Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo

Standing in this abandoned construction site, my heart was filled with emotions.

It was here that I had found Mazao. Always possessing unbelievable power but never encountering unbelievable adventures, it was from that moment that I finally began the first chapter of my life. This place was my Land of Destiny, where my story began.

To outsiders, this place might look desolate and empty, but to me, it seemed as if it were covered by a magical filter. Whether it was the weeds trembling in the cold wind or the piles of building waste nearby, and especially the unfinished building standing in front, they all seemed to carry a suggestive charm.

The lower floors of this unfinished building had relatively intact exterior walls and partitions, while the higher floors still lacked walls and partitions, roughly resembling layers of parking lots suspended in the air.

Agent Kong's emotionless voice came from beside me, "Zhuang Cheng, do you know about the urban legends circulating around this area?"

"I do," I said. "It's said to be haunted. When this area was still under construction, a supervisor who wasn't wearing a safety helmet passed under the building that was being built. Unfortunately, a hard object fell from a great height and struck his head.

"After his death, this construction site started to be inexplicably haunted, causing widespread panic. Eventually, the development and construction were abandoned and the building team withdrew from this place."

Agent Kong nodded in agreement and led me into the interior of the unfinished building; my view shifted from bright to ominously dim.

He seemed to be organizing the information he knew internally, then picked up where I left off, "That's pretty much it, these events happened before I was transferred here. There's a follow-up, which only became a hot topic in recent days. You might have heard that the evil spirit lurking here tries to abduct female university students passing by after school.

"The individuals involved claimed that when they passed this place late at night, they saw a man covered in blood standing atop the unfinished building, and then in a blink, found themselves inside the unfinished building, facing the blood-covered, twisted figure advancing towards them step by step.

"However, it seems the evil spirit's Mana was too weak; after transferring the person inside the building, it could do nothing more but watch the person escape in panic, unable to recapture them."

This was the information I had heard—unfortunately, no, rather fortunately, what I encountered here was not the clichéd evil spirits from the urban legends, but Mazao, who brought me "luck".

This time, Agent Kong was clearly investigating the local urban legends as an agent from Luo Mountain, and it was my first time investigating urban legends with someone from a supernatural organization.

In the past, I always kept to myself, misunderstood by those around me; now, I was exploring with people who seriously dealt with these oddities, and I couldn't help feeling very moved.

He seemed to ask casually, "Have you investigated this place before?"

"I..." I was about to say I had, but then I remembered certain traces inside the unfinished building, so I changed my statement halfway, "No, I was planning to come check it out recently."

"Is that so? Well, let's have a look together then. I investigated right after the rumors started spreading twice, and didn't encounter any evil spirits. But the individual's expression when they talked about their own experience didn't look like they were lying, so I think it's still good to check again." His tone was serious when he pretended to be a police officer, but now he had become more humorous, "Maybe it's because I'm not a female university student, the evil spirit isn't interested in a middle-aged uncle like me, so it doesn't appear before me."

Speaking of which, we walked along the corridor and passed the outside of some roughcast room on the lower floors when Agent Kong suddenly uttered in surprise and went inside the roughcast room to investigate.

That was precisely where I had found Mazao, and traces of blood remained on the ground from the other night; this was why I had just said I hadn't been here before.

Agent Kong crouched down, touching the traces of blood.

"Is this... blood, human blood?" he pondered, "It seems it was left not long ago... has someone already been harmed?"

"Maybe there really is an evil spirit here. Agent Kong, can you find the evil spirit in this place?" I feigned ignorance about the blood and asked anxiously, "What if the evil spirit never shows up?"

"Don't worry. I'm a professional after all, naturally, I have a way." He smiled confidently, then stood up, "Some oddities have specific rules of engagement, such as targeting only children, or only those who are ill, or, like this time, only targeting people of a specific gender...therefore, they won't easily show themselves in front of other targets.

"But we agents can't just give up on our investigations for such reasons, we also need to have methods to bypass those special rules."

My curiosity was piqued; was he about to demonstrate in front of me his real skills in forcing oddities to reveal themselves?

Honestly, compared to demon hunters' combat methods, I was more interested in Luo Mountain agents' real skills in investigating oddities.

Agent Kong pulled out a silver-gray square the size of a cellphone from his pocket.

The square had a dark gray paper film on the surface, which he tore off, revealing simple yet profound engraved symbols, much like metal talisman paper.

