Doomsday Wonderland

The word “run” tumbled from Maxin’s mouth in an urgent tone. Maxin pushed Soulsqn, and together, both of them dashed into the fog.

“Remove the platform in front of them!”

The moment Zen barked out his order, Maxin retracted his leg, fell on his back, and tumbled across the side of the platform. He let out a breath as he tried to keep his position still. His arm hung to the side of the platform, and his hand gripped Soulsqn’s clothes. The flesh worm in the look of Arlo was now suspended in the air with her limbs held high up. She dared not to flex even one muscle, as the billowing sea was merely a few inches below her.

Maxin had anticipated such a move from Zen.

“Quick, get up!” Although Maxin attempted to pull the flesh worm up, he did not have enough strength to do so despite his best effort. The two people behind him saw their chances and immediately initiated their assaults. Hegel attacked with something invisible and soundless, and Maxin could only sense a wave of an airstream rolling towards him. On the other side, instead of coming up to him, Zen spun around, leaving a chain of tiles around the platform as he took to his heels.

Maxin did not welcome the consequence of getting touched by the gush of airstream. He kicked the ground hard, and as he slid forward, something grazed past his heels. Then, without wasting a second, he yanked his arm up and pulled Soulsqn up onto the platform.

Hegel’s attack missed its target and rammed into the ocean. It exploded, but no water spurted up. Curious about what happened down there, Maxin turned his head around to take a look. Then, he froze.

It was a scene that no human could explain. As if it were a jelly sliced up by a red hot knife, the sea torrefied and shrunk. A great circle of scorched, blackened yellow shadows and seaweed laid limply on the seafloor as if their life force had been sucked out by something evil. Before Maxin could look further, water began to fill in and put the strange scenario out of sight.

Maxin grimaced as a searing pain blasted through his back. After sliding across the rough surface of the platform, his back was riddled with many scratches and blood. It was by no means a wonderful experience. As Maxin inhaled sharply to soothe the pain, he thought inwardly, ‘Luckily Ji Shanqing is not here; otherwise, I don’t have the confidence to take care of two people at the same time…’ 

“What’s wrong?” Soulsqn scrambled up from the ground. She still could not get the situation straightened out, as her reaction towards her surroundings was always a tad slower than the others. She thought they were going to jump to the next platform, but she did not know why Maxin pulled her back. “Has your ability worn off?”

Maxin paid Soulsqn’s query no mind. He quickly gazed around to look out for Zen and Hegel. At the very far end, Zen was busy throwing tiles on the ground as he ran around. Meanwhile, Hegel, upon seeing that his initial attack had failed, recoiled back two steps as he prepared for a second attack.

Hegel had never exchanged blows with Soulsqn before, so he did not know about her ability. With that thought in mind, Maxin called out to the flesh worm, “Queen, I’ll leave him to you.” Then, he turned around and charged towards Zen, or to be more precise, the chain of tiles Zen had left behind.

Although Soulsqn was obedient, she was stubborn as well as she snarled, “Can’t you use your ability on them one more time? Don’t dilly-dally—just use it already! What can you possibly achieve by keeping it to yourself and getting us all killed?”

The moment the words escaped Soulsqn’s lips, both Hegel and Zen raised their heads to look at Maxin in unison. Hegel gave a halfhearted laugh as he said, “Nobody will fall for your trick again,” while Zen narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

Maxin gave a bitter smile at the comment and stepped on the tile.

Everything would be as easy as a piece of cake if he had developed an ability that could influence posthumans similar to how a doomsday did. Of course, he had it. It was an impressive ability, but it lacked real worth.

[The Wisdom Of Bluffing]

Why do humans get goosebumps when they feel threatened?

This is, in fact, a primal instinct encoded in human DNA. When a pore contracts, it causes the hair to stand erect. In ancient times, human ancestors often raised their bodies’ hair to make themselves appear bigger to scare off predators. In other words, it is a kind of intimidation.

Of course, even if humans nowadays were as furry as their ancestors, making their hair all stand up when facing an adversary would not be able to get them anywhere. This Evolving Ability is a higher version of bluffing.

Those who possess this ability must be peace-loving, or, as someone else said, a wimp. In order to not get involved in a fight, the way to effectively scare off your enemy is a subject worthy of further in-depth study.

This ability can transform into anything; it all depends on the user’s imagination. For example, if the owner lied about having the power of the Hulk, he will transform into the look of Hulk and become much stronger than usual to conform with the lie he told. Of course, this effect is temporary. It can only last for three to five seconds. As a sum up, the user is advised to delve deeper into the art of intimidation and deception, and think and stack up more abilities that could scare the wit out of people so that the success rate of scaring the enemy away will be higher when the time calls for it. 

