Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 55 - 52 Doomsday Girl Dating 1

Chapter 55: 52 Doomsday Girl Dating 1

I got the GPS bracelet I bought online, originally intended to prevent children from getting lost. The bracelet has a red appearance and looks somewhat like a toy, but it could pass as a sophisticated accessory that suits a junior high student’s style.

Anyone with knowledge about such gadgets would probably recognize its true purpose at a glance, but from what I’ve observed, Mazao’s understanding of modern electronics is quite superficial. For example, she knows what a refrigerator and a TV are, but she’s quite unfamiliar with smartphones. She was curious when she saw the sports bracelet I bought on a whim, asking me what it was. It was then that the idea of gifting the GPS bracelet first occurred to me.

Admittedly, a thermal energy marker is certainly more covert than a GPS bracelet, but since I’ve started to doubt whether the superpower-based "Firefly" could be discovered by Mazao, I naturally couldn’t be completely confident in the superpower-based thermal energy marker either.

Superpowers need to be used, and modern technology too.

Keeping Mazao by my side is of utmost importance in my life; how could I be at ease with just a single layer of precaution?

Upon hearing my voice, Mazao first paused, then, looking perplexed, stood up from the sofa and walked over.

"You’re giving me a gift?"

"Yes, it’s this." I handed over the red GPS bracelet, which looked like a regular accessory.

She didn’t immediately take it, instead hesitating and softly reminding, "I’m leaving tomorrow."

"I know that. You don’t need to feel embarrassed, consider this a parting gift." I spoke with the sincerest attitude I could muster, "Although it’s only been three days, we have lived under the same roof, sharing meals and sleep.

"You are a criminal pursued by the official forces, and I am an accomplice harboring you. On this level, we hold a common secret that shouldn’t be known by others, calling us co-conspirators wouldn’t be too far off. Don’t you think?"

Hearing this, she thought for a moment, then could only nod, "Your point is logical..."

"Even if you leave, I won’t forget you; likewise, I don’t want you to forget about me after you’ve left," I continued. "And this bracelet is a keepsake from me to you."

She seemed nearly persuaded, "...But I have nothing to give in return."

"It’s okay, as long as you remember me and are willing to come back to see me someday, I’ll be content."

With that, I deliberately reached out slowly and took her left arm.

When I touched her, I could feel her arm tense reflexively. However, she soon relaxed intentionally, allowing me to take her arm. She was still wearing my gray long-sleeve T-shirt. I rolled up the overly long sleeves to reveal her slender and fair wrist, then carefully put the red GPS bracelet on it.

She drew back her wrist and examined the GPS bracelet with a look of curiosity.

Seeing her scrutinize it so intently made me inwardly nervous, and I couldn’t help but speak more than necessary to try and distract her attention, "I’m just a student with limited financial means. If I could, I would have liked to buy you a more expensive piece of jewelry. But now I can only afford to give you this toy-like bracelet."

"No, it’s fine, I really like it."

Whether she truly liked it or was just being polite, she certainly wouldn’t outright say she disliked a gift.

As she responded, she revealed a joyful smile, caressing the insidiously intentioned GPS bracelet.

"How many years ago was it that I last received a gift..." she expressed a hint of nostalgia.

It seemed she hadn’t discerned the true function of the bracelet.

Honestly, giving a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl a GPS bracelet as if it’s ordinary jewelry must be the most perverted thing I’ve ever done in my life. Even I marvel at my own depravity. The teenage me from my dreams last night could never have imagined that in the future, I would become such a despicable and shameless man.

As the atmosphere gradually improved, I decided to press on with my next move.

"Mazao, although you said you’ll leave tomorrow, I hope you can wait a little longer," I said.

At this, she came to her senses and asked suspiciously, "Why?"

"You see, you’re still wearing my clothes, aren’t you?" I brought out the excuses I had prepared in advance, "A normal girl wouldn’t walk around outside wearing a man’s clothes that are so much larger than her size. It’s true you’re not like in the beginning, wearing bloody patient clothes, but just walking out like this would easily draw suspicion. Moreover, with the ongoing manhunt for a ’minor girl carrying firearms and ammunition’, it would be even more troublesome."

"But as long as I avoid the gaze of passersby..."

"I don’t know what the population density is like in Doomsday World, but in our current society, urban populations are extremely dense. If you just want to hide, perhaps you really can avoid the eyes of passersby. However, once you want to do something outside, it’s impossible to avoid everyone’s gaze," I said with utmost seriousness. "You might say that you can steal other people’s clothes, but I don’t want you to steal clothes from others outside. That’s not good behavior."

