From the end of the world

Chapter 90: Sharing What You Have 4
"I know." Zhu Shi nodded confidently, "At the moment when he was burned by Zhuang Cheng's flame, he used his ability."

"What are his abilities?" I am also very concerned about this question.

"Hmm... let's just call it 'Shadow Changing'."

As she spoke, Zhu Shi began to explain the details of the "Shadowshift" ability that she had observed.

This ability is quite simple. The last monster was able to transfer damage to his clone, but this monster can switch places with his clone regardless of the distance. For the sake of convenience, the former is called "the immortal monster" and the latter is called "the shadow-changing monster".

The Shadow Changer and the Immortal Body Changer's abilities have one thing in common, which is that when they suffer fatal damage, their abilities will be passively triggered and they will save their masters' lives on their own.

The moment I caused fatal damage to the Shadow Changer's main body, the main body automatically swapped places with the clone that was somewhere else. This passively triggered exchange even has the effect of modifying the causal relationship. Originally, the Shadow Changer's main body was really burned by me, but after the ability was activated, the cause and effect of the burns were also exchanged to the clone, and the reality became "the one I burned was the clone from the beginning."

I was quite surprised after hearing this, but Ma Zao looked as if he was used to it.

"Is this strange power of modifying cause and effect common?" I asked.

"It's not that common, but it's not that strange either. In fact, the weirdo we dealt with last night, his ability 'damage transfer' is also a kind of ability that transfers the cause and effect of his own injury to his clone, right?" Zhu Shi explained, "It is precisely because he transferred the cause and effect of his own injury that he in reality went from being seriously injured and dying to being intact without any signs. That is also a phenomenon of reality distortion."

"Strange phenomena such as modifying reality and reversing cause and effect are relatively frequent in the doomsday era." Ma Zao nodded.

"We humans consciously or unconsciously classify the concepts we come into contact with into high and low levels. The reason why we feel that concepts such as cause and effect and time and space are more mysterious than visible flames is because those concepts are far beyond our intuition." Zhu Shi said, "If we can look at things from a natural perspective, we may feel that those are just the many elements that make up nature, and humans are just making a fuss.

"Strange things don't follow common sense, let alone human intuition. The same is true for supernatural powers. Supernatural powers involving cause and effect and time and space sometimes appear in ordinary monsters and demon hunters as if it were a matter of course. Even so, it doesn't mean that those monsters and demon hunters are powerful.

"For the truly powerful, modifying reality and cause and effect is nothing more than a fancy trick. Even without those superpowers, Great Impermanence is still Great Impermanence, because the rules are always made by pure and powerful forces. So Zhuang Cheng, there is no need for you to be surprised by those superpowers. Your ability to manipulate fire is actually much stronger than those superpowers."

After hearing the last part, I realized that she was worried that I would be scared.

Actually, I'm not afraid.

I recalled the feeling when I caught the weirdo with my flaming palm. At that time, I felt like "something was about to escape", and because I didn't react in time, it really escaped. According to what Zhu Shi said now, could it be that what escaped at that time was something similar to cause and effect?

So if I had been well prepared at that time, would I have been able to grasp the "cause and effect" itself?

I became curious about this matter. I wanted to know and try again. If I tried to catch that weirdo again, maybe I could catch the thing that escaped in time.

"Since you don't have any clues about the escaped monster, can you give us his severed hand?" Zhu Shi looked at the plastic bag that Ma Zao was holding. "We have a demon hunter who is good at divination. If we have the severed hand, we may be able to track down the opponent's location."

“Hmm…” Ma Zao was a little embarrassed.

"is it not OK?"

Maybe even Zhu Shi herself was not aware of it, her voice became a little softer now. I felt that she probably mistook Ma Zao, who looked no different from a junior high school girl, for her younger sister.

Mazao does have many elements that trigger others' desire to protect her. Although she always appears to be very alert and prickly, and has the mission of preventing the end of the world from coming and fighting alone, and has an unfortunate physique that attracts disasters, she is only a 13 or 14-year-old girl, and it is impossible not to feel pity for her. Even I, who consider myself a villain, can't help but watch her smile when she sees delicious food, and I hope to see her smile more often.

"...Actually, I also have a skill similar to divination." Ma Zao said after thinking, "Since you have seen through my blessing power, I will tell you directly. When I use the blessing power, I can use my consciousness to trace back to the target's past experiences. So this broken hand is also of some use to me. But..."

"But?" Zhu Shi asked.

