Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  "All three of us were dragged into the Data Stream Library, so by right, his puppets, including this one, should be still in the Salvation Of God," she said, her brows beginning to lose their strain, "The puppet that should've been in the Salvation Of God has appeared in here..."

  'Why? Is this his sort of tactical retreat measure?'

  Lin Sanjiu was no stranger to this kind of spatial manipulation technique. During her stay in the Garden of Eden, she came across a posthuman named Qian Zhengguan, who possessed the ability to shift positions with anybody within a certain radius. Lin Sanjiu had used his ability once. Perhaps Puppeteer had this kind of emergency escape plan as his last resort as well.

  On second thought, since he had sustained a great number of injuries after a consecutive fight and had gone into suspended animation due to the deprivation of oxygen, this indeed could be considered a dire situation. Taking his status and his ability into consideration, it was not surprising that he would have a back-up plan to save himself when his life was in danger.

  Her apprehension abated somewhat when the thought surfaced in her mind. After all, she could not think of any other reason to explain why Puppeteer would suddenly go missing, and why his puppet would appear here.

  Lin Sanjiu was already accustomed to being separated from her comrades. She retracted her gaze from the male posthuman body as she said, "Perhaps he has returned to the Salvation Of God. I suppose we don't have to worry about him."

  An ox was taken by the horns, and a man by the tongue. Little did Lin Sanjiu know that the second the sentence tumbled off her tongue, it would bring her such a terrible disaster that she hoped she was dead. For the next full hour, Soulsqn never stopped talking for even one moment, drowning Lin Sanjiu's brain and ears with her ear-grating yells.

  Unlike humans, the flesh worm's body could still carry out some kind of chemical reaction even though she was not breathing. In other words, she could rattle on and on without the need to breathe.

  The veins on Lin Sanjiu's forehead bulged while she closed her eyes.

  "I have to get back to the Salvation Of God, and I must return to my clansmen at all costs. There's no way you can stop me." The last thing the flesh grub would care about was other people's opinions of her. "You said there's no way to return, but why could Lord Puppeteer go back? I don't care. You have to bear the responsibility. You've gotta think of a way to return to the Salvation Of God."

  Lin Sanjiu felt like her head swelled to twice its original size right now. "Can you please f*cking shut up for even a second?! Let me take a look at these Special Items first. Who knows? Maybe there's something that we can use."

  Using the Special Item as bait and after making some promises, the flesh form finally stopped her long tirade.

  She took a deep breath and looked at the heap of resources before her. Although most of them had been buried under the sand, Lin Sanjiu still marveled at the sheer amount of resources the grand prize had given her. He was thoughtful. Not only had he prepared Special Items, but he had also squared away a load of resources that Lin Sanjiu did not think she might need. The nearest one was a half-meter long wooden crate. She opened the top one to see that it was packed with many tins of canned food, biscuits, cup noodles, and nutritional supplements.

  Apart from this kind of food that had a longer shelf life, the grand prize had also prepared a container of fresh vegetables, meat, noodles, and a stockpile of processed food from different human worlds. Lin Sanjiu had forgotten how long it had been since the last time she saw crunchy green vegetables and red tomatoes. Even though she was less fond of greens, she still could not help but swallow a huge gulp of saliva at the sight of them.

  When it came to sausages alone, Ji Shanqing had prepared eleven flavors for her. There was garlic, smoked, and lobster-filled, to name a few. There were a lot more other foods that Lin Sanjiu had never seen before.

  Considering his thoughtfulness, it went without saying that he would never leave out storage for Lin Sanjiu to stock her food. Next to the mountain of food were ten refrigerators standing in rank and three sets of picnic stoves.

