ATDIWR Chapter 58

Chapter 58 Official Confession, Both Lose Abilities

Chapter 58 Official Confession, Both Lose Abilities

Gu Lianyun stepped forward and placed his finger under Ji An’s nose. There was breathing. He then felt Ji An’s carotid artery; it was pulsing, though weakly, it was undeniably pulsing.

Dai Xin covered her mouth, large tears rolling down her cheeks, looking hopefully at Gu Lianyun, as if a nod from Gu Lianyun could decide their son’s life or death.

This time Gu Lianyun did not disappoint her, nodding to Dai Xin, “Yes, Ji An is breathing, he’s alive.”

Gu Lianyun confirmed that Ji An was truly alive, not that their son had used some unknown method to turn Ji An into a living corpse.

It wasn’t that Gu Lianyun thought too highly of his son, but rather that Gu Jinsheng had such ability and could do such a thing.

Dai Xin couldn’t help but let out a short sob, tears pouring from her eyes, flowing even more violently than before. She turned and threw herself into her younger son’s arms, sobbing loudly, determined to vent all the pain she had just felt at the brink of losing her son.

Gu Jinlan hugged his mother, tears glistening in his eyes, “Big brother will be fine now, that’s great.”

Xiang Tongxin had treated Ji An before, so there wasn’t much more healing to do. The group took the two back to the hospital. Actually, there wasn’t much use in bringing Ji An back to the hospital in his condition; the hospital couldn’t treat him better than a Healing-type Power User.

But Gu Jinsheng insisted on going, and everyone was also afraid of Ji An having another accident, so they went to the hospital.

After all, if Ji An had another accident, there would still be a chance to rescue him in the hospital.

The danger alert was lifted, all Power Users retracted their abilities, and the protective wall in the air disappeared. The Power Users outside still didn’t understand what had happened, everything was already over, but this didn’t stop them from cheering happily.

In The Apocalypse, every day and every moment felt like the last. Living one more day was a bonus.

Wan Xueying drove behind Gu Jinsheng and their car, looking up at the sky, which had stopped raining at some point. A rainbow hung in the clear blue sky.

Such a clear blue sky and such a beautiful rainbow had not been seen in The Apocalypse for a long time.

Wan Xueying was momentarily lost in thought until the car behind honked at her, bringing her back to reality. “Today’s sky after the rain is beautiful, so beautiful it looks like it’s celebrating something.”

Kong Zhongcheng was carefree; as long as Gu Jinsheng was fine, he just grinned foolishly. “Really? I never noticed.”

Wan Xueying glanced at Kong Zhongcheng in the rearview mirror, feeling a bit speechless.

“By the way, has the red alert for Jing Shi United Base been lifted?” Wan Xueying asked.

Kong Zhongcheng shook his phone and said, “Don’t worry, I’ve already lifted it.”

At the research institute, although the people there couldn’t help much, none of them returned to their labs. They all stood in the institute’s courtyard looking into the distance, not sure if they were looking in the right direction, as if trying to glimpse something from the same sky as soon as possible, even if only a second earlier.

Most of them watched the sky with solemn expressions, only Zhao Zhen hung his head. He didn’t dare to look up, he was too happy, he was afraid he would burst out laughing if he looked up at the sky.

Great, today was truly a good day! Ji An and his lover were both dead! One was ripped apart by an Ability backlash, the other suffered a mental collapse causing an Ability Riot, leading to his Power User Crystal Core exploding. Both met tragic deaths, how wonderful!

Zhao Zhen was rejoicing, a little person dancing in his heart, when he suddenly heard a staff member from the command center say with relief, “The danger alert has been lifted, we are all safe.”

Everyone looked confused. Didn’t they say Gu Jinsheng’s Power User Crystal Core would explode?

Even if they were too far away to hear or see anything, there shouldn’t have been absolutely no movement. A Level 6 Power User’s Crystal Core exploding should have caused the ground to tremble.

