ATDIWR Chapter 84

Chapter 84 Ji An Fled, Worried About the Future

Chapter 84 Ji An Fled, Worried About the Future

Ji An vanished from the spot with a swoosh. Gu Jinsheng stared blankly around, not understanding how Ji An in his dream had suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Lei Long didn’t know when it had flown back. It was diligently damaging the protective shield, having only managed to create a small hole after all that effort. Lei Long poked its mouth slightly through the small hole and gloated, “Hehe, An An is gone. You scared An An away.”

Gu Jinsheng rubbed his head, only feeling that the Lei Long in his dream seemed even more annoying.

Suddenly, Gu Jinsheng, lying on the bed, sharply opened his eyes and woke up from his dream. In the dark night, a power user’s eyes could still see. Gu Jinsheng looked at his empty bedroom, his eyes filled with confusion.

It was true that he liked Ji An and wanted to be with him as soon as possible, but he had never had such an offensive dream about Ji An before. Could it be that his recent unstable mental state, caused by losing one of his abilities, was getting worse?

Gu Jinsheng rubbed his temples. Just as he was about to drink another cup of spirit spring water, he suddenly realized that his headache wasn’t as severe. It seemed to have lightened a lot, and his whole mood had improved. He no longer had that inexplicable feeling of anxiety.

Gu Jinsheng had been feeling anxious during this period. He guessed it was due to his unstable mental state resulting from the loss of his ability.

Regardless of the reason, he suddenly felt better today. This was a good thing, and it was possible that the spirit spring water had played a role. Gu Jinsheng drank a cup of spirit spring water, lay down again, and quickly fell asleep.

As for Ji An in the next room, he didn’t dare to breathe too heavily. He really couldn’t take it anymore and had only just escaped from Gu Jinsheng’s mental sea of consciousness.

He was afraid that if he didn’t leave, he would be… by Gu Jinsheng…

Ji An gently patted his flushed cheeks, bit his lip, as if he could still feel the warmth of Gu Jinsheng’s lips on his, and quickly let go, his face burning even more intensely.

He had never expected that the Supreme Commander of the Jing Shi Base, who always presented himself as calm and collected, was actually such a repressed person in private.

Ji An’s only consolation was that he had entered Gu Jinsheng’s mental domain only to ask about the tooth marks, wanting to figure out the truth, and not to pry into Gu Jinsheng’s privacy.

So even though he entered Gu Jinsheng’s mental domain, he didn’t casually browse through Gu Jinsheng’s memories.

Otherwise, Ji An was afraid of seeing Gu Jinsheng’s spring dreams.

But this also made Ji An realize that Gu Jinsheng’s mental sea of consciousness was somehow different from others. He couldn’t quite put his finger on the specific difference yet.

Ji An pondered, and gradually fell asleep in a daze.

The next morning, Ji An was awakened by a scent. He got up and walked into the kitchen. Gu Jinsheng had already prepared breakfast: wonton noodles, a plate of stir-fried mutated beef with sauce, a plate of cold tossed shredded dried tofu, and a plate of preserved vegetables.

When Ji An saw Gu Jinsheng, he couldn’t help but remember what happened last night. He didn’t dare to look into Gu Jinsheng’s eyes.

However, then he thought that Gu Jinsheng himself didn’t know and thought it was just a dream. Ji An pretended to be calm and spoke casually, “Jinsheng, they say you’re so busy. Get more sleep when you have time, don’t do all this. Your body won’t be able to handle it.”

Gu Jinsheng shook his head, “I’m much better. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been drinking the water you gave me recently. When I woke up this morning, my head didn’t hurt as much, and I didn’t feel as anxious. I feel very relaxed overall.”

Gu Jinsheng brought the wonton noodles to the table and said to Ji An, “Let’s eat.”

“Okay.” Ji An agreed, but his mind was thinking about Gu Jinsheng’s words. Gu Jinsheng said he felt much more relaxed mentally. This reminded Ji An of the mysterious and unpredictable sea within Gu Jinsheng’s brain. Could Gu Jinsheng’s previous mental anxiety be related to that sea?

If a person’s mental domain could be materialized, then perhaps people with rich mental lives would have vibrant and colorful mental worlds, like his and Gu Jinsheng’s mental domains.

But if there was a problem with a person’s mental domain, it would also be materialized within the mental domain. For example, when Gu Jinsheng lost an ability, his mental domain must have been damaged, and this materialized in his mental domain as that strange sea.

