Doomsday Wonderland

Not only could the Veda not get their hands on Soulsqn’s information, but she also successfully escaped from their clutches.

Even Lin Sanjiu and Puppeteer, who were far more powerful than Soulsqn, could not escape the fate of having their information analyzed by the Veda, but Soulsqn was resilient. She got stronger with every setback. Not once did she stop fighting back, and at last, she found a chance.

At the moment that Lin Sanjiu was impaled by “Yun”, Soulsqn finally broke herself free of the Veda’s trap and escaped into the endless void of the Data Stream Library.

The moment she escaped, a myriad of cords lit up, and the pursuit of the fugitive began.

Truth be told, speed wasn’t one of Soulsqn’s faculties, not to mention that she was now running around like a headless chicken. Even though she knew she could not outrun the Veda, she did not slow down her speed.

In the blink of an eye, countless cords flickered in front of Soulsqn and formed into a net, attempting to undercut her. The flesh worm slammed the brakes and stopped before she rammed into the net.

After going through so many ordeals, Soulsqn was no longer the same as before. She turned her attenuated body around, only to find that another blanket of light surrounded her.

This was the fourth time she was entrapped by the cords.

Huffing and puffing, Soulsqn turned her body around in a circle, not knowing where the Veda would strike. She waited anxiously for a few minutes; however, nothing came out of the shimmering net of cords.

Just as Soulsqn wondered what the Veda were planning, a voice came. “My queen.”

Startled, Soulsqn turned her “head”, which was purely composed of strings of flesh, in the direction of the sound. A shadow emerged from the mesh of glowing cords. The figure became more apparent as it got closer to Soulsqn, finally revealing itself: Souls.

“Yo, so you transformed into me this time?” Soulsqn snarled at the figure after she snapped out of her momentary shock.

“Why do you still not get it? This is not about transforming.” The “Souls” stood stock-still and delivered the words directly to Soulsqn. “Everything we code will eventually become a reality.”

The flesh worm wriggled her body a few times as if she were annoyed.

“You still don’t trust us even after witnessing so much?”

“Reality,” Soulsqn humphed. It wasn’t easy for her to do this, but she couldn’t give a better response, which she observed from Lin Sanjiu. “How dare you all brag about reality before me! A reality that can be deleted or erased easily is no reality.”

“You’re free to stick to your guns, but in here, it’s us who define what reality is and is not. There’s no phantasm or reality here, the only thing that matters is whether we want to write the code or not,” the Veda refuted calmly. “It’s pointless to continue debating about this matter. We merely want to make a trade with you, where each of us takes what we need. A win-win situation.”

“So I surrender myself, and then you’ll let me populate my kind?” Soulsqn sneered. “How absurd! You can’t reproduce either!”

“We can, of course. It’s just that we choose not to. We can have a reproductive system as well whenever we want. It just involves some code writing. Take a look at this.” As the Veda spoke, it slowly moved towards Soulsqn. Shocked, the latter recoiled two steps and studied it.

Her eyes slowly moved to the center part of the “Souls”. She stared at it for a while before exploding into a great fit of laughter.

The laughter of the Souls was different from that of humans. Not only did it sound like a wooden rasp, but it also felt like she was eructating. Soulsqn laughed so hard that she almost choked on her breath. “Whaa… haa… ha… What is that?”

The Veda did not reply.

“That’s a human thing! We wouldn’t be able to use it even if you gave it to us!” Soulsqn’s body convulsed with laughter. “You have to rely on immigration to maintain your population, so what’s the use of adding a reproductive part onto your body when you have no use for it? If you could create something that doesn’t exist, then why do you need immigrants in the first place?”

“Then we have no other option left but to subdue you by force.”

Soulsqn suddenly stopped laughing. After a short while, she mustered up her courage and refuted. “You know that doesn’t work on me! How many times are you going to try before you learn that?”

“It’s apparent that you have underestimated our obsession in exploring the unknown. We will keep trying, again and again and again, until you give in or until we’ve destroyed you. And if I’m not mistaken, your body has already reached the end of its tether. How many times do you think you can use that ability of yours?” the Veda said calmly. “Time is on our side.”

The Veda hardly finished its words before Soulsqn made her move. She let out a battle cry and pounced on the Veda.

The Veda vanished in a flash. Then, a prismatic shard of light showered on the spot it previously stood. The light homed in on Soulsqn and enshrouded her in a phantasmagoric blinding radiance. Along with the flesh worm in the center, it began to spin and merge.

However, everything suddenly disappeared in the next second. The void dimmed down considerably as a large portion of cords vanished. The Veda, who was still in the form of the Souls, then walked out of the dark.

Once again, Soulsqn had escaped.

The same process had been ensuing four times already, and each time, the attack the Veda threw at her was different. The Veda had amassed a vast expanse of information from every corner of the universe; thus, the type of offense and traps they could utilize was innumerable. Yet, no matter how bizarre or powerful their attacks were, they constantly failed to capture Soulsqn due to one reason: they always missed their target.

Soulsqn did not have a clue of where to run, so she just picked the direction with the least amount of cords. However, moving across the Data Stream Library was like bobbing around in space or floating on the water. Even though she tried very hard to propel herself forward, she still moved as slow as a snail.

The Veda in the form of Souls remained standing still. More and more cords streamed out of every direction and filled the void.

As if someone had turned on the light, her surroundings became as bright as day. Soulsqn turned her head around, and she was horrified by what she saw.

It seemed that the Veda had no intention of going easy on her anymore after four failed attempts. There were so many cords behind her that it looked like a large white piece of glittering cloth.

Like the Veda said earlier, they had an infinite amount of time. When they encountered something they had never seen or experienced before, they would be willing to track their target and never give up until they got what they wanted, even if the information might be useless to them. Thus, for how long could she run?

Soulsqn was overwhelmed by paroxysms of despair and anxiety. The tendrils on her body all stood up on their ends, hissing and snarling powerlessly at her pursuers.

The curtain of white light grew larger and broader, moving at a fast yet steady pace. The Veda trapped Soulsqn in a pincer attack, and when everything seemed to have come to an end, an arm suddenly appeared from the flickering void. It grabbed Soulsqn by the back of her neck.

Soulsqn turned her body around in shock, and her scream got stuck in her throat the moment she saw the arm. As the arm yanked Soulsqn in, the flesh worm slowly disappeared from her spot as if she had been devoured by the void.

At the other end of the void, Lin Sanjiu pulled back her arm along with Soulsqn, who now resembled a sausage that was spit out by a machine. Lin Sanjiu released her grip, and Soulsqn dropped to the ground, unable to believe that she was saved.

“Lord Puppeteer?” Soulsqn yelled. “You are here, too? Hold up. Are you two Veda? What the hell is happening…”

“My [Pygmalion Choker] has already been activated, so we have only a few minutes left,” Lin Sanjiu chimed in. “How did you escape from the Veda?”