ATDIWR Chapter 61

Chapter 61 Far Inferior to Ji An! With R Country’s Shadow Behind It…

“Before the Apocalypse, it was one thing for you to abduct those children, but now that it’s the Apocalypse, it’s hard enough for everyone to survive. What use is there in dealing with these children?” Ji An asked.

“Freak show,” the human trafficker didn’t try to hide it at all. Life in this water prison was worse than death. Now, all they wanted was a quick death, the sooner they confessed clearly, the sooner they would be free.

“Someone found us. He wants us to provide a batch of people to perform in a freak show for R Country people,” the human trafficker mentioned the words “freak show” without any change in expression, as if he was accustomed to it. “He said the R Country people specifically asked for children, they like to watch children perform. Of course, if we can get particularly beautiful individuals, that would also work, or powerful Power Users.”

Seeing once high and mighty strong individuals fall from the clouds could give certain cowardly people a psychological satisfaction that made their blood surge with excitement.

Beautiful individuals were always different; when beautiful people suffered devastation, it could often arouse the deepest desires in people’s hearts.

The three types of people the R Country people chose indeed fit the impression their country showed to the public in the past – perverts.

When the human trafficker mentioned beautiful individuals, his eyes unconsciously glanced at Ji An.

Ji An’s beauty transcended gender; it was a beauty that made people forget the mundane upon seeing it. If there really were immortals in this world, perhaps an immortal descending to the mortal world would be nothing more than this.

If they could get their hands on someone of such beauty, they would be rich. A hundred or a thousand children combined wouldn’t be worth as much as one Ji An.

Ji An felt waves of nausea in his stomach, but Gu Jinsheng had already raised his hand, launching an ability that directly destroyed the human trafficker’s eyes. The human trafficker screamed, and the other traffickers trembled in fear, their eyes fixed on the ground or elsewhere, no longer daring to look around, especially not at where Ji An and Gu Jinsheng stood.

Wan Xueying sneered, “Saying you are short-sighted is overpraising you. Mistaking pearls for fish eyes is exactly what you people do.

Do you know who this beautiful person standing before you is?

You’re just thinking of selling him. His value is beyond your imagination. With him, even if you wanted to rebuild a Base and become kings, as long as he rallied the call, thousands upon thousands of people would immediately respond. This kind of person, and all you can think of is selling him for a freak show?”

The human trafficker couldn’t respond, but he didn’t think much of it in his heart. They had indeed guessed Ji An’s identity; he was the Mental-type Power User from the execution ground that day who shot a Tier 6 Power User into an idiot with three arrows, a powerful Power User capable of cross-level challenges.

They didn’t deny Ji An’s strength; he was indeed formidable. He alone could resist their combined abilities and protect those children.

But no matter how powerful, he was still just a strong individual. R Country and M Country were allied, and M Country had no shortage of powerful Power Users. Perhaps it was precisely because of Ji An’s strength that his price could increase, selling for a new high!

Although no one spoke, Wan Xueying still guessed what these people were thinking in their hearts. She sneered, “You people will always be this short-sighted. Anyway, you are all dead ends, so I’m not afraid to tell you, this beautiful person standing in front of you is the sole inventor of the spatial storage items and nutrient solutions at the Jing Shi Base!”

“What?” The human trafficker was too astonished and couldn’t help but look up at Ji An.

Ji An just stood there quietly. Even in this dirty and dilapidated water prison, there was a sense of detached beauty. They truly couldn’t believe that such a person was the sole inventor of spatial storage items and nutrient solutions.

Spatial storage items and nutrient solutions?

Those were things the human traffickers didn’t even dare to dream of.

With these two things, why would they still live a life of hiding and sneaking? It would truly be like Wan Xueying said, rallying the call, and immediately thousands would respond.

At that time, resources and beautiful individuals would rush to them, inviting them to enjoy!

Deep greed flashed in the human traffickers’ eyes.

Wan Xueying said coldly, “Too bad, you will never have that chance.”

One sentence pulled the human traffickers back from their fantasy to reality. Only then did they truly realize what kind of treasure they had missed. If they were given another chance, children, freak shows, they wouldn’t want any of them. Just Ji An alone would be enough…

Ji An didn’t give these people any more time to fantasize. He asked, “You already have so many children in your hands. Twenty-something children are completely enough for a freak show performance. Why take the risk of capturing more children?”

