by N. Heller
"Hey you, can you please ask for the owner's consent before touching other people's thing?"
As if it was traveling from afar, a cold woman's voice, sans of any emotions, resounded vaguely amongst the heavy and loud wheeze.
Chapter 416 - Game Start
...It felt like she was in an eternal, fragmented nightmare.
The silhouette of the fat man and Ren Nan phased in and out uncontrollably in her mind. The face of Ji Shanqing slowly turned into a face that she was familiar with. The memories, sensation, emotions of when she first time stepped into the apocalypse world broke free from the shackles, becoming more apparent and more vivid in her brain and arousing something residing within her body.
Voices rushed away like a tidal wave from her brain, and she felt serene. The world was slowly connecting together like montages of a movie. All of them turned lucid, no longer the meaningless strange, haphazard footage in her mind.
When she once again lifted her eyes, the fat man had turned his head in her direction. Holding a pocket knife in his hand, he looked stupid.
Lin Sanjiu's gaze didn't stop long enough on his body as she swept her glance over to Ji Shanqing, who lay lifeless on the ground. Right now, the grand prize looked more like a doll than a human. His eyes were glassy and vacant. It was hard to believe that he was a lively human a few seconds ago.
"Look, I pounced on you like this that time, trying to tear your throat apart," Ren Nan's deep voice swam into her ears.
"Yeah, you're right," A cold smile formed at the corner of Lin Sanjiu's lips as she slowly walked toward Ji Shanqing.
The fat man lifted his eyebrows as he deployed his guard. However, when he saw Lin Sanjiu mumbling something, he relaxed.
"Ah, mind your own business you crazy," the fat man shooed Lin Sanjiu away like she was a dog chasing him. When he saw that Lin Sanjiu paid no heed to his warning and kept walking near to him, he shook his arm in the air and barked impatiently, "Go—"
The thing happened so fast that it looked like a flash of lightning. Before the fat man could utter the word "away," the world before his eyes inverted. Lin Sanjiu had stretched her arm and grabbed the nape of his neck firmly and flung his hundred-pound body away single-handedly. The fat man flew through the air and connected with the other side of the room with a meaty smack. A loud thump followed after, and the whole building quivered at the impact.
The fat man was dumbfounded. Even after he had finally been able to stretch his legs onto the ground and prop himself up, his mind was still all over the places as he stared vacantly at Lin Sanjiu.
"You... Were you not crazy?" He seemed only can ask this question. "Why, why would you…"
"Let me tell you something you don't know," Lin Sanjiu looked at Ji Shanqing before throwing her shirt to him, exposing her black tank top to the air. She walked toward the and her lean muscles glistened in the moonlight. "Before I evolved, I was almost eaten by a man. Perhaps seeing your ugly face has revived those memories, which resulted in more Potential Growth Value has been generated this time."
The fat man was seemingly unable to understand what Lin Sanjiu saying.
"Hey, that's not fair. I look much better than him," A voice echoed at Lin Sanjiu's ears.
"Oh, shut up, please." Lin Sanjiu hissed at the illusionary voice created by her mind before walking up to the fat man. She c.o.c.ked her head slightly to one side, struggling to rummage through her foggy mind about the thing Ji Shanqing had told her what felt like a century ago when it had only been a few minutes, "So, what are you?"
Covered in sweat, the fat man was stunned at Lin Sanjiu's question. He lowered his chin and a smile tugged at the corner of his eyes.
"Interesting. I never expected you to be this powerful," in the face of the woman that could fling him across the room single-handedly, he seemed to show no fear at all. As he whipped away the blood stain on his lips, he cackled, "…But, it takes more than that to defeat me—Look at yourself."
Lin Sanjiu's frowned at his provocation, but she still looked at her body.
A few seconds ago, she was wearing only a tank top, but now, she was clad in a red uniform. What fl.u.s.tered her the most was that she didn't know when it appeared on her body. By the time she raised her head again, she realized that the fat man was wearing the same uniform as hers. The only difference was that his was blue.
