Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Despite only being distracted for a quick second, the alarm bells in her head suddenly exploded in a cacophony. The moment she swiftly swung her head to the side, a blast of warm gas missed her ear narrowly and started spreading out. She held her breath and ducked downwards. Even though it was very difficult to run while crouching, she did not want to risk running upright.

  Previously, when she was caught off guard, the gas that the creature exhaled had hit her straight in the face. At that second, she got the opportunity to experience how it felt to be a breath away from death. The gas seemed to trigger a person's mind into believing that he or she was, dying thus evoking a real physical response that paralyzed that person's entire bodily functions. If Lin Sanjiu did not use her higher consciousness to stop the commands from being picked up by her brain, her heart could very well be a slab of cold flesh right now.

  Thankfully, it seemed that thing could not belch that "Last Breath" gas very often, so this gave Lin Sanjiu enough time to evade the attack.

  "What the hell is that?" Lin Sanjiu gasped between quick breaths. "Can you see it?"

  "I don't know," Polva replied while he continued to forcefully hit Puppeteer. "I can only make out its rough shape…but it's quite a challenge to describe that thing. Do you know what the deconstructivism art movement is?"

  Lin Sanjiu had the impression that it was some style of abstract art, or at least, the sort of art which she found difficult to comprehend. "Go straight to the point!"

  "Deconstructivism in art or architecture is characterized by the idea of fragmentation and recombination, so the final work is usually very complex and difficult to describe," Polva spoke more rapidly, but his explanation was completely useless. "That thing has a shape that reminds me of deconstructivism architecture."

  'His whole explanation was just a goddamned lesson in the appreciation of art!'

  "So, you mean it's just a big pile of randomly-combined, indescribable shapes?"

  "Yes," the white fatty suddenly answered.

  'Argh, I shouldn't have asked.'

  Just when that thought flashed in Lin Sanjiu's mind, the rustling behind her suddenly stopped completely. Before she could figure out where that thing went, the ground beneath her feet suddenly shook violently. The force was so great that it lifted her feet off the ground. A strange unbearable stench crept to the back of her neck.

  "It's right behind us!" the white fatty shrieked.

  It was obvious that he made that remark on hindsight. As he said those words, Lin Sanjiu held both him and Puppeteer tightly with her hands and executed a somersault mid-air using the momentum of the force which lifted her. With that, she narrowly managed to get them away from the creature's foul breath.

  "You can't outrun me!" A peal of laughter that was as coarse as sandpaper erupted in the darkness. Each time it laughed, it sounded different, but the sound produced the same chilling effect.

  Lin Sanjiu scoffed as she landed and stood up straight. Before she could flee again, she heard Polva's nervous comment, "It...it might be right…It grew bigger."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I think it…w-wasn't so big just now," Polva stammered, "I think it grew larger like a rolling snowball while it was chasing us…"

  This time, the strange laughter from that creature was extremely chirpy. It had an erratic pitch that could swiftly go very sharp or very deep. Additionally, the stress pattern of its speech was complete off, so listening to it speak made them very uncomfortable. "That's right. I didn't think that your observation skills would be this keen in the dark. Run. Go on. Why aren't you running? If you run further, I can grow even bigger."

  The larger the creature grew, the probability of Lin Sanjiu evading it would definitely plummet. After all, there was still a limit to the size of this interior furniture space. Perhaps, when that creature reached a certain critical size, she would no longer be able to escape breathing in the 'Last Breath' that it emitted.

  "Alright, I've got it." Lin Sanjiu exhaled. While she inspected her surroundings for a sign of the creature in the dark, she recoiled a step. She crouched down and unloaded Puppeteer from her back. Then, she pushed him way behind her before she turned to the white fatty. "Go over there with him!"

  "T-then, what?"

  Lin Sanjiu really wanted to answer him, but the creature did not spare her a single chance to do so. When she was shoving Puppeteer behind her, it had already soundlessly crept up to her. As it moved very slowly, it did not stir the air molecules around them. When Lin Sanjiu finally reacted, she was almost too late. Instantly, she sensed something right beside her face.

