Doomsday Wonderland

As Soulsqn wrapped her tail tightly around the two Zeuses as if her life depended on it, she pulled out all the stops and ran at top speed. The flesh worm had that sort of temperament whereby once she decided to do something, nothing and no one could get in her way. Neither the quivering “pools” that were hot on her heels nor her Lord Puppeteer could stop her.

The flesh worm blitzed past Puppeteer, but she did not pick him up. On her back, the two Zeuses took aim at the Veda and attacked them once more.

A gunshot rang out as a bullet launched itself out from the barrel and whizzed at the Veda. The targeted Veda emitted a strong beam of light, trying to intercept the bullet. To its malaise, the bullet sliced through the golden glow like melted butter and hit the Veda squarely in its core.

Soulsqn had lost count of how many times the Zeuses landed a blow on the Veda. However, aside from staggering the Veda for a short while, these seemingly effective attacks could not do much to them.

Then again, could these Veda even die?

“So, that’s how it is,” the Veda at the back mumbled, its voice firm. Two Zeuses that Soulsqn failed to save plopped to the ground.

“That’s the reason they could still attack us even after we’ve severed the connection!” Soulsqn had not gotten it wrong. One of the Veda that had just analyzed the Zeus regained normalcy. As it spoke, it went near to Puppeteer, who was now lying on the ground.

“Not only can you control them in real-time, but you can also delay the command, so they will respond by launching their respective Special Items after 30 seconds of being summoned. Hmm, that way, indeed you don’t have to control them anymore. Well, since you think you can hold your ground for 30 seconds, you are very confident. However, if you could tone that swelling pride of yours down by even the slightest bit, then perhaps you wouldn’t be where you are right now.”

The flesh worm jerked her head back when she realized that she had left Puppeteer behind alone. Right now, the man who was clad in a black jacket was entirely engulfed in a blanket of golden glow, and she could see nothing but his flitting shadow that fought hard against the light that was chasing it away.

The Veda that covered on top of Puppeteer said simply, “If there were any flaws about our kind, there’d only be one.”

“To us, information is the most precious thing in the universe, and we cannot resist the desire to collect, store, analyze, or even share the information. If we were to remove the desire with our ability, then we won’t be who we used to be anymore. That’s why even though we have full access to your data make-up, so far, we haven’t made any changes or deleted you. Alas, now it seems that we cannot wait any longer!”

The word “delete” struck Soulsqn’s mind like a bolt of thunder. She did not realize that the Veda could delete Puppeteer!

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!” The flesh worm’s tone turned edgy. She straightened her body and said rapidly, “Didn’t you want to archive Lord Puppeteer into your database?”

“Affirmative.”

“Then, why are you changing your mind now? You should wait for a while. You mustn’t give up your hope so soon!” Soulsqn shielded the two remaining Zeuses under her massive body. She craned her neck and peered at Puppeteer, who she had left behind, floundering. “Could you guys be too scared to go against these two puppets?”

“No, you are wrong. These two puppets can buy you nothing more than some time,” the Veda said after a short pause. Then, as it turned around to look at its comrade, who was still quivering like a blancmange and scattering its golden glow everywhere, it continued to say, “We are only waiting for our brethren to clean up the database. After they finish cleaning it up, you two along with these puppets will be logged into our database in milliseconds.”

“You’re bluffing,” Soulsqn retorted confidently.

The Veda paid no mind to Soulsqn’s accusation and said, “But now there’s a problem that we did not foresee happening during the cleaning process.”

“What problem?”

“It seems like the problem won’t be solved until you two are deleted.” The Veda evaded her question. “We should start with him. So, farewell.”

“Hold—”

Before Soulsqn could say anything, her vision was blinded by a dazzling golden light.

At the same time, inside the database, several shadows shifted into Lin Sanjiu’s line of sight.

The database was transparent, but now she found there were clumps of low fog wandering at the peripheral of her vision. The fog was so faint that she could see right through it. She peeled her eyes away, then suddenly a shock rippled down her spine. She spun her head back to the fog. Unbeknownst to her, several dark figures in various shapes were slowly emerging haphazardly from the fog.

