Mutated Ability Crystal Core

"All right, that's enough."

Cheng Jing gestured to Huang Qian and Jiang Nian. Understanding, they turned and left.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

The woman kept apologizing to herself. She felt her throat stiffen, her voice growing muffled and hoarse.

She slowly closed her eyes, and the faces of her daughter and husband gradually blurred in her mind...

After leaving the bedroom, Jiang Nian looked at Xiao Ya, who lay unconscious on the sofa. A trace of coldness flashed in his eyes, but he also felt a private pang of pain. He clenched his back teeth, torn by an inner struggle:

Besides the woman in the room, this girl was an accomplice too! Even if she was being controlled, there was no complete judicial process in the world as it was now. It was only right that a life be paid for with a life!

But she was just a pitiful child under her mother's control. Her ability had controlled her too, leaving her unable to act of her own free will. She wasn't wrong to want to save her father. Her mother's deception was what was wrong...

"..."

Jiang Nian bent down and unconsciously placed a hand on Xiao Ya's neck, but it trembled violently. He wanted to squeeze, yet he could not bring himself to do it.

Suddenly, Huang Qian, who had finished sending the others a message to regroup, walked over. Her gaze passed over his hand as she said:

"I was careful with how hard I hit her. She won't die. Let's go. It stinks in here."

With that, she paid no attention to the stunned Jiang Nian. She picked Xiao Ya up, blanket and all, and headed for the door.

"..."

Jiang Nian clenched his right hand into a fist, stood up, and swallowed a few times before calling out to her:

"Sister Qian..."

Huang Qian paused and turned around.

"What is it?"

"I..."

Jiang Nian suddenly found himself at a loss for words and felt a little short of breath.

I think we should kill her! I want to kill her! She deserves to die! She should pay with her life! Her whole world has collapsed. She'll have a breakdown when she wakes up. She'd be better off dead...

A string of words hovered on the tip of his tongue, but when he met Huang Qian's gaze and saw the deathly pale little face in her arms, he could neither say them nor swallow them.

After meeting his eyes for a moment, Huang Qian softened her voice.

"Jiang Nian?"

"..."

Jiang Nian finally took a deep breath and lowered his head.

"...Let's go."

Huang Qian turned with Xiao Ya in her arms, glanced down at her, and walked out.

The people Zhou Li had sent were waiting outside the apartment door. Huang Qian told them it was resolved, and they went downstairs together.

A few minutes later, flames suddenly lit up apartment 1805. A bloodcurdling scream rang out from the foul-smelling doorway and spread throughout the residential complex.

Zhao Lei soon gathered the rest of the team and joined them downstairs. Seeing Xiao Ya in Huang Qian's arms, he did not ask any further questions.

Jiang Nian's air was a little oppressive, though, and no one dared speak to him casually.

More than ten minutes later, Cheng Jing came downstairs after "high-temperature disinfecting" the whole of apartment 1805.

After a brief discussion, Cheng Jing told the others to head back first. He, Jiang Nian, and Huang Qian took Xiao Ya to the command room.

Cheng Jing told Zhou Li the whole story, from beginning to end, and concluded:

"That's what happened. Xiao Ya was controlled, but she did become an accomplice... Her mother's deception and control pushed her into an irredeemable situation."

"..."

Zhou Li nodded after a moment's serious thought.

"I understand, but she's only twelve, after all. Under the current circumstances, we can't investigate the matter any further..."

Jiang Nian asked from the side:

"Then what do we do?"

"..."

Zhou Li looked back and forth at them for a moment before asking:

"Why didn't you kill her just now?"

"..."

All three were taken aback.

Seeing that, Zhou Li sighed softly.

"You couldn't bring yourselves to kill a child, could you? Besides, she's a victim as well as an accomplice."

"..."

Cheng Jing and Huang Qian nodded at the same time. Jiang Nian lowered his eyes without speaking. That was the judgment a normal person's conscience and morals should lead them to.

"If you'd 'accidentally' killed her or your hand had 'slipped' just now, the case would have ended with all the criminal suspects dead."

Zhou Li glanced at Xiao Ya and continued:

"Once a certain moment has passed, some things have to be handled another way. She's an offender, but she's also a victim and a minor. Now that she's here, I can't let you kill her."

