by N. Heller
"I know you guys are searching for me." Lin Sanjiu knew that when she didn't show any expression, she could look very domineering. "Who are you people?"
The man's eyes darted. He seemed to be judging his current situation. It didn't take much time. When Lin Sanjiu's wings swooshed open, the unlucky man immediately made a decision. "Hey, hey. Since you already know about it, I won't hide anything from you. We formed this team just for this mission. Two days ago we didn't even know each other."
"Mission?" Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes, "What mission?"
"It's like that… I will tell you everything, but don't make things difficult for me." The man sighed and was resigned to his predicament. "That day, I just wanted to go to the forum to search for some information. But, there was a commotion. I asked around and found out that someone had posted a mission. The person was offering a significant reward to look for a woman with skeletal wings."
After he said that, he looked at Lin Sanjiu hesitantly. "The requestor only provided the woman's height and added the detail that she had skeletal wings. He did not describe his target further. There wasn't any description about her appearance or ability type. The only other detail was that she was last seen in Seagral Square. As the reward was quite good, we felt that this mission wasn't as simple as it seemed. In the end, we formed an ad-hoc team and headed to Seagral Square."
"Who was the requestor?"
"I don't know. People use pseudonyms in the forum! The only thing I know is that we will get the reward once we bring the target to the designated location."
Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling a little distracted from the main conversation, "When you mentioned forum, are you talking about Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum?"
"Obviously, there is no other forum, is there?" After saying that, the man realized he wasn't showing the best attitude. He eyed Lin Sanjiu cautiously and realized that she didn't seem to mind. He let out a sigh of relief.
"This forum…" Lin Sanjiu frowned and thought for a while. Then, she asked, "What sort of place is it? What can you do there?"
After she asked that question, the man suddenly looked at her as if he suddenly understood her situation better. "You are not a resident of the Twelve Worlds Centrum. Um... um. It is alright. There is a first time for everyone. Just as its name implies, the forum is a place where people gather information about apocalyptic worlds. You can search and collate the information you need. You can also make announcements, post missions, etc. In summary, you can do a lot there."
Lin Sanjiu was dumbfounded by the description as she recalled the repetitive hollow Mokugyo sounds she had heard in the past.
"Look. I came here to look for you after accepting the mission. I didn't expect that it was beyond my capabilities and I would end up captured by you instead." It seemed like this wasn't the first time this man had ended up in such a situation. After he observed Lin Sanjiu's reaction, he quickly changed his attitude, "We all just want to survive. We don't have to be merciless… Look. I can bring you to Mokugyo Forum. If you are unsure about anything, you can just ask me. You can treat it as my form of apology to you, okay?"
Even though the woman confronting him looked powerful, it was apparent that this was her first time here in Red Nautilus. To him, that information was just common knowledge but for someone foreign to this place, it took on a whole other meaning.
"You plan to bring me to the place where you received your mission?" Lin Sanjiu let out a dry laugh after eyeing him. "Do you think I'm stupid?"
"Oh god," the man remarked. He quickly explained, "You can change your appearance. You can even hide your wings. You just need the right Special Items! Besides, the most dangerous place is also the safest. The person that posted that message would never suspect that you would be right there at the forum…"
"What he said makes sense," Lin Sanji muttered to herself.
A matter had been troubling her these few days and she didn't know what to do about it. But something the man said about the forum caught her attention. If she was lucky, she might be able to solve that problem. After contemplating, she finally spoke, "Is this forum very popular? Is it the first place people think of when they want to get information?"
"Of course!" the man in the red jacket nodded profusely.
"But… I don't have any Special Items that can change my appearance."
"That's nothing. There is a shop on the third floor of Seagral Square. They specialize in selling single-use 'masks' that last for an hour. After you wear that, I can guarantee you that not even your parents will recognize you."
"Oh," Lin Sanjiu replied and nodded as she lamented inwardly about the value of information. If the man didn't say that, she would never know...
After the man had already shown his hand, he didn't receive a proper answer so he was a little unsure if it worked. He was only 1.75m. As he watched the woman looking down at him, his heart raced nervously. Surprisingly, the other party suddenly smiled and immediately looked very friendly.
"I still haven't got your name. What's your name?"
"My... my hometown is a little backward. I'm Honeysuckle," the man in the red jacket disliked that question but he answered her.
The next second, the woman in front of him suddenly bent over. Following which, he felt someone grip his ankle.
His world spun upside down and all his blood rushed to his head.
"Ahhh!" Honeysuckle screamed in horror as Lin Sanjiu grabbed him by his ankle and laughed.
"I'm sorry. I don't have any money so I need to borrow some from you."
She shook him violently and the man's red crystals fell noisily to the floor.
Chapter 323 - The Journey To The Encyclopedic Forum 1
At the Northwest corner, on the third floor of Seagral Square, one would find a small door covered with rust after climbing through multiple pipes and climbing up many flights of stairs. The rust was so bad that no one could tell its original color. The "Under Maintenance" sign hanging from the door handle was covered with such a thick layer of dust that it was almost difficult to read the words on the sign.