“So, in other words,” Soulsqn continued to shoot questions at Maxin as she dodged Hegel’s attack, “There is nothing you can do if they refuse to listen to you and break from the match?”

“If Hegel broke the rule during the second game, I would have been busted.”

Maxin’s words were laced with apprehension, as he found that no matter how hard he stomped on the tiles, he could not remove or crush them. It was as if roots had sprouted underneath them the moment they dropped on the ground. When the realization came with uncanny clarity into Maxin’s mind, he immediately turned around to stop Zen. Nevertheless, he was still too late.

Sighing, he stood stock-still as he stared at Zen.

Zen was hiding his face underneath the hoodie again. He even covered his nose and mouth with a cloth so that he would not inhale Soulsqn’s pheromones. Eventually, despite Maxin’s best effort to stop him, he managed to trap them in a circle of tiles, although the distance between some of the tiles were so far away that it could not be considered as a ring. The tiles were bluish and looked like fish scales in the fog.

The cloth on Zen’s face had raised Hegel’s suspicion, so he had been keeping a safe distance from Soulsqn. When he saw the ring of tiles, he stopped his brawl with Soulsqn and glared at Zen.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked in an angry tone. “Why did you trap me inside as well?”

Standing outside the circle of tiles, Zen offered a laugh at the trio inside.

“I have long wanted to use this, but since the situation did not permit me to do so, I did not take it out,” Zen said as his two jowly chins swayed loosely under his hoodie, “But it’s done now. To be honest, I never thought it would be so easy.”

As he spoke, he crouched down, stretched his hand forward and pinched one side of the platform.

“I guess you guys still have no idea what these tiles can do, correct?”

The second he finished saying the sentence, Soulsqn was the first one to succumb to the effect. She stumbled, followed by Maxin and then Hegel. One after another, the three of them fell to the ground and rolled towards the edge. The platform was tilting.

“These aren’t ordinary tiles, but roof tiles.” Zen’s fingers had turned white from clenching onto the rock too tight. “Even if you can hang on to the platform, all I need to do is to tilt it and soak all of you in the sea.”

The last part of his sentence was drowned out by the expletives Hegel threw at him, so nobody could hear what he was trying to say.

“I did not believe that I could eliminate all three of you in one go.”

The platform was getting more and more slanted. As there was nothing for them to grab onto, none of them could stop their fall. The sea was within sight, and it would not be long before all of them plunged into the deathly embrace of the yellow shadows in the sea. Standing at the top, Zen watched on with a gleeful grin plastered on his face.

“Queen, can’t you knock him out with your pheromones?” Maxin stepped on a tile and shouted. He could not believe that in the end, it was these tiles that saved his life. “Hegel, you too! Attack him!”

“I can’t! He is too far away!” the flesh worm shouted back as she struggled to grab a tile.

“I would have already done it if I could,” shouted Hegel, who was wrapping his bloodied arms around a protrusion.

The sea was merely a dozen centimeters away, and they could clearly see the wriggling yellow shadows inside the water. Maxin had an idea of how to deal with Zen, but he dared not let go with his hand.

“Can you two support me for a while? A few seconds will do!” After having a fierce tousle inside of his mind, Maxin decided to throw everything into the wind and put his plan into action. The only thing he was worried about was Hegel. He was too volatile. “I know how to get him down!”

“Then do it!” Hegel had no other option left but to cooperate with them once more if he wanted to survive. He inched closer to Soulsqn, and both of them extended one of their arms respectively to pin Maxin firmly on the platform. Once his arm was free, Maxin quickly put on the mermaid’s tail.

“What are you do—” Both Hegel and Soulsqn yelled out in chorus, but Maxin paid them no heed.

The water pillar conjured by the mermaid’s tail sprouted high into the sky and rammed straight into the edge of the platform above them. A horrible cry rang out, and Zen plopped into the sea, giving rise to another shower of yellow shadows and seawater that drenched the trio. For a moment, the air was filled with the hissing of the yellow shadows.

“Is… Is he dead?” Soulsqn asked, unable to accept the sudden change of events.

“I pushed him into the sea,” Maxin said, his face drawn. If Zen happened to be able to escape this time, he would not be able to do anything anymore. “Since I’m close to the sea, it was easy to use the mermaid’s tail and knock him down by using the water.”

If they were on a flat platform, he was confident that the moment he crouched down, Zen would have seized the chance and kicked him down into the sea.

The platform had stopped slanting. It stood up straight in the sea. The three of them heaved a sigh of relief and began to move away from the sea towards the summit of the platform. After some time that seemed like ages, the ocean sloshed and Maxin almost shouted.

“It’s Zeus!” Hegel, who had already reached the top, yelled. “That fellow has turned into a Zeus!”

Before Maxin could say anything, a series of footfalls along with the creaking of leather wafted into his ears.

Soulsqn’s eyes glowed.