Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  "Forty seconds."

  Those who had missed their target staggered off their trajectory due to the large impetus. While they were gasping to reclaim their balance, two legs wrapped in denim jeans suddenly appeared out of thin air and pushed all of them except Lin Sanjiu, who had artlessly dodged the surprise attack, off the leaf.

  The moment her heel touched the ground, she charged up her speed and bolted toward the half torso that hovered in mid-air again. Unfazed, Sunny performed a graceful turn in the air and thwarted Lin Sanjiu's attack with practiced ease, her number tag in front of her c.h.e.s.t swung in a half circle along with her motion.

  Then, her artless voice reverberated in the air, as everything of this was fun to her, "Hey, since when you did you grow suspicious of me?"

  Lin Sanjiu gave Sunny the cold shoulder as she gestured her hand. The [Female Slavery Bondage Rope] appeared in her hand.

  "You plan to catch me with that? No offense though, but I suggest you not to do that," Sunny laughed. The countdown had gone down to 35 seconds. "Besides, have you all have forgotten something?"

  Her words stupefied everybody.

  "If you all don't keep an eye on the indigo flower, the woman from cl.u.s.ter 1 might come and grab them."

  The crowd's face turned pale. They quickly turned around and to their surprise, the leaf which held all of their indigo flowers were gone.

  "Thirty seconds."

  "Look at yourselves," Sunny grinned widely, her brazen laughter resounded loud and clear in an undulating wave across the air above them. She was so thrilled that veins began to appear on her palm-sized face, "I wish I had a mirror now so that you guys can see the despair..."

  "Twenty-five seconds."

  "Who has an expression of despair?"

  Harry and Number 46's voice rang out at the same time and cut into the words that were forming at the tip of Sunny's tongue.

  "If you guys are looking for the flowers, we have a full bouquet in our hand right now," said Number 46 as he turned his body around and pointed to the two large bouquets of indigo flowers at his and Number 47's back.

  Hearing this, the half torso froze. Then, she shrilled, "Queenie! Come over here!"

  "Are you calling for the woman from cl.u.s.ter 1?" Number 46 asked matter-of-factly, "No offense though, I don't think stealing other people's flower is the right thing to do."

  "Twenty seconds."

  In the next second, Number 46 spun around and clapped his hand. A person leaped in from the leaf behind and landed beside him. Number 45's mouth was wide opened; a human head could be seen dangling from her mouth that filled with many teeth more than a healthy human.

  The few people from the cl.u.s.ter 4 gasped in terror when they saw the head. It was something nobody had seen before. Beneath the head of frizzy and messy hair, the eyes of the woman were scarlet with anger, glaring menacingly at Number 45 with a tightened jaw. At the fracture point below her head, there was a freshly grown, red finger-sized body of an a.d.u.l.t with four limbs.

  "Fifteen seconds."

  "I have to admit that the ability of you and your friend here is pretty intriguing," Number 46 said slowly, taking his time to make sure every word he said was clear enough to be heard by everyone, "We have long discovered that her ability is self-amputation. However, it's only toward the very end that we realized she might chop her head off and throw her rest of body parts into the abyss below the greenhouse. If it's only her head, she can fit perfectly into your backpack and that's why we couldn't locate her anywhere in the greenhouse. Nevertheless, the most amusing feature of her ability is that her body will stop growing if somebody touched her."

  "Ten seconds."

  "You couldn't help your partner to put on her number tag when you hurl her head toward the indigo flower, and now she is in our hand and she will die with us in another ten seconds," Number 46 seemed to be unfazed by the fact that he would be dead soon as well. He exuded a nobody's business aura as he continued his speech, "So what will you do? If you remove your number tag now, both of you can survive."

  Every part of Sunny seemed to have lost their weight after she'd fragmented her body. All of her body parts were now gyrating, roaming, and dashing dexterously around the air, and it was hard to catch them. It was all thanks to those her body parts of her that Sunny was able to push four people off the leaf, leaving them struggling for their life by clinging onto the edge of the leaf.

  "Hmm, okay, but before I remove my number tag, I have a question," The half torso suddenly blasted upward like a cannonball as she evaded another surprise attack. She dawdled after Harry had announced they had only seven seconds left, "How did you guys know it's me?"

