From the end of the world

Chapter 138: Virtual Realm 4
It’s small bowl number two!
Seeing that it was really her, I felt relieved. Number One also relaxed immediately and said, "You are the last one to arrive this time."

"I'm sorry, I'm late." No. 2 said timidly. In fact, no one had agreed on a time, so there was no such thing as being late.

While speaking, she seemed to be observing the several figures present.

Her eyes passed No. 1, paused at the new No. 5, then quickly avoided No. 4 Xuan Ming, and finally stopped at me, and she made a tentative sound: "Mr. No. 3?"

"It's me." I said, "How are you doing lately? I'm asking about your progress in becoming a demon."

As I said this, I glanced at Number One, who seemed to be thinking: "Karma Demonization..."

"My condition is very bad." No. 2 Little Bowl lowered his head and said bitterly, "Last time I said I could hold on for ten days, but now that more than half of the time has passed, I feel like I can't hold on any longer. If I can't get my name back this time, I'm afraid I will completely become a demon after I go back. So..."

From what she said, the speed of time on her side seems to be roughly the same as on my side. Although it doesn't seem reasonable to compare the speed of time between different eras.

At the end of her speech, she raised her head and looked at me with some expectation.

I then said the words I had prepared for a long time: "Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission."

It seemed like it took her two or three seconds to understand what I meant, and then she made a happy sound: "Really?"

"Really. I've already found out your name." I said, "But it's not convenient to talk here. You don't want others to hear your name, right? Let's talk at a distance."

"Okay, okay!" She nodded repeatedly.

Under the gaze of others, we temporarily left the seating area and went deeper into the fog. After walking to a distance where others probably couldn't hear our voices, we walked a little further and then stopped.

She turned her head and looked at me impatiently. I was also impatient. As long as I told her my name, I could finally complete the task with Ma Zao. The feeling of being expected by someone you value is both sweet and heavy, and the feeling of disappointing them is so bitter and cold. I don't want to taste that feeling again.

"Excuse me, Mr. Number Three, what is my name?" she asked.

"——Xiaowan." I said as if it were a magic spell, "Your name is Xiaowan. Small, like bowl in bowls and chopsticks."

Hearing this, Little Bowl No. 2 seemed to be controlled by the spell and immersed in a trance of complete oblivion.

"That's my name..."

She talked to herself, and then fell into a long silence. I waited for a long time, but she didn't respond. She just lowered her head and paused there in a trance.

I didn't interrupt her and let her continue to daydream. But as time went on, I couldn't help but let my mind wander.

Is there something wrong with the name I gave, or did I remember it wrong? That shouldn't be the case. The small one is the bowl in the bowl and chopsticks. I remember it very clearly. Or is the number two in front of me not actually the small bowl? That's impossible, Ma Zao only has this one friend. Although I know that I can't make a mistake, I am confused because of my concern. This is my current state.

After a long while, she took a deep breath as if she had just surfaced, and then said very solemnly: "Sorry for the long wait. Thank you, Mr. No. 3. You helped me get my name back. This is a life-saving favor, and I will never forget it."

It was strange to see a child that young say something to me like "I'll never forget it", but those were minor details compared to her return to normal.

"You're welcome. What happened to you just now?"

"Because I forgot my name and part of myself, I also forgot a lot of things. Just now, I suddenly retrieved a lot of memories, so I need time to digest and sort them out." She explained patiently in a childish voice, and then sighed, "When I first met Sister Ma Zao, I almost became a demon in the wild. It was she who used her blessing power to help me stop from the brink, and then she kept me by her side, so that I got the name 'Xiao Wan'. I didn't expect that I would even forget such a thing..."

"Come to think of it, I've been wondering about this for a long time... Was it Ma Zao who gave you the name 'Xiao Wan'?"

Seeing that she seemed to like the name Xiaowan very much, I didn't complain that the name looked weird.

"I took it myself at first," she said.

I asked curiously, "What do you mean by 'at the beginning'?"

"When I named myself this, I originally wanted to combine Xiao for big and Wan for evening. You see, the 'Zao' in Ma Zao's name means morning, so I wanted to pair it with hers." She seemed to be recalling a funny thing in the past and explained with a smile, "I thought Ma Zao must have seen through my intention, so I didn't explain too much. It took a long time before I realized that she had misunderstood the 'Wan' in my name as the 'Wan' in bowls and chopsticks. Later, I made the best of it and continued using this misunderstanding."

