by N. Heller
After briefing the team, Porcelain Vase pulled the faun aside and spoke to him quietly. After that, he bid farewell to the freelancers and left. Somehow, once he left, the five posthumans started to size each other up.
Sajee was the first to jump beside Lin Sanjiu.
"Big Sister, let me follow you." Without knowing Lin Sanjiu's name, Sajee acted as if she was very close with Lin Sanjiu. She looked over at Lin Sanjiu with her pupils which seemed on the verge of dilating into nothingness, "Let's stick together—us girls."
Sometimes, the way she phrased her words was a little weird.
However, it was a fact that they were the only two women on the team—perhaps because women didn't usually follow random strangers. The remaining posthumans on the team were all male. One of them was an older man whose skin was dull red. He was wearing a feathered warbonnet. He was half n.a.k.e.d and only wore only a grass skirt. His outfit seemed to mimic that of a Paleoindian. The next person looked even weirder. Half his body was clearly human and the other half had already become old tree barks. Supposedly, during the apocalypse in his world, he was just about to become a duoluozhong when he evolved. As a result, he retained his current appearance. The last young man looked the most normal among the whole group, even compared to Lin Sanjiu.
"Are you all ready?" Faun looked around while his head was still well-hidden in his hood. None of them could see his face and no one knew how he could keep his face hidden while looking at the outside world. "Let's go."
After he said that, he took one step toward the direction of the yellow sign. His hoof landed soundlessly on a patch of wild grass.
The ragtag team of posthumans did not know each other beforehand so they were still unfamiliar with each other. After Faun, who had unwittingly taken the team leader role, finished his sentence, the remaining posthumans followed him without saying a word—with the exception of Sajee, that skipped along speaking to Lin Sanjiu and trying to hold her hand.
Even though Lin Sanjiu was even-tempered when she wasn't in any sort of conflict, she didn't hold any qualms rejecting others. "We'll walk separately," she said blandly as she pulled her arm back and extended her pair of skeletal wings a little.
Her white skeletal wings extended swiftly and silently. Lin Sanjiu adjusted the angle of the spines on her wings such that the sharp ends were pointing outward. The sharp spines created a barrier between Lin Sanjiu and Sajee.
Sajee did not seem to mind Lin Sanjiu's action. Her pair of eyes which seemed constantly on the verge of turning fully black landed on the spines on Lin Sanjiu's wings. Sajee's smile did not change even one bit, as if it was a natural part of her face.
"Big Sister," even though she couldn't hold Lin Sanjiu's hand, she did not give up trying to walk as close to Lin Sanjiu as possible. After what Mrs. Manas told her before, Lin Sanjiu could clearly hear that Sajee was inhaling very deeply between her words.
"Don't you think it is a little weird?" Sajee asked.
Lin Sanjiu threw a glance at the pair of black l.u.s.terless eyes staring at her through her white skeletal wings guarding her shoulders.
As though she had received Lin Sanjiu's encouragement, Sajee immediately chirped excited, "It's like this. Smiling Mermaid has more than enough members. Why don't they get their own members to enter this pocket dimension? Isn't that more reliable?"
Lin Sanjiu frowned a little but she didn't think much about it.
Since this particular pocket dimension was unstable, that also implied that the risks were unpredictable. With so little known about it, naturally, the sensible thing to do was just to get some unimportant people to scout for more information first. Besides, although getting information about a pocket dimension was important, fundamentally, it was only of more significance in an unfamiliar apocalyptic world. Since everybody knew that there was a pocket dimension here, they could simply avoid it. There was actually no real necessity to find out more details about the pocket dimension.
However, Lin Sanjiu quickly understood why Sajee raised that question. While she thought about the question for a few seconds, the girl had already sneaked up from behind her. The girl's hand was almost about to reach her back.
"Oh gosh! Big Sister is so petty," she pouted. Following which, she took a deep breath as if she was inhaling a scent from Lin Sanjiu, "Well, I just have never seen those before."
