Chapter 122 Sleeping Together 2
In video games with monster-slaying and leveling-up elements, there's a very simple way to confirm whether an enemy monster is dead: check if your experience points have increased. If they haven't, it means the enemy is most likely still alive, and might even reappear in a second form in front of the player character.
My "slag," a substance that only appears after killing someone, seems to be similar to experience points that are only gained after killing enemy monsters. Since Zhu Shi said that the creator of the monster's true form is a consciousness network, and so many "experience points" were gained after destroying the consciousness network, it means that Ying Lingyun must have died at my hands.
But is that really the case?
Once I consider the gray mist that mysteriously appeared from the consciousness network, and the speculation that Ying Lingyun, the creator of the monster, might possess fragments of the divine seal, I cannot declare his death with absolute certainty.
For the sake of convenience, I will continue to refer to the monster creator who died in front of me as the "monster creator," and refer to his true form as "Ying Lingyun."
The Divine Seal is an ultimate artifact capable of changing the world, and even its fragments are not to be underestimated. Although I cannot effectively utilize the Divine Seal fragments I possess now, Ying Lingyun, as a high-ranking decision-maker in the Humanitarian Department and also as a researcher, has likely already developed the technology to utilize the Divine Seal fragments (assuming he has them). The black mist capable of sealing supernatural powers and the gray mist that appeared at the last moment are evidence of this.
That gray mist not only hindered my senses and superpowers, but also prevented me from judging Ying Lingyun's life or death. The fact that someone who wielded such mysterious and unpredictable power died so easily, like a roadside fish, is truly hard to believe.
Admittedly, the creator of the monster believed that his original self was dead, but he also said that his offline self did not know certain secrets that only Ying Lingyun knew, and his judgment on Ying Lingyun's life or death was questionable.
His understanding of the Divine Seal fragments was merely hearsay; he didn't seem to fully believe that Ying Lingyun possessed them, or even that the Divine Seal itself existed. I could doubt that Ying Lingyun "might not die because he possesses the Divine Seal fragments," but he might not share my opinion.
I even felt that his true form would reappear vividly later, and would once again appear before me in that arrogant manner.
I pondered my speculation repeatedly. Gradually, I discerned a truth.
Perhaps I not only find it hard to believe that Ying Lingyun died so easily, but I also don't want to never see him again.
The strange people I fought in the past—Detective Kong, the immortal monster, the shadow-changing monster—always had expressions of regret, or dishevelment, or despair before they died.
The creator of the monster, however, displayed a different kind of composure. He readily admitted his defeat and then died.
To be honest, I might have fallen for him.
In my future adventures, I will surely encounter real life-or-death crises, and it wouldn't be surprising if I died at any time. When that time comes, I want to face my own death with the same composure as he did. In fact, after emerging from the fifteenth-floor basement, I never believed I couldn't do it again, but the future is always uncertain. Now, I feel a respect for the creators of these strange creatures as a pioneer.
If even the clone has such an extraordinary presence, how could the original body be any less impressive?
Although I deeply regret not being able to experience the life-or-death battle I longed for, I gained a valuable experience from another perspective. It's truly a case of every cloud having a silver lining.
As night deepened, Ma and I were almost ready to sleep. Actually, just like eating and drinking, we didn't really need sleep; it was just an unspoken understanding between us.
Before going to sleep, Ma made a request to me.
"You want to sleep with the fragments of the divine seal?" I asked.
"Yes."
She nodded, then explained her motivation.
Her idea was very simple: she wanted to enter the dream world of mist.
Since I was able to enter the Misty Dream by possessing a fragment of the Divine Seal, she might be able to do the same. For her, the Misty Dream itself might not be very appealing; what truly worries her is the Second Little Bowl that appears within it.
The second bowl is at a critical juncture of life and death due to the transformation into a demon, and Masao cannot afford to ignore it.
I wouldn't mind lending the Divine Seal Fragment to Mazao, but there's an obstacle: the fragment's automatic return phenomenon. Whenever I throw it far away, it automatically returns to me shortly afterward. Sometimes, even if I forget to bring it with me, it follows me by itself—it's practically a cursed object from a ghost story.
Of course, this phenomenon might not trigger when I'm not far from the Divine Seal Fragment. For example, under the same roof, Ma Zao might have taken my place and gone to sleep holding the Divine Seal Fragment.
