Chapter 51: Mental Power Barrier

Second floor of Wealth Building, VIP reception room.

Several zombies lay on the expensive carpet, their skulls shattered.

"Lin Dui!"

"Lin An."

Zhang Tie brought Wen Ya, both beaming with joy, and in just a few steps reached Lin An's front; Mo Ling, walking last, silently found a corner and squatted down, hugging his knees.

"That fast?"

Lin An heard the voice, looked up, and a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.

The three didn't waste much time coming over.

It was clear they had rushed over nonstop after finishing his instructions.

What surprised Lin An was that Zhang Tie and Wen Ya were spotless, as if they hadn't encountered any battle.

As a symbiote, Mo Ling naturally wouldn't be attacked by zombies, which is understandable.

Logically, even if they were careful, those two should have run into zombies and had at least some bloodstains.

Especially Zhang Tie.

This guy's fighting style likes to turn into a beast and slap others to death with one palm.

"Wen Ya is now an Awakened One too!"

"Lin Dui, guess what her awakened talent is?!"

Zhang Tie wore a mysterious grin, his huge body like a blind bear's, desperately trying to squeeze beside him to sit down.

Wen Ya bit her lip, looking at the man thinking on the sofa, her eyes showing uncontrollable excitement.

The four split into two groups; Mo Ling led the way scouting ahead, while Zhang Tie took her to a spiritual energy node in Lin An's memory, while the spiritual energy had not yet dissipated.

As a mutant, Wen Ya faced almost no obstruction and readily became an Awakened One.

"Lin An, I am now an Awakened One too."

Wen Ya's clear voice carried joy, as if she had set down a burden.

Her already excellent figure became even more alluring after becoming an Awakened One.

Lin An looked at the two excited people, a smile appearing on his face.

As early as four hours ago, he had seen the information of Wen Ya becoming an Awakened One through the squad member panel.

But there was only an Awakened One marker; detailed information required Wen Ya to actively show him her player panel.

From their expressions, Wen Ya's awakened talent seemed extraordinary.

"So mysterious? Is it a talent related to spiritual power?"

Lin An pondered for a moment, feeling curious.

Wen Ya nodded at the sound, directly opening her panel and sharing it fully with him.

"Character Info: Wen Ya (0th-rank Awakened One, Player Level: 1, Mutant)"

Awakened One talent: A-rank talent - Mental Power Barrier (spiritual recovery speed +30%, spiritual power limit +50, spiritual energy absorption speed +50%. After activating the Mental Power Barrier, it continuously consumes spiritual power; during its duration it can provide spiritual defense protection for up to 2+1 players, and also grant a stealth effect.)

"Stealth effect: Using spiritual power to create illusions around oneself to hide traces. The stealth effect disappears after an active attack."

"Mutant talent: Spiritual Power Sharing, able to link with one player to share both parties' spiritual power."

"This talent's effect strengthens as the Awakened One's rank rises."

After reading Wen Ya's talent information, Lin An took a moment to come back to his senses.

Wen Ya's talent is truly extreme...

The talent rank reaches A-rank, one tier higher than Zhang Tie's B-rank. Although it grants no stat bonuses, not even a damage skill.

But in exchange comes an extreme boost to spiritual power!

Increasing recovery, raising the limit, boosting spiritual energy absorption speed—combined, these push the spiritual power attribute to its limit.

Put simply, Wen Ya has become a mage with rapid mana regeneration!

But if that were all, Lin An wouldn't have been stunned for so long.

The key to the transformation lies in Wen Ya's mutant identity.

Her ability to share spiritual power is equivalent to a human-shaped blue buff (an auto-regeneration aura).

When paired with an Awakened One who consumes spiritual power to unleash skills, it's like activating an infinite firepower mode—truly the ultimate support Awakened Ones desire!

With skills unleashed infinitely, if we had this ability back at the hospital, neither I nor Zhang Tie would have fared so poorly.

Thinking of this, Lin An felt a hard-to-contain excitement.

Just as happy as the two, he couldn't help but carefully size up Wen Ya a few times before speaking:

"Very good, even exceeding my expectations."