“The other party told us that R Country wants complete, healthy children,” another human trafficker, different from the one who confessed earlier and was in pain, answered. “He said R Country likes to watch a perfectly healthy person be torn apart into fragmented states, enjoying that extreme destructive desire. That gives the R Country people physical and mental satisfaction from inside out.”

As he said this, he was eerily calm, without the slightest reverence for life that humans should have, as if life was just some random object in their hands.

“The children we have are already ruined and won’t pique the interest of the R Country people. At most, they can be thrown to those poor people to watch and earn a few nutrient solutions to eat.”

The human trafficker suddenly said, “Originally, we didn’t think of the orphanage right away and were still considering kidnapping a few children, but the person who contacted us proactively suggested going to the orphanage to get some children.

He also said that the children in the orphanage were well-raised, healthy and rosy-cheeked, even better than those raised in ordinary families in the Apocalypse, and they were also reading recently, so their temperament was also good.

At that time, they could pretend to be nobles, saying they were children from powerful and influential Power User families. R Country would definitely negotiate a higher price.”

Ji An immediately grasped the key point, “The person who contacted you was a Xia person? Do you know him? Who is he, and where is he now?”

The human trafficker pondered for a moment before saying, “If you release me, I will tell you. For now, I can only say that his identity is very important to you.”

Without even considering, Gu Jinsheng directly released his ability. The pain of being burned alive made the human trafficker scream tragically in the fire.

He twisted and struggled desperately, but the specially made iron chains bound him tightly. He couldn’t break free and could only be scorched by the fierce fire.

The human trafficker screamed heartbreakingly, “That person’s identity is very, very important to you. If you don’t know, you will regret it sooner or later!

Release me! Only if you let me leave the Jing Shi Base will I tell you his true identity.”

“No need, we have a Mental-type Power User,” Ji An said calmly. “Go call Zhou Fanxiu over and have him mentally control these people. The information obtained that way will be more reliable than their own confessions.”

Panic flashed in the human trafficker’s eyes. “You, you can’t do that! That is explicitly forbidden by the Jing Shi Base. It’s against human rights.”

“A human trafficker talking to me about human rights, ha… That’s probably the funniest joke I’ve ever heard in my life!” Wan Xueying scoffed.

With a dedicated car to pick him up, Zhou Fanxiu arrived quickly. Someone had already briefly explained the situation to him on the way. As soon as Zhou Fanxiu arrived, he began to perform mental control on the human trafficker.

Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power threads were very thin, like spider silk. In this dark dungeon, if you didn’t look closely, they were almost invisible.

Ji An was somewhat stunned. Actually, the thickness or thinness didn’t matter; it was controlled by the Power User himself and didn’t represent weakness. What made Ji An dazed was that he could actually see Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power threads.

How was this possible?

The mental power of Mental-type Power Users was very special; ordinary people couldn’t see their mental power. Only Power Users could see it.

Now that Ji An’s ability was abolished, in terms of identity, he was an ordinary person. He shouldn’t be able to see Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power!

Gu Jinsheng, standing nearby, seemed to notice Ji An’s abnormality. He wanted to hold Ji An’s hand to comfort him, but just as his well-defined large hand was about to touch Ji An’s slender fingers, he probably felt it was inappropriate and silently withdrew it.

Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power threads surged out from his brain and entered the human trafficker’s eyes. The human trafficker instantly turned into a wooden figure, motionless.

Zhou Fanxiu was happy and relaxed his mental power a bit. The human trafficker opposite him blinked almost instantly.

Wan Xueying immediately said, “Researcher Zhou, don’t relax your mental power.”

Zhou Fanxiu didn’t even dare to get distracted to reply and immediately focused all his attention on controlling the human trafficker. The human trafficker once again became a wooden figure.

Ji An said, “Teacher, please ask him who the person who contacted him is?”

Zhou Fanxiu repeated Ji An’s words. The wooden-figure human trafficker remained like a piece of wood, motionless, as if he couldn’t hear Zhou Fanxiu’s question, completely unresponsive to everything outside. He truly had become a block of wood.

