Chapter 84: Ji An Escapes

Chapter 84: Ji An Escapes

Ji An disappeared in a flash, leaving Gu Jinsheng bewildered as he looked around, unable to comprehend why the Ji An in his dream had disappeared so abruptly and without warning.

Thunder Dragon, who had somehow flown back unnoticed, was grunting as it battered against the protective barrier. After a long struggle, it managed to create a small hole and wedged its snout through, gloating, "Hehe, An'an's gone! You scared him away!"

Gu Jinsheng rubbed his head, feeling that the Thunder Dragon in his dream was even more annoying than usual.

Suddenly, Gu Jinsheng, lying in bed, snapped his eyes open, waking from his slumber. In the darkness, his enhanced vision allowed him to see clearly. He stared at the empty bedroom, confusion clouding his expression.

It was true that he liked Ji An and wanted to be with him as soon as possible, but he had never before had such forward dreams about him. Could it be that losing one of his superpowers had made his mental state increasingly unstable?

Gu Jinsheng massaged his temples, about to drink another cup of Magic Spring water, when he realized his headache had significantly lessened. His mood had also improved, rid of that unexplained agitation that had plagued him before.

Lately, his mood had been erratic, which he attributed to the instability caused by losing a superpower. Regardless of the reason, the sudden improvement was a good thing—perhaps the Magic Spring water had played a role. After drinking another cup, he lay back down and quickly fell asleep.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring room, Ji An held his breath. He had barely managed to escape from Gu Jinsheng’s psychic realm.

If he hadn’t left when he did, he feared what Gu Jinsheng might have…

Ji An lightly patted his burning cheeks and bit his lip, as if he could still feel the warmth of Gu Jinsheng’s lips against his. He quickly released his lip, his face flushing even hotter.

He never would have guessed that the usually composed Commander-in-Chief of the Capital City Base was secretly such a lustful person.

The only thing Ji An was grateful for was that he had entered Gu Jinsheng’s psychic realm solely to ask about the matter of the bite mark, seeking the truth without snooping through his private memories.

Even though he had ventured into Gu Jinsheng’s psychic realm, he hadn’t rummaged through his memories. Otherwise, Ji An feared he might have stumbled upon some X-rated dreams.

At the same time, this experience made Ji An realize that Gu Jinsheng’s psychic realm was different from others—though he couldn’t quite pinpoint how just yet.

Lost in thought, Ji An eventually drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, the smell of cooking roused him. He got up and entered the kitchen to find Gu Jinsheng had already prepared breakfast: wonton noodle soup, a plate of spiced mutant beef, chili-tossed dried tofu shreds, and a side of preserved vegetables.

The moment Ji An saw Gu Jinsheng, the memory of the previous night came rushing back, making it hard for him to meet his eyes.

But then he reminded himself that Gu Jinsheng didn’t know the truth—he thought it had all been a dream. So Ji An forced himself to act calm and said casually, "Jinsheng, you’re always so busy. You should rest more when you have the chance. Don’t push yourself too hard—it’s not good for your health."

Gu Jinsheng shook his head. "I feel much better. Maybe it’s because I’ve been drinking the water you gave me. When I woke up this morning, my headache was almost gone, and I didn’t feel as anxious. I feel remarkably better."

He placed the wonton noodle soup on the table and said, "Let’s eat."

"Okay," Ji An replied, though his mind was still on Gu Jinsheng’s words. If his mental state had improved, perhaps it was connected to that bizarre, churning sea in his psychic realm.

If a person’s psychic realm could manifest physically, then perhaps those with rich inner worlds would have vibrant, complex realms—like his and Gu Jinsheng’s.

But if something went wrong in the psychic realm, it would manifest as well. For example, when Gu Jinsheng lost a superpower, his psychic realm must have been damaged, resulting in that eerie sea.

Yesterday, Ji An had poured a large amount of Magic Spring water into that sea. Maybe the water had repaired the damage, which was why Gu Jinsheng now felt lighter.