  "Because the arms are different."

  "Arms are different?"

  "Exactly; it's pretty obvious, to be honest. Just like the tail of a lizard, during Ms. Queenie's first attack, the arm that fell off from her body was lifeless, and it couldn't move; however, this did not happen for the second attack. During her second ambush, the arm that she shed could move autonomously and even steal our number tags—" Number 46 paused for a second when Harry announced they had only 4 seconds left. Then, he continued, "From there, we know that the two arms from the two incidents were not from the ability of the same person. The reason you didn't react to the ambush and sit alone from us isn't that you're stunned. It's because, at that time, you'd fragmented your arm and gave it to Ms. Queenie over here.

  "As a woman that's willing to forsake even her own body, it's no surprise that you would cut off your arm first. It's just that you never expect Number 49 had already realized something was fishy… Oh yeah, speaking of Number 49, do you know where is she now?" Number 46 grinned after Harry said they had one second left, "The motive behind her initial attack was to create an opening for me, while I speak so much nonsense is to distract your attention."

  "One second."

  The moment Harry's voice was raised into the air, Sunny's face changed. Lin Sanjiu suddenly leaped out from the layers of foliage not far from them. There was something wriggling and struggling to freedom in her embrace. When she stopped on the leaf where everybody was with the thing in her clutch, everybody saw it was a woman's right arm.

  "Catch the flower," Number 46 shouted sharply as he hurled a large bouquet at Lin Sanjiu. The moment the indigo flower touched Lin Sanjiu's hand, then Sunny would be dead. However, at this crucial moment, Harry's voice sounded out, "Time's up. Cl.u.s.ter 2's absorption rate per capita is the highest, so they are the winner while the rest of the cl.u.s.ters are tied at second place."

  "Hahaha!" Sunny laughed; she was brought to tears. "I f*cking love this pocket dimension! I sincerely thanks you all for the wonderful show you all have put up at the twilight of your life… Oh, it's so thrilling… When I realized Number 49 had set up a trap for me, I made use of the trap and killed the red-shirted guy. I initially thought all of you were at your wit's end, and there wouldn't be any exciting overturn anymore but... Oh, you guys are really full of surprises!"

  Almost everybody was frozen at that moment. Their blood turned cold, their body was trembling, and they couldn't even move one of their fingers.

  The indigo flower whizzed past Lin Sanjiu and fell beside her feet. Number 46 nodded to Number 47 and the latter quickly went to Lin Sanjiu's side. He then unbuckled the indigo flower at his back and handed over to Lin Sanjiu. Only a few centimeters left, and the flower would touch Lin Sanjiu's hand.

  "What are you guys doing? The maturation stage has ended and I won't die even if you touched my right hand. Those who are being left behind will definitely meet their ends here. Don't ever think that you have another chance of participating in this pocket dimension anymore. Say farewell to the world, Hah!" Sunny was too happy that she couldn't contain her laughter. Her body parts began to return to her body and very soon, a human figure was formed, and the only thing that was not there was her arm that Lin Sanjiu had. However, it seemed that Sunny wasn't in the heart of trying to struggle for freedom what
soever; after all, the person who was holding her arm was going to die soon.

  Everything seemed fine for her until the next words said by Harry that thrust her into confusion.

  "So are you guys familiar with the flow now?"

  "W-what? What flow?" Wide-eyed, Sunny turned her head around to see Lin Sanjiu and Number 46. Even though their faces had no expression, their expressions were not the countenances of people who were going to cross the Styx soon.

  "Yep, thank you for the rehearsal, Harry," Lin Sanjiu held the arm firmly and shouted toward the sky. A moment later, she spun around, tossing Sunny a warm big smile as she stared at her grim face, "Do you really think I went to take a shower just now? I just used the sound of the water to cover the conversation between Harry and me. I asked him to walk us through the thing he was going to say at 7 pm 10 minutes in advance. I made it 10 minutes earlier so that you wouldn't feel suspicious. Frankly speaking, if Harry disagreed, I may have had to take on a hard measure but luckily, you fell into our trap."

