Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 105 - 102 Shadow Swapping Monster 6

Chapter 105: 102 Shadow Swapping Monster 6

Zhu Shi and Mazao had never witnessed the scene inside that nightclub themselves, although they knew from my words and Changan’s description that the guests all wore hoods to hide their true identities, it was quite normal for them not to immediately think of this as a suspicious point.

Changan, however, seemed as if awakened from a dream, belatedly saying, "That’s right, the people who enter that nightclub care a lot about whether their true faces will be exposed. Most of them, even when partaking in the ’main event,’ still do not take off their hoods, and even the staff have the right to refuse when guests ask them to remove their masks.

"Even if some guests remove their hoods, there are rules in the club that prohibit employees from revealing any real identity information of the guests. It’s not allowed even amongst other staff, otherwise, the consequences are quite severe."

"You’ve been a guest at the club for over two months, and you’re only noticing this problem now..." Jinyu said, speechless.

Changan first laughed awkwardly, then his face tightened as he turned to ask me, "Ah Cheng, are you suspecting that Jinyu is the Shadow Swapping Monster you guys are looking for?"

Although Zhu Shi and I hadn’t explained our purpose for this visit to him, he had obviously deduced most of it after overhearing our conversation.

"Don’t get me wrong, I am really not suspecting Jinyu, I just want to know how she was so certain her father is still a regular at that nightclub." I shook my head.

"So, you’re suspecting Jinyu’s father?" Changan, not knowing about Mazao’s Broom Star Physique, most likely couldn’t understand why I would suspect in that direction.

Zhu Shi, on the other hand, quickly grasped my train of thought.

"Could it be through the bathing facilities?" she speculated, "You said before that the nightclub has bathing, massage, and accommodation facilities. Even if those guests wanted to hide their true identities, they surely wouldn’t need to keep wearing their hoods while bathing, massaging, and staying overnight, right?"

I directly asked Jinyu herself, "Or, are you able to recognize your father just by his height and build among the guests?"

"No, there’s nothing particular about that guy’s height, and as for his build... he rarely comes home, so it’s normal for him to have small fluctuations in his weight over time. It’s impossible for me to identify him by those details," Jinyu shook her head, "As for the bathing, massaging, and accommodation areas... the guests certainly don’t continue to wear hoods there, but ordinary staff like me are forbidden to enter those areas."

"Then how did you confirm it?" Changan wondered.

Jinyu took a deep breath, then gave her answer.

This answer was exactly as I had imagined.

Honestly, I felt that this coincidence was almost to the point of being terrifying.

"—It’s the palms of his hands," she said with a voice full of hatred, "those conscienceless, merciless hands that beat my mother and me. I would never mistake those hands.

"Even if he dressed up to look decent when entering the nightclub, wearing proper clothes, pants, shoes, and a hood to disguise his true face, he would definitely expose his hands. And it was by observing the hands that I identified him among the guests.

"So I am absolutely certain that to this day, he is still visiting that nightclub."

Hearing her say these words, Zhu Shi initially froze, then her eyes widened, "Palms... the palms!?"

"Zhu Shi, the severed hand of the Shadow Swapping Monster should still be with Lu Youxun, right?" I asked, prepared, "Can you ask him to send over the severed hand? No, wait, after a day, the severed hand might have already decayed... I remember he can write the information from his mind onto a photograph. Have him send a photo of the hand over, as clear as possible."

Zhu Shi pulled out her phone while speaking, "No problem, he treated the severed hand to prevent decay, I’ll contact him right away..."

"There’s no need for that trouble," Mazao held out her right hand, palm up.

Suddenly, a bloody severed hand appeared out of thin air and landed in her hand. This was the same hand that was chopped off from the monster the night before.

On closer inspection, this spontaneously manifested severed hand even appeared with a kind of fluctuating shadowy form, quite similar to the Illusionary Curved Blade she summoned the night before.

"I can summon a historical projection of any object I’ve touched with the blessing power," she explained briefly and then placed the severed hand on the table. Turning to Jinyu, she said, "Take a look, is this your father’s palm?"

Jinyu hesitantly stepped forward, carefully examining the shape of the severed hand.

It took her less than two seconds to assert firmly, "Yes, this is it... This is that guy’s palm!"

Knowing our target was the Shadow Swapping Monster, she could potentially set up her own father to take the fall as our target just to kill him by-proxy... I realized this possibility and then looked at Zhu Shi.

Zhu Shi appeared to have the same suspicion and might have activated Buzhou Mountain sometime during the conversation, then she turned to me and said, "She’s not lying."

Seeing this, I continued to ask Jinyu, "What does your father look like?"

