Doomsday Wonderland

Sometimes, being smart was not always a good thing. Compared to the other three, Ji Shanqing might be a tad too clever. Lin Sanjiu would never believe that this was the reason she could not locate her grand prize and Puppeteer.

When they escaped from the Data Stream Library, neither the grand prize or Puppeteer ended up in the same place, which was a relief for the grand prize. However, his bliss was short-lived, as he never once expected that he would bump into Puppeteer first when wandering around looking for his sister. It was already too late by the time he saw him. Inwardly chiding his bad luck, there was nothing the grand prize could do besides bear the lion in his den and go up to Puppeteer.

Likewise, Puppeteer’s expression was sour when he saw the grand prize.

Since both of them had the same goal, which was to find Lin Sanjiu, they decided to set aside their prejudice, however reluctant they were, and form a temporary alliance.

Then, what happened next was pretty much similar to Lin Sanjiu’s side. After getting some information about the Olympics from the stone tablet, both of them then traversed across the land to the wall. As they were registering as contenders, Ji Shanqing suddenly stepped forward and stopped Puppeteer when the wall asked them about their last visited apocalyptic world.

“What if I make up the name of an apocalyptic world? Would it make me a winner?” asked the grand prize, furrowing his brows.

“Negative. We can tell from the information you carry whether or not you’ve been to the apocalyptic world you mentioned.”

The grand prize gave a little start. He subconsciously glanced at the tall figure next to him. Then, he averted his gaze back to the wall. “In other words, there’s no way I can trick my way into victory?”

“Affirmative.”

“How would you know whether or not I’m lying then?”

“Although this has nothing to do with the game, I’ll tell you anyway. In short, people are closely related to the environment. You’ll carry some signs or marks when you depart from an apocalyptic world.”

Then, the wall fell silent. The grand prize waited for a moment, but the unhelpful wall was not going to disclose any more information to him. Feeling dejected, the grand prize muttered something under his breath, “What would happen if I say the apocalyptic world that I last visited was the Meat Elysium?”

“Information received. Inputting data: Meat Elysium.”

“No, no, hold on!” Ji Shanqing stopped the wall. “Give us more time. We will tell you after we’ve finished discussing.”

“What’s the fuss about?” Puppeteer asked, raising one of his brows. He stared at the grand prize with emotionless eyes. “There’s nothing to discuss. Just tell the wall we came from the Salvation of God!”

“Listen to me,” Ji Shanqing said, taking a deep breath and calming himself down as he ignored the killing intent that hung heavily in the air. “The Data Stream Library is not a library.”

“What?”

“I finally get it now,” Ji Shanqing remonstrated again, “It’s not a library. Its name has misled us.”

“What is it then?” Puppeteer asked softly. The more impatient he had become, the softer his voice was.

Ji Shanqing seemed pale as he looked around at his surroundings. Although he spotted no one around, he lowered his voice. “First things first, do you know what the Olympics is? Yes, there is no doubt that it’s an apocalyptic world, but before that, it must be…” When he reached this part of his sentence, he stomped his feet twice. “It has to be a planet first, right?”

Puppeteer stared at the wall, falling into deep thought.

“Then, what is the Salvation of God? It’s also a planet.” He paused, reveling in the great suspense as his confidence gradually returned to him. “The Data Stream Library is a dimension that is as vast as the universe, and there are at least two planets connected in this dimension. It’s pretty simple. A creature that looks like a dog, barks like a dog and behaves like a dog is, without a doubt, a dog.

“If it’s a cosmic space, how could we have survived in there?”

“We can’t. There’s no way any living organism can survive in a place without air,” Ji Shanqing said, “But right now, this universe is inhabited by the Veda. I bet they must have done something to it to make it inhabitable.”

“Then, how about the other apocalyptic worlds? Are they part of this universe?”

The grand prize was puzzled. He contemplated for a moment before answering, “No, I don’t think so. I believe you’ve heard about the parallel universe theory. Some of the posthumans utilize that theory to explain the existence of multiple apocalyptic worlds. I think it’s safe to say that the other apocalyptic worlds are distributed in different universes.”

Sensing that his argument was not strong enough to convince Puppeteer, the grand prize added, “There’s one more thing. We did not leave the previous apocalyptic world because our time was up, which was, you know, 14 months. We just strayed into another planet in the same universe, which happens to be an apocalyptic world as well. If my theory is correct, both my sister’s and your transfer time won’t begin from scratch. This is because you haven’t stayed for 14 months in this universe yet.”

The grand prize was too immersed in his thought that the words “my sister” slipped past his lips unknowingly. By the time he realized what he said, all the hairs on his back bristled. He darted a surreptitious glance at Puppeteer, and upon seeing the latter’s face, he heaved a sigh of relief.

