Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 514 - 484 Entering the Doomsday Era

Chapter 514: 484 Entering the Doomsday Era

Past memories are like photographs soaked in acid, faded, distorted, and warped, making me even doubt whether I might have been a resident of this darkness all along. Everything I experienced in the real world might have been nothing more than a beautiful dream conjured up in the depths of this solitude.

It feels as though something similar happened before.

When I was trapped in the basement of the fifteenth floor, completely cut off from the outside world, a similar delusion once took hold of me in the arms of despair. Unable to prove the reality of what I had lived through, all I could do was quietly wait for my personality to dissolve, eroded by the darkness.

Even this tranquil darkness seems strangely familiar, as if I’ve encountered it somewhere before. In order to preserve my sense of self, I tried desperately to dig through my memories, to ruminate on my own feelings. Yes, it was during that time in the basement on the fifteenth floor. It happened when I first touched the Divine Seal Fragment and was dragged into the Void Realm—I entered a place of darkness where I couldn’t even feel my own existence.

Additionally, this place seems somewhat similar to the boundless, vast void that surrounded the basement itself on the fifteenth floor.

Is it the same darkness confronting me now? With my memories blurred, I can’t confirm it fully. After struggling for a moment, I had no choice but to sift through other recollections to continue preserving myself.

I wonder how Liu Shuying’s battle with Taoyuan Village Master turned out.

Before I was exiled beyond the world, I defeated Xu Gou and also dealt with Huang Quan. Although being unable to participate in the fight against the Taoyuan Village Master fills me with frustration, the tasks I undertook during that battle were more than completed. Even if I could return to the battlefield now, the fighting there may well be long over.

Moreover, the moment I was exiled, it seemed like the mana fluctuations clashing between Liu Shuying and the Taoyuan Village Master also ceased simultaneously. That might have been a sign that the battle there had already concluded.

Did Liu Shuying emerge victorious? Or did both perish together?

On one hand, the possibility of the Taoyuan Village Master losing and dying cannot be ignored; on the other hand, it’s hard for me to believe that someone like the Taoyuan Village Master—whom I hadn’t even fully explored—would be taken down by others before I got the chance. The resolution of our conflict in such a manner feels far too anticlimactic. It’s like in a fantasy story where, just as the protagonist sets out to challenge the enemy leader, the villain is prematurely defeated by another heroic figure offscreen.

Still, even with how miraculous Mazao’s misfortune-fueled扫帚 star power might be, it’s unlikely enough to entirely dictate the fate of someone on the Impermanence level. The notion that the Taoyuan Village Master was, in fact, defeated by the enigmatic Liu Shuying shrouded in mystery isn’t utterly impossible.

For now, I should focus my efforts on figuring out how to break free of this void of nothingness and return to the real world. Huang Quan mentioned that this place was an external void outside of the world, incapable of offering a return. Though I can’t confirm if those were truly Huang Quan’s words or just an echo of my thoughts, if there’s a way in, there must be a way out.

At the very least, I have to resolutely believe in this. I have a sense of foreboding: the moment my will wavers in this belief, the speed of my self-dissolution will accelerate. Perhaps the efforts I’m making now are as laughable as someone dropped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean trying to swim back to land with just their hands and feet. Yet, it’s still better than drowning in despair without trying at all.

What frustrates me, however, is that faith alone isn’t enough. I need direction—something to strive toward.

Though I deeply enjoy adventures and high-stakes encounters, this place offers none of those thrills. There’s nothing exciting here, only monotonous void. Nothing will happen here—it’s a graveyard for all things. Even the most fervent passion is doused cold by the pervasive darkness.

Direction, direction... to escape this sea of despair, I need at least some kind of direction.

Truly, this void beyond the world lives up to its name. No matter how much I observe or try, I can’t find a single clue—a hint to grasp onto. Here, there’s really nothing. Even this darkness itself, when stared at long enough, makes me question whether it’s really darkness at all. This place might not even hold the concept of "darkness," and I only defined it as such for the sake of convenience.

I don’t know how long I’ve been wandering in this void—an instant? An eternity? Maybe it was neither. I feel my consciousness becoming increasingly faint, about to shatter like a delicate bubble. Perhaps, precisely because my awareness is so fragile, it’s gained an eerie kind of sensitivity. Like a hallucination, I seem to perceive something far away.

