Doomsday Wonderland

The moment Lin Sanjiu realized what was happening, she pounced forward.

The fear that exploded in her mind made her forget that she was a posthuman. Right now, she was merely moving based on basic instinct alone.

“Let go of him!” She growled loudly, anger dripping with every word. She tightened her grip on Puppeteer’s neck. “If you don’t let him go, I will kill you!”

It was only because Puppeteer was not at his tip-top condition that Lin Sanjiu was able to land a hit. In the past, this was something that could never happen. It never crossed her mind that she would have a chance to grab Puppeteer by his neck one day. She turned her head sideways in anger as she tried to avoid the hair and heavy fragrance that shot up into her nose.

Puppeteer had lost so much blood that his body temperature plummeted to such a degree that Lin Sanjiu could not believe he was still alive. She felt as if she was grabbing a huge, hard ice chunk rather than a living human being.

Puppeteer did not slacken his grip on the grand prize just because his life was at stake. His eyelashes fluttered, and slowly, ever slowly, he rolled his eyes and stared down at Lin Sanjiu’s rebellious face, his cold eyes boring through her skull.

Ji Shanqing gave a hard cough. His small face was turning purple-red.

“You know what? The three of you now look like fried dumplings on a skewer,” said the trapped highest god as he made a gesture in the air as if he was skewering something. Unlike his lackadaisical reaction, Soulsqn was anxious. She went forward and said, “Lord Puppeteer, he—he is the one who treated your wounds.”

The flesh worm was aware that Ji Shanqing was now their biggest ace in the hole.

Lin Sanjiu could feel movement beneath her hand as though Soulsqn’s words had elicited a reaction from Puppeteer. Then she heard the grand prize’s intermittent voice ring out in the air. He spoke with great difficulty, as if the effort was consuming all his breath. “It… It’s true…”

Truth to be told, all of them were quite surprised that Puppeteer didn’t go in straight and begin wreaking havoc when he saw the grand prize, but instead went for the most primitive approach to deal with him.

“Say it. Why did you say you are a Veda now?”

His voice had the same cold and gloomy attributes as a haunted house.

Lin Sanjiu had no idea why the grand prize did not try to break free of Puppeteer’s hold. She tightened her grip on the notorious puppet user’s neck and huffed out, “He can explain later. Let him go now!”

Scarcely had her voice died away than the world in her eyes turned upside down. The excruciating pain that tore through the nerves and bones of her right arm did not come until after half a second passed. Even though she was now essentially a set of data, she could still feel the pain.

A dense layer of cold sweat formed on her forehead as she pulled herself up. She raised her head, only to see that she was now at least a thousand miles away from her comrades, and they had become merely a few dots in her eyes.

It was no doubt that the person who flung her away was Puppeteer. She did not know how he did it, but it caused her a lot of damage. She tried to flex her fingers, and a sharp pain instantly shot up to her brain, causing her eyes to become wet with tears, but she held them back. It seemed to her that she would not be able to move her right arm for a certain amount of time.

Nevertheless, she was relieved that Puppeteer did not treat the grand prize the same way as he treated her.

“Now that the fly is gone, you can tell me what is happening.”

Just as Lin Sanjiu began dragging herself to return to her comrades, the interrogation began. They had no idea what had happened to Puppeteer internally, as he had become much more reasonable recently. At the very least, he was willing to spend a little bit of his time to hear someone else’s reasons. Although Ji Shanqing had been liberated from his duty as a grand prize, the deep-rooted fear Puppeteer had instilled in him did not lessen even by the slightest bit, as the latter was the only one who came very close to unwrapping him. Despite that, he still followed Puppeteer’s order and told him the ins and outs of the story, though not without hesitation.

“So there really was a wish inside of you.”

This was the first reaction Puppeteer gave after he finished listening to his explanation. His voice was soft, but there was a cold edge to it. While he talked, he turned his head and shot a cold stare at Lin Sanjiu in the distance, making her jump and grow extremely nervous. His glare suggested that she had done something terribly wrong and that he would certainly come and punish her for it.

“Ye—Yes, but I lied to sis as well…” said Ji Shanqing as he defended Lin Sanjiu. “She didn’t find out the truth until the end.”

Puppeteer snorted noncommittally

“Now that you are a Veda, why don’t you put in a little effort and try to fight me?”

“I cannot access to all the data the Veda had analyzed, so I cannot modify myself.” The grand prize was surprisingly cooperative and answered obediently. “In other words, my combat power is as bad as before. To fight you, I have to analyze you first. However, in the current circumstances, I can’t do it.”

‘Isn’t he a little too cooperative?’ Lin Sanjiu thought exasperatedly.

“Oh my goodness, wasn’t this man trying to kill you?” the highest god chimed in. “Why would you tell him everything?”

“Because he is my sister’s friend,” Ji Shanqing turned his head to the highest god and answered softly.

