Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Losing her companion was something Lin Sanjiu had considerably grown accustomed with. Filled with the feeling of morose and not wanting to give up so soon, she barged into the first Presidential suite again. This time, the red panda appeared to be more active as he quickly followed after Lin Sanjiu. This was because he had found a wine shelf in the Presidential suite in their previous survey.

  This time, the rosewood door remained closed for a while longer.

  After roughly 20 minutes, the silence was shattered by a succession of pitter-patter that was getting louder and louder by every minute. The footsteps sounded not like the noise of human feet would make but resembled the echoes of the talons of an oversized canary striking the carpet. The rosewood door was pulled open, then the head of the hen stuck out from the gap. Its two beady black eyes were ablaze with fury, "What the hell were you doing? How can you still drink liquor when—"

  The exhortation Lin Sanjiu wanted to shower at Qing Jiuliu froze at the tip of her tongue when she saw the thing in the corridor.

  Qing Jiuliu burped before raising his two glassy beady eyes. Then, in the next moment, he opened his eyes wide.

  A petite figure, with a hump on her back and a cane on her hand, was standing at the other side of the swimming pool. As if she had sensed somebody coming, she spun her body around.

  She was donned in a green robe and a pair of large and loose slack pants. She just looked like your ordinary old woman—except for her face.

  "You guys are a little bit early," she said, l.i.c.k.i.n.g her two blubber lips. From her wrinkled layers of skin came a hoarse voice which reminded them of the hollow wood that was burned down by flame, "...Well, you guys left me no choice but to play with you guys first."

  "What does that mean?"

  Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes, and her heart went pit-a-pat.

  Right now, she had already used her only and the most reliable [Pygmalion Choker] to deal with the bat-like man but that wasn't her biggest concern. What made her wary the most was the appearance of the old lady.

  She's ugly, no doubt, but…

  She had never seen such a "blurry" human before.

  After she stole two glances at the old lady, Lin Sanjiu tore her gaze away from her. However, she soon turned back to her. After all, she couldn't bring herself to stare fixedly at the old lady. She had to shift her gaze away from times to times.

  When she went closer, she realized that the old lady looked as if a group of low-resolution images superimposed together; not only the color was terrible, but the look was hazy as well. Upon closer inspection, even the side of the old lady was imposed by many layers, which in turn smeared the outline of her body and induced seasickness to whoever was looking at her.

  The old lady parted her lips. When she didn't make any expression, her two lips resembled two enormous sausages that were about to droop over to her c.h.e.s.t. As she lifted her hand, a few delayed afterimages of her upper torso appeared in the air, looking like an image with poor signal.

  Lin Sanjiu's heart tightened. The moment she wanted to summon her [Defence Forcefield], her body shuddered, and she glared at the old lady's fingertip.

  "Wh-What is that?" Qing Jiuliu's mumbles rang out beside her.

  …A neatly arranged menu had appeared out of thin air on top of that old lady's fingertip. The words in the menu had a faint, nearly transparent color tone. It was so soft that it might cause people to mistake it as the shadow created by the refraction of light. They might not be able to notice it, had they not walked closer.

  "Haven't I made myself clear enough? You guys are a little bit too early."

  The old lady continued to talk, with her parched and emotionless voice, "Well, I have no choice but to play with you guys for a little while before the right option comes out."

  "What the hell was she talking about?"

  Lin Sanjiu darted a glance at the menu. Even though she couldn't tell what it was or what could it do, there's only one thought in her mind—she had to stop the old lady from doing whatever she wanted to do next. Without giving the old lady any warning, the large hen leaped into the air, coating in her Higher Consciousness and charging ahead.

  Facing a colossal hen that was twice her size charging in full fury at her, the old lady appeared to be pretty calm. In fact, she didn't take Lin Sanjiu's attack to heart. When her finger danced around the menu, her face was overcast by Lin Sanjiu's shadow.

  "When you breathe in the air, you'll be afflicted by depression." The old lady raised her head, drawing a chaotic mess of afterimages in the air and finished her words right before the hen's wing fell on her head.

