Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  The person fell supine to the ground. The spinning of red and white slowed to a stop and revealed the shape of her umbrella skirt. She looked up and brought her pointy chin, caked thickly in white powder, to the light.

  It was Lollipop, or rather, one of the girls that were named Lollipop.

  "She is from the Munitions Factory! Yu Yuan, keep an eye on the surroundings! Her comrades might be near!" Lin Sanjiu barked out without turning her head. Then, she kicked the ground hard and bolted almost at the same time as Lollipop.

  Nevertheless, Lollipop was a tad bit faster than Lin Sanjiu, as she was closer to the leaf. To prevent her from getting the Special Item, Lin Sanjiu decided to use the same trick again. She amassed her Higher Consciousness around her palm and then unleashed it towards Lollipop. Lollipop lifted her head. The red and white began to spin rapidly again as several streams of air spilled out from the hem of her skirt, forming a wind-like barrier that neutralized Lin Sanjiu's Higher Consciousness with ease.

  Sweat dripped off Lin Sanjiu's back when she saw Lollipop about to success. Countless ideas flashed across her mind in that second before she settled upon one. She sent another surge of Higher Consciousness towards the front; however, this time, she wasn't aiming at Lollipop, but the leaf. Her Higher Consciousness rammed into the leaf before Lollipop could touch it, causing the leaf to flutter away and fall on the ground a few steps away.

  "F*ck off!" the girl jerked her head around and shouted. She raised her arm, sending a large shadow directly at Lin Sanjiu, to which the latter guarded against by using her [Defense Forcefield]. By the time Lin Sanjiu regained her footing and was about to dash forward again, Lollipop already picked the leaf up from the ground.

  As Lollipop stood up, the shadow scattered and disappeared. Lin Sanjiu wondered what it was, as all it did was just get in her way and did not cause her any damage. 'Perhaps it's just a Special Item to intimidate the enemy?' she thought inwardly.

  "Thank you for your Special Item!" Lollipop shouted. It seemed like a weight had been lifted off her mind as she offered Lin Sanjiu a big grin. She turned around and began to run away. "Then, bye-bye! I hope we don't see each other again!"

  However, things would never go so smoothly. No sooner had she darted out at her full speed, than a loud impact sound erupted as if she had banged into something. Blood began to flow out of her nose as she slowly slid down to the ground.

  Startled, Lin Sanjiu hastily stopped running forward. She ran her fingers across the air in front of her and realized that some kind of invisible barrier had trapped Lollipop inside. As she looked around, she saw a black-colored lid fly overhead and stop on top of the barrier.

  "Thank goodness," Yu Yuan's voice rang out from behind her. "Just in time."

  "This barrier is yours?" Lin Sanjiu asked, her voice thick with confusion.

  Lin Sanjiu looked into the invisible barrier and realized that more and more things were "growing" out of thin air. A string of light bulbs lit up on the barrier's cover, followed by several metal poles that stretched from one end to the other inside the glass cabinet. In the end, one after another, plush toys popped out and filled the entire cabinet to the brim. Looking at the cabinet, she felt an inexplicable familiarity, but she couldn't recall what it was.

  "Is this your ability?" She asked.

  "No, this is a Special Item. But speaking of which, it does have something to do with my ability," Yu Yuan replied as he stared into the cabinet.

  While he was speaking, a control console protruded from the exterior of the cabinet. When he placed his hand on the joystick, only then was Lin Sanjiu enlightened. To ascertain her conjecture, she raised her head again; through the glass, she saw a metal claw dangling inside of the cabinet.

  "Isn't this the claw crane?"

  "...Yeah," Yu Yuan replied again.

  Lin Sanjiu had no idea why, but she felt that Yu Yuan was slightly embarrassed. She turned to look at him, and through the light from the glass cabinet, she could see his face reddening. He did not turn to look at her but pulled out a coin from his pocket. After he inserted the coin into the claw crane, the light bulbs flickered and the machine whirred to life.

  "It is a coin-operated machine," Yu Yuan explained, his voice diminished by the lively music. "So I collect coins whenever I arrive in a world."

