by N. Heller
The moment the voice died out, a large Roman numeral "5" appeared on the ground next to Lin Sanjiu. The same numerical digit appeared at intervals of every 1,000 meter. They must be the number for the zone. Then, several straight lines appeared and partitioned the ground into a few lanes. Squinting her eyes, Lin Sanjiu studied the tracks quietly. After a few seconds, she sighed and said to Soulsqn, "We are standing on a running track."
Soulsqn did not reply. She looked forward blankly as if she was too immersed in the changes that were happening in front of her eyes. Flags raised, and an observatory deck was set up. The stone tablet was nowhere to be seen. In the blink of an eye, the arid land had become an enormous arena.
Swarm of people began gushing in, chasing the silence away. These people were obviously the contenders. They were clear about where they were going, as they soon divided themselves and headed out to their respective destinations.
Looking at the group of people walking towards the track, Lin Sanjiu's heart started pounding faster. She stared them down as she gripped Soulsqn's hand tightly. They recoiled one step at a time, trying to make a detour around the crowd.
But her vigilance was needless. Although the group of posthuman varied in appearance, all of them were shabby in dress, and they wore similar weary expressions on their faces. They did not even look at her, probably because they saw she did not have the number tag pinned on her clothes.
"What, what should we do now?" Soulsqn tilted her head and asked.
There was no way she could fly that high like the Veda and "gods" in the Salvation of God. Lin Sanjiu knitted her brows in concentration. "What is the relationship between Zeus and the Veda? Why would they create this world?"
Soulsqn thought for a moment, but she did not have the answer either.
Lin Sanjiu sighed.
"Alright, forget about it. Let's go and have a look at the registration spot."
Chapter 603 - Come, Spit At Me
Although the Olympics looked even more like a Pocket Dimension than a Pocket Dimension, it was truly an apocalyptic world.
When they reached the wall, Lin Sanjiu could not help but raise her head and gaze at the massive eminence in front of her.
The stone wall towered into the mist. The top edge of the wall was invisible to the eyes unless there was an occasional breeze that chased the mist away. It stretched so far into the horizon that Lin Sanjiu could not see either end. Every 1,000 meters, there would be a door embedded in the wall. Behind the door were countless expressionless faces—the contenders.
It occurred to her that the door would only open for a certain period of time. After 30 minutes passed, the door began to close. During that time, since Lin Sanjiu was pretty close to the wall, she heard somebody yell, "Wait for me!" Then the door slammed shut, killing the voice.
Lin Sanjiu stopped in her tracks as her hesitant gaze moved towards the distance.
Looking at the wall, she noticed all of the doors closing one after another. Lin Sanjiu felt that she should get going, but something in her heart pulled her back. She waited for a few seconds until she could no longer hear the person screaming; only then did she walk past the yellow line towards the wall.
After stepping across the line that demarcated the arena zone and clear zone, she found that the area near the wall was empty. There was nothing that seemed particularly like a registration point to her. Pondering, Lin Sanjiu continued to walk two steps forward, and then she was stunned. The moment she got near to the wall, a line of words appeared on the surface, "Welcome to the registration point."
'This is the registration point?'
Lin Sanjiu browsed through the wall with thick curiosity. Similarly to the stone tablet, the wall looked primitive. It was like the words were carved using a knife. She would not believe it if she did not see with her own eyes that the text could change, "Hmm? Why is there only one language?"
Sensing that Lin Sanjiu had doubts, the line of words in front of her eyes slowly faded, which was then replaced by another text.
"According to the language you first selected, all communications in this festival will be transmitted into your mind in this language."
"That's convenient," Lin Sanjiu harrumphed. She studied the engraved characters meticulously. Every stroke looked so smooth and fluid. She could not help imagining how the particles that made up the stone could restructure themselves and form into different words.
She came to the Olympics through the metal wall, so this world must have an inseparable relationship to the Veda. She wondered if this technology of manipulating matter on a subatomic level originated from the Veda.
"I don't know much about this world. Tell me what the hell is going on here first," Lin Sanjiu said harshly.
"You are now at the Olympics. Every visitor has to participate in at least one sport. The contender who appears victorious from the most sports in a zone will be granted a chance to meet Zeus, the highest god. More information will be given to you during the registration process. Do you want to register now?" the stone answered quickly.
"What would happen if I refused to register as a contender?"
The words on the stone disappeared. After two minutes, the stone gave a sigh.
"There are about 29,000 people who have asked this question. Amongst the 29,000 people, more than 300 did not register as a contender. In the end, they all become wanderers."
Before Lin Sanjiu could shoot out her question, the words on the stone changed again.
"In the Olympics, there are three identities for you to choose from. The first is the contender, who will or has already started a game immediately after registration. The second type will be the audience who did not participate in any game after a competition and are now in standby mode. The third identity is wanderer, a group of people who refused to register as a contender from the beginning or those who removed themselves from the system. The contender has all the rights, while the audience has one-tenth. Both the contender and the audience do not have any obligations, but the wanderer is completely the opposite. They could not enjoy any right, and they have to shoulder some duties."
