by N. Heller
Perhaps, after the "milk" had evaporated into the air, these people would slowly wake up, but Lin Sanjiu didn't plan to wait for them to wake up. She placed the 30 to 40 people she rescued on the ground outside the prison. After doing that, she found some water from her card deck and fed some to each person. Afterward, she stepped across the small spaces between each of the unconscious people like a ballerina and headed further into the narrow rocky ravine with some effort.
After walking for two hours in the direction where the light seemed brighter and where the path seemed to lead upslope, Lin Sanjiu reached a dead end. No matter how reluctant she was, the only way out seemed to be to take the harsher and darker path in front of her which seemed just to get narrower and narrower.
Of all the "routes" Lin Sanjiu had journeyed through, this was certainly the most torturous. A few thousand meters below sea level, a large fissure somehow appeared in the rock stratum, creating a small tiny crack. Lin Sanjiu didn't know how long she had been walking and struggling to move forward through this harrowingly narrow space which was certainly tight enough to make someone claustrophobic.
In the beginning, she was still feeling puzzled and a little worried about her situation. However, after walking for some time, the only thing that occupied her mind was her intense hatred for her pair of skeletal wings. A few knocks and scr.a.p.es were nothing, but there were parts of the path so narrow that it was almost impossible for her large skeletal wings to pass through. Lin Sanjiu had to grit her teeth and endure the pain of stretching out her wings length-wise, which had the same effect as forcefully bending one of her four limbs into an impossible angle. Sometimes, she even had to sort of stack her wings together. Lin Sanjiu really did not know how she squeezed through those portions. Luckily, no one could hear her screams of pain in this deep ravine.
Just when she thought that she would just personally tear off her own wings and throw them away. The rock walls receded and gradually the gap between the rock walls grew wider. Soon, the path became brighter and wider. The gradient of the path also started to increase. Lin Sanjiu climbed for a few hours using both her arms and feet. Finally, she found herself on the surface level again.
When a cacophony of humans voices, the engine sounds from the occasional airship flying across the sky, some loud noises generated by something unknown, and the other countless noises and sounds entered her ears, Lin Sanjiu almost suspected for a second that she had crawled out from hell and returned to the human world.
Two large massive moons hung over countless poorly maintained hundred-stories skyscr.a.p.ers. The haphazard layers of power lines blocked their full view. The noise of the bustling city filled every lit street and dim corner.
Lin Sanjiu seemed to still be in the Cyber District.
Despite the large big fissure, the people seemed unfazed that there was an abyss right in the middle of their road. They treated it as something very common. The spot where Lin Sanjiu climbed up from was only surrounded by a yellow barricade tape which warned people about the potential fall. When she came out from, she was bleeding from the many scr.a.p.es she gotten from the sharp edges of the rocks. Her face and limbs were covered with dust and soil and her whole body ached. Yet, no one even gave her a second look.
Enduring her aches, Lin Sanjiu took out her map.
"This is strange? How did you get back here?" Mrs. Manas commented from Lin Sanjiu's mind after looking at the map for some time.
Even though she was unfamiliar with Red Nautilus, she managed to figure out where she was very quickly. This long ravine which spanned across more than half the Cyber District was named "Grand Canyon". It was like a scar on the map. One side of the Grand Canyon was just wastelands, while Lin Sanjiu was on the side which was near the business center. The first time she saw this Grand Canyon was actually from the window of that dead appraiser's house.
However, there was a large distance between Smiling Mermaid's base and this Grand Canyon. Lin Sanjiu couldn't figure out how she could end up at the bottom of this Grand Canyon. After losing [A Girl's Sorrow], Lin Sanjiu couldn't explain the series of subsequent events logically.
Irritated, Lin Sanjiu rubbed her map once but quickly stopped because she remembered the number of red crystals she spent on it. "I don't know," she replied moodily, "But, the people, or whatever, which put me in this situation should count their lucky stars today. I'm going to buy an airship ticket now."
Even though Lin Sanjiu was kind, she wasn't stupid. When a dozen medium crystals fell from one of the people whom she was carrying from the fleshy prison, Lin Sanjiu knew that she had solved her airship ticket problem.
Although she got the money for her ticket in an integrity-compromised manner, Mrs. Manas, who usually had a higher moral bar, condoned her action. After all, the most important resources to those comatose people might be food and water rather than red crystals.
"But… Are you just going to ignore the pocket dimension that is swallowing up Red Nautilus?" Mrs. Manas wasn't as forgiving about this issue.
"I can't handle that," Lin Sanjiu admitted, "But, where is that pocket dimension?"
"Obviously, you know, it's at Smiling Mermaid's—"
"Logically speaking, I should be standing in Smiling Mermaid's base," Lin Sanjiu interrupted Mrs. Manas, "But, I woke up here."
Mrs. Manas kept quiet for a while before whispering, "Is it possible that the pocket dimension had already swallowed up this area?"
"It doesn't look any different than before."
"But, Sajee said—" Mrs. Manas was a little stunned. She stopped before she finished her sentence.
Lin Sanjiu smiled humorlessly, "That's right. It is all Sajee's one-sided words. We entered the pocket dimension with her but I didn't see her anywhere in that prison."