Wu Youyang was worried about Ji An and his brain had stopped processing things. When he heard the command center staff member say this, he took it to mean Gu Jinsheng had already exploded, and he and Ji An were completely dead. Tears instantly streamed down his face, and he could no longer hold back his loud sobbing.

The command center staff member then realized he hadn’t explained clearly and had caused a huge misunderstanding. Scratching his head, he said, “Uh… sorry, I didn’t explain clearly just now, Commander Gu is not exploding, Mr. Ji is alive!”

“What?” Zhao Zhen was even faster than Wu Youyang, blurting out the question first. The joy on his face from the previous second hadn’t even faded when disbelief flooded in the next second.

The people in the command center were all sharp-witted; how could they not see through Zhao Zhen’s self-important little thoughts.

“That’s impossible, dead is dead, how can a dead person come back to life, just like a Power User cannot stop halfway through a self-explosion!” Zhao Zhen constantly and firmly denied it, as if that would make Ji An not come back to life and Gu Jinsheng would have to self-destruct.

Both Ji An and Gu Jinsheng were the cornerstones of the command center, idols in the hearts of many people, and this person was no exception. He frowned, barely concealing his disgust for Zhao Zhen, and said coldly, “He’s alive is alive, not self-destructing is not self-destructing. Since Your Excellency is so unwilling to believe it, do you want me to personally take you to question Mr. Ji and our boss as to why one refused to die to please you, and the other refused to self-destruct as you wished?”

Han Yaokun had been worried before and hadn’t noticed his student’s strange behavior. Now that someone had pointed it out, he realized Zhao Zhen was acting strangely.

Zhao Zhen truly didn’t want Ji An and Gu Jinsheng to be safe!

Han Yaokun couldn’t help but furrow his brows. Why was this? There seemed to be no animosity between them. As for interaction, it was just the competition between two research labs.

But this was normal. They had competed with other research labs abroad before, only back then they had always been at an advantage. Now it was just reversed, they were at a disadvantage.

But regardless of being at an advantage or disadvantage, what they produced were beneficial things for the country and the people, used on the people of Hua Xia. This was enough.

Undeniably, he felt uncomfortable and unconvinced in his heart, but that was all. He wouldn’t hope for Ji An’s death just so no one would suppress him.

“Zhao Zhen.” Han Yaokun said sternly, his brows tightly furrowed, “Apologize for your slip of the tongue!”

Zhao Zhen was unconvinced in his heart, but he knew that if he didn’t explain his actions just now, it would likely cause public anger. So he gritted his back teeth and forced himself to say, “I’m sorr…”

However, the command center staff member impatiently waved his hand and directly interrupted Zhao Zhen’s apology, clearly not wanting to hear his insincere words. “No need, save it. I will report this matter truthfully to see where the deputy director of our research institute is dissatisfied with The Base, that he would eagerly hope for our boss and Mr. Ji, who researched things that saved countless people, to die?”

“No, I didn’t…” Zhao Zhen still tried to argue.

The people from the command center didn’t give Zhao Zhen this chance and just left. Some of the command center staff members were angry and intentionally bumped into Zhao Zhen as they left. If Zhao Zhen showed even a hint of dissatisfaction, the other person would immediately look fierce and aggressive, clearly looking for trouble.

Zhao Zhen knew he had angered the public and dared not speak out, so he could only swallow his anger and endure it.

Yet, even so, the people from the command center wouldn’t let him off. A Power User, seeing their captain had disappeared, quietly channeled his ability to his foot and then stepped on Zhao Zhen’s toe, not even bothering to pretend it was an accident.

Zhao Zhen glared angrily, but the person didn’t care at all, even provoking Zhao Zhen. Probably afraid their captain would hear, he whispered, “What, unhappy, want to fight? Fine, come on, let’s fight, we’ll settle it outside The Base.”

Zhao Zhen angrily said, “I’m a mental Power User.”

“Ha!” The person scoffed, “Incompetent is incompetent, don’t make excuses for your incompetence. Mr. Ji is a mental Power User, and his ability level is even lower than yours, but he can single-handedly break into zombie nests to collect experimental equipment. What you are using now was collected by Mr. Ji.

