Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  "Somebody spilled my intel to you guys. Who is that guy?" Lin Sanjiu poked the pointer into his arm.

  He gulped again and his face turned ugly. "I…I don't know."

  As if he feared that Lin Sanjiu would not believe him, he threw his hands up as he quickly said, "My colleague contacts those informants, so I really have no idea who they are. All I know is the information provided by them."

  "Go on," Lin Sanjiu commanded simply.

  "The informant said you are rich, and you seem to have just bought a house. Besides that, the report said that you are pretty active in this region…"

  Lin Sanjiu's brows knitted slightly. "I seem to have just bought a house? Has your memory gone bad or was that what your informant told you?"

  "Yes, that was what the informant told me. I felt it was strange as well," the young man explained, "Either you bought it or you didn't. Why must the informant use the phrase 'seem to have'?"

  Staring at him, Lin Sanjiu did not reply as she fell into her own thoughts.

  Only four people knew she had just bought a house: Timo, Naga-ashi, the previous house owner, and the fatty in the organization. They knew very well that she had indeed bought a house, so they would never use ambiguous words such as "seem like". In other words, only those who did not participate in the process would give that vague an answer.

  Besides, nobody knew the location of her house, save for the previous house owner. Even if the previous owner turned against her and sold her information, why would he be ambiguous about it? It just did not make sense.

  After all, even he knew the location of Exodus, he would not have known that she was active in this region. What if she just bought the house and just came to stay once in a while?

  "What region do you mean?" Lin Sanjiu exerted more force and asked.

  The young man glanced at the pointer that stabbed into his skin. He did not know what it would do to him, but he did not feel comfortable. He fell silent for a brief second before answering, "My colleague just made a mark on the map, so I'm not so sure as well, but the flight route is within the marked area. I'm very sure of it."

  In other words, Exodus was not inside the marked area.

  Looking at this perspective, Lin Sanjiu came to a conclusion. The informant knew she was around here, but he did not know the location of her house.

  This way, she could eliminate the previous owner from her list. However, she realized that she did not have many suspects on hand now.

  It was like a multiple-answer question. Those who fit criteria A would not fit criteria B, and vice versa. She needed to find somebody who fit both criteria A and B, then he would be the informant that she was looking for.

  "What a headache," Lin Sanjiu mumbled under her breath. Ever since her grand prize had turned into a Veda, she had lost the ability to mimic him. In other words, she did not know him well anymore, hence she could not use his brain to help her connect the dots.

  Fortunately, she still had a way. "Where is your committee?" Lin Sanjiu asked with a growl.

  The young man's expression changed. He lowered his head and mumbled, "We don't have a fixed location. Even if you threaten me with my life, my answer remains the same."

  "Then, how did you guys contact each other?"

  Lin Sanjiu scoffed before she activated the Planar World and touched his shirt. His face turned pale as he looked at his disappearing clothes. He stammered, voice laced thick with fear and embarrassment, "What do you want to do?"

  Chapter 735 - Come Well-Prepared

  The young man's face turned pale as red splotches appeared on his cheeks. He clutched tightly at the blanket, unable to utter even a word. The strong wind made the blanket flutter madly. The hair on his legs was thick and his feet were b.a.r.e.

  Lowering her head, Lin Sanjiu looked through the cards one by one.

  Surprisingly, in addition to clothes and shoes and several whatnots, the young man had only 3 Special Items. One of them was the [Fingergun] which probably was a weapon as its name suggested. The second one was the [Emergency Asylum Permit]. In the event of a sudden crisis, it had a chance to trigger an opportunity to escape so that the wielder had a chance to take a breather. Apparently, this Special Item was not triggered, so Lin Sanjiu was able to score her hit.

  The last Special Item was something she wanted badly: the [Message Relay Station].

  Even though it had a unique name, the [Message Relay Station] was a telecommunication device with GPS, and its function was akin to the satellite phone. After Lin Sanjiu pulled it out from her card, she suddenly realized something. "As a robber, I'm truly amazed that you really have the nerve to walk around with so few Special Items."

