Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  There was a chain of people behind the ball of fur. Lin Sanjiu gathered her strength and pulled hard. With that, she dragged that chain of people out from the hole in the tree.

  Using the light from her [Ability Polishing Agent], she saw B.Rabbit, who was unconscious, lying motionlessly by her feet. The corrosive sap had mangled its fur so badly that it was as if B.Rabbit had been gnawed by a dog. From the looks of it, he must have shared his goth outfit with the rest of the gang. Xueqin, Error 517 and the twin sisters were tied tightly to a long goth-style belt.

  Next, Lin Sanjiu walked over to the next set of deduced coordinates and rescued Snow without any worries. However, Lin Sanjiu was bothered by the fact that she was unable to find Hui Chuyan no matter how hard she searched.

  [Let's wake the others and ask them, then...] she thought uneasily.

  For now, judging from her exhaustion, it was impossible for her to activate her [Consciousness Mimicry] again within this amount of time.

  After Lin Sanjiu laid all the people she rescued in a straight row, B.Rabbit was the first to stir.

  He twitched his hind legs a few times involuntarily before he finally opened his eyes.

  Other than Lin Sanjiu's large head, he saw the messy pile of bumpy, uneven, tattered tree barks all around him...

  "F*ck. Did you work in a demolition crew in the past?"

  Chapter 175 - Returning from the Netherworld

  Lin Sanjiu was hazily aware that she had slept for a long time. Occasionally, someone would wake her and ask her a few questions. She didn't know who posed those question and she didn't know how she answered. It was as though her mind was wrapped in water, everything she heard was muddled and indistinct.

  She had never been this exhausted; it was as if her brain had stopped functioning. Even if someone were to stab her in her sleep, Lin Sanjiu probably couldn't wake up.

  Lin Sanjiu didn't know how long she slept but her rumbling stomach finally woke her up. She smelled the pleasant fragrance of wheat. It smelled so good that her stomach reacted and that was when Lin Sanjiu finally opened her eyes.

  She was immediately greeted with a packet of bread with a small open slit.

  "Look, I told you she wasn't dead!" B.Rabbit's smug voice rang out at once. Following which, the packet of bag rustled, as if someone was taking it away. "You can just wake her up with food!"

  Lin Sanjiu felt as though she hadn't eaten for a year, so how would she let the food in front of her 'escape'? She leaped right up, with a motion too agile for someone who had been in a long slumber and pressed the bread down to the ground.

  If Xueqin didn't draw her hand back in time, that force from Lin Sanjiu would have broken two fingers of hers.

  "Huh? What happened? Where am I... Where am I?" Lin Sanjiu tore off a large chunk of bread using her teeth. Her mouth was stuffed with bread, "Fei, Fei kuyyan.."

  "I know, I know," Xueqin understood what Lin Sanjiu was saying but she couldn't help feeling embarrassed on Lin Sanjiu's behalf. "Eat slowly. You can talk after you finish your food. We still have lots of time to spare."

  After Lin Sanjiu bit her own tongue twice, tears welled in her eyes due to the pain but she quickly swallowed the entire bread. After that, she took some time to look around her.

  When she woke up, it was dark so she couldn't see much. When Lin Sanjiu was eating, Xueqin held her [Ability Polishing Agent] and illuminated the area nearby, allowing Lin Sanjiu to make sense of her surroundings.

  [This seems like the interior of a ball.] Lin Sanjiu thought to herself. The shoddy handicraft and uneven finish made it difficult for Lin Sanjiu to even classify it as a Special Item. She stepped forward and realized that they were surrounded by a large plastic material. She didn't know how many layers of that material surrounded them, but it had completed blocked out any light from the outside.

  LIn Sanjiu could hear the familiar swishing sound of the sap around them. She turned her head sharply and looked at her long-lost companions with shock. Her mouth was wide open.

  "Did we go back into the rhizomes?"

  "Ah, yes." B.Rabbit's fur may be mangled, but that couldn't hide the faint pride on its face that he tried to suppress. "We didn't do much. We just built this 'boat' when you were asleep. We are traveling to the surface against the flow of the tree sap.

