Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu paused halfway, casting a glance back toward where her flying vehicle was parked.

The iron-gray triangular vehicle, with its sleek lines and muted sheen, looked like it was starting to sweat cold beads while sitting among the heap of battered, haphazard contraptions. A luxury vehicle in a slum always seemed precarious, on the verge of being stripped for parts.

Although it was called a landing pad, the conditions were worlds apart from those in the CBD district. The ground was a packed-down patch of dirt trampled by vehicles and feet. Forget a cemented surface; there weren't even painted lines marking the areas. A few damp clothes swayed lightly on a drying line, brushing against a canoe-shaped flying craft below.

The parking fee was paid in advance, and the old man collecting it was a regular human who didn't worry about vehicle owners fleeing. His security measure involved chaining the newcomer's vehicle to the one in front and adding a padlock. From a distance, the line of assorted crafts looked like prisoners shackled together by an endless chain.

"Hope it's still here when I get back," Lin Sanjiu muttered.

As long as she could get the message out and draw the grand prize and Yu Yuan back to her, she'd take risks ten times greater than this. That child had been scared, struggled, and suffered, but he'd never turned her away—until three days ago.

1

She couldn't imagine what Ji Shanqing was going through now.

She even thought of using Ah Quan's pocket dimension on him, erasing his memory of the incident. Not just to ease his pain, but to bury her own guilt. The thought that she had pushed the two of them off the ship with her own hands made Lin Sanjiu wish she could be anyone but herself.

The Beacon-Wolf Signal advertisement wasn't far, standing alone in a patch of muddy ground pocked with water puddles. Below the bold characters of "Beacon-Wolf Signal" was a smaller line of text: "Welcome to Chimeric City! New Beacon-Wolf Signal Registration Office. Huge Discounts, Lifelong Benefits. Please proceed to Wall 143, Level 5."

"Chimeric City?" Lin Sanjiu muttered beneath the sign. "Sounds a lot richer than the place looks."

The problem was, even though she knew the destination, she had no idea how to get there. She raised her eyes to the maze of overgrown, randomly arranged walls. Forget Wall 143; she couldn't even distinguish the third one.

"Heading to Beacon-Wolf Signal?" a voice called out nearby. She turned and saw a scrawny boy, still in his teens, looking scruffy and small, only reaching her chest in height.

Despite facing a posthuman, he showed no fear, his tone brisk and confident as he tried to hustle her. "I know the place well. I'll take you there. You're new to Cloudwalk Heights, right? I knew it. You don't look local... Tell you what, let's be friends. I'll give you a discount, fifty mist balls."

Lin Sanjiu squinted at him for a moment.

"No lower than that," the boy said seriously. "It's far, and guiding you takes time."

"You saw my flying vehicle, didn't you?"

"Huh? No way," the boy's narrow eyes widened in mock surprise. "What does your vehicle have to do with anything? Forty-five, alright? I have a family to feed."

"Does my head look bigger than average?" Lin Sanjiu laughed, pointing toward a wall entrance in the distance. "I think I can ask for directions as I go. Hassle? I don't mind hassle. Goodbye."

"Three," the boy instantly changed tack.

"Deal." Lin Sanjiu halted, sealing the bargain without hesitation. "Ever succeeded with those outrageous prices?"

"No, but I have to try. What if it works?"

Failing to hustle her didn't seem to bother the boy at all. He waved at her and turned to walk ahead. When they reached the outermost wall of the first ring, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but pause, raising her head to take in the sight of Chimeric City.

She struggled to find the right words to describe it.

Clusters of uneven walls rose like a forest, standing atop hills that gradually ascended into the sky. High above, people glided along on pulleys attached to suspension ropes and cables, their hands gripping tightly. Others balanced on narrow ledges, leaping and squeezing through gaps and windows. Shouts, steam from cooking, and the laughter of children bubbled faintly behind the many layers of thick walls.

Bricks, glass, wood, cloth, and straw all came together to form Chimeric City. It was both shabby and grand, a chaotic structure where ingenuity, born from the struggle to survive, infused the city with freedom, disorder, and vitality despite its poverty.

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" the boy said, tilting his head back with a grin. "I know Chimeric City is poor, the conditions aren't great, but I'd still choose to live here my whole life."

1

The sunlight caught on his dirty hair, and for a moment, Lin Sanjiu felt a strange sense of disorientation.

