Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 272 - 254 Mazao’s truth about time-travel 1

Chapter 272: 254 Mazao’s truth about time-travel 1

This time, being pulled into the Void Realm within Fufeng Base seemed like a tangential incident with no bearing on the current situation. However, upon further reflection, it likely held significant meaning.

As long as I used the Divine Seal Fragment to propose a trade to the Master of Divine Seal, I could then obtain the answers I sought. Although not all questions would be answered, since the other party claimed to know most of the things that happened in this world, I presumed many secrets that typically couldn’t be discerned by conventional means were within their knowledge too. For instance, the truth behind Doomsday’s arrival and the secrets of the origins of my superpowers...

And for example, the true identity of the Impermanence behind the Divine Spear, and where Yinyue had taken Changan’s spirit.

Especially the last matter. Even now, in terms of investigative directions related to the hostile identity of Impermanence, I wasn’t completely without leads; however, regarding the whereabouts of Yinyue and Changan’s spirit, I was utterly blind. Anyone could imagine that the longer such matters are delayed, the more prone they are to unfavorable outcomes, neither Mr. Zhu nor I had any clue to follow. Perhaps this was a problem that could only be resolved by using some sort of cheating methods.

Nevertheless, I still harbored some doubts about proposing a trade to the Master of Divine Seal. It was very possible that, as Mazao and Zhu Shi had mentioned in the past, it involved a conspiracy and malign intent brewed by the Master of Divine Seal. Since I had successfully arrived in the Void Realm, there was no rush to communicate. Perhaps other Chosen Ones would also attempt to propose trades to the Master of Divine Seal. To be cautious, I would wait until everyone had arrived before observing their attitudes and actions, and then consider whether to trade, and how to trade.

For now, I wanted to ask Little Bowl Number Two about a puzzle that had troubled Mazao and me for a long time—why did Mazao, who was originally in the Doomsday Era, unintentionally travel to the modern world?

From Mazao’s own perspective, this was due to a mysterious malfunction that occurred while she was manipulating the Power of Return to initiate a Space Transfer. However, when Little Bowl Number Two first met me, she mentioned a very important piece of information—that Mazao’s arrival in the modern world was tied to an inseparable causal relationship with her.

At this moment, I directly posed this question to her.

She nodded as I expected, then paused, seemingly pondering how to answer. My heart also hung slightly in suspense. Although her memory was said to have been recovered and completely digested, in the Doomsday Era, the Frenzy that pervaded could easily lead to loss of memory and self. Even though she overcame the crisis of Sin demonization, it didn’t mean that there were no lingering effects. Parts of her memory might be irretrievable due to the Frenzy.

Fortunately, I still heard the answer I wanted.

"Yes, regarding the ins and outs of the accidental travel event, I have recalled everything, Mr. Three." Little Bowl Number Two spoke slowly, "It might take a bit more time to explain. Is that okay?"

"No problem."

Dealing with one of the biggest puzzles so far, I would force myself to stay alert and focused, regardless of fatigue: "Go ahead."

"Firstly, the reason behind Sister Mazao’s travel is related to the powers I possess," she said. "Do you remember what my ability is?"

"It’s the power to see through lies, right?"

Strictly speaking, that definitely wasn’t all. Based on my observation, Little Bowl Number Two truly had an extraordinary Perception. Thus she was able to identify me as the ’ghost’ who first invaded the Void Realm before Number One. The "power to see through lies" was likely also part of this super perception ability.

It seems I often encounter people with super perception abilities. Apart from Little Bowl Number Two, there was Zhu Shi and recently, Dong Che, and even myself who have gradually acquired an unfathomable intuitive power.

"In reality, my true ability is neither ’seeing through lies’ nor so-called ’Perception,’" Little Bowl Number Two continued. "Although I’ve almost lost all memories related to my own growth, based on the remaining impressions, it seems I’ve been able to communicate with nature since childhood."

"Nature... Communication?" I asked.

"Simply put, I can hear the hearts of plants and animals, and I can initiate spiritual communication with them through my mind. I can also communicate with certain sentient objects, even listen to the voice of nature itself, and attempt to converse with it," she said.

"It sounds like an ancient priestess who performed rituals for heaven and earth," I commented.

"In fact, it seems like I indeed could do something similar in the past."

Expounding, Little Bowl Number Two delved deeper into explaining the details of her powers.

