Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Lin Sanjiu sensed strongly that when Li Tao used the word 'garbage', the woman truly did not attach any emotion to it, Li Tao seemed to really treat it as if she was stating a fact.

  "You're hot-blooded, righteous... but still full of flaws. However, you are still some distance from being garbage. You might despise and hate the residents of Garden of Eden, but you are essentially no different from those people down below."

  Lin Sanjiu was offended but she tried her best to ignore those negative feelings and continued listening.

  "If you become my test subject, I can make you become garbage like them within a year. Oh! I am not intentionally insulting you, and I don't look down on you either. This also applies to me," Li Tao also said mollifyingly, as if she meant no harm.

  "This is human nature, after all. A true apocalypse does not refer to the end of humanity," said the woman indifferently. "Instead, an apocalypse occurs precisely because humanity is in its golden age—or should I say—every world that undergoes a doomsday scenario is treating itself… to plunge all living humans into misery is a necessary process it has to experience to get rid of the cancer called humans. I have wandered through various apocalyptic worlds over these few decades and one thing had been emphasized over and over again through my experiences: humans will go extinct soon or later, like dinosaurs. If so, is there anything about them worth saving or preserving? After observing this large-scale experiment for 59 years, I still haven't found a single thing."

  Li Tao turned around and St. Peter took two steps forward as if he understood what she wanted, "Let me introduce my creation. Using genetic engineering and synthetic biology—NeuMensh."

  Under the faint moonlight pouring through the window, St. Peter looked taller than before. His almond-shaped head was embellished by two suspended black eyes and his nose was only two small round holes. He looked like a human, but if one stared long enough into his tar-black eyes, a human would feel his terrifyingly calm aura—an inhuman aura which held an inexplicable depth.

  "They are usually not aggressive unless I give them a command." Li Tao assured Lin Sanjiu after noticing her nervousness. "I hope that they will replace humans and populate every planet."

  "You gave a more detailed answer than I expected." Lin Sanjiu steadied her heartbeat and watched as St. Peter returned to his previous position. Despite his stature, he walked noiselessly, almost—Lin Sanjiu thought—like a cat.

  To Lin Sanjiu, things were pretty straightforward. The woman in front of her was undoubtedly a crazy misanthropist.

  The moon which hung behind the clouds was like melting ice, growing thinner and fainter by the minute in the dark blue sky. As the sun had not risen over the horizon yet, the moment before daybreak was dark without the illumination of the moon.

  The only light left in the night sky was from the stars, which cast a white reflection on the glass wall of the top level of the tower.The conversation of both women who stood by the glass wall had already lasted for some time.

  Lin Sanjiu, who was still pale after being bombarded by a massive amount of unsettling information, spent a considerable effort to recover her normal breathing pattern. After that, she tossed a glance at Li Tao and suddenly laughed, "One last question. Li Tao is not your real name, right. So, what should I call you?"

  "You can call me... Nüwa[1]." The woman by the window replied mildly. Using this name was not an exaggeration. Her ability to create life was definitely within the realm of divinity.

  [Your opponent is a 'goddess'...] Lin Sanjiu thought to herself vacuously.

  "Nüwa," Lin Sanjiu parroted and nodded. "Could you also get Mr. St. Peter to give me a cup of tea? This night had been quite tumultuous and I really feel a little thirsty."

  Nüwa probably didn't expect Lin Sanjiu's request. She hesitated for a while and turned to look at St. Peter. The strange, tall and silent creature seemed to comprehend her gaze. He turned and walked to the back of the hall. After a few minutes, he returned with a cup of tea.

  A pleasant aroma rose with the steam from the cup of hot tea, wafting between St. Peter's long fingers. Lin Sanjiu swallowed a mouthful of saliva and thanked the creature before she reached for the cup.

  Just when she was about to touch the cup, Lin Sanjiu gathered her strength and thrust the tea cup toward St. Peter. Hot tea and the cup's porcelain fragments flew into the air, while Lin Sanjiu aimed her hidden fist at the creature's head.

  St. Peter appeared taken aback and curled his body awkwardly. Lin Sanjiu's attack missed. He unwound his weird body midair, which was now in the shape of a measuring tape. Yet, he did not retaliate even after he landed on the ground.

