Doomsday Wonderland

Panda Novel

The Veda should have already come out to the hall and scouted the area when Lin Sanjiu faked their escape using Soulsqn’s reality. Simultaneously, Lin Sanjiu, Puppeteer, and Soulsqn had been hiding in the Data Stream Library, waiting until the Veda had returned to the Data Stream Library before sneaking into the hall.

Thus, the most crucial problem, for now, was whether the Veda would return to this hall.

If they decided to do so, the situation would take a nosedive, and they would be caught red-handed by the Veda.

Two humans, a worm, and Ji Shanqing, who was still trapped inside the barrier, put their heads together to think of a solution to shatter the predicament. Lin Sanjiu had gone a little overboard when she said that the Veda could not do anything to them. It was false bravado, and she was confident that Sven would be able to see through her lie the moment she exhibited the slightest bit of hesitation.

It was indeed a pain in the neck to come up with a question that would not raise suspicions, but that way, she could also get Sven to share the way to get out of there safely.

Without a doubt, Ji Shanqing, who was the smarty pants in the group, eventually became the mastermind. After he had analyzed the entire situation and ruminated shortly, he got Lin Sanjiu to ask Sven a question.

“What is the difference between this hall and the Data Stream Library?”

From the bloody cakehole came a strange noise. It sounded as if Sven was sighing. “It’s complicated, but you can understand it this way. This hall is your world while the Data Stream Library is our world.”

“Nope, we don’t get it. Explain further.”

“From the perspective of our scientific systems, all matter, be it living or non-living things, in its most primitive form, is data. Hence, the ultimate form in our evolution is to turn ourselves into data.” The words came out from Sven smoothly and calmly. “But not every world exists in such a form. Take for example, the Salvation of God. We can, of course, digitize the entire world if we wish to. However, firstly, the workload is too heavy, and secondly, we don’t see that bringing any possible benefit to us. Therefore, we came up with a compromise. We created a pathway that would bridge our data world with the real world outside, and this hall is the pathway.

“What should we do if we want to visit a non-digitized world? Of course, we can make changes to our data pool and turn ourselves into, let’s say, a human, an octopus, a flower, or even a Mesis, but it isn’t practical and is risky. So, we created these bio-vessels and placed them in the pathway. Then, we put them on and controlled them from within to go to a non-digitized world.”

Although they had no idea what kind of creature a “Mesis” was and where it came from, it did not hamper Lin Sanjiu from grasping the entire concept.

“So, these people aren’t living humans? Do you mean that this place is like your wardrobe, and all you need to do is put them on like you’re wearing a cloth and go out?”

“In a sense, you’re right.”

From there, Lin Sanjiu knew that they were saved for the time being. As long as the Veda did not plan to go to the Salvation of God, they would not return to this hall. After all, they had already searched this hall once.

“Why do you want to go to the Salvation of God?” Ji Shanqing asked. The grand prize was indeed perspicacious. He had already figured out a large portion of the situation with just a few words.

“At first, it was to transform the Salvation of God, but then we didn’t go there as often as we do nowadays. We only went to collect some important data.”

‘It’s great to hear that they didn’t go there that often!’

All of them heaved a sigh of relief inwardly, save for Ji Shanqing. He found a loophole in Sven’s statement and refuted, “I don’t think so. You aren’t telling the truth. If you didn’t go there that often, then why do you need to prepare so many vessels?”

Lin Sanjiu was momentarily stunned by the question. She quickly added, “When I first came here, a few people had awoken. However, before I could check them out, a hole appeared, and they all fell into it.”

“Oh, they are our subjects,” Sven replied nonchalantly.

“Subjects?”

“We have never stopped trying—”

Sven came to a sudden halt as all of them sensed a subtle change of airflow in the hall. Shifting his body toward the back, Puppeteer shouted, “Who’s there?” As if they were two vampires that jolted awake during the wee hours, two figures rose up and sat upright amongst the rows of human bodies. One of them was male while the other was female. Both of them looked at the startled crowd in the hall and smiled.

“Veda! They are here!” Soulsqn yelled out loudly.

The couple’s stony eyes swept across the people before they turned their heads to look at each other. Suddenly, the woman pursed her mouth and blew a kiss to the man. The man giggled, licking his teeth. Then the floor underneath them opened up, and both of them fell into a dark, gaping maw in the ground.

Soulsqn stopped her abilities abruptly.

“What the hell was that?” she asked as the skin that had a shocked expression slid down her face.

Lin Sanjiu dashed to the spot where the man and woman fell, but what greeted her was a smooth and seamless floor. Greatly baffled, Lin Sanjiu mumbled, “Are they not Veda? Why didn’t they come and catch us?”

“What a coincidence. This should be what you humans always say: ‘speak of the devil’. Yes, those two are our subjects.” Sven seemed to be the calmest amongst the group. “Let me finish what I was going to say just now. We’ve never stopped trying to create a sentient being.”

Dumbstruck, it took a few minutes for the words to sink in.

The Veda had told Lin Sanjiu that they had never succeeded in their pursuit of creating a sentient being. In other words, they must have tried many times. At that time, Lin Sanjiu’s brain was so swamped with different bits of information that she could not think through it all properly. So, where were those failed “sentient beings” that had been created?

