by N. Heller
They did not know if Kong Yun was too overwhelmed by grief, but she appeared not to chase after them. The three of them ran into the supermarket, shocked but unharmed, and they quickly pulled down the metal shutter. Only after they locked the shutter from inside, did Lin Sanjiu slid to the ground leaning on the shutter, exhaling a deep breath.
Marcie grabbed a few bottles of water and handed out a bottle to each of them. She took out the Ability Polishing Agent that she did manage to retrieve previously and placed it on one of the shelves beside them, using it for lighting. Who would have known? It was much stronger than the candles. A corner of the supermarket was lit up as if there was a fluorescent light there.
After resting for few minutes, Lin Sanjiu’s mind could not help drifting back to the piece of paper. “So, the item that we found just now…” As she said this, she pulled out the piece of paper. Suddenly, the two remaining people also focused their concentration on that piece of paper.
The handwriting on the paper could clearly be seen under the silver light. As what she saw was too mind-blowing, Lin Sanjiu inadvertently crushed the sides of the paper.
【VISA】
Place of issue: Black Death City
Valid Destination: Hyperthermal Hell
This visa was issued by the Consular Officer of Black Death City.
Despite looking at it once before, Lin Sanjiu was still dumbfounded. She passed the visa over to Luther and Marcie. Both of them were also filled with perplexity.
“I don’t understand… when we came here, we did not have any visa, but we could enter this place anyway?” Luther muttered several times repetitively. He flipped over the visa multiple times, examining it.
“If we think it through carefully, your situation was different from his.” Lin Sanjiu paused, seemingly to think. “You had to wait for a full fourteen months before you could enter another mutated dimension, but when Ren Nan came here to my world, it was still normal— its mutation had not even started...“
[Apparently, a visa could not only assign a destination, but it could also allow a person to travel to a dimension before it mutates?]
Marcie pointed at the line “Journey Performed” at the back of the visa. She explained softly, “Ren Nan definitely came here with this visa.”
“Both of you have never heard anything about such a thing like this visa? “ Lin Sanjiu pressed on with her questions unrelentingly even though it seemed hopeless.
Both of them shook their heads as expected. Luther laid the visa on the ground, staring at it, saying bitterly, “If we knew there was such a thing, we wouldn’t have to wake up to an exploding bomb the previous time.”
[That made sense.] Lin Sanjiu lowered her head, her heart was filled with an incomprehensible feeling.
[That’s true…]
“But I think that this sort of visa is much more useful for Ren Nan… No matter how well we prepare, we cannot guarantee that everything will work out. However, with his ability, he could gain a lot more potential growth value in the six months.” As she thought about the past disorienting half a year, a cold self-deprecating smile appeared on Lin Sanjiu’s face.
Luther sighed and patted Lin Sanjiu’s shoulder to show his comfort in a seemingly m.a.t.u.r.ed manner.
“I wonder how he got the visa. Even if we wanted to find out, there is no one we can ask.” Marcie was still fiddling with the paper obstinately.
“He doesn’t have many items, so I don’t think he had been to many places…” Luther’s eyes suddenly brightened, and he said, smiling, “If we can find the Consular Officer of Hyperthermal Hell, maybe we can survive together, we don’t have split up when we get transported to another world.
Struggling through the infinite number of apocalyptic world, everyone comes and goes like drifting duckweed on water. This is indeed a troubling matter. It was a rare opportunity to meet someone that one can share a good rapport with, if they can become companions, it can’t get any better!
The problem they had was finding the Consular Officer. All three of them had this same thought. Lin Sanjiu was just about to speak when they heard a neither light nor heavy knock on the door.
“You all must be inside, right? Why don’t you open the door?” Kong Yun still had that nasally hoarse voice that one has after bawling, but her tone was a lot calmer.
