Civilization: Beyond Two Worlds

355 Hypnosis, Brainwashing, and Memory Modification

Civilian vehicles.

A large number of civilian cars.

They advanced at full speed in the Gobi Desert and lined up in a scattered array, rushing in Moroni’s direction.

It was impossible to determine the identity of the person. The other party did not send a signal, cry for help, or slow down. Only the high beams were extremely bright, and the roar of the engine was like the roar of a huge beast.

Dimitri’s expression changed drastically as he observed the situation through the binoculars.

As an officer who had once served in the Russian elite special forces signal flag, he had carried out many special missions and had also seen much confidential information that would not be made public in internal training.

In most of the security wars that had happened in the world, the last thing the soldiers wanted to see was not the enemy’s main battle tank or armored vehicle, but unarmed cars rushing towards them or lousy cars parked by the street.

Pickup truck, Toyota, Santana… It was old and covered in dust. Just because it was scrapped under the strict supervision of the developed areas did not mean that it could not be driven. In fact, these old cars were very popular in the backward areas because they were cheap and were deeply loved by the local people.

Of course, it would also fall into the eyes of the armed men with ill intentions.

Sometimes, a car full of inferior explosives might be stuffed into the scrapped Toyota that was rushing over.

Or perhaps, it was only a frightened and desperate family of three.

Or perhaps it was both.

On the car seat was a terrified family of three hugging and trembling. They seemed to be harmless, but perhaps under their feet was a pile of crude but huge explosives.

According to the military manual and lessons learned, firing was the right choice. However, soldiers were not cold-blooded and heartless killing machines. In the end, they were still emotional people, especially after discovering that they had killed the wrong person. The psychological pressure and pain they endured could be imagined. After all, war was not a game.

However, he still had to do the right thing.

Dimitri thought of the instructions he had received before he left. He gritted his teeth and cursed silently. Then, he picked up the loudspeaker. “Come back! Come back! Let us deal with it! Let us deal with it!”

He followed the process.

He fired a warning shot and ordered the car to stop for inspection. If they continued to charge, he would shoot and kill them.

No matter who it was.

He prayed that this Chinese person could understand this simple English.

Kang De’s voice sounded along the breeze.

“How should we deal with it?”

“Blyat!”

For a moment, Dimitri could not explain it clearly. He cursed and called his boss.

After Kirov picked up, he was shocked and immediately called Kang De. He heard the rough wind of the Gobi Desert and the approaching engine roar in the receiver.

“Kang De! Come back quickly!” He lowered his voice and shouted, “You can’t be charged with killing civilians! Believe me! Or you can believe in the integrity of the Western government and the media!”

Kang De asked, “Let Dimitri do this? I saw it clearly. They seem to be civilians.”

The Russian said fiercely, “It’s better than you doing it! Also, what are civilians? Attacking the military area, taking hostile action, and revealing potential threats are not considered civilians in any country’s military manual!”

At this point, he seemed to realize what Kang De wanted to do.

“Listen, Kang De, don’t be soft-hearted! Could it be that you have to wait for these commoners to drive in in a car filled with explosives and detonate them before understanding this? Come back now and stay with the king and the various Dukes! Our people will deal with this. They’re experts…”

The Russian on the phone was firm.

However, Kang De’s voice was still calm, “Something is wrong… These people are probably innocent.”

“Hey! Kang De!”

Kirov growled, “Don’t tell me you took these haters seriously when they called you the Guardian Eagle God? This is not a superhero movie! This is f*cking reality!”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

“Kirov, when I first arrived, you asked me what it felt like to have superpowers.”

Then, Kang De’s voice sounded.

“At that time, I didn’t know how to describe and summarize it. In any case, it’s not something stupid like having greater ability and responsibility. I can only say that this feels good. Now, I can tell you what it feels like.”

The Chinese man’s words were calm and leisurely.

“—It feels good because, at times, it might give you another way to resolve the problem and prevent you from falling into some kind of moral dilemma.”

“Of course, but perhaps.”

“But it’s worth trying.”

“Just like now.”

“I have a thousand reasons to kill them and a thousand and one reasons to try to save them.”

“The additional reason is… I can. I’m willing.”

A whistling wind sounded from the receiver.

Kirov was stunned for a moment before shouting, “Don’t approach! What if there’s a bomb in the car?!”

Kang De said calmly, “Perhaps not? I’ll be more careful. If a bomb detonates, the person who killed them is the person who stuffed the bomb in, not us. I’ll avenge them.”