Mr. Ji can also challenge beyond his level, shooting a Level 6 Power User into an idiot with three arrows, and now he can single-handedly break into human traffickers’ dens to rescue people.”

The person looked at Zhao Zhen coldly, not hiding his disgust at all, “So you are simply incompetent, don’t make excuses for your incompetence.”

How could it be the same? Ji An was different, only one Ji An had appeared among them mental Power Users!

Thinking this way, everyone suddenly realized that Ji An was truly amazing. They couldn’t compare with Ji An at all, they weren’t on the same level.

Han Yaokun’s face was as dark as a pot bottom. He emphasized his tone and said to Zhao Zhen again, “Zhao Zhen, apologize.”

“I’m sorr…” Zhao Zhen finally suppressed his anger to apologize, but the command center staff member didn’t appreciate it at all, snorted coldly, and left.

Han Yaokun’s face was unreadable. He ordered Zhao Zhen, “There are also people from Ji An’s lab here, apologize to them and to Zhou Fanxiu and Bai Na.”

Zhou Fanxiu and Bai Na were Ji An’s teachers and people he was relatively close to.

“Teacher.” Zhao Zhen looked at Han Yaokun in disbelief, unable to believe that he would humiliate him in front of so many people. He had followed him for decades.

“Zhao Zhen, do you still not know where you went wrong?” Han Yaokun said, disappointed in him.

Zhao Zhen just didn’t know. What was Ji An? Why could he, at such a young age, suppress him? Why, after decades, did he not have the right to sign his name on a single independent project, while Ji An already had two? Why? Why? Why was all this?

But seeing Han Yaokun, who seemed to be starting to be disappointed in him, Zhao Zhen dared not ask these questions. He could only grit his back teeth and humiliatingly bowed to Wu Youyang, Zhou Fanxiu, and Bai Na, saying, “I’m sorry.”

Wu Youyang was a bit awkward, and so were Zhou Fanxiu and Bai Na. The three could only wave their hands, indicating they didn’t mind.

The researchers watching this scene had different thoughts. Some people’s jealousy towards Wu Youyang inevitably resurfaced. How could this Wu Youyang be so lucky?

Not only was he able to seize the opportunity to join Ji An when everyone else didn’t think highly of him, but now, everyone said Ji An was dead, and it looked like Ji An’s lab was about to decline. Yet, Ji An somehow came back to life. This was great, Wu Youyang was back up!

Shi Jun’s thoughts at this moment were really complicated. He thought that this time, without Ji An, Wu Youyang was truly defeated and would only fall further and further behind him, never able to catch up to his footsteps, only watching his solitary back fade into the distance with sadness.

But it turned out to be a turning point, the person who was supposed to die didn’t die.

Although Shi Jun’s mood was complicated, he definitely didn’t wish for Ji An to die like Zhao Zhen did. He was just simply feeling Feelings. He didn’t know if it was his bad luck, or Wu Youyang’s great luck, or if Ji An was just too resilient.

In Luo Shi Base, Du Ruanlan also received news about Ji An and Gu Jinsheng. Even with his strong psychological endurance, a person who could accept the sky raining red, froze for a second after seeing this message before showing a strange smile.

“Ji An and Gu Jinsheng are not dead again,” Du Ruanlan said with a smile.

“What?” Jiang Fuzhong felt that what his boss said at this moment was not Chinese but some strange alien language disguised as Chinese.

What did “not dead again” mean? Could death be experienced for a while, and then if it wasn’t fun, just stop being dead?

Owen pondered for a moment, “Something happened in between?”

Du Ruanlan swirled his wine glass, seemingly in a good mood, as if the return of a powerful base leader was no big deal.

“It seems so,” Du Ruanlan said with a smile.

