From the end of the world

Chapter 51 Friends 2
Changan suddenly became panicked and stood up from the long table.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Or you can just tell me the truth and we can work out a solution together! Don't worry about implicating me!" he said anxiously.

The customers and shop assistants around him looked at him, then looked away. No one paid much attention to what was happening here.

Seeing Chang'an so flustered and anxious, even I couldn't help but feel my face getting hot and felt ashamed and guilty.

But the lie has already been told, and now I can only stick to it.

"Don't be so nervous." I consciously put on a strong and confident tone, "This matter is not as dangerous as you think. I have prepared a perfect response strategy. Just think of it as me contracting a special infectious disease. It is not convenient for me to casually interact and talk with acquaintances during this period... Especially those who have witnessed the cave like me."

"Does it also have anything to do with whether or not you've seen the cave?" he asked.

"I'm not in a position to reveal more." I resorted to mysticism.

Actually, no, I was just making it up from the beginning to the end. I only added this patch in case Chang'an accidentally witnessed me communicating normally with other people after this.

My idea is very simple, that is, I plan to "temporarily" distance myself from him in the early stage, and then slowly extend this period of time, and finally let the relationship between us fade. If he wants to come to me during this period, I can also come up with more reasons, such as "If you come closer, it will intensify the situation and make our situation dangerous" and so on.

I always feel very sorry for him, but this is also to prevent him from being affected.

Changan sat back down, unwilling to give up, and asked, "Is there really nothing I can do to help?"

I answered firmly: "No."

"I see..." he said dejectedly.

This time it was my turn to stand up.

"Then let's just say goodbye."

Looking at his face, thinking that this might be the last time we could have a serious conversation, I didn't know what to say for a moment, so I could only repeat the same old tune: "Don't go to nightclubs all the time in the future, be more careful. It's not like you can't have a girlfriend. Isn't it much better to have a good relationship with a female classmate than to go to nightclubs to find women?"

He laughed dryly and retorted, "How can this be compared? Going to a nightclub to find a woman is a pure relationship of body and money, but if you go to a female classmate, you have to have a messy relationship. I'm not stupid, why would I fall into this trap?"

This was a conversation that had been repeated many times in the past. I was not angry at his rebuttal, but I just felt indescribable emotion and sadness, and then left this place.
-
Walking on the way home, I lowered my head and thought.

Chang An probably wouldn't give up so easily, he was just such a weird person. Maybe he would go to the room on the fifteenth floor again, but the ritual array in that place had been erased by Zhu Shi.

To take a step back, even if the ritual array still exists, it is originally a defective product with an astronomically low probability of activation, so there is nothing to worry about... No, there is still something to worry about, because Chang'an has also triggered the ritual array when he was alone.

If I was able to open the cave because of Ma Zao's favor, was it the same for Chang An? Was it just because he was close to me and had been affected by Ma Zao's bad luck?

Fortunately, the ritual array has been erased, removing the last dangerous factor. Although I am not without regrets about the disappearance of the ritual array, I still have the video recording of the ritual array, so it is possible to reopen the entrance to the "space that does not exist in reality" in other places.

I bought two spicy roasted pig's feet on the way, and then entered the community where my home was. I first went to the express cabinet to pick up the express, and then returned to my doorstep.

Through the "firefly" set up in my home, I saw Ma Zao's current state. She was still sitting on the sofa, staring at the scenery outside the French window in a daze, like a canary imprisoned by a bad guy.

When she is alone, she reads books or turns on the TV to learn about how modern society works through current affairs news. She often daydreams like this, and I don’t know if she is recalling the memories of living in the apocalyptic world or if she just likes to be like a plant and let time pass by quietly.

Now I have designed a "firefly" that can store preset instructions, and it can monitor Ma Zao's activities on my behalf even when I sleep. However, just like the human mind will gradually forget the past, the "firefly" will also forget my preset instructions over time. If I want to maintain it, I must correct it regularly.

The preset command stored in the "firefly" I left near Ma Zao is "Once Ma Zao steps out of the range of this home, send me an alarm." In recent times, Ma Zao has indeed abided by the agreement and has not tried to leave here once.

But sometimes, I have other concerns. In the past, I was worried that "Firefly" would be noticed by Zhu Shi, so I didn't let "Firefly" follow him. And since Ma Zao is also a "superpower" with extraordinary powers (at least I believe so), is it possible that she can also detect "Firefly"?

