Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  "Don’t worry," she wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes, "If I win, I will let those sponsor eat sh*t."

  In this match, only Li Tao and that woman with the student hairstyle, Dong Haohao, had sponsors. This was also the reason why the large group of duoluozhongs headed for both of them when the air horn was sounded.

  When Lin Sanjiu was in her capsule, she did really feel how intense it was. But when she experienced it herself, it was a whole different story.

  The ground was slippery as it was smeared with blood and flesh, and each step she took was accompanied by wet squishy sounds. The stench of blood overwhelmed her sense of smell, and the sharp screeches made by her opponents hurt her ears. The ground shook when the duoluozhongs moved, making it difficult to even stand properly. Although she told herself rationally that there were only about a few dozen duoluozhongs, when she looked around, they seemed to occupy every corner of the battle arena.

  Lin Sanjiu used her mouthpart weapon like a whip and struck a duoluozhong lunging toward Dong Haohao. The sharp edges of the mouthpart combined with her new-found strength tore off a large limb from the duoluozhong, which no one could identify. "Three of us should surround the two of them with sponsors! Quick! First, let’s make sure they are not caught!"

  The petite woman with short hair was called Xu Wei. She immediately agreed and held her fists in front of her. She quickly punched away a duoluozhong which had rushed in front of Li Tao. The last woman, Bai Xiaoke, jumped to Dong Haohao’s side and yelled loudly at Lin Sanjiu, "If I’m killed here, I swear I’ll get you even if I become a ghost!"

  Lin Sanjiu smiled smugly and elbowed another duoluozhong so violently that its face was smashed, "Don’t worry. I will die before you!"

  Before Bai Xiaoke could regain her balance, a few duoluozhongs howled and turned on her, that scared her so much that she could only close her eyes... Then, a muscular arm appeared in front of her and toppled the duoluozhongs. Bai Xiaoke, who had regained her composure, threw a glance at the tall man beside her.

  [The Queen's Virile Escort]

  Even though it has an appearance of a man, it is actually a product of an ability. According to the difficulty of the command given to the escort, it will grow smaller and smaller with each command, like a bar of soap (huh?), until it disappears. The queen needs to maintain a "craving for dashing young men" to successfully summon the next escort.

  PS: Besides using it for combat, you can do whatever you want with it.

  Lin Sanjiu was startled when a large man suddenly appeared near them. Just when she realized that that was Bai Xiaoke’s ability, Li Tao suddenly shouted behind her, "Dodge!"

  Lin Sanjiu instantly remembered the male Posthuman who she had lost sight of since the beginning of the match. She could hear the incoming attack but she couldn’t dodge because there was someone behind her. If she dodged now, as long as one of the women was hurt, this makeshift party that was just formed would immediately dissolve.

  She turned around and found that the two cavernous sockets were now very close to her. The two sockets suddenly appeared distorted as they emitted a glaring white beam which swallowed Lin Sanjiu the next second.

  [Lone Wolf Casual-smart Leather Belt Protection] was immediately activated. The remaining 67% protection charge, left behind by Sandwhale, was rapidly being consumed but there was no sign that the white beam was fading off. As the others were busy fending off duoluozhongs, they couldn’t help her. Even if they were able to free themselves from the tussle, they did not know how they could help. Everyone in their group became anxious.

  "Looks like our Contestant 97 will have to say goodbye soon…" When the host was in the middle of his sentence, Lin Sanjiu heard her belt cracking. It broke into a few pieces and fell off her waist. At the same time, the white beam finally disappeared.

  "What was that?" Xu Wei asked with a trembling voice.

  Lin Sanjiu had no idea but it was clearly a problem. Versu Poison was so lethal that it could kill a person within seconds, but it only used up a tiny percentage of the protection charge on the belt. On the other hand, her opponent destroyed the belt in a few seconds. She couldn’t help wondering how many lives it could have taken.

  "What should we do? If he’s going to do that again…" Li Tao was standing in the middle of their formation. She swung her hands in the air and before a duoluozhong got close, it fell to the ground with a thud.

