ATDIWR Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Traitor, Bounty

Chen Chen yanked Tang Tang up, “Follow me!”

Tang Tang struggled, “Brother Chen, let go of me, I’m not going out. How can I go out looking like this? The people at the Base will laugh me to death.”

At a time like this, Tang Tang still had the mind to think about such things.

Chen Chen ignored her, dragging her all the way to the conference room.

People passing by saw this scene, stopping in their tracks and craning their necks to watch the commotion.

“Remember later, don’t say the necklace was snatched by Ji An, just say the supplies in the warehouse were stolen by Ji An,” Chen Chen instructed.

“I, I know.” Tang Tang wasn’t completely foolish after all, and still knew the secret of the necklace couldn’t be known by others.

Otherwise, everyone would want such a treasure. Outside the Base, there were countless Power Users stronger than Chen Chen. If the necklace’s secret were leaked, thousands upon thousands of Power Users would surely try to snatch it, leaving no room for them.

The top priority now was to find Ji An, snatch back the necklace. As for other matters, they would have to wait until the necklace could be retrieved before discussing further.

There was a broadcast system at the Base. Chen Chen simply announced the matter through the broadcast, “Attention Base residents, attention Base residents, I am Base Commander Chen Chen.

First, I regret to inform everyone of some grave news. Our Base has a traitor. Just last night, he stole supplies from the Base warehouse and escaped!”

Early in the morning, except for a few individuals who went out to scavenge for supplies, most people were at the Base. Hearing the large speaker, usually only activated during emergencies, everyone stopped what they were doing and listened attentively, fearing news like a Zombie siege.

There was no Zombie siege, but the appearance of a traitor at the Base was even more infuriating.

“Speaking of this traitor, I must first examine myself, because this traitor is my former lover, a member of the Base, Ji An.”

As soon as the name Ji An came out, the Base exploded.

Although Ji An usually kept a low profile and rarely socialized unless it was for a mission, his name was well-known among the Base residents. He was the Base Commander’s lover, and what’s more, he was an ordinary person.

The huge disparity in status made the Base residents very interested in Ji An. They envied Ji An’s good fortune, that an ordinary person could be the lover of the highest Base Commander. They also admired Chen Chen’s character, that despite his high status, he hadn’t abandoned his former lover when he was down on his luck.

For these reasons, the Base paid a lot of attention to Ji An; almost no one didn’t know him.

So when they heard that it was him who had betrayed the Base, the Base residents became even more furious, considering Ji An a complete ingrate.

“Ji An, dissatisfied with the reward distribution after completing the mission yesterday, harbored resentment and went to the Base warehouse at night to steal supplies.” Chen Chen downplayed the severity, completely avoiding mentioning that Ji An had worked for years without compensation, lightly dismissing it as merely dissatisfaction with reward distribution.

“Unexpectedly, he was discovered by Ms. Tang Tang during her late-night patrol. The two fought, and he eventually escaped.” Chen Chen’s voice was sorrowful, even starting to quietly sob.

“I am deeply ashamed and don’t know how to face everyone at the Base who trusted me. My lover, my former lover Ji An, actually did such a despicable thing. I utterly detest him.”

Chen Chen’s emotional performance completely enraged the Base residents.

“If it weren’t for the Commander’s benevolence, Ji An would have died long ago.”

“Ji An should be eaten alive by Zombies! He’s just an ungrateful ingrate. The Commander was so good to him, yet he betrayed the Commander over such a small matter and stole Base supplies!”

“How could the Commander, someone who values loyalty and righteousness so highly, fall in love with such a heartless and ungrateful thing like Ji An!”

“Just you watch, Ji An won’t come to a good end! He thinks the outside world is so great and that having supplies means he can survive. He’ll find out soon enough. Being caught by the Commander is already his best outcome.”

“I wonder how the Commander will deal with him after he’s caught. Killing him outright would be a waste. Although Ji An’s character isn’t great, he’s really good-looking. If he could be given to us to have some fun with, that would be making the best use of things, like he’s atoning for his sins…”

Chen Chen’s tone was sorrowful and angry. To those unaware of the truth, it sounded quite convincing. “Now I want to tell everyone that this person is extremely dangerous. He may have recently awakened a Mental ability, capable of controlling people’s minds.

Should any of you unfortunately encounter him, absolutely do not underestimate this person. If an ordinary person finds Ji An, immediately seek help from a Power User. If Power Users find this person, they can unite to resist. Remember, do not look into Ji An’s eyes; this way you can break his Mental ability.”

Chen Chen finally said, “I make another promise. No matter the cost, I will capture Ji An and bring him back to the Base to be dealt with publicly.

The Base’s supplies belong to everyone; common property is not to be encroached upon by anyone!”

The Base residents were stirred by Chen Chen’s righteous words, clapping and cheering loudly on the spot.

At this time, the Base’s important Power Users all rushed to the conference room. Chen Chen quickly counted the numbers; almost half of the entire Base’s Power Users were mobilized to pursue Ji An. If it weren’t for the fact that all the Power Users leaving would give other Bases an opportunity to exploit, Chen Chen really would have sent out all of them.

Chen Chen divided the Power Users into seven teams, pursuing in the directions of the six Bases closest to their own Base. He himself led a team towards the Jing Shi United Base.

Chen Chen remembered that the old couple Ji An had saved, who gave him the Jade/Emerald Necklace, were Ji An’s professors at university. At that time, they were planning to go to Jing Shi. If they were still alive, they must be at the Jing Shi United Base.

