Doomsday Wonderland

The rendezvous point that cluster 4 chose was a broad-leaved plant at the heart of the greenhouse. Each of the leaves was large enough to accommodate everybody. Here, Lin Sanjiu could finally see all the people in the greenhouse.

The discussion was not as smooth as they expected it to be. Almost everybody was guarded against each other; their faces were full of wary. Since nobody wished to suffer the short end of the stick, every time an idea was raised, it would undoubtedly be followed by the sound of objection. They had ended up in an impasse. The progression was so sluggish that it brought people to the verge of insanity.

Finally, after a few hours of persuasion, debate, and explanation, all the members from the four batches reached a consensus. Each cluster still maintained ownership of the respective spawning points. The only thing that had changed was the method of harvesting.

First, all 19 members would gather at a location. When the indigo flowers spawned, each cluster would send two members to collect the flowers and the remaining members would stay behind to monitor each other. With so many pairs of eyes watching, nobody would be able to slip away. Of course, it went without saying that the primary objective of this maneuver was to keep cluster 5 at bay.

Although they didn’t say it explicitly, their inner thoughts were written on their faces. Even Baldhead and String Bean vaguely expressed a similar thought as well. This was because in the case that they failed to locate the members of cluster 1, they wouldn’t be able to enact the zero absorption rate plan. Then, cluster five would become the time bomb for them. Hence, to prevent such a scenario from happening, they had to restrain cluster 5’s movement from the beginning.

“I will soon join their ilk if I stay any longer with these bunch of conceited simpletons,” Number 46 scowled at Lin Sanjiu while leaning against the base of the blade, “To be honest, I’m starting to get a phobia of getting close to these kind of thickheads.”

After everybody arrived, Number 46 only spoke a few words then he gave up. He sauntered around the leaf and took his rest on the sidelines like a theatergoer watching a play. He participated no more in the debate but only talked to his own batch members occasionally.

Lin Sanjiu was not the person to judge if she had to say.

“The biggest beneficiary of this plan is cluster 5, right?” Just when the wind dispersed number 46’s sarcasm, a man, who Number 46 described as a man with the look of a mentally challenged patient rose to his feet, “… It doesn’t make any sense to me that while we are risking our life hunting for cluster 1, cluster 5 should stay behind, taking their time to regain their vitality. I suggest that if those who are tasked with the hunting assignment need to hand in their number tags, then each of our clusters should send in two members whilst cluster 5 should be wholly despatched.”

Lin Sanjiu and Number 46 looked at each other and a cold smile tugged at the corner of the latter’s lips.

The reason why the meeting dragged on so long without coming to a commendatory outcome was that everybody was unhappy with the point where those who went out for the hunting mission had to hand in their number tags.

Lin Sanjiu knew full well the underlying motive of cluster 4. In the worst case scenario where they had lost all their number tags, cluster 5, which had handed over all its members’ number tags would be the only one to take the full hit. Without their number tags, cluster 5 would not be able to rise from bottom anymore and cluster 4 could secure their penultimate place. Hence, in order to bring their ill-intent objective into existence, cluster 4 had proposed spades of nasty tricks, dragging a would-be an hour meeting into a long hard day.

Truth be told, Lin Sanjiu was quite surprised that Number 46 had tolerated them until now.

Baldhead gave a bitter smile as he comforted them, “Not only cluster 5, all of us will gain something if we can locate the member of cluster 1. I would suggest we send out all those in fine fettle. After all, our goal is to win this together. The matter on who will be dispatched should be the last of our concern, right?”

Seeing that the man rolled his eyes and wanted to repeat something, Number 46 interjected. His voice was devoid of any emotion, “I have no opinion on sending all my team members.”

“The wounded can stay here,” Spring Bean was startled by Number 46 before saying.

“There’s no need to worry about me,” Lin Sanjiu threw a smile at the eyes that were staring at her. Then, she helped herself up by using the plant as her support. Though it was a superficial wound, it still hurt enough to made her locked her eyebrows together in pain. After the pain had ebbed away, she pointed to something on her midriff as she smiled, “Anyway, I still have this to help me venture through the dense vegetation.”

