Doomsday Wonderland

Panda Novel

‘I have to leave here as soon as possible.’

Pressing the towel tightly against her mouth, Lin Sanjiu dragged her worn-out body towards the other side of the ruins. The canvas shoes she wore squealed against the floor covered in meat pulp and goo, and since the shoes did not provide enough stability for her feet, she almost slipped after walking two steps.

The furniture that was laid to waste by her sprawled haphazardly across the floor, forming into numerous irregular-shaped piles of varying sizes. There were so many slits and crevices between the heaps of wreckage that they looked like eyes watching her from the dark.

Were there dead bodies and other things lurking inside these slits and holes?

Lin Sanjiu stopped in her tracks. She called out her [Tornado Whip] and brandished it lightly. She tried to use the wind to clear out a path so that she could squeeze herself through.

She picked up two planks from the floor. Then, she turned her body sideways and sidled through the pathway she created using the Tornado Whip. Being stared at by the slits and dark holes containing unknown creatures was not a pleasurable experience in the least. Every muscle in her body was pulled taut, and only now did she see the light of why no posthuman dared to destroy the furniture here. Putting everything aside, she had at least been able to see that there was a regular rhythm to the appearance and arrangement of the slits and dark spaces between each furniture before they were destroyed. With a single glance, she could easily see if there was a gap underneath a cabinet or if the door was closed or opened. To her dismay, it was already too late. Chiding herself inwardly for her own rash action, Lin Sanjiu continued to edge forward.

When she finally emerged from the wreckage and stepped onto a bed, she felt as if an eternity had passed. She took out a pair of boots from her card deck and put them on. She threw away the pair of canvas shoes, now laden with mucus and goo. Then she took out a towel. Using one of her feet to secure her fractured left palm between the two planks she picked up earlier on, she wound the towel firmly around her fractured left palm and drew a tight knot with her teeth and right hand.

For posthumans, it took no more than several days for a fractured wound like this to recover, though the recovery process was often accompanied by constant pain. This was because although posthumans generally had a stronger body than ordinary people, their senses towards pain did not dull away. In fact, it was heightened. After all, pain is an important warning signal that alarmed posthumans to dangers so that they could appropriately deal with them in a timely manner. Without pain, the posthuman would have difficulty avoiding serious injury and death.

After that, she took a roll of toilet paper out of her card. She yanked off several sections of the toilet paper, rolled them into two tiny balls, and stuffed them into her ears.

Lin Sanjiu was thoroughly worn out after she finished taking care of her wounds and tidying herself up. Her body felt so heavy, so constraining as if every pound of her flesh and bone was filled with sand. Her feet ached, and her back was bedewed with cold sweat. Even though she knew she did not have much time left, she still gave way to her exhaustion and threw herself on the bed. The impact of when her back connected with the hard texture of the bed sent a tremor down her body.

She could feel that her Higher Consciousness was amassing at the depth of her psyche, although the process was extremely slow and the amount little.

‘Just give me a minute, just a minute will do…’ she said to the voice in her mind that urged her to keep moving as she stared at the plume of white mist that escaped her lips when she breathed out.

However, it had only been seven seconds before Lin Sanjiu became restless again. She peered into the dark sky, a perplexed expression crawling upon her face as she fell into her thoughts.

The cyclone she whipped up earlier on had destroyed most of the furniture around the aquarium. The area had become such a mess that it was nearly impossible for her to find out Lucy’s direction anymore. Glancing across the vast cemetery, Lin Sanjiu wondered which direction she should go to find Polva’s body.

Having something inside your ears was never a pleasant sensation. To ease herself from the uncomfortable feeling, Lin Sanjiu rubbed her ears lightly, eliciting a muffled rustling noise as the paper grated against the inner side of her ears.

“Who’s there on the bed?”

Lin Sanjiu sighed. ‘Was that person inside the clock really Maxin? If only I knew which direction he went in…’

“Who’s there on the bed?”

‘Or should I go after the shadow? Although I don’t know what it was, at the very least, I know which way I’m going.’

“Do you want to come down and have a look?”

‘By the way, where the hell is that b*stard, the highest god? He has been off the grid since he trapped us here. Has he gotten his hands on Puppeteer? Where are the others? Urgh, this is so frustrating.’

Of all the people she met in this furniture cemetery—Maxin, who had disappeared; Lucy, who was dead; “Soulsqn,” who was an imposter—only the boy Eggy… She could not really tell how she felt about this boy. He seemed harmless, and he felt like a real person to her. ‘Should I go back and find him?’ she asked herself.

