by N. Heller
'Under the bed?'
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. She lifted her arm to touch the dining table above her head. However, since both the dining table and the bed were made out of wood, she could not tell the difference between the two.
Lucy could not see Lin Sanjiu's movement in the darkness, so she continued to speak.
"I saw one of your friends," the young girl's voice softened, as though she realized she had been a little bit too harsh on Lin Sanjiu, "But it was a dead body. Your friend is dead."
Chapter 672 - Fifteen Years Old
"You're asking me how the corpse looked like?"
Even in the darkness, Lucy's voice was still very soothing to the ears, like the peal of silver bells in the autumn wind. With a little bit of hesitation, she began to describe the outlook of the corpse to Lin Sanjiu. "The corpse looked fat, and it was huge and tall. I was pretty far away from it, and if it weren't for its imposing appearance, I might have overlooked it."
Lin Sanjiu's limbs suddenly went weak, and she almost plopped on the floor.
'It wasn't Puppeteer. The corpse she saw wasn't Puppeteer. Thank goodness.'
She aspired a heavy sigh and buried her face into her palms. For a moment, she was so overwhelmed by a surge of happiness that she almost jumped up.
"Thank goodness it's not him..." Lin Sanjiu mumbled, slurring her words. "That corpse you saw… It's Polva. If it's Polva, then it should be okay."
"Huh? What do you mean by it is okay?"
"That is his ability." Lin Sanjiu felt that she should not expose Polva's Evolving Ability to anybody, so she just gave a vague answer. "I don't know how to explain it to you, but all I can say is that seeing his corpse doesn't mean that he is dead."
There was no reply from the dark.
Lucy waited for a moment before she began speaking again. "Is that so?" This time, she pitched her voice an octave lower as if she was afraid of waking up something in the dark. "Well, if I were you, I would not jump to a conclusion so soon."
'What does she mean?'
Stunned, Lin Sanjiu slowly lowered her arm and asked, "What makes you say so?"
Lucy took stock for a moment, but she did not answer Lin Sanjiu's question in the end.
"Forget it," she said, showing an unwillingness to continue the topic, "It's better for you to go and see it with your own eyes. Right now, the bigger question is what the hell is going on in this sh*t place."
Lin Sanjiu did have some thoughts about the furniture cemetery.
She had gone through the space underneath the pieces of furniture twice and failed to get out both times. On the other hand, Lucy mentioned that she came in from under a bed, but somehow, both of them met under the dining table.
'Could it be that all the spaces underneath the pieces of furniture are interconnected?'
The more Lin Sanjiu thought about it, the closer she felt she was to the truth. Otherwise, how were they going to explain this seemingly boundless space?
"So, you are saying that we are on the right track?" Perhaps Lucy was still a little bit frustrated about getting dragged into this mess, for her voice was sharp and accusative. "Then where is the exit?"
Lin Sanjiu frowned at her question. Then, she sighed softly.
"I guess there is no exit here," she said dejectedly. "Previously this place was used as an arena, so the highest god would surely have left a way so that the players could win the game. However, right now, his goal is to capture us. I don't think he would be dumb enough to leave an exit for us."
"But this has nothing to do with me!" Lucy snarled. "I was just collecting Special Items from those dead people. Yes, it is my fault for not paying attention to my surroundings, but so what? I don't even know what you guys were doing, so can't you guys just let me go?!"
Special Item dealers, just like Gong Daoyi, often obtained their "merchandise" through several channels that were generally unacceptable by society's standards. Without these channels, those Special Item dealers' businesses would never flourish. Lin Sanjiu listened quietly as Lucy continued to rant on about the unfairness of it all. When she finally calmed down a bit, only then did Lin Sanjiu speak. "But the one who refuses to let you go is the highest god."
Lucy fell silent. After a moment, a sniff came from the dark.
"How old are you?"
"Fifteen," replied Lucy in a thick, nasal voice. "Why you ask? What does my age have anything to do with you?"
"How many years have you lived in the apocalypse?" Lin Sanjiu asked, ignoring her snappy attitude. She recalled that when she was at her age, she was as sulky as her as well.
