Doomsday Wonderland

Just as Silvan claimed, getting out of the Munitions Factory was a breeze.

Both of them soon arrived at the entrance gate. Silvan lifted his finger nonchalantly and touched the reflective light curtain. It shattered into speckles of silver dots and disappeared into the air.

They first went to a checkpoint nearby. After she had checked in, Lin Sanjiu rested her forehead on the ice-cream machine and heaved out a sigh, now feeling the full force of the lassitude that had been building up in her for the last few hours or so.

She was well aware that Reverie Libretto was not a place for her to slack, but right now, all she wanted was to throw herself down on a bed and rest. Perhaps she was spoiled by Exodus.

Even though the pedestrians were goggling at them, Lin Sanjiu was certain that their eyes were all fixed on Silvan. Walking next to him, Lin Sanjiu seemed to suddenly become a shadow under the lampshade—no one could see her.

“The Munitions Factory is a fun place to visit. It’s such a shame that I couldn’t bring you around this time,” Silvan said as he walked. “Next time, if I get the chance, I will bring you back here.”

Lin Sanjiu tilted her head slightly and glanced at the towering war hammer that stood under the dome. A team of visitors babbled excitedly amongst themselves as they brushed past them. Looking over at the disappearing group, Lin Sanjiu felt a twinge of envy.

It was impossible for someone in the Twelve Worlds to not be curious about the Munitions Factory. However, after today’s event, she was afraid that there was no way she could join this kind of sightseeing tour again.

“Guess it won’t happen until Percival Levin decides to forfeit the mission about me, then.”

Silvan snorted. “Don’t worry, things don’t always go his way. I will soon reclaim the combat department. Just you see.”

“Reclaim the combat department?” Lin Sanjiu glanced at him and found his pure golden hair glinting in the falling sunshine. She peeled her eye away and asked, curiosity thick in her voice, “I thought all your positions were assigned…”

“In general, yes.” Silvan shrugged, his cardinal epaulets flickering. “However, one day, I was suddenly transferred to the security department while Percival Levin took over the captaincy of the combat department. Before that day, no one had seen him or known who he was. I’ve investigated him for a long time, rummaging through every system, including the consular officers’ system, but I found nothing. Zero. No one had ever seen him or heard about him before, but he just popped out of nowhere as if he had fallen from the sky and took over my position under the direct orders of the board.”

“Not even the consular officers’ system?” Lin Sanjiu was shocked. “But how is that possible? It’s as if Percival Levin was just born into this world!”

Silvan turned his head to meet Lin Sanjiu’s gaze, his emerald eyes shining brightly under the light of day.

Even if their topic of conversation was dense, his voice was soothing and sounded like music to her ears. “I’m suspecting Percival is not his real name, and somebody could have used some kinds of techniques that I don’t know to help him cover up his traces. I wonder why he hides his identity. The feuds and struggles between the only two departments in the Munitions Factory that could use violence are as plain as a pikestaff. Hmm… This may not be a coincidence, but… oh, the train is here.”

All of a sudden, a track suddenly appeared in her sight. It flew high above their heads, spiraling and stretching down into the ground below. A train stopped in front of them, and both of them stepped into the coach. According to Silvan, the train traveled all the way down while fetching its passengers on the ground.

There was nothing in the coach, not even seats. As the train began to descend, the darkness seemed to come alive, shrouding everything in its mantle of blackness. Even though there were several hanging lamps swaying along with the train, the darkness was too strong for their feeble lights to pierce through.

Lowering her body to stabilize herself, Lin Sanjiu asked, “Are you saying that those higher-ups deliberately set you two up so that both of you could keep each other at bay? Who are these higher-ups?”

“A bunch of obsessive worrywarts,” Silvan replied, seemingly shaking his head. “If I still can’t dig up anything about his background, perhaps I need to make a trip to the Reverie Libretto too.”

Lin Sanjiu raised her brows at his words.

Silvan had given her a brief explanation about the pocket dimension Reverie Libretto. However, she still couldn’t help but be taken aback when she saw it with her own eyes.

She had seen a lot of “wild” pocket dimension throughout the years of hopping from one apocalyptic world to another, but this was by far the first time she experienced a pocket dimension that ran under the supervision of the Twelve Worlds Centrum.

They were about several hundred meters away from the entry spot of the pocket dimension. As she walked along the gentle slope, she found the atmosphere of the uphill road to be somewhat lively. A wide spectrum of articles and wares were sold here, and the hawking of the street traders filled the air as they tried their very best to attract the soon-to-be entering pocket dimension posthumans to purchase something from them. Speaking of the posthumans, they were split into two groups. Some of their faces were white with apprehension and they walked in a hurry, while the others just strolled along the road, stopping occasionally to comment on something they saw in a vending stall.

