Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  They suddenly heard a hoarse but penetrating voice. The person had a grating voice, like the sound of sandpaper scraping on a surface. The siblings who had been sleeping with their heads together woke up abruptly, startled by the voice. While they still looked a little drowsy, they could hear the person speaking with the ear-abusing, bad-sounding voice, "Hey… You fella from the east wing, what did you ask Siri? Why was there an announcement that someone had found a book after you guys went to ask her a question? I don't mean to insinuate anything, I just want to know your question."

  Nobody knew what was wrong with the person's voice. It sounded like sandpaper and the sound of nails scratching a blackboard. The person's voice was so creepy that it could give people goosebumps.

  When Silvan finally spoke, the siblings had a sort of "our-ears-are-saved" feeling.

  However, what he said was a little hard to understand:

  "I can tell you what we asked her. There is no need for us to hide anything," Silvan said with a breezy voice, as if he was unaware of the hidden intentions of the speaker from the west wing, "Peach, why don't you tell that man what you asked Siri?"

  The woman spoke immediately, "I asked Siri, 'Do you know where the five books are?' Then, Siri replied that she didn't know."

  All the people who were listening intently to her were a little flabbergasted by what she said.

  "She took the effort to run downstairs but she asked Siri such a stupid question? If Siri knew where the books were, would she need so many people to look for the books?"

  Almost as if he could read everyone's mind, Silvan suddenly raised his voice and said, "If you don't believe me, please feel free to approach Siri and ask her to tell you the question we posed. That would prove that we are not the ones who found that book."

  The library fell silent once more after his words. The west wing had already picked on the east wing a couple of times. Obviously, they would not go downstairs right now and reveal themselves to their opponents. The south wing and the North wing were also guarding against each other. They were all afraid that they would be taken advantage of if they went downstairs to question Siri.

  The only exception was the team in the central hall.

  "We will go and verify." A nice-sounding, crystal clear voice rang out from the bookshelves below as everyone's attention turned to the central hall.

  After being attacked by the people from the north wing, Lin Sanjiu's team did not face any further hostility from the other teams. When they fought with the north wing, they had only taken two lives from the members. That could not be compared with the animosity between the north and south wing. In conclusion, they were definitely the most suitable team to approach Siri.

  "But, I hope our dear friends from the west wing and south wing wouldn't try any sneak attacks this time."

  As the cold, clear voice traveled from the bookshelves, a skinless person stepped out. After 28 hours, Lin Sanjiu's muscles, fat, and blood vessels had all fully developed. She was only missing her skin and thus looked even scarier. The contrast between her voice and her appearance created a slight commotion, but very quickly the library became quiet once again.

  Lin Sanjiu's every step gave everyone the impression that she walking normally, but she was the only one who was clearly aware of the very, very narrow gap between her sole and the ground. If she relaxed, she would immediately float up in midair. She had carefully chosen a book for defense and had converted it into a card. She held the card tightly in her hand and solidified her higher consciousness to an unprecedented extent. She braced herself for any unexpected, sneak attacks as she headed toward Siri.

  Thankfully, everyone seemed eager to know the outcome she would get. Nobody tried to attack Lin Sanjiu even when she was near Siri's work desk.

  "600 meters ," Lin Sanjiu thought to herself silently when she stopped.

  The library was very quiet. Lin Sanjiu could almost feel the needle-like gaze behind her back. Lin Sanjiu suppressed her unease and asked softly, "Did the east wing team ask you that question? Are they telling the truth? Please answer me with the speaker."

  As Lin Sanjiu's request didn't affect the rules, Siri followed her instructions. She shot a glance at Lin Sanjiu before speaking into a microphone, "Yes, the east wing team asked me if I knew where the books were."

  Her words sounded clearly and loudly, reaching every corner of the library.

  "How did you answer them?" Lin Sanjiu tried to speak as quietly as possible so as to ensure that Siri was the only one who could hear her, "Please use the speaker to answer me."