While she pondered if this was yet again another hallucination created by her mind, the fat man chuckled at her. He waved his hand and sent a rectangular TV screen floating overhead them. The screen glowed.
In the middle of the screen stood an anchorwoman. Seemingly sensing her gaze, the anchorwoman turned over and pointed at Lin Sanjiu while shouting at an exasperating exhilaration tone, "In this corner, we have our poor red party. One of them looks dead while the other... Well, I guess none of us want to know her name anyway."
"On the other side—Wow, wow, calm down, people. Let's welcome our special guest, Mr. Fatty with a round of applause!"
The night was quiet. Along the gaze of a few vague faces in the distance, the elated tone of the anchorwoman sounded so out of place.
After she finished introducing the two parties of the game, the anchorwoman unwillingly withdrew her gaze from the fat man, "Will our all-favorite Mr. Fatty be able to defend his championship from our contender? Let's root for him in the next section of the game: "Go, Go, Color Balls Hunting!"
The way Lin Sanjiu looked back and fro between the TV screen and the fat man had amused the latter. With a proud look, he said, "As long as you entered the variety show, you have to follow the game rule. If you lose, you'll be punished. I know you won't believe it but—"
Before he could finish speaking, a shadow whizzed past his eyes, and the woman in red uniform had disappeared. The fat man looked around frantically and found that she had rushed in the twinkling of an eye, standing in the flowerbed far away from him.
"First color ball, found it." said the tall woman as she tossed the ball in her hand.
Both the anchorwoman in the screen and her all-time favorite champion, the fat man were dumbfounded.
The fat man had ridiculed and entrapped many people and duoluozhong with this ability; he had never met someone like the woman standing before him.
"Oh wow, seems like our red party is getting a little bit edgy," The anchorwoman laughed a fake laugh after she glanced at the fat man, "She found the color ball used for the demonstration even before I started stating the rules. It doesn't count as a point, but it's just as simple as that. There will be different hints about the location of the color balls. The player who finds the most color balls in three minutes wins. A note to notice, this lady from the red party cannot attack nor get near to Mr. Fatty!"
The anchorwoman didn't say what form the hints would take nor did she mention that the fat man could not attack Lin Sanjiu. Despite that, Lin Sanjiu seemed to be fairly undisturbed as she continued to toy with the ball in her hand. She just couldn't care less about the erroneous tendency.
However, the fat man face sank.
Though the thing was getting out of his control, he was confident that he could place everything back to its usual track with his ability. Hence, after taking a look at the surrounding he marched toward a direction. The anchorwoman who had been looking at him quickly announced, "Game start, now!"
Lin Sanjiu was not in the least rush to look for color balls. She took her time walked toward the TV screen and stopped a few meters away from it.
"Your world wasn't even formed yet when I was playing this kind of game," She raised her head and narrowed her eyes, "Tell your master: If he tries to unwrap my grand prize, I'll kill him!"
Chapter 417 - A Good Dog is Good in Fetching
Game rules:
1) The entire district is the playing field. A total of five color balls had been hidden somewhere in the neighborhood.
2) The player who found the most color balls within three minutes won the game.
It seemed simple from the
rules alone but looking from a grander scale, the entire neighborhood had nine apartment buildings which meant that there were a lot of apartment units.
Under the condition that hints were not given, it was impossible to look for a teeny-weeny colored ball hidden amongst the thousands of apartment units. It was like digging for a needle in a haystack, and it would take days to find all the color balls.
When the thought crossed his mind, Fatty's 1 mouth curled up.
Even he himself couldn't explain how he had gotten the TV screen Evolving Ability, but since it was his ability, it would undoubtedly give him the best advantage.
She is so stupid. How dare she fight with me while she knows nothing about my ability? I'll show her the consequences of defying me after she's lost the game!"
Fatty had gotten the edge over Lin Sanjiu because he had more experience in the game while Lin Sanjiu, a beginner in the game, knew nothing about the game.