  "What are you doing?" Nüwa asked with a voice that was neither too loud or too soft. This stopped Lin Sanjiu from impulsively rushing forward with her attacks. "Do you think that St. Peter doesn't know how to defend himself without my command?"

  That was exactly Lin Sanjiu's thoughts. Lin Sanjiu grimaced inwardly, blaming herself for her wishful thinking. Since the circ.u.mstances were already as such, she decided to be forthcoming about her intentions, "Sorry, but I have no interest in your plans. However, for the safety of my companions and the Posthumans who will come here in the future, the Garden of Eden cannot continue to exist. If I can't destroy the protective shield in one go, I will break it down bit by bit. If you guys try to stop me, I will just have to deal with all of you first."

  She clenched both her fists tightly, she had already activated her [Mosaic Censorship] and her [Tape recorder] was now by her feet.

  Lin Sanjiu didn't expect Nüwa to react with a scoffing laugh.

  "Sure," Nüwa replied in a friendly tone, "You can try."

  The wall behind her suddenly slid open, revealing four niches. One of these was empty, while three tall creatures, similar to St. Peter, stepped out from the remaining three.

  "If you can defeat this first batch of 'Projection Trial Models', I will tell you the method to disable the radiation shield." Nüwa placed her right hand over her left one, casually, while she eyed Lin Sanjiu silently. Lin Sanjiu's forehead was now covered with cold sweat.

  Chapter 151 - That's the Legendary Crappy Teammate

  "This life-form exceeds current humans in every way."

  When Nüwa’s words rang out in Lin Sanjiu’s mind once again, Aristotle’s two long left arms, with more than ten joints each, extended out like two living wh.i.p.s. They headed rapidly toward Lin Sanjiu. Although the "Neuhumes" were not aggressive, their combat situational awareness was even superior to that of many experienced Posthumans. Lin Sanjiu bent forward, planning to dodge the attack, but she realized that her enemy had a unique body structure, so the movement would be futile against the enemy’s sweeping attack.

  Just when the two arms were right in front of her face, she dropped to the ground and rolled away, evading the attack. She felt a slight scr.a.p.e on her scalp. The wave of air current which followed Aristotle's attack was so strong that it cut off a few locks of her hair.

  [How much strength is required for that phenomenon?]

  Before she could get up from the ground, another shadow slid to her side. It aimed a kick at her abdomen but Lin Sanjiu quickly countered with both of her hands, hoping that she would turn his leg into a mushy pulp first. However, Montesquieu suddenly made a short, sharp screech. St. Peter reacted by retracting his joints. With this maneuver that no human could ever replicate, it avoided Lin Sanjiu’s hand.

  This was a one against four battle. Her opponents were not only intelligent, strong and agile, but their teamwork was also impeccable. After exchanging a few blows, Lin Sanjiu’s left arm was already wounded. She held her arm and put some distance between them and herself in a rather unglamorous manner. This was the same scenario she saw in the pocket dimension.

  Nüwa left early, in the start of the fight. According to her, Lin Sanjiu only needed to incapacitate them to know the method to destroy the radiation shield. "Isn’t this a little too hard?" Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself before leaping up
into the air. An attack hit the spot she was standing just before. Concrete sprayed everywhere and white smoke rose from the ground—the attack missed. Laozi, who had somehow got behind Lin Sanjiu, drew his arms back slowly.

  Lin Sanjiu knew that she had no chance of winning if she relied on hand-to-hand combat. She remembered that there were still quite a few descriptions of pretty good abilities in her [Tape recorder]—but it was too late.

  After the lightning-fast exchange of blows, Lin Sanjiu had retreated backward a few times. Now, St. Peter and Montesquieu were standing between her and her tape recorder. If she looked past their long, lanky calves, she could still make out where the tape recorder was. [It’s good that they still haven’t notice that—] Just when that thought flashed through Lin Sanjiu’s mind, Aristotle walked in from another direction. He looked at the metal knick-knack and gently nudged the tape recorder with the tip of his toes.