"So, did you and Zhang Tie make it here without any battles thanks solely to your talent skill?"

Wen Ya smiled and nodded, then a flash of silver suddenly crossed her eyes.

"Humm~"

The unique undulation of spiritual power spread like flowing water, covering Zhang Tie's entire body.

In an instant, in Lin An's sight, Zhang Tie's broad figure gradually blurred and disappeared.

This is... an invisibility effect, granting a stealth akin to a thief's sneak!?

Lin An hurriedly used his spiritual power to probe toward Zhang Tie's direction, and after careful recognition he spoke with a hint of astonishment:

"The illusion effect is indeed strong; even with my current attributes it's hard to detect. As long as one isn't facing a being of strong spiritual power, ordinary zombies cannot be detected by sight or perception at all."

"No wonder you could rush over so quickly."

Zhang Tie wore a self-satisfied grin, as if ignoring zombies were his achievement.

Lin An's face looked somewhat strange; he never would have imagined this.

Now, with Wen Ya's assistance and Mo Ling's symbiotic identity, the team members can essentially ignore zombies.

Although using it breaks the stealth effect of the Mental Power Barrier, this skill counts as a Spirit Skill whether for marching or launching a surprise attack.

In the early stage of the Doomsday Game, the overwhelming numbers of ordinary zombies are the greatest threat.

Lin An felt somewhat emotional; he never expected that the casually "picked-up" Wen Ya would bring him such a big surprise.

"So I can actually help you now, not being a burden, right?"

Wen Ya walked slowly up to him, her gaze fixed, looking at herself, her eyes conveying an indescribable meaning.

"Besides, thank you for risking such great danger to go to the hospital to look for my mother."

Lin An froze upon hearing that, not intending to hide anything.

"I actually didn't have time to..."

Before he could finish speaking, Wen Ya interrupted him.

"Zhang Tie and I talked about that day's situation. I don't blame you. I also know what happened there, I'm just a bit unwilling. If you agree to go, I'll already be very happy."

"Actually, saying this, I'm also being a bit selfish; that place is so dangerous, I still want you to go take another look."

Wen Ya lowered her eyes, a hint of sorrow flashed across her face, her smile somewhat forced.

Lin An remained silent, not knowing how to comfort her.

"After this mission is completed, we'll go again."

"Either way, it also counts as understanding a knot in the heart."

Lin An slowly opened his mouth to speak, unlike before when he merely wanted to treat Wen Ya as a "Equipment".

Whether from a rational standpoint, Wen Ya's awakened talent far exceeds his expectations; as Captain, he needs to take care of the team members' emotions.

From a personal perspective.

From Zhang Tie's account, he also learned everything Wen Ya has done these days to take care of him; both aspects are worth him making another trip to the hospital.

What's more, Mo Ling's sister is also there.

Wen Ya raised her head, somewhat surprised, a faint gleam of spirit flashed and vanished.

"Thank you, Lin An."

Lin An smiled gently and shook his head slightly.

For some reason, he always felt that Wen Ya's gaze toward him had changed somewhat.

"Lin Dui, what's our next target?"

Zhang Tie's unique loud voice broke the brief silence between the two; he rubbed his shiny bald head, full of curiosity.

Lin An glanced at him helplessly; if it weren't for him already clearing the zombies on the two nearby floors, just that loud voice would attract many zombies.

"Wanda Shopping Mall, there are probably over twenty thousand zombies gathered inside."

Zhang Tie clicked his tongue upon hearing that, then looked in the direction Lin An pointed.

Damn it, the mall, which is several times smaller than that creepy hospital, actually has this many zombies?

"Our target is to kill the Second-Level Mutant at the mall's center."

"【Suturer!】"

Second-Level Mutant!?

Zhang Tie and Wen Ya couldn't help but exclaim in surprise; even Mo Ling, who had been silent, couldn't help but raise her head to look at Lin An.

Outside the window it was already dusk, a blood-colored sunset shrouding the building.

Lin An's gaze turned cold as he walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the place that once belonged to Linjiang City, a nightmare land.