  Sunny looked goggle-eyed, her two cherry lips were wide apart yet no voice came out from them.

  "Which means that we still have another 9 minutes before 7 pm," Number 46's scathing laughter was layered with sarcasm, "Truth to be told, I'm not any sort of nice guy myself. I just want you to experience the feeling of being deceived by somebody before your death arrives."

  "Wait! Wait a sec!" A man and a woman voice boomed out at the same time. The crowd turned around to see that Baldhead had already climbed up to the leaf and was now running with an unstable gait to the center of where they were. While the banshee-like female voice was coming from the head in Number 45's jaw. She closed her mouth and stopped wailing after she saw Baldhead had rushed forward.

  "Please don't kill her! Please don't kill her!" Baldhead had rushed in front of Lin Sanjiu. He seemed to unable to grasp what had transpired. Pointing to Sunny, he said, "I'll take her number tag away. Like that all of the cl.u.s.ters absorption rates will become 0, right? Everybody will win the round and nobody would get hurt..."

  "Why are you protecting her?" Number 46 asked with a frown, "Even though both of you're from the same cl.u.s.ter, and you wouldn't die if she had won, she never thought of you while she was plotting all of her sinister plans. Cl.u.s.ter 1 has only one member, so Harry let her come in first; that's reasonable. But your cl.u.s.ter has eight members, and your team is the second group to enter the greenhouse. Do you know why?"

  Dumbfounded, Baldhead turned his head toward Number 46. His blank expression suggested that he didn't understand what Number 46 had said at all.

  "This is because there is one member from your cl.u.s.ter plotting the death of her seven other team members. She would do that if the situation called for it—the best example would be the red-shirted guy," Number 46 said cooly.

  "I don't know, and I don't want to know!" Baldhead roared. He strode toward Sunny and pulled her number tag away. He turned to face the crowd and yelled at the top of his lung, "But I know she won't kill a person without a solid reason. Anyway, I have her number tag now. Please, I beg you. Please don't kill her for the sake that I have been assisting cl.u.s.ter 5 all this time. If you still don't feel secure enough, I will tie her up!"

  What Baldhead had said was true. He had been a good ally ever since their alliance. Number 46 turned to Lin Sanjiu as he had lost his interest, "It's up to you now. I'm too tired."

  Lin Sanjiu glanced at Baldhead and looked at Sunny that was standing behind Baldhead.

  The girl was biting her lower lips. Lin Sanjiu couldn't tell from her face that was she scared, nervous, or she was just suppressing her giggle.

  "My ability can't turn a living human into a card," After she thought for a while, she sighed, "So, I don't know if I can turn her right arm into my card. If I can, I'll let her live. If can't, sorry I have to kill her no matter what."

  Baldhead's lips quivered. His face was blanched white as he agreed.

  Then, Lin Sanjiu placed her hand over the pale arm. The moment the [Planar World] was activated, the arm disappeared as well.

  Chapter 452 - Weed-like Life Force

  "Congratulation to those who have conquered the ordeals of all three stages. All of you are now fully m.a.t.u.r.ed."

  Perhaps he regretted introducing these cl.u.s.ters of posthumans into his farm because they were defiant enough to wipe out all his hard-grown plants, Harry's voice was spiritless as if he was reciting boring lines, "By going through the three stages, I suppose all of you understand that as long as you trust each other and work together, there is nothing in the world that can stop you from achieving your goal."

  Indeed, among the stages in Harry's farm, none of them had to cost them their lives. Even though she knew very well that Harry wasn't mocking them, Lin Sanjiu still felt embarrassed.

  The juxtaposition of the situation where all of them could have survived with their current situation implied how badly they'd done. They had a total of forty members in the beginning, yet only ten out members survived.

  "If we look at it from another angle, Harry's Farm is really a Noah Ark's for posthumans," she lamented to Number 46, who was sitting next to her.

  "I don't think so," she couldn't see Number 46's expression clearly beneath the veil of his frizzy hair. All she could hear was his cool, emotionless voice, "If helping posthuman is the holy grail of this pocket dimension, there would have been no need to set so many restrictions and rules."

  Stunned, Lin Sanjiu looked at Number 46.

