Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 452: April 22 - Return to Campus

Chapter 452: April 22 - Return to Campus

This incident happened when I returned to Saltwater City in early January.

The purpose of my return to Saltwater City was to transfer some belongings from home to my current residence at the Luoshan Headquarters. Although not particularly valuable, these items held personal significance. For instance, souvenirs from my travels, notes written while investigating monster tales, and some private files on my laptop that I wouldn’t want anyone to see. I am rather particular about my pillow, feeling it’s more comfortable to sleep with the one I’ve gotten used to.

After a simple tidy-up, I also made a nostalgic visit to my university. It wasn’t that I wanted to continue my studies; it just felt unseemly to be expelled due to excessive absences. So, I went to handle the leave of absence procedures. Of course, this was just a superficial reason. I wasn’t overly concerned with such matters, and I could have easily authorized someone else to do it for me.

I just wanted to put a period on my campus life by revisiting familiar places. What once seemed like a dull campus life now, as I look back as a resident of another world, shines in my memory with unexpected brilliance. Letting it linger in my mind isn’t my style. I’m someone who values rituals, so I’ll bid farewell to my past self with this ceremonious act.

As the saying goes, one cannot step into the same river twice; things change constantly. While I was away, changes were occurring in the university. To be precise, it was society undergoing massive transformations, and this wind of change had inevitably blown into the university.

Society has fully accepted the existence of the supernatural. Although most people haven’t personally experienced any supernatural events, the continuous "education" through the internet and television has made them aware of what’s hidden in the depths of the world. As I walked through the campus, I heard students discussing topics related to the supernatural, with the term "Luoshan" even cropping up.

With the government’s acknowledgment, the Luoshan organization has entered public visibility.

For now, the government still defines Luoshan as "an official force closely linked with the government, handling supernatural events for the nation," without explicitly revealing any conflicts between Luoshan and ordinary people.

However, not everyone simply takes surface information at face value. Just the fact that "there are many individuals in this world possessing Extraordinary Powers, and they seem to have organized into forces even before the founding of the nation" has led many to sense the raging undercurrents beneath the surface.

The topic of how ordinary people should face the demon hunter community continues to be hotly debated online. Some extremists believe the country should strike first, using organized modern armed forces to swiftly control the heavily booby-trapped Luoshan organization and impose thorough management on demon hunters, these "few individuals with Extraordinary Powers." Others, more pessimistic, believe it’s already too late and the government may have long been puppets manipulated by Luoshan from behind the scenes.

The latter view isn’t entirely unreasonable. In fact, some local official forces have already defected to certain Luoshan factions or have been controlled by the Extraordinaryism faction using spiritual magic. However, this phenomenon hasn’t become widespread yet because Fa Zheng is suppressing its further rampage from behind the scenes.

Back to the school. Possibly because I had "vanished from the mortal world" for a long time, combined with the wave of frequent supernatural events, some teachers and students who were aware of my conduct assumed I had encountered the real deal in my pursuit of investigating supernatural events and died as a result.

The classroom, initially noisy, fell silent as I walked in. Looking around, the number of attending students was less than half of what it used to be.

I sat in the back row. When the teacher responsible for lecturing came in and saw me, he gawked, speechless for a moment, then couldn’t help but ask, "Zhuang Cheng, are you alive?"

Until the class ended, I was continually being stared at with strange looks. It seemed like they suspected I had long died in some supernatural event and that what appeared now was a monster clad in Zhuang Cheng’s skin. If it were a joke, it would be fine, but it seemed some genuinely believed this, and that was no laughing matter. A wave of magical realism hit me, making me gasp, "What on earth is happening in this world."

Although I was often viewed as an oddball before, it’s the first time I’ve been regarded as a monster by fellow students and faculty. This made simply walking around school, let alone "bidding farewell to my past self," incredibly uncomfortable.

While walking outside the academic building, I overheard a group of students chatting by the roadside. It seemed that in recent days, over a dozen students had mysteriously disappeared, and a few had been found as confirmed tragic deaths. The school appeared to be planning emergency class suspensions, ending this semester early, and planning the next semester as an online home learning format.

Similar phenomena were not just occurring at this university; many schools planned to do the same, and some companies were preparing to switch to a work-from-home format. If it were just an epidemic, a natural disaster, or even war, it might be acceptable. But now, all sorts of "ghost stories" deviating from humanitarian common sense were becoming increasingly rampant in society, making it impossible for social order to function normally amid such a terrifying wave.

It seemed that Zhu Shi’s plan to continue her studies would also be nipped in the bud... As this thought emerged, I heard a series of light running footsteps from behind, followed by a calling voice, "Senior... Senior!"

Initially, I thought this was calling someone else, but the running footsteps seemed to be headed toward me. So, I turned my head to look at the person calling me.

It was a ponytailed girl with a pure appearance and quiet demeanor. Her stamina didn’t seem great; after jogging over to me, she supported her knees, taking small, breathy gasps while apprehensively peeking up at my expression.

She looked somewhat familiar to me. I wanted to ask what she needed from me, then noticed another familiar figure in the direction she came from. It was Zhu Shi, appearing with a resigned expression as she always did, wearing a white blouse and black skirt, carrying a large black guitar case, walking towards us.

She no longer needed to hide the Yama Sword in her guitar case, so why still carry it? Though curious, I didn’t raise this question at that moment.

"What’s this about?" I asked.

"She’s my classmate," Zhu Shi said. "She mentioned wanting to consult you on something."

She looked at the female student, who then gazed at my face with a mix of surprise and doubt, cautiously poked my shoulder with a fingertip, then quickly drew back.

Seeing her timid, animal-like expression, I quickly searched my memory for details concerning this female student. Yes, though I’d only met her once before, I had indeed encountered her.

The female student plucked up her courage to ask, "Um... are you Zhuang Cheng, Senior Brother Zhuang?"

"Yes, I am Zhuang Cheng," I replied, "By the way, I’m alive."

She visibly relaxed a little and then carefully asked, "I’ve heard that you’ve been absent from school recently because you got involved in dangerous supernatural events... is that true?"

"Although there are some discrepancies in the details, that’s generally the case," I admitted.

While being candid, I glanced at Zhu Shi, who then answered on my behalf, "She’s recently encountered some mysterious and perplexing events, feeling quite panicked about it. Hearing students talking about your presence on campus, she was eager to meet you to consult the ’expert on the supernatural’."

If that’s the case, why didn’t this female student seek Zhu Shi’s help? No, rather, why didn’t Zhu Shi proactively offer to assist her?

From Zhu Shi’s helpless expression, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to help, but maybe it was due to some coincidence. I put aside further pondering and turned my focus back to the female student.

The female student tentatively asked, "Senior, do you remember me?"

"Of course I remember," I replied.

-

We sat down in the student cafeteria.

This female student’s last name was "Qiao," a first-year student at Saltwater University, making her my junior. Zhu Shi called her "Xiaoqiao," which sounded like a famous beauty from the late Eastern Han, while she referred to Zhu Shi as "Little Zhu."

I had met this junior for the first time around mid-September last year. Yes, it was around the time I first met Mazao, though technically a bit earlier.

Initially, I had ventured into the unfinished building where Mazao was hiding to investigate the evil spirit tales of a deserted construction site. It’s said that a fierce ghost of someone who died in a construction accident roamed there, covered in blood, kidnapping female students passing by at midnight.

This junior was the one involved in that evil spirit tale.

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