Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  Woyu spat on the floor to express his frustration. However, his frustration was short-lived. The fury in him evaporated very soon and was replaced by fear when he realized he had missed the last fork where the corridor diverged. Ahead of him was Exodus's main corridor. It was a long, empty passageway, and Woyu was certain that if he were to undertake the route, it wouldn't take too long for the man to catch up to him.

  'No, I can't go that way.' Woyu stopped running forward and turned his head back. Then, his blood ran cold as a chill crept up the back of his neck. A shadow that was growing with every passing second had appeared at the edge of his sight. Within the blink of an eye, he could see the hair of the man in the pod.

  "Keep running, pet!" the man shouted, his voice laced with excitement.

  If he survived this ordeal, Woyu swore to himself that he would stop all the hanky-panky and turn a new leaf. Tears were welling in his eyes, and his legs felt weak and almost gave way, but he told himself he should not stop. Mustering up every inch of courage in his body, Woyu clenched his teeth and charged towards the man.

  "Hoh?" The man raised one of his brows and laughed. "Don't want to run anymore? Very well, then, come at me!"

  In the twinkle of an eye, a gun-like weapon appeared in his arms. Considering the fact that he owned this spaceship, without a doubt, his weapon couldn't be an ordinary gun either. Tears streamed down Woyu's face, and his heart tightened up. When the muzzle lit up slightly, he ducked down and skidded into the corridor on his left.

  Once he was in the corridor, he spun his head around and happened to see a light beam that sliced across the air.

  Without wasting a second, Woyu sprang up from the floor. He slapped the buttons on the wall several times, as he remembered that the man had ordered Silas to open all the doors before. Perhaps God had heard his prayer this time. It was already too late by the time the man arrived at the entrance of the corridor. Several geometrical metal plates began to move towards the center, and soon enough, a door formed, separating Woyu from the reach of the man.

  "Silas! Open the door! Now!" the man shouted angrily.

  Even though Silas had replied, "Alright", Woyu knew that there was a lag time between each opening and closing of the door. The door had to be fully closed before it could be opened up again. Seizing the opportunity granted by the lag time, Woyu turned to flee.

  After all the door had closed and began to open up, the man immediately dashed out once it was large enough for the pod to squeeze through. He looked around and then cursed under his breath. After that, he controlled the pod and went towards the other side of the corridor.

  Woyu heaved out a long sigh of relief when he saw the man getting further and further away. He crawled out from his hiding spot and moved towards the door with his wobbly arms and legs. After he went through the door, he slapped the button, sprang up from the floor, and turned to flee again.

  When Silas's voice once again tore through the air in Exodus, Woyu fell into thought. He felt that something was amiss. Holding to the thought, he bolted into a dining block which specifically built as a tea room. It was only about ten or so square meters wide. Several tables and couches were fixed firmly onto the wall, and there was no other door than the one he came through just now.

  If there was anything Woyu had gained from the thrilling moment a while ago, it was that he had figured something out.

  It was impossible for the spaceship to have cameras everywhere. Even if that was the case, Silas was just a computer system. She wouldn't be able to locate him instantly without analyzing the visual input first. Hence, Woyu was certain that there must be another method for Silas to locate him.

  He clenched his teeth and then climbed on top of a round table. He looked at the ceiling, a thought in mind. Probably due to the wiring system and some instruments, the ceiling wasn't made up of a whole piece of metal. He punched the ceiling hard and pried a crack through it.

  Silas's voice rang when he managed to get his hands into the ceiling and held firmly to the edge of it.

  "Pet's current location: unknown."

  "2901," Woyu mumbled as he released a long breath. Only now did he cry; he felt itchy and cold on his face. Right now, he was supporting himself with only his arms. He curled his legs up like a frozen shrimp, as he did not want his toes to touch the table as the table was connected to the floor. If he were to put his feet on the table, Silas would be able to detect his weight as well. And Woyu did not want that to happen.

  'So it was the weight, from the start… A46, is that the reason the maglev pod is the only transportation in this spaceship?'

