Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  "Take it slowly," Lin Sanjiu said, "Leave some for tomorrow, understand?"

  Eggy nodded his head profusely. Lin Sanjiu quickly stopped him, as she feared that his head might fall off.

  After she had settled the young boy, Lin Sanjiu raised her head and looked around. The silvery light from the [Ability Polishing Agent] had dimmed down to the degree that she almost couldn't see it anymore. It had merely been a few minutes, yet it had become even further away from her. Looking ahead, she found that, like Eggy, she was lost in this furniture cemetery as well.

  "Let me ask you something," said Lin Sanjiu stiffly. If there was something she didn't thrive in, it was the skill in talking to a kid. "Aside from me, have you seen anybody else tonight?

  Eggy nodded.

  Lin Sanjiu's eyes glowed. She pressed on, "How does he look like? Which way did he go?"

  "It was a man dressed in black clothes," Eggy said as he recalled his memories, "He was also covered in many layers of white clothing, and there was a lot of blood on his body. When he walked, I could hear a crackling noise."

  Chapter 670 - That Person Is Dead

  The never-ending darkness continued to shroud the cemetery. All furniture stood quietly in the dark, their undulating outlines merging together and creating a strange shape. The commotion they caused should have been loud enough to notify the highest god. However, Lin Sanjiu had no idea why he did not show up.

  It was impossible that he did not hear it. This furniture cemetery was created by him to trap and cause trouble for the posthumans, so how was there any possibility that he would be affected by something that came out of his own hand?

  Why wouldn't he show up?

  While it would not have taken long for the grand prize to solve the mystery, Lin Sanjiu had to waste more time before she finally reached the answer. The highest god's target was never her alone. For the highest god, the wounded Puppeteer was clearly a better target.

  With that thought in mind, she threw a surreptitious gaze at the shadow that belonged to Eggy.

  The boy's emaciated body created a strange and eerie silhouette in the night. His chalky white complexion, scaly skin, and pair of bulging eyes gave Lin Sanjiu the vibe that he was a duoluozhong rather than a child.

  Lin Sanjiu gulped silently as the image of Wang Sisi came with unbridled clarity into her mind.

  She looked at Eggy again.

  The boy had been wandering in the Olympics for so many years. He did not get transferred away since he wasn't a posthuman and did not own any abilities. However, Lin Sanjiu had no idea whether a visa could work on an ordinary person or not. If she could confirm this point, then she would be able to tell whether Eggy was lying or telling the truth. Be that as it may, she had felt a pulse when she grabbed his ankle, so the probability of him being a duoluozhong was pretty...

  The boy did not know the things that were going on in Lin Sanjiu's brain. He nestled in a single sofa. His stomach rose and fell with labored breaths.

  From his description, the person he saw was no doubt Puppeteer.

  "That person you saw," Lin Sanjiu pitched her voice low and asked, "Can you tell me which direction he went?"

  Eggy opened his lips, and the stench in the air thickened. He swiveled his two large eyes around before saying haltingly, "He… He…"

  Lin Sanjiu squinted her eyes so that she could better see his figure in the dark. "What is wrong with him?"

  "He is dead, sister."

  "He is dead?" Lin Sanjiu rose to her feet. "What do mean he is dead?"

  Eggy gave a little start and began to stutter again. "The people here… They walk around after they die. I, I have seen a lot of them…"

  Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a second.

  "How could a dead man walk around? By the way, why are you so sure that he is dead?"

  Eggy climbed down the couch. It seemed that the two questions were too hard for his little brain to process. After he hummed and hawed for a brief moment, he then continued in a low voice, "Because he walked like this…"

  The hair on Lin Sanjiu's head horripilated as she took a step back. When her back bumped into a c.h.e.s.t of drawers, Eggy raised his head, and his figure returned to normal.

  "He walked like this," said Eggy. Since he had no idea how to express himself, he just kept repeating the words. "Some of the dead men are not like this, but he was like this. His feet were like this."

  As he spoke, he twisted his toe and pressed the back of his foot on the floor.