Owen shrugged and relaxed on the sofa, “That’s good too. Their survival is a constraint on M Nation. I was wondering before, if they were gone, could the three deputy commanders, one of whom has a broken leg, control the situation? Jing Shi United Base might fall into internal chaos, and M Nation and R Nation would definitely take advantage of the situation and perhaps get a share. Should we preemptively seize control of Jing Shi United Base to prevent it from falling into M Nation’s hands? I didn’t expect these two not to die again. It seems I was overly worried before.”

Jiang Fuzhong widened his eyes in confusion, looking at Owen and then at his boss. “Don’t you think it’s absurd? A dead person can change their mind halfway through dying, and a Power User Crystal Core, once it starts to self-destruct, cannot be stopped halfway through?”

Owen waved his hand indifferently, “It’s the apocalypse, what’s impossible? Besides, coming back to life after regretting being dead isn’t a strange story. Didn’t it happen a lot before the apocalypse? Many died for days and regretted it when they were about to be cremated, then came back to life.”

Jiang Fuzhong fell silent again. Indeed, there were cases like that, not just one or two.

Cong Xun of the Northern Base wasn’t so complex; he simply breathed a sigh of relief. “This is good, no need to worry about M Nation and R Nation anymore.”

Han Zhiwei of the Southern Base also breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving the news and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Ji An and Gu Jinsheng are really tenacious!”

As for the Third Base, it was too insignificant to even get these rumors; they had no idea this had ever happened.

In Province T Base, Dwight smashed his phone after getting the news, a string of curses involving his mother came out of his mouth.

The first person Ji An saw when he opened his eyes again was Gu Jinsheng. He almost didn’t recognize the person.

Gu Jinsheng had a messy beard, bloodshot eyes, a pale and haggard face, and even those sharp, somewhat pointed features that were usually so prominent seemed to have been smoothed out, becoming dull.

“Why did you end up like this?” Ji An’s head was still very painful, and he felt like throwing up as soon as he spoke. He endured the headache and asked.

“Of course, it’s because of you,” a gentle female voice sounded from behind Gu Jinsheng. She walked forward two steps, and Ji An clearly saw her full appearance.

Ji An remembered this person. She was the previous owner of the house he was currently living in. She had also given him a bottle of very delicious small fish sauce that tasted like home.

“Auntie, why are you here?” Ji An’s brain was hazy from the pain and wasn’t processing things well.

“Let’s officially introduce ourselves. I am Gu Jinsheng’s mother, my name is Dai Xin.” The woman was very gentle, speaking with a tenderness like a Jiangnan water town, but not the soft Wunong soft words of a Jiangnan person.

“Auntie Dai, hello, my name is Ji An.” Ji An wanted to get up to shake her hand, but his head hurt too much, and the urge to vomit became stronger as soon as he moved.

Gu Jinsheng pressed him back down. “You don’t need to get up, my mother doesn’t care about these formalities.”

Dai Xin glanced at her son protecting his ‘wife’ and sighed deeply in her heart. There was nothing she could do, she had known it for a long time, hadn’t she?

When her son almost caused his Power User Crystal Core to explode because this person died, and then stopped the Crystal Core explosion because this person woke up, she knew her son was lost to this person for life. Now, she was already grateful to have a whole son.

“Just lie down, don’t move,” Dai Xin knew her son hadn’t won the person over yet, but had already pledged his life to them, so she decided to give her son a push. “You don’t know that you died the moment he arrived. You were truly dead. Both your carotid artery and breathing disappeared. The Healing-type Power User declared you dead on the spot, and then he…”

Dai Xin pointed to Gu Jinsheng, “He immediately had a mental breakdown, causing an Ability Riot, leading to his Power User Crystal Core exploding in his brain.”

“What?” Even though Gu Jinsheng was standing perfectly fine in front of him now, Ji An felt a wave of fear. A Power User Crystal Core exploding was no joke, and the most important thing was that once the Crystal Core explosion started, it was impossible to stop halfway.

Ji An didn’t know what price Gu Jinsheng had paid to be sitting here perfectly fine, but that price was definitely not small.

