Doomsday Wonderland

When Lollipop ran, she made an entirely different noise from others. Even though her skirt had lost its function, it spun rapidly like a scythe.

As she paused on her course, her skirt gradually lost its momentum and slowly stop spinning. She exchanged a glance with her companion and asked, “Where did she go?”

In the blink of an eye, the woman they had been following all this time vanished from their sight.

The sun was rising from the horizon, scattering its golden-gleaming rays over the sky as the darkness and the moon shied away. The air was wet and felt cold when one breathed in. The grass and rocks were emerging one after another from the darkness, but the sign of their target was still nowhere to be seen.

“She probably used a Special Item to conceal herself,” said Tunnel cool-headedly. He was the brain of the team, and the other three were used to acting according to his command. “Stay alert. Our Special Items have not recovered yet… Flame Arm.”

The burly man turned over to Tunnel.

“Did you bring the sensor?”

Without saying anything, Flame Arm lowered his head and pulled out a handful of iron pieces that looked like chopsticks from a bag that was clipped to the side of his waist. He picked out one of them and stabbed it into the ground. After pressing a switch, the small yellow indicator on top of the “chopstick” immediately lit up.

After a fair amount of time staring at the “chopstick,” Lollipop sighed. “There is nothing here.”

“Yeah,” Tunnel pushed his spectacles and pointed to the front, “Let’s go over there and check it out again.”

Flame Arm distributed the remaining sensors to his companions. After that, all of them spread out towards the direction Lin Sanjiu had gone. Whenever they walked a certain distance, they would insert a “chopstick” in the ground.

Several long chains of light yellow glowed under the dawn-laden sky. The four walked step by step in the mist, moving slowly and cautiously as if wading through water.

“Fifteen,” Ikkaku said after he jabbed a sensor deep into the soil.

He was now several hundred meters away from their starting point, a long string of sensors trailing behind him. Holding the last “chopstick” in his hand, Ikkaku looked ahead, his face caked with the white powder he put on. There wasn’t any expression on his face, and all his muscles were pulled taut.

There was only a patch of dew-laden grass as tall as a human calf dancing in the wilderness, shrouded in the early morning mist as if it was their dancing ground. Whenever a gentle breeze came, several pearly bits of dew would bobble and fall off the tips of the grass blades.

Lin Sanjiu was still nowhere to be found.

Ikkaku turned around to examine his surroundings. His comrades were very far away, and similar to him, there was a train of light yellow behind them.

He weighed the “chopstick” in his hand as he looked over in Flame Arm’s direction. His comrades progressed faster than he did, and they were all a dozen meters ahead of him. Ikkaku peeled his eyes away from Flame Arm and lowered his head. In the end, he did not call out to him after a short bout of rumination but continued to walk forward. After he walked ten steps or so, he bent down and planted the last sensor into the ground.

“Sixteen,” he muttered. The moment the word escaped his lips, Ikkaku immediately raised his head and scanned the area once more. His red-rimmed eyes looked even eerier when set against his white-caked face.

“What’s wrong?” asked Lollipop after she noticed his strange movements. Driven by her curiosity, she strode towards him.

“I heard something.” Ikkaku compressed his lips tightly. The white powder accentuated the lines on his face.

“Where?”

“Not far away. It’s somebody’s footsteps,” said Ikkaku as he tried to frown. However, his brows refused to abide by his order, and eventually, he only managed a slight frown. “You didn’t hear it?”

Lollipop shook her head. “No. Could it have been my footsteps?”

Ikkaku retained his dead-pan face. He fell silent for a few seconds before speaking again. “No, it is not possible. Although the footsteps were light and fast, I heard it right. They came from a distance, and they are coming towards us. They couldn’t be yours.”

“But there are no others around here!” The girl snapped exasperatedly. “Could it be that she ran away after she turned invisible?”

“If that is her ability, then why didn’t she use it when she was in the forest? Why did she wait until she was on the open ground? The woods are better suited for this ability.” Ikkaku shook his head. “If she used a Special Item, as long as she is within range, the indicator on top of the sensor will turn red.”

The moment he finished speaking, Lollipop’s face changed. She angled her head down and looked at the sensor.

Right now, she was standing next to Ikkaku’s sixteenth sensor. The light yellow on the tip of the sensor was gone, replaced by a glow of blood red. It spread a little further and dyed the girl’s white sock in red.

“She’s really around here!” Ikkaku’s face grew cold, his eyes flicking over to his three comrades in front of him.

The three figures were still as scattered as they were before. They slowly moved towards the front, and everything seemed normal but for one thing.

Suddenly, Ikkaku realized what was amiss. He jerked his head back and recoiled immediately as he shouted at Lollipop, “You!”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

The girl tilted her head and pushed her palm forward. There was nothing in it, but as soon as she pried her fingers open, a pleasant burst of a teenage girl’s laughter rang out in the air.

