by N. Heller
"How can that be a real doctor?!" Lin Sanjiu wrote furiously while the kids watched in a daze, "That is a cat!" Though the cat did not look like other duoluozhongs, Lin Sanjiu guessed that it was a character which belonged to some sort of supernatural story.
Who knows what would happen if they really let that cat perform surgery on them!
When the siblings suddenly realized their mistake, Lin Sanjiu quickly checked the siblings' condition. Other than a few strands of cat fur near Rena, Lin Sanjiu did not notice any other abnormalities. Only then did Lin Sanjiu feel a little less worried. Lin Sanjiu did not know how long it would take for that Munition Factory's team to get out of the building. She wasn't sure what the other members in the team would do but she knew that Silvan would definitely come to the pharmacy store to search for them. As they didn't have much time, Lin Sanjiu couldn't let the siblings rest more. She explained the situation hurriedly and urged the kids to leave the pharmacy store as quickly as they could.
"Cats sure are scary..." Reno remarked softly as he and his sister limped to the train station with each other's support.
"It was obviously both your stupidity." Lin Sanjiu couldn't help rolling her eyes in her mind.
Regardless of what the cat doctor was trying to do, he reminded her of one thing. The kids were badly injured. They probably couldn't recover on their own just based on their constitution. Despite feeling very uneasy, Lin Sanjiu took many antisceptic creams, bandages and antibiotics from the store. However, she had also decided that she would only use them as a last resort.
Just as before, once they entered the station, a train pulled into the station whistling within a few minutes. Almost as if aware of their presence, it stopped in front of Lin Sanjiu and the siblings. Attracted by the weakened siblings, there were many duoluozhongs on the train. However, after Lin Sanjiu aggressive clean-up, only a few duoluozhongs dared to peek at them from the neighboring carriages.
After finding some seats for the siblings to rest, Lin Sanjiu finally had the chance to tell them in detail about her encounter with the people from The Munitions Factory.
"No wonder you disappeared..." Rena sighed. "The Munition Factory has many combatants. When you see them in the Twelve World Centrum, they are always super arrogant... Oh, it is not because they have fantastic abilities. This is because any new products from The Munition Factory would always be given to their combatants first. They are very powerful, so not many people can escape from them. You must be quite powerful..."
Lin Sanjiu thought that Silvan must be an exception.
Surprisingly, Rena wasn't that worried, "Silvan? I've never heard of him before. But since they already said that they came here to capture duoluozhongs, I don't think they will trouble us if they don't find out you are Lin Sanjiu... In the past, I've heard people saying that members from The Munition Factory would go to some of the high-level apocalyptic worlds to look for duoluozhongs. They use them to develop biological weapons. I didn't expect those rumors to be true."
"Ah, so that explains it!" Lin Sanjiu couldn't help looking forward to seeing how developed the Twelve World Centrum were. Seeing her brother, who had fallen asleep, Rena also felt a little tired.
"Compared to the world outside, this train is safer... We get off the train when we recover..." as she said this, her voice gradually faded.
Chapter 224 - Lin Sanjiu Is The Real Malicious Ghost
Lin Sanjiu didn't anticipate that they would stay on the train for almost a month after they settled down. As a matter of fact, since they could see duoluozhongs, the train became the safest place for them. Due to its unique environment, it was also less likely that any sort of unexpected incident would occur. As such, under Lin Sanjiu's protection, the siblings converted one of the train carriages into their temporary living space and stayed on the train to recuperate.
After staying for such a long time on the train, Lin Sanjiu discovered that there was no end to the train journey. The map of the train route which was in the train carriage wasn't even reliable. Sometimes, the train would stop at the same station for more than ten times consecutively. Others appeared randomly after a few stops. On top of that, it was also impossible to figure how the direction of the train so they had no idea where the train was heading at any point in time.
The 'Kitty Provincial Hospital' station which they should have left behind long ago had already appeared five to six times. However, they had never seen that bicolor cat doctor again. Kisaragi Station and Bamboo Grove Mountains Station had also appeared twice. But most of the time, the train stopped at all sorts of stations with strange and bizarre names which were unfamiliar to them.