  [N.Heller’s Filler Writing Ability]

  When necessary, an obscure web novelist has the god-level ability to write 6300 Chinese in one go without advancing the plot. This skill can be extracted by the reader, and converted into a good method to delay one’s opponent—your opponent won’t make a move even after a long, long time.

  PS: This ability can be used on multiple targets. But with more targets, the effective delay would be shorter. The maximum delay is three seconds. This ability can be used five times per day.

  Xu Wei was very scared but with companions backing her up, she stepped forward and forcefully punched a duoluozhong’s head.

  After her close encounter with death, Lin Sanjiu steadied her racing heart and roared, "Let’s get rid of all the duoluozhongs first. Without these things blocking our way, we can at least evade his attacks! But we need to be quick! We need to do this before his next attack!

  "But there are too many of them!" One of the duoluozhongs spat out a green fluid which brushed past Dong Haohao’s body. Her clothes melted instant and white smoke rose from her skin. Enduring her pain and tears, she shouted out, "My ability isn’t good for fighting!"

  Ever since the match started, many duoluozhongs have been incapacitated, whereas Dong Haohao only received a small wound. When they saw the white smoke, the audience’s dissatisfaction exploded. They stood up hollering, brandishing their flags, throwing things around… Almost everyone was jeering and cursing, egging the duoluozhongs and the 2nd Grade combatant to put in more effort to catch one of the women.

  Lin Sanjin gave the audience a threatening glare and yelled something to Li Tao, and her voice was quickly drowned out by all the noise surrounding them.

  Li Tao stopped slowly, her gaze swept past her companions and it finally stopped on the ground not far from them. In the semifluid mess of blood and flesh, she saw the white eyeball which couldn’t be destroyed. It was just there, watching the sky.

  [Let’s go with this.] Li Tao bit her lower lip. "You will have the ability to summon all the vengeful spirits who died in this arena so that they can enact their revenge."

  Once she finished her sentence softly, the bandage around Lin Sanjiu’s neck grew warm. Lin Sanjiu’s Pygmalion Choker had been activated.

  Noticing that something was wrong, the commotion within the arena gradually died down. If it weren't for the electrical net, the eerie, howling wind within the battle arena would have pulled down the hoods of the audience members sitting in the VIP section. Piercing wails filled the entire battle arena as dark shadows appeared suddenly and began to take on the forms of numerous dead contestants.

  There were those which Lin Sanjiu recognized and those that were totally unfamiliar; some had missing limbs and others who looked perfectly well. The numbers were far beyond a few dozens, probably because the vengeful spirits from the past tournaments were also summoned. Lin Sanjiu could feel her stamina being drained, her eyes wavered a little when she saw Xinyi’s face.

  It was just a head floating in the air. The girl’s body had been so thoroughly violated that it wouldn’t return even after she became a ‘ghost’. Lin Sanjiu felt her eyes watering, but she held back her tears and screamed, "GO!"

  Their hatred thrust the battle arena into darkness, and amidst the dark shadows, a beam of white light shone through a few times before it disappeared. The panicked host tried to say something but he just couldn’t. Before the five-minute activation limit was reached, all the duoluozhongs had been defeated. Some of their bodies were still twitching.

  With all the duoluozhongs dead, the spiri
ts wailed again and assaulted the electric net in waves. Their attack was so violent that the faces of the audience beneath their masks were turning pale; the people who previously called out so fervently for Posthumans to be killed, couldn’t help scrambling out of their seats and heading for the exit. But the electric net withstood their blows, and the spirits disappeared into smoke, one after the other, as if they were burnt by the net. The audience was only assured after seeing that.

  The five minutes was almost up. The innumerable spirits in the arena turned back and flew toward the five contestants. Lin Sanjiu was stunned but quickly felt the chilling shadows passing through her body.

  "Thank you." Lin Sanjiu heard a whisper, but she wasn’t sure if it was Xinyi or the other spirits. When she opened her eyes, she found that the arena was still brightly lit.

  There was total silence. Everyone was looking at the five women who were standing still and the floor of the battle arena which was smeared with blood, guts and torn limbs.

