by N. Heller
Huffing, Lin Sanjiu mustered every ounce of her strength to thrust the piece of weapon she found inside the car into Lin Guoyun's eyes. Rivulets of blood streamed down his face. In a last-ditch effort, she pushed the tip of the cardholder deeper into the young man's eyes, unlocked the door, and dashed out into the rain.
Chapter 547 - Inside The Cab
The downpour blurred her vision. Lin Sanjiu braved the rain, water splashing in all directions. She only came to a stop when she was no longer shivering. After that, she felt her strength gradually returning. She spun around; the raindrops hit the deep red cab and bounced back with enough energy and volume to create a loud noise. The headlights of the cab heralded the arrival of the night.
The rain was heavy, and even after she desperately wiped her eyes, Lin Sanjiu still couldn't see the person in the cab through the torrential downpour. The pouring rain seemed to have drowned out all sounds; the occasional groan was gone, but Lin Sanjiu knew he was still alive.
Huffing, she ran her fingers across the bandage around her neck. If it weren't for the choker, she might not have been able to fake her death.
The cab was where Lin Guoyun committed his murder. Once Lin Sanjiu left the cab, her strength had returned to the level it had been when she entered the game. At least, for now, she could protect herself.
Her clothes were wet through, sticking to her body. Lin Sanjiu wiped her face and looked ahead again. This time, she saw the light from the headlamps of the car flickering in the rain. Two figures walked closer to her like silhouettes in front of the light. She hastily yelled, "Stop right there!"
The potato brothers froze.
It was impossible for Lin Sanjiu to deal with two men at the same time. She knew that very well. Squinting her eyes to look through the torrential rain, her brain was blank, and she didn't have the faintest idea of what to say. Her mind only reconnected after a few seconds, and she roared, "What is wrong with you two?"
"What's wrong with us?" The younger brother replied, "That's our question: what's wrong with you? Why did you hurt him? Where is this place? We were just strolling around, and then we were here."
Lin Sanjiu sneered, "His name is Lin Guoyun, and he is not a posthuman. Can't you guys see? The pocket dimension has changed from London to Hong Kong."
The brothers were stunned, and they looked at each other.
"Why did you guys turn away when Jack the Ripper was hunting me?" Lin Sanjiu stared at the brothers, her eyes cold and hard. "And why did you guys pull Annie's body into the room?"
"Hunted by Jack the Ripper? When did that happen?"
"Stop pretending! When I was smacking the window and calling for help, you guys were standing in the yard—"
"Jack the Ripper was beside you then?" The brother's face lit up with surprise, "How would we have known? The house was dark, and we could not see anybody else aside from you. It was pouring outside, and we could barely hear you speak… Anyway, aren't you still alive?"
She was stunned, and before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, she heard a splashing sound from the rain. She immediately surveyed the area, but her eyes didn't register anything. In the dark, rainy night, only the two headlights shot straight into the distance.
The brothers had heard the sound as well. They moved to the side and looked around. Then, as another set of splashing rang out, all of them looked towards the back of the light.
Half of Lin Guoyun's face was smeared with blood. The rain discolored it and washed it away. It seemed like Lin Sanjiu had mustered up every bit of her strength to deliver that last hit. There was still a glass shard in his eye. The shard had crushed part of his eyeball, which was struggling to stay in the socket as he trudged through the rain.
When he pulled the glass shard out of his eye, due to the force, a large piece of eye tissue was taken out along with it, slipping down his face. As he roared, Lin Guoyun doubled over in pain; his figure trembled in front of the headlights.
Lin Sanjiu stared at him and waited, but nothing happened. She had gravely injured the murderer, but it seemed like the game wasn't going to end soon.
"Could it be that I need to kill him or hand him over to the police?"
Lin Sanjiu looked to her left and right, searching for something to use as a weapon, but she could not find anything. Lin Guoyun had been bringing her up the hill just like his previous victims. The place she had gotten off at was a road below the mountain. There was only a stone divider behind her that separated the trees from the sidewalk and stretched far into the distance.
