by N. Heller
"Who did you say is a gorilla?"
"No, no, that's not what I meant! Dammit!" Lin Sanjiu felt so exasperated she wanted to hit her head with a brick. But it wasn't the time to wallow in her mistake, as Puppeteer's fury was clearly mounting with every step he took and every movement he made. The speed of the jellyfish increased by leaps and bounds, looming over her in the twinkle of an eye. Even though the stinging pain had ebbed away relatively quick, Lin Sanjiu still shuddered at the sight.
It was also at this moment that she saw through the bloom of jellyfish. Her eyes glowed and she shouted, "Look behind you! I didn't lie to you!"
Puppeteer looked over in the direction where Lin Sanjiu pointed, gesturing with his hand for the advancement of the bloom of jellyfish to stop.
The fog was lifting, revealing a major part of the concrete ground. Earlier on, the thick fog had blocked most of their vision, so they were not aware that they were actually inside a car park. The white stripes used to separate the parking spots were emerging quickly one after another. The car park looked so much similar to a real one, as there were even "no parking" and "handicapped parking" signages around.
Both of them could vaguely see that there was a door to some building behind the thick fog. But the fog had not entirely lifted yet, so they couldn't see very clearly.
"So?" Puppeteer harrumphed as he swept a gaze across the car park, standing completely still.
"This is what I was telling you about! The code writing ability! Those Veda created all of this!" Lin Sanjiu explained. "Look, the more reality they write, the more we can see…"
While they were talking, the fog had faded, and they could finally see the real face of the building. It was a single-story building with a brown, almost chocolate-colored rooftop. There was a "Kwik-E-Mart" sign written in exuberant color on top of a glass door. Looking past the door, they could see a cashier and the corners of a few gondola racks. It seemed like a convenience store.
It appeared that the convenience store was the last thing the Veda had finished coding. In the blink of an eye, the fog dissipated without a trace, and a clear blue sky hung on top of them. The sunlight pierced through the jellyfishes' translucent bodies, forming a prism of colors on the ground.
"It's too real." Lin Sanjiu looked at the scene before her eyes, falling into a trance. If she did not know about the 'code writing technology', she might have thought this was the reality. She could even feel the flow of the wind when she used her "Hypersensory". It was completely different from the simple wooden hut the Veda had demonstrated to her.
"Do you believe me now?"
Puppeteer tilted his head, the greyish-green glitter powder around his eyes scintillating. He did not speak, as he was uncertain of how far he should trust Lin Sanjiu.
"Since you planted a tracking device on me, you should've seen everything I saw… So what makes you think that this is a trap set by me?"
"The device was functioning perfectly well until you broke the wall. After that, I could not see or hear anything," Puppeteer replied softly.
'That means he saw everything that happened before I broke the wall?'
Lin Sanjiu shuddered at the thought. 'Thank goodness I decided to stay behind with Soulsqn and did not go to find the grand prize or react to the towel.'
When the face of her grand prize appeared in her head, Lin Sanjiu sighed, and the d.e.s.i.r.e to leave this place got even stronger. She looked at the convenience store with a frown. "Their objective is to force us to surrender our information to them so that they can analyze our data… But I don't understand why they created this store. Can this store help them get the data they wanted?"
Puppeteer did not make any remarks. After a short while of silence, he asked, "Can those Veda create anything with their code writing ability?"
"Yes, they could. After they have analyzed our data," Lin Sanjiu wiped her face. "At least that's what they told me."
She had trapped two sets of data with her Higher Consciousness within different periods. The first time was longer than the second. The silver lining was that they hadn't been able to finish analyzing her Higher Consciousness.
'So can I assume that running an analysis needs a lot of time? Or is it because of something else?'
"The things they create… Will they last forever?"
"Probably… Unless they decided to delete them," Lin Sanjiu added after recalling the experience she had in the wooden hut.
Puppeteer turned and looked at the convenience store for a while. Then, he spun his head back to Lin Sanjiu and said, "You go in and take a look."
"Why me?"
"Because I don't want to risk myself," Puppeteer answered readily.
