Doomsday Wonderland c1-855

by N. Heller

  [Please make sure to conform to the rules as follow before writing down your description:

  1. The maximum area of effect cannot be more than 10 km.

  2. The duration of the effect cannot be more than 2 hours.

  3. If the Special Item is set to activate under a certain condition, please make sure the condition corresponds to the effect. Otherwise, the effect will be invalidated.

  4. Includes raw material in the description.

  5. The target of the effect should not be more than 1 person.

  7. The effect must be within the performance scope of the Special Item.]

  Amongst the restrictions, the one that made Lin Sanjiu frowned the most was this—[Please take note that after filling in all the columns, depending on the appearance and performance of the Special Item, further restrictions may be enforced].

  Lin Sanjiu fell into thought for a moment. She had no idea what kind of restriction might be enforced, so she reckoned that she must be extra careful when filling the column in. Therefore, after a short bout of hesitation, she decided not to write anything first and continued to read further.

  Aside from the [Activation method], she had to explain the [Circ.u.mstance where the Special Item could not be activated] and make up the [History of the Special Item]. Besides that, she also had to think of every possible raw material in the [List of raw materials] to prevent her Special Item from failing during activation.

  Other than the big items, the remaining minor requirements were easy to fulfill.

  'Is there any non-humanoid Special Item that can provide the same result? How about an illusion? I can create an illusion to make people believe that I'm there… No, the target cannot be more than 1 person. This won't cut it.'

  Lin Sanjiu let out a deep sigh and the tea shop owner walked towards her. Lin Sanjiu raised her head and she had no idea why, but she felt that the girl's face had gotten even redder. Holding a pot, she asked, "Would you like to order something else? If not, there's another customer waiting for the table."

  "Ah, I'm sorry," Lin Sanjiu said as she stood up. She had been so engrossed in customizing her Special Item using the [Party B's Designer] that she had forgotten about the tea. "I'm leaving now."

  Since she needed to wait for two days before she could get her hand on the Special Item, she found a hotel and decided to stay in Black's Market. Her brows were still tightly creased in the center of her forehead when she threw herself on the bed. She stared at the form for a long while, but she still could not make up her mind.

  "Oh my, you can't force yourself like that. Relax."

  A crisp and sweet voice shattered the silence in the room. Startled, Lin Sanjiu jumped up from the bed and went into her hypersensory state. "Who is that?" she shouted menacingly, glancing around the room.

  Soon enough, she felt something small hop onto her bed behind and rustle the sheets.

  She spun around, and then, she froze.

  A chubby, fingernail-sized, green tea leaf appeared in Lin Sanjiu's vision. She shouted in disbelief, "A-are you the tea leaf I consumed just now?"

  The tea leaf nodded with some difficulty. Like a Japanese Daifuku, it sat obediently on the bed.

  "Don't you know?" It spoke in a low and careful voice as if it was afraid of scaring her again. "I'm the big brother."

  "Hold on. Big brother? That means—"

  Lin Sanjiu suddenly realized something before she could finish her sentence. She seemed to have consumed four leaves just now.

  "Aren't you a tea leaf? How can you speak and how did you get out of my stomach?" Lin Sanjiu fired several questions at the tea leaf in front of her.

  'Is it too late for me to spit them out now?'

  "Well, we died in your stomach, so we are now what you humans call...a ghost," another similar voice rang out from the corner of the bed. Lin Sanjiu turned her head to see that another leaf had appeared. Including the two "brothers" behind the second leaf, all four of them looked like mirror images of each other. "But don't be startled. We are here to accompany you. We are the companion tea leaves, so relieving your loneliness is our mission."

  'Mission? Companion tea leaves? Am I dreaming?' Lin Sanjiu began to question her sanity.

  "Anyway, we are the smartest amongst the companion tea leaves," one of the tea leaves said, "If you have something troubling you, you can tell us and we can discuss it together! You know, three...three…What was that phrase already? Ahh, forget about it. You can talk about any of your concerns to us and we will help you out!"

  'Well…that wasn't helpful at all. Besides, they are called Faint Lights of Wisdom, right?'

  Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh and threw the stack of forms on the table. The tea leaf brothers all scattered. They only climbed up the forms and began examining them after the forms had stopped fluttering.

  "All right, let's pool our thoughts together," Lin Sanjiu said although she did not have much hope of them. "I need a non-humanoid Special Item that can create another version of me. A friendly reminder: no illusions or replicas."

  Chapter 855 - Brainstorming With Four Tea Leaves

  "Oh? Not even a replica?"

  Sitting cross-legged, Lin Sanjiu studied the leaf that was talking. There were still buds of shimmering water droplets on its body that looked like its eyes. However, what made Lin Sanjiu curious was that the bed remained dry despite the four "brothers' sitting on it.

  "Nope. I can't create anything that can breathe." Lin Sanjiu sighed with a frown. "There's no use for me to create a body that can't move either."

  "Let me get this straight. First, no humanoid object, and second, no living object?" Another leaf said in a serious tone, "Considering our origin, I have an idea, but…"

  "Well, let's hear it," said Lin Sanjiu as she secretly stretched her finger out to reach for it.

