Doomsday Wonderland

‘Is that Puppeteer?’

For a moment, Lin Sanjiu thought she had gotten the wrong person. The Puppeteer in her mind had a death-like paleness in terms of complexion. Although his age was shrouded under his flawless face, he projected an image that he was not young anymore. A sinister expression was fixed upon his countenance all year round, and he always breathed the air of nonchalance. He gave Lin Sanjiu an impression of a bottomless abyss that had existed for thousands of years, forever staring at you from the dark.

Meanwhile, although the teenager in the distance shared the same facial features as Puppeteer, the air about him was completely different. Lin Sanjiu could hardly believe that this was how Puppeteer looked like in his boyhood. He seemed so childish and fresh.

Lin Sanjiu only managed to take a glimpse before the teenager was drowned in a sea of people. Just when she was rushing towards the teenager’s direction, her heart skipped a beat, and the hair on the back of her neck bristled.

The Vindice began to make their move.

Lin Sanjiu was by no means an amateur in battle, and she had seen more powerful posthumans than her fingers could count. However, in this instance, her blood ran cold as a shiver of thrill ran through her body. It was the kind of intuition she experienced when she was facing an opponent that could threaten her life.

The Vindice raised their heads slowly in unison. There was no expression on their faces.

“Somebody put up a shield!” A loud shout spread out across the entire battlefield, snapping Lin Sanjiu out of her reverie. “This is a—”

Before the person could finish his sentence, Lin Sanjiu sensed something invisible whip past her, and the next thing she knew, a man’s head was flung up from the crowd of fighters. A spray of crimson red shot up into the sky and showered down on Lin Sanjiu like fireworks, drenching her entire face in blood. She subconsciously closed her eyes, and it was at this time that she heard another person shouted, “Did anybody hear what he said? What type of Vindice is this?”

‘There are types?’ The question flitted through Lin Sanjiu’s mind, but another thought came in and bumped it out of her head before she could go deeper into it. ‘I should probably try and be of some help.’

The moment she raised her head, she saw she was too late. The crowd of posthumans, who had been yelling madly and bombarding the Vindice with their attacks, suddenly ceased moving. Their eyes rolled back and showed the whites as their throats gurgled. Their bodies went limp, and they fell onto their knees one after another.

There was a large group of posthumans in between Lin Sanjiu and the Vindice. In the blink of an eye, all of the posthumans dropped to the ground. Their bodies twitched and squirmed helplessly in agony until they finally gasped their last breath and were liberated from the pain. The ashen-faced man stood staunchly amongst the corpses, his face bereft of any emotion.

A battalion that consisted of hundreds of warriors fell short against the six-man army. It was a sudden turn of events that Lin Sanjiu could have never predicted. Several posthumans survived the massacre, but their faces were paler than the arctic-white skin of the ruthless slayer.

They did not have the slightest clue of what had just transpired. Their faces were filled with mixed expressions of confusion, fear, anger, and sadness. Then, the Vindice lifted his arm, snapping them out of their trance. Somebody screamed and turned around, followed by others. When a man ran past Lin Sanjiu, she saw that his face was clouded with tears and snot, and his lips were bright purple.

“Stop! Don’t go back to the city!” A desperate yell tore through the uproar. “That is a biochemical type of attack! You guys have been infected! Don’t go back to the city! You’ll get the entire city killed!”

The people stopped for a moment as if they were stunned by the voice. Their hearts wavered. However, fear soon took the best of them when they saw the Vindice take another step forward, effortlessly pushing the defensive line back. One man moved, followed by another, then a third and a fourth until all of the infected posthumans tottered and resumed fleeing past the gate.

Left with no other options, someone in Sector 9 barked a command, and a few lasers shot right through the infected posthumans, vaporizing them in the blink of a second.

The scene stunned the crowd that was fighting the Vindice. Nobody wanted such an outcome, but they had no other choice. In the distance, several people, who were possibly dead, were thrown high into the air. Someone let out a cry, “Put on your shields! Drive them back to their homes!” The crowd bellowed in reply. An electrified roar cut through the sky and shattered the heavens. They began regaining their tempo, slowly pushing the defensive line forward as they showered the six Vindice with abilities like a torrential downpour. The only place that lacked firepower was the area where Lin Sanjiu was in since a Vindice had wiped off most of the posthumans situated there.

