Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Silvan knelt down on one knee, his hands supporting his body while his head was lowered to the ground. Locks of golden hair slid down from his forehead, like the shadow that was selected by the sunlight from the sky. The mist covered the color of his hair and eyes, despite being so close, he looked a little blurry.

  "Come on, try it," He chuckled gravelly. His eyes glistened like the steamy surface of a lake, "Putting your face to the ground should be easy but it's difficult to maintain a certain distance, right?"

  Lin Sanjiu nodded, her body was shaking as she resisted the force.

  "I did not do this to challenge myself", his gaze seemed to have the ability to pierce people's thoughts.

  Silvan smiled: "There is something in the ground."

  "W-What is it?"

  "Strips of a deep purple color, I did not get a clear look of what it is," he said softly, "But I figured out that they will only be attracted by your face. They spring out from the ground and then get into people's faces. Look at the people around you and I, they probably died a long time before we even came here… everyone's skull has been dug empty."

  As Silvan spoke up until this point, he then softly heaved a breath and lowered his head again, fixing his gaze on the ground.

  "I am using myself as bait to lure those things back into the center of the empty vessel. Then, the people behind us will not get… well, their face dugout."

  It seemed arduous for him to utter those words. Not only from the words he uttered, but he seemed like he was fighting himself, every movement was performed strenuously.

  Lin Sanjiu nodded, she lowered her neck towards the ground in silence. She was afraid that her wobbling willpower could not support her to multitask both lowering her head and speaking at the same time, henceforth she completely collapsed.

  "Great," he muttered, "I have finally found my long lost soul partner… I am no longer lonely."

  Chapter 781 - Branch-like Threads

  A person like him could feel lonely too?

  When he mentioned those 'twin flames', was he referring to himself?"

  Lin Sanjiu was momentarily stunned, but before she could say anything, suddenly a surprised cry came from behind her—the short cry dispersed in a flash before vanishing into the thick mist. The cry faded too quickly and she could not even identify the gender of the voice; however, Silvan clenched his teeth and spewed out one word from his mouth, "Meme!"

  Other than that boy, there might not be another besides them in Shambhala who could even make a sound.

  "He must have been moved by those face-diggers."

  Lin Sanjiu sighed. What made her feel slightly strange about the situation was that she did not worry about that boy at all, not in the slightest.

  It wasn't that she didn't care about the boy's life or death, but that she was fearless from the very beginning, believing this place to not be dangerous. However, as Silvan said, every single upcoming action of hers must go against her own will.

  There was a high possibility that Meme carried the unconscious member of the Munitions Factory to the train and came back out for a second round. Lin Sanjiu exchanged gazes with Silvan, nodded, jumped up, and dashed towards the direction where she came from.

  "Wait, take this with you!"

  She paused her step, turned around, and caught a little shadow that flew towards her face. Silvan, still half-squatting on the ground, whispered, "It can be activated even without your will moving it—be careful and don't move anything on the ground."

  Lin Sanjiu nodded, turned back, and ran before even looking at the retrieved item.

  She left in such a hurry, that she did not bring her torchlight. She was afraid that [Tornado Whip] would startle the people around her, hence she could only use [Ability Polishing Agent] to shed light on her path. The silver-white light spread through the thick mist, faintly revealing the vague scenery behind. Finally, she could spare herself from tripping and falling. She arduously tread through the sea of human bodies and softly called out for Meme. Nevertheless, she did not get an answer from the boy.

  She checked for the faces of the people on the ground as she walked and realized she must be heading the correct way. The people who she and Silvan moved earlier remained on the ground, leaning against each other. A little further ahead would be Yu Yuan, where she left him.

  Lin Sanjiu stopped, and giving it a second thought, she turned around and went back.

  She was no longer worried about Meme. Within her heart, she knew that she did not want to walk out of this bumpy underground, despite knowing she should not listen to her will anymore. Since she did not see anything on the ground, it was natural for her to lack the urgency and worry to locate Meme.

