Jinx 2

As expected, upon hearing that question, Maza's eyes immediately changed.

"Why the sudden question?" she asked, observing my expression. "Don't tell me you previously..."

"It's not what you think," I replied calmly. "It's just a precautionary measure. I need to confirm things beforehand."

"How can you take precautions for something like this?" she frowned. "Besides, you never believed a word I said before. Now you're suddenly asking such a deep question..."

"The only thing I find hard to believe is your talk about the apocalypse, not your descriptions of how you attract misfortune. Seeing how much you care about the bad luck you might bring, I can't completely dismiss it as a joke. And besides..."

She asked suspiciously, "...Besides what?"

"I can't believe you, but I want to believe you," I said, looking sincerely into her eyes. "Maza, can I believe you?"

This was the absolute truth. Both the apocalypse and her jinx constitution were things I found hard to fully believe, yet desperately wanted to be real.

But, if I'm being completely honest, I never thought such a melodramatic line would ever come out of my own mouth. Someone once said that when people play roles they're unfamiliar with, they tend to unconsciously embody their stereotypes of those roles. Maybe I've watched too many manga, because when I try to play the 'nice guy,' I always end up spouting overly earnest lines like this.

Whether it was disgust or something else, Maza involuntarily took a step back again. This time, she retreated until her back hit the wall, and she stared at me, dumbfounded. "You, you are truly, truly inexplicable... How can someone like you exist?"

"So, will your disaster-attracting constitution affect the people around the people around you?" I couldn't help but return to my original question.

She composed herself, thought for a moment, and then replied, "I'm not entirely sure."

"Even you're not sure?" I asked, surprised. "Shouldn't you be the one who knows this best?"

"You'll understand if you just imagine it a little. In the doomsday era I lived in, strange phenomena were everywhere. Survivors would do their best to avoid monsters, but anyone could be discovered and fall into danger at any moment," she explained. "In that situation, I couldn't really distinguish which strange occurrences were attracted by my jinx constitution and which were just bad luck."

"If everyone had a significant chance of being attacked by strange phenomena, how could you confirm that some of them were caused by your fault?" I didn't let that point slide.

"...It's statistics," her voice grew somber. "Based on information gathered from other survivors, I noticed that the frequency with which I encountered strange phenomena was significantly abnormal, and this abnormality gradually affected those who cooperated with me... Some of them might have lived longer otherwise. It should have been me who died..."

By the end, she could no longer hide her negativity and despair.

It seemed this matter had caused her severe trauma; she radiated an aura of fragility and world-weariness.

Seeing this, I tried to change the subject. "I understand. It's like black paint is most visible on white paper, but hazy on black paper. Your disaster-attracting constitution, in an environment already full of disaster, could only be observed vaguely, is that right?"

Even so, perhaps even in that environment, with enough experimental trials, a more precise conclusion could have been reached. But that would have meant more lives lost, which was clearly not something Maza would do.

"Yes..." Maza took a deep breath, appearing somewhat weary.

Suddenly, her legs gave out, and she swayed precariously, almost falling to the ground again.

I quickly stepped forward and supported her. She had fainted before, and it seemed like she was about to experience the same symptom again.

Fortunately, she didn't lose consciousness this time. Instead, she clutched my arm, supporting herself.

I helped her over to the sofa and let her sit down.

"Are you alright?" I recalled the patient gown she was wearing earlier. "Are you ill? If you need any medication..."

"No, it's not a physical illness," she said seriously. "Didn't I tell you before? My soul was heavily wounded by the Great Demon of Doomsday, and even the Blessing power couldn't be used. The reason I keep fainting now is also because of my soul..."

Before she could finish, her stomach let out a loud rumble.

She fell silent.

"You're hungry?" It suddenly dawned on me what I had forgotten before coming home.

I forgot to feed Maza!

I hadn't seen her eat anything since I found her last night, and she had been in a weakened state the entire time.

This was the first time I had someone stay at my place for so long, so I completely overlooked the issue of her food and drink. It was like being a first-time pet owner and forgetting to prepare food for your cat or dog, just leaving them there and casually walking off with Chang'an.

