by N. Heller
Puppeteer's wishy-washy talk gave Lin Sanjiu the pip. Lin Sanjiu lay on the floor, swearing that one day she must get back at him for this.
She scanned all the items displayed on one side of the shelf and then Puppeteer would do a crosscheck with the other side of the shelf. This was by far the best idea both of them could come up with after going through a not-so-successful discussion. This method depended heavily on luck, but they had no other choice. Even a bright person such as Nüwa would also need every detail to make the decision. Right now, they were completely shrouded in the dark. The Veda had deleted the explanation of the rules, leaving them no other alternative but to learn the mechanism of this Pocket Dimension themselves through the hard way.
This time, their operation was somewhat successful since no unexpected problem cropped up midway.
When Lin Sanjiu was once again carried to the shelf by the same talkative yet polite rope, she caught Puppeteer mumbling under his breath, "How strange."
"What's wrong?"
"It doesn't match."
"Which one?"
"All of them." Puppeteer's voice turned grim. "None of the items displayed on both shelves are the same. Flavors, date, brands… there's always something different."
Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a reasonable amount of time before realization slowly came to her. This was incredibly far from what they had envisioned.
It certainly was no accident to get caught by the other side of the shelf. It was a pivotal step that they must go through to clear the Pocket Dimension. This was the conclusion the two not-too-clever posthumans came to after going through ten minutes of discussion. Hence, based on that premise, both of them decided to crosscheck the items on both sides. If they could figure out the distribution pattern of the items on both sides, then perhaps they might be able to find an opening.
"Then… What is the relationship between the two sides of the shelves?" Lin Sanjiu frowned virtually and fell into deep thought. "If we didn't fall on the floor, the potato chip man would not have shown up to eat us. But why would we have gotten caught?"
"Can't you keep your mouth shut when you're thinking?" Even at this moment, Puppeteer did not forgo his attempt to make a sarcastic remark. "You stay here. I'm going down to take a look."
Hardly had his words settled down when two questions surfaced in Lin Sanjiu's mind. 'What is there to see down there? And, what flavor has he become?'
Unfortunately, there was no way she could get an answer for either of the questions. Suddenly, Puppeteer grunted while remaining still. Lin Sanjiu waited, unsure of what to do. Just when she was going to ask what was going on, Puppeteer began to talk again. His voice sounded cold and filled with rage. "So, this how it is."
Then, he sneered. "I cannot move my body. Try and see if you can move or not."
Stunned, Lin Sanjiu tried to move her body. Although she could not maneuver her body very well after turning into a packet of ch.i.p.s, she could at least shift a little if she put in some effort. To her horror, she could not move at all now. Worst still, her vision had become narrower. Her heart turned cold at the late realization. They had been too dependent on their Special Item.
"What happened?"
At this moment, both of them thought about the same thing at the same time. Although neither of them said it out loud, the few seconds worth of shock was enough to send Lin Sanjiu into a frenzy. Her heart raced like a galloping bison running from its predator.
She glanced over at the rack. Each layer was crowded with different kinds of snacks. Every one of them was once human, but why would they not try to do anything and save themselves?
Why did they just sit quietly and obediently on the shelves, waiting to be consumed by the potato chip man?
"Because all of them cannot move anymore," Lin Sanjiu squeezed the words out through her raw throat, "Just like any other snack."
"That explains why this is a two-sided rack." Puppeteer harrumphed, his voice growing deeper. "We must hurry up and find a way to turn back into humans."
Lin Sanjiu shifted her gaze over to the lane and saw two packets of ch.i.p.s lying there. She had taken down one of them while the other was knocked down by Puppeteer when he was pulled to this side of the shelf. It appeared to Lin Sanjiu that the shelf was following the rules "one pit, one radish". In other words, there could only be one packet of ch.i.p.s in a hole. If an empty spot appeared, the hand would randomly grab a victim to fill the gap. And there was no way of escaping from it.
