. In fact, he had been secretly sending people to monitor him, fearing that Chen Chen’s former subordinates might contact him and help him rise again.
Fortunately, Chen Chen’s character seemed not to have been that successful. After he was driven down and became a cripple, no one contacted him again. The few Power Users who occasionally appeared in front of Chen Chen were there to kick him while he was down; not a single one was wanting to help him.
When Shen Mo drove there, the sun had already set, the twilight glow covering the entire land, casting a thin layer of murky color over the whole world.
A ruined temple without a roof was crowded with unkempt vagrants. These vagrants were sprawled about, their hair messy, and they hadn’t bathed in who knows how long. The smell on them could be smelled from a distance, not much different from the smell of a garbage dump, attracting a large number of flies hovering near them.
At this moment, Shen Mo didn’t even want to go in. It was truly too dirty. Setting his noble foot on such a lowly place, he really couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Just then, a woman’s sharp voice rang out, “You said one steamed bun per time, you’ve done it to me several times, and you only gave me half a steamed bun, and it’s moldy!”
Then a vagrant’s sated voice sounded, “Take it or leave it, if you don’t want it, give it back to me.”
“No, why should I give it back? It was agreed beforehand, one steamed bun per time. You’ve done it several times already, I’m still losing out.”
The vagrant snorted coldly, “It’s good enough that I gave it to you. Don’t be ungrateful. Don’t act like you’re the overall commander’s mother. Let me tell you, if we play with you for free, even if we play you to death, giving you nothing, you still have to bear it. And you’re still hoping that useless son of yours can back you up? Stop dreaming!”
The woman’s voice didn’t sound again. After a few seconds, the woman’s voice was heard speaking softly again, “Son, here’s half a steamed bun. Although it’s a bit moldy, you haven’t eaten for several days. Just make do with this for now. Mom will find you something good to eat tomorrow.”
After a long time, a man’s difficult voice was heard, “Mom, you’ve been through hardship.”
Just a few words made the woman’s eyes instantly fill with tears. She turned her head so her son wouldn’t see, wiped them away, and forced a cheerful smile, “What hardship? We are mother and son, why say such polite words?”
Then came the sound of chewing.
“Oh, Commander Chen, I came at a bad time. You just ate?” Shen Mo lifted his leg and stepped into the ruined temple, smiling.
Chen Chen was already finding it difficult to swallow the steamed bun he ate, obtained by his mother using her body. At this moment, seeing this opponent and enemy who had always been below him, Chen Chen suddenly felt that the steamed bun in his mouth had turned into glass shards, shattering his mouth, throat, heart, and stomach, hurting everywhere.
He closed his eyes, but didn’t spit out the steamed bun in his mouth, swallowing it whole instead.
“Why, Commander Shen, did you come specifically to laugh at me?”
After swallowing the food in his mouth, Chen Chen replied.
Mother Chen stood in front of Chen Chen, looking like an old hen protecting her chick. Chen Chen weakly pushed Mother Chen aside.
“There’s really no need. I look like this now, I’m truly not worth your concern.”
Having one’s power nullified causes great damage to the body. If he were properly taken care of, perhaps he could recover to be no different from ordinary people.
But Chen Chen didn’t have that luxury. Surviving day by day was good enough. Even if he was lucky, in this situation, how could his body be good?
His current physical condition was even weaker than Mother Chen’s; he was truly just hanging on by a thread.
To be honest, such a Chen Chen was truly boring. Shen Mo also lost the desire to tease him. The smile on his face disappeared, and his expression was cold as he looked at Chen Chen, who had completely lost his former demeanor.
“I came here this time to tell you a piece of news.” Shen Mo looked expressionlessly at Chen Chen, “It’s about your former lover, Ji An.”
Chen Chen lowered his eyelids, looking at the ground, without any response. It seemed that the name Ji An could not cause him any emotional fluctuation.
