Doomsday Wonderland

“Sis’, how long can you still hold on?”

His fear of heights had impeded the grand prize from looking down. All he could do now was hug Lin Sanjiu’s leg with all his might as if his life was depended on it. His neck ached, for he had maintained such an anti-ergonomic posture for a long while.

The two of them were now hanging off a cliff nearly thousand meters in the air, swaying in the strong wind. Whenever a gust of wind hit them, their legs swung, and Lin Sanjiu would hear a sharp whimper as if from a choked hamster beneath her.

Their chances of survival depended on how long Lin Sanjiu could hold onto the cliff. Even though the grand prize was light, it still put a lot of strain on her arms. Her muscles throbbed with pain, and her face and arms were covered with wounds and lacerations. There was even sand embedded in some of her injuries, and the pain was unbearable.

“Can I kick you down the cliff?” She asked loudly, “That wouldn’t kill you, right? As long as you’re not unwrapped.”

“NO!” Ji Shanqing yelled out loud, “If you kick me down, I will die!”

“Why?”

“Falling from such a great height, even a stone will be smashed into pieces, let alone me!” The grand prize cried. His grip on Lin Sanjiu’s leg tightened.

“What should I do?”  Biting her lip, Lin Sanjiu could feel the pulsation of her veins, and the sound of her blood rushing through her body was getting clearer with every ticking second.

There wasn’t much room for her to twist her neck freely. After she struggled to turn her head, her heart sank.

Dangling over a cliff thousand meters away from the ground, she finally had a rough picture of their current location.

There wasn’t any sky here.

No matter how hard she looked, straining her eyes against the distance and the lowering light, she could see only a thick fog that covered the entire world with its whiteness. There were hardly any woodlands, but there was a plethora of deep ravines and a mess of flattened mountains scattered across the vast copperish-red land, in the large “bowl,” and along the proximity of the human city that resembled an ant nest. The terrain was utterly unruly; it was as if it had been indiscriminately destroyed by a child.

While in the center—according to Lin Sanjiu’s speculation—of the swathe of vast land, a rocky mountain had risen steeply from the ground. It seemed about 1,000 meters high, and its peak was very close to the mist. Then, roughly three to four meters below the fog was the sandy area where Lin Sanjiu had fallen.

Having a loose structure, the sand did not provide much for Lin Sanjiu to hold on to. The reason she could hold for so long without falling was all thanks to Mrs. Manas’ quick response of using her Higher Consciousness to hold Lin Sanjiu in place. However, it was also due to this constant consumption that she couldn’t muster up enough Higher Consciousness to pull them out of the predicament.

Of course, Lin Sanjiu was not bold enough to climb up either.

Compared to being crushed to death by the “God’s” finger, she was more than willing to push her luck and think of a way to go down to the human city below. After all, there were so many survivors down there. She was certain that they must have a method to counter God.

“Do you think the [Tornado Whip] can offset the momentum of falling?” Lin Sanjiu huffed. With every syllable she spoke, she felt her body became denser.

Her grand prize emitted an incoherent grunt of disagreement. Apparently, he did not favor this idea very much, “… Getting thrown into the air before falling straight down to our death? That’s not a good idea, sis’.” He paused for a moment before asking hesitantly, “… The [Battle Item] can only imitate Special Items? Can’t it mimic a parachute?”

“No, it can’t.”

“Then, how about a Special Item with a parachute—”

“I have no idea which Special Item has that ability or looks like that,” The vein stood out in Lin Sanjiu’s temples, “… Besides, without a reference, I couldn’t activate the [Battle Item].”

The grand prize fell silent. He was caught in between a devil and the deep blue sea.

“Or perhaps I could extend a bone hook from my limbs,” Lin Sanjiu muttered dubiously, “… Then we can make use of the hook to climb down the cliff, but…”

The last bone whip had taken her half a month before she could completely retract it into her body. If she makes changes to her body again this time, she might not be able to undo the transformation anymore, just like her height. However, now wasn’t the right time to be indecisive. Her Higher Consciousness was being consumed at an alarming rate and that was, by far, the best possible way that she could think of right now.

In order to realize her plan, Ji Shanqing had to crawl from her leg to her back first.

Her grand prize was tired; his limbs were aching, and he had been holding onto her with his fingers so tightly that he couldn’t stretch them. He was now so terrified even to open his eyes, let alone to perform such a challenging acrobatic move. Lin Sanjiu had to both threaten and encourage him for a long time before her grand prize finally agreed to allow her to raise the leg that he was clutching on.

