茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

What amused Xiang Kun was that Xia Libing’s co-manifested figure in the dream was again the same as the first time in Mijoe’s “dream in a dream” — a paper figure with a panda’s expression.

Xiang Kun left the specifics to Old Xia and only provided him with the support of dream editing abilities.

Under Old Xia’s guidance, Fan Jiading, in his dreams, gradually revealed his deep-seated subconscious memories and presented them to Xiang Kun and Old Xia in the form of images.

After understanding Fan Jiading’s true process and subsequent experiences of being parasitized by a “mutated parasite” through those memory images, just like what was done in the “dream in a dream” of the “Vampire Patient” before, Xia Libing guided his subconscious in the dream to forget those real memory images.

If left untreated, once Fan Jiading wakes up and remembers the real memories guided deep by Old Xia in the “dream in a dream”, finds out that a bug parasitized him directly in front of his face, and the crystal energy extracted from the slaughtered chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry that he drank was actually blood, he may suffer a mental breakdown and completely lose his mind.

After breaking free from the dream, Xiang Kun exchanged with Xia Libing, who had woken up, on WeChat, finalizing the observation and capture strategy of the “mutated parasite”.

Xiang Kun planned to confront the host directly tonight and extract the “mutated parasite”.

He removed his coat and the t-shirt underneath, masked his face with the t-shirt, put on the coat again, climbed into the building from the window beside the stairwell, and made his way to the apartment on the third floor rented by Fan Jiading.

Although Fan Jiading’s window was not tightly closed when he slept at night, and Xiang Kun had used this to get the black circle graffiti, which was used to guide the dream, into the room, both the windows and balconies of this small building were fenced, so he could not climb in directly.

Standing at the entrance of Fan Jiading’s rented room, Xiang Kun inserted five super-connected coins under the door, then manipulated them to cling to the doorknob inside and tried to open the door.

However, the way he controls the super-connected coins—establishing a magnetic track to guide the direction of movement through influencing the surrounding magnetic field by the super-connected objects, so while the coin’s movement could be controlled precisely, maneuvering other objects with the coins, moreover, without prior practice, was rather difficult.

So, the five coins kept colliding with the door handle through the door, making a lot of noises for quite a while before finally opening the door.

The noise was loud. After the door was opened, Xiang Kun could tell by the sound that Fan Jiading had woken up and was on his way over upon hearing the noise in the living room.

However, Xiang Kun was not worried, because his purpose of coming in was to wake up Fan Jiading.

Fan Jiading, who was standing at the bedroom door, used, the light that came out from his bedroom to see a tall man who suddenly appeared in the living room, wearing a peaked cap and covering his face, didn’t show any panic but instead, began to laugh:

“Bro, you’re really unlucky to have burglarized my place.”

Fan Jiading’s reaction was indeed within Xiang Kun’s expectations.

In fact, it’s easy to understand. The current Fan Jiading, believing he’s been enhanced by the “Systems,” and trusting in his fighting power blindly, is essentially in a mindset of “I can take ten”.

Honestly, in a similar situation, if Xiang Kun found an intruder in his home in the middle of the night, he might also be curious, even amused, and possibly chat with the intruder before packing him up and sending him to Officer Chen.

However, Xiang Kun’s next sentence instantly changed Fan Jiading’s expression.

“Are you a Chosen One?” Xiang Kun asked coldly.

Fan Jiading furrowed his eyebrows, unconsciously adopting a defensive stance: “How… How do you know?”

Then it seemed he understood something, exclaiming in surprise, “Are you a Chosen One too?”

Xiang Kun directly said, “Is it so strange for other Chosen Ones to exist? Don’t tell me you believed you were the only person with the ‘Chosen System’? Haven’t you received your mission prompt yet? I have already issued you a challenge.”

“Ah?! ” Fan Jiading’s expression was a little dumbfounded, his eyes staring straight ahead, he was frozen in place for a moment as if his brain had gone idle.

Xiang Kun, however, continued, “The ‘Chosen System’ rules dictate that Chosen Ones can challenge other Chosen Ones. The winner can gain the crystal energy of the defendant. Don’t tell me you didn’t even know this?”

“Yes…challenge system, it’s the Challenge System. It’s reasonable there should be other Chosen Ones…” Fan Jiading seemed to have a sudden realization and started murmuring to himself.

Xiang Kun was observing Fan Jiading’s expression and physical changes the entire time, realizing that he was filling in the gaps in the “system settings” as Xiang Kun guided him. This confirmed the earlier speculation he and Old Xia had about the impact the parasite had on the host.

The “mutated parasite” cannot decide the specific hallucinations the host will have but only give the host a driving force, a final action goal. As to the process of how to fantasize and how to make the host feel at peace with more initiative, they depended on the host’s own imagination.

Based on the condition of the “vampire patient”, Xiang Kun knew the effect of the “mutated parasite” on the host cognition would persist after it had left the host.

