ATDIWR Chapter 40
by VolareWhen Ji An was a ghost, he had seen Tang Tang countless times feeding Power User Crystal Cores to the space and spiritual spring. The space and spiritual spring didn’t absorb Zombie Crystal Cores, but he didn’t know why they liked absorbing Power User Crystal Cores.
Just now, when Gu Jinsheng handed him the Zombie Crystal Core, Ji An didn’t think much and reached out to take it directly, and the space crystal core reacted abnormally.
Thinking about this, Ji An became even more restless. He got up and went to the laboratory.
After Ji An finished dealing with the nutrient solution, he hadn’t managed this side anymore. Now, the spatial storage items were being handled by Wu Youyang and his student Fanrong.
When Ji An arrived, Wu Youyang and his students were working enthusiastically.
“Boss, why are you here?” Wu Youyang asked. “Aren’t you feeling unwell? What did the hospital check-up say? You should rest for a few more days, I’ll keep an eye on things here.”
Ji An said, “I’m worried about the crystal core I bought at the auction, so I came to check it. It won’t take long. You shouldn’t work too hard either, especially you. You were very tired when you were working on the nutrient solution with me. Rest for a while and don’t wear yourself out.”
Wu Youyang grinned happily, “Thank you for your concern, Boss, I’m fine. I used to be too idle, and I’ve had enough rest these years. Now I just want to be busy, the busier I am, the more energetic I feel.”
“Boss, you don’t know how much those researchers opposite envy me now, they’re dying of jealousy that I can be so busy.” Wu Youyang felt refreshed seeing the envious and jealous expressions of his former friends and colleagues.
“Oh, by the way, Boss, I have some researchers here with pretty good skills who want to switch over. Do you want to take a look?”
Wu Youyang took out a thick stack of resumes, which was the result of his careful selection. He was now Ji An’s confidant, so of course, when selecting people, he had to screen out those with poor character and unqualified skills. Otherwise, if someone unsuitable came in and made Boss Ji unhappy, his position as a confidant might not be secure. That would really be a waste of the timing, location, and connections he had preemptively secured, like the heavens feeding him food but he couldn’t get it into his mouth.
“You filter them first, then put them over there. I’ll look at them when I have time,” Ji An instructed before walking into the laboratory.
About an hour later, Ji An came out again, and this time his face was very grim.
Wu Youyang asked, “Is there something wrong with the crystal core?”
“Yes.” Ji An’s face was cold and serious, “This isn’t a Zombie Crystal Core, it’s a Power User Crystal Core!”
“A Power User Crystal Core?” Wu Youyang couldn’t believe it, “Fortunately, Boss, you were cautious, otherwise, if you had absorbed it directly, you would have been crippled!”
“I need to go to the command center. I’ll leave everything here to you.”
“Okay, Boss, don’t worry. While you’re away, I guarantee everything will be managed clearly and there won’t be any issues.”
Ji An now also had a car, which Gu Jinsheng gave him. Ji An had been influenced by them and also put the car into his spatial storage, but it wasn’t the spatial necklace, it was a spatial storage item he made himself.
He got a Zitan wood bracelet, it was said that the Zitan wood of this bracelet was a thousand years old. Ji An didn’t know if it was true, but it was undeniable that the bracelet had a lot of spiritual energy and could be used to make a spatial storage item. Moreover, the space was not small. Each bead could be made into a space of four hundred to five hundred cubic meters, and there were nine beads in total.
Ji An also had a spatial necklace, he had too much spatial storage, so it wasn’t a big deal to have one more space to store a car.
When he drove to the command center, it was still quite busy, as representatives from various bases had not left yet. After Ji An showed his identification, he smoothly entered the command center.
“Ji An, why are you here?” Wan Xueying, who was about to go out to handle some matters, saw him and came over.
“I came to find Gu Jinsheng,” Ji An said. “It’s about the crystal core.”
“Is there a problem with the crystal core?” Wan Xueying asked.
“Yes.”
The two didn’t elaborate. Wan Xueying led Ji An to another reception room belonging to Gu Jinsheng.
“Leader Gu will probably take a while. M Country didn’t get the priority purchase right for the nutrient solution at the auction, and now they are grinding away at Leader Gu about this matter,” Wan Xueying said.
Ji An nodded, “Please inform everyone at the base who bought crystal cores at the auction not to use them first. Have them checked by me or Han Yaokun, and only absorb them after they are confirmed to be fine.”