The anchorwoman was another personality of Fatty. The rules varied in each game. When Fatty realized that Lin Sanjiu was much stronger than him, he ordered the anchorwoman to put another restriction on Lin Sanjiu: "You can't attack or get close to Mr. Fatty."
"With these prevailing conditions—"
Fatty raised his eyes and started to look around when the thought flashed through his mind.
Much to his surprise, the tall woman didn't start searching for the color balls after announcing her aggravation. Instead, she walked to her partner, who was still in an unconscious state and moved him to bushes beside the road.
"Hah, stupid!"
He cackled and darted, with absurd agility despite his large body into the space of two apartment building in the distance.
His steps were light, but they still caught Lin Sanjiu's attention.
After she settled Ji Shanqing in the grass impassively, she straightened her back and looked around.
"Are you not going to look for the colored balls?" asked Ren Nan after wiping off his saliva. Since there was a knife in his mouth, he could only leave his mouth ajar, and saliva kept flowing out from his mouth, "Look, that fat-ass has found something from a dumpster over there."
Lin Sanjiu knew very well that he was just her hallucination. However, she didn't know why her schizophrenia still existed even though she had gained back her senses.
Though he was merely an illusion, what "Ren Nan" had said was true. As soon as the wind carried his voice away, the happy-go-lucky anchorwoman shouted from the TV screen, "The first point goes to Mr. Fatty! He has found a colored ball in the first twenty seconds. Mr. Fatty is really something, don't you all think so?"
"Stop blabbering like a red-ass baboon if you're not going to help," Lin Sanjiu boomed at Ren Nan. Then, she raised her eyes and looked around, "Where is Xueqin?"
"I'm here," A figure rose among the bushes. It was the ice queen Xueqin. She walked out from the bushes and said softly, "I had a child, but he was never born, died by his father'a hand as he constantly abused me during my pregnancy. During those few months, I always hummed my baby this song."
"Is this real or is it yet another illusion?"
Lin Sanjiu looked to her side as she had fallen into a reverie. She nodded to the air then a soft and breathy nursery rhymes came from the dark.
"Mary has a little lamb, little lamb..."
The hum was so soft that nobody could notice its origin or who the singer was. It was like a puff of warm air hanging in the air. Xueqin walked to Lin Sanjiu and said to her matter-of-factly, "When the game begins, I heard this children's song is playing in the background."
"Nursery rhymes...?"
"This is the first hint," said a voice filled with glee. Lin Sanjiu knew the speaker had now changed to Li Zhijun even without turning her back, "Think carefully, Xiao Jiu. What's the thing that's related to a nursery rhymes?"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a second before the word hit her. She suddenly charged toward the apartment building at the opposite of her.
"Anything to do with a nursery rhymes? It had to be children!"
It was just that Lin Sanjiu didn't know whether or not children still existed in Meat Elysium. After all, children had the tenderest flesh, and it was just normal to think that they would be the first group of humans to be wiped clean from the surface of the earth, given that the world now had become a place where cannibalism was the way of living. Besides, she indeed had not seen any children ever since she arrived in this world—
"It must be somebody here, and that person has to be related to the word "children"..."
Suddenly, it clicked. Xuannie, one of the survivors whose mind had decayed to that of a child and called the duoluozhong his mother rammed into Lin Sanjiu's brain.
With a single kick, Lin Sanjiu laid waste to the two layers of doors that was blocking her way. Ignoring "Xuannie" screaming, she barged into the unit. The c.u.mbersome bald man, who appeared to be in his 40s curled up at a corner of his bed with tears and mucus covering his face, peeked at Lin Sanjiu with a look of consternation as she rummaged through his closets and pulled out a ball from his "toy box."
"Oh wow, seems like our red team is not giving up either! Right after Mr. Fatty, she has found a colored ball as well… Anyway, keep fighting, Mr. Fatty!" The loathsome anchorwoman's voice drifted from outside the window.
