31 approaching the end1

I miscalculated.

Junk food and ice cream didn't wreak havoc on Mazao's stomach, but on mine, and I was running to the bathroom that same night.

Perhaps it was also because I slept on the sofa without covering up properly and let my stomach get cold. Mazao slept sweetly through the night, while I, on the other hand, had to wake up and run to the restroom. Looking back at her innocently sleeping face, unaffected by it all, I felt like I was hoisting a rock only to drop it on my own feet.

My miscalculations didn't end there. While beneath the cave, I had been curious about whether time flowed differently between the real world and the Different Space. I had intended to check the time difference with my phone upon returning to the real world; but so many things had happened one after another, and by the time I remembered this issue, my phone had apparently automatically adjusted the displayed time due to connecting to the network.

I could discuss the cave incident with Zhu Shi, but I couldn't talk about it with Mazao. And the black jade stone I picked up beneath the cave, I had initially considered letting Mazao assess it. Unlike me, Mazao should have knowledge of the abnormal, perhaps she could identify something about it.

But then I thought, if she couldn't figure it out, that would be one thing; but if she did identify it as an abnormal item, it might ruin our relationship. So, in the end, I decided to put off the matter.

The next morning, I bought breakfast downstairs and called Mazao from the bed upon my return. She discovered that she had slept on the bed in the bedroom, and looked at me, puzzled, seemingly unable to accept my "kindness."

Of course, I wouldn't specifically explain my ulterior motives, but rather used a commonly acceptable reason, "How could I possibly let such a delicate girl sleep on the sofa while I comfortably sleep in the bed?"

She sat on the edge of the bed, uncomfortably shifting her body, and said dissatisfied, "Why do you say things like that... Doomsday doesn't discriminate between men and women, old or young, and I'm not a delicate girl."

"But this is not the Doomsday Era, and I am not someone born from the Doomsday," I said earnestly, "Besides, in my eyes, you are a delicate girl."

"I am not delicate."

"Who was the one constantly fainting and falling over yesterday?"

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

"Good answer," I handed over the plastic bag with breakfast, "This is your reward."

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

Breakfast was just a simple start; I hadn't forgotten my promise to make her something even tastier. By evening, I planned to cook a meal of spicy Sichuan cuisine, filled with big chunks of fish and meat, meant to deliver a hard hit to her delicate digestive system.

This time I definitely wouldn't be hoisting a rock only to drop it on my own foot again—shouldn't, at least.

However, it really isn't good to always resort to her sleeping in the bed and me on the sofa to prevent her from quietly leaving after I fell asleep. I had also thought of new methods, one of which involved modifying the "Firefly."

The "Firefly" is my dispersed Spirit; in some ways, it's also a split persona. Although it cannot think independently like the main body, which is me, it should have a certain degree of adaptability.

For example, I could try to input some "preset commands" into the "Firefly" so that when it observes certain changes in its environment, it could also correspondingly change. Taking Mazao as an example, if she tries to leave me and the "Firefly" observes this action, it would send an alarm through our spiritual link and wake me up from sleep.

I am still in the practice and testing phase, and theoretically, it is feasible; the practical effect remains to be seen.

After finishing breakfast, I told Mazao that I still needed to go out.

"Where to?" she asked, like a wife wary of her husband's infidelity.

Such a comparison wasn't me being conceited. Living with a beautiful member of the opposite sex, sharing meals, and doing daily routines together—and then one of them says they need to go out—under such a situation, it's natural for most people to think that way.

Although she's five or six years younger than me and we've only officially known each other for one day.

But I responded as casually as a husband accustomed to infidelity, "To school."

"To school... to school?" She repeated as if the words were hard to pronounce, then realized, "Right, there are schools in this era."

There were no schools in the Doomsday Era, naturally.

I lied to her again; I wasn't heading to school, but to Room 1501.

This time it wasn't to explore caves, but to watch how Zhu Shi prepares to handle the ritual array. Of course, part of me also wanted to continue finding ways to connect with Luo Mountain.

I had already made up my mind to distance myself from the interpersonal relationships of normal society, which of course included interaction with Changan.