And yesterday, Ji An poured a lot of spirit spring water into that sea. Perhaps the spirit spring water repaired that sea, making Gu Jinsheng feel much more relaxed mentally.

Ji An also thought of himself. When his mental ability was disabled before, he had looked at his own mental domain, which was a desert with only scattered water droplets. Thinking about it now, perhaps those water droplets were the residual mental power that hadn’t been exhausted.

As for why his mental power had recovered but he didn’t have a power user crystal core, Ji An hadn’t figured out this problem, but he instinctively felt it was related to the spirit spring water.

Perhaps his mental ability had mutated, forming a new system. These things were temporarily unverified, and Ji An could only research them slowly.

“Xiao An, have you decided who to send?” Gu Jinsheng pulled Ji An out of his absent-minded thoughts.

“What? I was distracted thinking just now?” Ji An said, “What did you say? Say it again.”

Gu Jinsheng repeated, “Zhou Qin just contacted me and said that the Supreme Commander of the Haishi Base is coming over to treat his broken leg. He wants me to ask you who you plan to send over for the negotiation?”

Ji An said, “I’ll go. Wu Youyang, Teacher, and Teacher’s wife, and even Rong Fan have been sent by me to give lectures at various hospitals. They are all extremely busy now, no one can spare the time. Why don’t I go?”

Gu Jinsheng disagreed, “You’d better not show your face.”

“It’s okay. Anyway, they don’t know who I am. As long as I don’t say anything, they’ll just think I’m just a minor staff member responsible for treatment, just like Wu Youyang and the others, sent by someone.”

Gu Jinsheng said, “Alright, that works too. Then you can go with me. When we get there, I won’t specifically introduce you, and they won’t think too much.”

“Okay.”

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng went directly to the Command Center and met the people from the Haishi Base.

A total of seven people came from the Haishi Base, one of whom was sitting in a wheelchair. This should be He Tao, the Supreme Commander of the Haishi Base, who was injured in battle.

When He Tao saw Gu Jinsheng, he immediately extended his hand to shake Gu Jinsheng’s hand, saying at the same time, “Please forgive my rudeness, I cannot stand up right now.”

Gu Jinsheng said, “It’s okay.”

He Tao said, “I saw the live broadcast by Deputy Commander Zhou Qin of your base on television before. He said you have something called a Treatment Pod that can heal broken legs without leaving sequelae. I wonder if this is true.”

“Naturally.” Gu Jinsheng said to the person beside him, “Ask Commander Zhou to come over.”

“Yes.”

Zhou Qin arrived quickly. He came in and greeted He Tao with a smile, clearly they were old acquaintances.

He Tao looked at Zhou Qin’s legs, his excitement evident in his eyes, “Commander Zhou, your legs have really grown back?”

“They’ve grown back.” As the weather had turned cooler recently, Zhou Qin had changed into long pants. This time, he deliberately rolled them up to show He Tao his newly regrown broken leg. To prove that this was not some new high-tech illusion, Zhou Qin even deeply cut his leg with a knife, deep enough to see the bone.

He Tao became even more excited, nearly falling out of his chair, but he still politely said, “Commander Zhou, you don’t need to do that. I naturally believe you.”

Zhou Qin waved his hand indifferently, saying, “This small injury is nothing. I have treatment fluid. Just apply a little and it will be fine.”

As he spoke, he applied a little treatment fluid to his leg, and sure enough, the deep cut, visible to the bone, healed rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“And this is?” He Tao felt that after arriving at the Jing Shi Base, he, a Supreme Commander who considered himself somewhat knowledgeable, seemed to have become a bumpkin.

“This is the treatment fluid from the Treatment Pod. It can heal minor injuries. For severe injuries, you still need to enter the Treatment Pod for treatment. The Treatment Pod has other auxiliary treatment methods, and the treatment fluid is just one of them.”

He Tao nodded, “I wonder if I can receive treatment now?”

Zhou Qin said, “Probably not now.”

He Tao said excitedly, “Supplies are not a problem. Although our Haishi Base is a bit poor, we still have some resources.”

A long time ago, before The Apocalypse came, coastal cities that bordered the sea were very wealthy cities. People could live well by relying on the sea.

But ever since R-Koreans discharged nuclear wastewater into the sea, marine life began to mutate, and grotesque marine monsters with multiple heads, horns, and eyes appeared one after another. Since then, people no longer dared to eat seafood, and coastal cities began to decline, leading to the current situation where coastal cities have transformed from being the wealthiest cities to the most impoverished and desolate ones.