"So what should I do then?" she counter-questioned.

"It’s simple, I’ve already ordered some clothes for you online. The sizes are based on the hospital gown you took off," I gave her the direct answer. "It’s only that the delivery will take some time, and they haven’t arrived today, but they should definitely be here by tomorrow at the latest. Then you can go outside in the new clothes."

I didn’t dare say the day after tomorrow or even later, otherwise, she might just leave.

I could only delay for this period of time and use the extra time to continue persuading her to stay longer.

She looked down and pondered for a while, then nodded with difficulty, "Okay, then I’ll wait until tomorrow... By the way, where is that hospital gown now?"

"It was too dirty and torn, so I threw it away."

In reality, I had treasured it as a "memento from a bizarre encounter."

To prevent her from mistaking me for a pervert, I decided to keep this a secret.

-

Mazao said she would "wait until tomorrow and then leave." However, through my unremitting efforts, I managed to extend the time to the day after tomorrow.

While I entangled her, I was also investigating information I needed through the internet.

Although official platforms had not yet made a formal statement, the web had already been flooded with "wanted news for a minor girl in possession of firearms and ammunition," and they even fabricated victims of non-existent incidents occurring in recent days, which had even climbed the trending search list, with all sorts of rumors running wild.

As Agent Kong had said in the past, the search range for Mazao in Luo Mountain had already expanded to the whole country. Such a degree is just the ripples on the surface. Presumably, Luo Mountain has many more moves that are invisible to me, and these are probably the real main efforts.

I had also inquired obliquely from Zhu Shi about the "Broom Star Physique."

It’s true that the Broom Star Physique attracts the power of the strange, but the strange inherently attract each other, and demon hunters, who possess the power of the strange, also attract it. I wondered if Mazao’s Broom Star Physique, in the eyes of a demon hunter, is actually not that special?

Zhu Shi, however, refuted my speculation.

Demon hunters indeed have a trait that attracts the strange, but this trait does not affect the people around them, much less the people around those people; secondly, demon hunters don’t attract the strange very often - not even a few times over a year, it just ensures they "cannot truly live a normal life."

Situations such as "picking up Mazao at night, and immediately being sought out by weird incidents the next morning" can only mean that one has been cursed. Moreover, if all demon hunters had such an absurd disposition, combined with the six degrees of separation theory (which posits that one can be connected to any other stranger in the world through at most six layers of social connections), it’s doubtful that human society could have continued to this day.

She also let me know another very important piece of information—the frequency of supernatural events occurring around the world has been significantly rising in the last two to three years.

The authenticity of this information could be verified through the internet, too. In the last two or three years, the number of ghost stories, urban legends, and witness accounts of supernatural events had noticeably increased. Needless to say, I had long noticed this abnormal phenomenon and had often investigated the locations of those witness accounts but always came up empty.

If not for Zhu Shi telling me herself, I would still believe that those witness accounts were all fabrications, merely a new culture of ghost stories rising on the internet in recent years.

Whenever I contemplate this, I find it incomprehensible. Despite this wave of increased frequency of weird incidents lasting so long, I kept missing it. If I hadn’t encountered Mazao, I probably would still be under the illusion that it was just a new ghost story culture emerging.

By the way, the scene in which I fought with Agent Kong and split the unfinished building was also witnessed by passersby, who even shot a video nearby and uploaded it to the internet. The person who took the footage insisted that the video had not undergone any special effects treatment, and some locals commented below the video claiming they could vouch for this, while most viewers thought it was probably some kind of unexplained explosion or even a well-made special effects video.

I never thought I’d have a day when I would become the main character of an event; perhaps other supernatural event enthusiasts would come to investigate on-site.

Now that I’ve stepped onto the stage of the demon hunter world as a supernatural power user, naturally, I wouldn’t talk about concealing my powers anymore, nor would I continue to be secretive, worrying about "not using superpowers in front of others" and such. There’s no need to show off when it’s unnecessary, and no need to worry about taboos when it is. Just go with the flow.

It’s just that in front of Mazao, since I had established myself as an ordinary person from the start, revealing my power now would likely raise her suspicion. I couldn’t keep hiding it forever; it was necessary to find an appropriate opportunity to come clean.

And now it was already the fifth day since I had met her.

This time, I could find no more reasons to persuade her to delay her departure.

She was set on leaving.

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