Doomsday Wonderland

What happened?

Right after Lin Sanjiu’s words escaped her mouth, Silvan already turned around. He did not look forward immediately but was too fast when her words subsided, for he already turned into a blur that was flashing past her.

“Silvan!”

Lin Sanjiu turned around toward the direction he disappeared and called out to him. Her voice dispersed in the empty underground space, and she did not get an answer. She remained frozen in her half-twisted position for a moment. She almost followed him and dashed away, but she instinctively stopped herself from doing so, despite not understanding why.

She pricked up her ears but heard nothing clear. A strong airstream gushed towards the canvas ceaselessly. Amid the irritating wind whistles, loud thuds from some huge thing striking the ground could be heard at times. Silvan disappeared into the trembles, and no further reply came back.

“Mrs. Manas, do you know what happened?” she asked in her heart, but the situation did not change. She could feel that Mrs. Manas was talking, but she heard nothing clearly.

A few seconds later, she suddenly felt that her [No Coincidence, No Story] open.

It probably meant her connection with Mrs. Manas was wearing thin.

“Silvan?” A little hesitation later, she shouted again, the reverberating trembles from the ground drowning her voice and not even causing a ripple in the rough soundwaves.

He had dashed towards the thing behind him and disappeared. It seemed like no matter what happened to Silvan, it must be related to that thing.

Behind them was that… that…

She shut her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, she looked absent-minded.

Strange, what was the thing behind them?

Lin Sanjiu was certain that she knew the answer up until a moment ago, but she forgot about it in the blink of an eye. The canvas further away had everything drawn on it, except for the thing behind them. She glanced at the artist, who was raising his brush and looking at her blankly. He remained silent like always, for he could not speak.

The answer was right behind her. She hesitated for a moment and ultimately decided to turn around, clenching her teeth.

What came into her sight was a dark blue color that simmered in darkness, it was shaking along with the ground.

Lin Sajiu was surprised for a moment before realizing it was the equipment box that she used to store the red crystals. The tall equipment box blocked her sight, so she still did not catch a glimpse of the thing behind her.

“Strange, why did I take the equipment box out?”

Unknowingly, she heaved a breath of relief when she realized the first thing she saw after turning around was not that thing, but she could not just stop there. She must get to Silvan and find out what happened behind the equipment box. She forced herself to muster enough courage and pushed herself a step closer to the edge of the box.

“Silvan! Where are you? Are you okay? Can you hear me?” she called out again. The trembling sound made her ears a little numb.

The quaking from the ground kept gushing into her ears. She thought for a second before she turned around to the artist, waved her hand, and told him to put the canvas away first. The artist blinked a few times and finally understood her message as he quickly rolled the canvas up.

The wind whistling stopped, the thing behind the box stopped struggling, and the ground returned back to normal. She stood behind the box and called for Silvan several more times, but all she heard was her lonely call echoing in the empty underground space.

She was out of options.

She put her hands on the box with the intention of turning it back into a card. Once she put the box away, Silvan and the thing behind her would surely enter her sight. When the thought of putting the box away appeared in her mind without any hindrance, she was relieved that she did not have to fight herself to make the action.

Huh? Why did she have to fight herself?

Lin Sanjiu was puzzled for a moment, her hands pausing on the box.

Truth be told, she could not remember why she appeared in this empty underground space… Was it really underground? How did Silvan and her get down here?

The half second of doubt allowed her to capture a soft rustling noise, which she would have missed had her movements been a little bit quicker. Lin Sanjiu was once again stunned and quickly raised her voice, “Is that you, Silvan?”

“Don’t…”

A hoarse and soft voice, almost inaudible, spread in the air. The voice was no louder than a fly buzzing in the air, but it was clear enough to let her know that it was the voice of a person.

“Don’t come out…” The voice was young and somewhat high-pitched but also muffled.

Lin Sanjiu furrowed her brows when realizing it was not Silvan.

“Who are you?”

“Me…Meme.”

“What Meme? Do I know you?” She tilted her head in confusion behind the shadow of the box.

There was a little silence before the boy spoke again with a tremble, “Y-You’ve forgotten about me? Did you forget everything? What about captain? Is he…”

“Captain? Are you referring to Silvan? Does that mean you are a member of the Munitions Factory?” Lin Sanjiu realized she had forgotten a lot, but thankfully, her sanity was still rational.

The rustling came from behind the box again and it got closer to her. Lin Sanjiu was cautious and held the [Tornado Whip] card tightly in one hand.

The boy’s voice got closer to the box. “I am… There is no time, you have to trust me…”

No time?

Lin Sanjiu felt like she was a rookie on her first day of job, not understanding anything. Just when doubts rumbled in her mind, the rustling shadow finally extended a dirt-covered pair of hands from the edge of the box.

The boy was not good-looking to begin with, and having used his arms to crawl over to her, mud and slime were all over his face and body, making him a sore sight for the eyes. When Lin Sanjiu saw the boy, she immediately had a sense of familiarity. She quickly squatted down and tried to lift the boy up. “Meme, what happened to you?”

“I was carried by those things and fell down here. I think I broke my spine…” His face was pale and his breath was weak. “If I did not hear you calling captain’s name, I might have passed out completely. I think my legs are crippled…”

Lin Sanjiu looked up at the ceiling high above her head. Something tickled the edge of her memory, but the feeling disappeared right away.

“There is no time to explain what happened to me.” Meme grabbed her by the wrist, sounding nervous. His breaths were hurried. “You must save the captain! Hurry!”

“What’s wrong with Silvan?”

“He saw that that big brain had stopped moving. The brain was being pulled away by some powerful suction force, and it was struggling violently. If I did not hide in one of the trenches, it might have squashed me. But when the wind stopped, the brain stopped struggling, and the captain must have…” The boy panted heavily, probably enduring a lot of pain.

He coughed a few times, and his face turned even paler. “Captain is only a few hundred meters away from it. I don’t know what the brain will do to him once it slows down. Please bring him back!”

Lin Sanjiu looked at him dully. She realized that throughout the short conversation, she had forgotten the same term three or four times—’brain’. Whenever Meme mentioned the term, she immediately remembered something, but after the word subsided, she forgot about it again.

No matter what that thing was, it seemed like her memories of that thing were seriously impaired.

“I can’t remember; I forgot everything you just said. I only remember that there’s something behind us and… you’re trying to save Silvan, right? Should I just go out like this?” she said in a hurry.

Meme was startled.

“Didn’t I just tell you about it?” he said in a hurry. Due to his weak breath, the words at the end of the sentence failed to come out. “I have an idea. Do you have a towel and something that can record sound?”

Fortunately, Lin Sanjiu had both of those things.

She had to erase some of the ability descriptions on the tape to empty out enough space for her to record her own voice on the Tape Recorder. Meme quickly used the towel to cover her eyes. He grabbed the tape recorder, and with Lin Sanjiu’s help, he got on her back.

“Fortunately, it’s just a brain and not some other organ. It doesn’t have a body—a brain without a body can barely pose a threat,” said the boy as she placed the recorder on her shoulder.

Lin Sanjiu had never fought like this before: carrying a person and a tape recorder on her shoulders while blinded. Her brain could not remember anything, and the worst part was that she could not muster up the desire to fight back!