“Girl, get behind me!”

A middle-aged woman rushed to Lin Sanjiu’s side and pulled her behind. She gestured her hand in a circular motion as she yelled out to her comrades not far away, “Over here! I’m putting up a shield!”

As the few people rushed behind the woman in panic, the circular disk she was gesturing with suddenly gave off a bright radiance. Then, an invisible barrier that resembled the corkscrew pattern of a snail’s shell appeared in the air. The moment the barrier rose, it was hit by a strong force, knocking several posthumans onto the floor. The middle-aged woman was the first to receive the brunt of the force. Like the other posthumans, she fell to the ground, and blood lined her lips. Coughing, she tried to pull herself up from the ground. Then she froze.

Unbeknownst to them, a Vindice arrived in front of them. He was pressing his face firmly against the thin layer of protection. His face flattened, but there was no emotion. In such close proximity, Lin Sanjiu finally saw the light. He was the main culprit that mowed down countless posthumans.

Gas.

It was almost imperceptible to the eyes, but Lin Sanjiu was sure that she saw it. Wisps of gas came out of every part of the Vindice’s body: his eyes, his nostrils, and his lips. The moment the air exited his body, it dissipated and mixed along with the air that they breathed in. Not even the barrier could stop it.

‘What are these Vindice?’

A sudden paroxysm of fear struck Lin Sanjiu as she quickly closed her mouth and nose with her palms. She did not know whether they had to breathe the gas in for it to do its wonders or not. In the past, she could easily protect herself by enveloping herself with the Defense Forcefield, but she could not do so now, as she had exhausted her Higher Consciousness in the convenience store.

“What should we do?” A muffled and sharp voice came. Lin Sanjiu turned to the side and realized it was a scrawny man who had asked the question. Like her, he was covering his mouth and nose with his hand.

‘I have to get out of here before the gas gets to me.’ Gritting her teeth, Lin Sanjiu made a quick decision and leaped out of the barrier. The Vindice saw her movement, so he turned his head in her direction and opened his mouth.

“Find a spot and hide!” somebody screamed out in the distance. “I’ll try to draw his attention!”

Lin Sanjiu gave a start, and before she could do anything, the Vindice had already launched his attack. He was staring at her with two glassy eyes, but the range of his attack was large. Under his tattered leather jacket, countless black tubes emerged from his skin with their nozzles pointing at every direction. Then, gas billowed out of the black pipes. It was so dense that it was enough to spread through the entire battleground. The gas moved like a hungry dragon that raided human towns and razed castles to the ground in fairy tales. It mowed down a few posthumans that were too slow, reducing them to nothing but a pile of meat pulp.

Not wanting to get devoured by the gas, Lin Sanjiu focused every ounce of strength into a vortex she formed. The vortex clashed with the gas in a fierce collision like two giant beasts. They canceled out each other and dissipated into the air.

Even though she had scattered the gas, Lin Sanjiu could feel her respiratory tract burning. It was constricting, and her eyes were both itchy and stinging with tears. While it was not lethal, it was definitely not a pleasant experience either. Even Lin Sanjiu, a highly-developed posthuman with a stronger physical fitness, could not bear the corrosion of the gas. It was no wonder that the posthumans in this world could not last for more than a minute in the gas. As Lin Sanjiu was forming a plan inside her head, the Vindice slowly appeared.

The black tubes remained on his body, but they were not spewing gas anymore. It seemed like there was a limit to them.

“Are you guys all right?”

The voice came again, but due to the gas, he did not know that Lin Sanjiu was the only one who survived in this area. Following that, a squadron of mannequins rushed out from that direction and pounced on the Vindice.

Although Lin Sanjiu was fully aware that this group of dolls could do nothing but zero damage to the Vindice, all she needed was a second for the Vindice to be distracted.

Even though they would be blasted into pieces the moment they pounced on the Vindice, the legion of mannequins was different from real humans.

Their movements were stiff, but the controller had quick reflexes, and his fingers were nimble. He would not allow the Vindice to destroy them all at once, pulling them back whenever the Vindice launched his attack, and send only one mannequin at a time to intercept him. As the mannequins knew no fear or death, they fearlessly threw themselves on him to disrupt his view, even if it was only for a few milliseconds.

