Doomsday Wonderland

Some things in this world can just be very strange.

If someone were to tell Lin Sanjiu that she would be buried alive a day ago, no, even half an hour ago, she would probably sneer at that person and pulled out her [Tornado whip]. Holding a card with the number 49, Lin Sanjiu sat on the edge of the roof of a tall building with her feet dangling over the edge. Quite ironically, she was waiting for her turn to be buried at that very moment.

—

Chasing the Rover, she ran out of the residential area but quickly lost Five. Trying her luck, she ran a while more. She did not know how far she ran, but when she turned back, she could no longer see the residential area. That barely registered in her mind as she turned her head around rapidly. Her eyes were fixated on the area not far from her. The scenery in front of her had captured her full attention.

Plants had taken over the ruined city, and even the traces of the asphalt roads and pavements had been swallowed up by nature. Weeds grew threw through the cracks on the ground. Damaged power lines hung from the hole-riddled buildings. The cold wind howled as it blew through the broken windows of the various high-rise buildings.

The dawn sky was gradually turning white. Pale sunlight spilled from the sky and over the tranquil yet dismal landscape which had lost all trace of human activity. Just like the many apocalyptic worlds that Lin Sanjiu had experienced, the scene in front of her wasn’t all that strange…

If not for that particular spot that simply did not fit the entire post-apocalyptic landscape.

“That… that is…” Ji Shanqing muttered. He had his arms wrapped around her neck and was still on her back. “What is that place?”

“Get down first,” Lin Sanjiu peeled Ji Shanqing off her back and took a breath before looking into the distance. “I think this is… probably a pocket dimension,” Lin Sanjiu answered him with some uncertainty.

” If this was really a pocket dimension, isn’t this a little too obvious? ”

If the scenery in the distance was an advertisement, it would be as if someone had torn off a corner of a poster showing a post-apocalyptic landscape with the collapsed buildings and had subsequently replaced it with the corner of a poster with a completely different landscape.

The gloomy, lifeless and ruined human infrastructures lay on the ground like a fallen chessboard. Black singe marks left behind by the previous fires and destruction covered the yellowish, wild grass until they reached a sudden patch of emerald green grass.

After that patch of green grass, there was a piece of toiled land which had clearly been well taken care of. The land seemed to possess and exude a fresh aura under the sun. The soil had been plowed into neat rows, and there were healthy, green seedlings growing out from the ground every few inches. Even though any food that was exposed to the atmosphere in this world could not be eaten, this place was clearly a piece of cultivated land.

Lin Sanjiu only realized how wide the piece of cultivated land was when she approached it. Looking across the horizon, she almost couldn’t see where the edge of the farm was. In the murky distance, she could only see a flyover which proved that this place was once a bustling city.

“It is like a dream,” Ji Shanqing mumbled quietly.

Lin Sanjiu did not respond to him as she walked to the cultivated plot of land cautiously.

There was a narrow trail which cut through the farm, someone had created it somehow. The two people followed the trail with their eyes until they spotted a small, clean cottage. Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes and stared at the wooden signboard in front of the cottage. The words “Harry’s Farm” were written in several languages.

After taking a deep breath, Lin Sanjiu turned to her grand prize and said, “I was right. This is a pocket dimension.”

Only a pocket dimension would show such consideration for people visiting from different worlds.

“A pocket dimension,” Ji Shanqing looked at the milky-white, two stories wooden cottage. Feeling a sense of familiarity, he had a nostalgic look on his face as he asked, “Are we going in?”

“Of course not!” Lin Sanjiu was shocked by his question. She turned around and waved her hands, chasing him away. “Since there isn’t anything abnormal on this part where we are standing, this means that we are not formally in the pocket dimension. If we can leave now…”

“Miss, are you sure?” After Lin Sanjiu urged for Ji Shanqing to leave, a sonorous male voice rang out behind them.

” Did that activate the pocket dimension? But, we haven’t even entered… ” Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help sighing as she turned her head. Perhaps, her mental condition had affected her Potential Growth Value, so Lin Sanjiu did not notice when a person had walked out of the small cottage.

