Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 93 - 90 Go home1

Chapter 93: 90 Go home1

Under the streetlamp by the roadside, Mazao was solemn and tense as she spoke to me with a voice filled with anticipation and unease.

"Zhuang Cheng, it is time for you to tell me the truth," Mazao observed my expression with full attention. "Zhu Shi has already gone far, and there are no other pedestrians around to hear our conversation. I don’t know why you were unable to go into detail about my friend before, but now that it’s just the two of us, there should be no need to continue beating around the bush."

"You’re right, I need to clarify things with you." I nodded. "Before that, I have to ask you a question. Did you mention before that you’ve seen a fragment of the divine seal in the Doomsday Era?"

Although she was somewhat puzzled, she honestly answered my question, "Yes, I’ve seen it."

"What does a Divine Seal Fragment look like?" I asked.

She paused briefly as if she was doubting why I wanted to inquire about such a detail and whether she should reveal it, but perhaps thinking that she was in need of my help, she eventually spoke up, "...To look at, a Divine Seal Fragment is a kind of hard, black material, irregular in shape, with a texture like jade. Moreover, for some reason, it doesn’t feel hot or cold to the touch, as if it’s devoid of the concept of temperature..."

"You’ve also touched the Divine Seal Fragment?"

"My friend and I came across a Divine Seal Fragment by accident," she replied. "However, shortly afterward, we were attacked by the Great Demon and were forced to separate."

"You do not have the Divine Seal Fragment, in other words, the Divine Seal Fragment is in your friend’s hands... Are you sure it’s okay to divulge such crucial information to me?" I wondered.

"It’s fine. Rather, I would like to request that you take care of my friend," she said. "We had once thought about abandoning the Divine Seal Fragment because keeping such a valuable object with us only brought about great danger. However, there seems to be some sort of strong bond between the Divine Seal Fragment and my friend, making it impossible for us to discard it.

"If you truly value the Divine Seal Fragment, then I hope you can keep my friend by your side. She’s just a frail, helpless little girl, unsuited for a strange world, even less suited to be with me."

So, she intended to "entrust her friend’s care to me."

In the past Doomsday Era, she had only kept her friend with her because separation meant death, but if her friend had also arrived in this peaceful era, the reluctant reasoning was no longer there, and she needed to get her friend away from her as soon as possible. In this unfamiliar peaceful era, the only person she could ask for help was me.

Since I was to live with her friend, it would be difficult to keep the matter of the Divine Seal Fragment a secret. Instead of that, it was better just to be upfront.

Perhaps revealing this piece of information was also her way of testing me. If I showed any desire, she would take her friend and flee. With her Space Transfer ability, escaping from me would be a piece of cake.

"Just, in the end..." Mazao showed a hint of vulnerability, "at least in the end... can I see her one last time? I want to talk to her. Once we’ve spoken, I will not meet her again..."

"I’m sorry, but I can’t let you meet her," I said.

"What?" She was stunned.

"The Divine Seal Fragment you described earlier, it should be this, right?" I took out my own Divine Seal Fragment from my pocket and displayed it in front of her.

"Divine Seal Fragment!" She was shocked as if struck by lightning. "Why do you have that thing? Did my friend give it to you? Impossible, it’s supposed to be impossible to transfer to anyone else. Could it be, could it be—"

She hurriedly scanned the surroundings, apparently trying to find a third party, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find anyone.

Wait, could it be that she thought the Divine Seal Fragment in my hands was her friend’s and that her friend was dead, which is why I was able to have it? Seeing her becoming more and more panicked, I immediately added: "Your friend hasn’t come to this era. The one I have here is another Divine Seal Fragment."

"Ah?" She froze as if struck by a pressure point.

"It’s like this..."

I roughly explained how I entered the Mist Dream Realm and came into contact with her friend.

"...She’s still wandering alone in the ruins of the Doomsday, even forgetting her own name, and in no more than ten days, she’ll become a Sin Demon?" Mazao said, at a loss.

"To be exact, there are only seven days left," I stated. "So, what exactly is her name? You tell me first, and I can relay it to her the next time I enter the Mist Dream Realm."

"Xiao Wan, her name is Xiao Wan! Xiao as in small, Wan as in bowl!" She gave the answer immediately and then asked eagerly, "Zhuang Cheng, when can you enter that Mist Dream Realm again?"

"This is beyond my control now," I first noted down that name and then started calculating in my mind.

