Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  "Are your species transported to another world every 14 months as well?"

  "Well, no." AYU shook her head. "Some humans in other worlds are already capable of interstellar travel. Some creatures in some places are also like the red nautili. After we ate them from the inside, we could travel through space. As they have already been emptied, they did not need oxygen or food. Before we came to this world, we had already drifted in darkness for almost close to a hundred years."

  "Close to a hundred years." Lin Sanjiu was shocked. "These apocalyptic worlds already existed a hundred years ago?" However, she had second thoughts. If this "Souls" species can travel beyond a certain speed, they could have broken through the interdimensional barriers. If that was the case, time might not apply in that sense… As this involved Physics she did not understand, Lin Sanjiu did not think too deeply about it.

  Lin Sanjiu knew that it was a little odd that AYU was answering all her question cooperatively, however, she couldn't resist asking more questions, "Why does your species aim to travel continuously to another new world?"

  "Why do goats eat grass? Why do fishes swim? Why do humans struggle to survive the apocalypse? This goes down to the need for reproduction coded into our genes. Just like you humans, we want to reproduce. To look for the proper skin which would allow us to reproduce, we need to continue trying. Besides, if we don't die, each time we change our skins, it is equivalent to a reincarnation."

  "You mean, your species can't reproduce?"

  AYU's expression darkened as her gaze landed on the ch.i.p.s tube. "That's right. Each of the Souls you have seen came from our home world, Living Dead. I'm just a carrier. Over time, our numbers have dwindled. We never had any new births. You kill five Souls today, there will be five less of us. This is why I'm having this discussion with you. We don't have any great animosity between us. There is no reason for us to fight and hurt each other."

  "Oh? Then, what do you suggest?"

  "You still have friends in Area R, right? Our chemical hormones can cause serious damage to their brains if they're stuck in that comatose state… I think it is worthwhile exchanging their lives for a single Soul and a peace of mind. Don't you think so?" AYU even added jokingly, "Other than our skins, we have nothing, so we can't compensate you for the injuries we inflicted."

  Meanwhile, the two people behind her and that half-melted Redhead Ol' Jack did not say a word. They seemed to trust AYU to handle matters.

  Lin Sanjiu felt a little overwhelmed by the amount of information that she had just received. It even made it a little hard for her to contemplate. Finally, she nodded her head. They were only a few hours from the estimated arrival time. In any case, her priority was to rescue the people in Area R from the hands of this Souls. She had time to slowly consider this issue in the future.

  AYU was true to her words. After a few hours, as the airship slowly started to descend, she got the two men to wake the remaining passengers.

  Though Lin Sanjiu had her misgivings, she couldn't help feeling a little relieved when she saw Walter standing up while he rubbed his eyes and Jade leaping up when she woke up and saw the two men. The other passengers were ignorant of the fact that they had just escaped being eviscerated. They were even grumbling that their sleep was uncomfortable.

  "Okay, you should hand that Soul to us now."

  After most of the passengers left, AYU said smiling at Lin Sanjiu. Walter and Jade Zhang stood beside Lin Sanjiu as if to protect her. They followed her closely and stared at AYU and her comrades with guarded expressions. Even though they couldn't see the meat nest and Redhead Ol' Jack, they apparently found it weird that once they were woken up the airship was already descending.

  To be honest, Lin Sanjiu wasn't sure what she should do.

  She wasn't willing to just hand over the Soul to them. It was proof of the Souls' existence. However, she didn't want to get involved with their species either. After all, once they wore and adapt to their skins, they would look no different from other real humans. Even if she wasn't afraid that the Souls would send their people to harass and ambush her, she had to be considerate of her friends.

  Lin Sanjiu was about to hand over the tube with some reluctance. But when AYU reached out for it, she suddenly pulled her hand back and narrowed her eyes.

  "You said too much just now. I forgot to ask you one more thing," Lin Sanjiu eyed AYU as her fingers grew cold. "Why did you make the passengers in Area R unconscious?"

  AYU's mouth opened and then closed. She didn't make a single sound.

  "After you gave birth to the first batch of souls, Jade discovered that you were pregnant once again," Lin Sanjiu hoped that she had made a mistake, however, the hairs on her back were standing. "This means you didn't just bring nine Souls with you… Before you looked for me in the nest, you made the other passengers in Area R unconscious."

