Doomsday Wonderland

Panda Novel

“You fell for it, fool.”

Zeus’s voice had always been grating and detestable. However, at that moment, it far exceeded the entire meaning of the word ‘detestable’. It evoked a deep level of abhorrence that sent chills through a person’s blood, bones and veins. It stirred an urge to eradicate all those faces and squish them like bugs.

The posthumans in warfare were stumped by the situation. They stood still in their own positions for almost three whole seconds. They wore stiff expressions as if they’d just woken up from a long dream.

Apparently, one of the reasons for their apprehension was that they had just been released from their “influenced” state. They had not fully processed the fact that they had all attacked Puppeteer together due to having been bribed by a person’s ability. Some of the posthumans who finally realized what they’d done were aghast. They could not believe that they were still alive, though all of them were wounded.

The other reason was a little more complicated—pointedly, they could not tell who said those words.

One of the Zeus’s voice lingered in the humid, salty sea air. However, Zeus Lin clearly couldn’t speak anymore. His head dangled from Puppeteer’s grip and swung in the sea breeze.

His lengthy body, clad in a black singlet and combat pants, laid on the carpet. Disgusting black gloop poured from the opening on his neck, which was still wrapped in a bandage. It was like some sort of stuffing or meat paste, but he did not spill a single drop of blood, nor did any bone show.

The head in Puppeteer’s hand did, however, display the normal signs of biological death. It did not make a single sound. The skin on the dead Zeus’s face drooped past his deep-set eyes…and then further… It was almost as if it would flap open and speak on behalf of his mouth.

Maxim was the first to regain full consciousness. When he looked up, he immediately read the situation. He instinctively took a few steps backward. “There!” he uttered quietly.

Soulsqn remained perfectly still while Rize and Hegel immediately retreated backward. After having been bribed, they momentarily forgot that Zeus Lin was not the only Zeus on the battlefield. There were several Zeus standing outside the carpet now, and all of them put their heads together, murmuring into each other’s ears.

It must have been one of them that spoke just now.

“Lin— Lin Sanjiu is dead?” Soulsqn asked, disbelief accenting her tone. She swam towards Puppeteer. “Is she… Is she dead? How did this happen?”

As the black leather squeaked softly, the increasingly pale arm released the head of the Zeus in his hand. The head dropped to the carpet and rolled out far. Throughout the entire process, Puppeteer remained motionless and stood as rigid as a stone statue, not saying a word.

During the time when Puppeteer was being overwhelmed by the group of posthumans, nobody could tell whether he was genuinely unable to force his way out of the encirclement or if he was merely faking his grim situation. When Zeus Lin took out the A4-sized pocket folder and was fully occupied with unwrapping the grand prize, Puppeteer seized the moment while the false god was most vulnerable and snuck up on him.

Similar to Old Hag, Zeus Lin died so suddenly that his death appeared almost ridiculous. Be that as it may, even after Zeus Lin’s death, Puppeteer was unable to get the grand prize back. After losing his clothes, which were responsible for half of his weight, the grand prize became as light as a crumpled piece of gift wrapping paper. In Zeus Lin’s last moment, he had pushed the grand prize away. The wind then carried the grand prize across a large distance and landed him just below the feet of the group of Zeus.

Right now, Ji Shanqing floated about on the sea like a ragged piece of cloth. There was still a layer of torn fabric clinging to his body. Although he was not in good shape, at least for the time being, he was still rescuable.

Nevertheless, things tend to go awry.

“Wasn’t that roster what could save her?” Soulsqn asked after regaining her senses. “Where is it now?”

The roster was currently pinned under the headless corpse, and they could see no more than a corner of the pocket folder. However, other than Soulsqn, nobody felt the need to pick up the pocket folder, for the Zeus who spoke just now once again opened his mouth.

There was this saying that when a person blended into a sea of people, you would not be able to find him anymore. All of the Zeus looked identical, the only thing setting them apart was their attires. Hence, when all of them crowded together in a place, nobody could tell which one of them was speaking. “I thought I made myself clear enough, but it seems to me that you still cannot get the gist of it, so I will repeat it again. All of you fell for it.”

“What? I don’t understand! What do you mean by all of us fell for it?” Twisting her neck left and right repeatedly, the flesh worm tried to locate the Zeus that was speaking.

“Queen,” Maxin could not help but call out to Soulsqn, “That folder is fake.”

Soulsqn wheeled around and stared at Maxin.

“According to Hegel, if the folder is real, then the leecher inside would replace Zeus a moment before he died,” Maxin explained, “But since it was Zeus who died, either Hegel is lying or the folder is fake. There is no leecher inside.”

