Doomsday Wonderland

Half of the human bodies on the floor were shrouded in the dark. The area was so quiet that they could hear the sound of their breathing. Row after row of human bodies lay on the floor in an orderly manner, stretching far to the further end of the hall. The rows became dimmer and dimmer until they merged entirely into the shadows where the figure was standing.

“Sis?” the figure muttered, but none of them could hear him well, as he was far away, and his voice was dampened by the echo. It seemed like he was equally shocked. He took a few tentative steps ahead. As he got closer to them, he became more visible. They could see his pair of pure and pristine eyes glistening in the dark.

“Is he somebody you know?”

Puppeteer squinted his eyes and looked at the figure. Then he suddenly scoffed, “That’s a Veda.”

Lin Sanjiu halted in her steps midway. She looked to and fro between Puppeteer and her grand prize as she thought, ‘He’s right. How did the grand prize come here?’

“Veda?”

Perhaps the grand prize had overheard their conversation, as he tilted his head and asked, “Sis? What’s going on here?”

“How did you get here?” Lin Sanjiu took a step back as she became suspicious. ‘If this grand prize is another creation of the Veda, then that’s bad.’ Her temple pulsed as she scanned the area. To her relief, she did not see any suspicious activity around the hall.

“Sis?” piped up the grand prize again as he walked towards them. There was a quizzical expression on his face, and he sounded hurt by Lin Sanjiu’s attitude. “I don’t know… Where is this place?”

“Stay right where you are,” Puppeteer snarled in a cold, commanding voice. He waved his right arm, and five people on the floor suddenly opened their eyes, following behind him obediently.

“Don’t!” Lin Sanjiu yelled. She looked around again, and implored the grand prize, “Gra-Graham, tell me first. How did you get in here?”

The grand prize stopped in stunned silence. After a few seconds, he began to speak. “I… I don’t know.”

Lin Sanjiu’s brows furrowed in a tight knot.

Apparently, the answer was not enough to convince Puppeteer and Soulsqn. Both of them snorted, and before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, more puppets rose from the floor. The human bodies sat up one by one all the way up to the grand prize like a row of dominoes in reverse. Then, a man and a woman next to the grand prize grabbed him by his calves.

“What’s this?” The grand prize was startled as he tried to wrench himself free from their grip but to no avail. Horrified, he turned to Lin Sanjiu and hollered, “Sis!”

“Impressive as always, Lord Puppeteer,” complimented Soulsqn, who was strolling around the hall with her desiccated body to find herself a suitable skin. More and more human bodies stood up. They all marched towards the grand prize, gathering around him like a human wall as they waited for Puppeteer’s command to strike.

“Didn’t I say not to do anything yet?” Lin Sanjiu screamed while she rushed to her grand prize. “Release him first!”

“I guess your stupid Messiah complex is getting over your head again,” Puppeteer sneered as half of his face twisted in disgust. He waved his hand, but instead of releasing the grand prize, he turned more human bodies into his puppets. Soulsqn joined the fray, adding a snarky remark of her own, “Alas, why don’t you just come back over here, my dear? You have no idea whether he’s your real friend, or if he’s just another knock-off created by the Veda. If he truly is an imposter, then what you’re doing now is no different than walking into your own grave. When that happens, I wonder if we should save you or not!”

Soulsqn’s words struck Lin Sanjiu’s head like a zap of lightning, and her eyes lit up. She rushed to the grand prize’s side and yelled to Puppeteer and Soulsqn in the distance, “He isn’t a Veda!”

Soulsqn was flipping and checking a young female body as if she was deciding whether or not to wear her as her skin. When she heard what Lin Sanjiu said, she questioned, “How do you know he isn’t?”

“Have you forgotten that the Veda need to fully interpret a person’s information before they can clone a person?” Lin Sanjiu shouted in a hurry. She wondered why she did not think of that earlier. “They’ve never met Gra… My friend, so even if they learned of his existence through my memories, there’s no way they could create such a life-like replicate!”

