Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 516 - 485 First Encounter with Doomsday Creature 1_2

Chapter 516: 485 First Encounter with Doomsday Creature 1_2

It was a heavy object pressed against the door from outside, weighing about a hundred pounds or so, and it exuded an overwhelming stench of rot. I stepped back two paces and turned to let it fall. The object collapsed onto the floor with a dull thud. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be someone dressed in a dark blue tracksuit—or more precisely, a human corpse.

The corpse appeared to have been dead for a long time, its body severely decomposed, oozing with foul-smelling fluids and rotting blood plasma. When it hit the floor, the impact made a sickening splatter, spraying putrid liquid outward. Maggots crawled in dense clusters both inside and outside of the body, and even they were flung about when the corpse fell.

Even for me, the sight triggered an instinctive sense of fear and disgust. It had nothing to do with strength, willpower, or character—it was a visceral, reflexive reaction. Fortunately, after exploring the ruins of the Human Bureau Headquarters last time, I had developed some immunity to such scenes, enough to avoid losing my composure entirely this time.

Using flames, I burned away the maggots crawling on the corpse, then conducted a cursory examination to determine the cause of death.

Though I lacked formal knowledge of forensic pathology, having encountered countless dead bodies, I could tell that this corpse bore no external wounds significant enough to cause death. This suggested the possibility of poisoning as the cause.

Additionally, I noticed a medicine bottle lying near where the body had fallen. I picked it up and glanced at it. It was a prescription medication, with usage instructions and warnings printed on the label, specifically cautioning against taking an excessive dosage, as it could result in death.

There wasn’t a single pill remaining inside the bottle; presumably, the deceased had consumed them all. A scene began to form in my mind—perhaps, for some unknown reason, this person had been overcome with enormous despair in their final moments. Sitting with their back against the bedroom door, they consumed a lethal dose of medication in one go, awaiting the end of their life.

I stepped over the corpse and proceeded into the corridor outside the bedroom, then moved into the living room, taking in my surroundings.

If the mess and filth in the bedroom could still be described as disgusting, then the state of the corridor and living room could only be likened to a depiction of "Hell."

I had once watched videos uploaded by cleaning service companies on various streaming platforms. To demonstrate their ability to restore even the filthiest places to pristine conditions, these accounts often selected the dirtiest, most overwhelming hoarder dumps imaginable—so bad they would make refuse collection stations seem tame by comparison—as their filming locations.

The hygiene situation here was dire enough to rival those, making one question, "Can humans even survive in a place like this?" All manner of household and food waste covered the floor. Lifting even a single layer of trash revealed cockroaches and other insects crawling in chaotic patterns across every surface. There were even piles of excrement in plain sight. It seemed that the house’s sole occupant—likely the deceased—had treated every room outside the bedroom as makeshift toilets.

As for why this was the case, I surmised it wasn’t due to any bizarre personal habits of the deceased but rather for two reasons.

First, the house’s utilities had been shut off—there was no running water to flush the toilet. After living in such conditions for an extended time, the waste must have accumulated, ultimately overflowing across the premises.

If that was the case, why didn’t the deceased simply relocate to another place? Or, as a last resort, why not at least remove the trash, including the excrement, from their home? This brings us to the second reason.

Second, it seemed the deceased harbored an intense fear of the outside world.

At the entryway, I observed that the front door had been locked shut from the inside with layers of wooden boards and iron chains. Heavy furniture had been piled high around it, almost as if the deceased had been terrified of something breaking into the house from outside. Even the windows of the house were nailed shut with wooden boards, completely sealing off any glimpse of the interior from outside—and vice versa.

What could the deceased have been so afraid of in life?

After a moment of thought, I extended my hand and began removing all the boards from the living room window. Given the terror this individual clearly felt toward the outside world in life, my actions might very well invite danger upon myself now.

But after all, I am Impermanence—most supernatural entities pose only nominal threats to me. As such, I have far more options available to me in these strange incidents than the average person or even the average demon hunter. Besides, I wasn’t about to stay cooped up in this filthy, chaotic space indefinitely; I needed to venture outside to explore. If danger was truly waiting, let it come confront me now.

My immediate objective was to escape this Different Space and return to the real world.

Any dangers I encountered within this Different Space might aid me in understanding its nature and directing my next moves.

The unsettling corpses and despicable environment repulsed me, yet at the same time, they instilled in me the eerie thrill of exploring a horror video game. There was an indescribable sense of anticipation.

Soon, I had removed all the boards covering the window in front of me, revealing the view outside.

The first thing I noticed was that it was clearly nighttime, and I appeared to be in an urban area.

How intriguing. It seemed that, unlike the independent reality spaces of the Human Bureau I had encountered in the past, this time, this Different Space did not revolve solely around "interiors of a building," but rather offered a surprisingly open landscape.

Perhaps describing it as "open" wasn’t entirely accurate. The scenery here seemed deliberately obstructed, preventing me from fully grasping it at a glance.

When thinking of urban nightscapes, the image conjured is not one of pitch-black darkness but of bright, city-wide illumination. Even in the early morning hours, walking through dimly lit housing complexes, one can still discern the path ahead with the naked eye.

However, the "urban nightscape" I saw here was nothing like that. Despite being in a city, there wasn’t a single light to be seen; the darkness spread as though devouring everything in its path. Without the superhuman vision granted by my flame-mimetic body combined with the glowing Fireball hovering beside me, I might not even have recognized it as a city at all.

Even in rural or wilderness areas, it shouldn’t have been this dark. On any ordinary night untouched by city lights, there would at least be moonlight and starlight overhead. Yet, as I looked up, perhaps due to an overcast sky, I found no trace of the moon or even a single star in the heavens.