Doomsday Wonderland

“Wow, your companion left without any qualms.”

The ¾ of a head on a tree branch chuckled. It leaped off the tree lightly and stopped in front of Qing Jiuliu, floating in mid-air.

The cross-section of the girl’s exposed face was extremely smooth. When Sunny made a flip in the air, a part of her brain could be seen from the cross-section. That cross-section was so smooth and flat that it didn’t seem real but looked cartoonish.

Click. Click. Click. Qing Jiuliu finally managed to light the cigarette he placed back in his mouth. He inhaled deeply and calmed down. “Yeah…” he said as he exhaled.

Blinking her large doe-like eyes, Sunny watched him with some interest, “You don’t seem to care?”

“We are just acquaintances anyway,” Qing Jiuliu burped, “It doesn’t make a difference who I’m with. It doesn’t make a difference even if there’s no one.”

“I like your attitude,” Sunny pursed her lips and raised one of her eyebrows. Her other eyebrow was missing just like one part of her forehead. “Yup. I still haven’t thought of a way to use you but I can sense your potential… With that face… Things will definitely get fun!”

“Really?” Qing Jiuliu responded sluggishly. “Your face doesn’t look too fun. What happened? Where is your body?”

Sunny smiled.

Qing Jiuliu felt a massive force hit his back the very next second. It was as if he had been hit by a locomotive, he almost heard his backbone cracking. That impact knocked him off his feet and he tumbled a few times. He curled his body uncontrollably and started coughing blood. His crumpled cigarette fell out from his mouth and onto the ground.

Qing Jiuliu did not notice when that right hand appeared. He did not even know when it hid behind his back. It simply hit him without any warning. The force was so huge that he could feel his organs churning. When he struggled to look behind, he saw a hand in mid-air waving back at him.

“If you ever let me hear you saying that again,” Sunny said meekly, “I’ll thrust my hand through your abdomen.”

“Do you only have a head and a hand?” Qing Jiuliu panted as he reached out for the cigarette on the ground. “You certainly fit the description of a person with a broken body but strong spirit, huh.”

This time, when he heard her fist whizzing toward his chest, he vaulted with a single hand. As he flipped mid-air, he caught her fist with the momentum. However, that punch was too strong. Even though he caught it with both hands, the impact threw him several meters backward. Qing Jiuliu coughed and let out a guffaw almost as if he didn’t feel any pain. He kept a firm grip on Sunny’s right hand.

“A person can die even from a 10% blood loss. That is true even for a posthuman—”

“It’s useless,” the head’s expression froze for a moment before a bright grin lit her face. “After I split my body limbs, my body isn’t exactly like a normal person’s. Look carefully. Can’t you see that the blood in my hand is in a solid state? Otherwise, wouldn’t my blood splatter everywhere while my hand flies?”

The smile on Qing Jiuliu’s face froze. He cursed softly and threw the right hand aside. The fist circled once in midair before flying back to a spot beneath the human head. Right now, Sunny looked like an invisible person who was only showing her face and a hand.

“I’m quite curious about your past. Why don’t you tell me about your time under the spotlight?”

As Sunny spoke with her gentle voice, many strangely-shaped shadows flew toward her under the veil of the night. The various fragments rushed and attached themselves to Sunny’s head like iron filings drawn to a magnet. She seemed to be reassembling her body.

Qing Jiuliu took a step back and felt his calf hitting something. He looked down and realized that somehow there was a wooden fence around him.

The wooden fence was like a toy. It was very low and didn’t even reach his knees. The diameter of the enclosed area was only around 10 meters. However, Qing Jiuliu was stunned when he tried to step out from the enclosure.

He was sure that the synapses in his brain had fired the command for his legs step over the fence— but his legs did not move. Then, that “command” disappeared into an abyss without reaching his legs. He tried again but the outcome was the same.

“You can’t go out, you can only move within the enclosure. You have become my little lamb, after all.”

While Sunny’s voice rang out gleeful, Qing Jiuliu looked up at her, feeling a little confused.

