Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  All the corpses, save for Lin Sanjiu's group, looked at each other and nodded in unison. They then charged at their top speed towards the door.

  However, it seemed like their worries were totally uncalled for. Zeus did not even bat an eyelid and just stood there. Expressions of shock were written all over the group of corpses' faces as they reached the door. They did not know why Zeus would let them off so easily, but they did not plan to find out. Soon, their figures got smaller and smaller on the horizon until they went totally out of sight.

  Lin Sanjiu averted her gaze away from the door and began looking around the morgue.

  The fat corpse was trembling, and his face was livid with fear. However, he did not follow the group.

  "Why are you still here?" Zeus asked with a smile as he flexed his fingers and picked up his chiton.

  "I… I'm too excited to see you, so I couldn't walk," the fat corpse answered as he bowed unctuously, "It's okay. You can leave first. Don't mind me. I'll leave after you."

  Lin Sanjiu and the grand prize looked at each other upon hearing what the fat corpse said. Although Zeus was scary and strange, he was not the only thing that was odd in the Olympics. They wondered why the fat corpse would admit that he was too scared to move. Besides, he was among the first ones to run when Zeus showed up. Soulsqn jolted up and shouted, "Bullsh*t! You are going to take this morgue, aren't you? What can you possibly achieve by taking this crap?"

  The fat corpse was stunned. He shook his hand repeatedly and recoiled a few steps. "No, you have misunderstood me… I don't want to make this morgue my own."

  "That's good then." Zeus suddenly sighed. Flexing his fingers, he patted his c.h.e.s.t. "This is because this morgue is mine."

  The fat corpse fell quiet. He looked around, then in the next second, his body turned into a blur as he darted out of the doorway.

  Zeus turned his long neck around, his brown hair scraping across the ceiling. He bent his neck at a 90-degree angle as he saw the fat corpse out of the front door.

  When he turned his head back to Lin Sanjiu, he found her walking towards the corpse of the morgue owner. Her body froze the moment she met his glance.

  "What are you doing, dear?" Zeus asked, his voice thick with affection.

  "I'm going to bury him," Lin Sanjiu replied coldly.

  "I can give you permission to do that, but don't do any other thing," Zeus said as he inspected the interior of the morgue with his two bizarrely large eyes. The grand prize had been shielding the birdcage with his body, and upon seeing Zeus's action, he inched towards Lin Sanjiu together with Soulsqn.

  With a frown, Lin Sanjiu crouched down.

  When her gaze and her palm touched the corpse of the morgue owner, the doubt and surprise that just rose in her heart dissipated. The morgue owner did not know what the cause of his death was even after he had died. There was a muddled expression on his purple-tinged face, and his eyes were half-closed in a slumbrous manner.

  Lin Sanjiu closed his eyes with her palm. The moment the morgue owner's eyes were closed, he disappeared into thin air.

  "I'm such a benevolent god. I've given you all you wanted!" Zeus clapped his hands and sighed. "Let's get moving."

  Then, they followed Zeus out from the morgue. The sky was foggy and the sunlight in the morning was dim as it shone coldly down on them.

  The atmosphere in the resting zone had taken a nosedive. It was chilly, and Lin Sanjiu could barely see anybody around. It was a stark contrast from the lively and merry night.

  It was getting late. Not only had all the umbrellas returned to the ground, but most of the posthumans in the resting zone were also gone, leaving only a few scattered groups of people in the distance. Presumably, they were not going to join or watch any games today.

  'No wonder no one realizes that Zeus is here,' Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly.

  "Wait for me here. I'm going to keep this morgue," Zeus said. Then, without waiting for Lin Sanjiu's reply, he turned back to the morgue. Only then did Lin Sanjiu see the full length of his neck. It was massive at almost ten or so centimeters long. She stared at his back, and a wild thought suddenly appeared in her mind. She opened her palm and activated A Twinkle In The Sky.

