Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 116 - 113 VS Weirdo Maker 1

Chapter 116: 113 VS Weirdo Maker 1

There was an abandoned food truck next to the street, and we hid behind it.

The sun had set, and the sky was completely dark; the Weirdo Maker had not yet appeared. Mazao had gleaned from the Shadow Swapping Monster’s head an approximate time when the other would likely appear, which was still over an hour away. We had come early to avoid missing the target, but waiting was always tedious.

Yet, persistence pays off, and after a while, we finally managed to wait for our target.

A figure appeared at the street corner.

I had once seen a photo of the Weirdo Maker while interrogating the Undying Monster during Lu Youxun’s inquiry. The Weirdo Maker was a man dressed in a white suit and wearing a silver metallic mask.

In the descriptions given by the Undying Monster and the Shadow Swapping Monster, he was a thin and tall man, mysterious like a devil, and pretentious in speech. There seemed to be descriptions of him being "arrogant," giving off an extraordinary demeanor.

The man now appearing on the street matched my impression of the Weirdo Maker.

White suit, silver mask, thin and tall physique, walking with a posture as if he had received etiquette training. I thought even if he hadn’t worn such an odd mask, he would certainly have captured the attention of the crowd. He had the kind of star-like presence that seemed to carry a spotlight wherever he went, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he possessed a demonic leader’s charisma.

"The target has appeared."

Zhu Shi, wearing a straw raincoat, displayed a piercing gaze as if she was trying to see through the other party.

"How is it?" I asked.

"...He’s an ordinary person," she said gravely, "This doesn’t make sense."

Indeed, if he were just an ordinary person, he wouldn’t have been able to command the loyalty of those monsters. According to our information, the Weirdo Maker wasn’t just creating monsters in our city; his traces could be found in many cities nationwide. Even if the monsters in Saltwater City hadn’t attacked him, were the monsters in other cities just obedient "good children"?

"If that’s the case, then let’s just kill him outright, shall we?" I suggested.

"Yes," Zhu Shi said, unpretentiously, "I’ll infiltrate closer to him first, then you burn him from a distance, but leave the head intact. If he actually turns out to be a monster, and there appears any destruction of information in the brain due to a seed of the heart, I’ll immediately sever his connection to that seed. And if he has any other method of destroying the information in his brain..."

Mazao took over, "In that case, I will use the blessing power to reset and recover the destroyed information in his brain."

Zhu Shi nodded, then put on her conical hat, and stealthily moved to the rear of the Weirdo Maker, much like an ancient assassin. Meanwhile, Mazao took off his cat whiskers face mask, interfering with his breathing, and silently moved to a position unseen by the enemy.

The Weirdo Maker seemed oblivious, moving as usual towards the direction of the clinic. I couldn’t stealthily move like Zhu Shi and Mazao, so I continued to hide behind the food truck, quietly observing him, wary of his actions.

This man likely possessed apocalyptic information and controlled technology with apocalyptic implications. That alone was extraordinary. And in my heart, he also stirred an unfathomable feeling. Appearing suddenly in the night before those desiring power, like a whispering Devil, granting unimaginable power; this bizarre behavior was just like that dream.

"Do you want power?"

Four and a half years ago, a bizarre figure appeared in my dream, unidentifiable in appearance, and spoke to me the same words.

From my subjective perspective, my magical adventure began the night I met Mazao. However, objectively speaking, the real starting point that led me into the extraordinary was undoubtedly the moment I lit a candle with my gaze, four and a half years ago. And only a few days separated that moment from that dream.

To this day, I couldn’t determine whether it was just a coincidental ethereal dream or a genuinely meaningful mystical experience. The existence of the Weirdo Maker inevitably provoked eerie associations.

After Zhu Shi was in position and signaled from a distance that she was ready, I nodded my head, then focused on the Weirdo Maker.

The next instant, fire blazed.

The intense flames engulfed the Weirdo Maker almost instantly. The process didn’t resemble burning but seemed more like electrocution. The dazzling light appeared only briefly, too quick to even blink, and the body of the Weirdo Maker evaporated in the flash, leaving only the silver metallic mask of the head, which fell to the ground like a deflated ball.

It was over.

From start to finish, Zhu Shi hadn’t made a move, and the head of the Weirdo Maker didn’t explode. It seemed that the Weirdo Maker hadn’t turned himself into a monster.

