Doomsday Wonderland

The sun-laden sky, the Arabic city built with masonry, and the half-broken minaret… Everything was shattering apart and melting into one big colorful jumbled mess that resembled a kaleidoscope. It shrunk back, getting further and further away until the grey passage once again appeared in their vision.

A large swarm of Veda appeared, filling the entire passage with their golden luminance.

The disappearance of her right shoulder had seemingly sped up the devouring process. In the blink of an eye, the billowing smoke consumed her face. The last thing she heard was Soulsqn screaming her name and the last thing she saw was Puppeteer’s figure charging fearlessly at the Veda. That figure flickered against the blanket of golden glow, seeming like it would disappear at any moment.

As she fell into the bottomless abyss, Lin Sanjiu lost her consciousness.

Years later, there were times where she could not help but recall the moment she fell into the embrace of the darkness as if she were dead. What did her surroundings look like at that time, and what was going on?

Of course, she knew the answer—she just didn’t know if the answer was real or not.

‘How long has it been?’ Lin Sanjiu asked inwardly.

Right now, she felt as though she was drifting inside an ocean basin, and the waves were gently lifting her to the sea surface. It was at this moment that a familiar and soothing voice snapped her back to reality. “Sis, sis?”

Lin Sanjiu slowly peeled open her eyes, as if she had just woken up from a long slumber. She could not come to her senses right away.

The first thing that welcomed her eyes was Ji Shanqing’s delicate face and his two dazzling eyes glimmering with happiness. “Sis, you are finally awake!”

“Where… where am I?” Lin Sanjiu blinked hard. Like a spotty receiver, her mind was a little disorganized. As she shook her head to chase off the grogginess, she asked, “What happened out there?”

“It’s alright, sis.” The grand prize went closer to Lin Sanjiu. His long hair petted her shoulder, caressing her skin like a gentle breeze. He stretched out his hand and placed an assuring palm on Lin Sanjiu’s wrist. “I’m right here.”

“Can you please tell me what happened?” Lin Sanjiu asked again. Her mind was getting back together, but when she lowered her head and realized her arms and legs had returned, she got confused again. With a perplexed expression, she raised her head and looked around.

Even though she could see everything clearly, she could not understand what she saw at all. After all, who had ever seen a transparent space before?

Generally speaking, the air was see-through, and so were glasses and many other things. When someone’s eyes passed through these transparent objects, their gaze would eventually fall on a non-transparent object such as the ground, a tree, or a building.

However, right now her surroundings were filled with some sort of pellucid and colorless “currents” to the fringe. She continued to allow her gaze to travel out, trying to hunt for something solid, yet failing to.

The “currents” flowed past her. They seemed imponderable, yet also viscid and dense enough to hold Lin Sanjiu in place. She bobbed up and down in mid-air, but she could not tell where she was now.

She brought her hand up and rubbed her eyes. She realized that this time, even the highest god’s “lens” could not help her see through her surroundings.

“Where the hell are we?” Lin Sanjiu was getting a little edgy. “Where are Puppeteer and Soulsqn?”

Ji Shanqing breathed out a long sigh. He looked at her, smiling like a crescent moon. “Sis, you’ve just been turned into a set of data by the Veda in their database”

It took several seconds until his words sunk in. Lin Sanjiu instinctively jerked her head down and inspected her body. “This is their database? But how do I still have my consciousness?”

“This is because I fragmented my data and hid amongst yours so that I could sneak in together with you,” Ji Shanqing explained softly. “Then after we were inside the database, all I needed to do was reactivate your consciousness.”

“You broke up your own data?” Lin Sanjiu was shocked. She did not pay attention to what he said afterwards, as she was busy examining her grand prize from head to toe. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m alright.”

“Then, what happened to Puppeteer and Soulsqn?”

Ji Shanqing paused for a second. Then, a smile blossomed across his face once more. “I guess they are still in the cord outside. Don’t worry, sis, I’m quite certain they will be sent in here if they lose, and then I only need to reactivate their consciousness in the same way. To be honest, it might be better that way.”

“I guess you are right.” Lin Sanjiu nodded, and her fluttering heart calmed down a bit.

“Did you come in to save me?” As she asked, she began taking in her surroundings even though she knew it would be a wasted effort. “Why did you say it will be better if they come in as well?”

“That is one of the reasons,” Ji Shanqing answered meekly. “Another reason is that things will become easier once I get in here. Did I not say earlier that I’m a Veda now and also possess ability equal to theirs? But the data I own is far too few. Thus, like a writer without a pen, there are a lot of things I cannot do. If both Puppeteer and Soulsqn come in as well, that means the Veda did not find out my plan.”

It took Lin Sanjiu a while before she came around to her senses. “You want to get into their database and steal their data and information!”