  As Woyu breathed out slowly, he heard a roar of anger come from the corridor outside, "Tell me his last location, I'll look for him from there."

  The man's roar echoed clearly in the corridor, and Woyu surmised that he wasn't very far away from him. He would see Woyu hanging on the ceiling once he entered this tea room.

  "1082, why doesn't Lin Sanjiu call me right now? XR, Jesus, she's really unreliable!"

  A muffled thump erupted from the corridor outside, which suggested that the man had kicked a door open, sending it slamming hard on the wall and causing a frightening echo that traveled down the entire corridor. Woyu forced himself not to whimper and looked around the tea room with his tearful eyes. Suddenly, his gaze paused at the bar.

  'The man isn't asking about my current location, 2901, nor did he ask Silas to keep him updated with my location…' Woyu made up his mind when he thought of this. He s.u.c.k.e.d in a breath through his teeth, but he still could not stop himself from trembling. Although he'd psyched himself up several times, he still couldn't bring himself to let his hands go.

  At last, another loud noise caused him to let go of his hands and fall from the ceiling. Judging from the sound, the man should be in the room next to him. Woyu laid flat on the ground, his heart pounding fast like a caged bird underneath his rib. He waited with bated breath for a few seconds, yet Silas remained silent.

  Woyu let out a sigh and hastily crawled to the bar. He tapped on the screen a few times. He had stayed in Exodus for two weeks, so he was very familiar with the setting system on the bar. Without wasting a second, he pulled out the communication frame with Silas from the screen. He used to talk to Silas with it when he had a special request on his diet menu. Otherwise, as a pet, he was mostly ignored by the system.

  A faint sound erupted out of the speaker beside the screen, "Good day, mister, may I help you with anything?"

  "Re….Re....Request," stammered Woyu. His teeth, tongue, and even vocal cords were quivering so much that he couldn't articulate his thoughts into words fluently. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and took a deep breath. Then, as his heartbeat began to slow down, he spoke again. This time, his voice was firmer. "Request to change the passcode."

  "Alright. May I ask who is the registrant?"

  "MO—MO—MOTHERSHIP COMMANDER."

  "Please confirm the old passcode."

  'Yes! I can do this! Come on, Woyu, you can do this!'

  "1082-XR-2901," Woyu uttered the passcode fluently as if it had been ingrained in his brain. However, before he could finish the passcode, he heard the man's heavy footsteps approaching fast toward the tea room. Knowing that he did not have much time left, he kept his voice low and spoke out the last few letters, "A46."

  "Confirmation successful. Please report the new passcode."

  Woyu reported a series of new numbers to Silas. The footsteps were coming closer to him.

  "Do you want to activate voice recognition?"

  "Yes, yes, of course!"

  When Silas gently uttered, "Welcome, Commander," Woyu felt a thrill in him as if he was drenched in hot water. He then gave his first command straight away, "Lock the door to this tea room."

  "Bang!"

  The door to the tea room was kicked open from outside. Then, a pair of black boots walked slowly into the room.

  Chapter 804 - Woyu’s Getaway

  The man raised h
is foot high then stomped down, stabbing the pointy nose of his boot deeply into Woyu's stomach. The pain sent Woyu into oblivion for a moment, but he was pulled back to reality in the next moment. Blood was lining his lips, and he could sense his veins bulging.

  Even though his stomach felt like it had ruptured, this was not the hardest blow he received.

  "I am an old-fashioned man," the man, who Woyu did not know by name, huffed out a sarcastic laugh, "I'm more fond of this old school method, whether or not you are posthuman."

  Suddenly, Woyu felt a rippling pain from his scalp as the man lifted him up by grabbing his hair. While air began to rush into his c.h.e.s.t, his vision returned and the appearance of the man rammed into his eyes. The man had a square face, and to Woyu's surprise, he looked even more decent than him.

  "The pain tolerance of a person is predetermined by his physiological structure."

