by N. Heller
"Regardless, let's just go upstairs first," she fought her urge to coo and continue grumbling. "That old lady doesn't know us so I guess her target is Magus. I wonder how she is now."
Since Magus could probably still use her higher consciousness, she would still be fast asleep. However, her other abilities should be rendered useless so her other means of protection would probably be disabled. This was indeed the worst set of circ.u.mstances for Magus.
"I'm so tired," the blue floral sofa made another thud and panted heavily as he stood on the stairs. Even the sofa cover seemed to be heaving, "It's too hard for me to climb up the stairs this way. Qing Jiuliu, get down from me now!"
The red panda groused a little and jumped down from the sofa. To help them move along faster, Lin Sanjiu spread her wings and shoved Ji Shanqing from the other end of his armrest. She pushed and nudged Ji Shanqing while he tried his best to continue climbing. With that, momentarily, they moved much quicker up the stairs.
"Hey," Qing Jiuliu said as he climbed up the stairs. "This world is an absolute mess compared to all the other worlds I have been in. What's with the schizophrenia, calories and dimensional rift… Now, we even transformed into other species. There is no logic whatsoever."
Lin Sanjiu looked up at the number 16 on the wall and continued up the stairs, "I have some thoughts… about this." Lin Sanjiu had the same sentiments. Everything seemed incoherently chaotic. Yet, amidst this presumptive chaos, Lin Sanjiu had a feeling that something wasn't quite right.
"This is just a thought," she explained to her other two companions. "I think there is something unnatural about this situation. It doesn't make sense. Especially when I think about all the other worlds, I have this strong gut feeling that there is something wrong with this world. I can't point out what it is exactly since it's just my instincts."
"Unnatural…" Ji Shanqing repeated in a low voice and then went quiet. Both of them continued moving without saying a word, seemingly lost in their own thoughts.
Qing Jiuliu broke the silence. "We have been climbing up the stairs for such a long time, why aren't we there yet?" the red panda stopped and looked around. "What floor is this?"
"19," Lin Sanjiu frowned. Considering her speed, she found it strange that they had only climbed up three floors even after such a long time. Perhaps, it was because Ji Shanqing was slow.
"We just have to go up one floor to reach Magus. Everyone, keep your guard up for any sort of forcefield she had set up."
If Magus created a protective forcefield with her higher consciousness, it was possible that it might still be active. However, as they climbed to the next floor with Ji Shanqing panting behind them, Lin Sanjiu realized that her advice was unnecessary.
The familiar "16" on the wall stared back at them quietly. Even the dirt at the side of the number was exactly the same.
"We are not slow. We have already climbed the stairs on the 16th floor several times," Ji Shanqing suddenly mumbled.
Chapter 483 - Mathematical Domain
Reaching the last few steps on the flight of stairs she was on, Lin Sanjiu looked up. Just as she expected, she saw a three-seater sofa occupying half the stairs ahead of her and a red panda once again.
Lin Sanjiu sighed softly. Just moments ago, she had started from that exact spot. After climbing up three floors, she found herself back here.
From the looks of things, they probably couldn't escape these three floors of stairs by any normal means.
"It's just like what you said. It's like ' ghosts building walls 1 '", Lin Sanjiu crossed her wings, sat down and gave up walking as well. "I've read a ghost story once. I think it mentioned that a v.i.r.g.i.n boy's urine might dispel the setup," after Lin Sanjiu said that, she eyed the red panda.
"Don't look at me when you say v.i.r.g.i.n boy!" Qing Jiuliu gnashed his teeth at her. "How insulting!"
"I don't think that's what it is," the blue floral furniture interjected. "I think we're affected by someone's ability."
"Is it that old lady? We didn't even provoke her. Why can't she just leave us alone…"
Lin Sanjiu looked at the two people and thought of an idea. She stood up and walked to the door with the "EXIT" sign. She opened the door pushing her large body against it before turning to instruct the two people behind her, "Follow me. Give me some time to think while we go back inside. If there are no options, I will jump out of the window and see if I can break this weird loop."
