Doomsday Wonderland

There was very little information on the page showing the [Uterus Project]. There were no pictures and no detailed explanation about the item. In fact, the only item description that was provided was what Qing Jiuliu told them. As the item effect seemed quite pointless, no one pressed the “Like” button even though the item had been seen over 200 times.

Lin Sanjiu looked at the pathetic number of “likes” on the item. She pressed the like button on impulse and it instantly changed to 1. Contemplating for a moment, she turned to the “Buy it now” button which remained unchanged and tried to select it.

A new page suddenly appeared before her:

“Untradable: you are unable to purchase this item as the physical item is too far from your current location. Please try again after you have changed locations,” Lin Sanjiu read out the words she saw. Even though her eyes were closed, she could sense the grand prize leaning toward her. She could feel his warm breath on her ears. Judging just by his appearance, there was no doubt that the grand prize was no different from a real human.

“Change locations? What’s with that?” Ji Shanqing asked zealously.

“Wait, let me see… Ah, the seller’s information is here,” Lin Sanjiu scrutinized the seller’s ID, “Peppy Lil’ Sesame”, and read out the information: “This person is currently in a world called ‘Endless Tunnel’, the world she will be heading to in 28 days is… ‘Heaven Underworld’. Oh, isn’t this one of the world among the Twelve World Centrum? I think we need to head to the same place to buy that item.”

“This Lil’ Sesame sure isn’t simple if she can get a visa to the Twelve Worlds,” the grand prize mumbled to himself while he frowned.

“Is the [Uterus Project] expensive?” he quickly asked Lin Sanjiu the moment she exited from [eBay].

“She didn’t set a price. On the page, it only states that she wants to exchange it for a combat Special Item,” Lin Sanjiu answered. “If you think about it, we are probably the only ones interested in this [Uterus Project]. No one would probably find a real use for it. It’s quite logical why she didn’t set a price for it.”

Unlike Puppeteer’s ability which gave him absolute control, [Uterus Project] could only make an item into a “human”. After the item became human, it would be impossible to tell if it would leave the owner or even stab them in the back. From a certain perspective, there was no reason for such an item to exist. It wasn’t too hard to think why the owner wanted to sell it.

“Um… Sis, what do you think?” Ji Shanqing’s eyes sparkled, “Let’s buy it?”

Even though he ended his sentence with a question mark, his face clearly showed “buy-it-buy-it-buy-it!”

“I think we can try,” Lin Sanjiu concluded after some consideration. “Even though there are advantages of you being a grand prize, I think buying it would give us some form of assurance.”

Once Lin Sanjiu made that decision, Ji Shanqing immediately activated his [Inadequate Consular Officer] and planned to issue three visas to “Heaven Underworld” for his companions. Wondering why she had not heard Qing Jiuliu’s voice for some time, Lin Sanjiu turned to look at him and realized that he had already fallen asleep.

It wasn’t all that surprising. Even during the murder, Qing Jiuliu did not put his whiskey bottle down. Within this time, he had already finished quite a few bottles of whiskey. His alcohol tolerance was certainly amazing since he fell asleep without getting alcohol poisoning.

Lin Sanjiu nudged him a few times but he did not wake up. In the end, Lin Sanjiu had no choice but to smack his face a few times. Qing Jiuliu, with his alarming lack of vigilance and caution, finally opened his eyes with difficulty.

Lin Sanjiu immediately slipped him a paper crane. “Are you awake? Quick, you should inform Cyrus and the others not to come over… I’m worried that they’ll find the body when they reach us. It’ll be hard to explain the situation then.”

“Why don’t you send them that message? You can speak, can’t you?” Qing Jiuliu looked as if someone had stolen his backbone. “I’m tired…” he slurred lazily.

“Aren’t you the best actor? You’ll be perfect for the job,” Lin Sanjiu was already accustomed to the man’s puckish personality so she wasn’t deterred. She watched him carefully as he delivered the message in a highly convincing manner with his brilliant acting skills. She only spoke to him again after the paper crane disappeared into the dark night sky. “The grand prize is issuing visas for us now. When we reach the next world—”

“Ah.”

Just as she said that, she heard an unexpected cry. Lin Sanjiu swung her head around only to find the grand prize sitting under the candlelight. His mouth was open. Under the interplay of light from the flames, the helplessness on his face was brazenly clear.

