How Come It's You?

What if "Mental Intimidation" and "Emotional Assimilation" could be used simultaneously?

The scenario that immediately came to Xiang Kun's mind was a gang leader leading a group of thugs to beat him up. He would then use "Mental Intimidation" on the gang leader, putting him into a suppressed and rigid state. The other thugs, influenced by "Emotional Assimilation," would then unleash a brutal beating on the gang leader...

However, with the current good public security, and since he's not the type to cause trouble, this situation is unlikely to occur. It's still more suitable for warfare in the era of cold weapons.

But Xiang Kun felt that his judgment might be wrong.

At the beginning, he discovered that one of the most important differences between "Mental Intimidation" and "Emotional Assimilation" is that the former focuses on the target, while the latter focuses entirely on one's own emotions. Therefore, he felt that the two abilities could not be used at the same time.

After developing an "Emotional Assimilation" by targeting seat-hogging passengers on high-speed trains and argumentative people on subways, he felt that the two abilities might be able to work simultaneously in certain situations.

However, upon further reflection, although his emotional target during the "Emotional Assimilation" on the bullet train was the person occupying the seat, he didn't directly influence the person through his senses; the latter didn't sense Xiang Kun's anger towards him at all. In the subway car just now, he was still merely "observing" the two arguing passengers from a distance, imagining their argument as a comedy. Although these two were the targets of his emotions, they themselves weren't aware of it, so it's still fundamentally different from "Mental Intimidation."

If the person occupying the seat and the two arguing passengers are directly influenced and intimidated by Xiang Kun's emotions, then it is very likely that there will be no "Emotional Assimilation" but rather "Mental Intimidation".

Because both abilities are actually area-of-effect influences, "Mental Intimidation" makes the target experience one's own emotions, and then slightly affects other creatures of the same kind as the target, making them have the same feelings as the target; "Emotional Assimilation" directly affects the humans around them, making them have the same feelings as Xiang Kun.

So fundamentally, the two abilities actually lead to different types of "data types" that are accepted by those around them.

Therefore, it seems that using them simultaneously is not as simple as it appears.

Xiang Kun's current exploration, research, training, and guidance of his own abilities are focused on areas related to the brain, consciousness, spirit, emotions, and thinking, because he believes that this is the only way for him to truly control the mutation and find the cause of his own mutation.

It was almost 7 p. m. when Xiang Kun got home. On the way, he received a WeChat message from "Little Apple" who mentioned that she had a dream last night about Minions performing stand-up comedy.

Because she hadn't dreamed for a very long time. Even when she did dream occasionally before, it was always just simple things like sounds or sensations of falling, and she would forget them all when she woke up.

This was the first time I'd ever dreamt of a crosstalk performance like last night, and I laughed so hard that I could vaguely remember the dream after waking up.

Xiang Kun could tell from "Little Apple's" voice that she was indeed very happy and excited, so it seemed that last night's dream had clearly had a positive effect on her mood.

In that case, he could confidently influence "Little Apple's" emotions from time to time through that Minion, making her dream, and then, while she was dreaming, experience and "learn" those ways of cognition that were completely different from those of ordinary people.

Today, after regaining consciousness, Xiang Kun found that when he looked at the Minion Wooden Carving or searched his memory for the sound of "Gold Glitter," he could still use the special perspective from the "Little Apple" dream to form a cognition. However, when he listened to the calls of other birds or looked at other objects, it was difficult for him to clearly feel that way of cognition anymore. It was as if he knew how to do some actions, but just couldn't do them.

Xiang Kun believes this is because "Little Apple" had touched and perceived the Minion Wooden Carving in detail, and had also heard "Gold Glitter's" cry. In essence, he was still relying on "Little Apple's" thinking to establish this special perspective of cognition.

Therefore, when he encounters things that "Little Apple" has not perceived, he has no way to build cognition using "Little Apple's" cognitive patterns.

After I got home, I checked my QQ again and saw a message from that old forum buddy.

Before leaving home in the morning, Xiang Kun had already left him a message on QQ, saying that he hadn't seen his message before, and also indicating that he had no intention of going to Pengcheng to meet, nor would he go to Pengcheng to lead a team or participate in projects for the other party. At most, he could only accept outsourcing commissions, but whether or not he would accept them depended on understanding the other party's needs.

This was actually a rather tactful refusal, Xiang Kun believed that his old friend was experienced and would understand.

Indeed, shortly after he sent the message, just as he boarded the subway, he received a reply from his old friend, saying that he would communicate with them and that they could cooperate again if there were other outsourced jobs in the future.

Unexpectedly, at this time, his old friend messaged him on QQ, saying that the technical director who had been wanting to meet Xiang Kun was currently on a business trip in Xiang Kun's city and asked if they could meet and talk.

Xiang Kun was a little surprised. Could this guy have come all the way to this city just for him?

