Chapter 31 Approaching the End

I miscalculated.

Junk food and ice cream didn't ruin Ma Zao's stomach, but they did ruin mine, and I got diarrhea that night.

Perhaps it was also because she slept on the sofa without being properly covered with a blanket, causing her stomach to catch a cold. Ma slept soundly all night, while I had to get up in the middle of the night and run to the bathroom. Looking back at her innocent sleeping face, completely unaffected, I felt like I had shot myself in the foot.

That wasn't the only miscalculation. While I was in the cave, I wondered if time flowed differently in the real world and the alternate dimension. I was supposed to be able to check the time difference on my phone after returning to the real world, but so many things happened afterward, and by the time I finally remembered this question, my phone seemed to have automatically corrected the displayed time back because it was connected to the network.

I can tell Zhu Shi about the cave, but I can't tell Ma Zao. As for the black jade I found at the bottom of the cave, I had considered having Ma Zao appraise it. Unlike me, Ma Zao should have knowledge of the supernatural; perhaps she could discern something.

But then I thought, if she can't identify it, that's fine, but if she does identify the black jade as something strange, it might damage our relationship. So I had no choice but to put it aside for the time being.

The next morning, I bought breakfast downstairs and woke Ma Zao up when I got back. She found herself in the bedroom and looked at me with a puzzled expression, still seemingly unable to accept my "friendliness" towards her.

I naturally didn't bother to explain my sinister intentions; I simply offered a reason that was in line with common sense: "How could I possibly leave such a delicate girl like you sleeping on the sofa while I comfortably slept in the bed?"

She sat on the edge of the bed listening to me finish speaking, then shifted uncomfortably and said in a dissatisfied tone, "Why are you saying things like that again... The apocalypse doesn't discriminate between men and women, young and old, and I'm not a delicate girl."

“But this isn’t the apocalypse, and I’m not from the apocalypse,” I said seriously. “Besides, in my opinion, you’re just a delicate girl.”

"I am not delicate."

"Who was the person who kept fainting and falling down yesterday?"

“...It’s me,” she answered reluctantly.

"Good answer." I handed him the breakfast from the plastic bag. "This is a reward."

She immediately forgot all her unhappiness and looked at the breakfast with anticipation.

Breakfast was just a simple start; I hadn't forgotten my promise to her yesterday to cook something even more delicious. Tonight, I'd prepare a hearty, intensely spicy Sichuan meal, brimming with meat and fish, a truly impactful dish to deliver a devastating blow to her delicate digestive system.

This time, I definitely won't shoot myself in the foot—I don't think so.

However, it's really not good to always have her sleep in the bed and me sleep on the sofa to prevent her from quietly leaving after I fall asleep. I have actually thought of new methods, one of which is to make some modifications to the "firefly".

"Firefly" is a fragment of my spirit, or in a sense, an avatar. Although it cannot think independently like my main body (that is, me), it should possess a certain degree of adaptability.

For example, I could try inputting some "preset instructions" into the "firefly," so that when the "firefly" observes certain changes in its environment, it will also change accordingly. Taking Asaha as an example, suppose Asaha makes a move to leave me, the "firefly" that observes this change will sound an alarm along the mental connection with me, waking me up from my sleep.

I'm still in the practice and testing phase. Theoretically, it's possible, but we'll have to wait and see how it performs in practice.

After finishing breakfast, I told Ma Zao that I was going out again.

"Where are we going?" she asked habitually, like a wife wary of her husband's infidelity.

It's not that I'm being presumptuous to use this analogy. Living with a beautiful person of the opposite sex, brushing teeth, washing up, and eating together, and then one of them saying they're going out after a meal, the other immediately becoming alert—in such a suggestive scenario, most people would probably make this connection.

Although the person who was alert was five or six years younger than me, I had only officially known her for a day.

But I answered without batting an eye, just like a husband accustomed to having affairs: "Going to school."

"Go to school...go to school?" she repeated as if she were uttering words that didn't come out smoothly, then suddenly realized, "That's right, there are schools in this era."

There are no schools in the post-apocalyptic era, which is to be expected.

I lied to her again. I wasn't going to school, but to a room on the fifteenth floor.

This time, the purpose was not to explore the cave, but to watch how Zhu Shi would handle the ritual array. Of course, part of the intention was also to continue trying to establish a relationship with Luo Shan.

I have made up my mind to distance myself from normal social relationships, which of course includes my interactions with Chang'an.

