Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 85 - 82 Strike Again

Chapter 85: 82 Strike Again

I ended up rejecting Lu Youxun’s persuasion after all.

But clearly, he hadn’t planned on succeeding in a single attempt; my rejection was probably within his expectations. Seeing that I didn’t take the bait, he still maintained his composure and left his contact information. Then, after finishing the skewers, we each went our separate ways.

As for whether what he said earlier was true, whether Extraordinaryism truly had no intentions of enslaving ordinary people, I still couldn’t grasp for certain.

The Black Rope Heart-locking Ring told me he was telling the truth. However, since the ring was an item he had willingly handed over, perhaps he had planned from the start to persuade me by letting me use this ring, so it’s difficult to say whether he had any countermeasures.

Moreover, even if everything he said was the truth, it didn’t mean he had told the whole truth. He might have deliberately avoided points that were detrimental to him, only revealing part of the truth, and even that part might have been embellished.

This feeling of uncertainty reminded me of what Zhu Shi had told me in the past. Once I exposed my true power, people with various motives would come before me, disguising their own stance.

Not just Lu Youxun; perhaps even Zhu Shi had, intentionally or not, disguised her own stance.

Where there are people, there are societies, and there are hills to climb and sides to take. I understood this rationally. Although I understood it, it was still hard not to feel disappointed after clearly realizing that even a supernatural organization like Luo Mountain had complex human calculations and power struggles among people.

Fortunately, Zhu Shi still offered me a trustworthy method to cope. On how to face this situation amidst disappointment, she had given me advice from the beginning. That was to remain humble and vigilant, to observe carefully—there was no need to make quick judgments, as it was not too late to make a decision after their true colors were observed.

At least one thing was very clear now, Lu Youxun was indeed loyal to Extraordinaryism. An ordinary person would never think of, much less do, such a thing as hand over their own heart for another’s grip to earn trust. His boldness left a deep impression on me.

Combining this with everything else, his claim that he would not reveal my ability to elementalize to his superiors and colleagues was also likely true.

Both his and Zhu Shi’s reactions indicated that "a powerful being capable of Elementalization" held extraordinary significance to Luo Mountain, and concealing its existence was likely not a simple issue. If he was merely fulfilling his duties for the faction he belonged to, he wouldn’t have covered for me. Only if he was truly loyal to Extraordinaryism, and truly wished to extend goodwill to me on its behalf, might he take the risk of acting on his conviction without superiors’ permission.

Even if all of these could be just a performance he put on to win me over, I had to admit, his act had been quite successful. Now, I indeed had a somewhat different view of his position.

Change of heart aside, after I got home, most of my attention was still on the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring.

Apart from the non-functional Divine Seal Fragment, this ring must be the first real "Spell-casting item" I received, and I could only describe my feeling as being utterly fascinated by it. Using my ethereal right hand after wearing it, I passed through the walls and furniture of my home, even using it to touch my own beating heart, a feeling fresher than the first time I touched a real gun.

After playing with it for quite a while, I eventually became aware of the need for caution.

Was this ring truly safe? Although I didn’t think Lu Youxun would sabotage the gift he gave me, there wouldn’t be things like a GPS or a magical backdoor installed in it, would there?

Generally, no one would put a GPS in a gift, and normal people wouldn’t speculate whether their gifts contained GPS, but I was not "normal people" in either respect.

I planned to find a way to check it out.

That opportunity came the following evening.

The next afternoon, Zhu Shi, Lu Youxun, and I met again.

Just as Lu Youxun himself had said the night before, he encountered some obstacles while using his Divination skills to investigate the weirdo’s head.

The other weirdo we were looking for might truly possess anti-Divination abilities, preventing Lu Youxun from divining information related to it. Luckily, aside from that, all other information could be divined. We could use that information as clues to infer the approximate activity time and area of the other weirdo.

Amongst those details were some clues related to the Weirdo Maker.

If the Weirdo Maker was indeed part of the Human Bureau, then the existence of the weirdos was somewhat puzzling.

The objective of the Human Bureau was to create Extraordinary Soldiers who would comply fully with the management of mortal society and obey the commands of mortals, aimed at countering the demon hunters of Luo Mountain. However, the weirdos we had encountered were egotistical, treating ordinary people as prey and proclaiming themselves to be at the top of the food chain. That attitude was even more radical than any Extraordinary Fanatic I knew—how did that fit into the Human Bureau’s design philosophy for Extraordinary Soldiers?

And according to the information within the weirdo’s head, the Weirdo Maker would come into contact with the weirdo every so often, carrying out a comprehensive physical examination and collecting various data. Add to that the Weirdo Maker’s attempt to ignore Agent Kong’s wishes by trapping him in a labyrinth space, forcing him to overcome his inner demons to elevate his soul, it was hard not to think of the attitude a researcher would have toward their test subjects.

