Chapter 43: The Apocalypse of the Parallel World of Reality and Illusion (6)
So the next question is, how did this zombie crisis come about?
Through Li Nai, we learned that a zombie crisis had broken out in this city, but we had no idea about the specific details, such as how it happened or who caused it.
We only knew the outcome: all the zombies had entered the isolated inner world of the underground City of the Living, along with other zombies, ghosts, and undead.
From the fact that Mother knew Ms. Akiko, it seemed that an organization might have interfered in the zombie crisis.
“How did the zombie crisis come about? Even if we want to stop it, for something that hasn’t happened yet, we need at least some clues to stop it before it occurs.”
Since the plan was made long ago, Zihua should have prepared information on this matter.
However, Zihua only said four words.
“I don’t know~”
I was so angry that I grabbed Zihua’s bathrobe and shook it violently, but Zihua just kept smiling foolishly.
“Ahem, Zi’ai, don’t get worked up. Calm down first. You seem to be getting emotional very easily now…
…”
“It’s probably because you just merged with a spirit body, and your spirit hasn’t stabilized yet, so your emotions are fluctuating more.”
“That’s not important. What’s most important now is why the most crucial step was missed. If we don’t know when or where the zombie crisis will break out, we can’t stop it at all, can we?”
Zihua, who was still being held by her collar, raised an index finger and explained, “You’ve got one thing wrong, Zi’ai. It’s not that we didn’t investigate this matter, it’s that we couldn’t investigate it at all.”
“Hmm? You mean there’s no related information at all?”
“If I had had time to investigate thoroughly, I might have found some clues. But the situation ‘at that time’ was extremely urgent. Being able to ‘temporarily’ think of a way to return to the past to change the future was a heaven-sent flash of inspiration. It’s a bit too demanding to prepare even more thoroughly on top of that.”
…That’s true. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have chosen this method.
If there had been any other option, she would never have chosen a method that involved such a great sacrifice. After all, this method not only consumed an unimaginable amount of Destiny Power. If you think about it carefully, Zihua not only died, but her soul was also gone… In the end, only a spirit maintained by a fixation remained. What a tragic ending.
“After that, I immediately began the long journey of returning to the past using ‘Mercury Samsara.’ Although I had already roughly calculated the consumption of Destiny Power, if something went wrong in the middle and too much Destiny Power was consumed, and we couldn’t exchange dreams and reality upon arriving ‘here’, then everything would lose its meaning.”
.”…So, instead of wasting time investigating the zombie crisis in the middle, it was a very correct decision to go back to the past and complete the most important mission first.”
I released Zihua’s collar and even tidied it up for her. Now was not the time for arguing.
“Phew~ Thank goodness, thank goodness. I thought you were going to fight.”
Juncheng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw me calm down, patted his chest, and sat back down.
“Phew, phew, if we fought, Juncheng, who would you help?”
“Why do you two always like to ask questions that follow the same pattern as the drowning question…”
“Oh, women have vanity and jealousy!”
“Then my answer is to jump in first and then decide! If I can save both, I’ll save both. If I can’t, I’ll drown too! In other words, if you two fight, I’ll try my best to persuade you. If I can’t, I’ll take you to bed and make you sleep it off!”
“Phew, phew~ Such a greedy person… But, I like it~ Mwah mwah~”
Zihua happily sat on Juncheng’s lap, hooked her arms around his neck, and cleverly pressed her soft body parts against him. She stroked his chest with her left hand and kissed his cheek, probably even licking it with her tongue.
This practiced movement and technique indicated that she had memorized it with her body.
Speaking of which, how old is this woman this year?
Although Zihua was a person from the future, she never said how far into the future she came from. But I remember her saying that if we calculate based on the longest possible rewind time of Mercury Samsara, 12 hours, it would be about four years? No, because each ‘choice point’ is different, the rewindable time is unstable, so it’s hard to say how far into the future she came from.
Although her face looked no different from Lanhua’s, her demeanor, her cloying tone, and the disgusting sensuality she exuded were not something a young girl could possess.
