The Chosen One (Part 3)

After "observing" Fan Jiading's dream for a while, Xia Libing began to appear in the dream, exploring and guiding Fan Jiading's subconscious.

What Xiang Kun found somewhat amusing was that Xia Libing's figure appearing in his dream was the same as the one that first appeared in Mi Qiao's "Dream Within a Dream"—a paper doll with a panda expression.

Xiang Kun Lao Xia, mainly providing Lao Xia with the ability to edit dreams.

Under Lao Xia's guidance, Fan Jiading gradually revealed his deeply hidden subconscious memories in his dream, presenting them to Xiang Kun and Lao Xia in the form of images.

After learning about Fan Jiading's true experience of being parasitized by the "Mutated Parasite" through those memory images, just like in the "Dream Within a Dream" of the "vampire patient," Xia Libing guided his subconscious in the dream to forget those real memory images.

If nothing is done, if Fan Jiading wakes up and recalls the real memories that Lao Xia guided him out of the "Dream Within a Dream," and discovers that an insect parasitized his body in a very direct way right in front of him, and that the crystal energy he drank from the chickens, ducks, geese, and other poultry he had killed was actually fresh blood, he might have a mental breakdown and go completely insane.

After emerging from the dream, Xiang Kun and Xia Libing, who had just woken up, communicated on WeChat and discussed their strategy for observing and capturing the "Mutated Parasite."

Xiang Kun planned to confront the host directly tonight and retrieve the "Mutated Parasite".

So he took off his coat and the T-shirt underneath, covered his face with the T-shirt, put on his coat, climbed directly through the window by the stairwell, and made his way to the door of Fan Jiading's rented suite on the third floor.

Although Fan Jiading didn't close the window properly when he went to sleep at night, Xiang Kun had previously used this to put the Black Circle Graffiti used to guide dreams into the room, the building had safety railings on both the windows and the balcony, so he couldn't climb over directly.

Standing at the door of Fan Jiading's rented room, Xiang Kun slipped five Super-Linked Object Coin under the door crack and then manipulated the Coin to cling to the doorknob inside, attempting to open the door.

However, the way he controls the Super-Linked Object Coin is by using the Super-Linked Object to influence the surrounding magnetic field to establish a magnetic track to guide its movement. Therefore, he can control the Coin's movement quite precisely. This method of clinging to and prying other objects is more difficult, and he had never practiced it before.

So the five Coin kept clattering on the doorknob for a while before the door was finally opened.

The commotion was quite loud. After the door opened, Xiang Kun knew from the sound that Fan Jiading had woken up, noticed the noise in the living room, and was getting up and walking over.

However, Xiang Kun wasn't worried, because his original purpose in coming in was to wake Fan Jiading.

As Fan Jiading reached the bedroom door, he looked at the tall man who had suddenly appeared in the living room—wearing a baseball cap and a veil—in the light shining from the bedroom. Instead of showing any panic, he laughed.

"Brother, it's really unfortunate that you've come to my place to commit burglary."

Fan Jiading's reaction was exactly what Xiang Kun had expected.

It's actually easy to understand. Fan Jiading now believes he has been strengthened by the "system" and has a very blind confidence in his own combat power. He basically has a "I can take on ten of them" mentality.

Honestly, if we were in Xiang Kun's shoes, and he discovered a thief had broken into his house in the middle of the night, he would probably be curious, even amused or amused. He might even chat with the thief first, then pack the thief up and deliver it to Officer Chen.

However, Xiang Kun's next sentence caused Fan Jiading's expression to change drastically.

"Are you the chosen one?" Xiang Kun asked in a cold tone.

Fan Jiading frowned, instinctively adopting a defensive stance. "You... how did you know?"

He then seemed to understand something and exclaimed in surprise, "You're also a Chosen One?"

Xiang Kun said directly, "What's so strange about other Chosen Ones? You don't think you're the only one with the 'Chosen System,' do you? Haven't you received the mission notification yet? I've already issued a challenge to you."

"Huh?!" Fan Jiading looked a little confused, his eyes were blank, and he was stunned for a moment, as if his brain had crashed.

Xiang Kun continued, "The 'Chosen One System' stipulates that Chosen Ones can challenge other Chosen Ones, and the winner gains the crystal energy of the loser. You don't even know this?"

"Yes... a challenge system, it's a challenge system. There should be other chosen ones, that makes perfect sense..." Fan Jiading seemed to have suddenly realized something, and muttered to himself.

Xiang Kun had been observing Fan Jiading's expression and physical changes, and judged that he had followed his words to "fill in the gaps" and perfect the "system settings," and knew that his and Lao Xia's previous speculation about the effects of parasites on hosts was correct.

The "Mutated Parasite" cannot determine the specific hallucinations produced by the host. It can only provide the host with a driving force and a final action goal in some way. As for how to imagine the process and how to make the host feel more at ease and have stronger subjective initiative to carry it out, it all depends on the host's own imagination.

