Doomsday Wonderland

Woyu sprinted straight into the forest at seemingly the fastest he ever ran in his entire life. He had not reached such desperation even when he was fighting with Lin Sanjiu. The sound of his heavy breathing punctured the night’s silence. As he ran, he lost his grip on the telecommunication device; it fell and tumbled down the slope.

The bespectacled man looked down and stepped on the telecommunication device. As he picked it up, his other three comrades vanished from his side. The next time they appeared, they were standing about a dozen steps away from their previous spots, once again caging Woyu under their shadows.

There was no way Woyu could outspeed the combined assault of the three musketeers.

The colossal man stretched his arm forward, looking like a massive tree with a protruding branch as he tried to reach out for Woyu. Right at the moment before he could seize his prey, Woyu suddenly had a second sight and lunged to the front. A half whimper slipped from his throat as he rolled across the forest ground.

The pallor-faced man who cloaked in bell-shaped clothing harrumphed. Then he moved one step ahead.

Woyu rolled on the ground, hitting his face several times. Just as he thought he had escaped from the tall man, little did he know that he had rolled himself into the man’s comrade. The moment he raised his head after stopping his momentum, he found himself staring at a pasty face that floated amidst the night sky.

“Why can’t you just give up?” Said the girl dressed in the red and white striped skirt who squatted beside him. She lifted her chin and chortled. “There is no way you can outrun us.”

The girl was speaking the truth. Not only did he not manage to run too far away, but their distance had also become even closer. It seemed as if he had not run at all.

“Who— who are you guys?”

Woyu scrambled to his feet and moved back step by step, his voice faltering. All of them clapped their eyes on him, but none of them gave him a response, the tall man only shrugging.

“I will ask you one more time. Where is she?” Prying his two greyish lips open, the chalky face asked through a husky voice. “Don’t waste our time.”

Suddenly, a thud rang out and all of them were mildly stunned when Woyu fell onto his knee. No sooner had the girl snorted than she saw one of Woyu’s legs lift back midair. His body fell forward onto the ground as he was dragged by something unseen into the forest behind.

“Somebody is saving him!” the girl shouted aloud. As she charged in, the red and white striped pattern on her skirt spun faster and blurred.

Seeing that the three of them had disappeared, Lin Sanjiu retracted her Higher Consciousness and snatched Woyu up from the ground. “Up! Up! Up!”

‘Who—who is that?” Woyu asked, his puffy cheeks quivering vigorously and glistening with sweat.

As soon as he regained his balance, he angled his head up, and his eyes widened in shock when his gaze connected with Lin Sanjiu’s face.

Lin Sanjiu held his gaze as if she was trying to see through his thoughts.

Woyu was never their target at all; so long as he notified the group of her location, he could sidetrack their attention and steer himself out of harm’s way. He was apparently aware of this as well, for he slightly tilted his face behind. However, he soon turned his face back and held Lin Sanjiu’s gaze.

The droplet of sweat that dotted his face sparkled under the moonlight. When he opened his mouth, the words that slid off his tongue were low and almost inaudible.

“Quick! They are coming!”

Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh. She wanted to grin at him, but the muscles on her face said no.

“Get behind me.” The words had scarcely tumbled off Lin Sanjiu’s lips before she was loomed over by the trio’s shadows. The tree branches swayed madly under the fierce wind whipped up by the trio’s momentum. The howling of gale was deafening, and a maelstrom of leaves filled her vision to the seam. She could hardly see through anything.

She slapped the ground, and with a swift kick, she leaped behind along with Woyu in hand.

The trio’s reaction speed was something to be reckoned with. As soon as she hopped backward, all three of them stopped charging forward. In a short moment of time, three clear figures in varying shapes and heights appeared amidst the darkness. They stood firmly under the moonlight, and it seemed as if the hot pursuit earlier was merely a dream in her brain.

“Yo, found ya,” chirped the girl as she licked her cherry lips. Under the shadow of the ringlets that framed her face, her pointy chin moved in tandem with the opening and closing of her mouth. “You can call ‘Tunnel’ over here now.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the tall man pressed his lips tightly and made a long whistle.

