Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 484 - 454 Impermanence From the Doomsday

Chapter 484: 454 Impermanence From the Doomsday

According to Mazao herself, her ability to summon illusionary weapons using the Power of Return isn’t very effective in the Doomsday Era.

Because the omnipresent frenzy dissolves the memories of survivors of the Doomsday Era, even if she had previously encountered other magical treasures and weapons, she would forget them and be unable to summon them.

The prerequisite for summoning illusionary weapons is having a certain degree of understanding of the original, including the specific effect and feel of the weapon, as well as past experiences of using it. These memories have both a knowledge nature and a narrative nature, a mix of abstract understanding and concrete sensations, both of which must be combined to successfully transform the impression into reality.

In the past, Mazao could only remember deeply how to summon her most proficient Illusionary Curved Blade, and anything more was beyond her reach.

However, after arriving in the modern world, external environmental limitations no longer troubled Mazao. So in the past month, I used my status at Luo Mountain to ask Lu Chan to get Mazao a considerable amount of magical treasures and weapons. Now, Mazao has recorded information on many magical treasures and weapons. Originally already comprehensive, she has become even more comprehensive. And because she can repeatedly stack the effects of the same item, the illusionary weapons she summons can exert far greater power than the original.

Theoretically, not only the weapons she used before, but even humans she once encountered, she could simulate and summon in an illusionary form. However, summoning humans is noticeably more complex than summoning weapons, and because it’s harder to remember people in the Doomsday Era than weapons, she never developed skills in this direction.

Of course, if it’s just about summoning her own clone, she can do that now, and she seems to consider summoning others’ illusions in the future.

At this moment, Mazao was holding the Illusionary Fake Water Moon and projecting a phantom into the empty laboratory.

Fake Water Moon is not only capable of hacking into others’ spirits and imposing illusions on them; like a sci-fi projector, it can also create a holographic projection on open ground. What she is projecting now should be a visualized scene constructed from the historical information she collected here.

Before us, two blurry human figures appeared.

One of the figures was Ying Lingyun, as always dressed in a white suit and wearing a silver metal mask; the other figure wore a black Chinese-style suit, appearing to be an ordinary man in his thirties, except his eyes were very peculiar—dull, unfocused, as if in a daze.

Both were semi-transparent illusions, their contours flickering like candle fire, their bodies frequently appearing with signal noise, emitting a static sound like a TV with jumbled signals.

"Ying Lingyun, the Human Bureau is almost finished. It’s time for you to join Taoyuan Village." The man said in a static-filled voice, "The power Xu Gou demonstrated will surely make Luo Mountain take the Human Bureau more seriously than ever, sweeping it from this world with thunderous momentum. If you don’t withdraw in time, you won’t even be able to protect yourself.

"Your talent is outstanding, in such a short time perfecting the Transformation Skill based on the foundation of the Meng Zhang prototype, allowing the large-scale spread of the Meng Zhang prototype, greatly advancing the construction of ’Paradise’... It’s such a pity for such a talent like you to die here, hurry up and come to our side."

Ying Lingyun glanced at the other party and said, "Cut the nonsense... I have my own arrangements, and it’s not your place to point fingers. Just quickly hand over the next batch of Meng Zhang prototypes."

"Don’t be so impatient, first answer my question," the man said.

Mazao and I exchanged a glance.

Judging by the conversation, this should be an event that happened after Xu Gou’s attack on the Fufeng Base.

The man conversing with Ying Lingyun was evidently someone from Taoyuan Village. Since he was responsible for contact with someone of Ying Lingyun’s level, his status within Taoyuan Village was certainly not low.

However, Ying Lingyun’s following words shattered my assumptions.

"You’re not from Taoyuan Village, so why are you so concerned about Taoyuan Village’s interests?" Ying Lingyun said, "Or have you been dealing with Taoyuan Village for so long that you forgot you’re actually a Blessed Monk? Looking at your approach of persuading others to join Taoyuan Village, anyone ignorant might think you’re that so-called Dreamland Messenger."

Blessed Monk?

Is this man the unknown Blessed Monk?

Immediately, I focused my attention on him.

"At this stage, cooperating with the Taoyuan Village Master to help realize the ’Paradise’ plan aligns with our interests." The unknown Blessed Monk said, "We had originally hoped that the Human Bureau could grow strong like Taoyuan Village, which is why we secretly became one of the many forces supporting the Human Bureau. That’s also why I handed over research materials related to Sin Demon to you, but alas, human calculations do not match divine will.

