Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Even though Dong Haohao was caught right in the epicenter of the explosion, she was unharmed because she managed to activate her [National Tax agency]. She took a quick look at her wrist and suddenly made a despondent comment, "I was too slow. The communicator has been damaged."

  The escort also recovered from the blast that had thrown him towards the entrance. He sifted through the rubble and pulled Bai Xiaoke and Xu Wei. Other than Xu Wei, who was now unconscious because of her head injury, the remaining women were not badly wounded.

  The wall with the window, through where the attack came, was already nowhere to be seen. The women looked outside and saw the large group of soldiers.

  "When did they…" Bai Xiaoke gulped.

  The women were on the second floor, not far from the ground; without the wall, the two parties could see each other very clearly. The soldiers at the front looked upwards at the women. Their eyes were emotionless as if they were looking at those hardy c.o.c.kroaches found in some homes. A man who seemed like the team leader made a gesture, "They’re not dead. Take aim and fire again."

  The two soldiers beside him bent down to fiddle with a colorful, cute pink human-sized robotic doll. The doll seemed to be an immobile robot, as it maintained an unchanging bubble-blowing pose. "Quick, let’s get out of here!" Xueqin shouted urgently. They didn’t waste any time. The escort quickly carried Xu Wei with one arm and all of them ran out of the bedroom. The explosive force of the previous attack was limited, so it only ruined the bedroom. The beautiful mahogany staircase, with its shiny finish, was still in a perfect condition.

  The entire compound of the mansion had been surrounded by soldiers, so the women knew that they could only hide for some time. There was no one on the ground floor. The lights were switched off and the doors and windows were locked.

  Bai Xiaoke let out a heavy sigh, "Can all of you still fight—"

  Before she could finish a sentence, she felt a light breeze on the back of her neck. She turned stiffly and saw a few transparent soap bubbles following behind them. They bubbles floated down the stairs, but not at a slow speed. At least, they were the source of the breeze in the stale living room.

  "They’re gonna explode!" Dong Haohao roared angrily. When the bubbles burst, Xueqin’s mushroom popped up at the same time. The mushroom was destroyed into small bits in mere seconds but managed to shield the team from the explosion. Xueqin vomited a mouthful of blood but no one else was injured.

  Just when they sighed a collective breath of relief, the men outside were back in action. After a series of banging sounds, the front door started shaking violently. It barely survived a few attacks before it swung wide open.

  A large number of fully armored soldiers flooded like a violent tide with their heavy weapons. Facing an army of a few hundred, even a posthuman's best option was to flee.

  "I guess we’re dying here," Dong Haohao used her [National Tax agency] to nullify a beam of laser shot at them. Sweat appeared on her face as she said, "Let’s drag down as many as we can!"

  Since they had all recognized that there was no chance of surviving, they abandoned all restraints. With the protection of Dong Haohao’s [National Tax agency], the women rushed into the middle of the group of soldiers, disregarding the gunfire; it was as if every cell in their bodies had a screaming thirst for their enemies’ blood. Wherever they went, severed limbs flew everywhere like a spurting water fountain.

  As they were already driven by a crazy bloodl.u.s.t, they did not realize that their actions actually helped them gain more time for survival. Since the women thrust themselves into the crowd of soldiers, the soldiers did not dare to carelessly shoot at them, as they feared hurting their own colleagues.

  Bai Xiaoke received a direct attack on her back. It hurt so much that tears spilled from her eyes instantly. She panted heavily and stabbed the person behind her with her knife. Her vision was starting to blur. She felt drained, as if she was on her last bit of strength. Her field of sight began to falter like the shaky ground beneath her. Her legs weakened and she nearly fell.

  [Is this the end for me?]

  She steadied herself in a daze and realized that the soldiers around her were also trying to maintain their balance. As they had not evolved, they had a poor sense of balance, so most of them quickly fell on the ground.

  A deep rumbling sound came from the far horizon. It was the faint sound of explosions in the sky, like an endless roll of thunder in a summer night. For a moment, the mind-numbing loud noise filled their ears.