  In the apocalyptic world, a person's survival was not usually determined by how many items they had or how strong their abilities were. Even if they could rely on these external factors, there would always be a chance for things to go wrong. The true factor which determined a person's survival was his or her decision-making in a life and death situation.

  Very few people could hold their ground if they felt a dangerous, unidentified object touching their faces. As Lin Sanjiu turned her head, she stretched her arms out. In the next instant, her two hands touched the creature which was about to assault her, and she activated her Mosaic Censorship. Judging from the physical contact, what she touched seemed like a fat person's twisted arm.

  Before a thick fingertip could touch her chin, it exploded into clumps of wet mush like a bug's abdomen that was squashed. Instinctively, Lin Sanjiu closed her eyes the second she felt a spray of cold liquid on her face and smelled that strange strong stench. The creature m.o.a.n.e.d in the darkness. Lin Sanjiu wiped her lips and called out her Battle Item to throw behind her. "Catch!"

  "W-what?" A clap exploded from Polva's hands as if he failed to catch it.

  "You can use it to imitate a Special Item." Lin Sanjiu did not know how far away that creature was from her. As the creature was enormous, the m.o.a.ns it made seemed to reverberate through its abdominal area, creating echoes everywhere. "You just have to describe an item in detail! Hurry! Think! Is there anything we can use right now?"

  "Something we can use…" The white fatty clenched the Battle Item. He was so nervous that his voice became an octave higher. "Something we can use…"

  Lin Sanjiu did not waste any time. She called out her Tranquilizer Gun for the Foot Soldier. Since that creature was huge and was probably very near to her, it probably could not dodge this time. The sound of her gun valve rang out over and over again as she fired a frenzy of tranquilizer darts at the creature. As expected, the darts hit its target, and the creature wailed.

  However, it remained standing.

  'If only I could see…'

  As that thought surfaced in Lin Sanjiu's mind while she held her gun straight in front of her, she heard a sudden click behind her. A few specks of light came into her line of sight. The specks seemed to come alive as they latched onto the walls around them. Then, they became steady and started expanding. They were like some sort of white, glowing moss that was rapidly growing or white paint that was quickly filling up the walls. Every area they traversed across lit up. Soon, they illuminated Lin Sanjiu's field of vision.

  She stared blankly at the enemy in front of her.

  It really was a work of deconstructivism.

  Chapter 684 - A Quiet Cough

  Now, that explained why the creature sounded different each time it laughed.

  With the help of the glowing white light, Lin Sanjiu finally saw the true face of the creature in the dark. The thing that cast off the darkness and brought everything in that area to the light was a simple Special Item known as the [Light Moss] that Polva had used before. The user just needed to slap it on a wall or the ground, and it would spread out and grow into a meshwork of tiny lamp tubes along the surface.

  "The [Light Moss] can last for 10 minutes," Polva said. His voice echoed to a vibrating string that was pulled taut. It occurred to Lin Sanjiu that he could not stand watching the monstrosity in front of them and that he was trying to hol
d back the urge to throw up.

  "But the thing you gave me has turned back to its previous appearance… Does that mean that I can't use it anymore?"

  The [Battle Item] could not imitate the same Special Item twice. Besides, its usage time was half of the original's. In other words, Lin Sanjiu had only five minutes to defeat the thing in front of her.

  By the way, what was that thing?

  Perhaps there was no better description than Polva's "deconstructivism" example to explain the horrific monstrosity before their eyes. It was an enormous blob of flesh made up of a myriad of broken human limbs. There was a huge nail that kept "winking" like an eyelid at Lin Sanjiu, which gave her a glimpse of the eyeball that hid beneath it. Bushes of hair in various qualities and colors jutted out from its orifice, waving in the air like the thick mane of a regal lion.

  Lin Sanjiu had no idea where she should place her eyes. Every nook and cranny of the monster was disgusting enough to make her stomach churn. She did not even know which part was its head and which part was its body.