“Okay, I’ll have someone notify them.” Although Wan Xueying had a list of bases that bid for crystal cores at the auction, she didn’t notify these individuals separately. Instead, she sent out a unified notification to everyone.
This was to prevent certain bases from discovering issues with the crystal cores they held and keeping it quiet, then reselling them. Furthermore, a notification was also broadcast on the public television channel to alert and warn all bases in Xia Country.
It was about an hour later when Gu Jinsheng came out. Gu Jinsheng said, “M Country wants to buy nutrient solution, and I agreed, but it’s not a cooperation with a single base, but a supply to the entire M Country.”
The total supply to M Country would definitely be limited, or rather, a small amount, absolutely not enough for all M Country people to eat.
The purpose of doing this was, firstly, to stall M Country for a while, preventing them from getting desperate due to hunger and jumping the gun, directly provoking war.
Secondly, the Jing Shi Base will send representatives over. The amount of nutrient solution is limited, and all major bases want it, so they won’t be able to unite, and the alliance that has just been established will fall apart. M Country will fall into internal chaos again. With their internal chaos, they will have no time to look after other countries, and the world will be peaceful.
Of course, the price of the nutrient solution would definitely not be as low as it is domestically, it would at least be more than twenty times higher.
Even so, M Country would scramble for it. They couldn’t afford not to; their land is too barren to grow food, and without it, they can only starve.
In reality, the price of one credit point per standard nutrient solution unit is limited to within the Jing Shi Base. Even for the bases that obtained purchase rights, the price wouldn’t be much lower; a standard nutrient solution would cost at least five yuan per unit.
In the future, if nutrient solution production increases and other bases that did not bid for purchase rights want to buy it, the price might reach ten yuan per unit.
After Gu Jinsheng finished speaking, he turned and asked, “That mental-type crystal core isn’t a Zombie Crystal Core, but a Power User Crystal Core?”
“Yes,” Ji An said. “Did you give the crystal core that the M Country base used to redeem people to Han Yaokun? Notify him, I hope he hasn’t had time to use it yet, or that he checked it beforehand.”
“I’ll notify him, but he probably hasn’t had time to check it, otherwise if there was a problem, he wouldn’t have failed to notify me.” Gu Jinsheng called Han Yaokun, and Han Yaokun said he would come over immediately.
About thirty minutes later, Han Yaokun, Zhao Zhen, Na Boyu, Zhou Fanxiu, and Bai Na arrived.
“Little An, did you bid for that mental-type Zombie Crystal Core?” At the time, the crystal core transaction was secret, and they didn’t know who had bought it. However, they really hadn’t considered Ji An, mainly because Ji An was only a Tier 3 Power User and a high-level crystal core was useless to him.
But ultimately, if one has money, who wouldn’t want good things?
“Yes,” Ji An didn’t explain further that Gu Jinsheng had bid for it on his behalf.
The group walked to the reception room and sat down. Ji An handed the crystal core analysis data to Zhou Fanxiu.
“This is the report for the mental-type crystal core that M Country threw out, the one I have. Please take a look.”
Everyone present was a senior researcher and dealt with various experimental data on a daily basis. Without Ji An’s explanation, everyone understood.
The most obvious characteristic distinguishing a Zombie Crystal Core from a Power User Crystal Core is the presence of zombie virus antigens and antibodies.
Zombie Crystal Cores contain zombie virus antigens, while Power User Crystal Cores do not contain antigens, only antibodies.
In simple terms, the zombie virus is equivalent to an antigen. After it invades the human body, it attacks the body’s target cells. The target cells will release antibodies through a series of reactions, and the antibodies will combine specifically with the antigens.
It can also be imagined as a battle. If you win, you completely annihilate the enemy, which is the antigen, then the human body is fine, it evolves, and awakens abilities.
If it fails, and the zombie virus antigen enters the human cells, then the person will gradually become zombified, eventually turning into a zombie.
That is to say, Power Users are people who have defeated the zombie virus antigen. Their bodies may simultaneously contain both antigens and antibodies while fighting, but this exists only within the body, and definitely will not surge into the brain.
Once it surges into the brain and the zombie virus antigen invades the crystal core, it can be 100% confirmed that this Power User is absolutely unsalvageable and can be directly declared as having turned into a zombie.
There cannot be zombie virus antibodies in a Zombie Crystal Core; the two absolutely cannot coexist!
Ji An only needed to test whether there were zombie virus antibodies in the crystal core. His test result showed that there were.