Hegel was standing around when Maxin was spelling out the situation to Soulsqn. He was so consumed by rage that his face turned scarlet red. The veins on his forehead bulged, but upon seeing Puppeteer, who remained impassive over the thing that was happening behind him, he forwent the attempt to argue with Maxin and remained silent.

“Yeap, that is what happened.”

The crowd of Zeus laughed and cackled like a bunch of demons. The voice came again, “We just took a pocket folder from somewhere, and you all chopped off Lin Sanjiu’s head without considering the fact that the pocket folder might be fake. Right now, not only is she truly dead, but we even got our hands on the grand prize as well. There is nothing that can stop us anymore!” The voice paused, laughed queerly, and added, “Honestly, I didn’t expect that we could pull this off, but we did put on quite a show, don’t you think?”

Another Zeus chimed in with great merriment, “You don’t say! Riveting mysteries, unexpected plot twists, isn’t this what makes a good drama?”

“Right now, we should think about what we should do next.”

“Yes, yes, you are right. Logically speaking, since the competition is over, the only one who qualifies to meet the highest god is the Grand Prize… What should we do next to get the most entertainment out of this?”

“Puppeteer is desperate to unwrap it, so shall we?”

“Of course, we’ll definitely unwrap it. However, the exact time we choose to unwrap it… the exact method we take… How should we choose to bring out the theatrical aesthetics of the moment? What would bring us the greatest quantum of histrionic enjoyment?”

The crowd of Zeus with the same faces bobbed their heads. Their actions made it seem as if the sea breeze was weaving through a forest of flesh. They turned a blind eye toward the body of the headless Zeus and took no heed to the Zeus corpses on the battlefield. Nor did any of them take the initiative to help the Zeus that was trapped in the water by Maxin. They seemed to only care about one thing—making the entire situation even more entertaining for themselves.

In other words, they strove to further torment the group of posthumans in front of them.

All the posthumans were dumbfounded. None of them knew what to say or do in such a situation; Hegel and Rize felt this way. Even other people who weren’t close to Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help shuddering for reasons they could not comprehend.

As for Puppeteer…

Ever since the Zeus’s head dropped to the carpet, he had not uttered a single word. In fact, he did not even move an inch. Right now, it was almost as if there were two corpses on the carpet. One was lying and the other was standing.

The only one who seemed to somehow retain most of her normalcy was Soulqn. This could be due to her being of a different species. Sometimes, the near undefeatable tenacity of the large, grub-like creature could simply put a human to shame. She circled in the same spot for a few rounds and suddenly screeched, “TELL ME! How can I get Lin Sanjiu back? You people must have a way. I don’t believe it! I won’t give up. I can resurrect a dead person, I can fill up a sack of skin!”

“It only proves that you’re bad at biology,” one of the Zeus chuckled.

“That’s a good line!” another immediately praised.

Apparently, their only concern was whether these posthumans could bring them more amusement.

Unexpectedly, Soulsqn did not overreact after being humiliated. She rushed to Puppeteer’s side and called out, “Lord Puppeteer”. Somehow, the moment she saw his face, she swallowed down her words. She grabbed the head on the ground determinedly and sprinted toward the headless corpse.

“Come on, stick!” Soulsqn’s high-pitched voice trembled as she tried her best to squish the Zeus’s head back onto its body. “Why won’t it stick? Should I sew… sew it back?”

“Soulsqn,” Maxin urged, as he couldn’t bear to look at her acting that way, “Soulsqn! Come back.”

“F*ck! I’m not going back!” Soulsqn ignored Maxin’s goodwill. She held Zeus’s ten-centimeter long neck and shook it while she griped, “Can’t you see that there is only crap in this thing’s neck? If crap breaks, we can just attach it back! There isn’t any bone, flesh, or blood vessels! I can tell! I can really tell!”

“This is a great scene,” one of the Zeus commented satisfactorily with a pseudo-sympathetic tone. “It represents the pain of losing a companion. Even though her friend has died, she can’t accept the grief. An actor’s true feelings can really stir one’s soul.”

“I’ve had it with all your theatrics!” Soulsqn dumped the neck and grabbed the decapitated head again. At that moment, she paused. A split second of silence gripped the battlefield.

Suddenly, one of the Zeus raised a question to his fellow Zeus, “Huh? We can’t let her do this, can we?”

The sea breeze carried that vague voice right into the posthumans’ ears.

Naturally, the Zeus didn’t explain what ‘this’ meant. Nonetheless, it was as if Soulsqn was frozen in time. After a short while, she stretched out her grubby ‘tentacle’ and jabbed the neck a few times with uncertainty.

“Damn it!” Another unidentifiable Zeus cursed. “Catch her!”