Doomsday Wonderland

In the brief moments when night transitions to dawn, the blackness fades, but the pale light of morning has yet to arrive. During those ten minutes, the world belongs neither to dreams nor to the waking day. It feels like a different dimension, a misty realm tinged with soft blue, full of the expectation that something extraordinary might happen.

It was during this twilight hour that Lin Sanjiu disembarked from the sky night travel pod.

After a night of blissful, restorative sleep, the pod itself seemed weary under the approaching light. The glow on its shell dimmed, as though it were ready to return with its collected currency and rest until another traveler wished to float through the night.

After it drifted away, Lin Sanjiu looked down at the open platform beneath her feet. The pod, clearly unbound by location, had let her off at a completely new spot, a rooftop in the CBD district she had never visited before.

At this hour, those who were active at night had gone to rest, while the daytime crowd had yet to wake. For a moment, the post-doomsday Cloudwalk Heights seemed abandoned once more—silent, desolate, and empty, with gray mist rolling quietly far below.

1

The thought that someone might still be tracking her felt like the memory of a dream, vague and unreal.

Even she didn't know where she was headed, so how could anyone else be waiting in ambush?

Stretching lazily, Lin Sanjiu felt her Higher Consciousness recharged from a night of rest. Though not fully restored, she could still ask Mrs. Manas to replay the broadcast she'd heard in her sleep.

"You know I'm not a tape recorder," Mrs. Manas said matter-of-factly. "I'll repeat what I can, but I can't guarantee it's complete or accurate. Your subconscious is a swirling mess lately."

Until she found the grand prize, Yu Yuan, Silvan, Bohemia, and the others, Lin Sanjiu knew she wouldn't feel at ease. She smiled bitterly at the thought.

1

She'd been so exhausted last night that she fell asleep before turning off the broadcast. In the haze between waking and sleeping, she'd caught wind of something important, but before she could grasp it, she slid into dreams. Now, she remembered only that it was worth noting. Mrs. Manas was her best hope.

From Mrs. Manas's recounting, she had heard a lot. It turned out that the sky night travel pods were a well-known feature of Cloudwalk Heights, partnered with various broadcasters, news channels, and advertisers. A night's rest in a pod could deliver more information than a full day's work.

"There's complete silence inside, no signs of activity. Multiple attempts to contact have gone unanswered. Until further investigation, residents are advised to avoid Apartment 2... Any capable posthumans willing to investigate or rescue civilians inside, please contact the following Yellow Ear system number..."

She had only caught the mention of "Apartment 2," not its location. What she did remember clearly was that according to Cloudwalk Heights tradition, ordinary people saved by posthumans owed them free service until the posthumans departed.

"Yellow Ear System," Lin Sanjiu muttered, recognizing the name. Checking the slip of paper the waitress had given her, she confirmed it was one of Cloudwalk Heights's largest messaging systems.

The second broadcast was about the technological development of Cloudwalk Heights. It detailed how the city had collected and adapted technologies from different worlds, integrating them with Special Items and evolved abilities to create advanced hybrid tech like the sky night travel pods. The standout among these innovations was the Munitions Factory.

"But we've noticed that posthuman technology lacks a cohesive system and isn't accessible to most people, not even most posthumans. In Cloudwalk Heights, class divisions have led to a Matthew effect..." The host's words grew blurry in Lin Sanjiu's drowsy mind.

1

Interesting, but not particularly useful. She noted the name of the information stream, "Light of the Clouds" from the Fishnet System, intending to revisit it later.

"What's next? Anything else?"

The third was a heated debate between two hosts from a new system, Beacon-Wolf Signal.

"As the foundation of Cloudwalk Heights's operations, their opinions matter—"

"Opinions are fine, but striking, rioting, and causing disturbances are unacceptable," the second host retorted angrily. "Let me be blunt: without posthumans, there would be no Twelve Worlds Centrum. This isn't a relationship of mutual support; it's one of dependence. Like birds that clean a crocodile's teeth, they need us to survive. We don't need them."

"Remember, many of us have partners and children who are ordinary humans. Without their work, we wouldn't even have drinking water."

"Exactly! Work is how they prove their value, not a tool to threaten us. We've already paid for their labor. If we allow them to strike today, what about tomorrow? Human greed has no limits. If we don't set boundaries, what if they decide to poison the water and wipe out posthumans? The Twelve Worlds Centrum belongs to posthumans, not ordinary people."

1

The show had a live audience, presumably posthumans, since Mrs. Manas described how they clapped and cheered whenever the second host spoke.

"This might be common in the Twelve Worlds Centrum," Lin Sanjiu mused. "Ordinary people daring to resist posthumans?"

But the second host's next somber statement suggested otherwise. "I've lived in the Twelve Worlds Centrum for half my life and never seen such chaos. Ordinary people are usually simple-minded. If this weren't orchestrated by hidden forces, it wouldn't be so organized. I believe a covert war against posthumans has already begun, and most people are still oblivious."

Lin Sanjiu knew too little to judge who was right or wrong. After pondering for a while, she couldn't figure out what had seemed useful in her sleep. Was it just a trick of her drowsy mind?

"Wait a minute," she said, glancing at the waitress's note. "Didn't she mention that the systems can share information? Beacon-Wolf Signal is new, so maybe she didn't know about it and didn't write it down... Which means she wouldn't have told the man tracking me either."

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