He Tao, as a dignified Supreme Commander, was so poor that he couldn’t even get a spatial storage item. The things he brought this time had to be carried by power users in huge glass fish tanks.

Several people carried the huge glass fish tanks in. Ji An glanced up and saw that there were many fish in the tank: koi, loaches, yellow eels, in short, all kinds of fish. In a smaller fish tank, there were marine creatures: starfish, seahorses, coral, octopus, crabs, sea cucumbers, etc.

“Are these uninfected with the zombie virus and unmutated aquatic creatures?” Ji An couldn’t help but ask excitedly.

He Tao thought that since no one had introduced Ji An, he was just an ordinary staff member. He hadn’t expected Ji An, an ordinary staff member, to dare to speak first when both commanders were present and hadn’t opened their mouths.

However, seeing that the two commanders of the Jing Shi Base showed no unusual expressions, He Tao didn’t show anything either, but the person who answered was no longer He Tao himself, but his staff member, “You can rest assured about this. We came with sincerity and will never deceive your base on such matters.

Furthermore, to be selfish, our Supreme Commander is still going to be treated for his broken leg at your base. If we were to tamper with these aquatic products, and your base retaliated against our Supreme Commander by tampering with his treatment, wouldn’t we suffer a loss and sacrifice the greater good for the lesser?”

Ji An smiled and said, “Don’t mind me, I was just asking casually. It’s just that in The Apocalypse, uninfected and unmutated aquatic creatures are too rare.”

“That’s true.” The staff member from the Haishi Base echoed.

He Tao looked at Gu Jinsheng and asked, “I wonder if this is enough to pay for my treatment fee?”

Ever since Ji An started requesting uninfected and unmutated plants and animals, all of Ji An’s businesses, both overt and covert, could be paid for with uninfected and unmutated plants and animals.

Gu Jinsheng also provided convenience for Ji An, and the Jing Shi Base also started accepting uninfected and unmutated plants and animals.

Recently, many people who came to pledge allegiance to the Jing Shi Base could use uninfected and unmutated plants and animals to exchange for supplies and choose their living location within the Jing Shi Base.

Seeing that Ji An was very satisfied, Gu Jinsheng said, “If all of these are uninfected and unmutated plants and animals, then it is completely enough. Of course, we still need to perform a routine check.”

“That is understandable.” He Tao had no opinion on this at all. As long as it was a transaction, no matter who the other party was, verification was required. Sometimes the other party might not be intentional, but errors were unavoidable.

“Then my leg will have to wait until the inspection results come out before it can be treated.”

“Yes.” Gu Jinsheng said.

Zhou Qin explained, “However, we can collect samples for cultivation first. This will take one to two months. Once the cultivation is successful, the inspection results will have already come out, and you can be treated immediately. Don’t worry, the treatment itself is very quick, only a few minutes. What takes time is the preliminary cultivation.”

“Cultivation?” He Tao looked confused.

“Of course. We are using pure medical means for treatment, so we naturally need to first cultivate complete bones that match the original body through medical means. Otherwise, how can we connect the bones?

Using those unconventional methods to connect bones, how can you guarantee that there won’t be other sequelae after the connection?”

Speaking of this, Zhou Qin thought of the Supreme Commander of the SHD Base. He said, “You probably don’t know, the Supreme Commander of the SHD Base used cloning technology to create dozens of clones of himself, and then artificially infected these clones with the zombie virus just to get a clone with the same ability as himself for eye transplantation.

But the problem is that even if a clone awakens the same ability, they still need to upgrade step by step. However, he didn’t have the patience to wait and would demand that doctors perform the transplant whenever the clone was somewhat ready.

How could the transplanted eye withstand the main body’s high-level ability? It would frequently rupture.”

The Haishi Base is currently a poor base and doesn’t usually have access to these diplomatic circles, so they were stunned by what they heard.

“Of course, I suspect that the Supreme Commander of the SHD Base did that because he had a problem with his brain. It’s very likely that his ability was boosted by power user crystal cores, causing him to develop mania, which is why his actions are so erratic now.”

The Supreme Commander of the Haishi Base was very interested in the gossip, “Is the HSD Base also that poor? They can’t even get a high-level power user crystal core and still have to use power user crystal cores?”

