Doomsday Wonderland

When the pocket dimension came to an end, no one realized it.

There was no notification, no announcement of a winner, and not even the television that had first explained the rules appeared again.

Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt the ground beneath her tremble, and the roar of rushing water filled her ears. Her vision was instantly overwhelmed by chaos and surging white waves, turning everything into a shaky, fragmented blur. In that moment, her reaction was faster than her thoughts. Before her mind could piece together what was happening, she instinctively unleashed a large swath of Higher Consciousness.

In an instant, her Higher Consciousness split apart and stretched into fine threads, weaving themselves into a massive net. The sudden torrent of water roared through the net, and one by one, the people spilling out of the pocket dimension collided with it amidst their screams, all of them caught safely.

Logically, Lin Sanjiu herself should have had no footing in the moment either and should have been swept into the current along with her net. Yet, the greater the crisis, the sharper her instincts. She manipulated the net formed by her Higher Consciousness, lifting it into the air and then forcing it against the flow of the river. By sheer force of will, she managed to keep everyone caught in the net in place. With her head breaking through the waves, she gasped for air and scanned her surroundings, struggling to swim toward the riverbank and barely stabilizing herself.

Amid the rushing whitewater, Lin Sanjiu shouted several times, but her voice was drowned out by the roar of the river. There was no response. Although she could feel that the net had caught people, she didn't know who they were. Had Ya Rong and Jiang Tian, neither victorious nor defeated, been released from the pocket dimension along with everyone else?

Her heart tightened. She plunged back into the torrent, swimming desperately upstream toward the people caught in her net.

1

The deafening sound of rushing water faded into a distant background noise in her ears as her mind replayed scene after scene from the moments before they left the pocket dimension. She was desperate to determine if she had miscalculated or overlooked something. Had her deductions and plans succeeded?

The four believers were not an issue. Thanks to her 3.36 credibility rating, she had little trouble persuading the nine people to unanimously accept her theory. The factory still had use for ordinary people, so the pocket dimension they created wouldn't result in overly severe consequences.

The real challenge had been convincing Jiang Tian and Ya Rong to join her plan.

Lin Sanjiu knew she only had her hypothesis to rely on. So when she approached the two of them, she couldn't deny feeling a twinge of apprehension; she was asking them to place absolute trust in her.

"Are you saying," Jiang Tian had asked after hearing the plan, staring at her as if she were some kind of rare beast, "that the fates of both of us rest entirely on your whim?"

"This is the least damaging option we have," Lin Sanjiu replied quietly, glancing at the distant silhouettes of people conversing near the amusement park.

Even after seeing their own scenes disappear, Wen Ya seemed entirely unaware that he had become a believer. Just like Muya, he exhibited a peculiar trait: as long as Lin Sanjiu needed it, they excelled at distorting the reality before them to align with the beliefs in their minds, rationalizing everything that seemed unreasonable.

Wen Ya genuinely believed that the hospital had been Dr. Chen's domain.

When Lin Sanjiu created an opportunity to speak privately with Jiang Tian and Ya Rong by sending Wen Ya and the other mouthpieces to stall Tenny Voltz and his group with idle chatter, none of them found anything strange about this sudden collective decision.

"You want the two of us to become the extras," Ya Rong had said, frowning as she mulled over Lin Sanjiu's idea. "And you plan to secure seven believers at once to end the pocket dimension?"

Even Lin Sanjiu found her own plan suspicious.

"Getting seven ordinary believers doesn't give me any extra advantage over having four," she explained slowly. "But as long as I have seven believers, there won't be enough people left to create a new winner, and the pocket dimension should end. Compared to having two winners, this outcome spares one person from becoming a believer while leaving one more person unharmed."

"And how can you be sure that those who are neither winners nor believers will remain unharmed?" Jiang Tian asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lin Sanjiu knew she had to convince them on this point. Otherwise, despite Jiang Tian's message being exposed, her media remained unknown, and Ya Rong was equally quick-witted.

"I believe that participants in this category will also be released when the pocket dimension ends. If they weren't, there would always be leftovers stuck in the pocket dimension, disrupting the factory's entire process. Besides, remember when earlier batches were pushed in? The pocket dimension didn't have enough people and had to wait for newcomers. That indirectly proves that extras aren't left behind to participate in the next round."

As she spoke, Lin Sanjiu glanced at the distant group, a vague, indescribable emotion rising in her heart.

To ensure they could leave as soon as possible, her next step might involve causing irreversible changes in the lives of Tenny Voltz, Caveman, and Rob. She couldn't bring herself to target Hina, who had a granddaughter waiting for her at home. Despite vowing to never interfere in the lives of believers once she left the pocket dimension, she had also privately resolved something else: if she became the sole winner, she would use her advantage responsibly, unlike the others who she couldn't trust. ȑÄＮȮВĚᶊ

1

After all, wielding control over others, dominating and manipulating them, seemed to remain an irresistible dream for humanity.

