Doomsday Wonderland

The three of them surrounded the cracked pot. Nobody talked. After a few minutes of waiting, Lin Sanjiu began to grow impatient. She darted a glance between Deun and the pot again and back again.

“It doesn’t have any effect? That’s weird,” as she muttered the question to herself, she sent a wave of Higher Consciousness at Deun, throwing the bloke sideways like flipping a turtle. She then glanced at her grand prize, asking, “Why does it have no effect?”

Ji Shanqing went closer and looked at the pot of river mud. Then, he said hesitantly, “Perhaps the facial features weren’t clear enough?”

That might be the reason.

Although both of them had flattened the river mud as much as they could before pressing Deun’s face into it, there were only a few holes and some indiscernible facial features on the clay. Without Deun standing beside it, the faces could be anyone.

“Come over here,” Lin Sanjiu called out to Deun without raising her head.

The big guy lingered over and stopped at a distance a few steps away from her, “What do you desire for summoning me human?”

“I’m going to draw you a portrait,” Lin Sanjiu said after she thought for a moment. She turned over to her grand prize, and they both whispered to each other. Then, she nodded in assent, “Stand over there and don’t move.”

Though he was ordered to stand completely still, Deun was still startled by the artist when Lin Sanjiu summoned her [Unfinished Drawing]. He screamed and turned to flee, only to be pinned on the ground by Lin Sanjiu’s Higher Consciousness.

“Can you not understand a word I said? I asked you to stand still. That means don’t fucking move!” Lin Sanjiu turned over to the artist after she had finished her out lash at Deun. She saw that with a bucket of paint in his hand, the artist’s face was clouded with bewilderment as he stood in a daze, not knowing what to do.

As a humanoid Special Item, [Unfinished Drawing] would immediately realize the hostile target in Lin Sanjiu’s mind the moment she summoned him and begin to draw. Everything around the hostile target would appear lifelike on the canvas but the target himself. In order to perfect the depiction, the hostile target would be then sucked into the drawing.

It was just, today, the poor artist couldn’t locate his master’s target even after he had scanned around several times.

After a short moment of rumination, Lin Sanjiu pushed the artist in front of Deun and pointed at the pebble beside his foot, “… This is it. Draw the stone.”

The moment her voice died away, the artist had already put on a canvas on an easel in a blink of an eye. Though he looked flummoxed, he still did what Lin Sanjiu had asked him and began drawing the stone.

The efficiency of a Special Item was incredible. The painting was soon done, and the stone was absorbed into the canvas. It turned into a lump of colors and became part of the depiction, and the drawing was finished.

Right now, there were two Deun, one inside the drawing while another in the real world. Both of them had a similarly large body frame and face, staring blankly at Lin Sanjiu.

Lin Sanjiu put the artist away, leaving the painting out. The artist had perfectly captured every fine detail about Deun. His appearance, face features, demeanor, everything about him was completed to perfection, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this drawing the best picture of a god. Clenching the painting tightly in her hand, Lin Sanjiu was preparing to put the drawing into her card. Then, she peered at Deun.

“How’s it?” Ji Shanqing asked, his voice thick with curiosity, “Did you feel anything different?”

Deun did not reply. His irises suddenly rolled to both sides.

Lin Sanjiu looked at Deun with her eyebrows raised with a question. When she was going to call out to him, her arms began to twitch. And before she could say anything, she was overwhelmed by a spiral of familiar trembling. In an instant, she fell to the ground with a loud thud, and she lost her control over her own body.

[Planar World] had upgraded!

“Sis’!”

She somehow heard her grand prize was calling out to her, but she couldn’t hear anything but a muffled voice. It was as if they were communicating underwater.

As she continued to tremble, she felt somebody come near to her and ask, “What’s wrong with her?”

It was Deun. Ji Shanqing did not have the bandwidth for Deun’s question now.

He yelled, “Move aside!”

He went forward to help Lin Sanjiu up from the ground. Then, he froze. He turned his head and looked up again. Deun seemed a lot bigger than he was a few minutes ago.

He stood there like a tower. His towering body blotted the sun and cast a long shadow on the two people below him. On his flat, stupid-looking face, his two eyes were getting further and further away from each other. There was strange light flickering in them.

It was at this moment that the grand prize suddenly realized that Lin Sanjiu still had his portrait in her hand. Turning his head, he saw that the drawing dropping out from her hands.

In the next second, Ji Shanqing and Deun pounced at the drawing at the same time.

The grand prize was nearer, so he got to the drawing before Deun did. He’d covered a larger portion of drawing under his body while Deun only got hold of the corner.

Deun did not dare to use too much strength as he pleaded, “Let go!” for he was afraid of tearing up the icon.

His size wasn’t the only thing that had gotten bigger, and his voice had become louder too. Every word that escaped his lips were loud enough to cause buzzing in Ji Shanqing’s ears.

Huffing, Ji Shanqing placed the weight of his upper torso on top of the portrait. He couldn’t talk now, for he did not know what he should say, and all he wished was that Lin Sanjiu would finish her upgrade soon.

Deun stared at Lin Sanjiu with his two large eyes, which the grand prize did as well. Usually, it didn’t take long for an Evolving Ability to finish its upgrade and seeing that Lin Sanjiu would soon recover from her convulsion, Deun moved his flat face closer to the grand prize and roared, “Ha!”

The word carried an immeasurable amount of strength, hitting the grand prize and Lin Sanjiu, who was very near to the grand prize, away. They rolled along the ground for a few yards before stopping.

As for the portrait, it had slipped off from the grand prize’s hand and fell on the ground when he was thrown into the air.

