Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1352: Han Suiping’s Internet Experiment

Lin Sanjiu’s combat talent was extremely high—she was certified by Hei Zeji himself.

1

She stood behind Han Suiping and glanced at him from his perspective, forming a rough concept of how he should fight. In her design, the right long claw, temporarily unable to retract, was both the main force and a means to attract firepower and attention; the left hand was an unexpected assault weapon, assisting in offense and defense.

After explaining the essentials of fighting with long claws and the coordination techniques, Lin Sanjiu practiced with Han Suiping in the open space for several rounds. As a result, he looked at her with a different expression.

“Have you grown claws before too?” Han Suiping asked, sweating profusely and panting heavily. Two dark green carapace claws drooped on the ground like exhausted lobsters. “How do you know so much?”

Lin Sanjiu was afraid that Han Suiping, being so naive, would suffer if he went to the Twelve Worlds, so she wanted to instill years of combat experience into his mind. “Adapting to the situation and being flexible is crucial in posthuman combat. You never know what changes your body might undergo one day, so you need to be able to use it without hindrance. A martial artist once said, ‘You must make yourself like water.'”

Having someone teach their insights immediately after evolving, sparing them years of trial and error and possibly their lives, was very fortunate for Han Suiping. However, his stamina was still inadequate. Two hours later, he collapsed. “Please, no more training. If we continue like this, I’ll die today, and I won’t even have the chance to be killed by someone else in the future.”

Feeling a bit reluctant, Lin Sanjiu halted the training and left him with the possibility of being killed by someone else in the future.

In the afternoon, several scattered posthumans exchanged messages. Phones were no longer safe, and paper cranes were conspicuous, quickly attracting attention. So, Lin Sanjiu took out the communication devices given her by the grand prize and distributed them to everyone. These communication devices were intricately designed, fully functional, and capable of recording audio and facilitating conference calls. Their signals were isolated from the Doomsday World, so the grand prize couldn’t intercept them, but internal communication was still possible.

She had six communication devices at the time, but Guan Hailian had yet to appear to claim his. That device sat on the shelf, gathering a thin layer of dust after just a day or two.

“I’m doing fine over here,” Nu Yue said. “Searching for camouflage supplies hardly qualifies as a task. I can’t even showcase my abilities.”

Her evolved abilities were like that of a magician, so this task was a breeze.

“I’m facing some difficulties,” Wan Qingge said. “There are many suspicious individuals near the pharmaceutical factory, and security measures are extremely tight. I haven’t been able to find an opportunity to get close. I suspect that after the theft at the hospital, they’ve shifted their focus to the factory.”

“If you don’t find an opportunity, come back as soon as possible; your safety is paramount,” Lin Sanjiu said. “We have a new plan now. As long as we can send the information, adrenaline won’t be as necessary.”

“I’ll wait two more days and see how it goes,” Wan Qingge responded.

Nu Yue immediately suggested, “After I finish here, I’ll bring the camouflage supplies to you directly. Maybe I can help you infiltrate.”

He Huan’s task was the most difficult, so his progress was the least: he only heard about an exit whitelist, listing everyone in the country who could leave; this news hardly helped Lin Sanjiu’s backup plan.

“By the way, do you have any new plans?” He Huan asked during the call.

Before Lin Sanjiu could respond, Han Suiping, who had been lying on the table like a dead fish, suddenly raised his head.

“Let’s discuss it in person,” he quickly said. He shouted into the communication device, “These communication devices are based on signal exchange, and if there’s a signal, it might be intercepted. Although such signals are extremely rare and unlikely to be seen by people in our world, it’s still better to be cautious.”

Since he was now an expert in signals, Lin Sanjiu complied. The importance of the rocket launch communication plan was paramount; not a single hint of it could leak, nor could any risks be taken.

Before hanging up, she said to He Huan, “If the whitelist is stored on the internal network, then maybe we can help you. Just be patient.”

Following Han Suiping’s plan, they quietly left the factory that night.

Before leaving, he spent half an hour successfully retracting his right hand once, finally making himself look human again. After the two left the factory area under cover of night, Lin Sanjiu opened the door of a small transport truck parked on the roadside; amidst the wailing alarm in the middle of the night, she signaled for Han Suiping to quickly get in and quietly asked, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” Han Suiping said, climbing in. “This is a government vehicle; no one will pay that much attention. Besides, even if you shout for help, there’s a chance no one will come to help, let alone a car alarm?”

As the description had already been conveyed, Lin Sanjiu also felt the Pygmalion Choker heating up. Glancing at the dial, she saw that the truck immediately started, and the alarm stopped. Using the Pygmalion Choker for car theft seemed like overkill; she secretly hoped nothing significant would happen in the next 24 hours.

“If nobody comes to help, what should you shout?” she asked.

