Doomsday Wonderland

No wonder there were rumors that the wall could open. It turned out it wasn't a wall at all!

Lin Sanjiu's vision brightened as faint, blurry letters from the card in her hand briefly appeared before her eyes. In the next instant, her gaze plunged into the vast space that suddenly opened up behind the wall.

Her reaction in that moment was so swift that even she found it hard to believe afterward. Almost simultaneously with her eyes shifting, her hand moved, and in an instant, the wall seamlessly closed back up, restoring the warehouse to its original state.

It was only then that the people in the warehouse cried out, a beat too late. The wall had disappeared and reappeared so quickly that unless someone had been staring directly at it, they would have only noticed the flash of bright light followed by darkness once again.

"What just happened?"

"The light—there was light. Did the wall open...?"

"Did I imagine that...?"

As the crowd surged forward, Lin Sanjiu quickly backed away from the wall and slipped into the throng. The wall had disappeared because she touched it, but now that everyone's attention was fixed on the wall, she was effectively hidden in plain sight. Even as she retreated further, someone grabbed her arm and asked, "Did you see what happened just now?"

Not only had she seen it but she also recognized it.

She had pondered many times about the factory's location, wondered how far it was from Chimeric City, and marveled at the methods that old lady had used to traverse such vast distances. But Lin Sanjiu had never imagined that the factory was actually housed on a modest-sized spacecraft.

In the noisy crowd, some people rushed forward and pounded their fists against the solid wall, their muffled strikes echoing beneath the high ceiling alongside the buzzing sound of their discussions. It was clear that everyone was desperate to leave this place.

What they didn't know, however, was that even if they escaped the factory, there would be no refuge waiting for them outside.

In that brief moment when the wall had vanished, Lin Sanjiu had noticed: outside the spacious warehouse—its high ceiling and wide walls even connected to the river—was the side wing of a small spacecraft designed for a single person. Above the wall of the side wing observation deck was a typical elongated spaceship porthole, through which she saw a faint blue sky, as if the spacecraft was currently cruising through the air.

What caught her attention most was that the single-person observation deck wasn't a tiny structure dwarfed by the enormous warehouse. It hadn't been enlarged either; it could still only hold one adult. Yet, the boundary of the warehouse melded seamlessly with the observation deck, as if the two were meant to fit together perfectly.

People tend to measure space and size relative to themselves. Inside the warehouse, Lin Sanjiu had judged the room as enormous based on her own size. But when she caught sight of the outside, she knew it was only a single-person observation deck—and the mere act of shifting her gaze across that boundary had made her feel a faint sense of vertigo.

However, it wasn't the vertigo that had made her rush to restore the wall.

"Just now, your eyes skimmed over the card too quickly," Mrs. Manas said urgently. "Even I can't be certain what was written on it, but I remember a few words. Something about connection, door..."

Pushing against the crowd rushing toward the gray wall, Lin Sanjiu quickly moved to a corner where no one seemed to notice her. Hastily, she summoned [Facial Hair] again. This time, there wasn't enough time to carefully add details to her eyebrows and eyelashes. She slapped it onto her forehead with a "smack," aligning it perfectly with her hairline, covering most of her forehead.

Hearing Mrs. Manas's words, she gave a faint, bitter smile.

If Mrs. Manas wasn't mistaken, Lin Sanjiu had an idea of what was going on—the entire factory was made up of multiple subspaces.

The endless assembly line that stretched sky-high and plunged infinitely below, the cosmic-like darkness, the river and sky wedged into the pocket dimension... Each subspace had its own spatial rules. Since they were patched together from several subspaces, they didn't necessarily resemble the outside world, nor were they similar to one another. This explained the bizarre and varied spatial impressions within.

Someone had assembled these subspaces into a factory and placed them inside this spaceship, setting up a few entry and exit points. The wall Lin Sanjiu had just taken down wasn't really a wall at all—it was a one-way door specifically designed for the factory's subspaces. The people behind the scenes had probably never imagined that among a group of ordinary people, someone would be capable of completely removing their one-way door.

"This time it's weakened by 19%..." Mrs. Manas muttered. "Your luck is just... incredibly bad."

The very effect she didn't want to trigger was the one that appeared.

Lin Sanjiu leaned her back against another wall, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath. Almost everyone had swarmed toward the critical wall, leaving her alone at the rear of the crowd, neither too close nor too far. Maybe she could keep herself hidden and avoid drawing attention?

She replayed the fleeting moment in her mind, recalling what she had seen just before the wall had disappeared. Before she could finish pressing her lips tightly together, she caught a sudden flash of light out of the corner of her eye.

