Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 180: Chapter 180: The First Generation Masked Strange Person

Unknown name, the hero in a mask.

Bai Wu quickly thought of a possibility, but he couldn’t comprehend it. How could this be?

"There should only be one hero in a mask,"

When he thought of Jing Liu’s words, Bai Wu was sure that the phone booth could change causality. But the causality changed by the phone booth all belonged to Food City; this place wasn’t Food City, it was Baichuan City. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"At least this Masked Strange Person isn’t me."

In fact, when Bai Wu was in the alleys of Food City, handing the mask to Lin Rui, he was thinking—the mask was found in the Investigation Corps’ armory. So, who was the first to lose the mask?

Bai Wu still remembered the note he saw the first time he saw the mask—[This mask has a certain connection to you, you have seen sporadic records related to it at the Ninth Hospital.]

He originally thought that the so-called connection meant that he had seen some records in Hong Yin’s area and happened to find it in the armory.

But now it seemed that his connection to the mask might be much deeper than he had imagined.

"The correct sequence should be that someone lost the mask, someone from the Investigation Corps found it, and I chose the mask. In the phone booth in Food City, I gave the mask to Lin Rui, but due to the special rules of that area, I still kept a mask."

"Although I gave the mask to Lin Rui, the timeline here doesn’t match up with Food City, Lin Rui and the others... it’s actually difficult for them to survive. So, the one I encountered this time should be the real historical Masked Strange Person."

His confusion didn’t last long; his memory quickly swept over him, and the identity of the first Masked Strange Person in history was about to be unveiled.

At the same time, in the next room, the girl in a white nightgown had already come to Bai Wu’s side.

She felt an inexplicable familiarity. This sense of familiarity made her subconsciously feel close to it.

A certain scene from 700 years ago seemed to replay in her mind.

...

...

After Jiang Huan, He Shuhong, and Lin Yiping died, the Cursed Woman completely closed off her heart.

Black flames flowed on the Black Cat, incessantly reminding her of the rage the normal humans harbored against the Cursed Woman.

Anyone who neared this place would see a huge black ghostly shadow. She was like a witch that crawled out of hell, warning everyone not to approach her.

This behavior seemed to declare that she was a thorough monster, a living embodiment of a curse.

She was ready to be alone until death, determined to live forever in her own little world. Once she made this realization, the criticisms and accusations from the outside world seemed trivial.

It was as if she no longer existed in the same world as them.

But just then, a man wearing a mask intrusively and forcefully entered her world.

In the memory, the day was extremely overcast. The scene Bai Wu saw was of a man in a mask, under the dreary mood set by withered vines and old trees, holding a bag in one hand and petting the Black Cat with the other, as the flowing flames seemed utterly incapable of burning him.

The sky was overcast with clouds, and the man’s arrival was utterly different from those before him; he didn’t have the aura that seemed like it could change the Cursed Woman’s fate.

He appeared very calmly...and very abruptly.

The black matter, symbolizing misfortune, once again condensed into a terrifying ghostly shadow, but the man in the mask didn’t care. He was like a domineering deity; with a gentle wave of his hand, the misfortune instantly dissipated.

As an observer, Bai Wu was incredibly shocked at this scene. It was not only because of the powerful method that dissipated misfortune instantly but also because of the popping-up note—

[You actually want to peek at him; the difference between you and him is like that between you and a farm owner. You are as different as fish and dragons, even though he was once a fish. Anyway, I have no way of peeking into more information...I can only tell you, he is a genuine human being.]

A human being? The six guys with the character Jing in their names, in Bai Wu’s opinion, were already demigods, so not being able to observe them didn’t surprise Bai Wu.

But why are there humans who cannot be observed? Is this person stronger than Dwarf?

What kind of method is this, dispelling misfortune? Is it some power that can suppress the Sequence and Mutation Entries?

The entity of the Masked Strange Person, or rather the real First Generation Mask, if he died at the hands of the principal, then in Bai Wu’s view, he shouldn’t be too strong.

The situation now presenting itself before his eyes was this—the person was so powerful that not even Prayle’s Eye could detect them.

This meant that the other party was more than just a step higher than himself.

The Cursed Woman looked at the Masked Strange Person in panic, and with a scream, the Black Cat, as if sensing its master’s unease, quickly left the side of the Masked Strange Person.

"You, hurry up and leave this place... otherwise you’ll die!"

Like the words left on the note, her speech was also simple and straightforward.

"With that tone and your expression, are you worried about me, or are you driving me away?"

A voice he had never heard before.

Bai Wu thought that this person might be using a fake voice, it sounded somewhat familiar but was completely unmatched with any existing voice.

"I am a person of misfortune, you should leave quickly, you’ll be harmed by me."

"These calamities? They cannot reach me. I am here to save you. I guess you don’t want to stay here forever, being used by others."

Suddenly, Bai Wu found this style of speaking... to be somewhat familiar as well.

The Cursed Woman’s expression slowly turned from panic to confusion, but she also noticed something—that spreading dark matter, which had been following her like a shadow, had astonishingly dissipated.