Ji An then thought about himself. When his Psychic Superpower had been nullified, he had once glimpsed his own psychic realm—a barren desert with only scattered droplets of water. Now, he suspected those droplets were remnants of his lingering psychic energy.

As for why his psychic abilities had returned without a Superpowered Crystal Core, Ji An couldn’t figure it out yet. But he suspected it was related to the Magic Spring water.

Perhaps his Psychic Superpower had mutated, evolving into something new. For now, there was no way to verify this—he would have to investigate further.

"Xiao An," Gu Jinsheng said, snapping Ji An out of his thoughts, "have you decided who to send?"

"What? I was lost in thought just now?" Ji An said. "What did you say? Repeat it."

Gu Jinsheng repeated, "Commander Zhou Qin recently contacted me, saying the Commander-in-Chief from Haishi Base is coming for treatment for his broken leg. He asked me to check with you—who do you plan to send to coordinate the visit?"

Ji An replied, "I'll go. Wu Youyang, my mentor and his wife, even Rong Fan—I've sent them all to give lectures at major hospitals. They're all swamped right now, with no time to spare. We might as well send me."

Gu Jinsheng disagreed, "You shouldn’t show your face."

"It's fine. They don’t know who I am anyway. As long as I don’t say anything, they’ll just assume I’m a low-ranking staff member sent to handle the treatment, like Wu Youyang and the others."

Gu Jinsheng said, "Alright, fine. Then come with me. I won’t introduce you specifically, so they won’t think too much about it."

"Sounds good."

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng went straight to the command post, where they met the delegation from Haishi Base.

Seven people had arrived from Haishi Base, one of them in a wheelchair—presumably Commander He Tao, the injured Commander-in-Chief of Haishi Base.

He Tao immediately extended his hand to shake Gu Jinsheng’s upon seeing him, saying, "Pardon my inability to stand—I can’t stand up right now."

Gu Jinsheng replied, "Not at all."

He Tao continued, "Earlier, I saw Deputy Commander Zhou Qin’s livestream on TV. He mentioned that your base has something called a 'treatment pod' that can heal broken legs without leaving side effects. Is that true?"

"Naturally." Gu Jinsheng turned to someone beside him. "Call Commander Zhou over."

"Yes."

Zhou Qin arrived quickly, greeting He Tao with a cheerful smile—clearly, they were already acquainted.

He Tao stared at Zhou Qin’s legs, his excitement barely contained. "Commander Zhou, your legs… they really grew back?"

"They did." The weather had turned cooler recently, so Zhou Qin was wearing long pants. He rolled them up to show He Tao his newly regenerated legs. To prove it wasn’t some high-tech illusion, Zhou Qin even made a deep cut on his own leg—one that reached the bone.

He Tao was even more thrilled, nearly falling out of his chair. "Commander Zhou, there’s no need for this—I believe you!"

Zhou Qin waved it off. "This little injury is nothing. I have treatment liquid—just a dab will fix it."

He dabbed on some treatment liquid to his wound, and sure enough, the deep gash stitched itself back together before their eyes.

"And this is…?" He Tao felt like an out-of-towner in the face of Jing City Base’s advancements.

"This is the treatment liquid from the treatment pod. It can heal minor injuries, but for serious ones, you’d need the pod itself. The pod has other auxiliary treatments—the treatment liquid is just one part of it."

He Tao nodded. "Can I receive treatment now?"

Zhou Qin shook his head. "Not at the moment, I’m afraid."

He Tao pressed eagerly, "Payment isn’t a problem. Though Haishi Base is poor, we still have some supplies."

Back before the apocalypse, coastal cities were prosperous, living off the sea’s riches.

But after Country R (a stand-in for Japan) dumped nuclear wastewater into the ocean, marine life began mutating—multi-limbed, horned, or multi-eyed abominations emerged one after another. People no longer dared to eat seafood, and coastal cities declined, withering from riches to ruin.

He Tao, a Commander-in-Chief, was so strapped he couldn’t even secure a spatial storage device. The items he brought this time had to be transported by superpowered couriers using massive glass aquariums.

