Doomsday Wonderland

Getting rid of their adversary did not make their situation any better. In fact, their condition had become worse.

The basement was merely two meters deep into the ground. As the roof had been destroyed, an additional two meters of distance away from the crater in the sky did not exponentially increase their chances of survival whatsoever. A small lapse of concentration or slipping on their feet was enough to cost their life.

The rift in the sky was getting broader and deeper with each passing second. No one knew what was beyond the rift. The darkness that gradually revealed itself was even more profound and pure than the night, and it was enough to cause one’s heart to beat with fear by looking at it.

The wind had reached an incredible speed, and everything that could provide them leverage had been decimated. The pipe and the handrail couldn’t stand for more than a few minutes in the gust before being ripped apart and disappeared into the sky without a trace. However, even if there was somewhere they could hold on, they wouldn’t be able to see it as they couldn’t even open their eyes.

Like specks of dust resisting the strong suction of a vacuum cleaner, the few of them had taken cover in a corner of the basement, locking their hands together. The mighty wind had pinned them against the wall, red bruises blossomed on their face, and their bodies were covered with wounds after getting hit multiple times by the wild frenzy of things from the basement.

Lin Sanjiu had fixed Magus to her back with her bone whip. She made two holes in the wall and stabbed her hands deep into them. With that, she had managed to secure her upper body, but her lower torso, along with her grand prize and Qing Jiuliu were still fluttered in midair. Horrified, she immediately released her Higher Consciousness.

The Higher Consciousness worked like a large roll of tape; not only did it provided a new force for them to resist the wind, it also helped them to reorient themselves back to their original positions. Once again, with their head facing up and their feet facing down, their fluttering hearts had finally slowed for the time being.

After Lin Sanjiu calmed herself down, she opened the card containing the [All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix].

An elegant phoenix coronet tattoo swirled around in the air from the card as if it had its life force before landing on Lin Sanjiu’s left cheek. Initially, she wanted to etch the tattoo on her arm as the assailant did; however, the situation at hand gave her no leeway to do such a trivial thing now. As such, she could only allow the tattoo to crawl through her jawline and settle down on her cheek.

[All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix]

Description: Behold, the true phoenix has descended.

As a celestial, ancient, mythical beast superior and king to all birds, it’s within the realm of common decency for thou commoner to walk up and pay me homage. Nevertheless, I am a king of birds born with great benevolence. I do not seek thou to be as beautiful as the peacock, or as elegant as the crane and the swan; I will accept you with good graces even if thou are a hen. Come and worship me.

Effect: Every creature that resembles the item owner will be subjected to the force majeure and will be forced to pay homage to the owner by walking close to his side. Only when the item owner is satisfied with their performance will the force majeure be lifted. Of course, other things could be done in replace if one refuses to show respect to the owner. The affected will be given full freedom in picking whatever they want to do: dancing, sing a song, commit a theft, or kill somebody, and so forth.

Conditions to note: “His side” refers to 65 – 85 centimeters in front of the item owner. It’s terrible to detain people after they have come to worship you. Hence, the duration of this item is seven minutes.

Even a true phoenix can only play havoc with birds once a day. Consequently, this item can only be used for seven minutes a day. The owner can choose to either dole out the seven minutes from the point of activation until the end of the day or spend it all up in one go. Once the seven minutes quota has been filled, the item will remain unavailable until the next day.

“Resemblance:” The target has to have similar physical properties to the item owner: body weight, body shape, body height, the quantity of hair, and the number of feet to name a few. The differences between the target and the item owner cannot be more than one category, or else it will be regarded as dissimilar.

With the aid of the [All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix], the grand prize and Qing Jiuliu finally got nearer to the ground and further away from the dimensional rift. Both of their expressions lightened as they heaved a sigh of relief.

The rift in the sky had opened to a shocking degree, and however great person strength was, he would never be able to survive the wind if he chose to fight against the wind purely with his own power. If it weren’t for the [All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix] and Lin Sanjiu’s Higher Consciousness, four of them would have long since been swept into the rift.

“HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?” Lin Sanjiu’s roar cut through the deafening gale.

Ji Shanqing’s ponytail bobbed high in the air as he pressed his face as close as possible to the wall. When he heard Lin Sanjiu’s voice, he answered without turning his face, “—WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

“HOW LONG HAS THE DIMENSIONAL RIFT BEEN THERE SINCE IT APPEARED?” Lin Sanjiu yelled out loud again.

Her voice was carried away by the wind the moment it came out from her lips. Ji Shanqing had to take extra effort before he could listen clearly to what she had said.

“TEN MINUTES! IT HAS BEEN TEN MINUTES!” He replied loudly.

” It has been so long ?”

As Lin Sanjiu was adjusting her posture to have better balance, her heart sank as she had sensed something. She realized that her Higher Consciousness was draining at an alarming rate like a paper lit by the flames. However, the wind that ravaged through the earth showed no sign of depleting at all. It had become even stronger than before. It was as though the wind was planning to sweep the entire planet into the rift.

Her skin that had been exposed to the air reddened, and each time a cold blast hit her would steal away some of her body heat. Her limbs were numb and turned white in the cold. The assaulting wind carried a maelstrom of gravel and sand, and it hurt her eyes very much. She couldn’t even squint her eyes, much less open them any wider.

“HAS IT BECOME SMALLER?”

Burying her face in her arms, she cried out in near despair.

It was Qing Jiuliu who replied this time, “NOT YET! THE RIFT HAS BECOME LARGER!”

Although Qing Jiuliu was practically right next to her, she couldn’t capture his voice very clearly amidst the howling gust.

“AH, MY CIGARETTE! GODDAMMIT! THE WIND TOOK MY CIGARETTE AWAY!”

” How can you still worry about your cigarette when you’re on the precipice of death? !”

Lin Sanjiu cussed Qing Jiuliu inwardly and bit her lower lips tight.

“SIS! SIS! ARE THERE ANY SPECIAL ITEMS LEFT THAT YOU CAN USE?” Ji Shanqing had to shout several times before it reached Lin Sanjiu’s ears.

Lin Sanjiu came to a mental halt. Then, her eyes glowed in the next second, “YES! THE CHOKER!”

Ji Shanqing came alive the moment Lin Sanjiu mentioned the choker. He shouted his loudest shout, and very soon the [Pygmalion Choker] warmed up.

What the grand prize had described her was a ‘weight increase’ ability. With that, Lin Sanjiu immediately increased her weight to 500 tons, and her feet finally descended to the ground again.

Since the effect of the ability created by the choker was affected by the upper limit of her Higher Consciousness, 500 tons was the cap weight she could add to herself. The moment she touched the ground, she immediately kept her Higher Consciousness away and sat down in the corner. Her weight was too heavy, and if she did not even out her weight, the pressure would crush both her bone and the ground.

With Lin Sanjiu serving as the anchor that anchored them to the ground, the other two people let out a sigh of relief.

In this way, they could hold on for another five minutes.

“If the dimensional rift is still there after five minutes,” Qing Jiuliu walked closer and shouted at the two, “Use the [Battle Item] to imitate the choker!”

Lin Sanjiu sighed despondently and nodded. Using the [Battle Item] means she could imitate the choker and extend the effect of the [Pygmalion Choker] to ten minutes. And this would very well become her ace in her sleeve that could help her to turn around the table should she encounter a fighter of Puppeteer or Magus caliber. Never once had she thought she would waste this kind of ace in the hole in this kind of situation.

However, Lin Sanjiu soon dispelled that notion before it sank deeper into her mind, ” Well, saving our own lives shouldn’t be counted as a wasted effort .”

Using her arm to shield herself from the wind, Lin Sanjiu peered into the sky through the slit between her fingers. Just as what Qing Jiuliu had described, the deep rift had not dwindled in the slightest bit but had grown bigger as if it was a mouth that kept getting wider and wider. Looking up from the ground, she could see only dead darkness on the farther side of the gaping mouth, and the remnants and scraps from this side of the world that kept rushing into it.