The man from cluster 4 who wanted to talk just now moved his bulging eyes at where Lin Sanjiu had pointed. Then, they reddened.

“This indeed is handy gear to use, especially in this greenhouse,” Lin Sanjiu ignored the man’s deathly stare and returned him with a big smile of her own. She even began to demonstrate the thing in her hand like a zealotry salesperson trying to promote her merchandises, “If we adjust the angle of this [retractive mobility gear] like this, we can navigate ourselves horizontally— See, a rope would fire from here and if we angled it at the stem of another plant…”

As she said, a rope shot out from the [retractive mobility gear] at her waist and hooked on a stem overhead. Then, she reeled in the rope and she was swung to the other side.

“That is mine!” The bulge-eyed man was incensed, “Give back us those or else we won’t participate in the plan!”

Lin Sanjiu cast him a gaze, “But I’m injured and this is the only thing that can help me move around.”

“Well, let me tell you something: I don’t give a fig! Roll or crawl on the ground, whatever you like! Do you still want us in the plan?” The bulge-eyed man hissed as he drew a cruel arc on his lips, “If you don’t wish to be the last in rank, then give us back those now!”

Lin Sanjiu snorted as if she was pondering if she should return the thing to its rightful owner, yet she didn’t stop playing with the [retractable mobility gear] in her hand. As the machine continued to whir in the air, Lin Sanjiu navigated the gear with practiced ease, slaloming in and out dexterously of the branches.

“Stop it! Right now!”

When Lin Sanjiu once again steered her figure past the bulge-eyed man, the latter saw it as a provocation as he yelled in anger. He lunged a few steps forward and extended his hand to grab the rope in front of him. However, Lin Sanjiu was a beat faster than him. She reeled in the rope again, and before the man knew it, she had already flung herself to the other side. The man was so enraged that his lips quivered. Bending over, he pulled out a stiletto blade from his boot and darted in, hurling the cold steel in his hand towards the rope above Lin Sanjiu.

Just when Lin Sanjiu hurriedly pulled herself into a higher altitude, the bulge-eyed man suddenly let out a guttural scream as if somebody had clenched on his windpipe. Then, blood came pouring out from his chest and his number tag was sliced into half from the middle, dropping to the leaf with a thud.

Everybody was at lost at the scene that was happening in front of their eyes. A woman from cluster 4 rose to her feet; her face white in terror. In the next second, before she could even scream, a hand came from the shadow that fell above her. The hand hit her squarely in her chest, sending her reeling before the shadow returned to the sky again.

“Don’t worry, that man hasn’t died yet. I haven’t used the sharpest thread of mine,” spoke Number 46 with a warm smile.

Once again, the benevolence in Number 46 took the stage. When he had everybody’s attention, he slowly stood. He stretched his arm and touched the stem overhead, winding in some sort of thread that flashed a silvery light before disappeared into his palm.

Unbeknownst to everybody, he had set up a thread in the air.

The bulge-eyed man realized that he was still alive after Number 46 said that. He made a few hard coughs before clambering from the pool of blood. The silver thread had badly mutilated the skin and muscles on his chest, but it wasn’t fatal enough to harm his life. He pressed his hand firmly onto his still-bleeding wound and stared in awe at his number tag, now broken into two pieces, bathed in his own blood.

“Weaving in the air around the silver thread needs plenty of skills and experience, you know?”

Sitting in the middle of the sky, Lin Sanjiu smiled at the man. She picked up her hand and waved the card in her hand. The moment the card was out, a clamor burst forth from the direction of cluster 4. The woman who had just regained her balance looked down at her chest and found out that her number tag was gone. Her countenance paled at the realization as she understood everything.

With only Number 46 and Lin Sanjiu, cluster 5 had already beaten cluster 4 into the last place in the twinkling of an eye.

A shock of silence filled the air. The ten or so people on the leaf were at a loss of what to say.

“We wished nothing else but to work together,” Number 46’s voice echoed loud in the air, sounding pleasant and unrushed, “Even if we’re at the bottom, we’re more than willing to implement the zero absorption rate plan. The reason we did that is to remind you guys of something.”

He nodded to Lin Sanjiu and something hurled out from the latter’s hand, drawing an arc in the air toward the direction where cluster 2 was standing. The people were startled that they jumped back. They realized that it was the number tag of the red-shirted guy after the thing had dropped on the leaf.

