It’s Mom’s voice.
I turn to look behind me at the woman opening her arms toward me.
“Mom!”
I run to her and hug her.
“Mom, I missed you—”
But when I look up, that face is Lu Xiu’s.
I’m so startled that I slap him right away.
“Pa—!”
“Hiss—!!”
I jerk awake from the dream, and the first thing I see are Lu Xiu’s eyes, dead like fish out of water, and a bright red handprint on his face.
Shua shua—
The faucet gushes water, splashing against the sink, streaming down the little round drain.
The whole washroom is damp and moist, mixing the scents of soap and shampoo, and now, there’s the scent of toothpaste too.
“Glug glug—puh.”
Lu Xiu and I rinse our mouths in sync and spit out together.
One with dead fish eyes, the other half-awake.
The cowlick on top of my head stands tall, bobbing with my movements.
After washing up, Lu Xiu helps me tie my hair.
“Ow….”
“Stop, it hurts! You’re going to pull all my hair out.”
After a round of chaos, Lu Xiu finally manages a twisted set of twin ponytails—one big, one small, one high, one low, totally mismatched.
“It’s so ugly…”
I complain with disgust.
“It’s still better than your wild hair looking like a ghost.”
Since that day, it feels like things between us have gone back to how they used to be. Though Lu Xiu seems to treat me a bit nicer than before—he even buys me the jumbo-sized milk tea now.
As for the inspection above, they never did give a final result.
Qu Le only said there was no need to worry for now.
Eat, sleep, complete missions.
Then go home, watch TV, bathe, sleep.
Life is filled with the repetition of daily routine.
During this time, I still have to get regular checkups.
But Doctor Monkey is the physician, and he always gives me fruit candy after my exam.
I really like him.
“The preliminary monitoring results are: your ability acquisition is related to the level. The higher the level, the greater the effect on you. At the same time, your ability has limits, also related to the level.”
“Baota speculates that right now, some low-level grotesques or demon cores only allow you to gain powers temporarily, and the effect on you is also short-term.”
Lu Xiu reads the report’s conclusion.
“But if you devour high-concept items or grotesques and demons, then the effect lasts longer, and the ability might even become a permanent part of you.”
“I know this! Eating junk food is really fun, but it doesn’t help you grow tall. Eating healthy, nutritious food is tasty, and helps you grow.”
“What nonsense are you saying…”
He doesn’t get it at all, what a dummy.
“Oh right, Lu Xiu.”
“What?”
“What if I eat that seed thing?”
“You mean the Four Laws Seed?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“…I really suggest you don’t eat it.”
“Why not?”
“Come on, if you eat the Four Laws Seed, then you become the new Four Laws Seed, don’t you?”
Oh, that makes sense.
“And after you eat it, you might not even be yourself anymore. The report says it too: the higher the level, the greater the impact.”
“The Four Laws Seed is ranked way higher than even the Root Demons. What if you get possessed by the Four Laws Seed?”
That sounds bad.
“Possessed? What’s that?”
“It’s when someone else takes over your body.”
So scary…
Speaking of which.
“When I was escaping before, there was a voice in my head, talking to me the whole time, telling me to kill you. It even gave me the idea for how to escape.”
“You idiot, why didn’t you say so earlier?!”
“I’m not an idiot!”
Lu Xiu, both mad and amused, picks me up and rushes off to Baota.
“No problems?”
“Yes, the body is perfectly healthy. Teeth, aside from not being very pretty… cough, sorry, professional habit. Anyway, there are no abnormal fluctuations.”
Seeing Lu Xiu’s doubtful look, I quickly shake my head, “I’m not lying, it’s true!”
“Then there are two possibilities. One, that voice was temporary, probably a demon you ate, and it faded as you digested it. Two, the voice is highly concealed, maybe even from the same origin as you.”
Doctor Monkey says.
“The simplest way is to see if similar symptoms occur in the future. If so, it might be the second possibility. If not, it’s probably the first. But you can’t rule out hallucinations or reenactments from eating other demons or grotesques.”
“Understood.”
After seeing the doctor, Lu Xiu warns me on the way home not to eat random stuff anymore.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
I’m not the old me anymore.
Once home, I flop onto the sofa. My big tongue curls a pack of snacks from the table straight into my stomach, while Lu Xiu puts on his endlessly repeatable Hakimi music.
“It’s not meal time yet.”
“I’m not only thinking about food…”
“Then what do you want to talk about?”
“Can you tell me about this world?”
