Chapter 1024: The First Day of the New World
Chapter 1024: The First Day of the New World
A faint stench hung in the air.
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Under the gathering gloomy sky, Lin Sanjiu's eyelashes trembled, and she slowly opened her eyes. Apart from the faint odor, there were occasional bird chirping sounds and indistinct metal clanging that echoed in the distance. She felt like she was waking up from a long dream. It took her a few seconds to shake off her dazed confusion before abruptly climbing to her feet. In her haste, she unintentionally dropped the stack of visas she was still holding, scattering them on the ground.
What about Puppeteer and Bohemia? Did they manage to come here together?
She didn't have time to pick up the visas. Instead, she looked around cautiously. Soon, her heart slowly sank.
She seemed to be in a large landfill where rusty refrigerators, twisted old bicycles, car frames with only the shell remaining, crushed soda cans, and dirty rags were scattered endlessly, forming small mountains on the black ground that reflected the glimmering sewage. The spots where Puppeteer and Bohemia had just been, were now empty- apart from a crumpled plastic sheet. The dark and oppressive sky seemed to be pressing down on her heart, and it looked like it was about to rain.
She stood silently in place for a while, and a bitter smile appeared on her face.
Why was she still surprised by this?
No matter how many people she encountered, how many years she spent together, every time she was teleported, fate would again completely sever the fragile and delicate bonds she had forged, throwing her into the wind again. They would all be scattered, drifting in the depths of the endless universe, and she would never even know if their paths and lives could intersect ever again.
Lin Sanjiu felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her.
Right now, she just wanted to sit back down on the ground and just wait for the next teleportation. She suddenly felt that she understood Qing Jiuliu, why he always immersed himself in alcohol and collapsed by the roadside like a clump of rotten mud... Because, in essence, what difference was there between this teleportation and the next? It was just a monotonous struggle to survive.
It'd be better to use alcohol and make life smoother.
Lin Sanjiu chose a spot without sewage and sat back down. It was peaceful near the landfill, and she couldn't feel any danger... She bent down and picked up the stack of visas, flipping through them one by one.
After the teleportation was complete, all the visas from the previous world became invalid. Many of the visas still had Puppeteer's name on them, which obviously meant that they didn't transport her to this world. When Lin Sanjiu was about to finish flipping through the stack of visas, her gaze paused, and she quickly pulled one out.
It was an advanced blank visa with bold red letters floating on it: "Journey Performed."
It seemed that although the Great Deluge had caused her to be transported earlier, it coincidentally didn't render the visa invalid, and it was this visa that brought her to this world. In the "Destination" field on the visa, the name written was...
"Esculent Alethia?"
Lin Sanjiu furrowed her brows and couldn't help but mutter to herself, "What kind of place is this?"
Regardless of what kind of doomsday it was, she couldn't muster her usual enthusiasm, and she didn't feel any curiosity about the new world. With enough provisions on her, she could find a place where no one was around and live peacefully for as long as she wanted...
"Lin... San... Jiu..."
Suddenly, a distant shout made her jump in place.
She was familiar with that voice!
"Get... your... ass... out... here!"
The first word sounded distant, but by the time she heard the word "here," the person who was speaking had already gotten within a few hundred meters of her. However, since there were several mounds of garbage between them, she couldn't see each other yet. Lin Sanjiu herself hadn't realized it, but a delighted smile had already snuck itself on her face—the exhaustion, heaviness, loneliness, and frustration from just a moment ago almost completely melted away.
She hurried a few steps toward the direction of the voice and replied loudly, "I'm here!"
Along with Bohemia's shadow, there was also a series of grumbling and cursing.
"Don't follow me anymore! What's wrong with you!"
When the golden-brown curly hair emerged from behind a garbage mound, Lin Sanjiu heard her scolding someone behind her, "Who wants to come to this dump? It's dirty and smelly. I found who I was looking for, so I'm going. Stay away from me!"
"Bohemia!"
As soon as the golden-brown head appeared, a pair of bright eyes emerged from between the wooden frame of a broken sofa. As soon as she saw Lin Sanjiu, her face immediately lit up with excitement. She quickened her pace and ran towards her. But before Lin Sanjiu could clearly see her joy, Bohemia immediately switched into annoyance, "You were transported here too! Why didn't you find me earlier? What were you doing just standing there? I've lost my voice from shouting."
Bohemia woke up to find herself alone, and who would have thought that she had been transported here too? So, where was Puppeteer?
Before Bohemia could ask, she glanced at the man behind her.
The man beside Bohemia was far from pleasing to the eye. His denim overalls stretched over a huge round belly, making one worry that his stomach might burst from the pressure. His shirt and pants were dirty and dark, with oil stains on the cuffs. Despite his heavy pot-bellied appearance, he moved swiftly, following behind Bohemia with a flushed face. "This is private property, who do you think you're looking for? Both of you, get out of here, or I'll call the police!"