For a moment, Lin Sanjiu saw Puppeteer’s figure suddenly freeze, becoming as stiff as a statue. Her heart was in her throat, and she hastened her pace, for she feared that the volatile man might attack the grand prize out of rage. Just as she was about to reach them, Puppeteer’s derisive laugh wafted into her ears.

“It is no wonder that you can twist Lin Sanjiu around your fingers,” he said softly as he looked at Ji Shanqing. “For anyone in the Twelve Worlds Centrum, if they found a chance to kill me, they would kill me without any hesitation. Remember this deeply in your heart: they do that for a reason. Perhaps in the future, you will regret saving me today.”

‘What the hell are they talking about?’

Lin Sanjiu forcibly pressed down the anxiety that welled up in her heart. She felt that she shouldn’t let both of them stay together anymore. She chided the Data Stream Library inwardly for its slow-moving speed. When she finally arrived, Soulsqn was the first one to notice her. She raised her head and hollered out, “Yo, you are b—”

The muscle and skin on Soulsqn’s head froze.

The other three people turned their heads in unison. The faces of the trio and the flesh worm were alight, the pores and lines on their faces, and the subtle change of expression were all exposed under the strong light. A brilliant white light showered from behind Lin Sanjiu and covered her vision.

She did not come around to her senses straight away. It took her about two seconds before she finally realized what the thing behind her was.

But it was already too late.

Even though the cord appeared as a tube in her vision under the influence of the highest god’s “lens”, it still did not change its essential properties as light. Especially its speed.

The five of them could not do anything but get consumed by the cord.

“Freak!” Soulsqn shouted the moment she was pulled inside the cord. “Is this your doing? Please tell me this is your doing!”

“Are you out of your mind?” The highest god, who was being tossed here and there, shouted back. “If this is my doing, why would I throw myself inside?”

‘He’s right. It doesn’t look like he’s doing this.’ 

When Lin Sanjiu was thrown into a nearby wall, her heart clenched and she hastily balanced herself. Her vision, her body, and the inner side of the cord… Everything rocked so vigorously that it would nauseate anyone who was daring enough to glance at them. From the other end of the cord behind them came waves after waves of tremors that rolled them in and kept pushing them forward.

“This cord is transferring us back!” Ji Shanqing’s voice rang out amidst the pandemonium.

All of them knew where they were going. The heart of the Data Steam Library consisted of a dense network of white cords, and only its peripheral was a void that bereft of anything. It was apparent to them right now that this cord was fetching them back to the lair of the Veda.

Even at the speed of light, it should’ve taken the cord at least some time before it could reach the nearest cord. It was only now that Lin Sanjiu realized the Veda might’ve known they were here all along. Hence, they sent this cord all the way from the center of the Data Library to here to capture them.

Lin Sanjiu’s brain was such a fuzzy mess that she could not think straight. She could not see anything, nor could she grab something to balance herself. However, that wasn’t the worst of it. The killer was that the cord was getting larger and larger as they went closer to the Veda’s den. Further, Lin Sanjiu realized that the noise and screaming that accompanied her the moment she was dragged inside the cord was getting further and further away from her.

“Hey!” she said, flustered. “Is anybody around?”

Nobody answered her.

The thing that flooded her surroundings, rather than saying it was sound, it was more like a “shock wave”. Unlike sound waves, she felt her entire body buzzing because of the tremor.

‘Where are they?’

No matter how large this cord had become, it was impossible for her not to receive any response from them.

As storage to contain the Veda’s information, the girth of this cord was too wide. Lin Sanjiu had been flourishing her limbs about, trying to grasp something, even if it was a shadow that flitted her eyes, yet all her attempts were wasted.

“Are you guys coming back to surrender yourself?”

A voice came and the tremor stopped. Even the aftershocks were gone. Silence fell across the entire cord. Lin Sanjiu raised her head to see around. Right now, she was inside a huge columnar passage. The area was as large as the Expo hall. Aside from the faint light that lined next to her feet, she could not see other light sources around. The top of the passage disappeared into the darkness.

No matter if she looked to the front or the back, all she saw was a straight, empty passage that slowly faded into the darkness. Her comrades were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they had been sent to different locations.

‘It’s as if an underground drainage system…’ The thought floated in her mind.

The voice continued to talk.

“I clearly remember that you all have escaped. It’s truly incredible that you guys can escape from us after turned down our offer of becoming our immigrant. However, we don’t care.”

It seemed to be talking to everyone.

“You kinds is really a bag full of wonder. Although you have a lot of deflection, you never fail to amaze us. For example, Lin Sanjiu, do you realize that you have only four days left before you will be transferred away? After four days, you won’t be seeing us anymore. We are really baffled about why you would choose to come back to us.”

‘Four days?’

Lin Sanjiu’s head buzzed.

‘I have only four days left?’