Na Boyu looked at the analysis report and said, “Why does this crystal core also have zombie virus antigens?”
Normally, a crystal core should either test positive for antigens or positive for antibodies, not both simultaneously.
Ji An said, “Indeed, this is abnormal. The crystal cores auctioned before, our laboratory would check them, but precisely because of this characteristic, I think when we checked them back then, we probably only checked for antigens and not antibodies. Upon finding zombie virus antigens, we identified them as Zombie Crystal Cores.”
This was true. This situation had never occurred before, so when they checked, they only tested for zombie virus antigens, or only for zombie virus antibodies. All bases did the same.
M Country likely exploited this loophole, deliberately creating confusion.
“M Country should have been prepared this time. They probably used special means to make antigens and antibodies coexist, betting on the fact that this situation has never happened before and we wouldn’t test for both antigens and antibodies simultaneously.” If his spatial necklace hadn’t heated up, Ji An might not have tested for both antigens and antibodies simultaneously.
Ji An said, “Antibodies absolutely will not appear in Zombie Crystal Cores. Moreover, for a Zombie Crystal Core itself, what’s the use of artificially adding antibodies? But Power User Crystal Cores are different. Disguising them as Zombie Crystal Cores can drive a Power User insane.”
Power Users can evolve their abilities by absorbing Zombie Crystal Cores, and similarly, absorbing Power User Crystal Cores can also evolve abilities, and even faster than absorbing Zombie Crystal Cores.
However, there is a drawback to evolving by absorbing Power User Crystal Cores: Power Users who evolve by absorbing Power User Crystal Cores become irritable and prone to anger, unable to control their emotions, and develop a fondness for war, blood, and violence.
Eventually, they will become mentally deranged and go mad.
The harm is greatest for mental-type Power Users. Mental-type Power Users are brain-power users; their brains are the most powerful supercomputers in the world.
There cannot be any errors. Once their mind shows even a slight abnormality, it’s equivalent to planting incorrect code, all calculations will be wrong, and they will be ruined.
In fact, obtaining Power User Crystal Cores is a cruel process. Power User Crystal Cores disappear with brain death. As soon as a person dies, the crystal core is gone. To obtain a Power User Crystal Core, one must vivisect the Power User’s brain while they are alive and dig out the crystal core alive. Only then can a Power User Crystal Core be obtained.
This is an extremely inhumane and cruel act, resisted by all Power Users.
Zombie Crystal Cores are not like this. Whether the zombie is alive or dead, the crystal core does not disappear. If it’s there, it’s there; if it’s not, it’s not.
Ji An couldn’t help but marvel at the wonder of nature. Although there was a zombie virus, it still left a glimmer of hope for humans. Furthermore, to prevent humans from killing each other and becoming extinct, nature specifically created such a setup for humans.
“Darling, what news did you get?” Owen had a charming appearance, a tall figure, and dressed sexily and fashionably. In this era where everyone was afraid of being infected with the zombie virus and wanted to wrap themselves up like zongzi, she wore a low-cut camisole, exuding charm in every gesture.
Du Ruanlan didn’t answer, but instead glanced indifferently at Owen’s and Jiang Fuzhong’s phones. Just then, their phones received SMS notifications one after another.
After the two opened and read them, their expressions became increasingly serious.
Jiang Fuzhong cursed, “Those damn M Country people, can’t they go a day without causing trouble?”
Owen raised her beautiful eyebrows, “Although I have half M Country blood and can barely be considered an M Country person, I have to admit you’re right.”
Jiang Fuzhong was embarrassed, “Sorry, I wasn’t targeting you.”
Even though Jiang Fuzhong was older than Owen, Owen seemed to be teasing a younger brother. With her fingers, which were painted with bright red nail polish, she lightly stroked Jiang Fuzhong’s dark face, turning his big dark face purple like pig liver. “It’s fine, I agree with what you said. M Country can’t survive without causing trouble, isn’t that something everyone knows?”
“Power User Crystal Cores?” Du Ruanlan repeated softly, “These crystal cores couldn’t possibly not have been checked before entering the auction. But now they say there’s a problem with the crystal cores. Then M Country must have come up with new methods, capable of confusing Power User Crystal Cores with Zombie Crystal Cores, or rather, making two types of virus antigens and antibodies that shouldn’t coexist simultaneously coexist.”
Jiang Fuzhong was furious, perhaps also angered by being teased. “M Country always loves to engage in these conspiracies and tricks!”
