Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 207 - 196 Domain Expansion

Chapter 207: 196 Domain Expansion

Chen Long, who was slaughtering the demon hunter forces, had become aware of my existence.

Perhaps his previous understanding was somewhat distorted due to my false identity within the secret base. Even though I had caused mana fluctuations here before and even killed someone using Flame Ability, he may not have been able to deduce that I was the one stirring trouble behind the scenes.

At this moment, having witnessed my signature skill "Firefly," if he still couldn’t realize who the mastermind behind this massive uprising was, it would be utterly indefensible. Perhaps even if I now appeared right in front of him, he wouldn’t mistake me as some "unfortunate child turned into an experimental subject by the Human Bureau" anymore. The distorted cognitive filters had already shattered.

However, other distorted perceptions persisted in his mind, such as Ying Lingyun’s brainwashing targeting him.

If there were a way to lift his brainwashed state, not only would we not need to worry about how to confront the "Portal Armor," but also we could convert the enemy’s strength to our side... An unrealistic notion flickered through my mind.

At this moment, I was spiritually synchronized with the young girl Lu Chan. Unlike me, who could only share sensory information, she seemed more adept in this aspect and could delve deeper into sensing the spiritual movements here, even capturing the occasional fleeting thoughts.

"You even bear me no malice..." she exclaimed.

"If you were worried about being scorched by my spirit, you shouldn’t have connected with mine," I said.

"I was also taking a gamble. Since you can synchronize with the other Lu Chan outside, you should be able to synchronize with me as well. However, I thought at least you would find me repulsive, especially since you probably remember me as a man. And you still aren’t completely convinced that I am Lu Chan," she said. "Maybe I am just a strange creature full of lies harboring unknown intentions—you must have thought so, right?"

I indeed had such suspicions and had anticipated that she might suddenly turn into an enemy, but this unpredictable danger was also to my liking. I find it difficult to harbor malice toward others merely because "they might pose a danger to me."

"Besides, you seemed to have pondered earlier about whether ’Chen Long’s brainwashing could be lifted,’" young girl Lu Chan said. "While lifting the brainwashing is impossible, causing some influence on him through my spiritual magic should be feasible."

Spiritual Magic—was she referring to skills like the Instant Hypnosis Skill from earlier? I wasn’t surprised that she knew my thoughts, but I countered: "Do you mean that, just as Ying Lingyun can brainwash Chen Long, you can brainwash him in the opposite direction? But with your strength, can you really affect someone of Great Success Rank?"

"Normally, it isn’t possible, but now we’ve gathered three special conditions," she said. "First, I am now synchronized with your spirit; as long as you do not resist, I can borrow some of your power to exert my full spiritual interference ability. Second, Chen Long likely suffers from some mental illness; his spirit has significant vulnerabilities..."

"He actually has a mental illness?" I was stunned.

"It’s an inevitable side effect of personality change due to brainwashing," she asserted. "Even if he has no doubts about ’his current self,’ his mind still preserves memories of his past life spent as a demon hunter supportive of Governance Ideology, and memories are crucial building blocks of personality. Even if he can concoct numerous reasons to justify the stark contrasts between his ’past’ and ’now,’ the unconscious consistency within his ego will still be riddled with gaps."

"I see..." I said, "And the third special condition?"

"Third, I fought alongside him when he was normal, and later, when brainwashed, he betrayed me as a comrade-in-arms," she said. "When he realizes that the person conducting the spiritual attack is me, the unconscious vulnerabilities in his spirit will be magnified further.

"If I were a user of Great Success Rank Spiritual Power, I might really be able to re-brainwash him back to his original state on the spot; but even now, with only achieved level Spiritual Power, I can still hinder him."

"What does ’re-brainwash him back to his original state’ even mean..." I pondered, feeling the complexity of the statement.

However, in actual combat, creating a situation where young girl Lu Chan could successfully use spiritual magic on Chen Long was not easy. Her movements were too slow; she might be killed by Chen Long before she could use her spiritual magic. We could only take it one step at a time.

Meanwhile, with Chen Long’s ongoing rapid slaughter, over half of the demon hunter forces were quickly killed, and the remaining demon hunters engaged in desperate battles. Although there was a colossal disparity in strength, there were a few demon hunters with very special abilities who managed to prevent Chen Long from killing them instantly. The latter had to resort to different tactics, or simply use even greater power to break through forcibly.

During this process, the secret of his full force combat in this area gradually became exposed to our view—

The first to realize the truth was the young girl Lu Chan, who uttered an enlightened sound: "...So that’s what it is!"