In this manner, Lin Sanjiu finally witnessed firsthand the difficulties of surviving in a B-Level world. In this one month, they had stopped at more than a hundred stations. However, during this time, they had only met slightly more than a dozen living people. They easily spotted the few newcomers to the world as they all had panicked expression and were obviously being tortured by the environment. When those newcomers first saw the siblings, most of them would show their delight. They had almost the same reaction as when Lin Sanjiu met Douglas.
As they had Lin Sanjiu with them, the siblings only gave these people some pointers and did not form a team with them. Other than the few newcomers, the other people, without exception, were all from the Twelve Worlds Centrum. It was very easy to differentiate between the residents from the Twelve World Centrums and the people who were transported from other worlds. The people who came from the Twelve World Centrums were a lot more easy-going. They were also more well-prepared in terms of resources. Compared with survivors who came from other worlds, they did not request to join the siblings. Instead, after they exchanged information with the siblings, they would bid them farewell decisively.
"There are very little people here," Reno, who had almost fully recovered from his wounds, subsequently explained to Lin Sanjiu, "The proportion of posthumans here is actually quite normal. The higher the level of a world is, the higher the proportion of posthumans who are from the Twelve Worlds Centrum. That doesn't mean that survivors from other worlds don't get sent to high-level worlds as frequently... It is just that they die very quickly. Due to the difference in the combat requirements or protective equipment, it is difficult for a person from a C-level world to survive in a B-level world. A B-level world can be considered the start of another tier. When you go to a world B-level and above, survival isn't a matter of the number of duoluozhongs that exist in that world. Your abilities or luck must be at an outrageous level, otherwise, you will die without preparing yourself adequately beforehand."
"And that is why residence from the Twelve World Centrum have a greater chance of survival. They must have trained themselves beforehand and prepared all sort of battle equipment and supplies." Lin Sanjiu nodded.
Rena was sitting beside them. When Rena's gaze inadvertently landed on Lin Sanjiu and saw the woman nodding her head, she instantly looked away. She quickly fixed her gaze at the dark skies outside the window. She didn't dare to look at Lin Sanjiu.
Recently, from acknowledging and treating Lin Sanjiu like a 'pet dog that they picked from the street', she now felt that Lin Sanjiu was a 'malicious ghost they picked from the street'.
"Come on, you haven't gotten used to it?" Reno chuckled as he showed a taunting face, "So, this is your weakness."
It wasn't really Rena's fault because Lin Sanjiu's recovery progress could be considered lightning fast over the past one month. Perhaps, that insane compression feat she attempted when she was caught by Silvan gave her a great boost. After that incident, she found that she had gotten a hang of her higher consciousness training. Not only did she generate a lot more higher consciousness, they also felt very much denser. She improved so much that instead of a grayish tint, the true color of her blood and skin was gradually coming back.
Yes. After her entire skeleton had been created, no one expected that her higher consciousness would start to sculpt Lin Sanjiu'
s every artery, vein, and flesh realistically.
The term flesh is just a generic term. Lin Sanjiu who was now sitting on a green seat already had some of the internal organs sculpted. Through her ribcage, one could see her heart and other organs. If it was just that, it wasn't that bad. However, recently, her higher consciousness had suddenly lost interest in developing her organs and started creating the muscles and tendons of half her body.
Thus, Lin Sanjiu now looked like a person who had been skinned. Half of her body revealed her bones and organs while the other half showed her muscles and tendons. If she walked on the streets at night, she would probably scare little girls so much they would cry.
Not to mention Rena, not even Lin Sanjiu would look at her own reflection in the window if she could help it. On the other hand, Mrs. Manas was full of praise of Lin Sanjiu's current appearance.
"If you can successfully revive yourself after this ordeal, you wouldn't definitely feel a big difference!" After checking Lin Sanjiu's condition thoroughly, she couldn't help saying excitedly, "The muscles and organs created by your higher consciousness are way stronger than before. Sigh! I just want to see what a single punch from you looks like now..."
