by N. Heller
Even though Lin Sanjiu was fast, she missed by a bit. Just as the flowers disappeared from Military singlet's c.h.e.s.t, Lin Sanjiu activated her [Planar World]. Military singlet's expression changed instantly. Fearing that she would steal his necklace and the flowers within it at the same time, he quickly took a few steps back. He heaved a sigh of relief. The necklace with lady necklace with a heart-shaped pendant was still on his c.h.e.s.t.
But, something seemed to be missing. Military vest looked down at his own c.h.e.s.t and looked up slowly. The tall woman was standing not far from him. She seemed confused. Obviously, this sudden turn of events wasn't what she had expected.
In fact, Lin Sanjiu didn't have any plan in her head when she chased after them. She was just acting on impulse after holding back her frustration for almost a day. She just wanted to find someone to vent her anger on. However, when she looked at that familiar thing in her hand, her rationally finally returned. An unfathomable thought was slowly forming in her mind.
"Gi-give that back to me…"
Military singlet immediately lost his previously threatening aura. His voice started to tremble.
Lin Sanjiu ignored him completely. With a wave, the number tag with a 31 on it suddenly disappeared from her palm. Then, she started scrutinizing Military singlet for some time, 30 seconds to be precise.
Military singlet couldn't get his number tag back by force. Her gaze made him feel n.a.k.e.d, and he didn't even know where to place his arms.
"You're still alive. You're alive and well," Lin Sanjiu's eyes sparkled. A smile appeared on her face. The critical information that everyone had forgotten was the key to this dead-end problem. "Harry, you bastard!"
"Why do you have to curse me when both bad or good things happen?" Harry remarked, feeling maligned.
"Why didn't you tell us such an important thing?"
"If I tell you that information, how am I supposed to get any produce?"
Lin Sanjiu's face flushed slightly with excitement as Military singlet struggled to understand the meaning of their conversation. Many thoughts ran through Lin Sanjiu's mind in a split second, she couldn't contain her smile any longer, "This means the maturation stage isn't a battle of wits! We have been misled!"
Chapter 445 - A Surefire Plan
Number 46 could hear the pacing footsteps around him. After a while, it got to him. His head hurt and his temples were throbbing. Finally, he couldn't take it any longer. "Stop pacing! Can't you just sit down and be still!" he shouted at Number 45.
Number 45 stopped immediately. Her oval face was expressionless. They caught each other's gaze midair. Only then did Number 46 notice that the pupils of her eyes had shrunk into just a small dot on her sclera. She stared straight at him, and he knew that gaze wasn't one which belonged to a being of the same species.
He shuddered. Despite her outer appearance, she wasn't human. Furthermore, with the current condition of his body, he couldn't even compete with a duoluozhong in terms of strength.
"Let me think of a way out of this," Number 46 lowered his voice, "I don't think this pocket dimension would force us into a dead end."
Number 45 stopped and contemplated for a while, standing not far from him. After some time, she walked to one side of the leaf and sat down.
"Hey, if you didn't let yourself get caught," Number 45 looked at Number 47 and mocked him the moment she sat down. "Our only able-bodied member, Number 49 wouldn't jump down after that— But, I really don't know why she did that. What could she achieve jumping down after them…"
Number 45's buzzing voice made Number 46's headache worse. However, he didn't dare to make any comments about that. He took a deep breath. "She could verify if they would really die that way," he wanted to suggest. But before he could say a word, the leaf shook again.
Number 45 bolted up immediately. Number 47 had barely recovered, but he quickly scrambled to Number 46's side. With their guard up, they stared at the edge of the leaf which had been sliced. All three of them had really had enough shocks for the day.
The leaf continued shaking, but they didn't see anyone. Just when they were starting to feel puzzled, a voice suddenly came from the other end of the leaf, "Hey! Where are you guys looking?"
Number 46 felt his heart settling down and his blood turned warm again— To him, Lin Sanjiu's voice had never sounded as pleasant as it did at that moment. When he turned around, he saw Lin Sanjiu's head peeking from a leaf not far from them. She was unharmed and the indigo flower was still on her back.