Several people carried in the huge aquariums. Ji An glanced inside—one was filled with fish like koi, loaches, and eels; while a smaller one contained marine creatures: starfish; seahorses; coral; octopuses; crabs; sea cucumbers; and more.

"Are these all aquatic creatures that have never been infected with the zombie virus and haven't mutated?" Ji An couldn't contain his excitement as he asked.

He Tao assumed that since no one had introduced Ji An, he was just an ordinary staff member. He was surprised an ordinary staffer would speak up while both commanders were present and hadn’t said anything yet.

However, seeing that the two commanders from the Capital Base didn’t bat an eye, He Tao didn’t make a fuss either. Instead, the response came from one of his own staff members beside him. "You can rest assured—we’ve come with sincerity and would never screw your base over like that.

"To be blunt, our Commander-in-Chief is here to receive treatment for his leg at your base. If we tampered with these aquatic products, and your base retaliated by sabotaging his treatment, wouldn’t we be shooting ourselves in the foot?"

Ji An chuckled. "No worries—I was just curious. It’s just that in this post-apocalyptic world, aquatic life untouched by the zombie virus and unmutated is like finding a needle in a haystack."

"That’s true," the staff member from the Coastal Base agreed.

He Tao turned to Gu Jinsheng and asked, "I wonder if this is enough to cover my treatment fees?"

Ever since Ji An began requesting uninfected and unmutated flora and fauna, all his businesses—both overt and covert—had started accepting them as payment.

Gu Jinsheng had even facilitated this by greenlighting the Capital Base to accept uninfected and unmutated organisms as well. Recently, many newcomers seeking refuge in the Capital Base could use such resources to offset material costs or secure better living arrangements within the base.

Seeing Ji An’s satisfaction, Gu Jinsheng said, "If all of these are indeed uninfected and unmutated organisms, then it’s more than enough. Of course, we’ll still need to conduct standard checks."

"That’s only reasonable," He Tao was fine with that. In any transaction, inspection was standard—mistakes could happen unintentionally.

"So, I’ll have to wait for the inspection results before my leg can be treated?"

"Correct," Gu Jinsheng confirmed.

Zhou Qin jumped in, "But we can start by collecting samples for cultivation. That process will take one to two months. By the time the cultivation succeeds, the inspection results will already be in, and we can proceed with the treatment immediately. The actual healing is quick—just a few minutes. The slow part is the preliminary cultivation."

"Cultivation?" He Tao looked puzzled.

"Of course. Our approach is straight-up medical. We first need to cultivate a complete bone structure compatible with the patient’s body through medical means. Otherwise, how would we perform the bone grafting?

"Using back-alley fixes for bone grafting—how could we guarantee no side effects afterward?"

Bringing this up reminded Zhou Qin of the Commander-in-Chief of the SHD Base. "Get this—you probably haven’t heard, but the SHD Base’s Commander-in-Chief cloned dozens of himself, then pumped those clones full of the zombie virus just to obtain one with the same ability as his own—all for an eye transplant.

"But here’s the thing—even if a clone awakens the same ability, it still needs time to level up. He lacked the patience to wait, though, and demanded transplants every time a clone was halfway there.

"How could such transplanted eyes withstand the original body’s high-level ability? They kept rupturing."

The Coastal Base was a poor base, usually excluded from diplomatic circles, so He Tao and his team were eating it up.

"My guess is the SHD Base’s Commander-in-Chief acted this way because his mind was compromised. His ability might have been forcibly elevated using Superpowered Crystal Cores, leading to manic episodes—hence his erratic behavior now."

The Coastal Base’s Commander-in-Chief was hooked on the gossip. "Is the HSD Base that poor too? Can’t even get their hands on a high-grade Superpowered Crystal Core, stuck using Zombie Cores instead?"

"Not at all—they have tons of cores. Whether through cloning or other means, they have no shortage of Zombie Cores or Superpowered Crystal Cores.

"My suspicion is that the HSD Base’s Commander-in-Chief might have relied entirely on Zombie Cores to boost his ability. But as we all know, Zombie Cores are just a supplementary aid—real advancement comes from combat and training.