'Well, that is one hell of an excuse.' Lin Sanjiu looked at the jellyfish, which swayed closer to her, and nodded. Walking closer to the window, she peered into the Kwik-E-Mart.
This was a scene coded by the Veda, so they must be hiding somewhere to monitor the frequency of each data sets here. Once Lin Sanjiu used her Higher Consciousness, they would get her data. Since the Higher Consciousness was her trump card, Lin Sanjiu did not want to use it until the situation called for it.
Not only her, but even Puppeteer couldn't use his Higher Consciousness as well. She tried to explain this to him, but what she got in return was his gloomy stare. She had no idea how far her words had reached him, but it wasn't her problem anymore. She threw the thought away and walked into the mart.
"Welcome to Kwik-E-Mart!"
Before she even approached the glass door, a greeting in an Indian-accent suddenly popped out, giving Lin Sanjiu a fright. She raised her head and found a loudspeaker beside the surveillance camera.
"You're standing on the spot reserved for the Clevelands. You must be Mrs. Cleveland!"
Lin Sanjiu lowered her head in shock and realized she was indeed standing in a parking spot.
"Move," Puppeteer ordered coldly. "All hypocrites love to serve other people, so I assume you must love being the vanguard."
Lin Sanjiu rolled her eyes, as she was too lazy to argue with Puppeteer, not that she was given the freedom to do so anyway, especially with that bloom of jellyfish that floated around Puppeteer. After the loudspeaker ceased speaking, she then slowly and cautiously walked towards the glass door. To her wonder, the loudspeaker did not say anything until she reached the front of the door.
She took off her shirt and wrapped it around her hand. Then, she pushed the door open and walked in.
The convenience store still looked the same. It wasn't very hygienic, but looked passable. The mart was pretty large, and there were a few rows of gondola racks.
Lin Sanjiu stood at the entrance; the convenience store was quiet. She threw her top back on, and just when she put her hand on the handle to go back out, the Indian accent came again. "You can't go out empty-handed, Mrs. Cleveland!"
Lin Sanjiu turned her body around, but she saw nobody in the convenience store.
'Is that a bug? Have those Veda blown their fuses?'
With those two questions plaguing her mind, Lin Sanjiu pushed against the door. However, she realized that the door she was able to open effortlessly a few seconds ago could barely move.
She did not attempt to force her way out. Instead, she beckoned to Puppeteer, who was standing not far away from the door, and yelled from inside, "There's nothing wrong here. Come in. There's something I need to show you."
The man clad in black leather dispersed his jellyfish with a wave of his hand. He glanced at her skeptically for a few seconds before walking forward. He avoided the spot Lin Sanjiu stepped in just now, but little did he expect that the voice would still come out of the loudspeaker. "Hello, Mr. Griffin! Everything going smooth today?"
Puppeteer was stunned for a few seconds, and his doubts began to build up once more. He measured Lin Sanjiu, but he saw nothing wrong with her. At last, he pushed the door open and went into the convenience store.
"What do you want to show me—" Before he could finish his senten
ce, Lin Sanjiu held the door and tried to squeeze her way out. As the voice rang out— "Mrs. Cleveland, you cannot leave without buying anything!"— the glass door was suddenly slammed shut by something and threw both of them inside.
Before Lin Sanjiu got up, she rolled along the floor. In that spot, there was a jellyfish.
Puppeteer's countenance was even darker than the black leather he was wearing. "You can't go out once you're inside?"
"It seems like we need to buy something first." Lin Sanjiu rubbed her temples as she tried to crack a joke. "I guess you don't have any pennies on you, right?"
A dozen of jellyfish jiggled out of the air and charged at her. "Are you dumb?! The hell is that code writing ability? Can't you see that this is a Pocket Dimension?"
Stunned on the ground, Lin Sanjiu did not even try to evade the incoming jellyfish.
'Pocket dimension?'
She seemed to see the light of what the Potato Brothers were trying to do in the Serial Killer Simulation.
"These Veda are analyzing the Pocket Dimension in Salvation of God!"
This "Kwik-E-Mart" must be one of the Pocket Dimensions they were done analyzing. They coded it to trap both of them here.