"Okay, we'll..." Bohemia began to respond.
But Bohemia paused.
Lin Sanjiu was taken aback, unable to finish the second half of her sentence.
'The police?'
"The police?" Bohemia quickly paused on the term. "Oh, bodyguards? Can you even afford bodyguards? If you can, go ahead and call them. Do you think I'm afraid?"
The man with the big belly faltered for a moment, his face filled with doubt. "Huh?"
"Wait," Lin Sanjiu hurriedly pulled Bohemia behind her and stepped forward. "Are you saying that the government agencies here are still functioning normally?"
The sparse eyebrows of the pot-bellied man furrowed, his cheeks squeezing into his eye bags. "Why wouldn't they be?... I mean, where did you two come from?"
"What is this place? And who are you?" Bohemia interrupted.
"This is the location of our waste recycling company. You can't just come in here! Now that you know, leave quickly!" the man replied, looking more and more nervous.
Bohemia, who grew up in the Twelve Worlds Centrum, still hadn't caught on, but a shocking thought suddenly crossed Lin Sanjiu's mind: "Do you have a TV or newspapers here? Tell me, what did you do yesterday? What did the news say?"
This was the first time the pot-bellied man had been frightened by a young woman. He stammered "A-are you on drugs or something? Are you mentally ill? If you don't hurry up and leave, I-I'll really get mad."
However, these words seemed to fall on deaf ears with the two women.
In fact, rather than being intimidated, Lin Sanjiu walked right up to him, as if buying meat at a grocery store, closely inspecting him, while eyeing him from head to toe. Finally, she broke out into a wide grin "You really aren't evolved! That's great, he's just a regular person."
The pot-bellied man was completely taken aback, and his growing anxiety became even more evident— then again, people didn't usually hear themselves described as "you aren't evolved" in their daily lives.
"Yeah," Bohemia nonchalantly remarked from behind, "otherwise, I would have knocked him away ages ago."
"This isn't the Twelve Worlds Centrum," Lin Sanjiu immediately turned around and explained, "Didn't you realize? This is a world that hasn't experienced the apocalypse, right?" - As strange as it might sound, standing in a dump and being surrounded by mountains of garbage, everything started to look surprisingly "fresh."
Bohemia's last sentence was directed at the man with the potbelly, but he didn't answer. He staggered back a few steps, turned around, before hurriedly scrambling away, shouting, "I don't care what's wrong with you, but you better not come any closer! Hurry up and leave!"
"Let's go," Bohemia muttered, "he sure runs pretty fast.
"So, this is the world six months before the apocalypse? I've never used this kind of visa before."
Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but feel a twinge of nostalgia as she looked at the retreating man's appearance. If someone had approached her before she encountered the extreme temperature hell and talked about the "apocalypse and evolution," she would have probably wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible too.
Bohemia never expected Puppeteer to have such a big influence. A visa for a world that was six months before the apocalypse was so expensive, yet he had at least two of them... Although she wondered where he had been transported to himself. Now that the two of them were both unharmed, they could relax in this peaceful world for six months... As she thought of this, she couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh.
As the man with the big belly hastily disappeared behind several piles of garbage, Bohemia finally took a good look at herself. Although the two of them had actually only been swallowed by the Great Deluge just a few minutes ago, it felt like they had experienced a long separation, making it hard to come to terms with.
"You have a fishbone in your hair," Lin Sanjiu gestured to Bohemia, trying to sound friendly. But her words only made Bohemia's face darken.
Bohemia snapped back, "If you see it, just pick it out. What's the use of talking?"
Her hair was like a spider's web, catching everything. As Lin Sanjiu picked out the fishbone, she asked, "Did you find Puppeteer?"
"No," Bohemia winced as her hair was pulled, quickly pressing her roots. "What if I shout for him and he's really there?"
"What else can we do? Bring him along," Lin Sanjiu replied.
"He's still wearing a drool bib anyway, so it's not dangerous for him anywhere," Bohemia murmured quietly. "If only I could use it myself, I would have worn one a long time ago."
As they spoke, the two of them slowly walked in the direction where the man had disappeared earlier. In a world where they didn't have to worry about pocket dimensions, duoluozhong, or other posthumans, they felt like two ordinary people who suddenly had a free afternoon. They not only got to finally let their guards down, but also started feeling a sense that there was nothing to worry about.
"Did Puppeteer still have his visa with him at that time?" Lin Sanjiu asked as they walked.
"I don't know. I didn't have time to check, but it seems like he didn't, right?"
Bohemia sighed. To her, it was already lucky enough to find one person. She didn't really believe that they were all transported here together.
"Look," Bohemia raised her chin and said, "his house is right up ahead... Hopefully, there will be a few newspapers in his office to help us get to know this place."
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