Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  She continued to command her leg muscles as she looked around, staring vigilantly at the crowding pedestrians. It was at this moment that Mrs. Manas's voice rang out in her mind again, her words were even less useful than the last, "Ah, since [Defense Forcefield] has no use, I better shut it down to preserve your Higher Consciousness."

  "Now is not the time for that!" A drop of sweat rolled into Lin Sanjiu's eye and stung it with salt. She blinked rapidly to clear it away but it did not help. In her blurred vision, she saw several took the large clay pot down from their heads.

  "What were they doing?"

  The second the thought surfaced in Lin Sanjiu's mind, an olive-skinned middle-aged woman lifted the clay pot and hurled it towards her, drawing an arc in the air. Startled, she immediately ducked down as the clay pot narrowly hit her fluttering hairs and crashed onto the ground at her back.

  "Ah!"

  Mrs. Manas shouted again, making Lin Sanjiu jump. She responded in an equal volume of voice, "What's wrong?" Then, she heard the self-aware entity replied in a faltering voice, "Quick! Find something and cut off your hair!"

  "What did you say?"

  "A part of the clay vase from just now has merged into your hair. Hurry up, it's going up your head!"

  Lin Sanjiu's hair stood up on their ends. She hurriedly pulled out a knife, gathered her hair in her hand and cut it off with a quick downward swipe. When the bunch of hair fell to the ground, she heard a cracking sound which prompted her to lower her head. On the ground, she saw that the bunch of hair had turned brown red and become clay-like. It slowly melted into the ground and soon vanished from her eyes.

  Lin Sanjiu seemingly had a rough picture of how the Veda was going to make her a part of their information.

  She pushed the thought away and raised her head. At this moment, more and more people raised their arms into the air, holding not only clay vases but also stone slabs. There was even one who picked up a long wooden bar that acted as a resting bench. The air was dry and dusty. All of the paraphernalia in the pedestrian's hands were speckled with the scattered sunlight and pierced through the haze.

  Lin Sanjiu's feet had melted into the cobblestone pavement, so there was no way she would be able to evade the attack. Just as she tightened her muscles and circulated her Higher Consciousness around her body to prepare herself for the upcoming tough fight, she looked down and stared at the knife in her hand.

  "Wait!" The second the word tumbled off her tongue, an order erupted from the crowd around. A large pottery basin bathed under the Arabian sun departed from a person's hand and flew through the air.

  "What do you want? They are attacking us!" Fortunately, the conversation between Mrs. Manas and Lin Sanjiu happened inside of her head, so they did not have to go through the process of talking and listening.

  "Help me," she could only manage to utter two words and the pottery basin had already arrived right in front of her face. She ducked down, giving way to the pottery basin to fly past the top of her head. Only then she continued to finish her sentence, "stall them off!"

  "Wha..? How should I stall them?"

  Turning a deaf ear against Mrs. Manas's panicked shout, Lin Sanjiu closed her eyes. She took a few deep breaths to calm down her galloping heart. What she was going to do would cost her life if she failed, but she did not have other better plans already. Assuming a crouching position, Lin Sanjiu peeled her eyes open, and with a loud battle roar, she thrust the knife into the ground in one mighty downward swipe.

  Of course, she knew everything was far from being fine. Countless shadows were showering down at her. She could not evade nor she could run away. She could just rely on Mrs. Manas to deflect each of them with her Higher Consciousness, and she was almost hit by the falling objects several times.

  "Whatever you are doing, you have to hurry up!" Mrs. Manas growled, "There are more people coming. I can't hold them for long!"

  Lin Sanjiu did not reply. She gripped the knife handle tightly and carved open the cobblestone ground. The knife was thin, and the ground was thick and hard. Were it not for she wrapped the knife with her Higher Consciousness, it would have broken into half already. Gnashing her teeth, she continued to maneuver the knife until she drew a deep circle around her.

  The moment she withdrew her Higher Consciousness, the knife separated from the knife holder and shattered.

