ATDIWR Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Mental-type Power User: Mental Control

Tang Tang ran away. Chen Chen took the opportunity to release Ji An, calling out affectionately, “Ah An…”

Ji An turned and left without looking back. He could hear the surrounding people discussing and blaming him.

“Ji An is really ungrateful. How dare a normal person be so rude to the base commander? Isn’t he just relying on the commander’s affection for him? If this were in another base, let alone the commander, even a random Power User would have eliminated him long ago, and he wouldn’t have had the chance to act arrogant!”

“Who told him he’s lucky? Before The Apocalypse came, he was already dating the commander. I heard they were high school classmates.”

“If you ask me, our commander is deeply affectionate. Look at other bases; many couples broke up after one awakened their ability while the other remained a normal person. Only our commander is righteous, remaining devoted to his former partner.”

“That’s why I say Ji An doesn’t know what’s good for him! He doesn’t have an ability, yet he thrives like a fish in water. Isn’t it because the commander covers for him? All these years, he hasn’t earned resources himself, yet he can keep himself well-fed and healthy. Isn’t it all because the commander provides for him? And he’s still not satisfied!”

“For someone like him, the commander shouldn’t look after him. Let him go out and struggle on his own, and he’ll know how hard it is for a normal person to survive in The Apocalypse without a Power User’s protection!”

“Exactly! Doesn’t he even think that without the commander protecting him, could he, a normal person, hunt and kill a Tier 3 Zombie? Dream on! It would be lucky if he wasn’t eaten by a Tier 3 Zombie. Now the commander only wants back the Zombie Crystal Core he helped him get, and Ji An isn’t willing to give it, yet he still shamelessly comes to collect mission rewards. Bah!”

“Ji An looks so good; I suppose even if he goes to a place with normal people, life won’t be too difficult. After all, he can always find a long-term meal ticket.”

“So, you mean our commander is his long-term meal ticket…”

Ji An walked further and further away, leaving the gossip behind him.

He really hadn’t relied on Chen Chen. The people in The Base didn’t know Ji An’s true strength, which was also due to Ji An never teaming up with strangers.

Every time he went on a mission, it was him, Chen Chen, Tang Tang, Song Pengcheng, plus three of Chen Chen’s confidants.

These people were essentially Chen Chen’s people. As long as he gave an order, no one would dare to reveal Ji An’s true strength.

Therefore, the residents of The Base all thought Ji An was a combat weakling, living entirely under Chen Chen’s protection.

When The Apocalypse first began, he and Chen Chen were both normal people. At that time, Chen Chen still relied on his protection.

After all, Chen Chen grew up in an ordinary family, doted on by his parents, and had never seen any darkness since childhood. When The Apocalypse arrived, asking him to immediately pick up a knife and fight was something Chen Chen truly couldn’t do.

Ji An was different. He was an orphan, raised in an orphanage since he was a child. Children in the orphanage had seen everything just to survive; fighting and brawling were commonplace. Ji An was often bullied when he was young, and the first thing he did with the money he earned from part-time jobs during winter and summer breaks was to learn Taekwondo.

Compared to Chen Chen, who had always lived a comfortable life, Ji An adapted faster in the early stages of The Apocalypse and took care of Chen Chen quite a bit.

Chen Chen was able to return home safely from school and find Mother Chen thanks to Ji An.

It was Ji An who taught Chen Chen hand-in-hand how to hunt Zombies without an ability, how to survive, and how to overcome psychological barriers.

Chen Chen awakened his ability in the third year of The Apocalypse. Before that, between the two of them, the one who served as the protector had always been Ji An.

Ji An had always been protecting Chen Chen and Mother Chen.

Even Tang Tang was rescued by Ji An. At that time, The Apocalypse had just begun, and ugly human nature hadn’t been fully revealed. The story of the farmer and the snake was still just a story, and many people would still rescue others on their escape routes.

Tang Tang was rescued by Ji An and Chen Chen from a pile of Zombies on their way back to their hometown to find Mother Chen.

At that time, Chen Chen didn’t even dare to kill a Zombie; Ji An protected him all the way. Later, seeing Tang Tang surrounded by Zombies, Ji An felt pity and decided to save her.

Chen Chen happened to have the same idea as Ji An and shouted at Ji An, who was protecting him while fighting the Zombies, to save Tang Tang.

Tang Tang heard this exact sentence and kept it in her heart.