The strange-looking girl definitely hid something from Lin Sanjiu and the others.
"When I meet Reno and the others, I will get help from the Progressor Alliance to investigate Sajee," Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself quietly as she walked toward the airship registration point, "Before I find that woman, I can only hope that the elites in Red Nautilus are smart enough not to let things escalate out of control."
Lin Sanjiu thought that it was a decent plan until she entered the busy airship registration point and stood before the information screen for a long time. She clearly remembered that Smiling Mermaid had already received information about the "parasitic" expanding pocket dimension. However, when she read the news, "Cyber Current Affairs", on the information screen, she didn't see any coverage about that matter. There was only news like "CLASH had successfully returned from an A-level world", "12 new apocalyptic worlds had been entered into the Central Information System, "Someone is offering to buy plant-related Special Items at high prices".
"What's going on…" Lin Sanjiu frowned but she couldn't come up with an answer. She shook her head and walked toward the ticket counter, joining the moving crowd.
After the tall woman with skeletal wings left, the young ticket counter representative looked down at her electronic information screen and started browsing the bidding prices for visas available for four months later. For the D-level world that she was targeting, the price she bid was indeed too low. Just when she was about to sigh and ponder about what she could do next, she sensed that someone was standing in front of the ticket counter.
"Hello," the young representative looked up and flashed her business smile, following which, she found her words stuck in her throat.
The woman standing in front of her had eyes like two deep soulless wells and had no sclera. Even though she had seen many different people with all sort of strange appearances and conditions, this woman had a sort of unique, non-human vibe. The young customer representative shuddered unintentionally.
The woman who was wearing a thick scarf seemed to realize her own abnormality. She looked at her reflection in the silver counter desk before looking up again. This time, her sclera suddenly appeared. It was as if she had tried her best to compres
s her pupils to create some sclera. She blinked vigorously before smiling.
"Where is that Big Sister with skeletal wings heading? I want a ticket to the same place."
Chapter 305 - Area R
When Lin Sanjiu stepped through the doors of A-17 berth's lounge, she saw a long walkway made of many small pebbles and painted yellow. The walkway felt bumpy and it made people worried if they would just slip on one of those pebbles and fall from a few hundred meters. After all, there wasn't any sort of safety handrail on the two sides of the walkway. Looking down from the walkway, Lin Sanjiu could see the pedestrians on the ground. They looked like black ants walking slowly.
At this height, one could see the mid-section of the skyscr.a.p.ers which loomed over the Cyber District. Light streamed out from the windows of the grayish-black buildings which seemed to reach into the night sky… as if they would just continue upward without an end. Lin Sanjiu couldn't help wondering what sort of people would actually live at the top of these buildings.
There were two rows of small guiding light at both sides of the walkway. The small white light only lit the walkway and disappeared after a few hundred meters as if they were swallowed by the darkness at the end of the walkway. A large floating monstrous vehicle was the airship she was going to board. Lin Sanjiu stopped and took a few steps backward. She tilted her head and observed the "airship".
As a person from Earth, the appearance of this airship, as well as the various man-made infrastructures in Red Nautilus, was beyond her imagination. If she didn't know what this thing was beforehand, there was no way Lin Sanjiu would even associate it with a transportation vehicle.
Looking from a distance, the steel upper deck of the airship was at least a several hectares wide. It was as if someone had plucked up a town square and planted it in mid-air. Just as she thought of this, she suddenly heard soft footsteps behind her. Before the person behind hurried her to move, she picked up her pace and walked toward the airship.
The walkway was too narrow for two passengers to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. It was almost like walking a balancing beam at high altitude. Lin Sanjiu stopped looking and quickly entered the area below the steel deck.
Lin Sanjiu had no idea where the main body of the airship was or what it looked like. Other than the large upper deck, she could only see this extremely large "container" which hung from the belly of the airship. It was a metallic container sealed with layers of steel. Up close, she couldn't even see the edges of the container. White light seeped from the gap between one of the steel layers. Just as she reached the entrance, an exhausted-looking young man in a work uniform shouted at her without even looking up, "Area R is on your left. It is just an empty space. The door is opened so just find a spot and sit down."
Lin Sanjiu wanted to pretend as though she was an experienced traveler. She entered the airship without saying a word. But, inevitably, she got into a bit of a trouble with her skeletal wings. When she bent forward, she did not control the sharp spines at the tip of her wings properly so she nearly sliced the young man's face in half. Thankfully, she managed to board the airship without hurting anyone.
The young man stared at her from behind, and his face was pale. Then, he suddenly shouted as if he had forgotten something, "Be careful! If you damage our goods, you'll have to pay for them!"
By then, Lin Sanjiu had already walked to the door of Area R. When she heard his warning, she sighed silently.
"No one told you to buy the cheapest ticket," Mrs. Manas mumbled.
After quietly cursing her skeletal wings another time, she tucked them tightly behind her back and squeezed through the door of Area R cautiously. Area R was filled with steel good containers. They were arranged so that they occupied every inch of space all the way to the ceiling. Area R was dimly lit as there were only fluorescent lights hanging above the corridors.
