Chapter 159: The Place Where the Lights Stop Blinking
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
During the few days they rested in the elementary school, Lin Sanjiu had an impression that the universe had forsaken her. It was too quiet and too desolated.
The sobbing wind which circled the wilderness outside seemed to be the only sound left in the world. When the wind stopped, they could only see a vast patch of dirty green before their eyes when they looked out from the roof. Sometimes, when they opened the doors in the building, they were usually shocked by some disgusting bug which randomly appeared, scurrying from the side of the door.
The sounds of her companions moving brought a mild atmosphere of life around her. Other than that, it was as if there were barely any other people existing in the entire Garden of Eden.
"It’s impossible that everyone reached their time to leave at the same time, right?" After she patrolled the place twice, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help feeling bewildered. When B.Rabbit brought this up, she didn’t directly observe the particular situation, but now it was different.
Yesterday, Lin Sanjiu walked for five hours and covered a few hundred square kilometers. However, she was secretly surprised that there was only a deadly silence around her everywhere. After covering such a large area, she just met two other posthumans, and one of them was a corpse that had died at an unknown time.
"Sister Lin, our search was considerably better. At least, we saw one person. For the past few days, we didn’t even see a single person after walking for a whole day," Error 517 said encouragingly when he saw her gloomy expression.
—
The nine humans and one rabbit all stayed in the elementary school. Every day, they paired up after drawing lots. Two people were left behind to guard the place while the others would spread out to search for food and the signs of other posthumans. Even though Lin Sanjiu brought quite a lot of food from Garden of Eden, there were now six more mouths to feed. Thus, it was vital for them to scavenge before they ran out of it.
Lin Sanjiu was paired with Error 517. Hui Chuyan was somewhat disappointed for a few days about that and left with Snow. B.Rabbit and Bai Xiaoke stayed behind to guard the school while the others split up and left. But just as they expected, no one brought back any good news.
"Even though we saw another posthuman, that person ran away before we got close," Xueqin said with a moody face. "I don’t think he was a Consular Officer."
Unlike the usual reactions, Consular Officers belonged to the group of posthumans who would neither avoid nor back-off when they saw another posthuman. Sometimes, they might even take the initiative to approach one. After all, they could only survive in the apocalyptic worlds by making deals with other posthumans and getting resources and combat items from others.
In terms of food, they didn’t really have that much luck either. Lin Sanjiu clearly remembered that the other posthumans here already established a way of life, for example, rearing those rats as a source of protein. Despite that, when they went out to search for food, they found nothing.
If this was the case, it was quite meaningless for them to stay here. It seemed that they might really have to continue following the [Dog Frisbee] to the geographic marker set by Er Dao. No matter what, that was the only clue that Lin Sanjiu had to find for a trace of other posthumans living here.
After everybody discussed it for some time, they decided to leave immediately. When everyone had packed all their belongings, the group left the dilapidated elementary school and started their journey.
Lin Sanjiu thought that B.Rabbit would laugh madly when he saw her biting the frisbee in her mouth, however, she realized that he didn’t react at all. After she asked inquisitively, she was finally relieved. [That’s right. A two-year-old pet rabbit wouldn’t know how people usually played with their dogs!]
Considering the current state of Garden of Eden, their group of ten was considerably large. Besides, they had not seen other posthumans for such a long time, so they weren’t that vigilant. Although the twin sisters Metaphysics and Empiricism were given the task of keeping a lookout on both sides, the group was actually traveling rather leisurely. Chatting while they walked, and getting snacks from Xueqin when they were hungry, it was more like they were on an excursion.
After they grew familiar with each other, Green Melon became more lively and excitable. He was now describing how the five of them met B.Rabbit, "At first, those duoluozhongs probably thought that our boss was just an ordinary rabbit. They wanted to catch and eat him. We were also tightly surrounded. We thought that was the end for us. But who knew that our Boss was so powerful…"
To summarize, their group of five accidentally got surrounded by a large group of duoluozhongs. A rabbit near them quickly showed his prowess and saved all of them.
"In our hometown, rabbits are legendary, divine animals which can defeat thousands of enemies…" After recounting what had happened, Green Melon suddenly talked about some sort of extraordinary rabbit which existed somewhere within the universes, "We finally believed that it was true when we meet our boss!"
"Your ability had evolved?" Lin Sanjiu took out the frisbee from her mouth and ask B.Rabbit after she heard that.
Even though B.Rabbit’s combat capabilities were not bad from the start, it didn’t seem like he could perform those incredible feats that his underlings mentioned.