The red panda leaped onto the sofa nimbly after hearing what she said. Ji Shanqing gritted his teeth as he shimmied out of the door.
There wasn't anything unusual about the 16th floor.
"Nothing looks different," Lin Sanjiu concluded as she inspected the corridor quickly. She marched back to her two companions swiftly, "Wait for me here. I'll go to a balcony and try to climb up."
After she said that, she pushed the door beside her. Using her large wings almost like a broom, she swept a dismembered corpse out of the way and stepped into a room.
There was a balcony attached to this particular guest room. It was very difficult for Lin Sanjiu to climb up to the next floor without her hands. However, Lin Sanjiu saw that she could grab the edge of the balcony above with her beak if she leaped up and flapped her wings as hard as she could. When the two other people entered the room, they watched as two chicken claws fumbled in mid-air before she finally climbed up to the next floor and disappeared from the view of the window.
The room was silent for a moment.
"What are your thoughts?" the red panda suddenly spoke after some time.
"I don't think it would work," the blue floral sofa sighed.
"What if we try to go downstairs instead?"
"If we head downstairs, we'll probably find ourselves on the 18th floor."
Qing Jiuliu hesitated for a moment before he turned behind to look at the sofa, "So, you've already…"
"Look outside the window," Ji Shanqing suddenly interrupted.
As if to prove his words, they heard a sound from the edge of the balcony. They saw a familiar beak gripping the metal railing of the balcony. Using the strength from her wings, Lin Sanjiu pushed herself up. Slowly, they saw the head of a hen spouting out from the edge of the balcony. Her black round eyes stared back at the two people inside. Lin Sanjiu suddenly made some clucking sounds as if she was swearing her head off.
"What the hell!" That was the first sentence she said the moment she landed properly in the balcony and regained her balance after much effort.
"What is wrong with these three floors? Why can't we get out!" Small feathers floated around the room as the disheveled hen entered it. "Maybe I should try jumping off the building. I can still see the ground level—"
"Don't!" Ji Shanqing immediately reacted, "If you jump down from the 16th floor, you will probably fall from the 18th floor… Then, I think you would continue falling through the three floors in a never-ending loop, I think."
Lin Sanjiu looked at the sofa. She did not know where Ji Shanqing's 'face' was so she could only shift her gaze around the sofa with uncertainty. "You already figured out the situation?"
"Yes, I have a conjecture. This isn't something hard to guess." Ji Shanqing probably saw that Lin Sanjiu's eyes lit up so he sounded a little embarrassed, "Even though I don't know if the culprit using this ability or even Special Item, I think that the space between the 16th floor and 18th floor has been converted into a Möbius strip."
Lin Sanjiu frowned when she heard that familiar term. As she tried to recall where she had heard that term before, Qing Jiuliu exclaimed, "Ah! It is that unorientable, never-ending loop!"
"Yes, if you walk on the surface of a Mobius strip, you can walk on forever without seeing an end…"Ji Shanqing muttered. "Don't you think it resembles our current situation?"
"I have a vague idea of what that is. It is related to math," Lin Sanjiu replied. "With that in mind, what should we do next?"
She asked again. Suddenly, she noticed that the red panda was looking he
r way. The latter's sparkling black eyes slowly shifted upward. He was staring directly behind her. Ji Shanqing fell silent and acted like an ordinary sofa.
There was something behind her!
Lin Sanjiu turned around abruptly. She was shocked the moment she saw what it was.
There was a head of black hair floating in the mid-air above the balcony. When Lin Sanjiu saw it, it shot upward and disappeared into the floor above. Seconds before, someone seemed to have been hanging upside down to look into the room they were in.
"Wait for me here!"
Before the two people behind her could speak, the hen sprinted to the balcony. She spread her wings and leaped up. She caught the metal railing with her beak with finesse, pulled her body and disappeared from sight.
Qing Jiuliu sat upright and stared at the balcony. However, he wasn't staring at the top of the balcony, but at the bottom. If that head of black hair jumped upward, it would reach the bottom of the balcony on their floor soon.
