Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 473 - 443 countdown mechanism

Chapter 473: 443 countdown mechanism

While talking about being together with me forever, she also said that I must never, ever fall in love with her. Zhu Shi’s words sounded very contradictory.

It was as if she had drawn a forbidden yet sweet line, the more she forbade others from liking her, the more it stirred a rebellious urge. Besides, I am inherently someone who enjoys challenging rules in many ways, she said with a full smile, as if she were tempting me.

I know her very well, she certainly has no such seductive intentions. Right now, she is like an unconscious little Demon. Although in front of me and Mazao, she always shows the most sensible side, upon closer examination, her personality among us is the most abnormal. She lacks some basic Perception towards interactions between the opposite sex.

This abnormality seems to have spawned some kind of wonderful attraction. It feels as though I can embrace her anytime, anywhere, embrace her body and possess her loyalty. She would surely shyly adhere to our agreement, welcoming all my desires with her gentle body, again and again.

And yet, on the other hand, it feels as though I can never truly have her, only maintain a friendship with her. This kind of ambiguous intimate relationship makes me feel a contradictory and not-so-common allure from this girl.

Regarding this unfamiliar relational dynamic, not only she is bewildered, I too find myself at a loss. We are like two animals encountering each other for the first time in the wild, cautiously approaching each other, testing each other’s boundaries, trying to figure out how to interact with each other.

And one thing seems to have become very clear—whoever falls in love first is the loser.

"Why do you think that by being with you I might fall for you?" I retorted.

"Because I’m very good-looking, right? My body is also great, with a lot of curves. Even Xiaoqiao envies me in this aspect, so being with me would definitely be very pleasurable, and there’s a chance you might get addicted."

She seemed to have a mysterious confidence in this area, and after opening up, she seemed to gradually put aside certain conventional hesitations, speaking more directly, "Besides, don’t you guys usually think that after being with a girl, you have to be responsible? It’s a good thought, but you shouldn’t think that way about me.

"Since you’ve already made an agreement with Mazao, then you must always love Mazao in the future. You absolutely must not feel that after being with me, you have to take full responsibility for me. We have a pure physical relationship that only involves the body, not emotions."

Zhu Shi now seems like a "player" creator... I thought of this and said, "Have you ever considered that these words actually have a huge destructive power on men?"

"Huh?" Zhu Shi was slightly stunned.

"And one more thing, you seemed to have forgotten. I’ve told you more than once before, face to face, that I actually already like you." I said directly.

Zhu Shi blinked her eyes, then nodded repeatedly, smiling as she said, "Yes, yes, just like that, keep it up!"

While saying this, she began to ponder, as if contemplating the specific matters of being with me, muttering to herself: "Hmm, before doing it, you also have to prepare safety measures, it would be bad to get pregnant now... Does any Spell have a direct preventive effect?

"Also, this matter must also be reported to Mazao in advance, we can’t just do it behind her back with Zhuang Cheng... If she says she’s okay with it but secretly resents it, I must refuse Senior Brother Zhuang wholeheartedly... But it’s also possible that when she agrees verbally, she also agrees in her heart, only to feel suddenly uncomfortable when she’s alone later, thinking about Zhuang Cheng and me doing it...

"Should I just let her supervise the whole process on the side when Senior Brother Zhuang and I do it? That seems improper, after all, she’s still young...

"Or should I record the entire process via video and cover key parts with a mosaic, then send it to Mazao later? Ugh, no no, this plot seems like something I’ve seen in some work..."

Her line of thought seemed to drift further away from common sense, and as she read aloud to the end, she seemed to suddenly snap awake, clutching her head and letting out a yell: "Wait wait... What have I been thinking about since just now!"

I pretended not to hear her ridiculous comments and started eating a fruit platter.

A night passed.

-

By the next morning, Zhu Shi and I had returned to the Luoshan Headquarters, carrying the head of the "Evangelist" to find Mazao.

On the way, Zhu Shi maintained a serious face, as if nothing had ever happened, and even discussed matters related to the previous events with me. As for me now, I had also calmed down, focusing more on the priorities than on matters between men and women, and researched deeply with her.

Zhu Shi had already written the detailed report on the previous event during the night and sent it to the Luoshan Headquarters. She also included the fact that the achieved level of Evil was a hidden Ming Zhuo believer and pointed out in her report that there might be a traitor among Mingzhuo’s subordinates.

Afterward, Mingzhuo’s Influence would probably start internal investigations. Regardless of whether they can uncover the potential traitor or not, Mingzhuo, who enjoys playing tricks in the dark, would likely detest others doing the same to him, which could be described as a kind of disgust towards one’s own kind.

