Doomsday Wonderland

When Ye De sluggishly lifted his head, he felt something cool and wet sliding down the corner of his eye. He brought the cup to his lips and gulped down two large mouthfuls of coffee. Finally, the sunlight from the entrance of Lane 97's orphanage faded from his shoulders.

Deep down, he knew he wasn't the kind of person others found naturally likable.

For Ye De, the world was divided into two parts: the orphanage and everything outside of it.

In the other part of the world, there was no Ye Jing. It was filled with chaotic indifference and malice, and no one cared about him just because he was Ah De. Outside, whether you were 'Ah De,' 'Xiao Peng,' or 'Lan Tian,' you stopped being special. To survive, you had to be cautious, speak little, and avoid drawing attention. This was a lesson Ye De had learned from the moment he could remember.

The reason he had become such a cheerful, interesting, and well-liked radio host was that he never truly was himself on the air. He knew people might not like the real him, so he instinctively created a persona for the broadcasts. The more he thought about it, the more it felt like he was imitating Ye Jing. Over time, whenever he was around others, he unconsciously wore that persona.

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Sometimes, when faced with new situations, he could feel the gaps where the persona didn't quite fit, like a sleeve that was too short. But he stubbornly stuck with it because he didn't know any other way. Ye De feared that someone would see through him, call him fake, and accuse him of acting.

It seemed he really was badly hurt. His thoughts kept drifting to pointless things.

Ye De shook his head and closed his eyes, focusing on the flow of information coming from the silver head. He saw the words spoken by the ordinary people.

"It's really quiet around here."

Their conversation was similar to before. It seemed Lin Sanjiu still hadn't made any progress.

A few minutes earlier, Lin Sanjiu had joined the two ordinary people and started walking with them. He didn't know how she'd managed it, but the other two seemed to believe she was just another ordinary person. They didn't hold back when cursing posthumans. As Ye De listened for a while, he realized they were clueless about Chimeric City's situation. His frustration grew.

A single silver head couldn't cover all of Chimeric City. Ye De had "piloted" it back and forth over the city many times. Chimeric City was like a huge pile of overlapping bed sheets, filled with countless nooks and crannies where people could hide. The city wasn't completely silent, but compared to before, the conversations and signals felt sparse, like the dwindling hum of cicadas in late autumn.

Aside from Lin Sanjiu, no one else seemed to realize that nearly half the city's ordinary people had quietly vanished.

There was no point in endlessly combing through the information flow. Ultimately, he needed to go into the city himself to see what was happening. After all, nothing in the world was infallible, least of all an evolved ability. And what if the events unfolding in Chimeric City couldn't be seen through signals?

Lin Sanjiu couldn't uncover everything by herself. She was currently traveling with ordinary people, making it inconvenient to communicate with him. Sitting here doing nothing was a waste of time. It was unacceptable.

But given his condition, if he walked into the city, could he make it back out?

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Ye De stared at the coffee and assessed his energy levels, trying to stretch out the effects for as long as possible. He calculated how far he could go before needing to turn back and how fast he had to move to return to the ship before passing out. He couldn't risk collapsing in the dark, empty city, nor did he want to call Lin Sanjiu for help and disrupt her investigation.

He carefully stepped out of the ship, testing his strength. Apart from feeling slow and a bit breathless, he seemed okay.

Walking drained his energy quickly, but he resisted drinking more coffee. When he couldn't stand it anymore, he sat by the roadside to rest. The pain wasn't the real issue; he had a high pain tolerance. The weakness and dizziness from blood loss were more troublesome.

Perhaps because his mind was still foggy from the walk, it wasn't until Ye De had entered the twenty-fifth lane that he realized something was missing.

Where were all the corpses?

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To prevent contamination and outbreaks, anyone who died in Chimeric City would typically have their body moved to the outskirts of the city. This time, after the onslaught of the mutated humans, there had been dozens of bodies piled near the well-ventilated city entrance, waiting to be dealt with later.

Ye De thought carefully; there really weren't any bodies. The entire heap had vanished.

This was too strange. He exhaled anxiously, deciding to investigate more closely on his way back. He leaned against the wall, listening for a moment in the dimly lit lane, and then slowly moved towards the quietest area.

Since Lin Sanjiu was searching based on sounds and signals, he'd try the opposite approach: starting with the empty, silent places.

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His silver head could capture clear and complete information flows, but it couldn't pick up every tiny sound; otherwise, he'd be overwhelmed. For example, there was a faint noise ahead, like someone's shoulder brushing against something. It was so quiet it was almost imperceptible and wouldn't have registered through his silver head.

Ye De's heart pounded.