Lin Sanjiu had to divert her gaze from the hole and lowered her head after a few seconds. Bracing herself against the airflow that whipped mercilessly at her exposed skin, she counted seconds using “Mississippi” as a pacer inside her heart.

By the time she counted more than sixty “Mississippi,” the ferocious wind had subsided in a flash, just as suddenly as it had appeared in the sky. Once the rift was gone, the earth was instantly— almost dramatically— washed with peace and tranquility, which gave them an impression that everything that had just transpired was merely an illusion. The township had been cleaned of everything; the rift had razed the town to the ground, leaving nothing but a few broken walls and crumbled fences that stood silently amongst the ruin.

The three of them looked at each other, and none of them could slacken their guard. Drawing experience from their previous encounter with the dimensional rift, they knew it hadn’t ended yet, and the dimensional rift would show up again anytime starting from now.

“Quick!” Lin Sanjiu rose to her feet and said, her voice was croaky, “We have to prepare before the second rift comes.”

The grand prize and Qing Jiuliu stood up promptly once they felt the effect of the [All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix] lift. The basement was relatively safe if compared to other places as it was shielded from the full onslaught of the dimensional rift’s suctioning force; thus, they decided to stay. Having that said, they still needed to make some modification to the basement to increase their chance of surviving the next storm.

Taking advantage of her immense body weight, Lin Sanjiu smashed a hole through the cemented floor. Since there was a layer of foundation under the house, they could proceed with the excavation work smoothly. Seizing every minute and second they had, the three of them worked together and deepened the hole. They were careful with their hands as an accident that would make the trench wider was not something they welcomed. After a few minutes, a not-so-deep “well” was formed inside the foundation.

After that, they quickly crawled into the hole and steadied themselves with their upper torso jutting above the ground.

“Alas, it never once crossed my mind that in the end that we have to shelter ourselves from the rift in a hole,” Qing Jiuliu said with a cigarette dangling from his lips. Since it was his last cigarette, he did not ignite it but instead just clamped it in between his teeth, “You know what? I hope that the dimensional rift would appear soon. We look like three fucking stupid groundhogs.”

Aside from Magus, who couldn’t talk, the other two people looked at him as if they were looking at a psycho.

Lin Sanjiu raised her hand and caressed her face, and her countenance became dark.

The [All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix] could barely maintain its effect for more than a few seconds before disappearing. Recalling the time the assailant had used, Lin Sanjiu surmised that the seven minutes quota of the day must have been fulfilled.

The whole world seemed sadly empty. It was as if the disappearance of the rift had taken away all its life force as well. The three people did not speak to each other, and when they did that, their surroundings became so still and silent that they even could hear the flow of their blood and breath.

“It’s taking a bit longer than usual,” Ji Shanqing raised his body and whispers, “Perhaps—”

The grand prize never finished his sentence. The ground quaked violently, reducing what he was going to say into a mere scream of fear. In an instant, the earth shivered, and the mountain swayed as if somebody had placed the entire planet into a shopping bag and rocked it ferociously. Lin Sanjiu swept her glance across the horizon, and to her horror, multiple fissures had appeared on the ground far away from them.

The loud rumbling produced when the ground cracked opened deadened every sound they made. She couldn’t see anything, and all she could do was clench the edge of the hole tightly as she was thrown up and down, here and there, by the rampaging earth. Humans were so small and laughable in the face of this kind of catastrophic power, and the only thing that could hold them in place was Lin Sanjiu’s Higher Consciousness.

Suddenly, she sensed a black figure was flying in her direction. And before she knew, the grand prize had slammed into her, connecting with her body with a forceful smack. She saw stars for a moment. Then, the grand prize voice, which was full of broken sobs, rang out beside her ears, “Sis! It’s the ground! The dimensional rift had appeared in the ground!