However, Zhu Shi seemed to hold a slightly opposing view on this matter, and as she opened her mouth, she posed a question that sounded significant: "Zhuang Cheng, do you think... is it possible for Ming Zhuo to secretly ally with the Taoyuan Village Master?"

"You mean it’s not that there is a traitor among Mingzhuo’s subordinates who defected to Taoyuan Village... but rather that Ming Zhuo himself is leading a secret exchange with Taoyuan Village, where only a small scope of communication is happening, so that the achieved level Evil was not privy to it?" I asked, "Why do you think so?"

Zhu Shi nodded first, then said, "’Paradise’ is supposed to grant almost eternal life to those within it, right? And what Ming Zhuo pursues is to break through his own life-limit and gain a lifespan matching his status as Impermanence, isn’t it?

"Although entering ’Paradise’ might subject him to the control of the Taoyuan Village Master, in desperate conditions, would Ming Zhuo consider defecting to the enemy’s side?"

After contemplating, I shook my head.

"It’s normal for there to be a traitor among Mingzhuo’s subordinates because Ming Zhuo rules his believers and subordinates with terror emotions. Even if this way can really cultivate highly loyal subordinates, it’s probably hard to resist the allure of the ’Paradise’... But to have Ming Zhuo himself betray Luo Mountain, that’s absolutely impossible." I said.

"Why is that?" Zhu Shi was curious.

"Because ’Paradise’ cannot satisfy Ming Zhuo’s desire." I said.

The issue lies in the mechanism of Ming Zhuo’s Naraku Undying Body.

I have repeatedly triggered Ming Zhuo’s Naraku Undying Body at zero distance, and based on other clues, I can probe some of the specific operational mechanisms of the Naraku Undying Body.

First, Ming Zhuo’s remaining life countdown is at most only ten years. So, according to what time reference frame is this ’ten years’ determined?

Ming Zhuo once had a Time Manipulator subordinate who could freely control time, even entering a world where time stopped. I’ve previously entered this stopped-time world, and Ming Zhuo must have also attempted to extend his life through the power of this Time Manipulator.

But according to the information available, all his attempts ended in failure. Even entering a world where time stopped could not halt the operation of the life countdown. This alone shows that this countdown has nothing to do with the objective flow of time.

My intuition and reasoning both point to the same conclusion—Ming Zhuo’s life countdown depends on his subjective experience. How many days he subjectively experiences is how many days his life is reduced by.

Moreover, because the Spirit of Impermanence possesses extraordinary Perception of time and causality, even applying time power to himself, he can still perceive the flow of external time. So whether speeding up or slowing down his body and consciousness on a time level is futile.

However, if this speeding up and slowing down do not apply to him but to the external environment, the matter might be different. Judging from the case of time stopping, if Ming Zhuo stays in a stopped-time world for ten years, then from the perspective of a normally flowing time space, Ming Zhuo would probably die instantly, as if his remaining life had been accelerated to exhaustion.

The entire process does not count as using time power to interfere with Ming Zhuo because, according to the relative logic of fast and slow, this approach is equivalent to sending everything and everyone except Ming Zhuo into a space of infinite time acceleration, and then stop the acceleration after Ming Zhuo’s life is exhausted. From a different angle, this is essentially letting the whole world travel to a future where Ming Zhuo is already dead, through time travel.

Under normal circumstances, Ming Zhuo is best positioned to stay in a Different Space where time flows much slower than the real world. Though the flow rate of his subjective time remains unchanged, those external Mingzhuo believers and subordinates can have more time to help him. However, due to the existence of Doomsday, doing so from Ming Zhuo’s subjective perspective is rather accelerating Doomsday, in some sense also hastening Ming Zhuo’s lifespan.

Thus, while thinking about how to kill Ming Zhuo, I considered such a method, which is to have myself and Ming Zhuo enter a Different Space where time flows much faster than the real world. In this way, I’d be in a position to kill Ming Zhuo thoroughly within these ten years before Doomsday arrives. Though it was said before that long-term conflict would mean Ming Zhuo’s victory, that was under conditions without taking Xuanming Fire into account; if fighting by all means, I still have confidence in exhausting Ming Zhuo to death.

Unfortunately, for one, I currently don’t know where to find such a convenient Different Space; second, even if such a Different Space were found, with my and Ming Zhuo’s boundless power exploding during conflicts, there’s no Different Space that could last ten years without shattering. Those that can last more than ten minutes are probably few and far between.

And since the Naraku Undying Body works with such a mechanism, the method of extending life through the power of Illusion Technique Dreams is futile. Not only would Ming Zhuo not join ’Paradise’, he would rather stay far away, to avoid affecting his research in the real world on how to overcome the life countdown issue.