Sunny’s raven eyes sparkled under the dim night sky. The unnatural glimmer in her eyes seemed almost drug-fueled. That glimmer didn’t belong to a normal person. It bordered on the edge of insanity. Yet, it was that same unbridled insanity which inexplicably gave her an intoxicating aura—

Qing Jiuliu shut his eyes immediately and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes once again, his expression turned serious. He observed the girl in front of him and realized that she wasn’t complete.

She was like an incomplete puzzle. Generally, she still had a human form but she was missing various bits and parts. Sunny’s left arm was missing. Half her chest and pelvis was also missing. One of her legs was made of sporadic bits. Despite that, she seemed to be standing perfectly fine.

Qing Jiuliu looked around but realized that his stick of cigarette was missing. “Ha—” he let out an irritated sneer. “I’m a little lamb, huh? What shall I call you? Shepherdess? Or should I call you physically deficient sheep-tard?”

He knew that his opponent would punish him swiftly with an attack after he said that but he didn’t expect it to be so bad. Due to the enclosure, Qing Jiuliu didn’t even have the space to dodge. When her fist hit his stomach, he instantly coughed up another mouthful of blood.

“Queenie!” Sunny shrilled. He could hear the anger in her voice even though he couldn’t see her expression. “Shrink the enclosure! Shrink it!”

“Sunny,” the other girl’s voice came from the darkness behind Sunny. As her voice grew closer, the moonlight slowly revealed the girl’s body. She looked at Sunny and answered her with a docile but slightly nervous smile, “Ten meters is the shortest diameter. I still can’t—”

“You’re useless,” Sunny turned around and narrowed her eyes at Qing Jiuliu.

“Hehe!” She snickered again. “Forget it. I’ll let you be for now, since you’re so good-looking.”

“Oh my! So, the ability isn’t even yours?” Qing Jiuliu somehow found another crumpled cigarette stick and held it in his mouth.

Sunny wasn’t pissed off this time. She shrugged her remaining shoulder, “We came out from the same pocket dimension. She leveled up. I have to say, this ability suits her a lot.”

[We are all sheep]

The term “free-will” is just a lie from the devil. We are all lost lambs. Living the illusion that we can make choices freely, we have to suffer the terrible consequences of our choices. The only way to escape from this predicament is to hand one’s entire fate to a leader. She will decide everything. Living obediently is the greatest happiness and blessing a person can get.

Instructions: The user must first set up a sheep pen beforehand. When the user’s leader throws a person into that sheep pen, the person would become like a herded sheep. As time passes, the target would gradually become gentle and obedient. The sheep pen is not portable right now so the user will have to keep the target in the sheep pen for a certain amount of time. The length of time that the target should be kept in the pen would depend on the strength of his/her will.

“Oh no,” Qing Jiuliu uttered suddenly but he didn’t appear too worried. “I have very little willpower…”

His words were followed by a quiet sigh from someone hiding in the darkness. Sunny’s and Queenie’s faces stiffened immediately. Before they could figure out where the sighing came from, a large tornado ripped across the flat ground. It pulled out a few trees, the tiles on the pavement and even a rooftop. The tornado rammed violently into the wooden fence.

“You’ve got to persevere!” Sunny turned around, “I know you can!”

As Queenie’s face turn pale, the wooden fence shook. The fence vibrated violently as the tornado continued buffeting it. Even though it seemed like it would break into a million pieces the next second, it withstood the tornado nonetheless. When the tornado slowly died down, Queenie’s face was already pallid. Thud. She sat heavily on the ground.

“I can escape with just a bit more. Why did you stop?” Qing Jiuliu was also sitting in the enclosure when he turned to the person behind him and questioned lazily.”

A person covered from head to toe in a black cloth crouched down slowly beside the wooden fence.

“You already knew that I didn’t leave,” Lin Sanjiu asked, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

“You even kept the bed I wanted, so why would you leave me behind.”

“Drink your beer,” Lin Sanjiu threw him a bottle of beer, “I’ll settle the both of them.”