"Who's there?" he asked, his voice hoarse. He cleared his throat and tried to sound steady. "It's me, Eight-Heads De. Who are you?"

He wasn't even sure there was someone up ahead. What if he'd stumbled upon those elusive duoluozhongs? The thought hadn't occurred to him until just now.

Thankfully, after a moment, a trembling girl's voice answered from the darkness. "E-Eight-Heads De?" she whimpered. "Didn't you leave with the other posthumans?"

Her voice grew quieter, as if halfway through she remembered she shouldn't be speaking.

Was there danger nearby?

Squinting in the pale light filtering through a window, Ye De examined the scene. The lane ahead was in shambles. All the cubicles, small rooms, tents, and drapes had been smashed to pieces. Furniture, stoves, and tools were scattered haphazardly, blocking the path. Items that were usually well-kept—like soil, water bottles, and fabric—were now strewn about like garbage, barely recognizable.

This place had clearly been hit by mutated humans, but for now, it seemed safe assuming the girl wasn't a threat.

"I didn't leave. Of course, I wouldn't leave," Ye De said reassuringly. "Why are you here alone? Where are the others?"

A bundle of blanket-like fabric in the corner stirred slightly, revealing half a head and a pair of tear-filled eyes. "I don't know... Please, keep your voice down. I'm scared..." she whispered. "Something doesn't feel right..."

"Don't be afraid. I'm a posthuman, after all." Ye De tried to reassure her. "Tell me, what have you seen?"

She hesitated for a moment before wriggling out from under the blankets. For a brief second, Ye De worried her lower half might not be human. But when she stood up, she was whole and normal, just a frightened girl who seemed to be around the same age as the kids who'd just left the orphanage.

She looked vaguely familiar; he must have seen her before. Not surprising, since as a local figure in Chimeric City, he saw countless faces every day. Everyone seemed a little familiar.

"I didn't really run into anything... special." Her voice was still hushed, and as she spoke, she glanced back into the depths of the lane. "Can you take me out of here? I'm a little scared to go alone... Can we just sit outside the city?"

"What's wrong with this place?" Ye De asked. "It doesn't matter if it wasn't special; just tell me what happened."

The girl nodded in confusion, then suddenly froze. "Are you hurt?" she whispered. "When you talk, it sounds like..."

"It's just a small injury," Ye De said, trying to keep her focused on the important matter, his voice as calm and steady as possible. "What happened here? Why do you want to leave the city?"

But the fact that he was injured seemed to affect the girl more than he'd anticipated. The panic she had barely suppressed bubbled up again, now mixed with urgency. She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him away. "You're hurt! Why did you come in here? It's dangerous. We need to leave now!"

"What's going on?" Even injured, Ye De was too heavy for her to move when he stood still.

Her fear and anxiety made it hard for her to speak clearly, but eventually, she got the words out.

"I was hiding in Lane 160... When the posthumans left, they made such a loud noise—boom, boom—it scared me so much. I thought it was more mutated humans... Lots of people woke up, nobody knew what was happening. People were crying, running everywhere, it was chaos... I-I lost my brother. After that, I didn't see anyone else. I've been alone ever since."

So at least when the posthumans left, the ordinary people hadn't disappeared completely yet. Maybe, by sheer luck, the fact that this girl got separated kept her from disappearing too.

"Don't be afraid." Ye De patted her shoulder, wincing from the pain. He imagined Ye Jing standing in his place, using the same reassuring tone. "Most of the time, people just scare themselves. I'm here now. Come on, let's find your brother."

"No, I want to leave the city." She hesitated, then added, "I-I'll wait for my brother outside the city."

"But I can't leave just yet," Ye De began but suddenly stopped, his gaze fixed on the darkened lane. He listened carefully.

From the sound of it, someone was approaching. Using his silver head, he quickly "saw" someone repeatedly calling out, "Anna, Anna? Where are you?"

"Your name is Anna?" Ye De asked the girl.

"How did you know?" she asked, bewildered.

Their voices carried down the lane, reaching the person who was approaching. The footsteps quickened, and moments later, a young man appeared in their line of sight. Anna turned to the sound, her words forgotten.

"Anna, thank goodness." The young man rushed over. His face was partially covered by a blood-stained cloth wrapped around one eye. "Where did you go? I've been looking for you everywhere! Who's this... huh? Eight-Heads De?"

Ye De exhaled deeply. The worry that he might encounter a duoluozhong finally eased. "So, it's you!"

He leaned against the wall and slowly walked over to the young man, the same one who had injured his eye during his mutation and helped Ye De once before. "I was about to investigate what's going on in the city, but I'm not in great shape right now... Now that I've found you, I'm relieved. How about it, want to come with me?"

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