Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  "Hey, I am not stupid…" Lin Sanjiu grumbled while she read the first page of her card. Her Diary Card didn't have the ability to tell Lin Sanjiu who the imposter was, so it only recorded the situation using names like Reno 1 and Reno 2. This didn't help Lin Sanjiu much.

  However, when she looked at the second page, her 'heart missed a beat'.

  "Oh no!"

  Chapter 212 - According to the Diary Card’s Hint…

  The moment that the information recorded on Lin Sanjiu's Diary Card integrated into her consciousness, Mrs. Manas understood all its content as she was part of Lin Sanjiu's [School of Higher Consciousness]. Before Mrs. Manas could ask Lin Sanjiu what was wrong, she immediately changed her words and uttered, "Hurry! Go back!"

  Even without Mrs. Manas urging her, Lin Sanjiu had already broken a window along the corridor and got out of the building. She flew upward as fast as she could but she was still too late. When she reached the "15th" floor upstairs, the siblings standing at the entrance of the stairways had disappeared.

  "Damn it!" Lin Sanjiu cursed in her mind. She drifted hopelessly around the corridor a few rounds, but as expected, she couldn't find a single trace of the siblings.

  "This is weird. I rushed up as soon as I read that Diary Card. That took less than a minute…" Lin Sanjiu was pissed, "How can that thing act so fast? It's as if it can predict my actions!"

  Feeling furious and disgruntled, she couldn't help remembering what she read on her Diary Card.

  The card didn't show much. Nothing unusual happened in the first two and a half hours recorded. However, a little more than 30 minutes after she and Reno 1 left the apartment unit, things started to change...

  1:43 pm, Lin Sanjiu and Reno 1 opened the door of apartment 1520 and stepped into the corridor.

  1:44 pm, Lin Sanjiu and Reno 1 took the bend around the corridor.

  1:45 pm, the two people left the recording range of this Diary Card.

  1:56 pm, the door of apartment 1520 opened. Reno 2 peeked out and yelled, "Lin Sanjiu, where are you?"

  1:57 pm, Reno 2 walked out of apartment 1520 and stepped into the corridor. He looked around.

  2:01 pm, there was a 'ding' sound from the elevator.

  2:03 pm, Reno 2 seemed to be talking to someone. Reno 2 was at the edge of the recording, so the conversation was not recorded.

  2:07 pm, Reno 2's voice is now in the recording range, he said, "Wait for me, I will come back. Don't go anywhere else."

  2:08 pm, Reno 2 appeared at the bend of the corridor and rushed into apartment 1520.

  2:08 pm, a 'head' peeked out from the bend of the corridor. It was a brain with half a skull.

  2:08 pm, the brain quickly hid again.

  2:09 pm, Reno 2 ran out from apartment 1520. There are a few black security alarm devices in his hand. He ran past the bend of the corridor and said, "Let's go!"

  2:10 pm, the sound of footsteps fades and exceeds the recording range.

  2:23 pm, this Diary Card was retrieved.

  Lin Sanjiu was the only one who was a 'brain-with-half-skull'. When Reno 2 was with the said 'brain with half skull', Lin Sanjiu was with Reno 1 and had just met Rena. From this recorded events, things became clear. The Reno who the fake Lin Sanjiu successfully tricked, or found worthwhile tricking, was definitely the real Reno. Lin Sanjiu realized that if Reno 2 is the genuine Reno, that would mean that Rena was currently unwary of the creature by her side that was non-human!

  Perhaps, the thing that was pretending to be Lin Sanjiu was that fake Rena.

  Right now, both siblings were alone with one of those non-human things. The worst thing about this was that they both probably wouldn't suspect the other party next to them due to Lin Sanjiu's previous actions. With her around, Reno 1 (fake) told Rena that they fought off a spirit that looked like Rena. That was certainly convincing. Meanwhile, the real Reno, who had personally seen Lin Sanjiu saving his life, definitely trusted her fully and wouldn't think more about it. Thinking about this, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling anxious and guilty even though she knew that it wasn't her fault.