"You… you're alright?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Lin Sanjiu climbed up their leaf as the three other members in her team watched her blankly.
"Where are the members of cl.u.s.ter 4? How many died?"
"None of them died. Harry didn't make any announcements. I don't know where the remaining three people landed. I only found their leader."
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Lin Sanjiu finally couldn't stand their gaze. "I brought him back here because I just discovered something interesting."
Lin Sanjiu waved her hand and a card-like item suddenly appeared in her hand.
"Look."
The card in her hand was labeled [Harry's Farm, F Zone, Number Tag 31] in black font. Faint light bounced off the slightly reflective surface of her card amidst the muggy atmosphere.
"A number tag?" Number 47 was confounded, "It looks like this after you collected it? Number 31? Whose does this belong to?"
"It belongs to the leader of Cl.u.s.ter 4," Lin Sanjiu peered at the card and kept it. "The zone is different so the numbering is different. I questioned him and he mentioned that there were also people in his team whose number tag is 40-something."
"This—" Number 45 couldn't complete her sentence. She was confused. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "He lost his number tag, but you could question him after that. Does that mean that he isn't dead?"
Lin Sanjiu smiled without explaining. Her eyes drifted to Number 46. Though her hand was now empty, the latter was still staring at her palm. The face under his thick fringe suddenly grew red with emotion. Evidently, he understood the implication of that matter in just a short time.
"This is how it should be," Number 46 said hurriedly with a quiet voice. "That's right. He won't die without the number tag because there is no rule stating that he would die without a number tag. That would only happen underground— but would only have died then because we would have been crushed by the weight of the soil above us."
"Ah, yes. We have already come to the surface!" Number 45 was enlightened. "We won't die now even without the number tag because the circ.u.mstances have changed."
"That's right. The number tag is not necessary for our survival now—" Number 46 clenched his teeth as he smiled. Just like Lin Sanjiu, he cursed Harry under his breath. When he looked up again, his eyes were shining brightly, "Then, let me ask all of you a question. What differentiates us from all the other posthumans walking on the surface of this world?"
"The biggest difference is that we can absorb nutrients from this greenhouse but a normal posthuman can't. Our bodies weren't physically modified so the only thing that could create this difference—"
When he said that, he took out his own number tag and laughed heartily, "Isn't it this?"
"Wait, so what is the current status of that person from Cl.u.s.ter 4? Is he a plant or a posthuman?" Number 47 interjected. As he said that, he couldn't help looking down in the direction that Military singlet fell.
"I asked Harry that question," Lin Sanjiu answered promptly, "Without his number tag, we effectively prevented the person from absorbing any nutrients. However, as he had already reached maturation, he is still considered a plant in cl.u.s.ter 4. This doesn't change unless he dies."
Number 46 burst into a bout of roaring laughter. He had a refreshing smile on his face, as if he had finally placed the final piece into a jigsaw puzzle. "That's how things should be! This makes sense! Didn't that bastard Harry mention something. The only
thing that would determine if we live or die is a person's real-time absorption rate!"
"After he said that, didn't he spend quite a lot of time explaining what he meant by 'real-time'? I'm sure Harry did this on purpose. He was distracting us from something—" Number 46 paced for a moment then he flashed his white teeth, "Why did he use the word per capita? Even if a person dies, everyone's absorption rate would rise by the same amount. This means that it is possible for the total number of members in a team to remain the same but have the total absorption drop."
"You mean… Since that man doesn't have his number tag, he can't absorb any nutrients. So, he would pull down the per capita absorption rate?" Number 47 asked after contemplating, "But, Harry didn't announce that Cl.u.s.ter 4's ranking had fallen?"
"Harry does not take the initiative to announce the absorption rate of each cl.u.s.ter," Number 46 snorted, "He told us our ranking because we asked. If nobody asks him a question about that, he will only make an announcement when someone dies."
"Yes— we can even tell Harry to keep our ranking a secret. If we do that, he won't reveal our ranking to the other cl.u.s.ters even if they pose that question to him," Lin Sanjiu smiled.