After waiting for a few minutes, he did not spot any sign of that head of black hair near the beige white balcony floor. Additionally, he didn't know where Lin Sanjiu was after she chased that intruder.
Just then, Ji Shanqing spoke:
"Qing... Qing Jiuliu?" For some reasons, he was speaking softly and his voice was even trembling slightly.
"This chap is smart but too timid… " Just as this thought surfaced in Qing Jiuliu's mind, he questioned Ji Shanqing without turning his head, "What's up?'
Even though he didn't have any saliva nor esophagus, the blue floral sofa made an audible gulping sound.
"Someone just touched my back."
The red panda turned his neck immediately, the fur on his back was standing on end.
There was no one behind the back of the sofa. As the sofa was standing sideways at the room entrance, he could only see a wall, the open door and a short passage of the corridor outside.
"What do you mean by 'touched'?" Qing Jiuliu asked quietly.
"I can't see my back but I felt someone accidentally brushing past my body," Ji Shanqing's was whispering so softly that he was barely audible. "Anyway, something touched me."
"Could it be the owner of that black hair? " The red panda grabbed the sofa back and stretched his legs, standing. He looked around cautiously.
His black eyes swept across the luggage bags, the carpet, the light switches and the pile of bones...
Nothing seemed different. He didn't see that "someone" that Ji Shanqing mentioned.
Wait. A phenomenon in Asian ghost stories where a person is trapped in a place by a ghost/entity.
Chapter 484 - Bat In Slumber
"Wait, wait a moment..."
Qing Jiuliu blinked his eyes slowly as he stared at the skeleton at the entrance.
As they entered the room in a hurry, he didn't take much notice. Looking at it now, he immediately discovered that there was something unnatural about the skeleton.
"Ji Shanqing, could you move a little?" he whispered. He pressed his furry mouth against the sofa back and requested softly, "Look at the corpse at the entrance."
The blue floral sofa shifted a distance as if it was pushed by an invisible hand. After it made an angle and straightened itself once more, a section of its front side was now facing the door.
"You're suspecting that the corpse isn't dead?" Ji Shanqing asked, "That's impossible. The decomposition—"
He suddenly stopped speaking.
Of course, that badly decomposed corpse couldn't possibly be alive. However, both of them found the decomposition of the corpse very strange.
As the climate around this region was very dry, the corpse's flesh and skin was dry and like black cotton wadding. It clung on the yellowish skeleton along with the ragged remnants of the person's clothes. They looked as if they could be blown away with a single breath. The patches of black decomposed flesh were like an army of black fungi. Yet, the corpse's skull seemed to be missing a large piece of flesh. The torn opening seemed very fresh and the skull that was revealed below was a lot whiter than the other bones.
"There is someone else hiding in these three floors!" Ji Shanqing exclaimed quietly. The entire sofa shifted backward. "Not just that head of black hair. Someone just bit off that corpse's face!"
The red panda lost his balance with Ji Shanqing's sudden movement. He immediately fell into the sofa's seat with a plop. Ji Shanqing did not check if he was alright but instead continued rapidly, "How did this happen… Is it that old lady? Why would she do something like that?"
The red panda on the sofa seat made a sighing sound.
"Hey… look up." Qing Jiuliu suddenly muttered quietly, almost grimacing.
The blue floral sofa stood in a daze for a moment. Two of his feet suddenly shifted upward as if he had been lifted up halfway. With that action, Ji Shanqing "looked up" and finally had a clear view of the ceiling. If it weren't for that human face, he would have assumed that there was a giant bat hanging from the ceiling.
The man on the ceiling was in a full suit of black. His four limbs were outstretched toward the four corners of the room. His body was sturdily attached to the ceiling. Without moving his body, the man lowered his dry, yellowish face. He stared at the two people below him emotionlessly. Judging from his puffed up cheeks, he seemed to be chewing on something.
After two seconds, he swallowed whatever was in his mouth and spat out a chunk of human scalp with a clump of hair.