  Lin Sanjiu looked at him through squinted eyes full of suspicion. She remained silent for a long while, clutching tightly to her card until its sharp edge left a print on her palm. Only then did she begin to speak again, "I don't care if he's dead or alive. Just tell me where he went."

  "Alright, then." With that, Eggy raised his finger and pointed to a direction. "That way."

  Following his finger, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but feel a tingling sensation that spread across her head. As she tried to ignore the fear that suddenly ballooned in her c.h.e.s.t, she pressed on, "Are you saying he went behind that wardrobe?"

  "No, not there. It's inside. He went into the wardrobe," the boy in the dark replied, looking at her straight in the eye, "He opened the wardrobe and walked into it."

  The darkness suddenly seemed heavy. It was at this moment that Lin Sanjiu felt her heart clench.

  'He went into the wardrobe?"

  "He did not come out anymore," Eggy continued to say in a low voice. "Are you going in too, sister?"

  The wardrobe was nearly two and a half meters high. Its shadow was huge in the dark. Standing in front of the wardrobe, even though their surroundings were pitch-black, Lin Sanjiu could still feel the boy's intense gaze bore into her body.

  Lin Sanjiu stretched her arm forward to reach the wardrobe. Then she rested her palm on the handle but did not open it. "Other than the man, who else did you see?" she asked, staring straight at Eggy.

  "Many. Most of them were dead and always walk around here. But that man… This is the first time I saw him here."

  The entire furniture cemetery was quiet like a pool of dead water. Lin Sanjiu could hear nothing but the whistle of the wind.

  "How come I didn't see any dead people?"

  "They're not always outside," Eggy replied, "Sometimes they crawl under the furniture, just like how you did before."

  Lin Sanjiu felt goosebumps all over her skin. Her brain was a quagmire of confusion, and she did not know what she should ask.

  'Is he talking about duoluozhong in the Olympics?'

  "Okay, I get it," Lin Sanjiu answered dryly, "Then, I won't be going in for now. I will look around outside for my other friends."

  Even though Lin Sanjiu did not fully believe in Eggy, she could not ignore the wardrobe.

  She summoned a small knife and used it to draw a mark on the door of the wardrobe. Throughout the entire process, she studied the boy through the corner of her eyes. After that, she leaned her body to one side and inched past an aquarium that was as large as she was.

  Eggy tried to follow, but with his poor physical health, it did not take him too long before exhaustion began to set in and his pace grew slower and slower.

  "You sit here, and don't move around," Lin Sanjiu intervened, "I'm just going to check and see if I can find my friend."

  The boy then gurgled something that Lin Sanjiu did not understand. He remained standing in his spot and saw Lin Sanjiu off.

  Lin Sanjiu did not walk too far away. After she squeezed herself through the center of a few tables, she found more and more furniture blocking her path. She could still see a road when she first came here, but now the road had disappeared, drowned out by the sea of furniture that laid haphazardly about the area. As Lin Sanjiu navigated herself by slotting her feet between the crooks of the pieces of furniture, she did not let down her guard behind her. She did not know where she was heading aside from knowing that she was getting further and further away from the wardrobe. The silver beam from the [A
bility Polishing Agent] was out of her sight. She had no idea whether somebody took it, or if it had been consumed by the perpetual darkness.

  Then, she arrived in front of a stack of dining tables. Several huge cabinets of unknown usage filled the rest of the space. There were some lamps, telephones, and whatnots slotted in between the slits of some furniture or above a cupboard.

  There weren't any paths around, save for the mawing dark hole underneath the dining table.

  Chapter 671 - The First One That Returned

  Lin Sanjiu could still vaguely see Eggy through the labyrinth of furniture if she peeked at the correct angle. Since she had spent some time with the boy, it was easy for her to pinpoint the boy's figure from the rest of the shadows.

  Eggy had returned to sitting on the single couch and now faced the wardrobe. He sat so still that if one did not look closely, they might mistake him for a weird furnishing.

  Letting out a breath, Lin Sanjiu withdrew her gaze and moved her head away from the slit in between two large bookcases. She turned around and stared at the dark hole that looked like a tunnel underneath the dining table.