  Lin Sanjiu stuffed all the food into the ten family-sized refrigerators and kept the three sets of picnic stoves and the wooden crate into her card. When the heap of food disappeared, a silvery gleam glowed and filled the air. Lin Sanjiu felt very familiar with the light. She swept the sand away, and as she expected, it was the [Ability Polishing Agent] that was taken away by the highest god. Next to the silver vial was the [Notebook], [All Birds Pay Homage To The Phoenix], and the [Truth Revealing Candle]. Lin Sanjiu picked up the wonderless white candle and sighed. She never expected that it would return to her after Hegel snatched it away from her.

  If getting back what she lost was enough to delight Lin Sanjiu, she was certainly astounded when she examined the other items she received from the grand prize.

  [Tailored Learning]

  After social order fell apart and mankind was forced into crisis, a famous educator was convinced that every battle with an opponent was a teachable moment from the heart. Besides driving the important point to one's opponent that the world was cruel, the educator understood his opponent's nature and gift so that he could inflict the most serious and targeted damage to give his opponent a lesson that they would never forget.

  Even though it sounds a little cruel, this truly comes from the selfless love of a respectable teacher.

  Instructions: This item looks like a retractable teacher's pointer. You can extend and retract the pointer with a flick based on your own preference. The maximum length of the pointer is five meters, but it isn't long enough because you won't be able to reach the students sitting in the last row. Whip your opponent's skin with the pointer and it can detect and analyze your opponent's ability before dishing out a piece of appropriate teaching advice.

  With this advice, you can adjust your teaching strategy. Isn't this so much more efficient?

  PS: The usage period is three years upon receipt as the famous educator was unfortunately killed by his students after three years.

  "This is pretty handy…"

  Lin Sanjiu held the lightweight metal retractable pointer and extended the pointer with a casual wave. With another flick, the pointer stopped at around two meters. It was easy to use and very s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e. Lin Sanjiu looked around and noticed that Soulsqn was coincidentally facing away from her, squirming around in the sand.

  Lin Sanjiu whipped the grub with the pointer.

  When the large grub sprung up with a yelp, some white words appeared on the area of her skin that had been whipped. The words were so small that Lin Sanjiu nearly missed them.

  "Psychosomatic ability detected. Please be advised to boost your psychic defense and use physical attacks on the target's body."

  "Alright, although the description is a little too general, it's quite accurate."

  Lin Sanjiu touched the retractable pointer lightly and converted it into a card. The flesh worm, which she had subdued under her feet, shook its muscular limbs, causing red sand to fly everywhere.

  "What's next?" Lin Sanjiu pressed Soulsqn to the ground while she glanced over at the remaining items. There was a pile of hardcover books beside the retractable pointer she had kept. The book cover had drawings with romantic, soft pastel colors. It was a nondescript drawing of a kid floating above a city. Strangely, her grand prize had left her with 20 of the same exact hardcover books.

  Chapter 713 - The Next Best Thing In Life Is When You Have Too Much Money To Count

  Lin Sanjiu smacked the hardcover storybook back onto the top of the stack of books.

  The tower of books swayed from left to right from the impact. She quickly went forward and supported it to prevent it from falling. Glancing at the stack of books, she let out a sigh and turned them all into cards.

  As she gathered all the twenty cards in her palm neatly and arranged them, she felt she was holding a deck of poker cards. Every card had the same description that read "Penguin Publishing
's Pop-Up Storybook".

  "Why did he give you so many storybooks?" Soulsqn went nearer and asked, blighting the air with her fetid breath, "Is it because you love to read stories?"

  "Good guess, but unfortunately, I don't," replied Lin Sanjiu sulkily. She spread the twenty cards into the shape of a fan and continued, "I kept wondering why so many Special Items were missing, but now I understand."

  Soulsqn clamped her layers of thick mandibles and interrupted, "Actually, you don't have to tell me that because I'm not interested."

  Lin Sanjiu had made a lot of friends. Some of them were smart, while the others were cute and had a strong sense of justice. However, right now, as she was waiting to be transferred to the next world, she only had this ungrateful and despicable grub accompanying her by her side. Lin Sanjiu's face darkened as she kept her deck of cards away. Then, she continued to finish her sentence, "Because he can't make up his mind either."