The man was in his forties. He had ruddy cheeks and was wearing a denim shirt. He even wore a neckerchief. Whether it was his appearance or his outfit, he looked exactly like an American farmer. Placing his hands on his porch railing, the man who was probably Farmer Harry smiled at Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing, “Miss, you can leave anytime you want, but if you don’t listen to what I have to say, you’re missing out on a great opportunity.”

“Oh?” Lin Sanjiu replied with a raised eyebrow; paradoxically, she had already retreated a few steps away.

“Wait, don’t leave. Look here!” Harry called out anxiously. He walked out of his house and twisted the signboard so that the words on the back of the signboard were revealed. There were rows of small text on the signboard, “After you read this, you will know why you shouldn’t leave.”

“Harry’s farm, a blessing on mankind, a Noah’s Ark for posthumans,” Stretching his neck, Ji Shanqing read the words he saw on the signboard, “Harry’s Farm provides you a reliable place of refuge against the stormy uncertainties in life. Are you being pursued by your enemies during the apocalypse? Come here, and we will hide you. You don’t have a place to stay? Come here, we have already prepared a bed for you. Low food supply, come—”

“Wait, low food supply?” Lin Sanjiu immediately interrupted Ji Shanqing from reading the entire advertisement.

To be honest, Lin Sanjiu felt a little hungry. Perhaps, being crazy took up too much energy. Her hunger didn’t feel so dire at first. However, with that small trigger, she suddenly noticed the fragrant smell of food coming from the cottage in Harry’s farm, and it seemed almost irresistible.

“Come here, we will provide safe and healthy nourishment.” Harry nodded his head as he beamed while he finished Ji Shanqing’s sentence. “That’s right. You don’t have to worry about food here.”

Lin Sanjiu scoffed. The man probably thought she was stupid.

“Since this is not an involuntary pocket dimension, let’s leave now.” Lin Sanjiu had suffered enough through her experiences with other pocket dimensions. Ignoring Harry, who was standing far behind them, she pulled Ji Shanqing and started to leave.

“Hey! Wait! Why don’t you trust me?” Harry raised his voice, sounding a little desperate. “I think I wrote it well— Hey! Hey you! You two are leaving too quickly!”

Lin Sanjiu ran like the wind, and she quickly moved further and further away from the cottage. Farmer Harry’s voice grew softer and softer until his words were but a whisper in the wind, “If you are too hungry, you are welcome here anytime.”

Ji Shanqing could only react after the farm was completely out of sight.

“Sis, why didn’t you ask him for more details?” he asked cautiously. “After all, that pocket dimension–”

“I can’t trust that man precisely because that is a pocket dimension.” Lin Sanjiu interjected. She had apparently forgotten that Ji Shanqing once lived in a pocket dimension. “I have already survived so many apocalyptic worlds, I don’t think I will die of hunger here.”

Lin Sanjiu actually felt very confident when she said this. The facts were clear. Since she arrived on Meat Elysium, she had not even activated her [Nostradamus’s Card].

Since her [Nostradamus’s Card] could absorb “doomsday elements” within a certain range, she could use her card to absorb the “crypt particles” on the food, right?

Lin Sanjiu felt that her hypothesis was right. After she found a hiding place to rest, she quickly took out a mutton pie she had gotten from Red Nautilus.

The mutton pie which had just been converted back to its original form was in the exact state the moment before Lin Sanjiu changed it into her card. It was still steaming hot as if it had just been taken out from an oven. The fragrant smell which assaulted her nose immediately consisted of a mixture of butter, garlic, spring onion, cumin and milk. It had a yellow pastry crust with just the right fluffy texture. Her grand prize stared longingly at the pie, even the people in Lin Sanjiu’s hallucinations were squating and staring at her food.

Once the battery symbol on her [Nostradamus’s Card] reached 1.5%, it did not increase further. Holding one side of the pie, Lin Sanjiu was just about to stuff it in her mouth when…

“Wait!” Ji Shanqing blinked rapidly as if he had suddenly thought of something. He lunged at Lin Sanjiu and snatched the piping hot pie from her hand. Seeing the look on Lin Sanjiu’s face, he was quick to explain himself, “Sis, the food is exposed to air even when you’re using the card to absorb the crypt particles, right? Why don’t you use the card again, just to be safe, see if there is more—”

” What he said is valid… ” Lin Sanjiu thought to herself as she salivated. She swept her [Nostradamus’s Card] over the pie again. This time, she was so shocked by the results of her little experiment that she nearly dropped the pie in her hand. The amount of cryptic particles only filled 1.5% of the battery the first time but this time, for some reason, the number had increased to 4.5%.

