Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  After she activated the [Consciousness Mimicry], her mode of thinking would change into that of another person, and Mrs. Manas would not be able to sense what she was conceiving throughout the entire duration.

  "Just a short while ago." Lin Sanjiu shrugged. "To put it bluntly, this so-called "locked room" was just a plan a commoner came up with to evade detection. However, not every proprietor is a criminal genius, so this plan is crude and simple. All we have to do is think from a different perspective, and voila, mystery solved."

  However, now was not the right time to go into detail.

  The situation that she was in right now was almost identical to the last time. She must get her hand on that communication device, but the corpse was blocking her path to it.

  As if it sensed her gaze, the corpse circled around the communication device wobbly. It tilted its head slightly and turned its face halfway round, releasing a rustle into the air. It seemed like it was peering at her from below, but Lin Sanjiu could not be sure. After all, all she saw right now was the back of its head which was caked with blood.

  Soon after that, the corpse left the communication device and began walking towards her.

  "It's your chance!" Mrs. Manas shouted silently. At the same time, Ryuji, who had been observing the situation inside the pocket dimension the whole time, straightened his back.

  "Not yet."

  Every time the corpse walked a meter forward, Lin Sanjiu would retreat by exactly a meter to the back with nothing more and nothing less. Had the grand prize lived like this the whole time? All she needed was just a single glance, and everything in the dark would reveal themselves.

  "This is a trap. It intentionally walks away from the communication device so that when I dash towards it…" She paused for a second and smiled just like how there was always a smirk tugging at the grand prize's lips when he saw through something. "Did you see it turn its head just now? It hasn't turned back yet, but I'm confident that the second I get close to the communication device, it will welcome me with a bout of decaying breath."

  "You are right. It's head is pointing straight at the communication device…" Mrs. Manas mumbled, "So, how are we supposed to get the device back?"

  "Easy."

  Besides, not only was the idea devised using Ji Shanqing's mind straightforward, but it also would not put her in a dangerous position.

  Nobody knew what she was going to do when the [Penguin's Publishing's Pop-up Storybook] appeared on her palm. The moment a massive axe, which possibly weighed a hundred tons, flew across the sky, Lin Sanjiu heard a gasp from Ryuji. The axe passed the corpse and smashed into the communication device, sending it flying straight into the wall in the distance before shattering into a million pieces.

  At that moment, everyone was stunned, including the corpse.

  "W-why?" Just as Lin Sanjiu was sprinting towards the depths of the warehouse, Mrs. Manas finally found her voice and stammered her question, "Why? W-why would you do that?"

  "The reason I want to retrieve the communication device is that I want to turn it back into a card. Even though the price of this plan is a little high, under the circ.u.mstances whereby my safety is the top priority, destroying it is our best shot."

  "Hold on. Destroy it? You lost me."

  "I told you before, haven't I? I can't have any doubts or hesitation about my understanding of Ji Shanqing, not even in the slightest bit. Otherwise, the [Consciousness Mimicry] will fail. Basically, I mustn't be distracted." Lin Sanjiu's voice was clear and light, and if it were not for both of them having different voice qualities, one might have thought that it was the grand prize talking. "I can't leave the communication device outside. What if he tries to call me again? This is the biggest distraction for me. Do you understand?"

  Mrs. Manas did not make any comment as she did not know what to say. The silence stretched on, and it was only when Lin Sanjiu squatted down to check on something that she began speaking again, "So, you aren't worried about the grand prize anymore? If he can't reach you, I'm afraid he..."

  "He can wait. It is only ten minutes or so, and I'm certain that he will understand. After all, he is the grand prize," Lin Sanjiu remarked as she pushed the mess of garbage away. She did not forget about the corpse that was hot on her heels, so she looked back from time to time as she continued, "I'll apologize to him after I get out of this pocket dimension."

  Mrs. Manas fell silent again. Then, she sighed. "I understand now." There was a tinge of sadness in her voice as she said, "I almost forgot. Your train of thought now is working the same way as the grand prize's."