  The young man kept his head low as his cheeks puffed like a hamster's.

  "We value quality over quantity," he said silently, "As long as they can be of use to me, why should I tire myself out and bring so many Special Items with me? Do you not know that the number of Special Items you have is inconsequential to your survival rate? I may have a limited supply of Special Items in my arsenal, but I'm still alive. Some of those who own a lot more Special Items than I do are dead before they could even use half of them, so instead of loading yourself up, it's better to stay just like me—simple and easy."

  Lin Sanjiu threw him a glance. "You are pretty poor, aren't you?"

  As if he were suddenly stabbed by her words, the young man jerked up. He raised his head to meet Lin Sanjiu's gaze but did not say anything. After remaining silent for a short while, he nodded.

  "Why? I thought you should be very wealthy given that you guys always rob others."

  "Even after we ro— Jeez, even after we redistribute the money we've confiscated, it doesn't mean that we will be wealthy. After all, do you think a person who's financially well-off would commit this kind of deed?" The young man gave her an irrelevant answer. He seemed rather infuriated as he demanded, "Why do you ask? What has it got to do with you?"

  "Nothing. I'm just curious to know."

  Lin Sanjiu looked at the deck of cards in her hand, but she did not know what she should do about them. Then, the young man began to talk again. His voice and words sounded like a Gatling gun spitting bullets out. It was as if he had forgotten that he was now completely at her mercy. "Just take them all! I've been playing with fire long enough to know that, one day, I'll eventually be burned by it. That's all I've got. Take it or leave it!"

  Lin Sanjiu scoffed lightly, but she did not say anything. She then summoned the [Message Relay Station] from the card.

  The [Message Relay Station] was actually a telecommunication device. It was a rectangular box with a metallic sheen. There were two long antennae protruding out from each side with buttons and a monitor screen arranged neatly in rows. Everybody would distinguish it as a telecommunication device at just one glance.

  "Come over here," ordered Lin Sanjiu as she pushed the device closer to the young man. She nudged her chin at the device. "Contact your colleagues now. Tell them that you're wounded after fighting with me, but I escaped. Right now, you need them to come and pick you up."

  The young man compressed his lips so hard that his lips almost disappeared from his face.

  "I believe you could do it on yourself, don't you?" Lin Sanjiu whispered, "I'm pretty certain that both you and I know very well what kind of measures I can use in this kind of situation."

  The young man's cheeks wobbled. Some images and ideas flashed across his head. He stole a furtive glance at the tall woman. After a short while, he took a deep breath and stretched his arm out from the blanket towards the telecommunication device. "Oh, you can toss this back on," Lin Sanjiu gave his shirt back to him. "To prevent you from going back on your words, I'll keep your pants for the time being."

  The young man nervously dialed his colleagues again.

  As if it was testing the young man's patience, nobody picked up the call even after he called multiple times. The sky was filled with never-ending dial tones. He lifted his head and looked at Lin San
jiu as a befuddled expression dawned upon his face. "I think they are…"

  "Who's this?"

  Almost at the same time, a male voice rang out from the other side of the telecommunication device. Startled, the young man immediately stopped his conversation with Lin Sanjiu and answered hastily, "It's me, Woyu."

  "Woyu?" The man seemed surprised as his voice went an octave higher, "Are you alright? Who were you talking to just now?"

  "Hmm? Sorry, come again?" It seemed that Woyu would always play possum when he was being interrogated to give his brain time to formulate an answer so that he could answer calmly the next time his interrogator repeated the question, "Ah, I was just talking to myself. I thought something happened to you there. What took you so long to pick up the call?"

  "Everything is fine here." The man then paused for a brief second before questioning again, "What happened? Lil Grass said you couldn't make it."

  The young man, who appeared like a puffy squirrel, turned and gazed at Lin Sanjiu's hands that had been placed on his shoulders the whole time.

