by N. Heller
—
The nine humans and one rabbit all stayed in the elementary school. Every day, they paired up after drawing lots. Two people were left behind to guard the place while the others would spread out to search for food and the signs of other posthumans. Even though Lin Sanjiu brought quite a lot of food from Garden of Eden, there were now six more mouths to feed. Thus, it was vital for them to scavenge before they ran out of it.
Lin Sanjiu was paired with Error 517. Hui Chuyan was somewhat disappointed for a few days about that and left with Snow. B.Rabbit and Bai Xiaoke stayed behind to guard the school while the others split up and left. But just as they expected, no one brought back any good news.
"Even though we saw another posthuman, that person ran away before we got close," Xueqin said with a moody face. "I don’t think he was a Consular Officer."
Unlike the usual reactions, Consular Officers belonged to the group of posthumans who would neither avoid nor back-off when they saw another posthuman. Sometimes, they might even take the initiative to approach one. After all, they could only survive in the apocalyptic worlds by making deals with other posthumans and getting resources and combat items from others.
In terms of food, they didn’t really have that much luck either. Lin Sanjiu clearly remembered that the other posthumans here already established a way of life, for example, rearing those rats as a source of protein. Despite that, when they went out to search for food, they found nothing.
If this was the case, it was quite meaningless for them to stay here. It seemed that they might really have to continue following the [Dog Frisbee] to the geographic marker set by Er Dao. No matter what, that was the only clue that Lin Sanjiu had to find for a trace of other posthumans living here.
After everybody discussed it for some time, they decided to leave immediately. When everyone had packed all their belongings, the group left the dilapidated elementary school and started their journey.
Lin Sanjiu thought that B.Rabbit would laugh madly when he saw her biting the frisbee in her mouth, however, she realized that he didn’t react at all. After she asked inquisitively, she was finally relieved. [That’s right. A two-year-old pet rabbit wouldn’t know how people usually played with their dogs!]
Considering the current state of Garden of Eden, their group of ten was considerably large. Besides, they had not seen other posthumans for such a long time, so they weren’t that vigilant. Although the twin sisters Metaphysics and Empiricism were given the task of keeping a lookout on both sides, the group was actually traveling rather leisurely. Chatting while they walked, and getting snacks from Xueqin when they were hungry, it was more like they were on an excursion.
After they grew familiar with each other, Green Melon became more lively and excitable. He was now describing how the five of them met B.Rabbit, "At first, those duoluozhongs probably thought that our boss was just an ordinary rabbit. They wanted to catch and eat him. We were also tightly surrounded. We thought that was the end for us. But who knew that our Boss was so powerful…"
To summarize, their group of five accidentally got surrounded by a large group of duoluozhongs. A rabbit near them quickly showed his prowess and saved all of them.
"In our hometown, rabbits are legendary, divine animals which can defeat thousands of enemies…" After recounting what had happened, Green Melon suddenly talked about some sort of extraordinary rabbit which existed somewhere within the universes, "We finally believed that it was true when we meet our boss!"
"Your ability had evolved?" Lin Sanjiu took out the frisbee from her mouth and ask B.Rabbit after she heard that.
Even though B.Rabbit’s combat capabilities were not bad from the start, it didn’t seem like he could perform those incredible feats that his underlings mentioned.
"[All the carrots are mine] leveled up once, so I could absorb the strongest abilities from a few enemies. But honestly, without my [Goth outfit], I would be in danger as well." B.Rabbit shot a glance at his underlings and whispered to Lin Sanjiu, "I tell you the truth because I trust you. Don’t tell this to my underlings."
"You’re petty!" Lin Sanjiu chided him while she laughed and placed the frisbee back into her mouth. When the frisbee was in her mouth again, the LED lights which had been pointing in the front direction started blinking.
Lin Sanjiu stopped and stared at the frisbee. If she remembered correctly, the blinking meant that their destination was drawing near. The other realized her abnormal reaction and quickly crowded around her. However, when they looked around, they still found themselves surrounded by a bland wilderness. If they had to point out a difference, there were just a little more run-down buildings. They probably reached the center of what was once a town.