“Are you ready? I’ll now bend my leg. When you see the chance, let go of your hand immediately and jump onto my waist. You copy?” Lin Sanjiu ran through the thing with her grand prize again, “… Throw away your fear. Remember, you have only one shot.”

Ji Shanqing let out a shaky, incomprehensible guttural voice. Nobody had the slightest idea of what was he talking about.

Lin Sanjiu heaved a sighed, “Okay, I’m bending my leg now.”

Her grand prize grunted in reply.

His voice was instantly washed away the moment it came out from his lips. Waves of vociferation that shook the heaven burst forth like a massive tidal wave from the ant city below, hitting the wall of the cliff and causing a serial of reverberation in the air. It sounded as if tens of thousands of people were yelling at the same time.

“What happened?” Lin Sanjiu was startled by the sudden roar, “Why are they shouting?”

The grand prize did not dare to lower his head. He narrowed his eyes and listened.

After a short while, the mishmash of noise which had no meaning began to unify and synchronize, as if it was conducted by something. Soon enough, both of them could finally make out a word amidst the maelstrom of roar and shout, “Deva! Deva!”

Lin Sanjiu’s heart tightened, and she raised her head instinctively to find that the sky was still shrouded in the white mist. Neither the finger nor the bloodshot eye could be seen.

Suddenly, she caught something with the corner of her eyes and she froze.

“Deva! Deva!” The crowd pulsed with excitement, both outraged and thrilled at the same time, “Deva! Deva!”

“Sis’… Sis,'” Ji Shanqing’s trembling voice slashed through the turmoil of sound and reached Lin Sanjiu’s ears, “O—o—on y—your l—left.”

Lin Sanjiu turned her head slowly.

A pale, delicate face had appeared around 200 meters away from them in the air. She rested her forehead on the cliff while her eyebrows were hidden in the mist. She was now looking at them, and her eyes that were as long as the sky bridge slowly curved into arcs.

When “Deva” smiled, her blood red lips curved up to above her nose bridge. On her face was a thick layer of white powder, and nobody could tell whether the skin color underneath the alabaster painting was closer to human or not.

As Deva brandished her arm that reminded Lin Sanjiu of the world trade center, she raised a violent gust of wind. Lin Sanjiu was almost blown away by the gale, but she hung on in the end. In an instance, the roar from the crowd below ceased and all of them became silent.

“Oh,” Deva’s lips split her face into two parts like a zipper, and a voice like a man speaking with his nose pinched came rolling out from her mouth. It was a loud, assaulting voice, “My prodigal sons who had answered to my call… As the one and only true God in the world, I assure you, that you will finally find peace in my embrace.”

The moment those words were spoken, the crowd below exploded into another fit of exhilaration. They all roared, yelled, and chanted something with their mouths that trembled even the sky. But this time, it was difficult for Lin Sanjiu to tell what they were yelling.

Lin Sanjiu stared at the face that floated in mid-air. Her brain had stopped functioning for a moment as her mind was flooded with a thought.

“There are two “true gods” in this world?”

“Sis’!”

The call of her grand prize had snapped her out from her daze. She turned and saw a massive hand was coming straight at them. She could feel the strong wind that accompanied the sweep of the arm even before the arm reached them.

Lin Sanjiu’s heart seized. “Hang on tight!” After she had warned her grand prize, she loosened her grip. As her grand prize yelled in horror, both of them fell straight into the abyss below. Lin Sanjiu summoned her [Tornado Whip] in her left hand and flourished it towards the large incoming hand.

Her heart pumped so fast that it was on the verge of exploding. She mustered all the strength and unleashed a tornado that was way stronger than any of the tornadoes she had released before. The cyclone had enshrouded the sky in black and even covered the face of Deva.

Then, a couple of snow-white fingers came out from the tornado in the next second.

The owner clenched the fingers, folding the tornado into her palm.

“My poor children who have been blinded by the fallen demons,” the sharp and saccharine voice had given Lin Sanjiu a gooseflesh, “… As the only true God, I forgive you all.”

“Screw your forgiveness!”

Lin Sanjiu was still descending fast. The wind roared past her ears. She cursed aloud and turned her body. She raised her [Tornado Whip] and unleashed a wind towards the ground.

Then, she stopped, along with her grand prize, both of them hovered in mid-air. Neither of them could move their body. They could only see in awe as the hand destroyed yet another tornado.

The long and pallid face grew closer and stopped beside them. Compared to “Deva,” both of them were only as large as the tip of her nose.

The smile on Deva’s face grew larger and larger. She used her finger to pinch the two and lift them.

It was only then Lin Sanjiu heard clearly what was the crowd had been shouting all along.

“Baptize! Baptize! Baptize!”