Zhu Shi was a demon hunter from the abnormal world, she didn't belong to "the characters of normal society" and also possessed the capability to protect her own safety, maintaining a relationship with her wasn't as dangerous as maintaining one with Changan. However, she was ultimately a friend's sister, and if I could, I didn't want to draw her into danger because of me. After formally establishing a relationship with Luo Mountain, it was necessary for me to distance myself from Zhu Shi.

At that thought, a feeling of loneliness began to grow in my heart.

If nothing unexpected happened, my fate with Changan—and with this friend—was likely about to end.

Throughout my life, those willing to befriend me were few and far between, with Changan being the only one in college. Scenes of getting to know him flickered in my mind before being extinguished by the wind one after another.

Actually, even before meeting Mazao, I should have acted like this. Even if I didn't possess the "Broom Star Physique," being a pursuer of the bizarre, it was possible to bring calamity to those around me by casually interacting with others, which was irresponsible.

For me, the experience beneath the cave was a quest, but for those around me, it was merely a disaster.

Now was a great opportunity to rid myself of my weaker self, I was someone who valued my own desires more than friendships. If I had truly believed that friendship with Changan was more important than the door to the abnormal world that Mazao opened for me, I wouldn't have made the choices I did from the beginning.

After bidding Mazao a temporary farewell, I left a "Firefly" for secret monitoring, then headed towards the residential area where the fifteenth floor room was located.

The battle with the Fallen Demon Hunter in that neighborhood must have been captured by surveillance, yet no one from the official forces came knocking—it seems likely that Zhu Shi and Luo Mountain had already reported it. There seemed to be issues with Luo Mountain's inspection of the Fallen Demon Hunter's body last night, which I planned to ask about.

—This incident might not be over yet.

Zhu Shi had told me that.

Although I found it hard to believe that a Fallen Demon Hunter could come back to life, there might still be unknown dangers lurking in the shadows.

Could this danger use me as a bridge to affect Mazao? The thought wasn't completely absent from my mind, but unlike my attitude towards Changan and Zhu Shi, in my eyes, Mazao was never a frail girl to be drawn into tumult, but a mysterious figure who tangled everything around her into the storm. I was also curious to see how she would react when faced with truly bizarre things.

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

Regrettably, she wasn't wearing the raincoat and wide-brimmed hat from the night before, but a white blouse and black skirt, carrying a large black guitar case, resembling a band member who seemed to have slipped out from some practice room.

She must have just arrived, as she was currently walking around the ritual array on the floor, while the wooden lid and the cave on the floor were in a vanished state. I hadn't encountered the agent she mentioned last night who was responsible for surveillance on my way here, probably because they had left after she arrived. She looked at the ritual array with an expression like she was pondering where to start erasing.

The door was not closed, so I just walked right in. I couldn't have closed it anyway since I had melted the lock core last night. Hearing the noise, she looked up alertly, but relaxed her expression upon seeing it was me. That said, her demeanor remained stern.

It seemed that she was not in the gentle "Sister Zhu mode" at the moment, but in the direct "Demon Hunter Zhu Shi mode." It felt a bit regrettable.

"Zhuang Cheng, why are you here?" she asked, "And, did you break the lock?"

"I did," I said. "I'm just here to take a look."

"Just to look? You don't want to enter the cave?" she doubted.

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

She muttered softly, "That's suspicious…"

"Speaking of which...why has the cave disappeared?" I was even more interested in that area, taking out my phone.

"You're actually planning to enter, aren't you?" she startled.

"No, no, just purely curious."

From my observations, the carpet rolled up beside the room was still how I left it last night, meaning no one had covered the ritual array with it, and that the cave had disappeared on its own. To rule out the possibility of my memory being incorrect, I even checked the photos I had taken last night with my phone.

Thus, the deduction that "the cave only changes its visibility state after being covered by the carpet" fell apart naturally.

Of course, it might be possible that the cave itself followed a rule of disappearing after being visible for a certain period, similar to how a smartphone screen turns off automatically after no operation for a while. That would also explain why the entrance and exit automatically disappeared after I entered the cave last night.

Just then, footsteps sounded from behind me, and another person entered the fifteenth floor room.