ATDIWR Chapter 69

Chapter 69: The Space Necklace Reacts Again, An Unmutated Kitten Cub…

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng quietly followed the zombie patrol team, discovering that these zombie patrol teams eventually entered a room in the darkest corner.

The zombie patrol team, which had looked somewhat energetic, instantly seemed to have their spirit drained away upon returning to the room, reverting to their lazy and slow appearance. One by one, they searched for dark corners and crannies, lying scattered on the ground.

There were already over a dozen zombies in the room, sprawled on the ground. Even when their returning companions stepped on their hands and feet, their heads remained motionless, like dead things.

This was consistent with Ji An’s past understanding of zombies: no intelligence, no sense of pain, aversion to sunlight, and perpetual hunger.

It was abnormal for them to overcome their inherent aversion to sunlight as they did just now, and even exhibit organized and disciplined behavior, seemingly being cautious patrols.

Gu Jinsheng and Ji An exchanged glances. Neither of them attacked these zombies, mainly fearing that causing a commotion would alarm the Mental-type Zombie King, which might then escape.

The two quietly left the room where the zombie patrol team was. After getting some distance, Ji An whispered, “That zombie guard team doesn’t look like they were acting spontaneously. It’s more like they were mentally controlled.”

Ji An rubbed his chin, thinking, “My ability was crippled, so I’m just an ordinary person now. Although I can see mental power threads, I can’t rule out a decrease in perception sensitivity. Did you notice any abnormality in the zombie patrol team, like energy fluctuations or anything?”

When Ji An mentioned his crippled ability, a flicker of pain inevitably crossed Gu Jinsheng’s eyes. Gu Jinsheng’s regret for his lost Wind-type ability was not as heartbreaking as his distress over Ji An losing his Mental-type ability.

Now Ji An could calmly face the fact of losing his Mental-type ability, but Gu Jinsheng had always been troubled by it, unable to let go even more than his own Wind-type ability being crippled.

However, Gu Jinsheng always hid his pain deep in his heart and never showed it in front of Ji An. He didn’t want Ji An to dwell on this irreversible sadness. “I didn’t feel any energy fluctuations from any ability.”

“It seems that Mental-type Zombie King must have planted mental suggestions on the zombies under its command,” Ji An said. “There are only two main ways a Mental-type ability controls the opponent.

One is to mentally control the opponent, like a marionette.

The second is to plant mental suggestions, implanting tasks in the opponent’s brain. As long as the time comes or the mechanism is triggered, the subject with the mental suggestion will immediately act according to the instructions in their brain.”

“Since there were no mental power control threads seen on the zombie patrol team, it must be that the Zombie King planted mental suggestions on the zombie horde,” Ji An concluded. “This is the most terrifying thing. It means that the Mental-type Zombie King has not only developed intelligence but has also started to learn to think and knows what is most beneficial for it.”

“We must eliminate it today, otherwise it will become a major threat,” Gu Jinsheng said.

The two continued to delve deeper into the zombie nest. On the way, they encountered another zombie patrol team. This time, Gu Jinsheng, fearing Ji An would continue to take risks, threw a long blade at the zombie group before Ji An could.

The long blade was infused with ability, making it immensely powerful. It struck the zombie patrol team from behind, harvesting the heads of the zombies one by one like the grim reaper’s scythe.

In the blink of an eye, seven or eight zombie heads rolled on the ground.

Gu Jinsheng and Ji An stepped forward and quickly cut open the zombies’ heads to retrieve the Zombie Crystal Cores inside.

These zombies were clearly higher level than the zombie Ji An had killed before. The quality of the Zombie Crystal Cores was much better, but the crystals were still not clear enough, and there were still many impurities.

“Peak Tier 2 and early Tier 3 Zombie Crystal Cores?” Ji An said, handling the cores. “As expected of a zombie that has developed intelligence. It sets up patrol teams and already knows how to be sparse on the outside, dense on the inside, loose on the outside, tight on the inside, and arrange them from low to high level.”

“Here, for you.” Although Gu Jinsheng killed all the zombies, he gave all the obtained crystal cores to Ji An.

