by N. Heller
“What do you mean?” Professor Bai looked back at Lin Sanjiu, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, it was as if she was looking at a kid throwing a tantrum. “I’ve already told you. I want to help these people so that they can repopulate the world and rebuild civilization!”
“My mom might let you down, but she did this for the greater good…” Xu Xiaoyang retorted furiously. Her small face was flushed with anger when she saw how rude Lin Sanjiu was to her mom.
Lin Sanjiu paused for a moment as if she suddenly realized something. She instantly exchanged glances with Marcie, and they became visibly appalled.
If she thought about it carefully, she had never heard anyone mentioned it before during their time in Oasis...
She looked at Hu Changzai’s perplexed face. Lin Sanjiu lifted the rabbit in her hand and asked hoarsely, “Hu Changzai, Rabbit, I have a question for you both. Do you know anything about ‘the random die’ and the next world?
There was pure silence for a few seconds. Lin Sanjiu already knew their answers from the looks on their faces, even without them replying. Marcie covered her face as she gave a long sigh. Noticing the unusual reaction of the two women, Hu Changzai felt anxious as he sensed that there was something wrong. “What do you mean by the next world? Please explain it clearly to us!”
“Oh God!” Lin Sanjiu felt a bitter taste in her mouth. She really didn’t know how to put it in words, “Posthumans can only stay in a single world for 14 months. After 14 months, you will be randomly sent to another world… It will still be an apocalyptic world and it will only be worse.”
All the other people, other than Marcie, gave her a “you’re crazy” look.
“She’s telling the truth,” Marcie said solemnly as she stepped forward. “I came from another world… In my original world, a deadly virus was accidentally released from a lab. As it was airborne, about 95% of the human population was wiped out before the experts developed an antiviral serum.”
A crack finally appeared on Professor Bai’s calm and tranquil face. She gasped at Marcie and mumbled, “I... I don’t understand… How is this possible…”
Hu Changzai sat down on the ground with a thud and smiled bitterly as he muttered to him, “She’s telling the truth…”
“If I am not wrong, the duoluozhong that ‘helped’ you must be from another world!” Lin Sanjiu said as she shook her head. “If he isn’t from another world, how do you explain why he had those technologies? Whatever he gave you would have brought about a technological revolution… Didn’t you ever suspect anything?”
Professor Bai was in a daze, her face was turning pale as she seemed to have realized something, “Wait… Wait. You mean…”
Lin Sanjiu sighed.
“That’s right… Professor Bai. Since you gave those 1600 normal people medicine which caused them to evolve and gain the Heat Resistance Adaptation, they have no choice but to go to another world.
“Once these weak people face a new environment, I can guarantee they’ll die in a more painful manner than being here. Do you know why? Based on the survival difficulty, our world is merely a D-level world. It’s considerably easy to survive here compared to the other worlds!”
“You’ve been wrong from the start. Posthumans are not just a fraction of the human population, they’re the last hope for mankind! And how many of these people have you sent out to die?”
Lin Sanjiu wanted to continue, but Marcie patted her shoulder gently. “Xiao Jiu…”
Only at that moment did she realize that Professor Bai was now sitting on the ground with an ashen face, scared out of her wits due to the revelation. Her lips were trembling, and tears were pouring from the corners of her eyes. Xu Xiaoyang was so affected by this that she hugged her mother and repeated “Mum” over and over again, unable to offer any word of comfort.
“How could this be… He’d never mention anything like that to me… I always thought that I was doing the right thing…”
Even though Professor Bai knew her methods might be unpleasant, she had always been wholly committed to her mission. Now that she suddenly knew the truth, now that the bubble had burst, she really could not take the blow.
The brown rabbit also gave a look of disbelief, let alone Professor Bai.
Lin Sanjiu held her words back for a while. She finally spoke after she saw the mother and daughter duo stuck in such a shell-shocked stage, “Professor Bai, I know that you must be feeling all sorts of emotions right now, but you have to answer my question. Where can we find that duoluozhong you’ve been working with?”
