Doomsday Wonderland

Even though Lin Sanjiu groused over the fact that the hints she had gotten were too vague, she had a strong inkling why the people in the hallucinations always choose to speak ambiguously—

This was because she had not fully understood the situation.

The people who appeared as her hallucinations were just hallucinations. They were different from the Nüwa that appeared when she used her [Consciousness Mimicry]. These people were just part of Lin Sanjiu’s thought process. For example, Rena shouldn’t know about the double chromosphere but she provided her the hint about them. Fang Dan died long ago, but she managed to warn her about the Jaegers. In other words, this information came from Lin Sanjiu’s subconsciousness, but it was appearing to her in another form. Simply put, unless she worked out the situation, her hallucinations wouldn’t be able to explain anything properly to her.

Taking a different perspective, the current symptoms of her schizophrenia was like the enhanced perception she felt once in Hyperthermal Hell, however, she was unable to activate that [Observation] skill after she overspent her higher consciousness in Oasis.

Lin Sanjiu stared absentmindedly at Silvan’s eye-catching and attractive face as she contemplated. Her thoughts were interrupted by an anxious, frustrated shriek.

“I can’t find any!” Number 45’s voice was loud and ear-piercing. “I searched everywhere. There aren’t any water droplets in my zone. This is unfair. The zones with the water droplets have been assigned to everyone else! Brother 42, I insist that we have a rotation so that we can search the other zones.

Once she said that various responses rang out in the chamber. Unsurprisingly, the people who managed to find water droplets did not agree to suggestion whereas those who were empty-handed started to complain and throw shade. At that moment, everyone was about to start quarreling—

“This is understandable.” Lin Sanjiu sighed as she massaged her legs. She did not stand up. The group had found five other water droplets. Aggravatingly, the irksome Number 44 managed to find three droplets. No one would find this fair. In fact, even before Number 45 made that statement, she already noticed people heading toward Number 44’s zone.

“Hey, I have the smallest zone. There are only 11 cubicles here. I didn’t say anything then!” Number 44 yelled. He wasn’t going to give up without a fight. “You people can’t do this. You assigned the smallest zone to me. Now, you can’t stand seeing that this place has the most water droplets!”

“If we change zones, would you be happier?’ Number 43 scoffed. Even though his zone was beside Number 44’s, he hadn’t found any water droplets, so he was feeling indignant.

With that said, other people started to chime in. Lin Sanjiu listened to their raucous arguments, but she really didn’t have the mood to join in. Her instincts told her that it did not matter which zone they were in. Ever since they entered this chamber, her hallucinations had been hinting at her non-stop. This meant that she was subconsciously aware that things weren’t as simple as they seemed. They were missing something…

“But, what is it?”

Silvan combed his hair to the back as he stood beside her. When he placed his hand down, his face had changed to Gong Daoyi. Staring at the man’s beautiful jawline, Lin Sanjiu vaguely remembered that he did mention something about an example.

“Example? A case?” She mumbled to herself as she climbed down from the cubicle she was in. “What example? What has it got to do with the current situation…”

By then, the quarrel was almost over. Only a minority of them found water droplets so they could not compete with the others about the decision to rotate zones. As Lin Sanjiu did not know which zone she would be reassigned to, she decided to leave the cubicle. She sat on the small empty space with soil on her body and waited quietly for the others to arrange everything.

“You aren’t the only person that did not join in that squabble,” Gong Daoyi crouched beside her. “Look.”

Lin Sanjiu’s followed his finger with his gaze and noticed someone shifting to the other side of the chamber, pressing his body against the wall. He bent over and disappeared into a cubicle. The person moved quickly and soundlessly so no one noticed him but Lin Sanjiu saw a number ‘8’ on his chest when he zipped past.

“These two people are quite smart,” Lin Sanjiu recalled that Number 48 wasn’t assigned that zone. She sighed and spoke to the empty space beside her, “The two of them started searching other people’ zones while the group was arguing.”

She continued watching. After a while, that person peeked out from the cubicle again. He looked around cautiously. Light reflected off his glossy hair as he climbed to the next cubicle. Even though the couple had quite a good plan, they couldn’t continue for long as the others had already decided on how the order in which they should rotate zones. Lin Sanjiu was assigned to Number 45’s zone. As she walked over, the girl brushed past her shoulder and sneered, “All the best. I didn’t find anything in my own zone.”

“Me too,” Lin Sanjiu smiled. “Which world are you from?” Lin Sanjiu asked suddenly.

“Honey Marsh,” Number 45 replied hurriedly before her petite frame disappeared into a cubicle. Once she was at Number 45’s zone, Lin Sanjiu looked surveyed the area once and sat down. There was no need for her to search further.

Number 45 had dug through all the cubicles in the zone. She had scoured every inch of soil. There wasn’t a single spot of unturned soil. Lin Sanjiu was sure she couldn’t search as thoroughly as that girl. Lin Sanjiu decided that she might as well rest and conserve her energy. She could only use this time to think.

While Lin Sanjiu rested, everyone else didn’t waste a single minute. However, no one found any new water droplets even after they changed zones. Of course, no one could tell whether everyone truly didn’t find anything or were just unwilling to announce their discovery.

“Do the water droplets require time to regenerate?” Number 42 sounded like he was trying to encourage everyone, probably because he noticed the gloomy atmosphere. “We had been searching for more than an hour and five water droplets appeared. Maybe, five more droplets will appear within the next hour?”

“It might be possible,” someone agreed, “Should we wait and see?”

“If that’s the case,” Number 43 suddenly remarked, “I will take a nap first. I will see if there are any new water droplets after I wake up.’

“That’s right. It is not necessary to search non-stop. Maybe new water droplets will generate in every cubicle after some time…” Number 45 added.

“I think the true test for the seed stage is for us to differentiate between the clean and contaminated water source,” someone spoke. This was followed with affirmation from quite a few others.

The group’s focus was quickly drawn to the problem distinguishing the water source. However, Lin Sanjiu was still in a daze.

“An Example. Septimus. The gay couple. Harry’s Farm. The number tags…”

After the various signs, clues, and hints she received once she had entered this subterranean chamber circled in her mind. She felt like she was in a fog. She had the feeling that she was very close to the truth, but she just couldn’t cross this barrier. Lin Sanjiu did not know how long she thought about the problem, but when she snapped out of her thoughts, the chamber was already silent. The exhausted seeds seemed too tired to speak or even continue searching.

“I can’t rely solely on my own instincts,” Lin Sanjiu thought. Thankfully, she had more resources than just her instincts. “[Consciousness Mimicry], Ji Shanqing.”