Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1357: You Can’t Run Away from the End of the World

He Huan gasped for breath as he pushed open the door, not bothering to glance at the empty living room, and hurriedly walked towards the bedroom.

Lin Sanjiu discovered him, but fortunately, he realized it in time. They were now trapped in a game of cat and mouse, with the roles of cat and mouse constantly changing with time and their decisions. Until the very end, nothing was certain.

Lin Sanjiu knew his apartment address, so if he were being pursued, he wouldn’t return here—but it was precisely because he thought of this that he took the risk to come back.

His storage items had failed not long ago, so he could only hide the things he couldn’t carry with him in the bedroom; after quickly packing a travel bag, he stepped out. When passing by the bathroom, He Huan suddenly paused, stopped, and pushed open the door.

Everything was the same as before as if nothing had happened. Light spilled from above the mirror, and the stainless-steel faucet gleamed brightly. Next to the white porcelain sink, a cup was on the countertop. The transparent glass shimmered, and the deep reddish-brown whiskey sat quietly at the bottom of the cup.

He hesitated for a moment. He should leave as soon as possible to prevent the slight possibility of Lin Sanjiu appearing here from becoming true.

After thinking for a moment, he placed the backpack on the floor and walked into the living room. After a while, he appeared again at the bathroom door, holding a bottle of whiskey.

He poured the old whiskey into the cup and placed it on the countertop. The amber liquid’s remnants slid down the transparent cup like amber, gathering at the bottom.

“I don’t want to call you Old Guan… Guan Hailian, right?” He Huan opened the bottle and slowly poured whiskey into the cup. “This might be the last drink… I’ve been discovered by her. You should be relieved, right?”

He paused, looking at the half-filled glass of whiskey.

“I should leave too,” He Huan suddenly smiled self-deprecatingly, putting down the bottle and picking up the backpack. “I only have one direction to go now.”

He wasn’t sentimental, nor did he like that kind of fussiness. He stepped on Guan Hailian’s body to survive. He had long accepted this fact, so he didn’t hesitate when he acted—until everything was over. Director Li, waiting outside, called people in to carry the body. That was the first time he felt shaken.

At that moment, He Huan stood in the corridor, one hand dripping wet. Two men wearing coveralls and masks carried a black body bag from outside. The bag seemed heavy even though the body hadn’t been placed inside yet.

As the two passed by He Huan, he felt an unmistakable chill emanating from the body bag; a faint mist formed outside the black bag. “Where?” one of the movers asked.

He Huan’s mind went blank, and he pointed to the bathroom.

The movers carried the heavy body bag, which should have been empty; when the zipper was pulled open with a click, He Huan peeked inside the bathroom.

A layer of ice had been laid at the bottom of the black body bag.

He walked into the living room almost numbly, waiting for Guan Hailian to receive a hug from the ice-filled body bag. After the two movers left, Director Li said a few more words to him—mostly cautionary, probing, promising, and praising, the usual dog training routine.

These were all temporary; after he climbed up, everything would be fine.

He Huan responded to everything with perfunctory words. Still, he felt that in that glance just now, a layer of ice in the bag crawled into his mind along the gaze and fell deep into his body with a chilling sensation.

There would be no autopsy or viewing by relatives for Guan Hailian’s death.

So why freeze him? And why freeze him immediately upon death?

After much thinking, he felt that there was only one possibility.

This possibility made him feel nauseous.

After weighing the situation, he could accept betraying his companions—after all, he and Lin Sanjiu had just met and couldn’t really be called companions; he could accept killing for the sake of the future, as that was the prevailing law of the jungle in the doomsday world. Naturally, he also thought that using a dead person’s body to fend off attacks or something was not a big deal. But that was all in the doomsday world.

Here, he found himself unable to accept it.

After Director Li left, He Huan curled up on the sofa, trying to convince himself that this was no different from the fate of dead people in the doomsday world—it was just recycling waste. He sat there for half a day, then stood up unsteadily and poured a glass of whiskey; after staring at it for a while, he didn’t drink it himself, took it to the bathroom, and placed it where Guan Hailian had died.

Since then, every time he returned to this apartment, he would change Guan Hailian’s drink to a new one. Now that the bottle of whiskey was almost empty, he wouldn’t return.

He Huan left the apartment quickly. He had only one place left to go, but he couldn’t immediately.

After hiding for a day, he went to the Resource Management Bureau. After reporting his intentions, a female staff member searched him and then took him to a separate room.

The room was almost empty except for two flimsy plastic chairs. Cameras installed in the four corners of the ceiling automatically started monitoring from all angles when someone entered. The door panel was at least five centimeters thick; although He Huan didn’t check, he was sure the room walls were made of the same material. There were several such rooms.

They had tried their best to avoid the risks of meeting with a posthuman here. Posthumans were not allowed to carry weapons or Special Items, and he didn’t think anyone would be foolish enough to bring Special Items. It would be like throwing a sheep into a tiger’s den to see if the tiger would spit out the meat again. The people who came in for conversation always had a few bodyguards. While this couldn’t completely eliminate risks, what in the world was foolproof?

He Huan was impatient while waiting for Director Li.

He couldn’t tell the other party that Lin Sanjiu had discovered him. If he did, his value in the other party’s eyes would immediately be halved. He also had to maximize the information he obtained from Lin Sanjiu, which would make this negotiation difficult.

“You are really efficient,” Director Li said with a smile as he sat on the plastic chair. “Have you achieved results again so soon?”

The full name of the Resource Management Bureau was the Bureau of External Resource Management, and ‘external’ only referred to one meaning, that is, coming from the doomsday world, regardless of whether people or things were under its jurisdiction. He Huan himself was also one of the resources being managed. He was clear about this point, but people were just using each other. The more he made himself valuable, the longer he could live and the more dignified he would be.

“I have a rough idea of Lin Sanjiu’s next plan.”

Director Li seemed distracted, listening to what he had to say without comment. After hiding, He Huan listened to the conversation through the communicator. Since he couldn’t be sure whether Lin Sanjiu had really given up on the rocket plan, he simply revealed details about it and the new plan she mentioned in the communicator to Director Li. He didn’t disclose all the details because he had to leave himself some negotiating advantage.

“Well,” Director Li nodded slowly, furrowed his eyebrows. “Perhaps she intends to pursue both plans simultaneously.”

He Huan nodded while calculating his next steps in his mind.

“But how can she install the signal transmitter in the rocket? It’s a complex, large, and sophisticated system, and countless eyes watch it.”

He Huan shook his head and said, “I’m not sure about this. She must plan to use force to coerce internal staff to cooperate.”

He hadn’t released Han Suiping’s information yet. He only had so much information, and apart from the conversations with the communicator, he wouldn’t be able to get any more in the future; he had to plan carefully and release the information bit by bit to maximize his interests.

Director Li made a thoughtful sound and smiled, “She’s delusional.”

He Huan remained silent.

“As you said, Wan Qingge is the most crucial link in this plan, right? Because of his speed.”

“That’s right.”

A smile hung on his cheekbones, like the loose skin of an old person about to sag down at any moment. He Huan wouldn’t be surprised at all if there was a black hole underneath after that smile sagged down.

“That’s great.” His fingers tapped on the plastic chair. “If it were someone else, I’d be worried… but him, we’ll find him as soon as we look.”