Professor Bai continued to sit in a daze as if she didn’t hear what Lin Sanjiu said. She fixed her gaze at the dormitories without saying a word. Just when Lin Sanjiu was about to question the woman again, she felt something hot on her t.h.i.g.h. It seemed to be from her pants pocket. She held the rabbit with her other hand and checked her pocket. She pulled out a piece of paper—the visa that she had taken from Voley.
Lin Sanjiu’s heart skipped a beat. She turned to look at Marcie instinctively. [12 is dead! Will Marcie disappear? Does this mean that Luther is dead too?]
Unexpectedly, nothing happened to Marcie, she was fine in general. Marcie crooked her head at Lin Sanjiu, looking puzzled, “What’s wrong? Is this your delayed reaction?”
“What will happen to you if 12 dies?” Lin Sanjiu managed to force those words out of her mouth, she’d never felt so afraid before. Not even that time when she was almost eaten by Ren Nan.
“I’ll definitely disappear immediately. My existence is dependent on Luther. If his physical body dies, there is no way I can survive.” Marcie hesitated for a moment as the wind blew her red hair into her face. “What did you suddenly bring this up?”
Lin Sanjiu continued staring for some time at Marcie nervously, to the extent the Marcie started feeling uneasy. Something suddenly dawned on her, and she slapped her own t.h.i.g.h saying, “I’ve been deceived!”
Xu Xiaoyang looked up with her tear-filled eyes while Hu Changzai stood up and walked closer to Lin Sanjiu, worriedly.
“This visa was issued to someone else. Why did Voley lie to me?” Lin Sanjiu said furiously, “I’ll deal with him when I get back!”
Other than Marcie and herself, this was the first time the others have heard of that sort of visa and were all puzzled. After thinking about it for a while, Lin Sanjiu knew that the matter with Voley could be dealt with later; instead, the bigger problem was the duoluozhong that Professor Bai mentioned.
Suddenly, they heard a resounding “click” from the speakers of the Executives’ Building. It was the sound of the microphone being switched on. All of them were stunned as they looked up.
“Good Evening! Dear members of Oasis!”
It was the same male voice which had been making the announcements the entire day. It seemed like it was a new announcement. The voice traveled through Oasis, as the speakers in all the factory compound rang with his voice. They could instantly hear the commotion from the dormitories.
“Hey, what do you all still have to say at this point?” Lin Sanjiu scratched her head and asked impatiently. “You better tell me where is that duoluozhong—”
“All humans, please stay put. I am not referring to you.”
That sentence was like a stop button, everyone froze when they heard that. They all looked up at the speaker, with gaping mouths as they stood still.
“Now, I am going to give you the latest update. All the five Executives have already been defeated. Professor Bai has also found out about the truth regarding this world and understand that the possibility of rebuilding human civilization is but a delusion. If we don’t do anything, we will not be able to keep our farm. Therefore, with a heavy heart, I must say, please ignore all previous rules. Go out there are enjoy the massacre.”
Once the announcement ended, numerous duoluozhong flew out from the top floors of the factory buildings. Their numbers quickly filled the skies. They spread their black carapace-like wings, swung their mouthparts and polluted the
air with their terrible stench.
“Please be careful! To prevent the wastage of resources, please do not create large wounds on those humans. The corpses will be collected later…”
Even though they knew that the duoluozhong that misled Professor Bai was upstairs, Lin Sanjiu and the others could not do much. At that moment, the number of duoluozhongs that flew down from the Executives’ Building was twice that of the other buildings. Furthermore, each of those duoluozhongs was staring at them.
Chapter 68 - Death of the Utmost Consular Officer
The entire sky was now hidden from view. They could hear the cacophony of their own heavy breaths and their footsteps as they ran as fast as they could between the building with Lin Sanjiu leading the way. Their goal was to reach the vehicles. Once they get their vehicles, they could pick up Fang Dan and Hai Tianqing and escape from Oasis!
From the ground to the sky, the current scenario could be split into three layers.
The top layer was made of many duoluozhongs. They were flying above Lin Sanjiu’s group and following them, but they were unable to swoop down and attack the people below as there was a gigantic silver net between them and the humans below.
If they slowed down to look at that net carefully, they would realize that it was made of random paraphernalia: a broken brick, a torn insulation blanket, a ladle from the canteen, a metal grille… They were all junk items, but they all had a silver sheen like the well-polished edge of a katana.
