by N. Heller
"Are you guys finished?" J7, who had been pinching in the middle of Lin Sanjiu's palm asked.
Stunned, Bohemia looked around, but she found no people at all. She only noticed the bean-like, black dot, sitting awkwardly in between Lin Sanjiu's finger when she stood up and turned her head. The black dot said; its flat voice hiding a hint of dudgeon, "... Sorry for interrupting your lovely reconciliation, but the remnant of Bula's Higher Consciousness form is vanishing."
"What… is that?" Bohemia held out one hand with her fingers outstretched, as she couldn't resist the urge to poke at the little thing.
"Don't touch me!" J7 shouted, "If you touched me, both of us would be sent back to the cell!"
"This little thing is a player too?" Amazed, Bohemia withdrew her hand. She took a few steps back and said, "Are you gonna absorb that Higher Consciousness form's remnant? I'm sorry but you'll be disappointed. All Higher Consciousness form will be scoured and refined into Higher Consciousness first before handing to the victor as a reward."
J7 fell silent.
Lin Sanjiu's conjecture about Bohemia's dilemma was proven to be correct when she saw Bohemia did not do anything and refrained herself from getting near them. After a short rumination, she suddenly saw an opportunity, and her eyes glowed. She hastily asked, "Actually, you only want to get back your Potential Growth Value, right? Can you promise me not to bother us anymore after you have gotten back your Potential Growth Value?"
Upon hearing this, Bohemia harrumphed scornfully, "I hate being taken advantage of the most. If someone ever did that to me, I would chase that scoundrel to the end of the world until I got my revenge. However, you're different; you saved my life, so I would wipe our slate clean, but it won't happen until I get back my Potential Growth Value."
"I have taken advantage of you? How absurd! Have you forgotten that it was you who planned to snatch mine first? I was just protecting myself!"
"The Astral Plane is a place where the weak are the prey of the strong. That is the law of survival in here. If it were Nüwa who took my Potential Growth Value, I would never say a thing and suck it up, but that wasn't the case. You're the one that took my Potential Growth Value. And I have the confidence that I can defeat you and reclaim what I have lost. So why not give it a go?"
J7 spun its head back and fro in between the two women. It seemed lost, as it was confused by the complicated relationship between Lin Sanjiu and Bohemia.
As if she had listened to a joke, Lin Sanjiu laughed, "By that logic, shouldn't it be natural and logical when I took your Potential Growth Value?"
Not knowing how to counter Lin Sanjiu, Bohemia's face reddened as she murmured under her breath, "This is this, and that is that. It's a horse of a different color..."
"Then, what are you gonna do now?"
"I… I don't know," Bohemia said, bewilderment crawling all over her face.
"How about this," Lin Sanjiu suggested after she thought for a moment, "I did not take advantage of you, nor have I done anything sneaky. I took your Potential Growth Value through fair and square means. If you can take it away, just take it. I will not give it back voluntarily."
Unlike Ji Shanqing and Gong Daoyi, who had a knack in deceiving people, Lin Sanjiu felt that she would earn more trust from her opponent if she spoke honestly. Upon hearing what Lin Sanjiu had said, the vein on Bohemia's forehead bulged, and her eyes turned cold as she said flatly, "Have you forgotten already? We are not allowed to steal Potential Growth Value inside a game."
"There is a way," Lin Sanjiu sighed. Never once had Lin Sanjiu imagined that she would one day proposing her adversary an assaulting plan to attack herself, "But you have to cooperate with me to make it work."
Bohemia did not reply at once. She looked at Lin Sanjiu with a confused frown.
"Let me kill you," Lin Sanjiu said. She felt easier to articulate her idea once the first word had been spoken. "After I have killed you, the game will send you out. While as the victor, it wouldn't be long until the game sends me out to collect my reward. It might take a while. But after that, you can do whatever you want."