"Four to five years, I suppose." Lucy sounded a little muffled. Lin Sanjiu had no idea why, but she felt that Lucy was a little down. "Well, to survive, you do what you gotta do."
"Have you been alone all these years?"
"Seriously? Are you really asking me this question? Of course, I have been alone all these years! Who doesn't spend their days like that in the doomsday? Have you ever seen a large group of people roaming around in an apocalyptic world as if they were strolling on the streets? So grow up!" Lucy snarled. "I have long forgotten how my parents even look like. I did fetch a family photo and a puppy with me when the apocalypse first arrived. Then, I was caught by a human trafficker. I escaped in the end, but not before losing my family photo and gaining a scar on my stomach."
Her tone was even, and Lin Sanjiu just nodded from time to time. Losing a family member or friend in a certain accident was an everyday thing in the doomsday. Almost everybody had experienced the same thing. Nobody had the right to judge who had the worst life. After a few seconds, Lin Sanjiu's voice, as low as a whisper, wafted from her lips, "I'm not."
"What?"
"I'm not alone." Lin Sanjiu rubbed her face and listened in the dark. There was nothing but the whisper of the wind. "I've been lucky enough to have friends who always fight alongside me. They are trustworthy enough for me to leave my back to them. Even though most of us have been separated, there is nothing we could do since this is how the world works. Anyway, what I want to say is that I'm luckier than you."
"So?" Lucy raised her voice. "Just get straight to the point."
Lin Sanjiu let out a bitter laugh. "What I want to say is that maybe it's not your style, but you can't continue to fight alone like that. You might not be able to fully trust me yet, but I really hope that you can come with me to find my friend and search for a way out of here."
Lucy fell silent for a moment.
"You need my help, don't you?" Her voice was cold, filled with doubts and cynicism.
Just as Lin Sanjiu wanted to nod, she realized that Lucy could not see in the dark so she forwent the attempt and said, "Yes, I need your help. I need you to bring me to Polva's corpse. You also need my help, don't you? Let's get out of here."
However, Lucy did not reply.
After a few seconds that felt like ages, Lin Sanjiu heard the rustling of fabric against the floor ahead. Just when Lin Sanjiu pondered what the young girl was doing, her chirpy voice slid into her ears. "Then what are you waiting for? Let's go."
Lin Sanjiu let out a long sigh and followed her example.
"I'll trust you this time, so I hope you won't let me down," warned Lucy as she continued to crawl forward. "Although we are working together now, if you need a Special Item, you still have to buy it from me. There is no way I'm giving it to you for free."
"Of course, of course."
The darkness had become less frightening with Lucy crawling beside her. Her speculation was correct. The size of the dark space underneath the furniture was not always the same. Sometimes the space was as small as a coffee table, forcing them to crawl through single file, while other times it became as large as a King Size bed, allowing them to move side by side and even roll around. Both of them kept talking to while away the time. In the blink of an eye, four minutes passed.
When Lin Sanjiu noticed that it was slightly brighter ahead, she was relieved.
"If we crawle
d in here from under a bed, logically speaking, we should crawl out from under the same bed, right?" Lin Sanjiu said after she thought quietly for a moment. "If that is the case, the passageway under the furniture should run in sections. It is possible that there might be breaks between these sections… For example, this particular passageway from under the bed leads to the space under a dining table."
"I guess so," the silhouette representing Lucy nodded. "This is the first time I tried crawling under these pieces of furniture so I'm not sure. Is this your second time?"
"I didn't go very far the previous time. I was scared so I ran out." After Lin Sanjiu answered Lucy, she found herself frowning involuntarily. She touched the space between her eyebrows and soothed the skin with her fingers.
"Oh, yeah, that Eggy. Who knows if he's a human or a ghost," Lucy commented lightheartedly. "I've seen everything after the apocalypse, but I've never met a ghost."
"Why don't you try to get a visa to Kisaragi Station?" Lin Sanjiu quipped. "Once you've been there once, that fear stays with you forever. You'll also become paranoid."