The brown rabbit held on to Lin Sanjiu’s combat pants with two paws. His furball-like body bounced in tandem with Lin Sanjiu’s pace. He looked up at the gigantic net above them and yelled out, “It’s almost ready!”
Without even looking up, Lin Sanjiu snapped her fingers. The items which made up the silver net immediately dispersed, they shot upward toward the duoluozhongs, each leaving a silver trail like those of a meteor streak. The duoluozhongs did not even bat an eye. Their excited screeches became even sharper — they were not afraid of that rubbish! Without the net, it was even easier for all of them!
That common thinking was disproved in half a second. A piece of rag with the hardness of a diamond, rotating at a very high speed, sliced off one of the wings which belonged to a duoluozhong. In shock, it let out a screech before it crashed downward as it lost control. It fell toward a pile of “rubbish”. Its body was instantaneously shredded into bits and explosion of blood and ground flesh erupted in mid-air.
“Fantastic! Do it again!”
While the brown rabbit cheered excitedly, the roof of several of the dormitories broke into pieces, almost a thousand parts, consisting of bricks, tiles, and wood showed a familiar silver sheen and rapidly replaced the gaps in the net.
Marcie was inspired by Chen Jinfeng’s ability when she described this ability to Lin Sanjiu. After Lin Sanjiu’s Pygmalion Choker was activated, she could feel a slight warmth from under the bandages on her neck. Compared to Chen Jinfeng who could only control a limited number of items simultaneously, Lin Sanjiu’s extremely high Potential Growth Value meant that she could control nearly one thousand weaponized items at the same time. That also meant that the lethality of the ability in her hands was far beyond that of Chen Jinfeng.
“I didn’t know you were that powerful…” Xu Xiaoyang was just behind Lin Sanjiu. The girl petite face was now pale, perhaps from all that running or even because she was scared by Lin Sanjiu. Griselda was running beside Xu Xiaoyang, carrying Professor Bai on her back. Professor Bai was dumbfounded as she looked up at the sky.
Lin Sanjiu sighed dejectedly. The disparity between feeling like a superhero for 5 minutes and a weak sh*t for the remaining 1435 minutes within a 24-hour period was really too great, she couldn’t help feeling that it was bad for her heart. As she thought about time, she suddenly asked, “Hu Changzai, how many more minutes do I have?”
Marcie was carrying Hu Changzai on her back as his running speed was really behind everyone. His face was red and fl.u.s.tered as he replied, “You have exactly 4 minutes. We are reaching soon, we can make it in time!”
“Huh?”
Once Lin Sanjiu reached her truck, she scanned her surroundings and saw something which stunned her for a moment. The few people running behind her also noticed what she saw. The back of her truck was opened, the door was slightly ajar. There were a few mineral water bottles on the ground and a packet of crushed instant noodle with a footprint on it.
The packet of instant noodle was right in the middle of a puddle of fluid. “Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.” Drops of blood trickling down from the small gap between the opened doors hit the plastic packaging of the instant noodle.
Lin Sanjiu eyes were glued on the gruesome state of Voley’s corpse for a few seconds before she suddenly covered her mouth. Marcie quickly rushed beside her, and when she saw that sight, her expression changed immediately, “It’s 12!”
From the methods used, it was clear that the murderer was none other than 12. Multiple organs in the body have all been slit open. Lin Sanjiu knew that she didn’t have time to waste so she bore with the wave of nausea and pulled the body off the truck and indicated for Marcie to throw Hu Changzai’s protest. After that, she heaved a sigh. “The visa was issued to Voley, so the Consular Officer must be someone else!”
Even though she came to that conclusion, she knew that this was not the time to think about the matter regarding the Consular Officer. She only had 3 minutes and 20 seconds before her Pygmalion Choker went into cooldown mode again. Seeing that everyone in both vehicles already settled down, Lin Sanjiu closed the door of her truck, pulled out her key and started the engine. She stepped on the accelerator and sped toward where Fang Dan was. She did not need to swerve to avoid the obstacles as everything in front of them were weaponized and added to the net, opening a clear path for the two vehicles.