Kirov wanted to say something, but Kang De had already hung up.

Dimitri and the soldiers under him had already changed the belt of heavy machine guns and brought out new rockets. They saw Kang De’s figure accelerate and race around the previous battlefield toward the flank of the convoy.

Many cars immediately turned around and chased after Kang De.

“Very good, there’s a purpose, but it lacks intelligence…”

There were some things that could not be said to Kirov directly, but Kang De felt that there was something wrong with these people’s mental states.

They were clearly controlled by something.

This was a little terrifying.

After all, for thousands of years, in the endless imagination of humans about supernatural powers, mind control was a classic song that lasted for a long time. Kang De had fantasized about having such ability since he was young.

For example, hypnosis.

Hypnotize the introverted students in the class and make them confident and sunny.

For example, brainwashing.

—To make self-deprecating, lazy, and vulgar criminals sincerely think that socialism was good.

For example, memory modification.

—To make the sufferer of Alzheimer’s forget that he had Alzheimer’s.

This was Kang De’s childhood dream of having such a superpower.

The wise saw wisdom, and the benevolent saw kindness. Abilities were innocent. The dark and dirty thing was only the mind. Kang De had a pure heart, so he would use such power to do so many good things. Only lowly guys who coveted other people’s bodies would associate many evil things when they heard this ability. Pfft.

However, on the other hand, Kang De had to admit something.

The average quality of humans was still relatively low. If the mind interference ability really appeared in the real world, it would definitely be taken by evil people to do something that would only happen in the notebook. Once this kind of thing was exposed, it would definitely cause a huge commotion. If it fell into the hands of an evil country or organization, something very bad would definitely happen.

Therefore…

As Wang Situ had said, the fate of the heavens had changed, and divine artifacts were even easier to obtain. This was the principle of nature for people who were virtuous.

Such a natural treasure was only possessed by the virtuous. In order to prevent thieves from obtaining it and causing trouble, it was better for a gentleman like him to collect it and use it for the righteous path.

Kang De released three Defender mechanisms from the white fog space. The rolling and surging copper ball darted around at an extremely fast speed, but it did not attract any attention from the convoy. Everyone stepped on the accelerator and chased after Kang De, as if he was the largest and only target. The rest was not important.

It was obvious.

Someone had controlled them through some supernatural power and could give some orders, such as attacking or chasing after someone. Therefore, the previous armed convoy had exchanged fire with Dimitri’s people. Now, these racing dogs were chasing Kang De everywhere.

However, his control was limited.

The person controlled had become a clumsy puppet. His professional skills, reaction ability, combat techniques, and other indicators had all greatly decreased. Therefore, the combat techniques of the previous armed convoy were extremely stiff and would only shoot suddenly. Therefore, now, this group of civilian cars had also been slipped away by Kang De and ran around without any tactical cooperation.

In that case, it was much simpler.

“Ask Dimitri and the Burmese to maintain vigilance and pay attention to the other directions of the city. Don’t be ambushed by the enemy.”

Kang De even took the time to call Kirov.

“Alright, alright, alright… In addition.” The Russian’s voice was very helpless, but there was a trace of relief, “The black king knows what happened. He hasn’t spoken all this time. It can be seen that he wants to beg you, but he doesn’t know how to ask. On one hand, it’s you, and on the other hand, it’s his citizens—moral dilemma, right?”

“That’s it.”

Kang De smiled. “If he was Black Panther, there wouldn’t be so many things going on.”

He hung up.

There were still many ways to stop a car.

Kang De kicked up a stone and instantly flashed above the hood of a car. He stomped his feet forcefully, and the violent impact activated the airbag, pushing the driver against the seat.

He flew and slid, flashing out from the side. He bent down and raised his hand to overturn the other car from the side. The two cars beside him collided. Kang De spread out his mental strength and extracted the ground. The ground collapsed out of thin air. The surrounding cars all sank, at a height that the wheels could not climb up.

Hearing the buzzing of the wheels turning empty, Kang De shrugged and jumped to an empty space.

Under the moonlight, wet marks were scattered on the ground. Under Kang De’s control, the dozen or so mechanical beetles he had thrown out earlier climbed onto the fuel tank and bit it open, causing the liquid inside to continuously leak out.

Eh, the other world’s puppet X Earth’s internal combustion engine vehicle, the worm, and the child drove a large car and forcefully incontinent.

It was too terrifying.

These domestic cars did not have much fuel to begin with. After circling around, cars continuously turned off.