  For the grand prize, the last thing he wanted was for something bad to happen to his sister. Therefore, Lin Sanjiu was just following the rules of protecting herself.

  Ironically, exactly because the grand prize valued everything about Lin Sanjiu above all else, it caused his sister not to take his concern into account at this moment.

  Just as Mrs. Manas was zoning out, she heard Lin Sanjiu yell, "Found it!" After that, she pulled a block of wire out from under a rack.

  "Found it," said Lin Sanjiu as a smile danced on her lips, "This is part of the main door of the warehouse."

  Chapter 845 - Goodbye For Now, Mr. Corpse

  Ignoring the negligibly small pieces, she found seven pieces of door panels from the warehouse. All of them were wire mesh tightly coiled together into two layers. Had it been before the apocalypse arrived, it indeed was a substantial door strong enough to hold back any impact.

  "Alright, remove these few rows of racks."

  With a snap of her fingers, several rows of thinly scattered racks began to vanish like ice melting into water before her eyes. She raised her head and looked skyward into the night sky. Then, she sighed. "Why am I so stupid?"

  Dumbfounded, Mrs. Manas asked, "Why?"

  "Not only me but you and Ryuji as well. Why did none of us realize this just now?" Lin Sanjiu said accusingly before asking again, "Don't you feel like this building lacks something very important?"

  "Quit beating around the bush and just spill it," Mrs. Manas said, exasperated.

  "Ceiling! The ceiling! Don't tell me that none of you realize this building doesn't have a ceiling yet!"

  The bushes in the distance rustled and a spherical silhouette popped out. The shadow opened his mouth, and Ryuji's characteristical insouciant voice rang out, "Is a ceiling that important?"

  "Of course," Lin Sanjiu replied in a low voice when she saw the fast-approaching corpse. Without wasting a second, she pinned the pen-shaped [Power Of Word Picture] on her collar, and then murmured something under her breath. In the next second, row upon row of racks rose from the ground, acting as a barricade to block the corpse from getting to her. Unlike previously, these new rows of racks were positioned very closely to each other so that there was no gap in between and they looked like a wall.

  "I still don't understand," Ryuji said listlessly.

  "I will explain it to you once I get out of here!" Lin Sanjiu shouted, "You stay there and watch."

  "Huh?" Ryuji replied with confusion written all over his face, "What are you trying to do?"

  The rack could only hold the corpse for a while, but several seconds were more than sufficient. Lin Sanjiu paid no mind to Ryuji's question and began examining the three walls around the warehouse while her mouth opened and closed rapidly.

  In the warehouse, where silence prevailed, the rustling and the bestial growls from the corpse were slowly drowned out by the clatter of rocks. She looked up to see several patches of shadows seeping in from each corner. She turned to the only side of the warehouse that had no wall earlier and found out that the last wall was growing out as well.

  The shadows soon met one another in the center and formed a ceiling. It blocked out the last remaining light from the moon and thrust the warehouse into darkness, leaving the silver beam from Lin Sanjiu's [Ability Polishing Agent] as the only light source that provided illumination in this pitch-black atmosphere. From the outside, the war
ehouse now looked like an enlarged version of a rectangular box.

  "Why would you block out the moonlight?" Mrs. Manas shouted nervously, "It's even darker now. How are you going to see where the corpse will—"

  Crouching low, Lin Sanjiu lifted her silver bottle and peered out through the slit on the rack. The first thing that flooded into her vision was the head of the corpse that was buried deep into its c.h.e.s.t. Since it was very far away, she could only register the back of its head and its shoulders that were squeezing out from the rack.

  "You didn't realize it, did you?" She chuckled, "We are now standing next to the main door."

  "So? Then what?"

  Holding the [Ability Polishing Agent], Lin Sanjiu groped in the dark and walked towards the door made of wire mesh. It was only when she changed her direction midway that Mrs. Manas and Ryuji realized she was not going for the door but the wall beside her. After she felt about the wall with her fingers, she said softly, "Found it."

  "What?"