  Even the host was dumbfounded. He did not know what comments to make.

  As silence hung in the air, LIn Sanjiu could hear the breathing sounds from the people behind her, so she looked around the battle arena anxiously.

  That male Posthuman must still be alive. Ignoring her tired muscles, she activated her [No coincidence. No story], and surveyed her surroundings. Though she couldn’t use the full potential of that ability, it was still useful. She immediately spotted some movements under a mashed up pile of white remains.

  Lin Sanjiu held her breath and she walked toward the pile soundlessly. She raised her mouthpart weapon…

  Her weapon struck and shattered the beetle-like machine first. Then, pale yellow brain fluid sprayed out from his head. Before he took his last breath, Lin Sanjiu vaguely heard him uttering, "Lil’ sis."

  [Did he see his sister amongst the spirits?]

  Lin Sanjiu kept her mouthpart weapon and walked back to her companions. A small camera which had been circling the arena from the top flew down discreetly and zoomed in to film her expression.

  "Why aren’t you speaking, Mr. host?" Lin Sanjiu grinned. The large screen showed the blood stains on her face clearly. "Let me announce the outcome of this match on your behalf."

  "We won this match. We are not withdrawing. All of us will continue and participate in the next match."

  "We are not mutates! We are Posthumans! We are Posthumans who are superior to you!"

  This was Lin Sanjiu’s plan. She wanted to stay in the tournament to help the other contestants survive. The condition she set for the other women was that anyone who received her help would have to continue fighting in the tournament.

  At that moment, the last two sentence raised hell in the entire Garden of Eden, but Lin Sanjiu couldn’t care less. The large screen quickly changed to show the host’s face. After hesitating for a moment, Lin Sanjiu crouched down.

  "What’s wrong? Are you hurt?" Li Tao asked urgently.

  The other women were still confused by the situation. They couldn’t process the fact that they had won the match. Meanwhile, Lin Sanjiu regained her focus after crouching down.

  "No, I am alright." Lin Sanjiu seemed uncharacteristically indecisive, "Don’t look at me, you will be grossed out."

  Li Tao stared questioningly at Lin Sanjiu with her bright eyes.

  Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and suddenly grabbed a piece of duoluozhong’s remain. She placed it in her mouth and s.u.c.k.e.d the blood from it. Her brows knitted tightly when she tasted the odd, disgusting liquid. Her throat shuddered as if she was about to vomit. Yet, in the end, she drank all the blood she could.

  She covered her mouth, stood up with her pale face and glared at the entire populace of Garden of Eden who was shocked by her antics once again.

  Chapter 124 - A Slight Modification

  "Motherf*ckers! Why didn’t you arrange for more Grade 2 Combatants?"

  As Aliba, the chief of police, bellowed at the highest white ball in the office, a large number of office supplies flew out noisily from a desk and crashed to the ground along with their owner’s anger.

  "Good-for-nothing! You can’t even deal with one mutate right there in your palm! You’re a f*cking disgrace!" Aliba continued scolding. The translucent white ball displayed the view of a man bowing, it was the vice chief with the monocle.

  The other round balls beneath it quickly moved further away.

  "Chief. It’s... It’s all because of those people from the lab, their asking price is too high…" Noticing that his superior haven’t responded, he carefully added, "Considering that we still need to buy more Grade 1 and Grade 2 combatants and we have to hire their warriors, the cost…"

  The most important thing was that the profits from the tickets, sponsors, etc. would actually be used as bonuses for the Military and Police Department. As expected, Aliba turned his anger to his long-time rivals.

  "F*ck! Those ungrateful b*stards! If I didn’t send them those mutate and special items, how would they be able to research sh*t?" After receiving two blows in this short amount of time, his furious expression was enough to make his men fidget. "Those assh*les from the Technology Department, I will make them participants for the tournament someday!"

  He stopped for a while and inhaled sharply, "Cut the bonuses this year, and get more Grade 2 combatants. We need Contestant 97 dead!"

