ATDIWR Chapter 100

Chapter 100: Confession! Let’s be together!

Chapter 100: Confession! Let’s be together!

Du Ruanlan’s eyes looked at the power users behind the zombie horde. His gaze searched through the crowd, landing on Ji An.

Du Ruanlan stretched out a long, black finger and pointed at Ji An, then pointed at his own brain.

He Tao said guardedly, “What does he want to do?”

“Du Ruanlan wants me to act as a translator between him and Owen. Owen can’t understand him anymore,” Ji An jumped off the car, and Gu Jinsheng followed suit.

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng walked together to Du Ruanlan. Du Ruanlan nodded at Ji An, and Ji An released his mental power to invade the brain of the zombie version of Du Ruanlan.

Although Du Ruanlan had turned into a zombie, Ji An did not rummage through Du Ruanlan’s memories. He honestly stayed on the periphery of Du Ruanlan’s spiritual consciousness, only acting as a translator between the two.

“Thank you, Ji An.” As soon as Ji An and Du Ruanlan’s mental powers linked, he heard Du Ruanlan’s thanks.

“From now on, I’ll entrust Owen to your care,” Du Ruanlan then added.

“I will,” Ji An replied in his mind.

Du Ruanlan pointed at Jiang Fuzhong. Jiang Fuzhong thought Du Ruanlan was going to say something to him and immediately said, “What is Boss telling me?”

Ji An translated, “Du Ruanlan wants you to help him wipe Owen’s tears.”

“Ah? Oh, oh.” Jiang Fuzhong fumbled through his pockets for a long time but couldn’t find a handkerchief or tissue. It was Gu Jinsheng who gave him a pack of tissues.

Jiang Fuzhong helped Owen wipe the tears from her face. Du Ruanlan nodded in satisfaction. Ji An translated, “Du Ruanlan wants you to protect Owen well from now on.”

Jiang Fuzhong immediately said, “Boss, don’t worry. It will be the same as when you were here before.”

Du Ruanlan nodded, then looked at Owen. “Owen, I once thought that if I turned into a zombie, I would let you end my life yourself. But now that I’ve actually become a zombie, even if I have a shred of consciousness left, I’m unwilling to just die like that. Let me leave. I want to preserve the last shred of decency, dignity, and freedom in front of you.”

Owen thought of Du Ruanlan’s personality; he was such a free-spirited person. If she kept him locked in a cage for the rest of his life, that wouldn’t be protection, it would be an insult to Du Ruanlan.

Owen closed her eyes, letting tears flow down her face. She nodded with difficulty, “Okay, I’ll let you go.”

“Thank you, Owen.”

“If you encounter the me who has completely turned into a zombie in the future, then please don’t hold back. Just kill me. Rather than being killed by someone else, I’d rather be killed by you.”

“At that time, you can dig out the Zombie Crystal Core from my brain. I believe in myself, even if I turn into a zombie, my Zombie Crystal Core will definitely be the strongest level core. Perhaps it can allow someone to advance beyond their current level. Remember to tell me when that happens.”

Owen was sobbing uncontrollably, her vision blurred by tears.

“Goodbye, Owen, my love!”

“Goodbye, Jiang Fuzhong, my brother!”

Du Ruanlan waved goodbye to Owen and Jiang Fuzhong one last time and led the group of zombies away mightily.

“Ruanlan…”

“Boss…”

“Du Ruanlan…”

“Boss…”

During the separation, Owen and Jiang Fuzhong’s emotions were too intense. Ji An and the others couldn’t hold them back and eventually had to knock them out and take them back.

Before, Du Ruanlan hadn’t officially become a zombie, so his situation was kept secret and not announced. Now that Du Ruanlan had completely become a zombie and left Luo City Base, there was no need to hide the matter. Gu Jinsheng was not the type of narrow-minded person who would erase the merits of the former commander. He had Owen act as a representative to publicly announce on the public channel that Du Ruanlan became a zombie to protect the base, and simultaneously displayed this information on large screens in all public areas within the base.

Du Ruanlan’s sacrifice should be known to every resident of Luo City Base. The peace they enjoyed today was bought with Du Ruanlan’s life.