"What's the use?" Lin Sanjiu who was still unable to talk could only hold a smooth conversation with Mrs. Manas. "According to your method, my higher consciousness only acts as a sort of superglue. My final goal is to get back to my original body..."
Mrs. Manas seemed stumped by Lin Sanjiu's question. She hesitated and thought for a moment before she sputtered a few unclear words. Finally, she simply said, "Anyway, it will only do you good."
"That's right. I think you're still hiding a lot from me..." Lin Sanjiu suddenly remembered about that matter. She had just started the subject when her mindscape went silent. Mrs. Manas was playing dead once again. Lin Sanjiu certainly wasn't satisfied with letting Mrs. Manas avoid her questions. She wanted to press the teacher for more information when she heard Reno calling her, "Hey. Hey! What are you thinking!" He got her attention abruptly.
Lin Sanjiu looked up and saw Reno staring at her. From his looks, he had probably called her a few times. "Did you hear what I said? What are your thoughts about that?"
" What thoughts?" Lin Sanjiu froze for a moment. She was occupied by her thoughts just now, so she didn't hear the siblings' discussion. Amazingly, Reno could read Lin Sanjiu's expression from the movement of her muscle tissues and mucous membranes. He frowned, "You weren't listening? We were discussing whether we should alig—."
Before he finished his sentence, the train braked suddenly. All of them fell forward from the inertia. The train made an ear-piercing screech before it came to a halt.
Chapter 225 - The Person In The Tunnel
Ever since Lin Sanjiu boarded the train from Kisaragi Station, this was the first time she encountered such as a situation. There was a stale silence around them. Lin Sanjiu could even hear the soft breathing sounds from the siblings very clearly. Occasionally, they would hear a 'pop' from the fluorescent lights above them. In such silence, that sound rang out like a thunderclap. From the train windows, they could see that it was very dark outside. They could also see a few indistinct white silhouettes. There wasn't a train station outside and there wasn't even any scenery to speak of. Actually, there wasn't even a glimmer of light outside. It was so dark that the light shining from the interior of the train was just swallowed by the darkness. Apparently, the train had suddenly stopped while it was traveling through a tunnel.
The three people looked at each other, feeling a little at a loss.
"This... We obviously haven't reached the next station, right?" Rena mumbled to herself as she stood up and looked at the train route map, feeling puzzled.
Even though the train route map changed constantly, one thing was fixed. The very next station that the train would stop would never change. Logically speaking, the train should actually stop at "Beluga Ocean Park Station".
"Have you ever heard of such a thing before?" Lin Snajiu wrote. As her body was now the color of raw flesh and organs, the words that she formed in the air were red and bloody. It was quite a terrifying sight.
"No," Reno answered hesitantly. "There isn't much information about Kisaragi Station. Collating the experiences from others who had been to this world, we created our strategy to survive here… No one ever mentioned that the train would stop suddenly."
"Collating the experiences from others who had been to this world?" An image of the siblings surrounded by people immediately popped up in Lin Sanjiu's mind. A sudden thought flashed through her mind, "If they can mobilize resources, the Progressor Alliance must be very powerful?"
However, she told herself that it was not the time to think about that. Chasing away her wild thoughts, Lin Sanjiu stood up and looked around. Even though Rena was usually very afraid of Lin Sanjiu because of her appearance, when push came to shove, Rena would still follow her obediently. Rena reached out to a window and knocked on it. Seeing no reaction from anything outside the train, she asked, "Since we said we wanted to alight and the train stopped, maybe, we should get down now?"
Even though Rena said those words more or less to comfort herself, considering the situation at hand, they didn't seem to have any other choice.
"It is alright. We can basically see all the duoluozhongs in Kisaragi Station, so it won't be dangerous." Reno said to his sister encouragingly. However, nobody knew who he was actually trying to comfort.
