Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1127: Teleportation Destination

For a moment, Lin Sanjiu considered whether Puppeteer had gone mad. 

It was said that prolonged suffering and hatred could take a toll on a person's mental state. She attempted to speak several times, but her words failed to form coherently. Questions about the remaining duration of the [Torrent of Time]'s effects and what Puppeteer meant about being teleported eluded her.

Unbeknownst to her, she had already aged considerably.

While Lin Sanjiu couldn't speak, Bohemia didn't dare to do so. The air hung heavy until Puppeteer suddenly cast a sidelong glance, his gaze sweeping over her.

"Don't misinterpret," he said, sneering. "The [Torrent of Time] may induce aging and death, but this doesn't prove you'll live to this ripe old age in the future. It's merely an assumption."

As his words settled in Lin Sanjiu's mind, she struggled to react. Gradually, she comprehended the underlying message. A surge of strength coursed through her, prompting her to lift her head abruptly. "You—you mean—"

Puppeteer turned away and headed towards the shade of the trees without pause. In the blink of an eye, he distanced himself, yet his voice remained distinct. "Your luck is as wretched as dog urine. One stroke of luck can lead to a catastrophic downfall."

Did this imply that the effects of the [Torrent of Time] had already ended? If she had indeed been inching towards her demise, Puppeteer would have reveled in it and wouldn't have said, "this doesn't prove you'll live to this ripe old age in the future."

Whether it was a psychological effect or her body gradually regaining strength, Lin Sanjiu could speak once more. "Help... help me up."

Initially, Bohemia hadn't heard her, occupied with inspecting her own hair and cheeks. It wasn't until her fingers encountered her long, curly, golden-brown hair that she heaved a sigh of relief. Scanning her surroundings, Bohemia swiftly extended her hand to pull Lin Sanjiu up from the ground. 

By the time Lin Sanjiu regained her footing, her hunched back had straightened, and her wrinkled, spotted skin had transformed into a smooth, youthful complexion. Her vision had also sharpened as if it had undergone a thorough cleansing.

They had narrowly escaped becoming dead bodies strewn on the ground.

Lin Sanjiu had felt no joy when she was gasping for breath earlier. Yet, now that her energy and vigor had returned, she was filled with fuel. When thinking of this, she couldn't help but feel angry. Puppeteer had no intention of killing her, but he wouldn't concern himself with her safety either. In the grander scheme, it didn't matter, but Bohemia had repeatedly been endangered due to her, placed in harm's way several times.

"Wait for me here," Lin Sanjiu whispered to Bohemia. "Don't approach unless I call you."

"What do you intend to do?" Bohemia suddenly reached out and grabbed Lin Sanjiu as she was about to take a step forward. "Are you planning to confront him?"

Lin Sanjiu wasn't entirely certain of her intentions. She hesitated for a few moments before responding, "I... I want to talk to him."

She knew it sounded like a delusion.

"I really don't get you," Bohemia whispered urgently, glancing at the distant figure. "Even if you want to keep him alive, what can you do by being near him? He'll probably kill you first. Besides, what are you resentful for? You know exactly what Puppeteer... Sir, is like. If you choose not to leave, you should be mentally prepared for this."

Lin Sanjiu was left momentarily speechless, struggling to formulate a response.

"Let's go." Bohemia pulled her up, and in her golden-brown eyes, the sunlight gradually intensified like it was noon. "After all, we're not dead yet, right? I even remember what I looked like in my previous life. Maybe this could be a clue."

Stirred by her words, when they caught up to Puppeteer again outside the forest, Lin Sanjiu finally managed to suppress the anger that had been simmering within her. Unaware of Bohemia's wide-eyed gaze, she took a few steps closer and whispered to the dark figure's back, "When you used the [Torrent of Time], didn't you look around you?"

"Why? Are you beautiful?"

With just four words, he reignited her anger. Lin Sanjiu deliberately lowered her voice even more, attempting to maintain her composure, "If you want to back out, just go ahead and kill me. I won't run away. But my friend shouldn't be pulled in."

If Puppeteer suddenly turned around and struck her down, sneered and mocked her for her so-called friendship, or even acted like he didn't care about what she said, it wouldn't surprise her much. However, he didn't do any of those things.

He didn't so much as turn his head.

His neat and shiny black hair, combed back behind his head, contrasted starkly against his pale skin, appearing as vivid as ink, startling to the eye.

Amidst the slight, rhythmic creaking of leather, Lin Sanjiu held her breath and followed him for a while before finally hearing his almost inaudible words.

"You can leave now," he said after a moment's pause, continuing without turning back. "You said you would help me find Gong Daoyi. Now that you've brought Magus to me, that promise has been fulfilled. You can go; take your worthless fish and get lost."