  Although Nüwa had pointed out that their intelligence was comparable to that of humans, it was a fact that they did not have the same life experiences that humans had, and this was also not Earth. To these ‘sages’, the tape recorder was a novel item that they had never seen before.

  Lin Sanjiu gulped as she could only watch as Aristotle used the hand of his left secondary arm to pick up the tape recorder. His mouth seemed to be creating some sort of low-frequency sound wave. Lin Sanjiu tried her best to listen but she couldn’t hear a thing.

  On the other hand, the other three Neuhumes certainly heard him. St. Peter kept watch on Lin Sanjiu to prevent her from attacking the others, while the rest of the creatures stuck their faces close to the tape recorder. They sniffed it and examined it from all angles, almost as if they were discussing and trying to determine what it was.

  Lin Sanjiu felt her heart in her throat. If they destroyed her tape recorder, her chance of winning would effectively fall to zero. Yet, she really didn’t have the courage to snatch it from them because she was afraid that if her opponents knew how important it was to her, they would immediately destroy it.

  The tall creature with the name "Laozi" marked on his neck started vibrating his mouth rapidly, saying some unknown language as he held the tape recorder in his eyes. Next, Lin Sanjiu stared helplessly as he pressed the ‘erase’ button.

  The tape recorder made a buzzing sound as the recordings were slowly erased from the cassette tape. For a moment, Lin Sanjiu felt as though her heart was about to explode. Without thinking, she shouted "No!" Then, she rushed forward and swung her mouthpart weapon at the creatures’ heads.

  St. Peter was apparently prepared. He raised two arms and grabbed onto Lin Sanjiu’s weapon and stopped its thrust. Although his light-green skin was very strong and durable, it was still cut by the sharp teeth of the weapon. His transparent blood dripped from his small wounds.

  Lin Sanjiu pulled her weapon backward with all her strength and realized that it wouldn’t budge. She left the weapon alone and decided to just aim for his back. However, something extraordinary happened. Laozi turned to look at her. He c.o.c.ked his head and pressed the ‘stop’ button.

  The tape recorder became silent. It stopped. At that instant, the four tall ‘sages’ looked down at Lin Sanjiu who was so stunned that she didn’t know what to do. No one moved.

  It definitely wasn’t a coincidence that Laozi stopped the tape recorder. When he heard Lin Sanjiu, it was clear from the look of his deep eyes that a thought was in his mind.

  [Did he want to use it as a bargaining chip? Is he going to threaten me? Was he afraid of some sort of repercussion?] Countless thoughts ran through Lin Sanjiu’s confused mind in that split second.

  Laozi took the tape recorder, eyed Lin Sanjiu and bent down. Then, he placed it in front of Lin Sanjiu.

  "Yours," he enunciated. It appeared to be a difficult task for him to create that sound.

  Lin Sanjiu looked up at the sages that surrounded her, and she took back her tape recorder blankly.

  The cold sensation from the metallic surface of the tape recorder was fading away due to the warmth from Lin Sanjiu's hands. "Humans would be ashamed of their existence if they were to compare themselves to them…" Almost out of nowhere, Lin Sanjiu suddenly remembered the words Nüwa said to her before.

  Nüwa ordered the four Neuhumes to fight together against Lin Sanjiu. Apart from that order, their actions were all based on their own decisions.

  Lin Sanjiu finally acted. She backed away and created distance between herself and her opponents again. She suddenly exhaled deeply and laughed bitterly.

  "How could there be such a stupid creature?" she mumbled to herself. "If this is the case, I could just trick them and win easily."

  Though she might not be the brightest bulb in the box, she already thought of a few ideas. For example, she could make a request for them to stop the fight and sneak an attack when they let their guard down. Another method was to find some excuse to leave, and when they returned to their rooms, she could kill them at one go, using whatever means pleased her.

  [Cheating is an innate skill that all humans have.] Lin Sanjiu felt for a second something similar to Nüwa’s laughter in her mind.

  "Damn it," Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and pressed down on the ‘play’ button. "I can win even if I fight fair!"

  If her opponents were humans, she wouldn’t mind using some trickery; but fighting against this Neuhumes made Lin Sanjiu reluctant to display any behavior that would prove that Nüwa’s hypothesis was right.

