Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 187 - 178 Lu Chan’s Nightmare 1

Chapter 187: 178 Lu Chan’s Nightmare 1

"I am Lu Chan," the girl Lu Chan insisted.

I had no choice but to ask her to explain in detail, and she did so accordingly.

As the things she mentioned were too bizarre, I found it hard to believe her story at first. Yet she saw the doubt in my eyes and spoke directly, "Don’t you have the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring given to you by the outside Lu Chan? Although I am a Spiritual Body, the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring still works on me. You can come over, grab my heart, and make me repeat the truth I just told you."

I didn’t know if this "strange object" was luring me into a trap, but hesitating in the face of a problem wasn’t my personality. So, I walked straight up, put the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring on my left hand, and held the Outer Path Impermanence Sword in my right, ready to counterattack at any moment.

The girl hung high on the cross looked at me calmly.

I climbed onto the metal base of the cross and then raised my left hand, reaching out to her slightly raised bosom.

Then, my left hand passed through her chest without hindrance.

I truly touched her beating heart.

It should have been like a ghostly existence, yet I could feel the slimy warmth of internal organs from within, seemingly alive. And while grasping this heartbeat, a familiar sensation sprouted in my heart—she could neither lie nor remain silent in the face of my queries.

Everything was ready, she took a deep breath, and once again began to slowly reveal the truth—

Two years ago, Lu Chan was betrayed by Chen Long, captured by the Human Bureau’s modified task force at a secret base, and subjected to inhuman experiments. This dark period lasted for eight whole months; the endless torture led Lu Chan to change his worldview completely amidst the abyss-like despair.

The former him was a kind demon hunter who fought for ordinary people, for the weak, for society, and yet he was tortured by numerous ordinary human scientists. His power was stripped away, his spells were deciphered, and his dignity was trampled, reduced to a lab rat drained of value for the Human Bureau’s goal of creating "Extraordinary Soldiers led by ordinary human leaders."

After disappointment, anger, and despair, he wholly abandoned his old dreams in the face of endless humiliation, deciding to see ordinary people as a breed fated to be dominated by demon hunters. He transformed from a Governance Ideologist, like Zhu Shi, into the Extraordinary Fanatic he is today.

And in the end, he miraculously escaped the Human Bureau’s base. However, part of his soul remained in the hell that had tormented him so much.

He believed this was a growth, much like the unrealistic dreams spawned in childhood, doomed to be negated by the outside world and oneself amid the setbacks of later life, eventually replaced by a more realistic and mature set of notions.

The girl Lu Chan, was the dream that Lu Chan had abandoned in hell.

"...Wait, I still don’t understand—is this some kind of romantic metaphor? You are ’the dream’?" I asked.

"This is not a metaphor, but the literal sense," replied the girl Lu Chan indifferently, "When a person experiences extreme sorrow, they feel pain as if their soul is being torn apart. In fact, this isn’t just a figurative speech, intense negative emotions can indeed split one’s Spirit and even cause direct observable changes to the body. You must have heard of people turning gray overnight after suffering a great shock or falling seriously ill. That is also a manifestation of this phenomenon.

"And while even ordinary people can exhibit strong reactions due to emotional changes, let alone we demon hunters who primarily manipulate soul power. I am the portion of the past Lu Chan’s Spirit that he discarded when he changed himself, the embodiment of his wish ’to become a hero’, his dream’s embodiment.

"You can understand it this way: after a person dies, they become a ghost; and during those tormenting eight months, the old Lu Chan died, and the new Lu Chan was born, and I am the ghost that was left after the old Lu Chan’s death."

I gently squeezed her heart, and the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring told me she was indeed not lying.

Yet, I was uncertain if the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring truly was effective on such a Spiritual Body, especially since the ring was originally given to me by Lu Chan’s main entity, Lu Youxun... No, if I worried about the ring’s effectiveness for the latter reason, it would be tantamount to acknowledging her as the embodiment of Lu Chan’s dream.

Do such fairytale-like plots truly occur in reality?

"Alright, let’s assume everything you’ve said is true; I’ll tentatively believe you... But why are you a girl?" I asked, "If the old Lu Chan is dead, the ghost that was born should be a male, right?"

"The following words are merely my personal conjecture, perhaps because I... because Lu Chan has always looked down on women," she said, "He thought women were naive, shortsighted, and weak, so despite exhibiting a debonair appearance before women, he actually despised their spirits and abilities from the bottom of his heart.