Not knowing if luck or misfortune awaited them, they all raised their guards. They slowed down their walking pace and followed the blinking light. As they walked, the ground grew uneven; it was as if someone had picked up the ground like a piece of paper and created large mountain creases on its surface. They had to climb these short ridges before they could go forward. Though they weren’t that high, they were very steep. It didn’t take the posthumans much effort to climb to the top of the first ridge.
Lin Sanjiu looked out from a high vantage point. She couldn’t see that far as the next ridge blocked her view. She only took note of the long stretch of red soil which looked like long red scars and the orange setting sun.
"Why does this place look a little disgusting?" Bai Xiaoke mumbled, breaking the silence.
It was probably a disgust that only females would understand. The ridges looked like multiple keloids on a person’s skin after it been cut. The parallel ridges did give all of them an uncomfortable feeling. To add to that, the patches of deep green vegetation that scattered around the red soil seemed like discolored spots on a person who had already entered the rigor mortis stage.
Lin Sanjiu bit the frisbee again and took a step forward. She almost didn’t realize the next second that the lights stopped blinking.
"We’ve reached?" B.Rabbit asked vacuously. "So that guy called Er Dao lived in this tasteless place?"
Lin Sanjiu was also at a loss. [The lights would only stop blinking when the frisbee reached its previous geographical marker, right?] She stepped on the ground under her feet and walked around twice. There was nothing around. She couldn’t seem to find the place where the geographical marker[1] could be hidden.
She tried to walk forward, but the light did not light up. Once she walked away backward and out of a certain boundary, the lights would flash again. This was certainly their final destination.
"Weird. What can we find here?" She continued with the frisbee, feeling a bit hesitant. "Let split up and take a look around. Be careful. We have to stay within each other’s sights."
The words barely left her mouth when their situation changed instantaneously. A small black shadow fell from the sky with a swoosh and all of them quickly rushed aside. The thing fell heavily to the ground, stirring up a dust wall which reached a human height.
Squinting through and coughing in the dust, the twin sisters who were tasked with guarding the group immediately reacted instinctively. One stood on the left and the other on the right and quickly drew out a protective forcefield.
[Queue during a Restaurant's Peak Hour]
Most people probably had the experience of sitting on a small stool outside a restaurant while staring impatiently inside, hoping that the people eating would quickly leave. Even if you’re so hungry that you would eat a horse or even the service staff, you have no choice but to wait patiently outside the restaurant until your number is called.
The ability that developed from this particular phenomenon is a bane for slowpokes. No matter how powerful the opponent, he has to wait until his number is called before he can attack. The waiting time is random but as this ability becomes more powerful, the waiting time would increase.
PS: When the enemy is waiting, the ability user cannot move, m’kay.
"Dear h
onorable posthuman, your queue number is A102, you still have to wait for 24 seconds." A voice that sounded like a female using a microphone rang from the forcefield. The twins immediately sighed in relief.
24 seconds wasn’t short!
Though the twins couldn't move, their companions behind the forcefield could do that freely. This was the reason why the twins had to always work with a third party. Snow narrowed his eyes and walked up to the black figure.
It was an unconscious young man, and he didn’t seem dangerous.
"Huh?" the bearded man with a towering stature remarked curiously. "I don’t think he was trying to attack us."
"You know what happened?" B.Rabbit immediately asked demandingly.
"Yes, this person must have just arrived from another world." Snow replied quickly, "From the looks of it, he must have been on higher ground in the previous world. So when he was sent over, he fell from mid-air and fainted…"
After he said that, he suddenly realized that his companions were looking at him with odd eyes. He turned behind hurriedly and discovered that the unconscious man had disappeared.
There was merely an indent left on the ground.
Chapter 160 - No Enemies
"Huh? Where’s the person?"
