Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Chapter 14 - Corpse Looting

  “Say, what was that with Kong Yun just now?” Lin Sanjiu asked, full of suspicion. Her light footsteps followed her voice as she climbed up the stairs. “When I offered her something to drink, what did her expression change?”

  “Who knows?” Luther looked at the items that he was carrying, ”Maybe she kept cartons of water in her apartment and was afraid that we would snatch them from her if we found out.”

  This was not implausible. Lin Sanjiu tried to recall if she had seen Kong Yun before, but she really had no impression of her. She fell silent for a few seconds listening to their soft footsteps which filled the stairway.

  “Anyway, we have to be careful when we visit her later,” Marcie concluded.

  They continued their conversation and made a turn. Finally, they saw the large number “38”. “We’re here.” Lin Sanjiu stood at the stairway exit. She inhaled lightly and pulled open the unlocked door. She took a step into the apartment.

  The door to the emergency stairway was beside the nanny’s room which opened to a corridor leading to the living room. As they walked into the living room, Luther scanned the room and was the first one to exclaim, ”Xiao Jiu, what were you working as in the past? This apartment is huge! Oh, you even have a personal lift in your living room!”

  Lin Sanjiu looked around the living room. It was still the same. The exquisite, refined parquet flooring was covered with shattered glass, the sofa was askew, and the floor was a mess. Even that boning knife which she had used to kill Ren Nan was still lying at the same spot. Apparently, no one came her after she left.

  “This is not my house,” she replied blandly and kicked the shattered glass to a side. “Ren Nan tricked me here. This is not his either. He ate the original owner, settled here and took over the place.”

  When she mentioned this, she was surprised to find herself rather calm. Watching Lin Sanjiu explaining and entering the bedroom, Luther threw himself into the sofa. He immediately sank into that spacious, soft sofa. He gave a sigh of satisfaction, “Woah… This is really comfortable. This is much better than those towels at the supermarket… why don’t we sleep here for a night?” Marcie jeered.

  Lin Sanjiu smiled slightly when she heard the conversation outside. She grabbed her pajamas pants from the bed and dug into the pocket. As expected, she found the 【Ren Nan’s Corpse】 card.

  Looking at the crayon drawing on the card, and being in the creepily familiar room, she could not help remembering that snow white face she saw every night—she shivered for a moment and quickly kept the card.

  With a little tremble, salt could fall from the clothes that she was wearing now. She should have changed out of it long ago. Lin Sanjiu was unable to imagine how much she perspired over the day. As she changed into a new set of clothes, she felt speechless. She got out two duffel bags and stuffed them with some clothes and shoes suited for exercising.

  After she had packed her bag, she came out and saw that the two people were in the kitchen. The packet of rice was opened yet Luther was trying hard to stop Marcie from cooking: “Marcie, it was difficult for us to bring that water and rice up here… No, I’m not implying that your cooking tastes bad. Mainly, well mainly, porridge is too simple a dish for you. It is not worth your vast expertise in cooking…”

  Lin Sanjiu laughed softly. The faint feeling of coldness in her heart faded.

  “Her cooking sucks.” Luther took the opportunity and gestured behind her back. He mouthed the words to Lin Sanjiu, “Don’t let her cook! Please!”

  Lin Sanjiu turn to one side, unable to hold back her laughter. She cleared her throat and asked, “Should I place him here?”

  The two others nodded.

  After a flash of white light, a black figure fell from Lin Sanjiu’s palm. With a “peng” sound, it fell heavily onto the ground.

  The eyes filled with ecstasy, that large mouth which split both cheeks, and that red knife tip that stuck out from that mouth… When she saw that corpse once again after a day had passed, Lin Sanjiu could not help feeling a tremor in her heart; she looked away. Almost immediately, she forced herself to face the corpse again and tried her best to remain composed.

  “Sheesh!” Luther drew a breath, “Hey, how can you call him handsome? The standards in your world are really different…”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Marcie smacked him. The second half of his sentence was thus smacked back inside.