Ji An took the crystal cores and asked with a smile, “Are you really willing?”

Gu Jinsheng glanced at Ji An. “When have I ever been unwilling towards you?”

“It was that time, the first time we met. You took away all the Zombie Crystal Cores I hunted. You were quite overbearing,” Ji An brought up old scores, pretending to be sulky with his beautiful big eyes, looking quite cute.

“I went easy on you. You lived in West City,” Gu Jinsheng said calmly.

It was true that the Jing Shi Base constantly accepted ordinary people and power users with no criminal records from other bases for free, but they were all thrown into the slum gathering area of East City upon arrival.

Living areas were different from living areas!

With the few Zombie Crystal Cores Ji An and Tang Ning had, they could at most find a place in the middle section of East City. As for those experimental equipment, it was only enough to exchange for a laboratory protected by the command post.

That’s why Gu Jinsheng said he went easy on them. At that time, Ji An only had early Tier 3 ability, which was also a Mental-type ability considered non-combat in the public’s impression, and he was carrying a liability. How could Gu Jinsheng bear to throw them into the den of tigers and wolves that was East City?

Otherwise, how could Tang Ning, an ordinary person, possibly live in the single’s dormitory building in West City? That was equivalent to a house within the Fourth Ring Road of the capital before the apocalypse.

Ji An couldn’t help but laugh. “I know.”

Ji An was deliberately teasing Gu Jinsheng.

Gu Jinsheng said, “From now on, all crystal cores will be yours.”

The two continued to move forward, walking for about five or six minutes, and encountered the third zombie patrol team.

This time, they could clearly feel that the zombies in this team were high level, probably composed of peak Tier 3 and Tier 4 zombies.

The two exchanged glances and rushed forward together with great tacit agreement.

The zombies didn’t have time to make a sound before being taken down by Gu Jinsheng and Ji An.

Gu Jinsheng took care of five, and Ji An killed two. However, Gu Jinsheng gave all the Zombie Crystal Cores to Ji An.

Ji An accepted them naturally, without being polite to Gu Jinsheng.

This time, the two didn’t need to walk anymore. Ji An felt that the house the zombies were circling during their patrol should be the place.

This house was very special, different from other houses.

The windows on the walls of the house were bricked up, and they were neatly stacked, seamlessly, not letting any light through. The windows on the door were nailed shut with wooden boards, also lightproof.

Such a house, in human eyes, was a gloomy dwelling unsuitable for living, necessarily damp and dark inside. But it was precisely the living environment that zombies liked; it was a sea view villa in their eyes.

Zombies had no intelligence, so even if they liked such an environment, they wouldn’t create it themselves. But it was clear that the bricks on the windows of this house were newly stacked, created by humans, or more appropriately, by corpses.

Undoubtedly, this must have been done by the Mental-type Zombie King controlling the zombies.

This should be the Zombie King’s residence.

Ji An chose a brick that looked stable, quietly moved it aside, and then peered through the opening. It was pitch black inside; nothing could be seen.

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng didn’t force their way in. If this wasn’t the Zombie King’s residence but a place specifically used to mislead them, and they burst in with great fanfare and fought with the zombies inside, alarming the Zombie King and letting it escape, all their efforts would be in vain.

Ji An pointed to the roof. The two of them leaped up, removed the roof tiles, and this time, they could barely make out the situation inside the house.

The inside of the house was indeed as Ji An and they had imagined, dark and damp. Ji An could even feel the damp chill squeezing out from the opening in the tiles and hitting his face.

No wonder Ji An couldn’t see anything from the window just now. It turned out the windows inside the room were also hung with curtains by the zombies.

Who knew where they found the curtains? The colors and styles were varied, but the only common characteristic was their thickness.

Those thick curtains could definitely ensure that not even the midday sun could penetrate.

There was a mud brick bed in the house. The area around the bed was also hung with those thick curtains, completely covering the small mud brick bed, making it impossible to see the situation inside.

Ji An stepped aside, and Gu Jinsheng came over. He used his ability to release a small flame. The fire tongue licked the curtain, burning just enough of a hole to see what was behind it before stopping.

Behind the hole was pitch black. There was nothing.