  Then, she felt a cold sensation spread across her arm. She turned around to find that a person holding her arm. It was her grand prize. The second they met each other glances, the grand prize shook his head. Although he did not utter any syllable, Lin Sanjiu got his signal through his eyes. Some of her rational returned as she took a deep breath. She lowered her hand and deactivated A Twinkle In The Sky.

  "Yo, where's your friend? What's his name?" Walking towards them after he had kept the morgue, Zeus asked in a saccharine voice, "Are you sure your friend is here? You cannot lie to the highest god. You do know that, don't you?"

  "His name is Puppeteer," Lin Sanjiu answered, "Don't worry. We've agreed with each other to check the competition rules together today." She just needed to hold it out a little longer until she was reunited with Puppeteer.

  Zeus cast a sidelong glance at her and giggled as if he had heard some kind of joke. Dumbfounded by Zeus's reaction, Lin Sanjiu asked, "What's so funny about that?" However, Zeus did not reply instantly. He kept laughing for a long while before craning his neck and replying, "Nothing. I'm just not sure if you're able to find your friend or not."

  Lin Sanjiu looked at her grand prize. She had a bad feeling about this. Without wasting any second, she grabbed the flesh worm and bolted straight towards the direction they came in last night.

  Zeus followed after them. The rhythm of his b.a.r.e feet hitting the ground caused Lin Sanjiu's heart to sink even further down.

  The umbrella where they had rested under last night had disappeared. There was no sign of Puppeteer and his crowd of puppets either.

  The three of them searched frantically around the area, their footsteps echoing clearly in the resting zone. There were fewer people in the resting zone. Some of them were lying on the ground while the others were leaning against the wall, but all of them were not Puppeteer.

  Lin Sanjiu's forehead was wet with sweat. She felt cold after being assaulted by the wind.

  'Could he have already gone out to the arena?' LinSanjiu thought to herself, but she denied the thought the second it appeared in her mind. She froze, her blood turning cold.

  In the next second, she turned her body around and lunged at Zeus like an arrow leaving its string.

  "Sis!" the grand prize shouted panickly.

  "What have you done to Puppeteer?" Lin Sanjiu's eyes had turned bloodshot. She roared as she activated A Twinkle In The Sky, and threw herself straight at the tall figure at the back. Mrs. Manas immediately activated her Defense Forcefield, causing her body to glow. However, before she could reach Zeus, she suddenly came to an abrupt stop.

  Something was not right, but it was too late. Zeus tilted his head and offered three of them an eerie grin.

  His cheeks folded up as the grin grew larger. Zeus raised his arm and beckoned with his finger. "Well, since you cannot find your friend, let's go then."

  His words seemed to carry some kind of force. Before his sentence was dissipated by the wind, the trio could not help falling to the ground. The cobbled ground was flat, but they could not stop rolling forward as if they were sliding down a slope.

  "If you guys continue to resist me, I'm going to be very angry. And when I'm angry, bad things are going to happen. You guys don't want anything bad to happen, do you?"

  Zeus lowered his head, narrowing his two oddly large eyes as he continued to smile. "Alrighty then. Let's depart to the new arena."

  Chapter 626 - Never Tired Of Frauding People

  'Where am I?'

  Looking from above, the sea was calm. It resembled an enormous mirror that had no bounds. Over the far horizon, the water merged with the foggy sky. Near the shore, there were several white-capped waves, which danced just above the surface, and hints of ocean spray stretched from the tops of the frothy peaks
like strings of silks. The currents pounded gently on the beach and the rock, creating a serene symphony that would pacify everything in the world.

  The sea was blue and dark, stretching far into the distance.

  Lin Sanjiu stared at the ocean below; her mind was blank. Ever since the apocalypse came—No, even in the modern days, she had never felt so calm before.

  Like the clouds, her body and mind were blown away by the gentle breeze and became part of the world.

  She didn't know who or where she was. Her mind drifted further and further away from consciousness as she stared long at the great receptacle of water below. It was like her brain was going to sail across the ocean to the world's end, never to return.

  Even the scream in her ear sounded like a vague choir that drifted from a distance. It was just there were a few discordant high-pitched notes mixed here and there in the song.