"..."

Cheng Jing and Huang Qian said nothing. Jiang Nian asked in a subdued voice:

"We can't just let it go like this, can we? We can't get past it like this."

"Of course we won't just let it go. Every wrong has a price, let alone a serious crime involving more than a dozen lives. The charge of being an accomplice isn't a light one either."

Zhou Li spoke firmly, then changed tack:

"However, I don't currently have the means to transfer her. The resources aren't in place, and because the case involves the deaths of several official rescue personnel, it would be difficult for us to take her in. You're responsible for the commissioned case and are exceptionally strong, so I'd like to ask you for a favor."

He had considered the possibility of this happening from the beginning, which was why he had found a team he could trust. He had no other choice.

Cheng Jing had a guess. He looked at Jiang Nian and Huang Qian before asking seriously:

"What kind of favor?"

Zhou Li replied just as seriously:

"As the official in charge of the western district settlement in Qingyun City, I'd like to ask you, on humanitarian grounds, to help supervise this child for the time being. Afterward, take her to the base to register her and arrange for her placement. Resources are limited at present, and all similar cases involving juvenile offenders are being handled this way."

"What will you tell the victims' families?"

Jiang Nian asked, frowning.

Zhou Li answered frankly:

"We'll tell them the truth, but not now. Putting a child out there now would only cause unnecessary chaos. The state takes juvenile offenders seriously, and there will be a unified solution. I'll make a clear record of this case, and Xiao Ya will stand trial as she should."

The collapse of law and morality left them feeling powerless in matters like this. But no matter how chaotic the world became, the state still existed, and officials like them had to uphold the crumbling order.

"..."

Jiang Nian fell silent, then nodded. His indignation came from seeing things from the victims' perspective, while Zhou Li had more to consider.

Cheng Jing's thoughts raced as he privately weighed his own plans. He guessed what Jiang Nian was thinking and knew Zhou Li had approached them because of their professional identities. After exchanging a glance with Huang Qian, he nodded.

"All right, we agree to supervise Xiao Ya for the time being."

"Then I'll leave it to you."

Zhou Li's expression relaxed, and he thanked them again. The involvement of officials among the victims made the matter sensitive. In these extraordinary times, he could only resort to this expedient and ask a powerful team that had always dealt with the authorities before the apocalypse to help, then wait for the furor to pass and stabilize the situation before deciding what came next.

The matter was settled for the time being. The three left the command room, leaving the authorities to announce the outcome and reassure everyone.

By the time everything was cleared up, it was already midnight.

Lying in bed, Cheng Jing took out two thumb-sized, oval ability crystal cores and handed them to Jiang Nian.

"I got these when I dealt with Xiao Ya's parents. The pale gold one was her father's, and the misty white one was her mother's."

"Ability crystal cores..."

Jiang Nian had mixed feelings. They had both formed crystal cores and were at the same level as Brother Jing. But mental abilities were harder to fathom, and even someone at the same level or a higher one could easily fall victim if caught off guard.

He examined them carefully and noticed a black dot in the center of the misty white core, spreading outward in a gradual gradient.

"Hm?"

Thinking he had seen wrong, Jiang Nian felt around by the headboard, found a flashlight, and switched it on to take a closer look. There really was a black dot in the center of the misty white core, bleeding outward like an ink painting. It was rather pretty. He could not help muttering in surprise:

"Did this... mutate?"

Hearing that, Cheng Jing leaned closer.

"What do you mean?"

Jiang Nian frowned deeply and stared at the core as he told him:

"Normally, a single-attribute ability crystal core is a solid color. Only a dual-attribute mutated core like yours has two colors. Xiao Ya's mother's ability was purely mental control. The black dot appearing in her core means it mutated..."

Then he muttered to himself, rejecting the idea:

"...How is that possible?"

Cheng Jing did not know much about ability users' crystal cores. Seeing him mutter to himself and struggle with the idea, he asked curiously:

"What's impossible? Can a mental ability control zombies after it mutates?"

"No..."

Jiang Nian shook his head, his brow furrowed deeply.