Chapter 18 - A Happy Blessing for Lin Sanjiu
The three of them did not say a single a word. They stood up silently as they raised their guard. Kong Yun’s question echoed softly through the spacious supermarket, and before it faded, there was another furious knock. This time, she even raised her voice, “Come here and open the door! I know you all are in there! That rice, didn’t you get that here? Open up!”
That’s right—she lived nearby, so she probably shopped here frequently. That was the reason she was able to recognize the source of that sack of imported rice. Before the three of them could think of anything to reply to her, they did not expect that her shouting successfully managed to rouse Wang Sisi who was in the staff room. After an ear-piercing hiss, bangs resonated in the air as she slammed herself violently against the door. Lin Sanjiu could not tolerate this any longer, she suddenly walked towards the metal shutter.
Somehow, Wang Sisi’s voice seemed to have startled Kong Yun. There were a few seconds of silence outside the metal shutter. After waiting for a while, Lin Sanjiu restrained her anger and asked, “What the hell do you want?”
“Is that the lady from upstairs?” Kong Yun shot back.
“Why did you follow us here? What do want?” Lin Sanjiu shouted loudly, “Do you think I will just obediently let myself be absorbed by you, just like your husband?”
Kong Yun, who stood at the other side of the shutter, fell silent for a moment. After her pause, her faint voice finally traveled through the metal shutter, “I actually just want to talk. Honestly, I have to thank you.”
Lin Sanjiu bit her lip without saying a word.
“If you had not enlightened me, I would have just continue waiting. Without anyone around for me to absorb, I would die in the end. On the other hand… I really hate you,” Kong Yun sounded unstable, the volume of her voice fluctuated greatly, it was difficult to listen to her. “My hope was ripped away from me by a young woman like you who knew nothing… I am suffering, really. Who are you to tell me that I killed him? I can’t stand it! I...I really want to kill you so that I can feel a little better.”
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. She could not help taking half a step back. Even though there was a metal shutter between them, she could almost smell the abnormal aura of insanity in the air.
Kong Yun, on the side, began to speak again, “Forget it. You wouldn’t understand… It doesn’t make a difference whether you open the shutter or not. If you don’t open the shutter, I will just converse with you… If you open them, I will turn your bones into juice and drink that.”
Lin Sanjiu was so affected that her face turned white, she was about to open her mouth, but Kong Yun continued as if she knew that the person on the other side was about to respond, “Listen carefully, I will only say this once. I can only use my ability every once in an hour. For me, a living organism is more beneficial than a dead one. And a human being is by far more beneficial for me than any other living creature. When I am absorbing, my… prey and I must not move in that ten minutes. Whether it is on my own violation or forced, if I move, all my efforts will be wasted. I will have to wait for the next hour to start absorbing again. But now at my initial stage, I need to absorb a large amount, so I can’t risk the situation of not absorbing anything for a few hours...”
[From this perspective, it meant that Kong Yun was only trying to drag time after she ate the chicken porridge…]
“Ah!” Marcie suddenly exclaimed, realizing something, ”That was why you did not lay a hand on us just now. It is not that you didn’t want to, but you did not have the chance! If the others realized that something was wrong, you would have exposed yourself and waste another hour!
”
“That’s right,” Even though she could not see Kong Yun face, Lin Sanjiu did not know why but she felt that Kong Yun was smiling at this point, “originally, I wanted to wait for one of you to fall behind… but I did not expect things to turn out like this…”
“How generous of you to reveal everything about your ability,” Lin Sanjiu remarked sarcastically with a cold smile, but only half believed her words.
“So what if I told you this? The worst outcome is that I’ll die,” Kong Yun intonation rose, “Do you think I am afraid of death? If you kill me, I will meet my husband. I should be thanking you then.”
Lin Sanjiu was shocked, she was about to speak when Wang Sisi who was in the staff room behind her started howling again.
The inhuman howl sounded very intimidating, it became silent for a moment outside the metal shutter, before Kong Yun spoke again. “What’s that?“
“It’s nothing,” Lin Sanjiu did not want to tell Kong Yun anything about duoluozhongs, “Probably, someone dying soon…”
Despite knowing that she was lying, Kong Yun still laughed. “Fine, let’s hope that we never meet again.”