  Lin Sanjiu looked at Lollipop, who was sitting on the ground while hugging her head, probably still not have come around from the collision earlier on. After all, she hit herself pretty hard. Then, she turned to Yu Yuan once more, questions forming in her brain, but she did not know which to ask. "So… what are you gonna do about her?"

  [Claw Crane]

  One of the most popular money-spoofing tools in amus.e.m.e.nt arcades and casinos. Everything the claw grabs will certainly fall down before it reaches the drop hatch. Players might have a chance of winning if the prizes are plush toys, but if the machine is filled with ice cream, electronic devices, or dollar cash, the claw will suddenly become so weak, it can't even grab a single thing.

  This Special Item is intended to create a dynamic balance between the robber and the victim. The victim trapped inside the case, though they will temporarily become a "plush toy" and thus become incapacitated, it doesn't mean that they are on the chopping board. To get what they want from the victim, the robber must have excellent doll-catching skills. Asides from that, this machine is coin-operated. Hence, in other words, the robber must insert a coin in order to activate this machine. After that, the robber can control the claw through the joystick to grab the things they want from the victim and move them to the opening.

  PS: User is granted five chances for each activation of this Special Item. The claw crane will disappear and free the victim after five chances have been used up. In the circ.u.mstance where the victim gets caught again, the user will be given another five chances.

  Standing in the clearing, Lin Sanjiu's ears were assaulted by both the rustling of the leaves and the merry music; her vision was full of kaleidoscopic lights that shone out of the claw crane.

  "In other words, you have to take the leaf from her by using the claw?" She asked hesitantly.

  Right now, Lollipop was sitting with her back against the glass. She had a mass of bruises on her forehead and half of her face was covered in blood, but she couldn't wipe it off, as she could not move her arms or any other parts of her body. On top of her palm laid the fallen leaf—[Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time].

  "That's right," Yu Yuan sighed. He took a deep breath and gripped the joystick tightly. "Who is this girl?"

  "She is the one that ambushed me that night, but I don't know why she wants my Special Item."

  A muffled noise came from the glass cabinet as soon as Lin Sanjiu finished speaking. Both of them turned to Lollipop and realized she was trying to say something. However, since she had lost control over her own body, all she could manage was some muffled noises. Her eyes bulged, but no one could understand her.

  When the claw swayed towards Lollipop, Lin Sanjiu's heart began to jump faster. "Are you good at this?"

  "I got this claw crane at the black market. Wanna take a guess at how much it cost?"

  As Yu Yuan spoke, the claw began to descend. Lin Sanjiu pressed herself tightly against the glass cabinet and stared at the claw. The claw gathered up and scratched the girl's palm. When it was raised, it failed to catch anything.

  She watched as the claw returned to its position, disappointment written all over her face. "Just tell me."

  "Fifty Rondo," Yu Yuan answered. Unlike Lin Sanjiu, he seemed rather calm. Perhaps he was used to the claw's inability to catch anything?

  "That's a steal!" Lin Sanjiu cried out in surprise. "Why is it so cheap even though it is a Special Item?"

  "That's because nobody can catch anything with it," he said as he inserted another coin. "Trust me, I am not exaggerating. At the time, I went to this Doomsday Gamification Perennial Exhibition and it was where I found this Special Item. Someone played forty times in a row,
but he could not even get a plush toy out of it. So after the exhibition ended, this Special Item was the only thing that did not sell."

  The claw finally grabbed the leaf on its second attempt. However, when the claw began moving towards the drop hatch, Lin Sanjiu saw the leaf flutter down through the gap between the fingers of the claw.

  She couldn't help but sigh. When she saw Yu Yuan inserting the third coin into the machine, she asked, "So why did you buy it?"

  "Well, one reason is that I love to play claw crane," Yu Yuan replied as he controlled the claw through the joystick. After a short while, he thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out the fourth coin. "I'm the kind of person who always thinks I can get something in my next attempt. Every time I went to the arcade, I spent quite a lot on the claw crane machine."

  In other words, she still had to ready herself for a fight. Lin Sanjiu looked at Lollipop. The girl was staring at the claw. It seemed like she would go after the leaf right after she regained her freedom.