She looked again, and an idea hit her when she saw the front seat door that was still left ajar. After perhaps a half-second of hesitation, Lin Sanjiu grit her teeth and yelled to the brothers, "Watch him!" Then, she quickly made way towards the cab.
"The rope… the rope he used to strangle me, I left it in the back seat. It should still be there..."
The moment she crawled into the cab, her strength left her body as quickly as air left a punctured balloon. With the aid of the dim light out there, she fumbled across the flannel seat, her finger scratching the surface. But in the end, she couldn't find the rope.
"But I didn't see him holding any rope just now… It has to be somewhere around here…" Lin Sanjiu wanted to take a look under the seat, but she feared that Lin Guoyun might seize the opportunity to ambush her. She raised her head and looked ahead. She saw that Lin Guoyun was lying prone on the hood, the headlight drawing a white outline around his lower torso. He seemed to have lost his consciousness due to injury and intense pain. The brothers were standing beside him, pointing their fingers at him as if they were discussing about him.
However, when she heard a "knack" from the door, she knew she was too late.
Lin Sanjiu only managed to turn her body around, not even having a chance to see who was out there before she was pushed into the cab again. However, Lin Sanjiu's reaction speed was no joke either. She retaliated by sending a confident kick into the c.h.e.s.t of the one who pushed her, but with her current strength, the person was quickly able to catch her foot. He then threw her into the cab and locked the door.
Lin Sanjiu quickly rushed up to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked from the outside. She lifted her head, and her gaze was met with the face of the younger brother. He pressed his face close to the window, but only Lin Sanjiu's side was fogging up.
Lin Sanjiu shouted her loudest and demanded that the younger brother open the door, but the younger brother remained impassive.
Just when Lin Sanjiu turned around to get out from the other side, the door to the driver seat opened. A figure ducked into the car, and the person closed the door with a bang, making Lin Sanjiu shudder.
Lin Sanjiu stared fixedly at the elder brother. Right now, she was caught in between the brothers, and she had nowhere to run.
She recalled that there were also many notorious sibling serial killers in history.
"Who are you guys?" Lin Sanjiu looked at the elder brother's profile and then shifted her gaze to the hood. Lin Guoyun was still lying motionless on top of the hood.
The elder brother did not say anything. He lifted his hands and balled them into fists. After he did that twice more, he turned to Lin Sanjiu and smiled at her. "Ah, so the one who sits in the driver seat will not lose their strength."
There was silence in the car. Lin Sanjiu's heart was dropping deeper and deeper. She said, "So you knew all along."
"Yeah, after all, we have already seen a few murderer scenes. It's kind of easy to get around it," the elder brother smacked the wheel and looked at the figure lying on the hood. He praised, "Honestly, you're pretty good! Look how miserable you have made him."
"You guys have already seen a few murderers?"
"That's right. We have been here for a long time. We never left this Pocket Dimension ever since we first came in," the elder brother offered Lin Sanjiu a grin, "After all, when a weird place appears in your world, will you leave it or check it out? The answer is obvious, right?"
Chapter 548 - A Friendly Conversation
There was only silence for a few seconds.
"Yes, and no," the elder brother said. His smile revealed a bright row of teeth, "...We aren't the 'Gods' you think."
Then, he stopped. There was something about him that made Lin Sanjiu feel that he wouldn't be telling her anything else even if she pressed on.
"What are they if they are not Gods?"
She gulped a mouthful of saliva. Hearing the beating of her heart, she asked again, "Then… What do you guys want from me?"
"Let's talk for a little while. May I ask you your opinion on this thing that you guys call a 'Pocket Dimension'?" The elder brother watched Lin Sanjiu with an odd enthusiasm, "I have asked a few people, and the answers they gave were all different. It's always entertaining to know what you people think about the Pocket Dimension. I wonder what kind of answer you will give me."