“What’s wrong?”

“I…” the grand prize hesitated as if he had difficulty enunciating the next few words. After a few seconds, he finally stuttered, “I… I can only issue a single visa to each place.”

“What?” Lin Sanjiu leaped up immediately. She rushed over and grabbed the visas that the grand prize had just issued. She skimmed through the visas one after another and realized that not even one of them was to a duplicate destination.

“How did this happen?”

“My ability only fuses other abilities. It doesn’t allow me to swap abilities. Even though I killed two consular officers consecutively, my ability is only [Inadequate Consular Officer].” Ji Shanqing was so dejected that even his eyebrows drooped. Refusing to look up, he continued, “At first, I thought that the ‘inadequate’ only meant that the visas I issued wouldn’t be that good. I didn’t expect that I could only issue one visa to each location.”

Almost as if he had sensed that Lin Sanjiu was going to ask him another question, the grand prize let out a long sigh, “Moreover, the total number of visas I can issue is very limited… Only the first visa is to a low-level world. As for the rest,” when he said this, he jabbed the other cards on the table brusquely, “The Olympics, Pompeii… Who knows what these worlds are… I don’t even know what level they are.”

Lin Sanjiu looked down and counted the cards, then realized that the grand prize could only issue about eight cards. The only advantage of the visas he issued was that they were nameless. Anyone could use them.

“Isn’t there even one visa to the Twelve Worlds Centrum?”

“No,” the grand prize said unhappily.

Despite his drunken stupor, Qing Jiuliu seemed to have noticed this unfavorable situation through their conversation. He suddenly shifted over and placed his chin on the table. At that moment, he looked like a dog.

“What should we do now?” Lin Sanjiu was worried. “First, we need to go to Heaven Underworld to buy [Uterus Project]. We also need to bring Magus along and…” Lin Sanjiu looked at Qing Jiuliu and hesitated before continuing, “…Qing Jiuliu. In the end, we still need to find a consular officer?”

“You hurt my feelings when you paused,” Qing Jiuliu grumbled imperceptibly.

“Not necessarily,” the grand prize rubbed his face, exhaustedly, while he pulled his eyes into two slits. “We can also go on [eBay]. Look… I saw people selling visas on the item listings. Maybe, we can buy visas to Heaven Underworld.”

“That’s the only option now,” Lin Sanjiu thought to herself as she massaged her temples. She took the plastic letter “e” from the table. Once she held it in her hands, she closed her eyes again.

“How is it?” the grand prize asked.

“Take that visa to the low-level world to Magus,” Lin Sanjiu ordered, “We don’t know when she will be transported to the next world. Let’s not take any chances.”

The grand prize acquiesced and left with the visa to “Sandwich Cookie”.

Once Ji Shanqing left, the soft cackling from the burning candle wicks seemed to be the only sound in the living room. The night grew darker making it seem as the whole house was floating in a sea of darkness. Lin Sanjiu held the plastic letter and closed her eyes once more.

The eBay interface lit up in front of her again.

“Hey.”

She suddenly heard Qing Jiuliu’s voice. She heard a sound from the chair. He seemed to have to stood up. Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes immediately. Before she could ask him what had happened, she was stunned.

A white fluttering shadow was entering the window.

“Strange, didn’t we just send that paper crane out?” Qing Jiuliu opened his palm. The small paper crane flapped its wings and settled on his hand, “Why did it return so quickly?”

He got his answer from Cyrus’ voice message swiftly.

“We found a boat. We have been traveling by sea so we’re fast. We have reached the shore. We just need to walk for a few hours to reach the place you are.” Cyrus sounded very serious. “Don’t move the consular officer’s body anywhere. Wait for us to look at him.”

He said only a few words so the message ended quickly. Once the message ended, the living room became silent again.

The grand prize pushed Magus into the living room and heard the end of the message. He stopped. They exchanged glances and became dismayed.

“Repeat the message,” Lin Sanjiu said softly as she stared at the paper crane.

Qing Jiuliu played Cyrus’ message again.

Alright. They weren’t mistaken…

They heard a whistling sound in the background of Cyrus’ message. It seemed some distance away from where Cyrus was.