Puzzle Madness

Chapter 83 Development

Although he could jump very far after a run-up - he had not yet tried the extreme distance - he was not truly flying in the air; he seemed to have taken a plane when he was a child, but now he had forgotten everything.

Even if the section chief can't do whatever he wants like anti-gravity, this is indeed a kind of flying for Doudou.

The section chief raised her hands, clapped them lightly, and gave a thumbs-up. She smiled warmly and praised him generously:

"Excellent, very excellent, Doudou. You're absolutely right. It's a hand, that's right."

The section chief finally raised his head and hands, as if to touch the invisible giant hand above him:
"You possess a keenness beyond your years and a willingness to think; this is truly rare, especially for a child like you who can completely rely on strength to solve all problems."

"What kind of environment did you grow up in? I'm really curious. But - let's continue our conversation."

"I told you this before, didn't I? [Love] is physical. It's strong, it's fierce, it's beyond reason and self-control—and it's invisible to others."

"[Motherly Love]: This hand is my [Motherly Love]; it's behind me and above my head. Since my daughter and I have become one, it's not surprising that this love can now shine upon me, right?"

Doudou followed her gaze and looked upwards. There was nothing there except the ceiling, which had been tattered by the shockwave.
"Ah—can it really be called maternal love? Actually, I feel like you love yourself more, Auntie."

The section chief was adjusting his body. Having been flattened out, his limbs still had a strange bend.

"Of course. Only by loving yourself first can you have the ability to love others. And love can be expressed in many ways. Many, many ways - the one I love most is myself, I can really say that."

"As for [maternal love]—it's not an adjective or a nickname, it's actually a name."

"Name your ecstasy, give yourself a clear enough concept to summarize it: it will increase the intensity of the ecstasy. You can try it too, child. You can get better at it."

Doudou suddenly shrank back, and moved his hands repeatedly to express his refusal:
"Don't pick a name yet. It would be awkward if I came up with one myself. It's not a pen pal name, it would feel awkward."

Apparently, since he didn't like naming, he changed the subject:
"Eh—now that I think about it: what I said before about the transitional ecstasy wasn't wrong. In fact, the wire hanging around the witch's neck in the building should be your ecstasy; otherwise, there would be no need for her to attack me in the first place. I didn't even make the first move."

"When you were transporting her, it seemed like she just casually spun around in the ceiling a few times, without even a package. That probably means she's in her skeleton form, so she's not dangerous or aggressive. She won't attack anyone."

"I've seen on TV that powerful and lethal superpowers like these are sealed and reinforced in some way; like, put them in some kind of iron coffin. You yourself said that the witch in the building was going to be weaponized, right?"

"Actually, judging by your current behavior, Auntie, you were controlling people through that wire. You were indirectly controlling them through your trance, and that caused the wire to carry the witches in the building."

"It's pretty much the same now—but this [control] part has been extracted and turned from a wire into a hand."

"And because you two merged, it can control you too. So, you and your daughter are both insane, right? I guess that's correct."

The section chief's patience seemed to be as boundless as her blood. No matter what questions Doudou asked, she would answer them carefully and calmly:
"Yes. As I said, the truth is more complicated than you imagine: my ecstasy with Manon was partly hers and partly mine."

"It's a mutual interaction, a mutual interweaving—we don't call it [transferential ecstasy] anymore; it's a cognitive [projection], a psychological [transference]: the result of ecstasy becoming directed towards another person."

"Ecstasy is not a machine, it doesn't have clear boundaries. It's chaotic—just like the human mind. You can try your best to understand it, but it will still change."

"So it's better to just be yourself."

Doudou listened carefully and then continued with the question:

"Then—Auntie, this [maternal love] of yours is actually completely automatic, right? You can't really control it yourself."

The section chief didn't even raise an eyebrow, nor did he show any sarcasm when his weakness was exposed:

"It's obvious, isn't it? This ability to fly—or rather, the ability to move short distances—seems to only be activated when my life is in danger or when I'm about to be hurt. There's nothing to fake about it. Let alone fool you."

"A mother will naturally protect, save, or restore her child. But a mother won't fulfill her child's every wish, will she? Often, the only person a mother can influence is her child."

"It's truly tragic. A mother cannot understand her child, and the child cannot understand her mother. But every love in the world is wrapped in selfishness—without selfishness, love cannot exist. This does not affect the intensity and value of love itself."

"All ecstasy has similar commonalities. Either it's completely uncontrollable and you need to adapt to it yourself; or you use some ritualistic behavior to try to communicate and evoke some feedback; more often it's a mixture of the two."
-
"Hmm, I think I understand a little bit."

Doudou rubbed his chin——
So now, cat and mouse becomes a whole new game:

Simply noticing the Section Chief's frenzied behavior wasn't enough for Doudou to resolve the current battle—he still couldn't touch or attack him.

Is the "maternal love" the section chief spoke of a completely independent, intelligent individual? Is she capable of assessing the situation and even making more complex moves, such as simply running away with the section chief?

