Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 301 - 280 Little Bowl’s True Face 1

Chapter 301: 280 Little Bowl’s True Face 1

Mazao once again summoned a Mind-Written Photo, then closed her eyes, apparently deeply focused on imagining Little Bowl’s appearance.

Just imprinting the image from her imagination onto the Mind-Written Photo didn’t require such dedication; it was clearly very important to her, so she likely strived for perfection, not allowing even a one in ten thousand deviation in the printed image.

Seconds later, the blank Mind-Written Photo revealed a human figure. Mazao reopened her eyes and looked down, like filling out an important form, repeatedly confirming the information inside.

After a moment, she solemnly handed the Mind-Written Photo to me.

I reached out to receive it and looked at the person in the photo. This was my first glimpse of Little Bowl’s true face. Until now, Little Bowl always communicated with me in the form of a shadow within the Void Realm, and she always seemed obscured by a blurry veil in my mind. But now, with Mazao’s help, this veil was finally lifted, and her true appearance was revealed to my eyes. I felt a tiny bit impatient.

The person who appeared in the photo, unsurprisingly, was a young girl around ten years old.

She had neatly trimmed black medium-length hair, her skin soft and delicate, and her appearance was endearing. A scarf hung around her neck, her childish body had not yet reached puberty, clothed in dark brown, suitable for ruins and outdoor activities, evoking the image of an explorer.

She seemed well-behaved, quiet, delicate, yet beneath that frail appearance, one could sense a calm, strong spirit.

I tried to merge this young girl in the photo with the Little Bowl I remembered, as if placing the last piece into a nearly completed puzzle. Knowing her name, temperament, and so much of her past, yet not her face, the young girl in my mind finally felt complete and flawless. Perhaps it was not until this moment that I truly knew her.

No, perhaps there is still something unsatisfying. I didn’t just want to acquaint myself piece by piece but hoped to truly meet and interact with her. I wanted to see her speak with her real face, and I wanted to contact her up close with my true self.

I must admit, I had only treated Little Bowl as a "tool" to retain Mazao, but unconsciously, I had also developed a slight sense of closeness to the little girl who struggled to survive in the Doomsday Era.

I wanted to help her—I could be sure this was not a fleeting thought.

"Later, we can copy this photo multiple times and have Zhu Shi and others help to search if there are any soul-loss patients with a similar appearance," I said.

Mazao nodded vigorously, then seemed to remember something and hesitated to speak.

"Is there something else?"

I asked while continuing to look at Little Bowl in the Mind-Written Photo, part of my thoughts still lingering on how to effectively utilize her physical information in the task of "finding corresponding soul-loss patients." First, I would hand it over to Zhu Shi and others... Zhu Shi... Zhu Shi?

The face of Zhu Shi flashed through my mind, providing some kind of clue. I observed Little Bowl in the Mind-Written Photo again and again. I wasn’t sure if I was overthinking it, but there seemed to be some resemblance between Little Bowl and Zhu Shi. No, I wasn’t overthinking; they really did resemble each other.

At first glance, it might be difficult to discern because not only was there a huge difference in their development stages, their temperaments—or perhaps the aspects similar to facial features—were also quite different. "Appearance" and "facial features" are different, the latter encompassing many abstract and impressionistic elements.

Little Bowl’s facial features made her seem sweet and quiet, yet as if hiding a lot of wisdom, quick-thinking, adept at learning and asking questions, not flaunting her intelligence, possessing a deep spiritual nature and also caring for others’ emotions. Perhaps because I knew.matcher her circumstances and how considerate she was of others, I couldn’t help but feel she was a child wise beyond her years.

Zhu Shi, on the other hand, seemed like a dashing knight, strong, kind, and sometimes stubborn. Though gentle, she was resolute when decisions needed to be made, not hesitating to deal the final blow to an enemy unaware of their imminent death on the battlefield.

If Little Bowl was tender on the outside yet tough on the inside, then Zhu Shi was tough on the outside yet tender on the inside, completely opposite poles.

However, Zhu Shi also had moments when she displayed a tender femininity in front of others, like when she pretended to be a powerless college girl. The Zhu Shi I had encountered long ago—though not that long ago—was in that state.

She occasionally talked to me about her past self, saying she "deliberately acted a bit green-tea and tweaked her voice on purpose." Looking back now, her acting wasn’t without stiffness, and her image in my mind gradually shifted from "the gentle Sister Zhu like an ink painting" to "the decisive demon hunter Zhu Shi." However, if I were to compare "Sister Zhu" and Little Bowl, that similar feeling—at least on the surface—was even stronger.