When Lin Sanjiu heard their conversation, she couldn't help sighing. Even though the siblings' had recovered and were now wearing their backup clothes (the crumpled clothes that the siblings were now wearing had been squished in Reno's backpack all along), there was one thing they all knew in their hearts. When they were in the residential building, the siblings had already been badly corrupted by black matter.
Lin Sanjiu was killed when a duoluozhong ambushed her after she had been almost fully consumed by black matter. With her around to watch out for them, and the kids being able to see the spirits around, it was unlikely that they would be ambushed. However, she did not know what would happen if the kids risked walking around with their almost fully corrupted bodies. Neither did any of them know what to watch out for.
From the information that the siblings had gathered, no one mentioned about this point. Actually, it wasn't anything strange. If anything were to happen to a person who had been corrupted by black matter, they would most likely die. Naturally, they won't be able to return to Red Nautilus to provide this information.
"Both of you must be very careful," Lin Sanjiu wrote hurriedly as the siblings headed toward the door. The bloodied words which should be full of concern floated in midair. When Rena saw them, she couldn't help turning her head away.
"Got it," Reno said uncaringly, "If anyone dares to provoke me! Humph!
Reno had just recovered from his wounds and still had scabs all over his body, but he had already started displaying his youthful overconfidence.
"It's nice to be young…" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself as she stood aside while the siblings worked together to pry open the train door so that they could go out in a single file. The light from the train was just sufficient for them to see the train tracks and the walls of the tunnel. Wanting to pull her own weight, Lin Sanjiu went outside first. She cautiously circled the surroundings of the train twice. Noticing nothing unusual, she went back to the train to signal for the siblings.
The tunnel was very quiet and dark. As they looked toward the front of the train, they could see the light gradually fading into a deep darkness. Without the dim light from the windows of the train, they wouldn't even be able to see the first carriage of the train. They could see that the front lights of the train were not switched on, it was as if the train was now an empty shell.
"Which direction should we take?" Rena looked around anxiously. From the looks of it, it didn't matter which direction they chose. Using rock-paper-scissors, the siblings decided to head in the direction of
the train's last carriage. "The train stopped not long after we entered this tunnel. Considering that, we should be able to get out of this tunnel after we walk for a short distance!" Reno justified.
Ever since they came to this world, this was the first time that things had gone as expected. After they walked on the tracks for over ten minutes, the tunnel gradually became brighter. "What did I say!" Reno, who had been leading the team, exclaimed. When he saw the light from the end of the tunnel, he turned and shouted, "After we get out of here, we can go wherever we want!"
Rena was most annoyed by her brother's c.o.c.kiness. She answered him half-heartedly and picked up her pace. "Come on! Move faster! It is so dark here…" Rena called out to Lin Sanjiu who was at the back of their team.
However, Lin Sanjiu suddenly stopped. Lin Sanjiu could control the scanning range of her higher consciousness. At max, her scanning range was a few kilometers wide, and she could shrink it down to about the radius of ten meters. Naturally, Lin Sanjiu could see the areas that the siblings couldn't clearly in her mind. Lin Sanjiu watched the image in her mind again. When she confirmed that she didn't make a mistake, she grabbed a rock and threw it at the train track.
A bright, loud sound resonated through the tunnel. The siblings immediately stopped as they turned behind cautiously. When they saw Lin Sanjiu holding another rock, they were relieved but they couldn't help feeling somewhat confused.
"Why are you stopping?" Rena asked. With half her body made of muscles and half of organs, Lin Sanjiu pointed her red arm straight ahead and wrote a line of words, "There is someone there."
Chapter 226 - That Fella
Reno and Rena turned behind and looked doubtfully at the dim light from the end of the tunnel, in the direction that Lin Sanjiu had pointed.
"Someone? But, I don't see anyone…" Though Rena said that, she had already worn her gloves and was gripping her two fists tightly in front of her while she stretched her neck to look as far as she could. Similarly, Reno switched between looking at Lin Sanjiu and ahead of them. Once they stopped, the tunnel fell into a still silence once more. They couldn't even hear a breeze. It really seemed as though there wasn't anyone hiding in the darkness.