Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 75 - 72 Breaking through Barrier 1

Chapter 75: 72 Breaking through Barrier 1

Zhu Shi’s tone was incredibly resolute, as if she was not hypothesizing but stating a fact she had witnessed with her own eyes.

As a listener, I was influenced by her demeanor and could not help but be convinced. Even the weirdo, who was now somewhere unknown as an adversary, seemed to be intimidated and fell silent for a moment.

After the silence, the weirdo spoke with a composed voice, "Then according to what you say, what is my real ability?"

"It’s ’damage transfer,’" Zhu Shi replied calmly.

The weirdo did not retort.

"Your real ability is to transfer the damage you receive to your shadow clones," Zhu Shi continued. "You must have set up many shadow clones in other places. I can’t see exactly how many there are, but there must be quite a few, right? Whenever you are injured, you can transfer the damage to one of the clones.

"This is a superpower that twists cause and effect and reality. It’s not only activated by you when you are injured. Even if you die, the superpower is passively triggered, shifting the fact of your death to a clone while you return to an unscathed state.

"The downside is also clear; the number of your clones is ultimately finite. As a form of immortality, this easily exhausted capability is just mediocre. Even if you could repeatedly summon clones to bear the injuries for you, if you were placed in a continuously damaging environment, like lava, your ’life quantity’ would plummet drastically.

"If an opponent immobilizes you, you also cannot escape peril through this superpower. Once captured as a demon, your source of power will leave you, triggering your self-destruction. At that point, you won’t be able to revive via the already vanished superpower. Am I right?"

Her words were likely not meant for the weirdo but for me, to aid in understanding our enemy.

"How did you know?" the weirdo asked after a moment of mute surprise, "If it’s mere wild guesses that led to the discovery of my superpower, I could understand, but how can you see through it to this extent without any clues? Is ’seeing through an opponent’s abilities’ your ability?"

"That’s for you to imagine," Zhu Shi returned.

"Humph, well, no matter, you’re both going to die here anyway," the weirdo said with a poised demeanor as if in an invulnerable position. "Since you can see through my superpower, can you also discern the nature of this Different Space?"

This time it was Zhu Shi’s turn to fall silent, and she slowly closed her eyes.

"Anyway, you will soon realize what this place is. To make you despair sooner, I’ll just tell you the answer now," the weirdo laughed, "This is a maze, a maze of infinite size."

"Infinite size?"

I inherently distrusted that phrase in the real world and released several ’fireflies’ at a high speed to explore deeper into the corridor.

"Before you die, this space will not be lifted; no matter how many centuries you walk in this space, you will never reach its boundary," the weirdo used two absolutes. "You two must be from Luo Mountain’s Evil, right? This barrier is specifically designed to confront evils like you. How does it feel to be hunted by your prey, only to have the prey trap you in a cage instead?

"I will be sitting in the best seat, witnessing your final disgraceful struggle. You will die of thirst and hunger here, while your souls will become my nourishment."

"–The best seat?" Zhu Shi finally opened her eyes.

She once again revealed that all-seeing gaze. Furthermore, the color of her iris had changed, hosting a chilling blue glow that radiated a mysterious aura.

What was this change? Although I was extremely curious, it wasn’t appropriate to ask her in front of the enemy.

"You are not sitting there by choice, but because you too cannot leave," she spoke slowly. "At the same time this space was created, you became one with it.

"Moreover, your earlier claim that this space was specifically designed to target Evil is also a lie. If it truly existed for that purpose, as part of your own ability, you would have used it from the start, not only after realizing you couldn’t escape.

"This space must have been summoned using some kind of consumable, and it wasn’t originally intended for us... that consumable might not even be your own. An individual like you, with no notable background, cannot easily produce such special items; someone else must have given it to you. Who is that person?"

During her speech, her personality also seemed to undergo a strange transformation. Although the original "demon hunter Zhu Shi" also vaguely exuded a cold, knightly aura, the current her felt utterly emotionless, like a relentless warrior.

"You sure talk a lot..." the weirdo seemed to be provoked by her aggressive demeanor, "It seems you indeed possess a superpower for insight... what of it? The more you know, the more despair you’ll feel.

"Yes, I can’t leave this space before it is lifted, just like you. But there is one difference; being merged with the space, I don’t need food or water, something you can’t do.

"As a price for forcing me to break the deal with the Weirdo Maker, I will thoroughly enjoy watching you crumble."