I remained dazed, as though half-asleep, before snapping back to attention. How could there be anything other than myself in this endless expanse of blackness? Yet, it wasn’t a hallucination. If I hadn’t noticed it initially, I might have ignored it entirely. But now that I was aware of it, I could lock onto it once more with my perception. I seemed to have guessed what it was.

That thing—it’s impossible—but it seems to be... a "firefly"?

Yes, although the signal is exceedingly faint, there appears to be a "firefly" far away—I’m not sure how apt it is to use the term "far away" in this void, but there it is.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t pinpoint the location of this "firefly," nor was I able to reach it through sheer willpower. The signal was so faint that I couldn’t help questioning once more if it were just an illusion brought about by my impending self-dissolution. After all, how could my "firefly" suddenly appear in this void, a domain devoid of all substance?

I don’t recall ever releasing a "firefly" into this place, and besides, a "firefly" shouldn’t even be capable of existing here.

Even so, it’s the only anomaly I’ve discovered in this void. Whether it’s truly a "firefly" or some unknown trap, I have to find out.

I tried moving toward it—or, rather, I began constructing the mental image of myself moving in that direction.

In this void beyond the world, the concept of "direction" doesn’t exist. It’s like drawing a single dot at the exact center of a circular piece of paper—rotate the paper any way you want, and no angle appears any different from the original. But with the appearance of this mysterious "firefly," it’s as if a new black dot emerged somewhere off-center, giving the paper a sense of orientation. With that, "direction" was born.

I poured every ounce of effort into moving, moving endlessly through what might have been unimaginable spans of time—yet the distance to the "firefly" never seemed to shrink. Was this because I wasn’t truly moving? Or was the "firefly" so far away that even after all my efforts, I hadn’t traversed even a billionth of the distance? Or could it be that the very concept of movement doesn’t exist here, making all my exertions futile?

I forced myself not to give up and continued imagining the act of moving in my mind.

Time dragged on—it felt endless. The distance still showed no signs of closing. My will started to feel numb. At times, I even lost my perception of the "firefly," questioning once again if it even existed.

And still, time dragged on. The "firefly" remained distant, and I couldn’t determine whether I’d made any progress toward it at all. Time passed until I became like an automaton, mechanically constructing the mental image of movement. Time passed...

Time passed...

Until, suddenly, it felt as though I was caught by some peculiar gravitational pull.

This strange disturbance awakened my robotic will, pulling me into awareness. Reflexively, I checked the distance between myself and the "firefly." Without any reference in the void, I still couldn’t tell if I’d gotten closer to it.

But then, what was this peculiar gravitational force? In this blind, empty realm, I couldn’t uncover its origin. I only knew my body was being drawn by it—wait, my body? I shouldn’t even have a sense of physical form in this place, and yet I inexplicably felt it here. The surrounding darkness transformed into an eerie current, and I was being swept away, carried helplessly by its flow.

Again, I don’t know how much time passed—or no, this time was different. Though vague and unfamiliar, I seemed to regain some sense of the passage of time. Roughly two to three minutes later, I felt as though I were a fish thrown from water, flopping onto solid ground.

I experienced the long-forgotten sensation of gravity. Like floating in water for ages only to suddenly return to land, the pull of gravity now felt disproportionately heavy. For the first time in what felt like forever, I had the tangible sensation of solid ground beneath me.

Slowly, I started to notice the flow of air, the strange, acrid odor, and the faint rustling sounds in my ears. It wasn’t until much later that I realized my eyes were closed. Tentatively, I opened them.

The sudden presence of light pierced my vision, and I reflexively squinted. As a Flame Ability User capable of manipulating light and heat, I wasn’t truly sensitive to light. But after spending who-knows-how-long in the void, the sheer concept of "light" itself caught me completely off guard.

In no time, I could clearly see where I had been brought.

It seemed I had been transported to a filthy, chaotic bedroom.

The source of light came from a small desk lamp carelessly tossed onto a bed not far away. Its warm glow illuminated the room, but much like an almost-dead battery, its light flickered sporadically, as though haunted, threatening to extinguish at any moment.

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.