  Thump. Lin Sanjiu suddenly fell to the floor from midair. Her human arms had returned right before the moment her wings touched the old lady's head. When she dropped to the floor, she looked as if she was an ordinary human without any battle skill. She didn't adjust her position nor did she protect her head. The heavy thud when she contacted the floor would make people wince in pain.

  The red panda looked at Lin Sanjiu, who had returned to her human form. Perplexion flooded his face as he had lost his ability to speak for that moment.

  Facing her back at him, Lin Sanjiu was getting herself up from the floor. Her movement was somehow unsteady, as if she was a toddler on her first attempt to walk. She kept her head low all the time until she had oriented herself in a sitting position. Then, she stopped moving.

  "Hey… Knock, knock," Qing Jiuliu implored, but she didn't reply. Awashed by a bad feeling, Qing Jiuliu ran toward her but then he stopped halfway through, "Lin Sanjiu! Talk to me! You aren't getting a depression, aren't you?"

  The difference between getting depression and having a mood swing was as far as the distance from the earth to the sky. No matter how much he wished he was wrong; he knew very well from the moment that the old lady announced the words on her menu, Lin Sanjiu must have had already contracted depression.

  When she said they would change species, they changed. Although it seemed to him that the old lady could apply only one effect at the same target at one time, her words were really…

  When he thought about this, the red panda squinted his eyes. He lowered his head and bolted toward the old lady. The moment he took his move, Lin Sanjiu rose up to her feet as well. As if she did not want to make any connection with anybody, she tiptoed to a dark corner and crouched down.

  "You want to return to your human form too?" The old lady chuckled, looking with a mirthful expression on her face as the red panda struggled with all his might in her hand. Then, she raised her hand and hurled the red panda far into the distance, "...I'm sorry, but I cannot make your wish come true. My ability is too precious to use on a sc.u.mbag like you."

  Qing Jiuliu scrambled up from the ground in a long, breathless breath and looked at Lin Sanjiu, who had claimed a small territory of her own at the right corner of the room. If it were in the past, she would have already exploded and began to wreak havoc around. But now…

  The reason he launched the attack not because he wanted to return to his human form; it was more than that.

  Qing Jiuliu did not turn his head to the left, for the last thing he wished right now was that the old lady noticed the thing at her left side.

  "Your menu," huffing, he tried to shift the old lady's attention to him. "One of it is "conditions" while the other one is "consequences." There are a total of five options in a menu… I have seen it already. 'When you breath in the air' was the option you picked from the condition column while you select 'you will be afflicted with depression' from the consequences column." He paused, then snorted, "What an interesting ability. What's it called?"

  "Why do you want to know that?" The old lady replied slowly. As she walked toward the left side, she continued to talk, "Anyway, it doesn't hurt me from telling you. The name of this ability is [Concept Mishmash]. Ingrain that name deeply in your brain."

  After that, as if she had grown tired from standing, she sat on a blue floral sofa, heaving a contented sigh.


  Chapter 487 - A Sofa’s Sneak Attack

  Frankly speaking, a country style of the fabric which made the sofa looked way out of place beside the swimming pool of a luxurious and modern hotel. If their enemy wasn't that old lady, Ji Shanqing would probably have been discovered long ago.

  Nevertheless, the old lady who was clearly quite indifferent about interior design sank into the floral sofa as she hammered her knees a few times. Quite surprising, she seemed very light. The sofa seat sunk only very slightly when she settled down and it was almost as if she was floating on the surface of the sofa.

  The springs of the sofa made a strange whimpering squeak. The old lady did not mind. She lifted her two heavy eyelids and looked around her. She appeared to be very pleased with the current situation.

  And, of course, Qing Jiuliu knew why the woman was so relaxed.

