by N. Heller
The night sky in the canyon was probably the clearest she had ever seen. It was also the most stars she had ever experienced in her life. A stream of stars stretched across the sky in the most fantastic way. The stars were bright, and every time they flickered, it felt like they were greeting her.
"This is the shower room," Silas continued to explain, "Overhead is a one-way window. The showerhead has a rain mode that imitates varying degrees of rain. There's also a hands-free mode, a massage mode, and a normal mode. If you get tired of standing, there's also a recliner and a backrest provided…"
The only strange thing that she saw was a round mark on the wall of the other side of the bed.
"Maybe it's a mark leftover by something. There used to be small-scaled renovations happening here and there all the time."
Even Silas did not know what that was, so Lin Sanjiu just threw it to the back of her mind. With a satisfied grin plastered on her face, she went into the transport pod again.
Right after she finished the tour in her suite, Silas led her to the gym room and the armament training room that had no pistols or bullets. After that, Lin Sanjiu drove the transport pod and arrived in a huge room that was entirely made of metal and covered in thick carpets.
"Where is this place? Why is it nothing in here?"
"This is the training ground," Silas answered loyally like a faithful dog that kept staying by its master's side. "The wall has undergone special metallic modifications and now not only is it soundproof and fire- and corrosion-resistant, but it also can withstand up to 40 tons of impact."
"When was it modified?"
Silas mentioned a number, but Lin Sanjiu had no idea what method it used to count the years.
"After coming out of the training area, we'll soon reach the unmanned semi-autonomous medical room."
'An unmanned semi-autonomous medical room, huh? Hmm, pretty neat,' Lin Sanjiu said inwardly as she smiled. She said, "Well, this saves me plenty of time. I can come back here and have my wound treated if I'm injured."
"Yes, but I hope you don't go over your head and get yourself seriously injured."
"Well, I'll try my best."
It seemed that Silas did not know how to appreciate a joke.
The maglev transport pod could bring her to every nook and cranny in Exodus. After she parked the pod herself, she pushed the door open and went into the medical room. To prevent any irreversible consequences caused by errors in the system from happening, there were plenty of manual operations required inside the so-called unmanned semi-autonomous medical room. After Lin Sanjiu went through two doors in a row, she walked into a compartment veiled behind a curtain following Silas's instruction.
A doctor was waiting for her behind the curtain with a red light bulb flickering on top of its head.
Specifically speaking, the doctor was actually a large tubular machine that could fit an a.d.u.l.t. Its appearance reminded Lin Sanjiu of an MRI machine. After hesitating for a brief second, she climbed into the machine in the end and Silas sent her into the tunnel.
"This is a full-body general scan," the soothing voice control assistant comforted Lin Sanjiu, who could not see anything inside the machine, "It can provide you with a comprehensive preliminary body check."
Generally speaking, the first thing to get examined by the doctor was probably the most serious. Lying inside the darkness, Lin Sanjiu heard Silas congratulate her in a pleased tone, "Congratulations. Your body temperature is normal. There is no internal bleeding or damage detected. Your body is fine."
"Can you say something I don't know?"
"There's water on the sun."
"Wh—what?"
"Well, the elements that exist on the sun include oxygen and hydrogen…"
It occurred to Lin Sanjiu that Silas could not understand sarcasm. It would just give her an answer to any questions she threw at it dutifully.
After she got her personal health report which mentioned that she might suffer from knee problems in the future, Lin Sanjiu dizzily climbed out from the scanning machine. It had been twenty minutes since she entered the medical room. She glanced across the medical room again. On the other side of the room was a row of robotic arms that had blood vessel-locating systems installed in them. Meanwhile, at the center of the room was a surgical table that allowed for basic surgical procedures and had a multiparameter monitor. With a contented look, she exited the medical room.
"It seems to me that most of the medical appliances are used to treat physical injuries. Anyway, there will be a real…erm, a real doctor to take over this medical room soon. We need to make some modifications to some of the buttons on the medical appliances to conform to the size of a cat's paw."
