Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 390: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes 363

Chapter 390: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes 363

In the dimly lit area resembling a movie theater’s audience seats, Fa Zheng appeared as if it were a matter of course, and took a seat beside me to watch the big screen that was displaying the various states of life at the Luoshan Headquarters.

This here is just a space I imagined in my own mind, but this Fa Zheng isn’t someone I conjured up. He is most likely somewhere in the Luoshan Headquarters, silently observing the changes there, and because we are unknowingly doing the same thing, it resulted in a phenomenon akin to sympathetic resonance. Here, what I perceive as a movie theater’s audience seats could appear to him as a completely different scene, or perhaps as no specific scene at all; he may just be establishing telepathic communication with me in a conventional manner.

"Thoughts..." After some contemplation, I said, "I feel that the demon hunters and the agents at the headquarters aren’t getting along all that well."

"To be precise, it’s ’incompatible,’" Fa Zheng said, "the idea of extensively introducing agents to take over some tasks at the headquarters was proposed and implemented by me.

"The goal of Governance Ideology is to achieve harmonious coexistence between demon hunters and the ordinary populace. If we can’t even do it within Luoshan, then it’s even less feasible to spread it throughout society. That’s why I wanted to give it a try within the headquarters first.

"And the result is as you see... Even though I didn’t rule out this outcome, actually witnessing this scene still brings a sense of disappointment."

Since this outcome was anticipated, there was never a need to implement it from the start, let alone hold any expectations. This thought crossed my mind, but in reality, I can understand Fa Zheng’s motives.

Many demon hunters look down on ordinary people precisely because of their weakness, and the fact that they can do far less than themselves. However, at times, the gap between demon hunters can even be more substantial than that between demon hunters and regular people. Thus, powerful demon hunters also scorn ordinary demon hunters.

And if one were to reach the level of Impermanence, looking back on the demon hunters within the rotten and bad rank system, one might feel these people aren’t much different from mortals. Only at the Great Success Rank would they merit a second glance, but how many are there at that rank?

Watching the group of demon hunters there proclaiming "how great the difference is between themselves and ordinary people" does not stir any waves in my heart, and it also allows me to faintly realize that Extraordinaryism’s future worldview seems to have a fatal flaw somewhere.

And since I feel there is no difference between demon hunter groups and ordinary people, Fa Zheng probably feels the same. So even though he rationally understands that the two can’t get along well together, he still attempted it under the sentiment "after all, you aren’t that different," to see what would happen.

"However, the failure is not without benefits. Without putting it into practice once, we wouldn’t even be able to identify the specific problems. Let’s set overcoming these issues as the phase goal moving forward."

Fa Zheng seemed to have found a positive direction and then moved on to the main topic: "Zhuang Cheng, I see that you seem to have recovered quite a bit. I’d like to discuss some official business with you. Are you available?"

"I have some important matters to talk to you about, too," I said.

"Then let’s start with your issues," Fa Zheng said, "what you want to discuss with me is about the Human Bureau, right?

"Your friend Zhu Changan is the Ying Shen Silver Moon of the Fox Demon, and he is also the living sacrifice needed for Ying Lingyun to revive Silver Moon. And you want to save him. Since he’s not with you right now, he must be with Ying Lingyun.

"Fu Feng once submitted a report to me about you, and based on your conduct and important decisions so far, although you possess common social knowledge, you severely lack a sense of morality and ethics, and you do not care about worldly gains. You might even act against your own interests or even against the safety of your life if driven by passion...

"However, you place exceptional importance on personal relationships. The fact that a person as unrestrained and mad as you can live law-abidingly in ordinary society until today is likely also due to concern for your friends’ opinions. Therefore, when a friend is in crisis, you definitely won’t sit idly by... Am I right?"

"Since you already understand to this extent, I’ll just be straightforward," I said, "I want to know at which Human Bureau outpost he is being detained, and exactly where it is located."

"I can help you," Fa Zheng said without hesitation. "But you have to be mentally prepared; it’s possible that this Ying Shen Silver Moon has already been used as a living sacrifice to revive the real Silver Moon, and Ying Lingyun might have killed him."

"She’s still alive; I’m certain of it," I said confidently.