"Leaving aside whether a mutated mental ability can control zombies, the fact that an ability mutated at all is extraordinary enough..."

"Put it this way: people capable of awakening abilities already have strong mental power, and once an ability awakens, its attribute stabilizes. In my previous life, research institutes at the various bases all conducted experiments trying to interfere with ability mutation. None of them succeeded in the end."

Cheng Jing's interest was piqued.

"Tell me more."

"Mm, here's how it was..."

Jiang Nian rubbed the ability crystal core and thought back, slowly telling him the relevant research findings he had heard about in his previous life:

In his previous life, researchers had proposed that if they could interfere with abilities and change them into the desired attribute types, humanity would have a better chance against zombies and suffer fewer casualties.

The idea and concept were sound, so many ability users volunteered to serve as test subjects, but all the experiments ultimately failed.

Quite a few ability users even died during the experiments, or had their crystal cores rupture and be removed, turning them back into ordinary people.

In the end, the experimental research reached this conclusion:

The energy attributes of ability crystal cores were too stable for humans to control. Only resonance at different frequencies between energies could induce an ability crystal core to mutate.

As for how to make energies resonate at different frequencies, that depended on chance.

"..."

Returning from his memories, Jiang Nian sighed.

"The expert teams at the various bases tried many ways to disrupt the energy's stability, but they couldn't find any pattern in the necessary conditions. No matter what they did, the crystal cores didn't change in the slightest, so in the end they declared it unsolvable."

"I see..."

After listening to Jiang Nian's explanation, Cheng Jing had a clearer idea. He looked again at the black dot in the center of the misty white core.

"Then this is... a special mutation?"

Jiang Nian snorted softly.

"It's more than a special mutation. Judging by the experts' research in my previous life, this is practically a miracle."

"..."

Cheng Jing thought for a moment, then said:

"This kind of mutation was probably affected by the relationship between the owners of the ability crystal cores, something like how well their minds were attuned to each other... Simply interfering with the energy of a particular core wouldn't be enough to overcome its stable attributes."

"That's very possible."

Jiang Nian nodded in agreement. Recalling the woman's determination to save her husband, her obsession so strong that she had even disregarded her daughter, and combining that with the experts' theories, he made a private guess:

Perhaps it was because she had kept using her ability to control her husband from the early stages of his infection, without stopping even after he had fully turned into a zombie. While he was transforming, she had wanted to hold on to the man she loved, and he had wanted to cooperate with her...

Driven by their mutual understanding and fixation, the couple had caused the energies in the cores to resonate at different frequencies. The woman's desire to keep "communicating" with her husband had caused her ability to change without her realizing it.

That was also why, even though the man had already become a zombie, she could still control him and make him stay quiet.

Of course, this was only speculation. After all, when something with such stable attributes mutated, there was more than just one or two causes.

"..."

Setting his tangled thoughts aside for the moment, Jiang Nian handed both crystal cores to Cheng Jing.

"Whatever the case, put them away for now. They might be useful someday. Brother Jing, they'll be safer with you."

He was not capable enough himself. If people found out, he might not be able to keep them.

"All right."

Cheng Jing did not refuse. Special things often meant danger, so it was best for him to carry them.

He put away the crystal cores and switched off the flashlight, plunging the room into darkness.

They sat in silence, and just as Jiang Nian was about to say good night, Cheng Jing suddenly pulled him into a tight embrace.

P.S.:

[Xiao Ya's story isn't over. The authorities have their reasons for the commission, and the protagonists have their own considerations for accepting it. She won't become a member of the protagonist group. She has consequences she must bear. This is both foreshadowing and an explanation of how the authorities handle juvenile offenders during the apocalypse.]

[If you can't accept the protagonists taking Xiao Ya along for the time being, you can drop the story. Don't force yourself, and please don't distort an unfinished plot to attack, insult, or leave bad reviews. Anyone can say nasty things. Thank you for your kindness.]

[The protagonists aren't overly nice people. Everything they do is connected to their professional identities, and there's also the fact that they've remained close to the authorities both before and after the apocalypse. Everything has a reason.]

[Keep hostility out, and respect one another! I hope everyone finds novels they enjoy (●v●)]