"I don't trust you," Bohemia immediately refuted, "I don't see any reason why you would want to expose yourself to danger. It just doesn't make any sense... Oh, I get it, so you want to pull that one off again: You're planning to exit the Astral Plane when I'm gone. Nope, you're not going to do that. Even if you succeeded in escaping from the Astral Plane to the real world, with my barrier, you wouldn't be able to hurt me—"
"It was Magus. She's the one who pulled me out of the Astral Plane last time." After that, Lin Sanjiu then told the whole story to Bohemia, "Had it not been for her, do you think I could break the game rules?"
Bohemia did not make any comment. She knew Lin Sanjiu was somehow related to Magus, and now it appeared to her that their relationship was more on a friendly term.
"Not long after meeting Magus, she vanished from the Astral Plane… It seems that Lin Sanjiu is telling the truth."
"You know about this?" J7 turned its head to Bohemia and sought proof from her.
"Yeah, I know that," Bohemia replied half-heartedly.
"She said that she did not know how she entered the Astral Plane this time…"
"I'm the one who pulled her in."
Right after that, Lin Sanjiu felt some movements from her fingers. The tiny dot began to reconstruct its body again, and very soon, a humanoid figure appeared on her palm, "You're telling the truth. I apologize for the misunderstanding."
"That's not necessary. You did get the short end of the stick because of me…" Its action had made Lin Sanjiu off-balance a bit. Feeling embarrassed, she quickly diverted the conversation into another topic, "By the way, why did you change your outlook?"
"I heard that humans have a long history of being on their knees to showcase their sincerity when asking for forgiveness. Hence, to extend my most sincere apologies, I'm now bowing to you."
"Oh, my holy crap! Get up!" Lin Sanjiu was so startled that she almost dropped J7 from her palm, "Fine, fine! I accept your apology. Hurry up and change back!"
J7 then changed back to its upright form.
Bohemia had been weighing the pros and cons of Lin Sanjiu's idea while the two were engaging in a convo. Her brows were tightly creased. After some time had passed, she said, hesitantly, "... Even so, I still don't see any reason why we would do that. Aren't you afraid at all? I'm much stronger than you, you know?"
"Not really. I'm pretty confident in my escaping skill. If I can't beat you in a fight, I would run."
Lin Sanjiu was no longer the same as her old self. Right now, she had absorbed Syphilis' and Bohemia's Potential Growth Value. Hence, her Higher Consciousness had become stronger, and Mrs. Manas had awakened from her slumber as well. Lin Sanjiu even had an inkling that she could exit the Astral Plane without Bohemia's aid.
But most importantly, she wanted to get a line on the wellbeing of Magus. Even if she only had one chance to ask one question, it's better than making no progress at all.
As for her body in Salvation of God, she wasn't apprehensive about it. This was because Bohemia would never kill her as she was now a walking bag of Potential Growth Value to her.
After Lin Sanjiu had sorted everything out, she became more agitated as she urged Bohemia to decide, "What is your answer? Quickly. You have to decide fast."
The more Lin Sanjiu pressurized her, the more hesitant Bohemia became. After she shilly-shallied for a long while, she said through gritted teeth, "Fine then! Let's do it your way. But how are you two going to fight me? No offense, but you two looks so… miserable."
"That's why I said we have to cooperate," Lin Sanjiu offered her a wide grin of teeth, "But you have to wait for me a while. I need to rest."
Lin Sanjiu had only half of her body left. Even after she had rested for half a day, it wasn't enough for her to regain her entire body. The silver lining was that she was able to control one of her hands, and that's all she needed.
Bohem
ia moved two chairs over from the other side of the concourse. She snapped one chair into pieces and picked up Lin Sanjiu using the leg of the chair. Then, she positioned her on the other chair and sharpened the broken leg before placing it inside her palm. They were cautious not to touch each other throughout the entire process. As even a small physical contact would send Lin Sanjiu directly back to her cell, and their plan would be ruined.
After handing the sharpened chair leg to Lin Sanjiu, Bohemia then sat on the ground. A myriad of emotions—fear, apprehension, nervous—flitted across her face, causing her countenance to turn ashen white and green in fear before settling down in a red boldness. She craned her neck and closed her eyes, and said as if she had thrown everything into the wind, "Let's do this! Be quick. I'm afraid of pain."