  The flesh grub nodded, then slithered away. She c.a.r.e.s.sed the remaining craters with her tendrils to show Lin Sanjiu that she really was uninterested in whatever she wanted to say.

  Lin Sanjiu sighed as she crouched down and ran her fingers through the sand.

  The grand prize had really cudgeled his brain to make sure that Lin Sanjiu would return to his side.

  [Penguin Publishing's Pop-up Storybook]

  Every time I open this kind of ingeniously crafted storybook, I always marvel and am delighted by the pop-up elements that jumped between the pages. Those little houses filled with a warm orange glow, the plump hippo with half of its front tooth missing, the little girl that sat on a swing, the German-manufactured heavy artillery MG37T, and the bloodied rope… All of them are extremely real, exquisite, and enthralling.

  As mentioned above, this is a bedtime three-dimensional storybook that is meant to bring joy to children. Perhaps since so many children have wished that everything inside the book is real, this book has developed its own will and began answering their requests. All you need to do is tear down a three-dimensional graphic from between the pages, and it will become a real object that you can use accordingly.

  Ji Shanqing did not want to leave too many Special Items for her, but he feared that she might get into trouble, hence he came up with this solution. This way, Lin Sanjiu would have a sufficient amount of resources to get herself out of a sticky situation, but not too many to the point that she no longer needed his help in the future.

  She clenched a fistful of sand and closed her eyes.

  The grand prize wished she would return, but he was uncertain whether his sister would honor the promise between them or not. He knew very well that both of them had deep feelings for each other, but he refused to place all his eggs in the same basket. He did not give that many Special Items to Lin Sanjiu because he hoped that in the future, his sister would return to him because she wanted his help even though she was not missing him.

  Compared to feelings, which were something volatile and abstract, he trusted something more substantial such as practical interest.

  Moving a step forward, Lin Sanjiu wondered if he would still let her go the next time she returned since there would not be the Veda to stand in between them after going so far as to eliminate every possibility to make sure that she would return to his side?

  Lin Sanjiu was taken aback. She shook her head to shoo the thought away because she did not allow herself to think badly of Ji Shanqing.

  To steer herself away from the dark thought, Lin Sanjiu swept the sand away and pulled out a square iron case.

  [Hey, Sis?]

  This is a communication device Ji Shanqing specially created for Lin Sanjiu based on a certain Special Item. With a technology that no human had ever tapped into before, it permits the transmission of messages across thousands of miles to another device. Somebody said it was the telephone, but the inventor of this telecommunication device, Mr. Bell, was outraged by such a claim.

  "How dare you all compare this masterpiece to a mere telephone?" he growled, tapping his cane furiously, "Have you guys ever seen a telephone that doesn't need radio waves or the telephone wire, and can transmit a message through the universe beyond an infinite light-year?"

  Even though the inventor has a lot of confidence in his invention, the truth is, there is still a limitation to the effective transmission distance of this telecommunication device. We wish for your kind understanding.

  Direction of use: give one device to your receiver, and keep one for yourself. During your time of need, enter your voice message through the microphone and the message will be sent out through the round end on the other side of the device.

  P.S: The most distinct difference of this telecommunication device to the telephone is not that it can send a message through the universe, but that it is a one-time use item. Despite Ji Shanqing's disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e, the process of reworking the data is too time-consuming, so he gave up at last and decided to make it up with numbers.

  Besides that, the transmission time depends on the distance between the sender and the receiver. It will take several years if the distance is too large, hence it is not advisable to use this telecommunication device for chewing fat.

  'Can I use this to contact the grand prize?'

  Lin Sanjiu's heart leaped into a gallop. She carefully picked the case up and examined it meticulously. At first glance, this case looked like it was made out of iron, but once she took hold of it, she realized that it was not. Even though the case was light, it was sturdy. She wondered what it was made of.

