Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu felt she was truly a fool, but she was not alone. Both Puppeteer and Soulsqn were qualified enough to be listed in this “asinine list”.

The reason that she felt so was that Ji Shanqing, wondering why they did not realize this, asked, “Sis, why didn’t you use the choker to imitate the code-writing ability?”

He dropped the question like a bombshell, stunning them. They hemmed and hawed for a brief moment, but nothing came out of their mouths.

Then all of them stopped moving.

They had utilized the time-lag to return to the Data Stream Library before the Veda arrived in the hall. There might be a good chance that they would bump into the Veda midway. Hiding inside the hole was a no-go as the hole was barely larger than a human head. They needed to blast it to accommodate them, and an explosion, other than giving them away, would not do them any good.

Hence, they picked a route that seemed the least risky. The moment they reached the void, they immediately looked for a spot with the least amount of cords and charged towards it. As the Veda moved using the cord, getting further away from the cord would significantly reduce the possibility of being found by them.

The grand prize asked a burning question of his while they were on the run. He understood everything after they filled him in on the entire story, so he was even more confused. “Sis, to be honest, you could’ve already escaped when you were in the convenience store. All you needed to do was to have this… this Big Brother describe the Veda’s abilities to you. Then you wouldn’t have to go through any of this anymore.”

Hearing what the grand prize said, Lin Sanjiu fell into a trance. After a few seconds, she slammed her mouth shut, realizing that she had been gaping like a stupid goldfish again. She stole a glance at Puppeteer to find that his face was clouded over. When the latter felt her gaze and turned to her, she quickly moved her eyes away.

‘Why didn’t I think of that earlier? I bet impersonating the grand prize doesn’t mean I can become as quick-witted as the real deal.’

Just as the thought surfaced in her head, she heard Soulsqn refute the grand prize defensively. “You don’t understand! You weren’t there, so you have no idea how precarious the situation was…” She stopped halfway through the recounting of the story, as she suddenly realized that the grand prize’s argument was irrefutable. Falling silent, she cocked her head to the side as she sank into her thoughts. Then she turned to Lin Sanjiu and said, “It’s mainly because I wasn’t there. If I were, I’d surely tell you what to do.”

“Then why don’t you suggest to us when you’re around, Ms. Know-it-all?”

Feeling insulted, Soulsqn turned her head, but her flames were snuffed out when she met Puppeteer’s gaze.

Lin Sanjiu sighed inwardly the moment she saw Soulsqn’s reaction. She criticized her past self for attempting to use this useless flesh worm as a deterrent against Puppeteer. She shook her head, picked up her speed, and replied to the grand prize in an urgent whisper, “It can’t be helped. We were under attack before we knew anything, and all we could do was keep running. Anyway, we should focus on what we should do now. There are still twenty hours left before I can reactivate the choker.”

Frowning, the grand prize looked ahead into the darkness that went beyond the limits of his sight. Hovering faintly in the dark background were several cords, and behind them was the same dark cosmos that had been partitioned into multiple sections by the layers of glowing cords.

“If we have a Special Item that could work like the Camouflage, then we can use it to go off the grid.” Ji Shanqing sighed dejectedly while looking at Soulsqn. Receiving his gaze, the latter shook her head. “Don’t look at me. I don’t have anything like that.”

“I’ve got a few items that do something similar, but the Veda probably got their information as well when they analyzed mine,” Puppeteer replied calmly, and his face quivered twice. Whenever he was talking to the grand prize, he had to put in a lot of effort to suppress the unreasonable killing intent and irritation that ran amok in his heart. Nevertheless, his effort did not pay off, as even Soulsqn could sense that he hated Ji Shanqing very much.

Ji Shanqing was stunned for a second or two, and then he shifted his eyes away.

The grand prize felt an inexplicit catch of fear whenever he met Puppeteer’s glance. He could not help flitting his gaze away. As a result, they now looked like an enraged teacher—in this case, it was Puppeteer—glaring at Ji Shanqing, the kindergartener who did a lot of wrongdoings.

Lin Sanjiu let out a breath, but she was slightly relieved. She somewhat got the gist of why Puppeteer was so cranky when he was near the grand prize. It must be that the grand prize bore too much resemblance to Yun, causing Puppeteer to feel like he was looking at his own past self.

“Erm, knock-knock, anybody home?” Soulsqn could not stand the awkward silence that hung in the air. She took the initiative and asked, “Should we proceed with our discussion on how to get our asses out of this damn place now?”

Soulsqn probably had not realized it yet, but with the bio-vessel specially made by the Veda for themselves to put on, she could save herself from running like a headless chicken by lying on the ground and pretending to be one of the vessels, but Ji Shanqing did not intend to tell her. After a short contemplation, he began to speak again, “Keep moving forward first. There’s still some more time before the Veda realizes we’ve escaped and initiates a wide-area search. We should take this opportunity to our advantage and run as far as we can.”

In other words, they were leaving their fate in God’s hands.

Since they had resigned themselves to fate, they felt they might as well do everything they could to the best of their abilities. As if venting his spleen, Puppeteer applied four layers of Special Items that could conceal their presence and obfuscate their enemies at a whack. He had four Special Items that provided a single effect—the realization shook Lin Sanjiu to her core as she wondered how many Special Items he had seized throughout the years of turning his enemies into puppets. Nevertheless, it was not the right time to ponder about such a trivial thing. Lin Sanjiu chased the thought out of her brain and kept walking.

Soon enough, they found themselves in a different area. This region was dark, and there were fewer cords dangling lonely amongst the darkness. They kept walking, but no matter how long they walked, they could not see the end of this void.