"If you just cram in Zombie Cores, energy stagnation builds resistance, making further advancement impossible.

"But that’s when Superpowered Crystal Cores come into play—they get around that limitation. For breakthroughs, they’re way better than Zombie Cores.

"But rest easy—our artificial, directed in-vitro cultivation has none of those risks. It’s purely medical, with no impact on abilities or mental stability.

"Take me, for example—I’ve been healed for over a month now, fought in multiple battles, and my ability works like a charm. My mental state is rock solid too."

"Yeah, that's obvious." He Tao, who had gorged on gossip, was stuffed.

Gu Jinsheng said, "If you're free right now, we can get your samples right away."

"Available, available."

"Alright, tell the closest hospital to prepare a sterile operating room. Inform them that a research rep will be collecting samples from a patient. Those who wish to observe may do so, but the maximum number of observers cannot exceed ten."

"Understood."

The hospital arranged everything very quickly. Nowadays, lab-grown treatment tech is the hottest thing in the entire Jing City Base. In an era where everything relies on superpowers for healing, a purely medical treatment—especially one that doesn’t require awakened superpowers—has regular med staff losing their minds. They often fight over learning opportunities.

If Gu Jinsheng hadn’t set a limit on the number of observers today, every medical staff member in the hospital would have shown up, likely leading to all-out fights.

He Tao never expected to be treated like a lab specimen for observation. At first, he was a bit nervous, but he soon relaxed.

He remembered a joke he’d seen online: "Don’t worry if you’re surrounded by students, but if you’re surrounded by a bunch of balding old professors, just accept your fate—live it up while you can."

With that thought, He Tao grew calm, coolly putting up with the scrutinizing gazes, the pointing and whispering, and the occasional trainees poking and prodding him.

By the time he left the operating room, He Tao felt he’d grown a thicker skin. Blushing and shyness were now things of the past for him. He was done with embarrassment.

The Jing City Base arranged accommodations for the people from Hai City Base. However, after such a long time, they couldn’t just stay in the reception area every day—they had to get out and see the place.

As they wandered around, the people from Hai City Base had their minds blown. Was this really the post-apocalypse, or was it life before the catastrophe?

The streets were lined with all kinds of food stalls and handicraft vendors, selling stuff straight out of the pre-apocalypse—just with fewer varieties.

But that wasn’t the most shocking part. What truly stunned them was that these stalls actually had customers, including some students.

Don’t ask how the Hai City Base folks knew these kids were students—they were wearing school uniforms.

"How much for a scallion pancake?" a student asked.

"Forty credit points," the vendor replied.

He Tao wasn’t sure how credit points were calculated in Jing City Base, but forty was no small amount. In their base, an ordinary person earned around two thousand credit points a month—and even that was fiercely contested, with demand far outstripping supply. Even if prices were higher in Jing City Base, a salary of four thousand credit points would be the upper limit, and that had to support an entire family. Water had to be purchased from water superpowered individuals, which was a major expense.

Then the student said, "Did the price go up?"

"Yeah, times are tough lately. People aren’t buying as much food—they’re saving up for treatments. Since we can’t sell much, our costs have gone up, so we had to raise prices too."

"Fine, give me one. It’s not like I eat this often anyway," the student said.

He Tao couldn’t help but ask, "Aren’t you afraid your parents will scold you for buying such overpriced junk food?"

The student gave He Tao a strange look and replied, "Why would they care about something this small? Nobody fills their stomach with this stuff—we have nutrient packs! This is just for fun!"

Then, suddenly, he added, "You’re not from around here, are you?"

He Tao nodded.

The student lifted his chin proudly. "Figures. Our base isn’t like those outside. We have nutrient packs here. For residents, ordinary adult nutrient packs cost just four credit points each. At that price, I don’t even buy them anymore—our school hands them out. For students, it’s only two credit points per pack. We can’t buy extras, but at least we never go hungry.

"And as for tuition—except for university, all schools are free now. Totally free—no hidden costs. Just reach the right age, and you can attend.