  'Now, for the best part.' With that thought in mind, she punched around the line that she carved until it cracked and a standalone stone was formed. After that, she sat down while using her hands to support herself. Before her hands and bum began to melt, she placed all her strength on her feet and pulled the stone out.

  The moment she regained her freedom, she hastily pulled herself up from the ground. The melting had already spread to her trousers as she could feel them hardening. The stone that her feet turned into was craggy, so it was hard for her to maintain her balance. Setting her jaw tight, Lin Sanjiu shouted at Mrs. Manas, "Are you ready, Mrs. Manas?"

  "What? What should I do?"

  "Wrap my Higher Consciousness around this stone, and make sure it will not break!" Lin Sanjiu shouted anxiously, "I don't want to lose my feet yet."

  "What the hell do you want to do?"

  "Have you ever seen a kangaroo? I'm going to run now!"

  Chapter 697 - A Four Day Tour For A Group Of Five (3)

  As long as Lin Sanjiu remained mobile, the "melting" process would not happen. And the human species was indeed the distant cousin of apes.

  These were the thoughts that came into Lin Sanjiu's mind half a minute after she fled from the group of citizens.

  After her legs had been transformed into stone, she realized how difficult a feat it was to command her leg muscles to jump like a kangaroo. Under the condition where she was dragging a ten kilograms stone, she could barely maintain her balance and prevent the stone from breaking, not to mention pick up her speed. The reason she could keep "running" for such a long time was that instead of using her feet, she utilized her arms. Like those primates that slalomed through trees and bushes, she climbed up the houses and dangled herself from one rooftop to another. The maneuver was effective though, and she crossed half of the street in the blink of an eye.

  The citizen all scattered the moment she fled. It occurred to her that they were not trying to chase after her. When Lin Sanjiu was in motion, the people of the city would go on with their life and attend to their own duties as if she weren't there. It was only when she stopped, then they would slow down and look at her.

  Lin Sanjiu suspired heavily. She could feel her arm muscles screaming at her. Even posthumans like her, whose muscles were multiple folds stronger than normal, would be exhausted from continuing this kind of high-intensity activity for a prolonged period. Just now, she almost fell from a house after a leap because her arms suddenly gave out due to exhaustion.

  Right now, she laid prone on the rooftop of a butcher's place. Peeking through the edge of the roof, she could see several slabs of ribs on top of the butcher table. Lin Sanjiu just rested for two seconds before a man who had exited from the butcher's stopped his pace and turned to look at her.

  'Jeez, I can't even take a small rest,' she chided inwardly. Then, she propped herself up and pulled the stone. The man then lowered his head, went in the street, and turned a corner with the meat he purchased in his hand.

  'I can't keep going on like this forever…'

  The effect of [No Coincidence, No story] remained active throughout the time, but Lin Sanjiu could not tell whether it had any effect or not. She was now in a world where everything that happened or would happen was hinged on the Veda's grace. Take her feet as an example. [The Mountains Removes The Foolish Old Man], which could alter a nothing-else-could-be-done incident, could not "reverse" the entire incident of her feet turning into stone. This was because, aside from herself, all Veda knew this was not an "irrevocable incident", as they had the power to change it at any time they wanted.

  [The Mountain Removes
The Foolish Old Man] was not the only Special Item that had lost its effect. Her [Pygmalion Choker], [Battle Item], [Empty-handed Kleptomaniac], [Tornado Whip]... Everything that had been analyzed by the Veda had become useless at this moment.

  If she wanted to fight back, she had to find a person or an item that hadn't been analyzed by the Veda before. Right now, she was separated from her grand prize and her other companions, and she did not know where to find them. As Lin Sanjiu ferreted through her memory to see whether or not she could retrieve something useful from the Olympics, at the same time, she thrust herself into the air and leaped towards another rooftop. Then, with an outstretched arm, she grabbed ahold of the edge of the rooftop before the stone on her feet could bring her down and pulled herself up.

  "Hey!" An older man rapped the wall with a wooden cane in his hand as he yelled at the top of her lungs, "Get down from my rooftop!"

