I want to just drift through life in Type-Moon.

Page 80

Little Mashu watched as Yue Zhengling pondered this question, a question she had never answered in her life, and her heart was filled with confusion.

In the past, whenever she had questions she didn't understand, she would ask Professor Rafe. In her mind, Professor Rafe was more knowledgeable than doctors because doctors couldn't answer many questions, while Professor Rafe could give her detailed answers and guide her to think about more questions.

It's fair to say that Professor Rafe taught her a great deal of knowledge. Of course, this doesn't mean doctors are ignorant; Dr. Roman has unique insights into such specific issues as death and life.

Even her ability to calmly accept the time of her death was thanks to the profound insights into the life process revealed by Dr. Roman during their conversations.

Matthew felt that Yue Zhengling should talk to the doctor; after the talk, she believed that he wouldn't be so afraid.

"So what did you do to become a Heroic Spirit?" Mashu decided to persuade Yue Zhengling to go see the doctor later, because if he showed up with the doctor and the others now, it would feel like he was walking into a trap.

“Mash, you’ve all got it wrong. I’m not actually a Heroic Spirit.” Yue Zhengling suddenly extended his right hand to Mash.

Mashu glanced at the hand with a puzzled look, then looked at Yue Zhengling's face, not understanding what the other party wanted to do.

"Let's try touching it." Yue Zhengling, palm up, gestured for Mashu to place her hand on it.

Although Mashu was puzzled, she did not hesitate. She reached out her hand and carefully placed it in Yue Zhengling's palm.

When Mashu touched Yue Zhengling's hand, she couldn't help but shiver because—that hand was extremely cold.

Chapter 181 You Who Are Mona Lisa

Mashu resisted the urge to pull her hand back. Although she was startled, she found that she didn't dislike the coldness.

"Excuse me, with this temperature, are you sick?" Mashu anxiously reached out her other hand and covered Yue Zhengling's palm with hers, trying to warm it up.

A flicker of emotion crossed Yue Zhengling's eyes as he watched Mashu's movements and quickly withdrew his hand.

“Mashu, you really are… no, never mind, it’s too early for you to be talking about these things right now.” Yue Zhengling looked at the bewildered Mashu with a complicated expression, and finally shook his head with a smile.

Mashu looked at Yue Zhengling, puzzled. She felt that the unfinished words from earlier seemed to be very important to her.

To cover up his lapse in composure and to prevent Mashu from pressing him for answers, Yue Zhengling continued to speak.

“I’m not sick, because I don’t have a body. What you see now is actually the manifestation of my soul,” Yue Zhengling said after a moment of thought.

“My condition is different from Da Vinci’s. I suppose you, Mashu, have also had physical contact with Da Vinci, right? Da Vinci’s body should be like a normal person’s, with a body temperature, right?”

Mashu nodded. Sometimes, it was Da Vinci who helped her with physical adjustments. She clearly remembered that Da Vinci had a body temperature, and they had had physical contact several times.

"But I'm different. From the very beginning, I said that I am not a Heroic Spirit. My current state is actually the state my body was in when it died. I died from excessive blood loss, and my soul remembered that state in the end. So after manifesting a body that can contact the outside world, it is cold and lifeless."

At this point, Yue Zhengling revealed a somewhat sad smile, "In other words, this is the temperature of death, and apart from those who have transcended life and death, everyone else will feel afraid when they come into contact with me."

Merlin had told Avalon about this latent problem when he accepted Merlin's help, but unfortunately, he had only met too few people. Moreover, those who had physical contact with him were, upon reflection, beings who had transcended life and death, and none of them would have cared.

Normal people would feel a fear of facing death if they touched his body, which is why Grey was afraid of him in the post-apocalyptic world.

It could even be said that, because of Grey's special aptitude for spiritual beings, in her eyes, Yue Zhengling was a walking death.

The original intention of letting Mashu come into contact with him was to tell Mashu what the feeling of death is like, but he did not expect that Mashu was also the same kind of people as those people.

Fou, perched on his shoulder, licked his cheek, seemingly to comfort him.

