Chapter 203: Ability Users Specializing in Influence
Chapter 203: Ability Users Specializing in Influence
“Addicted?”
Lu Xin initially felt nothing particularly special upon hearing Deputy General Manager Xiao’s account.
If it were merely nightmares… that seemed somewhat acceptable to him.
But when Deputy General Manager Xiao uttered his final sentence, Lu Xin suddenly realized the true problem.
Meeting Lu Xin’s gaze, Deputy General Manager Xiao clutched his own hair helplessly.
His meticulously washed and styled morning hairstyle immediately became disheveled.
Then, he exhaled a long sigh and deeply inhaled his cigarette: “Every single day, that person forced me to eat it—”
“To eat… something like that.”
“Though terrifyingly abnormal, I… my preferences were forcibly altered.”
“Some claim taste doesn’t exist in dreams. That’s false. We merely rarely recall dream tastes while awake. But during the dream itself? No matter how absurd, everything felt real. Daily within that nightmare, while consuming my… consuming that thing in every conceivable variation… I experienced an indescribable flavor. It haunts me even now, unforgettable upon waking.”
“Then, I craved meat obsessively. Tried every kind imaginable. Yet… nothing satisfied.”
Pausing breathlessly, exhaustion etched his features, Deputy General Manager Xiao fixed bloodshot eyes intently on Lu Xin, lowering his voice: “Nothing real compares. Compared to the taste in my dreams, reality is utter blandness… like chewing wood. I even… yearned to fall asleep faster.”
“…”
Lu Xin nodded calmly. “Truly disturbing.”
Deputy General Manager Xiao glanced at him, seeming wanting to speak, but merely sighed again.
“The dream terrors ceased to frighten me. But one day… I terrified myself in reality…”
His eyes brimmed with horrified panic: “Consuming it nightly yet tasting nothing upon waking—this desire builds, intensifying daily. Once, dining at home with Father… my little siblings approached to play. Carrying them? A horrifying thought surfaced…”
“I…”
He snapped his head up to face Lu Xin, face strained and frantic.
Amidst this chaos flickered an aberrant greed: “I had a very strong impulse… to devour them…”
Knowing no action followed the thought, Lu Xin offered a quiet nod.
“Discovering that thought horrified me…”
Seeing Lu Xin’s silence, Deputy General Manager Xiao continued slowly: “I avoided home since then. Previously I returned daily. Now? I live at the office relentlessly. Returning? I evade my little siblings at all costs. That sudden, overwhelming emotion surging within me… unbearable.”
Lu Xin expressed approbation: “You did the right thing.”
“But avoidance isn’t permanent…”
His agitation ebbed, leaving profound weariness: “I cannot perpetually hide. My family circumstance… perhaps you hear. Mother is gone, but Auntie cares deeply. Father is elderly; he adores my siblings. His deepest fear? Future disharmony among us.”
“I am far older. Had I ill will? They could never oppose me. Father splitting properties prematurely would cripple our fiercely contested family assets…”
“Thus, Father scrutinizes my care for them…”
“Honestly? My swift rise owes much to Father and Auntie’s faith—faith I cherish my siblings and could never harm them. Otherwise? Auntie might have obstructed me long ago…”
“I genuinely cherish her… cherishing our harmony.”
“Yet… these dreams persist. My abnormality deepens.”
“This truth? Even they cannot know. Nor anyone at all…”
“Just fear… that one slip ensures eternal ruin…”
His words faltered. A prolonged silence preceded a sigh: “This time? Only because Father and Auntie journeyed to Main City for permanent residency procedures… leaving my school-attending siblings in Satellite City No.2 requiring my care. Only then did I permit closeness. Yet yesterday… I truly…”
“Terror seized me. I fled their hotel immediately. Their very clamor for attention fueled my fear. Mercifully, by coincidence, police arrived investigating unrelated matters… I seized the pretext to lodge overnight at the Guard Bureau…”
……
Deputy General Manager Xiao rambled incessantly, pale-faced, hair disheveled, complex eyes radiating utter breakdown.
Lu Xin paid little heed, contemplating the described scenario.
Daily identical dreams? Consuming siblings? Mounting addiction?
…What classified this phenomenon?
Exactly which Source of Contamination had he encountered?
Would such contamination truly affect only one?
Or might the entire family now lie exposed?
If so…
Lu Xin pondered momentarily, recalling a specific Ability User classification:
Dreamweaver.
Could an Ability User wielding such power truly inflict this?
……
……
“You… why remain silent?”
Deputy General Manager Xiao spoke on his own for a while but received no response from Lu Xin.
He looked up to see Lu Xin frowning, lost in thought, and panicked, “Do I have no hope?”