  She had distributed the Special Items she obtained from Hegel to the grand prize and Maxin. The only thing that remained was the [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time], which she retrieved from the furniture cemetery, but it had no use here since its only feature was to record a Pocket Dimension. It seemed like the worst situation ever. Out of anxiety and frustration, Lin Sanjiu bit her lip so hard that her lower lip began bleeding. And when a metallic taste spread inside her mouth, her eyes shone brightly. 'Wait, furniture cemetery?'

  "What do you have in your mind?" Mrs. Manas asked.

  "Furniture cemetery!" she shouted. "I went to the furniture cemetery! Why didn't I think of this earlier?"

  Before Mrs. Manas could press forward on the matter, Lin Sanjiu balanced herself on the roof and called out a card.

  "Mrs. Manas, please push me with some Higher Consciousness every two… no, three seconds." Crouching on the roof, she spoke to Mrs. Manas urgently. Then, she deactivated her card.

  A petite young girl appeared out of thin air and fell onto the roof, releasing a plume of dust into the air. The bones in her arms and legs that weren't wrapped around in flesh and skin scattered under the impact and rolled across the roof. Its white sheen caught the lances of sunlight that pierced through the cloudless sky and gleamed.

  Even though Lin Sanjiu had closed her eyes, there was still a contorted expression and a tinge of fear left on Lucy's face. She didn't know that she had once again seen the sun.

  "Why did you take her corpse out… Ah!" Mrs. Manas soon understood what Lin Sanjiu was trying to do.

  Lucy was a Special Item dealer, so she must have something on her body. Lin Sanjiu first asked for her forgiveness inside of her heart then began rummaging through her body. She hoped that she could find something useful from Lucy's body, and just as she found a choker, Mrs. Manas shouted, "Three seconds!"

  Lin Sanjiu hastily took the young girl's weightless corpse into her embrace and felt herself being pushed forward by a force. She turned her head around to see that the spot where she had crouched down just now had become a gooey substance of some sort. It stuck to her trousers and stretched out like taffy. It only unplucked from her trousers when it exceeded its maximum range.

  "Hurry up!" Mrs. Manas urged.

  "Let's leave this roof first," said Mrs. Manas crossly. "They are coming again."

  Startled, Lin Sanjiu put Lucy's body away and rose to her feet. Mrs. Manas was right; while she was busy grubbing about Lucy's body, a crowd of people had gathered below the house. All of them wore long robes and headscarves. There were women and men, and all of them looked silently at her, seemingly waiting for a chance to launch their strikes.

  "Okay, I will go down now." With those words, she placed her hands on the rooftop and jumped down. This was because the next house had a thatched rooftop, and she was very certain that the straw-built roof would not hold her current weight.

  Perhaps the reason she did not feel the effect of [No Coincidence, No Story] was because its effect had manifested on something meaningless like this. The moment she jumped off the roof, she saw a small figure flutter its wings, the blue sky as its background. It was coming straight for her.

  The figure was fast. It flapped its wings, and a white paper crane shape soon took form in Lin Sanjiu's eyes.

  'This must be a paper crane from Puppeteer!'

  The thought flashed into her mind, prompting her to twist her body in midair as she stretched her arm, trying to catch the paper crane.

  Just as her fingertips almost touched the paper crane, she saw a huge shadow coming headlong for them in the corner of her eyes. Startled, she missed the paper crane. She plopped to the ground with a mighty smack, sending dust into the air.

  She did not go forward and check the stone below her feet but raised her head.

  It was a dragon head.

  Though it was not a typical oriental dragon head, it was the closest specimen Lin Sanjiu could think of right now. Its head was full of scales, and its two whiskers fluttered casually in the air like two huge serpents. A yellow oblong iris turned to Lin Sanjiu and stared her down. As it opened its mouth, the paper crane beat its wings even faster. It was as if it were trying to send the message to Lin Sanjiu before getting torn apart by the beast that was hot on its heels.

  "Hey!"

  It was never in Lin Sanjiu's dreams that the person who sent her the message was not Puppeteer, but the highest god.