“If you won’t talk, I’m going up now.”

Be that as it may, Lin Sanjiu had made up her mind. She decided to go back. She had been keeping track of her movements along the way, so it was easy for her to double back.

‘Let’s go down…’ She commanded her body and turned it around. Slowly, she placed both her feet on the floor. After she found a clear spot, she moved her left foot forward and shifted her center gravity onto that foot. Then she began to search for another spot for her right foot to land.

“Hey, don’t go. I’m coming.”

Lin Sanjiu had no idea if it was an illusion or not, but she kept hearing a voice mumbling in her ears. She did not dare to take out the rolls of paper in her ears, so she turned her head around to check her surroundings. The furniture remained standing silently in the dark, and everything remained the way it was before.

Since the pieces of paper in her ears kept making noises non-stop with every step she took, she accounted the voice she heard as the rustling of the papers in her ears.

She berated herself inwardly for not thinking carefully before making her move, so she had no choice but to traverse a large distance to return to the ruined part of the furniture cemetery right now. She psyched herself up and climbed up a large chest of drawers, all the while keeping her eyes on the slits around. She then leaped down from the chest of drawers and landed in the center of a collection of vases.

Just as she was about to take a step forward, she felt a tug on her back.

The hairs on the nape of her neck bristled as she jerked her body around, her fist held high. However, just as she turned her body, she saw something, and her fist did not fall. Unbeknownst to her, her shirt had unstitched, leaving a thread to dangle at the hem of her shirt. The chest of drawers caught the swinging thread in the hook of its handle. As she advanced forward, the drawer pulled open.

Relieved, she ripped off the thread and turned her head back. However, she was still unable to move a step.

Without turning her head, Lin Sanjiu elbowed whatever was behind her. Unexpectedly, her elbow touched a sweaty palm. Without waiting for the palm to retract back into the drawer, Lin Sanjiu rammed the drawer and trapped the palm in between. For a moment, she somewhat heard a pained howl. She quickly summoned the [Tranquilizer Gun For The Foot Soldier]. However, before she could take aim, the palm suddenly realized something and shrunk back into the drawer.

Lin Sanjiu did not want to continue the fight either. She kicked the drawer shut with a kick and stared at it, still holding her gun. After confirming that the drawer would not open anymore, she turned around and made a beeline for the group of vases.

Luckily, it only caught her shirt… Her gun was still in her hand. When a breeze caressed her skin, she felt a chill as her cold sweat evaporated. As Lin Sanjiu trudged forward and quickly traversed through innumerable rows of identical ceramic flowers. Just past the ‘field’ of flower vases laid the furniture landfill.

If it was even possible, Lin Sanjiu wished she could fly back.

Behind the wardrobe door, inside the chest of drawers, under the coffee table, behind the ergonomic chair… Every place was a possible hiding spot for a person. When Lin Sanjiu reached the last row of flower vases, she had no choice but to take a break to catch her breath. Once she walked out of this field of flower vases, she knew she would be assaulted by all the dark crevices, slits and holes skulking between the furniture and behind their doors.

After gritting her teeth, Lin Sanjiu felt that she had mustered enough courage. As she walked forward, she scanned her surroundings then paused. Then, she slowly turned her head and looked at the item beside her.

This time, Lin Sanjiu looked down into the vase.

Lurking in the darkness within the vase was a face peering back at her.

Lin Sanjiu almost let out a startled cry. She stepped backward instinctively and toppled the flower vase with a kick. Surprisingly, the impact only chipped off a bit of the vase, and it did not shatter. The force caused it to spin as it laid horizontally. Shocked for a moment, Lin Sanjiu suddenly realized what she saw. She rushed forward, grabbed the flower vase, and turned it upside down on the floor. A muffled voice came from the vase. Lin Sanjiu couldn’t make out what the person was saying. When Lin Sanjiu lifted the flower vase, half a fish tail fell out of the mouth of the vase unexpectedly.

The fish tail vanished in an instant, as it was quickly sucked into the flower vase again. However, Lin Sanjiu already recognized what it was—Maxin’s mermaid tail.

Lin Sanjiu placed the flower vase on the floor frantically and pulled out the toilet paper from her ears. The voice that rang out from the flower vase immediately grew clear. It was Maxin, unquestionably. “Above you! Quick! Look up!”

Lin Sanjiu froze for a split-second before quickly looking up.

She found herself staring straight at a fat, full-moon face.

The round, snow-white face was so plump that its owner’s eyes were merely two black arcs. The small, geisha-like mouth belonging to the round-faced owner parted slightly before curving into a smile.