Riding the pod, Lin Sanjiu continued to look around in Exodus.
Three hours had passed.
She had never seen a house like this before, so she did not know how to describe it. It was not a mansion in the ordinary sense as Exodus knew humans more than humans knew themselves. Exodus was reliable, sturdy, well-rounded, and comfortable, but it was not luxurious.
If she really had to describe Exodus, it would be a fortress that was specifically built to counter the apocalypse.
Yawning, she gave Silas a heads-up and went towards the administrator's suite. The moment she stepped into the room, the water stopped flowing.
Wisps of hot steam fluttered out from the pool of water. The clear water shimmered in the light with a gem-like l.u.s.ter. Lin Sanjiu took off her shirt and quickly showered to wash away the dirt on her body. As she slowly slid into the bathtub, she let out a long sigh.
"Goodbye," Silas's voice faded away and a relaxing melody rang out from the corner.
Lin Sanjiu had forgotten when was the last time she had a bath. Her bones, muscles, and skin were all m.o.a.ning inside the tepid water. She slid lower and lower until the water reached her chin. Then, she cushioned her head on the latex pillow. Surrounded by the fragrance and the warm steam, Lin Sanjiu's consciousness soon faded away.
Posthumans could never drown in a bathtub. However, since Exodus was built before the apocalypse, two armrests protruded out from both sides of the bathtub and held Lin Sanjiu in place. A swooshing sound came as the water in the bathtub began gyrating, eddying around her while maintaining the temperature of the water.
Lin Sanjiu's consciousness was slipping further and further away as the sleep bug crawled into her brain. She felt like she had fallen into a dark but comfy place. Countless thoughts flitted across her mind, but none of them connected. Soon enough, everything fell into darkness and she succ.u.mbed to sleep.
Ryuji had been absent from work, so Melhor had a tough life.
"Fifty percent," Timo mumbled as his surprised expression faded.
Exodus was situated inside the canyon.
"You have to be patient since it's contraband," Silvan said in the message.
In the end, the rippling water flickered in her eyes. A patch of bright red floated on top of the water as the gown drifted away.
When Lin Sanjiu woke up, her heart clenched and its beat was getting stronger. Something was not right.
Chapter 732 - Flight Fare to Triple in Price
When Lin Sanjiu woke up from her bed, she momentarily forgot where she was. Sunlight flooded into her room through a long skylight. At that moment, the skylight looked like a strip of azure satin.
Silas controlled the brightness of the room to a comfortable level by slowly dimming the lights to match the natural sunlight coming through the window. "Good morning, Administrator. How was your sleep last night?"
Lin Sanjiu kicked off her blanket with one leg. Her whole body felt fully relaxed. This sudden indulgence seemed to have gone to her head. Even though the alarm bells at the back of her head were still faintly ringing since last night, she could not help but stifle a long yawn before replying, "It was exceptionally good."
"Can I get you any drink? Coffee, orange juice, or a glass of milk?"
The previous owner of Exodus d
id not leave Lin Sanjiu with much food. Those items were actually what she had taken out from her card deck.
"Orange juice," Lin Sanjiu answered. Her eyes hovered on the bowl-sized dent in the wall.
That was the only part of the barley-white wallpaper that was uneven. As time passed, the circular dent showed up through the lumpy spot of wallpaper. Lin Sanjiu reached out to touch it.
Rip!
Silas did not ask her what she was doing. It did not seem like it had eyes of any sort.
After so many years, Lin Sanjiu could finally stand in front of a basin and use warm water to brush her teeth and wash her face, just like a modern person. Under the bright bathroom light, the reflection in the mirror seemed foreign even to herself. She stepped closer and examined her face and the scars on her body without saying a word for some time.
The visage of the young woman who had once lived in a city had disappeared without a trace along with time. The fats under her once-firm cheeks had mostly disappeared, accentuating the bony edges of her face. Her pair of large eyes, which she was often praised for, had unknowingly grown narrow. They were always narrowed ever so slightly as she observed everything around her and they held only an icy cold gaze. Her skin was dry and a little rough. Since she cut her hair herself, it was a mess. Her haphazard hairstyle looked as if a dog had chewed through her hair.