  The former commander spoke menacingly as he tightened his grip. Woyu could feel his scalp being torn from his skull, but there was nothing he could do. He was now under the man's mercy. The man squatted down and pulled Woyu closer. He opened his mouth, tainting the air with the steak he consumed earlier as he hissed heavily into Woyu's ears, "I can go and see how much you can take, or I can stop now and throw you out of Exodus, then you will never see me again."

  The man then stood up, his hand still grasping tightly at Woyu's hair. He cast a downward gaze at Woyu and finished his sentence, "So, what do you say? The ball is in your court now."

  Woyu had tried to fight back even though he knew the man was completely out of his league. Even though his Evolving Ability [Natural Habitat] enabled him to quickly adapt to various environments, it did not help him at all at this moment. All the attacks he threw were effortlessly neutralized by the man.

  However, that was not the main reason he was put in his current situation. The man was so angry because Woyu had asked for help from Silas.

  "Do you think you are safe after having changed the passcode?" The man sneered coldly.

  Suddenly, he tightened his grip, and the next thing Woyu knew, he was slammed onto the bar counter, eliciting a dull thud and evoking the most intense buzz in his head. Just when his body went limp and slid down the counter, the man followed up with a stomp to his head. He then ground his ear with the sole of his shoe.

  The brutal pain seeped into Woyu like a bunch of tiny snakes gnawing on his skin. In those few seconds that felt like an eternity, all he could hear was a buzzing in his head and nothing more. It took quite a while before the buzzing slowly ebbed out, and the man's voice became more clearer as his hearing gradually returned. "Exodus is a mother ship, and there are no weapons inside of a mother ship's hull. It seems to me that you are not that familiar with the structure of a spaceship, huh? Let me ask you, have you ever seen a spaceship that points its guns not towards the outside, but inside?"

  While he was speaking, he picked a few vital spots on Woyu's body and gave them each a hard blow. He seemed pretty experienced in torturing people, as he not only left bruises but also caused Woyu to scream out loud in pain. Blood and brines were flowing down and played a wild game on Woyu's face. His mouth opened and closed several times, and his breathing came out as ragged as a broken wind box.

  "Frankly speaking, I have to thank you. If you didn't shout just now, I wouldn't have realized you had changed the passcode," the man chuckled. He lifted Woyu's head up by grabbing his hair once more and said, "So now, I will give you two options. One, either you tell me the new passcode, or two, I will beat you until you spill out the passcode. The choice is yours."

  Even though Woyu was weak, he wasn't stupid.

  The new passcode was the only bargaining chip that could keep him alive right now. He knew very well that the moment he spilled out the passcode, the man would throw him out of Exodus without any hesitation.

  However, the pain was too unbearable. It seemed endless as if he was falling into an abyss without end. Until this moment, he never knew that it was so easy to crush a person's will to live. Right now, he yearned for nothing but death. He wanted nothing to do with this mess anymore; he wanted to leave everything behind and liberate himself from this unceasing torture.

  'No… No… I can't die like this. I must hold on…' Woyu forced the dark thought out of his brain and looked up. Through his blurry vision, he locked his gaze on the communication device, which was lying obediently and quietly on the other side of the room.

  Woyu bit the inner side of his cheek and tried to forget the crushing wave of excruciating pain by filling his brain with other thoughts such as "what is Lin Sanjiu doing right now" and "why won't she call me now".

  Be that as it may, ten seconds later, Woyu was still brought back to reality by a splitting pain when the man crushed one of his ribs. Following which, the man raised his voice and shouted aloud, his face livid with rage, "Speak!"

  "Fine… Fine…" Woyu finally gave in. He wheezed through his broken and bloody teeth, "Let… Let me take a breath."

  The man loosened his grip, and Woyu fell to the floor like a doll with its string cut.

  After he had mustered up enough strength, Woyu then slowly opened his mouth. The man stared fixedly at him, his neck craned long, looking like a vulture from Woyu's point of view.