  Lin Sanjiu was too lazy to explain. Feeling a little at loss whether to laugh or cry, she placed her hand on the tip of the knife. After that incident with Wang Sisi, she discovered something. Her ability allowed her to transform up to four items a day and was not limited by four uses a day. It was not yet 12 pm, and since the chef’s knife can be considered a weapon, she stored it away. She held the thought in her mind, a white light briefly flashed past, the knife disappeared into her hands.

  The corpse looked considerably better without the murder weapon.

  “This is something you don’t know,” Luther licked his buckteeth and grinned, “Let me give you a lesson!” After saying this, he unexpectedly reached out to undo the collar button of the shirt that the corpse was wearing.

  “In the New Worlds, we can sometimes obtain, by chance, some special items which are somewhat more valuable… And, no, don’t show me that kitchen knife. It is not something valuable even if you’ve used it to kill someone.” Luther’s hands nimbly groped the corpse’s neck and c.h.e.s.t, with his pair of bright eyes that sparkled from the excitement, he simply looked like a… pervert.

  “If you manage to collect a few good items, you must remember this: don’t ever walk around carelessly with the items in your bag… If you meet that sort of unscrupulous person, they might snatch your item. But worst of all, they might plot to kill you for your items.”

  Luther did not stop talking, and his hands also continued. Very quickly, he started to search around Ren Nan’s ears. Next, following his fair fingers, Lin Sanjiu gaze fell on an obsidian ear stud. She laughed and said, ”This is not a treasure…”

  She just started, but Luther had already pulled out the black obsidian ear stud on Ren Nan’s left ear. Before Lin Sanjiu could react, there was a sudden silver glow. “Ding!” The ear stud fell to the ground. However, the silver glow remained in Luther’s hands, it illuminated half the living room.

  “What is that?” Lin Sanjiu was stunned, she placed her face closer to his hands. She only realized then that he was holding a transparent bottle. Within it was a lump of glowing silver fluid which moved continuously.

  Luther squinted his eyes due to the glare and read the words: “Ability Polishing Agent… Note: This is not suitable for users at basic levels of evolution…”

  Looking at Marcie’s and Luther’s confused faces, she could guess that they had never heard of that [polishing agent] before. Despite that, they could get the general idea of its function from its name. [It probably has something to do with improving or upgrading one’s ability,] Lin Sanjiu thought as she scrutinized the beautiful glowing silver bottle.

  Even though the item was not bad, the three of them were not really considered the sort of combatant type. Additionally, they had not evolved much—though Luther would never admit—as a result, they did not really care much for it, they simply placed it aside.

  “All the special items have a very unique property. They can be reduced to their molecular form and later integrated into another item. Of course, one object can only contain one of these special items. When you want to take them out, they can be drawn out in their molecular form and later reconstructed back into their original form. Thus, for safekeeping, everyone usually carries their most valuable items around with them wherever they go.”

  Lin Sanjiu was flabbergasted when she heard this, she turned her head blankly and looked at Luther.

  Luther was now holding the Patek Philippe watch which Ren Nan wore around wherever he went. As a posthuman, he found his target quickly after
tapping a few times on the face of the watch. Almost instantaneously, a black shadow slid out from the watch. “Pa!” it fell to the ground and rapidly congealed into the shape of a wallet.

  Lin Sanjiu opened her mouth in shock as she picked the wallet up. She carefully opened the wallet with an emotion close to reverence.

  The wallet was not big, it was only the size of a palm. Unlike the normal wallet, there wasn’t a compartment for cash. Rather than calling it a wallet, it was more accurate to call it a card case. After she had searched the card case thoroughly, she found only a single piece of paper in it and nothing else.

  Using the ability polishing agent as a light source, Lin Sanjiu drew out the paper.

  Without discussion, the three of them gathered together and looked at it.

  The first ten seconds that they laid eyes on it, the three of them could not react. They stared at it for another few seconds before Lin Sanjiu suddenly gasped. She could not believe it, and she looked at the other two of them blankly. Consequently, she could not help looking down at the words on the paper once more.