  A person behind Lin Sanjiu moved a little. Before anything happened, Lin Sanjiu's wings suddenly spread open and defended its owner like a beast.

  "There are Souls and then, there are ready-to-use skin pouches," Lin Sanjiu's eyes and throat were uncomfortably dry. "Those people in Area R have already been eviscerated, right?"

  After she said that, she felt someone knocking her wings gently from behind. Lin Sanjiu turned her body slowly. Jade Zhang looked at her expressionlessly. Her usually comical hair curls were now sticking tightly to her head. It made her look unnatural.

  Walter was different. The teenager with dark blonde hair acted just as lively as before. His expression and movements were almost similar to his real person.

  "We were buying time so that they could act more naturally with their new skins," Walter—or rather the creature wearing Walter's skin—said with a smile, "But, you found out anyway."

  Lin Sanjiu felt a little nauseated.

  She did not know how the Souls removed the innards of the humans they inhabited, but it must be rare for one of them to adapt and maneuver their new body so quickly.

  "Walter" extended one of his hands to her and smiled once again, "Hi, I'm the queen of my species. It is nice to wear you today."

  Chapter 313 - The Distinct Differences Of Being The Souls Queen

  The ability to create hallucinations is extremely convenient.

  In the eyes of the exhausted young crewman, the condition of the airship's cargo hold probably looked the same as before. To him, the steel shelves have not been destroyed by Lin Sanjiu's skeletal wings. There were probably also no dents and holes on the floor. Consequently, without even batting an eye, he slammed the door of the cargo hold shut once all the passengers walked out of the airship.

  The next second, the airship, the size of the town center, made a thunderous sound, spat out a strong gust of air current, and lifted off. It took quite a few minutes before the airship gradually disappeared into the distance.

  When it had totally disappeared from the sky, the seawater that was displaced by the air current it created rushed back with a roar. The seawater created a high wall of almost ten thousand tons. Then, it crashed down on the surface of the ocean near a cliff islet with a terrifying speed. The surface of the ocean rippled. Even though this mini tsunami did not touch the cliff islet, the strong current of wind it generated created waves which rained down on the cliff as well as Lin Sanjiu and the other "passengers".

  That young crewman must have known that the waves would make the cliff wet, so he naturally didn't think to remind the passengers that they would need to look out for the seawater.

  Even though her clothes were thoroughly soaked, she could feel the tinge of pain as the seawater crashed down on her. After she wiped the water from her face, Lin Sanjiu felt slightly relieved.

  At least, these creatures were isolated from other people, being in the middle of the ocean with her.

  "Is this the transfer point?" Walter—Lin Sanjiu had habitually associated the person with this name—looked around. Lin Sanjiu couldn't tell if he was praising or mocking the place when he said, "Things seem di
sorderly here, but this world is actually quite well-organized."

  Lin Sanjiu pursed her lips. She neither said a word nor move.

  She felt uncomfortable just looking at Walter's smile another second longer.

  In the short one minute interaction with the Souls Queen, Lin Sanjiu, as a human, already noticed that the woman did not understand the meaning of a smile.

  The Souls Queen had been smiling non-stop.

  Even as the seawater covered and soaked her, her smile remained. As a result, that gentle, light-hearted smile gradually became strangely empty and out-of-place.

  "I see. You, humans, don't like having water on your faces," Soulsqn 1 concluded after she examined Lin Sanjiu. However, she continued lifting the corners of her lips. Then, she raised her hand. The other Souls behind her immediately wiped the water off their faces.

  "Why are they imitating human behavior?"

  After suppressing the uneasiness she felt, Lin Sanjiu scanned her surroundings. This cliff islet which had been used as a transfer point was not very large. The surface of the cliff wasn't leveled and there were a few dark green plants growing between the cracks of the rocks. There was a small wooden hut at the far end of the cliff islet. Lin Sanjiu didn't know what it was for. Due to the humid environment, there were mildew and layers of fungi growing on the wooden walls.