"This must be it," Lin Sanjiu muttered, "The shelf on that side is like a store. Each human who's turned into a packet of ch.i.p.s will first stay on the other side for some time. They'll be left on the shelves until they completely lose their mobility."
Whenever somebody tried to escape and caused some noises, the potato chip man would appear. The objective of this mechanism was pretty obvious: to eliminate any form of resistance in their buds. After the human had wholly turned into a packet of ch.i.p.s, he would be transferred to this side of the shelf. This explained why the items on both shelves were different, as they were different humans, to begin with.
Perhaps some of them were still persistent enough to retain a bit of their mobility. That was why the rooster on the packaging could turn its head, albeit slightly, when Lin Sanjiu picked it up.
Puppeteer sneered cynically. His voice, which was as light as fumes, drifted into Lin Sanjiu's ears, "Our consciousness is still intact. Do you know what that means? Every packet of ch.i.p.s is looking at us. Every action, every move, anything we do falls right into their line of sight, but they can't speak or move."
Once Lin Sanjiu thought about every item in front of her having a pair of eyes, a chill crept down her spine. "We have to leave as soon as possible!"
There would be only one end for them if they did not leave now: turn into a packet of ch.i.p.s. Be that as it may, how should they turn back to human and leave?
"How is it possible for us to pinpoint the correct item out of this mountain of ch.i.p.s? It's like asking us to search for a needle in a haystack!" Lin Sanjiu forced herself to calm down as she combed through her thoughts. "Furthermore, we don't even know what the criteria for the 'correct ch.i.p.s' is."
"We only have to shove the correct ch.i.p.s onto the lane, right?"
"Wait. What?" Lin Sanjiu was stunned. She looked over to the lane, and there was nothing on top of it aside from the shopping bucket that she dropped earlier on.
Puppeteer let out a whimper, as he did not want to say a single word to Lin Sanjiu. The well-mannered rope shot out from the shelf, slaloming rapidly like a streak of lightning in between the ch.i.p.s and leaving nothing but its afterimages in Lin Sanjiu's eyes. Under its master's guidance, the rope swooped down tons of ch.i.p.s and other snacks. Packet, cans, and boxed items fell to the floor one after another, creating a continuous series of thuds in the air.
"H—How come it's suddenly moving so fast? What did you say to it?"
"I told it that if it still moved like a snail, I'd leave it alone here," Puppeteer said softly.
Nevertheless, the rope was not able to escape its fate from being caught by the hand.
Everything was pristine and clear at this point. After anything came down from the shelves, a hole would appear. Regardless of any life form, be it a human or a rope, no one would get a chance to escape from the hand. The rope was flexible and quick, no doubt. It zoomed past level after level of shelves in the blink of an eye, but it never thought this was the reason for its downfall.
Countless hands shot out from the deeper part of the shelf like a madly blossoming tree. Several hands grasped the rope at the same time, and before Lin Sanjiu could express her shock, she heard Puppeteer grunt, and the well-mannered rope was dragged into the void behind the shelf.
Lin Sanjiu suddenly remembered the tone the rope used when it said to her, "Let's talk next time," but she said nothing at last. Puppeteer would not care even if it was the life of a human being, let alone a Special Item, which was som
ething he never lacked. He probably had it all set up to send the rope to its death.
Lin Sanjiu then took over Puppeteer's job. She muttered an apology under her breath before sending out her Higher Consciousness to finish the task the rope was unable to complete. A plethora of snacks rained down on the lane, followed by the appearance of the hands from the back of the shelf. The hands grasped something in the air. It seemed like they had not caught anything, but in fact, they had seized a small portion of her Higher Consciousness. When that happened, Lin Sanjiu would retract her Higher Consciousness back with a flick of her mind, leaving only the teeniest bit of Higher Consciousness in their possession while the rest returned to her like how all rivers eventually flowed back to the vast sea.
Soon, there was nothing left in the shelves except for the dense hands that kept coming out of the dark.
The next step should be pushing all the snacks out of the lane. However, neither Lin Sanjiu nor Puppeteer had the guts to make a move.
