Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 216 - 205 Illusions and Bubbles

Chapter 216: 205 Illusions and Bubbles

In my perception, the girl Lu Chan was standing in Dr. Silver Mask’s laboratory.

She was still dressed in the white straitjacket, standing barefoot on the floor, but her body’s outline faintly shimmered with a translucency and emitted a fine, hair-like white glow. There were no lights on in the laboratory, and this faint radiance contrasted her, blurring within the dim room, like a spirit existing in solitude from the world.

Ethereal, light, illusory... She now seemed more like a ghost about to sublime and fade away. This should not have been my illusion, as the transparency around her body seemed to deepen at a slow pace.

She had previously described herself that if she were to appear in the real world, she would vanish as quickly as sugar dissolves in warm water. Now it looked like her disappearance wasn’t as rapid as she had said, but I estimated that in a little while, she would completely vanish.

The din of battle erupted all around, yet she was indifferent, silently gazing at the spot where Dr. Silver Mask had met his death. As I noticed her, the laboratory walls burst apart from an explosion, and a figure sent flying through the combat landed at her feet.

It was one of the Monster Guards, transformed into a monster, who scrambled to his feet after rolling on the ground. Curiously, he seemed not to notice Lu Chan’s presence, as if she were merely an illusion existing only in my mind. He burst back in the direction from which he had come, with angry shouts and no heed to her.

Lu Chan impassively watched the retreating monster, and the once chaotic, dark laboratory was hers alone again.

With such a rare opportunity, I wanted to see her first, to bid farewell to this comrade with whom I had briefly collaborated.

"I need to step away for a moment," I said to Mazao by my side.

She hummed softly in response, "I’ll wait here for you."

"Where are you going?" Lu Youxun inquired curiously.

I couldn’t help but give him a careful look before replying, "To meet someone."

Having said that, I initiated Flame Transmission and arrived in the laboratory.

Upon landing, I summoned two Fireballs to serve as a source of light. Although it wasn’t very necessary, I found I still preferred a well-lit place. And Lu Chan saw me too.

Suddenly, a figure charged into the room through the gaping hole in the wall that had just been blown open. Looking back, it was the same Monster Guard. It seemed that the mana fluctuations caused by the Fireballs I had conjured had caught his attention as he returned, and upon discovering me, the enemy, he launched an attack.

His arms morphed into bone-blade scissors, savagely snipping towards my throat. As before, he still seemed oblivious to Lu Chan’s presence. Moreover, even in my accelerated consciousness in Fire Element form, I could feel the rush of air from his lunge, an airflow that clearly swept past Lu Chan, yet not even a hair on her head stirred.

I ignited the Monster Guard with my gaze, and he instantly evaporated and vanished.

Then I turned to glance at Lu Chan’s feet. Indeed, even under the illumination of the Fireballs, she cast no shadow.

However, there was something else on the ground—the same national first-class demon hunter medal I had seen before, lying at her feet. I thought it unlikely that she had deliberately tossed it on the floor. In the independent space of reality, she had normally carried the medal on her person, but now she likely existed in a state unable to touch material things, and thus the medal had simply fallen.

"...Can you see me?" she asked, unexpectedly.

I countered, "Shouldn’t I be able to see you?"

"You shouldn’t. I am the ’embodiment of dreams’ that doesn’t fit within real space and time, more akin to an illusion or perhaps a daydream in comparison to your tangible existences. Even you have no reason to see me, only humans whose spiritual frequencies align closely with mine would be able to receive my ’signal’." First she explained, then gave me a thorough inspection and sighed, "I’m somewhat not used to you suddenly looking like an adult."

"You’ve become a ’radio wave girl’ yourself," I retorted.

"That’s one way to put it," she nodded unconcernedly, then pondered, "Hmm... I see, the reason you can see me must be because we’ve undergone Spiritual Synchronization before."

"So... how much longer can this ’signal’ of ’yours’ last?" I inquired.

She spoke as if discussing someone else’s matter, dismissively, "At most, about fifteen minutes."

A daydream of fifteen minutes, a signal of fifteen minutes...

For a moment, I didn’t know what sentiment to offer, so I simply picked up the silver medal that had fallen to the ground.

Suddenly, I noticed another object on the floor not far away, in front of the experimental table where Dr. Silver Mask had once stood. Picking it up, it was a palm-sized round mirror, but the surface was now broken and scattered with traces of being burnt.