  There were several mouths, which it used to speak to them, scattered here and there around its hulking fleshy body. Some of the mouths' teeth and lips were merged together while the others had fused with its flesh or protruding bones.

  "Oh, you see me. Well then, am I beautiful?"

  Lin Sanjiu had no idea where the voice came from.

  She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and swallowed down the stomach juice that surged up her esophagus. She still held the [Tranquilizer Gun for Foot Soldiers] in her hand as she stared the abomination down. Without turning her head, she asked, "Don't you know of any Special Item that could treat wounds? Is there an antihemorrhagic agent?"

  "I didn't prepare any of those, as I only need to take off a layer of my shell whenever I get wounded, so..." Polva said dejectedly. He seemed to want to say something more, but the thing did not give him the chance to do so. It curled itself into a ball and barrelled down the passageway towards Lin Sanjiu. It moved so fast that the strange smell surged into her nostrils in the blink of an eye.

  Lin Sanjiu had already prepared herself since the moment she saw the monster, thus she was unfl.u.s.tered. She raised her arms, and the [Mosaic Censorship] glowed in her palm as she prepared to intercept the rolling attack.

  The monster continued to roll towards her at a high speed. The ground shook violently, and thunderous rumbles filled the air. Suddenly, Lin Sanjiu's heart palpitated, as she felt that she had heard something, but there was no time to be sure. Just as her hands almost touched the monster, a roar erupted from behind her.

  "Don't touch it!"

  By the time she recognized it to be Maxin's voice, her hands almost touched the wrinkly skin sag. Her heart gave a start as she stopped her palm in mid-air, but that was not the case for the monster. It continued to charge forward; it would not take long before it rammed into them.

  Lin Sanjiu could not step aside, as Puppeteer and Polva were behind her. Just as everything seemed to be coming to an end, the sound rang out again.

  "Duck down!"

  Lin Sanjiu hunkered down at the command. Then, she felt something swoop above her head and connect with the incoming mass of flesh with a meaty smack. The monster stopped rolling abruptly. Then, in her field of vision, she saw a piece of soft, loose skin pooling by her shoes.

  Lin Sanjiu took a breath and raised her head. The first thing that welcomed her sight was a pair of legs. The part above the legs had been merged into the mess of flesh, leaving the pair of lifeless legs to sway up and down in the air.

  Bug-eyed, Lin Sanjiu's eyes traced the legs down to their feet and finally, their ten toenails painted in maroon nail polish. Though the lacquer was mottled, it was still bright enough to leave ten maroon-colored afterimages in the air.

  "Come over here, quick!" Maxin shouted again, snapping her out of her trance.

  She scooped Puppeteer up from the ground and retreated a few steps back. There, she finally saw Maxin. Right now, he stood in the junction where the darkness and the light crossed each other. It was merely half a night's time, and Lin Sanjiu almost couldn't recognize the tall and dashing young man that she acquainted herself with not long ago. There was stubble growing on his chin, and his complexion was even paler than a ghost's.

  'He is really trapped here.'

  "Do you know what it is?" Lin Sanjiu asked, huffing and puffing. Hopping like a small rabbit, Polva also hurried over to their side.

  "I was targeted by them several times," replied Maxin as he looked fixedly at the monster that had absorbed the pair of woman's legs. They didn't know if it was their eyes or their minds playing tricks on them, but they felt that the thing had grown larger in size. "Before I bumped into you from the small window, I almost got caught by this thing. It took me a lot of effort to escape from one of them."

  "What are these things?" the fatty asked nervously. There was a range limitation to the [Light Moss]. If they moved a few more steps back, the darkness behind them would envelop them again.

  Startled, Maxin looked around for the source of the sound. It took him long enough before he saw the tiny white fatty that stood next to his shin.

  "They are Goliaths." He f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y peeled his gaze away from the white fatty, looked at the "Goliath" in the distance and replied in a hasty tone, "That is what I call them. These Goliaths roam around in the passageway. Once they start rolling, they will absorb and fuse anything they touch—corpses, living things, or even monsters—into their bodies."

