Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 212 - 201 fall apart

Chapter 212: 201 fall apart

"I’ve always been indifferent to killing people, whether it was those odd ones in the past or the guards and researchers I repeatedly killed just now, my heart remained undisturbed. As they were enemies, they needed to be killed; it was all too natural. It’s like weeds trying to grow through stone must find a crack, yet it was hard for me to find room for sorrow or emotions in such deeds.

Now, looking at the scorched marks and observing the disconsolate expression of the girl Lu Chan, I felt an unusual change in my emotions arising from the killing of Chen Long. The past me was merely a visitor in an abnormal world, but now, it seemed I had truly become a part of it. As for why I was feeling this way, I couldn’t fully understand it myself.

The girl Lu Chan quickly noticed something in my hand.

"What is this...?" she asked hesitantly.

I raised the silver metal medal in my hand.

"Are you talking about this? This is something left behind by Chen Long. For some reason, my flames haven’t been able to destroy it... do you know what it is?"

"You said this was left by Chen Long..." Her face mixed with various emotions, "Yes, I know what this is. It’s a national level demon hunter medal."

"National level demon hunter?"

I felt I had heard that term before.

Yes, a long time ago, Zhu Shi had mentioned it to me. Achieved level Evils were also called "national level demon hunters." It was just that demon hunters considered themselves above the national authorities, so they did not regard such titles prefixed with ’national’ with much favor.

"Only an achieved level Evil who has made substantial contributions to society is officially awarded this medal by the national leadership. There are very few Evils eligible for this medal, and even fewer who are willing to accept an award ceremony because some of them think the secular authorities are not qualified to award them," said the girl Lu Chan. "In recent years, only Chen Long, myself, and a female demon hunter skilled in manipulating blue lightning have received this medal. The medal itself has no special powers; it’s merely a decorative item made of precious metal."

"So, you’re saying this is Chen Long’s medal? Then why can it withstand my flames?" I wondered.

"No, this should be my medal," she said complexly.

"Yours?" I was puzzled.

She stretched out her hand to me, and I handed over the silver medal to her.

"Lu Chan of the past reclaimed her Evil Sword secretly when she escaped this Human Bureau stronghold, but left her national level demon hunter medal, along with her dreams, behind. This was a declaration of cutting ties with her past self—from now on, ’Lu Chan’ would no longer fight for mortals." She looked at the silver medal in her hand, "As for why the medal can withstand your flames... I think it might be because, this medal is my very essence."

"Essence..." I tried digesting this information, "You mean, because this medal carries Lu Chan’s dreams, therefore..."

"An object can carry a person’s sentiments. By discarding this medal, the past Lu Chan achieved discarding her dreams, hence this medal is the source of my current ’phenomenon,’" she explained.

I see. Because the girl Lu Chan was on my flame’s whitelist, so this medal too wasn’t affected by the flames. That makes sense.

"But that Chen Long would actually carry the medal I discarded, he..."

She paused briefly, then shook her head. Anyway, Chen Long had died. Discussing his unknown emotional journey now wouldn’t revive him to confirm if we were right or wrong. No, even if he were alive, he certainly wouldn’t admit anything.

I felt it might be better not to tell the girl Lu Chan that Chen Long’s soul had been refined into "ash."

"Since this is your material vessel, can this medal help you continue to exist after the independent reality space is destroyed?" I asked.

"As the essence of my thoughts, it might exist along with the medal, but this ’dream incarnation’ that can talk and interact with you is destined to vanish," she said calmly, "However, with this medal, it should be possible to return ’the dream’ to the Lu Chan outside."

"How exactly should we do that?" I ventured to ask.

"It’s simple, just pass the medal to him," she said with certainty, "The dreams that were abandoned along with the medal will return to him along with the medal.

"However, once I go to the real world, I’ll vanish as quickly as sugar dissolves in warm water. Although there might be a way to delay the vanishing slightly, I, as a mere phantom, can’t move material objects in the real world. You’re the only one who could do it.

"Zhuang Cheng, can you help me?"

"I didn’t hesitate to answer, ’No.’"