The answer must be lying amongst the mountain of snacks. The moment the correct snack was swept out from the lane, both of them would return to their human form and fall from the shelves.
It was just that before they could touch the ground, those hands would grab them and shove them into the shelf once more.
Chapter 575 - Help From Outside
Twenty minutes had passed, but neither of them moved. The hands flailed madly in the air, trying very hard to grasp something in the air.
"How long will it take for these hands to stop?"
Lin Sanjiu could see a white shadow thrashing around in the tail of her eyes. It grazed past her a few times and almost knocked her down from the shelf, making her heart skipped a few beats. As time went by, both of them were losing their mobility. If it were not for them still being able to communicate with each other through the Soul of Film Crew, Lin Sanjiu felt she might have gone mental already.
Even then, she could clearly feel that her ability to speak and control the Higher Consciousness was becoming harder and harder. As if injected with anesthetic, she was losing command over her own body.
They had to act fast and act now.
Even Puppeteer seemed to have realized the gravity of the situation. He did not make any sarcastic remark and instead said with a grim tone, "Who knows? Maybe they won't stop until they get a target."
Things might become a little bit uglier if it was like what he said.
The situation had changed compared to the last time. Due to the entire shelf being colonized by the hands, they could not depend on the goose to pull them back if they were brought to the other side of the shelf. If they got caught, the goose would be caught as well just like the rope.
At that time, they would be left all alone. They would not be able to do anything but hopelessly wait until the turning process was completed.
Though a rather peaceful atmosphere remained on the surface, both of them were actually cursing each other furtively in their hearts.
They looked at the hands that danced in riotous revelry, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, an announcement rang out, startling the duo. "Mrs. Cleveland, I heard you accidentally slipped on the floor. Are you okay? Where did you hurt yourself? We're friends. I bet you won't file a report against me because of this, will you?"
The announcement did not make any sense to them at all. After it disappeared, the only thing that remained was the echo of the voice and two dumbfounded posthumans.
"What… What does that mean?" Lin Sanjiu only found her voice after a short while. She asked, "This should be a clue, shouldn't it? Otherwise, why would it make such an announcement out of nowhere?"
"You are Mrs. Cleveland. How would I know?" Puppeteer said nonchalantly.
He might be skilled at interrogation and extortion, but when it came to mind games, this bigwig of the Twelve World Centrum was totally useless. Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and made a decision after having an internal tousle inside her mind. "I have an idea. Honestly, I forbid myself from using this, but it seems that I don't have many choices left."
"Speak."
Lin Sanjiu smiled bitterly. "Both of us aren't that smart kind of people, so I'm asking help from someone bright." She was talking about the Higher Consciousness Mimicry.
Puppeteer was obviously unhappy with such a comment. He enigmatically expressed that he had no issue triumphing other Pocket Dimensions before meeting Lin Sanjiu, and that carrying her had utterly exhausted all his energy and mind power, which was why he would fall into the trap of this Pocket Dimension. Lin Sanjiu remained reticent towards his claim and proceeded to activate the Higher Consciousness Mimicry. Then, she sighed.
Lin Sanjiu had been avoiding using her Higher Consciousness. Once she activated the mimicry, it could not be stopped midway. There was no way she could stop the Veda from stealing her information anymore.
Mimicking Nüwa would be too taxing in her current condition, so she chose the grand prize.
There was a moment of silence. There were only two packets of potato ch.i.p.s left on the shelf along with the numberless hands. Suddenly, Lin Sanjiu shouted through the Soul of Film Crew, "Holy moly. Why didn't we think of this before? We're so dumb!"
"Please don't use 'we' when it's clear that there's only one idiot here. And that's you," said Puppeteer. Nevertheless, he could not suppress his curiosity and asked, "What came into your mind?"
Without a doubt, Ji Shanqing was far more intelligent than her. Lin Sanjiu told Puppeteer about the thought as she cursed herself for her doltishness, "How did we never think of this? We'll be caught if we go down as humans. But we can maintain this form and jump down."
