Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 73 - 70 VS Monster 2 (Third Release/Please subscribe!)

Chapter 73: 70 VS Monster 2 (Third Release/Please subscribe!)

I had to obtain the clues I wanted from this strange person from afar.

Although that was the case, I actually did not know what form those clues would take. Perhaps this strange person had come across Mazao’s tracks in the past two days, or maybe in the future, he could attract Mazao here. All in all, I believed that "Mazao, who is suspected of investigating this strange person," would somehow become involved with the "strange person" in a way that was not yet clear.

For this reason, I had to ensure he stayed alive. Either he would spill the information related to Mazao while alive, or he would stay alive until Mazao was drawn here.

Zhu Shi would surely oppose this. In the worst case, I would have to sever ties with Zhu Shi, or even engage in combat with her. Perhaps I should come up with a solution that could satisfy both cases. Protecting both Zhu Shi’s ideals and my own objective. Think quickly...

Time waits for no one. The strange person was moving towards a distant place. I turned my head to look at Zhu Shi. She was staring intently in the direction of the strange person.

Suddenly, I noticed something very peculiar about her eyes.

It wasn’t that the emotions in her gaze were strange, but rather her current gaze seemed to emit a strong penetrating power. I remembered that she had such a sharp gaze before. Once when determining that my superpower did not originate from a Devil’s bloodline, and once when judging from Agent Kong’s body fragments that he indeed was a "Fallen Demon Hunter."

Zhu Shi closed her eyes and then opened them again, her gaze returning to normal.

"Zhuang Cheng, this time let’s just kill that strange person like Lu Chan said," she said.

"He is after Agent Kong the second strange person in Saltwater City, there might still be a third or fourth one. Why not try to capture him alive and interrogate him?" While I spoke to buy time, I desperately thought of that "perfect solution."

Unexpectedly, Zhu Shi was the one who mentioned that plan: "Capturing him alive is a waste of effort, and there’s no need to capture him alive. I have a way to obtain clues from him."

"What way?" I was surprised.

"Just make sure his head is intact when we kill him. Afterward, we can have Lu Chan extract the information directly from his brain tissue," she explained.

"Didn’t Lu Youxun say that method wouldn’t work? The source of the strange person’s power will destroy those pieces of information simultaneously as they disappear," I wondered.

"I am confident I can stop that destruction process," she said confidently.

I knew she wouldn’t lie to me about this kind of thing, but I still found it hard to believe. "Really?"

She nodded firmly, "Really."

That was indeed great news!

I compared the options in my mind—if I stubbornly executed the tailing plan, I would only lose Zhu Shi’s trust and could not continue to rely on Lu Youxun’s support. Even if I continued tailing, I could only leave it to fate and might not necessarily wait for Mazao to arrive. Although I believed that Mazao would definitely be attracted here, if it didn’t happen within three days, it would be meaningless.

The three days were just my countdown, not a countdown for Mazao and the strange person’s interaction. For me at the moment, time is of the essence. If there is a way to extract information from his brain on the spot, it would be better to just kill this strange man. Even if this attempt is in vain, I could still continue to seek assistance from Zhu Shi and Lu Youxun to find Mazao later.

In fact, neither "tailing" nor "Zhu Shi’s plan" were completely reliable directions, but if I had to choose, the latter was more in line with my style.

"I understand," I said, making the final confirmation before the attack, "Just leave the head intact, right?"

"That’s right..."

While speaking to me, Zhu Shi had swiftly changed into her raincoat and hat and had drawn her sharp sword.

Suddenly, she paused slightly, realizing something, "Hey, wait, are you planning to attack right now?"

"Yes," I focused my gaze on the strange person.

"Isn’t it my time to shine!" she exclaimed with a start.

Too late, I had already launched the attack.

By the way, this time I did not intend to use that sluggish skill of "igniting an opponent with my gaze." When dealing with the Fallen Demon Hunter and Agent Kong for the first time, I felt that it was rare to encounter supernatural opponents, and definitely had to savor the moment. But now that I had initially connected with Luo Mountain, I no longer cherished these kinds of opponents.

In my normal form, I could actually use all the skills of the Fire Element form, and the power might not necessarily be inferior, it just wasn’t as handy. Some of the powerful skills that could be released several times in one second under the Fire Element form might take a few seconds or even ten seconds to execute in my normal form.

Now, the skill I was using against that creature was the ability to "summon flames directly from the enemy’s body." To use this skill, I had to merge my spirit into the heat of the surrounding environment. This method felt as natural as breathing air when I was in the Fire Element form; in my normal form, it required my full focus.