This looked like a ‘veteran’ who had seen a lot of battles.
This meant that Lanhua would continue to become more and more seductive in the future… -.-.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable and pushed away the two who were acting like glued-together lovers, saying righteously, “Stop, don’t start flirting all of a sudden. Before I get angry, quickly decide what to do next. Since we don’t know anything, we should gather information first.”
For us, who had lost Destiny Power, our greatest weapon, we could only control the situation by being one step ahead in terms of information.
This was also our greatest weapon as ‘future people’ who had come from the future to the past.
Most protagonists in reincarnation novels also relied on such ‘precognitive’ information to gain an advantage in the early stages, or to concentrate resources in a near-predatory manner. This way, when the future had changed drastically, they would have already established a foothold and wouldn’t have to worry too much.
“See, you’re still anxious. We don’t need to do anything next, Zi’ai.”
However, Zihua casually dismissed my idea.
“Even if we start investigating now, we can never be faster than the development of events. We can’t stop the zombie crisis from breaking out.”
“Huh? Then when I said earlier that the key was to stop the zombie crisis, you said I was right…
Now you’re contradicting me. Your statement is very contradictory.”
“That’s right, we have to stop it, but not its beginning.” .CW
“What do you mean?” .SF Light Novel.
“I get it!” “I get it!”
Juncheng and I said the same thing at almost the same time.
Seeing that we spoke in unison, Zihua, instead of her usual attitude, clicked her tongue and said unhappily, “Mmmph… Watching you two, I feel like you have a husband… and wife! It’s so annoying!”
“After all, Zi’ai is half of me…”
Hmph, even if you and Juncheng act intimately, I’m the one who can have telepathic connection with him.
The blockage in my heart felt as if it had been cleared, and I instantly felt much better.
“So, we have to end this zombie crisis in different ways, right?”
“Instead of trying to stop a crisis whose instigator and location are unknown, and which is about to happen, it’s better to think about how to end it.”
“But that would still inevitably turn some people into zombies…”
It was true that those people would still turn into zombies in the end, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
“People die every day in this world, Juncheng. If you want to save everyone…”
“I know, you don’t need to say more. You’ve already told me this once in the Yata no Kagami, Zi’ai. It’s unrealistic.”
Juncheng said with a wry smile, then clasped his hands over his head and looked at the ceiling.
“I know very well that I am not a savior… ‘It’s a pity, but I’m not.'”
It seemed I didn’t need to persuade him further. He had already thought it through clearly.
“Then, Zihua, is there anything else… Zihua?”
Just as I was about to get more information from Zihua, I found that she had frozen.
She was staring blankly at Juncheng, as if gazing, or as if lost in thought.
Then, her face suddenly turned ashen.
Her face was filled with despair.
“….Zihua-”
Noticing that I was calling her, Zihua snapped back to attention. She looked at me with a frightened expression before quickly lowering her head and taking a sip of water from her cup.
Her hand holding the cup was still trembling slightly.
Did she recall something unpleasant?
It couldn’t be that she suddenly remembered. It must have been something I said, or a certain word, that triggered her memory. But which one was it?
“I’m fine—I’m fine. Phew~ It seems a bit cold just wearing a bathrobe~ I’ll go put on some clothes.”
Juncheng looked confused. He had been looking at the ceiling and didn’t seem to have seen Zihua’s expression.
A moment later, Zihua walked out wearing a sheer purple lace nightgown and lace underwear… Wasn’t this wearing even less clothing! What kind of “putting on clothes” was this! .SF Entertainment.
“Yay~ Juncheng, hug me. I’m so cold~”
“You said you were going to put on clothes…”
“Underwear is also clothing~”
“No, I’m not hugging you. Don’t think I’m a saint. Something will really happen if you hug me any longer.”
“Waaah, Juncheng won’t hug me. Zi’ai~ Ai~ Can you give me a hug~?”
