Doomsday Wonderland

At that moment, all the blood rushed up to Lin Sanjiu’s head. She could not hear any sound other than the sloshing of her own blood, and she could not see anything but the couch in front of her. As her body continued to sink deeper into the soft cushion, she knew she had to act fast. She formed her palm into a claw, and with a quick swipe and a pull, she yanked the cushion high into the air.

At the same time that the force tugging at her ankle vanished the moment she jerked the cushion down from the couch, she saw something. A shadow, dark and moving as fast as a streak of lightning, blitzed across her eyes. Before she knew it, it slipped into the dark slit in between the back of the couch and the seat.

Almost her whole calf was buried inside the gap of the couch. The second the shadow disappeared, the couch returned to normal again. The slit with her calf in between was causing her a lot of pain. Nevertheless, regardless of how hard she brandished her leg, none of her kicks could connect to the ground. It was as though there was an abyss at the other side of the slit.

After she had pulled her calf out, she immediately jumped away from the couch. Her heart galloped like a wild bison, and her chest rose and fell rapidly as she slowly regained her breath. Only when an eddy of wind petted her skin did she realize she was bathing in cold sweat.

A searing pain then flared up, prompting her to look down and begin inspecting her skin. There were a few scratches around the raw place, but she was otherwise safe. Silence once again overtook the furniture cemetery. The darkness shrouded all the paraphernalia that scattered haphazardly across the floor, leaving nothing but shadows of different sizes in her vision. She could not hear anything aside from her own breathing. It was as if everything was holding its breath.

Huffing, Lin Sanjiu walked closer to the couch.

The slit was narrow, and the girth could contain no more than an adult’s finger. She took a deep breath and arched her body with her palm, now balled into a fist, held high in the air. When the iron fist descended, the couch exploded, sending a maelstrom of wood, torn fabrics, and cotton into the air.

Lin Sanjiu safeguarded her face with her hand. Through squinted eyes, she studied the couch, now destroyed.

The impact brought forth by her fist had destroyed even the wooden frame, and nobody could possibly tell what it formerly was in its current state. Be that as it may, as she had expected, she could not find anything under the mess of wooden chunks.

She swept several wood chunks away with her feet, bringing the cement floor to the light. The abyss she felt earlier on was gone. It was as if everything she experienced just now was merely an illusion that happened in her mind.

She did not like the feeling at all.

She looked ahead, allowing her gaze to travel far. She found that, similar to other places in the furniture cemetery, the surroundings of the couch were overfilled with different kinds of furniture. For the wardrobes alone, there were ones of wood, iron, and canvas, to name a few. The pieces of furniture formed layers of barricades that stretched far into the distance, blocking her way.

Lin Sanjiu stood frozen stiff. Her sweat was dried by the wind. After taking stock for several seconds, she moved towards where Lucy had come from while activating [No Coincidence, No Story].

The thing that waiting for her behind the couch was a tapestry that covered several whatnots. Next to the tapestry was a bar counter. Judging from the size and angularity of the pile of things under the tapestry, Lin Sanjiu suspected that it was either a lamp hanger or a vase. Even though she was not in favor of passing by the dark spot under the tapestry—she feared another hand might suddenly appear from the gaping darkness—she knew she had no other option left. Setting her jaw tight, Lin Sanjiu squeezed herself through the tiny space between the thing and the bar counter.

However, it seemed that her worries were unaccounted for. Nothing happened for the rest of the journey.

Silence descended. She didn’t encounter any “walking dead bodies,” nor did she see Polva’s corpse. All she saw was an endless stream of furniture. Lassitude began to set in, and her uptight nerves slowly relaxed as she continued to traverse in the seemingly never-ending darkness. Once her mind relaxed, a myriad of questions flooded into her brain like a floodgate let loose.

Just like what she had explained to “Lucy”, the highest god had sealed all the exits that lead to the outside world. Unlike the previous batches of contenders, they did not have the option of “getting out of here.” The only way to end this situation was to activate the [Pygmalion Choker] and imitate the Veda’s code writing ability to analyze this hell place.

Puppeteer, no doubt, was the best candidate to activate the choker. Whenever Lin Sanjiu thought about him, her heart palpitated. If he was dead, not only would she lose a formidable ally against the highest god, but it also implied that the highest god had analyzed him and obtained his memories.

There were only two outcomes if this really happened. First, under the circumstance where the highest god refused to undo the furniture cemetery even after he had gotten Puppeteer’s memories, it could only lead to one thing: him intending to trap all of them here forever. Second, the highest god had learned of the existence and the ability of the [Pygmalion Choker].

If that really happened, could he still remain so calm and allow Lin Sanjiu to analyze the furniture cemetery?

The more Lin Sanjiu thought about it, the more she panicked and worried. Once Puppeteer died, their hope of getting out of here would be ruined as well. The only thing she could do right now was to pick up her pace in finding her friends. Once she found any of them, then—

Her train of thought came to a sudden stop. She stood frozen, dead in her tracks.

Pricking up her ears, she listened.

The night was dark. She did not sense any movements or hear any sounds from around.

