Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 178 - 169 Stepping into Empty Space 2

Chapter 178: 169 Stepping into Empty Space 2

The phenomenon of "stepping into void" that I encountered wasn’t physical but more akin to a psychological experience.

It’s like when a person is sleeping peacefully in bed, then suddenly experiences a severe sensation of plummeting and wakes up with a start. Although this phenomenon is rare, everyone has probably experienced it a few times.

When I came to my senses, I was no longer in that dungeon filled with gruesome torture tools, but had returned to the reception room of the Luoshan Office.

In my memory, before I entered the twisted secret base of the Human Bureau, I should have been standing and holding hands with Lu Youxun. Now, however, I was sitting on a sofa. Mazao was sitting tightly next to me, while Zhu Shi stood in the center of the room, hands crossed in front of his chest, monitoring the corner of the room with a watchful gaze.

Following Zhu Shi’s gaze, I saw Lu Youxun sitting in front of the corner. Unlike me, comfortably sitting on the couch with a beautiful girl, he was bound all over with ropes, hands tied behind his back, his face bearing a helpless smile.

Regardless of why he was tied up over there, the moment I saw him, I unconsciously sighed with relief. It’s not that the other female student form of Lu Chan made me uncomfortable, but the original Lu Youxun was more pleasing to the eye, which spared me from chaotic thoughts.

However, why did I suddenly return to the Luoshan Office? I indeed could return at any time, but I had not used the Flame Transmission just now.

Mazao noticed my movement and happily said, "Zhuang Cheng, are you awake?"

"Senior Brother Zhuang?" Zhu Shi also looked over.

Sitting in the corner, Lu Youxun took a deep breath and said with a smile, "I told you it was nothing."

"Did I faint just now?" I quickly realized, "Oh, no wonder Lu Youxun is tied up over there..."

While speaking, I checked the "Firefly" placed on the three of them.

The "Firefly" having undergone several minor upgrades, now had the capability of storing memories. Simply put, it could review the surveillance records, and from here, I retrieved the information about what had happened earlier.

It turned out that the moment I entered the Human Bureau’s secret base, this body at the Luoshan Office just suddenly "crashed."

Whether it’s this body here or the one that entered the secret base, they were essentially fire, or rather, conglomerates of my own spirit. It didn’t mean that both of them could think normally. Where my consciousness was focused, only that side could function and move like a human. Therefore, when I entered that side, this body here was just a conglomerate of fire—another way to put it, a "giant-sized Firefly."

Perhaps in the future, the "Firefly" could be upgraded to possess some autonomous intelligence, but not now. It suddenly became vacant, and besides standing there stupidly, it could do nothing.

As soon as Mazao realized the anomaly, she rushed over, hugged this body of mine and backed away, all while warily watching Lu Youxun. Zhu Shi also immediately picked up the Yama Sword, placing his right hand on the hilt, ready to draw it at any moment.

"Wait, I haven’t done anything!" Lu Youxun then hurriedly raised his hands.

Mazao couldn’t comprehend why Lu Youxun would ambush us, but she quickly grasped a possibility: "... Did Ying Lingyun brainwash you? You were imprisoned and researched by the Human Bureau for eight months. Since Ying Lingyun can brainwash Chen Long, of course, he can brainwash you too."

That possibility was actually very low.

Given that Lu Youxun had been captured and tortured by enemy forces for eight months, Luoshan would be even more skeptical of his loyalty than us, and the means to test whether he was turned by the enemy were countless. Since Lu Youxun was now in charge of intelligence work as a Patrol, even overseeing intelligence for Saltwater City, it indicated his stance was trustworthy.

Moreover, if he had even a slight hostility toward me, issues would have arisen when he was linked to my spirit. No, before that, he wouldn’t have risked his life accompanying me on that Human Bureau undercover operation. Just a bit of hostility from my side, and he would have surely died.

"Don’t worry, I’ve used ’Buzhou Mountain’ to check Lu Chan’s actions and words before, and he indeed doesn’t have those issues," Zhu Shi also stated.

"That’s right, Luoshan also checked me, you can rest assured... hmm?" Lu Youxun hesitated, "Speaking of which, Zhu Shi, don’t you usually avoid using ’Buzhou Mountain’ on our own people, you really don’t consider me one of our own?"

Zhu Shi emphatically stated, "Who told you to go behind my back and contact Senior Brother Zhuang privately!"

"So, you held that incident against me?" Lu Youxun was taken aback.

Thereafter, to prove his harmlessness, he bound himself and accepted Zhu Shi’s surveillance.

Meanwhile, Mazao attempted to use the blessing power to restore my state, but perhaps due to the soul load not having subsided, the power extracted wasn’t much, and it ultimately didn’t work.

Until I "awakened" by myself.

Then, I shifted my attention away from the historical information of the "Firefly."

"That’s what happened..." Lu Youxun said, "Can I be untied now?"

"You come up first," Zhu Shi said.

At that, Lu Youxun shook, and the ropes fell away, unraveling as if on their own. He stood up using the wall and stretched casually.

"So... what exactly happened on your end?"

"It was like this..."

I briefly described the scene I entered, but for a moment, didn’t know how to explain the girl Lu Chan, especially in front of Lu Youxun.

"...Although the place you entered is supposed to be a secret base of the Human Bureau, it looked like a mad, terrifying factory, and the people around seemed from two years ago, except for the Silver Mask and Chen Long?" Lu Youxun sat on the sofa across from me, puzzled as he listened to my account, "Your own body also shrank to a twelve-year-old, and no one found your appearance surprising. Did you also have your own identity and history there, with verifiable records?"

"In that place, I still seemed to be a student at the New District Experimental Middle School, but the junior high school I attended was not in the new district," I said.

That was also one of the reasons I concluded that the person there wasn’t me from the past.

"...we need to investigate this," Zhu Shi suggested.

Lu Youxun nodded and called the stationed agents to investigate the data of other people in Saltwater City with the same name as me.

Watching Lu Youxun, who was all business and clearly in work mode, I still couldn’t help but think again of the girl Lu Chan and finally decided to voice my doubts directly.

"Lu Youxun, did the Human Bureau perform gender change surgery on you?" I asked seriously.

Lu Youxun: "... What?"

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