Of course, there was also Bi Xue’s sacrifice. Bi Xue willingly gave up her Space-type ability to save Luo City Base, becoming an ordinary person, whose lifespan would henceforth not be as long as a Power User’s. She also deserved to be remembered by all residents of Luo City Base.

Owen sincerely said to Gu Jinsheng, “Gu Jinsheng, thank you for letting the people in the base know about his sacrifice.”

Gu Jinsheng said, “You don’t need to thank me, this is what Du Ruanlan deserves.”

As soon as Gu Jinsheng’s public channel broadcasted Du Ruanlan’s story, he received distress calls from countless bases.

Gu Jinsheng said solemnly, “It’s not that other bases didn’t provide timely assistance because they didn’t want to help, but rather these bases were simultaneously attacked by Mental-type Zombie Kings.”

Gu Jinsheng looked at Ji An and said, “I don’t know if there is a connection between these Mental-type Zombie Kings, but their strategy is the same: first, they mentally control Power Users who are outside, then these controlled Power Users return to the base to find an opportunity to open the city gates, allowing zombies to sneak in, destroy signal towers and blocking helmets, and officially invade the base.”

Ji An asked, “How many bases can’t we contact?”

“There are still three large bases and dozens of small bases that we may or may not know about.”

Ji An sighed, “For the ones we know about, send high-level Power Users to check. If it’s too dangerous and uncertain whether the base has already become a zombie nest, don’t force your way in.”

Gu Jinsheng nodded, “How many mental scanners can your side produce with overtime?”

Ji An said, “I haven’t kept the core technology secret. Many outsiders have joined in to help, so it should be fast. Before they set off, five for large bases and two for small bases should not be a problem.”

Of course, as the main base, Jing Shi Base, Ji An had already sent the data to Zhou Fanxiu and others at the first opportunity, asking them to start researching immediately. They could contact him for guidance if they didn’t understand something.

Gu Jinsheng said, “The mental scanners are barely enough, but what about the Mental-type Power Users who can Release – remove mental suggestion?”

Ji An said, “We’ve been away from the base for half a month. The Power Users at our base have been training continuously. Let’s transfer the Mental-type Power Users with good performance first and assign more Power Users to protect them. The people with the best mental resistance performance and the highest ability level on our side should protect them.”

“That’s all we can do for now,” Gu Jinsheng said, “Just now, North Base sent me a distress signal, asking me to go. It seems they suffered heavy losses this time and are interested in joining Jing Shi Base. I need to go in person. Do you want to go?”

Ji An looked at Gu Jinsheng, meeting his eyes directly, “I want to go. From now on, wherever you go, I will follow.”

This was the first time Ji An had said something ambiguous and unclear like this. Gu Jinsheng’s heart beat fiercely. He looked back into Ji An’s eyes. This time, Ji An did not avoid his gaze and looked back at him.

Gu Jinsheng didn’t know if he was too eager for a romantic response from Ji An, leading to an illusion, but he felt as if he saw a different emotion in Ji An’s eyes.

Gu Jinsheng’s Adam’s apple bobbed, “Xiao An, do you remember the question I asked you in the medical room when you woke up after fainting? Now, so much time has passed, are you willing to give me an answer?”

“I am willing,” Ji An said with a smile, looking at Gu Jinsheng, “Jinsheng, let’s be together!”

At that moment, Gu Jinsheng heard the sound of blood flowing backward throughout his body, a buzzing in his ears, the sound of myriad flowers blooming, the sound of all things recovering.

Gu Jinsheng was so excited he couldn’t control his emotions. The Thunder Dragon tumbled out of his brain. As soon as the Thunder Dragon came out, it rubbed against Ji An’s face, affectionately calling out, “An An, I miss you so much. Gu Jinsheng, that big fool, heard you agree to him and got so excited he couldn’t keep me in anymore. An An, he’s still wondering in his heart if he heard wrong. Don’t you think he’s an idiot?”

Ji An smiled sweetly, his eyes curved into crescents, seeming brighter and gentler than the moon in the night sky. He leaned closer to Gu Jinsheng, stood on tiptoe, and lightly kissed the corner of Gu Jinsheng’s lips. He said, “Gu Jinsheng, you didn’t hear wrong. Let’s be together.”

