Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1349: Key Breakthrough

Han Suiping looked up, his gaze wandering in circles with his steps, feeling as if he were truly seeing the world for the first time. Sunlight and dust danced under the roof, the silent abandoned machinery hummed in harmony, and countless inhabitants in the air and soil revealed their faces to him for the first time. They surrounded him, flowing, trembling, and singing faintly between heaven and earth.

In this land without networks, without sound, he finally felt a connection, no longer an isolated ion in the darkness. With just a reach of his hand, he could easily touch the universe and become a part of something greater – no one could isolate him anymore, no matter what means they used.

As a sound wave, Lin Sanjiu’s voice was a form of signal. At this moment, a few words were transmitted in his perceptual ability: “Are you crying?”

Han Suiping was taken aback, raising his hand to his face and feeling the cool dampness.

“I…” He hesitated, voicing his first rising thought, “I really wish I could die in the next moment.”

Lin Sanjiu’s brow furrowed slightly, but she suddenly tilted her head and smiled. The sheen of sweat highlighted the graceful curve of her neck, and the dust settled on her short hair. Under the sunlight, she softly asked, “Are you feeling too happy?”

If he died at this moment, it would be eternal. Han Suiping nodded vigorously, adding, “Too happy, I’m terrified.”

“Before you revert back to an ordinary person, we need to leave here,” Lin Sanjiu said, her eyes seeming to glisten with tears too. She turned her head as she spoke, then added, “We will leave here.”

Everyone’s evolved ability was different, and the method of cultivation varied. In this regard, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t offer him much help. However, Han Suiping knew what he needed to do next; he had a vague sense of it like a newborn gosling instinctively knowing to follow the ancestral memory to migrate across the continent. He just needed some time to fully grasp the complexity of his ability.

As for the claw on his right side, he decided to drag it along for now — perhaps it was an illusion, but he always felt that near the shell, signals and radiation were clearer.

“So, are they antennae?” When he mentioned this to Lin Sanjiu, she also seemed stunned.

“I have an idea to verify the function of this claw.” Han Suiping said, “I can sense signals passing underground, one of which is probably fiber optic signals. If my verification is successful, we can access the network.”

Even though today differed from the past, his words sounded like he was dreaming.

“It’s really a matter of personal circumstances what ability you evolve,” Lin Sanjiu sighed.

Perhaps because he had expended too much energy, Han Suiping soon felt hungry. As they walked towards the residential area, he listened to the scratching sound of the black claw behind him, occasionally asking, “What about you? Why did you evolve spatial abilities?”

Lin Sanjiu seemed to have never thought about this question herself.

“Do you remember I mentioned a friend called Puppeteer?” She always had a strange expression when mentioning Puppeteer, as if unsure if this person was truly a friend. “I don’t know why, but he once said something.”

“What did he say?”

“What’s with collecting all these dubious people around oneself? It’s already hard to finally evolve, and the ability ends up being a garbage dump.” She looked at him, not seeming angry at all, but suddenly laughed, “By saying that, he included himself in the trash category too!”

Realizing he was also a newly minted piece of trash, Han Suiping couldn’t help but join in, laughing with Lin Sanjiu. Though he didn’t know what was so funny, the two laughed heartily together, tears streaming down their faces, breathless, the laughter echoing in the empty factory like a soft hum.

“It feels like being born again from the inside out,” he breathed, sitting on the makeshift bed made from a table. “So refreshing.”

“Welcome to being posthuman. Here,” Lin Sanjiu smiled, handing him a bag of already cooled buns, which now looked insufficient in his eyes. He grabbed the buns and stuffed his mouth full. Across from him, Lin Sanjiu looked around and exclaimed, “Ah,” picking up a newspaper.

“The grease from the bag stained the newspaper,” she said, holding it up, but then she fell silent.

Han Suiping turned to look and found the headline: “All Stolen Museum Exhibits Recovered.” It was accompanied by a photo of a boat sailing on the sea.