"It's okay, Fou. Mashu won't end up like me." He raised his hand, patted Fou's little head, and said in a very confident tone.

Mashu, left standing to the side, clenched her small hands, the lingering coldness still present. After hesitating for a moment, she followed behind Yue Zhengling. Today's tasks were completed, and she could now use her time as she pleased.

Normally, she would be sent back to the isolation room by the doctor and read books by herself. However, during the previous Heroic Spirit Summoning Experiment, she was sent to the next room to wait as a precaution, and it was at that time that the elusive Fou reappeared in front of her.

Because so much happened today, it seems like no one cares about her, so she has a long-lost freedom. Now she is curious about Yue Zhengling, so she decides to see what he is going to do.

"Um, why did you tell me all this?" Mashu, as curious as a deer, finally got used to Yue Zhengling after their previous interactions and asked openly.

To her, Le Zhengling was different from Professor Rafe and Dr. Roman. Although she couldn't say exactly what was different, she felt that he was closer to the realm of ordinary people than the other two, and this feeling was very special to her.

More importantly, the other party treated her as a normal person to communicate with, which could be seen from his eyes and actions. Unlike the other staff members of Chaldea, most of them looked at her with indifference and ruthlessness.

She had asked Dr. Roman why those people were like that, and at that moment the doctor showed an expression of bitterness that she had never seen before, and finally changed the subject.

When she asked Professor Rafe the same question, his expression turned grim. He then explained to her in great detail that it was the look one gives a lab mouse. In the following days, he even found her several humanities novels on the subject.

It contains scientific magazines that detail the usefulness of mice, novels about friendships between humans and animals that ultimately end with the humans being killed by others, and a patriarchal view of human supremacy over the food chain.

After reading those books, she finally understood why others looked at her that way. But strangely, after she asked the doctor and professor about this, the number of staff members appearing in front of her decreased significantly.

The people who usually interact with her seem to have been deliberately adjusted. Although they don't look at her like doctors and Leonardo da Vinci, at least they don't look at her like they would a laboratory animal.

This person, in his conversation with her, placed himself on the same level as her, a feeling that she found quite novel. However, this might be because he was unaware that she was deliberately created as an experimental subject.

Thinking about this, Mashu felt a mix of smugness and worry. If he knew, would he still chat with her like this?

"Because Mashu, you're special." However, upon hearing what Yue Zhengling said next, Mashu's little thoughts were immediately overturned.

"Knowing your maximum lifespan, living with death every moment, I want to know, when you encounter the feeling of death, what will you do?" Yue Zhengling sighed.

"As it turns out, Mashu is indeed Mashu; people are truly different. I think I could never possess your courage, no matter what I go through."

Mashu stopped in her tracks as if an invisible obstacle had appeared in front of her, her face turning slightly pale.

Yue Zhengling was unaware that his words had thrown Mashu into confusion, but Fou sensed Mashu's unease. She angrily jumped up and kicked Yue Zhengling in the face, then tumbled three and a half times in the air and landed on Mashu's head.

"four~foufou~fo! (You idiot, how could you expose Mashu's secrets!)"

A few soft cries brought Mashu back to her senses, and Yue Zhengling, who had been kicked, wanted to ask why, but after hearing Fou's cries, she knew that what she had just said had a bad influence on Mashu.

At first, Yue Zhengling didn't realize what was going on, but after putting himself in Yue Zhengling's shoes, he finally understood where the problem lay.

"I'm sorry, little eggplant, I didn't expect you to misunderstand."

To be honest, Yue Zhengling knew he wasn't good at socializing, so as soon as he said those words, he knew he had said the wrong thing again.

Sure enough, upon hearing Yue Zhengling's apology, Mashu's face suddenly flushed red, then turned pale.

She blushed because she was embarrassed, but her face turned pale because she was more afraid of the reason that caused the misunderstanding than she was embarrassed.

“You know I am…” Mashu’s voice was barely audible, as if she didn’t want to say what was coming next.

"...I know, whether it's that you were conceived through IVF or that you don't have a long lifespan, I know it all."

Hearing Yue Zhengling's reply clearly, Mashu's small body couldn't help but tremble.

