Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu exchanged glances with the red panda beside her. Both of them were speechless.

At that moment, a large “item” was occupying the flight of stairs before them. It lay askew on the stairs. The three of them stared at each other in a daze for a short while.

“Me… You two… why did we suddenly change? What happened?” Ji Shanqing stammered in a vexed voice. His voice was muffled as if it was behind a layer of cloth.

Lin Sanjiu looked at the red panda and she spun twice on the same spot. She suddenly flapped her wings and lifted herself mid-air. When she landed, she found herself standing on the seat of a sofa. She ran across the sofa while Ji Shanqing yelped a few consecutive “ouches”. Then, she jumped off the other end of the sofa.

Lin Sanjiu looked down at her own claws and sighed inwardly. She just verified that the sofa was indeed Ji Shanqing.

It wasn’t all that surprising. The old lady only said that they would “change species” and did not actually specified that they would become animals. Since Ji Shanqing was originally a grand prize, the fact that he had transformed into a three-seater sofa with floral cover wasn’t strange by any stretch of the imagination.

“But, of all furniture, why did he have to become a sofa?” Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.

Among them, undeniably, the person that was most pleased with Ji Shanqing’s transformation was Qing Jiuliu. He bounced up onto the sofa and sat snugly on it. He placed a paw on one of the armrests and said to Ji Shanqing, “It must have been tiring for you to shuffle all the way here. Let’s go. I’ll tell you everything that happened as we go upstairs.”

“Do you know how hard it is for me to move around?!” Ji Shanqing said as he shifted up one step strenuously. When he moved, it was as if there was an invisible person pushing him from behind. The sofa shifted an angle and then slightly upward before one of its legs smashed down on another step of the staircase. His action created the familiar noise they heard previously.

Lin Sanjiu was anxious to go upstairs to check on Magus but she was also worried about the two companions behind her. In the end, she raced up a few steps and quickly turned around. As she looked back at them, she suddenly thought of something, “Can you still use your abilities?”

“To be accurate, my abilities are not unusable, but I simply don’t fulfill the requirements to use them,” Qing Jiuliu said sluggishly. “I need to use my hand to cover a surface before I can extract the liquid within it. I can’t fulfill even the first requirement to activate that ability with both my paws. I know even without trying.”

A visa suddenly appeared on the blue floral sofa almost as a response to what he said. After a few seconds, the visa burst and disappeared like a bubble as the sofa moved. Ji Shanqing could activate his ability even as a sofa. He wasn’t human, so naturally, the requirements for him to activate his abilities would not be related to any of his “body parts”. Even though he could still use his ability, it seemed useless considering their current situation.

Lin Sanjiu pondered for a moment and tried to call out a card. Unfortunately, without her hand, her cards seemed to be unable to decide whether they should appear from her wings or her clawed feet. Nothing happened even after she waited for some time. Since she couldn’t even call our her card, Lin Sanjiu knew she didn’t even have to try her [Mosaic Censorship] as she needed both her hands. Her heart sank the moment she realized this.

“I wonder if our transformation is due to that old lady’s own abilities or a special item… In any case, the effects should only last for a limited time, right?”

In spite of everything, there was a silver lining to their dire situation. Lin Sanjiu could still use her higher consciousness. She retained an abnormal amount of physical strength despite being a hen. Lastly, she could still use the [Pygmalion Choker] on her neck. At least, Lin Sanjiu could still rely on these three things.

“Regardless, let’s just go upstairs first,” she fought her urge to coo and continue grumbling. “That old lady doesn’t know us so I guess her target is Magus. I wonder how she is now.”

Since Magus could probably still use her higher consciousness, she would still be fast asleep. However, her other abilities should be rendered useless so her other means of protection would probably be disabled. This was indeed the worst set of circumstances for Magus.

“I’m so tired,” the blue floral sofa made another thud and panted heavily as he stood on the stairs. Even the sofa cover seemed to be heaving, “It’s too hard for me to climb up the stairs this way. Qing Jiuliu, get down from me now!”

The red panda groused a little and jumped down from the sofa. To help them move along faster, Lin Sanjiu spread her wings and shoved Ji Shanqing from the other end of his armrest. She pushed and nudged Ji Shanqing while he tried his best to continue climbing. With that, momentarily, they moved much quicker up the stairs.

“Hey,” Qing Jiuliu said as he climbed up the stairs. “This world is an absolute mess compared to all the other worlds I have been in. What’s with the schizophrenia, calories and dimensional rift… Now, we even transformed into other species. There is no logic whatsoever.”

Lin Sanjiu looked up at the number 16 on the wall and continued up the stairs, “I have some thoughts… about this.” Lin Sanjiu had the same sentiments. Everything seemed incoherently chaotic. Yet, amidst this presumptive chaos, Lin Sanjiu had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

“This is just a thought,” she explained to her other two companions. “I think there is something unnatural about this situation. It doesn’t make sense. Especially when I think about all the other worlds, I have this strong gut feeling that there is something wrong with this world. I can’t point out what it is exactly since it’s just my instincts.”

“Unnatural…” Ji Shanqing repeated in a low voice and then went quiet. Both of them continued moving without saying a word, seemingly lost in their own thoughts.

Qing Jiuliu broke the silence. “We have been climbing up the stairs for such a long time, why aren’t we there yet?” the red panda stopped and looked around. “What floor is this?”

“19,” Lin Sanjiu frowned. Considering her speed, she found it strange that they had only climbed up three floors even after such a long time. Perhaps, it was because Ji Shanqing was slow.

“We just have to go up one floor to reach Magus. Everyone, keep your guard up for any sort of forcefield she had set up.”

If Magus created a protective forcefield with her higher consciousness, it was possible that it might still be active. However, as they climbed to the next floor with Ji Shanqing panting behind them, Lin Sanjiu realized that her advice was unnecessary.

They were back on the 16th floor.

The familiar “16” on the wall stared back at them quietly. Even the dirt at the side of the number was exactly the same.

“We are not slow. We have already climbed the stairs on the 16th floor several times,” Ji Shanqing suddenly mumbled.