Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 518 - 487 follow one after another 1

Chapter 518: 487 follow one after another 1

I carefully observed the decayed corpse of the homeowner while touching my own head.

Aside from the damage to my brain tissue, the strange attack earlier also inflicted harm on my soul. Although the destructive power on me was almost negligible, it was enough to instantly kill a demon hunter of achieved level. Damage to the biological brain is inherently fatal to most demon hunters; even those at the Great Success Rank cannot entirely ignore it.

Even now, my perception has been drastically restricted, yet it managed to catch me off guard—I find this utterly incomprehensible.

I accessed the memory data stored within the flames and backtracked to examine the entire process of the attack. It was as though my spatial perception had plunged into chaos; currently, my perception of time, fate, causality, and concepts has also become far from ideal. All these aspects seem to exhibit signs of chaotic interference.

However, the chaos that disorients me appears to be a suitable habitat for the strangeness that attacked me earlier; perhaps it was born directly out of chaos. It was by following the enigmatic flow of space and causality that its power managed to hit me with such piercing precision.

Thankfully, after careful analysis, I could discern that the chaos within these abstract domains is not absolute; there are faint remnants of order within it. This doesn’t seem like coincidence—if the concepts and rules of the world had wholly descended into chaos, even the seemingly normal material forms around me could not manifest. Perhaps, given enough time, I might gradually acclimate to the "temperature" of this Different Space and perceive my surroundings as I could in the real world.

It’s no wonder why the homeowner of this house would so neurotically seal off all doors and windows. If the external world is full of anomalies that can instantly destroy one’s brain merely by being seen, then indeed, no contact or observation of any form should be casually made with the outside world.

Moreover, the true attacker earlier probably wasn’t this decayed corpse nor the "monster" I initially suspected.

What appeared earlier was likely nothing more than a strange "phenomenon." Whether it was the tall black figure I glimpsed or the inexplicable movement of the rotting corpse to the back of me—these were all likely orchestrated by the curse-like anomaly phenomenon.

It’s highly probable that I inadvertently triggered this "lethal mechanism" of the anomaly phenomenon simply by observing the external world. At this moment, the mechanism seems to have temporarily ceased functioning. I consciously waited for a while before walking toward the window, repeating the act of looking out in the same direction several times, but the anomaly phenomenon did not reoccur.

Is this a phenomenon that doesn’t repeatedly attack the same person once triggered? Or has the anomaly already moved elsewhere? At the very least, it seems this isn’t the type of anomaly that won’t stop until its target is killed.

I glanced again at the motionless decayed corpse of the homeowner. After casually incinerating it, I approached the entryway and shattered the front door with a kick.

Then, I climbed over the railing of the apartment building’s corridor and descended in one leap, landing on the ground from a height of over ten stories.

Once again, I looked up at the night sky, void of stars and moon.

The fireball I had earlier launched upward had landed somewhere on the ground in the distance, even though I hadn’t commanded its return. Perhaps this was yet another manifestation of spatial chaos; the fireball’s directionality and distance perception had been distorted. The farther it traveled from me, the higher the proportion of noise in the feedback data, making it fail as a "scouting drone." I opted to extinguish the fireball entirely.

Although I initially treated this place as a Different Space, there is another possibility lurking in my mind. The eerie darkness of the night, the sky devoid of stars and moon, the land teeming with anomalies encountered with absurd ease—all of these are characteristics of the Doomsday Era.

If I were only working off hearsay, I wouldn’t necessarily suspect this place to be the Doomsday Era. But the problem is, I’ve personally witnessed the night sky of the Doomsday Era before.

That was an incident at Fufeng Base in the past. To test the soul-invading capabilities of Fake Water Moon, Mazao volunteered herself as the experiment subject. After invading Mazao’s soul, I briefly found myself inside the desolate courtyard of the Evangelical Institute during the Doomsday Era, within her spirit dream world.

That was also my first confrontation with Ming Zhuo, though such memories are irrelevant now. What matters is the night sky portrayed in that dream. I retrieved it from my memory to compare to the night sky I see now. Both are similarly monotonous, a vast expanse of pitch-black resembling gigantic sheets of iron suspended overhead, instilling despair and suffocation.