  [That’s right, there is no mistake…]

  Chapter 15 - Kong Yun

  Almost as soon as they heard the sound, the three of them jumped up.

  Without even half a second, Lin Sanjiu turned her palm and was holding the chef’s knife as she asked sternly, “Who’s that?”

  Her cold tone of her voice resonated in the darkness.

  “Ah… don’t be nervous. It’s me. I am Kong Yun from downstairs,” there was a reply from the dark corridor in front of the nanny’s room. Kong Yun sounded a little tired yet quite seemingly gratified. “That’s great. So you guys have flashlights,” she said and walked toward them even without an invitation to enter the apartment.

  [Flashlight? Where…]

  The three of them immediately realized what Kong Yun was talking about and silently cursed about it. The Ability Polishing Agent was really too bright, so much so that Kong Yun could see the light that it emitted even from the emergency door. At this point, they could hear Kong Yun’s slow footsteps approaching. In a moment of anxiety, Marcie kicked the Ability Polishing Agent toward the sofa. Just before the little bottle hit the sofa, it disappeared into countless fragments of light and integrated itself into the sofa. The living room suddenly became dark.

  “Huh? Why did you switch off the flashlight? I can’t see anything…” Kong Yun commented sounding rather dissatisfied.

  Lin Sanjiu frowned her brow slightly. She had a sudden inspiration and quickly replied, “That was my mobile phone. It just ran out of battery… Big Sister Kong, didn’t we ask you to wait for us in your apartment? Why did you come up?” After a pause, she surfaced her doubts, “So, how did you know that I lived here?”

  Taking this opportunity while they talked, she placed her hand on the leg of the corpse. There was a brief white light, and the floor became empty.

  Just as she squished the card into her hand, Kong Yun made her way to the living room, groping in the dark. The very moment she stepped into the living room, Luther lit up his lighter. Under the orange-red glow, Kong Yun looked somewhat pathetic: her face and body were covered in sweat, and her strands of hair were pasted to her forehead. Feeling their gaze, she gave Lin Sanjiu an embarrassed chuckle. “The security guard told me once that you and your boyfriend were the owners of the top floor. Your apartment is situated way too high, I feel very tired after climbing up from the 26th floor…”

  Even though she had already evolved, that was not something surprising. Without the strength enhancement, not everyone had as good a physique as Lin Sanjiu. Just after Lin Sanjiu placed the knife down, and with her heart still pinning to look at the paper on the floor, she forced a smile, “Big Sister Kong, why did you come up?”

  “Nothing really.” Kong Yun looked a little hard-pressed. “I was alone in my apartment, and my husband is still missing. I just felt frightened…”

  This wasn’t something incomprehensible. The three of the looked at each other, and Luther suddenly gave Kong Yun a grin, showing his set of white teeth, “Big Sister Kong, it’s great that you are here. It saved us the trouble of going downstairs to get you. You see, we brought some rice here so that we could cook a bit of porridge… Do you want to eat some?”

  Lin Sanjiu clapped silently in her heart— that was a brilliant excuse! Otherwise, the scene of them standing randomly in the middle of the living room did felt rather unnatural.

  Kong Yun was visibly distracted as she looked at the sack of rice, then she began to laugh, “Why not? Even though that rice is not suitable to make porridge, but that’s a good idea. You all should rest, let me cook.”

  “Okay, let me help.” Marcie carried the sack of rice and headed to the kitchen.

  Kong Yun could not help being curious about Marcie. She quickly followed behind her asking, “Your Mandarin is really good, where are you from?”

  “So, this is…” Lin Sanjiu was just about to say something when the young man interrupted her.

  “Let’s discuss this when we go back.”

  “Go back? You mean you are not planning to bring her to the supermarket?” Lin Sanjiu reacted quickly.

  He seemed to have said that instinctively, without thinking much about it. Hearing her words, he frowned showing a conflicted look. Indeed, not bringing Kong Yun and leaving her, a recently evolved, almost powerless person outside seemed rather unkind. On the other hand, since they did not share any life-and-death situation with her, they could not trust her, so it did not seem appropriate to bring her back to the supermarket either.

