Doomsday Wonderland

When Lin Sanjiu realized that her opponent was Xie Feng, she immediately thought of Ah Quan's pocket dimension.

She had no personal grudge against Xie Feng. The Shark Nexus had simply tampered with her memory, making her follow orders. If she could restore Xie Feng's memory, wouldn't that resolve the conflict? Once Xie Feng realized that the organization she was working for had deliberately erased parts of her past, there would be no reason for her to continue standing against Lin Sanjiu.

Besides, Ah Quan had always preserved each person's true memories, waiting for the day he could return them. As long as he saw Xie Feng, he would naturally know what to do.

In this small rental office, all Lin Sanjiu needed to do was throw out Ah Quan's pocket dimension and let it open upon hitting the ground. In an instant, the pocket dimension would envelop the entire office, taking Xie Feng inside.

But what she hadn't expected was that, despite the simplicity of the action, she now found herself completely unable to do it.

She couldn't even hold Ah Quan's pocket dimension in her hand and wait for an opportunity.

The last time she had tried, she had nearly lost four fingers. A deep, continuous gash ran across the joints of her left hand, slicing through the base of four fingers. If she had reacted even a fraction of a second slower, those fingers would have been severed entirely, and the pocket dimension would have landed right in Xie Feng's hands.

Now, even the slightest movement of her fingers sent sharp pain lancing through her nerves, making her face involuntarily twitch. She had no choice but to stop.

"Still able to move? Did I fail to sever the nerves?"

Xie Feng crouched atop the reception counter, one knee pressed against the surface, ready to strike at any moment. She studied Lin Sanjiu with mild disappointment. "Wu Yiliu told me to be careful of your combat ability. At first, I didn't take it seriously."

In the ten minutes since Bee Sting had left, they had clashed three times, each time breaking apart in an instant, their exchanges lasting less than ten seconds in total.

The rest of the time, they watched, measured, and waited—eyes locked, muscles tensing and relaxing, feinting, testing each other with subtle movements, keeping their guard up at all times.

Lin Sanjiu had never faced an opponent like Xie Feng before. If Puppeteer was like an abyss where a single misstep meant utter destruction, and Silvan was a tidal wave swallowing everything in its path, then Xie Feng was like a fragmented, twisted space—one that would shred and grind down anything that strayed too close into indistinguishable pulp.

2

She had encountered many powerful beings before, but only Xie Feng gave her this acute, visceral sense of razor-sharp danger, the same primal instinct that made humans recoil from the sight of a blade. Even standing near her felt like an invitation to disaster.

Yet, at the same time, every fiber of Lin Sanjiu's being shuddered with a strange, exhilarating anticipation. How long had it been since she had faced such a purely formidable opponent? Unlike the old lady, who relied on the peculiarity of her abilities, Xie Feng drew out something different in her, something raw and aggressive. She wanted to counter, to suppress, to pin her opponent to the ground with a knee to her throat.

1

She was in a curious state. Xie Feng's every breath, every twitch of her muscles, even the ebb and flow of blood beneath her skin, were vividly etched into her mind, as though she had entered some state of absolute clarity.

During their third exchange, Lin Sanjiu attempted to activate [Defense Forcefield]. This skill that had always been reliable and seamless, today, felt entirely different before Xie Feng. The usually fluid flow of Higher Consciousness had been caught at its edges, like someone grabbing the two halves of a shirt and tearing it apart. In Xie Feng's hands, her Higher Consciousness split into jagged fragments, ripped into two separate pieces.

After all, this was a different kind of opponent.

Watching the forcefield crack apart in an instant, Lin Sanjiu felt detached—unshaken, not even frustrated. Things happened as they should, and she accepted them, as naturally as a river flowing around a rock, as naturally as broken waves coming back together.

1

She released the [Defense Forcefield] without hesitation. The next thing she knew, in a slowed, softened perception of time, she saw an opening, one that Xie Feng herself hadn't noticed.

Like being carried forward by an unseen current, Lin Sanjiu took a single step to the side, raised her palm slightly, and placed it lightly against Xie Feng's forearm.

