Doomsday Wonderland

There was no better bait than the truth. This was the thought that surfaced in Lin Sanjiu’s brain several minutes after she went into the closet.

Just like Eggy said, Polva and Puppeteer did not come out after they went into the closet. It was also for this reason that Lin Sanjiu was willing to throw herself into the darkness.

There was nothing but pure darkness inside the closet. Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh as she concentrated on her nose, using her smell to navigate through the pitch-black. The air was laced with a faint musty smell and a trace of the scent of blood.

Nevertheless, the blood smell was thicker here.

“She’s in too,” something whispered excitedly in the dark. They did not try to evade Lin Sanjiu for being there. The murmurs, giggles, and even gasps of excitement began accompanying Lin Sanjiu ever since she entered the closet. She felt she had walked into a rat’s den rather than a closet, for there were many unknown creatures scurrying in the dark.

She found herself in the passageway after she turned her body halfway in the cramped closet. Those things in the dark had been very restless since the moment she stepped in here. However, as Mrs. Manas had covered her ears with her Higher Consciousness, it blocked out all the sprawling gossip and noise they made.

It was only when those things had quieted down that Lin Sanjiu regained her command over her hearing.

After knowing that something existed in the darkness, Lin Sanjiu was relieved. The fear of the unknown diminished as it was slowly replaced by murmuring, distant footfalls, and cold skin that occasionally petted her feet.

Lin Sanjiu was getting a little annoyed right now. Those things in the dark had never once ceased attacking her ever since she set foot here, seizing every possible chance they got to throw an attack at her. She took out a hollow bar from her card. She brandished it around and used it to tap the floor for navigation. She had no idea how many times she had called out “Polva”. Then, she suddenly felt a tug on the bar.

She froze, dead in her pace. She held her breath as she waited.

Those attacks were deadly enough to kill her if she did not take them seriously. However, it was really a nuisance to deflect every one of them. Lin Sanjiu felt a tremble beneath her fingers and realized that something was crawling up the bar. Judging from the intensity, it would not take long before it reached her fingers.

The [Defense Forcefield] flashed weakly around the tips of her fingers. Though it was not bright enough to light up her surroundings, it was sufficient for her to make a retaliation. Lin Sanjiu turned around and grasped the disk-like thing in a swift motion. She tightened her grip, crushing the slimy thing in her hand and causing it to explode with a loud plop.

Lin Sanjiu shut her eyes tight as she fought back the urge to lift her hand and wipe her face. She then hurled the meat mush in her hand behind her, accurately hitting another thing that pounced on her.

Lin Sanjiu could not tell what those things really were, but she felt it was impossible for veterans like Puppeteer and Polva to fall victim to their pesky attacks.

“Polva! Where are you?” Lin Sanjiu shouted again, her voice echoing through the darkness. It occurred to her that the space in the darkness was restricted by the exterior shape of the furniture. After she shouted several times, she found that she had walked into another closet. The space suddenly became smaller, and she had no choice but to crab-walk to continue to advance forward.

Then, she heard a faint sound as her bar poked something soft.

Lin Sanjiu stopped in her tracks. She felt her surroundings with her Hypersensory then poked with her bar again.

Although the sound of a hard object stabbing into skin and flesh was faint, Lin Sanjiu would never hear it wrongly.

Even though her Higher Consciousness did not recover yet, she did not have any other options left.

Lin Sanjiu made her decision after a short bout of rumination. A gush of Higher Consciousness flooded through her arm and amassed at her fingertips. Unlike a barrier that spread her Higher Consciousness evenly across her entire body to form a uniform dome shape, when she concentrated her [Defense Forcefield] at one point, it would give off a harshly bright white light around that point, albeit for just a flitting second.

Polva’s soulless eyes were caught in the flitting light before they were drowned out by the darkness again.

Lin Sanjiu was stunned, her head held high.

Since she had to raise her head to see the face, it must be the outermost layer of the [Matryoshka Doll]. It occurred to her that Polva had put back all the shells. However, in that brief moment, she saw that his pupils had dilated. His eyes were greyed out and showed no sign of life.

With a trembling arm, she tapped around Polva with her bar, but every hit fell on the cabinet on the wall or the hard cement floor. Puppeteer was not there.

‘This should be another layer of his body, right?’

Lin Sanjiu prayed inside her heart. She stretched her arm forward and tried to push Polva’s body. Her fingers stopped mid-air and her heart sank.

She was not able to push it.

Lin Sanjiu remembered that the Matryoshka Doll’s shells were very light, as they could float on the sea. However, this body was heavy. In other words, Polva had…

There is a limit to how much one can bear.

Lin Sanjiu threw the hollow bar away as her body slid down the cabinet, despite knowing that there were many unknown creatures staring at her from the dark. She covered her face with her hands, and for a moment, she could not hear anything aside from the sloshing of her own blood.

Her entire body shivered uncontrollably. She was so overwhelmed by the death of Polva that it took her nearly a minute before she realized there was a hand stretching out from the cabinet behind her. The hand spread its fingers open as if it wanted to give Lin Sanjiu a pat on her shoulder.

Lin Sanjiu suddenly jerked her head up. Her eyes went bloodshot. She leaped from the floor like a panther and picked up the hollow bar she threw away earlier. She could not see the “hand”, nor could she use her Hypersensory to pinpoint its location.

She rained down a frenzy of attacks on the cabinet in the blink of an eye. She was so filled with rage and grief that she flourished the hollow bar with all her might. There were times where she felt her attack connected with something, but she did not stop at all. The hollow bar rose and fell in quick succession for a full minute before Lin Sanjiu finally ceased her frenzied attacks.

The thing had been reduced to nothing but a pile of meat pulp. It slid down the cabinet and dropped to the floor with a plop. A kind of liquid pooled over Lin Sanjiu’s feet as a metallic scent filled her nose. The “hand” was apparently not the only thing that received her smite, as the persistent murmurs had ceased away and her surroundings fell silent.

“Come out now!” Lin Sanjiu wheeled her head and growled, “Who killed Polva? Come out now!”

A scuffing noise came from the dark.

“Erm…”

Lin Sanjiu gave a start.

“Are you really Xiao Jiu?” A faltering voice rang out beside her. “Erm, I know this is a little awkward, but actually, I’m not dead yet.”

Slowly, Lin Sanjiu turned her head to Polva’s body.

Even though she was not stupid, she could not understand the situation. She squinted her eyes, and she saw that there were some movements underneath the body’s skin.

Without wasting a second, she gestured her hand and the [Defense Forcefield] glowed up again. Although the light from the [Defense Forcefield] only granted her a brief second of sight, she would never forget the scene she saw. There was a round, pasty face poking out of the midriff of the corpse.

“Polva?”

“I didn’t know what to do.” His voice was filled with real distress. “There was nothing I could do. I had to carry him on my back, and those things in the dark just wouldn’t leave me alone. I kept having to take off my shells, so do you see what I have become? I couldn’t walk anymore in this size, so I came back to my first layer of the Matryoshka Doll and hid inside. I just got in then heard somebody calling out for me.”

Lin Sanjiu’s mouth was left ajar.

“But why is the shell so heavy?”

“Because I brought Puppeteer in as well,” Polva said. There was a slight rustle coming from his direction. It sounded as if he was scratching his head. “Though he looks skinny, he is pretty heavy.”

After a momentary pause, he spoke again. “Erm, are you really Xiao Jiu?”