She believed that her savior was Chen Chen, and that if Chen Chen hadn’t told Ji An to save her, she would have died in the pile of Zombies that day.

Putting aside whether Ji An saved her out of his own will, the one who always killed the Zombies was Ji An, right?

How did Chen Chen, someone who was protected and didn’t kill a single Zombie, become the savior?

Save her with what? His mouth?

If that were the case, perhaps everyone in this world would be a savior?

Ji An himself awakened his ability in the fourth year of The Apocalypse. At first, he didn’t know he had awakened an ability; he only thought he had a normal high fever.

Because other Power Users awakened their abilities after a high fever, but after Ji An recovered, he felt nothing. He couldn’t summon wind or rain, nor thunder or lightning. Nor could he, like other Power Users, conjure up reinforced walls.

He was no different from anyone else, but soon after, Ji An discovered his difference.

He seemed to be able to bewitch people, or perhaps mental control was a more appropriate term.

Ji An found that as long as he looked directly into the other person’s eyes and concentrated on something, he could control the other person to do it for him.

This ability was terrifying; Ji An himself was scared. He understood that he had awakened a Mental-type ability.

One would say that awakening an ability was a good thing, but Ji An didn’t dare to say anything. The truth was, this ability was too frightening; it could easily control people’s thoughts and actions. How could such an ability not make people wary?

Ji An, who grew up in an orphanage, understood the principle that possessing treasure brings trouble better than anyone. He didn’t make a sound, pretending not to have awakened an ability, and trained his combat skills every day.

Although he had never explicitly told Chen Chen and Tang Tang, the three of them were an iron triangle and were always together on missions. Ji An had never hidden it; he could even single-handedly kill a Tier 3 Zombie. With such terrifying combat power, how could Chen Chen and Tang Tang not have noticed the anomaly?

However, the two of them had never questioned Ji An about his anomaly. If they had asked, the non-reborn Ji An would never have concealed it, as he had long regarded the two as his closest family.

Thinking about it now, perhaps the two had known something for a long time and for some reason had always pretended not to know. Otherwise, Tang Tang wouldn’t have immediately dug out the Zombie Crystal Core from his brain after harming him.

Ultimately, the reason he, a Mental-type Power User, was calculated by Tang Tang was entirely because he trusted her too much and had no defenses against her at all.

Calculated by the malicious when he was unguarded, Ji An was destined for a tragic defeat.

At that time, he was surrounded by a horde of Zombies and was exhausted. Whatever Tang Tang wanted to do to him, he no longer had the strength to resist. Although he had a Mental-type ability, as long as Tang Tang didn’t look him in the eyes, Ji An couldn’t use mental control on Tang Tang.

Ji An returned to the house he shared with Chen Chen. Mother Chen was talking to a neighbor at the door. Ji An didn’t know what they were talking about, but Mother Chen’s expression was very agitated.

Just then, Mother Chen looked up and saw Ji An. She immediately spouted criticism, “Aren’t you causing trouble for Xiao Chen again? You rely on Xiao Chen for food and drink, can’t you just be quiet and cause less trouble for Xiao Chen!

Isn’t it just a broken Zombie Crystal Core? Xiao Chen helped you get it, what do you have to be reluctant to give it up!

Also, you eat and drink whatever Xiao Chen earns, and you still go to collect mission rewards? How shameful! Don’t you look at yourself in the mirror and see if you’re worthy?”

“Shut up!” Ji An roared, interrupting Mother Chen’s nagging and startling her.

Regardless of how difficult Mother Chen was to get along with, Ji An had always been polite to her. This was the first time he had lost his temper with her.

Mother Chen was scared into silence for a moment, not daring to speak.

Ji An entered the room and locked the door from the inside. But looking at the room filled with traces of his and Chen Chen’s life together, Ji An felt waves of nausea in his stomach.

Especially that bed, it made Ji An want to vomit even more. He remembered that when he was a ghost, Tang Tang and Chen Chen lived in this room after they got married, the room he and Chen Chen had once lived in. Sleeping on the bed he and Chen Chen had slept on, even getting intimate on it, weren’t they repulsed by it?

They weren’t repulsed, but Ji An was disgusted.

Although the two might not have been intimate on this bed yet, Ji An still felt nauseated. He absolutely refused to lie down again and simply found a chair to sit on.

Ji An closed his eyes tightly, sensing the mental power in his mind, trying to capture it, control it…

Suddenly, Ji An found that his ability seemed different. If his previous ability was a thin thread, now it was a flowing stream, many times stronger than before he was reborn.