  She knew she did not have any other options left.

  If Puppeteer was still alive and in his sober senses, there was no way he would hide in a wardrobe willingly. In fact, no one would do that for no reason whatsoever.

  If that was the case, she would have no choice but to continue walking forward. No matter how small the probability, she had to find Puppeteer and the others.

  Right now, taking the path ahead of her was her only option. The dark path stared back at her.

  Lin Sanjiu really wanted to talk to someone and discuss the situation. However, after her higher consciousness depleted, Mrs. Manas could only remain silent. Lin Sanjiu would need to slowly recover her higher consciousness before Mrs. Manas could return to her mindscape.

  'What is the highest god trying to do?'

  Lin Sanjiu crouched down as she stared at the dining table directly in front of her.

  His aim was to analyze either her or Puppeteer. The reason he created the furniture cemetery and replaced the sea was to separate her and her friends from each other so that he could concentrate on dealing with the two of them. However, even though they were already scattered, she had not seen even a single sign of the highest god. Was Eggy right? Did the highest god already catch Puppeteer, analyze him and then kill him afterward? Was that why when Eggy saw him, he was dragging his feet into a wardrobe with his head held low?

  'No, that is not possible…'

  Lin Sanjiu did not want to believe that Puppeteer was dead, but all the evidence was pointing at the fact that he was gone forever.

  Then, another thought came in, putting the dark notion to an end.

  'Or, Eggy was lying.'

  A kid without any Evolving Abilities, how could he survive all these years?

  "Sister, you don't believe me?"

  Eggy's voice rang out so suddenly that all the hair on Lin Sanjiu's body stood on its ends. She jerked up from the floor, her head almost hitting the table. When she spun around, she saw a big eye that had more white than black staring at her through a slit between two large bookcases. Her arm held high.

  It was Eggy.

  She had almost forgotten that the furniture here could absorb sound.

  In the end, Lin Sanjiu put down her high-held arm. She stared at the half eyeball. It wavered a bit then retreated to the darkness behind. Then, Eggy's voice once again wafted over, "Sister, I didn't lie to you."

  "What?"

  "You did not go into the wardrobe," Eggy said calmly. Lin Sanjiu noticed that his voice had become more solid than the first time she met him. Perhaps the bowl of noodles had been helpful to him after all?

  "Aren't you looking for that man? I didn't lie to you. He walked into that wardrobe. I saw it with my own eyes."

  Lin Sanjiu slowly squinted her eyes.

  "So you followed me all the way here," she said softly, "Just to tell me that my friend has gone into the wardrobe and that I should follow after him?"

  "Erm… That is not what I mean…" Eggy stammered.

  "Well, that's good then," said Lin Sanjiu as she continued to stare at the narrow, dark crevice. "I have decided not to look for him now. Do you have a problem with that?"

  Startled by Lin Sanjiu's sudden hostility, Eggy became fl.u.s.tered, and the nasal tone in his voice thickened, "I… I…"

  "I'm leaving now," Lin Sanjiu interrupted. She clenched her fists tightly and crouched down. She held the card containing [Tornado Whip] in her palm but did not activate it. Despite the fact that he was probably telling her lies, part of her told her that she shouldn't attack the poor little boy. She asked, "You don't want to leave yet?"

  The little boy sighed, tainting the air with his fetid breath, "I'm tired. I will just stay here."

  In other words, he was not going to leave.

  Setting her jaw, Lin Sanjiu stared at the slit for so long that her eyes began to sore. The dark hole under the dining table was behind her, and the air that petted her back was freezing cold.

  Right now, the only option that laid in front of her was the dark hole. Since she did not want to expose her back to Eggy, there was only one way to go into the dark hole.

  Slowly but steadily, Lin Sanjiu arched her back and placed both of her hands on the floor. She did not favor this posture, but she had no other option. Looking straight at the slit where Eggy was, she backed into the darkness under the dining table.