  Lin Sanjiu could not figure out how the two things could act faster than her. It shouldn't take her more than two to three minutes to reach this current floor and she took less than ten seconds to react after reading her Diary card.

  "How can they disappear so quickly?" Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself, as she flew into the stairways trying to look for the siblings. Unfortunately, when she went up another floor, it was quiet, she didn't hear anyone. "Noise reverbera t es through stairways. I should hear a footstep even if they are two floors away. If they really left, I should be able to hear… ah!"

  She chided herself for her stupidity and rushed to the elevator. "If I don't see them in the stairway, they must have taken the elevator!"

  Without any hesitation, she flew out of a window and flew up to the 26th floor. When she saw the bright red '26' on the wall in the corridor, Lin Sanjiu smashed the glass window. Broken bits of glass fell to the floor like ice, creating a loud racket.

  "Who's that?" a teenage girl called out suddenly; she sounded alarmed. A pair of eyes, hidden under the fringe of a pink wig, appeared at the end of the corridor. Rena spotted Lin Sanjiu and gave a sigh of relief before walking out. There were streaks of dirt on her white socks.

  "I'm really angry now!" Rena was so furious that her lips were turning white, and her eyes glowered. Then, she prattled like a machine gun, "Do you know there is some weird-ass sh*t going on here? Can you stop flying away like that?! You're an a.d.u.l.t so why are you so insensible?! We came up here to look for you. Then, I lost my brother!"

  "Hey, I came up here to save you." Lin Sanjiu literally felt an unspeakable bitterness. After the young girl berated her angrily, Lin Sanjiu really didn't care to waste any more time. She quickly thought about what she wanted to say and explained the situation in a few curt sentences.

  This wasn't merely to defend her actions but Lin Sanjiu felt that she had to let Rena understand the entire situation. It was hard for her to find the real Rena, and as much as possible, Lin Sanjiu wanted to avoid the situation where things might get even more confusing.

  After reading what Lin Sanjiu wrote, Rena quickly lowered her voice, "You mean that person beside me was an imposter?"

  It wasn't easy for Lin Sanjiu to explain everything, even if she had her mouth. Furthermore, there were still many unanswered questions. However, she more or less managed to summarize the important points.

  Finally, Rena nodded, "Okay, I got it. If that is the case, we must not lose sight of each other from now. Let's go look for my brother."

  As soon as Rena said that, they heard a 'ding' from the elevator.

  Chapter 213 - After All These Twists and Turns, Who’s Real?

  The person who walked out from the elevator was Reno. He did not have any "X" mark on his hand.

  From Lin Sanjiu's explanation, Rena learned how Lin Sanjiu distinguished the imposters from her brother and herself. When Reno walked out from the elevator, Rena immediately looked at his wrist. Seeing that there wasn't any mark, she suddenly called out to him a little emotionally, "Reno!"

  Reno reacted with a slight astonishment. In a moment of rashness, Rena wanted to rush out, but the moment she took her first step, Lin Sanjiu immediately stretched her body into a two finger-like form and 'pinched' the corner of Rena's dress.

  "Even if he doesn't have a mark, we should be cautious. After all, he just appeared all of a sudden. Let's hear what he has to say." Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.

  When Reno saw his sister, he seemed flabbergasted. He switched his gaze from the floating brain to his sister and back again for a few times. Finally, he spoke, stammering. As he wanted to say too many things at once, his sentences ended up sounding somewhat jumbled, "Re-Rena, are you really here? I mean, no. I mean, you're Rena, right? You don't know this, but something was pretending to be you and it attacked me! And… Lin Sanjiu, you're faster than me…"

  For a second, Lin Sanji
u found the situation difficult to manage. Since both siblings were accompanied by an imposter just moments before, it clearly created a problem. Both of them did not have the same experiences so they were on a different page.

  When Reno 1, the imposter, told Rena about the 'fighting with a spirit which resembled her', the real Reno was still looking for his sister. Naturally, once he finally found his real sister, he definitely couldn't wait to share the incident with her again. Based on this logic, the Reno in front of them should be the real deal.