Shen Mo pursed his lips, “The creator of the spatial storage items is him, Ji An. I suspect the last time you were schemed against, it was also his plot.”
The steamed bun in Chen Chen’s hand dropped to the ground with a pa sound, unable to be held any longer.
“He’s living very well now because of the spatial storage items, exceptionally well. The four major commanders of Jing Shi Base are doing business with him. Broken stones exchanged for a bit of material can turn around and sell for tens of millions of credit points.”
“You’re lying to me!” Chen Chen’s emotions finally fluctuated. He struggled to stand up, but his body, which could usually barely stand, couldn’t stand up no matter how hard he tried at this moment, falling down again and again.
“Believe it or not, it’s up to you.” Having enjoyed Chen Chen’s pathetic state enough, the slight discomfort Shen Mo felt in his heart vanished. He turned and walked out. “I just don’t understand. Ji An was wholeheartedly devoted to you, willing to risk his life for you, and was so capable, accompanying you for seven years in The Apocalypse. Why did you discard him and choose that Tang Tang instead?”
Why indeed?
These four words penetrated Chen Chen’s soul. Perhaps it was greed!
He knew Ji An loved him, and he knew Ji An could give up his life for him, fearlessly. But what was the use of that?
Ji An was just an ordinary person who could never awaken an ability. Even if he was willing to endure hardship and ruthlessly hone his combat skills to the point of risking his life, there was still a wall between ordinary people and Power Users. No matter how strong an ordinary person was, even the lowest level Power User could easily eliminate him with a single finger.
He simply couldn’t help him anymore!
Even later, when he sensed Ji An’s abnormality and vaguely guessed that Ji An might have awakened a mental manipulation ability, so what?
It wasn’t that Chen Chen hadn’t given Ji An a chance. He wasn’t such a cruel person, and he didn’t want to give up their seven years of relationship.
He secretly inquired with other bases. Mental manipulation Power Users were the most useless existence. They were only slightly stronger physically than ordinary people without abilities; other than that, their ability had no practical use.
Of course, mental manipulation abilities belonged to intellectual Power Users. They weren’t good at combat, but their brains were strong, making them good candidates for research.
The problem was that the Third Base was poor. They couldn’t afford experimental equipment at all. Moreover, Ji An hadn’t even graduated from university. Even if he awakened an intellectual ability, what then?
Could he do research? Those who do research are all smart, not only smart but also need someone to guide and teach them, studying with a mentor for many years. Only the exceptionally smart ones can produce even a little something.
As for Ji An, it was impossible for him. The Apocalypse had already wasted seven years of his time. Even if he had studied very well back then, those knowledge were probably long forgotten. What could he possibly know now? At most, his mind might be a bit more flexible than others.
But Tang Tang was different. She simultaneously awakened rare dual abilities: space-type and healing. Either one of these abilities would allow Tang Tang to thrive in any base.
What did it matter if her ability level was low? Who didn’t start from Level 1 and slowly upgrade? Even if Tang Tang was a bit slow and her ability upgraded slowly, what did it matter? She could upgrade eventually.
Anyone who compared these two people would choose Tang Tang and abandon Ji An.
He just made a choice that everyone else would make.
Furthermore, he never thought of driving Ji An away; it was just that he usually paid more attention to Tang Tang. There was nothing he could do; Tang Tang was competitive and awakened an unusual ability.
Chen Chen was lost in his thoughts. Suddenly, Shen Mo, who had already walked out, stopped. He didn’t turn around, but stood with his back to Chen Chen.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you just now. Ji An is now a Tier 3 mental manipulation Power User. Not only is he good at research, his combat is even stronger than when he was at our base.”
Shen Mo said, “His mental ability has become materialized. The materialized mental power arrows shot a Level 6 Power User into an idiot with three arrows! Although that Level 6 Power User’s ability wasn’t stable and might have used special means to improve, he was still a Level 6 Power User. A Tier 3 Power User crossing levels to beat a Level 6 Power User into an idiot is something even you couldn’t do at your peak.”
