Doomsday Wonderland

After his name was called repeatedly for several times, Ji Shanqing finally exited the eBay interface reluctantly. The grand prize took a deep breath. With his eyes sparkling and his fair skin flushed, he could not control his emotions. He looked at the two other people at the table and sighed, “There are so many things. Can we just buy whatever we want? Wow…”

“We need to use other items to exchange for them… What did you see?” Lin Sanjiu asked without looking at him. As Qing Jiuliu reached for the plastic letter, Lin Sanjiu touched four other items on the table and converted them into her cards.

“Many!” the grand prize answered, enthralled. “There are on sorts of items on sale. There are visas, nutrition packs, transportation devices, there is even this mystical oil… I’ve only browsed through over twenty items, so why did you stop me?”

“Let’s organize these things here. You can continue browsing later,” Lin Sanjiu suggested as she massaged her temples. Right now, she felt like the mastermind of the homicide-robbery. Meanwhile, the two real initiators were already distracted.

Lin Sanjiu could not understand why the grand prize was ironically uninterested in the free items that were directly in front of them.

“Yeah, I’ll help,” Ji Shanqing sulked as he watched Qing Jiuliu. The latter was clenching the plastic letter and his eyes were closed. His eyes shifted slightly beneath his eyelids. The grand prize sighed, “What’s this?”

Without the description from Lin Sanjiu’s card, the three of them would never be able to guess how the fourth item should be used. As a matter of fact, the Special Item was just a small pile of sand and gravel. To be honest, each of the items that Carrot Lo had chosen to bring along with him seemed unremarkable. Perhaps, he even added the toothbrush just to confuse his enemies.

[The Mountains Remove The Foolish Old Man] ¹

Let me tell you something. Us, mountains, have been living here for generations. We live honest and decent lives. We don’t create trouble and we often provide wood and game. What did I do wrong? Why do I have to move?

The foolish man thinks that he can shift me just because he found a deity? Bullshit!

Just watch me! When I see him, I’ll create a landslide! Let’s see who will run first.

Instructions: Throw this handful of loose gravel. They will fall to the ground in the same state without scattering. Collect after using.

Remaining uses: 3/10

Item effect: Alter an irrevocable situation once.

Note: This item will only be activated if all the people involved recognize that nothing else can be done to change the irrevocable situation before the user tosses the item. The effect is dependent on the particular event. Even if you’re dissatisfied with the outcome, you can’t complain to this pitiful mountain.

“Amazing,” the grand prize commended but he suddenly frowned. “However, the requirement for everyone involved to come to a consensus about the situation wouldn’t be easy.”

Lin Sanjiu nodded and turned to look at the next item. She stared at the fifth Special Item indecisively—she had no idea if it was even a Special Item—before she reached for it.

“That’s the fifth item. Sis, you’re not mistaken.”

“It’s a candle?” Lin Sanjiu frowned as she looked at it under the dim candlelight. “But… why does it look similar to the other candles?”

[Truth Revealing Candle]

The flames from this candle can pierce through all darkness, unveiling all sorts of disguises and illusions. After you lit it, no illusions can exist under its illumination.

Instructions: Lit the candle wick. This works even better if the surrounding is dark.

Effects: Everything would reveal its original form under the illumination of this candlelight. With the exception of a person’s lies, any form of disguise/illusion would disappear under the candlelight.

Note: This is a candle that is very afraid of loneliness. If it is not placed with many other candles, its lifespan would become much shorter. A candle that could actually last for hours might light up only for over ten minutes if it spends many days alone.

Remaining time: 1 hour 1 minute.

“This speaks volume about Carrot Lo’s candle collection,” Ji Shanqing commented insightfully. “Carrot Lo gave me all these candles on the table—”

Lin Sanjiu didn’t say anything and lowered her head as she clenched the card in her hand. It was as if she was waiting for that name to quickly fade from their surroundings. Somehow, knowing that detail about Carrot Lo giving Ji Shanqing those candles to lit the place seemed to affect her inadvertently.

No matter how obnoxious the man was, she really did not have any grudges against Carrot Lo.

Just then, Qing Jiuliu placed the [eBay] letter down. Perhaps, he had heard their conversation. He looked up with his glossy, drunken eyes and threw the plastic letter over to Lin Sanjiu. Strangely, though he didn’t say anything, Lin Sanjiu felt an incomprehensible sense of relief when she caught the letter.

“You only went through these items?” Qing Jiuliu pursed his lips. For some reason, there was something off about his expression. His gaze swept past the grand prize before he stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lowered his head. Click. Click. He struck his lighter. When he raised that question, he did not look at the items on the table and avoided Lin Sanjiu’s gaze. Lin Sanjiu frowned a little when she noticed this.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Sanjiu asked immediately.

Contradicting her expectations, Qing Jiuliu answered, “Nothing.”

He turned his head away quietly. The diamond-like sparkle in his eyes was ever so eye-catching. Just when Lin Sanjiu could not hold back from urging him to answer her again, Qing Jiuliu looked at the two of them and curled a corner of his lip. He rapped the table with his knuckles. “Let’s get through the items first. I have something to tell both of you. In any case, we will need these items.”

Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing both sat up straight. They exchanged glances feeling somewhat perplexed. Then, Lin Sanjiu decisively converted the remaining six items into her cards all at once. Out of the six items, only half of the items were Special Items. Out of the three remaining items, one was communication equipment from the Munitions Factory, one was a paid membership ID from Consular Officer Association and the last was a key to an unknown lock.

When Lin Sanjiu saw the key, she suddenly felt a heavy sense of guilt from taking another person’s life.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at the corpse lying not far from her. He was a skinny man yet his death hung heavily on her. The dead body lay stiff on the floor without a single sign of life.

“Sorry,” Lin Sanjiu apologized in her heart and turned her head away. She turned to Qing Jiuliu, “Come on, tell us what you saw on eBay?”

The grand prize’s eyes lit up. “Can we buy it? Is it expensive? Why don’t we try to purchase something at least once?”

Qing Jiuliu rested his chin on a bottle of wine as he eyed his two companions with a seeming smile, “I saw that thing… in the list of grayed out items I can’t buy.”

The grand prize instantly turned glum.

“But, if I tell you what it is, you two—no, at least you would have a crazy urge to buy it.” Qing Jiuliu turned to the grand prize and flashed a wide grin at him, showing his pearly white teeth. “The name of that item is [Uterus Project].”

The grand prize looked back at him blankly.

“I… I don’t plan to have children.”

“I know you don’t have any plans,” Qing Jiuliu was clearly keeping him in suspense. He continued at a dawdling speed, “That item is used to inject life into an object so that it becomes like a real human. It can only be used on items that resemble a human such as dolls, robots… or a grand prize that looks like a human…” Qing Jiuliu leaned on the table sluggishly, “…et cetera.”