The wind had died down. The setting sun was gradually swallowed by the thick layer of gray clouds in the sky. It was as if someone had casually washed the whole scenery with gray paint. On the reddish ground not far from them, there was a very faint indent; a few wild blades of grass on the ground bent to one side as if they had just been under something. Yet, no one really saw what happened.
Snow stood just beside the place where the male posthuman had disappeared. He was standing by the edge of the ridge, which had a gentle slope that slid into a valley.
Everyone could see the confusion hidden behind the man’s bearded face—he stared at the empty space beside him blankly for a few seconds. He was just about to walk closer to examine when he heard B.Rabbit shouting, "Little Snow!"
"Huh?" he looked back with his huge eyes, "Boss, why did you call me?"
The others were about ten or more steps away from Snow, and B.Rabbit was the closest to him. B.Rabbit narrowed his eyes, painted with thick black eyeliner. His expression was solemn.
"Little Snow, don’t move right now," he rarely spoke with such a serious tone, and uttered each word carefully, one after the other.
As commanded, Snow stopped moving. He froze in position as everyone looked at him.
After a while, Lin Sanjiu spoke slowly, "You can slowly lift up one leg." The large, burly man looked at her, perplexed.
[What’s happening?] Snow was puzzled. "What’s wrong?" he grumbled before he followed her instructions and slowly lifted up one foot. His body immediately swayed.
The third person who spoke was Xueqin. Her usual and stoic expression had faded. Cold sweat appeared on her forehead as she continued, "Next, you have to be very careful. Take one gentle step forward. Try to walk slowly…"
Before she could finish her sentence, it was too late. Standing on one foot, Snow suddenly started wobbling. To maintain his balance, he planted his feet down on the ground with a heavy thump.
"Aghh," he hollered. He wanted to try again, but instead, he heard B.Rabbit shouting. Before he could make sense of the situation, he felt himself spinning. He suddenly saw the sky—his body had left the ground!
Before the large man could let out an angry cry from his throat, his body suddenly seemed to take on a life of its own. In a blink of an eye, he disappeared.
"Quick!"
Lin Sanjiu and B.Rabbit shot to where he was just moments before. Ignoring the possibility that they could be attacked, one of them called out her long sword, while the other’s paw glowed. They reached the edge of the ridge in an instant. Unfortunately, they were shocked when they found that the valley below was empty. There was nothing below, other than red soil and crumbled rocks.
"Wasn’t he thrown off the edge by something?" B.Rabbit asked hoarsely.
Lin Sanjiu shook her head. "No. Honestly speaking, both times, everything happened too fast. I didn’t see how they disappeared."
When Snow turned to the other to report about the posthuman who had fallen from the sky, everyone noticed something weird. Though the man was unconscious, his shoulders suddenly moved unnaturally. It didn’t look like he was about to regain consciousness. Instead, it seemed as if something was pushing him from below. Without warning, the stranger disappeared almost instantaneously from the edge within the time it took for Snow to turn his head back.
Everyone assumed that there was something in the valley, so they told Snow to move away from his spot as quietly as he could. But, now it seemed like that wasn't the case. Just then, the others rushed over. The twin sisters quickly set up another forcefield barrier but this time the female voice they heard previously did not report a number even after some time.
The twins shared the same bowl haircut. One of them stated, "No queue number is issued, this means…" and the other finished the sentence, "There are no enemies here. To be precise, there is no one here except us."
Everyone was dumbfounded. If there were no enemies around, who took away Snow and the other man?
"We have to snap out of this. Let’s go down and look for them." Lin Sanjiu broke the silence first, "Let’s maintain this distance among us, don’t wander too far. If something happens, just call out for help."
Lin Sanjiu spoke quickly and calmly with her cold voice. Everyone followed her order unconsciously and started searching.
The slope was gentle and was no challenge at all for the posthumans. They grabbed a few rocks and quickly reached the base of the slope. They found themselves in a long wide valley. There was nothing. They could only feel the breeze which blew over the empty landscape. Hui Chuyan felt a little frightened and hurried to Lin Sanjiu’s side. Bai Xiaoke summoned her escort while the others also prepared themselves as they checked their surroundings carefully.