Zhou Fanxiu couldn’t understand the current situation, so he asked again. The human trafficker was still in the same state, but this time, after Zhou Fanxiu finished asking, the human trafficker quickly regained consciousness and emerged from that I’m dumb state.

He looked at Zhou Fanxiu and the others nervously, his expression full of vigilance and inquiry, as if he truly didn’t know what Zhou Fanxiu had just done to him and was trying to glean some clues from their faces.

“What’s going on?” Zhou Fanxiu himself was puzzled, scratching his head.

After Zhou Fanxiu awakened his ability, he came to the Jing Shi Base and had hardly fought. His application of Mental-type abilities was almost entirely in research, so he was somewhat half-informed at this time.

Ji An explained, “Looking at their state, Teacher, what you just used should be the ‘Petrification’ skill within mental control. Mental control is a higher ability than ‘Petrification’. Try sending your mental power threads out, drilling them into their brains, and then controlling their minds.”

Everyone in the dungeon was speechless. Wasn’t Zhou Fanxiu the one with mental power now? How was it reversed, with Ji An, who had lost his mental power, teaching him how to use it?

“Oh, oh, I see. I’ll try,” Zhou Fanxiu was a bit embarrassed. He was actually being taught by his own student.

For the first time, Ji An felt that his teacher possessed a treasure but didn’t know how to use it, somewhat wasting the Mental-type ability.

Wan Xueying saw Ji An’s heartache and said, “Boss Ji, actually before you, there were Mental-type Power Users who pursued a combat path, but unfortunately, without exception, these people all failed. Countless facts have proven that Mental-type Power Users are non-combat abilities; they are more suitable for research. As for you, I can only say there are exceptions to everything.”

Facts proved that while Ji An’s explanation was simple, Zhou Fanxiu encountered obstacles everywhere when actually trying it, just like how Ji An could effortlessly create spatial storage items and nutrient solutions, while they couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard they racked their brains.

Even if they got the core technology, they would have to research day and night for who knows how long to crack it. There was simply a barrier between him and them.

Zhou Fanxiu was stuck at almost every step, like a toddler learning to walk, stumbling at every step and needing support.

“Ji An, how do I know if my mental power has entered his brain?”

This question stumped Ji An. Ji An was momentarily speechless, not knowing how to answer. For Ji An, wasn’t this question like eating and drinking water? You can feel something in your mouth.

“Don’t you feel it?”

“Feel what?” Zhou Fanxiu looked blankly at Ji An.

Ji An explained, “It’s the feeling of detecting mental power that doesn’t belong to you.”

Zhou Fanxiu felt it but didn’t have the feeling Ji An described. “No feeling, nothing at all.”

“How can there be no feeling?”

Ji An really wanted to say, I saw Teacher’s mental power drill into the human trafficker’s brain.

However, Ji An didn’t want others to know that he could still see the mental ability of Mental-type Power Users, so he didn’t say it.

He didn’t know if others who had lost their abilities could see other people’s mental power, but he knew he could. He didn’t know if this was normal and didn’t want others to know.

Ji An said, “Teacher, try feeling it again.”

Zhou Fanxiu closed his eyes, his brows furrowed into a knot. It was clear that he was trying his best to feel it with his whole body. After who knows how long, he finally heard Zhou Fanxiu say joyfully, “I feel it!”

Ji An breathed a huge sigh of relief. Now, looking at Zhou Fanxiu, it was like a top student looking at a struggling one. How could such a small problem even need explaining? How do you explain it? It’s like one plus one equals two, isn’t that something everyone takes for granted?

However, Ji An was happy too soon. Before he had even finished exhaling, Zhou Fanxiu’s new question arrived. “Ji An, I think I feel it. What now? How do I mentally control him?”

Ji An felt as if he heard the human trafficker’s stifled laughter. This really made their side seem useless. Even the Mental-type Zombie King they fought last time knew how to mentally control its subordinates.

However, for someone who had never mentally controlled another person before, this was normal. Ji An calmly said, “Try connecting to his mental power, like a plug and a socket. Just connect them.”

“Connect?” Zhou Fanxiu encountered a new problem. He didn’t know how to connect.