Lin Sanjiu eyed her coldly but didn't warn the girl verbally.
Evidently, Sajee wasn't a girl that took any sort of verbal warning to heart.
The others looked once at the two girls and did not make any comments. They continued walking wordlessly. Among posthumans, it was common to just mind one's own business.
Apart from the noise they made, when someone accidentally kicked a pebble or when they were walking through the ruins, it was as if the only sound that remained in this vast land they were in was the sound of rustling grass as the wind bellowed. Cyber District was astonishingly large. When they looked back, it was as if the tall skyscr.a.p.ers belonged to another city.
After walking in this manner for a short time, the yellow sign gradually became clearer and clearer.
"Huh?" Faun stopped at the warning sign and tapped his hooves subconsciously.
Although he didn't specifically explain himself, the other posthumans more or less understood his reaction. Walking toward this boundary, they did not notice any hints of entering a pocket dimension. Seemingly, the boundary of the pocket dimension had shrunk this time.
"It is always better that it's shrinking rather than expanding, right?" the half-bark man said with a deep voice.
This was the first time that Lin Sanjiu heard someone speaking with such a low register. Hearing his voice made it feel as a person's innards would just sink down with that sound.
"Perhaps," Faun stared for a moment at the warning sign and turned to Lin Sanjiu. "You are the tallest here so you'll carry the sign."
Lin Sanjiu froze for a moment but didn't say anything. Anyway, she had more than enough strength. She immediately pulled out the warning sign from the ground and carried it over her shoulder; she did not convert it into her card.
"Alright, we'll start here. Be vigilant." Uncharacteristically, Faun continued with more words, "Each time the pocket dimension evolves, it can be completely different from the previous version so I don't have any point of reference for you guys. With that being said, we must not miss out any details regarding the pocket dimension."
Everyone became a little tense as they braced themselves. When they started moving again, they reduced their pace by quite a bit.
They continued walking for 20 to 30 minutes. Finally, all of them were at a loss.
"Where is the pocket dimension?" the old Paleoindian couldn't help asking.
Looking around them, they were still in the vast, desolated land under the early morning sky.
Chapter 299 - This “Fetus”
"Where is the pocket dimension hiding?"
Puzzled, the group of posthumans continued making a few rounds around the area. However, they were still unable to find any sign of the pocket dimension. The wild grass, gravel, and abandoned ruins were still exactly the same. No one spotted anything unusual.
Even though Faun was holding a pocket dimension detector, that had been mentioned by Reno and Rena, the small device remained silent throughout the journey. No matter how many times Faun restarted the device, it did make the beeping sounds which indicated that they were in a pocket dimension.
"Are we perhaps already in a pocket dimension? Maybe in this evolved version, the pocket dimension replicated the normal surroundings?"
After searching futilely for another 20 minutes, the man with half human skin and half tree bark finally raised a rather far-fetched possibility. His voice was as sonorous as before, it was so low that it made breathing a little harder for everyone.
"It isn't impossible," Faun muttered as he thought about the situation. Following which, he gestured to the team, "Let's try to see if we can walk
out of this vacant land… If we can't, it will prove that we are already in a pocket dimension."
This seemed to be the only feasible method now. Once again, the group of posthumans followed him and headed in the direction from where they came.
Even though it should come as no surprise, the team was somewhat astonished by the outcome. They managed to walk out of the vast empty piece of land without any hassle. They even walked past the area where the battles were previously. Just when everyone was at a loss as to what to do next, a Smiling Mermaid member who was on guard duty peeked out and looked at them, surprised, "Why are all of you out so fast?"
Faun stopped walking. He was stumped and didn't know how he should answer that question.
He was not the only one, the team of posthumans behind him was also dumbstruck. After all, they were given a mission to explore a pocket dimension. Now that they couldn't even find the pocket dimension, would that mean that they wouldn't get the reward of 80 big crystals?