Seeing that Ji An wasn’t indifferent, Dai Xin decided to strike while the iron was hot. Her son was already like this, he couldn’t be the only one putting in the effort.

“He scared Xueying and Zhongcheng, those two kids, into setting up a thousand-person Ability protective wall within a thousand-meter radius of him. Later, I don’t know if even the heavens couldn’t bear to see his deep affection unrequited, but you miraculously came back to life.”

Mentioning this, Dai Xin still felt a wave of relief. “Then this child refused to self-destruct. He carried you out of the heavy rain. At that time, I thought I was just overly worried and having hallucinations.”

Dai Xin didn’t describe it dramatically or sentimentally, but Ji An, as a Power User, knew the danger involved and what a Power User Crystal Core explosion meant.

Without piercing pain and reaching the bone marrow, how could a mental breakdown lead to an Ability Riot?

Such deep affection, Ji An wondered if he was worthy?

From the time they met until now, it seemed they had never experienced any truly great trials, not even as many as he and Chen Chen did at the beginning of The Apocalypse. Why did Gu Jinsheng have to have him? To the point of being willing to die for him in such a situation.

Love at first sight?

It wasn’t that Ji An didn’t believe in love. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have been blinded by Chen Chen’s clumsy acting for so many years. But he couldn’t believe that love at first sight would make someone willing to die for another to this extent.

Deep affection was rare. Ji An had experienced it, and therefore understood it better, and was thus more moved.

Dai Xin saw Ji An’s hesitation. However, at this moment, her son was acting like a mute gourd, having lost the Crazy Devil spirit he had for Ji An before, when he was infatuated with him, went crazy for him, and was willing to give up his life for him.

Now that the person was awake, he should show it! Not a single word, how was he supposed to pursue someone!

Dai Xin decided to take matters into her own hands and fight for her son’s benefit. She said, “It’s been a full seventy-two hours since you fainted. He only drank one 72-hour nutrient solution under my coercion. He hasn’t had a single sip of water or moved from his spot. He just sat there stiffly by your bed, guarding you. He wouldn’t even take his eyes off you, as if you would disappear if he looked away.”

Ji An knew that what Dai Xin said was definitely not an exaggeration. This matched Gu Jinsheng’s current mental state. Before, no matter how busy Gu Jinsheng was, he had never been this disheveled. After all, Gu Jinsheng’s face, to some extent, represented the face of Jing Shi United Base.

“I…” With countless words, Ji An didn’t know where to start. His heart was now a river, and the gentle waves in the river were all the affection Gu Jinsheng gave him. “Thank you.”

Ji An wanted to say many, many touching words, but in the end, only these dry three words came out.

This time, Gu Jinsheng was probably very dissatisfied with Ji An’s answer. The silent person spoke, “You know, what I want has never been these three words.”

Ji An had just woken up, his head was killing him. For Gu Jinsheng, it was a moment of thrilling life and death, but for Ji An, it was just sleeping and waking up again. But after listening to Dai Xin’s narration, it was no longer just that simple feeling.

His heart was in turmoil, but his head hurt too much, preventing him from thinking.

Dai Xin felt that her son seemed about to make his move. She thought it might not be appropriate for the two young people to talk deeply with her present, so she quietly walked out and closed the door.

“Little An, from the time we met until now, although I’ve shown it clearly, I’ve never officially confessed to you. Now I want to formally tell you, I love you. It is a love much deeper than liking.” Gu Jinsheng looked a bit disheveled now, but his eyes were as deep as the sea, surging with a vast ocean of emotion.

Just looking at him made Ji An’s heart pound, feeling like he had become a small boat in that sea of eyes, and a slight carelessness would cause the boat to capsize and the person to be destroyed.

“I, can we be friends?” Ji An asked.

“No.” Gu Jinsheng said decisively, “It is impossible for me and you to ever be friends.”

Ji An stared blankly at Gu Jinsheng.

Gu Jinsheng looked back into Ji An’s eyes, “I will never be friends with someone I love. You and I are destined never to be friends in this life, either lovers or strangers.”