Gu Jinsheng immediately hugged Ji An, no longer able to control his surging and passionate emotions, and kissed the person he had been yearning for deeply.

The Thunder Dragon jumped around on the side, continuously yelling, “Me too, me too! An An, can you kiss me too?”

“An An, can you let your ability manifest too? You and Gu Jinsheng are all lovey-dovey, but I’m a lonely dragon, like an old bachelor, so pitiful and lonely.”

The Thunder Dragon kept yelling on the side, truly a master of ruining the atmosphere. Unfortunately, Gu Jinsheng covered Ji An’s ears with his hands and completely ignored whatever the Thunder Dragon was rambling about.

When the two separated, both were breathless. Gu Jinsheng couldn’t bear to let go of Ji An. He held his head, his lips against Ji An’s lips, the warm, unique breath belonging to Gu Jinsheng blowing on Ji An’s lips, creating infinite ambiguity.

Gu Jinsheng asked in a hoarse voice, “Why?”

“I suddenly had a realization. I don’t want to keep wasting time. I should let go of the past,” Ji An looked into Gu Jinsheng’s eyes. “I don’t want us to become Owen and Du Ruanlan. I don’t want to regret it. Our, our time, everyone’s time is limited. If you like someone, you like them. If you put them in your heart, you put them in your heart. There’s no need to resist this feeling.”

Ji An clearly saw the storm raging in Gu Jinsheng’s eyes, such fierce and violent waves seemingly capable of swallowing the sky and earth. Ji An was startled by the sight.

“Xiao An, tell me, are you willing to agree to me because of the person I am at this moment, or because I am the little boy from your memories?”

“You!” Ji An answered affirmatively.

Gu Jinsheng could no longer restrain himself and kissed Ji An again.

At this moment, the storm outside had nothing to do with the two of them. Their world only contained each other.

At T Base, De Witt had been waiting for the results of the Mental-type Zombie Kings’ invasion of the various bases in Summer Country. In the end, he found that only some small and medium-sized bases were annihilated, while several large bases were only severely damaged. Especially Gu Jinsheng and Ji An not only escaped the pursuit of the R Country’s stealth fighter jets but also escaped the attack of the Mental-type Zombie King and retook Luo City Base. De Witt was so angry he was stomping his feet.

He furiously cursed Kobayashi Ichiro on the other end of the video, “Are you an idiot? You lose in aerial combat, and you can’t even properly deploy the Mental-type Zombie King. What else can you do!”

Kobayashi Ichiro couldn’t help but try to defend himself, “The Commander of Luo City Base died in this battle. He was also a strong character, not inferior to Gu Jinsheng! We didn’t get nothing.”

“Nonsense! Who cares about him! What I want is the lives of Gu Jinsheng and Ji An. What Luo City Base or not, I don’t care at all,” De Witt roared, “I told you to focus on deploying Mental-type Zombies to Luo City Base. Did you really think you were dealing with Luo City Base and Du Ruanlan? I told you, these are all tactics. It’s a tactic to lure Gu Jinsheng and Ji An out of Jing Shi Base, with the goal of eliminating these two people halfway!”

Kobayashi Ichiro scoffed, “I know. We could have eliminated them in the air, but I don’t know what method that Ji An used to make them escape.”

“That Ji An has also created a mental scanner that can scan whether a Power User’s brain has been mentally invaded. Otherwise, we could continue to use Mental-type Zombies to attack Jing Shi Base.”

“Excuses!” De Witt said, “I don’t want to hear excuses, Kobayashi Ichiro, I am officially notifying you that Commander Charles is very dissatisfied with your performance this time. He has issued you a final ultimatum. If you cannot find a way to get rid of Gu Jinsheng and Ji An, then Commander Charles will make R Base completely disappear from the face of this earth.”

De Witt finished speaking ruthlessly and hung up the video call directly, completely ignoring Kobayashi Ichiro’s pleading on the other end.

Turning around, the arrogant De Witt just moments ago now had a face full of fawning and flattering smiles towards Charles on the other end of the video, “Commander Charles, this time you can rest assured, Kobayashi Ichiro will definitely not dare to not put in his best effort.”

Charles stared at De Witt with his one eye, his expression dark, “It better be that way, otherwise, neither you nor Kobayashi Ichiro will escape punishment.”