  "Erm, we've been busted. Did Lil Grass tell you that? Oh, he already did. Well, I fell off the plane when I was fighting with the target. The plane has already taken off by the time I rushed back…Oh, don't worry, I'm fine. She didn't manage to capture me, but I'm wounded. Yeah, yeah, she escaped." His eyes fluttered anxiously as he spoke.

  "You're wounded?" The man's voice suddenly turned stern. "Is it serious?"

  Woyu's eyes stopped swiveling around. It seemed that he felt ashamed to lie to his colleague. His face turned red under the blue light. To make him continue speaking, Lin Sanjiu gripped him harder, causing his bones to rattle.

  "I'm fine, but I can't go back on my own now," Woyu continued hesitantly. The good thing was the person on the other side of the line could not see his expression now, or else, they would be busted in seconds.

  "My…I sprained my leg. I'm in a forest now," he said as Lin Sanjiu had taught him just now. His voice became lower and lower as he continued to speak, "I-I fear that she'll come back for me."

  "Understood," the man on the other side acknowledged readily, "Stay there and activate the GPS. We'll send a team to pick you up."

  Woyu probably did not expect him to agree to his demand so soon. Stunned, he stared at the blue screen for a while. His eyes glistened under the light before he suddenly shouted, "Honta, you…"

  Slap.

  Lin Sanjiu struck the device close. She did not move her hand away from the metal case. After a short while, she turned around and inspected Woyu silently. She realized that his face was crimson and soaked in sweat. It seemed that he was not used to doing this kind of thing.

  "All of you are sick!" Lin Sanjiu snapped. She picked the telecommunication device up and pointed it at the young man. "You should be glad that I don't deal with fools."

  Lin Sanjiu felt a sudden sense of deja vu. After pondering for a moment, she remembered that Puppeteer had said this to her before.

  Bewildered, Woyu did not come around to his senses after Lin Sanjiu walked off. He quickly scrambled up from the ground as he tugged at the blanket and followed after her. "So, are you saying that…"

  Lin Sanjiu paid him no mind. She picked up her pace towards the front and shouted without turning her face, "Hurry up! Don't be such a slowpoke!"

  She picked a gentle slope that could provide her with better vision over the area before instructing Woyu to turn on the GPS. From this location, she could cover the entire forest with her [Higher Consciousness Scan] with little to no effort. Therefore, no matter where Woyu's colleagues appeared, she would be able to see them the moment they stepped into the forest.

  She tied Woyu to a tree and waited beneath it. Even if they used the plane provided by the Ubume, the committee members of the Committee for Preventing Price Hikes and Inflation would take at least several hours to arrive. Leaning against the tree, she peered at the descending moon through the foliage as the night darkened.

  The darkness arriving before dawn was not merely a metaphor. The umbra at that moment was so thick that even the moonlight and the light from the stars could not pierce through it. The billowing night wind shattered the final ray of light that lingered around the realm, pushing everything into pure darkness.

  Having fallen asleep, Woyu's snoring had been droning on for several hours. Sitting under the tree, Lin Sanjiu cursed the committee several times.

  "What are you gonna do to them?" Mrs. Manas asked.

  "Teach them a lesson," Lin Sanjiu said, but she could not be sure. "I have to make sure that they won't come to bother me anymore.

  Mrs. Manas fell silent for a moment. Just as Lin Sanjiu thought Mrs. Manas was thinking of an idea, she spoke again, "Somebody is here."

  "Is it the committee?"

  The wind continued to billow across the ground. Lin Sanjiu activated her Hypersensory skill and closed her eyes. After a short while, she crouched although she did not wake Woyu up. She placed the telecommunication device next to the young man and hid behind a bush.

  If her [Higher Consciousness Scan] failed to detect anyone, it could only mean one thing—they had hidden their presence and were ready for a fight.

  "It seems that they had seen through Woyu's lie," Lin Sanjiu said.

  Chapter 736 - The Rescue Team

  Woyu only stopped snoring several minutes after he was untied.

  He smacked his lips and lowered his head. Then, when he saw the scene in front of him, his eyes widened. The rope which Lin Sanjiu used to constrain him was loosely dangling by his arms, and as he moved, it fell off his body.

