Doomsday Wonderland

When Lin Sanjiu finally arrived at the Munitions Factory, she took a deep breath as she felt an ill-boding feeling.

She was impressed by the combat capabilities Silvan displayed when they were traveling in Kisaragi Train Station. Even until now, she vividly remembered the blood gliding through the number “261” on his back when he turned around in the library and lifted his clothes.

What was her number of lives at that time? Was it 8 or 13? She couldn’t tell.

Lin Sanjiu still could not think of any reason why Silvan would want to kill her. The Munitions Factory immediately ordered a warrant for her arrest the second he got the news that she was here. It was difficult for her to not suspect that this had nothing to do with him.

Undoubtedly, Silvan was powerful. However, after venturing through a handful of apocalyptic worlds, she considered herself experienced in dealing with opponents on the same caliber as Silvan. With that in mind, she psyched herself up and walked forward.

But to be honest, she could not tell whether the sudden sense of unease was because of Silvan or the factory in front of her.

It was hard to tell that she was actually inside a tall building right now. Above the factory, half of the ceiling was covered in a transparent glass that permitted a certain degree of sunlight to go through while the other half was a greenish-grey metal plate of some sort. Both the transparent glass and metal plate connected in the center and formed a dome shape about several hundred meters away from the ground, hiding amidst the sunlight and shadows.

A veil of white mist cast the entire city of steel in front of her in whiteness. There were several vague silhouettes of different sizes standing within the mist, and she only had a glimpse of them whenever there was a gust of wind that blew the perpetual mist away. Squinting her eyes, Lin Sanjiu saw multiple huge gear wheels in the distance, hiding in the midst of the heavy mist. As the gear wheels slowly rotated and the cogs meshed together, she caught some muffled noises with her ears.

Gulping, Lin Sanjiu slowed to a stop and raised her head.

In front of the entrance of the Munitions Factory stood an upright monumental war hammer, flanked by a pair of half-folded eagle’s wings that glistened in the sunlight. The combination of the wings and war hammer cast a long shadow in front of the Munitions Factory, separating the fog-veiled city of steel and the heaven zone on the other side into two.

After going through the pathway and the conservation area, Lin Sanjiu surmised that the conservation area was the outer edge of the factory while the core section was situated in the area behind the war hammer.

Silvan had once told her that if she came to find him, she just needed to inform the guard. However, she had looked left and right a couple of times, yet she did not see any sign of a “guard” around.

‘There isn’t any guard around. Are we allowed to just casually walk into the factory?’

As she was hesitating, she spotted the staff of the Munitions Factory. Some of them were dressed in familiar blue-colored bunker clothing while the others wore matching working uniforms. All of them bustled in and out under the war hammer and wings, but none of them looked at her.

There were only eight minutes left before the mask lapsed, and Lin Sanjiu knew she mustn’t waste time now. However, just as she stepped forward, a commotion erupted behind her.

“Alright, listen here guys,” a female voice rang out. It was getting closer and closer along with a series of messy footsteps. “After you enter the factory, please make sure that you keep quiet and don’t make any noise throughout the entire expedition.”

‘Expedition?’

Stunned, Lin Sanjiu looked back.

She saw a group of posthumans walking towards the war hammer. The leader of the team was a fair-skinned woman that appeared to be in her mid-thirties. She looked unenthused, a stark contrast with the group of posthumans who were rubbernecking at the surroundings. It seemed that the woman had been to the Munitions Factory many times while it was probably the first time those posthumans even stepped into the Twelve Worlds.

Lin Sanjiu found the scene oddly familiar. If they were to wear red-capped hats and hold cameras in their hands, it would be close to the image she had in her mind.

“I’m now going to distribute one visitor pass to each of you. Please take good care of your visitor pass and don’t lose it. I will collect them back from you once the expedition is over.”

With an indifferent manner, the female tour guide pulled out a heavy little sachet. Starting from the front, she pinned one small suction cup on each person’s shoulder. The suction cup gave off a brown and silver light, the major colors of the war hammer and wings, at the same time.