A tall, handsome young man with black hair wearing a long coat signaled to the people behind him with a nod. A girl immediately ran up and held the handle. The door made a long creak as if it had not been opened for a long time as the door opened stiffly.
The dust on the part of the handle which had been touched did not move or change a little. It was as if it had been glued there. When another girl saw that the door had opened, she crept to the door and peeked behind it suspiciously. The girl that opened the door had two ponytails. Meanwhile, the other girl peeking through the door looked like her sister. They seemed to be about the same age and both of them were very skinny. Their arms were so skinny that they looked like they would break anytime, they looked as if they had not eaten for days.
When she took the first step forward, she tugged the black rope in her hand. Oddly, though she looked like she did not have even a hint of muscle, the young man was tugged forward by the momentum. Underneath his coat, the black rope was tied to him. He had no choice but to follow quickly behind her. Behind the door was a windowless tubular corridor. The tasteless wallpaper that covered the corridor was in tatters. The corridor was so quiet that it was as though it had been cut off from the world. Each step they took was followed by a soft poof as dust stirred. Under the dim light, they could see a similar door in a distance.
"If we exit from here, we will reach Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum?"
Lin Sanjiu, who now looked like a skinny teenager, did not sound even one bit threatening though she tried to intentionally deepen her voice, especially not after she coughed a few times because of the dust.
Yet, the young black-haired man, Honeysuckle, did not dare to take her lightly.
The [Mask] they were wearing was just a sort of illusion tool. It didn't change the actual appearance of its user. Even though Honeysuckle, who was only 1.75m, looked tall and handsome now, he couldn't touch the hanging lamps from the
ceiling even if he tiptoed.
Similarly, though other people might not be able to see Lin Sanjiu's menacing wings, they were still on her back. If an unlucky person accidentally bumped into them, they would still get injured.
To avoid that sort of situation, Honeysuckle and Soulsqn had to stay very close to Lin Sanjiu so that other innocent passersby would not come too close to her.
Honeysuckle was a person with a lot of experience and was very adaptable. He knew when he could assert himself and when he had to submit. Ever since Lin Sanjiu grabbed him by his ankle and took all his money, he did not show even a single sign of defiance. After all, it was very obvious that he couldn't defeat her.
"Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum is just behind this door," Honeysuckle said eagerly when Lin Sanjiu held the door handle. "There might be a lot of dust but many people know this route."
"Oh." Lin Sanjiu responded. She pulled the door open with some hesitation.
She found herself staring at a whole different world when the door opened.
She was enveloped by a wave of warm air when she took the first step into the building. The place was warm because of the heat generated by the crowd. A cacophony of human conversations assaulted her ears as the bright light flooded her vision. Lin Sanjiu looked away from the platform nearby and took a sweeping glance at the countless large monitor screens arranged in rows. She froze for half a second before realizing that she was on an upper platform.
"Here's the stairs," Honeysuckle pointed out as if he was afraid that she couldn't spot them herself. "My dear mother, please be careful when you are walking down the stairs. It's steep."
Lin Sanjiu wanted to give him two tight slaps but she didn't do that after considering her current disguise. Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum was far larger than what she had imagined. After she walked down from the long flight of stairs, Lin Sanjiu found herself standing in a hall so large that she could barely see its far end. The ceilings were so high that they were hidden in the shadows where the lights couldn't reach. There were small rooms lining two sides of the hall. They were arranged in a sort of picturesque disorder which gave the hall a very interesting shape. When she looked at the middle of the hall, it reminded her of the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in her homeworld.
The large screen monitors were hung slightly higher than a person's average height. There were a few hundred of them and they were placed in very neat rows. There were many posthumans gathering in front of each of these large screens. The spaces between the large monitor screens were filled by an extraordinary number of smaller monitors that were consoles for the individual user. At that moment, many of the consoles were in use. The lights from their screens lit the face of the hundreds of users.
Lin Sanjiu wandered along the aisle and felt almost overwhelmed by what she was seeing.
"The large screen display announcements from the Twelve Worlds," Honeysuckle pointed to the screen closest to Lin Sanjiu. Before someone else could see that his hands were tied, he quickly placed them down again. "For example, the announcements can range from people offering item exchanges, posting questions about the current statuses of Consular Officers, challenging enemies to a duel… I found the mission here.
Lin Sanjiu shot a quick glance at Honeysuckle before shifting her gaze from the crowd to one of the screens just in time to see an announcement message: "Looking for another Consular Officer to partner. My Consular Officer ability is already at Level 3…"
The message flashed for a few rounds before it disappeared. Lin Sanjiu was filled with fascination as she followed Honeysuckle deeper into the hall.
"The messages on the large screens have been categorized. Depending on the information you are interested in, you can watch the corresponding screens." Honeysuckle gave a brief explanation and brought Lin Sanjiu to an individual console one corner of the hall. Each small screen was placed in a sort of case so that it could provide the user some privacy.
