Doomsday Wonderland

If it weren’t for the red velvet, Lin Sanjiu would never believe the man in front of her was posthuman.

Strength, agility, dynamic vision: these were the fundamental abilities that constituted a posthuman, yet the man had none of them. Nevertheless, despite Lin Sanjiu’s belief that the outcome of the battle between the man and the junior high student that had yet to evolve would be tough to foretell, she still didn’t have the foggiest notion on how to put up a decent resistance against him. There were even times where she almost got caught by the red velvet.

When she once again leaped backward, she suddenly lost her balance and fell to the ground with a loud thump. Overwhelmed by the fear that the relentless red velvet would catch her, she skidded along the ground and dove away, staring straight at the red velvet that hovered in the sky as she panted heavily.

The red velvet was roughly ten meters wide and two stories high when fully unfolded. It was as large as a theater curtain and covered the section of the sky above her, turning the sky into a piece of soft and satiny dreamland. The crimson red pulsed lustrously with the texture of the velvet. In a single glance, one could feel the fantastic silky finish even without touching it.

Lin Sanjiu knew very well the wonderful feeling. In fact, she had just escaped that fantastic texture.

“I suppose you must think that this is a Special Item, don’t you?” The man giggled with his childish voice. More wrinkles piled on his large forehead, “… Anyhow, the “300 route” of yours is a good thing. Hmm, I’ll gladly have it after I’ve finished my inquisition.”

Lin Sanjiu’s face turned cold.

Just now, when she attempted to seal the knotty velvet fabric by shouting “Have you heard of route 300?” her attempt had failed.

The moment she shouted, the piece of red velvet suddenly spread open on its own and rolled something in the sky into its inner part. Though there was nothing for it to wrap around, Lin Sanjiu’s heart jolted at the sight. When the red velvet had stopped moving, the man offered her a nonchalant smile as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Do you think that my ability can only devour items with a form? That’s too naive of you,” The man clicked his tongue twice. It seemed that he did not intend to explain his ability further as he pointed his finger at Lin Sanjiu, “Lower the curtain!”

“Here it comes!”  Lin San cursed inwardly.

She immediately stretched her legs wide, turned around, and ran at her top speed. However, the red velvet was gaining fast on her, and it closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye. Casting a crimson red over her body and her eyes, it yet again barred her escape route. Just as the smooth texture of the fabric almost touched her skin, Lin Sanjiu immediately activated her “hypersensory state” and thrust her palm toward her back.

She sent forth a vortex of air from her palm, smashing right into the red velvet and successfully pushed it back a bit. Although the red velvet very soon engulfed the small vortex, it did earn Lin Sanjiu some time to jump atop a small building on the street and escaped from the circle of the red velvet.

Taking a breath, Lin Sanjiu was so frustrated that cursing was all she could do right now. She had never encountered this kind of opponent before!

[Have you heard of route 300?], [Tornado Whip], [artist], and [Howtorender]—The three Special Items that had saved her from any repercussions along her journey across the worlds had entirely no effect on the red velvet. Moreover, the strange fabric could eradicate anything shot out from a Special Item in a single swoop, no matter if the item had a form or not. Right after she almost lost her [Howtorender] to the red velvet, Lin Sanjiu did not dare to use any of her Special Items again.

Amongst her abilities, she had few options. [Planar World] couldn’t turn a person’s ability into a card, so she had crossed it out whilst both versions of the [Twinkle in the sky] required her to touch her target’s body to trigger their effect. With the red velvet serving as the man’s protective barrier, Lin Sanjiu believed that the fabric would devour her before even she could even get close to him. As for [Scrooge Mcduck’s Power] and [No Coincidence. No Story], she didn’t even need to think about them.

After a few minutes of mental struggle, Lin Sanjiu discovered with a bit of aggravation that the vortex was the only technique she could rely right now on to push the red velvet further from her.

“To be honest,” the man said with an air of insouciance “I have met three… no four people—you included—that lasted more than two minutes against me. Do you know what happened to them in the end?”

At the same time as Lin Sanjiu released yet another vortex to intercept the red textile, she stomped at the rooftop with a kick and plunged straight into the building. With her hands being full at the moment, it was natural that she couldn’t reply to him.

The man sighed, “All of them has ended up devoured by my ability. So, why are you still resisting?”

Bam! 

As if an explosive device had been installed behind the wall, the building suddenly had exploded from inside. Then, Lin Sanjiu sprung out without any hesitation from the blast of rubbles and dust.