The Vindice had destroyed six mannequins in quick succession. When the seventh mannequin placed its hand on him, the Vindice turned his two soulless eyes around, and his gaze met with a pair of light-amber eyes. The seventh one was not a mannequin.

Perhaps even a Vindice did not think that there would be a human who was bold enough to come so close to him. The black tubes on his body all opened up again like snarling snakes. However, before he could release any gas, Lin Sanjiu had sent him flying high into the sky with A Twinkle In The Sky.

“What is going on? Who is that?” somebody in the distance shouted. There was a hint of doubt in his voice as if he did not believe what he had seen. “Is that a Vindice?”

Lin Sanjiu did not reply. She raced back in the opposite direction and darted towards the younger Puppeteer. Most of the people had died, and there was only a handful of posthumans left on the battlefield. Lin Sanjiu soon saw the teenager from earlier. His cheeks and lips were red, and his face was clouded with desperation. He was staring at a posthuman that was surrounded by Vindice, but he could not do anything since he had used up all his mannequins.

Although the Vindice was not a biochemical type of being, it was still deadly to them. The expressionless Vindice glanced around before opening the black tubes on his body. In the twinkling of an eye, all the posthumans within a hundred meters radius dropped to the ground.

Sensing that she had to act fast before the Vindice made his second move, Lin Sanjiu hastened her steps and pounced on the teenager. Dumbfounded, the teenager could hardly say anything before she lifted him. She secured him under her armpit and darted at full speed towards the gate.

“Let go of me, you bastard!” snarled the teenager. He wiggled and struggled with all his might to free himself from Lin Sanjiu’s armpit. “My friends are still there! I can’t leave them!”

“Stay here! I’ll save them, okay?” Lin Sanjiu had no idea whether or not the teenager was a set of codes created by the Veda, or if he was the real Puppeteer who was lost in his own memories. She hurled the teenager towards the gate, and when she turned around, she was stunned by what she saw.

The remaining Vindice had gathered in a circle. Seeing their strange behavior, all of the posthumans ceased attacking. One after another, they began to inch backward. The group of Vindice did not do anything. They just stood still and looked at each other. A second earlier, everybody was engaged in a vicious fight, then a moment later, both sides suddenly stopped moving. Even the sound of breathing had left the battlefield. The atmosphere was dense and strange.

A Vindice moved. He pointed his finger at the sky, startling the posthumans. Then, as if they had lost their interest in laying siege to Sector 9, they turned around and left. Looking at the direction they were going, Lin Sanjiu saw that it was where she had sent one of them flying.

Silence lingered for a long while. The people of Sector 9 did not come around even after the group of Vindice had disappeared into the horizon. This outcome was not something they had foreseen. They were ready to fight to the last man, yet it ended so quickly. Be that as it may, none of them felt delighted. Even with the barrage of the human sea, they only managed to destroy one Vindice and send one flying. Meanwhile, out of the hundreds of posthumans they had sent out, only 20 plus survived. It was a Pyrrhic victory.

Musan was dead.

Everybody was tired and overshadowed by depression. They all dropped to the ground one after another the moment they entered the gate. Some of them were injured while others were not. They could have gone home and taken a hot bath or rested on a comfy mattress, but none of them did that. It seemed that as soon as the battle ended, their strength had left them as well. They all lay silently and dejectedly on the ground beside the midden in the ruin as the wind pelted past them.

Lin Sanjiu stood up and began to search through the crowd, but she could not find the teenager. She clearly remembered that she had sent him back into the gate safely, and she was sure that he was uninjured, but he was nowhere to be seen.

When she walked past a man, he opened his eyes and asked, “Looking for somebody?”

“I… I saved a teenager,” Lin Sanjiu said ambiguously because she did not know Puppeteer’s real name, “But I can’t find him anywhere around.”

The man let out a long sigh. “You are talking about Yun, aren’t you? I saw him just now,” he said with an indescribable expression that crept upon his face. “As soon as the Vindice retreated, he left with his friends. I heard them say they’re going to Sector 1 to search for our president.”

“But hasn’t Sector 1 already fallen?”

“Yeah.” The man lowered his face and sighed.