"What kind of rights and what kind of duties?"
"For instance, a contender can get six hours of sleep while the audience has only 36 minutes. Wanderer did not get the liberty to enjoy the right to sleep. The festival will decide their position and roles during the competition, depending on their body condition, of course."
"The 300 people… What happened to them in the end?"
"They have contributed profoundly to the great cause of the Olympics."
'That doesn't sound so good…'
Only those posthuman who were very confident in their strength would refuse to play by the rules and choose not to register as a contender. That was what Lin Sanjiu had learned after going through so many worlds.
Lin Sanjiu knew she wasn't qualified as a strong person yet. She let out a breath and said, "I will register as a contender."
After the registration, she could take advantage of the three resting days to search for her grand prize and find a way to get back to the Salvation of God...
"Understood, I'll now guide you through the registration process. Now, please spit on me."
Lin Sanjiu blinked her eyes blankly. She felt it was a trap, "What did you say?"
"Please spat at the spot where the words are."
Lin Sanjiu's eyes fluttered with confusion, "Why?"
"This is one way of registration. We could not verify your identity with only your names since we have to take into consideration where there would be two contenders with the same name. Your saliva contains your DNA, and this will become your only identification. So, please proceed."
"With p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e!" Lin Sanjiu answered readily and spat out a wad of liquid on the wall.
Next, Soulsqn extended a flesh-like part of her and squeezed out some slime and did what Lin Sanjiu had done. After they had finished the registration, a long list of games, which stretched for a hundred mete
rs long, then appeared on the wall.
Lin Sanjiu was dazzled by the sheer amount of words. Ever since the apocalypse had come, she hardly had a chance to come across a text of such length. She turned around, and she saw Soulsqn was skimming through the list with ease, while she was having a devil of a job. As if she had sensed Lin Sanjiu's gaze, she turned to her and asked, "Why are you so slow?"
"You know how to read human language?"
"Of course," Soulsqn sneered, "You might not believe me, but I'm a language genius. The languages I know are so many that I cannot list them out."
"Then, have you decided on which game we should play?" Lin Sanjiu urged. "Simply pick one. Don't waste too much time on registering. Our priority is to find Puppeteer and Graham."
"All of them look suspicious," Soulsqn sighed, "Well… How about a footrace? That seems the most simple."
"Okay, let's go with that one."
After that, the long list of games vanished. The wall became smooth again before another line of words appeared on the surface, "Please select the time to participate in the race."
"Put us in the last slot," Lin Sanjiu answered.
"Understood. Next, please tell me the name of the last apocalyptic world you went to."
Stunned, Lin Sanjiu exchanged glances with Soulsqn before answering, "I went to the Salvation of God. But why do you need to know?"
"Okay, the registration process is completed. Please ready yourself in zone no. 29, Zone Salvation of God, three days after. Everyone who came to the Olympics will be assigned to the corresponding apocalyptic world zone. You are now standing in Zone Time Travel."
"There is a world known as Time Travel?" Soulsqn asked with merriment.
She turned her head around. However, neither of them could see the posthumans from the "Time Travel" anymore. There were screams and yells that traveled sporadically through the air, but were muffled and far away. It sounded like an illusion to them.
Lin Sanjiu's brows furrowed deeply on top of her nose. After a few seconds, she said hesitantly, "Could it be… Those who came from the same apocalyptic world will compete against each other in a competition?"
"Exactly," the wall replied with a short answer.
'That's why!'
The scales finally dropped from Lin Sanjiu's eyes as she saw the light of why the man that she met in Meat Elysium murdered all the consular officers he had come across. It turned out that he was trying to reduce his competitors!
"The wall said that winners would get a chance to meet Zeus, the highest god… So the man wants to see Zeus?"
This would be another unsolved case. In terms of time, the man had been in the Olympics for more than 14 months, so he must be not here anymore.
A thought suddenly came to Lin Sanjiu's mind, and her face glowed up.
"What's in your mind?" Soulsqn asked.
"If all the contender that came from the same world have to gather at the same arena," Lin Sanjiu said, as light in her eyes gleamed stronger with every word that tumbled out from her lips, "Then we must go there now! Puppeteer and Graham must be over there!"
Chapter 604 - How To Fly Into The Sky
From the map displayed on the wall, the geographical distribution of the Olympics was truly messy.
Imagine splitting the planet into two parts. Half of it was a body full of water without any islands while the other half was flat, solid ground. On the terra firma, aside from a few rivers that were marked as arenas, Lin Sanjiu could not find anything that looked like a lake or a canyon.
Apparently, like the Salvation of God, the topography of the Olympics was altered.
There was a circular region in the heart of the hemispheric land. With the circular area as the center, innumerable fine lines radiated out and partitioned the land into an umpteen of arenas. If Lin Sanjiu wanted to go to the Salvation of God zone, the nearest route would be to go through the circular region.
It seemed like she was pretty lucky since the distance from her landing point to the wall was merely half an hour on foot.