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng removed a large section of roof tiles. Gu Jinsheng jumped down first, followed by Ji An.

While keeping alert with his skills, Gu Jinsheng pulled back the curtain in one go.

There was nothing behind the curtain; it was empty.

The Zombie King wasn’t here at all!

“Were we tricked?” Ji An asked, but in his heart, he still felt this was where the Zombie King lived.

“Let’s search around,” Gu Jinsheng began searching the room.

Ji An also looked around, and the more he looked, the more he felt this was the Zombie King’s room. There were traces of zombie activity everywhere, but they were not messy; they were very singular, indicating that only one zombie had lived here before.

How could a “sea view villa” like this for zombies not be coveted by other zombies, allowing only one zombie to live here? Unless that zombie was the Zombie King.

Since the Zombie King had developed intelligence, it meant it had become cunning and was likely to have backup plans. It couldn’t be thought of in the usual way other zombies were.

Thinking this, Ji An searched even more carefully, treating it like an equal opponent. Finally, Ji An found something Something is wrong at the corner of the wall.

“Jinsheng, it’s empty underneath,” Ji An stomped on the floor tiles a couple of times, producing a dull sound.

“I’ll do it.” Gu Jinsheng used his ability to pry open the floor tiles covering it, revealing a dark hole in the ground below.

The hole was neither big nor small, just enough for a person to crawl in and out. There was some fresh soil around the edge of the hole. It was obvious that something, and more than one thing, had just crawled in from here.

Gu Jinsheng released a bolt of Thunder-fire towards the hole. The fire tongue was like a snake, drilling into the hole.

“Let’s follow it.” Gu Jinsheng and Ji An walked out the main door, following the Thunder-fire underground on the surface.

The Thunder-fire was Gu Jinsheng’s ability, and Gu Jinsheng could sense its direction.

Gu Jinsheng and Ji An walked on the ground following the direction of the fire snake. At first, it was fine, they didn’t hear any movement, only the fire snake quietly moving through the underground tunnel. About a minute later, Gu Jinsheng and Ji An faintly heard the screams and roars of zombies from below the surface.

Gu Jinsheng’s Thunder-fire was the bane of zombies; once it touched them, they would be burned completely.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Ji An’s feet trembled. Zombies broke out of the ground one by one. Ji An almost immediately noticed the Mental-type Zombie King; it was being fiercely protected by several zombies behind it.

Several zombies flew out of the ground, and before they even landed, they shot their abilities towards Ji An and Gu Jinsheng.

Gu Jinsheng was well prepared. He pulled Ji An into his arms in one go, rolled on the spot, dodging an attack that had reached them. In return, he continuously sent out several thunderballs, which collided with the zombies’ attacks and easily neutralized them.

As Gu Jinsheng and Ji An just stood up from the ground, three Tier 3 and 4 zombies immediately surrounded them, enclosing the two in the middle, while the Zombie King was carried away on the back of a Speed-type ability zombie, escaping.

“Everyone, the Zombie King has been found, in Area 6. It is currently escaping towards Area 7. Everyone pay attention, prepare to fully Encirclement and suppression the Zombie King,” Gu Jinsheng issued the command through the internal communicator. Long before this operation to surround and suppress the Zombie King, the command post had figured out the area where the Zombie King was located. And during the meeting to study the combat plan, they had roughly divided each area into numbered zones, making it easier to surround and suppress the Zombie King in emergency situations.

Before Gu Jinsheng finished speaking, the zombies pounced. Ji An took out the long blade from his space and sliced off a pair of zombie claws reaching for Gu Jinsheng. Turning back, he leaped up and jumped behind a zombie, dodging the ability shot at him. He swept the long blade again, chopping off the zombie’s legs. In an instant, it became shorter, only reaching Ji An’s waist.

From such an angle and distance, Ji An very easily plunged the long blade into the zombie’s skull, and with a fierce flick, the Zombie Crystal Core inside the zombie’s brain was picked out by Ji An. Ji An scooped it up and caught it. The quality of this Zombie Crystal Core was decent, roughly early Tier 4 ability level.

