Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 188 - 179 Lu Chan’s Nightmare 2

Chapter 188: 179 Lu Chan’s Nightmare 2

"I’m sorry, but the ’Fireflies’ I released haven’t found Changan yet."

"There are many secret chambers inside this secret base that the ’Fireflies’ can’t easily enter. Most of the explorable areas are limited to corridors, and we must be careful not to be detected by the guards. These guards are not ordinary security personnel, but monsters with the power of the strange. They might notice those small floating lights in the air and realize they are all spies from me, the intruder."

"As for the deal proposed by the girl Lu Chan, I chose to accept it."

"Actually, I didn’t have many options. Even if I found Changan, I couldn’t teleport myself and others out of this place using Flame Transmission. The only ones who could legally enter and exit this independent reality space were Dr. Silver Mask and Chen Long. I didn’t think I could force these two to comply completely, and in the end, I would probably have to find a way to destroy the Human Bureau’s secret base itself."

"Currently, I lack the conditions to accomplish this single-handedly with violence, and I don’t have the confidence to destroy the enemy’s stronghold with wisdom. In such a situation, having one more helper can only be considered a timely aid."

"Surely, accepting the help from the girl Lu Chan, this ’spirit whose background is still unclear,’ has its risky elements, but I have never shied away from taking risks."

"Thinking this, I hesitated no longer and immediately swung my sword to cut the ropes binding Lu Chan’s wrists and ankles."

"Seeing this, Lu Chan’s expression changed, and she hurriedly shouted, ’Wait—’"

"Her reaction was a bit too slow; my sword had already freed her from the cross."

"Suddenly granted her freedom, she nearly fell but managed to grab the cross behind her to stabilize herself. Then she said hurriedly, ’This is bad, the mechanical restraint device has a built-in alarm function. If it’s forcibly destroyed by external force, it will immediately emit a shrill alarm and notify the nearby guards that you...’"

"Her voice suddenly stopped because the cross had not emitted any alarm."

"In my understanding, this was normal. A wooden cross and ropes made of grass—how could such primitive items trigger an electronic alarm? But she probably didn’t see it as such."

"Perhaps, this is also evidence that my perception is distorting objective external materials. But indeed, I had been careless just now. Since violently breaking the wooden stocks could potentially trigger an alarm, the same could naturally happen with the cross. My thoughts had been misled by what my eyes saw."

"’...How did you do that?’ Lu Chan looked at me, puzzled. ’And come to think of it, I’ve been wondering from the start, how did you enter this special cell? The door here is supposed to be accessible only by Dr. Silver Mask and Chen Long. You don’t look like you forced your way in; otherwise, it would surely have triggered an alarm...’"

"I returned to the ground, then said, ’I also have things I need to confirm with you. Come down first.’"

"She nodded obediently, descending from the metallic base of the cross to the ground, barefoot, just like me, dressed only in a white restraint suit. The researchers at this secret base probably never intended to allow their subjects to move on their own feet, of course, they wouldn’t provide shoes—this might also be to prevent them from escaping."

"It’s said that some traffickers force their victims to wear socks filled with sharp shards to prevent them from escaping; considering that, this place is actually ’civilized’ in comparison."

"Standing on the wire mesh floor, the girl appeared like a pure white flower silently blooming in the hell of Naraku; her restrained white suit made her look even more moving. But the thought that it was Lu Chan housed within that body gave an inexplicable sense of contrast."

"I slightly prepared my next words, then shared my strange perceptive phenomenon with the girl Lu Chan."

"To add credibility, I also took out the iron key I carried and unlocked the wooden stocks binding her hands."

"She looked bewilderedly at her freed hands, then lowered her head to the wooden stocks split into two on the ground, utterly puzzled."

"’...This thing is a ’Magic Seal Lock,’ as the name suggests, it can seal a demon hunter’s mana, and its effect goes beyond that...’ she said dully, ’Without completing the proper verification procedure, even if you have the key capable of unlocking it, you shouldn’t directly unlock it, otherwise, the Magic Seal Lock will inject an extremely powerful curse into the wearer. Even I, a Spiritual Body, would be instantly annihilated...’"

"’In my eyes, it was just a simple wooden stock,’ I said. ’And what bound you just now was merely a cross.’"

"’Wooden stock... Cross...’"

"Her face showed a mix of ’What nonsense are you talking about’ and ’What on earth is going on with this world,’ eventually resulting in a long sigh."

"’...Is this place really not a dream?’"