  "Of course, for a box of ten-dollar ice cream, I needed more than forty dollars to get it," Yu Yuan sighed as he took out the fifth coin.

  "Is there another reason?" Lin Sanjiu no longer put much hope in the claw crane machine anymore. Her muscles were pulled taut as she readied herself to send a large amount of Higher Consciousness forward when the Special Item disappeared.

  "Yes," Yu Yuan replied, "The ability I developed made me well suited for this kind of Special Item."

  'Huh?'

  Dumbfounded, Lin Sanjiu spun around to look at him. It was then that she saw the claw release the leaf into the drop hatch. Yu Yuan squatted down and took the leaf for her. He laughed, "When it comes to machine, I am naturally more proficient than others."

  The [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time] turned back into a card. With a mental tug, it disappeared from Lin Sanjiu's palm.

  The second the claw crane disappeared, Lollipop sprang up from the ground. Both of them took a step back and resumed fighting positions. However, Lollipop did nothing but wipe off the blood on her face with her hand, much to their surprise.

  "Why do you want my Special Item?" Lin Sanjiu asked, anger heavy in her tone.

  Lollipop's movement stopped for a moment. She raised her head, face smeared with blood and eyes opened wide in disbelief. Then she shouted, fury laced thick in her voice, "Why? If it weren't for you trapping us with a check-in pocket dimension, why the hell would I want to snatch your Special Item? We have not checked-in for two days, and because of that, Flame Arm was killed in an accident this morning! This is all your fault! I must get that Special Item today!"

  Sensing Yu Yuan's gaze on her, Lin Sanjiu sighed. "Woe is me."

  Chapter 796 - The Ambush of Four People

  "She's one of the combat personnel from the Munitions Factory?"

  After a few minutes, Yu Yuan looked at Lin Sanjiu with uncertainty. As he dusted his shirt, he asked, "Is everyone from the Munitions Factory so weak?"

  The clearing was now peppered with droplets of blood. A girl wearing an umbrella skirt with a red and white pattern was lying on the ground with her arms tied behind her back, puffing like a bulldog.

  It was never in Lin Sanjiu's wildest dream that they could subdue Lollipop in less than two minutes. Frowning, she measured the girl and answered, "She seems a lot weaker than I first met her…"

  Hearing her words, Lollipop jerked her head up, her face was caked with bloodied mud. She stared at the duo and spoke disjointedly, "I… If I hadn't wounded myself… there is no way you two could have defeated me!"

  "You were wounded because you did not check-in?" Lin Sanjiu asked. Only now did she remember that something bad might befall those who failed to check in daily. "Mind telling me what kind of accident you got yourself into?"

  Lollipop spat a wad of bloodied phlegm on the ground. Her voice became weaker as she hissed out, "Why do you care? You… You…" She was hit by a sudden wave of grief and her sentence was broken off as she stifled a sob. She then continued in a nasally voice after she'd recollected herself, her voice rising again, "This is all your fault! If you hadn't trapped us with a check-in pocket dimension, then none of this would've happened! You wanna know what kind of accidents I got myself into, huh? Well, I'm not going to tell you anything! Just wait and see with your own eyes when I die!"

  After that, she buried her face into the ground and curled herself into a ball.

  After a long while, Lollipop hesitantly raised her head from the ground and looked at Lin Sanjiu. Confusion dotted her gaze as she wondered why Lin Sanjiu didn't say anything even after so long. Sighing, Lin Sanjiu squatted down beside her and said, "How long do you have before you are transferred to the next world?"

  Lollipop's makeup was smudged by her tears. Her face now looked like a messed up canvas with black and green colors mashed together.

  "Four months," she replied in a low voice.

  "Well, I guess that works." Without giving Lollipop a chance to say anything, Lin Sanjiu hoisted her up from the ground.

  "What are you doing?" Lollipop shouted. She tried to wriggle her way to freedom with all her worth but to no avail. The rope that bound her was Yu Yuan's Special Item, and no matter how hard she struggled, it wouldn't budge.

  Lin Sanjiu tossed her over her shoulder. She turned around to Yu Yuan and said, "Let's go. I might need you to help me cover her eyes later."

  "Wait, what are you going to do with me?"