“Shout ‘fire’,” Han Suiping said, then slammed the door shut.

He sat in the driver’s seat, closing his eyes. Lin Sanjiu couldn’t imagine what kind of state he was in now. Occasionally glancing at him, she always felt like Han Suiping was about to disperse into countless dots of light, merging into the universe—not that his body was disintegrating, but that the energy emanating from him seemed to resonate with the myriad waves between heaven and earth.

“Turn right up ahead,” he whispered, still keeping his eyes closed. “Go west.”

The underground fiber optic cables’ signal might flow like a river from Han Suiping’s consciousness, gathering and dispersing. However, they couldn’t directly dig out the fiber optic cables because the signal was transmitted within the medium; if it was severed, the signal would be cut off. Han Suiping had to follow the direction of the signal flow to find the communication network’s hub to proceed with his experiment.

In a city of over ten million people, the area covered by fiber optic signals was tiny, just about the size of a palm. After circling around in this area for a while, when the small truck passed by a large courtyard, he suddenly exclaimed, “Here, here!”

Lin Sanjiu quickly turned the steering wheel, stepped on the brake, and parked by the roadside.

Under the night sky, a blurry silhouette of a walled estate stood far behind a large flower bed. The light from the street lamps couldn’t reach it; faintly, one could only make out that it was a heavily guarded compound, with iron gates tightly sealing off the entrance. Outside the gates, about three to four meters high, a guard booth was illuminated in the night, with a duty guard inside.

“All the signals flow here and then from here to all directions,” Han Suiping said, stretching his neck to see the estate. “Back there… underground. I can feel it.”

After staring at the guard booth for a few seconds, Lin Sanjiu nodded. They opened the door together without turning off the engine and stepped into the dimly lit night outside. The greenery around here was particularly well-maintained, and the canopy of trees overhead pressed heavily, blocking out the starlight, making their movements convenient.

With Lin Sanjiu leading, the two approached the guard booth. Lin Sanjiu reached out and pulled open the window, startling the guard inside, who hastily put down his phone and asked, “What’s going on? What do you want?”

Lin Sanjiu struck him on the neck with the edge of her hand. The guard fell silent and collapsed. She held onto the window frame and jumped in, stepping over the table and landing on the ground. Then, she waved to Han Suiping to come in.

By the time he crawled into the guard booth, Lin Sanjiu had already opened the door leading to the estate’s interior and walked out openly.

The guard booth, the entrance gate, and the walls outside were all equipped with many surveillance cameras, which probably had already recorded the two of them. However, once inside the building, not a single camera could be seen. Following the direction of the signal flow through the building, they finally stopped in an empty space in the backyard.

“Here,” Han Suiping said and pointed to the ground. “Should be a direct access shaft.”

Lin Sanjiu swept the ground with the beam of her flashlight and saw a square-shaped indentation in the cement, which seemed liftable. She summoned her metal gauntlet, assessed the point of force, and asked, “What’s a direct access shaft?”

“My uncle was in charge of laying cables as an electrician,” Han Suiping said, squatting down and watching her deliver a punch that loosened the entire shaft cover. When the noise gradually subsided, he continued, “When I was young, he took me to such construction sites to dig out direct access shafts to serve as exchange stations for fiber optic cables. He didn’t know what he was laying, and it wasn’t until I grew up that I slowly figured it out.”

“That makes sense,” Lin Sanjiu said, lifting the cover of the shaft and inspecting the access shaft. “These things also need workers to build… But how come nobody knows about the existence of the internet?”

The access shaft was less than a meter in height, and a large iron contraption attached to the wall resembled a radiator but was much larger. Thick blue optical cables were wound into a thick coil, extending from one hole on the left to another on the right; among them were two, each connected to one end of the ‘radiator,’ indicating the signal access points.

“In fact, some do know. No walls are completely airtight, no matter how high or thick.” Han Suiping jumped into the access shaft, looking around. “Aren’t I an example? But most people think the internet is just a rumor, non-existent. Even if a few people know it exists, they think it’s quite a bad thing, filled with conspiracies, rumors, crimes, and it’s best not to touch it.”

“Why?”

“That’s a long story.” Han Suiping squatted down in front of the radiator, smiling at her. “Do I unplug this?”

Lin Sanjiu stood outside the shaft, giving him a nod. With his new strength, he quickly unplugged the fixed optical cable from the interface. After throwing the thickest optical cable on the ground, a dark blue exoskeletal limb fell from Han Suiping’s right shoulder with a thud.

It had been restrained for so long and seemed cheerful, finally struggling free. As if it had a life of its own, its limbs and claws lifted in the air, seeming to even ‘look’ at Lin Sanjiu for a moment. Then, they twisted and deeply pierced into the optical cable interface.

Han Suiping shuddered all over and closed his eyes.