From the end of the world

Chapter 122 Sleeping Together 2
In video games that have the element of killing monsters to level up, there is a very simple way to confirm whether the enemy monster is dead, that is to see if your experience value increases. If it does not increase, it means that the enemy is most likely not dead, and may even reappear in front of the player character in a second form.

My "slag" is a substance that only appears after killing someone, and it seems to be similar to the experience points that only increase after killing enemy monsters. Since Zhu Shi said that the main body of the monster maker is the consciousness network, and so many "experience points" are added after destroying the consciousness network, it means that Ying Lingyun must have died in my hands.

But is this really the case?

Once I thought of the gray mist that mysteriously emerged from the consciousness network and the speculation that the monster maker's real body, Ying Lingyun, might have fragments of the divine seal, I could no longer declare his death with certainty.

For the sake of convenience, I will continue to call the Monster Maker who died in front of me "Monster Maker", and call his real body "Ying Lingyun".

The Divine Seal is the ultimate artifact that can change the world, and even its fragments cannot be underestimated. Although I cannot effectively use the fragments of the Divine Seal in my hand now, Ying Lingyun, as a senior decision-maker of the Humanitarian Department and also a researcher, may have already developed the technology to use the fragments of the Divine Seal (assuming he has the fragments). The black mist that can block the power of supernatural powers and the gray mist that appeared at the last moment are evidence of this.

The gray mist not only hindered my perception and superpowers, but also prevented me from judging whether Ying Lingyun was alive or dead. It was hard to believe that a person who manipulated such a mysterious power at the last moment died without any suspense like a small fish on the roadside.

It is true that the Monster Maker believed that his original body 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 and death was questionable.

His knowledge of the God Seal fragments was just hearsay, and he didn't seem to fully believe that Ying Lingyun had the God Seal fragments, and he didn't even necessarily believe in the existence of the God Seal itself. I could doubt that Ying Lingyun "would not die because he had the God Seal fragments", but he didn't necessarily agree with me.

I even felt that his real body would reappear vividly later, and appear in front of me with that arrogant attitude again.

I pondered my speculation over and over again, and slowly, I tasted a truth.

Perhaps I not only find it hard to believe that Ying Lingyun would die so easily, but I also don’t want to never see him again.

Those weirdos I fought with in the past, Agent Kong, the Immortal Monster, the Shadow-Changing Monster...their expressions before death were always regretful, embarrassed, or desperate.

The Monster Maker, on the other hand, showed a different kind of magnanimity, he readily admitted his defeat and then died.

To be honest, I might have fallen in love with him a little.

In future adventures, I will definitely encounter a real life-and-death crisis, and it won't be surprising if I die at any time. When the time comes, I want to face my own death calmly like him. In fact, after walking out of the basement on the 15th floor, I have never thought that I can't do it, but the future is always unknown. Now I have a respect for the monster maker and the pioneer.

Even the clone is so dignified, how bad can the original body be?

Although I was very sorry that I was not able to experience the life-and-death battle that I wanted, I gained precious experience from another perspective. It is true that a blessing in disguise.

As the night went on, Ma and I were almost ready to go to bed. In fact, just like eating and drinking, we didn't need sleep that much, it was just a tacit understanding.

Before going to bed, Ma Zao made a request to me.

"You want to sleep with the fragment of the divine seal?" I asked.

"Yes."

She nodded, then explained her motives.

Her idea was very simple, which was to enter the foggy dream.

Since I can enter the misty dream by holding the fragment of the divine seal, then she may be able to do the same thing. For her, the misty dream itself may not be very attractive. What really worries her is the small bowl No. 2 that appeared in the misty dream.

Small bowl number two is at the critical juncture of life and death, and it is impossible for Ma Zao to ignore it.

I don't mind lending the fragment of the divine seal to Ma Zao, but there is an obstacle, that is the automatic return phenomenon of the fragment of the divine seal - as long as I throw the fragment of the divine seal far away, it will automatically return to me soon. Sometimes even if I forget to bring it with me when I go out, it will follow me by itself, just like a cursed object in a supernatural story.

Of course, this phenomenon may not be triggered when I am not far away from the fragment of the divine seal. For example, under the same roof, Ma may have fallen asleep with the fragment of the divine seal instead of me.