  After a short bout of rumination, she turned it into a card. In the end, she did not send a message to the grand prize.

  Since [Hey, Sis?] could only be used once, she was confident that the grand prize would not leave only one for her. The wind had gotten stronger as the night fell. It buffeted against her face, and she could not open her eyes by more than a slit. After groping in the sand for several minutes, she found another twelve of these iron cases. There might be more, but most of them were buried under the sand.

  She angled her head up and looked skyward. The sky was now a molten vermillion red as opposed to the earlier rich blue. The starlight, the night sky, and the vermillion red had faded into one another and formed a spectacularly breathtaking scene.

  The wind that billowed across the land sounded like the tide. It soothed Lin Sanjiu's nerves, and she felt a little drowsy.

  After using up her quota for today, she had nothing else to do. Therefore, she decided to take a rest.

  Soulsqn had gone underneath the sand, leaving her alone to sit under the night sky. She wrapped herself in a towel that she took out from her card and went to sleep.

  She spent three days in this barren land that was perpetually affected by the sandstorm. During those three days, she had been busy converting the items into cards. The grand prize had left her with so many resources. She even found a hundred pounds of red crystals in the sand. For the first time in her life, Lin Sanjiu was sick of handling money.

  There were a lot more items to count. However, the resources that she valued the most were the two Special items and four ability packs that she picked up from the sand.

  The grand prize never expected that the sandstorm on this planet would never end. On the third day, Lin Sanjiu found that she had 30 quotas left. In other words, amongst the resources the grand prize had prepared for her, about 30 of them had been deeply buried under the sand.

  "Hey, Soulsqn!" she shouted at the flesh worm. Understanding that she could never return to the Salvation of God, Soulsqn had curled herself up into a ball. Lin Sanjiu had no idea what was she thinking about, but she did not care anymore. "I'm about to get transferred to the next world. Here, take this."

  Soulsqn twisted her body around and peered silently at the visa in Lin Sanjiu's hand.

  "Consider this my parting gift," said Lin Sanjiu as she flung a visa towards Soulsqn. "This is a visa I asked the grand prize to issue for you—take it or leave it. If you still haven't given up on goi
ng back to your clansmen, the best way is to find Puppeteer first. Use this visa and go to the next world. Find a Consular Officer, and ask them about Puppeteer's location. I suppose they have it. Anyway, suit yourself. You're on your own now."

  The grub stood up and caught the visa. She lowered her head to examine the visa and mumbled, "Owned by Soulsqn. The destination is…" Before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly realized something and jerked her head up.

  Chapter 714 - A New World, It Is Time To Spend Some Money

  How long would it take for one to spend his money after he arrived in a new world?

  Although the situation varied for different people, in Lin Sanjiu's case, it was four seconds. Or to be more precise, the money had been spent before she even opened her eyes in the new world.

  "Hey," a husky voice that suggested excessive smoking rang out from a very distant place. Something was prodding at her body, and her consciousness gradually came together again.

  "Oh, finally you are awake," the husky voice urged, "May I ask when did you enter this room?"

  Adrenaline pumped through her veins and her body reacted the moment she peeled her eyes open. She flipped herself upright in a swift motion, bashing her head straight into the wall at the back. Her brain went dizzy for a moment from the collision, and she could see stars exploding in her vision.

  "What is wrong with you?" the hoary voice asked, slight surprise lacing her tone, "Do you happen to have PTSD?"

  'What?'

  Lin Sanjiu raised her hand and rubbed the back of her head, trying to ease the throbbing pain. The stars slowly left her vision, giving way to the appearance of the incomer to enter her sight. The person standing in front of her was a tall, buxom, dark-skinned woman dressed in a cerise dress with golden threads. She had a head of long, satiny black hair fashioned into a thick braid that rested on top of her humongous b.r.e.a.s.ts.