Just as I had anticipated, she could, like the priestesses of ancient religions, listen to the voice of nature to predict astronomical and geographical changes. She could also request favors from nature to a certain extent, like bringing rain or clear skies, or ask for natural disasters to avoid the land she lived on, and even ensure a bountiful harvest of crops.

Although she herself had no combat ability and could be easily overpowered by any adult, she also had some means to deal with danger. Since she could get along well with nature, her luck was also quite good. The ancients believed that as long as one acted in accordance with nature, everything would go well, but defying nature would bring relentless disaster; thus, she could not only make herself very lucky but also make those she resented extremely unlucky.

If Mazao possessed the Broom Star Physique, she would be the Lucky Star Physique.

However, the powers mentioned above were quite unstable and unreliable. Not to mention the inherently unstable factor of luck, for instance, when praying for rain, it might be intended for the next day, yet sometimes it would be delayed for a week before raining. Nature seemed to have its temperament; sometimes it would be lazy, and other times it would pretend not to hear. A power that wasn’t one’s own was inconvenient like that.

Moreover, in terms of potency, her strong luck clearly couldn’t compare to the misfortune Mazao summoned. When she was with Mazao, her strong luck did nothing to alleviate the frequent bizarre incidents Mazao attracted—indeed, not only did it fail to completely offset them, not even a sign of reduction was evident; instead, she herself was almost led to death on several occasions.

Then again, had it not been for Mazao’s rescue at their first encounter, she would have become a Sin Demon from the start, so she had no complaint about it at all.

Somewhere along the way, I asked, "Mazao mentioned to me before that you were just a ten-year-old girl without any special powers... Have you really never mentioned your special abilities to Mazao?"

"If I had said so, Sister Mazao would certainly have felt very guilty," she said.

"That makes sense." I thought about it and said, "What about the ability to change the weather? Have you never used this power in front of Mazao?"

"I’ve never used it... It’s more accurate to say, I can’t use it."

She continued to explain to me.

Though she theoretically possessed the ability to change the weather, after the descent of Doomsday, this power to pray to heaven and earth was in a state of unusability. The problem was not with her, but with the world. The world seemed dead, or on the brink of death, so it could not respond to her calls.

It was a desperate era that literally could be described with ’heaven won’t answer when called, earth won’t heed when sought.’

She was born in the wrong world.

Aside from her unreliable strong luck, even her ability to communicate with all things in nature was greatly restricted. On Doomsday Land, most of the plants were wilted and dead, and it was rare to see animals; there were overwhelmingly more monsters and Demons, and even she couldn’t communicate with those mad and strange creatures.

She could try to interact friendly with humans—since she had the ability to communicate well with animals, applying this ability to humans would initially obtain decent favorability towards her. Unfortunately, in the Doomsday Era, it was uncertain when a Doomsday survivor could be contaminated by Frenzy and turn into a Sin Demon, making them ultimately untrustworthy.

Even excluding the factors of Frenzy and Sin demonization, humans struggling to survive in that era inherently suffered various mental illnesses and deranged emotions, with countless disordered personalities. Even with the ability for "friendly interaction," it was not necessarily safe to trust those around her; some individuals might even commit depraved and twisted acts precisely because the other person was someone they loved.

In my eyes, Mazao’s personality also showed symptoms of disorder, but according to Little Bowl No. 2, given the collective mental state of the Doomsday survivors, Mazao’s type of loner survivalist, who didn’t interact much with others, was even considered one of the healthier minds.

After all, the most reliable power that Little Bowl No. 2 had to offer while with Mazao was her strong perception ability.

If there was anything else to mention, it was that she seemed to be able to bestow blessings on others, making their bodies healthy and their spirits energetic—I suspected that Mazao’s "relatively good" mental state might also be thanks to her blessings.

Then came the most crucial part.

One day, during one of the routine ruins explorations, Little Bowl No. 2 picked up a mysterious black gemstone. Her intuition told her this was no ordinary item, and Mazao immediately identified it as a Divine Seal Fragment based on her arcane knowledge.

After a brief discussion, the two decided to discard this hot potato in the ruins, but no matter how they discarded it, the Divine Seal Fragment would always return to the hands of Little Bowl No. 2.

Just as they were figuring out how to completely ditch the Divine Seal Fragment, a monster engulfed in black flames suddenly appeared before them.

The Catastrophe Demon had descended.