  Lin Sanjiu tried her best to remember what she could see in her mind. Using her higher consciousness, she could tell that everything she saw now was real. She couldn't tell if it would remain the same, though. After all, her opponent was the queen of an entire species. Lin Sanjiu certainly wouldn't make the assumption that the combat ability of the queen was on the same level as AYU's.

  Soulsqn didn't seem to be in a hurry to wear Lin Sanjiu. In fact, she showed an extraordinary level of interest regarding this particular "skin".

  "Ever since our red nautili shell had been defeated, we had been hibernating and recovering." Soulsqn tilted her head as she looked at the pair of wings on Lin Sanjiu's back. Suddenly, she commented, "But after all this time, this is my first time seeing a human that can alter her own body and develop such a powerful biological weapon. You are a growth-type, plus you have hypervariable genes…"

  "Hypervariable genes." Lin Sanjiu didn't expect that Soulsqn could make such an accurate judgment in such a short time.

  Even though the smile on her face did not change, her voice suddenly quivered, as if to express her excitement. "Do you know what this means? After I eat your innards, I might be able to replicate the method you use to develop these skeletal wings to create a reproductive system for us, Souls. Ah, this human pouch is simply perfect."

  After she said that, she paused for a moment. AYU, standing behind her, immediately lowered her head as if she heard something, "Thank you for the compliment, my queen."

  Soulsqn wasn't having a conversation with Lin Sanjiu, rather, it was more like she was talking to herself. Even though Lin Sanjiu did not reply, she did not seem to mind. "To top that off, ever since you came to this world, you have been interacting with our kind… According to you humans, this should be called fate, right?"

  "Wait, how did you—" Lin Sanjiu was stunned.

  "Are you going to ask me what happened to you before you boarded the airship? Or do you want to ask me why I know all that?" Soulsqn looked at Lin Sanjiu through Walter's eyes.

  "Both."

  "Oh, so you still haven't figured things out. One of us cheated a book from you. The mission I gave to that Soul was to gather Special Items from humans. Somehow, that book was a little weird. It activated automatically. It forced him to crawl out from his own skin pouch… Then, you met that kid, Sajee."

  For some reasons, Soulsqn intentionally left out some details when she explained Lin Sanjiu's predicament to this point, instead, she turned to look at the kinspeople behind her. Other than that Redhead Ol' Jack, her other kinspeople looked like a group of normal humans.

  "The reason I know all this is because I'm the queen. I know the physical location and condition of every single Soul, and whether they are alive or dead. I know all that," Soulsqn said as she smiled.

  When Lin Sanjiu realized that one of the shadows was that strange-looking Redhead Ol' Jack, instinctively, her body reacted faster than her brain in response to the situation. Her muscles trembled due to her sudden burst, she kicked herself forward with her legs. As her body leaned forward, she aimed her wings ahead of her, using the momentum of her movement. Before Soulsqn could react, the sharp spines on Lin Sanjiu's wings had already pierced through Redhead Ol' Jack.

  There was a screech. A piece of flesh with stumpy limbs crawled out from the Redhead Ol' Jack's body. It was one size larger than it was before. It leaped into AYU's arms. While Redhead Ol' Jack's corpse hung from her wings, Lin Sanjiu swung her bone and flung the other black shadow far away. That seemed to be the nameless man.

  Even though Lin Sanjiu had temporarily defeated two of her opponents, Soulsqn's attack had almost reached her. Lin Sanjiu did a forward flip in mid-air, pulled back her arms, and let her wings fully extended. Then, she landed on the wet ground of the cliff islet once more, in a less than glamorous way. However, Lin Sanjiu had achieved her goal with that attack.

  Jade Zhang took a deep breath in Lin Sanjiu's arm. "Ah," Jade let out a heave of relief after realizing that she was still alive.

  "That scared... scared me. So, she knew…" her exposed skin, outside her dress, was whiter than usual. There wasn't any bit of color. It was also cool to touch. However, when Lin Sanjiu squeezed her wrist, that strong pulse explained everything.

  Her pink lipstick on lips had been washed away by the seawater, revealing her pale lips. Her whole body was shivering either from being cold or because of her fright.