Facing the red velvet, she couldn’t even release one-tenth of her usual combat capabilities. It was undeniable that the upper hand of this confrontation did not belong to her, and she had no chance of coming out on top. Hence, no matter how hard she wished to pry for the information about “candidates,” she would never do that if it would cost her own life.

“You can’t escape me,” As if it had received a command from the man, the red velvet—Lin Sanjiu’s nightmare—surrounded her and blocked her escape path, “The curtain is connected directly to my brain, allowing me to control its movement with my mind. Do you think you can move faster than a human’s thought? That’s absurd.”

Huffing and puffing, Lin Sanjiu turned her head around to face the short man. Perhaps it was due to the shadow of the red velvet, but her eyes were now that deep red color. When she opened her mouth, her dry and hoarse voice stunned even herself, “…That’s preposterous.”

“Hoh? Enlighten me.”

“All abilities have their restrictions and flaws. A perfect ability without any shortcomings doesn’t exist,” Lin Sanjiu said. She searched for a way to escape the red velvet, and the veins on her forehead bulged as she continued, “All I need to do is find out that flaw, and you’ll be good as dead!”

“Haha! Yeap, you’re absolutely right,” The man squinted as he clapped his hand. With the red velvet to help him do the fighting, he seemed pretty lax, “Not only does my ability have flaws, but they are pretty lethal to me. Mayhap this is the price for developing this ability, my strength has not become better; in fact, it became worse. Anyway, I think it’s meaningless to you. In all likelihood, you will never be able to find my second flaw which is my true Achilles heel.”

It seemed that he was in good spirits; the red velvet in the air stopped its movement. The man then continued to speak, “Besides that, you can’t do anything even if I told you the second flaw of my ability. After all, I can see that you’re not cut out for it.”

“Cut out for it? Why would he say that?”  Lin Sanjiu frowned.

“This is your fate. As a person that doesn’t meet the condition, you will never be able to overcome my ability—Lower the curtain!” The man tossed his head back with a burst of zealous laughter as he commanded the red velvet to lunge at Lin Sanjiu again.

Even though she had activated her mimicry and mimicked Ji Shanqing, Lin Sanjiu still hadn’t discovered the chink of that ability. Right now, all she could do was released of vortexes to parry against the onslaught of the red velvet and buy herself more time to think. Nevertheless, she knew very well that this approach could only temporarily take some heat off her. After she had released ten or so vortexes in quick succession, she detected the rapid decline in her energy.

Never once had she ever imagined that with her current combat prowess, she would one day come across an opponent that she couldn’t defeat and couldn’t escape from.

“Is this the end for me?”  Just as the thought swayed into her mind, she accidentally tripped and fell to the ground. Then, from the other side of the street came a familiar voice.

“How can you do that to me? Besides, only two bottles of wines? Are you serious?” In her sight, a man with a thick beard and long matted hair was rushing toward her. He was holding one half-empty bottle in each of his hands. The cigarette that dangled at the corner of his lips moved up and down in tandem with every word he said, “Do you have any idea how cramped that place is? My neck hurt so much…”

A crimson red streak snuck up to him while he was talking.

“Run!” Lin Sanjiu growled. She mustered up strength and darted toward Qing Jiuliu with the idea that she might be able to save him if she was fast enough. However, before Lin Sanjiu could get to him, the red velvet had already wrapped around him, and the last thing she saw from his face was his dumbstruck expression.

Lin Sanjiu’s heart skipped a beat as she yelled, “Qing Jiuliu—!”

“What did you say? He, he is Qing Jiuliu?” The man behind her asked.

Noting the trepidation in his voice, Lin Sanjiu quickly turned around to see that the sloppy figure of Qing Jiuliu was “spit” out from the red velvet and fell face down on the ground a few inches in front of the short man. While she didn’t know what was in that man’s mind, the color drained from his face, leaving only ashen-white behind.

“Why wasn’t Qing Jiuliu engulfed by the curtain but spat out in front of him?”

Before Lin Sanjiu could go more in-depth with that thought, another thought rammed into her mind and made her yell out of instinct before charging at the duo, “Quick! Grab him!”

“You want me to catch him?” Qing Jiuliu scratched his scalp and threw a look at the man in front of him as if Lin Sanjiu’s mandate was totally baseless, “… How do you want me to catch him?”

The man was running away, but Qing Jiuliu remained sitting on the ground like a log, drinking wine from the bottle in his hand. Looking at Qing Jiuliu’s slothful demeanor, Lin Sanjiu felt she would soon explode from her anger. Right after she evaded another red velvet’s ambush, she waved her hand and hurled a bottle of Bourbon on the ground. The clash of the glass bottle with the ground was crisp, and it reverberated clearly in the air.

