Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  After struggling through all sorts of dangers, her will to survive would push her body to adapt, and her "Overall Physical Enhancement" ability helped her body grow stronger each day, even without leveling up. Her muscles were slowly growing tougher, her bones harder and her physical strength was rising...

  The damage from the radiation concealed these changes. Lin Sanjiu only felt her new strength and vigor when she entered the snow globe city. Sandwhale definitely didn’t know the reasons for this turn of events. He was astonished when he coughed out a mouthful of blood but gritted his teeth and jumped up when he saw that she was heading his way.

  Without saying a word, Lin Sanjiu whipped out her mouthpart weapon. Its sharp teeth whistled as she waved it towards his c.h.e.s.t. She was shocked when her opponent’s c.h.e.s.t exploded with a bang and sand burst out forth as she thrusted the mouthpart through the sand.

  When she pulled her weapon back, the sand turned back to flesh and blood. Sandwhale did not take any damage from that attack.

  "No matter what weapon you use, there is no way you can hurt me." Sandwhale spat. "You managed to land your attack only because I didn’t react fast enough the first time…"

  He clearly proved that he was not bluffing when Lin Sanjiu followed up with a series of attacks. No matter where she aimed, his body would turn to sand, rendering her attack useless.

  "Haha! So this is your best attack?" Sandwhale glared at her with vicious eyes, "It’s my turn now, b*tch!"

  Before he finished his sentence, his arms turned to sand and a sandstorm headed in Lin Sanjiu’s direction. Since each grain of sand held an incredible amount of compressed energy, it would cause immeasurable damage if one was hit by that sandstorm attack. The most dangerous component of his attack was the fact that it was very difficult to dodge such a sandstorm.

  Sandwhale had killed many people with this attack—when they were alive, they all looked different but when they died they all looked the same. They all became a twisted pile of bloodied human mush.

  Ignoring the possible backlash from the organizers, the irate Sandwhale only had one thing in his mind, he wanted to see Lin Sanjiu become that same human mush.

  [Does she think that I would stop just because she leads the sandstorm towards me?] Sandwhale immediately understood her intentions and laughed.

  "Hahaha! Are you stupid? If my hands can become sand, so can my body!"

  His resounding laughter filled the room while his c.h.e.s.t turned into a pile of sand and another sandstorm headed toward her. With sandstorms heading toward her from two direction, she found herself in an even more dangerous situation.

  With the situation at hand, there was no chance the woman would survive with two sandstorms heading her way.

  ...

  "Oh! The noise from the room is rather loud!"

  After introducing the remaining contestant, the pink-faced man who was waiting for Lin Sanjiu commented a little excited. The screen was back on the female host and he was feeling a little bored. He took out a yellow lipstick and started touching up his makeup. Doing this, he smiled and said, "I hope your boss holds himself back a little. She wouldn’t look good on TV with a messed up face."

  "Cough. You guys from Garden of Eden can’t be afraid of that, right?"

  "No, we aren’t afraid of that. But if she doesn’t look fine now, the contrast later wouldn’t be as obvious…"

  [Is it over?]

  Sandwhale’s lackeys, the soldiers with weapons, and the eight fearful and worried-looking women all turned to look at the door of the small room. A few cameras flew to the front of the door, as their controllers aimed the cameras at the door.

  The female host seemed to realized the commotion in the room. She gave a quick explanation to the audience and the screen transited to show the door of that changing room.

  The entire Garden of Eden waited eagerly for Contestant 97 to show herself again. After some time, the door finally opened.

  A pair of bloodied legs appeared from behind the door. Lin Sanjiu’s combat pants had been reduced to strips of clothes which hung over her legs. Yet, the large patches of wounds on her legs obstinately obvious. On the other hand, her upper body and face was totally fine.

  Everyone’s focus wasn’t on her indifferent and aloof face which hadn’t changed from before, but on the fact that she could walk out of the room by herself.

  The small cameras froze in the air. While everyone looked at her in shock, not making a single sound, Lin Sanjiu smiled. Then, she dragged something out from behind the door and threw it on the ground.