“Huh?”
Lu Xin gave a start, then shook his head. “No, I was thinking about something else.”
Deputy General Manager Xiao stared at him pleadingly. “You said you have experience dealing with this sort of thing, so…”
Lu Xin pondered for a moment. “Wait a moment, I need to make a phone call first.”
With that, he picked up his bag, turned, and walked out of the office.
“Rustle…”
As he exited the office, countless eyes instantly focused on Lu Xin.
All his colleagues stared at him dumbly, their eyes full of curiosity.
Especially Director Liu, who was currently squeezed into Lu Xin’s small cubicle because his own office had been taken over. His head snapped up at Lu Xin’s exit. He looked first at Lu Xin, then back at the office door, fearing blood might seep out or a body might topple onto the floor…
…He’d been waiting for the sound of gunfire from the office, his heart growing increasingly anxious.
……
……
Preoccupied, Lu Xin ignored them and headed straight for the stairwell corridor.
He pulled out the cigarettes Deputy General Manager Xiao had given him in the tin box, lit one, and dialed a number.
“Good morning, Mr. Lone Soldier…”
Han Bing’s voice sounded as pleasant as ever.
“Oh, oh, good morning…”
Lu Xin hurriedly returned the greeting, paused awkwardly for a second, and managed, “Have you eaten breakfast?”
“I have.”
Han Bing answered with a laugh, adding, “Ate wonton soup.”
“Good, that’s good…”
Lu Xin collected himself, deciding not to dwell on breakfast topics. He lowered his voice. “That Deputy General Manager Xiao I mentioned yesterday, he came to see me at the company today… No need to worry, he doesn’t seem to be a psycho killer, and I haven’t eliminated him… The reason he became like this is that for the past month, he’s been plagued by a strange dream. Every night, he’s forced to eat his…”
He described the situation as briefly as possible before asking slowly, “So, what do you think is going on here?”
“A Dreamweaver Ability User?”
Han Bing reacted quickly, her tone calm. “It seems like he’s under a powerful psychological suggestion, creating a twisted desire.”
“Yes.”
Lu Xin agreed. “That’s what I considered too. So I have a question…”
Han Bing spoke softly, “Mr. Lone Soldier, if it truly is a Dreamweaver Ability User influencing him, that indicates the situation is quite serious. Moreover, Dreamweaver Ability Users are different. They belong to the Influence-type… they’re hard to deal with…”
“Influence-type?”
Lu Xin was momentarily taken aback by this term.
He vaguely felt he’d heard of it somewhere.
Han Bing quickly explained, “This is also part of the Ability User training, you’ll learn about it soon.”
“Regarding the increasing number of Ability Users since the Crimson Moon Incident, one of our approaches is documentation. Every time a new ability is discovered, it’s recorded, named, and the information is shared among the Alliance.”
“But due to the scarcity and often twisted nature of many abilities, our records are rarely complete.”
“Sometimes, we only capture one, or a few characteristics of an ability, making it difficult to fully document.”
“Therefore, we also group together abilities with similar natures. That way, even if we temporarily can’t investigate the full capabilities of certain adversaries or anomalous entities, we can make broad predictions and references based on their category.”
“Dreamweaver-type and Hypnotism-type are both categorized as Influence-type because their primary ability is influencing opponents.”
“And the Princess-type and Puppet-type both involve manipulation and control of others, so they belong to the Domination-type.”
“Additionally, there are Distortion-type, Terror-type, Hell squad, and so on…”
“……”
“So complex…”
Lu Xin finally grasped it, simultaneously recalling that similar terms were mentioned by Qin Ran from Happy Town.
He asked instinctively, “What about the Annihilation group?”
Han Bing paused, then chuckled, “Annihilation group? There doesn’t seem to be such a category.”
“Oh, oh.”
Lu Xin thought he probably remembered it wrong and didn’t press further. After a brief pause, he said, “But that’s not actually what I meant to ask.”
“Oh?”
One could almost imagine a small question mark popping up above Han Bing’s head.
Lu Xin still felt a bit embarrassed; his face reddened, but he asked anyway: “Umm…”
“If I take this case, it counts as a task, right?”
“How much is the pay?”
“……”
Han Bing herself paused for a second before laughing brightly. “Mr. Lone Soldier, dealing with Ability Users who break the law is different from handling Sources of Contamination. Because these delinquent Ability Users, if left uncontained, often cause massive chaos in Qinggang City using their own powers. So, handling matters related to them… the minimum reward starts at fifty thousand…”
“Flick!”
Lu Xin cut off the long ash on his cigarette; a smile spread across his face. “Alright.”