"[All the carrots are mine] leveled up once, so I could absorb the strongest abilities from a few enemies. But honestly, without my [Goth outfit], I would be in danger as well." B.Rabbit shot a glance at his underlings and whispered to Lin Sanjiu, "I tell you the truth because I trust you. Don’t tell this to my underlings."
"You’re petty!" Lin Sanjiu chided him while she laughed and placed the frisbee back into her mouth. When the frisbee was in her mouth again, the LED lights which had been pointing in the front direction started blinking.
Lin Sanjiu stopped and stared at the frisbee. If she remembered correctly, the blinking meant that their destination was drawing near. The other realized her abnormal reaction and quickly crowded around her. However, when they looked around, they still found themselves surrounded by a bland wilderness. If they had to point out a difference, there were just a little more run-down buildings. They probably reached the center of what was once a town.
Not knowing if luck or misfortune awaited them, they all raised their guards. They slowed down their walking pace and followed the blinking light. As they walked, the ground grew uneven; it was as if someone had picked up the ground like a piece of paper and created large mountain creases on its surface. They had to climb these short ridges before they could go forward. Though they weren’t that high, they were very steep. It didn’t take the posthumans much effort to climb to the top of the first ridge.
Lin Sanjiu looked out from a high vantage point. She couldn’t see that far as the next ridge blocked her view. She only took note of the long stretch of red soil which looked like long red scars and the orange setting sun.
"Why does this place look a little disgusting?" Bai Xiaoke mumbled, breaking the silence.
It was probably a disgust that only females would understand. The ridges looked like multiple keloids on a person’s skin after it been cut. The parallel ridges did give all of them an uncomfortable feeling. To add to that, the patches of deep green vegetation that scattered around the red soil seemed like discolored spots on a person who had already entered the rigor mortis stage.
Lin Sanjiu bit the frisbee again and took a step forward. She almost didn’t realize the next second that the lights stopped blinking.
"We’ve reached?" B.Rabbit asked vacuously. "So that guy called Er Dao lived in this tasteless place?"
Lin Sanjiu was also at a loss. [The lights would only stop blinking when the frisbee reached its previous geographical marker, right?] She stepped on the ground under her feet and walked around twice. There was nothing around. She couldn’t seem to find the place where the geographical marker[1] could be hidden.
She tried to walk forward, but the light did not light up. Once she walked away backward and out of a certain boundary, the lights would flash again. This was certainly their final destination.
"Weird. What can we find here?" She continued with the frisbee, feeling a bit hesitant. "Let split up and take a look around. Be careful. We have to stay within each other’s sights."
The words barely left her mouth when their situation changed instantaneously. A small black shadow fell from the sky with a swoosh and all of them quickly rushed aside. The thing fell heavily to the ground, stirring up a dust wall which reached a human height.
Squinting through and coughing in the dust, the twin sisters who were tasked with guarding the group immediately reacted instinctively. One stood on the left and the other on the right and quickly drew out a protective forcefield.
[Queue during a Restaurant's Peak Hour]
Most people probably had the experience of sitting on a small stool outside a restaurant while staring impatiently inside, hoping that the people eating would quickly leave. Even if you’re so hungry that you would eat a horse or even the service staff, you have no choice but to wait patiently outside the restaurant until your number is called.
The ability that developed from this particular phenomenon is a bane for slowpokes. No matter how powerful the opponent, he has to wait until his number is called before he can attack. The waiting time is random but as this ability becomes more powerful, the waiting time would increase.
PS: When the enemy is waiting, the ability user cannot move, m’kay.
"Dear honorable posthuman, your queue number is A102, you still have to wait for 24 seconds." A voice that sounded like a female using a microphone rang from the forcefield. The twins immediately sighed in relief.
24 seconds wasn’t short!
Though the twins couldn't move, their companions behind the forcefield could do that freely. This was the reason why the twins had to always work with a third party. Snow narrowed his eyes and walked up to the black figure.
It was an unconscious young man, and he didn’t seem dangerous.
"Huh?" the bearded man with a towering stature remarked curiously. "I don’t think he was trying to attack us."
"You know what happened?" B.Rabbit immediately asked demandingly.
"Yes, this person must have just arrived from another world." Snow replied quickly, "From the looks of it, he must have been on higher ground in the previous world. So when he was sent over, he fell from mid-air and fainted…"
After he said that, he suddenly realized that his companions were looking at him with odd eyes. He turned behind hurriedly and discovered that the unconscious man had disappeared.
There was merely an indent left on the ground.