Doomsday Wonderland

With a tug of her mind, a card appeared on her palm.

The morning sky was pale. Long lances of sunlight sprayed weakly onto her hand, and the words on the card scintillated. Lin Sanjiu stared at [Hey, Sis!]. This was one of the long-distance telecommunication devices specifically built by Ji Shanqing for her, and this was her first time putting it to use.

After she pulled the telecommunication device out of its card, she sat down and placed the hefty box on her lap. She couldn’t tell what it was made of, as it felt cold on her skin through the flimsy layer of fabric. After a short bout of rumination, she reached out for the device and made her first call.

She waited and listened to the spell of beeps. Very soon, a familiar voice rang out.

“Hello?”

A sudden swelling wave of desire rose in her heart when the voice slipped into her ears. Lin Sanjiu had no idea why, but she hoped that it was Ji Shanqing on the other side of the line. There was a hole in her heart that couldn’t be filled, and she’d always felt that something was missing ever since her grand prize left her. From time to time, she would look around her, trying to search for the pair of sparkling eyes that were fixed on her all the time.

Lin Sanjiu hastily forced the thought away, as dwelling on such intense feelings wouldn’t do her any good in her current situation. She had left a communication device at Exodus a few days ago. She didn’t expect it to come in handy so soon.

“Woyu? Hey, I think I’ve found the person who leaked my information to your committee.”

On the surface, Woyu’s committee sounded righteous, but in the concrete, they were merely one of those hopeless robbers who were struggling hard in the Twelve Worlds. To survive, there was nothing that they wouldn’t do. If they came across a cash cow today, they would be the committee; if they saw a recruitment notice tomorrow, they would then become a truck driver.

Similar to Mophead, all of them lived at the bottom levels of society in Heaven Underworld. Strength wise, Lin Sanjiu was almost a hundred percent certain that the helpers that Mophead rallied should be around the same as the members from the Committee to Prevent Price Hiking and Inflation. Besides, she had everything prepared, so she wasn’t very worried about Exodus.

“Please help me inform Yu Yuan that I would like for him to take care of Exodus when I’m away. I’ve registered him as a guest in the system, so he can go to Silas if he needs any help. Silas will do her best to assist him,” Lin Sanjiu enjoined briefly. Just as she was thinking things through to check if she missed anything, she heard Woyu reply, “Then, what about me?”

“What about you?”

“I…” Woyu said, sounding a little gloomy. Lin Sanjiu wondered if it was because her words had triggered memories of his deceased friend. “What have you registered me as in the system?”

Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a second. She was reluctant to tell him the truth at first, but then she decided to be straightforward, “I didn’t register you in the system.”

“Huh? But Silas fetched me a glass of juice just now…”

Since Lin Sanjiu did not register Woyu in the system, Silas automatically tagged Woyu as Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan’s “pet” so that she could tend to his daily needs more easily and also avoid confusion from rising in the future. Lin Sanjiu did not want Woyu to know about this, so she just remained silent.

“Well, pardon me for taking the liberty of asking you this,” Woyu said after a momentary hesitation, his breathing quickening, “Can you register me as a guest in the system too, just as you did with Yu Yuan? To be frank with you, we have done this kind of thing in the past. Of course, we did that not for our own gain but to help the poor… Anyway, what I mean is that I have experience and I am very familiar with their modus operandi. If I had the permission, I could at least help you a little.”

The permission as a guest could not only be adjusted but could be overwritten as well, so Lin Sanjiu saw nothing wrong with his request.

“Alright, I will set you up when I get back in the afternoon,” Lin Sanjiu replied as she looked into the sky. The sun was high, and she realized it was almost the opening hour of the shop “Survive at all cost!”. She then said hastily, “I’ll talk to you later. I have to go to Black’s Market now.”

She figured that it wasn’t a long-term policy to rely on the old pilot to fetch her from Exodus to Black’s Market and vice versa every day. Besides, keeping a fixed schedule would only make it easier for those people to track her. Even though they were far weaker than her, still, she did not want that to happen. Hence, for safety and also for her own convenience, she decided to meet the shop owner and press him about the progress of her aircraft. After all, it had been two weeks since she paid the deposit, yet she still saw no sign of her aircraft.

Lin Sanjiu found the shop to be even dimmer than the last time she came. A deep umbra filled every inch of the shop, and the sole light source available came from the lamp in the far corner. The faint light of the lamp cast a dim glow over the objects inside the shop, and she could barely see through five steps ahead.

Be that as it may, Lin Sanjiu had been here before, so she knew every nook and cranny in the shop. As she deftly maneuvered herself to avoid the legs that dangled from the ceiling, she hollered out to the figure in the corner, “Good afternoon! Is there any news about the thing I ordered?”

As soon as she spoke, Lin Sanjiu heard the sound of wheels rolling across the floor from the corner. However, what followed after was not the old man’s voice, which she had expected, but a kid’s voice. “What have you ordered?” the kid asked as he stood up from the chair and walked into the light, bringing his small, oval-shaped face into Lin Sanjiu’s sight.

His skin was thin and fair, and his hair was thick and smooth; coupled with his small, frail body, Lin Sanjiu thought he was a girl at first. However, upon closer inspection, only then did she realize he was a ten years old boy. Standing under the pale light, the boy raised his head and braced against Lin Sanjiu’s inquisitive gaze.