Based on the "vampire patient's" condition, Xiang Kun knew that the "Mutated Parasite" had an impact on the host's cognition, and that it would continue to exist even after the parasite left the host.

However, this effect can be interfered with, especially after the "Mutated Parasite" has separated from its host.

Previously, Xiang Kun and Lao Xia successfully used deep hypnosis within Dream Within a Dream to make the "vampire patient" feel that he was "not qualified" to be a "Bloodline" and did not have the "qualification" to drink blood. So he stopped obsessing over eating red food and started eating all kinds of vegetables every day and exercising hard to regain his "qualification".

Xiang Kun believed that when he directly presented Fan Jiading with a new "setting" that was illogical but fit his illusion system, Fan Jiading's instincts would automatically "rationalize" it—because otherwise, his entire illusion system might collapse.

Of course, the biggest variable is the "Mutated Parasite" still inside Fan Jiading's body. It cannot determine the specific hallucinations of the host, but it may issue new instructions to give the host new behavioral patterns, such as extremely strong aggression or self-destruction, directly believing that Xiang Kun does not exist or is a "monster" that the "system" wants to eliminate.

However, judging from Fan Jiading's reaction, the "Mutated Parasite" did not have any immediate impact.

Upon entering, Xiang Kun kept switching between visual modes, occasionally using infrared thermal imaging to observe the "Mutated Parasite" inside Fan Jiading's body. He discovered that after Fan Jiading woke up, the blue spot representing the parasite suddenly shrank considerably, as if it were hiding its body, trying to avoid something.

Xiang Kun immediately speculated that the "Mutated Parasite" was afraid because it had realized his existence as another "Mutated Creature."

However, if this is the case, some previous speculations about the sensory abilities of "Mutated Parasite" will have to be changed.

While Xiang Kun pondering, Fan Jiading had completely "convinced" himself and accepted his explanation. He slowly walked to the living room, turned on the light, and said, "According to the challenge settings of the Chosen One System, the challenger can only challenge Chosen Ones who have obtained more mission points than themselves. In other words... you have less mission points than me. I'm curious, what gave you the courage and confidence to come to my house in the middle of the night to challenge me? Could it be... you put all your points into combat-related abilities?"

"You can give it a try..."

Xiang Kun could finish speaking, Fan Jiading had already rushed forward, throwing punches.

Clearly, in his understanding, the challenges of the Chosen One system did not require following the rules of the arena, nor did they require counting down one, two, three before starting.

It's clear that Fan Jiading has strong explosive power, but his core muscle groups are actually not very stable. When he throws a punch, he doesn't get much power from his lower body.

His movement speed is faster than that of ordinary people, but it is still not as fast as that of a few athletes with excellent physical fitness. In Xiang Kun's eyes, who has super dynamic vision, it is as clear as slow motion.

However, Xiang Kun did not dodge or block backhand to avoid injuring his opponent. Instead, he accurately grabbed his opponent's right fist, pulled it back to slow down his momentum, and then directly used his abdomen to catch the opponent's left fist that followed.

Feeling as if his fist had smashed into a piece of hardened rubber, his wrist throbbing painfully, Fan Jiading looked up in astonishment, staring into Xiang Kun's eyes, and exclaimed, "You put all your points into defense?"

Before he could finish speaking, Xiang Kun kicked him away, his back slamming into the wall with a thud before he fell to the ground, unable to get up for a long time.

Of course, Xiang Kun also held back his strength when he kicked him; it was more of a push, and it didn't cause him any serious injury, only a temporary choking.

In that brief exchange, Xiang Kun had accurately assessed Fan Jiading's current physical condition.

Fan Jiading's improvement in muscle strength and explosiveness is actually far less than he subconsciously believes. It is only a considerable improvement compared to his previous self, but it is still inferior to that of athletes with strong physical qualities among ordinary people.

The so-called "strongman" ability was exchanged for "lv.3", but what he gained was more of a psychological boost. In reality, the parasite's modification of his body was very limited.

This is consistent with the judgment he and Lao Xia made from the "vampire patient".

Of course, these modifications are different from those made by ordinary people through training and diet. At their root, they are indeed somewhat different from those of ordinary humans, which is why Xiang Kun's cognitive information perceived in his "Hyper-Sensory State" is abnormal.

While Fan Jiading was still lying on the ground, not yet recovered, Xiang Kun went to his bedroom and pulled a folding knife from a backpack—the one he had seen earlier when he climbed to the window.

Back in the living room, Xiang Kun used his knee to restrain Fan Jiading, lifted the hem of his shirt, and quickly cut a small incision in his waist with a folding knife. He then immediately threw the knife away, inserted two fingers into the wound, and accurately pinched a small worm the size of a broad bean.