“Ahh! Fine, fine. Don’t be so impulsive!” As if somebody had given him an injection in his rear, Qing Jiuliu jolted up and gained on the man with only a few strides. As he yelled “fine, fine,” he placed his hand on the back of the man’s neck.

No sooner had his hand made contact with the nape of the man’s neck than the man fell to the ground unconscious. The whole episode happened so rapidly that Lin Sanjiu couldn’t believe this man was the same person who had forced her to a dead end a few minutes ago.

At the same time, the red velvet disappeared from the sky.

Her chest puffed up and down vigorously from the sprinting. With her two quivering legs, Lin Sanjiu slowly approached the man.

“He fell unconscious because he’s lost some blood. He should wake up in a moment,” Qing Jiuliu took a deep drag on the cigarette, then blew the smoke towards the sky, “… At a closer look, he looks like somebody beat him with an ugly stick. Will I become ugly as well if I take his blood?”

Lin Sanjiu took a look at Qing Jiuliu, who looked like nothing more than a barbarian and felt that his worry was totally unsubstantiated.

“He seems to know you,” She tied the man up and placed the [Empty-handed Kleptomaniac] on that man’s back. As a preventive measure, she had Qing Jiuliu to put his hand on the other side of the man’s shoulder. Then, as she was slapping the man, she asked, “How come this guy’s ability does not affect you?”

The red velvet had not spat out her [Vibroblade] like it had to Qing Jiuliu.

“How would I know?” Qing Jiuliu pouted, “… There are many people out there who know me. Perhaps he’s one of my fellow-townsman.”

It sounded like he was giving a perfunctory answer. How many people knew about Lin Sanjiu in the Hyperthermal Hell? Lin Sanjiu decided not to say anything as he had helped her just now. Another crisp and bright slap fell on the man’s face, and the intensity of the slap caused Qing Jiuliu to gasp in pain, even though he was not the one getting slapped.

Blinking his eyes, the man’s eyes were vacuous. Just when Lin Sanjiu opened her mouth trying to browbeat the man, the man eyes rolled around, staring fixate at Qing Jiuliu. After he had scrutinized the man through his squinted eyes, the man sighed as if he had accepted his fate, “… It really is him. Fine, I admit my defeat. Say it, what do you guys want to release me?”

“How do you know him?” Lin Sanjiu remained her vigilant though she didn’t use any preventive measure to seal the man’s ability, “What is the weakness of your ability?”

“What?” The man was stunned, “He hasn’t told you his true identity?”

Hearing this, Lin Sanjiu swept a glance at Qing Jiuliu to see that the latter narrowed his eyes and took out the cigarette butt from his lips. He coughed a little bit to try to mask the awkwardness.

“He is the most famous idol that has the most fans across the world from where I come from,” The man’s face was a picture of abject misery, and his voice sounded he had been greatly aggrieved, “… He’s the youngest best actor in history.”

Lin Sanjiu blinked twice.

Looking at the scruffy Qing Jiuliu who squatted on the ground with an I-don’t-fucking-care expression, Lin Sanjiu felt she didn’t understand that introduction at all.

“… I think it’s fine now for me to tell you the weakness of my ability,” The man continued to say dejectedly.

[A Thespian’s Dream]

As a person born with an unattractive appearance but eager to pursue an acting career, the only chance he got to go on stage is probably in the circus. When the apocalypse came, the owner of this ability developed an ability based on the stage that he had been coveting even in sleep.

When the red velvet curtain is lowered, everything including Evolved Ability, Special Items, and humans that are trapped inside it will be treated as the “theatre productions.” And henceforth all of them will be expelled from the real world. In other words, no matter how strong or how powerful your ability and special item are, they would be forcibly regarded as “fictional plots,” and they naturally would not be able to have any real effect.

After the curtain is lowered, both the abilities and the posthuman would be erased as “fictional plots.” Only certain Special Items would end up backstage as dictated by the ability’s owner.

P.S.: In exchange for such a powerful ability, it’s understandable to sacrifice some of the physical fitness.

P.P.S.: There is, however, one kind of person that would not disappear when the curtain is lowered: actors. Even if they are non-professional, every participant in a live theatre will come out from the other side after the curtain is lowered. After all, all the actors have to come to the front of the curtain to respond to the curtain call.

Lin Sanjiu’s tongue was tied together as she didn’t know what to say.

It seemed that everything had their own pitfalls.