Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 541 - 507 Alias Undying Body

Chapter 541: 507 Alias Undying Body

Not long ago, I met a girl who was a victim of the Catastrophe Demon, and confirmed this through the cartographer’s diary. Now, I heard the name of the Catastrophe Demon again, and this time, it was pursuing Little Bowl.

Although I haven’t had direct contact yet, seeing clues about the Catastrophe Demon continuously presented before me, I can’t help but feel there is some kind of fateful link between us. I fear that not long from now, I will inevitably confront the Catastrophe Demon.

This is not just a premonition but an understandable deduction. Since the Catastrophe Demon is chasing Little Bowl, and I want to protect Little Bowl, the conflict between us is entirely predictable.

But why is the Catastrophe Demon chasing Little Bowl?

The wanderer isn’t particularly clear about this either. In fact, he hasn’t witnessed the scene of the Catastrophe Demon chasing Little Bowl, otherwise, he might find it hard to appear before us alive. He told me that Little Bowl told him this personally.

It’s natural that the wanderer, like me, asked Little Bowl this question, and Little Bowl said to him at the time, "Maybe it’s because I escaped from the Catastrophe Demon in the past."

"Escape?" the wanderer asked in confusion at the time.

"Yes. Unlike now, in the past, for some reason, I was in a state where I easily attracted strange things. The Catastrophe Demon was probably drawn to me under those circumstances," Little Bowl explained patiently, "In that desperate situation, I used a certain method, and although it resulted in losing my sister who always protected me, I barely escaped the predicament.

"After that, I once thought I had completely distanced myself from the source of that crisis, but the truth was not so.

"The Catastrophe Demon is not a demon that never allows any creature to escape from its grasp. Occasionally, there are witnesses who survive its attack by luck, but ’those who are lucky enough not to be burnt to death’ and ’those who escape through mysterious power’ are seen differently by it. My actions seemed to have provoked it.

"Recently, I’ve been having increasingly unsettling premonitions. These premonitions have grown so intense that they have formed into hallucinations, allowing me to vaguely see the figure of the Catastrophe Demon chasing after me.

"I can affirm that this is not my imagination, but the Catastrophe Demon is really closing in on me.

"Simply relying on strong luck and the power of prayers is a difficult way to escape the claws of the Catastrophe Demon. Even with the chaotic time-space random teleportation phenomena of the Doomsday Era, the probability of my next escape is infinitely close to zero.

"Then... Mr. Wanderer, maybe this will hurt your self-esteem, but I must say... if you stay by my side, you’ll hinder my escape.

"Because in that situation, I’d have no choice but to share my strong luck with you, which would only lower the success rate of escaping. And if I don’t share it with you, your only fate if you stay by my side is death."

Hearing this, the wanderer felt a sense of helplessness. In front of the Catastrophe Demon, both the blessed monks and ordinary survivors can only resign to fate. Under such circumstances where only luck matters, he would indeed only hold Little Bowl back.

"You mean... you want me to abandon you, the benefactor, and run away with my tail between my legs?" he asked, unwilling to accept it.

Little Bowl said very seriously, "Yes, I hope you can run, run far away.

"But, if you think this means abandoning me to a certain death, then it’s unnecessary. Because your future actions may very well save me from this near-hopeless peril."

If someone else had said this to the wanderer, talking about being chased by the Catastrophe Demon and having a plan to escape in a hopeless situation, the wanderer would likely think they were bluffing.

However, Little Bowl had more than once shown him unbelievable miracles, so maybe she really was confident? With this uncertain thought, after reaching a small gathering place for survivors, he parted ways with Little Bowl.

Letting Little Bowl stay in a place with other survivors was, of course, a dangerous action, because those people might discover her identity and capture her to present to the Evangelical Institute. But Little Bowl couldn’t stay alone for long, so it was the only option.

At this point, the wanderer couldn’t return to that place anymore, and even if he could miraculously return, it was highly likely it wouldn’t be during the period when Little Bowl was there.

After hearing the wanderer’s account, I could only choose to focus my attention on more urgent problems.

"You said... your future actions will affect that girl’s life or death, what do you mean?" Tan Xiang seemingly couldn’t help but ask, "You were imprisoned by the cartographer for so long, did you finish that action before? Can you still continue now?"

"I didn’t finish. It’s still underway," the wanderer said, "I don’t know if I can make it, but since we are currently at different times from her, the concept of ’making it in time’ doesn’t exist; we can only continue to act."