“I really don’t know why you didn’t want such a capable and dedicated person who was also wholeheartedly devoted to you.”
“But he never told me he was that powerful! I never knew!” Chen Chen couldn’t help but roar.
Why didn’t Ji An tell him how powerful his ability was! If he had told him he could fight across levels and shoot a high-level Power User into an idiot with three arrows, he would never have given him up!
The reason he reluctantly gave him up wasn’t because he didn’t love him, wasn’t because he could really so simply discard their seven years of relationship. It was all because his ability was too useless!
He was the overall commander of the Third Base! How could his lover be a low-level Power User? That wouldn’t help his career at all and would make the people at the base look down on him!
Did Ji An know that, all these years, with Ji An as his lover as an ordinary person, how many cold stares and laughs he endured at the base! On the surface, they praised him for his deep affection, but who wasn’t secretly laughing at his partner being a useless pretty boy!
But why, if Ji An was so powerful, didn’t he tell him?
How could they reach this point without Ji An’s fault?
Chen Chen felt a suffocating pain in his chest, blood surging up. He wa coughed up a mouthful of blood.
This time, Shen Mo didn’t stop his steps again, leaving directly.
“Xiao Chen, Xiao Chen, are you alright? You can’t be in trouble, don’t scare Mom!” Mother Chen was so scared she cried.
“I’m fine, Mom, don’t worry.” What could he do whether he was fine or not? He was no longer the high-and-mighty overall commander he used to be. Now he was dirt poor. Even if he immediately coughed up blood and died, his mother and son couldn’t afford medical treatment. He had to pretend to be fine even if he wasn’t.
Chen Chen closed his eyes, trying his best to control his thoughts and not think about Ji An.
Mother Chen cried and started cursing, “That bitch, he’s also an ungrateful white-eyed wolf. You were so good to him usually, never lacking him food or clothes. He often used your identity as overall commander to act domineeringly. But now he turns around and forgets you.”
“And that little bitch Tang Tang, serves her right to be ridden by a thousand men and slept with by ten thousand! If she hadn’t seduced you, how would Ji An have gotten angry and left you? If Ji An hadn’t left, you wouldn’t have had your ability nullified. Even if it was nullified, that fool Ji An would have wholeheartedly supported you!”
“And Song Pengcheng, I knew he was just a snobbish villain. A few days ago, he even specifically came to act domineeringly. Pfft, he should look at himself. He suffered such severe internal injuries and still doesn’t dare to use his ability. How much better can he be than you!”
Mother Chen cursed incessantly, as if the whole world owed her. After cursing enough, she stopped and cautiously peeked at her son’s face, tentatively asking, “Xiao Chen, why don’t we go find Ji An?”
Once some words were started, the rest were easy to say. “Ji An is doing so well at Jing Shi Base, just a little bit leaked from between his fingers is enough for us to live on. Xiao Chen, let’s go find him. When we get there, act pitiful and push all the blame onto that bitch Tang Tang, say she seduced you. Then you cry a little, or if necessary, kneel to him. He loves you so much, he’ll definitely soften his heart. Then we can have a good life. Mom really can’t live like this anymore.”
Chen Chen shook his head, his face several times worse than before Shen Mo arrived.
“Mom, it’s no use. He won’t soften his heart towards me anymore.” When Chen Chen said this, his heart wasn’t without bitterness. “The reason I fell to this point, with all my abilities nullified, is because of Ji An. It was his deliberate revenge on me.”
“If we go find him now, it’s very likely we won’t gain any benefit and will even be thrown into the zombie horde to feed the zombies by those vying to please him, just to make him happy.”
Chen Chen no longer held any illusions about Ji An. He knew Ji An too well, knew how reluctant Ji An was to part with him. It was precisely because of this, knowing that the culprit behind his current tragic situation was Ji An himself, that he realized how much Ji An hated him.