  As a buzzing permeated the air, a blast of white light filled the warehouse. Lin Sanjiu had closed her eyes beforehand, and by the time she cracked her eyelids open, the warehouse was as bright as daylight.

  There were a dozen incandescent lamps lined up neatly on the ceiling, scorching their eyes with blaring white light.

  "Even if this is a warehouse, there must be lamps," explained Lin Sanjiu, "And the switch for the lamps, in general, is installed near the door. Therefore, we don't really need to fight in the dark as the warehouse has already provided us with the best lighting."

  "B-but without factual basis, how can you activate the [Power of Word Picture]? This is too—"

  "Of course, there is," Lin Sanjiu replied indifferently, "Do you still remember that before we began to rebuild this warehouse, there were steel bars and wires jutting out hither and thither from the broken walls. The moment I saw the steel bars, I knew that this warehouse isn't a single-storey house. With the wires as the premise, we can use the [Power of Word Picture] to describe the lamps into existence."

  "Is that so? Only the wire will do the job?"

  Lin Sanjiu did not reply to Mrs. Manas's question instantly. She stuffed her [Ability Polishing Agent] away and turned around, utilizing the dazzling light to search for the corpse. She soon found her target. Through the light, the monstrous form of the corpse was fully revealed. She found that although it looked less strange under the light, it was still as grotesque as before. Staring at the corpse that was getting closer and closer to her, she continued, "To be honest, I'm actually experimenting with the effect of the [Power of Word Picture]."

  "Huh? What do you mean by "experimenting"?"

  "Remember the glass fragments we found? I used it as a basis and made a window. However, when I think about it, it's too unplanned to be a coincidence. I think the glass fragments are a part of the window, but are they really? What if they are actually a part of the lamps? What would happen if that was the actual case? So, to find the answer, I did an experiment," Lin Sanjiu said as she pointed at the window on the wall, "The answer is that so long as they contain the same element in their constitution, we can use the [Power of Word Picture] to construct the same basic material into different objects."

  "In other words, we can use the [Power of Word Picture] to make different things as long as they all contain "glass" and the necessary factors, can't we?"

  "Yes, but there's one more hidden requirement."

  "What's that?"

  "I had to first organize the electric circuit in my head before using the [Power of Word Picture] to describe a lamp that could really be lit. If I didn't do that, the result would've been the same as the wall lamp I used to hoist myself up. It would only have the impression of it without any substantial ability."

  She was telling the truth. The "wall lamp" was merely a block of cement in the shape of a lamp. After all, Lin Sanjiu just needed to use it to support herself and the situation at that time did not give her the freedom to make out an entire electric grid in her brain.

  "If you don't understand how something works, you can't use the Special Item to bring it into reality." Lin Sanjiu sighed disappointedly. "Regardless of that, this Special Item is indeed very powerful."

  "Well, I know you are impressed by the Special Item, but we can leave the impression aside first," Mrs. Manas raised her voice to warn, "The corpse is coming!"

  Upon hearing the warning, Lin Sanjiu raised her head and looked at the racks in front. As if it wanted to pull its head out from its c.h.e.s.t, the corpse was squeezing itself through a slit that did not match its body size. She could hear the popping sound emitted from its spine. She could also clearly see how it fine-tuned each of its bone segments were so that it could fit through the slit. Sighing, she snapped her fingers and all the racks before her eyes disappeared in the blink of an eye.

  Seizing the chance as the corpse fell to the ground with a plop, Lin Sanjiu pulled her [Tornado Whip] out. Then, without wasting a second, she summoned a tornado towards the corpse, sending it flying through the air. Since there were no racks in the warehouse anymore, the corpse found no leverage to stop its momentum. Flailing its arms and legs madly in the air, it smashed right through the wall and dropped into the bushes outside.

  Almost in an instant, rows of racks reappeared in the warehouse once more. Then, with a flick of her arm, she brandished the [Tornado Whip] and obliterated all of them, causing the air to be filled with flying steel bars and planks. She sent all of them towards the hole and blocked it out. After experiencing the tremendously destructive force of the [Tornado Whip], the warehouse now looked like it had been ravaged by a storm.

