Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 92 - 89 Interoperable 4

Chapter 92: 89 Interoperable 4

"I know," Zhu Shi nodded with confidence, "the moment he was burned by Zhuang Cheng’s flames, he used his ability."

"What is his ability?" I was very interested in this question as well.

"Well... let’s just call it ’shape-shifting’ for now."

Saying this, Zhu Shi began to explain in detail what she had observed about the "shape-shifting" ability.

This superpower was quite simple to describe. The last monster could transfer damage to its clone, and this time’s monster could swap places with its clone regardless of spatial distance. For convenience, let’s refer to the former as the "Undying Monster" and the latter as the "Shadow Swapping Monster."

The superpowers of the Shadow Swapping Monster and the Undying Monster had one thing in common: when they received a fatal injury, the ability would be passively triggered to automatically save their life.

The moment I inflicted a fatal wound on the Shadow Swapping Monster’s body, it automatically swapped places with a clone located elsewhere. This passive swap even had the power to alter cause and effect. Originally, the body of the Shadow Swapping Monster was indeed burned by me, but after the ability was triggered, the causality of the burn was also transferred to the clone, and the reality became "the one I burned from the beginning was a clone."

After I heard this, I was quite surprised, but Mazao had an expression that seemed like she found nothing strange.

"Is this power to modify the cause-effect relationship a common thing?" I asked.

"It’s not exactly common, but it isn’t too strange either. Remember the monster we dealt with last night? His superpower of ’damage transfer’ was also a kind of ability that shifted the cause and effect he should have borne onto his clone," explained Zhu Shi, "Because he shifted his cause of injury, in reality, he went from being seriously injured and close to death to being unharmed without any warning. That too is a phenomenon of reality being distorted."

"The occurrences of weird phenomena that involve altering reality and reversing cause and effect are relatively frequent in the Doomsday Era," Mazao nodded.

"We humans tend to subconsciously categorize the concepts we encounter into different ranks. The reason concepts like cause and effect, and time and space seem more mysterious than tangible flames to the naked eye is that these concepts far exceed our intuition," continued Zhu Shi, "If we were to view things from a more natural perspective, perhaps we’d realize that these are merely elements that compose nature and that humans are making a big fuss over nothing.

"But the power of the strange does not adhere to rules, and it certainly does not follow human intuition. Powers involving cause and effect and time sometimes appear as natural to ordinary demons and demon hunters. Even so, that doesn’t mean that these monsters and hunters are necessarily strong.

"For the truly powerful, modifying reality and cause and effect are merely flashy tricks. Impermanence would still be Impermanence even without those powers because rules are always set by sheer strength. So Zhuang Cheng, there’s no need for you to be amazed by these superpowers, your ability to control flames is actually much stronger than any of those."

I only realized after she spoke that she was worried I might have been scared.

In fact, I wasn’t afraid at all.

I recalled the feeling I had when I caught that monster with my Flame Palm. At the time, I felt that "something was about to escape," and due to my slow reaction, it really did escape. According to what Zhu Shi just said, could what escaped have been something like cause and effect?

Then, if I had been prepared at that time, could I have caught "cause and effect" itself?

I became curious about this. I wanted to know, I wanted to try again. If I were to catch that monster again, maybe I could keep what escaped trapped in the palm of my hand.

"Since you don’t have any leads on the runaway monster, could you give us his severed hand?" Zhu Shi looked at the plastic bag Mazao was holding, "We have a demon hunter skilled in Divination; if we have that hand, we might be able to trace the monster’s location."

"Um..." Mazao seemed hesitant.

"Is that not okay?"

Perhaps Zhu Shi wasn’t even aware of it herself, but her voice had softened somewhat. I felt that she probably saw Mazao, who appeared no different from a junior high school girl, as a little sister.

Mazao indeed had many qualities that stirred up a protective desire in others. Although she always acted very wary and bristling, fought alone with the mission of stopping Doomsday, and had a misfortunate nature that attracted calamities, she was after all just a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl, inciting a sense of compassion. Even I, who claimed to be a villain, couldn’t help but indulge in watching her smile when she was happy with food, hoping to see it more often.

"...Actually, I also have a skill similar to Divination," Mazao said after some thought, "Since you’ve already seen through my blessing power, I’ll just say it. When I use the blessing power, I can trace the history of an object’s experiences with my consciousness. So this severed hand is also of some use to me. But..."

"But?" Zhu Shi asked.

