Doomsday Wonderland

In the ten years since Xie Feng became a posthuman, she had never gone near the ocean.

The saying "time is the best medicine for forgetting" is only spoken by those who have benefitted from that medicine. Beyond those words, countless others exist who cannot forget, who find no relief, and who yearn for release, day after day.

Xie Feng could write about her experience, she could describe her feelings at sea, she could use the most earnest words and the most exaggerated language, but there was no way for her to make others truly feel what it was like in that moment when, out in the open sea, her arms suddenly emptied.

The world shattered. She shattered. Chaos consumed everything. Until that moment, she had never known that such absolute, infinite pain could exist in the universe.

She forgot who she was. She forgot where she was.

Their final conversation, the patrol ship at sea, the mutated serpent's head... all of it was too far away, distant as a mirage. The world was empty. There was nothing left except for one thing.

Dong Luorong had to resurface. She had to open her eyes again.

Only then would the world exist again. Only then would Xie Feng exist again.

1

From the moment they met, it had always been the same. That night was no exception. Even in death, Dong Luorong had once again saved Xie Feng.

Xie Feng had thought about it many times since then. She had only just evolved at the time, stranded in the middle of the ocean, faced with both the patrol ship and the duoluozhong. Without Dong Luorong, she could not imagine how she could have survived that night.

But the longer time passed, the more she thought that maybe it would have been better if she had died that night.

If she had followed Dong Luorong into the depths of the sea, wouldn't that have been the perfect ending?

Even if she still lost Dong Luorong, at least she wouldn't have had to see what became of herself. She wouldn't have had to live with herself.

Most of all, she wouldn't have had to see what became of Dong Luorong.

The greatest flaw and limitation of Xie Feng's ability when she first evolved was that objects only remained as Special Items for a very short time. Once their Special Item effect expired, they did not disappear.

The hotel lamp she had once used had turned back into an ordinary lamp when its time ran out, remaining exactly where it was. But in the desperate state she had been in, Xie Feng had not thought of this—let alone the fact that when the object was not a lamp, but a person, that person would continue to exist in the form of an object, even after their time as a Special Item expired.

And as an object, there was no such thing as life or death. Only intact or damaged.

She had only wanted Dong Luorong back.

She had only failed to understand why she wasn't allowed to have Dong Luorong in her life.

So every day that Xie Feng lived afterward felt like an act of penance for that night, though no amount of suffering could ever lessen its weight.

She carried Dong Luorong with her through the apocalyptic worlds, struggling to survive. No matter what happened, no matter what situation they found themselves in, Xie Feng never allowed her skin to be scratched, never let anyone lay a single finger on her hair. But Dong Luorong, who could be stored inside an item, was herself the cross Xie Feng bore, pressing down on her every day, threatening to crush her into pieces. ℞ãNỐᛒЕS

If only she could forget her decision that night. No—if only everything could vanish from her mind.

1

"I thought... you were like the others, one of the people whose memories were forcibly altered by the Shark Nexus," Lin Sanjiu said softly.

Almost every record within Ah Quan's pocket dimension belonged to someone who had been unknowingly manipulated by the Shark Nexus. How could she have imagined that Xie Feng had erased her own memories willingly?

Whether it was the woman Ah Quan had later encountered in the alleyway, or Eight-Heads De, whom Pete had failed to trap, all of them had unknowingly fallen into the pocket dimension as targets. Even Wu Yiliu, who claimed he had understood what had happened afterward, never denied the nature of it—the Shark Nexus had used Ah Quan's pocket dimension to forcibly alter posthumans with potential, bending them to their will.

Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment, struggling to find the words—at least, to say them clearly. After hesitating for a long time, she finally forced them out. "I'm sorry. If... there's anything I can do..."

Xie Feng said nothing.

After finally coming down from her uncontrollable sobs, it was as if all her strength, her resentment toward Lin Sanjiu, her desire to fight, and even her original stance had drained away along with her tears. She sat on the floor, her back against the reception desk, staring blankly at the tiles by her feet. At first glance, she almost seemed to have turned into an object herself.

Had she not yet realized that even the memories she had unintentionally regained today could be erased once more?