No wonder Maza looked displeased when I returned. She probably expected me to come back soon and didn't anticipate being left hungry for so long.

I felt extremely ashamed.

"I'm sorry, that was my oversight. You must be very hungry right now, aren't you?"

"It's nothing, I'm used to it." Her expression was one of resignation, but her hand instinctively went to her stomach.

Hearing that made me feel even worse.

"I didn't expect you to faint from hunger..."

"It wasn't because of hunger!" she argued, frowning at first. Then, she couldn't help but touch her stomach again. "Like I said, it's soul trauma. I ate yesterday, I've only been hungry for a day, it's not enough to make me faint. I fainted because of soul trauma... Wait, what's with that look?"

"Mhm, I understand. Soul trauma, right? I get it."

"No, that look on your face means you don't believe me at all... Don't look at me with pity! Didn't you just say you 'wanted to believe me'?"

It seemed that being looked at with pity bothered her more than the embarrassment of being hungry. She was so angry she looked like she wanted to take a bite out of me.

I immediately changed the subject. "But, aren't there still leftovers in the fridge? And some snacks in the bedroom, didn't you touch them?"

"You mean the stir-fried meat and rice in the fridge? That's your food," she said matter-of-factly. "I have to hide here for the next three days, so how could I presume to touch your food and water? Anyone who does that deserves to be killed."

"This isn't the doomsday world. No one deserves to be killed for a small mistake like that." I hoped she could relax here. "It was my fault this time, I didn't think things through. You can use anything in my house from now on, just treat it like your own home. My things are your things. You can eat and drink whatever you want, and just tell me if you need more."

Instead of being pleased by this leniency, she gave me a suspicious look. "How can that be okay?"

"You're only staying for three days, aren't you?" I used this to dispel her doubts and walked towards the fridge. "Wait here, I'll make you something to eat right away. Just to be safe, let me confirm one thing: you really didn't faint from hunger, did you? Is there really no physical problem?"

"No problem," she said, not sounding like she was lying.

"Then I'll make you some fried rice, but remember to chew slowly." I took out the food from the fridge.

This is from when I ordered too much takeout last time. Because there are big discounts on the takeout app for ordering more, I often buy many boxes of food and save the leftovers in the fridge to heat up in a pan when I'm hungry. What's left now is stir-fried pork with peppers and rice, stir-fried shredded potatoes, and a few eggs. I plan to mix it all together and make fried rice for Maza.

Actually, I have another question I want to ask her, but I'll fill her stomach first.

However, she seemed to sense something from my attitude.

"You have other questions you want to ask me, don't you?" she said, stopping me as she repeatedly observed the plastic container of food in my hand. "I wasn't able to answer your last question properly, so that doesn't count as an exchange for food. You can ask me one more question."

"If I ask, will you answer?" I retorted.

"I can't guarantee that. It depends on your question," she replied, her attitude unchanged.

I placed the plastic container of food on the nearby dining table first.

"Okay... In that case, first, you traveled from the Doomsday era to the present time yesterday, right?"

"That's what I said last time."

"The police officer who knocked on my door this morning said you're a serial killer who murdered five people in the last two to three months. What do you think about that?"

"I didn't do it," she stated firmly. "Before yesterday, I wasn't even in this era."

Yes, this was her alibi.

Between Maza and Agent Kong, someone was definitely lying. Maza was more likely to be lying, because there were records of Maza's face in this era.

However, I knew of a possibility that could make both their testimonies valid.

Maza was a transmigrator, and "transmigration" was originally a fictional concept in literature, referring to the phenomenon of a person moving to another time or space for certain reasons. This phenomenon can be broadly divided into two forms: one where the person moves to another time or space with both soul and body, and another where only the soul moves to another time or space. In many literary works, transmigrators whose souls move to other times or spaces often possess other people.

Maza once said that she came to this era after her spatial transfer failed. Therefore, I subconsciously assumed that she had moved to this era with both her soul and body.

But, if we assume that the body Maza is currently using is not her original body, and the original owner of this body is the real serial killer, then most of the mysteries can be solved.

"Maza, is this body you're using really your own body?"