She was surprisingly blunt. After she had said that, they could hear her footsteps changing direction. She climbed the escalator, and gradually, her footsteps faded into the distance. Lin Sanjiu tried her best to steel herself just now, but after she had heard that woman leave, she finally gave a sigh of relief.
The three of them walked back to the area where they had laid out the towels. Lin Sanjiu wiped her face then laid on her “bed” lethargically. Wang Sisi’s howling continued, but the three of them seemed to have gotten used to it. After they had discussed for a while about Kong Yun, somehow Marcie and Luther came to the subject on logistics. The two of them discussed for a short moment before deciding to gather the remaining food and water so that they could check the numbers.
“Don’t worry. That woman can’t do anything to you.” Marcie thought that she was still concerned about Kong Yun, so she smiled and patted her head. After that, she stood up and left with Luther.
The Ability Polishing Agent glowed brightly in the tiny bottle, and the surroundings were lit up with a swirling silver light. If Wang Sisi’s banging and howling didn’t spoil that atmosphere, it was actually considerably peaceful.
After laying for a while, Lin Sanjiu found that her mind was crowded with a lot of thing—Ren Nan, the New World, her own abilities, her dead parents, Zhu Mei, Kong Yun… these things floating in her mind, one after the other, almost suffocating her. If she had discovered this earlier, she would rather find something to do. Lin Sanjiu tossed around a few times before she finally jumped up frustratedly. She decided to look for the other two people and help check their inventory of supplies.
To her surprise, once she left the ground, she felt a warm flow traveling from her head to her feet. In that split second, Lin Sanjiu felt all her muscles twitching, her blood rushing through her blood vessels like crazy, and her teeth even started to chatter. She had never experienced this before; it was strange as though she had lost control of her body. A low cry escaped her throat uncontrollably.
Coincidentally, Wang Sisi had stopped at that moment. Her voice immediately traveled through the supermarket. Almost immediately, Marcie hastily asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lin Sanjiu wanted to open her mouth to say something, but she totally could not control her muscles and her tongue. Her ears were only filled with the sound of her teeth which chattered rapidly.
“We’ll go over!” Luther yelled out.
The footsteps of the two of them approaching sounded very distant and indistinct to Lin Sanjiu. She only felt Marcie’s cold breath when the two of them were kneeling beside her. “What… what’s the matter?”
Luther sounded very anxious, “Her... her face. No, her whole body. What’s happening?”
When Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes, she saw two large faces, looking very closely at her with worried expressions.
“What… what happened to me just now?” she pinched her own skin bewilderedly. The tight, delicate skin which belonged to a young woman like herself looked so normal. Her muscles, bones, and blood also reverted back.
Luther and Marcie looked at each other, feeling a little at a loss.
“Let me draw your blood; I will help you check,” Marcie said as she extended her nails and gave Lin Sanjiu a tiny scratch. Lin Sanjiu had the same idea. She looked nervously as her second drop of fresh blood disappeared into Marcie’s palms. Maybe it was because she already collected some base figures, so they only had to wait nervously for about 20 minutes before Marcie opened her eyes. She looked at Lin Sanjiu, and her lips curled up. A few smiling crow’s feet appeared at the corner of her eyes, “Xiao Jiu, congratulation, you have a happy blessing![1]”
With a “Pshhh!” sound, Luther, who was standing beside, drinking a bottle of water, spurted water out from his mouth, wetting Lin Sanjiu’s hair and face.
Lin Sanjiu vision darkened, her face was totally white. She did not even bother to wipe the drops of water on her eyelashes, “That’s not possible!”
“Why not? This is the natural order of thing.” As she was puzzled, Marcie’s smile somewhat faded. She looked at both Luther and Lin Sanjiu, “Isn’t it a happy blessing now that she has developed her third passive skill?”