Unlike the red ball used for demonstration, the color ball in her hand was made of plastic, with a colored pattern and a cartoon portrait printed on its surface. It looked just like a child's toy. From here, Lin Sanjiu knew that every ball was different. Lin Sanjiu was afraid that she might not even know the appearance of the ball at all if she didn't follow the hint,
"I'm sorry Xuannie, I'll have to borrow this from you for a while," Lin Sanjiu whispered to the man on the bed before jumped out of the window.
When Lin Sanjiu landed on the ground with a thump, the person who was standing downstairs quickly approached her. It seemed that he had been waiting for her all these time. After he came near to her, Lin Sanjiu realized she couldn't find Xueqin anywhere.
After she found the ball, the nursery rhythm had dissipated as well. Suddenly, a gust of wind burst forward, whistling and blowing up whatever that was lost on this barren land.
"We have a new hint," said Gong Daoyi as a lock of hair fell from his forehead, "This time, it's something more than flesh and blood can bear."
Lin Sanjiu was perplexed. However, when she followed his gaze and looked, she understood everything.
In the middle of a couple of abandoned vehicles, there was this one particular car with its window broken and door opened. With the help from the wind, many banknotes flew out from the car and scattered all over the asphalt road. Lin Sanjiu wondered how much cash the car owner hid as brand new banknotes kept flying out from the compartment and dyed the sky pink.
"So the hint this time is about money?"
"Well, I don't like money, to be honest," the smuggler Gong Daoyi gathered his hair behind his head, "So I have to find another way to avoid touching the money and get what I want."
Lin Sanjiu couldn't judge if these people merely her hallucinations or were they real. However, it wasn't the right time for her to get deep into this issue. After shaking off the thought in her mind, she murmured the word "money" in her heart as her eyes jumped from one apartment building to another.
Lin Sanjiu was clueless about what she should look for right now. Nevertheless, when the anchorwoman once again announced that Fatty had found another color ball, pressure began to form between her shoulders and she started to get anxious.
She was confident that every family would certainly have some cash left in their house, but she couldn't tell what does money had to do with the color ball.
"Stop, stop, I ask you to stop!" A clear voice rang out behind her and stopped her progress, "Look! It's over there!"
The voice frightened Lin Sanjiu. She darted a glance at the teenager with a pink wig. She still had the cheerful and lively demeanor like she was in Lin Sanjiu memory and
the melancholy expression scarred by the Slave Training Camp was nowhere to be seen, "At the double chromosphere 2 !"
"They are only my hallucinations," As Lin Sanjiu rushed toward the lottery booth, a thought crossed her mind, "I don't think the real Rena knows what a double chromosphere is."
"F*ck!"
Just when Lin Sanjiu arrived at the lottery booth and retrieved the blue ball, a cursed sounded behind her. She looked over to her shoulders and saw Fatty, who was a step behind her, grimaced at her with a puzzling face. Then, as if something had dawned on him, he quickly turned away and went for the last ball.
"Who would've thought we would come to a tie! The red team is really putting their everything in the game, aren't they! Now, we're here at the final part of the game and the last hint is the hardest to find. Who will be the first one to find the last colored ball? Oh lord, please help Mr. Fatty…"
While the anchorwoman was droning on and on, Lin Sanjiu whizzed past the TV screen and headed to her destination. She quickly jumped into the grass plain in the parterre and disappeared.
By the time Lin Sanjiu grabbed the blue ball, no more banknotes were flying out from the car. The sky no longer was covered with notes. It seemed that the hint for the color ball was related to its location.
And so forth...
When Lin Sanjiu came out empty-handed from the grass plain, she immediately changed her target and disappeared into another apartment building. The hardest part about the last hint was that it was difficult to detect. The district under the night was quiet. There weren't any parts which looked stood out from the rest in the neighborhood. Even the rule breaker, Fatty was clueless.
"What happened to our red team? Why's she barging in and out like a headless fly?" The anchorwoman was giving all she had to support Fatty as her laughter resounded from the TV screen, "Without a hint, all those ball-shaped objects you found do not count, do you know that?"