  Bai Xiaoke stepped over the humans on the ground and scrambled out of the front door. When she looked up, she was stunned.

  Following which, she yelled out in the loudest voice she had ever used in her whole 20 plus life, "THE RADIATION SHIELD HAS OPENED! THE RADIATION SHIELD HAS OPENED!"

  She felt her blood racing through her body, forgetting everything momentarily, she continued yelling out those words. The thunder-like noise finally faded. The residents of Garden of Eden turned pale when they stared up into the sky above them. They could still hear the high-pitched female voice in their ears— "THE RADIATION SHIELD HAS OPENED!"

  A piece of the glass globe slowly retracted into a second piece of glass, and then another, until the entire glass globe rapidly disappeared into the ground. For the first time in decades, the dark blue sky on the brink of dawn hung over the city without any barriers. The strange-smelling contaminated air from the outside world swept through the city like a gale, forcing itself through every person’s nose cavity.

  That odor, which couldn’t even be entirely blocked out by the radiation shield previously, made a point extremely clear to every single person: whatever scrappy means of anti-radiation that Garden of Eden possessed stood no chance against the horrifying levels of radiation outside.

  This was a stench of death and the smell of rebirth. Meanwhile, a hint of marble-white light seeped from the eastern horizon.

  Chapter 153 - What Kind of Shitty Method Is That?

  The air was contaminated with the smell of rotting plants and the fishy stench from all sorts of mutated creatures. It flowed through the respiratory tracts and into the lungs of all the humans and posthumans in the city.

  Under such circ.u.mstances, no one uttered a word even when they saw those wanted criminals, the female posthumans, running past them. Hundreds or even thousands of humans sprawled on the streets like dead bodies. Their almost-dead listless eyes trailed the nimble footsteps of the posthumans until finally revealing a tinge of envy.

  Blood gushed out from their respiratory tract, making it impossible to breathe, yet they no longer had the strength to even cough. Occasionally, a few people would appear with milder radiation sickness. They would stumble through the streets covered with the bodies of the fallen and shout out "save me" before collapsing to the ground like toy blocks.

  There were victims everywhere.

  The soldiers who were fighting the women just moments before had already abandoned their mission and dispersed, trying to find a way to survive. Their anti-radiation suits were quite effective, so they were given a little more time to live. Xueqin and the others were wounded and soaked in blood, but they couldn’t care less. They ran through the streets and alleys and called out for other possible surviving posthumans.

  Facing death, all the residents finally went mad. Every now and then, a man would appear holding a knife and an ax, brawling and screaming while he chopped up any living thing he saw. The people who hid in their anti-radiation shelters had already lost their sanity, crying loudly non-stop. A group of soldiers who were previously fighting against the female posthumans headed for the laboratories. They raided the place for medicines, burning some of the labs in the process. Some researchers, still wearing their white coats, hung limply from the walls of the laboratories like beefy jerkies.

  Amidst the shrieks, the crying, the call for help and the fires, far above the city, the glass window at the top floor of the black tower was blasted apart. Glass fragments fel
l from the sky but nobody noticed.

  The surrounding sound of devastation drowned out the posthumans’ calls for their companions, leaving only murmurs. Lin Sanjiu composed herself as she looked down from the top of the black tower. The walls of the tower seemed to stretch downward with no end. She felt dizzy even with a single glance.

  She forced herself to stand firm and watched the city below her again. Then, she noticed a few dots, like black ants, moving quickly through the city. After a while, the dots converged and they headed toward the black tower. Judging from their speed, those were definitely posthumans. Lin Sanjiu assumed that the others probably already guessed that she had accomplished her mission when they saw the glass globe disappearing before their eyes, so they quickly re-assembled and flocked toward the black tower.