  The best fighter among them, who posed the greatest threat against that old lady, was now sitting in a dark corner. With a lowered head and an expressionless face, Lin Sanjiu hugged her own knees and was unable to even look straight at another person. As for himself, he was stuck in an animal form and could not use any of his abilities. He was probably even weaker than a cat in his current form. None of them knew where Magus was or whether she was awake. However, it was clear that nobody there could deal with the old lady other than that woman.

  When Qing Jiuliu approached the old lady, the old lady raised an eyelid. He stopped immediately.

  "Since we can't do anything to you, why don't we have a little chat," Qing Jiuliu sat down and wrapped himself with his fluffy tail. "What's your goal? What are you waiting for now?"

  The old lady scoffed. Apparently, she didn't see the need to answer him. She averted her gaze slowly and looked at her own fingertip.

  Two rows of words appeared faintly above her fingertip. After some time, they started blinking beginning from the first line. When they became stable once more, the words had changed. The content had obviously been refreshed.

  "So the words will change?" Qing Jiuliu hesitated for a moment and took the opportunity to take a few steps forward. He stared at the strange menu.

  As he was looking at the menu from behind, he could only see the mirror image of the text. It took him quite a few seconds to make out the words. Though it took some time for the old lady to activate the menu, Qing Jiuliu could only catch the two words "Conditions" and "Consequences". The statements on the menu were extremely random and varied. There wasn't any sort of pattern to them. It was as if someone had taken a bunch of everyday words and chained them together to form the particular statements.

  Under "Conditions", there were two options, "When a person takes a step with his/her left leg..." and "When dust enters a person's eyes…". Meanwhile, under the "Consequences", Qing Jiuliu only caught the word "amnesia".

  "Hmm," the old lady sighed. She looked up with her turbid eyes and stared hazily into the distance. When the old lady didn't move, she didn't look as blurry. She seemed to be waiting for something to happen.

  "What's she waiting for?" Qing Jiuliu shot a glance at Lin Sanjiu.

  Lin Sanjiu was still in the same state. She sat motionlessly. Her face was hidden in the shadows. She seemed as if she wanted to bury herself in the walls and never see the sunlight again. Cursing inwardly, the red panda moved slowly. He decided that he would try to move behind the old lady without her noticing.

  "I advise you not to try anything and stay where you are," the old lady warned as she stared listlessly without turning her eyes to him. "Don't make me feel that it is necessary to deal with you. I can assure you that the consequence would be a lot worse than being an animal. I have a good one right now."

  The red panda stopped moving immediately.

  The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy as silence enveloped them. After one minute, the menu above the old lady lit up again. Just as before, the menu blinked again while the content was refreshed. The old lady lowered her eyelids and read the new content before deactivating it disappointingly.

  This time, Qing Jiuliu took the short opportunity to scan the content on the menu quickly. He could not read every single word clearly but through his fleeting glance, he did not spot a single "death" under the "Consequences".

  The atmosphere was quiet and stale, just like a pool of stagnant water.

  "The time interval between when the menu appeared again seemed to be about one minute." Qing Jiuliu thought to himself though he wasn't sure how knowing this would help them. He started counting the seconds nonetheless.

  When he counted to about 60 seconds, the menu re-appeared out of nowhere again, just as expected. After every one minute, the old lady's [Concept Mishmash] would refresh once. Whenever it was time for her menu to refresh, she would summon and check her menu as if she was searching for something specific. After her menu was refreshed for four to five times, the old lady's face finally darkened. Her sparse but long eyebrows knitted together tightly.

  "Strange, why isn't it coming out…" the old lady mumbled softly. She adjusted her sitting position restlessly. Her eyes swept across the entire top floor menacingly as if she was threatening someone.

  "Old lady," Qing Jiuliu said sweetly as he took the chance to get a little closer. "After all this time, you didn't try to kill us. Does this mean that we aren't your targets? If that's the case, why don't we help each other out? Let us know what you need. If it is within our means, we will do it for you. Why don't you remove the effects you set on us?"

  The old lady cast a cursory glance at him through her heavy eyelids. A glint played across her whitish eyes.