Even Ikkaku’s grotesque and expressionless face softened when the laughter slid into his ears. There was a steady warmth in his eyes that had never been there before, and a faint smile spread across his face. It seemed as if he had surrendered and there was nothing in this world that could pull him away from this moment of happiness.

“Even you have a minute,” muttered the girl, or Lin Sanjiu, who had taken on the appearance of Lollipop, after she went closer to examine the man.

“Hmm?” Ikkaku asked shyly, blushing a little. “What did you say?”

To be honest, this kind of timorous behavior, as if a teenager met his first love, did not go very well with his face.

“Nothing,” said Lin Sanjiu as she walked around Ikkaku. Since Ikkaku had been enchanted by her Special Item, he did not put up any form of resistance even though he saw Lin Sanjiu raise her arm. Lin Sanjiu brought her arm down in a mighty swipe, hitting Ikkaku on the nape of his neck and knocking him out cold.

She hastily took a step forward, and slowly and quietly laid him in the grass.

She was very proficient in hitting people at the back of their necks—she had a perfect grasp of the location she should hit and the degree of strength she should use. Hence, she was very certain that Ikkaku would remain unconscious for at least eight minutes, and that was enough for her to put her plan into action.

Perhaps she had made too much noise, for the virile man in front turned his head over. Lin Sanjiu hastily laid down, plucked the sensor out, and hid in the grass. As soon as the sensor left the ground, the red light disappeared.

The weeds were tall enough to cover her entirely, and she was confident that none of them could see her right now.

Perhaps feeling that it was strange not seeing his companion, Flame Arm twisted his body slightly and shouted, “Ikkaku?”

Lin Sanjiu glanced at the unconscious man and slowly rose to her feet.

Flame Arm turned his head back to the front after he saw his comrade. However, before Lin Sanjiu could relax, he jerked his head back and asked, “Oh yeah, do you still have any sensors?”

Hearing the question, Lin Sanjiu raised her arm and waved the “chopstick” as she heard Ikkaku’s voice come out of her lips, “Yeah.”

“You have only one left?”

She darted a glance at the sensor in her hand; it was never in her expectation that Flame Arm would be able to see the number of sensors in her hand from such a distance. Left with no other choice, Lin Sanjiu bit the bullet and answered, “Yes.”

“Then come over here. I will give you some more,” Flame Arm replied in a shout. He looked much smaller when seeing him from such a distance. Even though Lin Sanjiu could make out nothing more than a vague figure, the series of light yellow glows was apparent in her vision.

It was not hard to walk over to get some sensors. The most difficult part was doing something about those sensors so that they would not turn red when she walked past them.

As if he had heard their conversation, Tunnel spun his head over and looked at her, his glasses catching the rays of the rising sun. Lin Sanjiu knew she had to act normal at this point, or she would certainly bust her disguise. After giving a slight nod, she slowly walked towards Flame Arm, her brain a mashed mess.

What should she do so that the indicator on the sensor wouldn’t turn red? The sensors were extremely sensitive, and by right, since she was using an ability given to her by the [Pygmalion Choker], they should not have been able to detect her. However, that sensor had caught her and exposed her to Ikkaku.

The indicator beside Flame Arm would turn red the moment she went close and instantly bust herself. After all, she had sealed all of their Special Items with [Oh My God! My Wallet Is Missing!].

There was only one way she could save herself from this predicament.

A layer of perspiration formed on Lin Sanjiu’s back. She deliberately slowed down her speed and walked as far as she could from the sensor. The closer she came to Flame Arm, the more anxious she felt.

‘It should happen any second now.

‘Where is he?’

“Can you walk a bit faster?” Flame Arm urged. She did not know if he was getting impatient or if it was due to other things.

Lin Sanjiu felt her heart clench, but before she could speak, the voice she had been waiting for finally came.

“I found him!” The real Lollipop hollered out, attracting their attention. Several sensors around her had turned red, and Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh at the sight. She hastily went in that direction along with Flame Arm and Tunnel.

“Don’t touch me!” It was a wonder that the girl was able to drag Woyu, who was a head taller than her, out of the bush. When they were far from him, he could still take advantage of the tall grass to conceal his presence. However, when all of them got closer, there was no way he could run away.

“Where is she?” Lollipop asked harshly. “I saw you guys running together just now. Where did she go?”

“She has a Special Item that can teleport her over a large distance. I just took my eyes away from her for a second, and she was gone!” Woyu’s face had blanched white, and his cheek quivered vigorously. “She said the Special Item can only carry one person, so she abandoned me here. I knew I couldn’t run away from you guys, so I just hid over here…”

“Darn it! We let her escaped!,” Tunnel cursed.

“So, what should we do now?” asked Lin Sanjiu. The sensor next to her feet glowed red, but with Woyu around, nobody paid it any mind.

“Let’s head back to the munitions factory first.” Tunnel glanced at Woyu through his glasses. “Bring this guy along.”