It seemed that Puppeteer did not notice the underlying meaning of his words. Immersed in his thoughts with knotted brows, he seemed to have trouble comprehending the hefty amount of explanation.

“So, you’re saying that… If a posthuman enters another apocalyptic world in the same universe before 14 months is up, it won’t reset the counter?”

“That’s right.” The grand prize nodded in assent as he examined Puppeteer’s expression. He felt even more relieved when he saw that Puppeteer did not look at him. He continued to speak, “Needless to say, we can’t ignore the fact that there will also be posthumans that are transferred from the Salvation of God to the Olympics. Then, that will be a different matter.”

“Why can’t we tell the wall that we came from the Salvation of God then?” It seemed that Puppeteer finally accepted Ji Shanqing’s explanation. “After all, the wall can only tell where we have been, not the sequence of our travel.”

“Have you forgotten that we are now fugitives? I bet the Veda is still looking for us out there.” The grand prize smiled bitterly. “They’d certainly search through the Salvation of God zone first. Besides, there are fewer contenders there, so it would be hard for us to hide.”

Puppeteer did not answer, so the grand prize quickly added, “You must have been to the Twelve World Centrum before, right? Let’s pick a world from the Twelve World Centrum that both of us have been to. The third world I went to was Red Nautilus. Have you been there before?”

Ji Shanqing deliberately emphasized the last question as he intentionally threw in the phrase “the third world I went to was Red Nautilus” in the conversation. He did that to confuse Puppeteer as well as create the illusion that he was also a veteran who had been to many worlds before.

“You bet.” Puppeteer harrumphed as he agreed to the grand prize’s suggestion. “But I don’t think Lin Sanjiu would think of this.”

Ji Shanqing smiled. “Don’t worry!” He was very confident in Lin Sanjiu. After all, she still had the Consciousness Mimicry with her. When she faced something she could not solve, she could use the ability to imitate his way of thinking and come to the same conclusion.

“Honestly, my sister can handle herself pretty well. Besides, I saw with my own eyes that she and the flesh worm fell into the Olympics. She must be here, and I’m certain that she’ll think of this idea as well!”

The Red Nautilus was also where Lin Sanjiu and Soulsqn met. So long as both of them went to the Red Nautilus zone, there would be a high probability of bumping into his sister!

From a certain point of view, there was nothing wrong with Ji Shanqing’s thought. He had indeed seen Lin Sanjiu in the Red Nautilus zone.

However, he would never imagine that she would appear as a target rather than a player.

Speaking of coincidence, the shot put game was picked by Puppeteer after he had filtered and crossed out all the other games. The reason he decided to enter this game was that this was the only game that he could participate in with his puppets.

As for where to get the puppets? The Red Nautilus zone had a total of 2,157 contenders. Hence, puppets were the last thing Puppeteer would worry about.

Right after Puppeteer stepped into the Red Nautilus zone, the number of contenders dropped from 2,157 to 2,051 in merely five minutes. The figure did not plummet any further because the posthumans from the Twelve World Centrum were way more docile compared to those from other worlds. Perhaps they were afraid of him since Puppeteer had made a name for himself in the Twelve World Centrum.

“How many people are there participating in the game?” asked Puppeteer softly as he snuggled himself comfortably in a high-back cushion chair, gazing at the sea of lead balls and the crowd of players who were making their final preparations.

“There are 300 participants in this game, counting your puppets, my lord. The game is about to start. I can see some human figures in the distance. I wonder which zone they are from,” an emaciated woman answered diligently, looking like she had anorexia.

“See. This is why a living human is more capable than a puppet,” praised Puppeteer as he offered her a warm and polite smile. The grand prize did not say anything. He stood aside with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Nobody knew what was going on in his mind.

“Oh, it is all because of you that I can be of assistance to you, my lord,” the woman said, “Ah, here they are.”

The first one to appear in their vision was a youth with an afro. Right after he entered the firing zone, he shouted to the back, “Take care, everybody! I’m speeding up!” Then, he picked up his speed, turned into a blur, and charged straight into the rain of lead balls.

Bored stiff, Puppeteer rested his chin on the back of his hand and gazed to the front. The glitter around his eyes flickered occasionally. Then, he suddenly froze.

There was a figure amongst the crowd of people. Seeming weird, she gave Puppeteer a strange sense of familiarity.

Wearing a rocket suit, Lin Sanjiu was carrying a woman with double ponytails on her back and a miniature fat man on her shoulders. She moved swiftly as her figure got clearer in Puppeteer and the grand prize’s eyes.