The dark figures soon found their location and slowly marched towards them.

“What…what the hell are those things?” Stunned, Lin Sanjiu turned around and called out to her grand prize, “Did you see them?”

“Yeah, I did,” Ji Shanqing said after he glanced into the distance, his face drawn. An idea popped up in his mind and he stretched his arm towards the distance where the dark figures were grouped. He closed his eyes as if he was feeling something. Then, after a few seconds, he opened them and said hesitantly, “It seems like someone has activated a certain part of data in the database, and now…they are coming for us.”

“Activated?” Lin Sanjih frowned. She hastily activated [No Coincidence, No Story] and armed herself with the [Tornado Whip] although she had no idea whether these Special Items could harm them or not.

“Are they the same as me?”

“Yes. I think the Veda activated them.” The grand prize sighed. “They must have found out about us, and are trying to chase us out from the database.’

Since the Veda already knew they were in the database, they would not send Puppeteer and Soulsqn in anymore.

Raising her head to look at the dark figure on the horizon, Lin Sanjiu instinctively touched the back of her head. It was empty.

‘Is the Veda going to use the data in the database to eliminate us?’

“Could they not have any other better ways to get rid of us?” Lin Sanjiu said uncertainly.

“Sis!” The grand prize could not help laughing. He glanced at the oncoming dark shadows in the fog and felt his nervousness dissipate a little. He chuckled at Lin Sanjiu as he said, “Are you suggesting that they should deploy a more effective way to get rid of us?”

“No…that is not what I mean.” Lin Sanjiu did not know what was stirring in her heart as well, but she laughed bitterly. “So, what do we do now?”

“Don’t worry, sis,” comforted the grand prize as he gripped her wrist. He offered her a warm smile and looked at her as if he were a dog waiting for his owner to compliment him. “From the data I read just now, I already know how to get out of here. However, while I’m opening a gateway to get out, these guys…”

He tilted his chin into the distance, looking like an elegant great white swan stretching its snow-white neck. “You have to keep them away from me.”

Lin Sanjiu followed the direction he indicated and looked. The lead shadow had already come out from the fog, and its appearance was getting clearer and clearer in Lin Sanjiu’s sight. She initially thought it would be an otherworldly creature that she had never met before, but frankly, the incomer was surprisingly ordinary.

“Understood.” She grabbed the grand prize’s palm back, feeling the chill that slowly seeped from his lily-white hand into her skin. “Leave them to me. I can still use my abilities and Special Items, can’t I?”

The grand prize nodded. He retreated half a step from her side, pitched his voice low and said, “Be careful, sis. I’ll be staying here. Your [Notebook] is in my hand, so just give me a sign if you need it.”

With the [Notebook] combined with her [Battle Item], she could access a limitless amount of Special Items.

She then examined the incomer again. He looked no different from a middle-aged man that she used to see daily before the apocalypse arrived. He was wearing a loose t-shirt and had a rotund belly. His cheeks were thick and baggy as they dangled and framed his lower jaw, giving him the impression of a catfish. It seemed that no man could not escape the fate of developing such an appearance around this age.

He was holding a briefcase in his hand and was looking vacantly into Lin Sanjiu’s eyes. “Where…” He studied his surroundings. “Where…is this?”

Perhaps his brain function stopped the moment he was turned into a set of data, so he could not come to his senses right away after being reactivated.

Staring at the middle-aged man, Lin Sanjiu activated her [Mosaic Censorship].

“Why am I here?” The man spun in a half-circle, seemingly unaware of the fate awaiting him ahead. “What the hell are those things? Anyway, can you show me the way to this address?”

When he unlocked his briefcase with a click, Lin Sanjiu felt a chill creep down her spine. Just as she lunged at the man, he raised his head. His jowls piled up on his two cheeks as a wide, eerie grin blossomed across his face.