  "Do you still remember the tea you drank just now?" the leaf said, keeping its head low to study the forms. It did not notice the finger that was nearing its head. The remaining three leaves stared at Lin Sanjiu's finger with their mouths agape. "You can try to create an item that can extract your soul out of your mortal body. For example, after you kill yourself, your soul will manifest in the other place. Then, you can take the advantage to mislead the bad guy—"

  Before the leaf could finish its sentence, Lin Sanjiu retracted her fingers and flicked its head. The leaf shouted and flew away.

  Even though they were ghosts, she could physically touch them.

  "What a lousy idea," Lin Sanjiu declared, pouting her lips, "Do you work for the bad guys?"

  It seemed to her that the leaf could not feel pain. The leaf was stunned for a while before it struggled to get itself up like an overturned turtle. Chuckling, Lin Sanjiu went forward to help it get to its feet. As she c.a.r.e.s.sed its head, she thought for a moment and said, "I have a friend who can control puppets. Perhaps, I can create a puppet, no, argh…I can't create a humanoid object."

  The group then fell silent. After a short while that seemed like an eternity, a leaf sprang up and said, "I'm the third brother. I have an idea."

  "What is it?" Even though the leaf had told Lin Sanjiu that it was the third brother, she still mixed them up as they all looked the same.

  "You don't have to make a puppet!" the third brother chirruped, "You can make something to control a puppet like a thread—"

  "Or radio waves!" another leaf chimed in. All four brothers suddenly became extremely excited as they began to voice out their opinions one after another.

  "What else can we use to control the puppet?"

  "How about a controller? For example, we just need to press a button and the puppet will raise its arm."

  "Perhaps we can try to make a Special Item that allows you to use your voice to control the puppet," Mrs. Manas suggested.

  However, after a short bout of rumination, she realized something very crucial that rendered the idea useless. She sighed. "I can create something like that, but where should I find a puppet that looks like me? Bes
ides, the [Party B's Designer] can only make one Special Item."

  She did not want to crush the four brothers' confidence, but there was one more problem with this idea.

  Even Puppeteer's puppets looked very awkward. They did not have any expression on their face when they were talking or walking. If somebody could tell it was a fake Lin Sanjiu from a first glance, then Lin Sanjiu would rather not waste her time on something like this.

  In other words, the appearance, the walking pattern, and most importantly, the fake one must look very similar to the real deal. Those are the requirements that needed to be achieved with a Special Item that was full of limitations. It was just impossible.

  After she told everything to the four brothers, they fell silent.

  Just as Lin Sanjiu thought that they were thinking about another idea, the four brothers put their "heads" together and whispered to each other.

  "How come I didn't know we need to do so many things?" the third brother said.

  "Right? I heard from the others that we only need to accompany them and make them happy."

  "Besides, she's so demanding," another leaf cut in.

  "Right! We are just tea leaves…" Another sighed. "Just what does she thinks we tea leaves can do? She's pushing us too hard..."

  Lin Sanjiu's expression turned grimmer and grimmer. Just as the brothers felt like they had such bad luck to have been her drink, she snapped and pulled the form back as she glowered, "Didn't you say you were here to help me?"

  The four brothers nodded again. Then, somebody sighed.

  "So, the bad guy must see you?" a leaf said dejectedly, "You can just show them a part of your body. Like your shadow."

  "Yes, yes. Imagine this: the bad guy sees your shadow disappearing around the corner, but when he goes after you, you've disappeared. How dramatic is that?"

  "You can use the shadow to mislead the bad guy as well! What a brilliant idea! You are so clever, elder brother."

  "Besides, it's easy to control your shadow. All you need to do is find a way to peel it off your body..."

  The elder brother chuckled and beamed brightly. "Right? You have to think outside the trough."

  "It should be 'you have to think outside the box'," Lin Sanjiu said, "I'm not a pig. Why do I need a trough?"

  Nevertheless, this might be the best idea she had right now.

  Looking at her own shadow, Lin Sanjiu was engrossed in her thoughts. The leaves had said something about the soul and then the shadow. She felt there was something that she could use in between. What was it?

  Soul? Shadow? What kind of Special Item could satisfy her requirements?

  After what seemed like ages, she suddenly clapped her hands and caused the four brothers to jump. They leaped down from the bed and gathered around her. Sitting on the windowsill, they raised their heads and looked at her with keen eyes.

  "What are you four doing?" Lin Sanjiu glanced at them and then turned to pick the form up. Then, she walked around the room to find herself a pen.

  "Do you already have an idea?" the four brothers asked. Lin Sanjiu had no idea how, but she could see the curiosity on their faces.

  "Yeah." Lin Sanjiu chuckled. "Although it wasn't your idea, I have to say, you inspired me."

  "What's that?" The four brothers pressed forward.

  Lin Sanjiu did not reply as she lay the form on the windowsill. The four brothers all gathered around, their beady eyes staring fixedly at the tip of her pen.

  "The name and the appearance of the Special Item," she murmured before filling in the column.