  Lifting her leg and landing her foot on the free space found in between the human bodies laying on the ground, she lifted her leg up again—Lin Sanjiu trudged all the way back to where she split up with Silvan. Under the silver light of the Ability Polishing Agent, which was blurry from the thick mist, already she faintly could make out the familiar figure.

  She opened her mouth.

  "Silvan!"

  Lin Sanjiu heard her own high-pitched call exploding in the dead silence, her voice piercing the thick mist, "Silvan!"

  She was stunned on the spot, lips still open.

  That was certainly her voice but it did not come from her mouth.

  Yes, with certainty this call for "Silvan" did come out from her mouth. It was her voice from a few minutes ago, from when she was still searching for him. She had called out to Silvan before this moment and it felt like someone recorded her voice and replayed it back. The echoes floated far yet close in the gray mist, it was difficult to tell where the voice came from.

  Lin Sanjiu stunned for half a second, before recovering her senses. Unfortunately Silvan was quicker than her, he was gone. Before she could voice a warning, the big figure appeared out of nowhere, dashing deeper into the mist and disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.

  She did not care about laying low anymore, she swung Tornado Whip and layers of grayish-blue mist disappeared before her eyes, revealing the ground ahead.

  Lin Sanjiu wanted to give chase but her feet were petrified.

  Right after, at the spot where Silvan was earlier, skeleton white sand became to bulge little by little and popped up, an area of purplish-black was revealed. The purplish-black rose from the ground growing taller, the ground rippled away supporting the thing to grow bigger and stopping until it was taller than a man.

  The heavy black shadow turned around, as if it saw Lin Sanjiu, the blob of purplish-black thing came together and bent over, swinging several long and narrow shadows at her.

  Ever since doomsday descended upon, she barely had time to be this relaxed, she was slightly grateful for this moment.

  "Come here." The thing did not open its mouth, it did not speak but her mind clearly captured those two words from it.

  Lin Sanjiu walked over seemingly accepted the command willingly, then she stopped in front of the shadow.

  As though a bird that has left its nest for too long finally came back, she could finally shed the burden off her shoulder and lived forever in peace again.

  When she looked up, countless purplish-black shadowed threads fell down from the thing, like vines they softly stroked her skin.

  Lin Sanjiu closed her eyes slowly.

  Mrs. Manas was anxiously screaming but the voice was too far to be heard.

  Defense Forcefield could not hold up against the external pressure and invasion, it was shattered like a piece of glass. She felt something tiny appear the forcefield's crack and it slowly crawled into her nostrils.

  It crawled along her nasal cavity until it reached her brain… Lin Sanjiu shut her eyes, listening to the big purplish-black thing softly and inaudibly said, "The queen needs your nutrients."

  "Yes, bring me home," she said softly.

  As she spoke, the thread-like thing within her nasal cavity crawled faster. Until she was drowned by excruc
iating pain, a plain digital synthesized voice of a woman came from further away and said, "Activate automatic expulsion mode."

  What?

  At the next second, she felt a strong force, similar to an electric current, moved through her spine instantly and headed to her nasal bone. She opened her eyes, trembling she saw some thread-like shadows gushing out from her nasal cavity. Following a roar that echoed in her mind, the shadow fell on the ground with a thump.

  Lin Sanjiu suddenly realized she was distracted and forgot to fight her own will. She faltered back, looking down she saw on the floor the purplish-black thing that looked like an extended human tongue, wriggling and digging their way into the pale white ground.

  She looked up and her eyes landed on a… humanoid figure formed by those purplish-black tongues.

  Nothing appeared stranger than this humanoid figure.

  An unknown amount of long 'tongues' were intertwining, tangling and twisting with each other, the wriggling and shaking barely formed the shape of a head upon the top of its shoulders, but watching it from afar looked like countless veins of the dead got knotted together, or millions of black maggots rattling around.

