Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  "Let’s all calm down," Lin Sanjiu said with a serious tone, her clear rational voice drew the attention of the group. "Some of the girls are already guarding the entrance. All of us should look around the house and stop anyone here from calling the police. If you see any servants, it is up to you if you want to tie them up or kill them."

  ---

  The only thing that mattered to the Tournament Committee was that the female contestants were kept alive until they entered the battle arena. Thus, they basically didn’t care to do anything more. Lin Sanjiu and the other women were either covered with wounds or were exhausted. Furthermore, the last time they had anything to eat was days ago.

  Lin Sanjiu reckoned that they couldn’t walk far even with the military hazmat suits as camouflage as they were near their physical limits, considering their body conditions. They desperately needed a place to rest and recover. After considering for some time, she finally thought of the sponsors.

  According to Lin Sanjiu’s words, those sponsors should indeed play their roles properly and assist them.

  ---

  Guang Zhu certainly deserved to die. He was a zealous fan of the tournament. Not only did he collect many taxidermied contestants, he also kept a lot of human parts and high definition videos of the tournament. The women’s rage only abated after they had burnt up his whole collection.

  With Xu Wei taking the lead, some of them went to the kitchen to cook. Meanwhile, the other who had participated in a few matches had already fallen asleep by the fireplace. Ever since the first match, Lin Sanjiu could not relax. She sat alone on a sofa at the corner of the hall, unable to close her eyes. She quietly observed the other busy women walking in and out of the living room.

  Someone walked over and sat down beside her. After quite a while, Gong Daoyi asked quietly, "I guess you can’t enter the black tower now. So, how do you plan to destroy the glass globe?"

  Lin Sanjiu continued staring ahead, she did not even turn to look at him but instead asked him, "Why did you betray Xueqin?"

  "I had no choice. I don’t even know her… I wouldn’t consider that as a betrayal."

  Lin Sanjiu found herself at a loss for words when she received such an honest answer. At the same time, Xueqin, who was quite far from them, was being piggybacked by the escort. She was very busy as she had to tell the other women how to use the various utensils in the kitchen. Once again, they heard a random faint cry from a distance, and the sound of an ambulance siren...

  Lin Sanjiu quivered ever so slightly that it was almost impossible to see, yet Gong Daoyi sensed it.

  "Even though this community is wicked and twisted, they are all people. If you destroy the glass globe, you are basically going take away countless of lives. You must be feeling a great deal of pressure, right?" There was a sort of indescribable tempo in the way Gong Daoyi spoke, despite his gentle voice. Lin Sanjiu’s mind was suddenly overwhelmed by the stress and exhaustion she had acc.u.mulated over these few days.

  "I heard that nearly a thousand people had died from the radiation, and of course there are women, elderly people, and children… I give you credit for releasing radiation here." Gong Daoyi continued mildly, "As they spend all their lives under the protection of the glass, they don’t develop any form of anti-radiation abilities. When they died, their looks were really horrible…"

  After he continued talking for quite some time, he noticed tears rolling down Lin Sanjiu’s closed eyes. She curled her body and shrunk herself into the corner of the sofa and stopped moving. Gong Daoyi stood up silently and sighed.

  "So you are only at this level… Luckily, I’m decisive," he muttered to himself and was about to leave. He had just taken his first step when he heard an icy voice.

  "Stop."

  Gong Daoyi was quite surprised. He turned and saw Lin Sanjiu’s reddish eyes which showed a cold steely determination even after she had just cried.

  "You tried to use hypnosis on me. Well, thank you, because you reminded me of something important." Though she remained on the sofa, there was now a weapon in her hand.

  Chapter 130 - The Dreaded Hero Complex

  The silent confrontation at the corner of the hall drew no attention. When Gong Daoyi saw the weapon in Lin Sanjiu’s hand, his eyes brightened and he even showed a faint smile. He sat down again with an amiable expression as if he was having tea with an old friend, "Okay, why don’t you tell me what you remembered?"

  Lin Sanjiu simply couldn’t understand the man’s behavior.

