Doomsday Wonderland

The ripple ball exploded mid-air.

From the moment Ye De felt the tightness in his chest release and was swept away by the blast's shockwave to the moment he hit the ground, it seemed both instantaneous and agonizingly long. In the blink of an eye, it was over. But in his mind, he had enough time to second-guess himself over and over again.

'Did I just do something incredibly stupid?' He got up, spat out the blood in his mouth, and glanced back.

The next second, he bolted toward the city wall as if his life depended on it.

The open platform was barely visible anymore.

Just like the severed arm of that middle-aged woman, disconnected mutant limbs didn't proliferate. But from the remaining arm still connected to Anton, an endless cascade of arms erupted—tearing, bursting, and spraying outward in layer after layer, wave after wave.

Countless arms and hands writhed and thrashed, flooding the platform in the blink of an eye. It was as if the explosion had enraged them, and their relentless proliferation continued without end. The speed and volume far exceeded what the middle-aged woman had produced when her arm had simply been severed.

In Ye De's plan, he was supposed to run for the city wall the moment he hit the ground, escaping the platform before the spreading mutant limbs could reach him. He wasn't planning to go down with the mutant.

And that was exactly what he was doing—only the ground between him and the city wall was being consumed by the ever-expanding mutant limbs, like a rising tide swallowing a tiny reef. It seemed the platform could vanish at any moment.

Anton, standing not far from the city wall, laughed so hard he could barely breathe, as if watching a comedy unfold. "What the hell are you even doing? Afraid you're not dying fast enough? Not finding enough creative ways to die? You've struggled so much, and for what?"

As Ye De remained silent, desperately racing against the advancing limbs, Anton continued in a leisurely tone. "You look like a headless fly. Honestly, I almost feel bad for you. I'm curious now, what's your big plan? That little bomb of yours just created more of me. Don't tell me you—"

His voice cut off abruptly, just as the ground beneath Ye De gave a sudden lurch.

It was as if the earth itself decided it was done supporting him. The ground shifted slightly backward, and his next step found only air. A deep, rumbling noise awakened beneath him, and as he fell to the ground, he felt the platform beneath him finally give way, sliding out of place with a violent tremor.

Ye De's plan had worked, though not exactly as he had intended. He hadn't managed to escape in time.

"W-what's happening?" Anton stammered, quickly realizing what was going on. "The platform's collapsing?"

In just a few words, the entire platform disintegrated. Dust and debris filled the air, mingling with countless arms flailing into the sky. The chaos of falling limbs, swirling dust, and the weightless sensation blurred Ye De's vision.

As he plummeted, he saw one last clear image: a waterfall of arms cascading from the collapsing platform, dragging Anton down with them.

1

'That's right. The platform collapsed,' Ye De thought with a sense of grim satisfaction.

The ripple ball's shockwave had only shaken the platform. What truly caused its collapse was the sheer, unimaginable weight of the endless arms erupting from Anton.

Even the mutant seemed to have forgotten that his mutated limbs had mass. This platform, which had once buckled under the weight of half a house, could never support the mountain-like torrent of proliferating limbs.

Anton had unleashed the torrent from a single arm. Even as he stretched out his other arm to grab the city wall above, nothing he grasped could hold that overwhelming weight.

This was precisely why Ye De had aimed to sever one of Anton's arms: to exploit the uncontrollable weight of the mutant's multiplying limbs. He wanted those limbs to become an anchor too heavy for Anton to bear, dragging him down through the void beneath the platform, into the smog layer below, and finally into the earth buried beneath the haze.

1

What he hadn't expected was that he'd end up falling along with him.

Still, perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Anton's piercing scream cut through the heavy rumble of the collapsing platform. Amidst the falling debris, pulverized dust, and turbulent air, as Ye De plummeted downward, he noticed the massive, writhing mass of flesh-colored limbs below shrinking rapidly. The mutant's other arm was stretching upward at an alarming speed, reaching for the city wall that was growing farther and farther away. řἈNՕᛒΕＳ

'Quick reflexes,' Ye De thought. He realized right away to retract his mutated limbs.

'Wait, is my heart still beating?' he wondered. For someone who had never experienced such abject terror, it was strange to also feel an eerie calm. In this profound stillness, he could feel his hand deftly retrieving another ripple ball. His movements were steady, almost as if he were standing safely on solid ground.

With precision, Ye De hurled the ripple ball at the still-shrinking mass of limbs below.

"You son of a—!" Anton's shriek was drowned out by the deafening explosion.

Ye De thought he heard himself chuckle softly, though it could've been an illusion born of his rapid descent.

After the explosion, everything returned to the way it had been moments earlier: severed mutant limbs inevitably burst into more limbs, and the sheer weight dragged Anton down. No matter how quickly he tried to retract his limbs, Ye De's speed at tossing ripple balls was faster. And Ye De had no intention of giving him another chance. One after another, the ripple balls struck the serpent-like mass of arms.

But Ye De never got to see the full effects of the ripple balls.

Falling from such a height, the journey to the bottom of the cliff was no more than a blink.

Dazed and disoriented, Ye De suddenly felt someone grab his arm, pulling him upright and propping him into a sitting position. The grip was firm yet gentle, as though afraid of bruising him. Turning his head, he saw those familiar, bright eyes once again.

