Doomsday Wonderland

The black-and-white movie flashed in tandem with the rattle of the projector. From time to time, there were specks of black dots here and there on the screen. Right now, there was the view of a street in Kyoto on the screen. The street was empty, as the group of samurai—who were supposed to be inside the movie—had disappeared. The gang of samurai remained colored in the same bleak tone of the monochromatic film. Staring sombrely from the other side of the screening room, they began to march towards Lin Sanjiu.

Hearing the voice, Lin Sanjiu looked over her shoulders, and she couldn’t help but curse inwardly.

The samurai had been chasing Lin Sanjiu around ever since they had gotten out of the screen. The chairs were scattered haphazardly about the room, and there were times when she almost fell into their clutches. The bright side was, even though she now possessed only the strength of an average person, she still had her battle senses. With a body full of wounds, Lin Sanjiu made an opening and rushed to the front of the screen. She stretched her arms high, reaching out for the screen.

It was just she had never expected that the screen was made out of extremely sturdy material. As a normal human, she couldn’t pull it down regardless of how hard she tried. Her attempt wasn’t futile, nevertheless, as with each pulls, the image of the samurai flickered. After a few more pulls the screen remained hanging firmly on the wall, but the gang of samurai seemed enraged.

Seeing that they were coming at her again, Lin Sanjiu quickly loosened her grip and darted at a spectacled male audience in the first row.

“Move!” She yelled at the man, who stood ramrod still.

She pushed him aside and took his chair. Initially, she wanted to move the chair out of her way, but the samurai were already behind her. She could hear the clicking of their geta sandals. Without wasting a moment, Lin Sanjiu spun around and swung at the samurai with the chair, earning herself some space.

In the next second, the leading samurai caught the chair with the cutting side of his katana. As a spring of sparks and an ear-piercing squeal raced into the air, the samurai sliced the chair in half and cutting Lin Sanjiu’s hand. Since the chair bore the brunt of the cut, the wound was shallow, but the second strike from beside her was deadly. It sliced down from her shoulder and chopped off her arm.

Lin Sanjiu gasped and covered her shoulder with her hand. She kicked the ruined chair at the samurai. Taking the chance as the samurai staggered to his feet, she spread her legs and turned to sprint again.

As soon as Lin Sanjiu turned around, she almost bumped into the man behind her.

“It’s almost time,” the man sighed. He took off his spectacles, and the irises behind the glasses turned brown until they became just like the eyes of Bohemia. Pulling a long face, she sneered, “… At long last, my Potential Growth Value has returned to me.”

Just before she finished speaking, the gang of samurai and the group of theatergoers vanished into the air like popping bubbles. A gush of Higher Consciousness raged towards Lin Sanjiu and enveloped her whole, just like how she extracted Potential Growth Value from Syphilis. However, in the next moment, Bohemia retreated. Her face blanched with horror, and her voice teetered on the brink of fear, “You’re cheating!”

Lin Sanjiu gestured with her shoulder, and the amputated arm, as if it had been bestowed with life, instantly flew to her and reattached to her body. She had used this tactic in prison once, but Bohemia did not realize it, so it was obvious that she would fall for it.

Lin Sanjiu knew Bohemia was going to summon the samurai when she saw her turned her gaze towards the screen. Without saying anything, she leaped forward and lunged at Bohemia. The two women fell to the ground with a loud thud. The screen flickered a few times, but nothing came out.

Bohemia groaned out in pain on the ground. With her arms and legs flailing vigorously in all directions, a hopeless defense was mounted. She couldn’t get Lin Sanjiu off her body regardless of how hard she tried. On the other hand, Lin Sanjiu felt relieved, for her conjecture was proven to be correct. Even Bohemia herself was affected by her corresponding condition, and she was now an ordinary person.

If Bohemia wasn’t affected by her corresponding condition, she didn’t have to go a roundabout way and summoned those samurais.

“Let go of me!” Bohemia panted heavily. Her struggles grew considerably weaker after a short while—another testament that showed that she indeed had little physical strength. “Kinda brilliant, aren’t you? Faking your injuries to deceive me. Where did you get that idea from?”