"Of course, this is a recent policy. Those of us who paid tuition before got refunds.

"Word is the base made so much money from the treatment pods that they decided to roll out some welfare policies."

So now I not only don’t have to pay for school, but I’m also actually making money for my family. After all, if I weren’t in school, I’d still have to consume nutrient packs every day, which would cost four credits. But by going to school, it’s only two credits, saving two credits a day.

The saved credits are given to me as monthly allowance by my family."

He Tao asked, "Your family doesn’t save them?"

In their base, every single credit would definitely be saved.

"Why save such a small amount?" the student said like it was obvious. "Although my parents are both regular folks, they both work in factories. Last month, our whole family earned almost 20k credits combined. Their meals are provided for free by the factory in the form of nutrient packs, so they don’t need to spend anything, and all the credits are saved."

He Tao's jaw dropped. That amount of credits would only be earned by mid-level superpowereds in their base.

"How does your family earn so much? Are they all superpowereds?"

The student looked at him like he was crazy. "I already said they’re ordinary people. A superpowered individual alone can earn that much, okay? One of my classmates—his father is a superpowered and pulls in over 100k a month by himself. His dad even got him a spatial storage device. He brought it to school, and we were all green with envy. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to buy a spatial storage device 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, a lot of people have been joining because of the nutrient packs, Treatment Pods, and our base’s welfare policies. Because of your arrival, rent and prices have gone up. I heard the base is planning to expand because there won’t be enough space for everyone.

Also, my parents’ overtime pay isn’t as much anymore. With so many people joining the factories, my parents don’t have to work day and night like before. Now they work rotating shifts.

But that’s fine. Even if they don’t earn as much, health is the most important thing."

"Here’s your scallion pancake, kid."

The student took the pancake and said to He Tao, "I have to go home and do my homework now. Goodbye."

He waved, holding the pancake, chatting with his classmates as he walked home, without a care in the world.

The scene reminded He Tao of before the apocalypse, when people lived simply and happily, without worrying about zombies or food.

The Beijing Base seemed to have returned to those times. The people here didn’t need to worry about anything—they lived simply and joyfully!

He Tao’s eyes reddened, and tears started rolling down his cheeks without him realizing it.

"Boss, what's with the tears?"

"I suddenly remembered the happiness of before the apocalypse," He Tao said. "When will the people in our base get to live like this?"

Silence. No one answered.

He Tao sighed and said, "Let’s spend more time exploring the Beijing Base during our stay. If they really cure my leg and keep their word, we should join the Beijing Base."

"What? Commander, what about your position as Commander-in-Chief?"

"I’m willing to give up my position as Commander-in-Chief if it means our base’s residents can live happily. Don’t you want to return to those days? Before the apocalypse?"

How could they not want that?

They did. But none of them expected He Tao to go this far for the Hai City Base—giving up his position as Commander-in-Chief just so the residents could live better lives.

At that moment, those accompanying him looked at him with newfound respect. "Thank you, Commander-in-Chief. Hai City folks will never forget your sacrifice."

"It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. I’m just doing this for my own sake too—so I can have a better life."

Meanwhile, Ji An had been stuck explaining things to the medical staff for a long time before finally managing to leave.

When he and Gu Jinsheng stepped out of the hospital, it was already noon. Just as they were about to leave, they overheard two superpowereds complaining.

"I remember you’re a space-type superpowered, right?"

"Yeah. Ever since spatial storage devices became a thing, non-combat space-type superpowereds like us have become unpopular. Many superpowereds don’t want to team up with us for zombie hunts anymore—they think we’re just baggage! They’ve completely forgotten how they used to beg for our help before!"

"With the Treatment Pods now, I’m worried about the future of us healing-type superpowereds too.

The Treatment Pods are a cure-all—they can cure anything, even things we healing-type superpowereds can’t. In a few years, when everyone has a Treatment Pod, what's gonna become of us healing-type superpowereds who aren’t good at combat? Will we have to fight regular folks for factory jobs?"