"Ye Jing," he heard himself say.

Though he was now a grown man, his voice carried the faint tremble of a child about to cry.

"Sit up," Ye Jing said gently, as if she were still speaking to the four-year-old version of him. She slipped her hand under his armpit, effortlessly adjusting him until he was leaning against a soft pillow. She studied his face carefully for a moment, then brushed his hair back before sitting down again. Smiling, she asked, "How old are you now?"

"Thirty-four," he replied, swallowing his emotions like a child.

3

Ye De didn't understand why he could only sit there, propped against the pillow. He wanted to crawl over to her, back into her arms, even if it meant hearing her complain, "You're too warm, kid." He knew he'd be able to fall asleep peacefully if he could just do that. But Ye Jing sat half a meter away, always just out of reach, as though separated by an invisible barrier.

1

Ye Jing nodded. "All grown up. So many years have passed... You survived that day, didn't you?"

Her question lodged in his throat, rendering him unable to speak.

For years, Ye De had avoided thinking about what happened after that day—after the moment he crouched by Ye Jing's chair, asking her softly if she wanted to evolve.

He wished he could go back to that afternoon, before bringing out the smog water. He longed to sit quietly by her side, resting against her legs, and spend just a little more time basking in the sun together. He thought of all the afternoons he didn't spend with her, for one reason or another, afternoons that would never come back.

1

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I regret it. But I don't regret it, either. If I could go back in time, if I could do it all over again, I'd still collect the smog water. I'd still bring it to you and ask if you wanted to evolve. I just wish I could give you your life back."

"I know," Ye Jing said, looking at him the way she always had, smiling warmly. "I've always known. And I'm very happy."

She paused, tilting her head slightly as if searching for her next words. In that moment, time seemed to infuse her skin with life again. "I never thought I'd live my life this way. I never expected to be rewarded in this form... but I'm content."

"No... this is my fault," Ye De said again. He reached out toward Ye Jing, but she remained still, showing no intention of taking his hand. "I didn't know... I didn't realize that during the process of collecting it, I had already been infected."

Ye Jing continued to look at him with the same gentle expression.

"If I could do it all over again, I'd stay far, far away."

Ye De thought he would cry, but perhaps because everything was finally at an end, and he had reunited with Ye Jing, there was no longer anything left to grieve. He spoke in a soft, reflective tone, "I imagined it so many times in my mind. After giving you the smog water, I'd immediately leave Chimeric City and never come back unless you successfully evolved. That way, you'd never know I'd been infected...

"Being infected wasn't even that scary. I was just an ordinary person, with no Potential Growth Value, unable to withstand the smog. So, I wouldn't evolve, I wouldn't become a duoluozhong. I'd simply get sick and die, like countless others do every day. My death wouldn't mean anything to anyone." He stared at his fingers. "How did you know I was sick back then? Even I didn't realize it. I thought I was just overworked those days."

"I raised you, bit by bit," Ye Jing replied with a smile. "How could I not notice?"

"But I wasn't afraid," he argued, almost defensively. "My only wish was for you to evolve, to truly live for yourself. My life was given to me by you. I was willing to use it to do something for you.

"And yet, in the end, I didn't accomplish anything for you," he said with a bitter smile. "Not only that, but you gave me your life in return. You handed over your Potential Growth Value, just so an ordinary child like me could survive."

Ye Jing rolled her eyes in mock exasperation, just as she had years ago when she heard something she didn't like.

"I don't even know what you went through, how much you endured, or where you found the new doomsday element that allowed you to transfer your Potential Growth Value to me," Ye De continued. He longed to hold her hand, but Ye Jing remained motionless. "I just lay in bed, dazed and helpless, while you ran yourself ragged to save me. If I'd known back then that saving me would cost you your Potential Growth Value, and that losing it would mean..."

"That's all in the past," Ye Jing interrupted softly. "What about now? Do you have anything you're satisfied with? Any regrets?"

Ye De thought carefully for a moment.

"I saved Anna," he said suddenly, a hint of childlike pride rising in his voice. "She's safe now. You'd be happy to know that, wouldn't you?"

Ye Jing smiled. "I am very happy."

"When I see the middle-aged people in the city, I think they might have shared a drink with you once. When I see the elderly, I think they might have fed you at some point. Most importantly, the children you raised grew up and had children of their own. Every young person I see might be alive because of you, breathing because of you..." Ye De looked at her. "I know they're not biologically related to you, but somehow, it feels like you're still here. Your life continues through theirs. I've done my best to protect them. I really have.

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"As for regrets... I failed Lin Sanjiu. I promised her I'd send out the missing person notice for her afterward, but now it seems I won't keep that promise. The person she's looking for seems very important to her... and that's my regret."

"Is that so?" Ye Jing tilted her head slightly. "Are you truly about to break that promise?"

Ye De looked at her in confusion, unsure of what she meant.

"Think again," Ye Jing said, pointing at his hands. "You've always been so stubborn, pushing forward no matter what. Just when I think you're about to crash into a dead end, you always find a way out at the very last moment."

At some point, he realized his hands were red and pale, veins bulging as if he were exerting all his strength.

"No," Ye De said in shock, raising his head. "I—I want to stay—"

"When that day comes, I'll be here waiting for you," Ye Jing said with a smile. "I promise I won't go far."

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