Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 45 - 42 Fallen Demon Hunter VS Supernatural Power User 5 (Fourth Update)

Chapter 45: 42 Fallen Demon Hunter VS Supernatural Power User 5 (Fourth Update)

Unlike the supernatural power users I’ve encountered before, I can’t sense a high-quality soul aura or any mana fluctuations from Zhuang Cheng. He seems like an ordinary human you could find anywhere.

This level of response is not enough to confirm that Zhuang Cheng is just an ordinary person. There are many who excel at concealing their oddity, and perhaps Zhuang Cheng’s power is one of them.

I plan to send a Shadow Clone to probe into Zhuang Cheng, and at the same time, I must investigate the 15th-floor room.

In fact, I don’t believe the cave on the 15th floor is the entrance to the future but more likely an entrance to a Different Space. Its manifestation is completely different from the expected effects of a ritual array, which probably resulted from a malfunction in activating the array.

But even a malfunction meant it was activated. Zhu Shi would neutralize the ritual array the next day, so I needed to understand why it was activated before then.

If possible, I’d rather not tell Zhu Shi about the existence of the ritual array—but I can’t do that.

After all, it was Zhu Shi who commissioned me to investigate the 15th-floor room. I can’t lie about what I’ve seen and heard because Zhu Shi could learn the truth from Zhu Changan and Zhuang Cheng. Silencing witnesses on the spot would only backfire on me. And as a Luoshan Agent, I can’t fail to request Zhu Shi to deal with this unusual incident, which would breach my duty and be exceedingly unnatural.

Thus, I could only suggest delaying the response to Zhu Shi after submitting my request. When she rejected it, I advised her to send someone else to handle it.

Dealing with anomalies like the cave wasn’t really suited for a "Black Evil" like Zhu Shi, who specialized in combat—it was more reasonable to leave it to "White Evil," better suited for such tasks. And if White Evil became the obstacle, I could easily dispose of it while consuming a high-quality soul.

However, Zhu Shi takes the danger of anomalies too seriously, coupled with her excessive kindness and sense of responsibility. She doesn’t want to pass the risk on to someone else if it’s in her own jurisdiction. Similar situations had happened before, and I knew there was no hope for my plan when I saw her expression, leaving me no choice but to give up struggling.

Just in case, and to ensure my alibi, I only sent the Shadow Clone after meeting Zhu Shi that evening. Yet when the clone arrived beneath the 15th-floor room, through my connection to it, I saw Zhuang Cheng leaving the place.

Evidently, Zhuang Cheng, who was keen on the strange, was also interested in the 15th-floor room. He had unwittingly walked into danger, and I immediately commanded the Shadow Clone to test Zhuang Cheng’s capability first. The clone, already bearing a grudge, was eager to appear.

Having suspected Zhuang Cheng of possessing a power of the strange, I instructed the clone to proceed with caution. He took my advice and cautiously probed Zhuang Cheng. Yet, he made an impetuous mistake; upon discovering that Zhuang Cheng was a Flame Ability User, he rushed in too hastily.

To say the clone was impetuous is an understatement; even I didn’t expect that Zhuang Cheng was different from most Flame Ability Users, able to ignite his opponents with a mere glance.

And still, up until he revealed his power, I couldn’t feel any mana fluctuations coming from him... No, to be precise, I could feel that his flames had quite intense mana fluctuations, but not from him as the source.

Mana is a general concept; it encompasses the energy necessary to cast spells as well as the power of the spells themselves. Superpowers also fall within the definition of mana. The sources of mana vary—some come from soul power, some from Life Power, and others could be kinetic, thermal, or electrical energy. Any form of power has fluctuations. It’s impossible not to have them.

Could it be that the source of the flames isn’t him but some object he’s carrying? But even if it were an object, I should still be able to sense it as the source when activated. The flames seemed like water without a source, which was quite puzzling to me.

I had no choice but to accept this as fact—the world of the strange is full of inexplicable things. Perhaps this was just one of Zhuang Cheng’s attributes as a special ability user; there was no other option but to accept.

After being hit, the clone sought to escape through Shadow Transfer, but wanting to discover more about Zhuang Cheng’s abilities, I forbade its use. It seems that after being burnt, my clone was so terrified that it lost control and, ignoring my verbal commands, began to flee on foot. I was ready to force the clone to turn back and attack Zhuang Cheng when I discovered something new.

Even after escaping Zhuang Cheng’s sight, the flames continued to plague the clone. It took me a while to ascertain that there seemed to be a spiritual link between the flames and Zhuang Cheng. Although I didn’t know if it could extend his perception, it was possible to keep feeding the fire along this connection.

Unfortunately, these were all the details the clone could ascertain. Once Zhu Shi arrived at the scene, I remotely retracted the seed of the heart, lest it fall into Luoshan’s hands.

In fact, the information was valuable enough. Based on Zhuang Cheng’s overwhelming power shown when defeating the clone, consuming him would be enough to allow the seed of the heart to progress to the next stage.

It wasn’t long before I received new intelligence from Zhu Shi.

Zhuang Cheng had entered the cave of the 15th-floor room in person and nearly died there when the entrance unexpectedly vanished.

Yet he managed to find a way out using his own strength and survived...

-

I’ve faced a similar predicament.

Likewise trapped in a seemingly inescapable situation, I can relate to that fear, that despair... and the regret that is as plentiful as seawater.

So I understand Zhuang Cheng’s emotions.

