Doomsday Wonderland

The answer was simple: when you don't know what to do, don't do anything.

1

Lin Sanjiu thought to herself that, in some ways, she could be quite reckless.

It was impossible for anyone to remain on high alert 24/7. Still, she was typically far more sensitive to anomalies than the average person. Posthuman life, after all, was lived under a constant haze of anxiety. She was like a meerkat perpetually poised on its hind legs, always scanning for danger.

If she spent her days bracing for disaster, then when disaster struck, it was just the proverbial other shoe dropping. Looking at it that way, things didn't feel so bad.

Lin Sanjiu stood up on the conveyor belt, looked around, and gave herself a moment to think. Her anxiety gradually lessened. After all, hadn't she escaped from plenty of dire situations in the past? She'd always made it out alive.

2

"I still have 6% of my combat strength," she muttered. "That's better than an ordinary person, right? They're still alive, so I shouldn't be scared either. I'll just go with the flow and see what this factory's all about. Worst case scenario, I'll jump off this belt. I don't think I'd—" She glanced at the abyss below the conveyor and quickly corrected herself, "Well, whatever happens, I'll deal with it. There's always a way out."

"That's not entirely wrong," Mrs. Manas chimed in. "Sometimes you need a little recklessness. Besides, they went through so much trouble to bring everyone here. It's unlikely they'd just kill the ordinary people outright."

"Wait a second," Lin Sanjiu said. "You're still here? Does that mean my Higher Consciousness isn't as affected?"

"It is. I'm just a manifestation of your subconscious, and frankly, I'm useless right now," Mrs. Manas said, quashing her optimism. "Your Higher Consciousness is still there, but it's like drawing water from a well. You used to take as much as you wanted until it ran dry. Now you can only draw 6%."

Even its strength seemed reduced to 6%. Lin Sanjiu summoned a thread of Higher Consciousness and smacked the conveyor belt with it. The result? If the belt could talk, it would've probably groaned, "Ow!"

She looked up at the massive enclosure looming ahead.

One by one, the ordinary people on A04 track were transported into the metal structure. As each entered, the doors slid shut, only to open again for the next. The enclosure's walls were smooth and vertical, something Lin Sanjiu could have scaled effortlessly at her full strength. Now, her options seemed limited to being swallowed by the enclosure or leaping into the abyss below.

As she neared the enclosure, Lin Sanjiu tried testing her other abilities.

"What does 6% of [Planar World] even mean? Does it reduce the weight of convertible items by..." She waved her hand, but her palm remained empty. After a few more tries, her card inventory stubbornly refused to respond, like a dealer on strike.

She suddenly realized the issue.

"Damn it. It's a 6% success rate? That means I'll only succeed six times out of a hundred attempts?"

What use was that? In a fight, who would wait for her to keep trying until she finally managed to summon a weapon?

1

The metal enclosure silently closed its doors, locking the ordinary person inside its shadowy interior. The conveyor continued to hum as it moved the next person, a man, toward the enclosure. Lin Sanjiu listened carefully but heard nothing except the steady hum of the belt. Whatever was happening inside, at least there were no screams.

When the man disappeared, it was Lin Sanjiu's turn.

Her sensory perception had dulled to a near-blind haze; no matter how hard she focused, everything felt indistinct and unclear. Hei Zeji's powerful air vortex ability, which could once engulf enemies, now might barely make someone squint in irritation. As for her abilities from Advaita, she hadn't even had a chance to test them before being brought to the metal enclosure.

The doors slid open silently, revealing a dim, shadowy space.

The conveyor belt continued its steady rotation, sending section after section of empty black rubber into the enclosure. Several seconds passed, but the door remained open, as Lin Sanjiu had started walking backward on the belt, keeping herself in place. ŗΆ₦ＯβƐṢ

"I can't see much," she said, craning her neck and squinting into the darkness. "It looks like an empty space, with something on either side—"

Before she could figure out what lay ahead, a rush of wind came from behind her.

"Behind you!" Mrs. Manas shouted, a moment too late.

Lin Sanjiu whirled around to see the massive silver claw that had picked up the thin man's corpse earlier. It was swinging toward her like a pendulum, seemingly intent on either shoving her into the enclosure or snatching her up.

"Damn it!" Lin Sanjiu cursed, lunging forward with all the speed her weakened body could muster. She barely managed to dive into the enclosure just as the claw slammed into the closing metal door with a resounding clang that reverberated painfully through her ears.

'This claw has way too many functions!'

Lin Sanjiu muttered to herself as she gasped for air and clambered up from the small platform. With the external light gone, she could only vaguely make out that the conveyor belt seemed to loop back from here, while the platform beneath her remained completely still. Just as she reached out to feel her surroundings, a bright red dot lit up in the darkness.