In my memory, there was nothing like this in Dr. Silver Mask’s laboratory. And from where it had fallen, this object appeared to be a relic of Dr. Silver Mask. It was as if after Chen Long had been burnt to death, dropping a national first-class demon hunter medal, Dr. Silver Mask, after being burnt to death, had dropped this broken mirror. I could even intuit that the burn marks on it were definitely caused by my flames.

"What is this?" I asked the girl, Lu Chan.

She shook her head first, then suddenly froze, turning her gaze behind me.

I too felt as if someone was behind me and immediately turned around to look. But upon seeing who it was, I could only react with disbelief. Even the young girl Lu Chan had a shocked expression emerge on her face. Appearing before us was a person who had died not long ago.

The newcomer had white short hair, was dressed in gray clothes, and had a strong and robust physique—it was Chen Long.

How could this be? Chen Long was dead, undoubtedly so. There was even a huge chunk of "ash" that corresponded to him within my flames, there could be no mistake. The person before me had to be someone else disguised as Chen Long—

Then, I noticed the abnormalities about the other party and immediately realized the most probable truth.

First, Chen Long had indeed not been resurrected from the dead;

Second, the person before me was not someone else disguised as Chen Long.

Within my field of vision, this Chen Long, just like the young girl Lu Chan, had a body contour that appeared half-translucent like a ghost, and emitted a white light as fine as down.

He too was a "dream incarnation."

"I cannot... die..." he muttered as if entranced, "I must save... protect..."

"You can’t do it, Chen Long," Lu Chan seemed to have figured it out, "In life, you indeed surpassed the limits of a demon hunter and broke through to the Great Success Rank, but you are not Impermanence, you cannot create an ’incarnation’ like a god. The dream incarnation you have created will soon disappear just like me."

I also quickly digested the reality before me.

Thinking about it, his appearance was not entirely illogical. If even the abandoned dreams of the past Lu Chan could turn into dream incarnations, then Chen Long, a user of a Divine Seal Fragment who could perceive an independent reality space as a dream, could also possibly form a dream incarnation.

Perhaps Chen Long had sensed his unavoidable death during the previous battle and thus summoned his dream incarnation. He probably got the inspiration from the young girl Lu Chan. Unlike the past Lu Chan, however, the appearance of this dream incarnation was not to give up his dream but to ensure the continuation of his dream.

However, this incarnation had manifested too late. The independent reality space was already destroyed; this was the real world. This incarnation, just like the young girl Lu Chan, could only face an impending disappearance.

Since it was an actor who had already exited the stage, it should not return to the limelight; that wouldn’t look very graceful. Nevertheless, I admired this persistence deep from within. To return to this world despite the circumstances, to carry through one’s dream, even if it looked pitiful and awkward, there was beauty in it after all.

And for Chen Long himself, there was likely no concern for beauty or ugliness, only pure determination.

The real Chen Long had truly, undoubtedly, died. The "Chen Long" before me was not a living being, merely a phenomenon akin to an ephemeral bubble in a dream, destined to vanish in a blink.

To distinguish him from the Chen Long in life, let’s refer to him as the "Dream Chen Long."

Dream Chen Long, as if he could not hear the words of the young girl Lu Chan, focused his gaze on me, a murderous intent emerging in his eyes. What seemed like a muddled will also quickly clarified.

"—I must stop you," he said clearly.

"How are you going to stop me? And, you should be disappearing soon, right?" I said.

"That does not matter," he said, "Even if I cannot continue to exist much longer, I must ensure the safe evacuation of the researchers here."

I had not actually planned to do anything more to the researchers here, but it was a fact that I had repeatedly burned those people previously, so probably even if I were to tell him the truth, he would not listen.

I don’t know why I could see the Dream Chen Long just as normally as I could see the young girl Lu Chan. Perhaps it was because my flames contained his "ash (soul)"? Or was it the Divine Seal Fragment?

I was not about to rashly judge and conclude that the Dream Chen Long could not intervene in the real world. Although the Divine Seal Fragment was no longer in his possession, since he was summoned as a "dream incarnation" with the power of the Divine Seal Fragment, he might truly be able to manifest some dangerous miracle.

Nevertheless, I had already decided not to personally battle this "Chen Long" any longer.

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