Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  ' There should be more than one person… ' The second that thought surfaced in her mind, another series of footfalls erupted from the forest behind the man.

  The first thing that came into her vision was a strip of red and a band of white. After the white came the red again. Umbels of red and white kept on swiveling before Lin Sanjiu's eyes, giving her the impression that the person had made the Barber's pole her skirt. The person wearing this skirt was a petite girl. Her face was so small that it was covered by her hair, leaving only her pointy chin to appear once in a while to greet the people around.

  Lin Sanjiu held her breath. She seemed to have made the wrong decision.

  Even though Woyu was bad at combat, it did not seem to be the case for the committee members. Her heart clenched and she felt a faint nervousness in the pit of her stomach the second she set her sight on the first two people. She had not felt this way for a long time. Just like the animals in the wild, the longer the posthumans survived in the apocalypse era, the more s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e they were towards danger. If Woyu was a meerkat, then the people coming out from the forest were no doubt hyenas.

  Even a lion would have a hard time taking up arms with a pack of hyenas.

  It was at this moment that the third person came into her view. He was carrying a similar telecommunication device as Woyu. A pair of spectacles was sitting on top of his high cheekbones, and the lens caught both the light from the device and the moonlight. His cheeks were sunken and it seemed like there were holes on his face.

  Lin Sanjiu clenched her teeth hard. There was one more person.

  The fourth person wore the same matching deep blue attire as his three other comrades. Lin Sanjiu felt she had seen the shirt somewhere, but she could not place where. The shirt covered the fourth incomer's body like a tent. It was baggy and coupled with his white pallor, it gave him the appearance of a clock.

  The four committee members were standing in front of Woyu. Lin Sanjiu surveyed them in a full circle, yet she could not find Lil Grass around. Perhaps he was too weak, so the committee did not dispatch him as part of the retrieval team.

  "These people…They are tricky," Mrs. Manas mumbled in her brain, sounding a little worried, "Do you have the confidence to defeat all four of them?"

  Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and replied hesitantly, "I can't tell either…"

  Suddenly, Mrs. Manas asked, "What was that sound?"

  Dumbfounded, it was only then that Lin Sanjiu realized there was a slight click coming from the direction of the five people not far away. Her muscles all pulled tautly as a sense of familiarity crept into her mind.

  She had a hunch that she knew the sound, and when Woyu began speaking, her suspicion was proven right as her blood turned cold.

  "Who…who are you guys?" His voice was faltering and his teeth were chattering madly as if he was about to bite his tongue. "Where is Honta? Why…why do you guys have our…"

  Woyu did not know them. In other words, they were not members of the committee.

  The man wearing the glasses lifted the telecommunication device. He stared silently at Woyu as if he was asking whether Woyu was talking about the device in his hand. When he tilted his head, he exposed his sunken cheeks under the moonlight. It looked horrible as if somebody had made a hole out of his face.

  "That...that's ours!" Woyu shouted in a voice that was sharp and faint like a needle, "This telecommunication device belongs to our committee!"

  "The committee," said somebody among the group as he chuckled, "is gone." Four of them looked like shadows surrounding Woyu who fell silent. He stared vacantly at the one who had spoken as if he found it hard to comprehend the few simple words that tumbled off his lips.

  After what it seemed like an eternity, Woyu began to speak again, "They are on their way…" This time, however, his voice was firmer and he spoke a lot faster. "Honta said he's sending a team to retrieve me. They'll be here soon. I suggest you all…"

  The girl clicked her tongue.

  "Cut the crap." After that, she turned her body around. Her shirt fluttered, and the red and white stripes on her skirt dazzled their eyes. "Nobody cares what you think, alright?"

  Woyu closed his mouth. However, the expression on his face suggested that he did not do that voluntarily. It must have been the girl's doing.

  "You were captured by a woman, weren't you?" the pasty-faced guy asked in a husky voice. When he spoke, aside from his lips which parted slightly, none of his facial muscles moved.

  "Where's the woman now?" the muscular man, who was about two meters tall, chimed in. He looked the most ordinary out of the four.

