Chapter 23: Mind Disruption
These twenty ability users assigned to him by the leader were not evenly matched in terms of their strength, but they were particularly disciplined. They did not goof around and try to evade work by saying they were tired. Otherwise, Zhang Zhiyin’s shallow bluffing might not necessarily be able to control them.
After the battle, the assistant group members came out to clean up the battlefield. After sorting and counting the spoils of war, they were taken back by the space ability user, Ah Kong, to be redistributed when they go back.
When Zhang Zhiyin first came to Yulin Base, he had already made out the level of the monsters around the base. Generally speaking, with his Level 4 ability, the monsters were not a problem for him to deal with. So he felt that this was a suitable timing for him to hide his strength. In addition, the Redemption suit would be damaged if it was worn for a long time, and the cost of repairing was also very high. Earlier, he took off his Divine suit and replaced it with an ordinary suit suitable for Level 4 to 5 ice ability users. On the outside, he was still wearing a set of ordinary fashion items from the Item Store. It was the cheapest and simplest kind of white shirt and jeans that could be worn forever for 10 yuan.
After this battle, the people in the team gained more reverence for Zhang Zhiyin. Originally, it was just because of his outstanding and prominent ability. Later, his precise judgment and command of the situation made them even more confident of his abilities.
As the saying went, distance birthed beauty but that was all to it. If Dajia were here, he could surely see through the pretense: “This kid is just acting.”
The next two boss battles could be considered smooth. One of them broke his leg while another one broke his arms facing the wood mutant BOSS. In the battle against poison mutant BOSS, two members were poisoned.
By this time they reached the third floor, there was only the fourth-floor attic left untouched.
Cold wind blew down from above, making them feel cold. The intuition and six senses of the ability users were much stronger than those of ordinary people. At this time, the sense of danger and discomfort made them hold their weapons tighter. But no one moved and they all looked at Zhang Zhiyin.
Zhang Zhiyin looked at the dark entrance of the attic and frowned. After considering the situation, he ordered, “We’ll stop here today. Go back to rest and come back tomorrow.” He knew that the psychic zombie was upstairs, but they had already fought three small BOSSES. The team members were physically and mentally exhausted. It would be unwise to challenge the big BOSS.
When the team heard his words, they formed up and placed the injured and the members of the assistant group in the middle to protect them. Zhang Zhiyin and Dadao who had the strongest strength now followed at the back instead of leading the way.
Zhang Zhiyin who was standing at the end felt a lingering sense of getting peeped. It was like a thorn stabbing at his back and it made him feel chilly. When he looked back, it was still the same dark entrance of the attic.
“Captain.” Walking on his right was Dadao and his face was uncomfortable. “I feel flustered as if something is looking at me constantly.”
“It’s all right. I felt it too.” Zhang Zhiyin reassured him, “It should be the ability of the psychic zombie. Go back and be cautious. Don’t try to act alone in case of accidents happening.”
In the game, everyone would just fight when they come across a BOSS, and neither would they heard about any negative effects of retreating without finishing off the BOSS. But after all, this was the real-world—monsters that have been beaten would not refresh, the same situation would not happen again, and the dead would not come back.
The one in the attic was a real high-level psychic zombie. And for it, they were human beings that invaded its territory.
Although the last main boss was not exterminated, Zhang Zhiyin still considered their first battle to be successful. The leader deliberately made special treatments for them to celebrate their accomplishments. The members of the team who went out to fight had steamed bread and potatoes to eat. Although there was no taste to them at all, the members all wolfed it down. They held the steamed bread and two potatoes that were given to them as if they were peaches of immortality that belonged to the Queen Mother.
With the arrival of the end of the world, arable lands had been cut down dramatically and food was scarce. In order to overcome the food shortage, human beings had quickly developed a nutrient medicine, which could meet the nutritional needs of the human body with only two packages a day, so that they would not feel hungry. This nutrient medicine was simple to make and save resources. Its invention enabled more people, especially ordinary ones, to survive the apocalypse. Now every base would at least had one large or small nutrient medicine production plant. The only disadvantage it had was that it’s extremely unpalatable.
It was a great reward to be able to eat normal steamed bread and potatoes from before the apocalypse.
Dadao ate and said, “I heard that the leaders of the big bases ate the same food from before the apocalypse. They could eat any red-roasted ribs, sweet and sour fish, roasted duck, roasted goose, stewed chicken, instant-boiled mutton…”
The more he talked about it, the more he felt covetous. Finally, he concluded by saying, “When do you think we’ll be able to live that kind of life?”
When Xiao Jin heard him saying this, he looked like his thoughts had wandered away. The potatoes in his hands became not so attractive at once.
Ah Kong, who could manipulate space, was his sister, she rapped his younger brother quickly. “Eat fast and don’t fantasize, the food will be cold later.”
Zhang Zhiyin silently listened, and an idea he used to have come to his mind again.