No wonder when I asked Ma Zao whether she came up with the name "Xiao Wan", she said vaguely that "I came up with it a little bit"! So when she first introduced herself to me, she also said her name was "Ma from sesame, Zao from breakfast". Could it be that all she thinks about is food?
"Compared to this, Mr. No. 3, since you have found my name in the real world, it means that you have found Sister Ma Zao... Is that right?" Mr. No. 2 Xiaowan asked with concern.

"Yes." I nodded.

She said in a soft voice, "Can you tell me a little about Mazao-nee? I've been separated from her for a long time and I miss her very much."

I had no objection, so I told her the whole story of how I met Ma Zao again, and also briefly explained how I kept Ma Zao by my side. Of course, I would never tell her about the GPS bracelet and the thermal marker, and I also deleted some of the parts that showed my ulterior motives. The rest of the content was basically the truth, and it was enough to deal with the occasional curious questions from No. 2 Little Bowl. After a long time, No. 2 Little Bowl sighed, "So, Sister Ma Zao finally made a new friend she can trust, and a partner who is willing to fight alongside her..."

Seeing that she had no doubts about these hearsays, just like a naive child who firmly believed in the world of storybooks, I couldn't help but be curious: "Don't you suspect that I am making it up? Maybe your sister Ma Zao and I are not that close, or even her enemy, and your name was also made up by me. She may have thought that I could not affect your future self, so she just said it to me."

"So, Mr. Three, will you cheat on me?" she asked.

"Of course not." I lied with my eyes wide open. "I'm just putting it forward as a hypothesis - if I'm deceiving you, how can you prevent it?"

"I don't need to take any special precautions," she said.

"how you said that?"

"Well, since Sister Mazao trusts Mr. No. 3 so much, and Mr. No. 3 saved my life, I will just tell you..." She said leisurely, "Actually, I have had special abilities since I was a child. Thanks to this, I am very good at seeing through other people's lies."

"Good at seeing through... lies?"

I immediately felt the familiar feeling of sweating.

I don't doubt whether this ability exists in this world. After all, Zhu Shi has the same ability, but does No. 2 Xiaowan really have it? She doesn't seem to have any need to bluff me. As long as I ask Ma Zao after returning to the real world, I can confirm whether this is true or not. And this can explain why she accepted my words so easily.

The question is, have I lied to her in the past?

I immediately searched my memory. It seemed like I had said that, and I had said a lot! Although I didn't lie this time, the last time I explained to her how I met Ma Zao, I portrayed myself as a good person. Could it be that she saw through it?

Wait, before that...

"It should be impossible to use supernatural powers in this foggy dream. Can your abilities be used here as well?" I asked.

"Is that so? It seems that my ability to see through lies can be used here as well. Although it doesn't feel as flexible as in the real world, it's not to the point where it is completely unusable." She wondered.

Could it be that I misunderstood and I am the only one who cannot use superpowers in the misty dream? No, judging from the words of No. 1 and the fearless attitude that No. 5 vaguely revealed to No. 4, it should be normal that supernatural powers cannot be used here... Could it be that No. 2's small bowl is special?

Since she could use it, did that mean she had seen through all my lies in the past? She didn't seem to have the intention to bring it up, but just faced me with her usual attitude and said in a soft and obedient voice, "Mr. No. 3, what's wrong with you?"

"No, it's okay..."

I changed the subject out of habit. Maybe she could tell that I was lying.

"Compared to this, how much longer did it take you to get here?"

"On the way here?" she wondered.

“It took me a long time to get to where the seats were after I entered the foggy dream,” I said.

"Ah, that..." She suddenly realized something, then shook her head, "No, I arrived very quickly, maybe in less than a minute."

Even she said so.

It was indeed a bit strange. Every time I cross the fog to reach the seat venue, it takes a long time, but No. 2 Xiaowan and No. 5 said it wouldn't take that long. Last time, I was also lost for a long time before I met No. 4 Xuanming, but I found the place quickly after meeting him. I haven't asked about No. 1's situation yet, but I guess it's similar to the others. This fog seems to vaguely show its nature of not welcoming me.

Besides me, the people here didn't seem to have experienced entering the misty dreamland with a "ghost perspective". In addition, they all seemed to have experienced the "power of the divine seal fragment", but I knew nothing about it.

This made me feel like an outsider, a character that shouldn't have appeared in this foggy dream.

Small bowl number two observed me quietly.

"Mr. No. 3, I have a question. I wonder if it would be convenient for you to answer it for me."

"Go ahead and ask." I nodded.

She said slowly: "I think... Mr. Three, this shouldn't be your second time entering the misty dream, right?"

(End of this chapter)