Doomsday Wonderland

“STOP!”

Before Lin Sanjiu’s roar could make any noticeable effect, a ball of fire broke through the air and made a beeline for her. It exploded right on her foothold, setting a dilapidated building nearby on fire.

Chunks of broken, flaming wood rained down and set light to the electric cable, clothes, and rubbish below. A shower of fire sparks filled the alley, leaving Lin Sanjiu no choice but to make an escape. The moment she showed herself, the group of posthumans on the rooftop immediately followed up with another salvo of attack.

Truth be told, it was a piece of cake for Lin Sanjiu to subdue all of them. Their Evolving Abilities and stamina were far too weak compared to hers. It seemed that they had just evolved not too long ago. If Lin Sanjiu decided to go all out, none of them would last more than three minutes, even if they charged in together.

Lin Sanjiu did not wish to breed enmity with them; thus, she kept running. However, her unwillingness to engage them directly fueled her opposition’s spirit. Their attacks grew more intense. Annoyed, Lin Sanjiu’s anger snowballed until, at some point, it burst. She rushed to the green cobblestone pavement and stopped running entirely.

The few pursuers stopped as well. They took cover inside the residential houses, completely masking their presence away. Silence fell, and tension mounted. For what seemed like a long time, there was only the crackling of flame and the whistling of the wind, which carried the rusty smell into her nostrils.

Lin Sanjiu glanced at the empty street, and her countenance turned cold.

“I will say this one last time: I am not a Vindice!” Lin Sanjiu remonstrated. “If you attack me again, I won’t hold back anymore!”

The second her words escaped her lips, a black bird-shaped piece of metal soared through the sky, going straight at her. As if it were a beacon, countless attacks followed after. From atop the inner wall, all of the people rained down their respective assaults on Lin Sanjiu from every direction.

Lin Sanjiu maintained her composure and stood stock-still. She only moved when the nearest light beam almost touched the tip of her nose. At the same time that she took a step back, the air surrounding her began to spin wildly. As if stirred by a large invisible hand, the airflow turned into a vortex and pounced forward. The airstream spiral spun faster and ballooned up with every ticking second, mawing down everything that stood before it like a massive, voracious beast on a hunger hunt.

A dozen attacks were shredded into pieces. In the distance, there was a groan of pain, seemingly formed as his or her Evolving Ability was destroyed. When Lin Sanjiu heard the sound, her figure blurred, and before they could do anything, she was nowhere to be found.

When she reappeared, Lin Sanjiu stood in the original spot. But this time, she was holding a man’s neck with one of her hands.

Lin Sanjiu’s sudden appearance with the man as her hostage quelled their urge to launch more attacks. The street became silent.

The man’s countenance turned purplish due to oxygen deprivation. But he was a man with dignity. Even though his life was at stake, he refused to submit to his enemy and instead hissed adamantly, “Go back and call for rein—reinforcements. Don’t worry about me…”

“Cut it out!” Lin Sanjiu had lost her last bit of patience with them. She hurled him to the ground. “Take a good look at me before making your hero dream! Look closely. I am a posthuman, not a Vindice!”

The man was stunned when Lin Sanjiu threw him to the ground. He knew there was no way of him coming out alive from this, so he did not run away. He maintained his vigilance at a high level and scoffed. “You Vindice are getting better and better at disguising!”

The vein on Lin Sanjiu’s forehead bulged. Just as she was losing her temper, an idea suddenly came into her mind. Her eyes lit up. She stretched her arm and touched his leg, smiling. “Do you believe me now?”

The man felt a chill down his leg. He lowered his head out of curiosity and yelled out in shock at what he saw. Right now, he was sitting on the ground with only his white boxer shorts on. His trousers were nowhere to be seen, and his two hairy legs were exposed to the wind.

A small murmur instantly spread across the top of the inner city. One of them said, “Is that an Evolving Ability?” But it was soon hushed by another harsh voice. Lin Sanjiu listened to all of the commotion and grinned at the man on the ground, waving the [A pair of canvas pants that have not been washed for a week] card in her hand. “Let me ask you one question: have you ever seen a posthuman from another world before?”

“What? What posthuman from another world? What are you talking about?” The man’s face was scarlet red from embarrassment and annoyance, but he seemed to have accepted Lin Sanjiu’s claim that she was a posthuman. “Give me back my trousers!”

Lin Sanjiu raised her eyes to see that several posthumans had come out from hiding as well, but Lin Sanjiu did not dare to lower her guard. She gestured with her chin and said, “Ask your comrades to come closer. I have something to ask them.”

Seeing that the man was reluctant to do as she said, Lin Sanjiu added, “If I wanted to kill you, you would have been long dead.”

After that, Lin Sanjiu liberated the pants from her card. The man hurriedly put on his pants while gesturing to his comrades. Initially, the few posthumans retained their guard, refusing to close in. It was only when they saw the man hopping around lively while putting on his pants that they went closer.

“Are you really not a Vindice?” a middle-aged man with a goatee asked. He had two big eyes and bushy brows. He studied Lin Sanjiu meticulously from head to toe and said, “You… you indeed look more human than them.”

“What exactly is the Vindice you guys keep talking about?” Lin Sanjiu asked earnestly.

Bewildered expressions dawned on the group of posthumans’ faces, as if they did not expect her to ask this question. All of them looked at each other, as they did not know where they should start. The middle-aged man, who was supposed to be the leader of the group, hesitated for a moment before asking again, “If you don’t mind… can you tell us where you come from first?”

Lin Sanjiu sighed. She knew full well this would come somehow. Judging from the time point, it was evident that the apocalypse had just occurred in this world not too long ago. There was no way these people would know about the world leaping. Their expressions got uglier as Lin Sanjiu continued to speak. In the end, all of them fell into an awkward silence. Lin Sanjiu could see that there was some skepticism lingering on their faces.

“I have answered your question. Can you now tell me what happened to your world already?” Lin Sanjiu looked at them and asked, “What is a Vindice?”

Just as the middle-aged man opened his mouth, sharp sirens, one growing more intense than the other, went off madly from the summit of the inner wall as they further spread into the sky. As Lin Sanjiu wondered about what was going on, she heard somebody yell through the speaker, “Red alert! All posthuman, please report yourself at the main gate! I repeat! All posthuman, please report yourself at the main gate! There is a group of incoming Vindice!”

As soon as the sirens went off, a few human figures ran down from midair through the stone staircase that connected the inner wall to the outer wall and darted towards the gate.

In unison, the countenance of the group of posthumans in front of Lin Sanjiu turned pale. The goatee man gave a bitter smile and said to Lin Sanjiu, “I guess I don’t have to explain it to you anymore. You are going to see one with your own eyes. We have to go to the main gate now to support our team. Since you’re so powerful, mind giving us a bit of help?”

Just as Lin Sanjiu wanted to nod, something came into her mind, “Do all posthumans have to go to the main gate?”

Seeing that the goatee middle-aged man nodded, she smiled. “All right! Let’s go, then!”