Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu smacked the hardcover storybook back onto the top of the stack of books.

The tower of books swayed from left to right from the impact. She quickly went forward and supported it to prevent it from falling. Glancing at the stack of books, she let out a sigh and turned them all into cards.

As she gathered all the twenty cards in her palm neatly and arranged them, she felt she was holding a deck of poker cards. Every card had the same description that read “Penguin Publishing’s Pop-Up Storybook”.

“Why did he give you so many storybooks?” Soulsqn went nearer and asked, blighting the air with her fetid breath, “Is it because you love to read stories?”

“Good guess, but unfortunately, I don’t,” replied Lin Sanjiu sulkily. She spread the twenty cards into the shape of a fan and continued, “I kept wondering why so many Special Items were missing, but now I understand.”

Soulsqn clamped her layers of thick mandibles and interrupted, “Actually, you don’t have to tell me that because I’m not interested.”

Lin Sanjiu had made a lot of friends. Some of them were smart, while the others were cute and had a strong sense of justice. However, right now, as she was waiting to be transferred to the next world, she only had this ungrateful and despicable grub accompanying her by her side. Lin Sanjiu’s face darkened as she kept her deck of cards away. Then, she continued to finish her sentence, “Because he can’t make up his mind either.”

The flesh grub nodded, then slithered away. She caressed the remaining craters with her tendrils to show Lin Sanjiu that she really was uninterested in whatever she wanted to say.

Lin Sanjiu sighed as she crouched down and ran her fingers through the sand.

The grand prize had really cudgeled his brain to make sure that Lin Sanjiu would return to his side.

[Penguin Publishing’s Pop-up Storybook]

Every time I open this kind of ingeniously crafted storybook, I always marvel and am delighted by the pop-up elements that jumped between the pages. Those little houses filled with a warm orange glow, the plump hippo with half of its front tooth missing, the little girl that sat on a swing, the German-manufactured heavy artillery MG37T, and the bloodied rope… All of them are extremely real, exquisite, and enthralling.

As mentioned above, this is a bedtime three-dimensional storybook that is meant to bring joy to children. Perhaps since so many children have wished that everything inside the book is real, this book has developed its own will and began answering their requests. All you need to do is tear down a three-dimensional graphic from between the pages, and it will become a real object that you can use accordingly. 

However, it should be noted that the transformed objects will turn back to a three-dimensional graphic after they have been used once or have existed for more than a minute. There are only eight three-dimensional graphics in a book, so use it wisely! 

Ji Shanqing did not want to leave too many Special Items for her, but he feared that she might get into trouble, hence he came up with this solution. This way, Lin Sanjiu would have a sufficient amount of resources to get herself out of a sticky situation, but not too many to the point that she no longer needed his help in the future.

She clenched a fistful of sand and closed her eyes.

The grand prize wished she would return, but he was uncertain whether his sister would honor the promise between them or not. He knew very well that both of them had deep feelings for each other, but he refused to place all his eggs in the same basket. He did not give that many Special Items to Lin Sanjiu because he hoped that in the future, his sister would return to him because she wanted his help even though she was not missing him.

Compared to feelings, which were something volatile and abstract, he trusted something more substantial such as practical interest.

Moving a step forward, Lin Sanjiu wondered if he would still let her go the next time she returned since there would not be the Veda to stand in between them after going so far as to eliminate every possibility to make sure that she would return to his side?

Lin Sanjiu was taken aback. She shook her head to shoo the thought away because she did not allow herself to think badly of Ji Shanqing.

To steer herself away from the dark thought, Lin Sanjiu swept the sand away and pulled out a square iron case.

[Hey, Sis?]

This is a communication device Ji Shanqing specially created for Lin Sanjiu based on a certain Special Item. With a technology that no human had ever tapped into before, it permits the transmission of messages across thousands of miles to another device. Somebody said it was the telephone, but the inventor of this telecommunication device, Mr. Bell, was outraged by such a claim. 

