by N. Heller
The "perspectives" Silvan was talking about was the convergence point when two light beams intersected.
"Each perspective represents the key constituent of this item. By selectively reconstructing and copying these perspectives, we can create a whole new item in a different way that will have various effects. I have never worked in the research and development department before, so that's all I can tell you."
When Silvan returned, Lin Sanjiu found there were two identical uniforms dr.a.p.ed over his arm.
He lowered his head and picked one out. Handing it over to Lin Sanjiu, he grinned. "This is mine. You can have this one."
Lin Sanjiu took over the uniform and dr.a.p.ed it over her body; it felt heavy on her shoulders. A puff of faint fig fragrance wafted into her nose, and she could sense the residual heat that was gradually fading away. Even though Lin Sanjiu was considered tall for a woman, Silvan's clothes were still too large for her. She tugged at the sleeves and tried to pull them closer.
"Would you mind waiting for me outside?"
When she lifted her head, she found that Silvan's hand was on his belt. He nudged his chin at the door, and before he could finish his sentence, Lin Sanjiu bolted out of the room and closed the door.
Leaning against the door, she let out a long sigh.
Occasionally, the wind would bring the muffled noise from the distance into the hall. However, there was only silence in the building and she could even hear her own heartbeats and the flow of her blood. The swing stages waited patiently and quietly in the light, while the door and corridor merged with the shades.
While she was zoning out, the door behind her pushed open and she tripped.
After several minutes, Lin Sanjiu had put on the uniform of the security department. The silver lining was that since she had a tall stature, Silvan's clothes did not look too out of shape on her body.
Silvan took away the visitor pass, crushed it, and threw it into Lin Sanjiu's silver basket. He then pulled a pair of scissors out of nowhere and trimmed her hair, which looked like a bird's nest. After that, he gave her a pair of spectacles.
When he went outside to dismiss the crowd, Lin Sanjiu took a look at her new look on the cycloptic machine. For a moment, she couldn't recognize the person in the reflection.
Chapter 751 - Reverie Libretto
Just as Silvan claimed, getting out of the Munitions Factory was a breeze.
Both of them soon arrived at the entrance gate. Silvan lifted his finger nonchalantly and touched the reflective light curtain. It shattered into speckles of silver dots and disappeared into the air.
They first went to a checkpoint nearby. After she had checked in, Lin Sanjiu rested her forehead on the ice-cream machine and heaved out a sigh, now feeling the full force of the lassitude that had been building up in her for the last few hours or so.
She was well aware that Reverie Libretto was not a place for her to slack, but right now, all she wanted was to throw herself down on a bed and rest. Perhaps she was spoiled by Exodus.
Even though the pedestrians were goggling at them, Lin Sanjiu was certain that their eyes were all fixed on Silvan. Walking next to him, Lin Sanjiu seemed to suddenly become a shadow under the lampshade—no one could see her.
"The Munitions Factory is a fun place to visit. It's such a shame that I couldn't bring you around this time," Silvan said as he walked. "Next time, if I get the chance, I will bring you back here."
Lin Sanjiu tilted her head slightly and glanced at the towering war hammer that stood under the dome. A team of visitors babbled excitedly amongst themselves as they brushed past them. Looking over at the disappearing group, Lin Sanjiu felt a twinge of envy.
It was impossible for someone in the Twelve Worlds to not be curious about the Munitions Factory. However, after today's event, she was afraid that there was no way she could join this kind of sightseeing tour again.
"Guess it won't happen until Percival Levin decides to forfeit the mission about me, then."
Silvan snorted. "Don't worry, things don't always go his way. I will soon reclaim the combat department. Just you see."
