Doomsday Wonderland

The fog dyed everything it touched in grey. The light from the torchlight could illuminate only a short distance, leaving the area beyond the reach of the light to be swallowed by the thick fog.

Just like ice melting into water, the group that consisted of hundreds of people vanished without a trace after walking into the fog.

Lin Sanjiu looked everywhere and saw nothing but a blurry glimpse of greyishness. The flimsy light from the car could do nothing against the billowing fog.

The silence continued for a few seconds until it was shattered by Yu Yuan.

“Since you guys don’t want to leave, I will just go first!” His irritation could clearly be seen, although it was shrouded under his tattoos.

Lin Sanjiu shouted quickly, “Wait, we want to go too!”

However, she paused after blurting that out. Then, she hesitantly continued to say, “But… as he said, there is no sound out there.”

“So what?” Yu Yuan frowned; the wolf head on his cheek looked like it was going to howl when he talked. “I didn’t come to Shambhala just to listen to any sound. I will go first. Meet me outside once you guys decide to come out.”

He turned around and walked towards the door right after he finished talking. “Then what did you come for in Shambhala?” Meme shouted suddenly, feeling that Lin Sanjiu and Silvan wanted to follow him to get out as well.

Yu Yuan paused before the door.

“What exactly is Shambhala?” Meme shouted again, his voice on the verge of breaking. “Why on earth did you guys want to come here?”

Slowly, ever so slowly, Lin Sanjiu turned around to look at the boy with a pale countenance and said, “None of us know the answer for either question.”

Meme gave her a quick glance and then turned to Silvan for help.

His captain stared at the thick fog silently as he stood beneath a deep gloom.

“I must go out anyway.” Yu Yuan tilted his head and mumbled, “Shambhala is calling me.”

“Isn’t it strange? You yourself don’t even know what this thing is like, and it summoned so many people to come over here. Does it make any sense?” Meme yelled at the top of his lungs. He turned to his captain and pleaded again, “Captain, you must not go out with him! Those people that went out a while ago, we don’t even know whether they are still alive or not! This place just doesn’t feel right!”

Yu Yuan sighed and walked out the door without any words.

“What if you get into an accident after you go out?” Meme shouted again, but his warning fell on deaf ears. Yu Yuan strode out of the car and soon vanished into the greyish fog. Silence returned. The fog continued to swell out.

Lin Sanjiu’s heart somersaulted and then her brows loosened up.

Other than episodes of doubt and struggles, she did not feel worried or anxious about Yu Yuan.

It was like the calmness that came after you were injected with anesthetics.

“Meme,” Silvan spoke. His voice was low and gentle as he stared into the fog. “You should know very well that I can throw you out of the car, right?”

The boy gulped hard.

“I… I know… Maybe you don’t know about me, captain, but I have been on a mission with you before and I know how… powerful you are…”

After that, he threw a quick surreptitious glance at Lin Sanjiu. Despite Silvan’s warning, he did not let go of their hands but gripped them even tighter. He did not activate his evolving ability, nor did he use any of his Special Items. He just relied on his own strength and dedication to grasp their hands as tightly as he could.

“So… you’d rather take such a huge risk just to stop me?” asked Silvan as he stared at the boy with his emerald green eyes. He could not comprehend his action, so he asked again, “Why?”

“Why? Because you are our captain!” Meme then hesitated for a second as if he felt the answer was not good enough. “Without captain, what will happen to the security department? And those senior officers out there… All of them are…”

“No, I guess you misunderstood my question,” Silvan interrupted. He raised his head and looked into Lin Sanjiu’s eyes. Both of them could see the same confusion in each other’s faces. “Do you really think what we’re doing right now is weird?”

“Yes!” Meme’s face became so red his face looked like a huge tomato. “It is… It is as if you have been drugged!”

“Drugged? Us?”

Lin Sanjiu stared blankly at the emerald green eyes. She knew Silvan must be in the same state as her right now. Both of them could intellectually understand Meme, and it should have stirred up something in their hearts. However, neither of them knew why, but they just couldn’t feel anything.

“Understood.” Lin Sanjiu sighed and then brandished her arm furiously to smack Meme away. “But no matter what, we must go out.”

“Then you go yourself!” the boy yelled, his voice laced with pain and anger. “Leave captain alone!”

“No,” Lin Sanjiu said simply as she began to search around the car. She felt as if there was a fog in her brain and Mrs. Manas was trapped behind the fog, shouting and struggling as she tried her very best to get close to her. Even though she was merely a shadow right now, she was getting clearer as the minutes went by. “Your captain has to go with me.”

“What are you looking for?” Silvan walked up to her and asked softly.