"I thought she would be surprised, even angry at my response, but her expression didn’t change."

"Why?" she asked patiently.

"For me, ’the past Lu Chan’ is merely a stranger from afar," I said. "Whereas the current Lu Youxun, although I can tell he has his own hidden agendas, has genuinely helped me, and we are slowly getting to know each other. To kill ’the current him’ to bring back ’the past him’ is something I wouldn’t do."

She pressed further, "Just because he has been kind to you, you think he is a good person now? Since you also admit he has ulterior motives... no, fundamentally, he is an Extraordinary Fanatic, and your friend Zhu Shi is a Governance Ideologist. They are bound to have an irreconcilable conflict one day.

"You would surely stand by Zhu Shi then, wouldn’t you think it’s better to let the outside Lu Chan regain his self-awareness as a Governance Ideologist before that conflict occurs? This wouldn’t only benefit Zhu Shi but also you and society as a whole."

"I’ve never thought of Lu Youxun as a good person, but, overall, I consider him currently on our side for the time being. Maybe he will become an enemy in the future... well, that’s a matter for the future, and if necessary, we’ll just have to confront him then," I said. "You might say I lack foresight, but I’m not going to settle scores now based on what others might or might not do in the future."

"Is that so..." she closed her eyes. "You don’t want to sacrifice those close to you for someone more valuable from afar..."

"You’ve helped me a lot in this matter, and if you have other requests, I’ll do my best to help."

I thought about it, and it seemed quite unfair to do nothing for her.

"No, we’re just fighting alongside each other for a common goal. It’s a relationship of mutual assistance, no one owes anyone anything," she opened her eyes. "However, if you really feel bad, could you agree to this one request?"

"Tell me," I adjusted my attitude.

She looked at me carefully, then smiled slightly and said, "Zhuang Cheng, just continue to be yourself."

"What?" I was surprised.

There were many other valuable things she could ask for, but she just said that.

I had almost forgotten that her original form was a man; in this moment, she truly seemed like a young girl.

Just then, the ground beneath us began to shake violently, and the space around us suddenly became blurry. At first glance, I thought my eyes were blurring. I quickly realized what was causing this phenomenon.

This was the phenomenon of the collapse of the independent reality space that the young girl Lu Chan had once mentioned. It seems that Chen Long was truly the pillar of this independent reality space, and with his death, the base was heading to destruction.

The power of restart continued to repair things within this base, quickly restoring the blurriness of the space, yet the earthquake did not cease. My Fire Sea was still wreaking havoc everywhere, grappling with the power of restart. Normally, the power of restart would reset an independent reality space on the brink of destruction back to its undamaged state, but now it was stuck in limbo.

With this trajectory, the independent reality space would continue in this state of severe shaking. Although it should not improve, whether it would worsen or remain stagnant was yet to be known. However, we had one good method to swiftly push it towards destruction.

That was to kill the owner of this secret Human Bureau base.

This location was very close to Dr. Silver Mask’s laboratory, and we quickly reached the front of the laboratory and entered.

Dr. Silver Mask, as if he had been waiting for a long time, stood inside.

He seemed to have no good means of combat, yet he did not panic and hide. I think it is because he clearly knew that no matter where he fled, it would be futile. Now that I, who had spread my Fire Sea to every corner of this base, was essentially the real ruler of this place.

I controlled the Fire Sea that enveloped the place, sweeping towards Dr. Silver Mask; the power of restart enveloped him like an impenetrable force field shield, keeping the flames out.

Seeing this scene, I directly used a second method, similar to how I dealt with Chen Long, using the radiance spread by the flames as a medium to directly ignite Dr. Silver Mask. Since I could now see him clearly with my own eyes, it meant that his power of restart hadn’t rewound even the light. Whether it was due to some principle making it difficult to achieve or simply because it temporarily couldn’t spare the energy, I did not know.

However, he had previously been using the power of restart to support Chen Long from the rear; he must have clearly seen from a spectator’s perspective how I manipulated light to kill Chen Long.

He clearly found a way to counter my move in a very short time.