  Lin Sanjiu looked vacantly at her companions. She had many questions on her mind but she blurted the most important question that bothered her, "Where is Hui Chuyan?"

  "Don't worry. She is not in the apple tree," Xueqin answered. Xueqin pushed B.Rabbit backward, afraid that it would ramble on and deviate from the topic, "It was time for her to go to the next world. She was sent away when we were in the rhizomes."

  Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a moment before she remembered Hui Chuyan telling her that it was nearly her time to go to another world. However, Lin Sanjiu didn't expect that it would be this soon, so she found it rather abrupt.

  "Although she was unconscious when she was sent away, it is far better than being absorbed by those apple trees." Despite her usual poker-faced expression, Xuqin couldn't help shuddering when she talked about those trees, "Those things are too freaky…"

  "After you fell asleep, we weren't quite sure of the situation. We rested in the same spot for a few days. We also saw those snake-faced people eating those apples…" One of the twins added softly. Somehow, her voice seemed to be ridden with guilt.

  "We were worried that the snake-faced people would find us soon or later if we remained there," she sounded as if she was trying to justify something.

  "Aii…" the other twin, the older sister, suddenly let out a long sigh without any reason.

  They weren't the only ones looking rather dejected. The complicated expression on Snow's redden face was clear for all to see despite his beard. Xueqin shot a glance at them and pursed her lips with a cold expression. She was obviously aware why the others were acting this way, but she seemed adamant not to talk about it.

  In the end, it was Rabbit who spoke.

  "The snake-faced people seemed extremely furious. They carried away the corpse of their companion, probably the one you defeated, and checked all the trees carefully. We had a hard time hiding from them… After they left, we woke you up a few times and asked you some questions. We finally found out what you knew and got an understanding of the whole series of events."

  At this point, even B.Rabbit found it difficult to speak about what had happened. "That son of a b*tch. He is such a letdown. I'm not going to cover this up for him!" Then, B.Rabbit ranted angrily, "After we knew the effects of eating those flesh apples, Error 517 secretly—"

  "Ate two flesh apples when we were chopping off tree barks to create the boat." A young teen's monotonous voice, coming from outside the plastic material, accompanied by the sloshing sound of fluid, suddenly finished B.Rabbit's sentence.

  Lin Sanjiu was shocked. She only realized then that Error 517 wasn't in this 'ball'. She only got to know the five members group through B.Rabbit, so she didn't know them that well personally. As the light was dim inside the ball, she failed to notice that there was a missing person.

  "Why... Why is he outside?" Lin Sanjiu was very shocked. "What exactly... is going on?"

  This time, even Rabbit stopped talking as his expression grew sour.

  The awkward silence continued for a few seconds until the teenager outside the spherical boat ended up being the person answering her. He seemed to deliberately maintain a sort of flat, monotonous tone, "Sister Lin, I'll answer you. They are ashamed of me now so they don't want to bring this up."

  "Sister Lin, have you ever seen my ability in our past few days of interaction? This is normal because my ability isn't anything special… Oh, don't ask me what my ability is, it is all in the past anyway. I've been constantly relying on others, holding others back. I had enough of it too. Since I had a chance to change that, why shouldn't I seize it? Those people could be considered dead anyway… I can't always suffer in pain for nothing, without ga
ining anything, right?"

  Lin Sanjiu listened in a daze. This was totally beyond anything she expected. She would never have thought that one of the companions she rescued personally would choose to eat one of those flesh apples...

  "There's no need to eat the entire thing, digging out and eating the part of the bulging veins, the portions which had a living reaction, is sufficient." From his voice, Error 517 still sounded like he was forcing himself to be calm. "It didn't fail to meet my expectations. Both of the apples I ate gave me a huge payback... The price, in my opinion, was well worth it."

  Before Lin Sanjiu said anything, Snow chastised hoarsely, "What about us? Are we less important than those two abilities?"

  For a while, there was only silence outside.

