Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  … After the world had ended, what should two posthumans who were perfect strangers to each other do when they encountered each other on the street? It seemed to be not the type of the question where Qing Jiuliu would think after.

  The stranger was moving closer to the hotel, shrouding his figure under the shades of the trees. He seemed to have no interest in the man as he disregarded Qing Jiuliu's intense gaze and moved past him in a similarly relaxed demeanor. When the person walked nearer, only then could Lin Sanjiu and the grand prize sees clearly that the figure was a senior woman, clad in a green robe.

  She was holding a walking stick while resting her arm at the hunch on her back. She had a bun hair and was wearing a green robe. With her large and loose black slack, she was the perfect epithet for the word "old lady."

  The old lady sauntered, one step at a time because her legs weren't very strong. Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing looked at each other, but none of them tried to call Qing Jiuliu.

  At this moment, the old lady suddenly stopped. She spun her head around, looking at Qing Jiuliu who was far away from her.

  Both of them were dumbfounded. The old lady turned her body around and darted toward Qing Jiuliu in a speed which belied her aged appearance.

  Even though her figure blurred when she was traveling in hyper speed, she was still "walking." In a blink of an eye, her figure had disappeared amongst the shades of the tree.

  Coldness instantly took over Lin Sanjiu. "You stay here!" After she ordered to her grand prize, she stepped up the windowsill and jumped down from the building.

  Chapter 480 - You Are Just Wasting My Time For Not Telling Everything

  Over the years, the thick layers of fallen leaves had painted a blend of green and orange color on the avenue. The dead leaves were like a group of musician, singing a symphony of soothing tone for those stepping on them.

  Accompanied by the cacophony of crackling leaves, Lin Sanjiu stopped moving forward as she felt a twinge of confusion.

  An eddy of wind blew past her, picking up a few leaves and carrying them to her front. The sepia leaves whirled in the blue sky for a moment before falling on the bridge not far away.

  Everything was so quiet, and there was no sight of either that old lady or Qing Jiuliu.

  There was a river at the end of the street. The London plane trees were thinning toward the end of the road and there were lesser fallen leaves on the ground. Hence, it had become harder for Lin Sanjiu to keep track of them.

  Without thinking twice, Lin Sanjiu activated her [Higher Consciousness Scan] and continued her search forward. Nevertheless, her attempt was futile as she couldn't find their traces anywhere in the end. Overwhelmed by her anxiety, she kept moving forward and just as she was crossing the bridge, she somehow caught a human voice from the air.

  Stunned, she stopped and pricked her ears.

  It was as if somebody was shouting in the distance, again and again. The speaker was too far away from her. By the time it reached her, the voice had dissolved into a bunch of meaningless words. She listened to it with her brows furrowed for a few seconds before jerking up from the ground and dashing back to the hotel.

  It was Ji Shanqing's voice, and he was calling her!

  "Was this all planned by that old lady? She lured me away so that she could target the hotel?"

  Lin Sanjiu's heart was beating like a galloping horse beneath her ribs. She hastened her speed, arriving at the hotel in the blink of an eye. When she saw the person in front, her expression froze.

  "Sis—" Ji Shanqing's voice wafted into her ears from upstairs. It seemed like he had long realized Qing Jiuliu had returned, "Finally, you heard me."

  "What is going on here?" Lin Sanjiu was all at sea. She lifted her head and yelled at her grand prize, "Are you all right?" After she had confirmed that the grand prize was merely calling her back, she walked closer to Qing Jiuliu and picked him up from the ground.

  The man who slumped like slush in her arms raised his head. His eyes were glistering with tears.

  "How did you get back here? I saw you go down that road just now, and that old lady—"

  Qing Jiuliu smacked his lips as he slouched against Lin Sanjiu, "There's a person… I'm not sure if she is an old lady either. All I can remember is somebody tugging at my sleeve and telling me that I had gone the wrong way… Then, before I knew, I was already here."

  Lin Sanjiu's frown grew deeper.

  "How did she know you're heading the wrong way… What else did she say?"