Although he communicated with his old buddies from the forum using QQ and addressed each other by their old forum IDs, they actually knew each other's real identities after their last collaboration, including their real names and previous companies.

After all, their cooperation was legal and not some shady business.

So it's perfectly normal for the people on his side to know which city he's in.

"It probably wasn't a special trip, since there was no prior contact. I heard him say that he went on a business trip with his boss, who suddenly had another project he wanted to work on, and he came along to provide technical support. Oh, by the way, the current boss isn't the same investor who gave us the job before; he was parachuted in and took over that investor's position."

Judging from the old man's words, he seemed quite regretful, indicating that he had previously had a good working relationship with his benefactor.

Xiang Kun thought for a while. Since the other party had already come to the city, it wouldn't hurt to meet them. Although the cooperation was unlikely to succeed, they were already here, so he had no reason to hold them back.

Besides, he was also curious as to why the other party trusted him so much and kept extending olive branches to recruit him. He didn't think it was really the code from the outsourced job he did last time that impressed the technical director, unless his code also had the ability to "Emotional Assimilation"—but that was obviously impossible.

So Xiang Kun agreed to let his old friend give his WeChat to the director so that the director could contact him.

A few minutes later, Xiang Kun received a friend request. After accepting it, the other party immediately sent a message:

"Is this Brother Qiankun?"

"It's me, Mr. Lin," Xiang Kun replied.

The other party was referring to Xiang Kun's online name on the forum, probably because the middleman had also mainly used his online name when communicating with him. Of course, Xiang Kun's online name is no longer the cringeworthy "Qiankun Great Emperor"; after starting work, he adopted the ID "Reverse Heaven and Earth" on several technical forums.

After a brief chat, including introductions and pleasantries, the director surnamed Lin asked directly, "Mr. Xiang, have you had dinner yet? Would you like to come out for some more?"

"No, I just ate. If you're eating, we can talk later?"

Director Lin then arranged to meet Xiang Kun at 8:30 p. m., at a coffee shop downstairs in a five-star hotel.

Xiang Kun checked the time, calculated the possible travel time, and then headed out.

While riding the subway, Xiang Kun searched for information about Director Lin's company based on his previous self-introduction, investigating the possible identities of his "financial backers" and "bosses," as well as their potential future development direction. Although he felt that the possibility of cooperation was slim, he still habitually conducted this kind of basic investigation beforehand.

Xiang Kun arrived at the hotel's coffee shop at 8:13. After giving his name, Director Lin, the waiter told him that Mr. Lin and his group were already waiting in a private room.

Now, whenever Xiang Kun enters a new area, his first reaction is to activate the infrared imaging visual mode and quickly scan the area. This allows him to quickly identify Mutated Creature of his kind, while simultaneously using his hearing and sense of smell to gather various information.

As Xiang Kun followed the waiter toward the private room, he had already determined that there were three people in the room: one man and two women.

As Xiang Kun stood at the door of the private room, he recognized one of the women inside by her scent.

When the waiter gently knocked on the door of the private room, Xiang Kun's mind immediately matched the scent with the person in his memory—one of the two girls he and Zi Cheng had "picked up" at the bar on the night of September 9th.

At the time, there were two girls. One was Yang Jie, a bespectacled girl who was studying for a master's degree at a university near the bar. Xiang Kun and Chang Bin had run into her and her younger brother again when they went to the bar before. The other was Zhang Qian, who had returned from studying in the UK.

The woman in the private room right now is Zhang Qian.

"Please come in." The voice that answered the waiter's knock was male, clearly Director Lin.

The door to the private room opened, revealing a man in his forties wearing a shirt and gold-rimmed glasses, and two women in dark suits. One of them, who looked to be in her thirties with a rather stern expression, was clearly an assistant or secretary. The other was a young woman with short, shoulder-length hair and a healthy complexion. The latter was Zhang Qian, whom Xiang Kun and Zi Cheng had met at the bar on the evening of September 9th but had not exchanged any contact information with.

Zhang Qian was dressed very casually back then, looking like a girl who exercises regularly. Now, wearing a business suit and earrings, she immediately exudes the aura of a strong woman.

Upon seeing Xiang Kun enter the private room with the waiter, Zhang Qian was standing up waiting for Director Lin's introduction, was taken aback and instinctively exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

Logically, Xiang Kun should have reacted accordingly, feigning surprise and saying, "How come it's you?"

But since he had no ulterior motives for coming here, he was too lazy to put on an act, so he nodded with a smile and said, "It really is me."

Thanks to the new leader "Stardust zetcoy", and thanks to the book friends Qingyidianxiaoer, Hope to Become a Lucky Emperor Today, Mint Gate, Lonely Walker, Demon Mad Saint God, Book Friends 20190930200844132, TimeKeeper, Hell Mingshi, idateyou, Sky's Micro Dust, I am Unqualified, and Hope When I Look Back, Jasmine Blossoms and Bells Ring for their donations.