Entering the Finale 1

I miscalculated.

Junk food and ice cream didn't ruin Maza's stomach; instead, they ruined mine. I had diarrhea that night.

Perhaps sleeping on the sofa without a proper blanket also caused my stomach to get cold. Maza slept soundly and peacefully all night, while I had to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. Looking back at her innocent sleeping face, completely undisturbed, I felt like I had shot myself in the foot.

This wasn't the only miscalculation. When I was in the cave, I wondered if the flow of time was different between the real world and the other dimension. I had planned to check for time differences with my phone after returning to the real world, but so many things happened one after another. By the time I finally remembered the question, my phone seemed to have automatically corrected the displayed time by connecting to the network.

I could tell Zhu Shi about the cave, but I couldn't tell Maza. As for the black jade stone I found in the cave, I had initially considered whether Maza could identify it. Unlike me, Maza should have knowledge of the strange and might be able to discern something.

But then I thought, if she couldn't identify it, it would be fine. But what if she actually identified the black jade stone as something strange? It would damage my relationship with her. In the end, I had to put it aside for now.

The next morning, I bought breakfast downstairs and called Maza up from bed when I returned. She found herself sleeping in the bedroom bed and looked at me again, completely bewildered, still seemingly unable to accept my "kindness."

Naturally, I wouldn't explain my sinister intentions. I simply offered a reason that fit common human behavior: "How could I possibly let a delicate girl like you sleep on the sofa while I slept soundly in bed?"

She sat on the edge of the bed, listening to me finish speaking. She squirmed uncomfortably and said with dissatisfaction, "Why do you say things like that again... The doomsday doesn't distinguish between men, women, old, or young, and I'm not a delicate girl."

"But this isn't the doomsday era, and I'm not someone born in the doomsday," I said earnestly. "Besides, in my eyes, you are a delicate girl."

"I'm not delicate."

"Who was it that kept fainting and falling yesterday?"

"...It was me," she replied reluctantly.

"Well answered," I said, handing her the breakfast from the plastic bag. "This is your reward."

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

The breakfast was just a simple starting point. I hadn't forgotten my promise to her yesterday to make her even tastier food. Tonight, I would make her a Sichuan dish, heavily spiced and numbing, filled with plenty of meat and fish, full of impact, to deliver a heavy blow to her delicate digestive system.

This time, I definitely wouldn't be shooting myself in the foot—or so I hoped.

However, it's not always good to avoid her quietly leaving after I fall asleep by having her sleep in the bed and me on the sofa. I've actually been thinking of new methods, one of which is to make some modifications to the "Firefly."

The "Firefly" is my scattered consciousness, and in a sense, also a clone. Although it cannot think independently like the 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." This way, when the "Firefly" observes certain changes in its environment, it would make corresponding changes itself. Taking Maza as an example, if Maza makes a move to leave me, the "Firefly" that observes this change would send an alert along the mental connection with me, waking me up from my sleep.

I'm currently still in the practice and testing phase. Theoretically, it's achievable, but the practical results remain to be seen.

After finishing breakfast, I told Maza that I had to go out again.

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

This comparison isn't entirely due to my own self-importance. Living with a beautiful woman, brushing teeth, washing up, and eating together—when one person says they're going out after a meal, the other immediately becomes vigilant. In such a suggestive situation, most people would likely make such associations.

Even though the vigilant one is five or six years younger than me, and I've only officially known her for a day.

But I replied with a poker face, like a husband accustomed to infidelity: "To school."

"School... school?" she repeated, as if the words were difficult to pronounce, then realized, "Right, there are schools in this era."

It's only natural that there are no schools in the doomsday era.

I lied to her again. I wasn't going to school, but to the Fifteenth Floor room.

This time, it wasn't to explore the cave, but to observe how Zhu Shi planned to handle the ritual array. Of course, part of my intention was to continue trying to connect with Luoshan.

I've already made up my mind to stay away from normal social relationships, which naturally includes my interactions with Chang'an.

Zhu Shi is a Demon Hunter from the world of the strange. 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 one with Chang'an. However, she is still a friend's sister, and if possible, I don't want to involve her in danger caused by me. After officially connecting with Luoshan, I will also need to distance myself from Zhu Shi.