Suddenly, Lin Sanjiu’s eyes glowed as she had a brainwave.

She could hardly remember the last time she was this lucky. She took a few quick steps to the back of the queue and stood behind a posthuman. She lowered her head as she waited for the tour guide and the visitor pass.

Inspired by her good luck, she secretly activated [No Coincidence, No Story]. After that, she hurled something to one side and then patted the shoulder of the person in front of her.

“What?”

The man was skinny. He didn’t seem to be accustomed to being in such close proximity with a stranger, for he was trying his very best not to hit Lin Sanjiu.

“There’s a bag of red crystals over there,” Lin Sanjiu nodded her chin in a direction. She purposely let the bag open, and now there were several large red crystals on the ground. “Is it yours?”

The man looked at the red crystals, then at her. He did not even say “yes” before he hastily went forward to reach for the bag of red crystals.

Perhaps [No Coincidence, No Story] had already begun to do its wonders, for the second the man was gone, the tour guide arrived in front of Lin Sanjiu. The tour guide was slightly stunned when she lifted up her head and saw Lin Sanjiu’s face; her hand stopped rummaging in her sachet.

“Did you sign up for the expedition? Because I don’t really remember seeing you in my team…” the tour guide asked with a frown as she measured Lin Sanjiu’s face.

“Yes, I did.”

“Really?”

“Well, people tend to treat me as if I’m invisible, so…” Lin Sanjiu shrugged.

The tour guide was stunned and looked utterly confused. She continued to size Lin Sanjiu up, unconvinced. “Wait a sec, I have all the details of the people who joined this expedition…” As she spoke, she turned her head around to make the headcount. “There are 14 people in total…”

Seizing the chance as the tour guide was counting the noses, Lin Sanjiu jerked her head and looked at the skinny man. He did not notice the episode that was happening in the team. Right now, he crouched in front of the bag of red crystals while holding a heap with his hand. The red glow from the crystals illuminated his face.

“Oh, all 14 people are present,” the tour guide said. She smacked her head as she pinned the visitor pass on Lin Sanjiu’s shoulder. “I hope you don’t mind. My memory is bad.”

Of course, Lin Sanjiu wouldn’t mind.

Since she was certain that the skinny man might come back at any time, to prevent him from bursting her guise, she quickly followed after another visitor and walked towards the war hammer once she had gotten the visitor pass.

The moment she stepped into the shadows, a transparent veil appeared in front of her and blocked her way.

‘Could this be the “guard”? But this veil of light didn’t appear when those staff members were coming out of it.’

Staring blankly at the translucent blanket of light, Lin Sanjiu raised her head and only then realized it was projected down by the wings of the eagle. The light curtain flowed like a wall of water with a silver luster. The wavy pattern soon smoothed out and formed into a giant mirror in the blink of an eye, her middle-aged man’s face appearing on it.

“Shopping expedition to the Munitions Factory No. 6,” a small line manifested in the mirror. “No. of people who pass through: 2. Checking result: permission approved.”

Lin Sanjiu sighed inwardly, as she never thought it would be that easy.

As the mirror faded away, she looked at her own reflection for the last time. The mask was almost gone, but the silver lining was that as soon as she went through the mirror, she could ditch the expedition and infiltrate the Munitions Factory.

‘Well, at least for now, I still have the look of an unwholesome, stoic middle-aged man.’

As the thought flitted across her mind, Lin Sanjiu turned her eyes a little and saw a person through the mirror.

The tall man hurried to the entrance of the Munitions Factory. He seemed to be searching for something or somebody, as he kept looking around. His head of shoulder-length hair fluttered in the wind. Even though she only had a glimpse, Lin Sanjiu instantly recognized him as the Munitions Factory worker who passed by her earlier.

‘Is he looking for someone?’

As the question appeared in her mind, the tall man turned his head over, and their gazes met in the mirror.

‘He was looking for me!’ Startled, Lin Sanjiu quickly peeled her eyes away.

“Hold her!” the man shouted, and it was at this moment that the mirror finally disappeared. Lin Sanjiu hurriedly took a step and threw herself into the city of steel behind her.