  "Oh, You misunderstood my intentions. I did try to hypnotize you. But I mean you no harm." Gong Daoyi clapped his hands as if he just remembered something, "I was a consultant in the past. I know you are under a great deal of pressure... If you didn’t snap out the hypnosis just now, you would feel your stress slowly ebbing away. And when you woke up, you would feel fantastic."

  Lin Sanjiu squinted as if she was trying to figure this man out and didn’t say a word. After some time, her mouthpart weapon disappeared from her hand. "If you try that again, don’t say I didn’t warn you," she stated coldly.

  Gong Daoyi looked at her with his star-spangled eyes and blinked before he nodded.

  Lin Sanjiu walked away without saying another word.

  Even though her School of Higher Consciousness was still temporarily sealed, it boosted her natural cognitive abilities and willpower. It helped her to snap out of that hypnosis session. With regards to Gong Daoyi, she felt that it was safer if she could keep an eye on him.

  While the other women cooked, they bantered and laughed. Xueqin’s frustrated voice could easily be heard, "Didn’t I say that is a quick cook button? Why did you bake that for such a long time… I think you better peel off that skin! Hey, that is not an egg. Ahhh!"

  As the women burst out into laughter, the escort walked out of the kitchen. Xueqin and himself were covered with frosting, just like two snowmen. Her glum expression was still clearly visible despite the white powder on her face. This was the first time Lin Sanjiu heard the others laughing—she couldn’t help let out a chuckle. When Xueqin glared at her, she quickly suppressed her laughter and asked, "Is dinner ready?"

  "Even though they made a big mess, the dishes should be ready in 30 minutes, whatever is left, that is," Xueqin replied earnestly with her sugar powdered face. "Are you hungry?"

  Lin Sanjiu nodded but that was not the reason why she asked her about dinner. Lin Sanjiu found Li Tao and passed her a card.

  "I think he will let down his guard during dinner. I want you to stick this card on his hazmat suit. It is best if you could paste it somewhere which is hard to spot."

  Li Tao took the card from her and looked at it. A line of words appeared on the card: "4:08 AM, It feels great to be held in the hand of a beautiful and cute lady."

  Lin Sanjiu snatched the card from Li Tao and squished it tightly in her hand. Just when Li Tao thought she misheard a screaming sound, the card was returned to her.

  When she looked at the card again, it only showed these plain words "This card has been preset to be activated after 30 minutes, at 4:38 AM."

  The women, who were sleeping, quickly woke up without anyone calling when the fragrant smell of the first dish wafted into their noses, as all it took was their rumbling stomachs. Including Gong Daoyi, there were a total of 45 mouths to feed. The amount of food needed was actually quite large. Thankfully, Guang Zhu’s house was well-stocked with food, so everyone could have a full meal.

  Considering that they wouldn't be staying there for long, everyone brought all the food that they could find to the table. There was that free-range ‘chicken’, something yellow like egg tarts, a large loaf of bread, a pizza with some meat sauce, etc. Everyone was in a great mood and someone even found wine and began happily drinking directly from the bottle.

  Since the table was not large enough, the women placed the dishes together. Some of the people sat on the sofas and some on the floor—Lin Sanjiu intentionally sat at the end of the long table. She watched from afar as L
i Tao sat beside Gong Daoyi, she smiled faintly and took a bite of her shepherd's pie.

  Xueqin looked at Lin Sanjiu nervously and quickly turned her head, while she uttered, "I made that. You might not enjoy it."

  "My escort made that, alright?" Bai Xiaoke took a large swig of wine, "We had been serving you the whole night. Look, my escort already shrank by 10 cm…" Her escort nodded his head as if in agreement while he fed Xueqin a mouthful of vegetables.

  "What else do you two plan to do?" Xueqin chewed as she asked blandly.

  After barely escaping with their lives, and now on the way to destroy this world, there was really nothing better than good wine and food. All of them made merry, laughing and singing, and some of them even took off their tops and started dancing on the table.

  "I couldn’t even imagine such a scenario in the past." Xueqin blushed as she suddenly commented. Lin Sanjiu turned to her and saw her watching the dancing girls in a daze. "They look so happy... I know how to dance, but it is those type that men like to watch."