However, this effect could be disturbed, especially after the “mutated parasite” had left the host.

Xiang Kun and Old Xia had previously succeeded by using deep hypnosis in a “Dream in A Dream”, making the “vampire patient” feel that he was not “qualified yet” to join the “Blood Clan”, lack the “qualification” to drink blood. Therefore, he no longer insists on the red food but instead eats a variety of vegetables and works out vigorously every day in hope of regaining “qualification.”

Xiang Kun was confident that when he introduced a new “setting” to Fan Jiading that was counterintuitive but consistent with his hallucination system, Fan Jiading’s instinct would automatically “rationalize” it. Because not doing so might collapse his entire hallucination system.

Of course, the biggest uncertainty was the “mutated parasite” that still resided within Fan Jiading. It couldn’t determine the host’s specific hallucination, but it might give a new directive, causing the host to exhibit new behavior patterns, such as heightened aggression or destructiveness, or directly perceiving Xiang Kun as a non-existent or “monster” that the “system” needs to eliminate.

However, judging from Fan Jiading’s reaction, the “mutated parasite” doesn’t seem to have any immediate influence.

Ever since he entered the room, Xiang Kun had never stopped changing his vision mode. From time to time, he observed the “mutated parasite” in Fan Jiading’s body using infrared thermographic vision mode. He noticed that after Fan Jiading woke up, the blue spots representing the parasite had significantly shrunk as if it was curling itself up to avoid something.

Xiang Kun immediately speculated, was this “mutated parasite” afraid after realizing his existence as an “other mutant organism”?

But if that was the case, then some of his previous conjectures about the “mutated parasite’s” sensing abilities would have to be revised.

While Xiang Kun contemplated, Fan Jiading had already fully convinced himself, accepted his words, slow walked into the living room, turned on the light, and said, “According to the challenge rules of the Chosen System, the challenger can only challenge those Chosen Ones who have obtained a total of more task points than himself. In other words… Your task points are lower than mine. I am very curious, what gives you the courage and confidence to break into my house in the middle of the night and challenge me? Could it be… you’ve used all your points to enhance your combat abilities?”

“You can give it a try…”

Before Xiang Kun could finish his sentence, Fan Jiading’s figure had already rushed forward, throwing punches directly.

Clearly, in his understanding, the Chosen System’s challenge didn’t need to follow any boxing rules, nor did it require the countdown of “one, two, three” before starting.

One could tell that Fan Jiading’s explosive power was very strong, but his core muscle group was rather unstable. When he threw a punch, he couldn’t make full use of his lower limbs’ strength.

His movements were faster than a normal person, but still couldn’t compare to a few exceptionally athletic individuals. In the eyes of Xiang Kun with his exceptionally developed dynamic vision, they were as clear as slow motion.

However, Xiang Kun did not dodge, not even raising his hand to block in fear of hurting the other party. Instead, he accurately caught the other’s right fist and gently pulled it backward to alleviate its force, taking the other’s following left punch directly to his abdomen.

Feeling his fist as if striking a piece of toughened rubber, the sudden pain in his wrist made Fan Jiading look up in astonishment at Xiang Kun’s eyes, exclaiming, “Did you add all your points to defense?”

No sooner had he spoken than he was kicked away by Xiang Kun, his back slamming against the wall, emitting a dull thud, before he collapsed onto the ground, unable to get up for a long time.

Of course, Xiang Kun had controlled his strength in his kick, which was more of a push and had not inflicted any serious injury upon him, merely knocking the wind out of him.

From their brief engagement just now, Xiang Kun had accurately determined the current physical condition of Fan Jiading.

The enhancement to Fan Jiading’s muscular strength and explosive power were far less than what he subconsciously perceived them to be. His abilities had significantly improved compared to his previous state, but when compared to well-conditioned athletes among ordinary people, they were still lacking.

The so-called “Strongman” ability that he had exchanged for at level 3, was more a psychological enhancement. In reality, the mutated parasite’s modifications to his body were quite limited.

This was in line with what he and Old Xia had observed from the “Vampire Patient”.

Of course, these modifications were different from those achieved by ordinary people through training and diet. At their root, they had indeed diverged from an ordinary human, which was why Xiang Kun felt different information in his heightened sensory state.

Taking advantage of Fan Jiading’s momentary incapacity while he was sprawled on the ground, Xiang Kun went into his bedroom, pulled out a folded knife from a rucksack, the same one he had spotted near the window earlier.

Returning to the living room, Xiang Kun pinned Fan Jiading down with his knee, lifted up the hem of his shirt, quickly made a small incision near his waist with the folded knife, then immediately tossed the knife away, inserting two fingers into the wound to accurately pinch a tiny creature the size of a broad bean.