Before the driver could rush down, Kang De rushed over like a violent wind.

Or he could use the power of the Fire Thief to extract the surface and let the entire car sink into the ground.

Otherwise, flames would condense at his fingertips and weld the car door shut.

His figure shuttled through the dust, divided the convoy, and set a trap. He continuously dealt with batches of unconscious drivers. These people were still controlled. They could not drive and wanted to get out of the car to fight. Kang De could only tie them up or temporarily trap them in the car.

“Who are you? Do you know me? What’s your name?”

Occasionally, he would pull one or two drivers out of the car and ask them. The other party was actually speaking French and howling, but he could not explain it clearly. Kang De could only shake his head and use the seatbelt he had pulled out of the car to tie him up. Then, he threw him on the roof to dry before dealing with the next one.

It was Little Bob.

Although he did not obtain any information, he had long locked onto the suspect.

The drivers of the civilian cars behind were all black.

The uniforms were not uniform. There were different heights, short, fat, and thin. There was no callus on his hand to hold a gun, and there were no signs of high-intensity exercise on his body. If he was not a soldier, he must be a local commoner.

These people had lost their minds and were controlled by supernatural forces. Then the greatest suspect was naturally Little Bob—because the only thing in this area that could be associated with supernatural forces was the treasure obtained from the king’s mausoleum. At this moment, it was in Little Bob’s hands. It was Big Bob’s hope of treating his hidden injuries, and it was something the French government coveted and covered up.

Clearly, Little Bob had very likely figured out the usage method.

Could it actually control humans?

He could not delay any longer.

Moreover… his father had also seen that thing.

He froze the last car, then called his father and picked up instantly.

“Hello? Has it been resolved?”

The voice was very normal, which made Kang De heave a sigh of relief.

He said simply, “The thing Little Bob brought out of the king’s mausoleum… seems to be able to control humans. The batch that just came is a puppet whose mind is controlled.”

Kang Jinzhu’s tone changed, “You…”

Then, his father tried his best to sound calm, “It’s fine. Sometimes…”

Kang De said softly, “I didn’t kill him.”

There was a moment of silence before his father’s tone changed. “…Yes.”

Kang De said, “You’ve seen that thing?”

“I’ve seen it,” Kang Jinzhu subconsciously replied. He had already described it to the person he could not name, “Golden balls, palm-sized. They look similar to your three large copper balls. I…”

Then, Father Kang realized something.

He took a deep breath. “I’ll ask them to find a chair and cuff me.”

“…Yes, don’t worry. It’s fine. I’m here, just in case.”

Kang De lowered his eyes and said, “I’m going to kill Little Bob and retrieve that thing.”

This time, his father did not protest or interfere.

He said softly, “Be careful that this is a plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain.”

Kang De replied, “It’s fine. The tiger brought a return scroll.”

“Be careful. That thing might be useful to you too.”

“I know.”

As he spoke to his father, he jumped out of the car and teleported back to the position.

When the Russian mercenaries guarding saw him return, they all stood up from their bunkers. Under Dimitri’s lead, they saluted solemnly. Their attitude was much more serious and sincere than the salute when they first got off the plane.

Kang De was not in the mood to exchange pleasantries.

“Don’t go over and take a look. Things are very troublesome. Let them lie there first. Continue patrolling.”

He said to Dimitri.

Although he did not know why, the soldier did not need to ask why. The Russian nodded and agreed.

“I’m going to patrol. Help me pass this to the king and Kirov.”

With that, Kang De rushed into the sky. The Hima Eagle flapped its wings and the Guardian flew into the distance.

He entered the white fog world under the cover of darkness, reversed time, and returned to the other world.

The battle was already coming to an end. The gorilla and Sword Saint Snowfall were stabbing around. As Horus stabbed, he searched for supplies and equipment. Seeing Kang De return, his iron son asked, “Father?”

The gorilla and Hillmelia also flew over.

“There’s something.”

Kang De looked at Sword Saint Snowfall.

The gorilla was confused. Her iron son was an alien like him, and only Hillmelia was a local native. He asked, “A group of people have their minds interfered with by some mental spell and have become muddle-headed. Is there any way to crack it? What can be prevented?”

“A spell that messes with one’s mind? Of course, there’s a way.”

Sword Saint Snowfall did not ask the reason. Instead, she looked at the cruel and withered battlefield. Corpses were everywhere and supplies were piled up, far and close. “There’s one here.”

…