It was an impossibly gentle touch, like a bird's claw brushing against a delicate branch.

Yet Xie Feng's face changed immediately—because the sharper a weapon was, the more it feared breaking. She was no exception. She reacted at lightning speed, leaping backward, and upon landing, pressed a hand to her arm as if afraid it might have been dislocated.

From that moment on, neither of them attacked again.

"What price did the Shark Nexus pay," Lin Sanjiu smiled at her, "to bring you into their ranks?"

"They gave me exactly what I wanted," Xie Feng said, tilting her head.

She was only of medium height, slender and agile, looking at most in her early twenties. But considering that she had only been nineteen when she evolved, it meant that Xie Feng had likely been a posthuman for at least ten years. No wonder she had Lin Sanjiu so thoroughly suppressed that even summoning a pocket dimension was impossible. Each time she attempted to call forth Ah Quan's pocket dimension, the moment it left her card inventory, even if it was still in her hand, she couldn't guarantee its safety. ṙаＮοBЁṦ

Because Xie Feng's full attention was locked onto the pocket dimension, she couldn't even summon anything else.

"You only want the pocket dimension?" Lin Sanjiu's gaze stayed fixed on Xie Feng. "You don't care about Pete?"

Xie Feng smiled. "Who do you think warned us about your arrival? He can take care of himself."

No wonder, judging by the timing, Xie Feng had been waiting for her the moment she set foot in Cloudwalk Heights.

Ordinarily, this should have surprised Lin Sanjiu. Pete had been under strict surveillance, and she couldn't imagine when he had found the opportunity to inform Shark Nexus. But in this heightened state of focus and clarity, she felt no surprise at all.

"And you?" Xie Feng asked with a smile, "Why are you so stubborn about keeping the pocket dimension from me? It's not out of greed, is it? You don't strike me as that kind of person."

Ah.

Perhaps it was the effect of her current state, but a faint realization dawned on Lin Sanjiu. The battle, the exchanges, the verbal probes, all of it had been leading to this moment.

"I'll tell you why I refuse to hand over Ah Quan." They spoke as if they were merely having a conversation. Lin Sanjiu even appeared relaxed. "Do you want to hear it? Will you believe me?"

Xie Feng tilted her head. "Go ahead."

Wasn't the reason obvious?

Ah Quan was a person. His real name was Jiu Mingquan.

3

He had injured his left leg playing soccer, had gotten into fights to defend a girl he liked, and loved Kung Fu tea. He had suffered sleepless nights over a sister who had never even had the chance to exist in this world.

Now, he could only sit forever in the same fruit stall, watching the swirling, severed memories of others with no right to make decisions for himself, with no idea where it would all end.

"He's a person," Lin Sanjiu said, staring at Xie Feng. "Yet he's forced to live as an object. If I can, I want to free him from this fate, to give him the chance to live as himself again... That feeling, shouldn't you understand it better than anyone?"

Xie Feng stared at her, her lips slightly parted, unable to form a response.

Since entering the rental office, this was the first time she had shown such an expression—confusion, hesitation, and a trace of trembling fear, like a child who knew bad news was coming but had no idea what it would be.

"Xie Feng," Lin Sanjiu called her name for the first time, making her flinch.

"You know about me...?"

"Yes, I know your name, and I know your past. Your hometown was called Tear City, named because it was shaped like a tear falling into the sea."

Lin Sanjiu's voice was soft, as if comforting her. "Or rather, I should say, I know about the past that may have been deleted and altered. Have you ever felt something was off when you tried to remember? Ah Quan is a pocket dimension that can modify memories... When you heard that description, did you not feel any doubt?"

Xie Feng stood stiffly at the counter, a hollow smile forming on her face. "Wu Yiliu already warned me that you might say things like this to shake me."

"Then I'll give you Ah Quan's pocket dimension." Lin Sanjiu's tone was like coaxing a child afraid of the dark. "I'll bring it out right now. You can take it. You can target me and activate the pocket dimension... and when you do, you'll see Ah Quan. You can ask him yourself—ask if there's a record of Xie Feng's memories in his pocket dimension."