  "Sis!"

  Refused to give up, the grand prize yelled out loud again, "Sis, look at me! Can you hear me, sis?"

  Lin Sanjiu blinked her eyes slowly, her gaze staring drowsily through the layers of cloud and fog above the ocean. There was nothing but deep blue in her eyes.

  "Sis!" The grand prize was having a hard time speaking, as the raging wind kept finding chances to rush into his mouth and attempt to tear his tongue off whenever he opened his mouth. He could barely open his eyes, and most of his outer coat had been shredded into pieces by the relentless gust that assaulted him like sharp blades, leaving his inner layer shirt flapping and smacking feebly as he battled against the gale.

  However, no matter how loud he tried to scream, Lin Sanjiu remained unresponsive. There was a serene expression on her face as if she didn't realize their urgent situation.

  "Sis! Can you hear me? We are—" Before the grand prize could finish his sentence, the metal claw that grasped his back suddenly loosened, causing the second half of his sentence to turn into a long, mindless scream that reverberated loud and clear through the air.

  The wind intensified. A sense of weightlessness engulfed the grand prize whole. He was dropping fast like a falling arrow, but he felt his heart being pushed higher and higher up into the air. Very soon, he could not scream anymore, for the fierce wind had filled his throat, attempting to shred him apart from within.

  The sea was approaching fast in his eyes. The sea waves were getting clearer, and the color bluer, and only now did the grand prize realize that there was a severe storm happening. The sea roared madly like a wild beast on the loose, a violent maelstrom of heaving grey water that could engulf everything in its great maw. Fountains of spumes sprang up into the air, snatched away by the relentless wind force, and whipped on his face.

  "Wake up, sis!" The grand prize screamed again, but his voice did not reach either Lin Sanjiu or Soulsqn. The wind had separated them while they were falling and sent the three of them plummeting into different locations. Lin Sanjiu plunged into the sea with a mighty splash. The cold water that seeped into her body successfully brought her back to reality, and her peaceful state of mind was shattered by the roar of the storm.

  "What's happening?"

  She bobbed up and down in the neverending waves. Her senses were gradually returning, and she now remembered everything. As she struggled to stay afloat, she raised her head to see that Zeus was coming out of a steel blue object. He laid a board on the water surface and stood barefoot on it. Although the sea was churning, he stood firm as if he was standing on flat ground.

  "Alas, if you can't stand up, I advise you to give up the game. This is quite embarrassing," he said as he measured the three people in the sea. "Anyway, we've arrived at the new arena. I'm looking forward to your performance. Don't disappoint me."

  'So the new arena is not on the land, but this vast, deep blue ocean!

  'No wonder there's nothing on the map aside from the apocalyptic world zone on the land.'

  Lin Sanjiu barely had enough time to comb through the situation in her mind before a wave came crashing at her, sending her down into the water below. She wasn't a good swimmer, and as the salty sea water rushed into her ears and nose, an icy fog of fear clung to her and a searing pain exploded in her face.

  Since Soulsqn could fare pretty well in the water, so Lin Sanjiu wasn't too worried about her. The problem was her grand prize. Technically, he wasn't a human, so Lin Sanjiu did not know what would happen to him if he stayed in the sea for too long. However, there was nothing she could do in her current state. With her swimming skills, staying afloat was already her limit. She didn't have the freedom to care about either of them.

  Lin Sanjiu brandished her arms and legs frantically to propel herself back to the surface of the water. The birdcage on her shoulder was too heavy to float, so she just left it under the sea. Although her eyes stung, she tried to open them. Through squinted eyes, she saw Zeus, after finding her annoying, getting back into the blue iron object with a pointy tip.

  Braving against the wrathful sea and furious wind, Lin Sanjiu pushed herself forward and yelled at the top of her lungs, "Zeus! Zeus!"

  The tall figure paused. He turned around.

  "You called me?"

  "You—" Lin Sanjiu took in a mouthful of bitter, salty seawater the moment she opened her mouth. It was a short sentence, yet she needed more time than usual to finish it. "How long for you to get here?"