  "Ah?" Qing Jiuliu replied, waving his hand, "She did say something else, but I can't remember. My brain is all over the place right now… Let me have a cigarette to clear my mind."

  With that, he took out a brand new box of cigarette and a split new lighter. He was unnaturally gifted in searching for tobacco and wine. As he took a long pull from the cigarette, he moved toward the front entrance with Lin Sanjiu. Although there was an entrance at the back of the hotel as well, it had been blocked by a dozen of crashed vehicles.

  "Think, faster," Lin Sanjiu fanned away the smoke with her hand, "... You should go back and take a shower."

  "You don't understand," Qing Jiuliu purred. "The more I look like a beggar, the fewer people would trouble me."

  "Explain to me that old lady, then?"

  "...Maybe she took pity on me? Or perhaps she's elderly with social graces?" Qing Jiuliu replied indifferently. Then, he drew his brows together, staring straight at the entrance door, "Wait, she seems to have said something about the "hotel."

  "Hotel?" Lin Sanjiu looked at him. When she saw his half-closed eyes, she was getting more nervous, "Pick up your speed. Let's tell Ji Shanqing."

  The grand prize was smart and perhaps he could analyze the situation better than her. But little did she expect that the moment she turned around, Qing Jiuliu had grabbed her by her arm from behind.

  "Wait a sec," it was rare to see him moved so agile. However, the furrows on his forehead deepened as his eyebrows drew down further. Clawing tightly at Lin Sanjiu's wrist, he said, "Don't go in first… Some images are coming back to me."

  "What? Spit it out."

  "What I'm certain is that she wasn't talking to me at that time," Qing Jiuliu muttered. By degrees, he was regaining his sobriety; his eyes sparkled like two diamonds, "...I can still vaguely recall being taken by the old lady on her shoulder. The experience was bad as my face was pressing against her hunch. When she said those words, rather than saying that she was talking to herself, it's more like…"

  "What?"

  "...It's more like she was activating some items or abilities," Qing Jiuliu paused as he realized he had been keeping Lin Sanjiu in a state of suspense. "She mentioned two words: 'hotel, and the fact...' Or did she say something else."

  "What did she say?"

  "Maybe I was wrong," Tilting his head, Qing Jiuliu said to himself, "... It can't be."

  Lin Sanjiu was ticked off by his mumbles. She grabbed him at his collar and boomed, "Spit it out! Don't keep me hanging on!"

  "She said something like when, then a hotel, and the fact that…"

  Once again, Qing Jiuliu had a lapse on his memories. As if he was facing the hardest question in the world, his delicate face was all wrenched together, "...Ah, I can't remember what she said."

  Lin Sanjiu finally had run out of patience. Without saying a thing, she dragged him into the hotel. Even though what Qing Jiuliu said made no sense at all, it still worried her sick. Logically speaking, the old lady and they were perfect strangers, and she found no reason for the old lady to find trouble with them. So, was Magus her target?

  Besides, it was Magus who decided to turn this hotel into their temporary base.

  When Lin Sanjiu went full tilt on her strength, there was no way Qing Jiuliu could free himself from her clutch. As he breathed out a serial of sounds that weren't really words, he kept patting on the back of her palm. However, he stopped struggling the moment Lin Sanjiu crossed the entrance door.

  "I, I reme
mber…"

  Qing Jiuliu voice was quivering. However, at this moment, Lin Sanjiu, who suddenly had become shorter, didn't want to hear it anymore.

  Chapter 481 - New Form

  … She had considerably become much shorter.

  Her sight lines had taken a nosedive, falling straight to an eye level as if she was in a hunker position.

  The concierge desk not far away had become taller, and the ceiling was higher. Everything in the lobby was larger, almost triple in size compared to their original dimension. Had it not been for her blurred vision, Lin Sanjiu might have noticed these changes much earlier.

  So, what happened?

  After she calmed herself down, Lin Sanjiu lowered her head. The deep-colored marble floor under her claws had never been so close to her line of view before. It was as if she was squatting on the ground. The decor in the hall remained as it was, but—

  Wait, hold on a sec.

  Rewind a little bit.