  "Your little brother and I…"

  The paper crane only managed to transmit a few words, as the rest of the sentence was drowned out by the rustling of paper as the dragon head tore it down. The dragon head continued to stare at Lin Sanjiu with its yellow irises as it swallowed the paper crane. After that, its huge head, which occupied almost half of the alley, slowly retreated back and disappeared.

  'Where are they? Why did it have to be cut off at such an awkward point? Could it be that this was the effect of [No Coincidence, No Story]?'

  "Is… Is that really a dragon?" Mrs. Manas asked, her shock apparent. "The Veda have even analyzed a dragon?"

  Lin Sanjiu did not know the answer either, but there was one thing she was very certain of, and that was that they should not spend their time on something trivial like this.

  "Did you see where the paper crane came from?" Lin Sanjiu asked as she dragged herself forward.

  "From the sky."

  "Of course, I know it came from the sky! I'm asking for a direction!"

  "How should I know?! If you want to know where it came from, why don't you lift up your head?!" Mrs. Manas snarled.

  Not wanting to continue this useless conversation anymore, Lin Sanjiu turned around and called out Lucy's body onto her shoulders again. After being tossed here and there by Lin Sanjiu, Lucy's body had only her torso left. Although she was very sorry for her, Lin Sanjiu still psyched herself up and delved her hands into Lucy's pocket. She touched something, and it took some time before she could pull the entire thing out. It seemed like a tent to her.

  A faint fluttering noise got louder and louder in her ears. She was very familiar with the noise, as other than a paper crane, nothing in this world would create such a sound. It was just this time, the noise was so loud that her eardrums buzzed.

  Lin Sanjiu looked up at the shadow that loomed over her head, slack-jawed.

  Countless paper cranes hovered right above her head like a large swarm of bees, blotting out the sky and the sun. The beats of their wings created such a loud noise that her ears went numb, and it was such a soul-stirring scene when all of them began to descend.

  However, the most thrilling moment was only about to begin.

  Like a predator drawn to the scent of its prey, its huge head suddenly appeared out of nowhere. To make things worse, it brought along quite a few companions. Multiple similar-looking dragon heads rose from the ground and laid waste to several rows of houses in the process before charging into the sky. With one powerful sweep of their strong tails or one inhalation of their mouths, they effortlessly cleaned up a large number of paper cranes. However, there were still some paper cranes that were lucky eno
ugh to be spared from annihilation, and that was more than enough. In the end, the message of the sender reached Lin Sanjiu's ears.

  "Hey!" The highest god's voice rang out from the formation of paper cranes. "Stay where you are! We are coming now!"

  Chapter 698 - A Four… Forget it, There Is No More Group Travel, As Everybody Is Scattered. Everybody Is Working Hard To Gather!

  The paper cranes were soon wiped out. The sky returned, and the sun emerged and continued its mission in burning the land with its lances of scorching sun rays. Specks of dust particles in the air caught some of the light and glittered like stars in the night sky. The masses of paper cranes, and the swarm of dragons both disappeared into thin air, and were it not for the overturned houses and the plume of smoke in the distance, Lin Sanjiu would've thought everything that happened was merely an illusion.

  Lin Sanjiu let out a breath, placed her hands on her face and rubbed it hard. She tried not to look at her feet… well, stone.

  It occurred to her that the highest god wasn't with Puppeteer.

  Perhaps the human brain worked faster in dire straits, as she suddenly worked something out with the words "stay where you are". Puppeteer had been analyzed before, and he might also be facing the same "melting" situation as her. If they had not separated, there was no way the highest god would say something like "stay where you are".

  Nevertheless, it did not help her situation at all.

  "How can I stay still here?" Lin Sanjiu smiled bitterly as she looked at the crowding mass from the end of the street. She made an order to Mrs. Manas. "Take care of my back. I'm going to check the things I got from Lucy."

  "I hope they can get here sooner." When she called out four cards in her hand, Mrs. Manas grumbled, "Your Higher Consciousness is a little low on reserve now…"

  Turning a deaf ear against Mrs. Manas's ranting, Lin Sanjiu lowered her head and began studying the four cards in her hand.