Du Ruanlan’s eyes were deep, “I just wonder if these crystal cores were found to be off by someone with sharp senses, or if a Power User couldn’t wait to absorb a crystal core and then an abnormality occurred?”
Owen’s fair finger tapped her beautiful lips, “That’s a good question.”
Du Ruanlan fiddled with the crystal cores she bought at the auction, her face showing no anger, but rather a lot of interest.
Jiang Fuzhong looked at the two crystal cores, his face showing a pained expression, “I hope these two crystal cores that Leader Gu bought have no problems.”
Owen giggled, “Little brother, why do you look like you’re cutting flesh? It’s not your money. Our Leader Gu has plenty of supplies, he doesn’t care about these petty amounts.”
Jiang Fuzhong turned his face away, not daring to look at Owen’s glamorous appearance, “The Jing Shi Base, as the organizer, bought the most crystal cores, especially the mental-type crystal cores from M Country. This time they’ve really bled heavily, I wonder how much they must be hurting!”
“The Jing Shi Base made a fortune at this auction, they don’t care about these small amounts.”
Du Ruanlan let out a short laugh, “Not necessarily. As long as M Country still wants nutrient solution, it’s not certain who will be hurting in the end.”
Cong Xun from the Northern Base cursed immediately, “M Country can go to hell, how disgusting. Fortunately, the Jing Shi Base discovered it early. It’s been less than two hours since the auction ended, if it had been a little later, maybe some Power Users would have absorbed them.”
“The Jing Shi Base is offering free checks, should we get ours tested?”
“Test them! The Jing Shi Base made a killing this time, holding two treasure chests: spatial storage items and nutrient solution. They definitely won’t skimp on this little thing for us. Furthermore, the problem with these crystal cores is definitely not simple, otherwise the Jing Shi Base couldn’t have just discovered it. If we take them back to check ourselves, we don’t know the Jing Shi Base’s testing method, and it would be troublesome if we made a mistake.”
Han Zhiwei from the Southern Base had a somber face, “Let’s go to the temporary testing room at the Jing Shi Base for analysis right now.”
The day Tang Tang was sent back to the Third Base by Zhou Qin, Zhou Qin drove everyone out of the Third Base and confiscated all the food they had bought in the base. Of course, Zhou Qin was still quite trustworthy and returned them corresponding crystal cores.
At this moment, the few of them were hovering near the city gate of the Jing Shi Base, not yet having gone far, when they received the group message from the Jing Shi Base. Ding Yong cursed M Country furiously. Tang Tang briefly understood what had happened and gloated, “Those who do injustice will perish. The Jing Shi Base went too far, even the heavens couldn’t stand it. Now they’ve bought so many mental-type Power User Crystal Cores, I wonder which unlucky person used one, and their mental ability is probably crippled now!”
Thinking of that person, thinking of how everyone protected him, jealousy twisted Tang Tang’s entire face, “Ji An, he must be the one who had an accident! It must be him who absorbed that mental-type Power User Crystal Core and crippled his mental ability, that’s why the Jing Shi Base discovered the problem with the crystal core!”
Shen Mo rolled his eyes. As far as he knew, the crystal cores auctioned were high-level mental-type crystal cores. Ji An was a low-level mental-type Power User, so it was impossible for him to absorb crystal cores across so many levels.
“Ding Yong, there’s really something wrong with your woman here.” Shen Mo pointed to his head, then opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat. He stuck his head out and said, “We’re not taking her. Leave her here, stupidity is contagious!”
Ding Yong actually found Tang Tang’s appearance quite appealing, but compared to women, his own future was definitely more important.
“Okay,” Ding Yong agreed, opened the car door and sat in the back seat, showing no intention of inviting Tang Tang in, and directly closed the car door.
Tang Tang was stunned. She rushed forward, banging hard on the car window, “Brother Ding, Brother Ding, open the door, don’t leave me here, you know I can’t survive by myself.”
Shen Mo directly floored the accelerator, the car shot out suddenly, spraying a face full of exhaust fumes at Tang Tang.
Tang Tang choked repeatedly. When she looked up again, she could only see the car getting further and further away.
Tang Tang’s tears streamed down. She screamed and yelled hysterically, but the surroundings were empty, only her own shouts echoing in the air.
After an unknown amount of time, suddenly there was a movement behind her. Tang Tang was startled, and instantly closed her screaming mouth. She darted up, frantically looking for a place to hide.