Mazao probably had never seen Zhu Shi in her Sister Zhu persona, otherwise, she might also have exclaimed their resemblance.

Thinking thus, I suddenly recalled the conversation Mazao had with Zhu Shi after their first meeting.

——Have we met somewhere before?

——Why do you suddenly ask that?

——I feel like I’ve seen your face somewhere...

Seeing the odd look on my face, Mazao finally spoke, "Zhuang Cheng... do you also think Little Bowl looks a bit like Zhu Shi?"

"This isn’t just a slight resemblance, I think there’s definitely some kind of connection between Little Bowl and Zhu Shi."

Although there’s no evidence, I still used a rather assertive tone. I can’t believe this coincidence is merely a coincidence, especially since this matter isn’t unrelated to Mazao either, which further deepens my suspicion. There must be an underlying causal relationship.

This made Mazao somewhat uncertain: "Do they really look that alike?"

"Have you ever investigated in this direction?" I asked.

It seems that, in Mazao’s mind, the resemblance between Little Bowl and Zhu Shi wasn’t alarming enough, but she still said, "I’ve asked Zhu Shi privately if she has any relatives who are close in age to Little Bowl and are suffering from soul loss, but she said no. Not only were there none that met both conditions, but there weren’t even any that met one of the conditions."

Considering Mr. Zhu had killed all his siblings in the past, I even doubted whether Zhu Shi not only lacked "relatives that met the conditions," but also wondered if she had any "relatives" at all.

Mazao seemed to have made a similar connection, with a strange expression on her face.

"Is that so. But considering the Doomsday Era might be in the future, it might not be a child that exists now, but one born in the future..." I speculated.

Looking at my expression, she continued the thought, "Born in the future... like, maybe Little Bowl could be Zhu Shi’s daughter born in the future?"

If that were true, then Little Bowl really is a person from the future, and we’d probably have to abandon the idea that "Little Bowl is a soul-loss patient from the modern world."

On the other hand, even if Little Bowl really is a soul-loss patient from the modern world, and her soul traveled to the Doomsday Era, this hypothesis couldn’t be built on the speculation that "Little Bowl is a blood relation of the Zhu family." As far as I know, the Zhu family currently has only Zhu Shi’s mother – Zhu Jiu – who has fallen into soul loss.

It’s impossible that Zhu Jiu and Little Bowl are the same person, right? What process would make Zhu Jiu in the Doomsday Era turn into a little girl resembling her own daughter?

Could it be the truth is Zhu Jiu had an affair in secret, had an illegitimate daughter, who then suffered from soul loss, and whose soul traveled to the Doomsday Era and met Mazao? But from what I heard about Zhu Jiu from Mr. Zhu, she doesn’t seem like the type of woman who would have an affair... However, the marriage between Zhu Jiu and Ying Lingyun is far from ’perfect’, if someone took advantage of that time...

Wait, what am I gossiping about in my mind.

Mazao seemed also entangled with other thoughts, she murmured to herself: "If Little Bowl is Zhu Shi’s daughter, then if I change the future, preventing Zhu Shi from giving birth as originally intended, would Little Bowl cease to exist?"

"Suppose the Doomsday Era isn’t the afterlife but truly the future, then your mere existence here is already a change to the future, yet the future where Little Bowl exists hasn’t really changed, has it?" I said.

She shook her head, "No matter how history changes before Doomsday, once Doomsday arrives, everything will be overshadowed by destruction, our current actions might not yet have caused any significant change in the Doomsday Era. Moreover, the time and space in the Doomsday Era are constantly fluctuating, even if history really did change, it might not necessarily be observable. There might already be some survivors of the Doomsday Era who have disappeared due to changes in history, and some landscapes and buildings might have also changed, but these are trivial compared to the frequent dramatic changes inherent to the Doomsday Era. Besides, Little Bowl has always been living away from human settlements, making it even harder to detect any changes."

"... But we can’t just do nothing because of this fear, otherwise, we’ll end up unable to do anything," I also pondered, "And, if we want to prevent Little Bowl from being unable to be born in the future, we need to keep an eye not only on Zhu Shi, but we also need to find her father.

"If Little Bowl really is Zhu Shi’s daughter, then who could her father be?"

"..."

Mazao’s gaze remained fixed on me, her expression suddenly stiffened.