  "The woman who bought your house…" Woyu said. He wanted to point at the communication device, but he decided to forgo the attempt in the end and just rolled his eyes around in their sockets. "She… she already knows everything. She will call in at any time…"

  Even though Woyu wasn't talking about the passcode, he still made the man peel his eyes away from him and onto the communication device that laid on the other side of the room. There was a confident expression sitting comfortably on his face. Apparently, the man thought he had figured everything out. He then harrumphed, a prominent hint of annoyance and irritation lacing his voice, "So she is behind all of this? Gigolo is really such a dangerous job."

  Woyu kept his head low and gasped slowly as every breath felt like a blade scraping at his lungs. "She… she is coming for you…"

  "What did you say?" The man was obviously startled. He crouched down and repeated, "Are you saying that she is in Exodus right now? But—but how? We are flying right now."

  "She has an aircraft…"

  The lines on the man's face scrunched up, and his expression contorted into a grimace. He cursed under his breath, rose to his feet, and strode towards the communication device.

  "She has already found herself an aircraft? You'd better tell the truth."

  Seeing his chance, Woyu pulled himself up from the floor and inched towards the bar table. He pitched his voice extremely low and spoke to the holographic screen, "Silas, send me a pod. Right now!"

  "All right," Silas replied. Suddenly, the man jerked his head back and shouted angrily, "What did you say?" Then, he scooped the communication device up from the floor and doubled back to Woyu. Startled, Woyu began to crawl away from the bar table.

  However, before he could go far, the man arrived and grasped his collar. Then, the man yanked his arm and threw Woyu on the floor like a bloodied cloth. "You want to go out, huh? Let me give you a hand then!"

  As Woyu coughed and spat a wad of blood phlegm on the floor, the man slowly walked to the front and blocked the door. The light from the corridor leaked into the tea room and cast a white halo around the man's black boots. Woyu stared at the floor and said nothing, for his brain was too tired to work out what the man had said.

  "I will give you one last chance," the man gritted his teeth and glowered, "Or else, don't blame me if I—"

  Before he could finish his sentence, a shadow was cast on the floor behind him. When Woyu saw the shadow, his eyes lit up and he shouted, "Don't stop! Keep it going!"

  "All right," Silas followed Woyu's instruction obediently. By the time the man realized something and jerked his head back, it was already too late. The pod rammed into him with a loud muffled thud. He twisted his pained body and rolled on t
he floor.

  'Now is my chance!'

  Woyu f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y pulled his wasted body up from the floor and lunged towards the pod. The door of the pod was already opened up and lowered to a comfortable height, so he could easily fit himself into the seat. Once Woyu was inside of the pod, he sensed somebody clutching his ankle, causing him to tightly grab onto the pod to prevent himself from sliding out of the pod.

  "Silas! Start the car!" Woyu barked out his command. He could feel that the hand that was gripping his ankle was getting stronger and stronger, and he couldn't hold up for long. "Silas! Hurry up!"

  "This is not a car," Silas responded gently. After that, the maglev pod suddenly accelerated as she continued, "Hold on tight."

  Woyu felt as if his body was almost being torn into half. He held on tight to the pod as if his life depended on it. The pod rocketed down the corridor at high speed, the wind lashing at his body like a whip. His legs were dangling outside the pod, with the man's hand still fastened around his ankle. Woyu figured that he had to do something to shrug the man off, so he opened his mouth and barked out his second order, "Turn left!"

  Sometimes his voice was loud, but other times it was just a whisper. Then there were times where blood came out instead of his voice. "Turn, turn again!"

  Getting dragged along by a high-speed moving object was not a great experience. No matter if you were a normal person or a powerful posthuman, it was all the same. After getting bumped around several times, the man cursed aloud and finally let go of his hand. Once he couldn't feel the tugging at his ankle anymore, Woyu let out a sigh. He quickly wormed himself into the pod and closed the door. Then he gasped, "S—Silas."

  "Yes?"

  "Don't let the man come close to me," Woyu panted, "Close all the doors behind me."

  "All right," Silas replied.

  Woyu knew he wasn't entirely safe yet, as the man was very familiar with Exodus and might still have some aces up his sleeve to restore his control over Silas. Putting everything aside, the fact that he only used a passcode to secure his identity as the true owner of Exodus was already very suspicious.