Doomsday Wonderland

When the sun rose in the morning, perhaps not even Arlo would have expected that his long hair would be turned into two ponytails in the afternoon, dangling on both sides of his head.

Of course, this hippie had lost his chance to give any comment about it.

With the help of the man, Maxin and Soulsqn did not spend too much time in getting rid of Arlo. The plastic firm could last for two minutes, and they had 20 seconds left by the time they found Arlo. Since the man never mentioned about the plastic film to his comrades, Arlo did not expect them to survive.

They were now hiding on top of a platform. The man stared at Soulsqn like a deer in the headlights as she fit herself into Arlo’s body. His fingers were turning white.

Soulsqn pulled and adjusted the skin a few times to fit her eyes into the sockets. The truth was, she did not have to go so far as to wear the pouch perfectly, as she still needed to take it down when crossing the platforms.

Initially, Soulsqn was against the plan. Were it not for Maxin convincing her by stating that the panda girl might lower her guard against her own comrade, Soulsqn would rather have conserved her strength and waited until she found a human pouch that she favored the most. Since Maxin did not welcome the sight of her wearing a human pouch, he stared fixedly at the sea and the yellow shadows. After a few seconds, he said, “That’s a shame.”

The man nodded in assent, despite having no idea what Maxin was trying to say. Every posthuman had more than one Special Item and a slew of different ways to store them. Since everyone had different methods and abilities, sometimes one would find it hard to harvest Special Items from a dead body.

Since there were plenty of shiny ornaments dangling around his neck, it was impossible that Arlo had only two Special Items. However, they could not find anything from his body after he died. It was as if those accessories were mere illusions. The only things they could find on his body were a pair of spectacles and a folded tent in a bag.

In order to wheedle Zen, the man, onto their side, Maxin gave him the tent while he kept the spectacles for himself. As he stored the spectacles into his bag, he sighed inwardly. It all began from the 20% he demanded from Lin Sanjiu. He had gone too far to back out now, yet the only thing he got in return was this pair of spectacles of unknown ability. He had even returned the flying squirrel hide to Ji Shanqing.

“I don’t think they have realized that we got Arlo,” Zen said, snapping Maxin back to reality. Turning to look at the man, Maxin was surprised at how fast Zen adapted to his new identity as their comrade after switching sides. “The fog has restricted my visibility up ahead, but I suppose Rize and Old Hag are still standbying on the last five rows of platforms as planned.”

‘Old Hag? That old man with heavy makeup? Well, I bet nobody else is more suitable than him for that name.’

“You suppose? You can’t see through the fog either?”

“No, I can’t,” replied Zen in a low voice. Due to his ability, his voice was gruff and strangely muffled. “But they can’t see us either if we stay low enough.”

“No, that won’t do,” Maxin said, frowning. “When we find them, they will see us. We need a better plan.”

After some contemplation, Maxin decided to disguise as their captive. With both Soulsqn, who was now wearing Arlo as her human pouch, and Zen at their side, he was confident that they could fool the members from the white camp and catch them off guard.

“Let’s get moving,” the “captive” ordered. “After we’ve settled Rize and Old Hag, try and see whether you can forfeit the game on behalf of your team or not.” If that didn’t work, then they would have to wait until Ji Shanqing eliminated all the white camp’s platform. It would be an easy job for him now since there were no people defending those platforms. It was just that Maxin wondered what expression Ji Shanqing would wear when he realized they had gone ahead of him and defeated all the members from the white camp.

Nodding, Zen got to his feet silently. When he was about to jump to the next platform, Maxin placed his palm on his shoulder.

“Tell me where the next platform is,” he said sternly. “Soulsqn will go first, and then you will go with me.”

Maxin was not a gullible person. There was a possibility that Zen might take the opportunity to escape. Besides, it was also possible for him to trick them by removing their platform from afar. After all, nobody saw him help the enemy eliminate Arlo anyway.

Only now did Maxin realize how difficult and tiring it was to do two things at once. Guarding against Zen while leaping five platforms consecutively was even more tiring than jumping the platform for an entire day. Zen did not encounter anybody even after they had jumped across five platforms in a row. For Maxin, other than the platform beneath his feet, all he could see was a heavy mantle of whiteness that stretched far into the horizon.

Before jumping to the next platform, Zen looked around again as usual.

“What do you see?” Maxin whispered. Looking at Zen, one part of him wished he could take down his hood, but another part of him was against the idea. After all, he could not risk having the appearance of Magus affect his concentration at this moment.

“They are not here,” Zen said, perplexedly. “That’s weird. Have they moved to the back already?”

“Where is our location now?”

“We are probably at the third or fourth row,” Zen answered. “We are getting close to the center.”

“Why would they move to the back?”

“If they remove the platforms starting from the back, they would return to their starting point by the time they finished.”

Looking at Zen’s hood, Maxin was getting a little bit frustrated. “So we are now heading to the back too?”

“Yeah, but they are far ahead of us.”

“Then we have to move faster. Where is the next platform?”

Zen craned his neck, allowing his gaze to travel out. After a few seconds, he pointed to a direction and mumbled something under his breath. Just when Maxin wanted to say something, a scream erupted from the fog followed by a splashing sound. Maxin was very familiar with the voice, because he had given off the same sound when he fell into the sea.

“It’s that baldy!” Soulsqn shouted. She indeed had a pair of good ears.

“There’s somebody here,” Maxin grabbed Zen’s robe, hissing, “They have removed Hegel’s platform!”

With one quick motion, Zen threw himself to the ground. He waved his hands as he spoke in an urgent whisper, “Quick, lay down! Don’t let them see you!”

Hearing this, Maxin and Soulsqn immediately laid on the ground. Soulsqn threw on Arlo as she prepared herself for an upcoming fight. The three of them waited with bated breath for a moment, yet no more sounds came from the fog. Zen looked around, but he could not find Rize or Old Hag.

Suddenly, the ocean splashed against the platform they were now standing on, making them all jump. Turning his head around, Maxin was so shocked by the scene he saw that he was robbed of the ability to speak.

A human head, wrapped in yellow shadows, was slowly rising from the edge of the platform.