Chapter 10
“In this increasingly chaotic world, someone has to correct the mistakes. Someone has to step forward. Those people are the ability users.”
“Do you know why the government fell?”
Ye Xuan turned his head back. At the beginning of everything, the hopes of the entire nation had been placed on the government. In the hearts of the people, the government and the military were this country’s final line of defense.
Then what they waited for was a total collapse across the board.
Xie Yan put away that careless, unserious expression and revealed a trace of sorrow.
“Because the zombification of humans began with the military. It started here in Baihe. At first, the government thought that as long as they sealed off the Baihe area and accelerated research on a corresponding vaccine, it would be enough. No one expected that this virus would then break out in military forces across various regions. The R Virus did not first erupt among the public. This was a premeditated collapse of armed power.”
“Was it interference from foreign forces? Then what’s the global situation like?” Ye Xuan asked.
“Maybe. The global situation isn’t much better now either. Two days ago, a B3199 passenger plane landed in Mizhou. A passenger on board turned into a zombie. After that, zombies broke out globally with unstoppable momentum.”
“What about vaccines?”
Xie Yan’s expression became even more bitter. “There is no vaccine in this world that works on the R Virus. The speed of our research simply can’t keep up with the virus’s mutation rate.”
No wonder the base valued ability users so much. Without biological weapons, they could only use ability users as physical weapons.
“Alright, I’ve told you so much. It’s time for you to be honest with me too.” Xie Yan crossed his arms and fixed his eyes on Ye Xuan.
Ye Xuan carefully recalled his rebirth process again from beginning to end. After he died, he had indeed been reborn, but the location of his rebirth had been different.
The first two times, when he had been hit by the large truck, he had been reborn in the dorm in the morning. Later, when he died so many times trying to escape Xia Chenxi, he had been reborn at night.
Ye Xuan told Xie Yan about this difference.
Xie Yan rubbed his chin and paced back and forth in the room, looking deeply troubled. By now, Ye Xuan had no reason to lie to him, which made his problem rather tricky.
Ye Xuan watched Xie Yan walk back and forth dozens of times, until he was starting to feel sleepy.
Suddenly, Xie Yan shouted, “I know!”
“Know what?” Compared with this doctor who startled people at every turn, Ye Xuan appeared extremely calm.
“You actually weren’t reborn. You were space-shuttling.” Xie Yan applauded himself and laughed exaggeratedly. “Yes, that’s right. It must be space-shuttling.”
Here he went again, acting like a madman.
Ye Xuan expressed his doubt toward this crazy doctor, but he did not speak. He merely curled the corner of his mouth downward in disdain.
“What kind of expression is that, brat?” Xie Yan knocked Ye Xuan on the forehead. “Before entering the base, I was also a PhD at a research institute, alright? I had several projects in my hands and published multiple SCI papers. If it weren’t for…”
Seeing Ye Xuan’s expressionless face, looking as if this had nothing to do with him, Xie Yan did not continue. He muttered quietly, “Playing music to a cow.”
“Do you understand space-shuttling? For example, if I stand here and appear opposite in the next second, that’s the simplest kind of shuttle.”
Ye Xuan nodded. He understood that. It was teleportation.
“Then imagine it as shuttling through four-dimensional space, shuttling between the past and the present.”
“Wait. Then what about the pain I felt before dying?”
“That’s what’s special about your ability. Your ability can only erupt when you’re on the verge of death. At that instant, all the cells in your body briefly shuttle from that moment and reassemble into you. Pay attention, it’s your cells, not you as an individual. It’s the R Virus that stimulated this potential in the cells inside your body. Because every time you used your ability, it happened when you were near death, it created the illusion of ‘rebirth’ for you.”
Hearing it like this, his ability sounded pretty amazing.
“But unfortunately, you may no longer have this ability.”
?
So he learned about it only to lose it? Then why had Xie Yan gone in circles telling him so much?
Xie Yan narrowed his eyes and smiled like a fox. “Although you may have lost this ability, it is very useful for my research.”
“…”
“So I still have to go mine ore, right?”
“Not necessarily. The histones in your body are very active right now. Another kind of R Virus has gained the upper hand and is tending toward a stable state. Judging from your current level of rationality, I suspect you will still be stimulated into developing another ability. Since abilities are generally connected to the activation level of the subject’s cells, I think the ability stimulated in you again will very likely still be space-type.”
“Oh. So what status do I count as now?” He only cared about whether he could bring his parents back from the mining site.
Xie Yan took a wristband out of his pocket and handed it to Ye Xuan. “This is the base communication wristband. Your identity information and virtual funds are all inside.”
Ye Xuan put on the wristband, tapped the screen, and followed the instructions to input his fingerprint. Then his identity information appeared.
Name: Ye Xuan
Status: Reserve Combat Team Member
Number: 0112
Ability: —
Funds: -3000
Dormitory: —
Two fields were not displayed.
Why were his funds negative? Ye Xuan cast a cold glance at Xie Yan.
This shameless old man had taken advantage of his illness to steal his money, had he?
“Hey, the money was deducted by the base, not me. As a reserve combat team member, your basic funds are only one thousand. After deducting hospitalization fees and medication fees, I didn’t even charge you a treatment fee.”
Ye Xuan turned off the screen. Forget it. He would talk about it later.
“Now you can report to the dormitory building. After filling in your data, the base will assign you a captain. When the time comes, you just need to train with him every day. Friendly reminder: if you don’t awaken an ability within seven days, you’ll be temporarily classified as an ordinary person and sent to mine ore. Of course, if you become an ability user afterward, you can still enter the official team training. So work hard, okay?”
“What about my parents?” If he could not awaken an ability later, did that mean his parents would have to mine ore with him for the rest of their lives?
“Don’t worry about that. You’ve provided an important contribution to my research. I’ll apply to the higher-ups for an exception and have your parents moved to the family quarters. Tomorrow, someone will specifically send them there.”
When this guy was not acting crazy, he actually seemed quite kind. Ye Xuan said to him in a low voice, “Thanks.”
“What did you say?”
Forget he said anything.
“What did you say? You weren’t secretly cursing me, were you?”
“I said you have wrinkles at the corners of your eyes. You should take better care of yourself.”
To Xie Yan, those words were like a bolt from the blue.
“You damned brat! I’m only thirty! A man at thirty is a flower!”
Ye Xuan covered his ears and slipped out of the ward while Xie Yan was roaring.
Not long after he left, Xie Yan ran out of the ward and shouted at Ye Xuan, “Brat, remember to come back every two days to change your dressing!”
A crowd of people turned back to look at Ye Xuan. Ye Xuan felt terribly embarrassed and quickened his pace to leave.
After walking out of the hospital entrance, Ye Xuan discovered that outside were all white buildings. The walls were relatively old, and the rooms were arranged one after another, separated by partitions, with reinforced iron doors.
It looked so familiar.
Wasn’t this a prison?