Without saying anything, Lin Sanjiu thrust the sharpened side of the leg into Bohemia's neck. Bohemia screamed out in pain, but nothing happened. Lin Sanjiu was stunned. The strength of Bohemia's Higher Consciousness form had exceeded her expectation.
"You're too strong," Lin Sanjiu praised her, "We have to try again."
The entire concourse was then filled with the warden's nasally voice.
Chapter 534 - Please Be More Civilized When Watching A Movie
Even J7, an automaton that had no human emotion, felt sorry for what Bohemia had experienced. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Bohemia was dead; her figure vanished before their eyes. Lin Sanjiu had regained much of her Higher Consciousness form, and J7's body had also evolved from the size of a seed to the size of a hamster. They helped each other walk over to the gate. After they opened the gate, they poked their heads inside, and they heaved a sigh of relief at the sight they saw. It appeared to them that the game had been cleared after they had defeated the warden.
Once they were out in the square, the broadcast which they had been anticipating finally rang out, "... Congratulations to the players for clearing the game "Three-Legged Prison Break." All dead characters, as well as the chunks of Higher Consciousness form of the opposite players, will be distributed evenly to the winning team in the form of Higher Consciousness."
After that, each of them had received their share of Higher Consciousness. If Potential Growth Value was the hen, then the Higher Consciousness was the egg. Under the circ.u.mstance where there was a short supply of hens, or the production time took too long, many people were willing to go through the game to earn some eggs.
Of course, in essence, only the online gaming platform would never suffer loss while the rest of the players were playing the zero-sum game. Like the "prisoners," they were, in fact, the Higher Consciousness of players who had been defeated in single-player games in the past.
"We should've realized that earlier," J7 said to Lin Sanjiu as its body was becoming larger and larger, "If we knew beforehand that all the dead characters could also replenish our Higher Consciousness, we should have killed more of them to make the most out of the run."
"We were too weak to kill them all." A satisfied grin appeared on Lin Sanjiu's face when she saw her Higher Consciousness form had become complete again. This time, they not only received Higher Consciousness from the dead prisoner; they even got a share of Higher Consciousness from Bula and Bohemia, "Anyway, we can always join another game next time."
The Higher Consciousness form imitated the body size of the user accurately. Once the Higher Consciousness had finished shaping the body, the remaining bits would be then refined into the "body," improving the rigidity of the Higher Consciousness form. Clenching her fist, Lin Sanjiu basked in the delightedness of becoming even stronger.
Once they received their rewards, Lin Sanjiu and J7 was teleported out from the online gaming platform, where the sight of a million stars once again welcomed them. Up until now, only then Lin Sanjiu saw the light of why Bohemia would have followed after her into the game. To cope with the high volume of players, the gaming platform had set up more than a dozen channels around, with one white ribbon in the center of the two channels serving as the divider. Each channel led the player to a different direction in the starry sky, and it was indeed a tiresome and an impossible feat for a person to go back and forth alone between the channels looking for his or her target.
Since they entered the same game, they both came out from the same channel. Congealing into a ball of light, not long after Lin Sanjiu and J7 flew over the starry void, they were greeted by a bright auburn-colored star.
"You guys finally came out!"
Bohemia felt that she had been waiting a lifetime for this day. Fraught with anxiety, she had been accompanied by a distinct constant fear of the occurrence of an unfortunate event that might ruin their plan while waiting for Lin Sanjiu. If that happened, all the torture she had endured earlier on would be in vain, but the goddess of luck smiled at her at last. Her eyes gleamed, and her heart jumped in jubilation the moment she saw Lin Sanjiu. It was as if she had seen the savior of her life. She yelled at J7 eagerly, "Get out of my way!" before darting at Lin Sanjiu.
Just when Lin Sanjiu was going to say something, a highway suddenly appeared underneath the auburn star and connected both of them in a blink of an eye.
Bohemia heaved a relieved sigh after she saw the highway connected. With the highway, even if Lin Sanjiu ran away, Bohemia would be able to trace her down with a simple flick of thought, given that she wasn't too far away.