It seemed that after rebirth, his mental power was stronger, and his mental power had advanced. He was now a Tier 2 Power User.

Ji An was a little excited and eager to try.

At Tier 1 mental power, his ability could ‘petrify’ living beings he looked at directly, and he could mentally control normal people and Power Users of the same level or one level higher.

Now that his mental power was Tier 2, he wondered if he could mentally control Chen Chen, who was two levels higher than him?

He didn’t know how much time had passed when the door was opened again. Mother Chen’s sharp voice immediately rang out as she complained to Chen Chen, “Xiao Chen, you don’t know how unreasonable this Ji An is! He just came back, and I just nagged a couple of sentences, and he roared at me and glared at me with a fierce look. That look was terrifying, as if he wanted to kill me!”

Mother Chen followed behind Chen Chen, sticking to him wherever he went. “I heard from your neighbor auntie that Ji An went crazy today and even argued with Tang Tang?

It’s not that I’m saying anything, but Tang Tang is such a good and well-behaved girl, why is she bothering him?”

Mother Chen said, then suddenly whispered, “Xiao Chen, why don’t you dump Ji An? Ji An really isn’t worthy of you. Look how good Tang Tang is, she’s a dual ability Space-type and healing Power User, and she’s a girl, she can also give our family a big grandson. Xiao Chen, you are the only descendant of our old Chen family. Now that all the men in our old Chen family are dead, only you are left. If you get involved with a man, the root of our old Chen family will be cut off!”

“Mom, can you please stop talking about this!” Chen Chen interrupted Mother Chen irritably. “Where’s Ji An?”

Mother Chen gestured towards the master bedroom. “He’s in the bedroom. He went in as soon as he got back.”

Chen Chen glared at Mother Chen. “Then why were you saying those things? Haven’t I told you not to say things like that in front of him!”

Inside the bedroom, Ji An heard the conversation between the mother and son clearly and couldn’t help but show a cold expression.

What era was this? Mother Chen could still have time to worry about ending the bloodline; it was truly ridiculous! It seemed she was still too well-fed!

“Ah An.” Chen Chen pushed the door open and came in, looking apologetic. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what’s wrong with you. You’re acting very unusually today. No matter what, you shouldn’t treat Tang Tang like that, she’ll be sad…”

Ji An felt nauseated and didn’t want to hear more disgusting words from Chen Chen, nor did he want to see him.

Ji An looked directly into Chen Chen’s eyes, met his gaze, released a tendril of mental power, quickly pierced into Chen Chen’s brain, and commanded, “Don’t let me see you again today. Get out immediately, right now, and don’t come back to sleep in the room tonight, understand?”

Chen Chen’s pupils began to scatter, his brain fuzzy. Only Ji An’s voice was firmly lodged in his mind, making him involuntarily want to obey.

“Yes,” Chen Chen replied slowly, dragging out the sound.

The bedroom door closed with a crisp sound, like a sudden clap of thunder in Chen Chen’s ears. Chen Chen suddenly snapped back to reality, shaking his head. He was really too tired; he had actually felt confused just now.

Right, he had just gone in to find Ji An to have a serious talk with him. Why did he come out? It seemed Ji An didn’t want to be disturbed and wanted to be alone for a bit.

But what happened today was clearly not Tang Tang’s fault; he had to make it clear to him.

When Chen Chen’s hand was on the doorknob, Chen Chen suddenly gave up.

Forget it, Ah An might be in a bad mood today. Maybe he’ll be fine tomorrow.

Inside the door, Ji An leaned against it and fell to the ground, completely exhausted. His head ached as if it were about to explode.

Controlling Chen Chen mentally was not easy. The other party’s ability level was much higher than his. This was because Chen Chen was completely unprepared for him; if he had had even a hint of caution, he wouldn’t have succeeded today.

Yet even so, his head ached as if it would explode. Ji An could feel that the mental power in his brain was completely exhausted after only a few seconds of mental control.

Perhaps this was the consequence of performing mental control across multiple levels. If it were any other Tier 4 Power User, he would never have succeeded even if he had used up all his mental power.

It seemed that if he wanted to leave The Base, he could only sneak away; he absolutely couldn’t confront Chen Chen head-on.

Ji An closed his eyes, sitting on the ground, and began to recuperate his mental power. There was still a tough battle to fight tonight.