However, the actual test results were not optimistic. When held by someone else, the automatic return of the God Seal fragment became easier to trigger. After I gave the God Seal fragment to Ma Zao, as long as I was not careful, the God Seal fragment would return to me. Even if I stared at it with full concentration, the target would have been moved when I came to my senses.

In the final analysis, the reason why the fragment of the divine seal returned to me was because there was a mysterious binding relationship between me and it. Even if Ma Zao could hold it and fall asleep, would it really pull Ma Zao, who was not bound, into the misty dream?
Perhaps Ma Zao herself had thought about this before, which is why she didn't propose this idea to me right away last night. But now she has made a decision after careful consideration: "There is another way." "What way?" I was curious.

Unexpectedly, she said something shocking: "We can hold hands and sleep."

"What?" I was surprised.

She walked up to me, took my left hand holding the fragment of the divine seal, and put our palms together.

“As long as this is done, the fragment of the Divine Seal will still be in your hands. At the same time, I can sleep with the fragment of the Divine Seal in my hand… and we can both try to see if we can enter the misty dream tonight, killing two birds with one stone…”

As she spoke, she seemed to realize that her behavior was too intimate. She looked embarrassed and her voice became weak: "Um, I..."

I also felt a little shocked, and couldn't help but confirm: "So... you want to sleep with me?"

"...Yes, that's it." She nodded slowly.

"Sleep on the sofa together?" I was still a little dazed.

"Of course I sleep on the bed." She thought for a moment and then added, "If you hate sleeping on the bed with me, I can also sleep on the floor next to the bed. But in that case, I'll have to trouble you to reach under the bed and hold hands with me."

"I did not mean that."

I reorganized my thoughts and asked back, "Aren't you afraid that I might do something to you?"

Although Ma Zao has formed a sense of companionship with me now, I can see that she still has a sense of distance. Only when other people are present can I feel that I am treated differently by her.

In this modern society where no one believes in their own origins, I am the only one who completely believes in her and can provide her with help, and can also save her only friend in the doomsday era - I am convinced that I have become an indispensable person to her.

But even though we are inseparable, we are still opposite sexes, and we are not close enough to be considered intimate. So I never thought she would make such a suggestion, which was unimaginable in the first few days of our acquaintance. Of course, I know that she has no intention of being ambiguous with me now.

She looked at me with a puzzled look, as if she didn't understand why I said that, or she couldn't imagine me touching her.

"You're not a pervert like Shadow-Changer who likes little girls, so there's nothing to be happy about you touching me." She touched her body as she spoke, "Well, although I'm not a child anymore and I'm gaining weight in some places, it's still hard to see with clothes on. Normal men probably wouldn't be interested in someone like me."

That’s hard to say. You still don’t understand men well enough.

I really want to complain like this, but in order to avoid her having a bad impression of me, I'd better not say anything more.

We finally decided on this plan of holding hands while sleeping.

Although Ma had shown shyness about getting close to each other, she insisted on this plan because of the danger to the second bowl. I didn't pretend to resist this kind of ambiguous development. I guess both from the perspective of an observer and from my own perspective, I would only feel that I was getting the benefit.

If I have to say, I am still a little nervous. Because I care a lot about what Ma Zao thinks of me, and I have indeed looked at her as a member of the opposite sex before. This is my first experience of sleeping in the same bed with a young girl of the opposite sex. After all, Ma Zao is a girl at a sensitive age, and I can only hope that I will not do anything unintentionally offensive in the future, which will greatly reduce her favorability towards me.

I took a shower to avoid the bad smell, then changed my clothes and went back to the bedroom to replace the pillowcases, quilt covers and sheets on the bed with new ones. Seeing how carefully I prepared, Ma Zao also took a shower as a courtesy. For a moment, I didn't even know what we were going to do next.

She didn't have any spare clothes, and I was careless not to buy her a second set of clothes last time. Although it's not impossible to clean the original clothes with the power of blessing, since she imitated me and took a polite bath, she also changed her clothes politely. She still used my clothes that I used to wear at my house, that is, the 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 turning off the lights, we went to bed together.

(End of this chapter)