  Lin Sanjiu’s heart tensed up for a moment and she quickly estimated the time she had. She sighed. She had no choice. Behind her, a segment of the floor had slid away and a control desk had risen. That was the control desk which caused the disassembling of the radiation shield. The metallic support which held the console disappeared deep into the floor and there was a rope tied to it.

  Lin Sanjiu looked behind her. She saw St. Peter staring at her with unblinking eyes. Nervous, she actually let out a laugh. "You went easy on me just now," she did not care whether St. Peter comprehended her words. She looked down at the three other Neuhumes who laid unconscious on the ground. She nodded at St. Peter and said, "Bring them away. I am also leaving."

  St. Peter slowly stood up and carried his companions, as if he understood what she had said. The wounds on his arms were torn open during their fight, so two of his arms were covered in blood. Blood dripped from his wounds, creating a small puddle on the floor.

  Lin Sanjiu turned back and took one step closer to the edge again. Suddenly, she couldn’t hear the sounds from the city below her. All she could hear was her pounding heart. She tightened the knot on her wrist and took a deep breath. She stuck the tip of her leg out—

  The next second, Lin Sanjiu’s body was in the air. She had leaped out from the window and was screaming involuntarily. Under the cyan skies at dawn, her body swooped downward like a small hawk. As she freefell, the few seconds of weightlessness made her feel as if her heart was about to leap out; the gushing air current caused by the air resistance hit her face and body. Her skin hurt but she was suddenly overwhelmed by a refreshing feeling from her head to the tip of her toes that she had never felt before. She made a whooping sound and then started laughing out uncontrollably.

  The rope of a few hundred meters quickly reached its full length, stopping her fall rather abruptly, but Lin Sanjiu was still a few stories away from the ground. Lin Sanjiu thought quickly and converted the rope into a card while she flexed her legs and leaped toward a nearby tree using the momentum.

  There were a few cries of alarm from the ground as Lin Sanjiu grabbed onto a tree branch tightly. She swung off the excess of downward momentum before jumping down to the ground with a thud.

  "It’s Xiao Jiu!"

  "Miss Lin jumped down from the top!"

  The group of women who were still some distance away was shocked by her antics, and there was a large commotion as they quickly ran over to Lin Sanjiu. Bai Xiaoke led the group as her escort ran behind carrying Xueqin.

  Lin Sanjiu caught her breath before she flashed a large grin at the people running toward her. Everyone was in quite a sorry state. All of them grinned widely showing their white teeth despite their dirty and bloodied face, to the point of making it hard to distinguish their faces. The women cheered and laughed. It was difficult for Lin Sanjiu to actually make out what the others were saying, considering the noise.

  Gong Daoyi stood behind the group of ecstatic women and watched them quietly with his hands in his pockets.

  "Alright, let’s talk later," Lin Sanjiu gestured for the group to keep quiet. "We don’t have much time now. There are only 20 minutes before this entire place is destroyed."

  And indeed, after the radiation shield had been disabled, the next progression of the chain reaction was turning the city into ashes. Since Nüwa no longer wanted to continue this experiment, the humans living in Garden of Eden were naturally useless to her.

  Lin Sanjiu didn’t have time to explain further. They needed to search and get as many resources from this place before the self-destruction sequence started. After she briefed them quickly, the group was split into two teams and went about completing their own tasks. One team was tasked with searching food and daily necessities, while the other had to gather weapons and Special Items.

  Xueqin was in the group which was now rushing to Garden of Eden Laboratories. Bai Xiaoke’s escort carried her on his back while he ran beside Lin Sanjiu. After hesitating for a few seconds, Xueqin finally whispered, "What happened in the black tower? Where is Li Tao?"

  Lin Sanjiu grimaced inward. Lin Sanjiu herself found it rather incredible that she managed to disable the radiation shield despite the perils.

  At that time, when her Pygmalion Choker was activated, she was so dejected that she could pull out a clump of her hair.

  Even though she knew that the ability was probably useless against them, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help trying her luck and testing it on them. She tried to use the ability on all four of them at once, but they showed no reaction. They didn’t even cringe their faces.