"Who is the Weirdo Maker?" I asked.

However, the Weirdo seemed to have made up his mind not to talk anymore, and his voice completely disappeared from around us.

Weirdo Maker... the name implies someone who turns people into Weirdos. Are these Weirdo people transformed by this so-called Weirdo Maker, including Agent Kong?

This was a critical clue, one that I hadn’t heard from Lu Youxun and Zhu Shi before. Normally, Weirdos should not divulge such information in front of us. This clearly shows that he believed from the bottom of his heart that we were bound to die here.

The icy blue glint in Zhu Shi’s eyes gradually faded, returning to her usual deep brown.

"I’m sorry, Senior Brother Zhuang, for dragging you into this mission," she sighed, then her gaze hardened, "but rest assured, I will definitely get you out of here."

"You really don’t need to worry about me..."

Actually, I was able to transport myself out of this space using the Flame Transmission I left in the real world.

Unfortunately, I could only use Flame Transmission on myself, unable to take Zhu Shi with me. Mentioning this might lead her to wild guesses, so perhaps it was better left unsaid. However, in the worst-case scenario, Zhu Shi wouldn’t die of thirst or hunger as the Weirdo described. Because I could leave some fire here and bring food and water back and forth from the real world.

The dead end described by the Weirdo was untenable from the start.

Also, the "Fireflies" I sent out had roughly scoped the terrain around us. Indeed, just as the Weirdo said, this place was a labyrinth. After each turn of this gray corridor, there were more corridors; no matter how far we moved, there were no exits visible, and forked paths often appeared. Whether it is truly infinite remains to be seen.

Zhu Shi’s gaze grew sharp again, as if she could see through everything, thoroughly examining the space around us. Perhaps her superpower indeed involved the ability to "see through opponents," and now she was applying this ability to the space.

But soon, she seemed to encounter difficulties, her eyebrows deeply furrowed.

And I wasn’t about to sit idle.

I concentrated and formed a Fireball in my palm, aiming it forward, and then launched it at a speed well beyond sound.

For this Fireball, I gave the instruction: "Move along one of the walls." I had read online that in most labyrinths, if you follow along one wall, you will eventually find the exit. Although there might not necessarily be an exit here, it was worth a try.

Simultaneously, I shattered the walls next to me with fire, eager to see what was on the other side.

As expected, there was just an unchanged corridor on the other side of the wall.

Then I launched huge Fireballs upwards and downwards, piercing through the ceiling and the floor. I didn’t even need to look through the melted holes; the information sent back by the penetrative Fireballs already made me aware that above and below were just monotonously repetitive corridors, and the corridors above and below those were still just corridors.

I felt my heart growing increasingly hot.

Though it might be inappropriate to say so at this time, I genuinely had an uncontrollable urge to explore this mysterious labyrinth.

I really liked the concept of "spaces not belonging to the real world." Whether it was the basement of the fifteenth-floor room or the Shadow World that Agent Kong showed me, both appealed greatly to my heart. And this labyrinthine Different Space also triggered my desire to challenge. Did that Weirdo actually say that this place was absolutely inescapable, with absolutely no boundaries?

Then, I decided not to use the rude "Flame Transmission," this out-of-bounds trick, and tried to conquer this "level" from the inside!

To be honest, if it weren’t for the pressing matter of finding Mazao and having comrades other than myself here, I would have preferred to enjoy the battle with the Weirdo and slowly unravel the mystery of his superpower with the mindset of a challenger, rather than the purpose-driven mindset from before that focused on "taking his head first and discussing other things later."

I sensed the scene where the previously launched Fireball was. Based on tests from a long time ago, a Fireball I seriously launched under normal conditions could easily exceed four mach speeds, that is, traveling over 1,300 meters per second. I wasn’t sure about the speed now, but it was definitely very fast.

In just this short while, that Fireball had flown an unknown distance, yet the surroundings remained the monotonously repetitive corridors.

Could this place really be infinite? Thinking back to the tone of the Weirdo’s conversation with Zhu Shi earlier, this space was supposed to have some sort of "purpose." Even if it wasn’t meant to trap Luoshan Impermanence, maybe it was supposed to trap someone else... If so, isn’t the theme of a "labyrinth" a bit odd?

If it really is an infinite space, there was no need from the beginning to use a winding corridor-style labyrinth; an infinite space in itself is an inescapable labyrinth.

I felt like I was on the verge of finding a direction to break through this space together with Zhu Shi.

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