  "Well, I've bought us some more time." Lin Sanjiu kept the whip away and dusted herself. "Even though mostly pocket dimension beings are very annoying, if we can utilize our surroundings to the maximum and make the correct decision, it's actually not that hard to minimize the risk of getting hurt by them."

  Mrs. Manas was dumbfounded. She waited for a bit longer before she finally found her voice. "Ji Shanqing…he didn't have the same level of combat power as yours, so I didn't know he could be this scary."

  Lin Sanjiu did not reply.

  "So, what now?"

  "We are getting out of this warehouse." She turned around and pointed at the door made from wire mesh. "See, the door is still not complete yet. Look, there's only half a lock."

  It was easy to recreate the door as they only needed several pieces of the wire mesh. However, that was not the same case for the lock. Even with the residual part of the key as the "basis of reality", Lin Sanjiu still needed to find out the internal structure and the working principle behind the lock first before she could recreate it.

  Using Lin Sanjiu's eyes to examine the lock, Mrs. Manas said while sounding a little lost, "There's only half of the lock left, so what should we do now?"

  "This is why I need the lamps." Lin Sanjiu smirked. "I'm going to find out the internal structure of the lock according to the remaining half.

  "Then," she took a deep breath and closed her eyes before speaking, "I can use the key to open the door and get out of here."

  Chapter 846 - Out Of The Locked Room

  Sitting crossed-leg on the ground, Lin Sanjiu inspected the remaining half of the lock in front of her under the dazzling light. The warehouse was shaking from time to time. With every boom, there was a subsequent shudder, causing dust to fall from the ceiling and eliciting a tremble from Lin Sanjiu. However, it did not feel like an earthquake as the rhythm was too consistent.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Mrs. Manas's voice rang out and shattered the dismal silence, "The corpse is trying to get back into the pocket dimension."

  Lin Sanjiu continued to examine the lock. After a short while, her eyelashes fluttered. "The corpse wants to return to the warehouse, not the pocket dimension."

  "What's the difference?"

  Everything in the warehouse, even the minutest details, were exposed under the illumination of the i
ncandescent lamps. When Lin Sanjiu raised her head, the light flooded into her amber eyes and made them look lighter than they usually did. As she scanned around the grayish, crude warehouse, one could notice that her pair of black irises were quivering ever so slightly as if her eyes were some kind of sophisticated device.

  "Give me one minute," Lin Sanjiu suddenly said before standing up from the ground.

  In front of the hole on the other side of the warehouse, there was a heap of wasted metal which would have been the racks. With each successive collision, a steel bar or an enormous plank on the heap would plop onto the ground with a loud bang, making Lin Sanjiu jump even though she had mentally prepared herself.

  The grand prize was really such a scaredy-cat.

  "Hey, what's the difference? You haven't told me yet." At this moment, Mrs. Manas's voice rang out again and snapped her back to reality.

  "I've carefully calculated the airflow before I used the [Tornado Whip], so even though the corpse was knocked out of the warehouse, it's actually still inside the pocket dimension. This is all thanks to the time when my wind was bounced back to the pocket dimension. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten such precious data to carry out my calculation precisely," Lin Sanjiu said. She expelled a long sigh, stretched her limbs, and then strode towards the main door. "Do you still remember? After I got down from the concrete slab, I still had to walk on the grass for a while before I reached the boundary of the pocket dimension and got sent back to the warehouse."

  "In other words, there's a distance from the wall to the boundary of the pocket dimension, and you sent the corpse into that area…" Mrs. Manas muttered, amazement lacing her voice. However, she soon found something amiss, so she questioned again, "But how do you explain why you were sent back to the warehouse when you were climbing up the wall?"

  "There's only one explanation," Lin Sanjiu said as she subconsciously increased the grip on the [Power of Word Picture]. Looking through the door made of wire mesh. She could barely make out Ryuji's outline amongst the bushes. "The wall that I created...they are the answers. You see, when I rebuilt the wall, I unintentionally and artificially modified the boundary of the pocket dimension."