Perhaps even if he died immediately now, Ji An would still be able to chat and laugh with others.
To be honest, from the bottom of his heart, Chen Chen didn’t understand why Ji An would hate him so much.
Just because he slandered him? But he didn’t truly harm him, did he?
Could it be because of Tang Tang, that he hated him for being infatuated with Tang Tang?
But he only slept with Tang Tang after Ji An left.
Mother Chen’s eyes widened when she heard this, and she started cursing again, “How could he be so malicious? Did he forget how good you were to him before? You were only not good to him once, and he held it in his bones, making you like this. Sure enough, he’s an ungrateful white-eyed wolf…”
No matter what Mother Chen said, Chen Chen regretted it, regretting it so much his insides turned green. Mother Chen actually regretted it too. If she had known earlier that Ji An was so powerful and that her son would fall to this state, she wouldn’t have told him to find a woman and have grandsons. Now her son might not even survive, let alone grandsons.
Gu Jinsheng took Ji An to the hospital for a check-up. It was simply due to overuse of his mental manipulation ability. The doctor strongly recommended Ji An rest. Ji An also wanted to rest for a while to stabilize his ability level. His ability had risen like a rocket since arriving at Jing Shi Base, rising two small levels quickly. It was time to stabilize it, so he agreed.
Gu Jinsheng sent Ji An home. He didn’t go back, driving back to the base himself.
After Ji An returned, he poured himself a cup of Spirit Spring water to alleviate the headache, then lay down on the bed. He originally wanted to sleep, but his thoughts were out of control and he couldn’t help but think of the Zombie Crystal Cores again.
His hand unconsciously stroked the spatial necklace on his chest. He always felt that this spatial necklace was a treasure, and it should be a very sacred kind of treasure, but why would it react to the Zombie Crystal Cores?
Zombie Crystal Cores were not good things. They had to be dug out while the Power User was still alive. Anything obtained in such a cruel way, except for evil objects, wouldn’t be liked by anything else.
Ji An could feel the special and different nature of the spatial necklace. He always felt that after the spatial necklace upgraded, it could become even more powerful, but he just couldn’t find the correct method for advancement.
After thinking and thinking, with no clue, Ji An simply stopped letting himself think. Before long, he fell into a deep sleep.
He woke up again, lured awake by waves of food fragrance.
Ji An opened his eyes. It was already dusk outside. He walked out of the bedroom. In the kitchen, the tall man was busy, wearing an apron with a Doraemon pattern.
The cold, hard man was covered in a layer of warm domesticity, as if a high-and-mighty deity had been pulled into the mundane world, stained with emotions and desires, possessing human desires.
Gu Jinsheng looked up, his eyes deep, like the bedside lamp turned on at night, not dazzling, but radiating a warm orange glow, illuminating the path ahead.
“Yes, I came back and went to sleep.” Ji An came to the kitchen to help Gu Jinsheng get chopsticks and bowls.
“You really should rest well.” Gu Jinsheng said to Ji An, “You don’t need to help here. Go sit over there, I’ll be finished soon.”
Ji An still helped serve two bowls of purple rice, and sat down at the dining table. Many dishes were already placed on the table.
The first dish was a pepper platter. It wasn’t just various peppers stir-fried; instead, they would stuff their favorite food into the peppers.
First, the bright green peppers were slit open lengthwise from one side.
Inside were stuffed freshly made shrimp paste. This was pepper stuffed with shrimp paste, as well as stuffed with cod paste, eggs, and mutant pork.
This pepper platter was made with four different fillings and needed to be pan-fried until the peppers were glistening with oil and the fillings were cooked through before being served. None of these were time-saving methods.
The second dish was stir-fried mutant chicken pieces.
The third dish was garlic oil lettuce.
The fourth dish was spicy mutant beast meat.
Finally, there was a soup, tomato mutant beef steak soup.