The hillside was not the best location to battle. Not only was the forest too dense for her to move freely and put up any effective retaliation, but it was also created by Exodus’s camouflage barrier so she could not risk having it destroyed in a fight. Besides, her opponents were not people who she could easily get rid of. Huffing as she leaned against a tree, Lin Sanjiu still could not come around from the throbbing pain in her back, which she accidentally hit when she recoiled in a panic earlier.

‘I have to find a way to lure all of them away from here.’

“She is not as strong as we heard,” the pasty face floating in midair said. “It shouldn’t take the four of us to subdue her.”

Unlike their idiosyncratic attire, they all spoke in similar tones and pronunciations. They had no accents, and their speeds and manners of speech were indistinguishable. If it weren’t for their voices, Lin Sanjiu might not be able to differentiate who was speaking.

The bespectacled man slowly walked to the front. The lenses of his glasses caught the light as he surveyed the surroundings. Then he began speaking, using the same elocution and tone as the other three. “You guys have stepped on it.”

“Huh?” the girl asked, slightly befuddled. The spinning of the red and white stripes on her skin became faster.

“On the ground,” the bespectacled man pointed. “Can’t you see it? There is a Pocket Dimension here, and you guys are standing right on top of it.”

Seizing the chance as the group of people looked downward, Lin Sanjiu called out her [Tailored Learning]. As the pointer elongated and darted straight towards the group, it created a thin silvery arc in the sky.

However, the pointer did not hit anything.

A mass of mist-like darkness had appeared out of thin air before of the pointer. It looked as if somebody had made a hole in a canvas. Lin Sanjiu did not know what it was, but she did not plan to find out. She flexed her muscles and retracted the pointer with a swift gesture before it could touch the black mist.

It was only now that the trio regained their senses. Their expressions turned ugly as they took two steps back.

The mouth of the bespectacled man was slightly ajar. He took a small breath and puffed out slowly. The clump of darkness began to ebb away like a mist and slowly went out of sight.

“Hey, let’s get out of here,” Woyu whispered. Lin Sanjiu turned her head to find that the young man was now taking cover behind a tree, seemingly ready to take to his heels as he saw fit. “Come over here! Quick!”

Lin Sanjiu wanted to retreat, but she had to lure all of them away first.

However, before she did anything, there was one thing that took precedence over all other things that she was about to do.

“Flame Arm, Lollipop,” the bespectacled man commanded, “The checkpoint is under your feet. Do you see the sign?”

A wooden sign was lying on the ground in front of the girl and the tall man. They lowered their heads and could vaguely make out the line “Thank you for activating the Pocket Dimension” engraved on the wooden sign through the dark.

“This is a Checkpoint Pocket Dimension!” Lollipop yelled. “But there isn’t any…”

“There is no pocket dimension here. I suspect that she is using a Special Item that could record pocket dimensions.” The bespectacled man glanced at the pasty man and said, “Ikaku, it is a little far from you. Maybe you did not activate it.”

The man cloaked in a large robe slid two steps back, his feet hardly touching the ground.

“Most pocket dimension-attributed Special Items have to stay in one place to keep the pocket dimension running. The Special Item she used must be around here somewhere. Look for it,” the man said as he pushed his glasses. “…After all, you guys have to check-in every day starting from today.”

‘How was he able to see through it so soon!’

Lin Sanjiu cursed inwardly as she tried not to look at the [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time]. Having recorded the Checkpoint Pocket Dimension, it had been turned into a dead leaf. It was now a stone’s throw away from Lollipop.

Initially, she planned to retrieve the dead leaf when all of them were attracted by the wooden sign. She did not expect that the bespectacled man would be able to see through her plan in a fraction of time. Just as she was thinking about how she should get close to the dead leaf, she saw Flame Arm turn to her with his arms raised high.

“Have you heard of route 300?”

Immediately, Lin Sanjiu activated [Oh My God! My Wallet Is Missing!]. Then, a dazzling beam of light shot out of the gadget around Flame Arm’s arm, blinding her.

“[Defense Forcefield]!” As Mrs. Manas shouted, Lin Sanjiu felt her Higher Consciousness depleting at an alarming rate. She raised her arms, but the blinding light rendered her unable to see her enemy, not to mention a tiny leaf.

“Look around you. Try to minimize the damage to the forest to the lowest,” the bespectacled man continued to give his orders. “After that, finish her quick!