I cannot discern any difference between them.

A "night sky devoid of light" is inherently simple to replicate perfectly. Even if I can’t find any differences, that alone isn’t enough evidence to prove this place is the Doomsday Era. However, my entry into this place was shrouded in mystery from the beginning. Considering Mazao’s Unfortunate people connection, no matter how absurd the events, they always seem to retain a baseline logic when it comes to me.

What’s more, I had been cast adrift outside of the world in a void.

At that point, I was not only independent of the spatial axis of my original world but also independent of its temporal axis. Assuming I could return to the real world, how would I ensure that I returned to the "original timeline"? It wouldn’t be inconceivable to mistakenly enter the past or future, would it?

Recognizing this possibility stirred within me both fiery anticipation and excitement, alongside profound confusion and fear.

What truly frightens me isn’t the potential dangers of the Doomsday Era. Though those are indeed worth fearing, the fact I cannot face is that "Mazao is not by my side."

The inability to perceive Mazao’s presence fills me with unease. It feels as though I’ve returned to the time of her first "runaway from home," a period marked by overwhelming anxiety.

Being disconnected from Mazao means being cut off from her Unfortunate people power—the "Golden Finger" that guarantees my perpetual adventuring.

According to Mazao herself, merely separating from her wouldn’t instantly cause the power to fail. If you’ve been connected with her for two weeks, then you need to be apart for two weeks before escaping the vortex of misfortune. My time spent with Mazao far exceeds mere weeks or months; theoretically, everything should be fine... No, maybe not. The time I spent in the void remains unknown, and the void itself doesn’t allow for the existence of any powers. Perhaps Mazao’s power might have vanished entirely when I entered the void...

Also...

Upon discovering my "disappearance," the always-pretending-to-be-strong yet deeply afraid-of-solitude Mazao—so prone to loneliness—what kind of emotions might she experience, and what actions might she take?

The unease gripping my heart isn’t merely about the possibility of losing Mazao’s powers.

I took a deep breath, attempting to analyze changes in my fate and causality to see if Mazao’s power had truly dissipated. However, the spatial-temporal chaos rendered this inspection temporarily impossible. That said, the fact I was just attacked by an anomaly phenomenon proves that my connection to the anomalous world hasn’t reverted to the insulated state before encountering Mazao.

Moreover, if this place truly is the Doomsday Era, then the lost concepts of Impermanence should also be absent here. Even without Mazao’s power and without forming bonds with anything, I probably don’t need to worry about being rejected by the abnormal world.

As I walked, I continued pondering. Perhaps I became overly immersed in my thoughts and neglected my surroundings for a second or two. When I raised my head to observe again, I found that the scene around me had changed.

Just moments ago, I should have still been in the desolate residential area. Yet here I was, somehow standing within an amusement park. Even in my most distracted state, the environment shouldn’t change so drastically. It appears that my initial impression of this place’s temporal-spatial instability was correct—if you let your guard down, your location transforms into another seemingly unrelated space.

This amusement park looks utterly abandoned, as though it has been deserted for years. There is no illumination at all. If not for the fireballs around me serving as portable light sources, I wouldn’t be able to see my own hands. The park is eerily silent, devoid of even the sounds of insects. Places once bustling with life, like this one, become especially unnerving when they fall into deathly stillness—this is a principle that also applies to "schools at midnight." It’s no wonder such settings frequently appear in horror games and films.

As I passed various attractions like the carousel and drop tower, I noticed dark, unidentifiable fluids and debris staining their surfaces—likely coagulated and dried blood and fragments of flesh.

A typical, unarmed person would likely collapse in terror at this sight. But I possess enough strength to keep myself safe, allowing me to focus more on moving forward. For instance, deciding the next course of action.

First, I need to determine whether this place is merely a Different Space or actually the Doomsday Era. If it’s the latter, then I might be able to locate survivors wandering the ruins. After all, the Doomsday Era isn’t synonymous with total human extinction; from the remaining survivors, I could gather valuable information.

Then, though it’s still just a hypothesis at this stage... If this place truly is the Doomsday Era, how do I return to my original time?

No, to begin with, if this really is the Doomsday Era...

As my thoughts churned, I suddenly noticed an unexpected clue.

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