by N. Heller
"You— you… you plan to stay here for 14 months?"
If it cost 10 Stamina points each day, how many points must one get to stay here for 14 months?
Hei Zeji would not answer any question he had already explained. He turned to look at Soulsqn and asked, "What is this? Is it your pet?"
From a certain angle, Hei Zeji wasn't wrong. Lin Sanjiu raised Soulsqn up. She had not really tamed "it" so she didn't know how to answer.
"It's really ugly," Hei Zeji concluded.
Soulsqn immediately twisted her body. But when she saw the person who said that, she hung her head down and did not move again. After a while, she hissed, "I... I need to consume just one person…"
Lin Sanjiu was startled and did not know how Hei Zeji would react. He narrowed his eyes.
"Pass me your dog for a moment."
Lin Sanjiu trusted Hei Zeji because he saved her once. She hesitated and finally handed Soulsqn to him, but not before giving him a cautionary warning, "Be careful. It can create illusions—"
She wasn't sure if Soulsqn, who was now struggling desperately, had already started to fight back. But when Hei Zeji held her neck and brought her over to the ice cream truck, she seemed docile and obedient.
After a while, Lin Sanjiu heard the familiar squelching sound from the back of the ice cream truck.
A bloodied black bear vest lay on the grass, showing slightly from behind the ice cream truck.
When Soulsqn emerged with her small leather shoes, she already looked much better. Her face still looked terrible but when she moved it was visible that she had already recovered quite a lot. Her dried up limbs had already grown out once more.
"Is that the posthuman who informed you about me?" Lin Sanjiu asked Hei Zeji when Soulsqn rushed back eagerly to her side. "You killed him?"
Hei Zeji lifted one side of his mouth and showed a malicious smile.
"He was annoying."
"What did that person do…" Even though Lin Sanjiu did not like that man, she didn't feel that it was necessary to kill him. After thinking about it for a while, she decided to change the subject and asked Hei Zeji about Li Zhijun's current status. Unexpectedly, the two men were separated after a little incident at Hyperthermal Hell. After that, they did not meet each other again.
"It's alright. When you find a Consular Officer, you can always find him." After Lin Sanjiu said that, she looked at the digital clock nearby and was shocked, "I need to go! If I don't leave now, the door will be closing soon!"
It was 5 minutes to the door's closing time. If she wanted to leave, Lin Sanjiu had to go now. The ice cream truck was quite a distance from the large castle door!
"You're leaving the pocket dimension?" Hei Zeji raised his brow.
"No—" Even though it was quite embarrassing, Lin Sanjiu quickly told Hei Zeji about the situation at the Bumper Karts station. "Bumper Karts is a little difficult. Just to be on the safe side, I am going to prepare myself before coming in again. I will get 15 Stamina point…"
Hei Zeji listened to her expressionlessly and did not reply.
Seeing that he wasn't about to reply any time soon, Lin Sanjiu bid him farewell and ran toward the exit dragging Soulsqn behind her.
After she ran a few steps, she suddenly felt the hair on her back standing.
Even though she didn't hear anything, somehow she knew that something was heading directly at her at high speed, tearing through the air. Before Lin Sanjiu could scream, she tumbled forward to the ground as fear gripped her body. A sharp cold wind swept above her head and she saw a black crescent-like shadow.
When she turned around, the black crescent froze in mid-air. As Hei Zeji made a gesture, it remained floating in the air.
Chapter 335 - Lin Sanjiu Constructed A Toilet
Lin Sanjiu felt that she was too naive to think that she had improved quite a lot.
The "crescent moon" was made of a dull, sheenless material. It moved soundlessly through the air like a specter in the cold night. Lin Sanjiu's eyes followed the crescent moon closely, yet her body felt slow and sluggish compared to the crescent moon.
When she first saw it, it was still a distance from her. However, when she blinked her eyes again, it was already by her side. She couldn't even catch how the crescent moon could move in a split second. To avoid getting hit, she thrust herself toward the ground once more.
