Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t comprehend why she sniffled when looking at Ji Shanqing. As he walked closer to her, the lump in her throat grew heavier. She felt suffocated, and her tears seemed ready to fall from her eyes. She sniffed, wiped her tears, and lowered her head. Then she reached for Puppeteer and pulled him to her side.

“Sis.”

Ji Shanqing called out to her gently and almost pleadingly. He walked close to Lin Sanjiu and murmured in a somewhat sighing manner, “You’re finally here. I’ve been expecting you.”

Lin Sanjiu bit her lower lip without saying a word. She shot a glance at her grand prize—no, perhaps she shouldn’t call him ‘grand prize’ anymore. She averted her gaze and lowered her eyes.

“Sis?” Ji Shanqing immediately grew a little panicky, though only Lin Sanjiu could tell. Ji Shanqing looked up. His long, thick eyelashes cast a shadow over his eyes. Under the silvery light reflected by the white walls, a dabble of blue lingered in his usually lacquer-black eyes as a sheen of tears covered his eyes. “Are you… very disappointed in me?”

“Disappointed?” Lin Sanjiu was a little surprised.

“I-I haven’t been telling you the truth. I even, even—”

“No,” Lin Sanjiu interrupted. “No. I don’t care about that one bit. When I found out, I just felt… felt concerned and sorry for you.”

Her answer seemed totally unexpected to Ji Shanqing, and he was momentarily dumbfounded.

“This isn’t the right time for reminiscing.” Lin Sanjiu suppressed her mixed emotions and looked at Puppeteer hastily. Next, she quickly eyed the trapped highest god, who was not far from her, just to be sure that he hadn’t escaped. She was taken aback when she saw him. The highest god’s face was contorted. His beguiling pair of eyes were wide open. They bulged from his face as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, and the eyes muscles holding them also stuck out.

“Veda?”

It was difficult to describe the current expression on his face. Before today, Lin Sanjiu had never even imagined that a person’s face could express so many intense and complex emotions in one expression. The highest god’s smiling facade had cracked. His excitement, his eagerness to experiment, his fear, his helplessness, and his anger… oozed out like a mixed mess.

Fear.

When Lin Sanjiu noticed his fear, she felt an inward sense of relief.

“That’s right. You are. You are really a Veda,” the highest god fumbled with his words. He involuntarily swallowed his saliva. “What’s going on? What are you saying? Tell me!”

Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing exchanged glances. The grand prize gave Lin Sanjiu a subtle smile as the moisture in his eyes became more obvious. “Leave it to me, Sis. In the past, you were always the one solving all the problems we faced. Now, I can help you.”

Before Lin Sanjiu could question him, Ji Shanqing walked past her.

Lin Sanjiu stared at Ji Shanqing’s back as he approached the highest god. While the highest god focused all his attention on Ji Shanqing, Lin Sanjiu rapidly searched through her card deck.

Most people struggling to survive in the apocalyptic worlds usually brought some medical supplies around with them. Even though Lin Sanjiu relied on her own body to recover from her wounds most of the time, she remembered storing some medical supplies in her cards.

Meanwhile, Soulsqn was the most useless one among them right now and had nothing to do. She mumbled about something for a while, but realizing that no one was listening to her, she simply tilted her head and observed the situation wearily.

Ji Shanqing remained silent whereas the highest god’s loud demands became the only voice that constantly invaded Lin Sanjiu’s mind. It was almost as if he could only calm himself down if he continued with his persistent discourse.

“You didn’t expect this, right?” The highest god seemed to be teetering between delight and anger as he yelled interrogatively, “You didn’t expect that I’d come up, right? Do you still think you are all that high and mighty? Speak up! Answer me!”

While the highest god continued yelling, Lin Sanjiu tore Puppeteer’s black leather top and examined his wound. The highest god did not leave Puppeteer with a normal open wound. Looking at it, Lin Sanjiu could not imagine what sort of attack created that cobweb-like wound. Puppeteer’s upper body seemed like a piece of dry, cracked land. The deep black fissures on his body seemed to be deepening and extending at an alarming rate. His dehydrated skin was like a white parchment. Each time his skin split another inch, it only revealed a black shallow empty hole. It was as if the fissures swallowed the blood, flesh and bones that were supposed to be there.

The fact that Puppeteer was still alive under such circumstances was quite extraordinary. The layer of flesh under his skin seemed to already have been fully ‘consumed’.

“What are you doing?” the highest god roared suddenly. Lin Sanjiu immediately turned to look. Ji Shanqing had already walked up to the transparent containment box without her noticing. He placed a hand on top of it and remained silent. The highest god inside the narrow containment box took two steps backward. His face turned beet red. “What are you trying to do?” he asked. The harsher his tone, the guiltier he sounded.

While Lin Sanjiu observed the unfolding events, she quickly scanned through her cards.