“I wasn’t stealing,” the grand prize said, pouting. His face blushed as he continued. “I’m just making use of their monumentally huge database and getting some data from them.”

“How, how are you going to do that? Is there anything I can help with?”

“Sis, you just need to stay here and wait for me,” said Ji Shanqing smilingly, giving Lin Sanjiu a peek of his pearly white teeth.

The Veda was an existence beyond human comprehension. Since the grand prize did not explain further, Lin Sanjiu did not feel the need to ask for more. She watched the grand prize drift away as he stretched out his arm. It looked completely normal to her, but when she ran her fingers across her forehead, she realized she had been frowning all along.

Ever since she entered the Data Stream Library, everything she saw and heard was beyond her comprehension. And she didn’t even have a chance to ponder over it, as everything happened so rapidly. Under the circumstances where her brain was all at sea, she could not decide which question was the right one to ask amongst her skinful, and it was a terrible feeling.

Ji Shanqing’s arms were outstretched in front of him. The unseen current was pushing him back and forth. Lin Sanjiu looked at him, half confused, half hesitant. She had no idea how long she had been in this strange dimension, and there was an anxiousness ballooning in her heart. A long time had passed, yet she still saw no sign of Puppeteer or Soulsqn.

She did not want to bother her grand prize, so she just roamed around, trying to look for clues herself. However, she soon found her maneuver unnecessary, as no matter which direction she went in, everything she saw was transparent.

‘Even if there is one spot out of place, I can try to activate [A Light Bulb Moment].’ The moment the thought flitted across Lin Sanjiu’s brain, she gave a little start. She moved her hand over the back of her head. Unfortunately, instead of touching the zigzaggy Special Item, she touched her hair.

“Huh?”

She ran her hand around, but there was nothing on the back of her head.

‘When did I lose it?’

“Mrs. Manas,” she prodded in her mind. “Where is my [A Light Bulb Moment]?”

Mrs. Manas gave a quick reply. “After you lost consciousness, I fell into a slumber. So I am as clueless as you.”

‘Perhaps it dropped somewhere when we were fighting the Veda…’ With that thought in mind, Lin Sanjiu looked around the space.

Puppeteer and Soulsqn still did not appear.

The more time passed, the more anxious she became. Generally speaking, the combination of a man who had been analyzed and a flesh worm whose ability had been thoroughly see through by her opponent shouldn’t be able to hold their ground too long against the Veda. It wasn’t really a good sign that both of them did not show up after such a long time. Be that as it may, Lin Sanjiu continued to wait patiently for a long while. Finally, she could not hold it anymore and approached her grand prize.

“Sis,” the grand prize called out without turning his head, “what’s wrong? Anything bothering you?”

“How long will it take for you to get their data and information?”

“The amount of information they’ve amassed is endless. It would require more than a lifetime to get all of it,” Ji Shanqing said as he stared unblinkingly at his hands as if the most complex knowledge in the world was now flowing on top of them. “I’m now looking for the Veda’s kryptonite so that we can use it against them and get out of this place as soon as possible”

“I am worried about Puppeteer and Soulsqn. I’m scared something might have happened to them.”

“Sis,” the grand prize giggled, his voice clear. “Take it easy. It has only been 1.7 seconds after you woke up.”

“1.7 seconds?” Lin Sanjiu was taken aback. She felt that at least ten minutes had passed.

“The information flow rate is exceedingly fast here,” Ji Shanqing explained lightheartedly. “Perhaps this is what that legend said, “A day in heaven is a thousand years on earth.”

“Then how about now? How long has it been?”

“Why are you in such a rush, sis? It hasn’t even been 1.71 seconds.” Ji Shanqing chortled coquettishly as if he found Lin Sanjiu’s acting funny.

Embarrassed, Lin Sanjiu scratched her head.

“Oh, how about the highest god?” she asked as she furrowed her brows. “What happened between you two? You used him?”

“Sis.” Ji Shanqing did not turn his head, but judging from the muscle movement on his profile, he must be pouting. “Don’t you find it weird? If it were without his consent, do you think he would be willing to risk himself and do all that stuff?”

“So you both cooked up a plan against the Veda?” Lin Sanjiu’s eyes shone. She had no good feelings of the highest god. However, since they were now on the same side, she did not want him to stab her in the back. “You did not fraud him?”

“Of course not. When he was under the Veda’s control at the minaret, if it weren’t for the connection between him and me, I wouldn’t have found his data make-up, let alone, backtracking it to the Veda,” the grand prize said, sounding a little aggrieved. “Him using the [Unattainable Love] to attack the Veda was also part of our plan.”

Simply said, the grand prize and the highest god had set up the Veda, and there was nobody who was a bait better than the highest god.

However, where did the feeling of uneasiness and skepticism come from?