  However, since the fake Reno took an early precaution and disappeared, he must have realized that he had let something slip by. If it knew it, removing a mark from his wrist wasn't something hard. "If he acted like this, was his first time seeing his sister after the event." Lin Sanjiu took a quick glimpse of Rena. Rena was frowning slightly and seemed to be thinking about the same thing.

  In other words, when Lin Sanjiu found out about the imposter's identity, the fake Reno could have done the following: First, he came up to the 26th floor with Rena. Then, he disappeared from the 26th floor. He might have waited for Lin Sanjiu to meet with Rena before acting and appearing as the real Reno.

  Lin Sanjiu couldn't even ask this Reno to use his ability to prove himself. For some reasons, the fake Reno had shown that he could use [Did you check your almanac before leaving your house today?].

  According to this Reno, he was resting in the apartment unit after Lin Sanjiu rushed out to chase the spirit. After a while, 'Lin Sanjiu' returned and searched the entire building with him, trying to look for his sister. They saw the elevator going up before stopping at the 26th floor. While Reno took the elevator up, that fake 'Lin Sanjiu' flew out of the building to head upstairs and that was why he exclaimed that she was faster than him.

  His explanation did match what was written in Lin Sanjiu's Diary Card. After Reno finished, Rena kept quiet for some time. She looked at Lin Sanjiu and at the teenage boy in front of her a few times and seemed uncertain if he was really her brother.

  Lin Sanjiu felt clueless as she observed the teenage boy in front of her. "If the spirit successfully tricked the real Reno, why it released him? Won't those sly spirits be worried if the siblings left the building immediately after they found each other?" The only way they could confirm that this Reno was real was if Rena attacked him now.

  Just when Lin Sanjiu wanted to spell out her suggestion, Rena's hands suddenly glowed faintly. After that, the girl quietly and stealthily stretched out her hands. Reno was facing her with his back, so before he noticed, she attacked his back. Apparently, the teenage girl thought of the same method. This time, she probably used her [Superstition is banned after the founding of our country!].

  Reno was visibly startled by that sudden punch. It revealed his obvious lacking fighting experience. Lin Sanjiu couldn't help sighing. As a posthuman, it was quite pathetic that he couldn't dodge that attack which was so close to him. Even if he trusted his sister, that wasn't even a valid excuse. But, thanks to that punch, both Lin Sanjiu and Rena could finally let down their guard.

  He was the real Reno!

  "Why did you hit me?" Reno questioned with furrowed brows.

  "Hehe. Don't blame me. I needed to be sure." Rena's expression quickly grew lively. Laughing and grinning, she stuffed her hands back into her pockets and explained, "We have to be super cautious in this place!"

  Reno seemed doubtful for a moment, but his hot-blooded nature got the better of him. He was visibly upset. Yet, he couldn't hold back his temper. After a few seconds, he finally hit his sister a few times. Rena found it unfair that she was hit an additional two times. And just like that, the two siblings squabbled in the corridor for some time. Lin Sanjiu couldn't help slightly admiring their simple-mindedness.

  "Stop! I'm not going to fight with you now." Reno, who had been scratched quite a few times by his sister, looked a little furious. "Since we are both alright, let's leave this place quickly!"

  This time, he was not going to bring about the issue of training in this place.

  "Scared?" Rena giggled as she pressed the elevator button. Then, she pushed him, "Coward!"

  "Huh?"

  Lin Sanjiu slowly turned around in midair. She glared at Rena.

  The words "We don't have that word in Red Nautilus" echoed in Lin Sanjiu's head.

  Reno froze. He didn't say a word for two whole seconds.

  On a closer look, her eyes had somehow become unusually large. The inner corners of her eyes were almost touching. Slowly, she looked at Lin Sanjiu and Reno with her jet-black eyes. "Uh-oh," she laughed. "I always forget this."

  When Reno roared angrily and rushed toward her. 'Rena' let out a shrill laugh and quickly ran into the left corridor. Lin Sanjiu and Reno chased closely behind her. However, she disappeared once she slipped into an apartment with a half-opened door.