“This is a Munitions Factory armored personnel carrier, right?” She opened up a drawer and pulled out several things, such as uniforms. She threw them on the ground and asked Silvan, “Are there any Special Items on this carrier? Or something made by the Munitions Factory?”

“Are you talking about…”

Lin Sanjiu stopped her movement and looked into the fog. It had been two minutes since Yu Yuan and the group of posthumans went out. She was not worried about them; rather, she was excited about what she was about to do later. It was as if something outside was calling her, and she wanted nothing more than to follow and heed its call.

It was all thanks to Mrs. Manas and Meme that she was able to retain some of her rationality and consciousness, though they were as weak as a blade of grass raved by the strong wind. The voice in her heart that told her everything was wrong was getting stronger by the second. She could not ignore it no matter how hard she tried, so she wanted to find out whether or not the voice was wrong.

“We must go out. Everyone has already gone out, including Yu Yuan… We have to look for them, so we can’t stay here anymore.” Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and smiled bitterly. “By the way… there is a voice inside of me that keeps yelling at me to go out, and I can barely resist it.”

Facing the two people in front of her, she shook her head and continued, “Anyway, if we are going out, we must be careful and well-prepared for any consequences. Hence, I’d like to borrow something from the Munitions Factory.”

With a smile plastered to his face, Silvan twisted his wrist and freed himself from Meme’s grip. He didn’t even turn his body, and before the boy knew it, he was pushed a few steps away by Silvan.

“That’s easy,” he said, “I brought all the exhibits from the auction with me. Meme?”

The boy still seemed to be in a confused state, as he couldn’t follow the sudden change of situation. He raised his head blankly and replied, “Huh?”

“You are still a trainee, right?”

“Yeah…”

“We are now going out to check the surroundings, so I am asking you this right now: are you willing to follow me as an official member?” Silvan said as he licked his lips. There was a fire brewing inside of him that caused his eyes to flare up brightly. When he chuckled, his voice was hoarse. “…Perhaps you can rescue both of us, since you are the only one here right now. You understand what I said, right?”

Meme fell silent. He looked at the fog that fluttered into the car through the opened door. After that, he turned to his captain, straightened his body, and announced through a solid voice with only dedication in his eyes, “Captain, I will follow you to the end of the world!”

Silvan nodded. Then, he turned around and opened up an overhead compartment. He was tall and his arms were long, so he took a black bag down without any difficulties. The bag was almost half a person tall, and it was so huge, people might think there was a door inside. He hurled the bag at Meme, and the boy almost fell to the ground. “Take this! This will be your equipment.”

“Yes, sir!”

After that, they quickly checked through every equipment they had and then stepped out of the car one after another. The light from the car illuminated a small piece of fog in front of them. The fog fluttered and grazed their skin. Lin Sanjiu had no idea why, but she felt as if the fog was alive and that something was staring at them through it.

As soon as they left the skytrain, they were instantly enveloped by a deadly silence. There was nothing that could be heard aside from Meme’s labored breathing, which was getting heavier as they walked deeper into the fog. If it weren’t for Meme, Lin Sanjiu might have thought she was walking on the riparian land next to the river of Styx.

Three halos of light pierced through the fog. Their torchlight could light up no more than a few steps ahead of them. Through the mist of white, Lin Sanjiu felt that the ground beneath her feet was covered with rubble and rocks, looking like bone at first glance. Lin Sanjiu tried to look around, yet she couldn’t find even a single blade of grass. It was barren land.

They couldn’t see the road ahead, so they did not know whether they were walking in the same direction as Yu Yuan or not. However, after walking in the mist for some time, they found that their concern was totally uncalled for.

“We have a downslope here,” Silvan’s voice came from the fog not far away. He sounded as if he couldn’t contain his excitement, and his pleasant voice was quivering slightly. “All the people who come out could only go down. I guess you two already realized it, didn’t you? The terrain of this land is like a giant bowl.”

Before Lin Sanjiu could reply, she tripped over something. Nonetheless, her reaction was swift, so just as her body began to lean forward, she took a large step ahead and attempted to regain her balance. However, little did she expect, the thing that tripped her was exceedingly huge. She did not step onto the ground as expected but instead planted her feet on something soft, which caused her to lose her balance completely.

She quickly extended her arm outward and prevented herself from landing face first on the ground. Both Silvan and Meme were startled by the commotion she made, as their voices rang out at the same time, “What’s wrong?”

“Something tripped me,” Lin Sanjiu said as she got up from the ground. She realized her heartbeat was not speeding up at all. In her heart, there was only calmness and a wash of happiness for finally being able to achieve her goal. She picked the torchlight up from the ground and shone it ahead. “Let me see what it is…”

She became stunned before she could finish her words.

The thing that tripped her was none other than Yu Yuan.