Doomsday Wonderland

Twenty minutes had passed, but neither of them moved. The hands flailed madly in the air, trying very hard to grasp something in the air.

“How long will it take for these hands to stop?”

Lin Sanjiu could see a white shadow thrashing around in the tail of her eyes. It grazed past her a few times and almost knocked her down from the shelf, making her heart skipped a few beats. As time went by, both of them were losing their mobility. If it were not for them still being able to communicate with each other through the Soul of Film Crew, Lin Sanjiu felt she might have gone mental already.

Even then, she could clearly feel that her ability to speak and control the Higher Consciousness was becoming harder and harder. As if injected with anesthetic, she was losing command over her own body.

They had to act fast and act now.

Even Puppeteer seemed to have realized the gravity of the situation. He did not make any sarcastic remark and instead said with a grim tone, “Who knows? Maybe they won’t stop until they get a target.”

Things might become a little bit uglier if it was like what he said.

The situation had changed compared to the last time. Due to the entire shelf being colonized by the hands, they could not depend on the goose to pull them back if they were brought to the other side of the shelf. If they got caught, the goose would be caught as well just like the rope.

At that time, they would be left all alone. They would not be able to do anything but hopelessly wait until the turning process was completed.

Though a rather peaceful atmosphere remained on the surface, both of them were actually cursing each other furtively in their hearts.

They looked at the hands that danced in riotous revelry, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, an announcement rang out, startling the duo. “Mrs. Cleveland, I heard you accidentally slipped on the floor. Are you okay? Where did you hurt yourself? We’re friends. I bet you won’t file a report against me because of this, will you?”

The announcement did not make any sense to them at all. After it disappeared, the only thing that remained was the echo of the voice and two dumbfounded posthumans.

“What… What does that mean?” Lin Sanjiu only found her voice after a short while. She asked, “This should be a clue, shouldn’t it? Otherwise, why would it make such an announcement out of nowhere?”

“You are Mrs. Cleveland. How would I know?” Puppeteer said nonchalantly.

He might be skilled at interrogation and extortion, but when it came to mind games, this bigwig of the Twelve World Centrum was totally useless. Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and made a decision after having an internal tousle inside her mind. “I have an idea. Honestly, I forbid myself from using this, but it seems that I don’t have many choices left.”

“Speak.”

Lin Sanjiu smiled bitterly. “Both of us aren’t that smart kind of people, so I’m asking help from someone bright.” She was talking about the Higher Consciousness Mimicry.

Puppeteer was obviously unhappy with such a comment. He enigmatically expressed that he had no issue triumphing other Pocket Dimensions before meeting Lin Sanjiu, and that carrying her had utterly exhausted all his energy and mind power, which was why he would fall into the trap of this Pocket Dimension. Lin Sanjiu remained reticent towards his claim and proceeded to activate the Higher Consciousness Mimicry. Then, she sighed.

Lin Sanjiu had been avoiding using her Higher Consciousness. Once she activated the mimicry, it could not be stopped midway. There was no way she could stop the Veda from stealing her information anymore.

Mimicking Nüwa would be too taxing in her current condition, so she chose the grand prize.

There was a moment of silence. There were only two packets of potato chips left on the shelf along with the numberless hands. Suddenly, Lin Sanjiu shouted through the Soul of Film Crew, “Holy moly. Why didn’t we think of this before? We’re so dumb!”

“Please don’t use ‘we’ when it’s clear that there’s only one idiot here. And that’s you,” said Puppeteer. Nevertheless, he could not suppress his curiosity and asked, “What came into your mind?”

Without a doubt, Ji Shanqing was far more intelligent than her. Lin Sanjiu told Puppeteer about the thought as she cursed herself for her doltishness, “How did we never think of this? We’ll be caught if we go down as humans. But we can maintain this form and jump down.”

“But the hands…”

“The hands won’t come for us, as we’re already packets of chips!” Lin Sanjiu wondered why she did not see this obvious fact that was basically right in front of her eyes. “The reason I was caught for the second time is that you were holding me at that time. They are catching humans to turn them into chips. There’s absolutely no reason for these hands to catch a packet of chips. If their targets included chips as well, they would’ve captured us a long time ago since we’ve been basically sitting on the shelf the whole time!”

“You have a point. So, let’s jump down and push all the chips out of the lane.”

“No, I don’t think it works that way,” Lin Sanjiu poured rain on Puppeteer’s parade. “But it’s worth a try.”

Before Puppeteer could ask the reason, he felt something smack him hard at his back, and the next thing he knew, he had already flown out of the shelf. Lin Sanjiu never thought she would be able to get back at Puppeteer so soon.

The packet of chips fell through the layers of hands, but they seemed uninterested in it. The package of chips was rocked left and right, up and down a few times before finally landing on the heaps of snacks on the floor.

“Just you wait until we get out of this Pocket Dimension,” Puppeteer said gently to Lin Sanjiu.

‘Jeez, I won’t give you a chance to catch me after we get out of here,’ Lin Sanjiu muttered inwardly. Then, she used her Higher Consciousness and pushed her body out of the shelf as well. Her nerves stiffened, and her heart jolted when the hands slapped her body. Then, she landed safely on the mountain of snacks.

“So, what’s our next move?” Puppeteer asked. “What if it won’t work even if we push all the snacks out of the lane?”

“The aim is to ‘pick’ the correct snacks. So, how is that considered picking when all we do is push all the snacks out of the lane? There are too many abilities that grant posthumans the ability to control something from afar remotely. Someone lucky enough to have such an ability could stand very far away and push all the snacks down from the shelves. By doing that, not only could he avoid being captured by the hands, but he could also get the right answer as well. Don’t you think this is a little too easy?”

“Who knows? Maybe you are the one overcomplicating things.”

Lin Sanjiu did not wish to stimulate his anger, as it would not do her any good. After all, Puppeteer was entirely out of her league. She sighed and changed the topic. “The announcement is the key. Did you notice that it was exactly an hour after we entered this convenience store that the announcement came? Perhaps the Pocket Dimension only gives a clue every hour.”

“I don’t understand.”

Lin Sanjiu had not thought it through yet, even with Ji Shanqing’s mind.

After a short moment of contemplation, she asked, “Where’s your goose?”