Meanwhile, Gu Jinsheng acted at the same time Ji An did. He released his Thunder Dragon, symbolizing him. The Thunder Dragon circled around the zombie, breathing fire and releasing thunderballs at the zombie.

The zombies, which usually seemed slow-moving, were not slow when fighting. That zombie leaped up three stories high with a mighty jump. This zombie should be a Water-type ability user zombie. It used its Water-type ability to surround itself with a layer of water and then actually tried to stand on the Thunder Dragon’s head, which angered the Thunder Dragon, making it roar furiously. It opened its big mouth and bit at the zombie.

The zombie was only Tier 4 and was no match for the Thunder Dragon. It was swallowed whole by the Thunder Dragon in one gulp.

The Thunder Dragon’s red eyes were full of pride as it flew towards Ji An. Although the Thunder Dragon was formed by Gu Jinsheng’s ability, Ji An felt something and opened his palm towards the Thunder Dragon. The Thunder Dragon opened its mouth and spit out a Zombie Crystal Core.

It seemed that the zombie had been burned to ashes by the Thunder Dragon, leaving only this one crystal core.

At this moment, Gu Jinsheng, who had transformed his ability into a flaming long spear, used it to pry open the zombie’s skull. “Catch.”

Ji An raised his hand, and another Zombie Crystal Core lay steadily in his palm.

Ji An smiled. The Thunder Dragon and Gu Jinsheng looked at each other. Although in some sense they were the same person, at this moment, one person and one dragon were clearly looking at each other with the flavor of love rivals, as if secretly competing for favor. If you give out a zombie crystal core, I can’t fall behind either.

“Come back,” Gu Jinsheng said to the Thunder Dragon again.

The Thunder Dragon shook its head and wagged its tail, just wouldn’t listen. It even used its dragon horn to rub Ji An’s palm.

The Thunder Dragon was resentful about Ji An’s consistent unwillingness to proactively pet it, so this time it carried a tiny bit of electrical current. This current wouldn’t do anything to Ji An but made him feel a wave of numbness and tingling.

Ji An was rubbed until it was unbearably itchy, so he proactively reached out to gently scratch the Thunder Dragon’s horn. The Thunder Dragon narrowed its eyes comfortably, contentedly letting out rumbling purring sounds, like a big cat.

Gu Jinsheng’s lips pursed tighter. Ji An unintentionally looked back and saw Gu Jinsheng’s rarely seen dark face, suddenly realizing something was wrong.

Ji An directly faced the Thunder Dragon’s abnormality and realized even more clearly what Gu Jinsheng meant by the Thunder Dragon being somewhat out of control and seeming to be developing its own thoughts.

The Thunder Dragon, which was formed by Gu Jinsheng’s ability, wasn’t it now acting against Gu Jinsheng’s will and doing what it wanted to do?

Ji An couldn’t help but worry, “Jinsheng, is your control over the Thunder Dragon weakening?”

“No,” Gu Jinsheng said resolutely. “You don’t need to worry about my ability. The Thunder Dragon just wants to protect you.”

Ji An said, “Anyway, the Zombie King has been found now, so we’re not afraid of causing a commotion anymore. If the Thunder Dragon wants to stay outside, just let it stay outside. It can protect me.”

The Thunder Dragon seemed to understand Ji An’s words. It leaped and pranced excitedly around Ji An, and like a big cat, it rolled over to show its belly for him to pet.

The awe-inspiring Thunder Dragon doing this action was really too cute. Ji An couldn’t resist and petted its belly.

Gu Jinsheng’s face became even darker. “Let’s go.”

“Oh, okay.”

Gu Jinsheng and Ji An, along with the impressive Thunder Dragon, chased forward. They didn’t chase for long before hearing fighting sounds.

It turned out that Wan Xueying and the people behind them had caught up. When Wan Xueying saw that Gu Jinsheng had actually released the Thunder Dragon to protect Ji An, she felt speechless.

Their power users’ abilities were not infinite. As long as an ability was released, even if it was just materialized and not fighting, it consumed energy. Moreover, the more vividly Gu Jinsheng materialized the Thunder Dragon, the more energy was needed.

Therefore, many power users, in order to save energy during combat, would directly use the raw form of their ability and didn’t bother with those flashy things.