  Woyu only starting to speak after a short while, "I…I don't know."

  The young man kept his head low as he continued, "But I can bring you to the place where I last met her…" As he said that, he pointed at the forest.

  Then, seizing the chance before the few people came back to their senses, Woyu suddenly broke into a run, darting straight towards the spot where Lin Sanjiu was hiding.

  Chapter 737 - Let’s Check In Together!

  Woyu sprinted straight into the forest at seemingly the fastest he ever ran in his entire life. He had not reached such desperation even when he was fighting with Lin Sanjiu. The sound of his heavy breathing punctured the night's silence. As he ran, he lost his grip on the telecommunication device; it fell and tumbled down the slope.

  The bespectacled man looked down and stepped on the telecommunication device. As he picked it up, his other three comrades vanished from his side. The next time they appeared, they were standing about a dozen steps away from their previous spots, once again caging Woyu under their shadows.

  There was no way Woyu could outspeed the combined assault of the three musketeers.

  The colossal man stretched his arm forward, looking like a massive tree with a protruding branch as he tried to reach out for Woyu. Right at the moment before he could seize his prey, Woyu suddenly had a second sight and lunged to the front. A half whimper slipped from his throat as he rolled across the forest ground.

  The pallor-faced man who cloaked in bell-shaped clothing harrumphed. Then he moved one step ahead.

  Woyu rolled on the ground, hitting his face several times. Just as he thought he had escaped from the tall man, little did he know that he had rolled himself into the man's comrade. The moment he raised his head after stopping his momentum, he found himself staring at a pasty face that floated amidst the night sky.

  "Why can't you just give up?" Said the girl dressed in the red and white striped skirt who squatted beside him. She lifted her chin and chortled. "There is no way you can outrun us."

  The girl was speaking the truth. Not only did he not manage to run too far away, but their distance had also become even closer. It seemed as if he had not run at all.

  "Who— who are you guys?"

  Woyu scrambled to his feet and moved back step by step, his voice faltering. All of them clapped their eyes on him, but none of them gave him a response, the tall man only shrugging.

  "I will ask you one more time. Where is she?" Prying his two greyish lips open, the chalky face asked through a husky voice. "Don't waste our time."

  Suddenly, a thud rang out and all of them were mildly stunned when Woyu fell onto his knee. No sooner had the girl snorted than she saw one of Woyu's legs lift back midair. His body fell forward onto the ground as he was dragged by something unseen into the forest behind.

  "Somebody is saving him!" the girl shouted aloud. As she charged in, the red and white striped pattern on her skirt spun faster and blurred.

  Seeing that the three of them had disappeared, Lin Sanjiu retracted her Higher Consciousness and snatched Woyu up from the ground. "Up! Up! Up!"

  'Who—who is that?" Woyu asked, his puffy cheeks quivering vigorously and glistening with sweat.

  As soon as he regained his balance, he angled his head up, and his eyes widened in shock when his gaze connected with Lin Sanjiu's face.

  Woyu was never their
target at all; so long as he notified the group of her location, he could sidetrack their attention and steer himself out of harm's way. He was apparently aware of this as well, for he slightly tilted his face behind. However, he soon turned his face back and held Lin Sanjiu's gaze.

  The droplet of sweat that dotted his face sparkled under the moonlight. When he opened his mouth, the words that slid off his tongue were low and almost inaudible.

  "Quick! They are coming!"

  Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh. She wanted to grin at him, but the muscles on her face said no.

  "Get behind me." The words had scarcely tumbled off Lin Sanjiu's lips before she was loomed over by the trio's shadows. The tree branches swayed madly under the fierce wind whipped up by the trio's momentum. The howling of gale was deafening, and a maelstrom of leaves filled her vision to the seam. She could hardly see through anything.

  She slapped the ground, and with a swift kick, she leaped behind along with Woyu in hand.