"Is it possible that the pocket dimension has disappeared?" Lin Sanjiu whispered to Mrs. Manas. She couldn't help thinking about the reward that she might lose soon. She sighed inwardly to herself and looked at the people around her. As expected, the others were also frowning and seemed dispirited.
However, her gaze froze when she saw someone.
The only person whose expression seemed out of place was that strange Sajee.
At that moment, the ragtag team of posthumans led by Faun was on the narrow road at the entrance of the battlegrounds. Following the road and passing a guard post on the way, they would reach the Smiling Mermaid base which was quite some distance away if they continued upward on the path. Whereas the other direction led to the vast piece of desolate land which supposedly housed the pocket dimension.
As Faun didn't know what he should do at the moment. Everyone stood silently behind him without moving. Sajee was the only one who ran up ahead, standing at a spot slightly ahead of Faun. She seemed a little anxious as she looked around her and shuffled her feet against the ground.
Her actions created a constant, annoying scraping sound as the gravel on the ground rubbed against each other. The old Paleoindian couldn't tolerate it anymore, though he held back his anger, he finally shouted, "Stop shuffling!"
After he re-adjusted his tone, he looked back at the pair of dilated black pupils eyeing him, "Did you discover something?"
The smile which previously seemed plastered on her face had disappeared without a trace at some unknown time. Without that expression which made her seem a little more human, her eyes which looked like two black holes looked rather scary, as if two white eyeballs would just roll out from them.
No one knew if she was agitated or anxious, but Sajee firmly scrapped her shoes against the ground once more.
As the old Paleoindian scoffed angrily, Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt a chill down her spine.
Perhaps, the others didn't notice the minute detail, but she saw everything.
There was a thick layer of dirt covering the brick pavement that they were on. Each time Sajee shuffled her feet, the tips of her shoes would stir up some bits of dirt. There was indeed nothing unusual about this.
However, when those bits of dirt fell, they seemed to suddenly display the ability to defy the laws of gravity.
As a small bit of fine dirt left the tips of Sajee's shoes, they disappeared in midair without a trace, as if they had suddenly disintegrated. Lin Sanjiu suspected that her eyes were playing tricks on her. But after half a second, she noticed that the dirt landed at a spot about 10cm further from Sajee. It looked so natural that it was as if it should have landed there.
Lin Sanjiu wouldn't have noticed that slight abnormality if she didn't keep her eyes on Sajee as she had been guarding against that girl. Even now, the other people around her had not detected that aberration and were still having a discussion on the 80 big crystals.
Lin Sanjiu looked up and happened to find herself staring at a pair of tar-black pupils that were about to overtake the sclera around them.
"Do you know what's wrong here?" Lin Sanjiu asked with a serious tone after composing herself.
The old Paleoindian had asked a similar question just moments ago. Sajee suddenly laughed cheerfully. She didn't say anything but she stopped shuffling.
"I think there's something wrong with her," the old Paleoindian tapped his temple. "You probably won't get anything out of her," he said with a tone as if he shared the same adversary as Lin Sanjiu.
Sajee laughed again but she did not give Lin Sanjiu a reply. Instead, she turned to Faun and smiled, "Why don't you ask the guard if he noticed anything unusual?"
As she spoke, she gestured at the upslope path before them. However, her gesture was very strange. She did not stretch her arms, but she withdrew her elbow, like a chicken wing, and pointed at the guard post up ahead. Lin Sanjiu instantly realized that the girl intentionally avoided reaching out to the spot where the dirt had landed.
When Lin Sanjiu saw Faun nodding his head, and raising one of his hoofs to take a step forward, she got anxious. She shouted and grabbed Faun's cape. As the warning sign fell from her shoulder, Faun's hood was partially pulled down, revealing a delicate, handsome face with a puzzled expression.
"What... what's the matter?" He seemed very uncomfortable that people were looking at him. His fair skin rapidly turned red. He quickly put his hood back on, "Don't randomly grab my clothes!"