Like most online games on the market, <Tomorrow> also had a home system and a lot of life skills, among which was “planting”. The lowest product it could produce was “flour”, which could be used to prepare dishes for players who had learned cooking skills. This kind of flour was also sold in the trading house. 10 yuan could get a group of ninety-nine bags. In the introduction log, a bag was ten jin. The flour should be consumable in the world today.
They went through life and death situation together and trusted one another other with their own lives. Although their contact time was not considered long, it was difficult for Zhang Zhiyin to regard these teammates as irrelevant people, especially when they called him “Captain” with great confidence time after time. He intended to improve their lives, however, he did not know where to start. He worried that overdoing things would incite suspiciousness, and that would be self-defeating.
While thinking, the leader came quietly, patted Zhang Zhiyin and called him away.
The leader rubbed his hands, lowered his head, and said with embarrassment, “Little Zhang ah… This is all thanks to you…
“On the distribution of the nuclei… I’d like to discuss with you… can it be allocated 50% each? You take half and give the rest to the members? Recent times were not peaceful. There are signs of evolution in the northern zombies… Well, it’s fine if you are not willing □□…”
Zhang Zhiyin did not expect the leader to say this to him. The education he received since childhood was “Hardships before pleasure”, “Don’t play special”, and “Do good without leaving a name”. He had never thought about exploiting his upper hand to reap special benefits and skillfully seize and plunder. But Zhang Zhiyin soon realized that he was now similar to a CEO of a company, and the leader was trying to retain him by offering him more salaries than other ordinary employees.
He felt relieved after thinking of this analogy. Zhang Zhiyin asked, “How did you allocate when you were the captain before?”
“172.” The leader spoke softly. 10% was his share, 70% was the share of all the members who participated in the battle, and 20% was the share of the members who stayed behind to keep a watch on the base.
“Then let’s allocate shares according to this.” Zhang Zhiyin also took the initiative to pat the leader’s… arms before he turned around and left. He wanted to clap his shoulder, but the leader was taller, so he could not do so. The company was still in the early stages of its start-up and had a shortage of funds. He should grow along with the company. Thinking about it like this, Zhang Zhiyin felt that this was rather good.
He told Dadao to be careful, but after leaving the leader, he totally forgot about his own words and went straight back to his room.
Yin Xiaoxiang, who had been confined in the room for a day, looked at him with grief. It rubbed at him while whining and it even spat ice shards on his face. Zhang Zhiyin who had been tired for the whole day lightly tugged its little buttocks with his index finger to make it behave.
It sniffed at Zhang Zhiyin and revealed an unhappy expression. Its face wrinkled together and gave a small cry of protest. Zhang Zhiyin only thought that it was still angry about being confined in the house and ignored it. He lied down and slept.
Yin Xiaowang nested around his neck, looking a little anxious. It arched its small head to the neck of Zhang Zhiyin. Zhang Zhiyin, who had fallen asleep quickly, paid no attention to it and went on to sleep after patting it.
Zhang Zhiyin dreamed. This was a rare occurrence because subconsciously, he intuitively realized that this world, though real, was just like a dream. Do people dream within their dreams? He didn’t know, but he was now dreaming.
The beginning of his dream started with the memory of his childhood. He finished school and had dinner with his grandparents. They watched TV and chatted.
Then the scene changed rapidly. Grandfather and Grandmother disappeared. He appeared in an empty and simple room, looking around and finding no one else. He pushed open the door and went out. Standing in the corridor, he found a man downstairs.
The man’s back was facing him, he could only see a white background and the short black hair.
But Zhang Zhiyin instinctively knew who he was. A shallow smile appeared, he walked gently towards the man…
Yin Xiaoxiang, who had been restless, suddenly stare vigilantly. In the darkness, its ice-blue eyes were particularly bright.
It saw Zhang Zhiyin suddenly sat up, get up from the bed and went down. It immediately rushed over to bite him to not let him move. But its strength was too small. Zhang Zhiyin went straight to the door as if he could not feel its existence at all.
“Aowu?” Yin Xiaoxiang, who was hanging on Zhang Zhiyin’s arm and was desperately biting him, suddenly felt a powerful and overwhelming psychic force. It was familiar and overbearing as if a king had descended. It was different from the disgusting psychic power attached to Zhang Zhiyin before; It was just incomparable.
Yin Xiaoxiang thought about it with its little head tilted aside. It loosened its mouth and ran back to the bed to sleep, leaving no regard to Zhang Zhiyin.
At the same time, Xiao Jin, the only psychic ability user in the base, was awakened by this sudden force. He could not feel any difference, but he was shocked for no apparent reason. Looking at the bed next to him, he became even more frightened.
“Brother Dao!” Xiao Jin shouted, but no one answered.
The room was dark and empty, he was all alone. He did not know when Dadao, who had especially moved here for fear of accidents, had disappeared to.