Lin Sanjiu swallowed the "why" before it could escape her mouth. She looked at the elder brother as she clenched the rope tightly with her right hand. The coarse texture of the rope rubbed against her palm.
"...I have heard a theory about the Pocket Dimension, but I don't know whether or not it is real or just my imagination. When I heard it, I was in a coma caused by an illusion. Perhaps, it's just my Higher Consciousness playing with my mind."
"Higher Consciousness," the elder brother repeated the words, as if he felt strange about the phrase, "What is that?"
"Every Pocket Dimension is an apocalyptic world that has not fully developed yet," Lin Sanjiu said, trying to make her voice as calm as possible, "They feed on the fully developed apocalyptic world like a small orange inside a large one."
Initially, Lin Sanjiu thought the elder brother would be as surprised as she was when hearing about this, but he just asked another question blankly, "Apocalyptic world?"
Lin Sanjiu turned her head, and her eyes met the elder brother's two round ones. His black irises reflected the light outside, but there was something different in them. There was no moisture nor soul in his eyes. They were as smooth, flat and dry as plastic.
A shiver crept up her spine. And when she opened her mouth to speak again, her voice was hoarse, "What are you?"
She didn't ask "who" but "what."
"Didn't I just tell you?" The elder brother smiled, "We could be considered 'Gods'."
"Considered? What does that mean?"
"How about you? What are you?" The elder brother avoided the question and asked a question of his own, "You should be human, but you're different from anybody else in here. Where did you come from?"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned by the question. "It seems that he doesn't know about the apocalyptic worlds at all. Like he has been kept in the dark this entire time."
She turned and looked at the car window to see that the younger brother was still standing outside, preventing her from getting out of the car. The elder brother sat in the driver's seat, the wipers sweeping across the windscreen. Lin Guoyun's body was still lying on the hood. Then, an idea slowly took shape in her mind.
"Perhaps I can try this…"
"I came from another apocalyptic world."
After a short moment of contemplation, Lin Sanjiu formulated the next sentence so that it would draw the elder brother's utmost attention. As she continued to speak, she studied the elder brother's appearance, "Every time a world collapses, an apocalypse follows. Then, the world turns into an apocalyptic world. Nobody knows how many apocalyptic worlds are out there… For those people who reside in them, they can be transferred from one world to another from time to time."
"This place… is an apocalyptic world? So it also falls into the transferring system that you said?"
His gaze was as non-committal as always; his eyes were unreadable, but putting that aside, he looked exactly like an average human. In his hands, veins bulged with blood; on his chin, a beard grew. Every time he breathed, his c.h.e.s.t rose and fell. Lin Sanjiu couldn't hear his heartbeat, but she surmised that he had a heart too.
"You guys, the Gods, weren't you guys responsible for the destruction of this world?"
"We brought the destruction?" The elder brother shook his head, a beaming smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Of course not. It's the exact opposite. We are here to re-establish the order. It was in real ruin when we first came here."
"What do you mean by "we"? Here, meaning this planet? So you came from another world as well?" Lin Sanjiu quickly shot a few questions. "How did the civilization here end?"
"I can not answer the first few questions, but I can answer the last one. The fall of civilization on this planet was due to a religious war outbreak. A group of zealots, activists, fanatics, cultists—whatever you want to call them—that were the partisans of the belief regarding "fundamentalism", as they began to propagate the idea, brought along war. At first, it was merely a small conflict, but then, as they expanded, it slowly grew larger and larger and eventually evolved into a state-to-state war," the elder brother shrugged his shoulders, "We were surprised to see that the people here were willing to point blades at their brethren for Gods they never had a chance to see before! So we decided to reshape this world into the world of Gods… With that, they could worship Gods as much as they could."
