From the end of the world

Chapter 496 Girl
The monster before seemed to have the ability to resurrect infinitely, but now it did not resurrect and appear near us again. It seems that the fire of murderous intent I injected has taken effect.

The power of the monsters in the doomsday era seems to be much more bizarre than the monsters I have heard of in the modern world. It is very likely that they have evolved adaptively to the environment of the doomsday era. However, even if they are doomsday monsters, they are still monsters in the final analysis, not things that really threaten the world. Although they have unique immortal rules, Da Wuchang is an earthly god who can redefine the rules of heaven and earth. There is no reason why I can't kill even something of this level.

Having said that, I still have to admit that the doomsday weirdness is powerful. After all, there are people who can open the skulls of gods. Fortunately, that "dark history" is unknown, otherwise I might be embarrassed to say the above big words in the future.

Therefore, I may still have to remain a little cautious, as the monster that resurrects infinitely may appear again in the future.

"It really didn't appear again... Was it really destroyed? Or did I misunderstand, and that monster is not the same individual as the one in the rumors?"

The cartographer seemed to be still puzzled, but he had to put it aside for the time being. He stopped in front of a store on the pedestrian street.

Judging from the sign hanging outside, this is a hot pot restaurant, and the front door is closed. The cartographer stood outside, knocked gently on the door in a regular pattern, then put the lantern against the door and took us back two steps.

It seems that this is the cartographer's safe house.

I vaguely heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind the door. With my keen hearing, I could even roughly analyze the height, weight and current movements of the person behind the door. The other person seemed to be a thin and short person, lying on the ground behind the door, probably peeking at the outside world through the crack of the door. In this posture, I should be able to see the blessing lantern placed next to the door.

After a moment, the other person slowly stood up and opened the door.

The person behind the door was a thin boy about eleven or twelve years old. He first looked at the cartographer, then at me and Tan Xiang, with an extremely vigilant expression on his face.

"I'm back," the cartographer said. "They are new companions."

The boy didn't say anything, just stared at me and Tan Xiang for a few seconds, then stepped aside. The cartographer picked up the lantern on the ground and went into the safe house with us.

After all, the safe house was originally a hot pot restaurant, with many tables and chairs. In the center was a large round table with a white blessing light floating above it.

The size of this blessing lamp is much larger than the blessing lamp in the lantern. The latter is only the size of a finger, while the former is slightly larger than the palm.

As a light source, the brightness of this blessed lamp is not very high, and the area of ​​the safe house is not small, so the interior is only dimly illuminated, and the outlines of nearby tables and chairs can barely be seen.

I saw another figure next to the big round table. It was a thin girl holding a picture album. She looked a little older than the boy, but still a child.

The girl showed no reaction to our entry. She just sat on the chair, staring blankly at the album in her hand.

I had heard before that the cartographer only had two companions in the safe house, but I didn't expect that they were two children. Now I understand why the cartographer took the risk of going out alone to collect supplies, and why he had two companions, and why he was so indifferent to new companions, and even acted a little anxious, actively trying to win over Tan Xiang, who seemed to have no survival skills. Compared with these two children, Tan Xiang is at least an adult.

In addition, the cartographer also said that he had a crazy partner who knew the clues about Xiaowan. The boy just now obviously didn't look crazy, so could the person I'm looking for be this girl?
"Is that her?" I asked the cartographer directly.

"No, it's someone else..." The cartographer looked bitter.

As if in response to his words, there was a sound of agitation and struggle from upstairs. My hearing caught it immediately, and like a bat, it formed a vague picture in my mind - there was a person tied up with metal chains upstairs, he fell to the ground, twisting and struggling, trying to break free with brute force.

The girl remained unmoved, the boy frowned, and Tan Xiang was startled and asked, "What's the noise?"

"I heard you only have two companions?" I asked.

The cartographer sighed and said, "It's hard to say that he is our partner now. So when I mentioned him to you before, although I still called him a partner, I couldn't count him in the number."

"Can I go see him now?"

In fact, I am also very curious about the blessed lights in the safe house, but in comparison, I care more about Xiaowan's clues.