Then, she said, "Come, follow me. It's better off not to fight in the gaming platform. Let's go away further a little bit to settle our score."
"She has some interesting corresponding conditions…" As the thought flitted into Lin Sanjiu's mind, she walked up to Bohemia, only to be stopped by a call from J7.
"Where are you guys going? Mind giving me coordinates?"
"Why?" Leaving the bobbing star—Bohemia—hanging, Lin Sanjiu turned to J7 and asked unhurriedly, "You want to oversee our fight?"
"But I don't know—"
Before Lin Sanjiu could finish speaking, Bohemia suddenly charged in, standing in the center of the two people, "Why all the fuss? All you need to do is just swap a touch of your Higher Consciousness with each other! Let me show if you don't know how to do it! Ugh! Why on earth do I have to stick with you, this ungrateful and demanding person?!"
"You don't say," Lin Sanjiu praised her again, "Although you are a bit annoying, it's pretty convenient to have you at my side."
Bohemia rolled her eyes as she did not want to talk to her anymore.
After she had finally gotten rid of J7, the auburn star turned and flew in front, followed by Lin Sanjiu, who studied the highway with great interest as she flew by.
As stars, both of them traveled at very high speeds. They soon flew away from the online gaming platform, leaving the swirls of stars behind. The light ebbed away, and the area grew darker. Lin Sanjiu soon found themselves entirely shrouded in an endless black emptiness. Just when Lin Sanjiu was going to ask where they were heading, the auburn star, which had been flying in front all the time, suddenly disappeared into the ether.
Stunned, Lin Sanjiu came to a halt. The highway was still there, stretching far into the endless darkness in the distance. Her surroundings plunged into complete obscurity after Bohemia was gone. There weren't any stars around.
"Has it already started?"
Lin Sanjiu raised her guard and studied her surroundings meticulously while staying in her stellar form. Bohemia's corresponding condition was strange. Lin Sanjiu had seen a house, a door, and a highway so far. She couldn't figure out what was going to appear next.
After the highway had made a connection with her, the highway followed her wherever she went. After she tried to turn to the side twice, she was certain that the highway could do her no harm asides from acting as a tracking device for Bohemia to track her down. Hence, she did not move anymore and stood completely still.
However, even when she had stopped moving, it didn't stop the highway from growing narrower. The asphalt gradually softened until it became a carpeted wal
kway. When she raised her head, she found that her surroundings had changed as well. Right now, she was standing inside a dimly lit, empty spacious room with a grey screen at one end. There were rows of shadows in front of the screen. Though Lin Sanjiu's could not see very clearly in such an ill-lit atmosphere, she was able to make out from the outline that they were seats.
"Looks like I'm in a screening room… It seems that Bohemia's corresponding condition is related to human buildings…" Lin Sanjiu stood there and thought to herself.
Bohemia wouldn't make any advances if Lin Sanjiu chose not to move. The screening room was dark and silent. She walked around, looking for an exit, but she stopped her attempt right after she realized that she was going around in circles.
Everything was odd, but Lin Sanjiu had no choice but to finish this fight. She believed that Bohemia wouldn't be able to snatch her Potential Growth Value by just enacting and trapped her in a building. If she could do that, she might have already become the most powerful person in the Astral Plane. Hence, Bohemia must have something up her sleeves, and Lin Sanjiu was going to find out what that was soon.
Suddenly, there was a pale light beam coming from nowhere, and the screen in front lit up, causing her train of thought came to a halt. Then, the next thing she heard was the rattling sound of an old machine, presumably a projector, she thought, as a black and white motion picture began to appear. As Lin Sanjiu came back to her senses, she turned around to see that the seats around her, which were empty a few moments ago, were all occupied.
One after other bloodless faces hovered in the dark. Nobody was paying attention to her as they were all too absorbed in the screen in front. However, whenever she moved or made a noise, somebody would shush her.
Turning her gaze back to the screen, Lin Sanjiu saw a group of samurai talking while walking. Each of them held a katana in their hands. The image quality was sloppy, and it seemed like an old movie.