"What do you mean what's going on? You were reacting the same way before."
As soon as the words fell, the man who had just spoken suddenly lowered his head, stayed silent for a while, and then threw back his head and howled.
Brother Li watched and said speechlessly, "As expected, the reaction to bug powder and to the plant is still a bit different. Looks like the bug still hasn't come out. How about adding more salt, more dose?"
Although Brother Li's words sounded like a question, his actions were decisive. As soon as he finished speaking, he pulled out an entire bag of salt, opened the door, and walked inside.
The crazed people immediately reached out their twisted hands toward Brother Li, but Huang Jinghe took the chance to bind them to the bars with his water ability. Then Brother Li poured the whole bag of salt straight into one person's mouth.
Afraid the man would spit it out and waste it, Brother Li pulled out a bottle of water and forced it all down his throat. Then Brother Li retreated, and once Huang Jinghe released his power, the man who had swallowed the salt began coughing violently. The coughing soon turned into gagging, and in the end, a worm really did crawl out of his mouth.
Everyone in the base knew what that meant. Someone immediately stomped the worm dead, and the man collapsed unconscious again.
One after another, others inside started coughing as well. Soon, all of them had collapsed. Finally, the room grew quiet.
…
Staring at the thirty-one collapsed figures, Lao Gao asked, "Since they spit out the bugs, they should be fine now, right? That's how it worked for me."
Brother Li paused. "What do you mean, that's how it worked for you? Weren't the three of you the same?"
Huang Jinghe chuckled. "The three of us never ate bug powder. Only Lao Gao did. Later, he scratched us, and that was how we ended up with abilities."
Brother Li nodded, remembering. "Right, I recall some people in the base gained powers that way too."
Lan Jin glanced at the unconscious figures. "After all that suffering, if they don't gain any ability, that would be a real pity."
But Brother Li shook his head. "Not everyone awakens powers. Back then, when someone suddenly went mad in the cafeteria, they injured many others. All those people went through madness, but only a handful ended up with powers. The rest stayed ordinary, and nearly half of them died. Let alone higher tier abilities."
The fact that all four of them here had powers—and that each one was strong—was already a great stroke of luck.
The incident back then was huge. Everyone saw it, everyone knew. Brother Li was not lying or hiding anything. Even Brother Zhang had mentioned it before. So the four of them truly felt nervous for these thirty-one people.
But was it really luck that they had all awakened powers? No. The spiritual spring water had played a decisive role. Not only had it raised their chances of awakening, it had also made their abilities far stronger than ordinary ones.
…
Once everything calmed, all they could do was wait.
While the people lay unconscious, Brother Li brought in several men to check their temperatures. On average, they all burned above forty degrees, delirious and mumbling nonsense in their sleep.
Two days and two nights later, someone finally stirred awake.
When they looked, they saw that the first to wake was Brother Zhang.
Brother Zhang sat up energetically, then got to his feet as if nothing had happened, pacing the small room. When he noticed the bent corner of the iron gate, he looked toward them and asked, "What's this? Don't tell me I pushed that open? My strength's that great?"
Lan Jin did not know how to answer. Brother Li looked at him and said, "Yes. Try to see if you have an ability."
Brother Zhang blinked. "How do I use it?"
Lao Gao explained, "Just use it however. We all did at first."
Ling Jiang smacked Lao Gao on the back and scolded him. "How can you say 'just use it however'? Lan Jin nearly blew my house apart that way! Luckily Huang Jinghe told her to aim out the window."
Then Ling Jiang turned to Brother Zhang. "Focus. See what kind of power you have. If it's offensive, try concentrating it into one spot. We usually focus it into our hands, then toss it somewhere safe."
But when Brother Zhang focused, he realized it was not an offensive ability at all. His awareness suddenly spread across the entire top floor. In that instant, he understood, and he called out, "Not offensive! Mine's not offensive. I've got a mental ability. Just now, when I focused, my mind spread out over this whole level. Right now, this top floor has one hundred eighty-nine people. Hey, why are there dozens gathered at the entrance? What are they doing there?"
If he could sense the people standing outside, then clearly his power worked.
And mental power abilities were nothing to look down on.
Some might think, since it lacked direct attack, it was weak. But being able to sense the surroundings and prepare in advance—was that not even more reliable?
The stronger the mental force, the farther it could reach. Brother Zhang had just awakened, so he could only cover this building. But with time, he might cover the entire base. If he grew even stronger, perhaps an entire mountain.
And who said mental power could not attack? From the novels they had read in the past, if developed to the extreme, mental powers could be overwhelming—voice hypnosis, word hypnosis, suggestion from anything, glimpses of the future, telekinesis, dream-walking…
Of course, those were just things from novels. Whether anyone could truly achieve them in reality, no one knew.
Still, for someone to awaken, and awaken to a power at that, was worth celebrating.
Lan Jin said, "Brother Zhang, go freshen up first. You are the first one awake. We'll wait for the others."
Brother Zhang looked at the others still lying unconscious and nodded.
While Brother Zhang went next door to wash up, three more people woke. One had a plant ability. Two had space abilities.
The moment the word "space" was mentioned, Brother Li could hardly contain his excitement.
Lan Jin, puzzled, asked, "What is it? Brother Li, why are space powers so exciting?"