“Erm… It is worse than I thought,” Ji Shanqing also felt a little taken aback when he saw the numerical figures. He suddenly sighed, “It’s useless even if you use your card to absorb the particles. The food is exposed to the air. You can’t prevent contamination unless you sanitize the food in a vacuum. Furthermore, any space without the particles immediately creates a concentration gradient, and particles would instantly move into that space again.”

Unwilling to give up, Lin Sanjiu tried a few more times before she had to concede that what Ji Shanqing said was right. She didn’t even need to use her [Nostradamus’s Card]. When she converted the mutton pie into a card once more, the name of the card changed from [Onion Lady’s Mutton Pie] to [Contaminated Mutton Pie]

They did find other vacuum-packed food products in the residential buildings and the supermarkets. They were not exposed to the air, but Lin Sanjiu certainly couldn’t eat the food whole with its plastic packaging or in the tin can.

After wandering in the desolate city for a few days, without eating a single morsel of food, Lin Sanjiu finally couldn’t hold out any longer.

It was physically draining for her to maintain her abilities and enhanced physique. Furthermore, they had met a few duoluozhongs and had to fight quite a few battles. Even though she could still manage considering the current circumstances, the problem of her daily sustenance loomed over her like an overcast cloud which seemed to grow heavier with each passing day.

Unable to get the nutrients and fluid she needed, Lin Sanjiu’s skin was visibly drying up. Her muscles and fat were being rapidly broken down, gradually revealing her skeletal frame.

One usual morning, Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes and realized that she could only see black even after a few seconds. It was then that she sighed and made a decision.

“Let’s go,” Lin Sanjiu ordered with her parched voice, “We’ll go to Harry’s Farm.”

As part of their contingency plan, both of them had memorized the way to Harry’s Farm as they left. Because of that, they found the farm without much hassle, except that Lin Sanjiu was quite slow due to her weakened state.

When Farmer Harry saw Lin Sanjiu again, he was unsurprised.

Even though he expected them to return, he didn’t show them an I-told-you-soattitude. Instead, he welcomed them warmly. Despite feeling a wave of dizziness every step she took, Lin Sanjiu stopped cautiously when she was right in front of the cottage.

“The food in this world is all contaminated, this is true even for newly grown crops,” she held Ji Shanqing’s arm for support. She seemed even too weak to talk, “Why don’t you explain why the food in your farm can be eaten.”

“Ahem,” the ruddy-faced farmer scratched his scalp beneath his hat. “I didn’t say there would be food.”

“What? But, you clearly—”

“No, Missy. You’re mistaken. ” Harry chuckled as he quickly assured her, “I can provide you all the nourishment you need to survive. This is different from providing you with food to eat, per se.”

“What do you mean?”

“Food that is exposed to the air is indeed all contaminated, but things grown deep underground are still safe. You’ve made a mistake assuming that I grow crops in my farm. I actually grow humans,” Harry revealed honestly.

Ji Shanqing was usually very quick-witted but he was stumped by those words.

“In this pocket dimension, you have the wonderful opportunity to become a plant that will be nurtured by a farmer. You will absorb nutrients from the ground until the day you sprout. The moment you break out from the ground, you’ll be full of vitality, and you’ll be as energetic as before. Each time you undergo such a planting and harvesting period, you will have the energy to last for a month.” While Harry spoke, he took out a number tag from his pant pocket and handed it to Lin Sanjiu. “Here. When I plant every single seed, I need to provide it with all my care. If you want to be planted, you need to wait in queue… There are seven people ahead of you. Wait for a week, and it’ll be your turn.”

Lin Sanjiu reckoned that her expression must be terrible there and then. After hesitating for a few seconds, she finally accepted the card.