But I found it hard to feel "I’ve prevailed."

The Weirdo Maker died so simply that it lacked realism. Of course, it’s also possible that he indeed had many combat strategies, but he couldn’t deploy them in time under my unscrupulous surprise attack.

Moreover, I was conscious of the destructive power of my own flames. So far, opponents hit by my flames, even if they could avoid death by virtue of their special abilities, had never managed to directly withstand it. Even if he wasn’t completely without strategies to counter surprise attacks, it’s hard to say whether they all didn’t just vanish into ash within my flames. Life-and-death struggles can be that brutal at times.

Just in case, I released several "fireflies" to guard around, and then Mazao and I came out from where we were hiding and slowly moved towards Zhu Shi. The latter didn’t rashly touch the severed head; instead, he moved his steps slowly, observing with extreme caution.

It seemed that none of us here naively assumed things would be so simple; everyone was on guard for threats that might emerge from the darkness.

And reality didn’t disappoint our "expectations."

The unexpected happened.

Just as Mazao and I were about to meet up with Zhu Shi, black smoke emerged abruptly from the ground like a volcanic eruption.

However, the ground showed no signs of an eruption or cracks. The black smoke emerged directly through the ground like a phantom and expanded rapidly. By the time I reacted, this street seemed to be completely enveloped in black smoke. At the very least, my vision was completely blocked by it.

In this swath of black smoke, I felt my mind grow foggy, and even my body seemed to slow down under the influence of my consciousness.

I had seen this kind of black smoke before. Two days ago, when Zhu Shi and I faced the Undying Monster, and it trapped us in a labyrinth space, black smoke appeared as well. And the grogginess I felt now seemed to be the dizziness and nausea from before amplified countless times.

This strange phenomenon, which clouded one’s mind, if experienced by a regular person, could surely make them lose consciousness in a flash.

However, my body, including my brain, was a product of flame mimicry. The grogginess I felt now was also the result of my body coming into contact with the black smoke and mimicking what it "thought it should become." In other words, it was an illusion presented to myself. While I felt groggy, it was as if there was another self, entirely unaffected, watching everything from above. This bystander was the real me.

Simply put, this trick was of no use against me.

But it seemed not to be the case for Zhu Shi and Mazao.

Although my visual sight was completely blocked by the black smoke, fortunately, I had the "fireflies’" thermal sensing. Now, I could see that the two were still standing in their original spots, appearing quite lucid, but their movements were slow as if they were struggling through a very thick mire. This was proof that their conditions were affected.

Leaving Zhu Shi aside, Mazao could probably use the blessing power to reset her status, but she didn’t do so immediately. Not only that, she didn’t seem to be in a rush to break through the black smoke; instead, she observed her surroundings with a calm gaze. It was as if she was deliberately showing weakness.

Zhu Shi seemed to have noticed Mazao’s calmness; she appeared to become less anxious. Perhaps she also had a trump card to turn the situation around; her previous urgency was just out of concern for those around her.

Unlike them, who could pretend to be completely helpless against the black smoke, I was genuinely unaffected by it, and trying to mimic their slow movements would only look awkward. No doubt, the real Weirdo Maker was likely lurking in the shadows, watching. My overtly immune reaction to the black smoke must have also caught his attention.

With a mindset of nothing to lose, I gave up on acting and directly summoned a fireball with my right hand, about to strike it against my chest.

But just then, I suddenly felt something tangle around my right wrist. Turning to look, it was the surrounding black smoke solidifying into a robust dark chain, firmly binding my right wrist.

Following that, more dark chains shot from all directions, binding my torso, left wrist, and both ankles, pulling me up and suspending me several meters above the ground.

Footsteps echoed from the depths of the black smoke. Soon, a tall, lean man in a white suit and wearing a silver mask appeared, striding confidently to a spot about a dozen steps from me.

Indeed, the Weirdo Maker was not yet dead.

Then was the one I burned to death a doppelgänger? Something was off. If it were a doppelgänger formed by superpower, there’s no way it could have deceived Zhu Shi’s eyes, and she would have spotted the flaw.

The Weirdo Maker picked up his own head from the ground, then looked around at us, and seemed to smile.

He tossed his head aside as if throwing out trash.

"Good evening, the three of you," he said. "I am the ’Weirdo Maker’ you’ve been looking for."