Doomsday Wonderland

Was there any sense of fairness in seeking revenge?

Imagine this situation: if somebody stabbed you, then you would stab him back. It seemed pretty fair on the surface, but when you looked deeper into it, oftentimes, that was not the case. You did not hurt anybody and were innocent, so why would you have to experience the same pain as the proprietor? The only fair treatment should be the wound on your body disappearing while the proprietor got stabbed in the same spot.

Let’s try to imagine another situation: if you were killed, fairness would ensue if you were resurrected and the murderer died in your place. Only through this way could your benefits be preserved while the murderer received the punishment he deserved at the same time. However, since this kind of situation defied natural law, it was often unacceptable in the majority of places save for one—the pocket dimension.

Her blood was pumping fast and the flow of blood had blocked out all other sounds. However, despite the chaotic situation, there was one thing clear.

She finally figured why she must not allow the corpse to get near her. It was because the dead body had regarded her as the murderer and would get its “fair treatment” from her once it got close enough. What could be more just and fair than taking life from the murderer and resurrecting itself?

“Quick!” Mrs. Manas urged in her mind, “Go to your right!”

Covering her chest, Lin Sanjiu kept the [Tailored Learning] away. The line “a dead body that believes in fair treatment can only be achieved through lex talionis” vanished from the air. She loosened her grip on her [Ability Polishing Agent] and the silver bottle rolled out far into the corner of the warehouse. She did not go to retrieve her it and pulled her [Tornado Whip] out instead. Then, with a mighty swing, she sent forth a gale to the front.

The glut of corruption disappeared from her face along with the dead body, leaving only a faint rotten scent lingering at the tip of her nose. It was hard to describe the smell, and if she must give a description, she would say it smelt like death and decay. When it flowed through her nasal cavities into her body, she felt half of her blood dry up while her consciousness was slipping away.

Before Lin Sanjiu could hold her breath, a stabbing pain jolted mercilessly through her body and her organs. Her breath became stuck in her throat, and in mere moments, her clothes were soaked with blood that bubbled out from her body. Using the fleeting chance endowed by her [Ability Polishing Agent] before it slipped away from her hand, she saw that the patch of blood on the dead body’s chest was shrinking.

In less than half a second, the corpse had transferred its injury to Lin Sanjiu’s body. She had no idea how it managed to do that, but the current situation did not give her the freedom to find out.

Mustering every ounce of strength in her body, Lin Sanjiu pulled herself up from the ground. Her ears started to ring and her vision turned gray and fuzzy. Barreling forward, she went straight to the direction under Mrs. Manas’s navigation and hid in between two racks. She turned her head and peered through the slit in between the racks to see the dead body flying through the air with its two legs fluttering like two sacks before its entire body hit the ground.

“Don’t let it come any nearer to you anymore,” Mrs. Manas spoke hastily, “I don’t wish to see your neck get twisted like that.”

‘Not that I want that to happen, but…’

The words lingered on the tip of Lin Sanjiu’s tongue, but she could not spit them out. Leaning against the rack, she kept her hand pressed tightly over the wound and her consciousness was fuzzy like a TV screen that was covered in snow.

‘Did I hurt any of my essential organs? Are my lungs bleeding?’ Lin Sanjiu did not know. She was clueless about what had happened to her body, and she did not know why such a small wound could cause her to be on the verge of losing consciousness. She had suffered countless injuries more severe than this, yet…

Ryuji seemed to notice her condition as well. He was calling out to her, yet he sounded like he was talking underwater. His voice became almost inaudible. To make the situation worse, the warehouse was dreary and her field of vision was now becoming more nebulous with every passing second. She had to blink her eyes hard several times to remain focused. In the distance, the corpse was getting up from the ground. Without the wound on its chest, its limbs behaved in a more coordinated fashion and its movement had become more agile.

‘Damn it…’

Lin Sanjiu turned to resume running, but her legs refused to obey the command. She stumbled and her shoulders slammed into the rack.

“The first aid kit.” As her consciousness was fading away, Mrs. Manas’s voice became more unstable. “The grand prize must have prepared one for you. Quickly look for it.”

As if there was an ever-growing black hole in her body sapping her strength away, she grew weak rapidly. She plopped onto the ground, then got up again albeit falteringly. She subconsciously took a cuboid object out, but it was the communication device and not the first aid kit.

“First aid kit,” she mumbled. It seemed that even in her current condition, the wellbeing of her grand prize was all she cared about. “Grand prize…”

Dragging its arms and tilting its head, the corpse charged straight at Lin Sanjiu at a blinding speed. She summoned her dissipating strength to pull herself up from the ground and began tottering down the warehouse. The wound was causing her tons of pain and it was getting harder for her to breathe. As a posthuman, this was one of the few occasions on which she felt powerless and vulnerable.

However, Lin Sanjiu let out a bitter smile when she thought of something else.

The corpse had transferred its injury to her. It had been fatal to the corpse. Therefore, according to the principle of “an eye for an eye”, she should have been dead the moment she received the wound. The reason she could survive for so long was that her physical body was more durable than a normal posthuman’s.

As she wobbled towards another side of the warehouse, she could not believe that she did not even have the room to take a breather after sustaining such a severe injury. Standing on the only side that was not covered by any wall, Ryuji shouted, “What’s going on? Your wound seems terrifying. Don’t you have any medicine or appliances to tend to that?”

Before Lin Sanjiu could reply, she tripped and fell to the ground once more. She was certain that the grand prize must have prepared a first-aid kit for her, but in the situation whereby she did not know the exact name of the kit, she had no other choice but to search through her card deck one by one.

Watching her, Ryuji fell into deep thought. Then, as if he made a decision, he lowered his head and pulled something out from his body.

“Here, take this. You’ve helped me a lot. This is the best I’ve got now. I’m throwing it in!”

As soon as his voice faded away, a spherical mass flew from Ryuji’s hand into the pocket dimension. Gnashing her teeth, Lin Sanjiu forced herself up from the ground and grabbed it. Then, as if triggered by the scent of blood, the thing came to life and poised its head up. After that, it made a beeline for her chest area and coiled its body around her wound like a snake.