Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu’s face turned pale with pain after receiving a few jabs from the jellyfish. Her back was wet with cold sweat. Another swarm of tentacles swung before her eyes, a sight so bizarre it made her heart shudder with fear, but Lin Sanjiu did not shrink back. She gritted her teeth and stood firm on the ground without moving a step.

The tentacles stopped a few inches in front of her. Then Puppeteer’s voice rang out in a freezing tone. “Why have you stopped running?”

“Those Veda have analyzed the Pocket Dimension and replicated a version of their own… I know you don’t believe me, but in any case, I don’t think we should keep on fighting each other,” Lin Sanjiu said, sucking air in to lessen the pain. “I hope that you can see who the real enemy is now. We know too little about them, so we must not let them get to us!”

With a snap of his finger, the jellyfish disappeared. The dark figure stood in front of the cash register, but he did not say anything.

Lin Sanjiu heaved a sigh of relief, but before she could continue to say anything else, something blurred before her eyes, and the next thing she knew, Puppeteer was standing in front of her. When he was this close, Lin Sanjiu felt like a beast was glaring at her. His arctic-white skin created a stark contrast against his pitch-black leather coat. The silverish-grey glitter powder that ringed his eyes gave him an even more inhuman visage.

“If we clear the Pocket Dimension and those so-called Veda do not appear…” Accompanied by a faint, weird aroma, Puppeteer said with an abnormally gentle demeanor, “…I’ll make sure you’ll regret what you said today.”

It wasn’t the time to be indecisive. Lin Sanjiu’s priority was to get out of this Pocket Dimension, so she had to leave everything until then. She then told Puppeteer everything, starting from scrapes about the Potato brothers and the things they did in the Serial Killer Simulation. The good thing was that Puppeteer had seen the elder brother before, so it added a bit of credibility to Lin Sanjiu’s story.

However, what surprised Lin Sanjiu more was that the convenience store remained utterly silent all this time.

The two of them looked at each other, and they could both see the doubt in each other’s eyes. Prompted by Puppeteer, Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and walked up to the cash register.

“Is anybody here?” Lin Sanjiu hollered. She looked around, but did not touch anything. “I’m here to buy something.”

The loudspeaker with the Indian accent rang out from the wall behind the cash register. “What can I get for you, Mrs. Cleveland?”

“Hmm…” Lin Sanjiu pointed to a pack of chewing gum and said, “This here… How much is it?”

Her voice had barely carried away by the wind when an ear-piercing soundwave blasted out of the loudspeaker, hitting Lin Sanjiu’s brain and ears like a sledgehammer and making her head swim. “Wrong answer! Wrong answer!”

‘The hell was that?’

The soundwave was so powerful that Lin Sanjiu felt as if she’d been slapped in the face multiple times. After a few seconds, it still did not diminish, but intensified. “I’m so disappointed in you, Mrs. Cleveland!” The air was suddenly riddled with the cracking of glass. Lin Sanjiu turned her head around to see that the door of the refrigerator closest to her had shattered; its glass shards spread all over the floor.

“Is it such a big deal to buy a pack of chewing gum?”

The soundwave lasted for a long time before finally ceasing away. Judging from the reaction given by the loudspeaker, they only learned that Lin Sanjiu was prohibited from buying chewing gum, nothing more.

“That’s strange,” Puppeteer walked out from behind her, “Normally, there is an explanation of the rules before a Pocket Dimension starts.”

“Yeah, they should at least tell us how to clear the Pocket Dimension, but this one did not mention anything at all.” Lin Sanjiu had no idea when she had fallen to the floor. As she got up, she rubbed her ears to ease the numbing pain.

“Us? Who gave you the wrong impression that you stand on equal footing with me?” Puppeteer said with a frown; there was a hint of whine in his voice.

“I guess, since they have the data constitution of this Pocket Dimension in their hands,” Lin Sanjiu turned a deaf ear to his whine and said, “Could it be… that they have deleted the rules explanation part?”

Puppeteer snorted, giving neither an affirmative nor negative answer.