“That cluster 5 joins this plan out of our willingness, not because we’re forced to.”

Lin Sanjiu finished what Number 46 had left off as she watched the red-shirted guy picked up his number tag and put it back on.

“That’s right,” Number 46 offered cluster 2 and 3 a grin, “We’re very lenient towards our friends, whilst for the idiots, we have a special way that allows us to knock the thing into their thick skull.”

The silence prevailed for a while before a sigh from Spring Bean shattered it. Then, from behind them came a small commotion. Baldhead cursed Number 46 for his ruthlessness as he commanded Sunny to tend to the bulge-eyed man’s injury. With cluster 2 and 3 as the peacemakers, the remaining two members from cluster 4 had dropped their thought of revenge for their comrade. And so, the meeting ensued.

However, unlike the last time, the atmosphere this time was different.

Even though Number 46 still didn’t participate in the meeting and returned to the corner without saying a word, the meeting was carried out and finished with an unimaginable efficiency. Gone was the recalcitrant cluster 4. They had instead become the most efficient cluster that wished nothing else but the success of the “zero nutrient absorption rate plan.” They were also the first batch to leave the assembly point and disappeared into the foliage.

Drawing a lesson from the ending of Military singlet, the two members without number tags became restless. In this situation where half of their cluster members had lost their number tags, the remaining two members in cluster 4 with number tags had no choice but to hand in theirs to Baldhead.

“The injured will stay behind,” Baldhead counted the tags in his hand and announced, “Cluster 3, 4, 5 will leave one behind… For us, can we trust you with the job, Sunny?”

The petite girl wanted to retort something, but Baldhead killed it with a pat on the back of her head.

“We have to prepare for all contingencies, as such, this is my idea,” As Baldhead continued his announcement, he reshuffled the tags in his hand into four portions before distributing to the four people that were going to stay behind, “Here you go. I have all the tags mixed so you aren’t getting your own or your cluster members’ tags. Keep them safe, and return them to the owner after all of us come back.”

Lin Sanjiu was the candidate from cluster 5. After she took her portion, she watched the bulge-eyed man and another petite girl wearing heavy and thick spectacles sit down quietly.

The other members began to move.

Driven by an unknown reason, Baldhead stayed until the last. Lin Sanjiu didn’t know his motive, so to protect herself, she used the [retractable mobility gear] and hid in a leaf above. Then, she finally saw the reason for his action.

“Hey Sunny,” He pressed his voice very low and mumbled to a girl standing beside him, “Regarding the thing I asked you earlier, can I take it as a yes from you?”

Sunny kept her head low. Moments later, she nodded slightly. Her nodding was so slight that it was barely noticeable.

“Oh lord, thank you for making this happen! When we’re out of here, I’m going to search for any gold or jewelry store. I know marriage is no longer the mainstream right now in this post-apocalyptic world, but I felt I still need to carry out my obligation as your partner by gifting you something to symbolize the connection between us. After that, we need to find a Consular Officer…”

While Baldhead was too transported with joy that he couldn’t stop talking, Sunny interjected. Her voice was as small as the buzz of a mosquito as she said, “… Why would you? Now isn’t the time to talk about this, you know? I don’t understand what makes you want to propose to me. And now you want to buy me something from a gold store?”

“Hey, I couldn’t agree less with your statement,” Baldhead said, grinning like a Cheshire cat, “Let me ask you, do you not need to eat in the apocalypse? No, right? You’re just like rice. For me, both are my most basic needs, so if you don’t accept my proposal, I will be starved to death.”

Sunny was tickled pink by his statement. She replied, “What a glib talker.”

Lin Sanjiu felt it was bad to eavesdrop on the bill and coo between two lovebirds, so she moved to another place.

When the couple was done having their own time, Sunny sent Baldhead away. She returned to a corner of the leaf with a visible blush on her cheeks.

Aside from bulge-eyed man, who gave a solemn face and refused to talk, the other three women chewed the fat and the time passed relatively fast for them. After around five to six hours, somebody returned.

However, just like Lin Sanjiu had worried, none of them had come across the woman in sportswear.