Doomsday Wonderland

As the sensation of weightlessness surged through Lin Sanjiu's body, a rope of Higher Consciousness anchored one end to the window ledge and the other to her hand, swiftly lowering her beneath the smog layer.

Cries echoed from the window above. "She really jumped!" The shouts dissolved into ghostly echoes above the thick smog, swallowed quickly by the wind. All that remained in Lin Sanjiu's vision were countless vertical streaks flashing by.

The [Defense Forcefield] spread thinly over her body, covering every fold and crevice. Typically, even with the forcefield active, she could still see, hear, and breathe. But she had warned Mrs. Manas in advance. She held her breath as she jumped. When she tried to inhale now, her nose was sealed tight.

Amid a burst of instinctive fear, Lin Sanjiu slid past the increasingly grimy gray buildings, slicing through the howling smog. She kicked her legs out sharply, pushing off a building wall and stopping the outflow of Higher Consciousness.

Judging by her speed, she was now somewhere between the fifth and third floors, not far from the ground. All she could see was the thick, heavy, lead-gray smog, filled with an oppressive menace.

She sent out a few small vortexes of air, clearing away the dense, reluctant smog. A window emerged not far away. Kicking off the wall, she swung her leg through the empty window frame, steadied herself on the sill, and retracted the Higher Consciousness rope.

Her [Higher Consciousness Scan] revealed that this floor of the abandoned building was empty, save for some leftover furniture, debris, and rubble. No sounds penetrated the swirling depths of the smog. It was as if the smog itself strangled all noise.

Quickly, Lin Sanjiu retrieved an oxygen tank and breathing gear from her card inventory, strapped it on, and sealed it under her [Defense Forcefield]. She had packed it out of caution when leaving Exodus, and it was proving useful now.

1

Once she could breathe again, the dull panic that had lingered deep within her instincts faded, and her mind cleared.

Her next destination lay in the heart of the smog that had destroyed this world.

When she learned of the plan, Mrs. Manas had warned her, "The land beneath the smog is completely unknown. Considering the strain on your actions and Higher Consciousness, even with [Defense Forcefield], you need to get out of the smog within thirty minutes."

Thirty minutes sounded generous, but the smog was so dense it would slow her down. An action that would normally take ten minutes might double in duration on the ground.

Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath, held it, and leaped from the window.

The vortexes she sent out blasted the smog apart, briefly revealing the ground rushing up to meet her. For a split second, everything below was a blurry, grimy mess of debris, rising and falling like hills on the dark, damp earth. She locked onto a landing spot and twisted in midair, driving her feet down hard.

The corroded, rust-brown frame of a car couldn't withstand the impact of her fall. With a screech, it twisted and shattered beneath her feet, sending a cloud of black dust and debris flying as she crashed into its remains.

Even through her Higher Consciousness, Lin Sanjiu could feel herself landing on a hard, cracked surface. Sharp, broken edges jabbed at her from all directions. Without [Defense Forcefield], she would've been injured.

She didn't rush to climb out of the car.

She had chosen to land inside the vehicle because its rusted frame was too bare to hide anything unexpected. The smog she had blasted apart was already closing in again. Through the thinning wisps, she caught glimpses of wobbling black shapes emerging from the building lobby, the street across, and the ground behind the car.

Before she could see clearly, the smog closed in once more, shrouding her vision.

"Go, go, go!" Mrs. Manas shouted. "They're coming from behind!"

Lin Sanjiu immediately leaped out of the car seat, crossing where the windshield used to be, and stepped over the twisted heap of metal that had once been the hood. She landed on the ground like a bird, pushed through the thick, resistant smog, and sprinted in the direction she remembered.

The vortexes she generated while running scattered the smog, sending countless black flakes flying. The world revealed beneath was completely different from the sky above: black-green vines, shrubs, and exposed, gnarled roots clung tightly to the ground, breaking through stone pavement. Most cars were covered in murky purple moss, reduced to heaps. Only half-melted tires or the occasional shattered headlight hinted at their original forms.

"Don't touch anything alive," Mrs. Manas said. "Some of the leaves earlier... they sucked at your [Defense Forcefield]."

"What do you mean, sucked at it?"

"Like a vacuum cleaner. The leaves pulled away small pieces of your shield. Given enough time, they could slurp it all away."

This made her situation even more challenging.