It had been a decade since she'd heard such a simple statement. Only ordinary people, those somehow spared the full wrath of doomsday, could casually tie their future to a single place. For her and her friends, no matter how powerful they were, it felt like they were just ants, helplessly scattered by a flood. ⱤÅ𐌽ȮΒÊṩ

"Oh, by the way," the boy interrupted her thoughts, turning around, "my name's Kra."

"As in the sound a frog makes, croak?"

"No, as in the crow's caw!"

Lin Sanjiu scratched her face and followed Kra into the first wall's entrance.

A cool, dim breeze carrying faint traces of metal, sweat, and food hit them. The passageway was surprisingly wide, at least seven or eight meters across. The light from the entrance faded quickly, sighing its way into the shadows, only to revive at the next skylight.

"Follow me," Kra said. "It's too exposed here, so no one lives in this part."

Gray plastic barrels, horizontal scaffolding, and bags of sand lined both sides of the passage, leaving a narrow path just wide enough for two people. It seemed the organization maintaining Chimeric City stored construction materials here, either because they weren't afraid of theft or because the items weren't worth stealing.

"Live?" Lin Sanjiu glanced around. "Where do they live?"

Wasn't this just a passageway?

"They store stuff here because no one lives in this section," Kra explained, pointing to the piles. "Just keep walking. The living areas are on both sides, and the middle is left as a walkway."

Lin Sanjiu swallowed the question about privacy.

Though she knew logically they were heading uphill, winding through the dark, deserted pathways and twisting walls felt like navigating an underground maze. Then, they rounded a corner, and a sudden burst of human voices and the warmth of daily life greeted them, snapping Lin Sanjiu out of her daze.

The distant, muffled hum of the city unfolded through the dark passage, brushing gently against Lin Sanjiu's senses, like a soft invitation.

"Dang dang." Kra raised his hand. "Welcome to Chimeric City!"

A child shrieked with laughter, running along a distant walkway. Above, someone leaned out of a skylight and shouted in an unknown language. A hand appeared, holding out a bundle, which bobbed along as it was passed from one person to another, from both ordinary people and posthumans, until it reached the intended recipient. "Thanks!" the person called out and vanished back through the skylight.

In a corner, a young mother sat on a blanket. Judging from the various utensils and items around her, the street corner was clearly her home. She was an ordinary human, but the baby in her arms seemed to have an evolved ability. Lin Sanjiu glanced at them discreetly, unsure how to process the sight or how long the two might still have together.

As she brushed past a woman pushing a cart, Lin Sanjiu noticed the cart was filled with soil and sprouting various types of unfamiliar green seedlings. The woman stopped under a skylight's sunlight, hands on her hips, standing guard like a mother bear protecting her cubs.

"She grows vegetables," Kra explained as they walked past. "You can't grow them in open spaces here. Not only are they far away, but if you turn your back for a second, they might get stolen. Most people just keep their plants with them."

"Can a single cart grow enough?" Lin Sanjiu asked. "That wouldn't last more than a few days."

"They're high-yield seedlings developed by posthumans," Kra replied confidently, clearly unsure about the specifics. "They use their powers, and the seedlings just whoosh and grow like crazy."

Lin Sanjiu had so many things to say that she found herself speechless. She chose to silently accept the explanation about "power-grown vegetables."

Reaching Wall 143 turned out to be just as long a journey as it sounded.

Though anxious to send out her message, Lin Sanjiu had to match Kra's slower pace. As they walked, she got a thorough tour of Chimeric City. She'd thought Bee Sting's living conditions were rough, but Chimeric City's residents lived along the roadsides. Some raised tents, others built bamboo walls, and some constructed little rooms out of mud, stone, and brick—if a mouse cage could count as a room.

Peddlers, craftsmen, and countless other tradespeople, both ordinary humans and posthumans, were crammed among the homes. The central walkway often disappeared into the bustling crowds or the encroaching living spaces. She and Kra weaved through the high walls, sometimes forced to crawl through wall openings when they hit dead ends.

Lin Sanjiu felt that her three fog spheres were well spent.

After an endless series of turns, alleyways, and wall-jumping, the path suddenly opened up. Stretching out from an old city wall, she finally saw the words "Beacon-Wolf Signal" in bold characters.

And standing at the entrance, peeking around suspiciously from behind his sunglasses, was Eight-Heads De.

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