Chapter Nine: The Mask of Personality

Yan Luo asked the psychologist, "Do you know about persona masks?"

"Of course," Chu Qingfeng replied, rinsing his mouth with mineral water and forcing himself to eat some potato chips to replenish his energy.

"The term 'persona mask' comes from Greek. Originally, it referred to the masks actors wore to play specific roles in a drama. In modern psychology, it's one of Carl Gustav Jung's theories of psychoanalysis."

"In 'Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,' Jung wrote: the contents of the collective unconscious are mainly archetypes, of which four stand out: anima, animus, persona mask, and shadow."

"The persona mask is how an individual adapts—or believes he adapts—to deal with the world."

Chu Qingfeng paused, smiled, and continued, "That's a vague explanation. You can think of the persona mask as a form of disguise. Originally, a person is himself, but after donning the mask, he becomes someone else, or even something not quite human. Each mask is a sub-personality."

"For example, in society, some people grovel and speak softly to their superiors, act arrogant and harsh toward their subordinates, treat their wives with cold indifference, but are sweet-talking and gentle with their lovers. Isn't that just wearing a series of different masks?"

As Chu Qingfeng answered, he silently analyzed, "Could this person's destiny talent be related to persona masks?"

Everyone possesses a destiny talent.

Perhaps it's combat-related, perhaps not. Chinese people tend to keep their cards close to their chest, and since the inner world began, with Tang Tianjie’s pistol and ample ammunition, no one has been in real danger from hordes of zombies. Now, not a single newcomer has revealed their talent.

A burst of triumphant laughter rang out.

Tang Tianjie.

He had slain sixty or seventy zombies—in fact, there had originally been over a hundred, but after knocking some down, he let Li Changxin finish them off. Theoretically, these belonged to the lowest tier of monsters in all worlds and shouldn't drop anything of value.

But luck that breaks human limits is a bug.

Gene Unlock: Virus ×2

The value was considerable.

Bloodline Material: Zombie

In theory, bloodline material is more precious than gene unlock materials, but acquiring the zombie bloodline means dulled pain, decreased strength, agility, and constitution, and automatically activating the mysterious "virus" gene, granting skills like bite and infection. Not only is this of little benefit, it actually diminishes one's fighting ability.

So, this item was utterly worthless—unless you could fool an idiot into taking it.

Most of the others were materials, like zombie teeth, which could be refined with yin energy to make accessories, or zombie bones, which might be useful for practitioners of Maoshan Daoist arts in certain worlds.

Given Tang Tianjie’s status and demeanor, how could he care for such rubbish?

What truly delighted him was—

A white object, resembling bone but also gelatinous and crystalline.

Zombie brain core.

A zombie with a brain core? It defied science. Even Mu Bai, who was phasing invisibly nearby, was stunned, learning for the first time that lower zombies could produce a brain core.

This single brain core meant that, after infection, the virus had triggered a rare brain mutation, crystallizing part of the organ.

Consuming it would slightly enhance one’s brain domain.

Eating a zombie’s crystallized brain to supplement one’s own?

"What a damned creative idea!" Tang Tianjie tossed the zombie brain core into his mouth.

Crunch.

After chewing and swallowing, he quickly felt his mind grow clearer.

"This was just a regular zombie’s brain core. If I encounter a zombie boss, what might I get with my luck?"

Tang Tianjie’s spirits soared.

Meanwhile, Mu Bai was quite vexed.

The rookie quest was a privilege for newcomers—not only did they have a guide, there was no penalty for missing the main quest, and the inner world was carefully chosen. The lawful good teams had put in considerable effort and expense.

But this group of new arrivals possessed luck that broke human limits.

With pistol and bullets, others couldn’t train themselves properly.

For him, this guidance was a failure.

He pretended to be fierce, but Mu Bai belonged to the lawful good camp, specifically a “helper-type personality”—in common terms, a “giver-type personality.” With him overseeing this world, the rookies were sheltered, but if this world was wasted, no one would shield them in the next.

Invisible, he quietly moved away from the group to search for a boss, hoping to offer the newcomers more challenge.

"These are for you," Tang Tianjie said, handing the zombie teeth and bones, as well as the worthless bloodline material, to Li Zang’ai. He had just tested combining them in storage to let the system recycle—much like selling items cheaply to an NPC shop in a game.

Altogether, only seventy bio-energy points.

Gene Unlock: Virus, recycled by the system, each yielded five hundred bio-energy points.

Giving away this junk was also a means of currying favor and managing his subordinates. The shamat had shown ruthless fighting spirit and stamina, making him a good enforcer.

Li Zang’ai deliberately put on a look of joy. In the outer world, he was adaptable and shrewd, and with luck that broke human limits, being attached to such a powerful figure had great benefits. Yet, being given only these scraps was an insult. In his mind, resentment and schemes flickered.

"Thank you, Boss Tang," he said, accepting the items.

"Xin Xin, this gene unlock material is for you."

Tang Tianjie had obtained two "virus" items, which could fetch a thousand bio-energy points, but "the adorable one who breaks human limits" was his favored harem candidate. In the real world, he was generous when courting girls.

"Thank you, Brother Tang," Li Changxin said sweetly, her smile charming.

Tang Tianjie sighed. If only the girl weren’t covered in corpse stench and blood and brain matter, so disgusting! Otherwise, he could have patted her head to show affection and build rapport. Well, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

Elsewhere, Wang Dongwei was locking eyes with Yatari Nori.

The previous battle had been tough. Fatty Zhu Xiaoyong wasn’t lazy—at over three hundred pounds, he managed to kill two zombies with a shovel, which was impressive. If the chuunibyou girl could contribute even a little, it would ease the burden.

Sitting on the stone platform, Yatari Nori crossed her right leg over her left, slightly lifting her already short skirt to reveal a hint of thigh.

She wore the expression of a queen regarding her servant, her chin raised in haughty pride.

"O ruler of the heavens, why do you look at this old one with such eyes?"

Her first words made Wang Dongwei realize she’d be hard to handle. In the outer world, he was a fan of games and anime, so he understood the chuunibyou girl’s speech. But being called "ruler of the heavens" by a loser like himself was just embarrassing.

And a girl not yet fifteen referring to herself as "old one"... Was that really okay?

Suppressing the urge to retort, Wang Dongwei decided to chat and gather information from the young girl.

"Nori, tell me about your life in the real world."

Yatari Nori lowered her head, her face showing sadness, as if immersed in painful memories.

"I am a descendant of the Yatari family, living to banish demons."

"As a child, my parents were murdered. Traumatized, I suffered amnesia."

"I was adopted by relatives along with my sister, Yuki, and lived a peaceful, unremarkable life. But at sixteen, a resurrected demon awakened the innate power in my blood, revealing my destiny."

"Unable to endure the cold stares of those around me, I dropped out of high school and set out to confront demons."

"To avenge my parents and protect humanity from demon harm, I battle demons day and night."

Wang Dongwei: "..."

There was so much to ridicule, he had no idea where to even begin.