Doomsday Wonderland

It was like two people speaking at the same time, realizing they were both talking, and then falling silent together. In her shock, Lin Sanjiu waited a few seconds, but the small white box stayed silent. She quickly sent, "Where are you?"—and almost immediately, Eight-Heads De's second message came through.

"Why is it always like this..." In just a few seconds, his breathing had become ragged, as if sending a message while running was already pushing him to his limit. "I'm trying to get to you as fast as I can, but I don't know if I can shake—"

The message cut off abruptly.

"Damn, did he die?" Dreadlocks, panic-stricken, paced back and forth. "I thought Eight-Heads De was behind the whole ordinary-people-mutating thing. Now it seems way more complicated... Even if he's alive now, what if something happens on his way here? Are we just going to starve to death trapped here?"

Lin Sanjiu didn't respond. She waited a little longer, but no further messages came through from Eight-Heads De.

The situation was far graver than she had anticipated. Whether Eight-Heads De was still alive or not, whether he could reach her before being killed, the odds were bleak. Even if he made it, he'd likely be overtaken by his pursuers the moment he paused; she might end up watching him die right in front of her, still trapped and powerless to help.

She had to assume that Eight-Heads De was on his way but couldn't place all her hopes on his arrival. She needed to act now.

"At least he knows your guard post location," she said, crouching down and switching on her flashlight. She began carefully examining the bricks on the ground.

"Eight-Heads De and Hagrid arranged me here. What are you doing?"

"Help me look," Lin Sanjiu said. "I've been trapped by spatial items before. I don't know much about them, but from my experience, the item and the dimensional space it creates are inseparable. They're connected, like a door standing there. We must have crossed that door unknowingly."

Dreadlocks took a moment to process this, then his eyes widened. "Wait, are you saying whoever set the trap left the item here? If we find it, we can..."

Of course, even if the item was left in place, it was in the real world, just out of their reach—but Lin Sanjiu didn't mention this. Dreadlocks seemed motivated, scouring the ground like a drug-sniffing dog.

"We're in a corridor that must have a point where it connects to the real world," she said, scanning the bricks and the dark soil between them. "That connection point should also be where the item is. We might not see the item itself from inside, but there must be clues."

"How do we find it?" Dreadlocks asked. "All I see are bricks, dirt, dust, and weeds. There's nothing unusual here."

"Keep looking. There must be a trace we haven't noticed yet."

Lin Sanjiu's flashlight beam swept over the fallen chair, but she found nothing. She couldn't let her anxiety show; she had to be the anchor holding them steady.

This section of the corridor was paved with crooked, cracked tiles, the gaps filled with dark soil. No matter how she examined it, nothing seemed out of place. Everything was the same ordinary Chimeric City corridor she was familiar with.

"Whoever set the trap must be loaded, leaving something so valuable behind," Dreadlocks muttered. "If they're also behind the mutations, their wallet must be bottomless. All these bizarre, rare effects... That'd cost— What are you looking at me like that for?"

Sometimes, the simplest, most obvious facts were the easiest to overlook. Lin Sanjiu stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly stretched out her arm and slapped his shoulder. "You're right! You're brilliant!"

"Are you mocking me?" Dreadlocks asked nervously.

"The one behind the mutations can't be Eight-Heads De," Lin Sanjiu continued, ignoring him as she checked the floor and walls again. "For the exact reason you said—he can't afford it. Even hiring people for patrols was a struggle for him."

When they first met on Transport Ship No. 26, Eight-Heads De had been desperate enough to help her con a pilot for a small fee. They had been strangers then. If he wasn't truly broke, he wouldn't have volunteered for that hassle.

Someone with such limited resources, who rarely left the Twelve Worlds Centrum, couldn't possibly afford "all these bizarre, rare effects."

Dreadlocks thought for a moment. "If you put it that way... Yeah, Eight-Heads De really doesn't have much money. But if he's not behind the mutations, why does he keep acting so suspicious?"

Only Eight-Heads De could answer this question.

If he could make it to them alive—and then set them free.

Lin Sanjiu pushed down the anxiety rising once again in her chest. She'd lost count of how many times she'd searched the tiles, the walls, and the ceiling without finding a single clue.

Even if they found the item, there was no guarantee Eight-Heads De could successfully retrieve it once he arrived. After all, wasn't Pete still trapped in the glass aboard her ship?

"No matter what, we need to find it first," Dreadlocks said. His interest in the item itself seemed even greater than his desire to escape, likely because he figured that no matter who was behind this or what conflicts arose, a small fry like him wouldn't be the primary target. "If we find it, at least Eight-Heads De can give it a try. If not, we'll just have to watch him get killed."

"These tiles remind me of the red brick walls beneath the smog layer." Lin Sanjiu sighed, sweeping her flashlight across the ground again as she briefly explained. "The cracks in those red brick walls formed different human shapes. The longer you looked, the more you'd unconsciously start mimicking those shapes... I managed to escape, but I still don't understand what they were."

Dreadlocks' mouth formed an "O." "No way? You've been under the smog layer?"

"Yeah... I was terrified in the smog layer. Now when I see cracks, I can't help but look for shapes of faces and bodies." Lin Sanjiu pointed to a tile a few steps away. "See that crack? At first glance, it's just a diagonal line, but if you combine it with the crack on the next tile, doesn't it look like an eye?"

"Oh yeah, it even has a dent that looks like a pupil." Dreadlocks stared at it for a few seconds, then noticed Lin Sanjiu's expression had shifted. "What is it? Did you find something?"

Lin Sanjiu's flashlight lingered on the eye and then slowly moved toward the tile near her toes.

"I think," she said, her voice trembling slightly with excitement, "I've found the connection point."

A few steps away, two tiles' cracks combined to form a human eye at a 45-degree angle. Near her feet, another tile had half an eye—the angle, length, and position of the crack perfectly matched the upper half of the distant eye. But the lower half, which should contain the pupil, was missing, replaced by a completely unfamiliar tile.

"I understand now," she murmured. "I know how this item works."

"What? What do you mean?" Dreadlocks still didn't get it.

In the real world, this corridor could be divided into three segments: A—B—C. Dreadlocks' chair was at point A, the starting point in the real world. Point B was where the trap had been set, the middle point. After crossing B, C was the dimensional space created by the item.

"The space the item creates looks exactly like the original corridor, so we entered without suspicion, right?" Lin Sanjiu explained quickly. "That means the item copied a section of the real corridor. Which section? Naturally, from B to C."

Dreadlocks blinked. "And so...?"

"Then, it had to attach the copied B—C segment to the end of A—B. So what do you get?" Lin Sanjiu asked, her excitement mounting.

Dreadlocks stared at the floor, processing her words. Finally, he got it. "I know!"

If A—B stayed the same and B—C was added, the sequence became A—B—B—C.

"There are two B points!" He stretched his neck forward, eyes fixed on the distant eye. "The upper half of the eye appears twice. That means it's at the first B point, the door to this space."

From inside the space, the floor looked completely normal.

"Incredible. What a remarkable item. I didn't feel a thing when I stepped over it..." Dreadlocks muttered in awe.

While he marveled, Lin Sanjiu took out her white box again.

"Eight-Heads De," she said, eyes fixed on the human eye, "if you can hear me, hold on no matter what. If you can make it to me, I have a way to stop your pursuer... and trap them in here."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!