  The hair on her back bristled, though she did not feel anything behind her. More and more cold air seeped into Lin Sanjiu's body through the pores on her skin, and the darkness grew larger with every step she took. Eventually, she was consumed by the darkness; her figure slowly disappeared. Ahead, the spot where she previously stood shrunk into a small greyish rectangle.

  Lin Sanjiu had studied the surroundings beforehand. Behind the dining table was a huge corner sofa. Several parts of the sofa were stacked together and blocked the dining table, only leaving enough space for a person to squeeze through from the right side.

  She knew where she was going and which furniture she would bump into. After all, even if it was a dining table that could accommodate 12 people, how far could it go?

  However, there was something she had forgotten. The darkness underneath the dining table was boundless.

  Five minutes passed.

  Cold sweat pricked Lin Sanjiu's back like thousands of needles. She had been groping around in the dark for a full five minutes, yet she still hadn't gotten out of it. Since she had experienced the same incident under the bed, she was less fl.u.s.tered this time. However, after moving in the darkness for five minutes straight, she could not remain calm anymore.

  She did not have to keep watching in front anymore since Eggy was out of her sight. Huffing, Lin Sanjiu stopped and wiped the sweat off her face. The darkness remained as frightening as always.

  She then silently turned around and looked at the pitch-black in front.

  The darkness was never-ending. The darker it was, the heavier it felt. Like a serpent coiling around its prey, the darkness clung closely to Lin Sanjiu's skin, taking her entire being in its deathly embrace as it tried to coil her to death. Her nerves jumped, her limbs turned cold, and she could not hear anything around her. The silence was punctuated only by the rustling of her clothes against the rough texture of the floor. With each susurration that raised into the air, the urge inside of her that called for her to turn around and rush back grew stronger.

  Last time, she was startled when she found out that Eggy was trailing her. This time, however, she still got scared the wit out of by the rustling of clothes. There were times where she was so overwhelmed by anxiety that she wanted to stop and listen to the rustling noise.

  However, the swishing that set her teeth on edge did not stop. Her heart was in her throat as she held her breath. She jerked her head around to check behind her, but she saw nobody. Eggy wasn't there. With every
second that ticked away, the noise from the darkness ahead got closer, tickling her ears.

  She could not help but release a guttural voice. The rustling stopped. Just when Lin Sanjiu summoned her [Tornado Whip], she heard a click, and something flared up ahead.

  "It… It's you?"

  The dancing fire cast a symphony of orange and darkness on the small face. It took Lin Sanjiu several seconds before she recognized who it was. Lucy looked at Lin Sanjiu with wide-eyed horror, the match in her hand quivering. "What do you want? Why are you here?"

  "Lucy?" Lin Sanjiu parroted. Her mind was still blank, and her Tornado Whip was still held high in the air. She studied the young girl in front of her for a moment before the fire went out.

  Darkness returned. The atmosphere became even tenser.

  "Argh, why does it always burn out so fast?" There was still a tremble in her voice. It seemed that she was startled by the sudden appearance of Lin Sanjiu as well. "I do not have many matches left…"

  "That should be my question—why are you here?" asked Lin Sanjiu in a shaky voice. Since they did not trust each other, both of them maintained a safe distance. "I thought you'd left a long time ago."

  "That b*stard!" Lucy growled angrily. "He never intended to let me go in the first place. I'd been running towards an open space, but since he turned the entire area into this sh*t place, the more I ran, the more furniture would appear. In the end, all the paths were blocked, and there was no way I could run."

  'Well, that's pretty much the same as what I've been experiencing…'

  "Do you have anything other than matches?" Lin Sanjiu asked

  Although Lin Sanjiu was not implying anything, Lucy suddenly got triggered and reacted defensively. "Don't be so funny, sis. Having matches is good enough, although there is not much left. I'm a Special Item dealer, but sometimes a normal item such as a match or torchlight sells better than a pistol that could reload bullets infinitely."

  "Which side did you enter from?"

  "Which side?" It occurred to Lin Sanjiu that when she was not doing business, Lucy cladded herself in an emotional barrier and reacted to everything defensively. She had seen this attitude a lot in those posthumans that traveled alone in the apocalyptic worlds. "I came from under the bed, of course!"