Ji An was an orphan and had no family in this world. He also wasn’t fond of socializing and had no friends. The only people he could turn to were the old professor and his wife.

Moreover, the Jing Shi United Base itself was currently the best and largest developing Base among all of them. The possibility of Ji An choosing to seek refuge there was very high.

Just as Chen Chen and others pursued him, staff members had already begun posting bounties at the Base. Providing information about Ji An’s location would earn a reward of fifty kilograms of food and fifty liters of water.

Before the Apocalypse, an average person could eat ten to twenty kilograms of food and drink thirty liters of water per month.

This was calculated assuming sufficient food and water sources. Now, in the Apocalypse, all resources were scarce. By being frugal, the bounty supplies could last three to four months.

Just a piece of information could be exchanged for so many supplies. The Base residents were excited, wishing they knew Ji An’s location immediately.

Of course, this was the thinking of ordinary people; they couldn’t defeat Ji An and didn’t dare to dream of capturing him. Power Users were different; they were focused entirely on what benefits they could gain from capturing Ji An.

What shocked them even more was that there was a full hundred kilograms of rice, a hundred kilograms of flour, fifty liters of oil, thirty kilograms of meat, ten kilograms of sugar, and a lifetime supply of drinking water.

They truly didn’t know how many supplies Ji An had stolen for the Base to offer such a large bounty for him.

If Ji An knew about Chen Chen’s bounty, he would surely be disdainful, that a Mental ability user’s bounty was so small, who were they looking down on? Moreover, he still had the supplies from the space on him; just the supplies on his person were worth more than this bounty.

Meanwhile, Ji An and Tang Ning, tired from walking, found an abandoned house. The two hid in a corner where they could clearly observe the entrance and also retreat at any time to rest.

“Mr. Ji, which Base are we going to?” Tang Ning found that the direction they were heading was becoming increasingly remote, unlike the direction of any of the seven Bases she knew were closest to them.

“Just follow me and don’t ask so much,” Ji An replied indifferently. Tang Ning then stopped talking.

Ji An appeared to be casually fiddling with the necklace in his hand, but in reality, he was studying the jade.

When Ji An was a ghost, he had watched Tang Tang use the space countless times. It seemed some connection had been established between the space and Tang Tang. Tang Tang could control it mentally; with a thought, she could take things into and out of the space simply by thinking about what she wanted the necklace to do.

Ji An’s mental power probed into the jade, but it was blocked by an invisible barrier, preventing him from continuing to investigate the spatial world inside the jade.

Very interesting!

A playful smile appeared on Ji An’s lips.

Even without personally seeing how Tang Tang and the necklace established a connection, Ji An could guess; it was nothing more than the blood acknowledgment of ownership or mental link method.

First, mental link could be ruled out. Ordinary people had no abilities, and their mental power, no matter how strong, was limited; it couldn’t possibly be strong enough to materialize mental power.

For someone else, there might be an exception, perhaps someone born with supernatural abilities. But for Tang Tang, it was absolutely impossible; she was just a useless person.

So, only the other possibility remained: blood acknowledgment of ownership. In reality, this method of acknowledging ownership was a disguised contract, just using blood as a medium.

He didn’t know what kind of contract Tang Tang and the necklace had. Was it a powerful, all-or-nothing type, or one that could be erased and re-contracted?

Overlord contracts were divided into two situations. The slightly gentler type was that after the owner’s death, the space would become ownerless, and after being re-acknowledged by a new owner, it would open up to the new owner, including the supplies inside.

The other type was the all-or-nothing kind: as long as the owner was there, the space was there; when the owner died, the space died.

Both of these types had one premise: except for the owner, no one else could open the space, regardless of their ability level.

Besides the overlord contract, there were also contracts that could be re-contracted.

This type of contract wasn’t secure. As long as a Power User with a higher mental power level than the original owner’s ability level existed, they could easily open the space and freely take the supplies inside.

If the invader’s ability was strong enough, they could easily erase the contract left by the previous owner, take its place, and claim the space as their own. Furthermore, the original owner would no longer be able to open the space afterward.

“Mr. Ji, we’ve been walking for so long and are tired and thirsty. I have some food here. Although it’s not as good as what you usually eat, given the circumstances, please make do.”

Tang Ning was thirsty and hungry and couldn’t bear it anymore, wanting to eat something. In the Apocalypse, food was precious, and there was nothing to be ashamed of about eating alone. But her situation with Ji An was different; she still needed Ji An’s care, so she couldn’t eat alone. To be honest, this food was something she had scavenged from Tang Tang’s house and carried in her backpack all the way.

They had walked for a day and a night, hardly resting, for fear of someone catching up from behind.

It wasn’t that they were stupid and didn’t think of driving. It was because in the Apocalypse, almost all factories were on strike, trade between countries was incredibly difficult, and transporting diesel or gasoline, or any kind of fuel for cars, was very hard.

So by now, there were plenty of cars, seen everywhere on the streets, but fuel was scarce.

There was gasoline at the Base, and cars with full tanks, but those were important Base supplies and were guarded by dedicated personnel.

Ji An simply couldn’t get them out. As soon as he made a move here, and they heard the sound of a car there, it was likely the entire Base would be alerted. It would definitely be no less rare for ordinary people than cars were in the 1950s and 60s.

Ji An didn’t want to lose all his previous efforts at the last moment, so he could only escape on foot.