  “Let’s observe first. Maybe, she has her own plans, so we don’t have to help her make that decision,” Lin Sanjiu comforted Luther after seeing his somewhat hilarious scrunched up face.

  Kong Yun probably cooked often at home. The lack of light did not hinder her nimble movement—she diced the vacuum-packed salt water chicken, added some seasoning and boiled them with the porridge for half an hour. Soon, the air was filled with a fragrant aroma.

  Not having eaten a normal meal in more than a year, Luther’s mouth quickly filled up with saliva.

  “Come, it is ready!”

  After placing the pot of porridge on the dining table, Marcie searched for a few sets of utensils and scooped out four bowls of porridge.

  The porridge from the pot was steaming, the snow white rice shimmered as they reflected the light from the lighter. The few of them blew on their porridge and prodded it with their spoons. At long last, they could start eating, they impatiently scooped up a spoonful of porridge.

  Even though the porridge was hot, it wasn’t uncomfortable for them to eat it—a pleasant warmth filled their stomachs as the sweet salty aftertaste of the chicken porridge remained on their tongues. Counting the time that had passed, Lin Sanjiu had actually eaten a more delicious salmon just 24 hours before. But somehow, this meal of chicken porridge she was having, after her world was destroyed, tasted like something a lifetime ago.

  Marcie ate a mouthful of porridge and asked Kong Yun coolly, “How did you pass the time alone yesterday?”

  As Luther wanted to eat, he had set aside his lighter before that. Since it was dark, they could not see Kong Yun’s actual expression clearly. They only heard her saying, rather wistfully, “After waking up last night, I kept searching for my husband. Calls were not going through, and the security guards have all fainted. I went out, drove for a couple of rounds and met many people just wandering and stumbling around the streets like mad men. It scared me, so I immediately went home. I bore with it until morning when it was really too hot, so I hid in my washroom and fell asleep… I don’t even know how’s my husband right now.”

  “Well… Did you discover anything about yourself that was different than before?” Lin Sanjiu could not resist asking.

  “Ahh, ah? Different than before… I didn’t. What are your referring to?” Kong Yun seemed astonished as she knocked her spoon against her bowl.

  [Maybe, her Activ
e Skills have not been developed.] Lin Sanjiu thought it through. If they were to explain to her about New Worlds, Posthumans and that sort of thing, it would be more convincing after Kong Yun developed Active Skills. Consequently, she smiled, “It’s nothing. It is a long story, we will tell you some other time. Anyway, what plans do you have later?”

  Kong Yun immediately replied without a shred of hesitation, “I will go back home to wait for my husband, I will wait for him until he returns. If he comes back and doesn’t see me, he will be anxious. That’s right, let’s eat a little faster. I want to show you my husband’s photo later. If you meet him outside, please remember to tell him to go home to look for me…”

  The atmosphere at the dining table suddenly became heavy. After quite awhile, Lin Sanjiu finally said, “Okay, if you are running low on food. We will bring some up for you.”

  She did not want to shatter the woman’s only pillar of support so quickly. Losing one’s hope was akin to the cruel climate outside, it was similarly fatal to a person. Kong Yun thanked her gratefully. They finished the small pot of porridge very quickly. After Kong Yun’s explanation, the three of them gathered their things and followed her downstairs.

  There were two households on each subsequent floor after the penthouse. As the other apartment on the 26th floor had always been empty, Kong Yun left her door unlocked when she left. It simply opened when she just gave it a push.

  When the three of them entered her apartment, they were suddenly stunned.

  At that moment, the apartment which was elegantly decorated was very bright. There were many stylish candelabra all over the large and small surfaces in the room such as the dining table, coffee table, and flower stand. Each of the candelabra held several cream-colored candles. The lights from the orange flames and a faint fragrance flooded the entire living room. It was like as beautiful as a dreamscape— and was scorchingly hot like a nightmare.