  "I replied, 'I don't know'." Everyone heard Siri's voice loud and clear. It stirred up another round of whispering. No one expected that the east wing team would ask such a useless question.

  The sudden commotion was interrupted by the voice of the woman from the south wing, "Miss, could you help me ask Siri a question?"

  "Could you help me ask if the east wing team only asked that single question?"

  "Here it comes!" Lin Sanjiu pursed her lips.

  If people were just whispering previously, this woman's request had stirred up a large commotion.

  The quiet discussions from the teams from the four wings filled the library, but Lin Sanjiu did not walk back to the bookshelves. Instead, she looked around. The teams from all four wings were still shocked by the woman's question. Meanwhile, they did not notice Lin Sanjiu's unusual behavior and couldn't care less about attacking her. However, Lin Sanjiu knew that she only had a few precious seconds.

  Grabbing this opportunity, Lin Sanjiu asked a question so quickly that it was almost impossible for anyone to catch what she said. However, Siri wasn't just an ordinary person. She fully understood Lin Sanjiu question and answered Lin Sanjiu.

  When Lin Sanjiu heard the answer from Siri, she controlled the intense emotions she felt. She turned and rushed back to the bookshelves as fast as she could. Lin Sanjiu, who had almost completed the full construction of her body, moved so quickly that she was just a blurred image and the only thing acting against her was just air resistance.

  "Boom!" She had just taken a few steps when the spot she was standing in previously was blasted to bits by some unknown force.

  When Lin Sanjiu finally reached the bookshelves, she let out a sigh of relief. When the siblings saw her, they quickly asked, "How was it? Are you alright?"

  "As expected." Lin Sanjiu was so worked up that she didn't even bother asking who attacked her, "Silvan found that book!"

  Chapter 257 - Silvan’s Discovery

  "What? How do you know?" The siblings were shocked and couldn't help asking Lin Sanjiu the same question at the same time, almost inaudibly.

  Lin Sanjiu steadied herself but she couldn't help peering out from the gaps between the bookshelves. White smoke rose from the previous attack and slowly spread out in front of Siri's work desk. Lin Sanjiu could see the shallow dent on the ground through the white smoke. Her gaze swept past the dent, landing on the multimedia section. She eyed the same spot for a few full seconds.

  "Because… It was too illogical for them to risk coming to the central hall just to ask that useless question. I couldn't help myself, so I tested my conjecture," she replied softly.

  —

  Lin Sanjiu already had an idea in the beginning. The first two questions she asked were what the people from the north, west and south wings wanted. From Siri's answer, there was no problem with those questions. Speaking softly and getting Siri to reply with the microphone was also part of her plan. She wanted to create a sort of false association for the teams from the four wings: "The skinless human doesn't have a microphone, so we can't hear her. But we can hear Siri because Siri has a microphone, so we can hear Siri's answer."

  Once people had a false association, it would become a cognitive blind spot. They wouldn't even consider the fact that posthumans could actually speak very loudly if they wanted to. Lin Sanjiu had learned this tactic from Hannie.

  Truth be told, it was useful to exploit humans'
natural cognitive biases.

  When the woman from the south wing requested for Lin Sanjiu to ask Siri if the people from the east wing only posed one question, the situation changed.

  After the woman from the south wing finished her sentence, Lin Sanjiu looked at Siri. This time, however, she did not parrot the question as per the audience expectations. Instead, she asked very softly and very quickly, "You can hear me right? Please do not use the microphone to answer. Please only provide your next answer to me."

  Lin Sanjiu's non-existent heart thumped loudly. Siri stared at her expressionlessly and pushed away the microphone. Lin Sanjiu felt her heart settling back in its place.

  "No," Siri spoke very quietly as if she understood Lin Sanjiu's intentions, "The east wing team did not only ask one question. They asked me another question."