"Reclaim the combat department?" Lin Sanjiu glanced at him and found his pure golden hair glinting in the falling sunshine. She peeled her eye away and asked, curiosity thick in her voice, "I thought all your positions were assigned…"
"In general, yes." Silvan shrugged, his cardinal epaulets flickering. "However, one day, I was suddenly transferred to the security department while Percival Levin took over the captaincy of the combat department. Before that day, no one had seen him or known who he was. I've investigated him for a long time, rummaging through every system, including the consular officers' system, but I found nothing. Zero. No one had ever seen him or heard about him before, but he just popped out of nowhere as if he had fallen from the sky and took over my position under the direct orders of the board."
"Not even the consular officers' system?" Lin Sanjiu was shocked. "But how is that possible? It's as if Percival Levin was just born into this world!"
Silvan turned his head to meet Lin Sanjiu's gaze, his emerald eyes shining brightly under the light of day.
Even if their topic of conversation was dense, his voice was soothing and sounded like music to her ears. "I'm suspecting Percival is not his real name, and somebody could have used some kinds of techniques that I don't know to help him cover up his traces. I wonder why he hides his identity. The feuds and struggles between the only two departments in the Munitions Factory that could use violence are as plain as a pikestaff. Hmm… This may not be a coincidence, but... oh, the train is here."
All of a sudden, a track suddenly appeared in her sight. It flew high above their heads, spiraling and stretching down into the ground below. A train stopped in front of them, and both of them stepped into the coach. According to Silvan, the train traveled all the way down while fetching its passengers on the ground.
There was nothing in the coach, not even seats. As the train began to descend, the darkness seemed to come alive, shrouding everything in its mantle of blackness. Even though there were several hanging lamps swaying along with the train, the darkness was too strong for their feeble lights to pierce through.
Lowering her body to stabilize herself, Lin Sanjiu asked, "Are you saying that those higher-ups deliberately set you two up so that both of you could keep each other at bay? Who are these higher-ups?"
"A bunch of obsessive worrywarts," Silvan replied, seemingly shaking his head. "If I still can't dig up anything about his background, perhaps I need to make a trip to the Reverie Libretto too."
Lin Sanjiu raised her brows at his words.
Silvan had given her a brief explanation about the pocket dimension Reverie Libretto. However, she still couldn't help but be taken aback when she saw it with her own eyes.
She had seen a lot of "wild" pocket dimension throughout the years of hopping from one apocalyptic world to another, but this was by far the first time she experienced a pocket dimension that ran under the supervision of the Twelve Worlds Centrum.
They were about several hundred meters away from the entry spot of the pocket dimension. As she walked along the gentle slope, she found the atmosphere of the uphill road to be somewhat lively. A wide spectrum of articles and wares were sold here, and the hawking of the street traders filled the air as they tried their very best to attract the soon-to-be entering pocket dimension posthumans to purchase something from them. Speaking of the posthumans, they were split into two groups. Some of their faces were white with apprehension and they walked in a hurry, while the others just strolled along the road, stopping occasionally to comment on something they saw in a vending stall.
If it weren't for the yellow warning sign that appeared from time to time to remind her of how close she was to the pocket dimension, she would have thought this was another market.
"They… why are there vendors here?"
"See, it seems that I made the right decision to tag along," Silvan replied in a play
ful tone, grinning like a child. "Reverie Libretto is very popular in Heaven Underworld. Hence, many people come here every day to try their luck, and due to these visitors, this market was established."
"Must-have resources for Reverie Libretto." A vendor pushing a glass cabinet called out to Lin Sanjiu when he saw her, "Hey miss, looking for something? Everything I have here is—" However, before he could finish his sentence, he realized his potential buyer's companion was none other than Silvan. He became tongue-tied and no words came out of his lips. Seizing her chance, Lin Sanjiu went closer and examined the glass cabinet.
Inside of the cabinet was a row of handwritten manuscripts tied together loosely with thread. Some of them were thick while others were thin. Even though they had different covers, each title was more eye-catching than the last.
"Nineteen Winning Streaks: His Secret Of Beating Reverie Libretto!"
"The Things That I Earned and Learned From Reverie Libretto. Based on the true experience of Ms. Yulen."
"Love That Was Born From A Nightmare: Two Intertwining Souls And The Great Breakout."