Sometimes, after all the cargo had been moved into the airship, there would be some empty space in Area R. The tickets for a spot in Area R were half the price of a normal ticket. However, no food and drinks were provided onboard with this ticket and there weren't any proper seats. Sometimes, these passengers couldn't even stretch their legs so they can also lean against the goods container. When Lin Sanjiu spotted this ticket, she was pleasantly surprised but now she couldn't help feeling some regret.
At most, Area R was only about 30 square meters. It was extremely small compared to the size of the entire airship. Yet, the transportation provider wouldn't even miss out on earning money from this small space. Lin Sanjiu didn't know if she should consider herself lucky. When she entered the space, she saw around five people sitting in a corner. When they spotted her wings, almost all of them showed an unwelcoming expression.
Despite that, Lin Sanjiu shamelessly found a spot. She stood with her arms crossed. Even though she took up quite a large space, no one said anything in the end. Perhaps, it was because she looked very fierce when she showed a stoic, expressionless face.
At first glance, Lin Sanjiu almost mistook that woman for Sajee. However, when she looked carefully, the woman's appearance was completely different from Sajee. It was apparent from the woman's hair color, features, height, and frame that they were two very different people. Lin Sanjiu nearly mistook that woman as Sajee only because that woman had similar eyes. It was as if her pupils were going to consume her whole eyes and she was wearing a thick scarf around her neck.
The stranger's lip curled slightly as though she had noticed Lin Sanjiu's gaze. Despite her astonishment, Lin Sanjiu did not show any hints of her emotions on her face. She maintained the same expressionless face.
Since it was just a 30 square meters space, the transport provider couldn't sell that many tickets anyway. When the tenth person walked into Area R, the young exhausted ship crew also walked to the entrance of Area R.
"Hey everybody. Listen up. This portion of the journey will last five days. You will have to alight when we reach the harbor and board another airship," he said absent-mindedly as he supported himself against the door frame with one hand, "If you follow the corridor to the end, you will find the toilet. Before we fly, the entrance where you had entered from would be locked. You can move around along the corridors but you better stay within Area R. Oh, it doesn't really matter, but you guys won't be able to access the cargo area. Don't touch our things and don't fight. Otherwise, we have people who will throw you off our ship."
He didn't even bother to look at the passengers' reaction. After he uttered the last word, he turned and walked away. Not long after, they heard a click sound of a metal mechanism as the entrance into the airship was shut.
The ten strangers stuck in a small space tried to maintain the same distance between each other. Area R fell silent. This silence was quickly drowned by the rumbling from the airship's engine. Though the metallic airship looked sturdy, it didn't seem very stable when it was taking off. The entire body of the airship vibrated for quite a while. When the airship finally stabilized and started gliding smoothly, the passengers shifted and tried to look for a more comfortable spot. Some of them sat cross-legged and others sat with their legs outstretched. A middle-aged brunette walked past Lin Sanjiu and entered the corridor, leaving Area R.
Lin Sanjiu finally found some time to speak with Mrs. Manas and raise her doubts.
"Was I dreaming then? Or is that just an illusion?" Lin Sanjiu still felt a little confused when she recalled that realistic world she was in. "It's too realistic. If it weren't for those suspicious signs, it would seem like a completely different reality… In comparison, this strange airship, Red Nautilus or whatever is more like a dream."
"I'm not sure either…" Mrs. Manas replied, "This is my first time encountering such a situation too. But, when you saw Zhu Mei's eyes and those blue banknotes… They were all done by me. I couldn't wake you up so I created some imagery within their dream… If I didn't do that, I guess you'd be back in your hometown leading a normal, average life."
Shocked by this revelation, Lin San
jiu shuddered. "So that's the reason! The others must be entrapped by their illusions so they just won't wake up…"
If she didn't have Mrs. Manas, Lin Sanjiu knew that she would end up in the same fate as the others in a few months' time, lying with the others in a near-death state.
"How did you discover that something was wrong?" she asked in her mind. Lin Sanjiu's expression was as unchanging as ever. She looked as though she was just resting rather than conversing with someone.
"You can consider yourself lucky," Mrs. Manas's tone relaxed a little. "The white vapor made you think of your old hometown and past life so it was normal for you. In the beginning, I was confused so I thought I was you. After staying in your body for so many days… But, quickly, I realized that we had two separate consciousness. You seemed oblivious to my presence. That's why I woke up first and discovered my own existence. This was how I realized that something was wrong."
Although it was a little difficult to comprehend, Lin Sanjiu did experience the same frightening alternate reality so she quickly understood. At the same time, she couldn't help feeling a little scared, thinking about it in retrospect.
"You're right. If I didn't dream about my previous life, but about the apocalyptic worlds… Fighting, surviving and finding visas… neither of us would even notice anything wrong. If that was the case, I would just continue sleeping..."
Her own words stunned her. A fleeting thought struck her like a lightning bolt and her face slowly turned pale.
"You mean…" Mrs. Manas stammered.
"Was I really awake before I dreamed about my hometown and my past life?" Lin Sanjiu questioned herself inwardly—almost as if she was trying to force herself to find that answer.