The air was thick with humidity. A greasy sheen, like dirty engine oil, covered the plants, ground, and garbage heaps. It was getting harder to find clear ground to step on, and the smog's resistance pressed in from every direction. When Lin Sanjiu slowed, she clearly saw a reflective purple line slithering across a leaf the size of a human head, crisscrossed with pulsing veins.

"Who's there?" a voice called out faintly from the swirling black wisps. "We're from the Cloudwalk Heights Currency Affairs Bureau, here to collect materials for Fog Orbs. Identify yourself immediately to avoid misunderstandings!"

Though the words were urgent, the tone was weak and sluggish, like an actor halfheartedly delivering lines. Lin Sanjiu trudged forward, her steps uneven, while the voice continued from the depths of the smog, "Old Ding, we only need to collect one kilogram of this black dust each. Aren't you taking too much?"

If you listened closely, the words were slurred, as though the speaker's tongue wasn't moving properly.

"Why be so inflexible? Collect a little extra as backup, so we don't have to come back. Even if we don't use it, what's the harm in keeping it?" The same voice switched tone, answering itself.

The black-dust-filled Fog Orbs were the highest-value currency in Cloudwalk Heights. Now Lin Sanjiu understood; they needed to send people down to the ground to collect it. Sweeping the ground with an iron rod, she took another step, sighing for the workers of this collection team. They must have run into trouble here.

1

Was it duoluozhong?

Lin Sanjiu sent out a vortex of air, clearing a patch of smog in front of her. Through the thinning mist, a long, crumbling dark-red brick wall came into view. The sidewalk was long gone. There were no signs of life, not even the invasive vegetation that covered most of the ground. Only the bare brick wall stood on the blackened earth.

But what was that on the brick wall?

Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes and sent out another vortex just as the smog threatened to close in. The vortex was noticeably weaker here, deep in the smog layer, since even the air was saturated with weight, requiring constant replenishment.

There was nothing on the brick wall. Meaning, aside from the dirty, faded, and cracked red bricks, nothing else was there.

She stared blankly at the brick wall, suddenly realizing why the supposedly prepared work team had run into trouble here.

The twisted black cracks on the wall clearly formed a human figure in mid-step, head tilted back, one arm raised, and one leg forward. If you looked closely, you could even tell it was a woman's figure.

Looking closer still, the woman's eye—a chipped, dirty patch on the brick—lay flatly at the edge of the cracked face, staring directly at Lin Sanjiu.

Her gaze swept along the wall. The black cracks and fractures naturally formed figure after figure, all identical women wearing the same clothing.

Like figures on Egyptian murals or frames in a comic strip, each thin, flat figure made of cracks was in a different pose, stiff and absurd. Yet the progression was clear: step by step, the figures on the wall were walking alongside Lin Sanjiu.

The figure closest to her had its mouth closed and one arm raised. The next figure ahead had its mouth open. Lin Sanjiu realized that when she moved forward, she would likely hear the figure repeat the conversation with the work team.

What... was this? A wall? A creature? A duoluozhong? A ghost?

"Stop looking," Mrs. Manas's voice suddenly grew urgent. "Staring at those cracks too long might do something to you. We still don't know why these cracked figures can speak."

Lin Sanjiu quickly lowered her gaze. After a moment's thought, she swung her arm and hurled the iron rod toward the figure on the wall. The rod whistled through the thinning smog and struck the figure's arm with a resounding "clang." A long new crack split the wall from the figure's head down the middle, dividing it in two.

It seemed effective, but Lin Sanjiu herself was stunned. She hadn't expected to actually crack the wall. Maybe her assumption was wrong. The problem wasn't with the bricks?

"Let's go," Mrs. Manas said. "At least the cracks can't leave the wall."

That made sense. Lin Sanjiu let the smog close in again, covering the brick wall from her view, though she still felt those cracked figures could see her. The hairs on the back of her neck finally settled down. She turned halfway around, peering into the thick smog, but didn't move.

"Mrs. Manas," she said, "my direction was this way, right? When I turned to look at the wall, I made sure to note it. I only pivoted my right foot ninety degrees..."

In the silence of her mind, Lin Sanjiu's stomach tightened further. She continued in a dry voice, "I just want to double-check. Getting lost in this fog would be disastrous."

"Yes, that's correct," a thin voice whispered deep in her mind, the same voice that had been mimicking Mrs. Manas all along. "This is the right direction. Hurry up and go."

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