Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 43 - 40 Fallen Demon Hunter VS Supernatural Power User 3

Chapter 43: 40 Fallen Demon Hunter VS Supernatural Power User 3

The Seed of the Heart brought me changes that were not just limited to transforming into a goat-headed Demon and manipulating Shadow Power.

According to the Weirdo Maker, that was merely the standard kit of the Heartseed. If the compatibility between the Heartseed and the Binder was high enough, the Binder would develop their own unique superpower.

He also mentioned that the Binders he personally selected were not chosen at random; they were candidates he believed had high enough compatibility to develop a unique superpower, so in this regard, I was not special.

Since he himself claimed to be the "Weirdo Maker," the title for those bonded with the Heartseed naturally became "Weirdos." As the name implies, they are those who transform into monsters.

And my unique superpower as a Weirdo was "Puppet Substitution."

I could temporarily transfer the Heartseed out of my body, turning some other human into a Weirdo. During this period, all my power would be transferred to that individual, and I would lose my strength for a time, along with the shift of my craving for souls.

Humans transformed into Weirdos by this method would become my puppet substitutes; I could issue them any command and share their senses remotely. If necessary, I could also retract my power, and my craving for souls would return. This process was instantaneous, and there was no need to worry about failing to retract my strength when my original body was in peril.

Weirdos could evolve their strength by hunting humans and devouring their souls, and substitutes could do the same. Moreover, when I retracted the power, the growth of the substitute’s strength would also be reflected in myself. As a price, the substitute would die.

Although I had never once used this superpower before, I understood the details of my ability. Such things came to me instinctively, without any misunderstanding about the nature of my power.

The Weirdo Maker inquired about my superpower when he came to inspect me. Unsure of his motives, I could not choose to hide or lie; I had to tell the truth. And after hearing the details of my power, he showed a somewhat surprised expression.

"I didn’t expect this kind of superpower," he sighed, "among all the Weirdos I’ve created to date, your ability might be the closest to the original entity."

I immediately asked what the original entity was, but he seemed to have mentioned it casually and was not inclined to elaborate on that topic.

"Rather than that, you seem to have never devoured a soul," he said meaningfully as he looked at me, "if you keep refraining from devouring human souls, you’ll eventually lose control under the compulsion to kill and go berserk. Then you’ll end up as Luo Mountain’s target, dying at the hands of some Evil sword. Can you accept such an ending?"

"...I don’t want to kill," I struggled to say, "Isn’t there a way to avoid killing people, devouring human souls? Can’t animal souls suffice—"

"They cannot," he said, "Since you have thought of that method, you must have tried it already. The Heartseed only accepts human souls."

"So... can the Heartseed be removed from my body?" I immediately regretted uttering those words after they left my lips.

"Are you sure? The Heartseed has deeply bonded with you. Unless you die, the Heartseed cannot leave your body."

"..." I fell silent.

After thinking for a while, he said, "However, there is one situation in which the Heartseed will leave your body."

"What kind of situation?" I asked.

"To prevent the Heartseed from being captured by Luo Mountain, when a Weirdo is in an inescapable predicament, the Heartseed will automatically depart from the Weirdo. Of course, in such a case, the Weirdo will still die from the loss of the Heartseed," he explained, "Regrettably, the Heartseed itself does not have the ability to judge the situation; you are the one who has to make that judgment. Therefore, when you are utterly despairing and resigned, convinced that your situation is beyond salvation..."

"...I will die," I said.

"Exactly. So, start killing, Kong Da," he smiled, "Once you stop thinking and succumb to the fate of being hunted by Luo Mountain, the Heartseed will leave you. You’ll revert to your powerless self and die without accomplishing anything."

-

After much struggle, I still chose the path of killing.

Because I did not want to lose my power, nor did I want to die.

In order to avoid being tracked by Luo Mountain and official forces, it could not be me who did the killing; it had to be my substitute.

The quality and loyalty of the substitute were unimportant since my power would raise them to a usable level, and they could not resist any of my commands. I also lacked any grand ambition or plans to manipulate societal power holders. Any human would suffice, even those on the fringes of society.

Besides, there was an issue with controlling power holders: the subjects turned into substitutes by me would directly transform into the form of a goat-headed Demon and could not revert back even after death. If I was "a human who could transform into a goat-headed Demon," then the substitute was someone who physically accepted the changes by the power of the strange and became the goat-headed Demon itself.