Ji Shanqing was so grossed out when he saw the hairy, saliva-covered chunk of scalp land beside his feet that he shuddered. At the same time, Qing Jiuliu, who had already gotten up, answered a question that bothered Ji Shanqing, "I recognize that face. He is one of the people sleeping in that room. Magus' ability must have been deactivated. They're all awake!"
"Oh, so you've seen me before," a somewhat unnatural voice came from that yellowish, shriveled bug-like face which swayed a few times, while his black clothes hang from the ceiling. Hearing his voice, it seemed as if this was the first time he had spoken in a long while, "So, you guys are related to that woman."
He was definitely referring to Magus. Just as this thought appeared in both Ji Shanqing and Qing Jiuliu's mind, the space above them suddenly became dark. The shadow above them suddenly lurched at them.
"Go!" Ji Shanqing shouted. Meanwhile, the red panda leaped off the armrest of the sofa. Once his paws landed on the floor, he immediately looked behind him and saw the bat-like shadow covering the blue floral sofa.
"I've never seen an animal and a furniture talking," the man stood up on the sofa. The outline of his skinny limbs and spindly body protruded from under his black clothes. He turned his head and eyed the red panda. His brown lips curled, "I've eaten duoluozhongs and posthumans but I've never eaten an animal like you."
He was a Jaeger!
Qing Jiuliu's fur was standing on end. His hind legs were tensed as he prepared himself for any sudden movements—
Even though there was someone standing on the sofa seat, the person's legs seemed to be too deep in the seat. No. Both the man's feet were actually buried in the seat. He tried to pull his legs out but JI Shanqing was "grabbing" one of his calves.
"Call for my sis! Quick!" As Ji Shanqing held on to the man strenuously, his voice was so tensed it was almost as if he couldn't catch his breath. Qing Jiuliu didn't dare to waste any time. He turned around and rushed to the balcony.
Without turning his head, Qing Jiuliu could tell from the sound of fabrics rubbing against each other that the man was trying his best to free himself so that he could catch him. Ji Shanqing's combat and strength wasn't particularly outstanding so it was just a matter of time before the man could struggle free. However, at that crucial point, the red panda stopped by the balcony railings.
Qing Jiuliu could not reach the floor above with his current height.
Thud. One of the man's feet landed on the floor. Ji Shanqing let out a painful cry after whatever the man did but he held on to the man's other feet tightl
y. However, a victorious smile slowly spread across the man's shriveled, yellowish face.
There was still a strand of hair between his dense set of teeth. The reddish-brown panda immediately turned back and stuck his head out of the railings. He took a deep breath.
Ji Shanqing gasped again as the man pulled his feet out and stood firmly on the floor. Following which, the man strode across the room, approaching Qing Jiuliu. The man would cover the few meters between them soon.
"Lin Sanjiu!" Qing Jiuliu raised his voice as much as he could, with fur bristling. "COME BACK AND SAVE US! YOUR GRAND PRIZE IS DYING!"
His voice was so loud that even his eardrums hurt. His call for help echoed quickly through the three floors. The bat-like man froze for a moment. His smile dropped from his face as he rushed to the balcony.
Qing Jiuliu waved his paws and created several deep red scratches across the man's skin. However, the man seemed oblivious.
"I'll eat you first," the Jaeger declared pantingly. His putrid breath assaulted Qing Jiuliu's face. "When your rescuer comes, I'll eat him. After sleeping for such a long time, I'm famished…"
As he spoke, a large shadow suddenly appeared above him. Then, he was kicked by a large claw. The force caused the man to fly backward. At that moment, he was almost like a real bat. He landed heavily on the floor. Borrowing the momentum of the impact, the red panda escaped from his hand.
A large hen flapped her wings as she landed on the balcony. She shook her head and threw the black-haired woman in her beak down on the floor. As the Jaeger looked blankly at her, Lin Sanjiu stepped on the delirious woman with a claw. She stared back at him icily with her black eyes.
"Were you trying to kill my friend?"
Chapter 485 - The First Time To Perform On Stage
"A… A hen?"
From the pair of puce-colored lips, came the yellow-skinned man voice in a hesitant tone. His eyes lit up the moment he saw Lin Sanjiu.