“That’s not true. They have plenty of crystal cores. They can get as many zombie crystal cores or power user crystal cores as they want through cloning.

What I suspect is that the Supreme Commander of the HSD Base’s ability might be entirely accumulated by using zombie crystal cores. But we all know that advancing with zombie crystal cores is just an auxiliary method. True advancement relies on combat and training.

If you solely stack with zombie crystal cores, energy will accumulate and form resistance, making it impossible to advance further using zombie crystal cores.

But at this point, you can use power user crystal cores to break through. Power user crystal cores are not subject to this limitation and are much better for advancement than zombie crystal cores.

But don’t worry, our artificial directional in-vitro cultivation has none of those concerns. It’s purely a medical method, it doesn’t affect abilities, and it won’t turn the patient into a mental patient.

Just like me, it’s been more than a month since I was cured, I’ve participated in several battles, my ability is very smooth, and my mental state is very stable.”

“I can see that.” He Tao, who had consumed a belly full of gossip, felt almost stuffed.

Gu Jinsheng said, “If it’s convenient for you now, we can collect a specimen immediately.”

“Convenient, very convenient.”

“Alright, notify the nearest hospital to arrange a sterile operating room. Say that the researcher representative needs to collect a specimen for the patient and anyone who wishes to learn can observe, but the maximum number of people cannot exceed ten.”

“Okay.”

The hospital arranged it very quickly. The artificial in-vitro directional cultivation technology is currently very popular throughout the Jing Shi Base. In this era where everything relies on ability to heal, ordinary medical personnel who haven’t awakened abilities are going crazy for this rare purely medical treatment method, often fighting for learning slots.

If Gu Jinsheng hadn’t limited the number of people today, the entire hospital’s medical staff would have shown up, and there would likely have been bloody fights.

He Tao hadn’t expected that one day he would be watched as a typical patient. At first, he was a little nervous, but later he became indifferent.

He remembered a joke online that said you shouldn’t be afraid if you’re surrounded by a group of students observing you, but you should be afraid if you’re surrounded by a group of bald old professors. In that case, basically don’t struggle, just eat and drink whatever you want.

Thinking this, He Tao became calm and composedly accepted all the studying gazes, pointing, and occasional touching from the students.

After coming out of the operating room, He Tao felt that his skin had thickened. From now on, blushing and shyness would basically be completely alien to him.

The Jing Shi Base arranged accommodation for the people from the Haishi Base, but with so much time, the people from the Haishi Base couldn’t stay in the guest rooms all day. When they had nothing to do, they still had to go out for a walk.

As they strolled around, the three-views of the people from the Haishi Base were shattered. Was this really The Apocalypse, or before The Apocalypse?

They saw all kinds of snack stalls and handicraft stalls everywhere on the streets, pretty much the same as the things sold before The Apocalypse, except perhaps the variety wasn’t as rich.

This wasn’t the most important thing. The most important thing was that there were really quite a few people stopping to buy things in front of these stalls, and among them were even some students.

Don’t ask the people from the Haishi Base how they knew these children were students, because they were wearing school uniforms.

“How many credits for a scallion pancake?” a student asked.

“Forty credits.” The stall owner said.

He Tao didn’t know how the credits were calculated at the Jing Shi Base, but forty credits was quite a lot. An ordinary person in their base earned only about two thousand credits a month, and even that was hard to get and in short supply. Even if the prices in the Jing Shi Base were high, a salary of four thousand credits would be the limit, but a salary of four thousand had to support a family. Drinking water had to be bought from water-type power users, which was a big expense.

Just then, the student said, “Why does it seem like the price has gone up?”

“Yes, business hasn’t been good recently. Not many people are coming out to buy food. They’re all saving up for treatment. If we can’t sell things, and the cost over there goes up, we have to raise our prices too.”

“Forget it, I’ll have one. I don’t eat it often anyway.” The student said.

He Tao couldn’t help but ask the student, “Aren’t you afraid of being punished by your parents for buying such impractical snacks that won’t fill you up?”

The student looked at He Tao strangely, then said, “Why would I be beaten for such a small matter? Who eats this to fill up? There are nutrient solutions. This is purely for satisfying cravings!”

After saying that, he suddenly said, “Are you from another base?”

He Tao nodded.

The student proudly raised his head, “No wonder. Our base is different from those bases outside. We have nutrient solutions here. Our own residents can buy ordinary adult nutrient solutions for only four credits per bottle. At this price, I don’t even use it anymore. The school provides nutrient solutions, and students can buy them for only two credits per bottle. Although we can’t buy too many, at least we can fill ourselves up.