Lin Sanjiu had tossed Soulsqn out of her way earlier. Lin Sanjiu crawled up from the ground and stared forward. Right now, she had not recovered her full strength. Even if she was at her top condition, she knew that she could not outrun the attacks from that black crescent moon. To avoid the attention of the two people fighting, Soulsqn moved backward, little by little.
Bam! With a loud sound, the ground shook as the crescent moon hit the ground. Lin Sanjiu felt her bones shaking from the impact. It hurt. She s.u.c.k.e.d in a mouthful of air with a hiss and before she could even observe her surroundings. She felt the hairs on her skin stand on end. She quickly rolled on the ground, barely avoiding the black crescent moon that dove down once again.
She didn't even have the chance to ask "why".
The black crescent moon moved in an arc shape in mid-air. Following the shape of its trajectory, crescent moons of different sizes appeared one after another solidifying and disappearing immediately. The first crescent slowly faded so that it was now translucent like a bubble. It became a shape of a gibbous moon and floated in the sky like a fallen star.
"Of the five phases of the moon, I only used one. I don't think it is too hard on you, right?" There was a cruel sense of humor in Hei Zeji's voice. The hardened tone of his voice seemed to be forged through bloodshed and destruction and seemed to be able to stir an intense fear at will. This was not the first time Lin Sanjiu had felt such an aura vicious enough to make anyone tense up...
Even so, as that gibbous moon started to move again and disappear from her sight, she found it hard to believe that Hei Zeji had intentions to kill her—
The next second, a force which burst forth from the gibbous moon hit her waist. Lin Sanjiu was flung far away. If a building was hit by that force, it would have been halved.
Lin Sanjiu was flung so high up that she was just a small figure in the air. This was quickly followed by a loud thud as she fell heavily to the ground. Dirt and grass flew everywhere as the ground shook a little. Even though she had managed to open up her wings in the air, a few pieces of bones from them broke off, flying through the air.
After some time had passed, a trembling figure finally struggled up amidst the dust.
The moment Lin Sanjiu realized that she could not dodge that attack, she immediately activated her [Defence Forcefield] and concentrated her higher consciousness around her waist. Her eyes were still blurry after that blast of light from her [Defence Forcefield].
Thankfully, her high-risk strategy to concentrate her protective barrier around her waist worked. After she sat up and vomited a few mouthfuls of blood, she finally felt her twisting organs settling down.
"You suck," he commented coldly with a hint of annoyance. "You are a Growth-type with quite a high potential value, how did you develop to such a state today?"
Lin Sanjiu looked at him, confused. For a second, she didn't know what he meant.
Every word from Hei Zeji was like a sharp knife specifically directed at her as he continued condescendingly, "You are planning to leave the amus.e.m.e.nt park just because you can't get past the first station? You are still that weak sh*t just as before. If this were a pocket dimension that didn't allow you to exit, were you going to just start crying?"
He lifted a corner of his mouth without any hint of jest.
"Your combat techniques are all wrong."
From the current situation, it seemed as if really did not intend to kill her. However, with cold sweat pouring from her head, she felt even worse than the moment she was physically attacked.
"How many worlds have you been to? I've only been to—"
She felt th
ose words on the tips of her tongue but somehow she didn't retort.
Even if she didn't want to admit it, Hei Zeji's word had caught her Achilles' heel.
If she was trapped in a situation where she couldn't back out, what would she do?
Lin Sanjiu bit her lower lip but she momentarily couldn't think of a solution.
"Stand up."
Hei Zeji lowered his eyes as he spat those two words coldly. After that, he turned and continued down Frog Route as if he couldn't be bothered with her anymore.
"Wait, wait… You mentioned that my techniques are all wrong?" Lin Sanjiu hurt all over, it felt as though she had been run over by a train. Before she could react properly, she struggled to follow him, "What do you mean? I have defeated many people in the past!"
The person walking in front of her did not even bother to turn back to respond.
Lin Sanjiu wasn't willing to take it lying down. She was angry and confused, but she also felt a hint of craving that she didn't even notice herself. She hastened her pace and followed behind Hei Zeji like his tail.