Before she could react, several red laser beams scanned her body from head to toe.

"Female," an electronic voice declared. "To the right."

To the right? Did this mean males went to the left? And why were they sorting by gender?

Bewildered, Lin Sanjiu instinctively turned her head to the right, only to have a smaller metal claw descend from above. Though smaller, it was just as ruthless, snatching her up like a claw machine toy. Pain shot through her body as the claw gripped her without care for where it pinched or how much force it applied. Lin Sanjiu winced and hissed in pain as it deposited her onto another conveyor belt on the right.

After about ten seconds of travel, the conveyor belt brought her to a small, dimly lit room.

The room seemed to be constructed from several iron-colored metal panels. It was less of a room and more of a spacious coffin, barely large enough for a person to turn around. A faded sign hung at the front, bearing the words: "Remove all clothing and place in the corner."

"What?" Lin Sanjiu blurted in disbelief. She glanced around the room and spotted a pile of tattered women's clothing and shoes in the corner, likely left by previous occupants and not yet cleared away.

"There's no way I'm stripping," she muttered. But before she could even finish her thought, Mrs. Manas interjected, "Wait a minute. Why are those clothes so damaged?"

"Damaged? So what?" Lin Sanjiu replied, her brain too overloaded with confusion to function properly. Nonetheless, she bent down as Mrs. Manas instructed to inspect the pile. "Ordinary people's clothes are bound to be—wait, what?"

The clothes were far more degraded than she expected. If she tried to lift any of them, she doubted she could find a single intact piece. They looked like they had been corroded for years, reduced to mere threads barely holding together.

"That's strange," Lin Sanjiu said, straightening up. Before she could form a theory, mist suddenly sprayed out from all four walls.

It wasn't exactly water mist, as it wasn't wet enough. But neither was it a true gas; it carried an unnatural weight and immediately seemed to gravitate toward her clothing. The mist bypassed her exposed hair and skin, clinging instead to her clothes, her pants, her shoes, and even the bandage around her neck, soaking them through.

The skin beneath her clothes began to itch furiously, the sensation quickly escalating to a sharp, stinging pain as if countless tiny teeth were gnawing at her flesh.

"The mist is corroding the fabric!" Mrs. Manas shouted just as Lin Sanjiu realized the same. Fearing her skin would dissolve along with the fabric, she had no choice but to comply. Hastily stripping off her clothes, she threw them into the corner pile. Sure enough, the strange mist shifted its focus entirely to the discarded clothes, leaving her untouched.

"What the hell kind of sick place is this?" Lin Sanjiu spat angrily, itching to claw off the [Facial Hair] and smash the room apart. "What's the point of making ordinary people strip? What's nex—"

The last word stretched into a long series of startled cries as the floor beneath her gave way. She tumbled into a dark void, her fall ending with a loud splash as she hit a pool of liquid.

By the time Lin Sanjiu realized what had happened, she was submerged in a tank of fluid.

"Well, that makes sense," Mrs. Manas said, her tone oddly detached, perhaps numbed by the relentless twists and turns. "After taking off your clothes, of course, they'd make you take a bath."

Lin Sanjiu wasn't panicking because she couldn't swim well—though she was a poor swimmer. No, the panic came from the searing pain in her eyes, nose, and mouth. Even though she tightly shut her eyes and lips, the liquid seeped in, burning her mucous membranes like fire. This was no ordinary water. The acrid smell and harsh sting reminded her of disinfectant.

Only, compared to this, disinfectant would be far gentler.

"I'll shield you with Higher Consciousness!" Mrs. Manas cried. "This isn't the time to conserve it!"

As a layer of Higher Consciousness enveloped her, Lin Sanjiu felt a slight sense of relief. Though the burning pain persisted, she was able to struggle toward the surface. Her vision was blurry, and she couldn't tell how deep or large the pool was. Just as she was starting to swim upward, the liquid around her surged into a powerful vortex.

The water's sudden force spun her violently. Before she could even consider removing [Facial Hair] to regain her strength, she was swept downward, tumbling into an ominous darkness.

'Did I just get flushed down a toilet?' she thought angrily.

1

The liquid receded like a tide, leaving Lin Sanjiu drenched and gasping for air as she collapsed onto a platform. Her eyes burned fiercely, and the dim light made it hard to see anything clearly. In her hazy vision, she noticed red laser beams scanning her again.

Thanks to the layer of Higher Consciousness still covering her, the lasers seemed confused, sweeping over her multiple times as if unsure.

"Microbial colony targeting non-posthumans: 0% detected," the electronic voice finally announced. "Cleared. Proceeding to microbial colony replacement for posthumans. Preparing for next phase."

1

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