Doomsday Wonderland

“Did you say… that all the five victims were prostitutes?” Lin Sanjiu pulled her gaze away from the newspaper and stared at the young man.

“Yes, I did not get it wrong!” emphasized the young man before he turned his focus to the large headlines in the newspaper. He was perplexed. “I did not lie to you. It’s historically accurate. Nevertheless, this is a simulation after all. Once extraneous people enter the equation, things will definitely be affected. You can’t blame me for that…”

There was actually nothing wrong with his argument. Ever since the players came into the picture, the development of this ‘Jack the Ripper’ case had moved further and further away from the historical facts. Not only was one of the victims a couturier, but the simulation also did not seem like it was going to end any time soon even after five deaths.

Lin Sanjiu fell into a trance. Her thoughts were a muddled mess. She had an inkling that something was amiss, but she could not point it out.

“Besides, the woman told us that there were two casualties when we came in here.” The young man never gazed into people’s eyes whenever he was talking. He kept his head low as he continued to explain, “It’s natural for me to think that, just like before, the two casualties were prostitutes. The hell if I know it wasn’t!”

“Fine, fine!” With furrowed brows, Lin Sanjiu waved her hand at him. ” Let’s wait and see if the simulation will end.”

The simulation did not end.

She waited for several hours. The sun in the simulation rose and set, but the simulation continued. The Potato brothers did not come out from the coachman’s house the entire time, and Lin Sanjiu grew suspicious. She rushed into the man’s house only to discover that the two men had escaped from the back door. When she questioned the coachman and his wife, neither of them knew where the brothers had gone to.

They could no longer use historical events to determine the course of the simulation which had long derailed from actual history. Another victim died that night. When her corpse was discovered in a corner of the street, they found out that the victim had died in the same manner as the people before her.

Subsequently, after several people died consecutively, the streets near Whitechapel became emptier. The homeless prostitutes and vagrants somehow found their own ways and means to hide. When rain poured at night, there were even fewer people on the street.

The rain was getting heavier.

It was a dark stormy night. Occasionally, a stray ray of light would illuminate the living room. Lin Sanjiu sat in the living room with a corpse which was already showing signs of rigor mortis. There was complete silence.

Her presence at that moment would probably scare anyone who barged in. However, after the young man went out to look for Jack the Ripper again, no one else would ever return to this apartment. The candles had all melted, but Lin Sanjiu had nowhere to go. Since discarding Annie’s corpse outside was not an option, she placed the body on the couch and sat next to it.

While Lin Sanjiu did not wish to see the dead body, she had to make sure that it did not go missing. In the end, that was her only acceptable option.

Lin Sanjiu continued sitting silently for some time. Despite that, she could not organize her thoughts and felt no less vexed. In addition to that, she was sitting next to a cold, lifeless body. Every time a ray of lightning brightened the room, she would be able to see Annie’s body through the side of her vision. In the darkness, it gave Lin Sanjiu the impression that it would suddenly resume breathing and come back to life.

‘Should I move the body into the room?’ Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly, but she was not sure.

Ever since she had gone to Kisaragi Train Station, Lin Sanjiu found that she would get extremely anxious and sensitive when facing this kind of situation. Moving the body in the room was nothing difficult, but she feared to see a pale face floating in the darkness the moment she turned her head around.

Despite her overactive imagination, she was not in Kisaragi Station after all. It would be quite illogical if a ghost suddenly appeared in this serial killer pocket dimension.

Lin Sanjiu tossed her random thoughts aside and stood up. She paced once around the pitch-black apartment. Since she could not make sense of this simulation after these developments, she decided to look for something to do. The apartment was small and dingy. Even with many paraphernalia lying everywhere, she could not find any more candles in the bedroom.

As tavern owners, were they not a little too poor?

Lin Sanjiu sighed. She turned and walked slowly towards the bedroom door. Having been in the dark for some time, her eyes had already adapted to her surroundings. Though she needed to move slowly, she did not knock into anything. However, just when she reached the door, she heard a soft noise.

It was difficult to tell what that sound was. It lasted for a split second before it was drowned out by the patter of the rain outside. Lin Sanjiu even doubted if she really heard it.

She stood at the door and listened for a while.

There was no sound.

That statement was not quite right. There were all sorts of people living around their complex. She could hear various muffled noises from her neighbors. Coughing, quarreling, doors opening and closing… However, the living room of the apartment she was in was quiet. It almost seemed as if it was cut away from the world.

Lin Sanjiu walked back slowly to the living room. In the darkness, everything looked the same. The chairs, the coffee table, and the coat stand knocked over by the young man remained scattered about on the floor. Even the motionless corpse on the sofa… That sound probably came from the neighbor’s apartment.

Lin Sanjiu sighed and sat down. She sat further from the corpse this time though not that much further since the sofa was small. When she sat on the sofa, the sofa made the same soft noise she heard before.

Someone had been sitting on this very sofa a second ago.

Lin Sanjiu felt an instant chill travel down her neck. She turned her head very, very slowly.

The corpse slowly turned its head at the same time, flashing a set of white, pearly teeth back at Lin Sanjiu.

The black shadow beside Lin Sanjiu chuckled softly. The person’s voice was hoarse. It was the same voice she had heard in the alley.

It was not Anne!