"Now, the only candidates left to become believers are those who haven't realized I've already won," Lin Sanjiu said, glancing at the two women. Seeing that neither of them denied it, she continued, "You've both figured out my message and media by now, haven't you? That's why you can't become my believers. This is also why I've come to discuss this with you... You can remain as those who are neither winners nor believers and leave here safely."

She added, "As I just promised, letting me be the sole winner has another benefit. In the worst-case scenario where I'm wrong, I'll take the seven believers back into the pocket dimension for a new round of competition and bring you both out with me. But if one of you were to become the new winner, can you really trust the other to come back and save you?"

This was both the truth and a subtle provocation, an open tactic.

Ya Rong and Jiang Tian exchanged a glance, hesitation written on their faces.

"But if the worst does happen... how do I know you'll really come back for us?" Jiang Tian asked.

Lin Sanjiu gave a bitter smile.

"Whatever I say now is just empty words, and I'm not asking you to believe me based on a few promises. All I can do is tell you the truth... The reason I infiltrated the factory was to find out who's been targeting ordinary people in Chimeric City. The lives of ordinary people matter too. I can't stand by and watch you die here for no reason... That's all there is to it."

"In the Twelve Worlds Centrum, anyone who says something like that is either crazy or lying," Jiang Tian muttered softly. Ya Rong seemed to share the sentiment.

Lin Sanjiu couldn't find anything else to say to convince them. She twisted her hands together anxiously, waiting for their decision. Her plan could only proceed with their agreement; this much she had realized when Guan Nan and Wen Ya's believers had also transferred to her.

Even if she acted alone and secured seven believers, she might still become the target of Ya Rong and Jiang Tian.

Knowing Jiang Tian's message didn't make much difference. Lin Sanjiu already shared the same belief Jiang Tian needed to spread. All Jiang Tian had to do was find the right moment to trick her into taking the media. At that point, Jiang Tian and Ya Rong would end up deceiving and fighting each other again, likely creating the maximum number of believers the pocket dimension could produce. No one would escape unscathed.

"Still... maybe it's because of your credibility, but I feel like I... can believe you," Ya Rong said hesitantly, surprising Lin Sanjiu.

Hesitant and uncertain, Ya Rong added, "Even a liar wouldn't say something like that. Maybe it's because it's actually the truth? Besides, you really did disguise yourself as an ordinary person and sneak in here. As a posthuman, you could've just walked away in Chimeric City, couldn't you? Isn't that what other posthumans would've done?"

1

Jiang Tian crossed her arms. More cautious and skeptical than Ya Rong, she spent nearly ten minutes deep in thought before finally nodding at Lin Sanjiu with visible reluctance, as though forced by some invisible weight.

The process of securing more believers was both simple and difficult.

It was simple because the remaining four people had yet to grow wary of her. In fact, as a posthuman with increased credibility, they were more inclined to trust and rely on her, especially with six others helping to bolster her influence.

But as Lin Sanjiu watched each of them, one after another, unknowingly pick up her media, she found herself unable to bear the sight. She wanted to turn away, pretending not to notice.

Tenny Voltz probably never imagined that the newspaper he casually mentioned to distract others was actually the media from the hotel scenario.

Similarly, Jiang Tian likely hadn't expected that while there was an 11/12 chance the hotel scenario didn't belong to Lin Sanjiu, she had hit the remaining 1/12.

In the hotel, Lin Sanjiu had instructed everyone to gather flammable materials. The more scenes they passed without incident, the more relaxed they became, assuming that since nothing had gone wrong after so many rounds, nothing would. But who said the media had to be handed out in its owner's own scenario?

The real key to having someone pick up the media was ensuring they carried it into another scene, making the owner of that scene mistake it for an object belonging to their own setting and pick it up without suspicion.

Once she had four believers, Lin Sanjiu could easily deduce who owned each scene. As everything drew to a close, both Jiang Tian and Ya Rong, with grim determination, revealed their message and media to Lin Sanjiu.

With the crucial information in hand, the game was effectively over. The pocket dimension recognized that the competition had reached its end. What Lin Sanjiu hadn't anticipated was how abruptly it would end. In the blink of an eye, she was swept away by the rushing river, unsure if the two women had made it out.

"Ya Rong! Jiang Tian!" She shattered another wave threatening to drag her under, feeling as though she was exerting far more strength than the distance she managed to cover. Her voice, hoarse with desperation, called out, "If you can hear me, answer me!"

The torrent gushing through her Higher Consciousness net sent countless streams of water surging into the air, creating towering white spray. Beyond the wall of spray, Lin Sanjiu finally heard Ya Rong's faint voice, "We're all out!"

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