“That… well, first, not everything can be eaten.”
“I don’t want to hear about that. I mean those grotesques and demons and that seed. I want to know about those.”
“Why so motivated all of a sudden?”
I shake my head. “I just feel like if I don’t know, I’ll just keep eating forever.”
“…That’s actually pretty self-aware.”
He turns off the Hakimi music, sits up straight. “If that’s the case, just ask. I’ll tell you everything I know, but what I don’t know, I can’t help you with.”
“You’re such a good person.”
“Stop, stop, don’t give me the ‘good guy’ label. Just ask what you want to know.”
I nod.
“First question: What exactly is the Four Laws Seed?”
“I told you before, didn’t I?” He covers his head, “Fine, I’ll say it again.”
“First, the Four Laws Seed is closely tied to the concept of Catastrophe, and they come in levels. Most Four Laws Seeds have a title of reverence—like the [Prisoner] that the Golden Remnants worshipped.”
“That’s the title; the true identity is still unknown. Or the former Four Laws Seed [Kong Hai], which was a giant sky whale that nearly destroyed a small nation. Its corpse is currently being studied by an organization abroad.” He raises a second finger.
“Second, about the Four Laws Seed, you should know they usually have a specific form: grotesques, demons, innate spirits, or sometimes a containment object. Four Laws are the exception—the Four Laws Seeds, also called the Four Laws Seed, but we just say ‘Four Laws’ for short.”
“The Four Laws Seed can sometimes even be the weather, basically weird and unpredictable. That’s what makes them so hard to figure out.”
“Unlike other Four Laws Seeds, the Four Laws Seed doesn’t exist just to destroy things. It’s more of a vague concept, and during its growth, it will destroy other Four Laws Seeds as well.”
“So Four Laws Seeds aren’t united inside, and demons are the same. The Four Laws targets everyone—grotesques, demons, even itself.”
“Doesn’t that make it super scary?” I speak up.
“It does. I’ve said before, once a Four Laws Seed matures, everyone’s finished. It’s like if you’re playing chess with someone, and suddenly someone flips the board, pulls out a gun, bang bang shoots you and your opponent, then turns the gun on themselves. That’s how incomprehensible it is.”
He gestures with his hand like a gun at his own head.
“So back to your question—are the Four Laws scary? Extremely. But here’s the thing: only a matured Four Laws is terrifying. An unmatured one is just high-level, sometimes even weaker than a grotesque.”
“So rather than kill a Four Laws Seed, the better method is to seal it. Wait until it’s about to grow beyond our control, then kill it, and search for a new Four Laws Seed.”
“Only one Four Laws Seed can exist at a time; this restriction gives us a fighting chance. Also, in this process, we even work together with demons.”
“Eh? Demons? Aren’t they tricksters and villains?”
“But tricksters and villains want to survive too. They may be cunning, but they’re not stupid. If the Four Laws activates, they’re finished as well. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
He sits up straight, lips dry from all the talking, and takes a sip of water before he recovers.
“Any more questions?”
“The Four Laws! I’ve only heard you mention it once, and it was vague.”
“That… hmm, let me think how to phrase it.” He rubs his stubble.
“The Four Laws is short for the Four Great Final Laws. I think I mentioned the names before: [Deathly Silence Future], [Axiom’s Severance], [Fading Echoes], [Feast of the Return to the Void].”
“These names are all so hard to understand…” I can’t make heads or tails of it.
“They were picked by the higher-ups. Said they sound classy.”
“What a strange taste.”
“I think so too.”
Lu Xiu coughs twice, pulling the topic back.
“[Deathly Silence Future] corresponds to the death of time, meaning the death of possible futures. How to put it… it’s not what you think, where everyone’s time just stops and the world freezes. Not that kind of ending.”
“How did you know what I was about to say?” Are you a worm in my stomach or something?
“A lot of newcomers ask the same thing.” He sighs, “The true Deathly Silence Future is far scarier than time stopping. It kills every possibility leading to the future, to hope, even to destruction.”
“That sounds abstract… but it’s the best I can do. After all, we haven’t experienced the Final Law yet. Baota speculates that when it comes, society will regress—from civilization back to the primitive, then finally vanish into nothing. Even the possibility of life being born is erased along the way.”
“That’s not any clearer.”
“I’m really trying to explain it to you…”
“Fine, I don’t have any more questions.”
“I’m not done yet…”
“My brain can’t hold any more, let’s talk next time. For now, I’m going to sleep.”