Her grand prize was scarily thoughtful. Lin Sanjiu managed to find a few bottles of moisturizer from the sack of random daily necessities he had given her.
"It's absolutely useless," Lin Sanjiu grumbled at the mirror after she applied the moisturizer onto her face. She walked out of her house and bade goodbye to Silas.
After she left the canyon, she waited at the same spot for the small plane to Mid Mountsburg. Inspecting the small plane in daylight, she realized that it was even worse for wear. The plane body was covered with so many dents that it seemed like someone had given it a good beating. Putting everything else aside, the plane model was already a cause of worry. Lin Sanjiu had only seen such an old model with a single propeller on TV.
As with the previous few times, there were only a few other posthuman passengers onboard. There was nothing nearby except for a small, low-level pocket dimension. However, this small and mediocre pocket dimension had been made into a tourist trap. The tourists, who visited the pocket dimension according to their maps, always left disgruntled.
Once, Lin Sanjiu even overheard a curly redhead complaining to a friend, "How dare they sell entrance tickets? They should be paying me instead!"
After a rocky four-hour flight, Lin Sanjiu raced to the Black Market as if she was afraid that someone from Mid Mountsburg would see her. The Black Market was 30km away from the town and she was already familiar with that area. After she checked in at the pocket dimension, she bought some supplies like oxygen tanks. She asked the owner of "Survival at All Costs!" for updates, and as expected, was disappointed by the outcome.
"I've never come across an annoying pocket dimension," Lin Sanjiu grumbled vehemently as she walked back to Mid Mountsburg. "The next time I see that Mophead, I'm gonna tear his hair out."
Even an item like [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Times] was completely useless against this pocket dimension. Lin Sanjiu tried to replicate the pocket dimension once and managed to recreate it in Exodus. She was excited when it happened because she thought she had created a personal checkpoint. However, when she was about to check in, she hesitated. After thinking for some time, she finally smacked her forehead and kept the item.
If the pocket dimension in Heaven Underworld was Number 1, then the pocket dimension in [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Times] was Number 2. After all, [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Times] could only record and recreate a new pocket dimension based on the information. If she tried to check in pocket dimension Number 1 by going to a checkpoint in Number 2, it would be similar to her turning on a tap in the kitchen and hoping that it would fill the bathtub in the bathroom which would be stupid. Thankfully, she did not step into it yet. Otherwise, she would have to check in both pocket dimensions every day.
The following week, Lin Sanjiu spent most of her time traveling to and fro in a rush each day to the extent that she became familiar with the pilot. The only advantage she got out of this was that the pilot would always pick her up at a fixed time. During this time, she also visited the Mokugyo Forum once. However, other than Silvan's rather useless message, she did not receive any replies from the other consular officers. She also did not get a chance to meet Ryuji again as he had supposedly resigned. As a result, she could not help wondering if she had overanalyzed the situation that night.
On this particular night, Lin Sanjiu trudged back to Mid Mountsburg again. As dusk approached, the pulsating lights from the Bliss Convention Center throbbed rhythmically like a heartbeat, flamboyantly and zestfully. It lured the gazes of the people nearby. Standing on the outskirts of the town, Lin Sanjiu looked up at the flashy light display for some time before she finally heard the engine of the small plane as it prepared to land.
As night approached, only a few tourists wanted to go to the attractions. There were a father-and-son tag team and a man with a long ponytail. All of them sat in the poorly lit cabin that shook as if they were riding a roller coaster. Once the plane finally landed, they all shot up from their seats as they could not wait any longer to get down from the plane.
It was then that the old bearded pilot came out and blocked the aisle.
