Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 196 - 187 Riot Plan 1

Chapter 196: 187 Riot Plan 1

"I wonder if the base that Lu Chan, the girl, saw is the same one I am seeing," she stood at a distance, discerning for a while, before she offered her judgment, "...The pattern inscribed on this base should be a formation to ’lift the seal.’"

"What seal is being lifted?" I asked persistently.

As expected, she replied, "Internal powers, memories, bloodlines, etc.... Simply put, the purpose of this device is similar to what the Zhu family has recently been planning to do to Zhu Changan."

This is really strange.

After Ying Lingyun ordered Chen Long to kidnap Changan, it turned out he wanted to do exactly what Mr. Zhu had intended—lifting the demon bloodline seal on Changan. Is this task not the same regardless of who performs it? Is there a reason he believes only he can undertake this task, or is he unaware of the Zhu family’s intentions?

Mr. Zhu’s goal is to allow Changan to command the powers needed to ensure his own safety, so what is Ying Lingyun’s goal?

Is it to revive Yinyue? Is there a correlation between lifting Changan’s demon bloodline seal and reviving Yinyue?

If I were to force a link between the two, I could only speculate whether Yinyue left any foreshadowing for her resurrection in Changan, such as her soul being reincarnated within him, and that by lifting the demon bloodline seal on Changan, she would automatically revive from within him.

Assuming this is true, and Ying Lingyun was aware of this information, he could not have waited until today to kidnap Changan. However, Changan may still hold a crucial position within his grand plan to revive Yinyue—I must be prepared for that.

This friend of mine truly attracts misfortune.

Perhaps he was influenced by "me, affected by the Broom Star Physique" in the past, and lately, I have cut off contact with him; enough time has already passed independently. Nevertheless, he still finds himself embroiled in such events, which only proves that he was destined to be involved in such matters.

Let me help him.

"Has his seal been lifted yet?" I asked.

Lu Chan seemed to use some sort of detection spell, then said, "...It is still in the process of being unsealed, and it will take a substantial amount of time."

"Can I take him out halfway through? Could it have any adverse effects?" I asked.

"It won’t cause any impact," she said. "However, the material of this container is extremely sturdy. From my observation, firepower of achieved level is unlikely to damage it."

Upon hearing this, I touched the outer shell of the container, trying to sense the defensive strength of this object. Assessing the defensive strength is abstract, and I couldn’t confidently judge it accurately. Maybe influenced by Lu Chan’s earlier words, I too had the feeling that "my current level of firepower may not be enough to destroy it."

That’s okay, I wasn’t planning to extract Changan just yet. What’s vital is to ascertain his location and dismantle this isolated spatial reality before rescuing him from this perilous place. Until then, I’ll have to leave Changan "stored" here.

We temporarily exited the room, retraced our steps along the corridor back to the control room, and restored the secret door and bookshelf to their original states.

"So... what should we do next?"

Though Lu Chan voiced this, she seemed to have some ideas already; she looked at me and continued, "Since you are able to resist Dr. Silver Mask’s power of restart, his invincible golden body can be considered broken as well, perhaps we can really kill him."

She didn’t ask why I could resist the power of restart but started her topic directly based on that premise.

"Let me be clear beforehand; I can only resist the power of restart for myself. I’m unable to prevent Dr. Silver Mask from reviving himself using that power," I cautioned.

"Is it really impossible?" she asked. "You should be able to perform Flame Transmission with objects other than yourself, right? If you were to remove the black jade stone from his heart, causing his death that would trigger his ’restart’ to activate automatically; however, you would not be affected by the power of restart.

"In other words, you can then transport yourself and the black jade stone outside to your base, and the black jade stone is likely the lifeblood of this base. Afterward, the base would collapse, marking our victory."

"That’s a good idea, but I probably can’t do it," I said.

She appeared stunned for a moment, then asked, "Why not?"

"The reason I can carry objects during Flame Transmission is because those are personal items of mine," I explained. "When you walk outside, you naturally think wearing clothes is the norm, and not wearing them is abnormal, right? It’s the same for me. The clothes on me, the pants, and items like my cellphone in my pockets are a part of me, hence I can elementalize them during the process of Elementalization.

