Doomsday Wonderland

“The area covered by the tour is about a third of the entire Exodus.”

They must have gone through a tedious process of whose voice they should use for Silas’s voice. Its voice was always so calming and soothing. Sitting comfortably inside the maglev pod, it reminded her of the year when she was six years old. During that time, her most favorite ride in the amusement park was the spinning flying car. She would scream and shout gaily when the machine started spinning and the upbeat music rang out.

“How about the rest?” Lin Sanjiu asked with a smile plastered on her face. The wind blew and tousled her hair. The pod swerved around a corner smoothly and brought her into another passageway made of nothing but metal.

There were a lot of passageways like this one that ran throughout the entire Exodus, serving as the bridge that connected different areas of various functions together.

“Mostly, there are the power operation supply system, the backup motor and the emergency system, the air conditioning facilities, the water circulation system and the storage tank, the air pressure control system…” Silas dedicatedly put together a list of systems, but that was not something Lin Sanjiu was interested in.

After seeing that Silas was about to keep spilling about more systems, Lin Sanjiu quickly raised her hand and stopped it. “Okay, okay, that’s enough. What happens if these systems and facilities break down?”

“So long as it’s something minor, I can repair it with my autonomous intelligent system. However, if the error is something beyond my capabilities, then please summon a technician.”

‘Well, I guess the contractor didn’t foresee the apocalypse. Where the hell can we get a technician right now?!’

“In other words, are you saying that two-thirds of Exodus is occupied by these systems and facilities?”

“Negative. In order to save time, I have omitted some large living facilities such as the garden, the tennis court, the gym room, and the kitchen to name a few out of the tour spot in order to choose the best and shortest route for you. If you are interested, then I shall…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. This is fine.” Silas was indeed very skilled at its job, but Lin Sanjiu did not want to spend another hour strolling in the garden. Be that as it may, she was still very excited. She asked, “So, which is our first stop?”

“The administrator’s suite,” Silas replied serenely, “Your warm little abode.”

Lin Sanjiu was stunned by those words for a brief second. After she came back to her senses, she stepped on the accelerator and the pod began to glide forward again.

Considering the size of Exodus, her room was not exceptionally large at just about 100 or so square meters wide. She took off her dirt-laden boots and held it with her hands. Then, she went into the living room that was floored with a layer of thick carpet. The bright yellow light that spilled out from the room warmed her up and gave the furniture inside a glossy finish.

Even though she was the owner of Exodus, Lin Sanjiu did not let herself go. She carefully and meticulously admired every sleek and clean detail in the living room.

The previous owner had taken all the books with him, leaving behind only several novels, an atlas, and the biography of an unknown historical figure. She walked across the living room and stopped in front of two wooden doors. After a short while, the doors slid open.

“It’s at room temperature at 24.7 degrees Celcius and the level of humidity is at 40%,” Silas reported warmly, “Do you want to take a bath now?”

‘So, this is the bathroom.’

There was a shiny bathtub huge enough to accommodate a human of Lin Sanjiu’s size, sitting right atop a marble platform. In the other corner of this spacious bathroom, after walking a few steps down, she found herself standing on a caved-in platform. Behind her was a light-colored tiled wall. Lin Sanjiu raised her head and her gaze was welcomed with stars.

The night sky in the canyon was probably the clearest she had ever seen. It was also the most stars she had ever experienced in her life. A stream of stars stretched across the sky in the most fantastic way. The stars were bright, and every time they flickered, it felt like they were greeting her.

“This is the shower room,” Silas continued to explain, “Overhead is a one-way window. The showerhead has a rain mode that imitates varying degrees of rain. There’s also a hands-free mode, a massage mode, and a normal mode. If you get tired of standing, there’s also a recliner and a backrest provided…”

Lin Sanjiu needed to make the extra effort to chase away the internal voice that screamed at her to take a bath. After that, she went to the bedroom and the washroom. The suite was not lavishly decorated, but she could see that every detail in the suite was carefully designed for maximum comfort. For example, the extra fluffy and soft bed, the motion sensor lights, and even the chairs and the angle of the cupboard were ergonomically and meticulously designed. It was as if the entire apartment was trying very hard to please its owner.

The only strange thing that she saw was a round mark on the wall of the other side of the bed.

“Maybe it’s a mark leftover by something. There used to be small-scaled renovations happening here and there all the time.”

Even Silas did not know what that was, so Lin Sanjiu just threw it to the back of her mind. With a satisfied grin plastered on her face, she went into the transport pod again.

Right after she finished the tour in her suite, Silas led her to the gym room and the armament training room that had no pistols or bullets. After that, Lin Sanjiu drove the transport pod and arrived in a huge room that was entirely made of metal and covered in thick carpets.

“Where is this place? Why is it nothing in here?”

“This is the training ground,” Silas answered loyally like a faithful dog that kept staying by its master’s side. “The wall has undergone special metallic modifications and now not only is it soundproof and fire- and corrosion-resistant, but it also can withstand up to 40 tons of impact.”