  "Damn it!" she gnashed her teeth madly. "I can’t believe I, Lin Sanjiu, will just die here—"

  Before she completed her thought, she suddenly felt an irritation in her nose. An explosion of violent sneezes from herself interrupted her track of thought. In that split second, with her eyes closed, Lin Sanjiu was nearly hit by a sweeping punch. When she opened her eyes again, she was cursing Hu Changzai over and over again in her mind.

  "So, I just have to think of a target and the person would sneeze, no matter who it was? So, when I say my name Lin Sanjiu—Achoo!"

  She accidentally thought of herself again and started sneezing. She even started tearing.

  "How am I supposed to fight like this?" Lin Sanjiu grumbled softly to herself. At that moment, in that state, she immediately thought of an idea. She remembered that though Nüwa could give orders to St. Peter verbally, she sometimes only had to give him a look for him to understand.

  For example, Nüwa did not say anything when she wanted the neuhumes to attack Lin Sanjiu, yet they certainly received her order. Lin Sanjiu was sure it was not like in novels where people had that sort of ‘tacit understanding’ due to the strong rapport between them. [Could it be that Nüwa was using some sort of psychic communication?]

  Lin Sanjiu jumped, dodging Aristotle’s attack. The excitement of this discovery made her palms feel a little numb. If her deduction was right, she just had to stop Nüwa’s psychic connection...

  When she thought of this, she realized that the attacks paused for a moment.

  "Four times…" she repeated to herself, "I think I thought of Nüwa four times?"

  Just when she finished mumbling to herself, she saw Montesquieu in the air, as if he was about to strike her. But, he did nothing and just landed back on the ground.

  Lin Sanjiu felt an electrifying feeling throughout her body. Without really thinking it through, she started laughing loudly. "Hu Changzai. Good job! Nüwa, Nüwa, Nüwa!"

  No matter how much Nüwa despised humans, she was one herself; Lin Sanjiu just needed to think about her, and no matter where she was, she would sneeze!

  When humans sneezed, there was no way they could process any cognitive thought! With her thoughts interrupted, she was naturally unable to communicate and send her order telepathically. The neuhumes would only resume attacking when Nüwa recovered and reconnected with them psychically.

  A sneeze might only be very short but Lin Sanjiu could make Nüwa sneeze non-stop. When these short few seconds of sneezes where chained up to make five minutes, it didn’t matter how physiologically superior or how good the neuhumes were at combat. They certain
ly posed no threat to her if they were not attacking.

  It took a short time for Lin Sanjiu to defeat three neuhumes, except St. Peter. Then, she stopped her "sneezing attack". St. Peter looked around him and finally took out a key and inserted it into a keyhole on the floor obediently. The tile on the floor shifted and a control desk rose.

  There was a screen on the control desk and when Lin Sanjiu switched on the console, the screen lit up with a ‘snap’. Nüwa appeared on the screen. Her nose was red and her eyes were teary. "That’s too primitive…" After a few minutes of extreme sneezing, Nüwa’s deep, calculating and enigmatic image totally disappeared, she spoke nasally, "What sort of method is this?!"

  "It’s none of your business. It worked, right?" Lin Sanjiu replied rascally.

  "Alright… Don’t blame me for not saying this." Nüwa squeezed her nose, and continued with a buzzing voice, "After 25 minutes, the self-destruction sequence of this place will be initiated. If you want to escape, you better hurry."

  Lin Sanjiu was a little surprised. She narrowed her eyes and asked suspiciously, "Why would you be so kind to tell me this? I’m also a human that you hate."

  Nüwa placed her hand down and smiled faintly. The screen went black without warning. Nüwa left without even a single explanation.

  In any case, Lin Sanjiu decided to be on the safe side and trust her words. If she had to take the stairs, it would probably take her about 20 minutes. After some consideration, she took out a climbing rope she had collected at some point in her journey and decided to bungee jump. Unbeknownst to her, when she was in midair, the screen suddenly lit up again.