She could not understand when she saw the jaw-dropping expression that the two of them had. “And her third Passive Skill is a high-tiered physical enhancement ability. Hey, what are you doing… Wait.. Wait... Luther, why aren’t you stopping her? Hey! It hurts!”
Translator notes: [1]The author use a bit of wordplay, the term in Chinese roughly translates to “fortunate event” which can mean that one is pregnant or something happy has happened.
Chapter 19 - Who Moved my Corpse Mountain?
The tangerine yellow sun rays were already shining down on the last two steps of the escalator. The strong sunlight was like an eraser, it erased all the darkness from the spaces and revealed the original color of every object. As the sunlight reached her light amber eyes, Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes slightly—surviving in the dark for 48 hours, she could not really adapt to the sudden presence of sunlight.
Aside from the brightness, the surrounding temperature was unmistakably rising rapidly. The heat wave engulfed Lin Sanjiu as though it was going to eat her up alive, for a moment, she almost felt as if her blood was starting to boil. If she had not suddenly attained her【Overall Physical Enhancement】passive skill last night, there was a high possibility that she would not survive the way back.
It was said that such an ability would modify one’s body to a large extent, Lin Sanjiu was beginning to slightly believe that now.
She blinked her eyes a few times, trying her best get accustomed to the high definition vision that her third ability provided. On the ground, not too far from them, she saw the fully detailed splatters of sepia blood stains, dirt stains, putrid pus and chunks of flesh.
She had just knitted her brows together, not having enough time to process the feeling of disgust, when he suddenly realized the implication of the scene in front of her. Lin Sanjiu’s eyes widened instantly, she exchanged looks with Luther who standing beside her. The two of them took a deep breath simultaneously.
Today, they came up to clear away the corpses. Since yesterday, the pile of corpses which was just by the escalator had started to give off this funky stench. It was akin to having a rotting cadaver on one’s doorstep. If there were a sudden outbreak of contagion due to this, they wouldn’t be spared even with their enhanced bodies. That was why Lin Sanjiu decided to come upstairs to burn the heap of corpses under the glaring heat of the sun.
Yet, now the two of them found themselves a little confounded— the bloodstains and chunks of flesh were undeniable there, but those were the only remnants left at that spot which once housed that mountain of corpses.
“Those… bodies?” Luther muttered as he walked a few steps forward, not noticing
that the soles of his shoes were now in a dirty, smelly puddle of fluid. “Don’t tell me… Kong Yun absorbed all the dead bodies here last night?”
Even though Kong Yun mentioned that living organisms were more beneficial to her that dead ones, but who knows if she was swayed when she saw that readily-available pile of corpses and absorbed them all.
Lin Sanjiu scanned the area a few times as her face got whiter and whiter. She whispered, “It’s not her.”
“Huh? How can you be sure?”
“There are a few reasons. Firstly, there were no less than twenty to thirty dead bodies here, it has only been over ten hours from the time she appeared here last night till this morning… she doesn’t have enough time. Secondly, she can absorb the corpses entirely but what about their clothes? Where are all the clothes on those bodies?” Lin Sanjiu forced herself to calm down, restraining herself from looking at the streets outside.
From the large glass doors of the shopping mall, it was easy to see the same car queue that jammed up the road in front of it. “Thirdly, take a look outside.”
Luther squinted his eyes and looked into the cars in the queue using his Eagle Eyes. He figured out what Lin Sanjiu meant almost immediately. Last night, when they walked through the lines of cars, there were still quite a few people banging on their car windows, requesting for their help to reach here. But now, the cars were all empty, there wasn’t even a single person left. Some of the car windows have been shattered, and some others had their doors opened. At a glance, Luther noticed a gray men’s shirt and a pair of jeans on the road, one of its sleeves was folded upwards while the other downwards. It was as though the owner froze on the spot when he was still wearing that shirt. Luther had an impression of that outfit. Last night, they were still worn by a young man with a fashionable hairstyle.