“Thanks for your assessment.” Even before she evolved, Lin Sanjiu’s physical fitness already put all her female peers in the shade. Right now, she was sitting on Bohemia’s back with her hands clamped firmly around the latter’s wrists like manacles. As she endured another hail of kicks, she said, “Didn’t you only show up after I defeated Syphilis? Of course, I know what you are aiming for. You wanna get both of our Potential Growth Value, aren’t you? But you can’t do it if you don’t show yourself—”

Bohemia couldn’t speak since Lin Sanjiu was sitting on top of her. She emitted a guttural voice and continued to struggle with all her might.

“You even have set up a whole batch of obstacles in here. Combining both factors, I was about 80% sure that you were hiding amongst the theatergoers, waiting for the right moment to strike at me.”

It wasn’t hard for Lin Sanjiu to come to this conclusion. After all, it wasn’t the first time Bohemia used her corresponding condition, and fundamentally, aside from gaining a group of audience members, Lin Sanjiu found no difference between the screening room and the house.

“So what are you gonna do now?” Realizing that she wouldn’t be able to free herself, Bohemia hissed, her brows raised, “What did you eat? How come you’re so heavy?”

Well, the truth was that the Higher Conscious form was weightless. She couldn’t get up as Lin Sanjiu had more strength than her. Due to her pride, Bohemia would never admit that she was weaker than Lin Sanjiu in terms of raw strength. She kept her haughty demeanor as she snarled, “You should probably lose some weight!”

Sneering, Lin Sanjiu did not take her words into heart, “Less of your nonsense. I win, and you lose. Hurry up and dissolve your corresponding condition!”

“Never!” Bohemia’s exploded. She suddenly stopped struggling, “I dare you to sit on my back forever! Or else, when I get up, I will summon the samurai… In the end, you still have to return my Potential Growth Value to me!”

Lin Sanjiu felt things were getting harder when Bohemia was obstreperous. She could hardly contain Bohemia, and she had to watch out for the latter’s sudden retaliation. She couldn’t knock her out cold, nor could she get up and walked away.

“Why the fuss when you cannot get back your Potential Growth Value from me?” Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help snarled, “There is no use in keep going like this. Neither of us will gain anything!”

“You could snatch my Potential Growth Value while you were so weak, so why can’t I get it back now?” Bohemia jeered at Lin Sanjiu. Then, she flailed like a beached fish again. Seeing that her attempts were futile and that Lin Sanjiu was still sitting on top of her, she snapped, “I don’t care! Just give my Potential Growth Value back to me!”

Lin Sanjiu was caught in between tears and laughter. Exerting more force, she gripped Bohemia’s wrist more tightly. Bohemia screamed out in pain. Then, out of a sudden, she stopped struggling at all. And both of them fell silent.

“… What is your corresponding condition?” After a short while, Bohemia asked.

Since Lin Sanjiu did not want to reveal her corresponding condition to Bohemia, she just vaguely said, “It’s not a human form.”

“So…” Bohemia took a deep breath and said, “Can I say that this is not your corresponding condition?”

Lin Sanjiu knew precisely what Bohemia was saying. There were Oxford shoes, black in color, standing right in front of them. Neither of them knew when they arrived.

… And Bohemia had dispersed her audience.

“Earlier on, when I reached this area, I suddenly lost all my ability to move. I thought it was you, so I…” Bohemia muttered. Then, she yelled, “Why are you still sitting on top of me? Get off now!”

Lin Sanjiu ignored Bohemia. She raised her head and looked ahead.

In front of them was an older man. He had a broad face full of wrinkles, which gave him the vibe of a toad. When he opened his mouth and began to speak, Lin Sanjiu realized that she had heard of his voice before. She quickly released her grip and leaped away from Bohemia’s body.

“Well, well, it has been half a year. Quite a long time, don’t you think?” His voice was sharp and assaulting, like somebody scraped a chalkboard with their fingernails, causing Lin Sanjiu’s skin to explode into gooseflesh. He was one of the stars that had chased after her when she first arrived in the Astral Plane. His stellar form had been cherry pink in color…

After the old man had had enough studying Lin Sanjiu, he shifted his gaze towards Bohemia, offering her a wide grin, “… I have gotten wind of somebody that had outsmarted you. I have been looking around for you, but you’re too good at hiding. Now that I finally can meet the two protagonists of the story, today must be my lucky day.”