“It’s you?” Sunny narrowed her eyes the moment she heard Lin Sanjiu’s voice. “I knew you’d survive but I didn’t expect you to dress up this way. Did you pretend to leave so Queenie would come out too?”

“Yeah, I want to settle this in one session. I didn’t want to waste time searching for her,” Lin Sanjiu continued with her makeshift cloak over her head. “How did you know I survived?” she asked icily.

“That’s because I understand Harry’s sick logic,” Sunny flashed a mellow smile. “He probably expected this confrontation when he placed the few of us into the ‘weed’ exit.”

“What about Baldhead?”

“He’s dead. He wasn’t any fun alive anyway.”

Lin Sanjiu was startled for a moment. While she sighed inwardly, she suddenly remembered that Number 45, whose true identity was already exposed, died, whereas Number 47, who managed to keep his identity a secret, lived. Harry certainly had a sick logic.

“You…” Lin Sanjiu lowered the pitch of her voice as she gradually understood the situation. “I know. You split your body when you were trying to escape from me. She jumped from the leaf after you split into countless bits. Some parts of your body must have fallen through some other doors, right? Well, at least you still have a human-like form. It’s must be hard on you.”

A twisted expression appeared on Sunny’s convoluted face as her emotions ran high. She did not say a single word.

Pop. She suddenly split herself into countless small little pieces in an instant, which flew up toward the night sky. Her head was the only thing which remained in midair.

“I can’t use the full extent of my ability in the greenhouse,” her voice rang out from her numerous body fragments. “I know you can convert things into cards. Try me. How are you going to change me into your cards? After some consideration, I think I don’t mind getting another lamb… to cook mutton soup.”

As her voice echoed, the countless tiny bits of her body seemed almost to have their own independent lifeforce. They came down upon Lin Sanjiu like torrential rain. Even though Lin Sanjiu whipped a tornado out from her [Tornado whip], the strong wind did nothing to impede the nearly hundred piece of falling flesh. Apparently, Sunny’s intention was to let those bits of flesh come in contact with her skin. Even though Lin Sanjiu didn’t know what would happen if they touched her, she didn’t want to find out.

Lin Sanjiu wanted to deal with Sunny the same way she dealt with Sandwhale. She wanted to wrap all her opponent’s body bits in her black cloth and change them into a single card. However, unlike Sandwhale’s ability, Sunny’s body fragments were too nimble and had an advantage as they could float. Lin Sanjiu tried to wrap her cloth around them but she failed every single time.

Watching as the countless body bits surrounded her, she noticed that her only escape route was into the enclosure whose door was now open. She clenched her teeth and finally resisted to urge to take out her [Empty-handed Kleptomaniac]. Instead, she ran toward the dense cloud of body fragments.

“You’re courting death—”

Amidst Sunny’s high-pitched laughter, a figure flew into the dense cloud of body fragments. The body fragments swarmed it immediately like a bee colony. Once it was caught within the swarm, the figure fell straight to the ground, as if it suddenly lost its lifeforce. Her expression changed before she could finish her sentence.

While the colony of body fragments swarmed and “consumed” the figure which was missing a left arm, Lin Sanjiu, freed from her black cloak, had already appeared above Sunny’s head.

“Stop her!” she screamed. Unfortunately, before Queenie could stand up, Sunny’s head which was flying rapidly backward hit Lin Sanjiu’s palms.

Lin Sanjiu held Sunny’s chin tightly as she landed on the ground. Lin Sanjiu grinned slowly at her.

“You can’t even fight half as well as you think. I can’t convert your head into a card,” she said quietly. Lin Saniu seemed almost unaware of the countless body fragments flying toward her back and even Queenie. “This means that your lifeforce is in this head.”

Lin Sanjiu laughed after she said that. “Make a guess. Would your body fragments reach me first or would I crush your head first?”

Sunny’s expression turned so cold it could freeze a person to death. After a moment of silence, she raised one corner of her lip reluctantly, “Queenie, let him go. Since she wants that man so badly, let’s return him to her.”

