Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 302 - 281 Little Bowl’s True Face 2

Chapter 302: 281 Little Bowl’s True Face 2

Mazao stared at me motionlessly for some unknown reason.

Combining the topic we just discussed, could it be that she is suspecting the person who marries Zhu Shi in the future, allowing Little Bowl to be born, is me?

Considering that, it doesn’t seem entirely impossible. If Mazao hadn’t traveled to this era, maybe I would really end up together with Zhu Shi... No, without Mazao, after all, I would have no way to become involved with the abnormal world, and thus no way to meet Zhu Shi, the demon hunter.

However, bearing in mind that Mazao might not have romantic feelings for me, and adding Mr. Zhu’s consistent overt and covert efforts to bring Zhu Shi and me together, it is not completely out of the question that I and Zhu Shi could end up married in the future.

Although Zhu Shi has made it clear that she has no romantic feelings for me—or for that matter, anyone—it’s also true that she said she would be more than happy if her marriage partner were me. And after all, I am a man; for a woman as beautiful and extraordinary as Zhu Shi, I do have a certain level of heterosexual attraction. To go further, I do not think marriage is the outcome of love, even if Zhu Shi lacks the ability to develop romantic love for the opposite sex, I wouldn’t see it as a flaw.

That said, I’m not seriously considering the matter of marrying Zhu Shi; I’m just raising it as a possibility and exploring its plausibility. If I were to delve too deeply into it, it might come across as if I’m being presumptuous and as if I were regarding Zhu Shi as a backup option for my unsuccessful pursuit of Mazao. It would be disrespectful to Zhu Shi, and I do not want to harbor such frivolous thoughts towards a friend.

Moreover, considering Little Bowl as Zhu Shi’s future daughter involves far too many unstable hypothetical premises.

Indeed, like Mazao, I do not wish for Little Bowl to suddenly cease to exist due to our actions, but this is also a concern based on multiple unsteady hypothetical premises. It may be an overstatement to call it "groundless fears," but the sentiment is similar. Nonetheless, it seems Mazao is taking it somewhat seriously.

From time to time, she glances at me and falls into a deep thought, occasionally revealing a troubled expression.

...She couldn’t be pondering whether or not to push Zhu Shi and me together, could she?

The topic regarding Little Bowl has come to a close for now; we are here not to study Little Bowl, but to investigate Moon Concealing Mountain. Right now, we are still enveloped in the white fog full of the unknown, and who knows what dangers might emerge next. Therefore, I suggested she get herself ready, and then we continued deeper into the fog.

As we walked, Mazao glanced upwards, as if she finally pulled her mind from her previous thoughts, and then she noticed something.

"...Has the rain stopped?"

As she pointed out, the heavy rain that had been falling constantly had ceased at some point. But rather than "stopped," it would be more accurate to say "vanished." My memory is a bit hazy—since we started observing the Mind-Written Photos, the rain seemed to have stopped falling.

Furthermore, it was only after she mentioned it that I noticed something else. The mountain terrain we passed through was not muddy. Though a little damp, it was the natural moisture inherent in forest soil. Even the fallen leaves on the ground seemed dry. Mazao picked up a dry twig from the ground, examined it briefly, and then tossed it back. Although Moon Concealing Mountain had been drenched by the storm tonight, it was as if we had unwittingly strayed onto land outside the mountain.

"Is this mist a Different Space?" I asked.

"...It somewhat resembles Different Space, but when we previously entered and exited the fog, I did not feel as if we were crossing between different spaces," Mazao tried to analyze, "We should still be within Moon Concealing Mountain; I think it’s likely that part of the mountain’s terrain has been ’differently spaced’ by this fog."

"So, does that mean the mist functions like a barrier?" I asked.

"Possibly," she said cautiously.

I noticed other changes as well and proceeded to dispel all the Fireballs floating around us.

Logically, since it’s nighttime, once all the Fireballs are retracted, the surroundings should return to darkness. Yet, in reality, even with no light sources at all, the area remains as bright as day.

To be precise, it seems to be daytime, like a foggy morning. Even though we can’t see the sky due to the mist, it’s still possible to discern this as daylight. Light rays pass from above, illuminating the white mist. From all directions, there come sounds that seem typical of the early morning—chirping insects and birdsong.

We’ve been in the mountains for less than an hour at most; it’s still over eight hours away from sunrise, so how could it be daytime already? Several possibilities emerge in my mind. Is this an illusion caused by the white mist, or perhaps some unique weather within the fog... or could it be that time itself has been skipped over?