Their leader seemed to have been quite practical in the past. At first, he materialized the Thunder Dragon purely to train his control over his ability.

But ever since he met Ji An, he seemed to like doing these flashy, impractical things more and more to show off.

Wan Xueying really wanted to ask Gu Jinsheng if his head was okay. He had just had an ability crippled, and instead of resting his mind, he was doing these pointless things.

But Wan Xueying didn’t dare.

“Leader, the Zombie King is escaping towards Area 4. You chase that way, and we’ll deal with these zombies.”

“Okay.”

Gu Jinsheng took Ji An and continued to chase forward. After chasing for a while, they saw no trace of the Zombie King. The two slowly stopped.

“The zombie tracks suddenly disappeared here. I suspect the Zombie King might be hiding nearby. Let’s look around.” With the limited intelligence the Zombie King had just developed, it probably couldn’t think of overly complex schemes and tricks. At most, it had the intelligence of a few-year-old child, who would only remember to wipe away the few footprints at the hiding place when playing hide-and-seek.

“Okay, let’s split up and act. Let the Thunder Dragon follow you,” Gu Jinsheng said.

“Alright.” Given Gu Jinsheng’s strength, even if he released the Thunder Dragon to protect Ji An here, it wouldn’t hinder him from continuing to use his ability to fight there.

Ji An followed his intuition and chose a direction to search, but he didn’t go too far from Gu Jinsheng. Now that he had no ability, he was afraid he couldn’t resist the Zombie King’s mental control over him, or if the Zombie King planted a mental seed in him, then Gu Jinsheng, who was completely unprepared for him, would be in danger.

Ji An searched house by house, finding nothing even after searching four or five houses. Besides some low-level mutated beasts, there wasn’t even a small zombie in the houses.

Ji An stopped and didn’t continue searching blindly. Instead, he began to look at the houses in front of him.

Suddenly, Ji An’s eyes brightened. There was a house over there in the corner that didn’t receive sunlight from either sunrise or sunset, making it very dark and gloomy. An old locust tree also grew beside the house, with lush branches and leaves, shrouding the entire small house underneath.

The Zombie King had only recently developed intelligence and started thinking. It probably didn’t understand how to overcome its inherent nature. Even when hiding, it would subconsciously hide in the environment it liked.

“Jinsheng,” Ji An called out softly, pointing to the gloomy little house over there. Gu Jinsheng nodded, and the two quietly crept over.

Suddenly, a gentle breeze blew past, and a rustling sound came from the weeds. The sound was very faint; if not listened to carefully, it would be covered by the rustling of the wind through the weeds.

But both Gu Jinsheng and Ji An noticed it. Gu Jinsheng made a gesture to Ji An, signaling Ji An to hide behind him. At the same time, the Thunder Dragon, like a dragon coiled around a pillar, coiled its entire body around Ji An in a protective posture.

Ji An didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Gu Jinsheng carefully walked about ten steps away, then suddenly released an ability with force towards the weeds.

“Meow!” A small kitten cub rolled out of the grass patch in a sorry state. The kitten cub seemed to have just opened its eyes and couldn’t see the world clearly yet. Its limbs were weak and floppy with no strength; even crawling seemed difficult. There were several wounds on its body, which looked like they were cut by nearby branches and sharp stones.

“Is it an unmutated kitten cub?” Ji An was almost immediately attracted by the kitten’s attention.

It had been seven years into the apocalypse. Whether it was animals or plants, what should have mutated had mutated, especially animals. There was truly no way around it. If they didn’t mutate, they couldn’t survive. Without abilities, they could only be prey and wait to be hunted. It was survival of the fittest; only by becoming strong could one survive.

So now, unmutated animals and plants were as rare as giant pandas before the apocalypse.

This unmutated kitten inexplicably had a kind of attraction for Ji An. Ji An involuntarily walked over to the kitten and reached out his hand, wanting to pet the kitten.

Right at this moment, the space necklace on Ji An’s chest suddenly and without warning started burning again. This time, the temperature emitted by the space necklace was even more scalding than when Ji An touched that power user’s crystal core last time.