“Divine power level 1!” Deun yelled out loud happily. He hunkered down and picked up the portrait from the ground, “I’ve finally advanced to Divine power level 1!”

Just when his fingers were about to touch the portrait, the portrait was pulled by something further away. As if it had been bestowed with life, the picture continued to skid along the ground a few paces forward.

Stunned, Deun quickly went after it and extended his arm. However, the painting once again slipped away from his fingers. Deun’s countenance turned grim. He pounced forward, but his attempt was futile as the portrait once again nimbly avoided him.

Following which, Lin Sanjiu’s wavering voice filled his ears, “… What do you think you are doing?”

Raising his head, Deun found that Lin Sanjiu was sitting in front of him. Her eyes were cold and filled with killing intent. She wasn’t grabbing the portrait, not that she was able to do so in her current state. The picture just floated in the air, moving around her like a fluttering butterfly.

“Give me the painting. I’m now a god with level 1 divine power,” Deun cast a sidelong glance at her, “Hand over the portrait now, lest you want to fall to the mighty force of the punishment of a god!”

The reason he wasn’t afraid of Lin Sanjiu was that he saw she was still trembling.

Not only could she not stop shaking like a sieve, but even her Higher Consciousness was also affected. Not pulling the painting to herself wasn’t out of a wicked sense of humor, it was just that her Higher Consciousness was acting somewhat erratic right now, and she couldn’t control it as smoothly as what she usually did.

Seizing his chance, Ji Shanqing darted in to grab the painting, only to be thrown aside by Deun with a wave of his hand. Stunned, as Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes, Deun’s had already pounced in front of her. Her vision turned black, and a sharp pain spread across her face. Like her grand prize, she was flung away as well.

“You have entered secondary school!” Mrs. Manas’ voice rang out in her mind, and she sounded surprised, “Who could’ve thought that both of your abilities would upgrade at the same time!”

Torn in between the throbbing pain and the surge of fatigue, Lin Sanjiu thought she had heard Mrs. Manas wrong. At this moment, Deun, who had neutralized both her grand prize and her with practiced ease, strode towards the portrait in large steps, muttering, “Phew, he almost crushed my portrait.”

It seemed that the portrait was wholly denied to be his possession. He was very close to the painting, yet Lin Sanjiu thwarted his effort by pulling the painting to her hand using her Higher Consciousness when his fingertips touched the concaves and convexes of the painting.

In the next second, the portrait vanished in her palm as she had turned it into her card.

Deun froze. He did not become smaller, but his face was growing redder until his whole countenance was scarlet with anger.

“Why can’t you just give it to met?” The big guy exploded, sending his booming voice reverberating loud and far into the distance. It was apparent that the disappearance of the card did not affect his “divine power” at all, “That’s my portrait! It’s Mine! Give it to me! Now!”

“You still have your divine power even though I have put the painting away?” Lin Sanjiu asked with a low voice after she had calmed down her body. Her cheeks were flushed in red with exhilaration. It was as if she was delighted with the changes inside of her, “Hmm, interesting… Well, let’s see what I can do now.”

Deun came to a mental halt, as he did not understand what she meant. However, it did not stop the bloke that had just attained divine power from unleashing his rage. He gave out a loud cry, and without moving an inch, he sent another wave of energy towards Lin Sanjiu and her grand prize.

“That’s right,” Lin Sanjiu commented, as a knowing grin appeared across her face.

Deun stood stock-still, yelling and shouting in rage for two seconds straight. Then, he came to a sudden stop. A bewilderment expression was written entirely on his face, “Y-y-you destroyed my portrait? But it couldn’t be…”

“Nope, I didn’t,” Lin Sanjiu waved her hand, calling upon the painting onto her hand.

Deun listened, mouth agape with incredulity.

[Congratulations on leveling up! [Planar World]– level 4, and School of Higher Consciousness – Secondary School]

Description: Nobody had ever expected that, under the stimulation of external forces, these two abilities would level up at the same time. Since the timing and the trigger point of the level-up was too close, there are some reaction happened which given rise to a connection in between the two abilities

Active Ability: Planar World, School of Higher Consciousness

Level-up count: 4, High School

Forecast Date of Next Level-up: Oh my gosh! Have you not given up yet?

Level-up Benefit: The weight limit of a single conversion has now reached 4 pounds, and you can now convert up to 64 items per day. If it continues to double like that, I believe that one day the number will become so big that I can’t show it anymore. The depictions on the [Planar World] remained the same. The main upgrade of this level-up is the inconspicuous blank space below the picture.

The ability of [School of Higher Consciousness] High School: Esthesis.

The two upgraded abilities must be used together to bring out the best effect of them. Please follow the instruction as below.

First, release your Higher Consciousness.

Secondly, once your Higher Consciousness has touched your opponent’s attack, activate the “Esthesis.”

Next, once you have felt your opponent’s attack, put your hand on top of the blank space of any cards. Let’s use the [Tissue Paper] as an example.

Then, your opponent’s attack will be turned into a card.

Finally, the “attack” that has been turned into a card will adhere to the [Tissue Paper]. If you wish to release the “attack,” just throw the tissue paper.

In other words, Lin Sanjiu could now use her Higher Consciousness, in place of her hand, to turn an item into a card. Not only that, she was, too, able to convert a formless object into a card. However, there’s a flaw in this ability as it would be rendered useless if her opponent’s attack had overpowered her own.

Clearly, the so-called “Divine power level 1” of Deun was still far from reaching the maximum output of Lin Sanjiu.