Thinking of this, a sense of loneliness welled up inside me.

If nothing unexpected happens, my relationship with Chang'an—with this friend—will come to an end here.

From childhood to adulthood, very few people were willing to be my friend, and in university, it was only Chang'an. Scenes of us getting to know each other flashed through my mind, only to disappear one by one like candle flames blown out by the wind.

In fact, I should have done this long before I met Maza. Even if there had never been a "Jinx constitution" around me, as someone who pursues the strange, I could have brought disaster to those around me. Casually interacting with people is irresponsible behavior.

The experience in the cave was a quest for me, but for the people around me, it was merely disaster.

Now is a great opportunity to kill off my weak self. I am a villain who values my own desires more than friendship. If I truly believed that my friendship with Chang'an was more important than the door to the strange world Maza opened for me, I wouldn't have chosen this path from the beginning.

After a temporary farewell to Maza, I left the "Firefly" behind as a hidden monitor and headed towards the residential area where the Fifteenth Floor room was located.

My fight with the Fallen Demon Hunter in that residential area must have been captured by surveillance, yet no one from the official forces came knocking. I assume Zhu Shi and Luoshan had already reported it. Luoshan's examination of the Fallen Demon Hunter's body last night also seemed to have issues, which is part of what I plan to inquire about.

—This incident might not be over yet.

Zhu Shi told me so.

Although I find it hard to believe that a Fallen Demon Hunter would resurrect, there might be other unknown dangers lurking in the shadows.

Could this danger spread to Maza through me? It's not that I haven't considered it. However, unlike my attitude towards Chang'an and Zhu Shi, in my heart, Maza has never been a helpless girl who gets caught up in things. Instead, she's a mysterious character who draws everything around her into the turmoil. I'm also curious how she, who always talks about doomsday and disaster, will react when faced with true strange phenomena.

When I arrived at the Fifteenth Floor room, Zhu Shi had already arrived.

To my regret, she wasn't wearing the straw cape and bamboo hat from last night. Instead, she was wearing a white women's shirt and a black skirt, carrying a large black guitar case, looking like a band member who had slipped out of some karaoke bar.

She must have just arrived. She was currently walking around the ritual array on the floor, while the wooden cover and the hole on the floor were in a state of disappearance. I didn't encounter the detective she mentioned last night who was supposed to be keeping watch on my way here; he probably left after she arrived. She looked at the ritual array as if contemplating where to start erasing it.

The door wasn't closed, so I went straight in. I couldn't close it anyway; the lock cylinder had been melted by me last night. Hearing the noise, she looked up alertly. Seeing it was me, her expression relaxed. However, her demeanor remained serious.

It seems she wasn't in her gentle "Junior Sister Zhu mode" right now, but in her "Demon Hunter Zhu Shi mode," calling me by my name directly. I felt a little regretful.

"Zhuang Cheng, why are you here?" she asked. "Also, did you break the door lock?"

"I destroyed it," I said. "I'm just here to take a look now."

"Just looking? You don't want to enter the cave?" she asked skeptically.

"I promised I wouldn't enter," I replied earnestly.

She muttered softly, "So suspicious..."

"Speaking of which... why did the cave disappear?" My attention was now more focused on that spot, and I took out my phone.

"You really wanted to enter, didn't you?" she exclaimed, startled.

"No, no, just purely curious."

Based on my observation, the carpet rolled up beside the room was still in the same state as when I left last night. This meant no one had used the carpet to cover the ritual array, and the cave had disappeared on its own. To rule out the possibility of my memory being faulty, I even took out my phone to confirm the photos I took last night.

Thus, the theory that "the cave's appearance would only change after the carpet covered the ritual array" was debunked.

Of course, it was also possible that the cave itself had a pattern of automatically disappearing after a period of time, much like a phone screen automatically turning off after a period of inactivity. This would also explain why the entrance and exit disappeared automatically after I entered the cave last night.

Just then, I heard footsteps behind me. Another person had entered the Fifteenth Floor room.