When the two people walked back to the Bumper Karts, Soulsqn had already escaped long ago.
Hei Zeji shot a glance at Lin Sanjiu.
"Just let her go," Lin Sanjiu said. After thinking about it, she realized that she wasn't worried at all. "She can't complete this pocket dimension anyway, she would just be a burden. Besides, I know she won't go far. She would probably wait for me at the entrance door.
That was very possible. Unless Soulsqn personally saw Lin Sanjiu's corpse, she would not give up on her hope for reproduction.
The biggest problem she had now was that the castle doors were already shut and Lin Sanjiu only had 5 Stamina points.
If she wanted to play the Bumper Karts again, she would need to pay for the entrance fee of 5 points. In other words, if she wanted to keep all her limbs and get past 12 am without any body parts missing, she would have to win at least two rounds.
Once she thought about this, her brows furrowed and she sighed.
Her sigh faded into the silent surrounding. She was startled. When she looked up, Lin Sanjiu realized that Hei Zeji had walked far away from her without even giving her any notice. Anxious, she quickly ran after him.
"Uh," she said as she tried to make conversation with this cold and fierce man. "Where are your two ice cream cones?"
"I finished them when I was hitting you," Hei Zeji replied without even looking.
"Both of those ice cream cones were at least 500g each," Lin Sanjiu was slightly stunned.
Then she laughed, "You like sweet food?"
"Yeah."
Hei Zeji wasn't the best person to have a conversation with. Lin Sanjiu had to stop with the small talk because she didn't know how to continue. In the end, she ran in front of him decisively and lowered her head with a sincere attitude.
"You... mentioned that I did everything wrong. Can you tell me what is right? What should I do?" Lin Sanjiu asked rather hastily, "If I had the right combat techniques, could I get through that station? Could you please tell me?"
Once she calmed down, Lin Sanjiu had an inkling of the situation. Hei Zeij probably didn't even treat her as a real opponent. He was probably just testing her casually. However, even with her full capabilities, Lin Sanjiu barely escaped getting badly hurt.
Hei Zeji looked at Lin Sanjiu expressionless. She did not know what he was thinking.
"Follow me," he finally said after Lin Sanjiu started trembling from the waiting. Then, he strode off to the Bumper Karts attraction.
She was so anxious that her heart raced even as she quickly followed him.
"You need to know two things," Hei Zeji said without turning to look at Lin Sanjiu. While he spoke, he made a gesture and a couple of waxing crescent moons appeared in his hand in a disk-like arrangement. "Firstly, with your aptitude and Potential Growth Value, your combat capabilities should be at least three times better."
He kicked open the door to the arena impatiently. The old woman in the F1 uniform immediately looked up before standing up sluggishly. Lin Sanjiu had already been here once so she knew that the old woman was going to collect the entrance fee from them.
With a beep, Lin Sanjiu swiped her wrist past a sort of card-detector device, "If that's the case, why am I not three times stronger?"
"You used ten tonnes of steel to construct a toilet. You basically just wasted your talent," Hei Zeji sprang up and leaped into a white bumper kart. He moved so smoothly that it was almost incomprehensible how he could feel his pair of long legs. "Just choose any one of the karts. Remember this. Don't attack them with your weapons."
Lin Sanjiu looked once at the waxing crescent moons in his hand. Following which, she found the blue bumper kart she used previously. To her, she wanted to succeed where she failed.
"Why would you help me?"
"I am already helping you. So stop dawdling like a sissy."
"What is the second matter?"
Even though they were a few bumper karts away from each other, Lin Sanjiu could still hear his answer clearly. "In every station within Starry Carnival Amus.e.m.e.nt Park, the difficulty of the first round is adjusted to the player's capabilities. After each round, the difficulty would be increased by a few folds based on that baseline."
"What?" Lin Sanjiu thought that she might have misheard him, "You mean—"
"Yeah," Hei Zeji frowned with annoyance as he flashed a white canine tooth almost threateningly, "Starry Carnival Amus.e.m.e.nt Park is a pocket dimension that works specifically for Growth-type posthumans. Only Growth-types can keep up with its difficulty slope. If we want to bring you back on the right track, there isn't any better place."