“How dare you all compare this masterpiece to a mere telephone?” he growled, tapping his cane furiously, “Have you guys ever seen a telephone that doesn’t need radio waves or the telephone wire, and can transmit a message through the universe beyond an infinite light-year?”

Even though the inventor has a lot of confidence in his invention, the truth is, there is still a limitation to the effective transmission distance of this telecommunication device. We wish for your kind understanding.

Direction of use: give one device to your receiver, and keep one for yourself. During your time of need, enter your voice message through the microphone and the message will be sent out through the round end on the other side of the device.

P.S: The most distinct difference of this telecommunication device to the telephone is not that it can send a message through the universe, but that it is a one-time use item. Despite Ji Shanqing’s displeasure, the process of reworking the data is too time-consuming, so he gave up at last and decided to make it up with numbers. 

Besides that, the transmission time depends on the distance between the sender and the receiver. It will take several years if the distance is too large, hence it is not advisable to use this telecommunication device for chewing fat. 

‘Can I use this to contact the grand prize?’

Lin Sanjiu’s heart leaped into a gallop. She carefully picked the case up and examined it meticulously. At first glance, this case looked like it was made out of iron, but once she took hold of it, she realized that it was not. Even though the case was light, it was sturdy. She wondered what it was made of.

After a short bout of rumination, she turned it into a card. In the end, she did not send a message to the grand prize.

Since [Hey, Sis?] could only be used once, she was confident that the grand prize would not leave only one for her. The wind had gotten stronger as the night fell. It buffeted against her face, and she could not open her eyes by more than a slit. After groping in the sand for several minutes, she found another twelve of these iron cases. There might be more, but most of them were buried under the sand.

She angled her head up and looked skyward. The sky was now a molten vermillion red as opposed to the earlier rich blue. The starlight, the night sky, and the vermillion red had faded into one another and formed a spectacularly breathtaking scene.

The wind that billowed across the land sounded like the tide. It soothed Lin Sanjiu’s nerves, and she felt a little drowsy.

After using up her quota for today, she had nothing else to do. Therefore, she decided to take a rest.

Soulsqn had gone underneath the sand, leaving her alone to sit under the night sky. She wrapped herself in a towel that she took out from her card and went to sleep.

She spent three days in this barren land that was perpetually affected by the sandstorm. During those three days, she had been busy converting the items into cards. The grand prize had left her with so many resources. She even found a hundred pounds of red crystals in the sand. For the first time in her life, Lin Sanjiu was sick of handling money.

There were a lot more items to count. However, the resources that she valued the most were the two Special items and four ability packs that she picked up from the sand.

The grand prize never expected that the sandstorm on this planet would never end. On the third day, Lin Sanjiu found that she had 30 quotas left. In other words, amongst the resources the grand prize had prepared for her, about 30 of them had been deeply buried under the sand.

“Hey, Soulsqn!” she shouted at the flesh worm. Understanding that she could never return to the Salvation of God, Soulsqn had curled herself up into a ball. Lin Sanjiu had no idea what was she thinking about, but she did not care anymore. “I’m about to get transferred to the next world. Here, take this.”

Soulsqn twisted her body around and peered silently at the visa in Lin Sanjiu’s hand.

“Consider this my parting gift,” said Lin Sanjiu as she flung a visa towards Soulsqn. “This is a visa I asked the grand prize to issue for you—take it or leave it. If you still haven’t given up on going back to your clansmen, the best way is to find Puppeteer first. Use this visa and go to the next world. Find a Consular Officer, and ask them about Puppeteer’s location. I suppose they have it. Anyway, suit yourself. You’re on your own now.”

The grub stood up and caught the visa. She lowered her head to examine the visa and mumbled, “Owned by Soulsqn. The destination is…” Before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly realized something and jerked her head up.

Amidst the billowing sand, Lin Sanjiu waved her hand at her as she slowly faded away.