"How would you explain that?"

I felt like she was expressing more than just her shock.

"If this is a dream, everything can be explained. Not only my formation but also your strange cognition," she said. "First, you were transmitted here through the spiritual connection with Lu Chan outside, right?"

"Yes."

I did not personally witness the scenes from the Human Bureau’s secret base and transport myself; instead, I first relied on Lu Youxun’s Divination and illusion to establish a spiritual connection and synchronize with him, which let me indirectly see the scene here. Therefore, saying it was "through Lu Chan’s spirit" was not an exaggeration.

"Whether for the Lu Chan outside or for me, this place is a genuine living hell. Since you synchronized with his consciousness, it’s not surprising that you perceive this place as something akin to a slaughterhouse and see various scientific equipment as instruments of torture," the young Lu Chan patiently explained. "It’s not that Lu Chan’s spirit outside can distort your cognition on its own; the effect he has on you is like a thin layer of colored plastic film.

"No matter how strong your vision is, as long as you perceive this space through that colored film, the hues you perceive will inevitably be distorted. And since this is a dream, there are no so-called ’objective things’; everything depends on perception, so whatever your cognition is, the objects you encounter will automatically conform to your pattern of cognition.

"And because your spiritual power is much stronger than mine, even if the same object is encountered by two people with different perceptions, the object’s attributes will tend more toward your perception. This is why the mechanical restraint didn’t sound an alarm, and the Magic Seal Lock didn’t curse me."

I added: "But the problem is... this is not a dream; it’s reality."

"Could it be that the senior researcher has deceived you... no, the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring should prevent that... so could it be that he was also deceived by Ying Lingyun? But if that was the case, all the researchers would turn into ’dream researchers’, and this secret base would become pointless..." the young Lu Chan also couldn’t figure it out. "Or is it that you alone possess some kind of ’element that can treat reality as a dream’? But then, that wouldn’t explain my existence..."

A mass of contradictions intertwined.

"Since there’s insufficient evidence, let’s not deduce for now. First, tell me what you can do," I said. "Do you have combat abilities? The ’possibility avatars’ that Lu Youxun used to be skilled at, can you use them?"

"I’m sorry, I can’t meet your expectations in combat," she said. "As I mentioned before, I was discarded by the Lu Chan outside, representing the ’weak’ self. As for the ’possibility avatars,’ unlike him, I have the qualifications to use this power, but not enough mana to execute it. You can think of it as a skill that requires one hundred points of mana, and yet my own mana cap is only ten points."

"Qualifications?" I puzzled. "I heard that the reason Lu Youxun couldn’t use ’possibility avatars’ was due to the aftereffects of human experimentation..."

"That’s a misunderstanding," she explained. "’Possibility avatars’ are a type of power that can only be mastered by fools who refuse to submit to destiny and believe in their infinite possibilities with the world. In the past, as a Governance Ideologist, he was well aware of the future direction of the world, yet he still harbored the hope to change the Luo Mountain and demon hunter community from within; now the ’smart Lu Chan’ who keeps talking about ’historical inevitability’ has long since diverged from this power."

"...This is strange..."

I picked up on a particular doubt in my mind and tried to express it to her: "Lu Youxun became an Extraordinary Fanatic after being greatly disappointed in humanity, even harboring hostility and hatred towards them, right? And yet, he previously told me that the rule of Extraordinaryism is fairer towards humans, whereas Governance Ideology would ultimately enslave all humans..."

"Are you saying that driven by hostility and hatred, he chose another path that, on the surface, seems better for humans, which doesn’t make sense, right?" she asked.

I nodded.

Lu Youxun once used the Heavenly Court from the myths as an example.

Guardian beasts for the Gods and Buddhas are usually spirit beasts, and even heavenly soldiers and generals are not jobs for ordinary humans.

Although it was impossible to truly establish a Heavenly Court from the myths, Extraordinaryism had no need to have humans bustling about for it—this was his stance.

"Your suspicions are correct. Although the Lu Chan outside didn’t lie to you, he was indeed trying to mislead you," she said. "The goal of Extraordinaryism is to become true Transcendents, to completely separate from humans and even not needing humans to be their slaves... so here comes the question, if they don’t need humans to be busy for them, why would they still go to great lengths to become rulers in the mortal world?"

"You’re saying..."

I faintly realized that she was about to reveal something much more terrifying.

She coldly stated, "In their worldview, humans can’t even do well as slaves, they only qualify to become ’resources.’"