  The trio's reaction speed was something to be reckoned with. As soon as she hopped backward, all three of them stopped charging forward. In a short moment of time, three clear figures in varying shapes and heights appeared amidst the darkness. They stood firmly under the moonlight, and it seemed as if the hot pursuit earlier was merely a dream in her brain.

  "Yo, found ya," chirped the girl as she licked her cherry lips. Under the shadow of the ringlets that framed her face, her pointy chin moved in tandem with the opening and closing of her mouth. "You can call 'Tunnel' over here now."

  As soon as she finished speaking, the tall man pressed his lips tightly and made a long whistle.

  The hillside was not the best location to battle. Not only was the forest too dense for her to move freely and put up any effective retaliation, but it was also created by Exodus's camouflage barrier so she could not risk having it destroyed in a fight. Besides, her opponents were not people who she could easily get rid of. Huffing as she leaned against a tree, Lin Sanjiu still could not come around from the throbbing pain in her back, which she accidentally hit when she recoiled in a panic earlier.

  'I have to find a way to lure all of them away from here.'

  "She is not as strong as we heard," the pasty face floating in midair said. "It shouldn't take the four of us to subdue her."

  Unlike their idiosyncratic attire, they all spoke in similar tones and pronunciations. They had no accents, and their speeds and manners of speech were indistinguishable. If it weren't for their voices, Lin Sanjiu might not be able to differentiate who was speaking.

  The bespectacled man slowly walked to the front. The lenses of his glasses caught the light as he surveyed the surroundings. Then he began speaking, using the same elocution and tone as the other three. "You guys have stepped on it."

  "Huh?" the girl asked, slightly befuddled. The spinning of the red and white stripes on her skin became faster.

  "On the ground," the bespectacled man pointed. "Can't you see it? There is a Pocket Dimension here, and you guys are standing right on top of it."

  Seizing the chance as the group of people looked downward, Lin Sanjiu called out her [Tailored Learning]. As the pointer elongated and darted straight towards the group, it created a thin silvery arc in the sky.

  However, the pointer did not hit anything.

  A mass of mist-like darkness had appeared out of thin air before of the pointer. It looked as if somebody had made a hole in a canvas. Lin Sanjiu did not know what it was, but she did not plan to find out. She flexed her muscles and retracted the pointer with a swift gesture before it could touch the black mist.

  The mouth of the bespectacled man was slightly ajar. He took a small breath and puffed out slowly. The clump of darkness began to ebb away like a mist and slowly went out of sight.

  "Hey, let's get out of here," Woyu whispered. Lin Sanjiu turned her head to find that the young man was now taking cover behind a tree, seemingly ready to take to his heels as he saw fit. "Come over here! Quick!"

  Lin Sanjiu wanted to retreat, but she had to lure all of them away first.

  However, before she did anything, there was one thing that took precedence over all other things that she was about to do.

  "Flame Arm, Lollipop," the bespectacled man commanded, "The checkpoint is under your feet. Do you see the sign?"

  A wooden sign was lying on the ground in front of the girl and the tall man. They lowered their heads and could vaguely make out the line "Thank you for activating the Pocket Dimension" engraved on the wooden sign through the dark.

  "This is a Checkpoint Pocket Dimension!" Lollipop yelled. "But there isn't any…"

  "There is no pocket dimension here. I suspect that she is using a Special Item that could record pocket dimensions." The bespectacled man glanced at the pasty man and said, "Ikaku, it is a little far from you. Maybe you did not activate it."

  The man cloaked in a large robe slid two steps back, his feet hardly touching the ground.

  "Most pocket dimension-attributed Special Items have to stay in one place to keep the pocket dimension running. The Special Item she used must be around here somewhere. Look for it," the man said as he pushed his glasses. "...After all, you guys have to check-in every day starting from today."

  'How was he able to see through it so soon!'

  Lin Sanjiu cursed inwardly as she tried not to look at the [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time]. Having recorded the Checkpoint Pocket Dimension, it had been turned into a dead leaf. It was now a stone's throw away from Lollipop.