Lin Sanjiu’s face blanched. Before she could say anything, she heard the earth rumble and groan again as if it was in pain. The grand prize was tossed into the air, and if Lin Sanjiu had not covered them in her Higher Consciousness, he would have been flung out from the hole. However, the hole itself was crumbling, and she didn’t know how long it would last.

Bit by bit, the earth moved rapidly inward upon the gaping crack. The ground appeared to be powerless when confronted with such deadly gravitational force.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before Lin Sanjiu and her friends were gobbled up by the crack. She squeezed every bit of her Higher Consciousness but keeping them in place was her limit. Holding the [Battle Item] in her hand, she yelled at the top of her lungs to have the duo describe an ability that could pull them out from this predicament. However, none of them could hear her voice.

Her Higher Consciousness was reduced to half in merely ten seconds. As Lin Sanjiu was thrashed around in the hole, she saw that the rift–that absolute darkness– had lengthened to the sky from the earth. Her vision went black as if she was blinded.

“Woah!”

A scream cut through the grumble and moan of the earth resounded in her ear. Lin Sanjiu stunned for a brief moment before she finally realized who was responsible for the sound.

“What the hell were you doing when I was away?!”

Mrs. Manas sounded terrified. Then, she moved on without waiting for Lin Sanjiu to reply, “Your Higher Consciousness is wearing thin. I’ll help you to manage the flow so you can concentrate on thinking!”

It wasn’t the right time to chew the fat nor to cheer for their reunion. The moment Lin Sanjiu felt her Higher Consciousness had stabilized, she immediately made her way to Qing Jiuliu who was nearest to her. She showed him the [Battle Item] that was now in the form of a choker, and he soon understood her intention.

“In a diametrically opposite way,” he went nearer and shouted into her ear. His voice was too sharp that it almost pierced through her eardrum. “You can now act in a diametrically opposite way. Everything that happens to you will sway away from their original course and act oppositely!”

Lin Sanjiu felt a load had lifted from her mind the moment she grasped what kind of ability Qing Jiuliu had described. She almost cried out in tears. Soon, the [Battle Item] grew warm just like the Pygmalion Choker. She then used her Higher Consciousness and her bone whip to gather the other three people around her, waiting for the ability to take effect.

Facing the disastrous dimensional rift, she found the effect of her Special Item still lacked since it was limited by the quality and quantity of her Higher Consciousness. However, in the very least when all of them were flung outside the hole, they were not sucked directly towards the rift, but instead, they were moving in the opposite of the rift.

After a time that seemed like an eternity, the savage hole was getting smaller by degrees before finally ceasing away. The sea had wholly dried up. If someone were to look from the sky above, they would find that the planet looked as if somebody had taken a large scoop from a cup of jelly.

All of them fell to the ground with a few loud thuds. None of them had any extra energy to stand up and could only heave slowly on the ground.

“I-I’ll repeats this,” Qing Jiuliu had shouted himself hoarse. His delicate face was covered with injuries and dust, “… My luck has become so bad ever since I met you guys.”

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t refute such a statement. She also found that the God of Misfortune seemed to have taken a particular liking to her.

“What a nightmare,” As an ultra-intelligent AI lived in Lin Sanjiu’s mind, Mrs. Manas did not need to catch her breath. As such, her voice was as calm as usual, “… I thought I was going to die with you the moment I woke up.”

Seeing that Lin Sanjiu did not reply to her, she continued to speak after a short pause, “Oh yeah, since you still have a little bit of Higher Consciousness left, I used it to capture an image, and I want you to take a look.”

“… What is that?” Lin Sanjiu finally replied to Mrs. Manas in her mind. She was so tired that her brain refused to work for now.

Mrs. Manas played footage of the constant tremor in her eyes. It was the scene when Lin Sanjiu glanced at the dimensional rift while they were resisting the suction force.

Mrs. Manas pulled the footage closer and magnified it. The great darkness on the other side of the dimensional rift covered her entire vision.

The darkness lasted for several minutes before it finally revealed what she had seen in a glimpse. It was a blurred and pixelated figure—On the other side of the darkness, a small and dimly-lit planet was floating around.