Treading in the boundless void, they soon lost track of time. They did not stop until they could no longer see any cords in their sight. The time-lag tactic was a huge success. They had successfully thrown the Veda off their trail.

“This place is weird,” the grand prize muttered, “I didn’t expect it to be this large. Sis, when you told me this is the Data Streams Library, I thought it’d only be as large as a library.”

“I didn’t expect it to be this large either,” Lin Sanjiu said as she turned around to take in her surroundings even though everything that greeted her eyes was merely darkness.

Although they were confident that they were not out of danger yet, it was by far the first time they could take a breather ever since they arrived there. Puppeteer closed his eyes and floated about aimlessly in the dark. Soulsqn could not stay still, so she paced back and forth while keeping a safe distance from her temporary comrades. On the other hand, Lin Sanjiu and the grand prize stayed further away from either of them. They chatted in low voices as they waited for the choker to cool down.

Since Puppeteer was not entirely out of earshot, both of them did not talk about the thing Ji Shanqing had experienced in the Salvation of God or about his background. Hence, the only topic left was the Veda.

They kept talking. When Lin Sanjiu mentioned the conversation she had with the Veda, the grand prize suddenly froze. He lowered his head and sank into his thoughts.

Perplexed, Lin Sanjiu asked, “What’s wrong?”

Ji Shanqing raised his head. His brows were still tightly knitted, forming a deep cleft above his nose.

“We may have overlooked something,” the grand prize analyzed calmly, “According to what you have just said, the Veda can project and extend the cords whenever they wish. They can move near the speed of light, but it’s only if they are in the cord. Otherwise, they’ll have to walk slowly like us.”

“Yeah, basically.” Lin Sanjiu nodded in assent.

“If this is their world, why do they need to create such a channel like the cord?” Ji Shanqing mumbled under his breath. Then he shook his head. “No, it doesn’t feel right. This is wrong. I have to think from another perspective.”

After a second or two, the grand prize lifted his head. All the colors had faded from his face.

“Wh—what’s wrong?” Lin Sanjiu was startled.

“Come over here! Quick!” The grand prize did not reply to Lin Sanjiu and instead yelled out to Puppeteer and Soulsqn. However, the moment the words escaped his lips, the grand prize corrected himself. His forehead was moist with droplets of cold sweat. “No, no, don’t come over! Everyone, spread out! Stay as far as possible from each other! We have to go now. Otherwise, it will be too late!”

“What’s the matter? What’s on your mind?”

“The cord!” the grand prize shouted nervously. When he saw Puppeteer and Soulsqn not doing as he instructed but coming nearer to him, he ran away instead. As he fled, he waved his hands and yelled as loudly as he could, “Go! Don’t cluster together! Disperse! The cord is coming!”

“How do you know the cord is coming?” Puppeteer asked with a raised brow. Lin Sanjiu had full faith in her grand prize. She immediately grabbed Soulsqn by the back of her neck and hurled her into the distance before running away. Like the grand prize instructed, the four of them dispersed. All of them ran in the same direction, although there was a huge gap between each of them.

The grand prize yelled at the top of his lungs to ensure that everybody heard his voice, “Okay, listen up. It’s only a matter of time before the Veda realizes that we are in the Data Stream Library. They would surely come back for us, right?”

“Yeah, so? What is the fuss about?” Puppeteer shouted back.

“Speed isn’t the Veda’s department, and this place is as huge as the universe. So there’s no way they can catch up to us without using the cords. If I were the Veda, I would…

Sometimes, life just loves to give one a surprise.

Before Sven had finished speaking last time, the “subjects” of their conversation came. Now, the cord showed up before the grand prize even had the chance to complete his sentence.

The moment Lin Sanjiu saw the cords, she had a eureka moment of what the grand prize was about to say.

It was pretty simple. Imagine having a radar in your hand, and that you were now standing inside a room, looking for something. If the radar could extend indefinitely, what would you do? Naturally, ordinary people with regular senses would extend the radar and sweep it across the room.

Now, replace the radar with the cord, and multiply the numbers by thousands. In the blink of an eye, thousands of millions of cords swept over them. Then, all those cords merged, forming multiple huge pillars of light. The area was now as bright as day.

“Everyone, watch out!” Lin Sanjiu shouted before ducking down to evade an incoming light pillar. She pushed herself up and darted straight towards her grand prize. In any case, she had to make sure they did not get the grand prize.

“Sis, how is the choker?” Ji Shanqing was not as agile as Lin Sanjiu. He almost got caught a few times. The light pillars were too thick, and there were too many of them. There were times they would be left with nothing more than a gap of ten-centimeters wide to maneuver around whenever two light pillars trapped them in a pincer attack.

“Not yet! The cooling time hasn’t finished yet!” Lin Sanjiu shouted herself hoarse.

All of them rushed forward as they dodged the relentless attacks from the light pillars, but none of them had the confidence to pull this one off.

Regardless of their skill, nobody would be able to escape from such an intensive bombarding. It would not be long before they fell victim to the light pillars.

Lin Sanjiu could not believe that after all the effort and struggles, they would still be captured by the Veda in the end.

She suddenly raised her eyes, and it was at this moment that she saw something familiar behind the flickering light. For a moment, she thought that her mind and her eyes were playing a trick on her. However, when she looked closer, her heart could not help pounding faster.

“Go into the wall!” she shouted as loudly as she could. The light was incredibly bright, and she could not see Ji Shanqing, Puppeteer, or Soulsqn anymore. She did not know whether or not they could hear her shout. “I’ll go and blast the hole. You guys grab the chance and jump into it!”

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t care less about how or why the wall falling far behind them would suddenly appear in front of them. All she knew was that this was their only chance to survive.