If she did not have the Hypersensory, perhaps she would not sense anything. However, at this moment, Lin Sanjiu felt a strange sense of uneasiness. It was difficult for her to describe, but it felt as if something heavy and sticky was coating her entire body, blocking not only her pores but also dulling her senses towards the surroundings.

She looked around again, but she could not find anything amiss. A stool, a bench, a bookshelf, and an aquarium that was filled not with water but an array of whatsit… Each of them stood silently in the dark. With her brows tightly knotted at the center above her nose bridge, she crawled over a stack of rattan chairs and moved closer to the aquarium.

The aquarium was almost as tall as her and two meters wide. There was a glass tank on top and a mahogany cabinet below. Through the slimy glass, she could barely see the piles of paraphernalia inside. There was a magazine, a handmade basket, a long-stemmed dish, a round wag-on-the-wall, several bowls and plates… Even though everything had been left in there for a long time and seemed shabby, Lin Sanjiu did not find anything strange about them.

‘Then, what is this strange feeling in my stomach?’

Lin Sanjiu’s muscles were pulled taut. She turned her head and looked behind her. The shadows of those pieces of furniture remained standing in the shade, and everything seemed the same as before.

‘Perhaps I was too sensitive?’ L in Sanjiu thought inwardly.

She let out a soft sigh. And as she took a step forward, the hair on her back bristled. She slowly turned her head and stared fixedly at the aquarium.

Round wall clock, round wall clock, round wall clock.

There was a face inside the wag-on-the-wall. His pair of hollow eyes stared straight at her

Instead of having an orthodox dial plate, there was a human face underneath the glass of the wall clock. Lin Sanjiu had no idea how long he had been staring at her. As a small whimper slid off her tongue, she recoiled a step and knocked over the stack of rattan chairs behind her. Then, she froze in her tracks.

That was Maxin’s face.

However, was it Maxin, or was it a corpse?

Before Lin Sanjiu could get any deeper into the thought, her body reacted faster than her brain. She pounced forward and rapped against the aquarium. She shouted, “Maxin? Is that you? What happened?!”

How was there any possibility that a living person would appear underneath a wall clock?

Be that as it may, due to the several black holes on the front, it did not look like a human face. Lin Sanjiu could barely see his eyes through two layers of glasses. The only thing that was visible was the hole that should have been his mouth, which opened and closed rapidly as if he was saying something urgent.

The thing that she sensed using her Hypersensory was the muffled sound the face made.

“Hang on!” Lin Sanjiu pressed down the urge to run away and picked up a chair. “I’m coming!”

Even if it was a corpse, it was Maxin’s corpse. Putting everything aside, she had to figure out what had happened to Maxin.

The mouth on the face sped up. Lin Sanjiu could not tell what he was saying, so she stood on the chair and gazed down at the cover of the fish tank. The cover was made of wood, with several lamps and an air pump installed on it. Aside from a narrow feeding hole that Lin Sanjiu found in the corner of the cover, the other places were completely sealed so it was difficult for her to flip it over. Since she would never stretch her arm into the tank, she bent over the edge and yelled toward the inside, “Can you go back a little bit? I’m going to break this aquarium!”

The mouth continued to move. This time, however, Lin Sanjiu finally saw the deeply sunken eyes move a little bit.

It was as if the eyes were looking behind her.

Slowly, Lin Sanjiu straightened her body. She pressed her palms on the cover but did not turn her head around.

When the muffled voice finally died away, she swirled her body and lashed out a powerful tornado behind her, instantly shredding and reducing several pieces of furniture in its wake into a bazillion pieces. The ear-splitting tornado shattered the silence, and amidst the howling gale, Lin Sanjiu heard a faint but familiar voice.

“Lin Sanjiu—you b*stard—How dare you attack me!”

Her heart gave a little start at the voice, and she immediately put the whip away, but she could not stop the tornado. She jumped down from the chair and charged into the heart of the columnar of wind. Some furniture had been shredded into countless pieces while the others had been pulled out of their original shape. Staring fully focused at the seething mass of destroyed objects for several seconds, Lin Sanjiu finally found a streak of crimson red amidst the black.

When she pulled that thing out of the wind, Soulsqn looked staggered.

“I have never seen this thing have any effect on our enemies before, how come it suddenly became so strong?” the flesh worm said. Even though she looked pretty weak, her voice was solid and sharp. “By the way, why did you hit me?”

Lin Sanjiu was so short of air that she could not speak. She pointed at the fish aquarium in the distance and pulled herself up from the floor.

Before she could further walk out, she felt something tugging at her ankle.

“What are you trying to do?” The flesh worm coiled a tentacle around Lin Sanjiu’s ankle. Her tentacle felt cold. “That is not Maxin. It was me who threw him inside, so you don’t have to go there to save him.”

Stunned, Lin Sanjiu studied Soulsqn. She withdrew her leg out of Soulsqn’s grip and gazed ahead at the face in the wall clock.

She could not see very clearly in the darkness, but she felt that Maxin was somewhat agitated. His mouth began to move even faster. As he was saying something, he kept rolling his eyes towards her leg.

There was only Soulsqn beside her, so what was Maxin trying to say?