'No, it's fine if this is just another Pocket Dimension.' Lin Sanjiu swept a glance across the convenience store.
What she feared was that the Veda had coded something new into the Pocket Dimension.
Chapter 569 - Just Keep Searching
Lin Sanjiu's face turned pale with pain after receiving a few jabs from the jellyfish. Her back was wet with cold sweat. Another swarm of tentacles swung before her eyes, a sight so bizarre it made her heart shudder with fear, but Lin Sanjiu did not shrink back. She gritted her teeth and stood firm on the ground without moving a step.
The tentacles stopped a few inches in front of her. Then Puppeteer's voice rang out in a freezing tone. "Why have you stopped running?"
"Those Veda have analyzed the Pocket Dimension and replicated a version of their own… I know you don't believe me, but in any case, I don't think we should keep on fighting each other," Lin Sanjiu said, s.u.c.k.i.n.g air in to lessen the pain. "I hope that you can see who the real enemy is now. We know too little about them, so we must not let them get to us!"
With a snap of his finger, the jellyfish disappeared. The dark figure stood in front of the cash register, but he did not say anything.
Lin Sanjiu heaved a sigh of relief, but before she could continue to say anything else, something blurred before her eyes, and the next thing she knew, Puppeteer was standing in front of her. When he was this close, Lin Sanjiu felt like a beast was glaring at her. His arctic-white skin created a stark contrast against his pitch-black leather coat. The silverish-grey glitter powder that ringed his eyes gave him an even more inhuman visage.
"If we clear the Pocket Dimension and those so-called Veda do not appear..." Accompanied by a faint, weird aroma, Puppeteer said with an abnormally gentle demeanor, "...I'll make sure you'll regret what you said today."
It wasn't the time to be indecisive. Lin Sanjiu's priority was to get out of this Pocket Dimension, so she had to leave everything until then. She then told Puppeteer everything, starting from scr.a.p.es about the Potato brothers and the things they did in the Serial Killer Simulation. The good thing was that Puppeteer had seen the elder brother before, so it added a bit of credibility to Lin Sanjiu's story.
However, what surprised Lin Sanjiu more was that the convenience store remained utterly silent all this time.
The two of them looked at each other, and they could both see the doubt in each other's eyes. Prompted by Puppeteer, Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and walked up to the cash register.
"Is anybody here?" Lin Sanjiu hollered. She looked around, but did not touch anything. "I'm here to buy something."
The loudspeaker with the Indian accent rang out from the wall behind the cash register. "What can I get for you, Mrs. Cleveland?"
"Hmm…" Lin Sanjiu pointed to a pack of chewing gum and said, "This here… How much is it?"
Her voice had barely carried away by the wind when an ear-piercing soundwave blasted out of the loudspeaker, hitting Lin Sanjiu's brain and ears like a sledgehammer and making her head swim. "Wrong answer! Wrong answer!"
'The hell was that?'
The soundwave was so powerful that Lin Sanjiu felt as if she'd been slapped in the face multiple times. After a few seconds, it still did not diminish, but intensified. "I'm so disappointed in you, Mrs. Cleveland!" The air was suddenly riddled with the cracking of glass. Lin Sanjiu turned her head around to see that the door of the refrigerator closest to her had shattered; its glass shards spread all over the floor.
"Is it such a big deal to buy a pack of chewing gum?"
The soundwave lasted for a long time before finally ceasing away. Judging from the reaction given by the loudspeaker, they only learned that Lin Sanjiu was prohibited from buying chewing gum, nothing more.
"That's strange," Puppeteer walked out from behind her, "Normally, there is an explanation of the rules before a Pocket Dimension starts."
"Yeah, they should at least tell us how to clear the Pocket Dimension, but this one did not mention anything at all." Lin Sanjiu had no idea when she had fallen to the floor. As she got up, she rubbed her ears to ease the numbing pain.
"Us? Who gave you the wrong impression that you stand on equal footing with me?" Puppeteer said with a frown; there was a hint of w.h.i.n.e in his voice.