“We’ve been plagued by this problem for a very long time; more than a century, to be exact. We keep on improvising our methods but to no avail. The people that we’ve created are still full of flaws. Their level of intelligence is so horridly low even though we’ve raised the intellectual parameters during the making process. Most of them are dull-witted while the others became crazy. Some of them are just… weird. All in all, none of them showed any positive results. They aren’t even counted as humans, let alone talk about standing on par with us.”

Their expressions turned ugly after listening to Sven’s explanation.

“After deleting batch after batch of failed products, we began to see that perhaps the evolutionary process is the key to create a perfect sentient being,” Sven said stolidly, “So, we found a planet, remodeled it, and formed it into a competitive environment. After that, we put our subjects in the bio-vessel and dropped them off to the planet. Aside from death, they return regularly for maintenance and check-ups.”

“This planet is the Salvation of God, and our subjects are the gods.”

There was dead silence in the hall.

“But, but…” Lin Sanjiu stammered, “Those gods are huge…”

“Further modifications to the bio-vessel,” Sven answered her reservation readily as if he had anticipated the question, “are carried out in the space underneath the floor. Like your computer games, this hall is the login page while the process of falling is the loading of the game. The game will only begin after they reach the land below the white mist.”

‘Game? All of these are just games to them?’

Lin Sanjiu’s face turned crimson red and then paled. The image of Hiliu’s final moments came into her mind with splendid clarity.

She was still resentful, and she did not want to die. However, she knew everything would be gone soon, and there was nothing she could do to change her already sealed fate.

“It’s just a metaphor. Don’t get so wound up.”

Sven gave her anger the cold shoulder and proceeded to say calmly, “I know you’ll be transmitted away after staying in a world for 14 months, so let’s make a deal. I’ll help you to get out of here. I’ll inform you about the date and time we send out our subjects down there. You can stand beside them, and return to the Salvation of God. You can stay in the Salvation of God until it is time for you to transfer to another world. Then, we’ll never see each other again.”

This was indeed a splendid opportunity to get out of there, but Lin Sanjiu was so full of rage that she could not think straight. On the side, Puppeteer stared coldly at the body on the floor, lost in his thoughts. Instead of thinking about leaving, he seemed to be thinking about how to kill the Veda.

The grand prize’s eyes lit up at first, but the change in his expression was swift. He soon sank into deep thought, wondering if they could trust Sven. The only one who seemed to be particularly pleased was Soulsqn. She yelled delightedly, “Awesome! Can we go now?”

“It seems like your friends are having some trust issues,” Sven said to Soulsqn, “I suggest you discuss with your friends first and come up with a conclusion before telling me your decision.”

Soulsqn turned her body around. She did not have the guts to yell at Puppeteer, so she could only direct all her frustration at Lin Sanjiu. “What are you still hesitating for? You… I mean since we have nothing to do here, why don’t we take up his suggestion and go back to the Salvation of God? You have nothing to worry about—no ties, no family—but my folks are still waiting for me!”

Lin Sanjiu was relieved that Soulsqn was not that ignorant to expose the truth. She looked warily at the body on the floor, but Sven remained silent as if he did not hear what Soulsqn had just said.

She then looked over at her grand prize. The latter was too immersed in his thoughts that he did not feel her gaze. His brows were locked in a tight knot in the center of his forehead. At last, Lin Sanjiu stole a furtive glance at Puppeteer, and from a single glance, she knew that things would not turn out as Soulsqn wished.

There was not an ounce of emotion or expression on Puppeteer’s face. His face looked as if he were a rock frozen for a millennium. Without any sign, the glitter around his eyes suddenly turned darker. They became two black halos that only flickered sporadically.

The Veda had made him relive his days as Yun. For this alone, it was impossible for Puppeteer to let the Veda go. If there was anything scarier than Puppeteer, that would be a vengeful Puppeteer.

Lin Sanjiu sighed in her heart.

She could not leave Puppeteer behind alone to take his revenge even if they might become enemies again when they returned to the Salvation of God. Besides, Puppeteer was still holding Hu Changzai and the cat doctor as his hostages, and only he knew their whereabouts. Just as she walked towards her grand prize to discuss with him to come up with a solution, her grand prize suddenly snapped out of his thoughts. He raised his head abruptly, and his face was ashen pale.

Lin Sanjiu’s heart skipped a beat upon seeing his face.

“Sven, say something!” he shouted, startling the group. His voice reverberated in the hall, but there was no response from the Veda.

“Quick!” He pounced on the barrier and said hastily to Puppeteer, “Check your Special Items!”

Puppeteer touched his lips, and his expression changed.

“That is why it kept silent just now! It’s looking for an opportunity to escape!” Puppeteer reacted quickly as he walked towards the body.

Stamping his feet, Ji Shanqing added hurriedly, “No wonder it explained so many things to us just now. It must’ve been analyzing the barrier!”

Sven did not make any more sounds.

After Sven finished analyzing Puppeteer’s barrier, the Veda reconstructed and formed a hole in the corner of the barrier. Then, it escaped.

All of them looked at each other. They were white around the gills.

The grand prize was the first one to come back to his senses. “It must have returned to the Data Stream Library! It’s going to bring more Veda in! We have to run now!”

“But to where? Should we stay here and wait for the bodies to wake up and drop by the Salvation of God with them?”

That was a no-go.

Gritting his teeth, Ji Shanqing said, “No, we are going into the Data Stream Library!”