"Perhaps to the Human Bureau and the Weirdo Maker, monsters are merely transitional creations. Since they’re just lab rats, there’s no expectation for them to aspire to anything more. There’s no need for loyalty, no need for integrity, just the need to extract the full value from these lab rats."

Yet, strangely, the Weirdo Maker actually allows monsters to kill innocents indiscriminately, which seems to suggest something about the deplorable nature of the Human Bureau.

What is their true purpose? Is it to uphold the secular society, or to use the power of the Extraordinary Soldiers to position themselves above it?

By the way, after Lu Youxun agreed to my becoming Outer Path Impermanence, Zhu Shi felt there was no longer any need to occupy more of my time and energy and suggested conducting the investigation into the Weirdo incidents on her own.

I had almost forgotten that I was involved in this incident simply because I was ostensibly aiming to become the Outer Path Impermanence. Naturally, I couldn’t just give up halfway. Lu Youxun also repeated to Zhu Shi that he was "uncomfortable with the idea of a woman carrying out the task alone," and I couldn’t tell if he was sincere or just playing along with me.

Of course, those words couldn’t fully convince Zhu Shi, so I told her, "We can’t just stand by and watch our own city being ravaged by monsters." This reason seemed to especially align with her expectations of me, and she immediately nodded in agreement.

At half past eight that evening, Zhu Shi and I met up again, in an old-style residential area in the new district.

Despite being called the "new district," this place had some history; it was just the name that remained. The old residential area was some distance from the noisy streets and was deserted at night, with hardly any pedestrians passing by. It was unexpected that the monster we were tracking, who had a penchant for hunting local dignitaries, would be active around here.

Just because the community was old didn’t mean its residents were necessarily poor. Zhu Shi told me this and then steered the conversation to the divine seal. She said that after she went home last night, she helped me look up information related to the divine seal, which was largely consistent with what Lu Youxun and I had discussed.

"The divine seal is mentioned in ancient texts from a long time ago, but there are only a handful of such texts, with sparse details provided. If the divine seal indeed possesses the power to grant any wish, why are there only such few records?" Zhu Shi mused, "If someone from Luo Mountain hadn’t brought it up when speculating about the source of the Fan Tian Incident, probably no one would have known what the divine seal is."

The power that used to prevent Luo Mountain from influencing the mortal world had now vanished, and Luo Mountain referred to this event as the "Fan Tian Incident"—this is what Zhu Shi told me.

The word "Fan" implies a change or turnover. "Fan Tian" means a change of era or transformation.

"But where exactly did you hear about the divine seal?" Zhu Shi asked.

I answered with complete seriousness, "I can’t remember clearly. It must have been Agent Kong who told me."

Agent Kong was gradually becoming a figure in my narrative, one who would ramble about anything and everything to anyone.

"How does Agent Kong even know about such matters?" she asked with puzzlement, quickly followed by a realization, "Right, he always wanted to become a demon hunter and went to Luo Mountain repeatedly for further study, but never managed to achieve his wish. When it comes to knowledge about rituals and formations, even I’m no match for him. Being curious about something like the divine seal that could grant any wish...it would be normal for him. Perhaps even his transformation into a monster was motivated by a similar reason..."

At the end, she shook her head, dismissing the topic, and then seemed to look for a new one.

Seizing the opportunity, I asked her about something that had been on my mind since the night before: what exactly was her ability.

I added, "If it’s inconvenient to say, there’s no need to force yourself to answer."

"It’s fine, Zhuang Cheng, you’re now my comrade-in-arms. In order to facilitate our future cooperation, it’s necessary for me to explain my abilities to you. It was my oversight for not having done so earlier," she said, almost apologetically, and then explained, "My ability is actually quite simple; it allows me to find my opponent’s weaknesses."

"Find weaknesses..." I had trouble grasping the specific effects of her ability. "Could you give an example?"

"For instance, if my opponent is skilled in swordsmanship, I can find flaws in their sword techniques and catch them off guard," she clarified, "And if my opponent possesses an invulnerable body, I can use my ability to find a weak spot and deliver a particularly effective blow."

"I see, so your ability greatly enhances your Insight..." I thought about her actions from the previous night, "When we were first trapped in the maze space, were you planning to use your ability to find a flaw in the space and then destroy it?"

"Exactly," she nodded, "But my ability is far less effective against inanimate objects than animate ones, making it difficult to immediately find a weak spot in that maze space."

"Against animate objects, it must do more than finding technical oversights and physical vulnerabilities, right?" I recalled what she had done to that monster.

The monster clearly possessed the ability to transfer damage it received to its alter ego, yet it couldn’t regenerate the limbs she had severed.

"Yes, aside from technical and physical weaknesses, it’s also possible to find weaknesses in other aspects, such as in language," Zhu Shi suddenly made a significant remark.

"Wait, what do you mean it can find ’weaknesses in language’?" I immediately had an ominous feeling.

She replied casually, "It means if Senior Brother Zhuang lies to me, I can tell at a glance."

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