The body fragments stopped and the door of the enclosure swung open soundlessly. Qing Jiuliu walked out slowly.

“I’ll give him back to you. We’ll—

Before Sunny could finish what she wanted to say, she heard a thump. Queenie was kneeling beside Lin Sanjiu”

“What are you doing?” Sunny asked sternly, raising her brow.

For the first time since they had known each other, Queenie did not reply. Queenie crawled toward Lin Sanjiu on her knees. With tears pouring from her eyes, she sobbed spasmodically as she begged Lin Sanjiu, “Please…”

Lin Sanjiu did not know which of her subconscious micro-expression on her face revealed her intention.

“If-if you don’t kill Sunny,” Queenie sobbed so hard that it was hard to hear what she was saying. Her face contorted from her fear and pain. “I-I’ll do anything…”

Lin Sanjiu froze for a second. She felt no sympathy for Queenie but she found it a little hard to kill Sunny right in front of a person crying and begging at her feet. Lin Sanjiu heard footsteps heading toward her. It was Qing Jiuliu.

The latter’s expression was blurry under the dim moonlight. The light from his cigarette glowed softly.

“Give her to me,” he blew out a mouthful of cigarette smoke. He took out his cigarette and pointed at Sunny’s head which was still in Lin Sanjiu’s hand. After he took the head from her, he grabbed Queenie’s arm and pulled her to one side.

“You don’t have to deal with this matter anymore,” he said as he walked away without turning her head.

Lin Sanjiu stared blankly at his back, feeling a little dumbfounded.

She watched as Qing Jiuliu whispered something into Queenie’s ears. At first, the latter seemed confused and didn’t seem to understand. After she understood his words, she started wailing loudly. After Qing Jiuliu whispered a few more words to her, Queenie’s wailing gradually faded. She blinked and her eyes grew bright.

Sunny’s face suddenly twitched. She stared at them vacantly for a few seconds before she finally understood what Qing Jiuliu meant.

“Queenie! You psycho bitch! No! I don’t want that! Please, Queenie—” Her shrieks pierced the air.

However, this time, Queenie did not move but only looked back tenderly.

Sunny spat at her. The body which had just been pieced together split into a dozen pieces again. They simultaneously flew toward Qing Jiuliu’s back.

Smash.

Without even turning his head, Qing Jiuliu gripped the empty bottle in his hand by its neck and smashed it. Then, he thrust the other end of the bottle with the broken protruding shards deep into Sunny’s head.

The dozen pieces of body parts fell to the ground rapidly and lifelessly before Sunny could even whimper. They were now only a haphazard mess of broken body parts.

Queenie reached her hands out, trembling. Her face was covered with tears but she wore a smile. Qing Jiuliu placed Sunny’s head into her hands and muttered “thank you” over and over again.

Qing Jiuliu turned around and tossed a glance at Lin Sanjiu. He turned back and placed his hand on Queenie’s arm.

“I will absorb ⅓ of your blood right now,” his voice was so gentle that it was almost compassionate. Each of his words spurred more tears from Queenie. “You will die quickly. It won’t be painful.”

Queenie hugged Sunny’s pale-colored head. She nodded her head profusely. She gasped for air as she sobbed. However, no matter how afraid she was to die, she did not pull her arm back.

When everything ended, Qing Jiuliu stood up. His cigarette glowed softly in the darkness once more.

“That…” Lin Sanjiu took a few steps forward. “What did you say to them?”

Qing Jiuliu lowered his head and hid his expression.

“I told Queenie that Sunny would definitely die. However, I promised her that I could kill her and merge their bodies together so that they would never be apart from each other.”

Lin Sanjiu was shocked, “W-why?”

When Qing Jiuliu looked up again, his eyes seemed to hold a galaxy of diamond starlight.

“On one hand, I wanted to set her mind at ease… On the other hand, you have a 1.8m female corpse which you can hand to Irezumi now.”