  "We only study for three years with the boys, after that the Government will assign us to various posts. The men will learn all sorts of skills and we will... learn how to cook, how to do housework, how to care for children and how to entertain men." Xueqin gestured to Bai Xiaoke to give her another glass of wine, "All these years, the ratio of males to females had been 10:14 because when the boys become men, they always control the s.e.x ratio."

  "When you announced that you will destroy the glass globe, my feet went numb… But if I think carefully about it, I think that is the feeling of excitement. Ever since I was just a little girl, I had always dreamt of going outside..."

  After hearing that, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help asking, "If the glass globe is destroyed, your parents—"

  "A mother can make her daughter take her place if she wants fewer beatings," Xueqin uttered with indifference and did not elaborate, instead she changed the subject, "When I was a kid, I used to disguise myself as a boy to go to the library. I read some book about the past—before the nuclear war. I really couldn’t believe that women back then could do whatever they wanted…"

  These words stirred Lin Sanjiu’s interest. She put down the silver fork in her hand and looked around before she whispered, "Can I ask you a question?"

  "What do you want to know?"

  "Regarding the nuclear war... what actually happened? How was Garden of Eden built?" Lin Sanjiu asked.

  "The nuclear war wasn’t that long ago. It has been about 60 to 70 years. Garden of Eden was built after the war... Some of the technology was lost during the war, therefore, we are still unable to figure out the technology behind the protective glass globe. If you destroy it, they will not be able to build another one."

  Her explanation answered some of Lin Sanjiu’s doubts. Lin Sanjiu nodded and grabbed her fork when Xueqin sighed, "How are we going to destroy it? That is the problem."

  Lin Sanjiu did not even worry a bit about that. She ate a mouthful of potato and replied with her mouth full, "If we destroy the black tower, wouldn’t that also destroy the glass globe?"

  "You can’t do that! Are you stupid!" If Xueqin could move her limbs, she wouldn’t have slammed her fist on the table. "All the people who entered the tower never came back. We don’t even know if they are dead or alive!"

  "Alright. Alright," Lin Sanjiu said half-heartedly. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that she was still determined to do that.

  Just then, two girls which were having fun like crazy suddenly rushed to Lin Sanjiu’s side and showed her their dance moves. The two girls danced around her chair, twirling so much that Xueqin couldn’t continue with the conversation. While all of them enjoyed themselves, the sky was slowly turning bright.

  The forty over women who were supposed to be beheaded at this time were all lying around the house like children. Some of them were totally asleep. Lin Sanjiu found six women who did not drink and arranged for them to keep watch in shifts. She surveyed the entire interior and exterior of the house carefully before she finally plopped herself on a sofa. Even though Guang Zhu’s bed was large and comfortable, no one wanted to sleep in it. They all chose to sleep and squeeze together in the living room.

  Li Tao bounced over like a little puppy and sat beside Lin Sanjiu. "Miss Lin, I already stuck the card to his suit. He didn’t notice it. What should we do next?"

  Lin Sanjiu opened one of her eyes and looked at her before closing it again.

  "Tonight, you guys should split into a few groups. We have to stir up trouble. I don’t care if you commit arson or demolish buildings. The most important thing is to keep yourselves safe while creating havoc. You guys should just expend all your pent-up anger. But those people from the Military and Police Department are no pushovers, so each group should be kept to four to five people."

  "If anything goes awry, just retreat. Don’t get caught. Oh, and we need to choose a few leaders."

  Li Tao watched Lin Sanjiu with her deep black eyes and agreed unflinchingly.

  "When we get out there, we have to ditch Gong Daoyi. We mustn’t let him follow us… In the worst case scenario, I will stall him for some time."

  When she heard this, Li Tao couldn’t resist asking, "What about you? Aren’t you coming with us?"

  Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes and stared at her. "I already brought you people out from the tournament, can’t you let me rest? I will stay here and wait for all of you. We will take advantage of the chaos and head out to destroy the glass globe after that."

  Not many of them knew about the matter regarding the black tower. Li Tao thought for a moment and accepted what Lin Sanjiu said with an affirmative mumble before leaving. To Lin Sanjiu, the woman didn’t seem to sense anything out of the ordinary.