Her deranged bloodshot eyes had already long disappeared without a trace. Her amber eyes were lucid and clear once again. "Wait," she said before she raised her voice, "Harry, please tell us Cl.u.s.ter 4's absorption rate."
After she said that, the three other members couldn't help feeling a little nervous. They breathed lightly as if they were afraid that they would interrupt what Harry was about to say.
Their faces lit up the moment they heard his answer. "Cl.u.s.ter 4's ranking has not changed. The real-time per capita absorption rate is now 280mg."
Lin Sanjiu shifted her eyes.
"It went down," Number 45 said gleefully. Her mouth opened wide and the others noticed then that her teeth were lined up very much closer than a normal human's. "The rate fell but the number of members in their group did not change. In other words… Yes. If we take the name tags from two other members in their cl.u.s.ter, cl.u.s.ter 4 would drop to the bottom."
"But the people in Cl.u.s.ter 4 are now scattered. It isn't that easy to search for them—" Lin Sanjiu interrupted him before he could finish.
"I caught the man in the military singlet. Wait for me, I'll go get him."
"Why did you catch him?" Number 46 frowned. Since they took his number tag, detaining that person was just a hassle.
Before he could say anything, Lin Sanjiu turned around and slid down the stem. She landed on the leaf vertical below them.
"I tied the person behind this leaf…"
A bright female voice rang from beneath their feet. The three other members leaned over the edge of their leaf and saw Lin Sanjiu's raun across the leaf beneath them.
"Where is she?" Number 45 asked, raising her voice. However, she only heard Lin Sanjiu's soft footsteps.
"Oh, he's here."
Once she said that, a black shadow shot away from the leaf beneath them, toward the opposite direction like an arrow. After that, the three people froze for a second before they realized that the black shadow was Lin Sanjiu. After some rustling sounds, a person ran out from the other leaves in the opposite direction. The person rushed toward the large vine some distance away like a hare escaping from an eagle.
The person was very quick. The three of them only caught a red streak racing toward the vine. However, Lin Sanjiu was already prepared. She leaped and her shadow loomed over that person.
At that exact moment, the three of them suddenly realized that Lin Sanjiu's remark was just a distraction. She probably already noticed someone hiding so she was trying to let the person lower his or her guard. "Catch him!" Number 45 shouted despite not knowing who had been hiding silently near them.
The two people instantly got into a direct confrontation with each other. As the others watched with bated breath, the taller figure staggered backward as if she had lost her balance. She fell in a very strange, unnatural manner. "Tsk, tsk," Harry spoke a second later, "You can't use violence here."
"That's violence?" Number 45 shouted. "Number 49 hasn't even used a fraction of strength!"
Harry did not respond.
Lin Sanjiu stood up only when she lost sight of that person.
Looking at the direction where the person escaped, Lin Sanjiu called out to the three other people who ran up to her. She raised her hand.
When she did this, a strap suddenly appeared around her palm. The number tag dangling from the strap swayed back and forth in the air several times.
"Ah! You got it!" Number 45's face lit up. Even Number 47 with let out a sigh of relief, despite his usual deadpan face," Is that person from Cl.u.s.ter 4? I remembered. One of their members managed to escape the first time."
Lin Sanjiu gave him a bitter smile.
"No," she converted the number tag into her card the moment she flipped her hand over. When everyone looked at her hand, she couldn't help herself, "It is a number tag from zone C, Number 56."
This meant that the number tag did not belong to someone from Cl.u.s.ter 4.
"Even though I don't know which team he is from, it doesn't affect our original plan,: Number 47 said softly. "I have recovered quite a bit. We can continue searching for the other members in Cl.u.s.ter 4. It doesn't matter even if that person overheard our conversation. Even if we overtake Cl.u.s.ter 4's ranking, it doesn't affect the other cl.u.s.ters. In the end, the maturation stage boils down to the battle between us and Cl.u.s.ter 4."
That logic wasn't wrong. However, as the sky turned dark once again and the fluorescent lights in the greenhouse flickered on, Cl.u.s.ter 5 faced a turn of events they could never anticipate.