  That was Sandwhale’s corpse. It lacked a huge chunk of flesh in the c.h.e.s.t area and both arms.

  When the soldiers with weapons quickly surrounded her, Lin Sanjiu smiled mildly, "I am willing to participate in the 28th Lunar New Year Tournament on my own accord. I am Contestant 97, Lin Sanjiu."

  Chapter 115 - You Will Regret This

  Ever since Garden of Eden’s Lunar New Year Fighting Tournament had started, this was the first time in 28 years that a female contestant voluntarily participated. With the high levels of informatization in the city, this news quickly spread throughout Garden of Eden. Within five minutes, everyone in the city had witnessed how Lin Sanjiu rebelliously presented herself on the screen. The program only showed one shot of how Sandwhale’s incomplete corpse was thrown to the ground like a piece of rag. After that, his corpse was quickly carried away by a group of people. This was a valuable piece of information which would be used to analyze Contestant 97’s combat abilities. After she was surrounded, Lin Sanjiu sat on an empty chair and cooperatively placed her arms behind herself to let them tie her up once more.

  The cameramen were at the end of their wits by this point. A swarm of cameras surrounded Lin Sanjiu, showing her from all angles on the screen. The pink-faced host was so annoyed that the veins on his face were bulging. He held on to another camera that was heading her way, shouting at the audience while the medical staff quickly rushed over to check her wounds. The only person that seemed unaffected was Lin Sanjiu, who sat in the middle of the whole commotion.

  The pink-faced host took a few deep breaths and stood in front of her. His spittle sprayed everywhere as he asked, "Contestant 97, can you tell us what happened in the changing room? Why are you willing to participate in this tournament? Do you know what this involves?"

  It took a while before Lin Sanjiu turned to look at him. She had no intention of sharing anything with these people. Even though she looked composed when she was walking out of the door, she still felt somewhat shaken when she remembered what had happened.

  After meeting so many people, that ability to turn one’s body into a sandstorm was definitely the top three most lethal ability she had encountered.

  When she was trapped between the two sandstorms, Lin Sanjiu really had no way to escape. This was because her plan was just like what Sandwhale had predicted. She wanted to lead the sandstorm towards him so that he would protect himself… She didn’t expect that his entire body could become sand so she was really driven to the edge of death.

  Just then, she noticed something under her legs. As this was a changing room shared by many, the room was divided into many hanging curtains. After that chasing and dodging, both of them had torn down most of these curtains which were left messily on the ground.

  Lin Sanjiu found a messy pile of cloth just by her feet in the right place at the right time. Lin Sanjiu immediately dropped to the ground, at the same time she pulled the curtain with her left hand and shielded her head and upper body. Her lightning speed action took less than half a second. While Sandwhale laughed loudly, the grains of sand hit against the cloth in Lin Sanjiu’s hand. Every grain of sand was like a small metal ball. Even if they fell on a metal board, they would cause multiple dents, let alone the curtain fabric. Initially, Sandwhale thought he would be able to see Lin Sanjiu die from the sandstorms. However, his laughter stopped and he suddenly lost his voice.

  The cloth, along with a large
amount of sand, disappeared from his sight. The remaining sand which missed the curtain struck Lin Sanjiu’s legs. Unfortunately, every grain of sand was actually made from Sandwhale’s blood and flesh. After losing that volume of flesh, naturally, the strength that could be exerted with the remaining grains of sand was greatly reduced. That attack wasn’t even strong enough to break her bones.

  Sandwhale stared wide-eyed at the card in Lin Sanjiu’s hand before slowly looking down at his empty c.h.e.s.t. The remaining sand which assaulted her quickly retreated back to their master’s body. They reverted back to flesh covering a small portion of his c.h.e.s.t cavity. However, there was still a gaping hole the size of a head right in the middle of his c.h.e.s.t and there was no sand left.

  For a moment, Lin Sanjiu could only hear her own drumming heartbeat. Sure enough, the sand which had been turned into a card could no longer be considered part of Sandwhale’s body.