"You might have heard this saying, 'Oddities attract other oddities,'" he explained to me, "Although the specific principles of this rule are still unclear, if we narrow it down to evil spirits, there are theories that can explain it.

"Just like humans with a ravenous appetite find high-calorie, high-fat foods incredibly delicious, those empty evil spirits also relish devouring high-quality souls. And when such a soul appears before them, even if it does not align with their usual hunting interests, they cannot restrain their instincts and can't help but strike."

I looked at the "metal talisman paper" in his hand and guessed, "Does this item contain the kind of soul you mentioned?"

"How could it! What you're suggesting is too sinister. This is merely a tool that emits the same scent as nearby evil spirits." He fell silent for a moment before continuing, "If the ghost stories are true, the evil spirits here are only low-level ones driven by instinct. Even though they ordinarily target female college students, they would surely be irresistibly drawn to this item, forgetting themselves in their frenzy."

"I see..." I looked around, on guard for any enemies that might appear. "But if the evil spirit really does show up, won't you, Agent Kong, be in danger?"

"I have an amulet provided by Luo Mountain for its agents, which prevents harm from low-level evil spirits." He smiled. "And even if something unexpected happens, aren't you here too? Let's see your true capabilities, prospective demon hunter Zhuang Cheng."

Hearing this, I resolved to show my skills here too.

Merely showing my skills probably wouldn't suffice. Since Zhu Shi thought my defenses were insufficient for a long career as a demon hunter, I had to unveil abilities here that I hadn't used before. Even though Zhu Shi himself wasn't here, it was good to let Agent Kong see.

If I just talked about it, they might think I was boasting, but demonstrating them in actual combat would leave no room for doubt.

I remained vigilant, eagerly anticipating the sudden appearance of an evil spirit. Agent Kong also fell silent, intently watching.

But after a while, the space remained silent, and Agent Kong wore a puzzled expression.

Moments later, he couldn't help but say, "How come... nothing's happening?"

"Could the local ghost stories also be false?" was my immediate thought.

"That shouldn't be the case. Based on my experience, there's a high probability that evil spirits truly exist here..." He was greatly perplexed, glancing back at the metal talisman paper. "The soul-attracting charm shows no sign of malfunction... Could there be some other factor preventing the evil spirit from coming here?"

"Rumors say evil spirits roam during the deep night; could it be a matter of timing?" I asked.

"Evil spirits indeed fear sunlight, but this place is indoors, the birthplace of the evil spirit. Even if it dislikes daytime, it should still appear irresistibly drawn by the soul-attracting charm." He pondered repeatedly, "Could it be that there really are no evil spirits here? Or is there another influencing factor that deters them from coming close to this place..."

"Let's wait a bit longer; maybe the evil spirit is still getting up." I was already accustomed to unmet expectations and had developed more patience in this regard.

He nodded slightly and waited with me. However, after a long time, there was still no sign of any evil spirit.

Zhu Shi had mentioned last night that there seemed to be a mutual repulsion between me and supernatural entities, which is why I had always been unable to encounter what I sought.

Could the reason for the evil spirit's absence also be based on the same grounds?

Even the soul-attracting charm seemed unable to negate this unknown repulsion, but technically, Mazao's Broom Star Physique should have already neutralized my unknown repulsion issue... How should this be explained?

Could there really be no evil spirits here?

Or does this place, as my "Land of Destiny," even in this aspect have a style all its own?

At this point, Agent Kong could only pocket the soul-attracting charm and temporarily leave the unfinished building with me.

We moved away from the abandoned construction site, and on the way, he apologized, "I'm sorry, I brought you here to witness something strange, but it ended up being a wasted trip."

"No worries, I'm used to it." My mind was fairly stable.

"Used to it..." he gave a wry smile, then thoughtfully said, "Which brings me to a question…"

"What question?"

"Since you are so persistent in your pursuit of the supernatural and possess extraordinary superpowers, why have you never revealed yourself?" he inquired, scrutinizing me.

"What do you mean?" I countered.

"Even though you've only recently learned about the existence of Luo Mountain, you could have inferred from the start that there were supernatural organizations in this country," he remarked with curiosity. "If you had openly displayed your superpowers to the people around you in broad daylight, Luo Mountain would naturally have approached you, and you could have contacted Luo Mountain through that. Why haven't you done that? Are you afraid of being treated as a test subject by official forces, imprisoned, or even dissected for research?"