“Have you obtained the core technology for the mental scanner that Ji An recently created?” Mentioning this, Charles’s anger surged. Ji An actually dared to completely block the technology to all bases except those in Summer Country.

De Witt was filled with shame, not daring to look at Charles, “I’m sorry, Commander Charles, we did not obtain the core technology for the mental scanner.”

“How did you not get it? Didn’t Ji An say that technology was open to all bases in Summer Country? Why wasn’t it open to T Base?”

Most of the Summer Country bases, except for T Base, had obtained the core technology for the mental scanner. Only a few bases did not get the technology.

And everyone knew what was going on with these few bases. Although they were still on the land of Summer Country, they had long become puppets of R Country or M Country.

Charles said, “Idiot, can’t you wage a propaganda war? Can’t you disintegrate them from within? Since T Base is a Summer Country base, use this identity to stir up conflicts between the various bases in Summer Country and cause civil war.”

De Witt said, “Yes, I will go and do that now.”

Charles snorted coldly, hung up the video, and asked the assistant next to him, “Can’t you still pry information from that woman from Jing Shi Base?”

“We’re working on it, and it should be soon,” the assistant replied tremblingly and carefully, thinking of the colleagues who were killed by Charles just for answering a question incorrectly.

“Waste! All waste!!!” Charles grabbed the young assistant’s neck and twisted it off, ignoring the assistant’s struggles.

Three days later, Gu Jinsheng and Ji An took a plane with dozens of Power Users to North Base.

When they arrived, North Base had basically stabilized, but when Gu Jinsheng got off the plane and stepped into North Base, he almost didn’t recognize the desolate land as North Base.

Cong Xun said bitterly, “I don’t have abilities like Du Ruanlan. The Mental-type Zombie King didn’t sneak in, but by just controlling the high-level Power Users inside the base, it almost wiped out my entire North Base.”

Cong Xun couldn’t imagine what their North Base would have looked like if the Mental-type Zombie King had infiltrated like it did at Luo City Base.

Perhaps even he himself would have been mentally controlled by the Zombie King. Even if he wanted to sacrifice himself to protect the base like Du Ruanlan did, he wouldn’t have been able to, because he couldn’t break free from the Zombie King’s mental control like Gu Jinsheng could.

One could only say that North Base was lucky this time, accidentally discovering the abnormality in advance, thus escaping a disaster.

The fact that North Base could still exist was not because his ability as the commander was so great, but because North Base had good luck, purely by chance.

Because of this, Cong Xun was afraid and urgently wanted to lead North Base to join Jing Shi Base.

Cong Xun said somewhat awkwardly, “Commander Gu, our researchers at the research institute don’t understand some parts of the information about the mental scanner you sent?”

Ji An said, “You can ask me about the parts you don’t understand. I am the developer.”

Cong Xun looked at Ji An, always feeling that the other person looked familiar. After thinking hard for a long time, he widened his eyes and said, “You are Ji An, the ex-boyfriend of the blind idiot Commander of the Third Base, the developer of the spatial storage item, but didn’t you lose your ability? To protect a group of children, how can you still do research?”

Ji An was speechless. Why did everyone ask him this question? Jiang Fuzhong had asked this question before, and now Cong Xun was asking it.

Why couldn’t he do research just because he lost his Mental-type ability? Didn’t the researchers before the Apocalypse all lack Mental-type abilities and still created one miracle after another?

And he had developed the treatment pod when his Mental-type ability was disabled, and that’s how he recovered his ability.

Just as Ji An was about to say something, Gu Jinsheng’s voice sounded before him. Gu Jinsheng’s speech usually had little emotional fluctuation, but this time, everyone could hear the coldness in Gu Jinsheng’s tone.

“Xiao An is my partner. I hope Commander Cong will not make mistakes again.” Gu Jinsheng’s tone was cold and full of possessive dominance.

Ji An’s face felt hot.

Cong Xun choked in surprise.

Ji An said sweetly and helplessly, “I am Ji An, and now I am Jinsheng’s partner. I actually didn’t lose my ability before, it was just a complicated situation at the time, and there might have been some misunderstanding.”

Ji An repeated the explanation he had used to fool the people at Jing Shi Base at the time.