  The vice chief quickly nodded. In the previous years, the Military and Police Department was never this strapped for cash. Special Items were extremely rare and they could usually exchange a few items for a batch of Grade 2 combatants, but this year...

  When Aliba remembered the theft, he fell heavily into his chair and sighed, "Did you get any information about the two culprits who broke into our safe?"

  The vice chief did not dare to even say "no", he shook his head anxiously and before his superior flared up again, he quickly continued, "But when I was dealing with the woman called Xue Qin, I suddenly remembered something…"

  Aliba looked up and sat up straight once he heard this, waiting for his vice chief to continue.

  And, indeed, they rarely received calls in the middle of the night, but there was one involving a civilian reporting that a female mutate was hiding in the city. After that, the items from the safe were stolen while they dealt with her. This was too much of a coincidence, so they must be related.

  Xue Qin was dumped onto an aerial work platform and brought to their office. Her entire body was covered with swollen bruises and she was beaten so badly that it was impossible to recognize her. Actually, she was surprised that she was still alive. Xue Qin laid on the ground, staring with listless eyes. Her body was bound, and she showed no expression.

  "How did you get that [Lu Xun Exclusive Similar Styled Sponge]?" Aliba questioned unhurriedly, his anger had already subsided.

  Xue Qin had heard this question countless times during her interrogation but she clenched her teeth and refused to say a word. Aliba wasn’t surprised by her silence. He looked at Xue Qin’s wounded body before pressing a few buttons on the wall. A hologram of a recording of a telephone conversation appeared in midair. It showed a hooded man whose features couldn’t be seen clearly due to the dark surroundings but his voice was discernible, "Yes, she was heading west from Sadema Street… Are you sending men here immediately? Don’t let her get away."

  Although the speaker intentionally deepened his voice, Xue Qin rapidly lifted her head to look at the image when she heard that voice and started trembling.

  Aliba smiled when he saw her reaction.

  Lie Ming shifted his body a little reluctantly as he whispered to the person beside him, "Are we watching the next match? I am still worried about them… Sigh, I don’t know what these guys will do to Contestant 97."

  "We’re not watching this anymore, let’s go," the person replied with a light-hearted tone which ironically sounded very cold. "What happened just now was just a fluke. If we continue watching, we will only be disappointed."

  The two men
didn’t attract much attention when they stood up and left their VIP seats. That was because everyone was more focused on discussing about the match that just ended. The events which unfolded were now the hot topic of discussion in every entertainment news, talk show, and social media in Garden of Eden. In the 28 years, there were other instances where the female Posthuman contestants won. In fact, as long as a contestant survived a match, they would be considered the winner of that match. However, this was the first time that a contestant dared to bravely stand in the battle arena and confront the entire Garden of Eden.

  "Superior to us? She’s just dreaming… Look at where we are sitting and where they are!"

  "Well, she doesn’t know that matches after the 50th contestant are way harsher than those before… I can’t wait to see how Contestant 97 will cry and beg to be let out in the next match…"

  "Did you drink that duoluozhong’s blood to threaten us?"

  Whether it was the large screen in the arena or the small screen on the wrists, public figures of all appearances and voices were commenting about the same matter. After walking through the commotion, Gong Daoyi suddenly stopped before even reaching the exit. He bought a hot dog from a small stall nearby and turned back. Lie Ming was just about to question Gong Daoyi when he took a quick look at the exit and immediately understood. At that moment, he realized that suddenly some soldiers appeared to guard the exit. Those soldiers were demanding each passing person to reveal their face and each of them had a portrait on the screens of their wristband which looked very similar to Gong Daoyi.

  "Oh really. I didn’t expect them to find out so quickly." Gong Daoyi returned to his seat holding a hot dog but he did not know how he could eat with his mask on so he just gave the hot dog to Lei Ming. "It must be that woman."

  Lei Ming held the hot dog and frowned, "Crap. What should we do?"

  "Let’s just go along with it. Since we can’t leave now, we might as well watch the next match… If it is disappointing, it is fate and it wasn’t my choice to watch it..." Lei Ming couldn’t see Gong Daoyi’s expression because of his mask, but he heard the man mumbling.