If it weren’t for the yellow warning sign that appeared from time to time to remind her of how close she was to the pocket dimension, she would have thought this was another market.

“They… why are there vendors here?”

“See, it seems that I made the right decision to tag along,” Silvan replied in a playful tone, grinning like a child. “Reverie Libretto is very popular in Heaven Underworld. Hence, many people come here every day to try their luck, and due to these visitors, this market was established.”

“Must-have resources for Reverie Libretto.” A vendor pushing a glass cabinet called out to Lin Sanjiu when he saw her, “Hey miss, looking for something? Everything I have here is—” However, before he could finish his sentence, he realized his potential buyer’s companion was none other than Silvan. He became tongue-tied and no words came out of his lips. Seizing her chance, Lin Sanjiu went closer and examined the glass cabinet.

Inside of the cabinet was a row of handwritten manuscripts tied together loosely with thread. Some of them were thick while others were thin. Even though they had different covers, each title was more eye-catching than the last.

“Nineteen Winning Streaks: His Secret Of Beating Reverie Libretto!”

“The Things That I Earned and Learned From Reverie Libretto. Based on the true experience of Ms. Yulen.”

“Love That Was Born From A Nightmare: Two Intertwining Souls And The Great Breakout.”

No sooner had Lin Sanjiu finished scanning the titles of the manuscripts in the first glass cabinet than several more glass cabinets showed up, surrounding her. Like the first street vendor, it seemed to her that all of the street traders here were normal humans. Although they sold the same things, Lin Sanjiu had a hard time deciding which one she should buy, as all of them looked very promising.

“Reverie Libretto’s Dummy Guide: Top Ten Secret Settings That Every Pocket Dimension Breaker Must Know.”

“Interview With The Big Wig of The Twelve Worlds: The Key To Bringing The Thing You Desire From The Libretto.”

“Big Secret! The Only Way To Clear Reverie Libretto. Based On The True Experience Of Puppeteer.”

Just as she was reaching for the last book, Silvan pulled her arm back and extracted her from the ring of glass cabinets.

“These are all fake. If you follow their guide, I am almost 100% that you won’t be able to come out alive from the pocket dimension,” Silvan said as he glanced at the last glass cabinet. “I understand that they don’t mean any harm, but these manuscripts, after being passed down from one person to another for so many generations, I am positive some of them are not usable. Come, this way. I will bring you to buy something that you need in the pocket dimension.”

Under his guidance, Lin Sanjiu bought a lip-shaped 200 ml water bag, a can of hot coffee, and a pair of oceanic viper fins.

“Why do I need viper fins?” She was getting more and more curious as she continued to walk forward. She found that as they got closer to the pocket dimension, there were more posthumans who stopped at the roadside and changed into swimsuits. Perhaps the day was a little cold, for most of them wore long-sleeved swimsuits. There were also some who stuffed all their belongings into a bag-shaped plastic bag.

When they were approaching a warning sign that read “Reverie Libretto, 30 meters ahead”, Silvan stopped.

“Here is where we part ways.” He offered Lin Sanjiu a grin. There was something glistening in his eyes. “I hope you can get your answer here.”

‘Really?’

Lin Sanjiu still didn’t quite believe in the statement as she was walking the final 30 meters towards the pocket dimension.

It was said that there was a certain chance that a person could bring out an item after he or she cleared the pocket dimension. Therefore, if a posthuman were to enter Reverie Libretto with a specific goal, then based on the principle “you will get what you’ve been dreaming of day and night”, he was likely to bring out something that he needed.

Be that as it may, there was a wide spectrum of opinions on the odds ratio. Some said it was high, while others said otherwise. No matter what it was, there was only one way to find out.

What could be brought out might not be something physical. It could be a quote, a dream, or even a message. There was even a case where a posthuman gained a talent after he cleared Reverie Libretto. Even though a Bel Canto technique was useless in the apocalyptic world, it still gave people a lot of confidence.

Generally, most of the Twelve Worlds were only D-class apocalyptic worlds, so she figured that the pocket dimension shouldn’t be too difficult. It was also because of this that there were so many posthumans who came to Heaven Underworld to test their luck in Reverie Libretto.

Lin Sanjiu put on the water bag; its shape fit perfectly well with her lips. Although there wasn’t any hole in the bag, she could feel rivulets of water slipping into her mouth and down her throat. This would be her main water source for the rest of the day.

After she finally walked into a mist after hiking up the slope, her legs suddenly gave way and she fell onto the ground. Concurrently, all the posthumans standing around her had fallen onto the ground as well. The mist was thick, and a dead silence reigned everywhere. Heaps after heaps of posthumans filled the area to the brim, and it seemed like the aftermath of a war.

The ground shuffled and began to move the unconscious posthumans back. After a short while, the area was clear again as it waited for the arrival of the new batch of challengers.

Lin Sanjiu had already fallen into her dream.