Cong Xun immediately believed it, mainly because he didn’t feel that Ji An had any reason to lie to him.

Ji An helped the researchers at North Base explain the problems they didn’t understand, while Gu Jinsheng was even busier. He was busy taking over North Base and also dealing with some issues of the newly acquired bases. Later, there were also bases that wanted to join Jing Shi Base after the war, seeking protection. Gu Jinsheng no longer went to receive them in person but instead delegated the task to Zhou Qin, Wan Xueying, and Kong Zhongcheng.

By the time the New Year arrived, North Base had finally completed its post-disaster reconstruction, and Gu Jinsheng and Ji An could finally leave.

At the same time, North Base had officially joined Jing Shi Base, becoming a branch base of Jing Shi Base.

Gu Jinsheng did not replace Cong Xun and still let him be the commander of the North Base branch.

“It wasn’t until I joined Jing Shi Base that I realized our North Base was just a backward large village. Space-type abilities can actually create so many tricks, spatial cuts, spatial blades, and spatial dislocation and teleportation. My goodness, I almost had the illusion that our base had hugged the right thigh and suddenly entered the interstellar age.”

When sending Gu Jinsheng off at the airport, Cong Xun sighed, “If I had known that joining Jing Shi Base meant not having to pay for the right to purchase nutrient solutions, enjoying internal discounts, having free access to treatment pods, and enjoying Jing Shi Base’s welfare policies, I would have joined earlier.”

These words were just for listening. If it hadn’t been for the sudden invasion of the Mental-type Zombie King and the heavy losses of Luo City Base, Cong Xun would never have joined Jing Shi Base, no matter how good Jing Shi Base’s policies and welfare were.

Gu Jinsheng didn’t dwell on these words. He instructed Cong Xun a few things about the base’s development and then took the plane to leave.

Now, the entire sky above Summer Country was patrolled by circling fighter jets, specifically to prevent what happened last time.

This time, Ji An and the others’ plane had no accidents and flew directly into the Luo City Base airport.

As soon as the plane landed, Jiang Fuzhong came to pick them up. Ji An and Gu Jinsheng got into the car and went straight back to the command center.

Having not returned for several months, Luo City Base had changed drastically. The desolation from when Gu Jinsheng first arrived was gone, and normal life order had been restored. Even with the strong support from Jing Shi Base and the help of nutrient solutions and treatment pods, the overall appearance of Luo City Base was even more prosperous than before.

As soon as Ji An and Gu Jinsheng got out of the car, they saw some Power Users erecting a huge statue at the entrance of the command center.

The material of the statue was a bit strange. It looked familiar, but for a moment, Ji An couldn’t remember what material it was.

“What is that?” Ji An asked.

Jiang Fuzhong might have misunderstood Ji An’s question and said awkwardly, “It’s Boss’s crystal core statue.”

Jiang Fuzhong’s “Boss” had always been Du Ruanlan. He had always respectfully called Gu Jinsheng “Commander Gu.”

Owen had asked Gu Jinsheng about this matter before, and Gu Jinsheng had agreed at that time.

Jiang Fuzhong was afraid that Gu Jinsheng would be unhappy and quickly explained, “This was done spontaneously by everyone to commemorate Boss’s sacrifice for the base. There’s absolutely no disrespect towards you.”

Gu Jinsheng didn’t care about this. He waved his hand and said, “This is what Du Ruanlan deserves. If it weren’t for Du Ruanlan’s sacrifice, Luo City Base might have been destroyed long ago. Even if Xiao An and I had arrived later, we might have only faced a zombie nest.”

Ji An quietly held Gu Jinsheng’s hand. Gu Jinsheng’s mouth curved slightly. The matter he hadn’t cared about completely slipped his mind. He was overjoyed that his wife had taken his hand voluntarily.

Jiang Fuzhong saw that Gu Jinsheng truly didn’t care and breathed a sigh of relief. However, he was also a little confused. Even if Gu Jinsheng didn’t care, he shouldn’t be happy, right?

Unable to figure out why Gu Jinsheng was happy, Jiang Fuzhong stopped thinking about it. He said, “Bi Xue also has a statue, but it’s made of stone and is in the square, not here.”