Although it was buried in the flesh, Xiang Kun, using his infrared thermographic vision mode, noticed that the morphology of this “mutated parasite” was somewhat different from what he saw in the deep real memory images guided by Old Xia in the “Vampire Patient”.

The creature had countless tendrils as thin as hair stretching out into Fan Jiading’s body.

That’s why, after pinching it, Xiang Kun didn’t immediately pull it out as he had originally planned. Instead, he waited a moment for the tiny tendrils to retract back into the creature’s body before extracting it from Fan Jiading’s wound.

The entire process was very fast, taking less than three seconds from making the incision to extracting the “mutated parasite” – even including the slight hesitation waiting for the parasite to retract its tendrils.

Because the incision was made too quickly, Fan Jiading, who was still reeling from the fall, had not had a chance to react. By the time he opened his mouth to scream, Xiang Kun had already pulled out the creature.

“Shut up!” Xiang Kun sharply reprimanded, then, holding the creature in front of Fan Jiading, asked, “Do you know what this is?”

Fan Jiading looked at the blood-soaked, slug-like creature that seemed dead, stared blankly for a moment, his face fell, and with a mournful expression, he said, “It’s my ‘crystal energy’, you’ve extracted my ‘crystal energy’ …”

Xiang Kun nodded. As he had predicted, even after the “mutated parasite” was removed, its psychological influence on the host would continue to exist.

Images that the host’s original cognition can’t accept, he would automatically “patch up” them to fit into the illusion system.

In Fan Jiading’s understanding, the “crystal energy” he obtained from killing monsters as his “systems” task could be exchanged for system points. The abilities he acquired from the “system” were also stored in his own “crystal energy”.

In other words, the abilities he acquired from the “system” had just been “mined” by Xiang Kun.

Xiang Kun stood up and looked down at Fan Jiading on the ground, wilted like a beaten eggplant, “Consider this my reward for successfully completing the challenge. Now you are no longer qualified to carry out ‘tasks’. Start from scratch and train hard! When you become a Chosen One again, come find me to reclaim your ‘crystal energy’.”

Even though what he said sounded childish, it made complete sense to Fan Jiading.

He gritted his teeth to bear the burning pain from the wound on his waist and asked maliciously, “At least tell me your name, how am I supposed to find you in the future?”

Xiang Kun shook his head, “The ‘system’ will tell you.”

The reason why he put so much effort into this “acting” with Fan Jiading was not to toy with this poor “mutated parasite” host, but to help him return to normal life with the least amount of trauma, this was also the part of the treatment plan of psychiatrist Xia Libing.

Through the memory regression within the “Dream in A Dream”, Xiang Kun and Old Xia knew that Fan Jiading, like the “Vampire Patient”, had not truly harmed other people yet. His life could still be salvaged, and there was still a chance for him to return to the right track.

Regardless of the crime-attempting “Vampire Patient”, the male victim in Zi Huan Mountain, or the passerby who killed and then fled to Yangcheng before finally dying from falling off a building – in essence, they are all victims. If they were not influenced by the “mutated parasite”, it is highly likely they wouldn’t have done those things and would have had a normal life.

To Xiang Kun, the “mutated parasite” could be regarded as a live specimen for his study of “mutated creatures,” but the hosts were all pitiful victims, and every one of them he could save was worthwhile.

Xiang Kun, with the unresponsive “mutated parasite”, walked to the door and turned back to Fan Jiading.

“Go to the hospital and have your wound looked at. You know what to say, right?”

He was very precise in making the cut; it was not very deep. Although it seemed a lot of blood was spilled, most of it was brought out by the “mutated parasite”.

The repairing ability of Fan Jiading’s body, having undergone the modification of the “mutated parasite”, was much better than the promotion of his strength, speed, and reaction. After a little treatment, he probably wouldn’t even have a scar left, just like the “Vampire Patient”.

Of course, according to Xiang Kun’s speculation, such an enhancement in healing ability may bring about some undesirable side effects. The “mutated parasite” only used the host as a carrier and wouldn’t genuinely consider the comprehensive living conditions of the host.

Upon hearing Xiang Kun’s words, Fan Jiading glared at him resentfully, “Of course, revealing the ‘Chosen System’ to ordinary people would result in being erased by the system. I’m not stupid.”

Having lost to Xiang Kun, and losing his “crystal energy,” Fan Jiading was depressed. However, he accepted his defeat and was already starting to reconsider whether the way he exchanged abilities was correct.

“Hey!” Seeing Xiang Kun opening the door to leave, Fan Jiading couldn’t help but call out to him.

“One day, I will personally take back what I lost!”

Xiang Kun chuckled in response and then closed the door and left.

Fan Jiading, still lying on the ground with one hand covering the wound on his lower back, knocked his forehead on the floor, suddenly regretting what he just said. He originally thought that such a declaration of intent would be inspiring and full of passion, but having said it out loud, he realized…

How awkward!