"Ying Lingyun, this is also your miscalculation. It’s because you let the critical subject Xu Gou escape that led to the current situation. Or are you going to say this was part of your plan too?"

Mazao echoed the man’s words, "’We’?... One of many forces?"

I also immediately caught onto this phrase that needed attention.

Since the unknown Blessed Monk could say something like handing over "materials related to Sin Demon" to Ying Lingyun, then he undoubtedly also hails from the Doomsday Era, and the only organization that could be called a "force" in the Doomsday Era is the Evangelical Institute.

Coincidentally, the Evangelical Institute is also the organization with the most gathered Blessed Monks in the Doomsday Era. Could this unknown Blessed Monk be from the Evangelical Institute?

Why has the Evangelical Institute of the Doomsday Era extended its tendrils into the modern world, supporting both the Human Bureau and Taoyuan Village, two of Luo Mountain’s greatest threats, from the shadows? Is the Evangelical Institute planning to stand against Luo Mountain? For what reasons?

Come to think of it, how could people from the Doomsday Era possibly traverse time and influence the modern world? Mazao was sent here by Little Bowl using Right Positioning Heavenly Phenomena and Power of Divine Seal Fragments, what did the Evangelical Institute use?

Or is it that the unknown Blessed Monk is backed not by the Evangelical Institute, but by some other force—a force born from one or more Blessed Monks from the Doomsday who accidentally traveled through time to the modern world, taking root and forming a new force?

While pondering, I didn’t forget to stay vigilant. Ying Lingyun in the past might be able to perceive our spying on history, and I must guard against him suddenly attacking us with the Power of Divine Seal Fragments.

Sure enough, almost as if to confirm my bad hunch, things quickly took a turn for the worse.

What exceeded my imagination was that the one who perceived our spying on history wasn’t Ying Lingyun.

The unknown Blessed Monk’s expression suddenly changed, his eyes shifted, and his gaze focused intently on us.

"Who’s there?"

He barked out a low cry, gestured towards our direction, and immediately a tidal wave of yellow-black mana surged around him, crashing towards us like a stormy sea.

I had an awful feeling; the power seemed filled with a heavy sense of death, merely looking at it felt like both body and mind would suffocate and be eternally submerged, reminiscent of damp soil that buried countless dead, soaked in endless resentment, threatening to bury us alive.

Even though it emerged from history and was just part of a projection, this mana instantly became vividly substantial, as real as if a character on a TV screen suddenly saw the audience and shot a bullet that defied logic to break through the screen and hit the viewer.

The ability to showcase such skills is enough to illustrate one fact—this unknown Blessed Monk is actually an Impermanence!

Seeing Ying Lingyun talk to him in that manner earlier, while I knew his background was deep, I didn’t expect him to have such power.

Mazao’s expression changed dramatically. She seemed intent on severing the projection, but it was useless. At this moment, the projection appeared to go berserk; I could sense Mazao’s mana was no longer maintaining it, yet the phantom irrationally persisted. I immediately pressed Mazao’s shoulder, and took a slight step back with her.

In the nick of time, the yellow-black mana again turned into a phantom, penetrating through us. The unknown Blessed Monk unexpectedly exclaimed in surprise, closely observing our direction.

Only then did Mazao relax, or rather, she had to relax. Strength left her body, her face drained of color, her breathing turned faint. Without my support, she would collapse at any moment—this was the consequence of witnessing the other party’s mana. Even though her Rank was at Great Success, just one tier apart from Impermanence, simply witnessing his power inflicted deep harm; such was the vast gap between the two.

However, such injury could not truly endanger Mazao. She took a deep breath, the Power of Return enveloped her entire body, her harmed body and soul rapidly recovering.

Unlike the times when she suffered direct damage from the Catastrophe Demon, this time she was merely affected, and could still recover with her own power.

Her condition returned to normal instantly, as if she had not been harmed from the outset.

"Zhuang Cheng..." She seemed perplexed by how I had managed to help her evade the attack.

"Since he can perceive us, we can also hide, nothing more," I said.

In truth, it was thanks to Mazao’s blurred ailment of history that his perception of us was also vague, enabling me to take Mazao with me and evade his sensing despite my limited expertise in concealment.

And due to losing his lock on us, he within history couldn’t continue transmitting power into the future.

"Huang Quan, what happened?" Ying Lingyun frowned and asked.

The unknown Blessed Monk, called "Huang Quan," did not respond to Ying Lingyun, but continued to scrutinize our direction before speaking again.

"That feeling of being observed from the future..." he said icily, "Mazao, it’s you over there, isn’t it?"