  "Isn't there a saying that old people tend to speak more? You are really not like the typical old lady," the red panda said flatteringly. "How should we address you?"

  The old lady moved her thick blubber lips. She did not tell him her name but instead scoffed mockingly. At that very moment, her eyes suddenly widened as her gaze went back on the menu that just lit up above her finger.

  The semi-transparent words on the menu caught the attention of the two of them.

  The mirror-image words were too difficult for Qing Jiuliu to decipher in such a short time. He barely made out the second word when the old lady suddenly exclaimed. "Ha!" the old lady suddenly sat up straight. She quickly tapped the menu a few times and stored it. As her movement accelerated, her body which seemed to be an amalgamation of thousands of superimposed images became even more blurry. The red panda began to feel giddy and had to quickly look away. His gaze happened to land on the blue floral sofa behind her. Then, he realized that something was wrong.

  Right then, the blue floral sofa cover was puffing up and down rapidly. From the looks of it, Ji Shanqing seemed eager to speak his mind but was trying his best to stop himself from just blurting everything out accidentally.

  "That's right. He can look at the menu from the correct side, he doesn't have to look at mirror-image words… What did he just see?" The thought that just surfaced in Qing Jiuliu's mind was interrupted by the old lady's soliloquy:

  "There it is! There it is!" With a face full of glee, she was apparently oblivious to the peculiarities of the sofa beneath her. "When options don't appear, they just don't. When they appear, they come all at once… Not bad. Not bad."

  Her words were so puzzling that even Lin Sanjiu, who was sitting not far from her, looked up. However, she quickly buried her face as if she was afraid to exchange glances with anyone. The red panda had no time to figure out what Ji Shanqing was thinking. He stared closely at the old lady's every movement. The old lady twisted her body to one side as her eyes surveyed the top floor swiftly. A smile appeared on her saggy face.

  "When I sneeze, all illusions will disappear."

  The red panda stared at the old lady blankly. Momentarily, he didn't know what to do. The old lady undid her hair bun and her locks of thin hair fell successively past her shoulders. In just a short time, several strands of hair had already fallen to the floor. She grabbed a lock of dry, white hair and stuck it i
n her nostril. After she tickled her nose twice, she suddenly sneezed loudly.

  At that moment, the sight before them caught more than Qing Jiuliu's attention. Ji Shanqing and Lin Sanjiu stared into the middle of the swimming pool at the same time.

  The dirt, grime, and trash which had acc.u.mulated over two years seemed to have been erased with the wave of a hand. They gradually disappeared and revealed the ripples of the blue pool. The water was like a sparkling blue jewel lying seamlessly in the pool.

  When they looked at the water, they could almost feel the cooling sensation on their skins. The dazzling intense blue water in the pool quietly enveloped the motionless cheetah within it. Her eyes were closed.

  At first glance, all of them recognized the sleeping cheetah.

  Even though the color of the cheetah's fur might be slightly off due to the blue tint of the water, it seemed the same color as Magus' hair. Her fur flowed down her body like molten gold. Lin Sanjiu stared at her in a daze for a few seconds. Eventually, she even bit her lip tightly and stood up. She looked as if she wanted to take a step forward but couldn't move. However, she stood still even after some time.

  The old lady was unconcerned about her audience's thoughts. She turned her head and shot a glance at the pool before sneering. The red panda's heart froze for a second. When he lunged toward her, it was already too late. The old lady's withered voice echoed slowly through the air, "When it reaches four o'clock, you will never escape from your current condition."

  "What's the time now?" Qing Jiuliu shuddered. He just remembered that there was a digital clock in each room. It was obvious that the old lady had planned the timing of her operation very carefully. He barely ran a few steps when the pool changed.

  "Fantastic," the old lady laughed with a wide grin. "My mission is complete."

  "You… you have a vendetta against Magus?"

  "Magus?" Unexpectedly, the old lady's expression froze for a second. With a sudden look of realization, she uttered, "Oh, so she's Magus? I don't know her."