  Lin Sanjiu ignored Lollipop's shouting and reactivated her camouflage barrier. After that, she brought Yu Yuan to the edge of the canyon. Under the projection of the camouflage barrier, it looked like a huge river. The sky was blue with a tint of grey. Foam sprayed high into the air as the river roared like a mighty beast.

  After she covered Lollipop's face with clothes, Lin Sanjiu then walked into the "river". It was Yu Yuan's first time coming across a holographic device like this, so he was astounded when he realized his shirt was still dry even after he followed Lin Sanjiu into the river.

  For safety reasons, Lin Sanjiu did not deactivate the camouflage barrier of the canyon. Using the river to cover themselves, they walked deeper and deeper towards the bottom. The light was dwindling away. Sunlight danced and glittered through the water, casting shadows and making an ever-changing scene of light and dark. Very soon, Lin Sanjiu saw Exodus.

  The annular building was still as pure white as when she first saw it. It was sitting quietly at the bottom of the river like a faithful dog waiting for its master to return. It appeared to her that Exodus would be here forever, waiting for her to return and tell it everything she had been through. She reached out and touched its wall. A sense of exhaustion flooded through her as she felt her heart finally find a place to land. It was hard for her to imagine, but she was finally home.

  "Welcome back, administrator," Silas's soft voice rang out. "Do we have guests today?"

  "Yes," Lin Sanjiu replied. A smile hopped onto her face as she continued, "But only one is a guest, while the other one is going to jail."

  "Understood. How about our last prisoner?"

  'Oh yeah, Woyu was still locked up in his cell.'

  "I will bring him out," Lin Sanjiu answered. She turned around to look at Yu Yuan. She was expecting a question like "there is a prison in this house?" from him and was prepared with an answer. However, all the young man did was dart his eyes around, examining Exodus as if he had not heard Silas's voice.

  "What's wrong?"

  Yu Yuan retracted his gaze and looked at Lin Sanjiu. There was a pronounced confusion on his face as he asked, "This… is your house?"

  "Yeah. Hard to imagine, right?" Lin Sanjiu patted the wall and laughed. "I was surprised as well when I first saw Exodus."

  Yu Yuan opened his mouth, words forming in his throat, but he did not spurt them out. He closed his mouth and began measuring Exodus once more.

  Two maglev pods glided across the hall and stopped in front of them. After they hopped into their respective pods, they then drov
e towards the jail under Silas's guidance.

  Silas was indeed thoughtful. The doors slid into the wall and a path opened up automatically for them. After they passed through the door, several metal cubes appeared from the wall and moved in a geometrical pattern to form a door behind them. Yu Yuan was indeed very proficient in operating machinery. Even though this was his first time driving a maglev pod, he still managed to navigate it with practiced ease.

  When they arrived at the long passageway in the prison area, light spilled out from one of the cells. Lin Sanjiu stepped down from her pod and placed her palm on the door. The door moved smoothly into the wall, and a burst of cold light sprayed out from within.

  "I'm back," she called out, "You can come out now."

  The cell was narrow and long. There was nothing inside aside from a single bed at the corner. A man shot up from the bed. When Woyu's brain finally connected, he frantically wrapped himself in a blanket and pounced at the door. "Finally! Why did you lock me up? What is going on? And give me back my belongings!"

  His cheeks looked sunken after staying in the cell for two days. To prevent him from doing anything impulsive, Lin Sanjiu took away all his belongings and Special Items before she went away.

  "Here." She summoned a few cards and shoved them toward him. Turning around and grabbing Lollipop by the collar, she said to Woyu, "Stay here. Don't do anything rash. I am going to lock her up first and then we'll talk."

  The girl's face reddened to the point that it seemed like it would burst at any moment. However, there was little she could do against Lin Sanjiu. After Lin Sanjiu settled her down in one of the cells, Woyu finally saw the umbrella skirt the girl was wearing. His eyes opened wide in astonishment as he shouted, "This girl… she's one of the people who attacked us that night!"

  "You're right," Lin Sanjiu answered simply and threw Lollipop on the bed. She called out the [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time] and laid it on the ground. She took one step back and then said to the girl, "Here, check-in now."