Antibiotics, injection needles, penicillin, bandages… Lin Sanjiu realized that she could do nothing but disinfect and bandage his wounds. In her world, the modern medical procedures for dealing with any external wounds basically depended on the body’s own self-recovery. Unfortunately, after Puppeteer received that second attack, the fissures on his skin extended even quicker each time his skin was touched. There was no way she could bandage his wounds like before.

She also couldn’t activate her [The Mountains Remove The Foolish Old Man] because some unknown condition was not met. Just when Lin Sanjiu grew anxious, Ji Shanqing suddenly spoke. The tone of his voice was so mild that it was almost like a fleeting breeze.

“Sis, you don’t have to worry about him. He can’t come out.”

Lin Sanjiu looked up and coincidentally saw the highest god howling angrily as he rammed himself against the transparent containment box. It turned out that he could also hold the expression of a trapped animal.

“That is just an item I imitated. It can only last for half…”

“I know.” Ji Shanqing smiled at her. The fair skin at the corner of his eyes turned slightly red. “Sis, I’m now a Veda. It isn’t hard for me to analyze this Special Item and modify it.”

The word ‘Veda’ was like a leaden burden on her heart. She instantly shifted her gaze downward.

The highest god froze for a moment. Then the redness on his face abated as if he had just woken from a dream.

“Now? You’re now a Veda?” As he repeated those words, a look of realization came over him. “You… you weren’t one before?”

No one paid any attention to him.

“Sis, you seem… very unhappy to see me.” Ji Shanqing lowered his eyes. His eyelashes started to quiver like a dying butterfly assaulted by a strong autumn wind. Even though he might be a Veda now, the heartbroken expression he showed after he was rejected looked exactly the same as before. “You said you wished for me to become the type of lifeform I wanted to become…”

“Yes, I said that.”

Lin Sanjiu did not lift her head to look at him. She tried to hold Puppeteer’s unbroken skin together, hoping that the fissures would stop growing. After trying to bandage his wounds twice, she was out of options. Worried and defeated, she sighed. “I wanted you to become someone you strived to become—I need to ask you this: did you really want to become a Veda? Do you really like this way of life? Do you wish to become like them? Treating life like just a bunch of data and numbers, and not caring about what it’s worth? Modifying and controlling whatever you want just because you have the ability to do so?”

As she didn’t look up, she naturally couldn’t see Ji Shanqing’s expression. When she didn’t hear any answer, Lin Sanjiu shut her eyes tightly and forced herself to focus on Puppeteer’s injuries. The fissures on his chest grew larger within that short period of their conversation. They opened like zippers showing the patch of darkness underneath his skin.

After Lin Sanjiu sprayed some rubbing alcohol while knowing that it was a waste of effort, she stared blankly at the black fissures. She bit so hard on her lower lip that it became white. She simply didn’t have the ability to heal such a wound. She didn’t even know what was happening to Puppeteer’s body.

Just like she didn’t know what the Grand Prize was thinking. At that moment, she had never felt more helpless.

Like a fish weaving through water, Ji Shanqing’s long, soft hair swept past her shoulders as he walked over.

“Sis,” the grand prize’s gentle voice was slightly nasal. This was a place where they didn’t need to use their voices to communicate; however, Lin Sanjiu could clearly feel the affection in Ji Shanqing’s trembling voice. Could this be due to the highest god’s “lens”?

“Have you forgotten? When you made your wish, you wanted me to keep whatever I could.” Ji Shanqing stretched out his hand and wiped Lin Sanjiu’s eyes with his tender fingertip. When he pulled his hand back, there was a sheen of tears on his finger. It was only then that Lin Sanjiu became aware that she had unknowingly begun crying. Ji Shanqing flashed a captivating smile at her. “Beside all the items I have, I also retained my original consciousness and personality.”

Lin Sanjiu stared at him with her mouth slightly agape.

As Ji Shanqing spoke, he placed his other hand on Puppeteer’s chest, right where the fissures were. With the help of the highest god’s “lens”, everything played out in a way Lin Sanjiu could comprehend. Tiny screens immediately appeared around the area where Ji Shanqing touched. They were like miniature tracking cameras. As they magnified the wound on the screens, they chased after the countless black threads within the wound.

When removing the black threads, Ji Shanqing looked like a surgeon for a moment. Puppeteer’s skin stopped tearing.

“T-that means…” Lin Sanjiu stammered as she watched. “Even though you’re a Veda now, inside you… you’re still the Grand Prize from before?”

Ji Shanqing crooked his head and couldn’t hold back his laughter. Like blossom petals floating in the wind, his light chuckled rang out. “The only thing that is different is that I no longer have an inside or outside, sis.”

Lin Sanjiu was surprised that his words could bring her such comfort. Her tensed muscles suddenly relaxed as if she had stepped into a hot spring. However, her heart ached a little at the same time. Her grand prize could no longer accompany her into the next apocalyptic world.

Just then, the highest god interrupted her train of thought.

“Hey! I’m asking you a question! Did you just become a Veda?” He seemed to have calmed down significantly. “You’re the same as me. Are you one of the citizens they groomed?”