The girl laughed. That was the first time Lin Sanjiu heard the girl laugh so openly since they became acquainted.
After they crawled for a while more, they finally saw the vague outlines of legs belonging to the furniture outside. Lin Sanjiu was certain of her conjecture. There were two tall cabinets in front of the dining table she was under, and they blocked her path forward. There wasn't any space between the cabinets and the cement floor. Similarly, the bed was surrounded by a few large wine racks, a flower vase, and some other paraphernalia. Outside, there was barely enough space for one person to stand.
As there wasn't any other furniture ahead with a hiding space underneath, their "under-furniture passageway" came to an end.
After Lin Sanjiu crawled out from underneath the bed, there was no space for Lucy to stand. "Wait, just a second," she told Lucy. She carried a surprisingly heavy vase and placed it on top of the bed. However, the space she cleared from moving that vase was still too small.
"Just try to look around when you move these pieces of furniture," Lucy's voice came from the darkness beneath the bed. "I remembered that there was a beautiful screen around here. I walked over from that screen. Your friend's corpse should be in that direction."
"I see it," Lin Sanjiu threw a dining chair behind her and finally cleared out enough space for both of them to stand. Her forehead was covered with sweat. If she had zero limitations to her ability and could ignore the abnormality of the furniture, she would rather store up all the furniture here once and for all. "You can come out now!" Lin Sanjiu shouted and walked toward the screen.
The screen was indeed very exquisite. Lin Sanjiu could tell that it was made of a translucent silk-like material even in the dark. She peeked behind the screen and slowly turned her head around.
When Lucy's delicate arms stuck out from under the bed, she still held a matchbox in her hand. She quickly crawled out and dusted herself before looking at Lin Sanjiu.
"What's wrong?" the girl asked briskly.
"You… You're behind that screen," Lin Sanjiu said drily.
The furniture cemetery suddenly grew silent.
Under the dusky surroundings, the teenage girl's expression gradually stiffened. Her raven black eyes filled with confusion and… a tinge of sorrow.
"What are you saying?"
"Your corpse is behind that screen," Lin Sanjiu repeated. She looked at both of Lucy's arms and dragged each word out of her mouth, "Your arms…"
Following Lin Sanjiu's gaze, Lucy lowered her head mechanically and looked at her arms. A long piece of flesh was missing on her skinny right arm. Her lean muscles were torn apart, and the white bone underneath them showed. However, there wasn't a single drop of blood near her wound. After they came out from under the bed and left the darkness, they finally saw that wound.
The girl looked up and found herself gazing directly at Lin Sanjiu.
"I...I'm dead, aren't I?" Lucy shrunk into herself as she reached beneath her clothes with a quivering hand. "No way." She felt her skin for a while and suddenly laughed. Her voice became nasally, "There isn't any wound on my stomach."
She lowered her head and wiped her eyes. The teenage girl—or rather, a corpse with a girl's consciousness—slowly bent over. She crouched down on the ground and whimpered.
"You're right… I'm dead." Her shoulders shook but there weren't any sounds of mucus from her nose or throat. "I have been… eaten."
Chapter 673 - Next Stop Decided
Lucy's body had been eaten very cleanly.
Lin Sanjiu was only able to recognize her immediately because the girl's head had not been touched. Lucy's head still looked as it did when she was alive. The girl was lying in a pool of dried blood. Her sleeves and trouser legs were neatly rolled up, and what should have been delicate, fair-skinned limbs had now become four ghastly white bones.
No matter who her murderer was, he did a fine job. All her skin and flesh were cleanly scr.a.p.ed off of her limbs. It was just that Lucy was too skinny; the person would not get many portions of flesh even if he were to scr.a.p.e everything off.
Slowly, Lin Sanjiu sat beside the body. She realized that Lucy had a small, heart-shaped face. Her eyelashes were short, and her skin exhibited an unwholesome white. Although her complexion was bloodless, she gave off the vibe that she would suddenly peel her eyes open and start to walk around.
"Those who are dead will walk around," Lin Sanjiu said. "That was what Eggy told me."