Although trapped in flesh and blood, Xiang Kun still discovered through infrared thermal imaging that the form of this "Mutated Parasite" was slightly different from the deep, real memories he had seen in the "vampire patient" that Lao Xia had guided out.

Countless tentacles, finer than a hair, extended from its body into Fan Jiading's body.

So after Xiang Kun grabbed it, he didn't pull it out immediately as originally planned. Instead, he waited a moment until the tiny tentacles retracted into its body before pulling it out of Fan Jiading's wound.

The whole process was actually very quick. From the moment the incision was made to the removal of the "Mutated Parasite," it took less than three seconds, including the slight pause while the parasite retracted its tentacles.

Because the knife was cut so quickly, Fan Jiading, who was still a little dazed from the fall, hadn't reacted in time. By the time he opened his mouth to scream, Xiang Kun had already removed the worm.

"Shut up!" Xiang Kun hissed, then held the insect in front of Fan Jiading and asked, "Do you know what this is?"

Fan Jiading stared blankly at the blood-soaked, seemingly lifeless spindle-shaped worm for a moment, then his expression turned dejected. He said with a mournful face, "It's my 'Crystal Energy,' you took my 'Crystal Energy'..."

Xiang Kun nodded. Just as he had predicted, even if the "Mutated Parasite" was removed, its psychological impact on the host would continue.

Even if the host cannot accept the scene in their original cognition, they will still automatically "fill in" it in their mind and make it a scene that can be integrated into the hallucination system.

In Fan Jiading's understanding of the system, the "crystal energy" he obtains from killing monsters to complete "system" tasks can be exchanged for system points, and the abilities he obtains from the system are stored in his own "crystal energy".

In other words, all the abilities he gained from the "system" have now been "poached" by Xiang Kun.

Xiang Kun stood up and looked down at Fan Jiading, who lay on the ground like a wilted eggplant. "This is my reward for successfully completing the challenge. You are no longer qualified to carry out the 'mission'. Start training from scratch! Come back to me to get your 'crystal energy' back when you become a Chosen One again."

Although these words sound childish and immature, they are perfectly reasonable to Fan Jiading.

He gritted his teeth, enduring the burning pain from the wound on his waist, and said resentfully, "At least tell me your name, otherwise how am I supposed to find you?"

Xiang Kun shook his head. "'The system' will tell you."

The reason he went to so much trouble to "act" with Fan Jiading was not to amuse this poor "Mutated Parasite" host, but to help him return to a normal life with as little impact as possible. This was also the "treatment method" of psychiatrist Xia Libing.

Through the memory replay within the "Dream Within a Dream," Xiang Kun and Lao Xia both learned that Fan Jiading, like the "vampire patient," had not truly harmed anyone else, and his life could still be saved, with a chance to get back on track.

Whether it's the "vampire patient" who attempted a crime, the male victim in Purple Huan Mountain, or the passerby who fled to Yang City after committing murder and ultimately fell to his death, they are all essentially victims. If they hadn't been infected and affected by the "Mutated Parasite," they most likely wouldn't have done those things and would have had normal lives.

Xiang Kun could treat the "Mutated Parasite" as a living sample of the "Mutated Creature" he was researching, but the hosts were all pitiful victims, and he would try to save as many as he could.

Xiang Kun, carrying the unresponsive "Mutated Parasite," walked to the door and turned to Fan Jiading, saying:

"You know how to say 'go to the hospital to treat your wound,' right?"

He was very careful with his cuts; they weren't very deep. Although it looked like a lot of blood had been drawn out, most of it was brought out by the "Mutated Parasite."

Having undergone modifications by a "Mutated Parasite," Fan Jiading's physical repair abilities far surpass the improvements in his strength, speed, and reaction time. A simple treatment at the hospital would likely leave no scars, just like that "vampire patient."

Of course, according to Xiang Kun's speculation, this improvement in repair ability may bring some unpleasant side effects. The "Mutated Parasite" only uses the host as a vehicle and does not really consider the host's overall survival.

Hearing Xiang Kun's words, Fan Jiading looked up and glared at him hatefully. "Nonsense, revealing the 'Chosen One System' to ordinary people will get you wiped out by the system. I'm not stupid."

Defeated by Xiang Kun and losing his "Crystal Energy," Fan Jiading was frustrated and dejected, but to be honest, he accepted the defeat wholeheartedly and even began to reflect on whether his method of exchanging abilities was incorrect.

"Hey!" Seeing Xiang Kun open the door to leave, Fan Jiading couldn't help but call out to him again.

"What I've lost, I will take back with my own hands one day!"

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

Fan Jiading, still lying on the ground with one hand covering the wound on his lower back, banged his forehead against the floor. He suddenly regretted saying what he had just said. He had thought it would be a declaration of his resolve, something inspiring, but after saying it, he realized...

How embarrassing!

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