Evidently, he did not notice the abnormality.
Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at Sajee who was beaming, feeling an inexplicable bout of anger. Just when she was about to interrogate the girl in front of everyone, something caught her gaze. She gasped quietly along with the other people around her.
The yellow warning sign which had slipped off her shoulder landed on the ground, incidentally, at the boundary where the dirt disappeared. The yellow sign suddenly dissolved in mid-air. After half a second, it appeared at a spot half a meter away. However, there was an unfathomable gap between the warning sign's board and its handle. Yet, in a blink of an eye, the handle had reattached itself to the board, as if what everybody saw was just an illusion.
"What... what's going on?" Faun asked in confusion before looking at Lin Sanjiu. After two seconds, he quickly turned his head to Sajee as if he had also caught the gist of the matter.
"Miss Sajee, shouldn't you tell us what you know?" Lin Sanjiu asked coldly.
After she said that, other members of the team stepped forward surrounding Sajee, who started looking left and right at the people around her.
"Hey, why are all of you so serious?" Sajee looked at the posthumans surrounding her. Then, she looked behind. She scratched her hair and said, "I didn't expect this either. I mean, I heard a rumor once and now it seems like it is true."
She stuck her tongue out. The tip of her tongue was white and not pink. "Alright. Alright. I'll tell you guys. Let me ask you a question. What is a pocket dimension?" Sajee smiled.
There was total silence for one second. The young man, in a Zhongshan suit who looked the most normal among them, answered, "From what we currently know, it is a sort of apocalyptic world that failed to develop fully. For some unknown reasons, quite a few pocket dimensions adhere themselves to fully formed apocalyptic worlds, existing within them."
"That's right," Sajee opened up her arms as if she had already given them the answer, "See, you guys know this. Imagine a fetus that can't grow up. As it watches its brother grow up into a tall, strong youth, how could it simply accept its fate? Even if they don't want to resign to their fate, most of these 'fetus' can't do anything. However, this particular pocket dimension we found happens to be a little different. It is trying to imitate its 'brother', and it is slowly taking over its brother's territories…"
Ignoring the shell-shocked expressions of her listeners, Sajee continued with a grin, "We can consider ourselves lucky. The pocket dimension we entered is a Growth-type pocket dimension which had just awoken. Once it starts to supersede Re
d Nautilus, I really have no idea how it would impact the people affected by it… Huh? Why are you looking at me like that? Since there are Growth-type posthumans, naturally, there are also Growth-type apocalyptic worlds."
Chapter 300 - Superficial Transformation
"In other words, this pocket dimension is in a sort of state where it is constantly expanding…"
Aside from Lin Sanjiu, who was the tallest, and had her large skeletal wings behind her back, the remaining people were sitting in a circle on the ground. They were all frowning and crossing their arms. Sajee was sitting in the center of the circle though she didn't seem to be concerned that she was trapped. The girl looked around with her pair of tar-black eyes but no one knew what she was actually looking for.
The young man in a Zhongshan suit and a middle part hairstyle muttered slowly, "But, the way it expands is quite strange."
After some close observations, they realized that the boundary of the pocket dimension was no longer the spot where the warning sign landed. After a few of them grabbed and threw some sand trying to test the new boundary, they finally discovered how the pocket dimension was using them.
"No, there must be some logic to this," the old Paleoindian knitted his long brows. "We might not know how apocalyptic worlds are formed, and why they exist. However, according to the physics law of energy conservation, an apocalyptic world would require energy to develop. Since this pocket dimension exists with Red Nautilus, there probably isn't enough latent energy here for it to develop into an independent apocalyptic world. Therefore, it needs to acquire energy from external sources to expand."
The young man in a Zhongshan Suit looked as if he wanted to add something to the conversation. His lips moved but he finally let out a sigh instead. From their discussions, they had already reached a clear conclusion: each time something from within the pocket dimension crossed its boundary, it would allow the pocket dimension to expand in the same direction.