  The countless number of purplish-black tongues seemed to have realized their failure, they suddenly wriggled and threw themselves a step closer to her. The surface of the body rippled like endless waves and an indescribable fishy smell suffused into the mist.

  However, all Lin Sanjiu could do was stand there stiffly, fighting another will that urged her to crawl down to be covered by the shadow again.

  Bang! A deafening gunshot was fired and it scattered the shadows above her head. Countless black maggots shrieked and burst in mid-air, raining down to the ground like meaty rain. Some quickly went back into the ground after touching the floor; some were blasted into several segments, struggling before dying—Lin Sanjiu could finally move her body, she quickly retreated and drew some distance from the black shadow. She turned around and looked from where the gunshot came, she could not help but called out loud, "Meme!"

  "That thing is trying to get into your face and you are not fighting back?" A scrawny ugly boy crawled up from the ground in a hurry, he skillfully removed the single mortar from the ground.

  "Aren't you busy carrying the unconscious people, why did you come back?" Lin Sanjiu asked inaudibly.

  "I sent one back and when I came back out… I saw them crawling on the ground. It's really eerie, so I flipped them over one by one, and as I flipped them over, one of them... their face suddenly fell off!" Meme's face was pale and flushed at the same time, making him appear uglier.

  Lin Sanjiu understood without further explanation from Meme. She nodded, and Meme took a breath. "I don't know whether captain Dao noticed it, he wanted to come over here for a status report." Then, he stuffed everything into the combat bag, looked around and became nervous suddenly. "Where's the captain?"

  Coincidentally, the moment his voice subsided, a shot came from further away in the mist.

  "It's the noise of the Munitions Factory mortar! The captain fired a shot, he must have noticed something went wrong." Meme's eyes shone brightly in an instant.

  Lin Sanjiu glanced over the pile of black maggots which was still half a man's height but had broken down like fallen jelly. She saw the maggots rustling around and trying to gather again; the scene numbed her scalp. She called [Battle Item] out, the card swiftly transformed into a single mortar of the Munition Factory, she put the mortar down to the ground like how Meme did earlier and said softly, "Leave this thing tome, go find Silvan! It's best we stay together from now on, if you find him, bring him back right away!"

  The boy acknowledged with a grunt, his flat nose was covered in sweat. As Lin Sanjiu's shots rained down on the maggots, he ran outside. The black maggots burst in the air, again and again, the sticky goo together with the ground meat splashed all over the ground, splatting wet on the backs of the people crawling on the ground.

  When she saw that tongue-like black maggots were blasted into a puddle of meat, a sudden realization popped in Lin Sanjiu's mind. Her senses recovered from the sudden realization, and a speculation took form in her mind.

  "Meme, come back now!" She bolted up and screamed her lungs out.

  The second shot that Meme heard may as well have been his own and it might be replayed just how it happened to herself earlier.

  Chapter 782 - Meme’s S.O.S

  Lin Sanjiu's voice drowned into the rumbling thick mist and was devoured. She seemed to be hearing some soft noises but could not tell if it was Meme's reply. She glanced over at the ground meat that resembled mashed jelly beside her legs. She did not jump into the mist; instead, she squatted down and picked up a piece of the broken 'tongue'.

  Contrary to her expectations, it was not a piece of torn ground meat.

  There was a soft layer of a shell surrounding its body, which felt like plastic, resembling a shrimp. The shell tightly contained the purplish-black and sticky meat granule. She held her disgust back and poked her finger inside. To her surprise, when her finger touched the meat granule, it turned into a bubble of slimy meat juice and allowed the tip of her finger to press in, a tiny hiss sounding. [Defense Forcefield] immediately shone, followed by her Higher Consciousness fading away rapidly, which meant [Defense Forcefield] was being corroded.