Her voice stirred up waves of echoes that reverberated throughout the hall. Puppeteer and Soulsqn fell silent. They placed their heads closer as if they were discussing something of great importance. A moment later, Puppeteer raised his head.

“Feeling very proud of yourself right now, aren’t you? You trusted your friend without thinking of the consequences even though you know very well that there might be a chance that this is another trap Veda has set up. You’re hopeless,” Puppeteer spoke in a slow and mocking tone. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, looking supremely confident. “If you have the time to lecture us about what we should do and what we should not do, why don’t you turn around and take a good look at your so-called ‘friend’?”

Stunned by his words, Lin Sanjiu slowly turned her head, and the man next to her followed suit. His long hair swayed as he spun to face her. Then, as her gaze met that of her grand prize, the first thing that came into her view was the grand prize’s delicate and fair complexion. There was a bewildered expression resting on his face. His eyes were rimmed red, and his voice teetered on the edge of crying. “S—sis?”

‘Why? There’s nothing wrong with my grand prize. What does he want me to see?’

Just when Lin Sanjiu was about to voice her concern, the hair on her back bristled as she finally saw the light of what Puppeteer wanted her to see. However, she was still too late. Earlier on, she was so focused on saving her grand prize that she lost track of the things that were happening around her. By the time she came to her senses, she was surrounded by Puppeteer’s puppets.

She had lost her best chance to retaliate, and she had fallen into a passive position. No sooner had she rescued her grand prize from the clutches of a puppet than both of them were swamped with another horde of incoming puppets. For Lin Sanjiu, human wave tactics were nothing but numbers. She could effortlessly lay waste to as many puppets as she wanted.

However, the situation differed for the grand prize. He was so unbearably weak that he could only scream helplessly when he got caught by a puppet every time Lin Sanjiu took her eyes off him, leaving the latter no other choice but to give up the opening she had made and go back to save him. All of this happened in the time span of only hundreds of milliseconds. Whenever they looked ahead again, they would always be welcomed by a greater wave of puppets that piled up to the height of the wall.

Lin Sanjiu was both surprised and a little anxious, but at the same time, she felt weird about Puppeteer’s actions. She had no idea whether he had shifted sides, or if this was yet another reality created by the Veda.

“Soulsqn!” Lin Sanjiu shouted aloud as she braced herself against the relentless onslaught of the puppets. She waited for a long while but did not receive any response from the flesh worm. She thought for a moment, and understanding dawned upon her. The Veda did not get to analyze Soulsqn’s information, so the flesh worm must be the real Soulsqn. If this Puppeteer were created by the Veda, then he would have included Soulsqn as his attack target as well. Then, the flesh worm would never appear so calm going against Puppeteer. Without a doubt, Soulsqn must have sided with Puppeteer to backstab her.

“Stay close!” Lin Sanjiu yelled as she decided to throw everything to the wind. She could not use [A Twinkle In The Sky], so she summoned her Tornado Whip instead. She conjured up a tornado and flung all the puppets out of her way. Grabbing the grand prize’s arm, she darted straight towards Puppeteer as she cursed aloud, “Puppeteer, you bastard!”

Bang!

She crashed into an unseen barrier. Her eyes shifted to black, and for a moment, she only saw stars.

Covering her forehead with her hand, Lin Sanjiu took a few deep breaths to chase away the throbbing pain. She blinked her eyes hard. Then she saw Puppeteer walking towards her along with a young lady.

The shape of the “young lady” seemed to be pretty unstable and dynamic, as there were bumps here and there below her skin. It looked as if it were a linen bag containing a struggling animal. Lin Sanjiu took a glance at her before shifting her gaze towards the tall man in front of her. “What do you want from me?”

“I’m getting sick of you.” Half of Puppeteer’s face grimaced as he grinned coldly. “Now, open your eyes and look closely. Is he really your friend?”