While Zhu Shi lamented to me over the phone about Zhuang Cheng’s calm demeanor facing the strange event, it’s clear that unless one is a complete madman, no one can maintain their calm in such circumstances—not I, nor Zhuang Cheng. Zhuang Cheng must have worked hard to manage his frantic emotions and had difficulty suppressing his lingering fears while recounting his experience to Zhu Shi.

If I were younger, I’d probably want to put on a brave face in front of Zhu Shi too. Whether it’s her looks or her figure, Zhu Shi is an outstanding woman, and it’s only natural for a man to postulate in her presence. If I were ten years younger, perhaps I would pursue Zhu Shi.

At the same time, I have great admiration for Zhuang Cheng. The past me couldn’t even manage this level of pretense.

Moreover, I didn’t escape my predicament by my own strength. Perhaps it’s his confidence in overcoming difficulties that allowed him to barely maintain his dignity. From this perspective, beyond my admiration, I also feel some jealousy towards him.

And his hidden fear was all concealed beneath a veneer of respectability, I might be the only one capable of understanding him.

Thinking this, an indescribable sense of closeness to Zhuang Cheng involuntarily welled up within me.

By the time the early hours came around, I had finished keeping an eye on Zhu Changan’s place and made another trip to the room on the fifteenth floor. Although there were agents guarding the vicinity, there was no vigilance towards me, their colleague. I easily entered the room, wanting to try and open the cave using the new information provided by Zhuang Cheng.

It was still a failure this time, the Array itself had indeed become complete, but opening the cave required an element of great luck. The reason Zhuang Cheng succeeded, there probably was an additional factor he hadn’t discovered. And I no longer had time to continue exploring, I had to give up here for now.

After Zhu Shi and Zhuang Cheng had come one after the other, I approached as if I had just arrived and took Zhuang Cheng to the abandoned construction site near Saltwater University to probe his abilities further through the evil spirit there.

Understanding Zhuang Cheng didn’t mean not killing Zhuang Cheng.

To enable the seed of the heart to break through to the next stage, I wouldn’t miss this opportunity.

It just seemed that there had been no evil spirit at the abandoned construction site from the start. I had no choice but to switch to plan B, summoning a Shadow Clone to attack Zhuang Cheng, observing him use his abilities up close.

Zhu Shi had already written and submitted a report about Zhuang Cheng the previous night, where it mentioned his ability, but only with the phrase "it’s just ordinary Flame Ability," probably to help Zhuang Cheng keep the details of his abilities secret. My conversation with Zhuang Cheng on the way was just to probe him by showing an undue understanding of his abilities.

Even if he asked me how I knew those, I had already thought up an excuse in advance. It seemed that Zhu Shi hadn’t taken credit for it, what an unsophisticated girl, to let my careful planning go to waste.

The real information I wanted to probe for was only one thing, whether Zhuang Cheng had measures against being stealthily attacked from behind.

Since Zhuang Cheng could ignite his opponent with a glance and his attack power was so strong, a sneak attack from behind naturally seemed like the right solution. And in the battle between the clone and Zhuang Cheng, I also tried a Shadow Transfer stealth attack from behind, which he dodged.

I couldn’t tell whether Zhuang Cheng was just lucky or if he really could sense the attack from behind. Moreover, the Shadow Thrust had changed its attack route mid-way to avoid Zhuang Cheng’s flame, shifting from a back attack to an attack from the left of his foot. Perhaps it was this change that allowed him to react.

In my combat experience, vague statements like "perhaps" were the most taboo, I needed a more definite answer. Therefore, I let one of the clones stealthily attack Zhuang Cheng from behind while I shot at the clone with a handgun. The latter was to avoid Zhuang Cheng questioning why I merely watched after he successfully dealt with the stealth attack.

It was a successful probe, Zhuang Cheng had no reaction to the stealth attack, and by saving his life, I increased his trust in me.

To think he had still concealed his strength in the last battle, his firepower could actually escalate to such an extent, enough to turn my clone to ash instantaneously.

Yet even with such powerful flames, his weakness was pitifully short.

The moment the blade slashed across his neck, no matter what he held in his hands, be it a handgun, a cannon, or even a missile, would all become futile.

So, in that moment when he relaxed his vigilance as he turned around,

I controlled my arm to partially transform into Monster Form, and with the blade, I decapitated him.

After being beheaded, humans still maintain a few seconds of consciousness.

To prevent him from using his gaze to set me aflame before dying, I swung the blade again into his eyes and directly smashed his brain tissue.

The mana fluctuations formed from Zhuang Cheng’s previous battle with the clone must have attracted Zhu Shi, she would be here soon.

I can’t linger here.

I turned around, planning to leave this place immediately.

The "I’ll be transferred to another area" I told Zhuang Cheng wasn’t entirely a lie, I indeed planned to leave Saltwater City after completing the breakthrough.

From now on, I’d no longer be Agent Kong with the Luoshan Probe identity, but Monster Kong Da.

However, having only taken a couple of steps, I sensed something was amiss.

Logically speaking, when I kill a human, I should be able to feel their soul entering my body. Especially the soul of a supernatural power user, the entry should be particularly prominent. But now I felt absolutely no sensation of a soul being captured, it was as if...

As if Zhuang Cheng wasn’t dead at all.

Just then, I felt the air behind me heating up.

The sound of burning emanated from where Zhuang Cheng had fallen, and the fire spread in front of me.