Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 128 - 122 The Next Day

Chapter 128: 122 The Next Day

It is said that people do not dream during deep sleep. Dreams are generated when the brain is still partially active during light sleep. Frequent dreaming is considered a symptom of poor sleep quality.

From this perspective, I had a good night’s sleep that evening. I did not dream, did not get up in the night, did not awaken halfway, and enjoyed eight hours of high-quality, uninterrupted sleep. Before going to sleep, I had been worried that sharing a bed with Mazao might provoke some inappropriate thoughts, leading to embarrassing dreams, and subsequently to awkward sleep talk or even unconscious inappropriate actions. Now it seemed there was no need to have worried.

However, since I didn’t enter the Mist Dream Realm, it meant that the crisis of Bowl No. 2 could not yet be resolved, which was bound to disappoint Mazao. This was my first thought upon awakening, still lying in bed.

Then, I realized I seemed to be being held by someone.

It was Mazao. Before we fell asleep, we had been lying side by side, holding hands. The bed was a double bed, which had been in the bedroom when I rented the house, providing ample space. Our feet might accidentally touch, but there shouldn’t be any other unnecessary contact.

But now, she was holding me tightly, her small soft body pressed firmly against my arm, and I could clearly feel her body temperature. She had buried her face in my neck, her warm, slightly moist breath rhythmically brushing my skin, and her legs were draped over my body, the blanket kicked to the floor.

Such an incredible sleeping position—she had never slept like this when alone. Actually, I also liked to pile up blankets and hug them when I slept. Was she unconsciously treating me as a blanket, or as a large stuffed toy?

The previous night I had asked her if she was afraid I would make any moves, but now it was unclear who was making moves on whom.

Initially, I thought about pulling away quickly and getting up, but I couldn’t help lying there a bit longer. During this time, I paid special attention to whether I was experiencing any indescribable physiological phenomenon typical of males upon waking. If so, I would have had to elementalize that part into a dormant state. Fortunately, today was not one of those days, and it was safe.

After a while, I finally began to push myself up. When I extricated myself from her embrace, she indeed awakened suddenly. Perhaps because I moved quickly, she didn’t seem to fully grasp her previous sleeping position.

Yet our hands were still holding each other, her grip extraordinarily tight. After getting up, she slowly released her hand. The Divine Seal Fragment remained between our palms.

Unlike many who need time for their brains to boot up after waking, Mazao’s mind started quickly.

She first glanced at the Divine Seal Fragment, then looked at me apprehensively.

I slowly shook my head.

I had once suspected that we might enter the Mist Dream Realm every four days, but this suspicion now proved to be in vain.

She bowed her head in great disappointment.

"We still have five days. As long as we can enter the Mist Dream Realm on one of these days, we can save Bowl." That was all I could offer for comfort.

She nodded hesitantly, "Let’s hope so..."

The situation was really not promising. Bowl No. 2 had said it could "last at most ten days." Since "at most" was mentioned, it was an optimistic estimate. She might not hold on past the seventh or eighth day, and now five days had already passed. Naturally, I hoped I could meet Mazao’s expectations if there was a way. It was just unfortunate that this particular matter couldn’t be shifted by my will.

We got out of bed. Mazao went to the living room to watch the morning news, though her attention was clearly not on the screen. I, meanwhile, fetched my clothes from the laundry basket, planning to wash them. The most convenient way would, of course, have been for Mazao to use her universal blessing power, but I did not want to bother her with such a trivial matter while she was injured.

On the shoulder of the jacket I pulled out, a red sticker mark left by Mazao’s bare foot still stuck.

Last night in the battle with the Weirdo Maker, Mazao had used a sticker mark to teleport beside me. It’s worth mentioning that even in elemental form, the sticker did not disappear; it entered the Fire Element form with me and still functioned as a marker.

Not just the sticker—my clothes, trousers, personal items, etc., all underwent elementalization with me, and they still came along even after using Flame Transmission.

Even the Divine Seal Fragment did the same.

The basic principle of Flame Transmission is to disassemble and reassemble oneself. That the Divine Seal Fragment followed me during Flame Transmission sounded as though I could freely disassemble and reassemble the Divine Seal Fragment at will. Indeed, it was so, but it wasn’t as impressive as it sounded.

This was just my intuition—regarding an object like the Divine Seal Fragment, its material existence was probably inconsequential. Even if I could freely disassemble and reassemble the Divine Seal Fragment, it meant nothing.