"I'm basically earning nothing from this route. I fly four trips daily, and it isn't enough for me to fill my petrol tank," the pilot said as he rubbed his two hands. He seemed to find it embarrassing to bring up the matter as he darted his eyes from one passenger to the next, but he never fixed his eyes on anyone. Just as Lin Sanjiu thought he wanted to rob them, the pilot smiled awkwardly and continued, "So, I'm just asking…What if I triple the fare starting from tomorrow? Any thoughts? Of course, the fare for tonight's flight will still be the original fare. Don't worry about that."
'Yep, he is robbing us.'
Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, somebody voiced out their opinion. The man who was holding his kid had a waxen face. It was not difficult to see that he was having a hard time surviving in the Heaven Underworld. Therefore, he was exceptionally s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e to anything that was related to money. He scowled. "Triple? Are you mad? Do you know that I can report you to the Ubume for this arbitrary price rise?
"As long as there are customers and the money goes into their pockets, the organization won't say anything," the pilot said slowly and simply.
The man with the long ponytail frowned. He mumbled something but nobody knew what he was talking about. However, from his expression alone, it was clear that he was not happy with the sudden price hike as well.
Lin Sanjiu starting to feel her head aching. Even though she had an unlimited supply of red crystals, she did not want to squander them this way. She then rose up and tried to say as calmly as possible, "That's too much. I can't afford it."
"Well, then, name me your price. I'll accept it if it's reasonable," The pilot looked so eager as if he would pull out a calculator at any time and begin to do the math. The man with the long ponytail began to grow impatient. He growled, "Can we disembark now?"
'Well, it seems I have to use that again,' Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly as she activated the Scrooge McDuck Power. As she opened her mouth wanted to say something, she froze.
"Hmm?" The pilot tilted his head.
Lin Sanjiu knew the pilot was waiting for her quotation, but Scrooge McDuck Power did not work out any offer.
'There's only one explanation to this situation…' Lin Sanjiu glanced at the cabin to see that the father had already walked out from the plane, leaving the man with the long ponytail behind. The moment their gazes clashed, the man quickly averted his eyes away and got down from the plane as well.
"Let's continue tomorrow." Lin Sanjiu calmed herself down and walked towards the door, "Is that okay? Since I've been your regu
lar customer for a week, you should know me well, don't you? "
As expected, the pilot scratched his beard and nodded. "Okay, that's only because of you."
With a smile, he saw Lin Sanjiu to the gate. The sky had already darkened, and there was no light around this vast wilderness save for the weak light from the stars that speckled the dark sky. The other two passengers had gone out far into the darkness in front.
"After all, you are my lucky girl."
"What makes you say that?" Lin Sanjiu looked at him. The pilot was facing her, but his expression was shrouded by the darkness. She could not see anything aside from his two eyes that shone brightly.
"I got more customers after you start taking my plane." He smacked his plane hard, causing it to rattle as he laughed. "Alright, I should stop bothering you. See you tomorrow!"
Stunned, Lin Sanjiu nodded at him and replied, "See you tomorrow."
The camouflage barrier covered a wide perimeter. Patches of forests appeared in her vision halfway to the canyon. She had gone through this route so many times that she could walk it without opening her eyes. She approached the forest in a few quick steps and hopped into it.
Lin Sanjiu walked for a while in darkness with the grass rustling under her feet. Noticing something, she stopped and listened for a second before she quickly climbed up a tree.
After half a minute, a black figure appeared near the entrance of the forest.
Chapter 733 - Come, Tell Me Your Story
Lin Sanjiu held her breath and ducked. She stayed still while she observed the figure in the distance.
The man swung his arms while he walked. Even though she did not make a single sound, that person stopped and surveyed his surroundings after barely taking a few steps toward the forest. This time, when he turned his head, Lin Sanjiu was immediately certain of his identity because she saw the ponytail at the back of his head.
For some reason, Mr. Ponytail seemed cautious. He stood still for a few seconds before suddenly turning around and slowly retreating away from the forest. Under the dim, hazy moonlight, it did not seem as if he had walked far. He remained near the entrance of the forest, his body casting a long, wavering shadow in the forest against the moonlight.