Doomsday Wonderland

Carl Jung once said, “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”

Maxin could not remember where he had read this quote, but it kept coming back to his mind ever since the appearance of the group of Zeus. Like a brass bell that kept ringing in his brain, he could not shrug it off no matter how hard he tried.

He wondered, of all the life quotes he read over the years, why did this one pop up in his mind instead?

Countless thoughts formed in an individual’s mind subconsciously, and it was impossible for a person to understand the complex process of how their chain of thoughts changed. Looking out at the sea in the distance, Maxin shooed away the weird thoughts that kept bugging him.

Standing not far away from Maxin, Hegel mumbled, “Were these Zeus summoned by Zen?”

The Zeus wearing Zen’s long robe suddenly jerked his head up. As if he had heard Hegel’s mumbling, he offered the crowd an eerie grin as he said in a raspy voice, “Didn’t you guys want more Zeus? Here they are. I’ve brought them to you.”

“Damn it! It really is him!” Hegel cursed aloud and began to fall back. As he recoiled, he shouted as loudly as he could, “This wasn’t my idea. Go after him. It’s all his fault!”

He was not the only one who took to his heels. Leaping up to his feet, just when Maxin peered around for Soulsqn, he froze.

Among the crowd of weirdly-dressed Zeus, there was one who looked extremely familiar. Despite having the same deformed face that looked like grotesque sketches of Picasso that all the Zeus had, something about this one made him stand out from the others. There was an old, tattered grayish bandage hanging around his abnormally long neck.

Maxin turned to look at Soulsqn, but despite his best efforts, he could not make out any visible expression from that creature’s face that was made of nothing but layers of mandibles and strips of flesh. Be that as it may, she seemed to have realized the same thing as he did. Without wasting any second, she charged straight at Puppeteer as she yelled loudly, “Lord Puppeteer! Lord Puppeteer! There’s one Zeus you cannot kill!”

Standing stock-still like a sentry on guard at the end of the carpet, Puppeteer observed the swarm of Zeus that was marching towards them.

“One of them is Lin Sanjiu— No, one of them is carrying Lin Sanjiu! You mustn’t kill them all, Lord Puppeteer!”

This time, the gaunt figure finally responded. Puppeteer spun his head around, the red glitter around his eyes shining brightly. “What did you say?”

At the same time, he caught a movement from the corner of his eye and raised his hand without even spinning his head around. Zeus, who thought he could take advantage of the opening Puppeteer had offered, had no choice but to swerve and jump into the ocean to avoid a silhouette that came straight at him. The silhouette did not stop. Whizzing across the surface of the water at ultra-speed, the silhouette pierced through the shoulders and abdomens of several Zeus before disappearing into the horizon.

Although Soulsqn often boasted about her superb linguistic talent, she still faced some difficulties making Puppeteer understand such a complex matter in a short amount of time. “One of the Zeus is holding a pocket folder, and inside it is Lin Sanjiu. From what I heard, the person inside the pocket folder is very fragile and can die easily.”

The fact that there was a living person inside a pocket folder was enough to strike somebody dumb. However, as a seasoned posthuman who had triumphed over several apocalyptic worlds, Puppeteer had become accustomed to strange things such as this. Thus, without asking any questions, Puppeteer turned his head back to the group of Zeus, staring them down. A cold smile danced at the corner of his lips.

“What a hellraiser! She just can’t stop giving me trouble.” As he grumbled, he lifted his chalky white arm and pointed at Hegel and Maxin. “You, go and call them back. I’ll need you three to help me stall off these bunch of weirdos.”

Truth to be told, there was no need for Soulsqn to relay the message, as both Hegel and Maxin could hear his voice just fine. Before they could make any move, Puppeteer then added, “Either they come back on their own, or they will come back as my puppets.”

‘Perhaps it is due to his relationship with Lin Sanjiu that he didn’t turn us into his puppets the moment he saw us.’ With that thought in mind, Maxin forced himself from retreating. Since he knew there was no way he could escape this time, he commanded himself to calm down and began to walk towards Puppeteer. Initially, he thought Hegel would not listen to Puppeteer’s order, so he was a little taken aback when he saw the bald man walk next to him.

“I bet that soon, he won’t be able to take care of us,” Hegel said in an urgent whisper, “Let’s escape then. How about that?”

What surprised Maxin the most was that he just kept quiet throughout the entire process. He did not agree to nor reject the suggestion.

Hegel apparently took his impassiveness as a yes. He nodded to him and quickened his steps.

Puppeteer could change the size of the carpet to his liking. It was able to accommodate three humans and one massive flesh worm at the same time, and there was still a lot of space left. By the time Maxin arrived at Puppeteer’s side, the group of Zeus had reached beside Zeus Zen. There was a swath of churning yellow shadows in between the two teams.

Nobody had ever observed so many Zeus at such a close distance before.

There were at least twenty of them. Each of them was two meters tall, and when they gathered together, they resembled a rank of trees with human faces. They all looked like the ugliest and most eccentric group of models, showcasing different kinds of outfits that were left behind by the posthumans who were unfortunate enough to be transformed into a Zeus.

The Zeus wearing a bandage, tank top, and battle pants rolled his eyes as he leered like a Cheshire cat, seemingly excited at the fact that he had gotten a lot more attention than his brethren from the opposition team.

“I’ve never seen contenders like you guys,” said a Zeus wearing a blouse. Although he had a breastfeeding cover tied around his neck, there was no sign of a baby in his embrace. “As indevout as you are, you can still become gods. All you need to do is to allow me to submerge you into the water.”

“Think wisely. Aside from this vicious man, all of you can continue the game as long as you don’t attack us,” another Zeus dressed in an apron chimed in and said with merriment.

Unfortunately, they did not have such an option. As the thought flitted across Maxin’s mind, a murmur spread out amongst the crowd of Zeus as they all rolled their eyes agitatedly.

“Ah, the game has ended.” The Zeus wearing an apron covered his mouth and giggled sickeningly, his voice reverberating loud and clear in the sky.

“The white camp lost.”