She hid behind a discarded garbage heap, trembling. Through a small gap, she saw a slow-moving zombie slowly walking out…
Several H Country Power Users also received the notification equally. They were very dissatisfied with this. One of them said, “Is a free test all there is? Doesn’t the Jing Shi Base, as the organizer, have any responsibility?”
“They should have checked all the items before auctioning them. Allowing problematic crystal cores to enter the market is their mistake, and they should compensate,” said the Power User, a greedy glint flashing in his eyes as he thought of the huge amount of supplies the Jing Shi Base had earned.
“Yes, they should have compensated each of us with a year’s worth of cabbage before,” the supporter’s eyes showed no less greed, and even more.
“Let’s go, we’ll go find them now and demand an explanation.”
The temporary testing room was busy from the moment it was set up, working around the clock until the next day.
This was mainly because the Jing Shi Base offered free testing, and regardless of the final result, they would not confiscate the crystal cores from those who came for testing; they would return them to the owner.
Many people came for testing with the mentality of ‘no harm in trying and nothing to lose’.
“Sorry, sir, we regret to inform you that your mental-type crystal core is a Power User Crystal Core,” the staff member said humbly.
Several Power Users had very grim faces. They retrieved their crystal cores and took the inspection report, and were about to leave when they saw several furious H Country Power Users rushing in.
One of the Power Users went straight to grab the staff member by the collar, but unfortunately, he was too weak. Before his fingers even touched the person, he was flipped onto the ground by the staff member’s counter-move.
Subsequently, some Power Users quickly emerged from the corner and subdued all these Kimchi Country Power Users, pressing them to the ground before the H Country Power Users could even release their abilities.
The H Country Power Users felt both humiliated and ashamed. They decided to disregard everything and started yelling, “Everyone, come and see! The Jing Shi Base is bullying customers with its size! This is how they treat us Power Users from other bases!”
Watching a spectacle is human nature, and besides, outside the temporary testing room, there were already Power Users from various bases who came to check their crystal cores, and some people from other bases or the Jing Shi Base itself who didn’t buy crystal cores but didn’t mind watching the show. In the blink of an eye, a crowd surrounded them.
The H Country Power User looked at the crowd three layers deep, pointing and gesticulating, and a malicious grin, calculating a successful outcome, flashed in his eyes.
The H Country Power User spoke again, “Everyone, come and judge! We Power Users from other bases came to participate in the auction out of trust, but we actually bid for problematic crystal cores. Shouldn’t the Jing Shi Base, as the organizer, compensate us?”
The H Country Power User could barely conceal the smugness in his eyes. He glanced at the few Power Users who had just taken their test reports and were about to leave, saying, “Don’t you want to ask the Jing Shi Base for an explanation? That mental-type Power User Crystal Core wasn’t cheap, are you just going to accept your bad luck and swallow this loss?”
The few Power Users who had received their test results looked at these defeated Power Users who were being pressed to the ground as if they were idiots. It was as if their brains had been eaten by zombies, with a foolishness that lacked a brainstem.
It was the staff member, out of kindness, who pointed to the sign beside him, “As long as the bidder is willing, our base will buy back all crystal core auction items at the original price.”
The H Country Power Users calculated a thousand possibilities but never expected this result. In their opinion, that many crystal cores represented an astronomical amount of supplies, enough to severely strain their H Country’s resources even by mobilizing the entire nation. How could the Jing Shi Base possibly be willing to spend such a huge amount of money to buy back some useless discarded crystal cores?
They completely forgot that the Jing Shi Base had just made a huge profit, and even buying back everything would be a drop in the ocean. Furthermore, even the former Jing Shi Base didn’t care about such minor supplies; the Jing Shi Base was not a barren, small place like H Country.
The H Country Power Users were almost choked to death by this, barely managing to not pass out.
The H Country Power User pointed at the Power User who had received a problematic test report and said, “They are lying, they actually don’t want to buy it back, right? Otherwise, why would you take back a problematic Power User Crystal Core so angrily and not sell it to the Jing Shi Base?”
That person grinned at the H Country Power User, looking happy and cheerful, completely changing the angry expression he had when he received the results. “Of course we don’t want to sell it! A crystal core that can contain two types of virus antibodies and antigens that shouldn’t coexist is so valuable for research! Of course, we have to take it back to our base for research to avoid being fooled next time. We would even buy such a specimen at a high price if we hadn’t bid for it this time just to research it.”