"There are many more of these individual consoles." Honeysuckle looked at the case and smiled, "You can make inquiries, publish information… You can do anything. I would come over occasionally to input new information and earn a little extra income."
When he mentioned the words "extra income", he couldn't resist looking at the small pouch in Lin Sanjiu's hand with a slightly pained expression.
"Input new information?" That immediately caught Lin Sanjiu's interest. "What kind of information is marketable?"
"All the worlds in the Twelve Worlds Centrum share a common database system." Honeysuckle looked a little proud as he said that, "It is a remarkable system. Each time you leave an apocalyptic world, you can add new information about that world to this database. You can earn a corresponding amount of red crystals based on the value of your information. The next time another person wants to find out more information about that next destination, they can spend a bit of money and read the information that you have added."
"He is right! This is an incredible invention." Lin Sanjiu was very impressed. She suddenly understood how Reno and Rena got their information about Kisaragi Station. No matter how powerful Progressor Alliance was, it wasn't possible for them to know which posthumans have been to Kisaragi Station. With this system, information about the different worlds can be collated efficiently. This was also the reason why residents of the Twelve Worlds Centrum were so resourceful!
"Can I look up information on matters within the Twelve Worlds?" Lin Sanjiu walked over to the screen and pressed it a few times, feeling a little lost. "For example, if I want to know more about the Munition Factory, do I just search for the term Munition Factory?"
"Oh. Yes. You just have to spend some red crystals… Depending on the information, they all have different prices." After he said that, Honeysuckle took a handful of red crystals—which belonged to him originally—and threw them into a tray at the bottom of the console reluctantly.
"You make your choices here. Then, you make your input here…" Honeysuckle taught Lin Sanjiu some of the basic functions of the console. After Lin Sanjiu was familiar with the interface, Soulsqn brought him away from the console so that Lin Sanjiu could have some privacy.
Lin Sanjiu watched their backs as they left. Seeing that Soulqn was playing her part well, Lin Sanjiu returned to the screen.
There was a red numeral "7" at the right corner of the screen. That indicated the number of medium crystal she had tossed into the console. There was a sort of table of content in the middle of the screen. It automatically moved to the next page after every few seconds. It displayed a series of submenus under the Apocalyptic Worlds option. She casually browsed through the submenu and a few of them quickly caught her attention: [Coffee Bean World Thread], [Fireworks and Pyrotechnics World Thread]...
She made a few random selections and discovered that they would go to a page with two opinions: "Add" and "Search". There was a corresponding price marked beside the search option. Some of them were 11 medium crystals and others were 23 medium crystals. From the looks of it, the information about different worlds was priced differently.
This was all too fascinating. Lin Sanjiu took quite some time before she could slowly adjust to what was in front of her. After she thought for a moment, she organized her thoughts and identified her three top priorities.
Before she came to Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum, Lin Sanjiu had always been in a mild state of constant anxiety. She met and befriended many different companions in each world. While it comforted her to think back about her memories and the time she spent with them. It was also those shared memories with them that made her current situation quite unbearable…
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and quickly input "Hyperthermal Hell" into the search box.
Even though Lin Sanjiu snatched quite a sum of money from Honeysuckle, she was almost running out of red crystal after they bought the two masks. According to his introduction, she would need to earn some red crystals by adding information into the database before she could complete what she wanted to do.
"[Hyperthermal Hell]: D Level. Description: A remote countryside. Add entry?"
Lin Sanjiu let out a long sigh and pressed on the "Confirm" button.
Familiar photos of the place she thought she would never see again appeared on the screen before her.
Chapter 324 - Haha! There Isn’t a "The Journey To The Encyclopedic Forum 2"
Today was just like any other day at Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum. The place was bustling with activity as the crowd moved like rivers and streams between the monitor screens and metallic consoles. The noise of indiscernible human conversations and the heat from the crowd filled the hall.
"Yes. Yes. Okay. I will see you later," a tall and young handsome man nodded his head as he stood beside an individual console. He grinned widely as he watched two ladies walking away from him. After that, he sighed self-deprecatingly, "Sigh. If only I were born handsome like this…"
The girl with two ponytails held the black rope in her hand expressionlessly. When she turned to look at Honeysuckle, she actually looked puzzled. To Soulsqn, that flirty conversation between this human and the other two humans was totally pointless. Soulsqn found Lin Sanjiu much easier to understand compared to this man.
When she turned behind, she saw a fully focused Lin Sanjiu staring at the screen in front of her. Lin Sanjiu was not paying any attention to them. Honeysuckle turned her head and observed the girl beside him quietly.
She wasn't wearing a mask so that was her original face...
Even though a person's outward appearance can be deceiving, compared to the woman behind him, this young girl seemed easier to deal with...
Honeysuckle stealthily took two steps backward. He lifted his hands, pretending that it was just a casual action. As expected, the girl was tugged along as the rope taut.
"There is a chance to escape! " he thought to himself. Just as he became excited and even before that thought left his mind, the girl turned and looked at him as if she had detected something. She opened her mouth wide.