Doudou imagined a large, transparent hand grabbing the section chief's head, pulling her out the window, and flying all the way out of Mong Cai City:
So funny--
Doudou chuckled: It hasn't happened yet; but the possibility exists.

And in some relatively extreme situations, that hand would even help the deformed section chief avoid attacks by kneading her.

[What kind of behavior would cause displacement, and how is an attack defined? Is there such a thing as "killing intent"? Does killing intent even exist? Does a fired bullet possess killing intent? Or does simply showing hostility count?] [No, no. I threw a lot of steel bars, shattered glass to attack, and even spat air arrows: they were all dodged. Whether it's killing intent or hostility, we'll probably need to try a different method to determine.]

What if I punch her to save her? Will she dodge? But if I can't hurt Auntie, then it doesn't seem easy to get into other more serious dangers in this building.

It was obvious that the section chief's "maternal love" could only affect herself. Otherwise, Doudou felt that he would be hit like a ping-pong ball by that transparent big hand.
"Ah, that's hard to say. Is he really stronger than me? I don't think so. I'm incredibly strong."

However, this is difficult to confirm: after all, I can neither see nor touch the section chief's "maternal love"; without contact, there is no way to verify it.

Doudou was tired of standing, so he simply sat down cross-legged; he picked up a piece of broken cement as chalk, wrote and drew on the ground, and recorded the key points he had thought of.

Thinking at this time is more interesting than when in class or doing homework, and it also makes Doudou feel less sleepy.
-
Seeing Doudou thinking seriously, the section chief did not continue to interrupt him.

Beneath, bee, bee.

She walked all the way to the wall in her white bone high heels - the wall that had just been painted white was now full of pits from the shock wave.

The section chief stretched out her hands and fumbled around in the corner of the wall: with a crisp sound, she opened some mechanism in the gap.

Whoosh—the sound of the axle turning. She pulled hard, pulling out the hidden plywood from the wall:

Embedded in the gray sponge were a pair of indistinct pistols and rows of magazines, neatly arranged. Shining black, they reflected the moonlight from the window.

Doudou couldn't help but glance at what the section chief was doing:
"Huh? You guys hid weapons in the building too."

The section chief turned around and winked at Doudou:
"This building belongs to the Asia-Europe Post Office, so weapons are already equipped; there are weapons on every floor. Didn't Richard tell you that?"

The section chief took out a pistol, looked at the smooth surface of the gun, and blew on it twice. Then she skillfully unloaded the magazine, checked the ammunition level, cocked the gun with a click, and released the safety.

There was another pistol and other spare magazines; this time she stuffed them all into her pockets - the maroon shirt had a surprising number of pockets, and each one was tight, making it difficult to see anything falling out.

"Auntie, beating me is useless. You know that."

Doudou was somewhat bored; pistol bullets posed no threat to Doudou, no matter what caliber -
The section chief raised the muzzle of his gun and pointed it at her temple from the side, leaving a distance of about five or six centimeters.

"Eh?"

Doudou was still attracted by the section chief's sudden strange behavior.

boom!
The bullet burst out of the chamber—but the section chief's body suddenly rose up, and in this instant he soared straight up a long distance; the bullet passed by his feet:

boom!
The section chief turned his hand and aimed the gun at the center of her eyebrows - this time, her body was pulled diagonally to the left and back, spun in the air, and turned upside down.

Crack: The wrist seemed to be twisted by the impact, but was immediately put back into place by an invisible hand.

boom!boom!boom!boom!
The gunshots continued, and the section chief flew in the air, constantly adjusting the angle of her shooting - depending on the vital parts being aimed at, the distance and direction she was pulled out were also different.

Click. The bullets were finally emptied, and the section chief landed steadily on the ground.

I don’t know if it was Doudou’s illusion: in the last few bullets, the section chief seemed to be able to fly in a roughly straight line.

She pulled the spare magazine and the other pistol from her shirt of blood and flesh:
"I know guns have no killing power on you. I'm trying to develop my fascination."

"It's a shame there's no suitable equipment here, and the conditions are so primitive. Otherwise, development would be much faster: using this ecstasy to fly isn't difficult, let's see if we can come up with more interesting uses."

The section chief's posture changed again—she reloaded with one hand, her movements skillful and swift, one pistol pointed at her head and the other pressed against the gap between her left ribs.

"You research yours, and I experiment with mine: division of labor and cooperation. It's like a makeshift little team. Isn't that fun?"

"Look, Doudou—a mother won't let her child hurt herself. If you control her psychology, you can make her act the way you want."

"Do you understand? A parent-child relationship cannot be without love, but it can't be all love either. It's such a wonderful thing that humans possess both sensibility and rationality."

boom!Boom!

As soon as he finished speaking, the crisp and loud gunshots continued.

　Hey everyone, there's a limited number of free postcards and tapes from "Crazy" going on sale! They're at the Hangzhou CP31 Comic Expo, at the China Literature booth. Come support Doudou at the booth and claim yours!

　　【Booth】CPA95, Hall 7A, Hangzhou Convention and Exhibition Center
　　【Date】May 5.17~5.18
　　[Time] 10:00~16:00

　　
　
(End of this chapter)