"The legend of the Ancient Moon God..." Mazao muttered softly.

"Do you think this is the strange phenomenon mentioned in that legend?" I asked.

"At the very least, it’s easy for one to make that connection," she said. "It is said that the villagers of Ancient Moon Village were fearful of the nights on Moon Concealing Mountain, so the Ancient Moon God made daylight persist on the mountain."

When I first heard this legend, I wondered if the Ancient Moon God—Yinyue—used the power of Illusion Technique to hypnotize the villagers of Ancient Moon Village. It seemed more "economically feasible" to brainwash the villagers with an illusion rather than actually making daylight last forever.

But for Yinyue, who can turn fantasy into reality, even truly warping the time of this piece of land to keep daylight continuous, does not seem to be an impossible feat. It is precisely because I am currently stepping closer to the realm of Impermanence that I can make such a judgement based on my past experiences battling with Yinyue—that in the hands of such a demon, merely twisting time and space is nothing more than child’s play, truly no more strenuous than bending the will of a handful of mortals.

If she truly treats reality as a mere dream, then time and space are also nothing more than illusions. And as long as they are illusions, they are all within her dominion.

I tried to lift my hand to catch the rays of light falling from above. Despite being filtered through the white mist, I could discern that this was genuine sunlight. As a supernatural power user who rules over flames, I consider myself particularly sensitive to the light and heat emitted by celestials like the sun. Even Yinyue could not influence me—not to mention my current ability to discern the authenticity of sunlight.

It was indeed daytime outside now.

"Zhuang Cheng, ahead," Mazao reminded.

I saw it at the same time—a strange figure appeared in front of the distant trees.

Upon closer inspection, the figure was not standing but leaning against a tree trunk, weakly slumped to the ground. It was not a living person, but a corpse. A closer look revealed that the corpse had been dead for a while, its face decayed, swarming with maggots and flies. It was impossible to distinguish whether it was male or female, though the impression suggested a higher probability of being male. Dressed in a black and green rain jacket and pants, an empty backpack lay beside the body.

This wasn’t my first encounter with a dead person; I had even killed more than once. However, those I had killed always died very cleanly, as cremation and death were simultaneous and instantaneous. In a way, the convenience of such allowed me to kill without hesitation. Seeing a corpse that had decomposed like this after death, however, was a rare occurrence for me. The stench of death was overpowering.

I had coincidentally encountered crime scenes during investigations into strange phenomena before, but finding a decaying corpse in the wild was truly not something one could get used to. I suppressed the reflexive nausea and scanned the detailed condition of the corpse with my heat perception.

The state of the remains suggested that the deceased had not suffered severe trauma before death. Perhaps he got lost in the mountain... lost in this mist, and then was unable to leave until, out of food and water, he died of hunger and thirst.

I remembered the things the Shopkeeper and the regular customers at the Moon Concealing Mountain town restaurant had mentioned. Every now and then, clueless tourists would wander into restricted areas of the mountain and never return. Not long ago, there was a case of a young tourist who ventured into a restricted area and accidentally made his way into Hu Family Village.

Was this decaying corpse the "recent tourist"?

There were two different accounts regarding that tourist, provided by the Shopkeeper and regular customers. The first was that the tourist was rescued down the mountain by "the boy with white hair", while the second was that the tourist was found dead on the mountain. However, as soon as the second account was offered, both the Shopkeeper and regular customers immediately forgot about the first one, as if history had been inconspicuously altered.

Even if the second account was to be believed, the tourist’s body should have been discovered and retrieved by the local government by now, right? How could it still be lying in these woods?

Then, this corpse didn’t belong to that tourist?

Perhaps that would be the common-sense deduction, but when Yinyue is involved, one can’t view it that way. "Tampering with established facts" is Yinyue’s forte; perhaps the reality we are in is no longer based on the second account, but has imperceptibly shifted to a third, fourth, or even fifth revised history. Now, the nameless tourist has not only likely died but even the body has remained undiscovered, silently perishing in the depths of Moon Concealing Mountain.

Being able to modify reality at will, if Yinyue insists on not meeting me, perhaps I would never be able to find her in my entire life.

However, since I’ve arrived here with Mazao, I am bound to find her. Perhaps, I am even more convinced of this than Mazao herself is.

No matter how many mystical and complex things Yinyue manipulates, she will ultimately not be able to escape the palm of my hand.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.