The thermal energy marker left in Silver Moon’s body is still there. Although I can’t teleport to the Human Bureau outpost where Silver Moon is using this thermal energy marker, I can still grasp her current state to some extent.

I can vaguely sense that her soul is in the midst of repairing. Just as I had judged, Ying Lingyun would not use the Yinyue, whose soul is in a fragmented state, as a living sacrifice because Yinyue in such a condition is unfit to serve as one.

On the contrary, once Yinyue is healed, that will be the time of her demise.

Of course, Yinyue can choose to fight or flee, but Ying Lingyun can manipulate the Power of Divine Seal Fragments, and on his home ground, even Yinyue cannot just escape at will, and her odds in battle are even more diminished.

"Since you insist, I shall not say more. I will inform you on the eve before the extermination battle officially commences," said Fa Zheng, "This is but a trivial effort for me. Because I was planning to thoroughly investigate all outposts of the Human Bureau and eradicate them."

"Is it because of the existence of the Angel Envoy Xu Gou? Do you think that because the Human Bureau has bred a new Impermanence, it must be completely eradicated from this world..." I asked.

"No... Xu Gou is not important."

Fa Zheng surprisingly dismissed the importance of Xu Gou with disinterest. He shook his head and interrupted, then said, "I have always found the current Human Bureau to be an eyesore; Xu Gou’s emergence only served to reinforce my determination. Even without Xu Gou, I would have eliminated the Human Bureau soon anyway."

I asked in astonishment, "The Human Bureau has bred a new Impermanence... and this is not important?"

"The reason Luo Mountain places importance on the Human Bureau is that they possess a one-in-a-billion chance of discovering a stable method to achieve Impermanence through technical means. Therefore, once the Human Bureau creates the first Impermanence, Luo Mountain is bound to annihilate it with a thunderous force... Is that what you’re thinking, hmm? Let’s set aside other considerations for now, Xu Gou can hardly be considered a success story of the Human Bureau," said Fa Zheng. "It’s an Impermanence achieved through the force of Divine Seal Fragments, not by the power of human intellect. While individually powerful, it is not enough to herald an unprecedented enemy arising in Luo Mountain’s history."

"You know that Xu Gou became Impermanence through the Divine Seal Fragments?" I asked.

"Of course, I do," Fa Zheng said indifferently.

Right, I almost forgot. Fu Feng had heard from a senior researcher about the "black jade" implanted in Xu Gou’s body and most probably reported this information to Fa Zheng. And since Fa Zheng had been secretly collecting Divine Seal Fragments, having one inside the Fufeng Base, he would surely know what a Divine Seal Fragment looks like...

Just as I reached this thought, Fa Zheng unexpectedly changed the subject and dropped a bombshell: "Because the Human Bureau is an organization that I fostered."

"—What?" I was shocked.

The philosophy of the Human Bureau is to create Super Soldiers capable of matching demon hunters, thereby overturning Luo Mountain’s future rule; and ultimately, they still wish to create an order where the demon hunter population submits to the management by ordinary human society.

Conversely, Luo Mountain aims to establish a social order dominated by the demon hunter group.

These two forces are clearly antagonistic from their very roots, and yet Fa Zheng is the mastermind behind the Human Bureau? How is that possible? Why?

Wait a second... Am I misunderstanding something?

Such an Impermanence like Fa Zheng is beyond Luo Mountain, hence Luo Mountain’s ideology cannot restrain him. If for Fa Zheng, Luo Mountain is but a tool, then the Human Bureau is merely another tool.

Just as I and Fa Zheng perceive no significant difference between Luo Mountain’s demon hunter group and the investigator group. For Fa Zheng, what difference does it make between Luo Mountain, representing the demon hunter group, and the Human Bureau, representing the human group?

"I actually think that it’s not a bad idea for ordinary people to manage demon hunters," said Fa Zheng. "However, it is true that in all aspects demon hunters are superior to ordinary humans, so I believe it makes more sense for demon hunters to lead ordinary humans.

"Having said that, my idea isn’t necessarily flawless, and the Human Bureau is my preliminary trial towards another direction. If the Human Bureau can prove that a model dominated by ordinary people is better for human civilization, I wouldn’t mind integrating into this order in the future and becoming a part of it."

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