However, the actual test results were not optimistic. When held by someone else, the automatic return of the Divine Seal Fragments became much easier to trigger. After I gave the Divine Seal Fragment to Mazao, it would return to me if I wasn't careful. Even if I was staring at it intently, the fragment would have already moved on by the time I came to my senses.
Ultimately, the reason the Divine Seal Fragment returned to me is because of a mysterious bond between us. Even if Asaho can hold it to fall asleep, will it truly pull Asaho, who is not bound to it, into the misty dream world?
Perhaps Asaho herself had considered this direction, which is why she didn't bring it up with me immediately last night. Now, after some thought, she made a decision: "There's another way."
"What method?" I asked curiously.
Unexpectedly, she said something surprising: "We can sleep holding hands."
"What?" I exclaimed in surprise.
She walked up to me, took my left hand which was holding the fragment of the divine seal, and pressed our palms together.
“As long as we do this, the Divine Seal Fragment will still be in your hands. At the same time, I can sleep with the Divine Seal Fragment in my hand... and we can both try to enter the Misty Dreamland tonight, killing two birds with one stone…”
As she spoke, she seemed to belatedly realize that her actions had been too intimate, and a look of embarrassment appeared on her face, her voice becoming hesitant: "Um, I..."
I felt a bit shocked myself and couldn't help but ask, "So... you mean you're going to sleep with me?"
“…Yes, that’s it.” She nodded slowly.
"Sleep on the sofa together?" I was still a little taken aback.
“Of course, the bed.” She thought for a moment and then added, “If you don’t like sleeping in the bed with me, I can sleep on the floor next to the bed. But in that case, you’ll have to reach your hand under the bed and hold my hand.”
"I did not mean that."
I reorganized my thoughts and then asked in return, "Aren't you afraid I'll get physical with you?"
Although Asaha has developed a sense of camaraderie with me, I can still sense a certain distance between us. Only when other people are present do I feel that I am being treated differently by her.
In a modern society where no one believes in their own origins, I am the only one who fully believes in her, can help her, and can even save her only friend in the apocalypse—I am convinced that I am already indispensable to her.
Even though we're indispensable partners, we're still of the opposite sex, and not close enough to be considered intimate. So I never expected her to make such a suggestion; it was unthinkable in the first few days after we met. Of course, I know she doesn't intend to have anything romantic with me right now.
She looked at me with a puzzled expression, as if she didn't understand why I would say that, or couldn't imagine me touching her inappropriately.
“You’re not some kind of perverted monster who likes little girls, so there’s nothing to be happy about if you touch me.” She said, touching her body as she spoke. “Well, although I’m not exactly a child anymore, and I’m gaining weight in some places, it’s not very noticeable when I’m wearing clothes. Normal men probably wouldn’t be interested in someone like me.”
That's hard to say; you still don't understand men enough.
I really wanted to say something like that, but to avoid giving her a bad impression of me, I decided to keep quiet.
We finally settled on the plan of sleeping hand in hand.
Although Ma showed shyness about the intimate interaction, she insisted on the plan because of the imminent danger of Little Bowl No. 2. I didn't pretend to resist this ambiguous development either; from both an observer's perspective and my own, I would only feel that I was getting the benefits.
If I had to admit it, I'm still a little nervous. Because I care a lot about Asahi's opinion of me, and it's true that I've looked at her with the same eyes I would a guy. Sharing a bed with a girl in her prime is a first for me. After all, Asahi is a girl at a sensitive age, and I can only hope that I won't unintentionally offend her and cause her to feel much less favorably towards me.
I took a shower anyway, just to avoid smelling bad, then changed my clothes and went back to the bedroom, replacing the pillowcases, duvet cover, and sheets with brand new ones. Seeing how much effort I put into preparing, Mazao also politely took a shower. For a moment, we didn't even know what we were going to do next.
She didn't have any spare clothes, and I carelessly forgot to buy her a second set when I bought her clothes last time. Although it's not impossible to use the power of blessing to clean her original clothes, since she was already imitating me by taking a bath, she changed her clothes as a courtesy. She was still wearing my clothes that she used to wear at my house, namely the loose gray long-sleeved T-shirt and pants that looked baggy on her.
Everything seemed to have returned to the time when we first met.
After the lights were turned off, we went to sleep together.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com