“Yes, it’s here.” He pried his briefcase open and the thing inside instantly pounced at Lin Sanjiu. At the same time that her grand prize shouted out a warning, a legion of the middle-aged man’s faces emerged from the deepest part of the briefcase. Each and every one of them was screaming as they stretched their arms out, trying to reach out for her.

‘What the f*ck are these?!’

Lin Sanjiu made a quick somersault backward to evade the storm of hands. As she landed on the ground, she brandished her Tornado Whip and sent a small gust of wind towards the middle-aged man. The latter stretched his arms and pulled his briefcase even wider, as if he was trying to suck the tornado into his briefcase, but it was a waste of effort. The cyclone soon devoured his figure, leaving only a whistling sound and the grayish cyclonic air.

Before Lin Sanji could relax, she felt something had snuck behind her back. It felt slithery and cold.

“Don’t move!” the grand prize shouted.

Lin Sanjiu froze and remained standing in her half-turned pose. From the corner of her eye, she saw a green shadow. It took her almost half a second before she finally realized it was a humongous frog head.

Its pair of round yellowish eyeballs rolled around and stopped on Lin Sanjiu for a split second before rolling away. The frog was standing at roughly two meters tall. It stood behind Lin Sanjiu and shrouded her under its shadow.

“Sis,” the grand prize’s voice slid into her ears, “Don’t move. A frog’s eyes can only capture moving objects. If you stop moving, it won’t see you.”

Even though the frog could not see her, those dark shadows in the fog could see her just fine. A fetid smell tainted the air and assaulted her nostrils. A layer of perspiration was forming on her forehead. More and more shadows were emerging from the fog, each one even more bizarre and weirder than the last.

She was very certain that one of the figures holding an umbrella was a woman, but when the figure lifted the umbrella, it turned out that instead of a woman, it was a segmented mushroom stalk. Standing next to the mushroom was an inflatable man from the negative car dealer. It had the same plastic texture as she saw from the television, and air was constantly being pumped into it from God-knows-where, causing it to dance and flail its arms madly in the air. There were a few more shadows that Lin Sanjiu found no words to describe.

‘Are these creatures all real? What world do they come from? And where did the Veda collect their data from?’

A myriad of thoughts flitted across Lin Sanjiu’s mind as she stared at the incoming wall consisting of a plenitude of weird creatures. Much to Lin Sanjiu’s surprise, the tornado was losing its momentum as it was getting sucked into the briefcase. She stared fixedly at those monstrosities and shouted, “Is the gateway ready yet?”

The grand prize replied, his tone laced with hesitancy, “Erm…You will need to hold them off for a little longer.”

“How long do you need?”

“Erm…A few seconds will do.”

Lin Sanjiu almost fainted. ‘A lot of things can happen within a few seconds.’ 

When a firework boomed in the air, Lin Sanjiu felt she should not dilly-dally anymore, so she leaped into action. The frog darted its tongue out to catch her. The only thing she could do right then was bite the bullet and brave through all the attacks. She could not let them get near to the grand prize. Perhaps evading and parrying those ambushes diverted her concentration away from the time. Earlier on, she felt that 1.7 seconds was excruciatingly slow, but now she felt that time was passing very fast. Just as she jumped to avoid another attack, she heard her grand prize’s exultant shout.

“Sis! The gateway is open!”

Lin Sanjiu’s eyes glowed. She brandished her Tornado Whip to open a path. Braving the onslaught of the monsters behind, the grand prize grasped her wrist with a quick motion and shouted, “Over here!”

Lin Sanjiu could not see anything in the next half a second. She rolled across the floor by instinct, and when her vision returned, she realized that she had returned to the cord once more.

Soulsqn and Puppeteer were nowhere to be found. There were only several Veda hovering in mid-air, silently waiting for them.

Lin Sanjiu turned to look around. Colors were being washed away from her face, leaving only a pale shade of white behind.

“Where are they?” she asked, staring straight at the Veda.

The Veda responded to her question simply, “We have deleted them.”