If Ji An hadn’t lost his mental power, he would have used his mental power to guide Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power, and perhaps Zhou Fanxiu would have learned faster that way.

This time, the problem seemed difficult for Zhou Fanxiu. Zhou Fanxiu tried for a long time but couldn’t manage the connection.

Ji An could only say, “How about this, Teacher, try mentally controlling me. I can feel it and I know how to explain it to you.”

Ji An really didn’t know how else to teach this. He could only personally step in and guide.

“No!”

“This might not be good.”

Two voices spoke simultaneously, one from Zhou Fanxiu and the other from Gu Jinsheng.

Ji An was now an ordinary person, completely defenseless against abilities. Even if Zhou Fanxiu wasn’t skilled in mental control, it would be easy to mentally control him.

Zhou Fanxiu also felt that this wasn’t good. When mentally controlling someone, he could ask any secret he wanted to know.

Ji An had too many secrets, of course, referring to research aspects. Zhou Fanxiu wasn’t in the same research lab as him, so it was inconvenient to mentally control Ji An.

“Ji An, you have so many research achievements. It’s not appropriate for me to perform mental control on you,” Zhou Fanxiu said.

Meanwhile, Gu Jinsheng’s face had turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.

“There’s nothing inappropriate,” Ji An turned to look at Gu Jinsheng. “The person who contacted them is too important. We must know who he is.”

Gu Jinsheng pursed his lips tightly, clearly still unwilling. Ji An leaned into Gu Jinsheng’s ear and whispered to coax him, “Aren’t you watching? Teacher can’t do anything.”

Gu Jinsheng’s position as Commander constrained him in many matters. He could only nod.

“Teacher, please go ahead,” Ji An said.

Although Gu Jinsheng didn’t say anything, Zhou Fanxiu still felt a death glare.

If he weren’t Ji An’s teacher, Gu Jinsheng might have shown it more clearly.

Ji An watched as Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power drilled into his brain. He didn’t resist at all. The moment Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power entered Ji An’s Sea of Consciousness, Ji An captured it.

It felt like even though you can’t see, if someone is secretly spying on you, you will definitely have that inexplicable feeling of being spied upon, perhaps a kind of intuition.

But for Ji An, it wasn’t merely intuition. It was as if there were a pair of eyes in his Sea of Consciousness that could clearly see where Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power came from and how it entered his Sea of Consciousness.

“Teacher, I feel your mental power. Do you feel it?” Ji An asked.

Zhou Fanxiu didn’t actually feel it. Only after Ji An asked did he try hard to feel it, and then he finally sensed it.

Zhou Fanxiu said, “Ji An, you, a person without a Mental-type ability, are more sensitive than me, who has a Mental-type ability.”

“It’s just muscle memory, a conditioned reflex honed in battle after battle.”

Zhou Fanxiu seemed to understand half-heartedly. “What should I do now?”

“Mentally control me?”

“How do I control you?”

Ji An felt like he had opened his own front door, politely inviting the thief in, and then the thief asked him, ‘How should I steal things?’

Ji An never in his wildest dreams imagined that one day he would have to teach someone step-by-step how to mentally control him.

‘Pffft…’ Ji An heard a laugh. He looked over, and it turned out the human trafficker couldn’t help but let it out.

Zhou Fanxiu’s face turned red.

Zhou Fanxiu held it in for a long, long time, trying and failing, before finally establishing a mental connection with Ji An. He exclaimed, “I finally connected mentally!”

Ji An also felt it. He nodded and said, “Congratulations, Teacher, you succeeded.”

Zhou Fanxiu asked, “I’ve already connected mentally, why do you still have independent thoughts?”

“Teacher, you only mentally connected with me, you didn’t mentally control me. Now, Teacher, please mentally control me.”

Zhou Fanxiu started trying, but he had no idea where to begin.

Actually, Ji An had secretly tried to resist Zhou Fanxiu’s mental control during this process. He simply wanted to test his mental power again.

But as soon as he tried, he felt as if countless steel needles were piercing his brain.

Ji An couldn’t help but let out a short scream, “Ah!”

