Chapter 123 The next day

It is said that people do not dream during deep sleep. Dreams are caused by parts of the brain remaining active during light sleep. Frequent dreaming is considered a symptom of poor sleep quality.

From this perspective, I actually slept very well that night. No dreams, no waking up in the middle of the night, and a full eight hours of high-quality, uninterrupted sleep. Before falling asleep, I had worried that the random thoughts I had while sharing a bed with Mazao might induce some indecent dreams in my sleep, leading me to utter indecent things in my sleep or even unconsciously do something indecent. Now it seems there's no need to worry about that.

Since I didn't successfully enter the Dream of the Mist, it means that the crisis for Little Bowl No. 2 cannot be resolved for the time being, which is destined to disappoint Asaho. When I woke up and found myself still lying in bed, this was my first thought.

Then, I realized that I seemed to be being hugged by someone.

It was early. Before falling asleep, she and I were still lying side by side on the bed, holding hands. The bed was a double bed, which had been placed in the bedroom when I rented the apartment; there was enough space. Our feet might accidentally touch, but there wouldn't be any other unnecessary contact.

But now she was holding me tightly, her petite, soft body pressed against my arm, and I could clearly feel her body temperature. She buried her face in my neck, her warm, slightly damp breath rhythmically on my skin, while her legs straddled my body, and the blanket was kicked off the bed.

That's an incredible sleeping position! She's never done this when she slept alone before. Actually, I also like to pile up the blankets and hug them when I sleep. Is she unconsciously treating me like a blanket, or like a giant doll?

Last night I asked her if she was afraid I would touch her inappropriately, but now I really don't know who's touching whom inappropriately.

I had originally intended to break free from her and get up quickly, but I couldn't help but lie there a little longer. During this time, I paid special attention to whether I experienced any of the indescribable physiological phenomena unique to men in the morning. If so, I would have to revert that particular part of me to a dormant state. Fortunately, today wasn't one of those days; I was safe.

After a long while, I finally managed to sit up. She woke up with a start as I broke free from her embrace. Perhaps because I pulled away quickly, she didn't seem to realize her previous sleeping position.

However, our hands were still clasped together, and she held mine with an unusually tight grip. Then, after we stood up, she slowly released her hand. The fragments of the divine seal remained in our palms.

Unlike many people who need time for their brains to kick in after waking up, Ma Zao's brain kicks in very quickly.

She first glanced down at the fragment of the divine seal, then looked at me nervously.

I slowly shook my head.

I used to wonder if the Misty Dreamland was only accessible once every four days, but now that doubt has been dispelled.

She lowered her head in great disappointment.

"We have five days. If we can enter the Dreamland of Mist even once in the next five days, we can save Little Bowl." That was the only way I could comfort her.

She nodded reluctantly: "I hope so..."

This situation is indeed not optimistic. Number Two said she could "last at most ten days." Since it's "at most," that's an optimistic estimate. She might not be able to hold on until the seventh or eighth day, and five days have already passed. If there were a way, I would naturally hope to meet Mazao's expectations. Unfortunately, this is the only thing beyond my control.

We got up. Asa went to the living room to watch the morning news, but her attention was clearly not on the TV screen. I, on the other hand, took out my clothes from the laundry basket, intending to wash them. The most convenient way, of course, would be for Asa to use her omnipotent blessing power, but I didn't want to trouble her with such a trivial matter while she was injured.

On the shoulder of the shirt that had been taken out, there was still a red sticker indicating that Mazao had stepped on it barefoot.

Last night, during the battle with the monster maker, Ma had already teleported to my side using the marking sticker. It's worth mentioning that even in my elemental form, the sticker didn't disappear; instead, it followed me into my fire elemental form and continued to function as a marking sticker.

Not only stickers, but also my clothes, pants, personal belongings, etc., will become elementalized along with me, even after using fire teleportation.

Even the fragments of the divine seal are like this.

The basic principle of flame teleportation is the decomposition and recombination of oneself. The fact that the Divine Seal fragments will follow me on flame teleportation sounds like I can decompose and recombine them at will. In reality, that's true, but it's not as powerful as it's made out to be.

This is just my own speculation—for something like Divine Seal Fragments, their material existence is probably irrelevant, and the ability to decompose and recombine Divine Seal Fragments at will doesn't prove anything.