  Lin Sanjiu retracted her hand, she picked up several more pieces of different parts and roughly formed a complete purplish-black 'tongue': it was a type of arthropod that looked like a tongue. It had no limbs and it had several tiny iron needles at one side of its shell that could extend at will. The iron needles were hollow and extended deep into the meat granule. Lin Sanjiu observed it for a few seconds and finally understood the function of the needles.

  The 'tongue' could inject its extremely corrosive meat juice into the follicles of the human face and it would dissolve the content inside the skull then, little by little, suck most of it out. On second thought, she caught a glimpse of the 'tongues' that dug into the ground and it seemed like those were twice as big as these.

  She even found half an eyeball with iron needles sticking into it from the puddle of ground meat, as though it was adamant to silently prove her speculation.

  Lin Sanjiu finally understood how the crawling heads were emptied out into a hollow rubber ball, but a new question arose.

  These things were just some inferior simple-structured organisms, and they did not even have brains. As she pondered upon the question, she shouldered the single mortar and walked deeper into the mist in silence.

  She did not want to foolishly make any noise anymore. Every word that she spoke might be recorded and played back to her without notice. Two steps forward, she suddenly felt itchy on her arm. She looked down and saw a little machine with a cold l.u.s.ter—a gift from Silvan. It extended its many aluminum claws and crawled up her sleeve swiftly, sitting down on her shoulder with a light tap. The aluminum claws extended further and stuck two pieces of metallic film on her temples seamlessly.

  Thankfully, during the critical moment back there, this little thing expelled the purplish-black 'tongue' that tried to get into her nasal cavity in just the nick of time. It seemed to be armed and ready, available to electrocute her whenever she was ready. A bitter smile jumped upon her lips, as she was more or less prepared for this at heart.

  Lin Sanjiu took in a deep breath, and before she could huff it out, a series of shots blew out of nowhere just ahead of her. The sudden explosion shattered the silent mist, and a vague but furious shout for her name followed, "Lin Sanjiu!"

  Lin Sanjiu was shocked, and she quickly dashed out. These bodies had been lying down on the ground for who knows how long and had turned into mushy mud under their clothes. She stepped on the fragile bodies, producing a disgusting shrill with every step she took and ran over.

  "Silvan!"

  The mist scattered before her sight. Further away, a tall blonde figure suddenly turned around, and as if he was surprised, the shooting from his hands p
aused. "You, why are you—"

  Something was shuffling inside the fog slightly further ahead of Silvan. It was moving rapidly, and before either of them knew it, the thing jumped out, revealing its true face and shrouding their sights instantly.

  Locust. An endless wave of locusts.

  That was the first thing that surfaced in Lin Sanjiu's mind when she saw the scene.

  "Don't hesitate, fire!"

  Right after Silvan's voice subsided, Lin Sanjiu clenched her teeth and moved her will, aiming the single mortar at the black maggot storm. However, at that moment, a sharp scream perforated the raging black storm and clearly entered their ears.

  "Captain, captain!" Meme's voice was covered by countless purplish-black tongues. It sounded weak as if the wind could blow his voice away.

  Silvan was stunned, and the heavy firearm in his hand was forced to a pause.

  In the moment of delay, they lost their only window to defeat the storm with bullets and explosives. Lin Sanjiu looked up and saw the mist get perforated by the countless black tongues. Shadows similar to a school of flying fish were cast upon her.

  She turned around and saw Silvan further away, who was also stunned. A decision was made in that instant.

  "Don't move!" Her heavy pants rang in his ears, followed by a whisper, "I'll cover you while you shoot."

  She pressed herself tightly against Silvan. The smell of gunpowder, blood, and fig wafted from his body and into her nose. She had never been so frustrated about his big and tall body before. She concentrated her will into her [Defense Forcefield] and even expanded the faint layer of white light from her body. She finally managed to cover both of them under [Defense Forcefield]'s protection.

  "Hurry, I won't be able to hold on for long!" Her breath messed up his scattered golden hair.