Jinyu took out her phone, tapped on it several times, and then turned the screen toward me. On the screen was the ID photo of an unremarkable middle-aged man.

I firmly memorized that face. It was only at this moment that I felt completely sure about the Shadow Swapping Monster’s true identity.

The Shadow Swapping Monster was indeed Jinyu’s father!

At this moment, what emerged in my heart wasn’t pride in my correct deduction or relief at the smooth progress of events.

It was amazement, amazement at the nature of Mazao’s physique.

What kind of coincidence and design was this? Just as we were fretting outside the nightclub about being unable to accurately locate the Shadow Swapping Monster’s real identity, his daughter had practically delivered herself to our doorstep.

And while our only clue in hand was the Shadow Swapping Monster’s severed hand, Jinyu happened to possess the means to discern his true identity through that severed hand.

Even, if I were a superstitious person, who fully believed in the power of Mazao’s abilities, I wouldn’t have needed any deduction or clues. After listening to Changan and Jinyu’s experiences, I could have simply used a process of elimination to correctly guess, "Jinyu’s father is the Shadow Swapping Monster."

This kind of physique, which draws the whirlpool of events and gathers all related things to oneself, has surpassed the realm of talent and luck. It can only be described as a supernatural curse. People with this physique can never lead a tranquil life; they are like the involuntary protagonists of adventure stories, repeatedly ensnaring themselves and those around them into unforeseen incidents until death does not allow them to stop.

Even as someone who considers it a blessing and a gift, I have to admit this is not the destiny a young girl like Mazao should bear. For the vast majority who yearn for a peaceful and safe life, having such a physique is like being thrown alive into a blazing inferno, awaiting endless suffering.

I couldn’t help but look at Mazao, who showed no surprise at the Shadow Swapping Monster’s true identity. Perhaps she had known the answer from the start and was just waiting for us to be convinced.

But I still had some doubts.

Since Jinyu’s father was the Shadow Swapping Monster, and the nightclub owner knew this truth, why would the latter permit Jinyu to plot against her own father in the club? If Jinyu succeeded in her scheme, it would not be a matter resolved with a mere apology to the Shadow Swapping Monster—the nightclub owner could likely face a brutal reckoning.

However, such questions were secondary. The most pressing matter was to capture the Shadow Swapping Monster. I controlled several "Fireflies" scattered throughout the nightclub and soon found my target.

In the nightclub’s rest area, a man in a silk bathrobe lay on a massage chair, silently enjoying himself.

And behind him stood a petite girl with a white rabbit mask and a Jinyu hairpin clipped to the side of her hair.

Although the man on the massage chair was wearing a brown sheep-shaped animal hood, I could "see" through it to his true face by merging my spirit into the environmental heat.

He was Jinyu’s father, and also the Shadow Swapping Monster we were looking for.

At this stage, I could no longer muster any surprise over the coincidence of the Shadow Swapping Monster being in the nightclub during broad daylight. I just told Zhu Shi and Mazao next to me that I had found our target, and we briefly discussed the tactics to follow.

With our strategy decided, we left the restaurant’s private room and proceeded to our combat positions. Mazao even reapplied her immobilizing power to the unconscious man in the black suit, to prevent him from escaping or causing trouble while we were fighting. As for Changan, we had him take Jinyu to pay the bill and wait for the outcome on our side.

Once everyone was in position, I stood on the street opposite the nightclub and refocused my attention on the Shadow Swapping Monster inside. He seemed to have had enough of the massage chair, now placing his hands on the chair’s handles, trying to stand up.

His posture was very relaxed, completely unaware of the "Fireflies," and even less aware of me watching him through them.

The next moment, I ignited his body with my gaze.

This was not fire applied to kill the enemy but to implant my thermal energy marker into his body. Even so, I had no intention of making it easy for him. The moment the flames appeared, his silk bathrobe and headgear turned to ashes. The now naked man screamed in pain, fell to the ground, and rolled around, probably trying to extinguish the flames as a reflex.

His skin quickly blackened and broke apart, muscles sizzling as they cooked, even his eyes desiccated and carbonized. His vocal organs too were destroyed by the flames, unable to make a sound anymore.

Several other guests wearing headgear and a few masked female workers surrounded him. They stared in disbelief at Jinyu’s father, who’d become akin to a victim of spontaneous human combustion from urban legends, paralyzed in confusion by the inexplicable event.

Such damage would be fatal to an ordinary person without immediate medical attention.

But for a monster, it was only a flesh wound.

Before the watchful eyes of the crowd, Jinyu’s father’s body underwent a severe expansion and deformation, transforming into the form of a monster.