  Lin Sanjiu laid on the sofa and as she heard the breathing sounds gradually settling down, she let out a sigh. "Damn it. Why didn’t I ever realize in the past that I have this stupid hero complex?"

  Chapter 131 - Malice

  As if a tiger had escaped its shackles and crept into their backyards, all the residents in the Garden of Eden spent a day in fear and turmoil when the officials could no longer suppress the news of the disappearance of the female Posthumans. If someone were to stand by the window, they would hear the sharp barks from the marching troops on the streets as well as the wailing sirens from many ambulances. Every now and then, the sound of broken glass could be heard and cacophony of noise had already lasted for the entire day.

  Lei Ming, who had obediently stayed indoors as told, had no idea what had happened outside. He circled the entire house anxiously until night came. When Gong Daoyi finally returned, Lei Ming visibly let out a sigh of relief before welcoming him quickly.

  Gong Daoyi combed his hair back with his fingers. There was barely any expression on his beautiful, immaculate face, "Yes, they already escaped."

  "That’s great! That explains the pandemonium outside… Um, you look unhappy?" Lei Ming asked cautiously.

  Gong Daoyi kneaded his own face and answered, "No, but we have to leave Garden of Eden tonight."

  As a habitual people-pleaser, Lei Ming was dazed only for a short second before he agreed quickly. After some consideration, he decided not to ask if they were really going to just leave those female Posthumans to their own devices.

  Gong Daoyi sat in a chair and looked upwards. He suddenly spoke with a slightly quivering voice and an indescribably ambiguous tone, "Oh... I have to thank her for chasing me away. I was so scared and excited the entire day…"

  Meanwhile, Lin Sanjiu was quite puzzled that she managed to send Gong Daoyi away with just a few words, she actually thought that it would be harder. She did not want to waste time thinking about it because in any case, they were not coming back to Guang Zhu’s residence.

  "To summarize, these two teams will focus on locations where the anti-radiation resources are stored. Xueqin will brief you on the exact location. It would be better if you could catch and question some people, so we wouldn�
�t miss any crucial…"

  The 43 people were grouped into ten smaller teams. Lin Sanjiu tried her best to put people with different types of abilities together so that they could complement each other’s weaknesses. Their targets were various strategic locations in the city. They had also worked out how they could communicate and get help between teams.

  When their plans have been finalized, it was already late at night.

  "The operation will last for two hours. After two hours, all teams should gather at the meeting point. Please remember, safety first."

  Lin Sanjiu stood at the door as she watched the various teams leave. When each of them walked past her, they nodded and smiled at her or added a quick remark. Each of them carried a laser gun at their waists. In the worst case scenario, the gun would ensure that they wouldn’t be captured alive. Even though there were 43 people now, Lin Sanjiu wondered if there would still be 43 people when they meet up again.

  Someone stopped by her side and Lin Sanjiu noticed that it was Xueqin, who was still being piggybacked by the escort. After the escort had been used for one day, he had become much shorter and Xueqin’s legs were just dragged around. She didn’t seem to mind, but was rather curious when she looked at Lin Sanjiu, "Why aren’t you coming with us?"

  "I’ll be honest with you," Lin Sanjiu looked into her eyes sincerely, "I told you guys not to go to the Garden of Eden Laboratories, right? Well, I wanted to scout out that place first."

  "Isn’t it dangerous for you to go alone?"

  "I will just observe from outside, it shouldn’t be a problem." Lin Sanjiu flashed a faint smile.

  Xueqin murmured to herself before she nodded and said, "Take care." Then, she left with Bai Xiaoke. When they were quite far, Lin Sanjiu turned and Li Tao stuffed a card into her hand, "I followed what you said, and took the card after three hours. Have a look…"

  "Thank you. Please be careful out there." Lin Sanjiu held her Diary card and hugged Li Tao. [This feels like we are parting forever…] Lin Sanjiu sighed and walked upstairs. She opened every door until she found a bathroom. If she was really going to die tonight, she wanted to smell good when she was dead.