"It’s okay to give you the hand, but I want to keep one of his fingers. Is that okay?" Mazao offered a compromise.

"That’s fine," Zhu Shi agreed right away.

Mazao took the hand out of the plastic bag, and with the summoned Illusionary Curved Blade, she cut off the thumb of the severed hand, then handed the main part of the hand to Zhu Shi.

I looked around, thankfully there were no other pedestrians passing by. On the streets at night, a girl with the appearance of a middle schooler and a beautiful college student were exchanging bloody human limbs, a truly indescribable and bizarre scene. If a pedestrian were to pass by and take a photo, uploading it to the internet, who knows what kind of strange urban legends might appear.

And I was a witness to this potential urban legend—realizing this, I felt a strange thrill and a sense of achievement in my heart.

Zhu Shi received the severed hand and said to Mazao, "Then, I will hand this over to our Patrol later. Where do you plan to spend the night? If you have no other place..."

"Mazao will of course stay overnight at my place," I said without hesitation.

"You really don’t hesitate, do you..." Zhu Shi was taken aback, "Is it normal for people to bring members of the opposite sex to stay at their house? Although I’m not suspecting you of ulterior motives, you should at least be conscious of avoiding any situation that might be misconstrued."

"It’s a choice made by process of elimination," I said seriously, "First, we definitely can’t let Mazao sleep outdoors, but she doesn’t have an ID card and can’t stay at a hotel or inn. Your place has Changan and your grandparents, so it’s not convenient to bring Mazao there. Since I live alone, and Mazao has experience staying at my place, it makes the most sense for her to spend the night there."

In fact, these reasons were all made up on the spot; I just didn’t want Mazao to be out of my sight.

"Why can’t she stay at my place just because I have a brother and grandparents?" Zhu Shi seemed not to have caught on yet.

Mazao had already realized, and she quickly said, "Didn’t I mention before, I’m like a broom star that attracts weirdness... Actually, just talking with you all like now is already dangerous for you. I really do want to rely on your help to gather evidence of Doomsday approaching, but if you can’t accept me, if you feel that I will bring calamities upon you, then..."

As she spoke, her expression grew increasingly forlorn. Suddenly, Zhu Shi said loudly, "It’s fine!"

"Huh?" Mazao was startled by the sudden increase in volume.

"You left Zhuang Cheng in the past because you were afraid of affecting him, right?" Zhu Shi firmly grasped Mazao’s shoulders, looking intently into her eyes.

"Yes, that’s right..." Mazao looked helpless and gave me a pleading look.

"But you don’t have to worry about affecting me!" Zhu Shi declared earnestly, "I am Luoshan Impermanence, and it’s my duty to sweep away the strange and protect society. If you can lure out all the demons lurking in the shadows of this city, I couldn’t ask for more. Similarly, I will protect you and rescue you from the threat of the strange."

"Uh... I can protect myself," Mazao said in an unusually submissive tone, "And... my shoulders kinda hurt from your grip."

"Oh, sorry." Zhu Shi let go, continuing, "In any case, you don’t need to worry about posing a danger to me, and you can cooperate with me with confidence."

"I feel the same," I added, "I am now Outer Path Impermanence, and Outer Path Impermanence is also Impermanence. If you, Mazao, run into danger, you can ask me for help."

Zhu Shi retorted, "I actually feel that Senior Brother Zhuang might be one of the dangerous elements around her..."

"Zhuang Cheng, dangerous to me?" Mazao was puzzled, "Why?"

"It’s probably because she thinks it’s not quite appropriate for a man and a woman to live under the same roof," I said.

"I see. It’s okay, though. I had similar concerns at first, but Zhuang Cheng doesn’t have any such thoughts towards me," Mazao assured Zhu Shi, "I’ll go back and stay at Zhuang Cheng’s place for the night, thank you for your concern."

"Well, okay..." Zhu Shi could only accept it.

Mazao looked at Zhu Shi’s face closely, then suddenly asked, "By the way, have we met before?"

"Hm? No, why do you ask so suddenly?" Zhu Shi was curious.

"It’s just that I feel like I’ve seen your face somewhere before..." Despite saying so, Mazao couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

I silently noted her strange reaction.

Without anything further to add, Zhu Shi had no choice but to let the matter drop, then separated from us, saying that she would go to find Lu Youxun with the severed hand.

Mazao and I headed in the opposite direction, aiming for my house.

After walking a distance, we both stopped.

Next, we would discuss some things that we couldn’t let Zhu Shi hear.