  After some time, Error 517 spoke up again, and even laughed softly, "Brother Snow, if I didn't have those two abilities, could we still swim up against the flow of the fluid in these roots? I can't control how you guys view me… but we are friends, after all, and Sister Lin is my benefactor, so I will pull this boat to the surface no matter what."

  With that, she was in no position to say anything about it. All of them clearly condemned his actions, yet they had to depend on him. Under such circ.u.mstances, it wasn't surprising that B.Rabbit looked so aggrieved.

  Even after some time, no one in the boat said a word. Lin Sanjiu vaguely heard Error 517 sighing outside. Then, there was only silence.

  The sloshing noises of the flowing fluid became the only sound which accompanied them along their path.

  The route back was far longer than the one they took to arrive. Error 517 seemed to be pushing himself to his limits. Every day, he would enter the 'boat' to have a bite of food, and without even sleeping he would go back outside to continue pulling. Lin Sanjiu wanted to persuade him to rest, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything when Error 517 gave her a distant expression.

  [Forget it, everyone live by their own principles…] Lin Sanjiu muttered inwardly.

  Before she woke up, she had slept for slightly more than a week. Then, the group were in the rhizomes for almost a month before they heard from Error 517 that it was getting brighter outside, so it seemed that they were nearing the surface.

  Following the direction Lin Sanjiu provided, they were heading toward the area she had dug up. When they were near the path she dug, they broke out from the roots' tough epidermis and finally returned to the surface.

  When the long-awaited sunlight shone on their bodies again, almost all of them felt as if they had returned from a surreal experience from a lifetime ago.

  Error 517 secretly left on the night that they returned and did not even bid farewell to any of them.

  "Actually, I didn't rebuke him that harshly..."

  "He probably couldn't accept it himself." Lin Sanjiu sighed dully and patted B.Rabbit's despondent head.

  [Right now, there is another urgent matter—] Just as she thought about it, she heard a sudden cry from afar, "Sister Lin! You finally came back! We are starving to death!"

  Chapter 176 - Gong Daoyi Would Be Very Disappointed

  Lin Sanjiu did not expect that her trip would last more than two months. When she saw Bai Xiaoke, Green Melon, and Qian Zhengguan again, she noticed that there was only hunger in their eyes. When they found the bag of food left by Lin Sanjiu, the three of them started rationing. However, even though they only ate a mouthful of bread each day, they already finished all their rations more than half a month ago.

  As they couldn't step on the ground, they spent a significant amount of effort planting a few more tree stumps in Lin Sanjiu's excavation area. Every day, they would choose a different location and let Green Melon float up to the sky so that he could spot any signs of Lin Sanjiu returning.

  "Sister Lin, if you still hadn't come back, we were planning to eat that Qian guy," Green Melon said while burping after he had his fill. "In the end, we didn't eat him because he was too skinny..."

  Qian Zhengguan's face darkened. While he continued eating his noodles, he moved over to another tree stump. He was so thin that his face had sunken in, and his round eyes now looked larger than before.

  Green Melon's careless joke immediately evoked some sentiments from the others—Snow knew that Error 517 had always been a close friend of Green Melon. He and the twins called Green Melon aside and talked to him softly.

  Seeing them, Lin Sanjiu sighed and looked away. After escaping a life-and-death situation and meeting each other again, Xueqin and Bai Xiaoke continued bickering, while Xueqin occasionally let out a dry laugh. Meanwhile, B.Rabbit recently found a new hobby. Once he found a spot to settle down, he would find a bottle of beer from some unknown place. He would pour the beer into the [Bubbles Blowing Girl]'s hand so that if formed a small pool, then he would bury his face in the pool and start drinking.

  "Hey, we need to spend more effort looking for a Consular Officer," Lin Sanjiu walked over and smiled drily when she saw B.Rabbit drinking. "Even though I got a visa for some reason, you guys don't have one... Most of the people here had been s.u.c.k.e.d into the apple tree, I'm not sure how we're going to find a Consular Officer."

  Her voice wasn't particularly loud, but momentarily attracted the attention of the rest. Even Snow and the others who were discussing softly stopped and looked over.

  Considering the current times, do you think any Consular Officer would survive?" Bai Xiaoke couldn't help sighing. "We have been here for two months and we didn't see a single person."

