Chapter 392 - Chapter 392: Chapter 392 The Chosen One (Part 2) (1/2)

Chapter 392: Chapter 392 The Chosen One (Part 2)

After “observing” in Fan Jiading’s dream for a while, Xia Libing began to co-manifest in the dream, probing and guiding Fan Jiading’s subconscious.

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.