"Of course, let me put my things away first."

The cartographer took off his backpack and his linen cloak. The boy next to him sensibly picked up the things the cartographer had taken off. The cartographer told the boy to sort out the supplies in the backpack, and then use some of the canned food and the remaining ingredients in the safe house to prepare meals. The boy was like a piece of wood, not saying a word, just nodding silently. While the two were interacting, I walked over to the girl. She was looking down at the album, as if she didn't notice my approach. The album was full of childish graffiti, and I don't know if she drew them herself.

Her eyes were dull and her lips were slightly open, reminiscent of a patient in a mental hospital. Her pupils seemed to be out of focus, and it was hard to tell whether she was looking at the album or just posing as if she was staring blankly. Due to the low ambient light, ordinary people could not tell what was in the album unless they squinted their eyes and looked carefully.

Considering my position as a guest, I thought I should be friendly, so I said, "You can't see clearly like this, it's not good for your eyesight in this dark, can I help you?"

Hearing this, the girl still didn't react like a wax figure. I took the initiative to summon a small fireball as a new light source. Thinking that the dimness of the safe house might also be used to hide myself in the vicinity, the brightness of the fireball I summoned was not very high, but it was close to the girl and the album, just enough to illuminate the pages of the album.

Perhaps feeling the new light and temperature, the girl finally reacted. She slowly moved her neck like a plant welcoming the daylight, and turned her face from the album to me.

To be precise, it turned to the small fireball in my hand.

She seemed not to be afraid of the glare, her eyes slowly widened, staring at the fireball for several seconds. Just as I was about to remind her to protect her eyes, her slightly opened mouth suddenly opened wider, and a sharp cry came out of her throat.

"--ah!!!"

Her reaction was so violent that it was like a person who was afraid of snakes being bitten on the nose by a flying snake. It was hard to imagine that the girl who was so quiet just now would have such a large amplitude of emotion at this moment. She screamed and kicked her legs back on the chair, but accidentally lost her balance and fell heavily to the ground.

"what happened!?"

The cartographer looked over when I summoned the fireball, and seemed confused by the girl's strange reaction. He rushed to the girl's side and leaned over to help her up.

I briefly explained what happened just now. The cartographer's face seemed to be full of question marks. After thinking for a while, he said: "Anyway, I'll take her inside to rest for a while..."

He picked up the girl and carried her horizontally to a room deep inside the safe house.

Perhaps he was taking time to calm the girl down, as he didn't come back until a long time later.

He looked at me in a very strange way.

"What did I do wrong?" I asked.

"...I just saw it all. You mean well, but..." The cartographer said sadly, "The child's situation is a little special. She used to be a member of another survivor team, and her parents may be among them.

"But one day, a 'powerful monster that can manipulate fire' attacked her team, and she was the only one who survived. After that, she became confused and seemed to have lost her mind. Although I protected her, I can only hear a few words from her until now. Most of the time, she keeps silent."

“That powerful monster that controls fire, who exactly is it…?” I felt like I had an association in my mind.

The girl's overreaction may be due to the psychological trauma of fire. Speaking of the powerful monsters that manipulate fire in the apocalypse, the only one I know is the Great Demon of Disaster.

The Great Demon is also one of the countless monsters that are rampant on the land of doomsday. It can even be said to be the king of monsters of this era.

Of course, manipulating fire is not a rare power. There are countless strange things that meet this condition in the modern world, let alone in the apocalypse. Ma Zao once told me during a chat that she had a piece of knowledge in her mind that came from nowhere, and the total number of strange things that appeared in the apocalypse is likely to be hundreds or thousands of times more than the total number of humans in the modern world. So it is also possible that I am just ignorant.

But based on my experience, all unfortunate coincidences will eventually happen in my future.

The cartographer looked at me and replied, "...I don't know. She didn't tell me."

Then he turned around, picked up the blessing lantern, and said, "Go upstairs first. Don't you want to see my crazy partner? I will take you to see him now."

He moved towards the stairs and I followed him. The boy had gone to prepare the meal, and Tan Xiang, who seemed not to want to be left alone, quickly followed us.

(End of this chapter)