  "Crash!" Sandwhale’s knees hit the ground. He was in a total daze.

  "No. This is impossible. Even if you can change items into cards…" By now, he could already guess Lin Sanjiu’s ability but he just couldn’t believe what had happened, "You had to choose the exact time when the sand hasn't pierce through the cloth to change everything into a card...No… That level of accuracy…"

  If Lin Sanjiu had missed the right time to activate her ability, Lin Sanjiu would have been pierced by the numerous grains of sand. In the past, she could have failed. But, just as her physical capabilities have increased, Lin Sanjiu’s proficiency at using her abilities, her understanding about them and how to exploit them were also getting better each day.

  Perhaps, this is the key reason why Posthumans with Growth type abilities would become so powerful in their later stage of advancement.

  Meanwhile, Lin Sanjiu could feel her adrenaline rushing through her blood after that gamble. She held the [Sand from a c.h.e.s.t cavity] card so tightly in her hand that her knuckles were turning white.

  "Please… Please… Give me back my sand…" Sandwhale was still speaking. It was unfathomable how he could still make a sound even without his respiratory tract. "I… I already told you that this is the 28th Lunar New Year Fighting Tournament…"

  Sandwhale could no longer support himself and curled on the ground as these words left his mouth. Lin Sanjiu stepped forward and saw that she could see the red carpet on the floor through the hole in his c.h.e.s.t. Her face stiffened as she asked softly, "Fighting Tournament? Isn’t that quite common? Why do you have to use such methods to get contestants?"

  Sandwhale did not make a single sound. Lin Sanjiu only realized that he was dead after a few seconds. She crouched for quite some time without moving until she heard the pink-faced man’s excited voice. Her expression changed in a split second. If she could crush the card in her hand, the [Sand from a c.h.e.s.t cavity] card would have long been reduced to shreds of waste paper.

  [Sand from a c.h.e.s.t cavity]

  Description: It is illegal to buy or sell an organ! But it is legal to buy and sell sand. This is a dream item that all organ smugglers covet! It is just a pile of sand when you hold it in your hands but when you stuff it in a c.h.e.s.t, it instantly changes back to a heart, two perfect lungs and a stomach filled with free-ranged rat, etc. This is originally a part of Sandwhale. There is no real combat value.

  After noticing that Lin Sanjiu was not replying, the pink-faced man asked another question, "Do you know what this tournament is about?"

  Lin Sanjiu shook her head slowly.

  Once he got her response, the pink-faced man suddenly became very enthusiastic. He turned to the camera and yelled, "This is a record-breaking event!" While he continued jabbering, Hui Chuyan, who was sitting not far from Lin Sanjiu, let out a fleeting wail. It was as if she couldn’t control herself, she even started trembling.

  [Could it be that she knows the details of this Lunar New Year Tournament?]

  Noticing that the cameras and the host had stopped focusing on her, Lin Sanjiu lowered her body and quietly asked, "Hey, are you called Hui Chuyan?"

  The black-haired girl lifted her pair of lackl.u.s.ter eyes. Seeing that the girl was on the brink of a breakdown, she knew that there was nothing much she could do even if she was impatient. She curbed her usual hasty nature and asked patiently, "Which world are you from?"

  That question seemed to bring some sense back to the girl. It took a long time before Hui Chuyan replied through sobs, "There is a zombie outbreak in my homeworld. This is my second world."

  "What a coincidence. This is my second world too. How long have you been here?" Even though Lin Sanjiu couldn’t comprehend how the girl could live through a world with zombies with that personality, Lin Sanjiu tried her best to appear as friendly as possible, "Do you know something about this tournament? Could you tell me more?"

  Once she said that, the other women who were close to them peered over, trying to overhear Hui Chuyan’s reply. As if she had been scared by the question, it took quite a while before Hui Chuyan finally managed to squeeze out a few words, "I… I have been here for almost nine months… I didn’t come here alone… My sis, my sister…"

  She stammered and took quite some effort to say those words. Her face showed her fear and grief. Just as she started, the screen suddenly blared, "CITIZENS OF GARDEN OF EDEN!" Shocked, she swallowed back the words she was about to say.