  "Then how did you escape?"

  "They will stop for a while when fusing with their victims. I took advantage of the gap and got away," replied Maxin as he looked at Puppeteer. His brows creased in confusion.

  Lin Sanjiu suddenly saw the light. It was all thanks to Maxin's quick response of hurling a corpse that he found somewhere at the "Goliath" that she was saved. However, the situation was different right now. They could not keep on running like this.

  When her thoughts reached here, the "Goliath" in the distance twitched. It had completely absorbed the pair of legs. The ten toenails painted in maroon nail polish separated and slid into the wrinkly skin. One even moved toward a human face. The face smoothed out, positioned itself so that it was facing Lin Sanjiu, and opened its mouth.

  Lin Sanjiu's heart almost skipped a beat, as she knew what it was trying to do. She could cut off the connection between her brain and body, but the others could not. Without wasting another second, she leaped forward and covered the face with a towel in her hand. Its heavy respite lifted the towel slightly.

  Her attempt was not in vain. Even though the "Last Breath" did come out in the end, the scale was small.

  Although Lin Sanjiu did not inhale the gas, being sprayed with the breath on her skin was by no means a pleasurable experience either.

  No matter how many times one lingered on the border between death and life, no one could step up onto the edge of a cliff and stare down into the abyss without being gripped by the feeling of fear. This was the deepest fear of all life, knowing that your cells were decaying and you would no longer be able to open your eyes and breath, but rather, sink into the depth of the ground like a rotten leaf.

  Darkness shrouded Lin Sanjiu's eyes.

  The silver lining was that the near-death illusion lasted only for a few seconds. As she had used her Higher Consciousness to temporarily cut off her brain's control of her body, she did not fall into a state of death because of the hallucination. When she fluttered her eyes opened, she found that the "Goliath" had abandoned her in the corner of a wall.

  Perhaps it thought she was dead, for the "Goliath" was rolling fast towards Maxin. Lin Sanjiu had no idea why but Maxin did not try to run. As he still crouched in the spot where the light and darkness crossed each other, she could not see very well.

  Fighting back the fear that settled down in her blood vessels like toxins, Lin Sanjiu struggled to pick herself up from the ground. She waved her arm, and Hegel's hooked cable wal
tzed in the air gracefully like a serpent and stabbed into the "Goliath's" body.

  A sharp shrill came from the "Goliath." The moment she got a purchase on the flesh monster's body, she leaped up from the ground at once and planted her feet firmly on the ground. She pulled the cable and finally stopped the "Goliath" from advancing forward. She tilted her head and saw Maxin still standing stock-still in the same place. The "Goliath" was merely a stone's throw away from them.

  'Is he seeking death?"

  A wave of anger swelled up in Lin Sanjiu's heart. Just as she was about to holler out, she heard a quiet cough. She was very familiar with the sound. It was as frigid and brittle as the dead frosty branches in the winter.

  She stared at the direction in which the sound came from. However, she could not see anything, as her line of sight was blocked by the "Goliath."

  "Nothing good ever happens with you around. You really are a doom bringer, Lin Sanjiu," Puppeteer said softly.

  Chapter 685 - Lin Sanjiu Endures Hardship To Finish Her Mission

  Ever since she became acquainted with Puppeteer, this was the first time Lin Sanjiu felt happy hearing his voice.

  After being plagued by Puppeteer for several worlds, she had grown so accustomed to his snarky remarks that they felt like a breeze to her right now. The cable in her hand was pulled taut. It shook vigorously as the hulking mass of flesh struggled for all its worth to free itself from the hook that barbed deep into its flesh. A throbbing pain spread from Lin Sanjiu's fractured palm whenever the monstrosity tried to make any movements.

  "Finally! Come, help me!"

  Puppeteer sneered coldly.

  "Are you giving me an order right now?" There was still a cold attribute to Puppeteer's voice even though his ability had evolved. Just as Lin Sanjiu wanted to say something, the cable in her hand stopped shaking.