So, I found a very destitute-looking homeless man on the street. This type of person would not be missed by society if they disappeared. It was the safest option.

However, there was a small surprise; it turns out that even a homeless man should not be underestimated these days. I had seen similar news on the internet, where some scrappers recognized as homeless by passersby turned out to be millionaires or some other formidable characters from long ago, who had fallen on hard times.

"I had thought those kinds of news stories were far-off affairs, but after some questioning, I discovered the homeless man I’d apprehended was once a Sect Hierarch of a feudal superstition."

Originally, he wielded power and influence in the countryside, living a life of conceivable comfort, until—who would have thought—a high school student with a penchant for folklore exposed all his tricks and even assisted the official forces in settling his crimes. Without any support, he almost got carried out by his enraged followers to be burned alive. If he hadn’t prepared a body double in advance—brainwashed and surgically altered to look like him—he might have really died there.

However, as fate would have it, he never dreamed that one day he would become my substitute.

Under the influence of my superpower, his mind was quickly shattered.

My substitute superpower wasn’t an absurd power that unconditionally worked on everyone. Not all could be transformed into my substitutes. When I applied this superpower to a target, the target would first be confined in an illusion before the transformation.

The Weirdo Maker once told me that the superpowers of a monster deeply related to one’s past life experiences and innermost desires.

And the illusion I created was the very dead end that once filled me with unspeakable fear and despair.

The more fear and despair the person trapped in the illusion felt, the longer they remained confined. An ordinary person could take days to break free, while it required only one minute for me to turn a target into a substitute puppet.

During the "trapping" phase, they could resist with Mana, but the "transformation" phase was a rule-based process that disregarded the disparity in strength. As long as that one minute passed, no matter how powerful a being with heaven-reaching Mana they were in the illusion, they would only become puppets at my mercy.

Having procured a substitute, I started ordering him to kill.

Even though the substitute could bear my killing impulses, if I let him accumulate the urge to kill, when the seed of the heart returned to me, I would inherit all of his killing impulses, which was unacceptable.

However, I had no intention of letting him randomly slaughter ordinary people. Since I was manipulating a substitute anyway, and had already resolved to kill, I might as well cast aside all hesitations and conscience to hunt demon hunters.

Most demon hunters derived their Mana from their souls, and they often had higher quality souls. Even without the seed of the heart within me, I was still a monster and could sense who had a higher soul quality.

By devouring those souls, I could gain even more formidable strength, and since it took longer to digest those souls, I wouldn’t have to kill as frequently.

Just to be cautious, I didn’t go after Luo Mountain’s demon hunters but targeted the civilian ones instead. These so-called "demon hunters" may not actually have the experience and wish to hunt demons; calling them supernatural power users would be more fitting.

While I acted in the shadows, other dark clouds lingered in my mind.

"Among all the monsters you’ve created so far, your superpower may be the closest to the Prototype."

This was what the Weirdo Maker had said; I had never dared to overlook it or forget it.

Prototype—it seemed like it might be the archetype of us monsters, or perhaps the source.

When a monster’s heart is filled with despair, the seed of the heart departs. Then, where does the departing seed of the heart eventually go?

My ability was to transplant the seed of the heart into other humans, reclaiming it to inherit all the substitute puppet’s powers. So... in the eyes of the Prototype, possessing similar powers, could we monsters also be his substitute puppets?

Perhaps at some moment, the Prototype would activate his superpower and reclaim all the seeds of the heart.

All monsters would return to a state of powerlessness and die, having achieved nothing.

Just the thought of that scenario filled me with terror.

I had to explore... investigate the source of the seed of the heart and all related information. I needed to know how to prevent such an event, or at the very least, ensure that when it occurred, I might be spared.

Whenever the Weirdo Maker visited, I would probe him indirectly.

I couldn’t tell if he genuinely lacked caution or felt that such information didn’t matter much, but during a casual chat, he mentioned to me:

"The technical prototype of the seed of the heart originates from a domain that completely overlaps the real world in space."

"Completely overlapping the real world... Are you referring to another time?" I was shocked.

In the Mysticism I’d come across, there was mention of Different Spaces "nearly overlapping" the real world, but there existed no Different Space that "completely overlapped" with the real world.

If I had to give an example, it could only be different times within the same space.

That is to say, the past or... the future.

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