"Though Outer Path Impermanence Sword isn’t naturally a personal item, I can just barely consider it as such and disintegrate it into flames for transmission together with me.

"It’s not the same with Dr. Silver Mask’s... black jade stone, which is equivalent to his heart. Asking me to immediately regard it as ’my personal item’ after getting a hold of it is something I can’t do."

Lu Chan persisted, "Is there really no way at all?"

"No, this is a matter of values. If I were an ultimate narcissist who naturally considers the items I rob as my own, maybe there would still be room for negotiation. As for the real me..." I pondered before saying, "I would at least have to truly kill the other person first."

"Your values, in a way, are even more excessive than those of an ultimate narcissist," she remarked.

I could only consider someone’s spoils my own after I’d killed them. Lu Chan’s method, on the other hand, required me to regard their spoils as my own before killing them, which was a case of putting the cart before the horse. Unfortunately, I had to abandon this line of thinking.

However, I wasn’t just about shooting down other people’s ideas. After realizing that I wasn’t affected by the power of restart, I had come up with my own method.

That was to kill.

"–If I keep killing Dr. Silver Mask over and over, I should be able to completely finish him off," I said.

"How so?" Lu Chan seemed to grasp what I was getting at.

"No matter what kind of immortality one possesses, there is always a limit. There can’t be a truly infinite resurrection, not even ’restart’ would be an exception."

In fact, I suspected that Dr. Silver Mask’s power of restart might allow for infinite resurrections, since the source of the power wasn’t Dr. Silver Mask himself, but rather the Divine Seal Fragment. When it came to the power of the Divine Seal Fragment, I thought it best not to make assumptions based on common sense.

My real reliance still came later.

"Even if his power of restart could be used an infinite number of times, his own soul ultimately wouldn’t be able to withstand infinite deaths," I said, "Those demon hunters reach the brink of collapse because they can’t endure the endless deaths and pain. Just let the same thing happen to Dr. Silver Mask. Even if demon hunters automatically forget death and pain, Dr. Silver Mask, who remembers everything, would be even less able to endure."

"And since my consciousness, body, and flames aren’t affected by the power of restart, it means that even if everything inside the base is rewound, I can still stay close to Dr. Silver Mask and keep killing him until his soul completely disperses."

"I see, this method could work!"

Lu Chan was initially excited, then she frowned, "Wait, how do you plan to deal with Chen Long? He won’t just watch you ’flay’ Dr. Silver Mask alive; he will definitely intervene at some point."

"That’s the only difficult part of this plan; I must be able to exert a power equal to or greater than Chen Long in this place," I said.

"It would be great if we knew why he could exert Great Success Rank power inside this base..." she pondered.

"Do you have a way?" I asked seriously.

She fell into troubled thoughts.

After a long time, her furrowed brow finally smoothed out, seeming to have some ideas.

I listened attentively to her.

"To solve this puzzle, we need at least to watch Chen Long genuinely fight using his Great Success Rank power once; the answer is probably hidden within," she said.

"I understand that, but I can’t force him to exert his full strength right now," I said.

"No need for you to act," she said gravely, "Just release all the demon hunters imprisoned here from their cells and magic seal locks at the same time and orchestrate a riot. He will be forced to use his Great Success Rank power to deal with it."

Releasing all the demon hunters and causing a riot—just this step alone seemed extraordinarily difficult.

But these words came from Lu Chan, who had secretly planned two prison breaks before; she might really have a way to achieve it.

"What if Dr. Silver Mask uses his power of restart to reset everything during that time?" I asked.

"Judging by past riot cases, he wouldn’t do that," she confidently said, "In his view, rather than stopping the riot itself, what’s more important is to understand the cause of the riot and the vulnerabilities in the internal containment mechanisms; therefore, if possible, he would choose to let Chen Long eliminate the riot first and then gather the information he wants.

"So, next, I need to go persuade those imprisoned demon hunters to participate in this plan."

"Is that really okay? That’s basically asking them to perform a suicide attack," I asked.

"They are all people who can only barely consider themselves alive here, but to live here is to live in endless living hell," she said, "So, as long as it’s to destroy this place, not to mention asking them to commit suicide, whatever you ask them to do, they will do it."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked.

"Yes," she asserted, "You are key to the step of ’releasing all the demon hunters at the same time’!"