  Her mind ceased to function for two seconds. After those words were spoken, she lowered her head again.

  In her eyes, there were two talons, beige in color, clawing firmly on the floor.

  Moving up from the talons was a fluffy, well-endowed b.r.e.a.s.t. From its location, it seemed to be just below her chin.

  Well, that's if... she still had her chin.

  "Ah…" From behind came Qing Jiuliu's voice, sounding a little bit surprised. The eye on her left side rolled around, and she saw everything behind her.

  A reddish-brown red panda was crawling out from a pile of human clothes on the floor, standing behind her. It looked at her with its two beady shiny black eyes that embedded in its thick red and white furs. It opened its mouth which made Lin Sanjiu chastised for its silly look before talking with Qing Jiuliu's voice, "...She said, the fact that once everybody is inside the hotel will change our species."

  "Do you think by saying those will do any good to our current situation?" Lin Sanjiu parted her beak in a fury, "Why can't you remember just now?!"

  "It must be that old lady's doing. She didn't want me to remember what she said before all of us were in the hotel," the red panda said. Whenever it was speaking, the white whiskers would move in tandem with its mouth, "She must have had used her ability to meddle with my memories. By the way… why the hell are you a hen?"

  "How should I know!" Lin Sanjiu's brain was all over the place. She had lost her ability to articulate her thought into words, and all she could manage was to flap her wings madly, stirring up eddies of wind in the air.

  Even though she couldn't see herself, she did realize that compared to an ordinary domestic fowl, she was oversized. Leaving everything aside, her talons were as large as her feet when she was still a human.

  "F.u.c.k!" Lin Sanjiu cursed aloud as she tried to unclog her mind, "That old lady, why would she—I mean how—"

  The red panda moved forward; his body still reeked of booze. It assaulted Lin Sanjiu's nostril even though as a hen, she didn't have much ability to smell. Qing Jiuliu swooshed his fluffy tail from left to right and said, "All in all, let's go upstairs first. The old lady might come back and check on us. Perhaps, she's hiding somewhere right now and laughing at us."

  "Stop saying that," Lin Sanjiu calmed herself and darted towards the stairwell. "... I hope Ji Shanqing won't eat me."

  "I think he won't," Qing Jiuliu spread his now four stumpy legs, "The old lady said 'everybody' and I guess Ji Shanqing has changed species as well."

  His words had caused Lin Sanjiu's heart to go pit-a-pat. She dashed into the stairwell, releasing a serial of cackles and disappeared into the flight of stairs. "Wait for me!" Just as Qing Jiuliu yelled, Lin Sanjiu replied, "You should be able to run faster now since you're on four feet rather than two feet!"

  "I have no idea what kind of animal am I." Listening to Lin Sanjiu's voice reverberate in the stairwell, Qing Jiuliu mumbled and scorched up the flight of stairs. "...All I know is that I want to sleep on a tree now… Hey, I'm going up the stairs pretty fast."

  The structure of the stairs was closer to a red panda's dwelling. After he had run for a few seconds, the figure of the large hen dashing up the stairs appeared in his vision. Lin Sanjiu still had her cloth on her body, but it had already shredded into pieces by her two flapping wings.

  "Wh-What's wrong?" The red panda huffed, throwing his body on the floor as if somebody had extracted his spine, "What—?"

  "Shh," the hen shushed. The red panda was surprised that she could produce such sound with its beak, "Stop talking. Listen."

  Qing Jiuliu flicked his fluffy ears.

  After the sound of their footsteps dissipated into the air, a muffled thump wafted into their ears from upstairs. The footfalls were louder as if something massive was smacking its leg against the floor. After a few seconds, the same sound came again, scaring the red panda so much that it stood on its hind legs.

  "What are you doing?" Lin Sanjiu asked, looking at the red panda as if she was looking at a brain-challenged person—Well, red panda.

  "I can't control it. It's the animal instinct!" Qing Jiuliu replied as he placed his two forepaws on the floor. "What's that sound? Wait. How could you hear sound when you don't have ears?"