The faint footfalls were within earshot. They stopped beside the dead body, and Lucy's face appeared from the dark. Lowering her head, she inspected the corpse that looked exactly like her. A mixture of perplexion and terror was written all over her face. With an outstretched arm, she touched the face of the corpse.
"It has been five years," another "Lucy" who could not bleed mumbled. "I always believed that someday I would find a way to exclude myself from the world leaping loop. My mother always said I was smart and full of tricks. I don't remember her face anymore, but I would never forget the thing she said. I always thought, one day I would beat the hell out of the doomsday."
She ran her fingers across the body's face then her shoulder and arm. The bone rustled under her fingers.
"For five years, I kept struggling and struggling and struggling..." Lucy laughed halfheartedly, "But this is it. This is what I got in the end. If I knew earlier that everything I did throughout the years would all be in vain, I would rather die together with my parents and Bubbles when the apocalypse first arrived."
Lin Sanjiu kept her head low, staring at the young girl on the floor. She did not say anything.
"Am I really dead?""Lucy" asked again, her voice faltering like hollow wind in a cave. "If I'm dead, how can I still touch my body?"
"Before you met us," Lin Sanjiu replied softly, "The highest god created a dozen of "me". Each and every single one of them had my memories, and all of them thought they were the real Lin Sanjiu. The only difference was, at that time, I was not dead yet."
Lucy remained standing still. Lin Sanjiu had no idea whether or not she was listening to what she said.
Without making any sound, Lin Sanjiu extended her arm and withdrew the box of matches from Lucy's hand. The young girl seemed to be unaware of her movement as she continued to stand as still as a statue.
Lin Sanjiu took out a match and struck it across the striker at the side of the box. A tiny, wavering firelight then came alive and danced on the end of the wooden stick. It chased the shade away a little bit and dyed their surroundings in an orange hue.
Since the firelight was closer this time, Lin Sanjiu finally saw "Lucy's" face. Livor mortis had already set in on her skin, leaving a few dark patches around her chin and cheek. Both Lucys wore different attires as well. The corpse on the floor dressed in a T-shirt that went very well with its petite body size whereas the "Lucy" in front of her donned an oversized men's shirt. The sleeves were ro
lled up.
Obviously, this was a male corpse that had been "transformed" into Lucy's appearance.
Why didn't the highest god make her corpse walk and talk instead?
This was because Lucy's legs had been reduced to two white bones.
A tiny sense of pain flared across Lin Sanjiu's fingers as the fire snuffed out, prompting her to hurl the match away. Since she had only been using a bandage to hold her broken palm, it did not permit her such maneuverability. It gave her a lot of pain as if she had been whacked by a sledgehammer. As she s.u.c.k.e.d in air to soothe the pain, "Lucy's" voice rose from the dark and slid into her ears. "Why… Why does he have to make me stand up and walk around?"
Raising her arm high, "Lucy" inspected the dried wound on her arm. Then, she looked at Lin Sanjiu and gave her a forced smile. "You see, this body has been eaten as well. It doesn't bleed, so I think it is a corpse too. I… my body won't be able to grow anymore, right?"
Lin Sanjiu had no answer to this question either; she could not even sigh. Placing her palm on the shoulder of Lucy's corpse with her other hand, she said gently, "Which world did you come from?"
The young girl, keeping her head low, she answered, "...I came from the Bamboo Forest."
"I'm taking this away," Lin Sanjiu said as she nudged her chin at the dead body. "If I get the chance, I'll take your body back to your home at Bamboo Forest."
Curling on the floor like a helpless young cub that had just lost its mother, the young girl curled her body up and nodded.
With those words, Lin Sanjiu activated her ability and turned the body into a card. Then, Lin Sanjiu put the card away. Just as she was about to query "Lucy" about the cause of her death, "Lucy" suddenly jerked up from the floor.
"What are you doing here?""Lucy" asked. Gone was the pitiable young girl. She took a step back as she snarled, "I don't care about what is going on between you guys and that b*stard, nor do I want to get involved as well. I still have another two months before I say goodbye to this f*cking world. You guys have caused too much trouble for me. I'm going to find the exit now!"