  A familiar voice she hadn’t heard for a long time came from the tape recorder. It was Hu Changzai. Lin Sanjiu held back her emotions as she listened to his words silently.

  "Xiao Jiu, I suddenly thought of this idea. Perhaps, it could be very useful!" He was still a bit long-winded. "You know I have allergies right? When triggered, I really can’t do anything… Your new ability would be to make your designated target enemy sneeze non-stop!"

  Touching her Pygmalion Choker, which was gradually growing warmer under the bandages of her neck, she was flabbergasted. If Hu Changzai was in front of her now, she would beat him up on the spot.

  [Who knows if these Neuhumes even sneeze?!] She looked over at the four silent figures. She already had her answer.

  Chapter 152 - The Break of Dawn

  Aliba stood in a beautiful and luxurious reception room, he was a frequent visitor of this place. He had been here multiple times with his colleagues from the Police and Military Department. The rich owner of the mansion would always sit on the sofa opposite him with a figure-four crossed leg position. He would never look at the gifts presented to him, but instead constantly berated his men with spittle flying everywhere. Among the men he reprimanded, Aliba was always the person who displayed the best attitude and always seemed the most ardent.

  However, everything would change after tonight… Aliba stepped on a blood-soaked rug on the ground. Dark blood seeped out from the rug with a squelch.

  "They did a great job here," he surveyed the blood-covered walls of the mansion contented and laughed, "I think those female mutates really hate us. Hahaha!"

  His vice-chief looked a little pale but also laughed and responded with a few quips. After that, he activated his communicator and reported, "Chief, our men received a police report."

  "Oh? What is it about?" Aliba asked casually as he took out a medium strength cigarette from the desk in the reception room.

  "A servant working for the Head of the Technology Department reported the crime. He reported that the female mutates involved in the current insurgence broke into his master’s mansion and killed that man… Hehe!" When he said this, the vice-chief couldn’t hold back his laughter.

  Aliba paused for two seconds with the cigarette sticking from his mouth before he looked at his watch, "The last team of female mutates have already been out for 30 minutes… Good. Get that subordinate of yours to inform the witness that our crime suppression team is on its way. If we want to stir public sentiments, we should start now." He lit his cigarette and smiled mena
cingly, "Now is the time. The time to get rid of them. We will use all that equipment developed by the lab!"

  "Ah, okay!" the vice-chief stood in a daze for a second before he understood. He turned and ran out to execute the order.

  The last list of targets actually included the names of some inconsequential people. Due to Aliba’s cautious nature, he did not want to risk taking on a few dozen female posthumans at the same time, even if his men outnumbered them. He split them into teams and sent them out only to weaken their strength.

  Beforehand, he already had 400 soldiers on standby. When they received his order, it took less than five minutes for them to surround the mansion where Xueqin’s group was in.

  Meanwhile, the group had their misgivings after the screen of their communicator went black. After a short discussion, as per Xueqin’s suggestion, they quickly contacted their other companions and informed them about the incident briefly. However, no one could think of any good idea on how to deal with that situation.

  "Let’s not think about that first, you guys should hurry back to the city hall." The last person the group contacted was Gong Daoyi, "I already urged the others to return, but no one is back yet. I am a little worried… huh?"

  Over the screen, he suddenly frowned and stared at the flash of light coming from behind the women. He immediately shouted, "Dodge to the side!"

  As it was so sudden, none of them really had time to think. Their bodies instinctive reacted quicker than their minds—two of the women and an escort jumped aside, leaving the spot they were standing. This was quickly followed by a loud boom. The accompanying shockwave hit them like a tsunami, slamming them against the wall.

  The explosion created a rain of of concrete, steel and wood, and these fragments created a second round of attacks. As a cloud of smoke and dust surrounded them, Xueqin, with her face covered in blood, coughed and quickly summoned out her mushroom. It was because of that protection that she had some remaining strength to survey her surroundings. The dust and smoke blurred her vision. She could only make out the silhouette of a person lying on the floor at the other end of the room. However, she had no clue about the person’s condition.