Lin Sanjiu didn't expect such a response. She slowed her pace, saying in a low voice, "When he arrives, do you plan to meet him alone?"

"I heard busybodies don't live long. I welcome you to continue."

"Is it because... Gong Daoyi is dangerous? You don't want us to get involved?"

"You're truly a genius at concocting your own emotions."

Lin Sanjiu bit her lip. Just as she was about to ask if he was healed from his injuries, she realized something. All this time, she had thought that Dr. Hu was waiting for them outside the forest. But they had walked quite a distance between the hills, yet there was no sign of the cat doctor anywhere.

"Didn't I already say?" Puppeteer said coldly. "I was teleported away. Haven't you noticed that my puppets are gone too?"

"Wait a second." Lin Sanjiu's thoughts were dragged back to the issue, and she waved to signal Bohemia to come closer. "You were teleported away?"

It didn't make any sense. He couldn't have gone on a trip to another planet in space and come back in such a short time. "If you were teleported away, it means you aren't here... But since you're still here, how did you get teleported away and come back... So, Dr. Hu..."

"I smell something burning. Is your brain fried?"

As she was subjected to his cutting words, Bohemia caught up as well, still wearing her innocent expression. Puppeteer suddenly halted, turning slightly—fortunately, Lin Sanjiu stopped in time, avoiding a collision.

"You're really not leaving?" 

He still didn't glance at the two of them, his gaze fixed on the distant hills and wilderness. Beneath his pale skin, blue veins seemed to float, as if he might evaporate under slightly stronger sunlight.

Lin Sanjiu considered for a moment, while Bohemia nudged and winked at her, clearly expressing her thoughts, but she pretended not to notice. "I... I think it would be nice to have some company on the journey, looking out for one another."

Puppeteer fell silent for a moment, then turned his head again, picking up his pace and walking forward. The plain gradually gave way to fields crisscrossed by roads, and human traces were about to reappear before their eyes.

"Leave," he said.

However, Lin Sanjiu was determined to make her own decisions and didn't intend to heed anyone else's advice. But she knew this kind of pride was something she had to keep to herself.

"So, what do you mean by teleportation? And where is Dr. Hu?"

"Take a look at the road and fields in the distance," Puppeteer said calmly as he walked, though his pace was fast enough to make the two people behind him pant for breath. "What do you think is missing?"

Missing?

Lin Sanjiu looked around, and the approaching human area seemed utterly ordinary: utility poles, streetlights, highways, road signs, endless orchards with no end in sight, and large billboards standing by the roadside.

"Is... is it people?" she tentatively asked.

Bohemia let out a puff of air through her nose upon hearing that. "If people were everywhere, it wouldn't be called a doomsday world. Besides, you're still far away."

"You're surprisingly dull," Puppeteer said, then raised his hand slightly and gestured toward the road in the distance. "Haven't you noticed? In such a large area, there isn't a single mushroom."

"Really!" Bohemia couldn't help but exclaim. "You're quite astute, Sir. Aren't these human-developed areas supposed to be mushroom societies? Ants don't live in cities. Could it be that there are human societies that do not rely on either side?"

"No." Puppeteer waved his hand, stopping the other two in their tracks. "Stop by the side of the road and don't go up."

Lin Sanjiu had a belly full of questions, but knowing that asking them would only invite ridicule, she remained silent and followed Puppeteer as he stopped on a slope a few hundred meters away from the road.

"The [Torrent of Time] is most likely a byproduct of the Great Deluge," Puppeteer said, startling both Lin Sanjiu and Bohemia. "The Great Deluge disrupted the rules of teleportation and sent me to the next world within less than fourteen months. I obtained the [Torrent of Time] because the Great Deluge suddenly occurred. When the teleportation happened, I was tracking a few ant colonies. I came all the way here, crossed this slope, and got on the road... Then, those people from the ant colonies turned back. As I followed the road for a while, wanting to know the purpose of their trip, I looked down and found that my body was gradually disappearing."

That was indeed a sign of teleportation. Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but ask, "Where were you teleported to?"

"Esculent Alethia," Puppeteer said, seeming quite unaccustomed to speaking so much to her. Upon closer listen, you could detect faint annoyance in his voice. "I was teleported back to Esculent Alethia."

'That's impossible,' were the first words that came to Lin Sanjiu's mind, and it was clear after seeing Bohemia's face that she was thinking the same thing. "You can't teleport to the same world you just left. Otherwise, that isn't even teleportation. Even with the Great Deluge—"

"Who said it was the same world?" Puppeteer's voice, as sharp as an ice blade, cut off her unfinished words. He glanced at the road in the distance and the direction it disappeared into, then smirked. "Beyond the road lies another doomsday world. After accidentally crossing to this other doomsday world, the Great Deluge brought me back here. Now, is your brain starting to burn?"

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