"But the hands…"
"The hands won't come for us, as we're already packets of ch.i.p.s!" Lin Sanjiu wondered why she did not see this obvious fact that was basically right in front of her eyes. "The reason I was caught for the second time is that you were holding me at that time. They are catching humans to turn them into ch.i.p.s. There's absolutely no reason for these hands to catch a packet of ch.i.p.s. If their targets included ch.i.p.s as well, they would've captured us a long time ago since we've been basically sitting on the shelf the whole time!"
"You have a point. So, let's jump down and push all the ch.i.p.s out of the lane."
"No, I don't think it works that way," Lin Sanjiu poured rain on Puppeteer's parade. "But it's worth a try."
Before Puppeteer could ask the reason, he felt something smack him hard at his back, and the next thing he knew, he had already flown out of the shelf. Lin Sanjiu never thought she would be able to get back at Puppeteer so soon.
The packet of ch.i.p.s fell through the layers of hands, but they seemed uninterested in it. The package of ch.i.p.s was rocked left and right, up and down a few times before finally landing on the heaps of snacks on the floor.
"Just you wait until we get out of this Pocket Dimension," Puppeteer said gently to Lin Sanjiu.
'Jeez, I won't give you a chance to catch me after we get out of here,' Lin Sanjiu muttered inwardly. Then, she used her Higher Consciousness and pushed her body out of the shelf as well. Her nerves stiffened, and her heart jolted when the hands slapped her body. Then, she landed safely on the mountain of snacks.
"So, what's our next move?" Puppeteer asked. "What if it won't work even if we push all the snacks out of the lane?"
"The aim is to 'pick' the correct snacks. So, how is that considered picking when all we do is push all the snacks out of the lane? There are too many abilities that grant posthumans the ability to control something from afar remotely. Someone lucky enough to have such an ability could stand very far away and push all the snacks down from the shelves. By doing that, not only could he avoid being captured by the hands, but he could also get the right answer as well. Don't you think this is a little too easy?"
"Who knows? Maybe you are the one overcomplicating things."
Lin Sanjiu did not wish to stimulate his anger, as it would not do her any good. After all, Puppeteer was entirel
y out of her league. She sighed and changed the topic. "The announcement is the key. Did you notice that it was exactly an hour after we entered this convenience store that the announcement came? Perhaps the Pocket Dimension only gives a clue every hour."
"I don't understand."
Lin Sanjiu had not thought it through yet, even with Ji Shanqing's mind.
After a short moment of contemplation, she asked, "Where's your goose?"
Chapter 576 - First Ray Of Hope
The fact showed that even though Puppeteer and Lin Sanjiu did not go very well with each other, the difficulty of this Pocket Dimension would be elevated from hard mode to nightmare mode if they were to lose either of them.
Seeing the elegant white goose waddle in a clumsy swaying motion towards them, Lin Sanjiu quickly yelled, "Don't let it enter the lane!" The goose stopped at the end of the lane. There was a mountain of snacks between them and the goose. Its two beady eyes glittered, staring straight at Puppeteer.
"Did the goose finish surveying the entire store? What did it see?" Lin Sanjiu did not turn off the Higher Consciousness Scan and asked, "Do you have a way to get that intel from it?"
Puppeteer huffed, as he was dismayed by her last question. Lin Sanjiu had no idea what he had done, but Puppeteer soon got the information she wanted from the goose.
The store looked small from the outside, but on the inside, it was pretty complete. The entire store was divided into eight departments and two fresh and cold departments. Each department had four back-to-back shelvings, and each shelf was responsible for one type of product. The cold and fresh section had a row of freezers that were connected from end to end that stored fresh products such as dairy, vegetables and fruits, freshly-pressed juice, and whatnots.
Unlike Lin Sanjiu, nothing stopped the goose midway, and it waddled through the entire store without facing any difficulties. However, the goose did not see anything that looked peculiar. From the information, this seemed like an ordinary convenience store.