“Who are you?” Lin Sanjiu asked. She ran her eyes over the kid from head to toe, her brows creasing tightly in the center of her forehead. The kid looked very suspicious, but since she did not see anybody around, he was the only one she could ask regarding the whereabouts of the old man. “I am here for the shop owner, an old man. Do you know where he is now?”

“I can help you with that. I am the shopkeeper,” said the boy as he turned the lamp towards the table. He then continued calmly, “What do you need?”

Lin Sanjiu continued to look at the boy skeptically. She did not want him to feel as if she was belittling him, so she forced her doubt back to the pit of her stomach and asked, “When will the old man return?”

“Just tell me what you need,” the boy urged again. Perhaps he was born in the Twelve Worlds, for the boy had a mien unlike other kids outside of the Twelve Worlds. “I know every good that arrived today!”

As if to prove himself, the kid fumbled through the piles of documents on the table. Papers fluttered down from the table to the floor, and he grabbed one from the air. He took a deep breath and shook the paper at her. “See! This is the order form!”

Even though her surroundings were dark, Lin Sanjiu still captured the word “aircraft” from the paper.

“Hold on!” She called out to the boy and held his arm still. Once she had a good look at the content, her eyes glowed and her voice laced with excitement, “This is it!”

The old man just scribbled “aircraft” on the form, so Lin Sanjiu had no idea how her aircraft would look like when the boy led her to the back of the shop. She suppressed her excitement and got into a narrow walkway behind the shop. There were all sorts of things piling along the walkway. If she did not watch her step, she would certainly trip over something.

“Ah! I forgot to close the door.”

Apparently, the boy was not as experienced as he claimed to be. He left Lin Sanjiu at the walkway alone and went to close the door. Then, he realized he forgot to ask Lin Sanjiu to put her fingerprint. After Lin Sanjiu put on her fingerprint, he then realized it was too early to do so, as Lin Sanjiu hadn’t checked and received her ordered item yet. The boy ran back and forth several times before he finally led Lin Sanjiu to her aircraft.

She had once said to the old man that she wanted her aircraft to be inconspicuous, but she apparently forgot to tell him what kind of aircraft she was looking for.

The aircraft in front of her had a jet-black body that seemed to be capable of absorbing light. It was now lying on the ground like a giant mantis with two large “scythes” placed in front of it. Lin Sanjiu ran her eyes along the length of the scythes and looked up. The scythes stood about ten meters high, and their points were sharp.

She never expected the old man to get her such an amazing aircraft.

The body that was flanked by two scythes looked disproportionately narrow and small. She walked closer and made out a rectangular slit that had to be the door.

She stretched her arm forward and reached out for the aircraft. It felt cold under her fingers. Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help imagining the scene when this aircraft landed on Exodus. She knew the two were essentially a place of residence and a means of transport, but for her, they meant much more to her.

After hopping from one apocalyptic world to another for so many years, she had finally begun to have the power to control her own life.

This was the beginning. Not only did she finally have a place to return to, but she could also reunite with her friends that were scattered about in different apocalyptic worlds.

However, the first thing she had to do right now was to pilot this aircraft back to Exodus.

She raised her head and looked around. Aside from the circular window that covered the cockpit, she could not find a button or a handle anywhere.

“How do I activate this aircraft?” Lin Sanjiu asked the boy.

She spun her head around and saw the boy studying the aircraft as well. Perhaps this was his first time looking at this type of aircraft at such a close distance, for his face was glowing and his eyes were brimming with excitement. He stood beside a “scythe”, which made him look even smaller. Lin Sanjiu had to call him several times to pull him back to reality. He replied, “Huh? I don’t know.”

“Did the shop owner leave you something? Start-up manual, driving instruction book, or maintenance guide, no?”

The boy retracted his gaze from the aircraft and looked at her. He said, “I am just a nine-year-old kid. Do you expect me to know all of that?”

‘I guess I have to call Yu Yuan now.’

Lin Sanjiu called Exodus and urged Yu Yuan to put on the [Mask] and come to Black’s Market, but even if he departed as soon as he hung up the phone, it would take him at least several hours to reach Black’s Market. Lin Sanjiu figured she had to kill time by strolling around in Black’s Market. After she made a gesture at the boy, both of them walked through the walkway and returned to the shop.

“You have put your fingerprint, so you should get it out of here as soon as possible,” the boy mumbled.

The aircraft was too much for Lin Sanjiu’s Planar World to handle. She felt strange about something and asked, “How did you guys get it into the yard? I can’t just pilot it out of here, can I? This aircraft is prohibited to fly in Heaven Underworld, right?”

“We put fake number plates on all our aircraft, so it’s fine if you fly it out of our yard,” the boy smiled.

Even though the waiting time was long, Lin Sanjiu was very satisfied with the aircraft. She bade goodbye to the boy and walked towards the door. As she ducked down to avoid the dangling legs, Mrs. Manas’s voice rang out in her mind.

“You don’t want to say goodbye to him?” said Mrs. Manas, sounding a little weird.

“Say goodbye to who?” As Lin Sanjiu asked, she opened up her map and looked for a restaurant.

“The old shop owner.”

“He’s here?” Lin Sanjiu was stunned. “Where is he? Why didn’t I see him just now?”

“He was hanging above you just now,” Mrs. Manas answered simply. “There, the feet that just swayed beside your shoulder. I am pretty certain that he is the old shop owner.”