No sooner had Lin Sanjiu finished scanning the titles of the manuscripts in the first glass cabinet than several more glass cabinets showed up, surrounding her. Like the first street vendor, it seemed to her that all of the street traders here were normal humans. Although they sold the same things, Lin Sanjiu had a hard time deciding which one she should buy, as all of them looked very promising.
"Reverie Libretto's Dummy Guide: Top Ten Secret Settings That Every Pocket Dimension Breaker Must Know."
"Interview With The Big Wig of The Twelve Worlds: The Key To Bringing The Thing You D.e.s.i.r.e From The Libretto."
"Big Secret! The Only Way To Clear Reverie Libretto. Based On The True Experience Of Puppeteer."
Just as she was reaching for the last book, Silvan pulled her arm back and extracted her from the ring of glass cabinets.
"These are all fake. If you follow their guide, I am almost 100% that you won't be able to come out alive from the pocket dimension," Silvan said as he glanced at the last glass cabinet. "I understand that they don't mean any harm, but these manuscripts, after being passed down from one person to another for so many generations, I am positive some of them are not usable. Come, this way. I will bring you to buy something that you need in the pocket dimension."
Under his guidance, Lin Sanjiu bought a lip-shaped 200 ml water bag, a can of hot coffee, and a pair of oceanic viper fins.
"Why do I need viper fins?" She was getting more and more curious as she continued to walk forward. She found that as they got closer to the pocket dimension, there were more posthumans who stopped at the roadside and changed into swimsuits. Perhaps the day was a little cold, for most of them wore long-sleeved swimsuits. There were also some who stuffed all their belongings into a bag-shaped plastic bag.
When they were approaching a warning sign that read "Reverie Libretto, 30 meters ahead", Silvan stopped.
"Here is where we part ways." He offered Lin Sanjiu a grin. There was something glistening in his eyes. "I hope you can get your answer here."
'Really?'
Lin Sanjiu still didn't quite believe in the statement as she was walking the final 30 meters towards the pocket dimension.
It was said that there was a certain chance that a person could bring out an item after he or she cleared the pocket dimension. Therefore, if a posthuman were to enter Reverie Libretto with a specific goal, then based on the principle "you will get what you've been dreaming of day and night", he was likely to bring out something that he needed.
What could be brought out might not be something physical. It could be a quote, a dream, or even a message. There was even a case where a posthuman gained a talent after he cleared Reverie Libretto. Even though a Bel Canto technique was useless in the apocalyptic world, it still gave people a lot of confidence.
Generally, most of the Twelve Worlds were only D-class apocalyptic worlds, so she figured that the pocket dimension shouldn't be too difficult. It was also because of this that there were so many posthumans who came to Heaven Underworld to test their luck in Reverie Libretto.
Lin Sanjiu put on the water bag; its shape fit perfectly well with her lips. Although there wasn't any hole in the bag, she could feel rivulets of water slipping into her mouth and down her throat. This would be her main water source for the rest of the day.
After she finally walked into a mist after hiking up the slope, her legs suddenly gave way and she fell onto the ground. Concurrently, all the posthumans standing around her had fallen onto the ground as well. The mist was thick, and a dead silence reigned everywhere. Heaps after heaps of posthumans filled the area to the brim, and it seemed like the aftermath of a war.
The ground shuffled and began to move the unconscious posthumans back. After a short while, the area was clear again as it waited for the arrival of the new batch of challengers.
Lin Sanjiu had already fallen into her dream.
Chapter 752 - Genial Peanut Town
Imagine that you were in a deep sleep but your mind was wide awake. You sat up in your body and pinched your arm as hard as you could but didn't feel any pain. You looked around you and started to get confused about what was dream and what was reality.
…This was what Lin Sanjiu was feeling right now.
She lifted her hand and touched her face. Nothing. The lip-shaped water bag that fit perfectly with her lips was gone.