This was an unprecedented event; the dark matter brought misfortune to people, to be precise, it was a type of energy that devoured people’s fortunes.

She could manipulate this energy, but she could not contain it. Yet, this person wearing a mask had managed to do so.

The Cursed Woman felt her power seemed to be suppressed by some overpowering and domineering force.

Does this mean—this person could resist her curse?

"Hahaha, look at your face. Have you realized that I’m different from others? Although you still don’t know what’s going on, I can tell you in advance that you are not what they call a ’curse spreader.’ All of this has nothing to do with fate; to be exact, you are one of the few lucky ones. Even before the new era dawns, you have possessed a power that others covet. Of course, this power is ineffective before me."

"I... don’t understand."

"It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. Tonight, I will take you to find the secret of this campus."

The Masked Strange Person jumped down from the windowsill, getting closer to the Cursed Woman. Having never been so close to someone, it made the Cursed Woman somewhat uncomfortable:

"I can’t leave this place. Just go, you really will be harmed by me..."

The Cursed Woman originally wanted to drive this person away, but her most potent attack, the dark matter that could devour others’ fortunes, had been completely dispersed by the Masked Strange Person.

To be precise, that power had been firmly suppressed by an even more dominant force.

"Not to say I won’t die, but even if I do, it’s not an issue. Death is merely the beginning of the next journey. Tell me your name."

The Masked Strange Person interrupted the Cursed Woman’s speech.

And the entire memory scene, due to Bai Wu’s inner shock, became blurred.

Death is only the beginning of the next journey. He had heard this sentence before. His father had said this just before passing away.

Was it a coincidence?

Whether facing the monsters that scare people or confronting the past that has caused countless to grieve, Bai Wu’s inner emotions hardly wavered. But upon hearing this sentence, his mood suddenly became somewhat disordered.

"He’s not from this world... it can’t be him."

The black cloak along with the mask, as well as the power that even Prayle’s Eye couldn’t analyze, made Bai Wu feel overwhelmingly familiar yet strange toward this person.

Bai Wu stared intently at the Masked Strange Person, despite Prayle’s Eye already indicating it couldn’t penetrate the mystery. But by forcefully calling to the eye in his consciousness, he could put Prayle’s Eye into a kind of overclocked state.

In the dream of Hong Yin, under the suppression of the ’Equality of All Beings’ by the Traveler, Bai Wu had achieved something similar.

Originally, Bai Wu didn’t care about the true identity of the Masked Strange Person, but after hearing a certain sentence his attitude changed abruptly; he now urgently wanted to know who this person was.

But at that moment, a sentence from the Masked Strange Person made Bai Wu suddenly avert his gaze:

"I seem to smell the scent of cause and effect, as if someone is spying on me. Besides, tell me your name."

The Masked Strange Person repeated the question, but his gaze was looking around, as if searching for something.

The actions of the Masked Strange Person made Bai Wu give up spying. He had a feeling that this was a being, just like Jing Liu, powerful enough to change cause and effect.

If he kept spying, he might encounter some kind of unexpected danger. This was just an intuition, and Bai Wu ultimately followed his heart, choosing not to continue spying.

"My name is Jiang... Jiang Yimi."

"Are you afraid of me? You’re stammering."

"I, I’m afraid I might hurt you. I really am a... a monster, and if... if you don’t leave, you’ll get dragged into this."

"Hahaha, if you could harm me, then you’d be even more interesting than I imagined. Don’t worry, heroes never die. I’ll take you to learn the truth. Follow me tonight to a place; some things need to be seen to be believed. Also, you need to be mentally prepared."

"What kind of mental preparation? I... I can’t go out, I will kill other people."

"Don’t let grief overwhelm you. I’ll come for you later tonight. By the way, I brought you some food. You should cherish it because in a few years you might not be able to have it anymore. And the place you’re going to won’t have any humans, rest assured."

The bag in the other hand of the Masked Strange Person turned out to be filled with pastries.

Only then did Bai Wu notice that the packaging of the food bag bore the words "Fresh Sensation," which suddenly reminded him that he had seen these words before—it was the name of a famous café in Baichuan City.

Indeed, Jiang Yimi hadn’t tasted delicious food for a long time. The school would prepare food, placed by the headmaster himself at the edge of the black substance, that is, on the periphery of the forbidden zone.

This was the source of Jiang Yimi’s food.

These foods were not to be called unpalatable, but having them every day made her somewhat weary of it.

But as a monster, a scourge, where did she have the right to pick and choose about life? She never complained about material things, for there were too many things worth grieving over.

Eating the food given by someone else, Jiang Yimi felt both happy and uneasy:

"What... what is your name?"

"I cannot tell you my name, as my cause and effect have already been marked by some troublesome opponent. My name would bring you bad luck. Hmm, it’s not just you that can bring bad luck, I can too. You can call me the Hero with a Mask. I must go now, see you tonight."

The Masked Strange Person arrived abruptly and left just as suddenly.

After leaving the food with Jiang Yimi, he vanished like the wind, leaving her staring out the window in astonishment, as if it had all been a dream.

...

...

The next scene in memory suddenly shifted.