"At the same time, he also held deep-seated contempt for his past self—despising me, believing I was naive, foolish, effeminate. This image merged with the female form in his mind, transforming me into a feminine shape. It wasn’t even a transformation into a woman, but rather into a girl."

"That’s possible?" I was astonished, "Is this kind of split phenomenon common among you demon hunters?"

"...No, on the contrary, this should be impossible." She said, "It is just because a dream was laid to rest that it turned into an aspect of my own existence, an avatar with autonomous consciousness... Such phenomena only occur in the era of mythology, or with beings akin to God, like Impermanence. If not that, at least it should happen to someone endowed with divinity."

Someone endowed with divinity... Does she mean people like Zhu Shi?

I thought while asking, "So who are you then?"

"I only know what kind of existence I am, but I do not know why I came into being. Although I’ve tried to explore the truth, as you can see, I am bound by mechanical restraints, currently locked in this dark, special cell, simply incapable of doing more," she said. "However, judging by Dr. Silver Mask and Chen Long’s indifferent treatment of me, they most likely understand the specifics of my origins. If they regarded me as ’an oddity of unknown provenance,’ they would not have simply set me aside."

Upon hearing this, I took a closer look at the device restraining her.

The cross and stocks binding her were no different from those that had bound me and the other demon hunters before. It was clear that, regardless of whether she was "Lu Chan’s Dream Incarnate" as she claimed, at the very least Dr. Silver Mask and Chen Long did not resort to measures befitting an "unknown danger" against her. Even if I did not believe her words, I should trust the vigilance of Dr. Silver Mask and Chen Long.

"Does Lu Youxun know of your existence?" I asked.

"He cannot be conscious of my existence, but he likely knows of me subconsciously," the girl Lu Chan stated casually, "In his heart, I am an existence to be abhorred, both a past he cannot bear to revisit and deeply tied to his idea of hell. I am the embodiment of his past dreams, yet he probably views me as an incarnation of nightmares.

"Whenever he uses Divination Technique outside, targeting this place, I can fragmentarily synchronize with his memories, whereas he cannot do the same. At best, through me, he can glimpse vague images of this place under extremely coincidental circumstances.

"He simply assumes this is due to his innate advantage in Divination Technique, fully unaware that a bit more reflective thought would lead him to realize that it’s not the case... and it’s all because he rejects me from the depths of his heart."

"So this is why Lu Youxun was able to have visions of this place." I nodded tentatively, "Other demon hunters are convinced you are the real Lu Chan, even though you are completely unlike Lu Chan in the outside world... How do you explain that?"

"I guess it might be due to the properties of this Different Space," she said. "Although it conflicts with the scientific activities of the Human Bureau, this place might be a dream-type Different Space. Upon reboot, since no ’data’ could be found for the escaped Lu Chan, I, as Lu Chan’s incarnation, was used as a substitute. Thereby, I took on Lu Chan’s identity in this place.

"I suppose the reason I could form is because this is a dream. An ’Incarnate of a Dream’ that should not be able to manifest found a stage in the ’dreamscape’—that’s reasonable, isn’t it?

"As for why you were also endowed with an identity in the dreamscape, I have no knowledge. Perhaps it is also related to some attributes of this dreamscape."

"No, this is not a dreamscape, but reality reshaped by Ying Lingyun," I said.

"What?" She was stunned.

I explained in detail, and she said incredulously, "How could that be... How could that be? Even Impermanence cannot cut out ’reality’ itself! Moreover, if this is a true space-time reality, how should my existence be explained?"

Things that defy logic are often tied to a Divine Seal Fragment. As this independent reality was created by Ying Lingyun using the power of a Divine Seal Fragment, it was possible that the girl Lu Chan was also summoned by Ying Lingyun or perhaps Dr. Silver Mask using the power of a Divine Seal Fragment.

But as comfortable as this explanation might be, it provoked an inescapable problem, which was why Ying Lingyun or Dr. Silver Mask would want to summon girl Lu Chan using a Divine Seal Fragment. And if they intended to summon her, there must be some specific purpose, so why then did they handle her with indifference?

Even though girl Lu Chan wasn’t the actual entity from the outside world, I had no intention of explaining about the Divine Seal Fragment to her.

So she could only temporarily abandon her persistent probing and pleaded with me, "Could you release my restraints and take me out of this cell?"

"What do you intend to do?" I asked.

"Although there are many differences in thought between me and the Lu Chan outside, we agree on our view of this secret Human Bureau facility. I want to help you destroy this place," she proposed a deal, "Have you found your friend Zhu Changan yet? If not, I can also try to help you find him."