He didn’t understand what was so interesting about this piece of news, but Lin Sanjiu read it with great concentration, her brow furrowing more and more.

“Han Jun is dead? How could he—” she murmured to herself. “It’s strange, it doesn’t make sense.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The report says that the person who stole the exhibits took a boat out to sea and was apprehended at sea. Before committing suicide out of fear, he sank all the exhibits to the bottom of the sea.” Lin Sanjiu showed him the newspaper, asking, “Do you remember me mentioning the museum incident?”

Han Suiping thought momentarily, then said, “Ah,” spitting out some bun crumbs. He couldn’t be blamed; with everything that had happened to him recently, more bizarre than all the events of his lifetime put together, a narrative that had nothing much to do with him was quickly pushed to the back of his mind.

He finished reading the rest of the article. Upon discovering that the exhibits had been sunk, an extensive salvage operation was immediately launched. Due to factors such as the items’ small size and the complexity of the underwater conditions, the project cost nearly twenty million and took over three weeks. Finally, the six priceless treasures again saw the light of day, earning praise from all involved.

This latter part wasn’t meaningful, and he finished it quickly. After reading it, he looked up and found that Lin Sanjiu had a small silver barrel-like object in her hand that he hadn’t noticed before, saying, “This is a Special Item.”

Han Suiping nodded blankly.

“You see.” Lin Sanjiu held it and tapped it heavily on the table. When he braced himself, expecting to hear a thud, the small barrel suddenly turned into countless silver dots and disappeared into the table.

“You understand now,” she said, wiping the table. She then took it out again, saying, “Han Jun had no reason to commit suicide. What’s the point of throwing things into the sea? Originally, no one could have caught him red-handed… Even if he was a posthuman, now he’s a citizen. Without the most crucial piece of evidence, there’s a lot of room for defense from a lawyer, and even if he ended up in jail, he had no reason to choose death.”

Han Suiping looked at her incredulously.

In these details, he could feel that they were like two different species — he had no idea what her world was like.

Lin Sanjiu seemed startled when she met his gaze. “Oh, right. Your situation is different. It doesn’t work for you,” she said, pursing her lips and returning to the newspaper. “What exactly happened?” she said, almost sighing softly, “Maybe his wife knows.”

Overall, Han Suiping wasn’t very interested in this person named Han Jun, whom he had never met. He quickly finished off the buns and wiped his mouth. As she continued to read the newspaper, he tried his right claw — it almost retracted, but then it relaxed, stubbornly refusing to budge. The left one was much more flexible; retracting it only required a single thought and succeeded seven or eight times out of ten. Although he didn’t know their purpose yet, he could probably slice even metal pieces with it if he treated it as a weapon.

He had just evolved, feeling like a child stepping into a playground for the first time, feeling almost overwhelmed; he had fun by himself for a while, feeling like he could hardly keep up. Just as he was enjoying himself, he felt someone tap his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” He turned his head and saw Lin Sanjiu’s expression, feeling a slight tightness in his heart. “What did you see? Is something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing’s wrong.”

Lin Sanjiu shook her head, her eyes wide as if stunned into blankness. It seemed like she had finally found her voice again, forming the words: “When I was reading the newspaper just now,…I…I discovered something.”

Han Suiping’s heart thumped. He didn’t know what Lin Sanjiu had discovered, but he sensed the weight of this discovery from her expression.

“I know how to send the message out,” Lin Sanjiu said as if in a trance. “The way has been right in front of us all along, but none of us noticed.”

What?

She lifted the newspaper, folding it in half to reveal a single piece of news. Pointing to the headline, she said, “Even if we go abroad, we’re still in this world. In this world, we can’t send out messages, right?”

Han Suiping stared at the news, nodding almost blankly.

Lin Sanjiu seemed to be whispering to herself, “So… we send the message from outside this world, and the grand prize will receive it, right?”

The news headline was ‘The Journey Satellite Transport Rocket Will Launch Soon.’