  "I have ears!" Lin Sanjiu retorted in a low voice, "Besides, I can feel the vibration from the ground. Quiet! The big fellow is coming down!"

  Another long and muffled "thump" came again, causing the handrail to vibrate vigorously. The two animals held their breaths and listened; the second "thump" was much nearer to them.

  Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and walked a few steps forward. She poked her head from the gap of the stairs and looked up.

  Qing Jiuliu crept in, laying under Lin Sanjiu's wing.

  Then, a frightened sobbing voice resounded from the stairs, "Sis?"

  Lin Sanjiu's heart shuddered—

  "Sis, is that you? It is me, Ji Shanqing. I'm coming down now…"

  Chapter 482 - Infinite Loop

  Lin Sanjiu exchanged glances with the red panda beside her. Both of them were speechless.

  At that moment, a large "item" was occupying the flight of stairs before them. It lay askew on the stairs. The three of them stared at each other in a daze for a short while.

  "Me… You two… why did we suddenly change? What happened?" Ji Shanqing stammered in a vexed voice. His voice was muffled as if it was behind a layer of cloth.

  Lin Sanjiu looked at the red panda and she spun twice on the same spot. She suddenly flapped her wings and lifted herself mid-air. When she landed, she found herself standing on the seat of a sofa. She ran across the sofa while Ji Shanqing yelped a few consecutive "ouches". Then, she jumped off the other end of the sofa.

  Lin Sanjiu looked down at her own claws and sighed inwardly. She just verified that the sofa was indeed Ji Shanqing.

  It wasn't all that surprising. The old lady only said that they would "change species" and did not actually specified that they would become animals. Since Ji Shanqing was originally a grand prize, the fact that he had transformed into a three-seater sofa with floral cover wasn't strange by any stretch of the imagination.

  "But, of all furniture, why did he have to become a sofa?" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.

  Among them, undeniably, the person that was most pleased with Ji Shanqing's transformation was Qing Jiuliu. He bounced up onto the sofa and sat snugly on it. He placed a paw on one of the armrests and said to Ji Shanqing, "It must have been tiring for you to shuffle all the way here. Let's go. I'll tell you everything that happened as we go upstairs."

  "Do you know how hard it is for me to move around?!" Ji Shanqing said as he shifted up one step strenuously. When he moved, it was as if there was an invisible person pushing him from behind. The sofa shifted an angle and then slightly upward before one of its legs smashed down on another step of the staircase. His action created the familiar noise they heard previously.

  Lin Sanjiu was anxious to go upstairs to check on Magus but she was also worried about
the two companions behind her. In the end, she raced up a few steps and quickly turned around. As she looked back at them, she suddenly thought of something, "Can you still use your abilities?"

  "To be accurate, my abilities are not unusable, but I simply don't fulfill the requirements to use them," Qing Jiuliu said sluggishly. "I need to use my hand to cover a surface before I can extract the liquid within it. I can't fulfill even the first requirement to activate that ability with both my paws. I know even without trying."

  A visa suddenly appeared on the blue floral sofa almost as a response to what he said. After a few seconds, the visa burst and disappeared like a bubble as the sofa moved. Ji Shanqing could activate his ability even as a sofa. He wasn't human, so naturally, the requirements for him to activate his abilities would not be related to any of his "body parts". Even though he could still use his ability, it seemed useless considering their current situation.

  Lin Sanjiu pondered for a moment and tried to call out a card. Unfortunately, without her hand, her cards seemed to be unable to decide whether they should appear from her wings or her clawed feet. Nothing happened even after she waited for some time. Since she couldn't even call our her card, Lin Sanjiu knew she didn't even have to try her [Mosaic Censorship] as she needed both her hands. Her heart sank the moment she realized this.

  "I wonder if our transformation is due to that old lady's own abilities or a special item… In any case, the effects should only last for a limited time, right?"

  In spite of everything, there was a silver lining to their dire situation. Lin Sanjiu could still use her higher consciousness. She retained an abnormal amount of physical strength despite being a hen. Lastly, she could still use the [Pygmalion Choker] on her neck. At least, Lin Sanjiu could still rely on these three things.