"I guess, since they have the data constitution of this Pocket Dimension in their hands," Lin Sanjiu turned a deaf ear to his w.h.i.n.e and said, "Could it be… that they have deleted the rules explanation part?"
Puppeteer snorted, giving neither an affirmative nor negative answer.
"If it's really going to be like this, things will get a bit dicey." Lin Sanjiu sighed. In other words, both of them had to find out the rules of this Pocket Dimension at their expense. And without a doubt, Puppeteer would only stand at the sideline and use her as bait.
With that thought in mind, Lin Sanjiu loudly asked about what she should buy and the consequence if she bought something wrong. However, as she feared, nothing came out of the loudspeaker.
"They want our information, so they trapped us in this Pocket Dimension." Lin Sanjiu dared not to use her [Consciousness Mimicry], so she had to try to understand the situation with her own wits. "Simply put, if we fail, the consequence will be that they would get our information. In any case, we must not let them..."
"Can you just shut up?" Puppeteer interrupted her coldly. "There are only two outcomes if you fail in a Pocket Dimension: death or getting hurt. Of course, we have to avoid these two situations at all costs — less of your nonsense and more hard work. We have to split up. You go there, and I will stay here. We have to get the entire perimeter covered," he said as he pointed to the few racks inside the store.
Since she didn't have a better idea, Lin Sanjiu nodded and walked towards the racks in the corner. Suddenly, a thud sound came, and when she spun her head back, she saw a goose standing beside Puppeteer.
There's a hearsay that before venturing into an ancient tomb, tomb raiders would tie a goose or a duck on a rope and put it into the tomb to test for poison gas. This large goose is a pathfinder with a wealth of experience. After tomb raiding had received a devastating blow from the national institute, this goose was rehired at a high price by some grave robbers to trailblaze the path for them.
"Why do you need me when you have this goose?" queried Lin Sanjiu. Her eyes were opened wide in disbelief.
"You're the backup." Puppeteer cast her a sidelong glance. Wiggling its b.u.t.t, the goose waddled into a lane between two racks.
'It's a shame that I don't have such a useful Special Item…'
Lin Sanjiu sighed inwardly, but did not intend to call out any of her Special Items. The fewer weapons she used, the less information the Veda would get from her. She looked around and picked up a metal shopping bucket. Accompanied by Puppetee
r's sneer, she walked into a lane.
She raised her head and froze.
Inside the lane, she found that the appearance of the racks had changed. The two gondolas on the sides shot straight up into the air, looking like two cliffs. Their top sides had disappeared into the darkness, and they made Lin Sanjiu, who was around 180 cm tall, look like a child.
She turned her head to the front and back a few times, but couldn't see the end. Out of nowhere, a dim light shone above her, but it couldn't light up the gondolas at the far end.
There were thousands of products showcased on the shelves. Most of the packaging had yellowed and was now covered in a thick layer of dust. Tiny particles were dancing about in the air as if they were party the night. The cobweb in the corner captured some of them and turned into a scroll of dirt.
All the shelves were full of potato ch.i.p.s in different kinds of flavors. No matter how deep she went, she would always be greeted by the round smiley faces printed on the tubular cans. Though the packaging was clouded by dust and outmoded like old photos, Lin Sanjiu could still discern the colors that represented different flavors.
Lin Sanjiu walked to the end of the shelf and pricked up her ears. The convenience store was quiet. Whether it was Puppeteer or the goose, it was as if both of them were not there. She heard nothing and was unable to even sense the air current.
Just when she took a step to go to another lane, something grabbed the back of her collar and pulled her back into the lane. Lin Sanjiu turned her head, but there was nothing behind her.
The nervousness in the air mounted. She swept her gaze around and froze. On a shelf in front of her, the cartoon caricature logo turned his two beady eyes to her. His large mustache lifted as his mouth curled into a smile.
"If you wish to proceed to the next lane, you have to pick the correct packet of ch.i.p.s and put it into your shopping basket. Alrighty then, let's begin the game." There were many ch.i.p.s—canned and bagged—on the shelves. All of them stared at Lin Sanjiu, talking in unison with a sickening tone.