Doomsday Wonderland

From the map displayed on the wall, the geographical distribution of the Olympics was truly messy.

Imagine splitting the planet into two parts. Half of it was a body full of water without any islands while the other half was flat, solid ground. On the terra firma, aside from a few rivers that were marked as arenas, Lin Sanjiu could not find anything that looked like a lake or a canyon.

Apparently, like the Salvation of God, the topography of the Olympics was altered.

There was a circular region in the heart of the hemispheric land. With the circular area as the center, innumerable fine lines radiated out and partitioned the land into an umpteen of arenas. If Lin Sanjiu wanted to go to the Salvation of God zone, the nearest route would be to go through the circular region.

It seemed like she was pretty lucky since the distance from her landing point to the wall was merely half an hour on foot.

“What if a person falls into the sea or lands very far away from the wall?” Lin Sanjiu asked after she had finished browsing the map.

“Regardless of his location, he’ll be considered a wanderer so long as he didn’t register himself as a contender.”

Lin Sanjiu came to a mental halt.

The process of transferring between worlds was not always safe. There were bound to be some casualties, and in some severe cases, it might even affect the survival rate of the posthumans in a new world. Perhaps Lin Sanjiu had never come across any problems during world-leaping, so she had never thought of this before.

There were plenty of poor souls out there who might not even know how they died, let alone know that their efforts to stay alive was a futile struggle all along. Lin Sanjiu had a eureka moment as she sighed. “We have 14 months to go. It looks like I have to get myself a defensive Special Item as soon as possible.”

Soulsqn was not interested in the lives of others except her own clansmen. She took a glance at the clue on the wall, then turned away.

After Lin Sanjiu came back to her senses, she followed in suit and looked at the wall. She found that there were now new words engraved on it. “Please proceed to move about 200 meters to your right and wait for the door to open.” When the door remained closed, Lin Sanjiu could not tell the door and the wall apart. As a low rumble echoed in the air, a part of the wall slid open like a slab of butter being cut into half.

Heralded by the screech of stone scraping against the ground, the stone door finally opened. Then, Lin Sanjiu found herself looking at the circular region shown on the map.

She took a tentative step into the circular region, otherwise known as the “resting zone” by the posthumans.

This region was entirely built with red brick. From the map, the dimension of the circular region was extremely large. It could accommodate two megalopolises such as the Greater Tokyo Area. There were dozens of sleeping bags and bed sheets haphazardly spread out on the ground, which made the atmosphere in this area a little less forlorn compared to the bleak and desolate land outside.

Everyone, be it contenders or audience, had to leave the resting zone before sunrise. Only those newcomers like Lin Sanjiu who had just arrived in the Olympics would be relieved from the rules. Perhaps they knew there would not be anybody in the resting zone, or simply because they were certain that nobody would steal their poor and dirty stuff, the contenders just left the quilt covers and pillows scattered about on the floor.

Lin Sanjiu continued to walk in the region as she looked around, trying to locate either Puppeteer or Ji Shanqing. It took hours for her to walk through the second half of the resting zone. Soon, she found herself staring at the equally high and massive wall.

The grayish-green wall soared high into the sunless sky. Heavy clouds and thick mist that rolled about above the horizon gave the people the impression that a storm was on its way. As the door to the Salvation of God zone opened, Lin Sanjiu’s vision grew wider. Similar to the sky, there was a blanket of whiteness like the panting and puffing of somebody helpless that hung heavily over the land at the end of her vision.

This place was way too different from the Olympics Lin Sanjiu had imagined. In her mind, the Olympics should be a place filled with vigor and sunshine. She took one last glimpse at the quiet and empty resting zone before stepping into the Salvation of God zone.

Compared to the other zones, the Salvation of God zone was pathetically small. From the information given by the wall, there were only a hundred plus of contenders in this zone. There were always more people dying or being transferred away than the new blood. Lin Sanjiu was certain that this zone was not far away from getting canceled in the future.

Driven by her curiosity, Lin Sanjiu asked about the number of contenders in the other zones. According to the wall, the contenders that came from the Twelve World Centrum usually hovered around 2,000 and was capped at 5,000. However, what surprised her the most was that even the Meat Elysium, an apocalyptic world which residents had basically been wiped out, had roughly 300 contenders.

Most of the apocalyptic worlds she had been to had a corresponding zone here which meant that those worlds had a pretty high survival rate. Nevertheless, there was a world that she could not find here: the Garden of Eden.

“What will happen if there’s only one representative from an apocalyptic world?” Lin Sanjiu recalled the question Soulsqn asked. The wall answered, “Then, he’ll win by default and get to meet Zeus, the highest god. Having said that, please bear in mind that bluffing a worldly name won’t grant you a shortcut of any kind. We’ll know whether you’re lying or telling the truth.”

‘How did they find out whether we are bluffing or telling the truth?’ As Lin Sanjiu pondered about this question in her heart, she led Soulsqn towards the center of the arena.

It appeared that the Souls were a species that could not walk a lot. After traveling on foot for a couple of hours, Soulsqn was out of sorts. Her saggy skin looked as if it would slide off her face and drop to the ground at any moment. As they continued to walk to the center of the arena, Soulsqn hissed, “Hey, don’t you think you’re being a little over-optimistic?”

“Why would you say so?” Lin Sanjiu countered without turning her head. She looked around. One thing good about this place was that she could get a panoramic view of the entire landscape.

“You never lived up to your promise.” Lin Sanjiu realized that Soulsqn had becoming more and more humanized throughout the year. In addition to annoyance, there were some hints of frustration and disappointment in her voice. “No matter whether it’s this time or the last time, you promised you’d bring me to your friend. Ask yourself how many years have passed since then?”