With the gigantic net she had set up, Fang Dan and Hai Tianqing should be safe for now. Before even half a minute passed, the brown rabbit which was on her shoulder suddenly bounced up, “That’s Hai Tianqing! I see Hai Tianqing!”
She could also see Hai Tianqing, with his hill-like physique, sitting up. Beside him, there was a woman lying on her side. Lin Sanjiu braked sharply, and the truck came to a screeching halt. The brown rabbit stumbled and crashed into the windscreen. That nearly made his nose crooked, he crawled up and cursed noisily. But when he turned to look at Lin Sanjiu, he noticed her sheet-white face.
“What wrong, seen a ghost?“ the brown rabbit whispered as he turned back to the front to look.
They could hear the vague sounds of screaming humans on the verge of death coming from far corners of Oasis; they could also smell the stench in the air as the duoluozhongs flapped their wings; they could feel the sand in the wind. Then, almost as if emerging from a deadly silence, Lin Sanjiu walked toward Fang Dan’s body in a daze.
“Don’t come any nearer!” Hai Tianqing suddenly yelled out angrily, he looked as if he was about to stand up but he didn’t move.
Lin Sanjiu felt some sand stuck to her face as a gust of wind blew past. When she reached to dust her face, she realized that she had been crying. She wiped her face and eyed Hai Tianqing coldly, “Did you kill her?”
Hu Changzai’s voice was also trembling when he said, “Executive Hai… Why did you… I thought we had already discussed…”
“I didn’t kill her!” Hai Tianqing pounded the ground with his fist, at the same time a nearby wall vibrated due to the tremor. “Brother Hu, quick! Come over here! You don’t know, but the murderer is that woman!”
Hai Tianqing pointed at Lin Sanjiu with his thick index finger.
“At that time, I was only half-conscious, so I didn’t wake up. Fang Dan appeared to have seen someone she knew. After that, I heard her calling that person ‘Xiao Jiu’. She continued with a question, asking, ‘Why isn’t Marcie and Hu Changzai with you?’ Then, I opened my eyes.” Hai Tianqing inhaled sharply. He shot a look of fury at Lin Sanjiu, “I saw her! She was the person I saw. She stabbed
Fang Dan even before I could say a word but I fainted at that critical point...”
As if she was drenched by a bucket of icy water, Lin Sanjiu could not say a word as she gripped the sides of her combat pants tightly, her shoulder trembled violently. Knowing the truth, Marcie also had a very grim expression on her face. They knew that the person that killed Fang Dan was 12.
“Why did 12 kill her... they had nothing against each other…” Lin Sanjiu’s voice was muffled. For the second time, she felt a heat radiating from her pocket. It was so hot that her skin started feeling painful, so she reached for the visa numbly.
Lin Sanjiu and Marcie looked toward Hai Tianqing’s direction. At the same time, Hu Changzai was standing beside Hai Tianqing explaining that Lin Sanjiu had been with them all this time and assured that there was no way that Lin Sanjiu could duplicate herself and kill Fang Dan. He even got the brown rabbit and Xu Xiaoyang to be her witness. Hai Tianqing was still doubtful, but when he saw the item in Lin Sanjiu’s hand he shouted out again, “No, it’s really her!”
“That woman looked for Fang Dan and asked for that visa or something. Fang Dan laughed and said, ‘You actually found out that I have this useless ability.’ Next, Fang Dan gave that woman that same paper! Once the woman received the paper, she killed Fang Dan!” Hai Tianqing continued, “When she died, that woman suddenly cursed vulgarly and said, ‘So it’ll become invalid if she dies’, then she headed—”
Hai Tianqing finally realized the oddity of the entire situation. “Huh? That woman was heading for the main entrance of Oasis. Yet, all of you came from there…” He frowned, “the opposite direction.”
After she composed herself, Lin Sanjiu said, “I have an enemy. He knows how to shapeshift.”
When she spoke, her words seemed agonizing to her. “Hu Changzai, can you carry Fang Dan and place her in the truck? We can’t leave her here, she will be consumed by those duoluozhongs. We don’t have much time now. Let’s go!”