“Ji An, you choose,” Gu Jinsheng’s tone was very decisive, and for some reason, the person who had always been unhurried in their relationship suddenly became so anxious.

Perhaps death had truly frightened Gu Jinsheng.

“Three days, give me three days to consider,” Ji An lowered his eyes, revealing a sickly pale profile.

“Okay,” a trace of heartache flashed in Gu Jinsheng’s eyes.

“Little An, my head hurts a lot. I’m going to rest for a while,” Gu Jinsheng said.

“Okay, you go ahead.”

Gu Jinsheng smiled at Ji An. A person who never smiled suddenly smiled, it was like a gentle breeze brushing past, a hundred flowers blooming, a faint fragrance wafting in, refreshing the heart and mind, like a babbling brook in the mountains, like a butterfly dancing in a valley of flowers.

Ji An seemed to just realize how attractive Gu Jinsheng was.

However, before the smile was finished, Gu Jinsheng suddenly fainted and fell to the ground.

“Gu Jinsheng!!!” Ji An shouted and rushed over. At the same time, Dai Xin, who had been waiting outside the door, heard Ji An’s shout and rushed in, only to see her son lying unconscious on the ground.

“Doctor, nurse, my son fainted?”

Dozens of seconds later, a Healing-type Power User rushed in. By this time, Gu Jinsheng had already been carried to the hospital bed by Ji An.

The Healing-type Power User scanned Gu Jinsheng’s entire body with their ability and said, “You don’t need to worry too much, Commander Gu is fine. In fact, it’s a miracle he could hold on until now.”

Ji An asked, “Why do you say that?”

The Healing-type Power User was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting no one had told Ji An. He said, “No one told you?”

Ji An had a vague feeling of unease. He said, “Tell me.”

The Healing-type Power User glanced at Dai Xin. Seeing that Dai Xin did not object, he said, “Although Commander Gu did not successfully self-destruct his Crystal Core that day, the overflow and dissipation of his ability were real. His dissipated ability cannot return, and he dissipated it too thoroughly, all his ability energy was scattered. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t successfully self-destruct. So he lost one ability, and now he only has one ability left.”

Ji An’s throat tightened. He thought Gu Jinsheng wanted to force him to consider their relationship, but in fact, Gu Jinsheng still couldn’t bear to be that harsh with him. He hadn’t even used such an important bargaining chip.

Ji An guessed that the price for Gu Jinsheng not successfully self-destructing in the end would not be small, but he hadn’t expected it to be this significant.

“As Power Users, we all know how painful it is to lose an ability, how much the head hurts, it can hurt to the point of fainting. But Commander Gu could still endure such pain, stayed by your side sleeplessly for 72 hours, guarding you until you woke up and he confirmed you were safe before fainting. That’s why I say it’s also a miracle.”

Ji An’s heart seemed to be wrung by an invisible hand, bleeding profusely. “He, which ability did he lose?”

“Wind-type Ability.”

With a sound of ‘wah’, Ji An turned his head and vomited into the bedside sputum basin.

The Healing-type Power User then remembered that Ji An was also someone who had just lost an ability. These two were, in a sense, ruthless people. They could still be so calm and collected after losing their abilities. If it were an ordinary person experiencing that kind of pain, they might have been rolling on the ground in agony.

The Healing-type Power User quickly helped Ji An lie back down on the bed. “Mr. Ji, you just lost your ability, your mental state is still unstable, you can’t get agitated!”

“Don’t say it!” Dai Xin was a step too late, Ji An heard everything.

“My mental ability is gone?” However, Ji An wasn’t as concerned as Dai Xin and others had imagined. He seemed prepared and quite calm. But no one knew whether this calmness hid the calm before a storm.

“Yes, you saved all the children by yourself that day. I also heard Dean Yuan from the orphanage say that you even created a mental protection armor for each child, her, and the two tigers. This ability far exceeded your ability level, you shouldn’t have been able to do it.

But the fact is you did it. So it might be that you overused your ability, causing your ability to be depleted and unable to recover, which resulted in your mental ability being Abandoned.”