  Initially, she planned to retrieve the dead leaf when all of them were attracted by the wooden sign. She did not expect that the bespectacled man would be able to see through her plan in a fraction of time. Just as she was thinking about how she should get close to the dead leaf, she saw Flame Arm turn to her with his arms raised high.

  "Have you heard of route 300?"

  Immediately, Lin Sanjiu activated [Oh My God! My Wallet Is Missing!]. Then, a dazzling beam of light shot out of the gadget around Flame Arm's arm, blinding her.

  "[Defense Forcefield]!" As Mrs. Manas shouted, Lin Sanjiu felt her Higher Consciousness depleting at an alarming rate. She raised her arms, but the blinding light rendered her unable to see her enemy, not to mention a tiny leaf.

  "Look around you. Try to minimize the damage to the forest to the lowest," the bespectacled man continued to give his orders. "After that, finish her quick!"

  Chapter 738 - Let’s Play Some Dirty Games

  Lin Sanjiu was so shocked that she almost forgot she was under attack right now.

  'Could it be the bespectacled man already knew the forest is created by Exodus's camouflage barrier?'

  Truth be told, even Lin Sanjiu herself could not differentiate the real forest from the one put up by the barrier. The replica created by Exodus's barrier was so close to the real thing that it was well-nigh impossible to set the two apart, so how was there any possibility that he could see right through it?

  'No, this isn't right.'

  If he knew the forest was fake, then he should be trying his best effort to destroy it and not protect it.

  "If, if you are not leaving… then, then, I'm leaving now!'

  For a moment, she was too sidetracked by the rising tide of questions and doubts that she failed to evade the attacks thrown at her. As she gritted her teeth and activated the [Defense Forcefield], a trembling voice behind her slid into her ears. "I have nothing to do with any one of you… Take care of… Ah! On your right!"

  Lin Sanjiu had beep keeping her eyes tightly shut all this time, yet the light was still strong enough to pierce through her eyelids. Without flipping her eyes open, Lin Sanjiu kicked the ground and darted out. However, instead of backing away, she went straight up to Flame Arm, exposing herself entirely under the mercy of the blinding light. Suddenly, something shot out from her right, grazed past her back and then disappeared into the forest. She did not turn her head or open her eyes. Seizing the chance as the person in front took two steps back, she called out
a card and shoved it into her mouth.

  "What did she eat?" The girl shouted a question, causing gooseflesh to grow on Lin Sanjiu's back.

  The light dimmed. At the moment Lin Sanjiu flipped her eyes open and connected her sight with the pointy chin in the dark, she heard Ikkaku sneer. "I will leave her to you guys. I am going to show that annoying brat what will happen for messing with us!"

  'Was it because Woyu called me out just now?'

  The second the thought flitted across Lin Sanjiu's mind, both Ikkaku and Lollipop began their move. The former charged towards Woyu in the distance, which elicited a sharp shrill, while the latter went for Lin Sanjiu, her hand held high in a claw.

  Lollipop's skirt had stopped spinning after Lin Sanjiu activated [Oh My God! My Wallet Is Missing!]. It flopped weakly by its master's side like a top that ran out of power. Wisps of smoke sprouted from the girl's palm, which soon grew into plumes and filled Lin Sanjiu's entire vision. The smoke intertwined between the girl's fingers, giving an impression of tiny snakes baring teeth at their prey.

  However, this was merely the tip of an iceberg of the total attacks she received.

  The metal device on Flame Arm's arm rattled and reconstructed. Four barrels then appeared, pointing straightly at Lin Sanjiu. Tunnel remained standing still, his expression hidden behind his glasses. Suddenly, she caught a silhouette whizz past in the corner of her eyes. She did not know whether she was being s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e or if it was another hallucination.

  "The hypersensory combines your body and your mind," Hei Zeji's voice rang out beside her ears once more. "In other words, there is no way you cannot deflect an attack directed at you once you are in your hypersensory state. Still don't get the idea? Let me show you…"

  At that moment, the world in Lin Sanjiu's eyes slowed down. The greyish-white smoke fluttered sluggishly and the girl's movement looked as if somebody had pushed the slow-mo button.