Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 547 - 513 Abandoned Evangelical Hospital

Chapter 547: 513 Abandoned Evangelical Hospital

If you can willingly accept it, what sort of punishment would that be? A real punishment is something you must swallow despite being unwilling. That was my first reaction.

It was indeed a novel experience to hear someone from a non-hostile side plead for mercy, but I never thought I should be the one to punish others. Taking a step back, I never considered myself a person in a high position holding the power of judgment.

"Do you want to die only after your memories are restored, to repay Little Bowl?" I asked curiously.

The wandering soul nodded, then shook his head and said, "It’s more than that... Knowing who I am and where I come from, and then taking the final step towards death... that is my complete wish.

"I don’t want to face my death as a lonely wandering ghost but as a living human being.

"... I also realize this is a very extravagant wish, but this is my only obsession."

I roughly understood what he wanted to express, "So, you want to die with a clear mind."

For ordinary people, this wish might be the lowest possible, but for a doomsday survivor, it’s indeed an extravagant wish.

"Exactly." The wandering soul replied.

"I understand. This is directly related to resolving the crisis with Little Bowl. I will help you realize your wish." I said.

The wandering soul bowed deeply, "... I am extremely grateful."

After that, we continued moving. The wandering soul held the cartographer’s map and repeatedly compared it with the scarred map on his arm, determining the direction to progress. The surroundings constantly changed without pause.

On the road, there were still many bizarre entities attacking us, as if we had crossed into a zombie apocalypse horror movie, trying to walk through a town filled with the walking dead. And the bizarre forces were far more menacing and dangerous than zombies. Although Tan Xiang was protected by me and the wandering soul, there were still two or three close calls where he almost perished.

After a long while, we finally reached our destination.

Tan Xiang’s appearance had become quite disheveled, looking comparably messy to the wandering soul beside him, with disheveled hair and a face covered in blood and dust.

His anxiety and fear seemed to be reaching their limits.

Before meeting me and the cartographer, he had a brief period of difficult survival alone during the Doomsday Era, roughly knowing how frequently survivors normally encounter oddities. Last time on the way to the safe house, he could still convince himself it was just bad luck, but now he knew the problem stemmed from me; the impulse to leave my side seemed to gradually override his fear of being alone after repeatedly facing threats.

If he proposed leaving later, I would let him. With this thought, I turned to look at our destination with the wandering soul.

We were now at the edge of a huge lake. With the illuminating light of a fireball released ahead, we could see a large group of buildings occupying an extensive area in the center of the lake.

It looked like an ancient military fortress yet also like a magnificent religious temple. If it were in the modern world, it would surely have become a popular tourist attraction; but in the Doomsday Era, this old-style building complex seemed to have fallen into a derelict state due to a lack of maintenance, with abundant plants covering the outer walls and ground.

Moreover, perhaps due to past natural disasters or human calamities, the extensive complex showed signs of destruction even when observed from a distance, making one wonder if there had ever been a war there.

More tragically, over half of this vast architectural complex was submerged underwater. Upon closer observation, you’d find that even though the complex was at the lake’s center, it didn’t mean there was a small island there; on the contrary, this huge lake seemed to have formed after the complex.

"That is..."

The wandering soul looked at the complex across the lake, a complex emotion of nostalgia appearing in his eyes as he fell into thought.

"Do you have any thoughts about the architecture there? You seem to know what place it is," I asked.

The wandering soul appeared to be trying hard to dig into his memory. After a moment, he answered, "Yes, I know what place that is. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be the Evangelical Institute."

"The Evangelical Institute?" I hadn’t expected to find myself suddenly at the heart of an enemy force.

Fortunately, the wandering soul immediately added, "To be precise, it’s one of the former outpost complexes affiliated with the Evangelical Institute.

The Evangelical Institute has more than one place to gather, train, and command its members. Besides the headquarters personally presided over by the Evangelical Institute Master Yama and an exceptional case, King Zhuanlun, each human god has their own branch outpost named after themselves. For example, the Yellow Springs Evangelical Institute, and Shentu Evangelical Institute...

And this place, based on my impression, should have been known as the Tai Sui Evangelical Institute. I seemed to have been a part of it in the past.

Because Tai Sui and his group of believers were purged by the headquarters, monks and survivors originally gathered here became displaced, the outpost complex itself was also destroyed, and it fell into the abandoned state as you see now."

I continued, "Then... are you sure the Three-Life Stone Powder is inside there?"

The wandering soul looked down at the scarred map on his arm and then nodded with certainty, "It’s inside there."

Initially, he might have thought the map provided by Little Bowl was a comforting lie, but now, upon discovering that the map led him to such a significant place, he seemed to gain some confidence.