All five dishes were made with mutant beast meat. Mutant beast meat itself contained powerful energy, which was very helpful for the promotion and stabilization of a Power User’s ability.
A Power User might eat ten catties of ordinary beast meat and not feel full, but one catty of mutant beast meat could satisfy them. The higher the level of the mutant beast meat, the more energy it contained, and the less a Power User needed to eat.
Ordinary people could also eat mutant beasts. Although it couldn’t enhance their abilities, eating it for a long time could strengthen their bodies, reduce illness, and nourish old chronic ailments.
Of course, mutant beast meat wasn’t cheap, but even so, most people still ate mutant beast meat. That was because after the zombie virus fully erupted, both humans and animals were not spared, and were infected simultaneously.
Just like humans, most animals were also infected by the zombie virus. They even spread faster than humans, after all, humans have intelligence and know how to effectively control the spread, animals do not.
This led to a higher infection rate in the animal kingdom than in humans. Many animals either turned into zombies, becoming zombie animals, or evolved into powerful mutant beasts.
Animals that were neither zombie nor mutant were very, very rare at this time – seven years into The Apocalypse, less than one in a hundred.
With such a low probability, you couldn’t even find one if you wanted to eat it. Scarcity makes it valuable. Even if you manage to catch a non-mutant one and sell it, people aren’t willing to buy it. It has no energy, cannot boost abilities, cannot improve physical quality, and is expensive. Everyone isn’t stupid, who would be willing to buy it!
The last soup was served. Gu Jinsheng sat down with it. He asked Ji An, “I don’t know if you like to eat? If you don’t, you can tell me, and I’ll change next time.”
Ji An lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes trembling slightly, “I like all of it, thank you.”
Gu Jinsheng said, “I should be thanking you. Whether it’s the nutrient solution or the matter at the execution ground today, I should be thanking you.”
“Then let’s not thank each other.” Ji An smiled, his eyes curving, like a beautiful crescent moon, “We are friends.”
Gu Jinsheng looked deeply at Ji An, not picking up on the word ‘friends’. He said, “Let’s eat.”
“Okay.” The dishes Gu Jinsheng made were fragrant, flavorful, and visually appealing, looking very appetizing. However, when he actually ate them, they were even more delicious than they looked, not inferior to the cooking of a great chef.
“Gu Jinsheng, were you a chef before? How can you cook so deliciously? Fortunately, you don’t cook every day, otherwise wouldn’t I become a big fat person?” Ji An sincerely praised him. He could also cook himself, not talented but not making dark cuisine either, just very ordinary, edible, neither bad nor good.
Gu Jinsheng curled the corner of his lips, “After this busy period passes, I can cook for you every day.”
Gu Jinsheng’s expression was serious, his eyes staring directly into Ji An’s eyes. Ji An couldn’t make a promise and felt his heart pound nervously, so he could only look away.
The two chatted about some other topics, and finally ate almost all the dishes.
Gu Jinsheng asked Ji An to sit on the sofa and keep him company while he went into the kitchen to wash the dishes and chatted idly.
“In a few days, after sending off the representatives from the various bases, I will go into seclusion to absorb Power User crystal cores. This time, I want to break through to Level 6 ability. If it goes smoothly, it will take one day. If it doesn’t go smoothly, it might take longer. If you have any issues during this period, you can find Zhou Qin, Kong Zhongcheng, and Wan Xueying. I’ve already notified them.”
“Okay, I understand.” Gu Jinsheng had been stuck at the peak of Level 5 for a long time. Now that he finally obtained a Level 6 early stage Zombie Crystal Core, of course he had to advance as soon as possible.
Furthermore, many crystal cores were auctioned at this auction, and many privately traded a lot. After this, there will definitely be many Power Users breaking through and advancing in large numbers.
Gu Jinsheng as the highest commander of Jing Shi Base needs to advance as soon as possible to deter certain restless petty individuals.