  Lin Sanjiu cursed inwardly but there was nothing much she could do. She just stared angrily at the large screen. The female host with pouty lips sat happily in the middle of the screen. Her tone was light-hearted and very cheerful, "Now that we have introduced all the 100 female contestants with their own charms for our Lunar New Year Tournament, do you already have your favorite contestant in mind?"

  [100?]

  Lin Sanjiu realized that other than the people who were kidnapped with her, there were 91 other women who had been kidnapped and slowly transported to Garden of Eden. [Is this a battle royale of 100 people?] Lin Sanjiu’s face darkened.

  Just then, she felt someone casting a gaze at her. She turned her head and found Hui Chuyan looking at her, but her eyes looked hollow. She whispered, "You said you are willing to participate… but you are going to regret this…"

  "What did you say?" Lin Sanjiu frowned.

  Hui Chuyan turned her head back to the screen mechanically. Following her actions, Lin Sanjiu watched the screen and saw that the screen divided once more. The female host and the experts occupied a small section of the screen at the corner, while there were a few words on the screen: Let’s recap the exciting scenes from previous tournaments

  "Quick! Cameras go! You guys have to capture their faces clearly, especially their expressions when they see the recaps. We need to show them to the entire country later!" The pink-faced man shouted at the cameramen.

  Chapter 116 - The Status of Women in Garden of Eden

  "Why... Why?"

  The pub was filled with cheers and whoops which grew with each minute, so loud that the robotic arms serving alcohol vibrated slightly. The quiet comment was easily drowned up by the raucous noise, and was heard only by the man directly opposite the speaker.

  The man’s face was hidden once again under his hood, so half his face was covered by shadow. He did not reply immediately but instead leaned to a side listening to the crowd’s crazy celebratory hubbub before he gave a dismissive snort, curling one side of his lips.

  "That’s because we aren’t human to them," he responded with his baritone voice while he took a sip of his blue c.o.c.ktail.

  The man in front of him was slim and dark-skinned. He was probably in his twenties or early thirties. He was stunned, and somehow his usually bright and inquisitive eyes were covered by a dull glaze.

  He gaped, almost as if his voice was turning as pale as his face, "I don’t understand… even if we are different, this is too…"

  "Too what?" the man in robes gave a wan smile, "Don’t humans have the same attitude towards c.o.c.kfights, bullfighting, and dogfights? T
he only thing is that we look exactly like them, that’s why there are those—" he did not finish his sentence. At that point, the slim man lost focus in the conversation and suddenly covered his own mouth. Cold sweat appeared all over his body as he tried to hold back his nausea, making a muffled voice.

  The light from the screen flickered over his face while the cheers from the crowd abated. The slim man turned and saw that the recap has ended and the female host was back on the screen. He quickly downed a few large gulps of beer but his face still looked sickly. "I... I don’t understand" the slim man gripped his beer bottle tightly. The disgust he felt when he saw those images previously made him so uncomfortable that it was as if he could feel his soul cringing.

  The man hidden in robes continued sluggishly, "No one knows the exact date that this apocalyptic world called Garden of Eden descended. Everyone only knows that it has been a few decades. At that time, the citizens here had advanced technology. They created this city enclosed in glass and many normal people with zero Potential Growth Value survived. Even though they cannot leave this radiation-free zone, they are not subjected to random transportation to other New Worlds. Thus, they continued thriving till today."

  "Do you know how large this ‘Garden of Eden’ City is?" he suddenly asked.

  The slim man shook his head and did not say a word as he was afraid that he might spit out the gastric juices he barely managed to keep down.

  "By foot, you could explore the entire place in three hours." The voice that escaped the robe was as calm and unwavering as before, "Can you imagine a life like that? Living in a restrictive cage from the day you were born, unable to leave and knowing that you will just have a job that the government assigns, raising a limited number of children as dictated, dying in a designated spot, and out there… there are those free Posthumans coming and leaving as they want.."