Lin Sanjiu leaped up immediately. It was only then that she realized that there was another black figure by the shadowy stranger’s feet. That was probably Anne’s corpse. The shadowy stranger stood up immediately and swung his arm. Suddenly, a metallic glint flashed across the darkness.

This really was the worst place to be confronted by Jack the Ripper. Her surroundings were dark, and furniture and objects were messily strewn on the floor. Despite her agility, Lin Sanjiu stumbled over something when she stepped back quickly.

Thud.

She fell to the floor, and the assailant’s knife sliced her shoulder. This time, her wound was very deep.

The figure let out another laugh as he stood in front of Lin Sanjiu. The young man hypothesized that Jack the Ripper was a large-set man, but this man was certainly the tallest man Lin Sanjiu had ever seen since she entered this simulation. Judging from the man’s strength and finesse, Lin Sanjiu momentarily could not tell how long she could last against him without her evolved abilities.

“Is there anyone?!”

Lin Sanjiu dodged, barely evading the knife that was thrust at her. Just as the tip of the knife sank into a piece of wooden furniture, she raised her voice and yelled again, “Is there anyone around?! Someone is trying to kill me!”

The shadowy stranger grunted. He pulled the knife out from the furniture with all his strength and lunged at her again.

Any other normal woman would have been caught by him, but Lin Sanjiu was very nimble. She dropped to the floor, grabbed the furniture, and threw it hard at him. The furniture hit the man’s shin, and he mumbled, almost as if in pain. Snatching that opportunity, Lin Sanjiu rolled aside and pushed herself up. Then, she staggered quickly to the nearest window.

Lin Sanjiu had no confidence that she could protect herself in this cramped apartment littered with hazards that could trip her, let alone subdue or kill her opponent. However, the killer would not be considered ‘captured’ if she did not expose him. That would mean that the simulation would not end.

Consequently, even though she knew that the stranger was rushing toward her, Lin Sanjiu made use of the opportunity to slam the window and yell for the others, “Come! Come quick!”

She only managed to say those words before she heard the swoosh of her assailant’s weapon. Lin Sanjiu did not even have the time to turn her head. She dodged to one side and the man’s knife missed her narrowly before it struck the wooden window grille.

Noticing that the man’s weapon was stuck again, Lin Sanjiu immediately delivered a kick. Her blow landed directly on the man’s abdomen. He yelped out in pain before he fell forward. Unfortunately, he was now blocking her path to the main door.

Desperate, Lin Sanjiu yelled out from the window again. This time, right after she shouted, a sudden flash of light illuminated two faces right outside the window. It was the Potato brothers.

“Jack the Ripper is here!” Lin Sanjiu was startled for a second. Then, her eyes lit up as she yelled, “Hurry! Catch him!”

There were certainly no soundproof windows in the 19th century, so her voice rang out in the rain. The Potato brothers stopped for a moment. Apparently, they had heard her. However, the two brothers glanced at each other and shrugged before they flashed similar smiles at her.

Lin Sanjiu’s blood turned cold.

She did not know why the Potato brothers pretended not to hear her call, but she did not have much time left. When the shadowy figure regained his footing once again, Lin Sanjiu recoiled as she desperately rummaged through the dark for something to use as her weapon. Her back bumped into the couch and she stepped on something round which caused her to fall on the floor again.

Annie’s grisly white face was staring vacantly at her.

Lin Sanjiu was startled, and seeing his chance, the man struck again. The blade drew a silvery arc in the air, but Lin Sanjiu had nothing to defend herself with. In a last-ditch attempt, Lin Sanjiu had no choice but to raise her arm to defend herself, deciding that she would sacrifice half her arm to stay alive.

At that moment, the apartment door swung open.

“I’ve been searching for an entire day, but I can’t find Jack the—” the young man said, disheartened. Before he could even say ‘Ripper’, he froze on the spot.

“Ah… Is that… Is that…?” he stammered excitedly.

The silhouette stopped for a second. He realized that he would be in deep trouble if the young man ran out of that door. Soundlessly, he turned around suddenly and swung the knife toward the young man.

“Run!” Lin Sanjiu shouted. Taking that opportunity, she swiftly stood up and rushed toward the door in another direction.

Though the young man was an introvert, that did not mean that his reaction was slow. He staggered backward and evaded the knife, but he nearly lost his balance. Despite his obsession with Jack the Ripper, he certainly did not wish to be killed by that man. Unsurprisingly, once Lin Sanjiu squeezed out of the apartment, he let out a yelp and sprinted out of the apartment and into the rain.

The Potato brothers were long gone while the courtyard outside was empty. There was not a single person around. Lin Sanjiu could not run to the coachman’s house because that apartment was too close. Jack the Ripper was already chasing them from that direction. In the end, Lin Sanjiu could only run and holler for help. Unfortunately, the downpour was too heavy, so her voice was drowned out by the rain, and no one seemed to hear her.

Lin Sanjiu dashed to the main road, gasping desperately for air. Water dripped from her eyelashes. She shouted at the young man, but did not get any response. She turned around and suddenly realized that the young man had disappeared.

Was he caught by Jack the Ripper?

The moment that thought surfaced, she quickly turned back and crouched by the courtyard to gaze in. However, she suddenly heard an incomprehensible sound. Right behind her, two beams of light pierced through the rain.

She heard the sound of a car engine while a pair of headlights pointed in her direction.