  "Because he understands our nature very well, he knows that human can never trust each other. Hence, he set up these rules to tease us, showing us some sort of seemingly hopeful pathway, but look," Number 46 laughed, "...Rather than trusting a living stranger, we are more prone to believe a dead body. No matter how long it takes, as long as humans still exist, this is the gospel truth that will never change."

  Everybody sat together in a circle whiling away the time to leave the greenhouse. Number 46's voice was soft yet it still reverberated clearly in the air.

  "No," Lin Sanjiu frowned as she refuted, subconsciously, "The reason I'm here, talking to you, is because I have a lot of friends with me—"

  Harry's thunderous voice cut her off, "Your adventure as a plant is over. I suppose all of you have fully charged and felt very refreshed, right?"

  The crowd had been haunted by fear after they'd lost their number tags, so they kept cleansing the greenhouse until the ninth day. They didn't have a good rest. Looking at each other, all of them realized that aside from Number 46 and Lin Sanjiu, most of their countenances were unkempt.

  "Next, I'll brief you all the way to leave my farm. It is a little complicated, so lend me your ears."

  The crowd quickly bolted upright and listened closely, giving their full attention to what Harry was going to say next. Lin Sanjiu swept a glance across the group and saw that Sunny was resting her chin on top of her hand. She was playing with a pebble in her hand as if she didn't care about the things that were happening around her. At her side, Queenie's body was growing, and it seemed that it would soon grow back to standard human size. Right now, she was whispering something in Sunny's ear which made the latter frown. With a pout, Sunny took out a few articles of clothes from her backpack and hurled them at Queenie. It seemed to Lin Sanjiu that Queenie was embarrassed showing her n.a.k.e.d body in public.

  "I guess you all must be curious about what is in the abyss, right? Have you all ever played the 'Bounce' arcade game in the casino?" Harry suddenly switch to a topic that was irrelevant to the greenhouse, "It's a pinball machine with many small obstacles arranged on top of a sloped board. After you drop a small metal ball through the entry point, the ball rolls down by winding around the obstacles, and will eventually fall out from different exits."

  As Harry continued with his explanation, Lin Sanjiu somewhat caught the sound of some machine rattling to life below the abyss, but when she listened carefully, she couldn't hear anything. There was nothing down ther
e, only silence.

  "The only way to leave my farm is to jump into the abyss," the crowd gasped at what Harry had said. "But don't worry, I can warrant your life. You won't be dead even if you jump into the abyss; instead, you will become like the small metal ball, and the passage inside the abyss will lead you to different exits. There are three exits from the farm, and it depends entirely on your luck which exits you would end up with in the end."

  "That's all from me. The countdown will start now. Please leave the greenhouse within three minutes."

  Even though Harry didn't mention what would happen to them if they continued to stay in the greenhouse, none of them were bold enough to take the risk.

  Taking the previous round as example, they were full knew that "Bounce" wouldn't be as easy as it sounds; or else, Harry would not say they needed to rely on their luck.

  The crowd began to move. Some of them walked to the edge and craned their necks to look down into the abyss while some of them glued their eyes on Lin Sanjiu and Number 46 as they wanted to know which way they would jump. The heavily muscled bloke from cl.u.s.ter 3 couldn't wait any longer to leave the pocket dimension. He took the lead, closed his eyes tight, and jumped, drawing a gasp from the crowd at his bravery. Then, they quickly crowded around the spot he jumped from and looked down. However, what met them was absolute darkness—the man had disappeared into the umbra without a trace.

  Sunny stood up and walked up to Lin Sanjiu. There weren't any emotions on her palm-sized face, "So can you return my arm now?"

  Lin Sanjiu raised her eyes and saw Queenie, who was trailing closely behind Sunny, as well as Baldhead, who looked at Sunny with longing. A strange, uncomfortable feeling welled in her heart. After Lin Sanjiu stared at Sunny for a few seconds, she finally gave in and summoned her card.

  The moment the arm appeared, it instantly flew toward Sunny and reattached to Sunny's body.

  "Why would you do it?" Just when Sunny was turning away, Lin Sanjiu asked her. She deliberately raised her volume so that Baldhead could hear their conversation, "You knew her all along?"