Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 577 - 541 meets No. 7_2

Chapter 577: 541 meets No. 7_2

All the rooms at the Tai Sui military base convey a pragmatic style. To put it less flatteringly, they are rough and primitive, like unfinished rooms. Because the base is integrated with the mountain, some rooms have one or two walls directly exposing the rock layers of the cave.

The guest room we were just received in was fairly decent, as if a simple renovation had been done before our arrival, and the bed was quite soft. I suppose they didn’t want to incur my wrath for having "an unwelcoming guest room" due to its lack of appeal. However, the meeting room here epitomizes the Tai Sui military space: just a long table, a few chairs, a corner cabinet piled with documents, and a wall of uneven gray-brown rock surface at the deepest point.

Although initially I had thoughts like "what kind of ragtag base is this," on second thought, I might actually appreciate this rough and primitive interior style. Perhaps it’s a sort of "era style." If it had been a staged interior like a government or corporate meeting room, it would be rather disappointing.

I found a chair and sat down, while Little Bowl continued to look around. While waiting for the mysterious woman to finish her inspection, I also took the opportunity to check the progress of my true spirit’s restoration once more.

The result was that it was nearly completely healed.

Normally, this level of injury would take at least a week to roughly recover, yet under Little Bowl’s power, it took only about half a day to reach this condition.

This is the first time, and apparently Little Bowl has a lot of unfamiliarity with it, suggesting there might be much room for speeding up further.

More precisely, it wasn’t really "about half a day." According to my bodily sensations, within approximately two hours, my true spirit was restored to the point where I couldn’t perceive any remaining issues. However, neither Little Bowl nor I could truly sense the existence of the true spirit directly. So perhaps we just couldn’t sense it, and there may still be hidden injuries.

Just like a patient with severe leg fractures recovering, they may initially worry there are still unstable components in their bones, thus extending their recovery time, during which they try to avoid too much stress on the leg and eat more calcium-rich foods. Bearing this mindset, Little Bowl spent several hours afterward on such "just in case" work, somewhat forcefully keeping me lying on her lap.

After a while, the door of the conference room was pushed open from the outside.

A woman in black tight tactical gear, wearing a full black mask, and with wine-red hair, walked in with large strides.

Little Bowl confirmed with me with her gaze, and I nodded.

She was the mysterious woman I saw in the abandoned Tai Sui Evangelical Institute.

She had indeed arrived before us without any interruption, without encountering any unexpected incidents at least none that involved me and Little Bowl...

No accident is the biggest accident. This means that Little Bowl’s luck temporarily eclipsed the misfortune of the扫帚 star power. Although扫帚 star power currently is in a rootless state, it’s normal for Little Bowl’s luck to suppress it, but扫帚 star power likely has a property of rebounding doubly when suppressed, which means we might face a larger crisis soon.

Clearly realizing this, Little Bowl’s expression became serious.

The mysterious woman raised her hand, took off the mask covering her face, revealing a strikingly elegant face. With her tall, proportionate figure and brisk, smart attire, she reminded one of a versatile yet deadly female agent in action movies, akin to a Swiss Army knife.

Her gaze traveled back and forth between Little Bowl and me.

"...This should be our second meeting, right, Zhuang Cheng."

She paused on me momentarily, seemingly trying to discern something from my face, then looked at Little Bowl a few seconds later, "And... are you No. 2?"

Little Bowl hesitated a bit, as if contemplating her words, then politely said, "Nice to meet you, Miss Hongcao. I am No. 2, but you can also call me Little Bowl."

The mysterious woman pondered, "Little Bowl? That doesn’t seem like your real name... Did you forget your original name?"

Her attitude of knowing nothing about Little Bowl seemed reasonable at first glance, but was actually quite thought-provoking.

Living in the Doomsday Era as No. 7, even knowing I’m No. 3 in the Void Realm, she shouldn’t know my name is Zhuang Cheng. My preliminary assumption is that since No. 7 is potentially connected to the Master of Divine Seal, she might have obtained my offline information through the Master’s "near-omniscient ability" to "know most things in this world."

Similarly, since she could grasp my details this way, she should also be able to ask the Master of Divine Seal for Little Bowl’s true identity.

Unless she didn’t ask, and the Master didn’t say—which shouldn’t happen.

Thinking from No. 7’s perspective, among all the Void Envoys, the most special one isn’t Xuanming and Divine Light who are great Impermanence, nor me as the "mysterious intruder," but Little Bowl, who like herself lives in the Doomsday Era. This is because the other five Void Envoys might be those she can never touch until her death; only Little Bowl is the "same kind" she could possibly reach. She couldn’t be uninterested in Little Bowl.

So, I wasn’t entirely without such a thought—to directly understand Little Bowl’s true identity through No. 7.

I wouldn’t just find the deadly Three-Life Stone Powder for Little Bowl, nor do I intend to inquire with the Master of Divine Seal once the Void Realm is re-established in the future in exchange for Divine Seal Fragments. Given that the mysterious woman previously hinted at visiting the Tai Sui military location and used "truth of the Doomsday Era" and "method to return to the modern world" as bait for important affairs, most likely she wants to entrust me with something, and wouldn’t refuse to answer my other questions. To know Little Bowl’s true identity, asking her would be the easiest.

And yet she doesn’t know... This reaction raises two possibilities in my mind:

First, even the Master of Divine Seal doesn’t know Little Bowl’s true identity;

Second, the mysterious woman before me isn’t No. 7, but an associate of No. 7.

Let’s test the second possibility first.

"Before we enter the main topic, answer me a question first." I said, "How do you know that Little Bowl and I are No. 3 and No. 2 respectively, who exactly are you? Are you No. 7, or..."

The mysterious woman seemed to smile slightly, then answered, "I am No. 7."

As she spoke, she raised her palm, revealing a floating piece of black jade, the Divine Seal Fragment.

Yet there wasn’t any vibration reaction from the Divine Seal Fragment bound to me.