  Lin Sanjiu was so tense that her fingers starting feeling numb. It had only been two to three seconds since the woman from the south wing had asked her question. From an outsider's perspective, it looked as though Lin Sanjiu had just finished asking her question. That meant that Lin Sanjiu had the time to "cover up" her actions. A person can easily twist their question to receive a predetermined answer. "The team from the south wing only wanted me to ask that one question, right? Please use the microphone to answer me."

  "That's right. That's the only question," Siri answered with a voice that sounded almost pre-programmed. Her voice rang out clearly from the speakers and caused a round of commotion. Admittedly, Lin Sanjiu managed her timing very well so everyone believed that the answer was directed to the question posed by the woman from the south wing.

  "Now, without using the microphone, please tell me the answer to the second question they posed." Lin Sanjiu had never spoken so fast in her life. She was so nervous that it felt like her blood vessels were on fire. This was the main aim of her actions!

  "I told them, 'The book, The Blooming Dawn, can be found in C section Bookshelf 76, 4th shelf, 7th book'."

  When Lin Sanjiu had just heard Siri's answers, she immediately realized that she been standing in the same spot for too long. Before she could say another word to Siri, she turned and rushed toward the bookshelves. She had just taken her second step when some unknown person from one of the teams had destroyed the spot she was at.

  —

  After they heard Lin Sanjiu's account, the siblings were a little stunned. However, they still couldn't figure out how she came to the conclusion that Silvan had found a book.

  "You have the beginning and the end of the story, you just miss the clue in the middle. Come on, it's not that hard," Lin Sanjiu didn't spell things out for the siblings, she just gave them a vague hint. As the kids were still young, she felt that it was a crime to just spoon-feed them without giving them the opportunity to think.

  Rena held the spine of a book unconsciously. She repeated softly, "The Blooming Dawn… The Blooming Dawn… It isn't one of the target books. Ah! Oh! Ah! I know!"

  She suddenly cried out and her face turned red with excitement. At the same time, Reno quickly jumped up and pulled his sister, "No, let me explain!"

  "We were searching in the wrong place!" Reno muttered, his eyes fleeting across the rows of bookshelves and he fixed his gaze at the Multimedia section. "Siri doesn't know where the target books are but she knows the location of every book on these bookshelves. That's to say…"

  "The target books are simply not on the bookshelves!" Rena could hold herself back and blurted out her conclusion.

  Her brother could only swallow back his words, feeling a little disgruntled.

  "That's right," Lin Sanjiu smiled. Even though her smile was a little scary, the kids seemed very encouraged by her reaction. "Silvan definitely came to the same conclusion. He must have found a target book in one of the non-book section in the east wing… But, we just don't know which book it is."

  "That's not it… Did you guys notice which direction the thing which attacked me came from?" she asked coolly.

  "No… That thing did not travel in a straight trajectory. Instead, something like an explosion target suddenly appeared…" Reno said as he recalled what had happened, "It is impossible to know who attacked you."

  "I am about 80% confident that the person who tried to attack me was Silvan," Lin Sanjiu said mildly. "When I was in front of Siri, I spent about three seconds longer than average to ask that additional question. Considering his ability to think, he must have noticed that something was amiss. He wanted to scare me away—but he was a step too late."

  The two kids looked at each other and couldn't help feeling a little tongue-tied.

  "Not only is he handsome, but he is a little difficult to deal with…" Reno said with almost a sigh.

  "Let's ignore him. Anyway, he missed! There is no time to lose. Let's start searching in the non-books section," Rena gestured happily. "Isn't the multimedia section the best place to start!"

  She was right. There were many non-books sections in the central hall: the entrance, Siri's work desk, the multimedia section, and the reading area with tables and chairs. The multimedia section was the closest to the bookshelves. They could reach that area after walking past bookshelf 100. However, the multimedia section was directly under the second floor of the west wing.