To Bai Wu’s surprise, the place where the Masked Strange Person and Jiang Yimi were conducting their investigation was not Baichuan Middle School.

He had not expected that the place the two were investigating would be the same scene he and his captain had first encountered—the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital.

Infiltrating this hospital was no challenge for the Masked Strange Person.

In the description of the Masked Strange Person, the entire Ninth Psychiatric Hospital had no formidable enemies except for one doctor, who was not in the hospital today.

At this moment, Bai Wu felt as if every place he had ever been to had many secrets waiting to be uncovered.

When these secrets were laid out, one would see that the world was truly a huge jigsaw puzzle, with each place seeming independent, yet part of the whole.

In a room on the seventh floor of the first building of the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital, the Masked Strange Person and Jiang Yimi met a person wrapped in bandages all over his body.

The Bandaged Figure’s face was only half visible, while the other half was severely burned.

"He is..."

Jiang Yimi looked at the half-face, and a wave of grief and fear suddenly rose in her heart, causing her to step back subconsciously.

"His name is Jiang Huan."

The masked strange person quickly confirmed the thought in Jiang Yimi’s mind.

Without waiting for Jiang Yimi to ask, he directly gave the answer,

"It’s the Jiang Huan that you know. He’s not dead, but he’s not exactly alive either. In the future, he will live in another form, just like your cat. What this hospital has always been doing is transforming humans into Evil Fallen. You might not understand the term ’Evil Fallen’ yet, but that’s okay. Just remember one thing - once transformed into Evil Fallen, they are no longer human."

"Jiang Huan’s body contains the serum of the Evil Fallen. Although the Evil Fallen Transformation is not merely a cellular mutation and change but also involves mechanization, if the substance from an Evil Fallen body is injected into a human, it means that person will never be able to enter the High Tower and is bound to become an Evil Fallen, it’s just a matter of time. Unless, within his body, there’s a Sequence like the Endless Nirvana."

Jiang Yimi stared blankly at Jiang Huan, who, not long ago, was a talented art student.

He was supposed to have a bright future, and maybe after the various oddities in the city disappeared and the world returned to normal, he could have become an excellent artist.

But now he lies on a hospital bed, living in a form that is no longer human.

The scene quickly changed again, this time to a certain ward on the ninth floor of the first building.

Jiang Yimi saw He Shuhong with bloodshot eyes and nails longer than her fingers.

"She was a good teacher. If it weren’t for discovering some secrets, she could have continued to teach you. Remember my words, after the apocalypse arrives, the first task is to preserve yourself, and only secondly to implement justice. Without strength, it will only bring about your destruction. This teacher is an example; her degree of mutation is deeper than Jiang Huan’s, and she already possesses common Mutation Entries."

Jiang Yimi didn’t respond.

The teacher whom she regarded as both a mentor and a mother figure now appeared more like a monster than ever.

Her nose tingling with emotion, she clenched her teeth and asked,

"Tell me, who did this?"

"No hurry, I’ll take care of him. There are many students in the school still experiencing paranormal events, but these so-called paranormal events are actually a cover for stealing human beings and conducting human Evil Fallen experiments."

The next ward is still on the ninth floor.

Lin Yiping.

A boy with congenitally weakened hearing and a gentle disposition.

Even though Jiang Yimi had only seen this boy in his documents after his death, she recognized at a glance that the boy undergoing the Evil Fallen Transformation in the ward was Lin Yiping.

"Unlike the previous two, he might truly be on the brink of death. Not everyone can withstand the transformation into Evil Fallen. Such violent implant-style Evil Fallen Transformations are very unstable; those with increasingly violent dispositions are more likely to survive. This child is too kind, and he may not have many days left to live."

Jiang Yimi wanted to say something, her mouth opened, but the words seemed to choke in her throat. In the end, she could only half-kneel in front of Lin Yiping’s hospital bed, her expression one of extraordinary pain.

The masked strange person sighed lightly,

"You want me to save him, but you’re also afraid I’ll tell you that he has no chance of being saved. Reality is cruel, you’ve already experienced enough pain, there’s no need to be troubled over their deaths. Evil Fallen Transformation cannot be stopped; even if he survives, he’ll just be a monster.

I wasn’t able to arrive in time because I was tied up with other matters, but at least now you know that your resolve to seclude yourself within the forbidden area was not wrong. All those who died in accidents did not die because of you."

"You’re not a monster, Jiang Yimi. There will be many monsters in this world in the future, but you must remember your resolve to willingly seclude yourself for the sake of others. With such resolve, even if you become hideous and lose the form of a human, you will not be a monster."

Jiang Yimi cried silently, and after a long time, she looked directly at the masked strange person,

"Who did this. Tell me."

"The principal. A person greedy for ultimate power after being beguiled."

"Beguiled, what does that mean?"

"It’s a bit complicated to explain. He is a disciple of an old enemy of mine who is creating chaos around the world and beguiling others into becoming Evil Fallen."

The masked strange person watched Jiang Yimi’s fists clench and said,

"But you don’t need to worry. I will kill him before my time is up."