“Mash, although I am not in a position to say anything to you, if a person cares too much about their status, they will become overly concerned with that status. Only by not caring about one's status can one make others forget about it.”

"Don't think of yourself as special, because everyone in the world is special; don't think of yourself as unfortunate, because there are definitely people in the world who are more unfortunate than you."

Yue Zhengling didn't know why she said those words; they were more for herself than for Mashu.

He has always been caught in a dilemma, as his identity as a time traveler and his identity as an ordinary person have brought him a lot of misfortune.

On the one hand, he knew the basic structure of this world, but because he knew it too late and lacked the necessary qualifications, he died.

Then, with the help of several people, he can only seek to protect himself at this stage and has no ability to participate in the plot. To put it simply, he is not destined to be a protagonist.

But Mashu is different. She is the protagonist of the story. Galahad is already dormant inside her. She has already obtained the cheat code. All she lacks is the opportunity to use it.

Looking at myself in reverse, apart from learning a magic trick to fool people, I'm not particularly special in any other way.

As the most dangerous Grand Order world, I am as weak as a background NPC. I can only try my best to cling to powerful figures before the destruction occurs, hoping not to be reduced to ashes because of the competition among the big shots.

Humiliatingly wavering like a reed in the wind, searching for a way to survive.

Whether it was telling Leonardo da Vinci about the timeline or deliberately telling Professor Rafe that he wouldn't interfere with their plans, it was all part of a scheme.

If the burning of humanity fails, one can survive. But if it succeeds, one can have a point of contact with Goetia and then try every means to survive.

He liked the characters in the game, but now it's not a game, it's reality. What's even more terrifying is that there's something wrong with this world line. He has no idea how the script will go or what the ending will be.

He couldn't rely on the mercy of others or the inertia of the world line; rather than being abandoned at the beginning, he would rather do everything he could to protect himself.

The simplest approach is to maintain good relations with the side that represents the protection of human reason, while at the same time not showing any obstruction to the side of Goetia and His people.

The problem with this world is Olga Marie, but the key issue remains unclear.

But if we're talking about key figures, Mashu definitely counts. Although I didn't approach her with any ulterior motives, my unintentional actions now make me just like those people with ulterior motives—deliberately saying things that others care about to arouse their curiosity.

“I will not look at you differently because of your background. A person’s birth is something that cannot be chosen, and we should not waste too much emotion on such an issue, because we can’t change it no matter what. I think there are always things in life that are more worthy of our cherishing and reflection than this.”

Memories flashed through Mashu's mind: the games Dr. Roman played with her, the knowledge Professor Rafe taught her, the little gadgets Da Vinci made for her, and even the little moments with the seven people in Group A—all these memories gradually coalesced into a warm feeling that filled her heart.

Unbeknownst to her, the paleness on her face had faded, and a happy smile appeared on her face that made Yue Zhengling smile as well.

If I had a camera right now, I would definitely record this scene.

Le Zhengling thought to himself that happiness is contagious, and even if this happiness does not belong to him, he can still be grateful for it.

"Miss Ling, thank you." Mashu thanked Yue Zhengling with a radiant smile.

"Yes, you're welcome. Also, please call me Mr. Ling or Ling. I'm not a young lady." Yue Zhengling corrected Mashu's form of address.

"?" Mashu tilted her head, confused, her preconceived notions still influencing her.

"Don't look so confused. I'm saying this for the third time: I'm a man." He couldn't help but pinch Mashu's cheek as a form of punishment.

"Could it be that you, like Leonardo da Vinci, are of the same gender as Mona Lisa?" For her, the understanding instilled by gender perception was somewhat distorted because of the existence of Leonardo da Vinci.

“Mashu, you can’t use exceptions to judge others. My gender is male. Whether it’s the fifty-six non-traditional genders in psychology or the six genders in biology, I am male.”

While enjoying the softness of Mashu's face and earnestly explaining, he didn't notice that around the corner behind him, a girl wearing an eye patch was staring at him with a fierce gaze.