Under my perception, the structure inside the creature’s torso became vividly clear in my mind. Many people, after reading anatomy articles, have imagined how the inside of their torso operates. My feeling at that moment was similar to that kind of imagination. In that imagined scene, I shoved a fireball, much larger than his torso, straight into it.

One could easily guess what would happen when an enormous amount of heat appeared out of nowhere in an enclosed space.

The creature exploded under my gaze from afar.

Like a brilliantly burst firework, a blend of flesh, innards, and scorching flames scattered in all directions, momentarily illuminating the night-time soccer field with its dazzling flash.

Of course, I didn’t forget to spare the head. The explosion spread only the torso, whereas the head rode the shockwave and lifted into the air. My night vision wasn’t clear enough to catch that image from afar, but through my merged senses with the environment, I clearly saw a bewildered expression appear on that face. It’s said that human heads can maintain consciousness briefly after decapitation; it seemed the creature was no different.

After a little while, the creature’s head fell onto the center of the soccer field like a ball devoid of bounce. Only then did I belatedly wonder if the head might shatter on impact—fortunately, it did not. Indeed, it was as tough as a real soccer ball.

"Is it over just like that?" Zhu Shi asked incredulously.

"It seems so," I replied.

"No, but you—" she started, struggling to find the right words, her face showing disbelief. "You look at someone and they burst into flames, and just with a look, they explode... Don’t tell me you have skills even more excessive than this?"

"Well, it’s not really that excessive..."

I felt like my ability wasn’t anything particularly complicated when taken alone. Moreover, if we talk about being excessive, Agent Kong’s ability to exile his opponents to the Shadow World when he couldn’t defeat them was quite excessive too.

Though I made it seem easy to defeat Agent Kong, if I hadn’t been able to use Flame Transmission, even with the abilities like Elementalization that Zhu Shi praised highly, I could have been easily defeated by him there.

With just a few interactions, I’d understood that in the bizarre world, the key to victory wasn’t about the magnitude of power but compatibility. One wrong move could result in utter destruction, and being targeted could lead to a disastrous defeat. Lu Youxun, who had achieved level of the Evil power in the past, was captured and studied exactly for similar reasons.

However, facing such admiring amazement from Zhu Shi was unavoidably pleasing. This was my first time exerting my power in front of her, and naturally, I hoped for her extraordinary reaction and acknowledgement. ...Coming back to that, I hoped she wasn’t just saying this to make me happy, though I’d be pleased if that were the case.

Back to the matter at hand, the fight was not over yet.

As mentioned before, there’s always someone better. Assuming one’s "ridiculous ability" could lead to complacency might just invite disaster from another "ridiculous ability."

At that moment, I genuinely spotted such a "ridiculous ability."

When I thought the enemy was defeated, the creature, left only with a head, underwent an astonishing transformation.

He resurrected.

I wasn’t sure if it should be called resurrection; it was as if frames had been cut from a film, and he appeared unharmed in that spot. There was no light, no sound, not even a traceable process. The scattered pieces of corpse from afar also abruptly disappeared as if he had never exploded.

Moreover, I was sure that all of this was probably within the creature’s expectations. He paused briefly on the spot after resurrection, not out of confusion about being revived, but seemingly puzzled over the attack he had just experienced.

He quickly locked his gaze in my direction and charged toward me with a thunderous roar.

Despite having just been blown to pieces, he rushed forward without hesitation after identifying the enemy, seemingly fearless of harm. Clearly, what he displayed must be a kind of immortality ability but not the simple "hard-to-kill due to strong recovery" type. It was something far more elusive.

I recalled the blessing power Mazao had shown me when she restored a finished bag of sweet soy milk in front of me. Could it be that this creature possessed an ability to reverse time?

The creature’s charge was impeded before he could take many steps.

Right at the moment of the creature’s resurrection, Zhu Shi had disappeared from beside me like a Super Soldier whose speed made tracing her impossible.

Soon after, a bright gleam of a sword flashed from behind the creature, ruthlessly beheading him. Blood spurted into the sky, and the head hit the ground; only the devil-like body continued moving forward due to inertia.

Yet, in the next instant, everything vanished as if it had never occurred. The blood soaring into the sky and the head hitting the ground disappeared. The body, which was about to fall, suddenly regained its balance, and the head inexplicably returned to the neck.

Zhu Shi relentlessly pursued him from behind, while a large shadow hammer appeared in his hand, and without turning back, he fiercely swung it at Zhu Shi.