Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu only returned to the Black Market the next afternoon. She was not in a rush to go back to Exodus. Instead, she followed through with the sterilizing bath and the red rays before going to the Black’s Market.

The Black’s Market was larger than the capital of a typical country. This time, Lin Sanjiu came into the Black’s Market through entrance A, and she felt like she had arrived in a new place. It was not the black market she had in mind. After strolling along the street for several minutes, Lin Sanjiu pulled out the map to make sure that she was in the correct Black’s Market.

Last time, when she spent a night in the Black’s Market, it was filled with the savory and sweetness of nosh, noisy laughter, cheerful music, and sweltering hot air. The spherical streetlights that hovered mid-air cast a warm orange light on the pedestrians whose faces were red and wet with sweat.

However, that was not the case for the area around entrance A. All the people she met wore an icy expression.

Now should be the time when the Black’s Market was about to get lively, but the street here was forlorn and there were not many pedestrians around. Everyone kept their heads low as they refused to make any eye contact with anyone else. There was a certain group of people who observed others with a gloomy stare. They had muscular bodies and each step they took was heavy and exerted strong pressure on those around them.

It was sort of hard to walk closer to them since all of them were carrying different weapons.

Lin Sanjiu lowered her gaze, pretending not to see the group of incomers.

Right now, a group of three to five posthumans was walking straight toward Lin Sanjiu from the other side of the gloom-filled street. All of them looked suspicious and they were wearing gas masks, giving them the look of mutated flies with enormous heads. Taking advantage of the round glasses that covered their eyes, they observed and inspected every person that passed them greedily.

The group of posthumans consisted of males and females. Like Lin Sanjiu, they all wore matching tank tops and long pants. When she walked past them, all of them slowed down their pace as they turned their heads in unison to ogle her.

Lin Sanjiu did not stop. She did not even make way for them and just continued to walk indifferently. When she walked past them, she was merely a hair’s width away from one of their members.

Even after she had sauntered away, she could still feel their gazes boring into her back. Shoving her hands into her pocket, Lin Sanjiu held her chin up and continued to walk confidently. It was only when she heard footsteps from behind her that the tension in her nerves slackened a notch.

She sighed inwardly.

She was very familiar with these kinds of people. They existed in every apocalyptic world. They could detect the weak through some kind of biological radar that they had developed throughout the years of venturing into this hellish era, and only when they realized that their target was somebody sitting at the top of the food chain did they walk away. Hence, not only could she not show any kind of weakness, but she also could not allow the apprehension to escape onto her face.

After a short moment, Lin Sanjiu saw a muscular man carrying a cannon on his shoulder strolling not far away from her. She then turned her eyes and looked at the direction where the man came from. There, she saw a signboard that read “Survival at All Costs!”

Below the signboard was an unlatched roller shutter with a “We’re Open” signage hanging on it.

Lin Sanjiu walked into the shop and the light became dim as a musky smell assaulted her nostrils. There were countless shadows in different shapes and sizes dangling from the ceiling, looking like the aerial roots of an old tree. She had no other choice but to bend her body a little to avoid them as she made her way deeper into the shop.

Soon enough, a lamp that emitted a pale weak light appeared in her vision. The light was so weak that it seemed like it would be consumed by the darkness sooner or later. As Lin Sanjiu turned toward that direction, she rammed into something that hung down from the ceiling above. It felt solid and hard. She stepped to the side and raised her head. Then, she froze.

Two pairs of hiking shoes were swinging in mid-air.

“The owner of this pair of feet tried to cheat me using a fake item,” growled a husky voice, which Lin Sanjiu certain was an old man. He sounded as if he was plagued by a perpetual sore throat. “Then, this pair over here are the feet of the Black Market policeman who was investigating this incident.”

Round-eyed, Lin Sanjiu turned her head and saw a pair of boots behind the pair of hiking shoes. She did not look up but spun to gawk at the shop owner that had appeared behind the light.

He was a wizened old man that seemed to be in his late 60s with a head of thin, gray hair. His cheeks had lost their elasticity, thus there were two deep smile folds at the corner of his lips. The old man was holding a cigarette in between two fingers. His nails were yellow and full of dirt. Without looking at Lin Sanjiu, he said, “What do you need?”

Lin Sanjiu studied her surroundings to see if there was a third pair of legs. After she found nothing, she took a deep breath and answered, “Do you have any transport available? I want something that can travel as fast as an airplane.”

The old man cleared his throat. Finally, he raised his head, glaring at her with his two glassy eyes. His lips curled up into a smile, but the smile did not reach his eyes. He pulled a drag on the cigarette and said, “Transport? Did you not see the sign?”

Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a few seconds. She did not want to give the old man the impression that she was a novice, so she took out the map and told him how she got there. Luckily, the old man hawked before he continued to say, “Why? Is the transportation provided by the Ubume not good enough?”

The Ubume was one of the organizations that ran the Twelve Worlds. All of the transportation that Lin Sanjiu took was provided by this organization and all the money she spent on transportation went to this organization as well. However, since the canyon was situated in an isolated area, there were fewer types of transportation there. Not only was the plane she took as slow as a snail, but the pilot was also only willing to land on Mid Mountsburg. Furthermore, the pilot was notoriously unpunctual and did not have a fixed schedule. It went without saying that Lin Sanjiu did not want to hand her life to someone like that.

“It isn’t very convenient,” Lin Sanjiu simply replied, feeling a little disappointed.

The old man let out a spell of cough, sounding like a broken wind box. After he came around from his sudden fit of coughing, he took another drag from the cigarette and squinted his eyes. “How much are you going to pay me?”

“Do you have one?” Lin Sanjiu’s eyes glowed.

“I only have a bicycle and it’s mine,” the older man said as a grin blossomed across his face, accentuating his smile folds. “But you have made a wise decision to come to me.”

“How so?”

“I can help you ask around and see if anybody can get you a flying pod or some sort,” he said while clearing his throat, “However, it’s usually a challenge as it is illegal, so you have to be patient.”

‘Illegal?’

As though he saw through Lin Sanjiu’s thoughts, the old man giggled. “Don’t you know? Anything moving above 30 km/hour is considered illegal.”

“Why?”

“Why? For money, of course!” The old man stubbed out the cigarette and nestled himself onto the chair. His bones rattled as he wriggled to find the most comfortable position. “Unless you are a big guy in the top society of the Twelve Worlds, nobody can have a plane or transportation of their own. Oh, except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“The Sky-Arach.” The old man grinned, flashing his teeth that were yellow from the cigarettes he smoked. “That’s because it moves rather slowly.”

Lin Sanjiu could not help but rub her brows as she sighed deeply.

“So, what say you? Is that a deal?”

Lin Sanjiu weighed the pros and cons for a moment. After a short while, she finally gave in and said through gritted teeth, “Deal!”

“Then, you’d better pick a place where no one else is going.” The old man spat on the ground, rose to his feet and wiped his mouth. “Now, let’s move on to the deposit.”

“You still need a deposit? What if you cannot find me a flying pod?”

“Then, the deposit will be mine. I never work for nothing,” said the old man as he caressed a pet dog specimen on the table. “You probably didn’t know it then, but you don’t have a choice now.”

Two hours later, Lin Sanjiu dejectedly walked out of the shop.

“It isn’t expensive.” The old man giggled as he watched Lin Sanjiu almost collide into the feet of the dead man hanging from the ceiling. “If you had agreed to the deal earlier, then you wouldn’t have had to waste so much time, don’t you think?”

Indeed, as the old man said, it was not expensive. The shop owner refused to accept red crystals and only wanted sustenance. In the end, Lin Sanjiu gave him some fresh vegetables, meat, flour, and a few bottles of wine and cigarettes that she kept for Qing Jiuliu as a deposit.

The return to the canyon was even more tiring. She pulled out a hoodie from her card and put it on. She was feeling a little diffident, but she had no idea where her feelings were coming from. After waiting at the entrance of Mid Mountsburg for about an hour, the old and hackneyed plane finally appeared.

When the pilot realized that she was his only passenger, he refused to take her in. Lin Sanjiu had no other choice but to pull out a bag of red crystals and shove it to him.

The sky had already darkened by the time she got down from the plane. Dragging her exhausted body forward, Lin Sanjiu trudged under the night sky for an hour until she finally saw the forest created by the camouflage barrier. She climbed up the canyon and walked on the suspension bridge in the dark. As she walked deeper into the canyon, the more she felt like a phantom sinking into the abyss.

If there was something bad about Exodus, it would be its location.

Lin Sanjiu sighed incessantly, but there was nothing she could do. When she stepped on the stairs, Exodus sensed her arrival and a warm silvery-white light slowly glowed in the dark.

“Welcome back, Administrator,” Silas’s soft voice wafted into her ears.

At that moment, Lin Sanjiu forgot all her grumbles and complaints.

“I only have one night and I’m leaving tomorrow,” said Lin Sanjiu as she patted the hydraulic door as if she was petting a relative of hers, “Bring me around Exodus.”