  From Lin Sanjiu's angle, he seemed stunned.

  The telecommunication device was sitting quietly in front of him. It released a faint green glow into the night sky, resembling a glow-worm resting on a leaf.

  "Hmm?" He looked like he still unable to comprehend why he was sitting there alone. He surveyed his surroundings and quietly call out, "Hey...y-you, are you there?"

  Lin Sanjiu lay even flatter as she held her breath and observed the man through the shrubs.

  "If you're not around, I'm going to leave…" the young man mumbled as he grabbed the bedsheet with both hands. He stood up with some rustling sounds and accidentally stepped on the pair of pants that Lin Sanjiu threw over. He quickly put the bedsheet down and wore the pants hastily. He took the telecommunication device and was just about to leave when he suddenly stopped. As he froze, he perked his ears up.

  ' Woyu is also a posthuman, so I guess he noticed something.' Lin Sanjiu exhaled soundlessly.

  She did not know what the other committee members were using. Somehow, she was completely unable to detect them with her [Higher Consciousness Scan]. It was almost as if they were invisible. She could only faintly sense the people approaching the slope in her hypersensory state. When the group of people reached the forest, her [Higher Consciousness Scan] was blocked by the thick trees around them. In the end, she deactivated her [Higher Consciousness Scan] and decided to use Woyu as bait.

  The other committee members would lower their guard the moment they discovered their companions. That would also be the best time for Lin Sanjiu to take all of them down at one go.

  The young man held the telecommunication device and listened intently as he walked toward the entrance of the forest. As the night breeze weaved through the trees, it almost seemed as if the forest was only filled with the sound of rustling leaves, which was like the ebbing sea waves. The ambient sounds dampened the presence of the incomers.

  "H-Honta?" Woyu pitched his voice very low and asked, "Is that you over there?"

  He waited for a while, yet there was no response from the dark. Woyu wondered if it was because his voice was too low to be heard.

  After a short bout of rumination, Woyu flipped the telecommunication device, once again filling the sky with its bright blue light.

  Duu…

  A flat dial tone rang out into the night sky.

  A rustling noise came after the fi
rst dial tone. It sounded distant and faint like an illusion. Woyu could not hear it well, but he was somewhat relieved. He closed the telecommunication device and examined his surroundings again for any sign of Lin Sanjiu. After that, he scurried into the forest in front of him and disappeared.

  Woyu had just left not long ago and would be on his highest alert. Besides, judging from the beeping of the telecommunication device, Lin Sanjiu was certain that he was not very far away. She went into her hypersensory state and zeroed all her senses in that direction. As she tried to sense for any movements, she began counting in her heart.

  The bush swished as she crept out of her hiding spot. However, Woyu did not detect anything and continued to move down the slope.

  As an effect of the hypersensory state, Lin Sanjiu had merged along with the hillside.

  She could clearly feel the gentle breeze from the distance and she saw the swaying silhouette of the trees. Her footsteps pried the foliage open along with the eddying of the wind, and the susurration whispered as her clothes rustled against her skin. The sounds melted into the night sky. If one closed their eyes, they would not be able to differentiate if it was her footfalls or the wind when she walked past them.

  Woyu was very cautious. He had been looking left and right into the darkness along the way. Nevertheless, he did not notice somebody behind him. A few minutes later, after seeing that there was nobody around, he let out a sigh of relief and activated the telecommunication device once more.

  The moment the device was connected, he heard a clear rumble of machinery wafting from the forest in front of him. His eyes glowed. Following the direction of the sound, he waved and hollered out in a low voice, "Honta! Over here!"

  The first man that emerged from the forest looked like a walking tree. He was over two meters tall and had a husky muscular build. He was in his blue military vest, his massive arms b.a.r.e to the wrist and glistening with sweat.

  Lin Sanjiu poked her head out slightly and observed the man. She saw that there was some kind of gadget coiled around the man's arms. Its outline looked huge and heavy, but Lin Sanjiu had no idea what the gadget was as it had merged with the darkness.