“If it’s really going to be like this, things will get a bit dicey.” Lin Sanjiu sighed. In other words, both of them had to find out the rules of this Pocket Dimension at their expense. And without a doubt, Puppeteer would only stand at the sideline and use her as bait.

With that thought in mind, Lin Sanjiu loudly asked about what she should buy and the consequence if she bought something wrong. However, as she feared, nothing came out of the loudspeaker.

“They want our information, so they trapped us in this Pocket Dimension.” Lin Sanjiu dared not to use her [Consciousness Mimicry], so she had to try to understand the situation with her own wits. “Simply put, if we fail, the consequence will be that they would get our information. In any case, we must not let them…”

“Can you just shut up?” Puppeteer interrupted her coldly. “There are only two outcomes if you fail in a Pocket Dimension: death or getting hurt. Of course, we have to avoid these two situations at all costs — less of your nonsense and more hard work. We have to split up. You go there, and I will stay here. We have to get the entire perimeter covered,” he said as he pointed to the few racks inside the store.

Since she didn’t have a better idea, Lin Sanjiu nodded and walked towards the racks in the corner. Suddenly, a thud sound came, and when she spun her head back, she saw a goose standing beside Puppeteer.

[The Goose Of Tomb Raiders]

There’s a hearsay that before venturing into an ancient tomb, tomb raiders would tie a goose or a duck on a rope and put it into the tomb to test for poison gas. This large goose is a pathfinder with a wealth of experience. After tomb raiding had received a devastating blow from the national institute, this goose was rehired at a high price by some grave robbers to trailblaze the path for them.

“Why do you need me when you have this goose?” queried Lin Sanjiu. Her eyes were opened wide in disbelief.

“You’re the backup.” Puppeteer cast her a sidelong glance. Wiggling its butt, the goose waddled into a lane between two racks.

‘It’s a shame that I don’t have such a useful Special Item…’

Lin Sanjiu sighed inwardly, but did not intend to call out any of her Special Items. The fewer weapons she used, the less information the Veda would get from her. She looked around and picked up a metal shopping bucket. Accompanied by Puppeteer’s sneer, she walked into a lane.

She raised her head and froze.

Inside the lane, she found that the appearance of the racks had changed. The two gondolas on the sides shot straight up into the air, looking like two cliffs. Their top sides had disappeared into the darkness, and they made Lin Sanjiu, who was around 180 cm tall, look like a child.

She turned her head to the front and back a few times, but couldn’t see the end. Out of nowhere, a dim light shone above her, but it couldn’t light up the gondolas at the far end.

There were thousands of products showcased on the shelves. Most of the packaging had yellowed and was now covered in a thick layer of dust. Tiny particles were dancing about in the air as if they were party the night. The cobweb in the corner captured some of them and turned into a scroll of dirt.

Lin Sanjiu tried to call for Puppeteer. Her voice bounced off the high ceiling, but she did not receive any reply from him. After some thought, she held the basket tighter and went deeper into the lane.

All the shelves were full of potato chips in different kinds of flavors. No matter how deep she went, she would always be greeted by the round smiley faces printed on the tubular cans. Though the packaging was clouded by dust and outmoded like old photos, Lin Sanjiu could still discern the colors that represented different flavors.

Lin Sanjiu walked to the end of the shelf and pricked up her ears. The convenience store was quiet. Whether it was Puppeteer or the goose, it was as if both of them were not there. She heard nothing and was unable to even sense the air current.

Just when she took a step to go to another lane, something grabbed the back of her collar and pulled her back into the lane. Lin Sanjiu turned her head, but there was nothing behind her.

The nervousness in the air mounted. She swept her gaze around and froze. On a shelf in front of her, the cartoon caricature logo turned his two beady eyes to her. His large mustache lifted as his mouth curled into a smile.

“If you wish to proceed to the next lane, you have to pick the correct packet of chips and put it into your shopping basket. Alrighty then, let’s begin the game.” There were many chips—canned and bagged—on the shelves. All of them stared at Lin Sanjiu, talking in unison with a sickening tone.