Zhu Shi is a demon hunter from a strange world; she doesn't belong to "normal society" and has the ability to protect herself. Maintaining a relationship with her isn't as dangerous as maintaining a relationship with Chang'an. However, she is, after all, my friend's sister, and if possible, I don't want to involve her in dangers caused by me. After officially establishing a relationship with Luo Shan, I also need to distance myself from Zhu Shi.

Thinking of this, a feeling of loneliness arose in my heart.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, my connection with Chang'an—and this friend—is coming to an end.

Throughout my life, I've had very few friends, and in college, Chang'an was the only one. Scenes of our acquaintance and growing friendship flashed through my mind, only to fade away one by one like candle flames blown out by the wind.

Actually, I should have done this long before I met Mazao. Even if there were no "jinxes" around me, as someone who chases after the supernatural, I could potentially bring misfortune to those around me. Casually associating with people is irresponsible.

The experience of being in the cave was a quest for me, but for those around me, it was nothing but calamity.

Now is the perfect opportunity to kill my weak self; I'm a villain who values ​​my own desires more than my friends. If I truly believed that my friendship with Chang'an was more important than the strange world that Mazao opened for me, I wouldn't have chosen that path in the first place.

After saying goodbye to Asaha for the time being, I left "Firefly" behind as a covert surveillance device and then moved toward the apartment complex where the fifteenth-floor room was located.

My fight with the Fallen Witcher in that neighborhood was definitely captured on surveillance cameras, but no official personnel came knocking on my door. I guess Zhu Shi and Luo Shan reported it to them. There seemed to be some issues with Luo Shan's examination of the Fallen Witcher's body last night, which is something I plan to inquire about.

This incident may not be over yet.

Zhu Shi once told me this.

While I find it hard to believe that the Fallen Witcher could be resurrected, there may be other unknown dangers lurking in the shadows.

Could this danger, through me, affect Asao? I have considered that possibility, but unlike my attitude towards Chang'an and Zhu Shi, in my mind, Asao has never been a weak girl caught in the crossfire, but rather a mysterious figure who drags everything around her into turmoil. I'm also curious to see how she, who always talks about the apocalypse and calamities, will react when faced with truly bizarre things.

When I arrived at my room on the fifteenth floor, Zhu Shi had already arrived.

To my disappointment, she wasn't wearing the raincoat and straw hat she wore last night. Instead, she was wearing a white women's blouse and a black skirt, carrying a large black guitar case, looking like a female band member who had somehow slipped out of a karaoke room.

She must have just arrived; she was currently circling the ritual circle on the floor, while the wooden cover and the cave on the floor were disappearing. I didn't encounter the agent she mentioned last night who was responsible for surveillance on my way here; they probably left after she arrived. The expression on her face as she looked at the ritual circle suggested she was contemplating where to begin erasing it.

The door wasn't closed, so I just went in. I couldn't close it anyway; I'd melted the lock cylinder last night. She heard the noise and looked up alertly, relaxing her expression when she saw it was me. Even so, her expression remained serious.

It seems she's no longer in her gentle and kind "Junior Sister Zhu mode," but rather in her "Demon Hunter Zhu Shi mode," where she calls me by my first name. I feel a little disappointed.

"Zhuang Cheng, what brings you here?" she asked. "And did you break the door lock?"

“I’m the one who vandalized it,” I said. “I’m just here to take a look.”

"Just looking? Not planning to go into the cave?" she wondered.

"I promised I wouldn't go in," I replied earnestly.

She muttered to herself, "How suspicious..."

"Speaking of which... why did the cave disappear?" I was now more focused on that area, and at the same time, I took out my phone.

"So you really want to get in, don't you?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"No, no, it's just pure curiosity."

Based on my observation, the carpet rolled up next to me in the room was exactly as it was when I left last night, meaning no one had covered the ritual circle with the carpet, and the cave disappeared on its own. To rule out the possibility that my memory was faulty, I even took out my phone to check the photos I took last night.

In this way, the reasoning that "the cave's appearance will only change after the carpet has covered the ritual circle" is refuted.

Of course, it's also possible that the cave itself has a pattern of automatically disappearing after appearing for a period of time, just like a phone screen automatically turns off after a period of inactivity. This could also explain why the entrance and exit disappeared automatically after I entered the cave last night.

Just then, I heard footsteps behind me, and another person entered the room on the fifteenth floor.

(End of this chapter)