At the same time, the pitiful little drop of water within his brain seemed to be dried up by the strongest storm. Ji An knew this was the consequence of forcefully mobilizing his mental power.

Ji An had a vague intuition that if he truly used up that last bit of water in his brain, he would definitely become an idiot.

“Xiao An, are you alright?”

“Boss Ji, are you okay?” Wan Xueying said anxiously, “Researcher Zhou, Ji An is in pain, please stop.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Zhou Fanxiu explained.

Ji An stopped trying to mobilize his mental power, and the pain like steel needles piercing his brain stopped. However, Ji An found that his head, which had been in a state of pain all along, hurt even more than before.

Ji An knew this was due to him forcefully mobilizing his mental power and using up a small part of the water drop in his Sea of Consciousness. Enduring the headache, he explained for Zhou Fanxiu, “It’s not Teacher’s fault. It’s just my headache acting up again.”

“Ji An, how about we just forget it?” Zhou Fanxiu frowned.

“It’s okay, Teacher, please continue.”

“Xiao An…” This time, Gu Jinsheng spoke again.

Ji An gave Gu Jinsheng a reassuring smile. “Let Teacher continue. We need their confession. The person behind this is very important. We cannot miss him, otherwise the Jing Shi Base could easily crumble from within.”

With Ji An saying this, Gu Jinsheng couldn’t object anymore.

Seeing that neither Ji An nor Gu Jinsheng objected, Zhou Fanxiu could only brace himself and continue. This time, he spent a long time finally finding the knack, becoming so tired that it felt like he had run a thousand meters, sweating profusely. “I think I succeeded! Ji An, who am I?”

“Zhou Fanxiu, my teacher,” Ji An answered. His voice was very clear, without any of the dullness expected from someone being controlled.

Zhou Fanxiu was a bit disappointed. “Ji An, you’re still conscious. I thought I succeeded.”

Ji An replied, “I didn’t resist. Actually, Teacher, you did succeed, but I woke up in less than a second. How about you try again?”

“Okay.” One success greatly boosted Zhou Fanxiu’s confidence. He thought that with one successful experience, succeeding again would be easy, especially since the target was Ji An, who had lost his ability and become an ordinary person.

However, in reality, Zhou Fanxiu hardly succeeded again afterwards. He himself felt that he was too stupid.

Gu Jinsheng couldn’t watch anymore and said, “I understand now. Researcher Zhou, try it on me.”

“This…”

“Give it a try. I won’t resist,” Gu Jinsheng said, not wanting Ji An to be put through more trouble.

“Alright,” Zhou Fanxiu proceeded to mentally control Gu Jinsheng. Similarly, Gu Jinsheng didn’t resist at all, even cooperating fully, like Ji An, completely opening his door. But Zhou Fanxiu went in and still couldn’t mentally control him.

Wan Xueying said, “Forget it, just let him try mentally connecting with these few human traffickers directly. One of you has an ability that is too powerful, and the level gap is too large; there’s an insurmountable chasm. One was the emperor among Mental-type Power Users before, and even if his ability is gone now, the muscle memory is strong enough. It’s normal that Researcher Zhou can’t mentally control you.

These human traffickers are different, perhaps it’s possible. Even if not, it doesn’t matter. I’ve already contacted Han Yaokun and asked him to bring a few more people over to try.”

Zhou Fanxiu let out a huge sigh of relief. He really didn’t want to challenge the two great mountains of Ji An and Gu Jinsheng anymore, especially since one of them was his own student. The feeling of repeated failure was truly too frustrating.

Zhou Fanxiu had already grasped the skill, and performing mental control on the human trafficker became much easier.

At first, the human trafficker’s face showed nonchalance, but the next second it turned completely blank. Zhou Fanxiu had actually succeeded.

“Who is it? Who is the person who contacted you?” Zhou Fanxiu asked.

The human trafficker’s expression was numb and sluggish, his eyes empty. His entire being showed the blankness of being controlled. “He, he is…”

Just as he was about to speak, the human trafficker’s face began to show clear signs of resistance. Such resistance might have been very painful for the human trafficker; his expression twisted fiercely. “No, I can’t say! This is my last chance!”

The human trafficker let out a loud scream and broke free from the state of being mentally controlled, simultaneously severing Zhou Fanxiu’s mental connection.