  Or more accurately, another Rena. Her eyes were normal. When she walked around the table toward them, Lin Sanjiu could see that her white socks were dirty. After staring at them blankly for a moment, Rena sighed and placed her hands down. She looked at them wide-eyed as if she didn't know what had just happened, "Brother? You found Lin Sanjiu?"

  Chapter 214 - Let’s Take Turns Being Suspicious

  No one knew if that Rena in the apartment was the same as the previous Rena in the corridor.

  When Lin Sanjiu flew into the apartment unit following Reno, she wasn't even sure if the young man in front of her was the real Reno. She suppressed her immediate urge to use her [Consciousness Mimicry] and hovered in mid-air. Rena, who was standing in the living room, seemed to sense that something was wrong. The girl quickly stood straight, guarded.

  "Rena, let me attack you once," Reno said softly after thinking for a moment, "This is the only way I can verify your identity."

  Rena narrowed her eyes and looked at Reno. She took two steps back and raised her chin, "Okay… But, you have to let me hit you first."

  At that moment, the atmosphere froze. The siblings watched each other for some time. Neither of them could bring themselves to agree with the other party's proposition first. Lin Sanjiu wasn't even confident who they were right now.

  The only thing that was certain was that Reno and Rena had already been seriously corroded by black matter over these few bizarre days. If either of them were to receive an attack from one of the spirits, there was no telling if they would end up in the same fate as Lin Sanjiu. Furthermore, neither of them had any higher consciousness ability.

  After contemplating for some time, Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and floated between the two teenagers and spelled out some words in the air: "They might have left. Why don't we just rest for a bit?"

  Presently, Lin Sanjiu couldn't think of a better idea. For the time being, she couldn't bring herself to leave this building. She could only calm the siblings and wait for things to unfold. Lin Sanjiu's suggestion helped ease the hostile tension between the siblings slightly.

  In order to keep an eye on each other, the siblings cleared the space in the living room. They sat cross-legged in the center of the room and started to interrogate each other cautiously about their past shared experiences. Each time they spoke, they would start with, "Do you remember that year…" With each question, they would try to probe further and scrutinize each other.

  Lin Sanjiu was in mid-air as she monitored the siblings with her full attention. Meanwhile, she ran through what had happened over the few days trying to make some deduction about the situation. Even though she had a vague feeling that she had caught something, she could not unravel the veil covering the truth. She knew that the siblings did not have the same experiences and information about the situation… Yet, she still couldn't make sense of many things...

  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of an explanation. She floated around the room unconsciously and suddenly realized that the room had turned silent. The siblings were staring at each other. Lin Sanjiu couldn't tell from their expressions if they were more relaxed or guarded tha
n before.

  "Brother, why do you remember only some events?" Rena asked quietly. Just when Reno was about to reply her, Rena seemed eager to skip over the matter and shook her head, "Forget it. Let's talk about it later. It is getting late, what should we do now?"

  "We still have to do what we have to do," Reno replied straight-laced. He shot a sidelong glance at the sister in front of him and went to lie on a sofa. As the sofa was a two-piece set, the siblings each occupied a sofa. They sat opposite from each other so that they could monitor each other.

  "Preserve our strength. Sleep," he said rather brusquely.

  After saying that, he turned his back to Rena and didn't make any movements for some time. No one could tell if he was really sleeping. In Kisaragi Station World, the night was always longer than the day. The last rays of the sun disappeared from the sky by around four or five pm. Outside the windows, there was only pitch-black darkness.

  Lin Sanjiu didn't know how much time had passed. She sensed a hint of change, it wasn't a sound. Perhaps, it was only a change in the flow of air that stirred Lin Sanjiu from her training. This time, Lin Sanjiu didn't dare to immerse herself fully in her training so she didn't make much progress. She did manage to fully develop her skull. At the moment, with her brain completed enveloped, she was a floating skull in midair.

  Without moving, Lin Sanjiu used her higher consciousness to scan the entire room. She noticed that Reno had sat up in his sofa. In a controlled manner, without making a single sound, he looked at his motionless sister and then at the silent skull. He quietly stood up and went into the bathroom. Even though they had agreed that they should always be within sight, there was one thing they couldn't avoid. When either of them had to go to the bathroom, neither of them wanted to follow along.