  Qian Zhengguan listened to them with a blank expression and even spat out a bit of noodle.

  "Who gave you that visa?" B.Rabbit immediately asked the most important question, "Is that person still around?"

  Lin Sanjiu shook her head. When she thought of Nüwa, she recalled how she imitated that woman's thought process. She reminded herself to find time to return to her [School of Higher Consciousness] as she didn't hear everything that Mrs. Manas wanted to say."

  "I guess we don't have a choice," Xueqin added worriedly. After thinking about it for some time, she consoled Lin Sanjiu, "I think you should just use your visa and head to that world. As for us... we might meet each other again in the Twelve Worlds Centrum, right?"

  "Well... actually..." Qian Zhengguan ate a large mouth of noodles so it took a while for him to finish swallowing the food in his mouth. "I..."

  B.Rabbit did not hear his faint words at all. He waved his paws and exclaimed spiritedly, "That's right! We can set a meeting point! We are all manly people, we don't have to be together day and night[1]!"

  "I don't think that is the right way to use these words..." Bai Xiaoke immediately pointed out.

  "This is my first time without a visa, I feel a little scared..."

  "I wonder when will be the next time we will meet again."

  While everyone started discussing, Qian Zhengguan realized that no one was listening to him. He finally raised his voice and it startled everyone, "Hey! Listen to me! Didn't you realize something?"

  Eight pairs of curious eyes turned to him.

  "My God. It is quite worrying to witness your stupidity..." Qian Zhengguan scratched his head, "Can't you guys associate my name with something[2]?"

  The crowd looked at him for a few seconds trying to process his words. Someone suddenly gasped, "Huh?!"

  "Qian Zhengguan, you are a Consular Officer?"

  "Are you really a Consular Officer? And that is your real name?"

  "To pair your name and that ability, isn't this a little too convenient?"

  This blew them all away. They all started to discuss the extraordinary turn of events. Qian Zhengguan suddenly became the center of attention and felt uncomfortable. He answered a few of them timidly and approached Lin Sanjiu subconsciously, hoping to get some peace.

  "We have looked far and wide for you, yet you've been hiding in plain sight[3]," B.Rabbit shook his head and sighed.

  This time, even Bai Xiaoke had to agree that his choice of words was apt. Everyone took quite some ti
me to calm themselves. After that, Lin Sanjiu asked urgently, "Isn't your ability [The Great Reversal Technique]? How could you also be a Consular Officer?"

  If she remembered correctly, B.Rabbit once mentioned that Consular Officers usually didn't have additional abilities, so exchanging visas was the best way to keep themselves alive.

  "Cough... Typically, most Consular Officers don't have a second ability... I guess I am an exception because of my birth name." Qian Zhengguan had the same confused look he always had, "Anyway, [The Great Reversal Technique] is my primary ability. My Consular Officer ability is just an auxiliary ability."

  B.Rabbit was the first to react. He leaped up and said, "Why are you just standing there dumbly? Quick! Look at Xiao Jiu's visa and give us all a visa to that world!"

  Lin Sanjiu took out her visa which showed 'Destination: Agriculture Farm' and carefully handed it to Qian Zhengguan. The latter answered B.Rabbit suggestion and looked at her visa with an unreliable expression on his face. While he observed it, he slowly let out a curious tone.

  Lin Sanjiu had almost forgotten that this man was skilled at stringing people along. "What's wrong?" she asked hastily.

  "Um, there are two matters." Qian Zhengguan showed two fingers. He spoke so sluggishly that anyone listening couldn't help having the urge to punch him a few times, just to see if they could punch out more words from him. "Firstly... this visa is a 'nameless' visa."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Supposedly, when Consular Officer's ability reach a certain point. That person would be able to issue nameless visas... Um, that is to say, anyone can use this visa, not just you."

  Somehow, everyone had the feeling that his eyes were sparkling when he said those words.

  "Alright, I can give this visa to you. Anyway, you can't use your own visas." Lin Sanjiu made a gesture and made that decision on the spot, "What is the second matter?"