  Chapter 258 - The Last Ten Seconds

  All sorts of books, new and old, thick and thin, were swept off the heavy bookshelf which was made of quality hardwood. They fell from the shelf one after the other, making a pitter-patter sound like rain. The evil perpetrator of this action acted swiftly and before long the bookshelf was half empty.

  "Look at this, will this book work?"

  The young teenage girl held an old book between her white fingers. She called out to her brother and Lin Sanjiu, who were not far from her, "It's called 'The hidden truth'. There is the word hidden. Maybe, we could use this."

  Lin Sanjiu and the siblings decided to search through the sea of books in front of them to find for a way to enter the multimedia section right under the noses of the west wing team. As each of these books was a Special Item, they were sure that they could find a book whose effects would allow them to enter the multimedia section undetected. The biggest problem was that they could not open the books to check their content.

  Once a book was opened, the content of what they read would immediately be activated as the book's effect. The effect could only be activated once and the book would become just a normal book which couldn't be used again. In other words, they could only judge the usability of a book's content by its title or the occasional summary on the back of the book.

  Lin Sanjiu looked up and frowned immediately.

  "Pick up the books on the floor!" Even though she spoke quietly, her words were firm, "If the bookshelves are empty, what would block us from their line of sight?

  This was the first time Lin Sanjiu had lectured her, but Rena panicked inexplicably. "Oh," she replied before bending down and collecting the books hurriedly. After she placed some of the books back, she suddenly felt somewhat indignant. She wanted to throw a tantrum but she just couldn't. In the end, she placed all the books back on the bookshelves obediently. Then, she sashayed over to the end of bookshelf 100 and placed the book on the book pile there. There was a large pile of books on the floor. They had all been carefully selected based on their potential effects.

  As there were many pages in a book, there was no guarantee that the page they read would hold the effects they needed. With that in mind, they had decided to place all the useful books to one side on the outset. A few hours had passed since Lin Sanjiu approached Siri. Through the windows, the color of the sky hinted that dawn was arriving.

  Observing the situation from yesterday morning, the lights in Kisaragi Library would be switched off at 5 am. At that time, the library would become dark—though not as dark as during the night—but it would give Lin Sanjiu and the siblings a good opportunity to act.

  "Ready?" Lin Sanjiu was crouching. She led the way, as the two kids followed b
ehind her. They looked a little pale as they nodded their heads. This was already the third day since they entered the library. This also meant that the actual number of lives Rena had was only 1.

  At the moment, they had no idea what would happen if Rena received a lethal attack. They did not know if her "life" would be deducted from the actual 1, or the 4 that was on her back. Neither did they have an opportunity to ask Siri this question. Consequently, it was inevitable that the siblings were feeling very nervous.

  "Just follow behind me later. If anyone attacks, I will take on the blows. Don't let yourself be separated from the group." Lin Sanjiu advised, "My body is a hundred times more resilient than your bodies, so my number won't drop."

  Hearing this, Rena let out a sigh, sounding a little relieved. Reno looked at the wall clock in the central hall and pulled out a small backup torch. Lin Sanjiu reached for one of the books and opened it from the middle.

  "...Thus, before we could get a more accurate information about the situation, we could only wait helplessly and anxiously. Jumon, our tribe chief noticed our predicament and took the initiative to lend us his car…"

  The effect of the book was "A way out of a predicament". Even though it was very useful, it wasn't suitable for their current situation, so they had wasted the book. Lin Sanjiu sighed and quickly took another book.

  "...based on the logical considerations behind this behavior, this is something very meaningful. Was there any other way to change this situation other than improving the natural essence of the matter? Unfortunately…"

  "This won't work either."

  "...She felt a wet sensation gliding past her t.h.i.g.h. It landed sloppily on the floor, spreading out like a blooming white tulip. Goodbye, my child..."

  "No."

  ".... she didn't want this! This man was more handsome, more influential, and richer. But so what? Did he think he could do whatever he wanted to her? They were just lovers by contract!"