Of the whole group, Bai Xiaoke knew Xueqin best, so they walked together unconsciously. "Do you think we should call him?" Bai Xiaoke was unsure as she kicked a rock by her feet, "Maybe, we will get a reply."
"What should we do if we accidentally caught the attention of something else?" Xueqin asked hesitantly. She summoned a bundle of noodles from her body and started sweeping the ground with her makeshift fly-whisk as if to prevent them from stepping into any traps.
"I doubt so?" Bai Xiaoke turned to look behind. Lin Sanjiu was talking to B.Rabbit, who was on her shoulder, with a serious face. The remaining members of the five-person team seemed very uneasy and whispered to each other occasionally. Everything seemed normal, but Bai Xiaoke couldn’t help feeling that something was amiss...
She pondered about it for some time but couldn’t think of anything, so she continued her conversation with Xueqin, "We are such a large group. If there were really any enemies around, they would’ve spotted us long ago… huh?"
Xueqin immediately stopped when she heard Bai Xiaoke’s upward inflection. "What’s wrong?"
Bai Xiaoke looked a little pale. She finally realized what was missing. Then, she asked an extremely illogical question.
"Have you seen my escort?"
Xueqin’s expression took a turn for the worse, "It’s your ability. Can’t you sense him?"
"Um, I can sense that he is still around…" a thin veil of sweat appeared on Bai Xiaoke’s forehead. "It’s like he is nearby, but he can’t move. I called him, but he doesn’t appear…"
It was as if she could sense that her left hand was still with her, but she could neither see nor touch it.
"It must be a problem with this place," Xueqin decided promptly to head in the opposite direction, "Let’s look for Xiao Jiu, we have to inform her about this."
"Okay," Bai Xiaoke responded anxiously and followed behind her. As they walked, Bai Xiaoke continued, "I tried to deactivate my ability and summon my escort again. But, it didn’t work."
"I think your escort must have been caught, like Snow. They might be in the same place! If you could sense him, we might be able to save Snow." Xueqin suddenly thought of this and quickly regained her enthusiasm. She waved vigorously to Lin Sanjiu and called out, "Xiao Jiu!"
Lin Sanjiu stopped her conversation with B.Rabbit and looked at Xueqin.
"I have an idea. We might be able to find—" Just as Xueqin said this, she was interrupted by Lin Sanjiu’s question which struck her like a bucket of cold water on her head, "Where is Bai Xiaoke?"
[Huh?] Xueqin was stunned. She felt a chill down her spine. When she turned back, she saw only the same brick-red soil and the patches of grass which rustled in the wind. She scanned the path where she came from and spotted the same tire which was half-covered by a thick layer of soil and the rock which Bai Xiaoke kicked. However, there was no sign of Bai Xiaoke.
"She was… behind me just now." Xueqin couldn’t believe that she didn’t hear a thing. "It’s impossible. If someone caught her, how could she be silent?"
It was too unusual!
Lin Sanjiu knew that the situation was terrible, she raised her voice and called out to everyone, "Everyone stop! Climb up now! Leave this place!"
The twin sisters gave her a doubtful glance and seemed almost reluctant to just leave like this, while the others were also a little hesitant. Hui Chuyan was the only one who immediately executed what Lin Sanjiu said efficiently. She quickly grabbed a jutting rock and started climbing upward.
"What are you waiting for? Get up there!" B.Rabbit was getting fidgety and yelled out angrily. The rest of the people instantly started moving. As the slope was not steep nor high, it was easy for them to climb down and not hard for them to climb up. However, when they climbed up the short slope, their faces grew dark.
Another person was missing.
"517 was just by my side!" Green Melon had a face that was on the verge of tears. He leaned at the edge of the ridge, looking down unable to accept what had happened. However, when he looked down, it was empty. He saw nothing. "I just turned away for a second!"