A blanket of silvery mist was l.i.c.k.i.n.g at every surface. She squinted her eyes, or so she thought, and tried to look around. At that moment, she realized that there was no one around. She was alone.
Just as she stood up and walked two steps forward, a soft female voice erupted out of nowhere and made her jump.
"Please don't stand up. The libretto is being generated."
Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a moment and then sat down as the voice told her. After waiting nervously alone in the mist for a while, just as she thought the voice had already left, it rang out again. "Thank you for your cooperation. The libretto has been generated. The following is the description for your libretto."
With her bland opening remark, the mist began to clear up, revealing the sky that was as clear as a sapphire gem. The westbound sun was giving off its final heat before the night took over. The air felt dry and the place smelled like autumn wind and dry leaves.
Lin Sanjiu lowered her head and found her hand on a steering wheel. It wasn't long before she realized she was sitting inside a Volkswagen, driving along a straight highway as trees and houses sped by outside the window.
The second she realized she was driving, she was so shocked that she stomped on the accelerator hard and almost rammed herself into the serrated edge of the road. After she hit the brake, the soothing female voice echoed. "You are on a road trip and you have traveled across half of the country. You have been driving for the whole day and now you are tired. In the evening, you entered a town called Peanut Town, looking for a place to settle. Today's temperature is 51-degrees Fahrenheit, and the population of the town is 799."
'This is really a small town,' Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly. She figured that she did not have to meet all 799 people in the town since this was just a dream. However, there was something strange. The moment the female voice went silent, she suddenly felt a chill waft upon her face. She reached for the heater and turned it on.
She waited for the voice with bated breath. However, it didn't ring out again.
"That's it? No more?" Lin Sanjiu reignited the vehicle and began her journey once more in puzzlement.
According to the description, it seemed that she had to find a place to settle down for the night. As such, she looked out of the window and looked around. To her dismay, all of the shops were closed and she couldn't see any sign of a hotel even after driving for ten minutes straight.
She turned a corner and drove into a residential area. She wound down down the window and hollered out to a woman who was walking her dog, "Hey the
re. Could you please help me?"
The woman turned her head over. Her frizzly blonde hair dr.a.p.ed over her shoulders and looked as if she hadn't dyed it for so long. There were bags under her eyes and she wore a weary expression, but Lin Sanjiu didn't know whether it was because she was exhausted from being dragged here and there by the pit bull or something else. She gave Lin Sanjiu an affable smile as she replied in a friendly manner, "Sure, how can I help you?"
"I'm looking for a hotel to stay in. Can you show me the way to the nearest one?"
"Oh, unfortunately, we don't have a hotel here." The woman shook her head. "We never have visitors in this town. Old Borg used to run a hotel before, but it's already closed down."
Silvan had mentioned that each person had only one libretto, and each libretto contained only one story. Lin Sanjiu did not expect that she would meet a dead-end so soon.
"Guess I have to spend the night in my car, then." She smiled bitterly.
The woman understood her circ.u.mstances, but there was nothing she could do. She nodded apologetically and then walked away.
"She walked away just like that?" Lin Sanjiu was slightly stunned, but she didn't want to trouble the woman again. Even though this was a dream and that woman was probably not a real human, she still couldn't bear to trouble others. Besides, it was just a small matter that would not cost her life.
"Please note that not everyone who appears in your libretto will necessarily be fake," the female voice popped out again. "In this pocket dimension, all participants' librettos are randomly connected."
'In other words, I might bump into another posthuman in my dream?'
While she mulled over the thought, she finished circling Peanut Town. As expected, she did not come across any hotel or B&B.
"Hi there." She suspected that the woman had given her a hint, so this time, she halted a man who was carrying a shopping bag. "Can you tell me the way to Old Borg's house?"
She knew it was kind of weird for a stranger like her to inquire about the home address of somebody she didn't know. However, the man hardly hesitated long before replying to her swiftly, "Turn right at the junction in front, then go straight and you will find Old Borg's house as the third one on your left."