"How is he doing it?" I asked immediately.

She didn’t answer in words but instead showed it directly within my perception.

She had likely used some kind of investigative magic. Through the connection of spiritual synchronization, I also received the results of her investigation. If the perception result of "Firefly" were likened to a holographic projection suspended in the air, what I was seeing now included a plethora of dense lines added within this projection.

Those lines were all Chen Long’s mana, spreading from him to encompass the entire base.

"She is expanding her presence in this form," explained the girl Lu Chan. "If we compare the space we’re in to the surface of the water, she’s increasing her volume so she can float on it."

I suddenly understood.

It was like a magic trick.

Once the secret was revealed, it seemed like no big deal, and I even wondered why I hadn’t thought of such a simple method myself.

"So you’re saying I just need to do the same thing, right?" I asked.

Expanding my presence was easy for me, as I just needed to transform into the Fire Element and then turn my body into a sea of fire.

That said, I felt it might not be so simple to achieve the same effect as Chen Long.

Using just my own power to summon even a small fireball forced me to log out, and this independent reality space couldn’t sustain my Fire Element form, likely failing before I could even "unleash the Fire Sea."

Ultimately, it might still be because my own existence was "too heavy," even heavier than Chen Long, which made things easy for him but difficult for me.

However, I quickly thought of a solution and then drew the Outer Path Impermanence Sword, asking, "You just said ’as expected’... Did you know from the beginning that this was his method?"

"I only suspected it before, but now I’ve finally confirmed it," she said. "Although you can’t exert power here by yourself, you can use the Outer Path Impermanence Sword to release flames, right? This is because the Outer Path Impermanence Sword is an external object for you. When you use an external object to exert power, it shares the pressure you exert on this space, somewhat like a swim float.

"At the same time, every time Chen Long strikes, he first releases his mana forcefully, almost as if reminding his enemies to run... This is also because he needs to spread his mana first in order to burst at his fastest speed."

Her latter statement corresponded to my previous experience of avoiding Chen Long. No wonder.

Now that I’d found a way to fight at full capacity, it was time for me to strike. While listening to the girl Lu Chan’s response, I infused my own power into the Outer Path Impermanence Sword. The color of the blade swiftly changed, looking like a hot red iron bar just taken out of the forge. Meanwhile, on the distant battlefield, Chen Long and the demon hunters had just concluded their fight.

I plunged the Outer Path Impermanence Sword into the ground; centered on the blade, an orange-red flame surged like a mountain torrent in all directions, devouring the control room we were in and the corridor outside.

Then, I connected my existence with this tide of flames and used it as a base to further expand the Fire Sea.

Since I would be forced to log out during the initial phase of summoning the Fire Sea, I could just use the Outer Path Impermanence Sword to achieve this initial phase. From that moment on, the Fire Sea would share the pressure I exerted on this independent reality space. I released my power in one breath, the tide of flames expanding rapidly, instantly spreading like a flood disaster to another part of the base where Chen Long was located.

The entire secret base was suddenly engulfed in the Fire Sea, grinding all the anti-investigation barriers to powder. Moreover, all the surviving researchers were also engulfed within the range of the Fire Sea. Since I hadn’t included them in the whitelist exempt from the flames’ harm, they were turned to ash in the Fire Sea without even the chance to feel pain or distress. I felt their souls turn into "ash" and enter my flames.

"Zhuang Cheng—!!"

Through countless walls, Chen Long abruptly looked over toward the control room. With those troublesome anti-investigation barriers gone, it seemed his super hearing had returned to its normal detection range. Shadows entwined around him to form armor, and he fiercely shattered a large section of the corridor with his feet, then transformed into an indestructible black meteor, smashing through the walls and charging straight toward my location.

The girl Lu Chan immediately hid in the depths of the control room, while I first moved at high speed, drawing Chen Long away. Then I activated Flame Transmission, relocating to another place.

After the Fire Sea was unleashed, I located Dr. Silver Mask. He was in one of the cells—out of habit, but now my perception had returned to normal, I should say he was in a laboratory. He was in one of the heavily protected laboratories, where even the Fire Sea was momentarily blocked by those protections.

Then, the laboratory door was completely blown open by the Fire Sea. I followed the Fire Sea and burst in, directing countless flames towards Dr. Silver Mask.

He stood in front of the laboratory bench, still wearing a white lab coat and suit stained with spotty blood, his face adorned with a silver mask, calmly turning to look at me.

"Let’s start over," he said.

With these words, the power of restart unfolded.