This time, as she raised her bloodied left hand and opened it toward Xie Feng, Xie Feng remained motionless, staring at her intently. A card floated up from Lin Sanjiu's palm, quickly transforming into a small cube. At the moment Xie Feng's gaze locked onto it, Lin Sanjiu's right hand, which had been hanging loosely at her side, suddenly released something.

Ah Quan's pocket dimension slipped from her right hand and fell to the ground.

Xie Feng barely had time to widen her eyes. The moment she realized she had been fooled by a momentary distraction, the pocket dimension had already engulfed the entire rental office, including her.

Ah Quan appeared between them without warning.

Only then did Lin Sanjiu finally exhale, nearly collapsing into a seated position as the strange battle state faded from her body.

From the moment she realized her opponent was Xie Feng, she had thought of Ah Quan's pocket dimension. She had also known that Xie Feng would never allow her to release it so easily.

That was why, every time she summoned a card, she had done so with her left hand.

Even after the second attempt, when she clearly knew there was no chance to deploy the pocket dimension, she had continued risking her left hand, summoning cards again and again until she nearly lost four fingers. Not for any immediate gain, but to plant a single impression in Xie Feng's mind: every time Lin Sanjiu summoned a card, it would appear from her left hand.

Once the impression was set, there was no immediate chance to use the pocket dimension for over ten minutes—until Xie Feng's own question had reminded her, opening a path forward.

There are some things in life that, even when the memories of them are erased, their echoes and tremors remain.

Lin Sanjiu had not forgotten her own power to influence. When faced with a certain impact, Xie Feng had believed her, convinced that she was about to summon Ah Quan's pocket dimension from her left hand.

As she waited, Lin Sanjiu pulled up a chair from the rental office, sat down, and carefully bandaged her injured left hand.

Inside Ah Quan's pocket dimension, Xie Feng barely moved apart from the occasional slight twitch, but her expression shifted like storm clouds—anger, fear, joy. Her lashes trembled constantly. Occasionally, tears rolled down her cheeks. At times, she let out a soft laugh.

Watching her, Lin Sanjiu almost felt as if she could tell which part of Yu Yuan's story she was reliving: her days wandering the streets, sizing up a small convenience store, running for her life, the first time she met Dong Luorong... Of course, maybe it was all just in her imagination.

Xie Feng took far longer to regain her memories than Lin Sanjiu had.

When it felt like the process was nearing its end, Lin Sanjiu rose to her feet.

Despite the wounds she had suffered, she did not resent Xie Feng. Xie Feng was merely a person whose memories had been taken from her, forced to act as a weapon. She had not known what she was doing. When Xie Feng returned to her original self, Lin Sanjiu was willing to extend a hand, to pull her away from the Shark Nexus's control and help her reclaim her life.

But Lin Sanjiu never expected that the moment she retracted Ah Quan's pocket dimension, Xie Feng would lunge at her with all her strength—like a rabid beast, throwing herself at her with the force of life and death. There was no technique, no evasion or defense, only a raw desperation, as if she wanted to shatter Lin Sanjiu with her own body.

Yet before Lin Sanjiu could react, Xie Feng collapsed mid-charge.

All the strength drained from her. She curled up on the floor, pressing her forehead against the ground, her body trembling violently as a low, wolf-like whimper escaped her.

"Why?" she howled, her voice breaking.

She did not lift her head, as if she had forgotten that her back was completely exposed and defenseless. The sound that tore from her throat was raw and cracked, as if something inside her had shattered. "Why did you make me remember?"

Lin Sanjiu stood frozen in place.

"It was me! I was the one who wanted those memories erased! I never wanted to remember again!" Xie Feng curled tighter, her entire body shaking. "What gave you the right to make me remember?"

2

"Why... why?" Lin Sanjiu could only repeat the words.

Xie Feng continued to sob for a long moment, unable to say anything else.

Slowly, Lin Sanjiu approached her, unaware that she herself was trembling. She carefully extended a hand, wanting to place it on Xie Feng's back but hesitated before touching her.

"Xie Feng? Xie Feng, tell me... when Dong Luorong begged you not to turn her into an item in the end... you didn't, did you?"

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