It's like a human throwing a stone into a pond. While they can easily shatter the moon's reflection on the surface, only to watch it reappear fully on the calmer water, no matter how many times this process is repeated, it cannot affect the real moon hanging high in the sky. This hypothesis becomes even more compelling after I gained the ability to touch the metaphysical realm.

Furthermore, I've also tried creating different material entities solely using flames. Since I can decompose and reassemble my own body and belongings, shouldn't it be possible to create real flesh and objects out of thin air? However, this attempt also failed. At most, I could only create flames with the same shape and "collision volume," but I couldn't reproduce the color, chemical properties, etc., of the target object.

I've always relied on instinct to disassemble and reassemble myself and my belongings. I only know the "what" but not the "why," so naturally I can't apply what I've learned to other situations. The freak creator commented that my "use of power is very crude"—is that what he meant?

If one day I were truly able to use fire to create all things in the world, wouldn't I become an omnipotent god?

Is this still considered "fire ability"?

I peeled the red marker sticker off my dirty clothes and reattached it to my shoulder.

Back in the living room, the morning news on TV featured something relevant to us.

The massive commotion from last night couldn't have been ignored; it was even captured on video by some "enthusiastic citizens" in the distance. The footage showed the streets shrouded in a mysterious black fog, followed by a sudden burst of flames within the fog. A raging inferno engulfed the entire street, as if gas had been ignited, causing a massive explosion.

Shortly afterward, ten more beams of light mysteriously appeared in the distance, reaching the heavens and the earth. They converged towards the center and formed a huge but unstable ball of light, which then extinguished and disappeared a few seconds later.

The program host simply referred to it as an "unexplained glowing phenomenon" and stated that "the authorities are still investigating." Saying "investigating" is probably just a fabricated story. And even if they can't make it up, it probably doesn't matter much, since the incident was just a big deal, without actually causing any additional casualties. The only one who died was the monster creator.

Mazao looked at my shoulder strangely.

Why do you still have that sticker?

"It might come in handy," I said.

"I see." She didn't pursue the matter further and yawned again.

I asked with concern, "Are you very sleepy?"

"I am a little sleepy," she said. "Perhaps it's because I haven't slept for the past few days, and I used too much of the blessing power yesterday. Even though I reset my energy, I still instinctively want to catch up on sleep."

"You didn't sleep the night before either?" I asked, surprised.

She shook her head. Could it be that when I opened my eyes yesterday morning, I saw her standing by my bed like a ghost, not because she woke up earlier than me, but because she stood there watching me all night? That can't be, can it?

I advised her to go back to her bedroom and get some sleep. Perhaps, even if we possess powers beyond human capabilities, we are still limited by the structure of human consciousness. Just as we instinctively crave food even when we don't need it, not needing sleep doesn't mean that not sleeping has no impact on consciousness. Ultimately, it will accumulate unseen pressure in some area over time; this was one of the reasons I didn't maintain my fire elemental form 24/7. And that might also affect the trauma to the soul.

“It does indeed affect the soul,” she admitted to me.

She didn't force herself after that and went back to her bedroom for a nap, saying she'd sleep for another two or three hours. It's 6:30 in the morning now, which means she'll wake up around 9:00. That's barely within breakfast time.

I went out, intending to grab breakfast downstairs and pick one up for Mazao. Unfortunately, my usual breakfast shop was closed today, so I had to take a longer route. Since I was going to take a longer route anyway, I decided to buy breakfast near Hsinchu University. The breakfast there is better, and Mazao would probably be awake by the time I got back.

On the way, I checked my phone and found several text messages. Some were from Zhu Shi, and some from Lu Youxun. The latter were unusually numerous, probably because he realized we had clashed with the creator of the strange person.

I thought Lu Youxun's text messages were mostly complaints, but when I opened them, I found they weren't.

Actually, I overlooked something last night, which was the "clinic" where the creator of the weirdos conducts physical examinations on the weirdos.

Then I realized I'd completely forgotten about that place. I shouldn't have neglected to check it. It's a bad habit of mine; I'm easily distracted by the intensity of events around me. Even though that sounds like an excuse, Zhu Shi's cry of "Dad" last night truly drained all my attention from everything else.

I always find myself overlooking things just when I think I've thought everything through. It was only when I ran into Mazao again that I realized I hadn't prepared a way to explain it to Zhu Shi. However, the fact that even Mazao and Zhu Shi didn't immediately think of it shows just how impactful that matter was.

Finally, Zhu Shi remembered in time. After the group dispersed, she returned to that street and called Lu Youxun over.

(End of this chapter)