"We've heard about the information regarding the number tags," the person from Cl.u.s.ter 3 announced the moment he opened his mouth.
"Gal, I have an idea that can ensure that all of us can escape," Baldhead smiled at Lin Sanjiu.
Chapter 446 - A True Bit-role Actor
"Before we came, there were seven people in cl.u.s.ter 2 and a total of four people in cl.u.s.ter 3. Everyone had already agreed on the plan."
Even as Lin Sanjiu swung herself up to a twig hanging above her, she could recall the discussion during the meeting between their cl.u.s.ters 2, 3 and 5.
"A person will still be considered a plant of a particular cl.u.s.ter once their number tag is removed. However, his or her absorption rate drops to 0. This is a rule we can use to our advantage. A second rule is that if everyone's absorption rate is at the same level, we can all leave the greenhouse. The absorption rate will only be judged at 7 pm on the tenth day."
When Lin Sanjiu landed, she could feel the twig beneath her feet shaking slightly. She crouched and brought her center of gravity lower and waited until the tremors gradually stopped.
"It should be very obvious what our next step should be. If everyone agrees to remove their number tag before 7 pm, the absorption rate would fall to 0 that very minute. That is to say, the absorption rate per capita for each cl.u.s.ter would effectively be 0, so it will be a draw. We can then wear our number tags at 7:01 pm and leave this pocket dimension as m.a.t.u.r.ed plants." After that man with a gloomy countenance and dark circles beneath his eyes finished his proposal calmly, Lin Sanjiu quivered a little as she suddenly recalled what Harry accidentally let slip—
"Is it really that simple?" Number 46 asked doubtfully after hearing their plan, "What if there is some hidden rule we are unaware of…"
"No, it's that simple," Lin Sanjiu thought to herself as she followed the twig and traipsed through the leaves. She climbed the plant stealthily like a lizard, making no noise as she moved.
She did not know why she neglected that point previously. In retrospect, things couldn't be clearer. When Lin Sanjiu discovered the trick regarding the number tag and questioned Harry about his intention for hiding that point, he mentioned something to her sounding aggrieved, "If I tell you that information, how am I supposed
to get any produce?"
"Yes. If the battle was reduced to only cl.u.s.ter 4 and cl.u.s.ter 5, Harry would benefit regardless of who wins or loses in the end. He didn't explain the number tags explicitly to them because he probably figured much earlier that the people in the greenhouse could all escape using that method."
"Why would you choose to do that?" Number 46 was a cautious person by nature. Lin Sanjiu's insignificant proof did little to assure him. "If you choose to stay out of things, you wouldn't be affected no matter who ends up being at the bottom."
Baldhead shook his head and sighed.
"Cough. Bro, I think you understand the situation. After you snatched a number tag from cl.u.s.ter 4, how desperate must they be right now? If you were in their shoes, wouldn't you try any means to survive? To be brutally honest, if anyone from your cl.u.s.ters decided to kill and snatch everyone's number tags, we would be drawn into your battles." He turned to Lin Sanjiu, "This gal seems quite kind. If we can all survive, why should we fight so hard with each other?"
"If we don't collaborate, we will more or less suffer some losses. However, if we can work together, it would be a win-win situation for everyone." Spring Bean (the tall and skinny man) concluded.
The plan sounded simple, but—
"What if a person decides at the last minute that he doesn't want to take off his number tag?" Number 47 spoke his doubts as expected, "Given that scenario, only one team would survive and the rest of us would become fertilizers for the plants here."
"This isn't hard to solve," Number 46 replied with a frown, "We can set a date and time to gather. We will gather everyone and collect all the number tags. If we can only absorb nutrients with our own number tag, we can place all our number tag with one person and that particular person's number tag could be given to another person. If we can absorb nutrients even with someone else's number tag, we can place the number tags at a single location and we can monitor them together. If a person fails to appear or refuses to hand in their number tag, it would be treated as a betrayal. Everyone would chase that person down and kill him or her before 7 pm on the tenth day. Of course, as you chase after the traitor, you shouldn't be wearing a number tag yourself. In any case, we can work out the details.