"What if a person falls into the sea or lands very far away from the wall?" Lin Sanjiu asked after she had finished browsing the map.
"Regardless of his location, he'll be considered a wanderer so long as he didn't register himself as a contender."
Lin Sanjiu came to a mental halt.
The process of transferring between worlds was not always safe. There were bound to be some casualties, and in some severe cases, it might even affect the survival rate of the posthumans in a new world. Perhaps Lin Sanjiu had never come across any problems during world-leaping, so she had never thought of this before.
There were plenty of poor souls out there who might not even know how they died, let alone know that their efforts to stay alive was a futile struggle all along. Lin Sanjiu had a eureka moment as she sighed. "We have 14 months to go. It looks like I have to get myself a defensive Special Item as soon as possible."
Soulsqn was not interested in the lives of others except her own clansmen. She took a glance at the clue on the wall, then turned away.
After Lin Sanjiu came back to her senses, she followed in suit and looked at the wall. She found that there were now new words engraved on it. "Please proceed to move about 200 meters to your right and wait for the door to open." When the door remained closed, Lin Sanjiu could not tell the door and the wall apart. As a low rumble echoed in the air, a part of the wall slid open like a slab of butter being cut into half.
Heralded by the screech of stone scraping against the ground, the stone door finally opened. Then, Lin Sanjiu found herself looking at the circular region shown on the map.
She took a tentative step into the circular region, otherwise known as the "resting zone" by the posthumans.
This region was entirely built with red brick. From the map, the dimension of the circular region was extremely large. It could accommodate two megalopolises such as the Greater Tokyo Area. There were dozens of sleeping bags and bed sheets haphazardly spread out on the ground, which made the atmosphere in this area a little less forlorn compared to the bleak and desolate land outside.
Everyone, be it contenders or audience, had to leave the resting zone before sunrise. Only those newcomers like Lin Sanjiu who had just arrived in the Olympics would be relieved from the rules. Perhaps they knew there would not be anybody in the resting zone, or simply because they were certain that nobody would steal their poor and dirty stuff, the contenders just left the quilt covers and pillows scattered about on the floor.
The grayish-green wall soared high into the sunless sky. Heavy clouds and thick mist that rolled about above the horizon gave the people the impression that a storm was on its way. As the door to the Salvation of God zone opened, Lin Sanjiu's vision grew wider. Similar to the sky, there was a blanket of whiteness like the panting and puffing of somebody helpless that hung heavily over the land at the end of her vision.
This place was way too different from the Olympics Lin Sanjiu had imagined. In her mind, the Olympics should be a place filled with vigor and sunshine. She took one last glimpse at the quiet and empty resting zone before stepping into the Salvation of God zone.
Compared to the other zones, the Salvation of God zone was pathetically small. From the information given by the wall, there were only a hundred plus of contenders in this zone. There were always more people dying or being transferred away than the new blood. Lin Sanjiu was certain that this zone was not far away from getting canceled in the future.
Driven by her curiosity, Lin Sanjiu asked about the number of contenders in the other zones. According to the wall, the contenders that came from the Twelve World Centrum usually hovered around 2,000 and was capped at 5,000. However, what surprised her the most was that even the Meat Elysium, an apocalyptic world which residents had basically been wiped out, had roughly 300 contenders.
Most of the apocalyptic worlds she had been to had a corresponding zone here which meant that those worlds had a pretty high survival rate. Neverthel
ess, there was a world that she could not find here: the Garden of Eden.
"What will happen if there's only one representative from an apocalyptic world?" Lin Sanjiu recalled the question Soulsqn asked. The wall answered, "Then, he'll win by default and get to meet Zeus, the highest god. Having said that, please bear in mind that bluffing a worldly name won't grant you a shortcut of any kind. We'll know whether you're lying or telling the truth."
'How did they find out whether we are bluffing or telling the truth?' As Lin Sanjiu pondered about this question in her heart, she led Soulsqn towards the center of the arena.
It appeared that the Souls were a species that could not walk a lot. After traveling on foot for a couple of hours, Soulsqn was out of sorts. Her saggy skin looked as if it would slide off her face and drop to the ground at any moment. As they continued to walk to the center of the arena, Soulsqn hissed, "Hey, don't you think you're being a little over-optimistic?"
"Why would you say so?" Lin Sanjiu countered without turning her head. She looked around. One thing good about this place was that she could get a panoramic view of the entire landscape.
"You never lived up to your promise." Lin Sanjiu realized that Soulsqn had becoming more and more humanized throughout the year. In addition to annoyance, there were some hints of frustration and disappointment in her voice. "No matter whether it's this time or the last time, you promised you'd bring me to your friend. Ask yourself how many years have passed since then?"
Lin Sanjiu felt she could not be mean to Soulsqn anymore, especially right after the latter had contributed so much in assisting them to escape from the clutches of the Veda. She hemmed and hawed for a brief moment before speaking in a hesitant tone, "They are two different things. How can you mix them up?"
As Soulsqn said, Lin Sanjiu was being a little too optimistic.