Lin Sanjiu felt she could not be mean to Soulsqn anymore, especially right after the latter had contributed so much in assisting them to escape from the clutches of the Veda. She hemmed and hawed for a brief moment before speaking in a hesitant tone, “They are two different things. How can you mix them up?”

As Soulsqn said, Lin Sanjiu was being a little too optimistic.

She had spent three days searching faces in Salvation of God zone. The footrace was around the corner yet she still saw no sight of either her grand prize or Puppeteer.

There were less than a hundred faces in total, and Lin Sanjiu was very familiar with every face that was present in this area. If she still could not find them despite her efforts of conducting a blanket search, that could only mean one thing: both Puppeteer and her grand prize were still in the Data Stream Library.

At this moment, Lin Sanjiu felt she had seen countless brilliant pillars of white flash across her eyes. If they could not make it out from such merciless onslaught, then they must have been captured by the Veda.

Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath as she raised her head, staring into the fog-stained sky. Her mind was blank. She had no way to return to the Data Stream Library since she could not fly or have anything that could propel her tens of thousands of meters above into the sky.

‘Do rockets exist in the Olympics?’ She wondered in her heart.

“Hey, beautiful sister, do you need a rocket?” A crisp voice came and snapped her out of her thoughts.

The sound came so sudden that it startled Lin Sanjiu. She felt as if somebody was talking to her directly inside her mind. She recoiled a few steps, recomposed herself, and studied the person in front of her.

The person was just as startled by Lin Sanjiu’s reaction. Likewise, she took a few steps back. Blinking her two large eyes, she asked, “Is there anything wrong?”

After the overall appearance of the speaker came into Lin Sanjiu’s sight with splendid clarity, the first thing she did was pull Soulsqn onto her back.

This was a young girl in her prime. Her eyes, nose, shoulders, and wrists were tiny and thin. She looked much smaller than anyone around her age. Her hands were rough and dirty—clear evidence of her having survived a few apocalyptic worlds—but her eyes were bright.

The girl was everything Soulsqn needed. The only thing that did not go well with Soulsqn’s preference was that the girl did not have a pair of ponytails. However, this was not a huge issue for the big fat worm.

“What did you say, sweetheart? Rocket?” Soulsqn offered the young girl a warm smile, waving her hand, “Come closer. I couldn’t hear you just now.”

The young girl was not a gullible person. After all, she was also a veteran who had gone through a few apocalyptic worlds, and something she learned after going through so many hells was that she should not trust a stranger, let alone a weird one. She retreated a few more steps back, then stared at them like a deer in the headlights, ready to flee the second she saw something was wrong. Sensing her fear, Lin Sanjiu quickly shouted, “Don’t mind her! Did you say you have a rocket? Can you tell me more about it? Also, why have I not seen you around in the past two days?”

Lin Sanjiu’s normal appearance seemed to have quenched the young girl of her apprehension. She recomposed herself then presented them with a business-like smile. “My name is Lucy. I run a small business here. I can see that you two are new here, so it’s normal if you haven’t seen me around since I usually don’t stay too long in a place. Actually, I just came here from another arena today.”

As she spoke, she pointed to her back. Running tracks were stretching out like a snake slithering on the ground. A few contenders had gathered around a starting line. From her angle, they looked like a bunch of zombies from the famous drama, “The Walking Dead”.

“You are going to run a race, aren’t you?” Lucy giggled. She was a little bit more relaxed dealing with Lin Sanjiu. “This rocket is very suitable for footraces! It’s famous amongst the new guys. It can give you a boost of speed and greatly accelerate your speed in times of need! Trust me, you won’t regret buying this rocket! Besides, my price is fair. For only two items, you can bring this rocket back with you.”

Letting out a sigh, Lin Sanjiu was both relieved and disappointed. ‘How stupid of me to think that it might be a rocket that can send people into the sky.’ She shook her head to stop Lucy before adding, “Wouldn’t it be considered cheating if I use a Special Item?”

“You’re free to use anything at your disposal. This doesn’t count as cheating,” Lucy answered readily. Just when she was about to add something, a blaring noise slashed across the air. It was the same horn Lin Sanjiu heard during the sunrise. As the three of them raised their heads and looked ahead, they saw that more contenders had gathered around the starting line. Some of them were warming up while the others had already assumed a crouching position.

Lucy kept her two arms behind her back, giving them a smile as she said, “This is the first horn. It means you guys should get ready now. Don’t worry. If you change your mind, you can come and look for me.” Lucy turned around and pointed to a spot behind her. “I’ll be staying in the resting zone. You can find me there. It’s pretty close to Salvation of God zone.”

Then, the young girl left. Lin Sanjiu grabbed Soulsqn’s arm and kept her by herself, earning herself a grunt from the flesh worm. “Why did you stop me? She was made perfectly for me!”

In the distance, Lucy ‘s back quivered a little, and she hastened her pace.

“The footrace is about to start!” There was nothing Lin Sanjiu could say since she knew an innocent life did not mean much to Soulsqn. She pulled Soulsqn by her neck. “Hurry up and get over there!”

Soulsqn grumbled something under her breath, but Lin Sanjiu could not hear it.

By the time they arrived at the starting line, it was full of people. Lin Sanjiu and Soulsqn did not have number tags, and they felt unclear about what they should do. In the end, they just followed whatever the rest of the people were doing. When Lin Sanjiu saw somebody pick up a dirty number tag from the ground, she knew the tag was left there for the contenders. She followed suit and picked up two number tags. She took the number “39” for herself and gave Soulsqn a number “40.” The numbers were sewn on a cloth, and the edges were blackened by something unknown.

From a stone tablet in the distance came a buzzing voice. “Welcome to all contenders! Please line up at the starting line. The footrace is about to start!”