It was as though humans throw stones into a pool, certainly able to freely shatter the moon reflected on the water and watch as the calm surface reassembles the moon once more. No matter how many times the process is repeated, it would still not affect the real moon hanging in the sky. Especially when I could feel the metaphysical realm with my touch, this sensation became even clearer.

Additionally, I also attempted to create different material entities purely by relying on flames. Since I was able to disassemble and reassemble my own body and belongings, shouldn’t I be able to create real flesh and objects out of thin air? However, these attempts also failed. At most, I could only produce flames that shared the same "collision volume" shape but could not reproduce the color and chemical properties of the target objects.

I had always relied instinctively on breaking down and reassembling myself and my belongings. Since I only knew what I was doing, but not why, it naturally made extrapolation impossible. The Weirdo Maker criticized that my use of power was "crude." Was he referring to this?

If one day I could really evolve everything in the world with flames, wouldn’t I truly become an omnipotent God?

Is this still considered to be "Flame Ability"?

I peeled the red sticker off my dirty clothes and reattached it to my shoulder.

After I returned to the living room, the early morning news on the TV was reporting something related to us.

The huge commotion from last night’s battle couldn’t possibly be overlooked and was even captured by some "enthusiastic citizens" using mobile devices from afar—the footage showed the night streets enveloped in mysterious black fog, then suddenly flames erupted, and a surging Fire Sea engulfed the entire street like a gas explosion causing a massive blast.

Soon after, mysteriously, ten beams of light pierced the sky, converging instantly at the center to form a huge and unstable ball of light, which extinguished and disappeared within seconds.

The show host simply referred to it as "an unexplained luminous phenomenon" and stated that "officials are still investigating." Saying they are investigating probably just means they are making up stories. And even if they couldn’t come up with anything, it wouldn’t matter since the incident, although massive in spectacle, did not cause any additional casualties. The only one who died was the Weirdo Maker.

Mazao looked curiously at my shoulder.

"Why do you still have that sticker?"

"It might still be useful," I said.

"I see," she didn’t inquire further, and yawned.

I asked with concern, "Are you very tired?"

"I am a bit," she said. "Maybe because I haven’t slept in the last few days, and I overused the blessing power yesterday. Even though I’ve reset my energy, I still instinctively want to catch up on sleep."

"Did you not sleep the night before last?" I was surprised.

She shook her head. Could it be that when I opened my eyes yesterday morning and saw her standing beside my bed like a ghost, it wasn’t because she had gotten up earlier than me, but because she stood there watching me all night? That shouldn’t be the case.

I persuaded her to go back to her bedroom to get some more sleep. Perhaps, even if we possess powers beyond human fidelity, we are still limited by human mental structures. Just as we don’t need to eat but still instinctively seek food, not needing sleep does not mean that lack of sleep will not affect our consciousness. Ultimately, it will gradually add invisible stress in some ways, which is why I don’t maintain my Fire Element form 24 hours a day. And that might also impact the soul.

"It indeed affects the soul," she admitted my point.

Afterward, without forcing herself, she went back to the bedroom for a nap, planning to sleep for another two or three hours. It was 6:30 am now, meaning she would probably wake up around 9 am. By rounding it off, it still barely fell within breakfast time.

I stepped out to grab some breakfast downstairs and also intended to bring back one for Mazao. Unfortunately, the usual breakfast joint was closed today, so I had to take a longer route. Since I had to detour, I decided to buy breakfast near Saltwater University. The breakfast there was tastier, and Mazao would probably be awake by the time I got back.

On the way, I checked my phone, which had received several messages. Some were from Zhu Shi, and surprisingly numerous ones from Lu Youxun. He probably realized that we had a confrontation with the Weirdo Maker.

I thought the messages from Lu Youxun might mostly be complaints, but that wasn’t the case.

In fact, I had neglected something last night—the "clinic" where the Weirdo Maker performed check-ups on the monsters.

It suddenly dawned on me that I had pushed that place to the back of my mind. Not checking that place was really irresponsible. This is a bad habit of mine, easily distracted by the intense situations right in front of me. Though it sounds like an excuse, Zhu Shi’s cry of "Dad" last night really drained my attention from other "details."

I always find myself neglecting some issues when I think I have considered everything comprehensively, like when I met up with Mazao again and realized I hadn’t planned how to explain to Zhu Shi in advance. Nonetheless, the very fact that neither Mazao nor Zhu Shi thought of it right away just shows the enormous impact of the situation.

Eventually, Zhu Shi timely remembered. After breaking up, she returned to that street and even called Lu Youxun over.