Ji An nodded, and said calmly, “I understand. Can you please leave first? Gu Jinsheng and I both probably need to rest.”

The Healing-type Power User glanced at Dai Xin. Dai Xin nodded, and the two left. As they closed the door, Dai Xin instructed, “If you need anything, press the call button by the bed. I’ll be in the next room.”

“I understand, Auntie Dai,” Ji An replied.

Everyone left, and the ward fell silent. Ji An could see Gu Jinsheng’s profile, which was somewhat sickly and lacked its unique sharpness. Ji An still preferred the sharp Gu Jinsheng.

He endured the nausea and headache, climbed out of bed, and sat beside Gu Jinsheng’s bed. Gu Jinsheng was unconscious, fragile as if Ji An could manipulate him at will, but Ji An knew these were illusions. This person had always been and would always be a distant and strong individual high above.

Ji An took out a bottle of undiluted spiritual spring water from his space, then took out a medical kit, and pulled out a feeding tube from it, inserting it into Gu Jinsheng.

One could only say that they were truly two of a kind; the way they thought of feeding water was the same. Could this be considered a certain degree of role reversal?

Ji An fed the entire bottle of spiritual spring water to Gu Jinsheng before stopping and removing the feeding tube.

Ji An said to the unconscious Gu Jinsheng, “Although the spiritual spring water is low level, I know it’s a miraculous existence. I hope it can help you.”

Ji An moved back to his bed. Just these two actions made him vomit again when he lay down.

After lying down this time, Ji An closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his Mental Strength Sea.

The vast ocean of turbulent waves that used to be his Mental Strength Sea was gone. Now his mental domain was a boundless desert, stretching across the sky, endless.

Ji An stood within it, looking around, seeing no greenery, no water, nothing but dry desert.

Suddenly, he found a very, very small drop of water in the desert that met the sky. It was truly tiny, perhaps only a millimeter in diameter.

Ji An floated over, bent down, and looked at the tiny drop of water with ecstatic joy.

He truly didn’t expect to find water in his dry Mental Strength Sea. Perhaps it was because of this tiny drop of water that he didn’t turn into an idiot.

One should know that excessive consumption of ability, especially mental ability, could very likely result in becoming an idiot.

Ji An treasured this tiny drop of water greatly, not daring to poke it with his finger for fear of making it disappear and turning himself into an idiot.

Ji An floated in his Mental Strength Sea for a while longer and found many more such tiny drops of water. There were very few tiny drops, perhaps separated by thousands of miles.

Maybe an ordinary person’s Mental Strength Sea was like this.

Yes, everyone had a Mental Strength Sea, this was certain. Everyone had their own thoughts and ideas, and this was mental strength.

Mental strength existed in different numerical ranges. Within the normal numerical range, they were ordinary people. Beyond that numerical range, they were mental Power Users. Below that range, they were intellectually disabled. If it was 0, then they were truly idiots.

Healing-type Power Users could scan a Power User’s brain with their ability. If they scanned a Power User Crystal Core in the brain, they could determine that the person was a Power User.

There was also an energy testing machine helmet. Wearing it could detect if there was a Power User Crystal Core in a Power User’s brain. However, the energy testing machine could only detect the presence of a Power User Crystal Core in the brain.

To test a Power User’s ability level, the energy testing machine could not do it. Only a level measuring ball could be used. It was a specially made alloy ball, and the Power User needed to infuse their ability into the ball to test their level.

Ji An felt that their judgment of his ability being Abandoned was because there was no longer a Power User Crystal Core in his brain. This was a fact and indeed the only criterion for judging whether someone was a Power User.

However, Ji An didn’t feel discouraged. At least he was still alive, at least he didn’t become an idiot. This was a blessing in disguise!

Ji An pulled his consciousness out of his consciousness sea, took out spiritual spring water from his space again, took a large gulp, took a few sleeping pills, and then lay on his side, watching Gu Jinsheng’s bearded profile slowly fall asleep.