Also, regarding tuition fees, except for universities, all schools are free now. They are truly free, not a single penny is required. As long as you reach the age, you can attend.

Of course, this is a new measure recently introduced by the base. Students who paid tuition before had their tuition refunded.

I heard it’s because the base made too much money with the Treatment Pods and decided to implement some welfare policies.

So now, not only do I not pay for school, but it’s also equivalent to earning money for my family. After all, if I don’t go to school, I still have to eat nutrient solutions every day, which is four credits. But going to school only costs two, saving two credits.

My family gives me the saved credits as monthly allowance.”

He Tao said, “Doesn’t your family save money?”

In their base, these things would definitely be saved up.

“What’s there to save with this little bit of credit?” The student said as if it were obvious, “Although both my parents are ordinary people, they all work in factories. Last month, the whole family combined earned nearly twenty thousand credits. They get nutrient solutions for free at the factory, so they don’t need to spend money at all, and it’s all saved up.”

He Tao listened dumbfounded. This amount of credits could only be earned by middle-level power users in their base.

“How can your family earn so much money? Are they all power users?”

The student had an expression as if He Tao was talking nonsense, “I said they are ordinary people. A power user alone can earn this amount, okay? One of my classmates, his father is a power user, and he alone can earn over a hundred thousand a month. His dad even got him a spatial storage item, and he brought it to school, making us so envious. I wonder if I can buy a spatial storage item in my lifetime. I really, really want one.”

He Tao said enviously, “I want one too.”

The student asked, “Are you new to our base? Recently, many people have joined our base because of the nutrient solutions, the Treatment Pods, and our base’s welfare policies? Because of your arrival, housing prices and commodity prices have risen. I heard the base is preparing to expand, otherwise, there won’t be enough room for so many people.

Also, my parents don’t get as much overtime pay anymore. With so many people going to work in factories, the factories don’t need my parents to work day and night overtime anymore. Now they work in shifts.

But this is also good. Although we don’t earn as much money, health is the most important thing.”

“Student, your scallion pancake is ready.”

The student took the scallion pancake and said to He Tao, “I need to go home and do my homework. Goodbye.”

He waved his hand, holding the scallion pancake, chatting with his classmates, and walking home, looking carefree.

This scene reminded He Tao of before The Apocalypse, when people were simply happy like this, not worrying about zombies or food.

The Jing Shi Base seemed to have returned to before The Apocalypse. The people here didn’t need to worry about anything, simple and happy!

He Tao’s eyes turned red, and tears flowed down unconsciously.

“Commander, why are you crying?”

“I suddenly remembered the happiness before The Apocalypse.” He Tao asked, “When can the people in our base live like this?”

Silence, no one responded.

He Tao suddenly sighed, “Let’s spend more time visiting the Jing Shi Base during this period. If the Jing Shi Base can really heal my leg and keep their word, let’s join the Jing Shi Base!”

“What? Commander, what about your position as Supreme Commander?”

“I am willing to exchange my position as Supreme Commander for the happy lives of the residents of my base. Don’t you also want to live like this again? The life before The Apocalypse?”

How could they not want to?

They wanted to. It was just that no one had expected that He Tao would do this much for the Haishi Base, even giving up his position as Supreme Commander just for the residents of the base to live happily.

At this moment, the people accompanying him all respected him, “Thank you, Supreme Commander. The people of Haishi will not forget your sacrifice.”

“It’s not important, none of it is important. I’m also doing it for myself to have a good life.”

Over there, Ji An had to explain to the medical staff for a long time before he could get away.

By the time he came out with Gu Jinsheng, it was already noon. Just as the two of them were about to leave the hospital, they heard a conversation between two power users complaining.

“I remember you have a Space-type ability, right?”

“Yes. Since the spatial storage items became available, we Space-type power users who are not good at combat are not popular anymore. Many power users are unwilling to team up with us to fight zombies, thinking we are a burden! These people have completely forgotten how they used to beg us!”

“Recently, with the Treatment Pods, I’m also worried about the future prospects of us Healing-type power users.

The Treatment Pods are omnipotent and can heal anything, even things that we Healing-type power users cannot heal. In a few years, when everyone has a Treatment Pod, what will we Healing-type power users do if we’re not good at combat? Should we go to factories and compete with ordinary people for job opportunities?”