  "You didn't die!" Lin Sanjiu's heart pounded twice, "Why? Why didn't you save—"

  "I nearly died!" Jade Zhang suddenly yelled out. The next second, her voice became feeble as if she had lost all the energy in her body. She gestured to Lin Sanjiu, "When I returned to Area R, it was already late. I thought I could just pretend to be them and fake it till I could escape, but…"

  "But, you didn't know that I had known all along?" Soulsqn walked slowly toward them. It was only then that Lin Sanjiu realized what had attacked her from behind.

  The cliff islet acted as if it was satisfied with this group of visitors. The part of the cliff that Lin Sanjiu had been standing at had already been crushed and misshapen and squished into the cracked which opened beneath it. If Lin Sanjiu was a little slower, Jade and herself would have been crushed in the same manner. Of course, even if Lin Sanjiu's body had been crushed beyond recognition, Soulsqn could still wear her body.

  "You are quite astute and lucky." Soulsqn nodded at Jade Zhang praisingly, "When you killed that Soul that was supposed to wear you, I didn't have the time to deal with you. Thinking back, this is quite meaningful… After all, a human pouch that is smarter is better than one that is stupid. It is a little strange if you think about it. Since the person's brain would be consumed, you would think that it is just a layer of skin and that it shouldn't make a difference."

  Lin Sanjiu instantly understood what Soulsqn meant.

  If Jade Zhang had created some sort of disturbance on the airship and attracted other humans, it would create unnecessary complications. Soulsqn had intentionally allowed Jade Zhang to pose as one of them so that she could lure her to get off the airship. Then, she wanted the Soul in Redhead Ol' Jack's body to consume Jade—

  Lin Sanjiu's turned her gaze to that disgusting thing in AYU's arms.

  Even though Lin Sanjiu already knew that the Souls were a highly intelligent species, perhaps because of their external appearance, she didn't really take them seriously. It was only at this moment that Lin Sanjiu truly witnessed for herself that the intelligence of this species could match that of any human.

  Jade's cold fingers held Lin Sanjiu's elbow as she blurted anxiously, "What should we do now?"

  "My suggesti
on is that both of you should even give up struggling," Soulsqn's smile looked as if it had been carved into her muscle. She lifted one hand and a large wave grew from behind the cliff. A strong current of water struck Lin Sanjiu. Both Jade and Lin Sanjiu could not react in time and they were slammed to the ground. However, the huge wave avoided Soulsqn as if it had eyes and splashed lightly against Walter's trousers.

  "I'm different from my kinspeople. They can only create hallucinations. I can create realities." Instead of using the Souls Queen or Queen of Souls everywhere, I've simplified it to this name.

  Chapter 314 - Resolution Comes With Old Age

  After all the battles she had experienced, this current battle made her feel the most fl.u.s.tered. She would even describe it as exasperating.

  "It's me!" Lin Sanjiu couldn't help yelling out when as she raised her wings horizontally to block a flurry of dancing Chinese characters. "Look carefully! Soulsqn is over there!"

  This time there weren't as many Chinese characters. As they tumbled, Lin Sanjiu only recognized the character "Adhere". That character hit her skeletal wings. Just as she uttered "shit" inwardly, her wings sunk downward. It was as if it had suddenly be burdened by a tonne of weights. Shortly after, it froze in the air.

  Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and tried to move her wings with all her strength. Her wings wavered a bit and suddenly stopped moving altogether. Just like the meaning of the character that Jade had aimed at her, her wings were now stuck. Two other Chinese characters struck her and were immediately activated. The Chinese character for "Soft" struck her bones and that feeling coursed through Lin Sanjiu's body. Before she could react, her leg suddenly gave way under her. She fell with a thud, half kneeling on the rocky floor. She could not feel any energy in her body.

  The other character hit her and was activated next was "Fat".

  Even though Lin Sanjiu knew that her body was still powerful and that she still had her streamline figure, she couldn't help feeling like she had suddenly gained many pounds. She felt heavy and clumsy. Just as she was trying to stand up, the difficulty of this task suddenly increased by countless folds. Both her knees trembled badly as it supported her body which felt extremely heavy. She even had to rest a few seconds. She felt as if her body was wrapped by layers and layers of fat making it very hard for her to breath. She had to catch her breath before she could even speak, let alone fight.