As he said, there’s no use in being anxious about whether you can catch up. I temporarily suppressed my urge and asked the question, "So, what exactly is Little Bowl’s plan? What did she ask of you?"

The wanderer paused slightly, then answered, "This matter... is related to my wish."

"Are you talking about that so-called wish that ’not even a human god can fulfill’?" I asked, "What do you want?"

"I wish to die."

The voice of the wandering soul was very calm, as if discussing something trivial.

Upon hearing this, the image of the Cartographer emerged in my mind.

A perpetrator, a victim, both exhibiting a remarkably similar mental outlook.

This tendency towards self-destruction, I’ve observed a hint of it in Mazao before.

Even Tan Xiang froze on the spot, and after a good while, he said in an incomprehensible tone, "You want to die? Never mind the reason, if that’s all you want, why not find a rope and hang yourself?"

Halfway through, he realized the issue, "No, wait, you possess an Undying Body... could it be that you cannot activate and deactivate your undying power?"

If that’s the case, then perhaps I can assist him.

The undying power of the wandering soul should be his ability as a Blessed Monk, but his spirit strength is only around the Residence Level. No matter how mighty the undying nature of such a character is, there’s no reason my fire can’t destroy it. As long as I harbor a genuine intent to kill and burn him to death, even if he elevates himself to the Great Success Rank, he won’t be able to return.

However, I don’t believe doing so will help Little Bowl, whose whereabouts are unknown.

"There is no absolute Undying Body in this world. Once the backstage mechanism is cracked, so-called undying becomes laughable. Even I am no exception," said the wandering soul. "My undying mechanism is very simple; simply use a false name and identity, and as long as others don’t see through it, they can’t kill me.

"This should be an easy logic to understand—if my real identity is A, and I use a false identity B, while the opponent can only perceive B without knowing A, they can only inflict harm on B. In other words, even if they sever my head, it only grants me a false death."

Tan Xiang’s expression turned clear upon understanding, "Oh... it’s like in a video game where the player has to face a boss with two phases and two health bars, and no matter how much damage is dealt in the first phase, the boss can’t be defeated until its true form is revealed in the second phase?"

Surprisingly, the wandering soul adeptly continued, "Exactly, and after dying in the first phase, I don’t automatically progress to the second phase, but am resurrected in the first phase form again."

"Isn’t that a bug!" Tan Xiang was dumbfounded, "Wait, you actually know about video games?"

"It’s just residual knowledge left in my mind," the wandering soul shook his head, "Let’s continue, the current problem is, not only don’t others know my true identity, but I no longer know my true identity either."

"Meaning, even if you try to kill yourself, your own undying power would judge it as ’false death,’ and then resurrect you..." I understood the logic.

The wandering soul nodded.

"I have already experienced too many tragedies and misfortunes, gone through such prolonged despair... so prolonged that I can’t even recall why I’m sad and despairing." His face was as expressionless as a corpse, "I no longer wish to continue living... and if I want to die, I must first remember who I truly am.

"The problem is, memories washed away by frenzy are impossible to retrieve. Even if I’m lucky enough to recall the name I’ve forgotten, the life memories it represents are irretrievable, at most collecting fragments and melancholy akin to illusions.

"Even a human god can only safeguard themselves and cannot help us retrieve our past."

This is true for Mazao as well; although she still remembers her name, she still cannot preserve her memory. And Little Bowl, despite retrieving his name shortly after losing it with my help, also lost parts of the memory of surviving together with Mazao in the Doomsday Era.

Even the powerful "Blessed Monk" hailed as a demigod and owners of Right Positioning Heavenly Phenomena are like this, let alone all the ordinary survivors and Blessed Monks.

Suddenly, I recalled an item.

Mazao once told me that in the Doomsday Era, it wasn’t entirely impossible to retrieve past memories. What even the God couldn’t do, there is actually a way.

"Is your goal the ’Three-Life Stone Powder’?" I asked.

The Three-Life Stone Powder can allow survivors of the Doomsday Era to retrieve the memories they desire, and it may also be the only known solution for the doomsday survivors to recover past memories.

Though it’s only part of the memory, human memory is mostly trivial content. Even without the influence of something like frenzy, many people may not recall details such as "what they had for lunch three weeks ago." Truly important and useful memories are only a portion.

Since you can pinpoint the parts that align with your expectations, it will suffice for retrieving your past self.