“When was it modified?”

Silas mentioned a number, but Lin Sanjiu had no idea what method it used to count the years.

“After coming out of the training area, we’ll soon reach the unmanned semi-autonomous medical room.”

‘An unmanned semi-autonomous medical room, huh? Hmm, pretty neat,’ Lin Sanjiu said inwardly as she smiled. She said, “Well, this saves me plenty of time. I can come back here and have my wound treated if I’m injured.”

“Yes, but I hope you don’t go over your head and get yourself seriously injured.”

“Well, I’ll try my best.”

It seemed that Silas did not know how to appreciate a joke.

The maglev transport pod could bring her to every nook and cranny in Exodus. After she parked the pod herself, she pushed the door open and went into the medical room. To prevent any irreversible consequences caused by errors in the system from happening, there were plenty of manual operations required inside the so-called unmanned semi-autonomous medical room. After Lin Sanjiu went through two doors in a row, she walked into a compartment veiled behind a curtain following Silas’s instruction.

A doctor was waiting for her behind the curtain with a red light bulb flickering on top of its head.

Specifically speaking, the doctor was actually a large tubular machine that could fit an adult. Its appearance reminded Lin Sanjiu of an MRI machine. After hesitating for a brief second, she climbed into the machine in the end and Silas sent her into the tunnel.

“This is a full-body general scan,” the soothing voice control assistant comforted Lin Sanjiu, who could not see anything inside the machine, “It can provide you with a comprehensive preliminary body check.”

Generally speaking, the first thing to get examined by the doctor was probably the most serious. Lying inside the darkness, Lin Sanjiu heard Silas congratulate her in a pleased tone, “Congratulations. Your body temperature is normal. There is no internal bleeding or damage detected. Your body is fine.”

“Can you say something I don’t know?”

“There’s water on the sun.”

“Wh—what?”

“Well, the elements that exist on the sun include oxygen and hydrogen…”

It occurred to Lin Sanjiu that Silas could not understand sarcasm. It would just give her an answer to any questions she threw at it dutifully.

After she got her personal health report which mentioned that she might suffer from knee problems in the future, Lin Sanjiu dizzily climbed out from the scanning machine. It had been twenty minutes since she entered the medical room. She glanced across the medical room again. On the other side of the room was a row of robotic arms that had blood vessel-locating systems installed in them. Meanwhile, at the center of the room was a surgical table that allowed for basic surgical procedures and had a multiparameter monitor. With a contented look, she exited the medical room.

“It seems to me that most of the medical appliances are used to treat physical injuries. Anyway, there will be a real…erm, a real doctor to take over this medical room soon. We need to make some modifications to some of the buttons on the medical appliances to conform to the size of a cat’s paw.”

Riding the pod, Lin Sanjiu continued to look around in Exodus.

Three hours had passed.

She had never seen a house like this before, so she did not know how to describe it. It was not a mansion in the ordinary sense as Exodus knew humans more than humans knew themselves. Exodus was reliable, sturdy, well-rounded, and comfortable, but it was not luxurious.

If she really had to describe Exodus, it would be a fortress that was specifically built to counter the apocalypse.

The remaining areas were the kitchen and dining hall, but Lin Sanjiu was not interested.

Yawning, she gave Silas a heads-up and went towards the administrator’s suite. The moment she stepped into the room, the water stopped flowing.

Wisps of hot steam fluttered out from the pool of water. The clear water shimmered in the light with a gem-like luster. Lin Sanjiu took off her shirt and quickly showered to wash away the dirt on her body. As she slowly slid into the bathtub, she let out a long sigh.

“Goodbye,” Silas’s voice faded away and a relaxing melody rang out from the corner.

Lin Sanjiu had forgotten when was the last time she had a bath. Her bones, muscles, and skin were all moaning inside the tepid water. She slid lower and lower until the water reached her chin. Then, she cushioned her head on the latex pillow. Surrounded by the fragrance and the warm steam, Lin Sanjiu’s consciousness soon faded away.

Posthumans could never drown in a bathtub. However, since Exodus was built before the apocalypse, two armrests protruded out from both sides of the bathtub and held Lin Sanjiu in place. A swooshing sound came as the water in the bathtub began gyrating, eddying around her while maintaining the temperature of the water.

Lin Sanjiu’s consciousness was slipping further and further away as the sleep bug crawled into her brain. She felt like she had fallen into a dark but comfy place. Countless thoughts flitted across her mind, but none of them connected. Soon enough, everything fell into darkness and she succumbed to sleep.

Ryuji had been absent from work, so Melhor had a tough life.

“Fifty percent,” Timo mumbled as his surprised expression faded.

Exodus was situated inside the canyon.

“You have to be patient since it’s contraband,” Silvan said in the message.

In the end, the rippling water flickered in her eyes. A patch of bright red floated on top of the water as the gown drifted away.

When Lin Sanjiu woke up, her heart clenched and its beat was getting stronger. Something was not right.