  Standing firmly on the crest of the waves, Zeus stared unblinkingly at her with his two enormous eyes; his irises glowed. The pointy-tipped blue iron object that hovered next to him looked like an aircraft. There were two arched metal structures in front of it, which gave it the look of a fly's compound eyes.

  "Less than two minutes," Zeus answered slowly.

  'A single trip took him two minutes, so a round trip would make it four minutes. Even if he used more time than that, I think we can still hold out for roughly five to six minutes. This should work.'

  Lin Sanjiu flourished her limbs with all her might, but the waves kept pushing her away. She knew she had to act fast as she yelled out loud again, "I have something to tell you!"

  Zeus crooked his head, bending his long neck.

  "What do you want to tell me?" he asked boredly. "You guys are drowning."

  "I have a friend," Lin Sanjiu, grabbing the birdcage, shouted, "He told me that he wanted to win the game too!"

  "How come you have so many friends? What is his name?" Zeus giggled. "Maybe he is someone I know and has already been taken away."

  "That's impossible! You can go to zone Civet Coffee and find a person called Maxin. Bring him here… He is very loyal to you. He said he wanted to win the match and meet the highest god!"

  Chapter 627 - Kind Ji Shanqing

  Life is composed of a surfeit of surprises and chaos. Maxin thought he had long understood this since he was a child.

  He also thought he had adapted himself well to it.

  He was a slum dweller. His father had run away when he was born because he could not afford to take care of his family. In a neighborhood where gangsterism, drug dealing, alcoholism, and crime flourished, Maxin supported himself by working day and night to complete his studies. Compared to his previous life, the days in the doomsday were pretty much the same. In fact, the experience he had garnered throughout his childhood in a poor district had helped him better survive in the apocalyptic world.

  The fortune's wheel is ever turning. Just when he had gone through four D-class apocalyptic worlds thinking that he had mastered the game rules, his luck began to go down the hill. He made a small mistake and ended up in the Olympics, a B-class world. In the Olympics, he was cautious with every step he took. He stayed low and minded his own business all the time. He was prudent and shrewd; however, it still wasn't enough to completely steer him away from danger.

  Maxin had never expected that he would one day be targeted because of his swimming skills.

  "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

  Maxin didn't know whether or not Lin Sanjiu could hear him amidst the roar
ing breakers. His throat felt sore as he'd shouted too much.

  "This is not a swimming competition! Did I say I want to be here? Did you ask for my permission? I don't care if you're drowning or what, I'm not going to be your surfboard anymore!" Maxin shouted as he kept his upper torso afloat with practiced ease despite the churning sea. In comparison, Lin Sanjiu and her gang looked miserable. "Zeus! Zeus! Please send me back to where I came from. It's all this woman's fault! She cheated you! I never said I wanted to participate in this competition!"

  "I—I'm—sor—sorr—y."

  Lin Sanjiu could barely finish her sentence before she and her comrades were washed away by a sudden surge of ocean waves. As if on a roller coaster ride, each wave brought them up about ten or so meters high into the air before sending them crashing down into the seafloor below with tremendous force. No swimmer could survive in such harsh conditions, but this group of posthumans was somehow able to emerge after each assault from the tumultuous sea.

  Craning his long neck like a snake when finding its prey, Zeus looked at Maxin.

  "That won't do, my dear," he giggled slightly. "She said you wish to enter the competition. That is considered as her testimony. As a matter of fact, I only accept testimonies, not personal statements."

  "Why the hell is that?"

  Although the seawater was cold, it could not cool down the anger in his heart. His face was scarlet with rage.

  "Will you bring everybody here if I say everyone in this world wants to join the game?!" Overwhelmed by his anger, Maxin shouted at Zeus.

  Hearing his words, the damned creature's eyes glowed. He held his hands together and rubbed them excitedly like a fly.

  "Is that true?"

  His eyes brimmed with manic glee, and the words poured out of him with passion and excitement. "Are you telling me that all of them want to join the competition?"