The wall had disappeared again.

Her heart leapt into her throat as she slowly turned her head.

The noise in the warehouse remained a buzzing hum for a moment longer, but it began to fade as more and more footsteps retreated and mouths fell silent. The crowd backed away from the wall, leaving a wide, open space. Through the gaps between heads and shoulders, Lin Sanjiu couldn't clearly see the space they had opened up, but she had no doubt about what the others were looking at.

After all, every person here had been temporarily granted an evolved ability by the old lady. Some might have even been personally captured by her—none of them would have forgotten that faintly pixelated, indistinct face.

"It's... it's you..." someone stammered.

Lin Sanjiu's heart pounded wildly as her tightly clasped hands trembled. That fleeting glimpse after she had removed the wall had revealed a head slowly rising from the floor. The image of the old lady had been etched into her bones, and even just the back of a head with a gray, flower-shaped bun was enough for Lin Sanjiu to immediately recognize her.

The old lady formed from Higher Consciousness was slowly emerging from the floor in this very place, and her destination was unmistakable—the warehouse filled with ordinary people boasting high credibility.

"No one leave."

The voice was dry and raspy, not particularly loud, yet it demanded everyone's undivided attention. The chaotic noise of the crowd had already fallen into dead silence, leaving only faint, trembling murmurs that echoed like an undercurrent. Lin Sanjiu, unable to see the frail, withered old lady through the crowd, could only glimpse the uncontrollable trembling of shoulders around her.

Someone suddenly gasped. "It's that list—"

The speaker seemed startled by their own voice and immediately clamped down on it. But Lin Sanjiu understood instantly: the old lady must have opened the [Concept Mismash] list midair.

So many people... Could she actually designate this many people as her targets all at once?

If that was the case, even a crowd strategy—

A piercing scream erupted from a woman near the corner of the wall. "Th-There's more!"

What?

Lin Sanjiu quickly moved toward the source of the voice, scanning the sparser area of the crowd. She nearly cried out herself at what she saw.

One after another, identical old ladies emerged from the floor of the single-person observation deck. Each one was an exact replica, down to the green shirt, black pants, gray hair, and wrinkles. They crossed the observation deck one after the other, stepping into the warehouse. The ordinary people, stripped even of the courage to remain still, retreated in panicked sobs and terror, stumbling over one another.

Floating in the air beside each old lady was a faintly visible list—every one of these Higher Consciousness-formed old ladies could activate [Concept Mismash].

Lin Sanjiu's scalp prickled, and she felt as though she'd lost all sensation in her limbs.

What kind of person, what kind of strength, could split their Higher Consciousness into countless parts at will? And not only that, but turn those parts into powerful, combat-ready old ladies, each equipped with an overwhelming, almost irresistible special ability that could sweep away any posthuman?

1

The true owner of [Concept Mismash] was, without a doubt, near invincible.

Even if it were Silvan, Puppeteer, or Hei Zeji standing here, the outcome would be the same. No matter how strong their combat skills or how quick their reflexes, how could anyone resist an onslaught of countless [Concept Mismashes]?

If she had to fight this person, how could she? Who could?

1

Her only hope lay in [Facial Hair], which she hoped would disguise her as an ordinary person and escape the old ladies' notice. Yet, at this moment, she still had 80% of her combat strength left—if someone checked her power level, it would be as obvious as a towering pillar among a crowd of people barely five feet tall. No wonder Mrs. Manas had said her luck was terrible.

No, no—stay calm. The reason there were so many old ladies was precisely because there were too many targets in the warehouse. The targets had to be divided among them. Lin Sanjiu's eyes swept back and forth quickly. Which one of them was responsible for her?

Which old lady's [Concept Mismash] would fall on her?

"All those carrying temporary evolved abilities..."

"All those carrying temporary evolved abilities..."

The ten-plus old ladies each repeated the same phrase, their voices overlapping and staggered. Some began their words while others were mid-sentence, while others spoke anew just as another finished. The disjointed, repetitive murmur created a disorienting buzz, making everyone's head spin. But one thing was clear—this was the condition for the current [Concept Mismash].

Everyone present, including Lin Sanjiu, fell within its scope. The temporary evolved abilities granted to them had carried this deeply hidden trap all along.

There! Lin Sanjiu's heart jolted as she pinpointed the old lady who had just finished the first half of the phrase. Without hesitation, she activated the ability she had selected from the screen.

"You will obey one command of mine."

1

The voices of the ten-plus old ladies overlapped and echoed as they spoke the same line, one after another.

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