Until now she had always acted as if she was unaware, was it because she really was unaware, or was it because her soul was wounded that she was unable to perceive?
Or... did she actually know that I was monitoring her all along?
Once I realized this possibility, my heart started beating faster.

Compared to this problem, I now have more serious and urgent problems.

Now is the "third day".

Three days ago, Ma made an agreement with me that she would only stay at my house for three days, and now is the "third day". In other words, she will leave tomorrow, but I haven't found a way to convince her to stay longer. If I just want to extend it for another two or three days, it should be possible. Because her current recovery progress is not so ideal, she is temporarily unable to use the so-called "blessing power". But what about after the extension? If there is a way, I naturally hope that she can stay with me voluntarily.

Of course, it doesn't mean that I can't keep her if she doesn't want to, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to say goodbye to Chang'an just now. If there is no other way, I can still use coercive means. Even if she can use space transfer to leave, it will be useless. I have left my "mark" on her body so that I can grasp her location at any time, and enter the "second form" when necessary to directly teleport myself to the target location.

Ma Zao and Agent Kong are not the only ones who can teleport. I can also imitate similar skills.

The so-called "mark" does not refer to the "firefly". In the final analysis, the "firefly" is a prop that monitors her from the outside and cannot penetrate into her body. In other words, when she uses the power of space transfer to leave, the "firefly" can no longer locate her.

The true identity of the mark is a piece of "heat".

My superpower is not just the ability to transform flames with my mind, I can also transform the heat of flames separately, and this heat is also the manifestation of my mind. The reason why I was able to track down Agent Kong who escaped through the shadow world last time was because he still had the heat from my flames in his body.

Leaving this kind of thermal mark on Ma Zao should be easier to expose than the "firefly". If you think about it carefully, you will know that if a part of someone's body is hotter than other parts, and it can't fade away for unknown reasons, it will definitely feel wrong. But it was also thanks to the battle with Agent Kong that my mind was opened.

Why do I have to put the thermal energy mark on the opponent's body surface? Can't I just put it directly into the opponent's internal organs?
The human internal organs are not as sensitive to temperature changes as the skin, and the internal organs are originally warm, so a slight increase in the temperature of a certain area will not be noticed. And to be on the safe side, I put this thermal marker in when Ma goes to bed early, so that her body may adapt before she wakes up, making it even more difficult to notice the change.

I put the heat marker on her stomach and treated it as a stomach warmer.

However, I feel that it is still not safe enough to just do this.

I have to do one more insurance job...

Thinking of this, I opened the door and walked into the house.

Ma Zao was still as sensitive as ever to changes in the outside world. As soon as I opened the door, she reacted immediately and turned her head towards me.

Then she jumped off the sofa and ran to me.

I handed the plastic bag containing two servings of spicy roasted pork trotters to her.

"Have you bought food again? I'm not a child. Don't always feed me. It makes me seem like I'm greedy." She said speechlessly.

No, you are actually a child.

"Don't you want to eat it? It's delicious, but it will get cold if you leave it out any longer," I said.

Although she said that just now, she still cherished the food. Hearing that, she stretched out her hand and was about to take out one of the roasted pig's trotters. Suddenly, she hesitated.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"……nothing."

She took one of the roasted pig's trotters and looked at me again. After I took a bite of the roasted pig's trotter in my hand, she started eating and returned to the sofa with a heavy heart.

I roughly know what's on her mind. During this period, I have always shown my full efforts to keep her, but she is leaving tomorrow.

If it was when they just met, she would definitely speak out her intentions directly. But she seemed to have a low defense against "the kindness from others"... No, that shouldn't be the case. Maybe she is not good at dealing with kindness, but before confirming whether this kindness is true or false, she will be doubly alert.

It's just that she probably has higher expectations for people living in a peaceful society, so she agrees with me a little. Right now, she's probably thinking about how to say goodbye to me without making me sad.

When faced with her like this, my choice was to walk to the table, pick up a pair of scissors, open the package I had just taken from the express cabinet, and then take out a well-made red bracelet from it.

This is a GPS bracelet I bought online.

I turned my back to Ma Zao, paired the red GPS bracelet with my phone, and turned around.

Ma was attracted by the movement here and looked over curiously.

And I said seriously: "Morning, I have a gift for you."

(End of this chapter)