"Now it makes sense. No wonder the Gods here needed duoluozhong to cultivate more duoluozhong. They are not the real cause of the destruction of this world, and none of them are a True God!" Lin Sanjiu fell into deep thought. Then, she asked, "How did you guys rebuild the order?"
The elder brother smiled, making Lin Sanjiu feel uncomfortable.
It was apparent that he was different from the Gods outside the pocket dimension. Regardless of how much Lin Sanjiu wanted to ask about the Gods outside, a voice in her mind told her that the elder brother would not answer her question. After a short rumination, Lin Sanjiu looked at Lin Guoyun's body and asked, "Then, what are you two doing in this Pocket Dimension?"
According to the old man, this Pocket Dimension shouldn't be like this.
"To figure out what a Pocket Dimension is, we cannot allow you posthumans to end the game quickly so that our experiment can continue," the elder brother answered. Then, his expression became confused as he asked, "...Why weren't we sent away from this world?"
Lin Sanjiu couldn't answer this question, as she did not know the answer as well.
But she heaved a long sigh as she furtively locked the door. She said, "It's a long story. Although you won't tell me, I know what you are. I have dealt with a race similar to yours before, and they came from outer space too…"
A familiar expression dawned on the elder brother's face again. He turned to Lin Sanjiu and listened carefully without making any sounds.
"They called themselves Souls. And from them, I learned that—"
The next word was replaced by a snap from the rope on the elder brother's cheek. The whip had used up all the strength she had been mustering the entire time. Compared to a hand, a whip from the rope was harder to guard against. Because he was facing Lin Sanjiu, the elder brother was hit in his eyes.
Lin Sanjiu's heart pumped so fast that it almost jumped out from her throat, but the groan of pain from her opponent gave her some relief.
"It's good that he knows pain."
Although she had lost much of her strength, she still had her battle sense intact. Without giving her opponent any second to recover from the pain, Lin Sanjiu grabbed the hair on the back of his head and rammed his head against the wheel. She was aware that such a maneuver wouldn't hurt him much; all she wanted was to make him lower his head. Bracing herself against a retaliation, Lin Sanjiu wrapped the rope around the elder brother's neck. She quickly pulled with all her strength, and very soon, she heard a gurgling sound come from the elder brother's throat. His face was turning purple.
The yo
unger brother—she knew that because the younger brother was the only one outside—tried to open the door to the shotgun seat as he rapped at the window. However, since Lin Sanjiu had locked the door, the younger brother had no choice but to go around and open the door of the driver's seat.
Even though Lin Sanjiu knew there weren't any people behind her, she didn't dart outside through the door. Instead, she strangled the elder brother harder because she was now in a murder scene, and although the Pocket Dimension restricted the potato brothers, she couldn't fight against the younger brother. After a few seconds of struggle, the younger brother finally got his brother out of the car.
"Great."
Lin Sanjiu saw the younger brother dragging his brother into the rain. She quickly rushed to the driver's seat, and the moment her palm touched the seat, her strength returned. The younger brother charged at her after he placed his brother on the ground. A sardonic smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She ducked down and crawled into the driver's seat, sending a kick at him that thrust him away.
Lin Sanjiu returned to the seat, closed the door and locked it. She then freed the handbrake, and as the car engine whirred, she reversed the car and swerved, throwing Lin Guoyun on the asphalt. The commotion aroused Lin Guoyun, and he struggled to get back to his feet. Without waiting for the brothers to react, Lin Sanjiu stomped on the accelerator and went for the man on the ground.
Lin Guoyun turned his face. His face grew clearer as the car grew closer to him. Under the light of the headlamps, one of his eyes was hollow while the other was opened wide. In the next second, he was s.u.c.k.e.d under the car and gone from sight.
The car rocked left and right, but Lin Sanjiu didn't waver. She pressed harder on the pedal and ran over the man's body.
The rear lamps flickered in the rain. Behind a long trail of blood lay a contorted body.