Zhou Fanxiu felt as if an invisible force had scraped his brain. He clutched his head and squatted down, letting out a cry of pain.

Ji An could clearly see Zhou Fanxiu’s mental power threads snapping. He quickly went over to help Zhou Fanxiu up. “Teacher, are you alright?”

When Zhou Fanxiu looked up, he was covered in sweat, looking as if he had been pulled out of water. He felt the mental power in his brain; there was no damage.

“I’m fine, it just hurt a bit when the mental connection was broken just now,” Zhou Fanxiu said. “It doesn’t hurt anymore, it just hurt for a moment.”

“How about I try again?”

“No need,” Wan Xueying said. “Although your abilities are both Tier 4, his is peak stage, and yours is mid-stage. There’s a small level difference, and the level gap is still too large.”

Normally, a small level difference between Power Users was a world of difference. The reason Wan Xueying had agreed to let Zhou Fanxiu try was because of Ji An.

It wasn’t because Zhou Fanxiu was Ji An’s teacher that Wan Xueying thought Zhou Fanxiu would be more powerful than Ji An.

It was simply because the strength Ji An displayed was too formidable. Cross-level challenges seemed like an ordinary thing for Ji An.

This led Wan Xueying to believe that cross-level challenge was a basic skill for Mental-type Power Users. Indeed, Ji An was ultimately the exception.

“Let me try,” Han Yaokun and others arrived at this moment. Following behind Han Yaokun were Zhao Zhen, Na Boyu, Shi Jun, and several other researchers Ji An recognized by sight but couldn’t name. These people were undoubtedly the top forces on Han Yaokun’s side, all high-level Power Users.

Even when Ji An hadn’t lost his ability, Han Yaokun’s ability level was much higher than Ji An’s. Not to mention Ji An had now lost his ability and become an ordinary person, making him even less qualified to tell a high-level Power User like Han Yaokun what to do.

Ji An silently retreated to a corner, yielding the central position. Zhao Zhen followed behind Ji An, and as he brushed past Ji An, he deliberately gave him a contemptuous look.

Ji An completely ignored him, pretending not to see.

Han Yaokun was clearly much more powerful than Zhou Fanxiu. At the very least, he was skilled in mental control. However, at the last moment, he still failed.

Han Yaokun tried several more times but didn’t succeed. His mental power was greatly depleted, and he couldn’t continue, otherwise there was a possibility of damage.

Han Yaokun’s face was grim, either because he failed or because of the mental power depletion. Zhao Zhen also lost his earlier smugness, his face as black as the bottom of a pot.

He shook his head and said, “Although his ability level is much lower than mine, his will to survive is very strong. He knows this is his only chance to live, and he won’t easily confess even unto death, so I can’t do it.”

Willpower is truly hard to define. Before the Apocalypse broke out, many impossible miracles happened, such as a mother lifting a giant rock beyond human limits to save her child, creating a space for the child during an earthquake, even maintaining that posture long after death, refusing to fall.

Now after the Apocalypse, Power Users awaken abilities, which itself strengthens their mind and resilience. People like human traffickers must inherently be ruthless individuals, and their mental world is inherently harder to control than ordinary people’s.

Even Han Yaokun couldn’t do it, which was unexpected for Wan Xueying. She couldn’t help but glance at Ji An.

Wan Xueying was almost 100% certain that if Ji An’s ability was still present, this kind of mental control would have been effortlessly achieved in minutes for him, without any struggle.

Genius is called genius because they can do what ordinary people cannot. Unfortunately, heaven envies genius, and the genius has fallen!

It was at this moment that everyone clearly realized the immense gap between them and Ji An, an insurmountable chasm. Whether in technology or combat power, Ji An and they seemed to be in different dimensions; there was an invisible barrier between them that could never be broken.

Finally, the high-level Power Users brought by Han Yaokun all tried, including Zhao Zhen. Unsurprisingly, not a single person succeeded. Furthermore, Zhao Zhen, a Power User at the same level as Zhou Fanxiu, performed significantly worse than Zhou Fanxiu and almost suffered backlash.

Zhao Zhen lost face completely, his face flushed with shame and anger.