"It's okay to give you the severed hand, but I want to keep one of his fingers. Is that okay?" Ma Zao gave his opinion.

"Okay." Zhu Shi nodded directly.

Ma Zao took the severed hand out of the plastic bag, summoned the phantom kukri, cut off the thumb of the severed hand, and then handed the main part of the severed hand to Zhu Shi.

I looked around and luckily no one was passing by. On the street after dark, a beautiful girl with the appearance of a junior high school girl and a beautiful college girl were exchanging bloody human body parts. This scene was so weird. If a passerby passed by and took a photo and posted it on the Internet, who knows what kind of weird urban legend would appear.

I was the first-hand witness of this urban legend. After realizing this, I felt a sense of joy and achievement. After receiving the severed hand, Zhu Shi said to Ma Zao, "Then I will hand it over to our patrol. Where do you plan to stay overnight? If there is no other place..."

"Of course Ma Zao has to stay overnight at my house." I said without thinking.

"You really didn't hesitate at all..." Zhu Shi was dumbfounded. "Generally speaking, would anyone bring a member of the opposite sex to live in their home so directly? Although I don't suspect that you have any ill intentions, you should at least have some self-awareness, right?"

"This is a choice based on the process of elimination," I said seriously. "First of all, we definitely can't let Ma Zao sleep outdoors, but she doesn't have an ID card, so she can't stay in a hotel or inn. You have Chang'an and grandparents at home, so it's not convenient to take Ma Zao there. I live alone, and Ma Zao has experience living in my house, so it's most reasonable to let her stay the night with me."

In fact, these are all reasons I made up. I just don’t want Ma Zao to leave my sight.

"Why can't I let her stay overnight at my place when I have a brother and grandparents at home?" Zhu Shi seemed to have not reacted yet.

Ma had already realized this, and she immediately said, "Didn't I say before that I am a jinx who attracts weird things... In fact, just talking to you like this is dangerous for you. I do want to use your power to collect evidence of the near end of the world, but if you can't accept me and think that I will bring disaster to you, then..."

As she spoke, her expression became more and more gloomy, and Zhu Shi suddenly said loudly: "It doesn't matter!"

"Huh?" Ma Zao was startled by the other party's suddenly louder voice.

"The reason why you left Zhuang Cheng in the past was because you were afraid that you would affect him, right?" Zhu Shi put his hands on Ma Zao's shoulders and looked straight into Ma Zao's eyes.

“Yes, yes…” Ma Zao was at a loss and looked at me for help.

"But you don't have to worry about affecting me!" Zhu Shi said sternly, "I am Luo Shan Wu Chang, and my duty is to sweep away the weird and protect society. If you can lure out all the weird things lurking in the dark of this city, I would be more than happy. Similarly, I will protect you and save you from the threat of weird things."

"Uh... I can protect myself." Ma Zao said in a rare weak tone, "Also... my shoulder hurts a little from your grip."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Zhu Shi let go of his hand and continued, "In short, you don't need to worry about putting me in danger. You can rest assured to cooperate with me."

"Me too." I added, "I am now an outsider impermanent, and an outsider impermanent is also impermanent. If you are in danger, you can ask me for help."

Zhu Shi complained: "On the contrary, I feel that Senior Brother Zhuang, you are one of the dangerous factors around her..."

"Zhuang Cheng is dangerous to me?" Ma Zao was puzzled, "Why?"

"Maybe it's because she thinks it's not appropriate for me, as a person of the opposite sex, to live under the same roof with you," I said.

"I see. It's okay. I was actually worried about something similar at first, but Zhuang Cheng didn't have that kind of thought about me." Ma Zao said to Zhu Shi, "I'll go back to Zhuang Cheng's house to spend the night. Thank you for your concern."

"Okay..." Zhu Shi could only accept it.

Ma Zao studied Zhu Shi's face and suddenly asked, "By the way, have we met somewhere before?"

"Huh? No. Why are you asking this suddenly?" Zhu Shi asked puzzledly.

"I just feel like I've seen your face somewhere..." Ma Zao said this but couldn't explain why.

I silently noted her strange behavior.

Seeing that the other party had no further words, Zhu Shi could only let it go. Then he separated from us and said that he would take the severed hand to find Lu Youxun.

Ma Zao and I were walking in the opposite direction, heading towards my home.

After walking for a distance, we stopped at the same time.

Next, we are going to talk about some things that are not convenient for Zhu Shi to hear.

(End of this chapter)