Without a word, I immediately hugged Zihua. Of course, it wasn’t out of genuine pity for her, but I just wanted her to quickly continue talking about the important matters.
“Alright, enough changing the subject. Zihua, what else do you know?”
.”…This so-called zombie crisis might also be a play staged by the organization to find the Witch of Calamity.”
“Zone 8? Uh, there’s no Zone 8 in Song City at all… Wait, could it be?”
“It’s that ‘could it be.’ There used to be a Zone 8, but it later became an underground habitat for the undead. And the organization erased the information about Zone 8 from people’s memories. Moreover, this Zone 8 is also very strange, because its construction site…”
Juncheng suddenly groaned, covering his head. He looked very uncomfortable.
“What’s wrong? Juncheng? Are you okay!”
“.A little… I feel like I’ve forgotten something…”
“That’s a memory Li Nai made you forget with the zombie virus. Although Juncheng, you don’t remember it, you had met Li Nai before, and it was Li Nai when she was alive.”
“Moreover, that Li Nai turned into a zombie to save you, and the zombie crisis was awakened by Li Nai who then resolved it.”
“Why do you know this…”
“Don’t forget whose memories this past was constructed from. Before constructing it, I had already seen her memories.”
This world was constructed from Li Nai’s memories when she was alive, and it was Li Nai who finally resolved the zombie crisis?
Plague’s Calamity Witch… If the zombie virus is also considered a plague, did she concentrate all the viruses into her own body?
“Wait, wait. If Li Nai stopped the zombie crisis, then if we stop Li Nai from becoming a zombie—who will stop the zombie crisis?”
“We’ll have to find another way.”
“Huh? You say it so easily. How can we stop a zombie crisis that spreads at a terrifying speed as soon as it breaks out! If we fail, won’t…”
Zihua playfully swung her two fair, long legs and said.
.SF Light Novel.
“Then it will be the end of the world~”
“Why can you say something so chilling so casually! The end of the world! Maybe everyone will turn into zombies?! How many people will die!”
This… I didn’t expect it to be something that truly concerns the ‘fate of the world’.
One wrong step will change the course of the entire world, leading all of humanity to extinction?
And Zihua *knew* this, but she still did it.
She…
“Well, what does it have to do with me?”
“So, the deaths of other people… have… nothing… to… do… with… me?”
She’s gone dark.
No, this woman—she was dark from the ‘beginning’.
Because her attitude suddenly became casual after coming here, Juncheng and I mistakenly thought Zihua was an ally.
But she actually hadn’t changed at all. She was a spirit formed by accumulated fixations, resorting to any means to achieve her goals.
The fact that she acted with us was merely a coincidence that our goals overlapped.
“As long as Juncheng can continue to live, and Li Nai doesn’t become a zombie, that’s all that matters. The rest of the people have nothing to do with us, right?”
Her lips formed a beautiful arc, as if she were smiling, but her eyes were not smiling.
She looked down at the crowd outside the window, her pupils dull and lifeless. It wasn’t the gaze of someone ‘looking at people’, but just at something lifeless.
“Yes!”
“Even if it’s the end of the world, it doesn’t matter. As long as I can be with Juncheng, I can live happily anywhere. The other me must have thought the same way.”
“Then they are simply not qualified to be with Juncheng. If they can’t even ‘give up everything for you’, what right do they have to stand by Juncheng’s side?”
“Because, Juncheng, you did that for us, didn’t you? You gave everything for us, and you even died, didn’t you?”
Juncheng’s immense sacrifice for us ironically became Zihua’s ‘handle’.
“Lovers should give equally. You can’t let only one person suffer and endure~ Phew, so don’t worry, Juncheng. Even if the world is destroyed, I…. at least I will still be with you.”
So, it’s ‘purple’.
This woman seems to tacitly approve of Juncheng’s harem situation, but she still hasn’t given up her possessiveness?
Possessiveness and love are mixed together, becoming twisted and incredibly heavy.
With someone who has fallen into madness gripping the throat of fate, this world is also doomed.