The first time I came into contact with the Mist Dream Realm was in the basement of a fifteenth-floor apartment when Number One and Number Two Small Bowls entered the Mist Dream Realm as well; the second time was on the night after Mazao left, when they and Number Four Xuanming also entered the Mist Dream Realm. The interval between the two occurrences was about four days, and it has been three days since the second time.

If the Mist Dream Realm is entered every four days, then I should be able to enter tomorrow. Of course, due to the small sample size, the credibility of this speculation is very low. But it shouldn’t be that I’m unable to enter again for seven more days, right?

I tried to soothe Mazao; she seemed to know that there was no use in hurrying and could only try hard to suppress her own anxiety.

We didn’t stop to talk anymore but continued moving in the direction of home.

"By the way, isn’t the name ’Small Bowls’ a bit strange?" I tried to change the subject, "Did you come up with that name?"

"It did involve some input from me..." Mazao said vaguely, seemingly still preoccupied with Number Two Small Bowls’ matters.

"Then, do you have any recollection of the name ’Xuanming’?" I then asked, "Number Four in the Mist Dream Realm called himself ’Xuanming’, and Number Two...Small Bowls also had a special reaction to that name, as if she was afraid of something. Do you know why she was scared?"

Her response suddenly became very gloomy, "The Number Four you mentioned before, is he Xuanming?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?" I was curious.

"I told you before that in the Doomsday Era, survivors engulfed by madness would become Sin Demons; and the reason Xiao Bowls and I were forced to separate was because of an attack by the Great Demon... The so-called Great Demon is actually the highest class of individual among Sin Demons," she said somberly, "In a way, Sin Demons are one possible outcome for humans in the Doomsday Era. Since it’s an outcome, it means there is no way forward. People who become Sin Demons are basically not able to grow stronger by their own power.

"So the power of Sin Demons depends largely on the person’s strength in life. If one was weak in life, after becoming a Sin Demon they would only know some odd superpowers at most; the stronger one was in life, the more powerful they become as a Sin Demon."

I caught the implication of her words, "In other words, only those at the peak of strength in life have the chance to become the highest class of Sin Demons after death?"

"That’s right," she nodded, "In the Doomsday Era, there were no more than ten Great Demons. And the Great Demon that attacked us was called the ’Disaster Demon’.

"The Disaster Demon was a Great Demon skilled in manipulating flames, and people of the Doomsday Era believed He was the corrupted form of a powerful being from the past named ’Xuanming’ who had fallen into being a Sin Demon. It was this Great Demon that burned my soul."

Disaster Demon...

The composition of the word "Disaster" includes a treasure cover on top and fire underneath, signifying naturally occurring wildfires.

If one must be at the level of Great Impermanence like Xuanming to qualify as a Great Demon, what about the other Great Demons?

Mazao said there were no more than ten Great Demons in the Doomsday Era, a number that particularly caught my attention. The number of Great Impermanence was also no more than ten. Could it be that the future Great Demons are all transformed from Great Impermanence?

"Mazao, how many years was the time period you were in before you crossed over from this current era?" I asked.

"I don’t know. The time and space of the Doomsday Era were extremely chaotic; some people believed that Doomsday had come for over a hundred years, while others thought it had not been long since Doomsday began," Mazao shook her head.

"What about Zhu Shi then? You seemed to think Zhu Shi looked very familiar before. Could it be that you had seen her in the Doomsday Era?"

As I posed this question, I couldn’t help but think of myself.

Maybe Mazao still hadn’t collected evidence of the impending doom, but the many clues I had come across had already shown that the existence of Doomsday was by no means illusory. This made the reality of Doomsday become increasingly tangible to me. Many things I would never have considered in the past, I now think about seriously.

For example, where would I be after Doomsday came, and what would I be doing?

From the descriptions of Mazao and Number Two Small Bowls, I knew that the world after Doomsday, despite being desolate and dangerous, still had a few survivors struggling to stay alive amid the ruins. Among them were Blessed Monks like Mazao, as well as ten-year-old girls like Number Two Small Bowls, who were helpless. Although I still don’t know how Doomsday will come precisely, I don’t think that in such a disaster, where even ordinary people have the chance to miraculously survive, I would just die off casually.

People of the Doomsday Era believed that the Disaster Demon was Xuanming after his fall, that’s what Mazao said. Since it’s a matter of "belief," it means there may not be ironclad evidence to prove this conjecture. It’s like a living person would not say "I believe I am alive"; things that are taken for granted don’t require belief, one simply needs to accept them as they are.

So, although such speculation might seem overly presumptuous—could it be possible that the Disaster Demon isn’t Xuanming, but the future me?

If not, then where am I?

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.