Lin Sanjiu stared at him in a daze. The old woman pressed a bell and the bumper karts started moving. This was when something daunted on Lin Sanjiu.
"This is the reason why Santa Claus doesn't enter this place himself despite how powerful he is."
Chapter 336 - The Game Fraught with Danger
Hei Zeji was a blunt person.
Regardless of the circ.u.mstances and possible consequences, Hei Zeji wouldn't say what he didn't want to say, what he didn't think was necessary, and what he merely found was too troublesome to explain. Lin Sanjiu didn't know what his reasons were this time, but she had already suffered a lot because of this particular bad habit of his.
Earlier when Hei Zeji had been explaining the basic rules of the game, he forgot to mention an essential detail.
If there were two people with a large combat power disparity present in the same game, the default difficulty of the game would be adjusted based on the person with higher combat capabilities. In other words, Starry Carnival Amus.e.m.e.nt Park only cared about extraordinary Growth-types with great potential and ability.
This could also mean another thing: the difficulty for this game was set based on Hei Zeji's combat capabilities; thus, it would only be a tad more challenging than usual for him.
The duration of the game, according to Hei Zeji's level, would be five minutes.
It was clear enough that the bumper kart game didn't care at all about Lin Sanjiu's survival.
"Hey, Hei Ze-- woahhhhhh—"
Lin Sanjiu's hailing for Hei Zeji changed into a cry of fear. She turned the steering wheel sharply to one side and, in a split second, narrowly avoided crashing into a pink bumper kart before her bumper kart tilted over. She had to use her arm to push her bumper kart back into balance.
As Lin Sanjiu slowly regained from the shock, the pink bumper kart swerved and vanished into the ether.
"Anything?"
Another white bumper kart zoomed out from the side and gave the already badly frightened Lin Sanjiu yet another shock. After she realized that it was Hei Zeji and was confident that they were safe for the moment, she quickly asked him, "What is happening? Why are there fewer karts now than the previous game?"
The game had merely been in play for a few seconds, yet Lin Sanjiu already began to feel powerless. If
the previous match was described as a slightly dangerous bumper kart game, then this time it had turned into a complete killing machine.
Well, it wasn't entirely accurate to say that all of the bumper karts were gone. There were some bumper karts of various colors not far away. All of them continually patrolled around the only two players, Lin Sanjiu and Hei Zeji, while trying to ram into them at top-speed whenever possible. However, compared to the previous game, at least more than half of the bumper karts had disappeared which made the large, spacious arena look vacant.
Could it be that they can go into stealth-mode?
Before Lin Sanjiu got an answer from Hei Zeji, a massive force hit her and thrust her body forward. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that a green bumper kart had rammed into her.
"Damn it!"
While she cursed inwardly, the familiar female voice reverberated from her back, "Collision with a green bumper kart. For the next fifteen seconds, the player can only move in the 'forest.' Failing to do so will result in continuous collisions. "
"Even the rules have changed!"
Raising her head, Lin Sanjiu offered Hei Zeji a blank look. While she was waiting for him to say something, a pink bumper kart appeared out of thin air. Luckily, the pink bumper kart came diagonally from behind her this time, and there was a considerably large gap between the pink bumper kart and her, so she could dodge the pink bumper kart by simply spinning the steering wheel.
"Don't turn!"
Following Hei Zeji's bellow, a crescent moon materialized right above Lin Sanjiu's hands and stroke downward. Shocked, Lin Sanjiu instinctively withdrew her hands from the steering wheel. Losing her hands was the very last thing that she welcomed.
"Reverse your kart!"
Lin Sanjiu's body reacted before her brain gave the command. After she pressed the accelerator to the floor and opened the throttle, a thought came to mind: wasn't there a green bumper kart behind her?
However, when the pink bumper kart screeched to a stop where she had been previously, Lin Sanjiu had backed her bumper kart into the space behind her without a problem. The green bumper kart was nowhere to be seen.