Lin Sanjiu thought about offering that as a solution, but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to say it. Besides, she didn't want to disturb the fragile equilibrium Xie Feng had only just regained. The real issue wasn't whether Xie Feng remembered. Forgetting was just a way to escape. The real issue was whether Xie Feng could forgive herself.

1

When Lin Sanjiu had finally managed to help Xie Feng up from the floor, she had received a few more wounds in the process. Luckily, in her shattered state, Xie Feng hadn't been able to inflict much damage. After thinking it over, Lin Sanjiu sat down a short distance away, quietly tending to her injuries without saying a word.

Time passed like that. The sunlight outside the rental agency shifted from bright to dim, shadows stretching longer as the sky was gradually dyed with soft hues of orange. At some point, Xie Feng began murmuring fragmented, seemingly disconnected sentences.

Lin Sanjiu responded whenever she could.

"I couldn't die, because then there would be no one to take care of her. But I also couldn't keep living. I don't even know how that woman discovered my situation... I had never felt such utter despair before. When she asked if I wanted to step into the pocket dimension and forget everything, I agreed immediately."

Lin Sanjiu straightened her back. The first "her" naturally referred to Dong Luorong. But "that woman"—who was she?

"Someone from the Shark Nexus?" she asked, though she doubted she would get an answer. "Was the one who used Ah Quan's pocket dimension to alter you a woman?"

Throughout the past few hours, Lin Sanjiu had spoken to Xie Feng many times, but Xie Feng had hardly spoken to her, almost never responding directly. The few times she had spoken, they were more like absentminded mutterings, disjointed recollections of the past. It felt less like she was talking to Lin Sanjiu and more like she was speaking to no one in particular, as if by ignoring Lin Sanjiu entirely, she could pretend she didn't exist.

But this time, Xie Feng caught her off guard.

She still didn't look at Lin Sanjiu. Instead, she stared down at her own hands and asked, "Do you know why I didn't kill you?"

It wasn't an exaggeration. If she had truly decided to fight to the death, Lin Sanjiu wouldn't have walked out of this rental agency alive.

Lin Sanjiu hesitated, then shook her head.

"Because I remembered everything." Xie Feng kept her eyes on her hands. "Not just my past... but also the emotions I felt when I chose to erase my memories. And what it was like when I first stepped out of the pocket dimension and saw the world again."

She fell silent.

Lin Sanjiu waited patiently for her to organize her thoughts.

"It wasn't... the relief of being freed." Xie Feng frowned, her voice as light as a sigh. "Of course, I didn't remember what I had been carrying before, so when it disappeared, there was no feeling of release. But because of that, I also didn't feel happy or at ease. I was still me, but I felt... hollow. Like I was missing something. I just stood there, not knowing where to go.

"Before that, I thought my life was unbearably painful. But afterward, my life became..." Xie Feng hesitated, struggling to find the right words. "Became something insignificant, meaningless. It didn't matter whether I lived or not. I wasn't in pain anymore, but now that I look back... now that I have something to compare it to... I've realized that not being in pain wasn't as important as I thought."

1

Lin Sanjiu knew she was just someone who happened to be here, who happened to hear these words. If it had been someone else—or even just a cat or a dog—Xie Feng's response would likely have been the same.

But since she had heard it, since she had thoughts about it, she naturally voiced them.

"Even though it was painful... at that time, your life was still connected to her, wasn't it? Every moment was because of her. She was there, always," Lin Sanjiu said softly. "I understand. Losing your memories means losing that connection. Without it, what's the difference between yourself and a speck of dust drifting through the endless universe? No origin, no destination, no place to land."

After a few seconds, Xie Feng finally turned to look at her, staring for a long moment as if seeing her for the first time.

"Yes. So, I didn't kill you. But don't expect me to be grateful," Xie Feng said hoarsely. "Still... thinking back now, I'm not sure if she—that woman—deliberately took advantage of my mental state that day. Or even manipulated it."

She paused before continuing. "If you want to go after the Shark Nexus, I won't stop you. But I won't help you either."

She hesitated for a moment, then added, "No matter what, that woman was the one who gave her a final resting place. And besides... I believe that what Shark Nexus is doing now is right. Even if it comes with sacrifices, even if it means hurting others, I believe the path they're taking is the correct one."

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