"But... how are we supposed to get to the center of the lake? There’s no boat around here..."

Tan Xiang spoke, seeming certain that I had a way, sneaking a glance at me.

Such a minor issue could hardly pose a challenge for me. I gently pushed the wandering soul from behind, then gave Tan Xiang a nudge, and took a step forward myself, directly ignoring the spatial distance between us and the Abandoned Evangelical Hospital, arriving at the portion of the platform that wasn’t submerged.

"Huh? We’re... already here!?" Tan Xiang reacted half a beat later.

The wandering soul seemed equally surprised, yet it appeared to accept it as something a human god could naturally do, without the intense reaction Tan Xiang had.

Exercising this ability amidst a chaotic space-time background isn’t easy, and it’s a result of relying on the light of the blessed lantern along the way to analyze the Doomsday Space-Time. Now I can once again perform this spatial movement skill based on the remaining traces of order in the Doomsday Space-Time.

We arrived at the observation platform of one hall in the Abandoned Evangelical Hospital, and the hall seemed like a place used for some religious rituals, though right now it was full of chaotic and messy traces.

"Wandering soul, do you know the exact location of the Three-Life Stone Powder in this place?" I asked.

The wandering soul looked troubled and said, "The map doesn’t indicate with that much precision... we’ll just have to start looking around."

I wasn’t concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find the Three-Life Stone Powder. As long as we keep searching, we will surely find it. Following the wandering soul’s suggestion, we started moving around and exploring the inside of the Abandoned Evangelical Hospital.

Since most of the building is submerged in the lake, many areas are not passable, causing some hindrance to our movement. I thought that the Three-Life Stone Powder was more likely in areas not submerged, so I planned to explore all those parts first. If we couldn’t find it, we’d explore the underwater parts and if the water was troublesome, consider evaporating the lake itself first.

Due to the indoor environment, the light from the blessed lanterns we each held was more than sufficient, and occasionally coming into narrow places, I first dispelled the floating illuminating fireball beside me.

During our search, Tan Xiang looked at the submerged areas and then said, "That Three-Life Stone Powder... sounds like some kind of drug, right? Like Five Stone Powder or something... wouldn’t it lose its potency if it got soaked underwater? Moreover..."

He touched the coarse wall beside him.

"I’ve traveled to some places in the past, also visited some poorly preserved famous historical sites," he said, "This place feels like those famous sites, not at all like it was destroyed just a few years ago, or even dozens of years ago... more like it was ruined and abandoned several centuries ago."

"This could also be one of the effects brought about by the chaotic space-time," the wandering soul explained, "In some places where no one is watching, time might pass extraordinarily fast or extraordinarily slow. You don’t have to take these traces of time passage seriously; after all, figuring them out is meaningless for us."

"But if that Three-Life Stone Powder is here, even if it hasn’t been submerged, could it have already expired?" Tan Xiang offered a common-sense opinion.

The question seemed to stump the wandering soul.

And I began to associate it with time in the modern world. The time of the Doomsday Era cannot be compared with modern world time. Even though it feels like less than a day has passed since I arrived in the Doomsday Era, how much time has passed in the modern world?

Days? Months? Even years?

The most that Luo Mountain, in the modern world, might know is that I disappeared after attacking the Headquarters at Taoyuan Village with Liu Shuying. Even if they could really infer that Huang Quan banished me to the void, they likely wouldn’t expect that I would have a chance to survive from the void and reach another era. Assuming I’m dead would be the relatively normal line of thought.

Wouldn’t Mazao also think I’m dead? What kind of thoughts would she have about it?

She would certainly be inconsolably sad; my sudden "passing" could cause an immense, indelible trauma to her heart.

However, apart from her fragile and lonely parts, she occasionally showed resilience. Maybe given time, she could emerge from the grief and pain of my "passing." Thinking this, though it might not be appropriate to say, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of loneliness.

As for Zhu Shi, what would her reaction be if I died? Would she cry for me?

What reaction would Changan have upon learning of my "passing"?

Have they already forgotten me?

These emotions of gain and loss truly aren’t typical of me. Yet, my heart is not made of iron; at times, it too goes through moments of weakness. There’s a saying circulating online, "Only those you truly care about can hurt you." I care deeply for Mazao, Zhu Shi, and Changan, so merely imagining them forgetting me brings about feelings of sadness.

Just then, I suddenly heard a voice calling, seeming to call my name.

"Zhuang Cheng... Zhuang Cheng..."

The voice was very faint, like a hallucination.

Upon hearing that faint voice, I looked at the wandering soul and Tan Xiang beside me and tentatively asked, "Is one of you calling me?"

They both looked at me, puzzled.

Yet, the voice continued to sound.

"Zhuang Cheng... Zhuang Cheng!"