When Yue Zhengling sensed something and reluctantly let go of her hand to look back, the girl named Ophelia Famulonroni had already disappeared.

"I have a feeling that we're being watched by something terrible," Yue Zhengling muttered to himself in confusion.

Mashu also turned to look behind him, but like Yue Zhengling, she didn't see anything.

Only Fufu, who had witnessed everything, blinked but didn't say anything.

"By the way, Mr. Ling, are you going to Da Vinci's workshop?" Mashu asked, pulling Fou off her head after she looked away.

Only then did Yue Zhengling remember her purpose, and she exclaimed "Ah!" before staring at Fufu. "Right, we're in a hurry! Fufu, why didn't you give us directions?"

Fufu rolled her eyes, but still pointed with her little paw, indicating to continue forward.

Without saying a word, Yue Zhengling quickened his pace and headed in the indicated direction.

He needed to get to Da Vinci's workshop before Rafe found out, and then make it a fait accompli that he was affiliated with Da Vinci's technical department. After all, Da Vinci was a very reliable ally at this stage.

Chapter 182 The Student of the Omnipotent One (Part 1)

Intending to quicken his pace, Yue Zhengling did not speak to Mashu before entering Da Vinci's workshop, while Mashu was also pondering Yue Zhengling's words, so the two became silent along the way.

After entering Leonardo da Vinci's workshop, Yue Zhengling casually sat on the sofa where he had been lying before, waiting idly.

The necessary tasks have been completed. Now it's up to others to decide how to deal with him. Before they make their own arrangements, Yue Zhengling has no intention of doing anything unnecessary.

Mashu carefully sat down on the other side of the same sofa, while Fou sat in the middle, separating them. The two of them and their pet sat quietly like that.

Mashu tried to say something several times, but when she saw Yue Zhengling's absent-minded look, she couldn't bring herself to ask anything.

Fortunately, about fifteen minutes later, Leonardo da Vinci rushed in and breathed a long sigh of relief when he saw the two of them sitting peacefully on the sofa.

"It's good that you still knew to escape here." Da Vinci looked at Yue Zhengling with a relieved expression.

"The three of you have reached an agreement?" Of course, Le Zhengling knew what Da Vinci was relieved about. As the object of competition between Da Vinci, Rafe, and Dr. Roman, the best-case scenario was that he was not present, because no matter who won at the time, if he took action, there would be no room for maneuver.

Rafe has the ability to hold Olga Marie hostage and give orders, so neither Roman nor Leonardo da Vinci can openly oppose him. Just now, when they realized that Le Zhengling was missing, the three of them finally came to their senses.

The argument ended abruptly in the process of searching for him.

"Mashu, go back to your room first." Da Vinci glanced at the girl sitting next to Yue Zhengling and said in a very gentle tone.

Mashu glanced at Yue Zhengling reluctantly, then looked at Da Vinci with pleading eyes.

"No, Roman and Rafe are already frantic after they found you were missing. You have to go back to your room. If you want to chat with him, I can help you apply for a chat next time."

Da Vinci patted her little head and comforted her gently.

Upon hearing Da Vinci's words, Mashu had no choice but to obediently stand up and walk towards the door.

Watching her retreating figure, Leonardo da Vinci couldn't help but sigh. After confirming that she had left, he immediately sealed off the entire workshop again. Then, his expression changed from relaxed to serious as he asked Yue Zhengling in a very heavy tone, "Can I trust you?"

Le Zhengling stared at Leonardo da Vinci in astonishment, not understanding the meaning behind her question.

“I’ve already checked. Rafe is indeed problematic. The way his magic works is not human at all. Although I don’t want to believe it, Rafe should have transformed into a Demon God Pillar, just as you said.”

After Yue Zhengling explained the burning of human reason to her, she quickly began to investigate everything about Leif and found his magician examination records from when he joined Chaldea.

According to this information, Da Vinci secretly tested the current Rafe with a magic detector, and the result was that the current Rafe was completely incomparable to the one in the information.

Both the amount and quality of his magic power have changed significantly, and this is only what he has shown so far. If what Le Zhengling said is true, then Rafe's hidden strength is even more terrifying.