Doomsday Wonderland

It appeared to Lin Sanjiu that the thing on top of her had not realized that she had woken up already.

Her brain was working rapidly to come up with a way to free herself, but the iron grip on her hair and the heavy and shallow breath accompanied by a low, hissing noise denied her an easy escape. The thing swirled on top of her for a few seconds, then she heard it open its mouth. The sloshing of its saliva stirring in its jaw was loud in her ears. Then, before she could do anything, it began singing.

It would too far-fetched to call it a song. It was totally out of tune, and it did not have fixed lyrics or melody. It sounded like a mishmash of all discordant tunes and was harsh to the ears. “La la la…scalp and hair…piece after piece…More and more…I need scalp and hair…”

As soon as the last word spewed out of the thing’s mouth, Lin Sanjiu yanked her arm upward and hurled a towel with [Level 6 Divine Power] at it. She did not store much [Divine Power] and this was the last and strongest sliver she had stocked up. The ground began shaking violently while the air was filled with smoke and rubbles, and the rumbling was deafening.

As soon as she felt the grip on her hair loosen, she sprang up from the ground. The towel fell back on the broken wall. The power of a Level 6 Divine Power was something not to be taken lightly. It pulverized the ground behind the wall and a massive crack had appeared in its place. All the trees and grass fell into the crack and vanished into the empty darkness below.

However, the thing that grabbed her hair was nowhere to be seen.

Divine Power was formless and colorless. It would not leave anything behind other than destruction. She scanned the empty ruins warily, yet nothing came in sight. She was certain that she had missed her target as she could not even see a single drop of blood in the crack.

“Who is that?” Lin Sanjiu shouted even though she knew there was no use.

An eddy of wind came and swayed the grass. When she felt the breeze stroking her cheeks, the hoarse and raspy voice rang out once again. This time, it came from the wind. “La la la, scalp and hair…la la la, will you spare me some?”

A chill crept down her spine and prompted her to take a few steps back. Before she could pinpoint the location of the speaker, the wind then dissipated into the horizon along with the voice.

She took out [The Phoenix] and grabbed it tightly in her palm. She shouted, “Do you want my scalp and my hair? Well, come out now and get it yourself!”

The only answer was the hollow wind from the empty ruin.

“Are you one of the personalities?” Lin Sanjiu sneered coldly. She needed her opponent to speak again to locate its position, so she kept firing more questions into the air, “Are you finally ready to step out from the dark and confront me? Was it Septimus that exposed my location? Since you’re here, why don’t you just show yourself?”

“Twenty times twenty…Slice them up, slice them up…Put them together and make a square…”

Lin Sanjiu could not be sure if the voice was singing or talking. The articulation was weird. It was rapid at one point yet disconnected in the other. However, it was not the right time to figure something like that out. She spun around and unleashed a gush of massive suction force to her front. A black silhouette flew up from the direction of the sound. It zoomed across the sky and soon appeared in front of her.

Only when both her hands made contact with the shadow did Lin Sanjiu realize it was merely a rock that looked like a human, but it was already too late.

Splinters of shattered rock exploded in the air and rained down on her. She curled up like a cocoon to protect her head, leaving her arms and her body to bear the brunt force of the hailing stones that were sharp as knives. Before she could figure out what happened, her chest tightened and she felt a strong tug from her head.

“Scalp and hair…” The same voice came again and slid into her ears. It caused her skin to burst into gooseflesh and the hair on her nape to stand up. She had never heard this kind of voice. If she were to give it a description, it sounded like the shuffling feet of a centipede or the rustling of the body of a snake when it slithered across the ground. “More and more…I still need another half…”

With her [Mosaic Censorship] still activated, her hands shot up to the back of her head. Her hands landed on empty air and did not touch a thing.

“There’s no one behind you!” Mrs. Manas shouted.

“What?” The word spilled out her mouth before she could even realize it. Be that as it may, she was clear that Mrs. Manas was right. She could feel her hair had stood up straight as if somebody was grabbing it. However, she had been flailing her arm about, yet she could not touch anything.

It was as if the air was holding her hair.

“What the hell is this?!” she shouted, “Let’s try with Higher Consciousness!”

Without waiting for Mrs. Manas, she circulated a large amount of Higher Consciousness and pushed it towards her back. She could clearly hear the grass rustling and the wall crumbling as her Higher Consciousness blasted through them, but the grip on her hair remained and was getting stronger and stronger with every passing second.

“Hair…and scalp…A little more…just a little more…”

She had thought of cutting her hair to free herself, but she soon denied the thought. After all, the thing still wanted her scalp.

Lin Sanjiu could feel her scalp being peeled away from her head. The process was exceedingly arduous and painful. She hastily deactivated her ability and held on to her hair as she shouted, “What are you? Why do you want my hair and scalp?”

Lin Sanjiu was merely trying to buy herself some time. She never thought the thing would actually stop pulling her hair after hearing what she said.

“Because you have…what…I don’t…have…” In such close proximity, the voice sounded very robotic. It did not sound like it was coming out from a human’s vocal cords but rather a timbre when two stones were struck together. “I…I need…”

The thing had no body, so no matter how many Special Items or Evolving Abilities she had, it was useless since all of them could not land a hit on it.

‘If the thing doesn’t have a corporeal body, then how could it have grabbed my hair?

‘Could it be really the air all along…?’

If her opponent was the air, then she had something that was effective against it. Still, she had to distract its attention first.

“Oh? Why do you need my scalp and my hair?” Lin Sanjiu gasped.

“I…I want to…be…” Before the thing could finish its sentence, Lin Sanjiu whipped up a strong cyclone with the [Tornado Whip] and sent it upward. She could feel the thing’s fingers tightening and a sudden burst of pain caused her eyes to water. Then, she felt the grip relax and she was free.

Since the [Tornado Whip] was very close to her, she almost got tangled up by the strong wind as well. It took her several minutes to stand up and regain her balance.

“Like a human…and go to…go to other places…”

She could still vaguely hear the voice amidst the gale. “So…give me your scalp!”

Lin Sanjiu covered her head with one of her hands and began looking around for the voice. She felt that the thing was not one of the twelve personalities, but she could not think of any better candidates other than them.

“I want golden, auburn, or black hair and a healthy scalp…”

The voice continued to haunt her even though the gale had dissipated. Like the air particles that filled the air, it was everywhere. No matter how many times she turned around, she could not locate the source of the voice.

“If you don’t give it to me, then I can only go the old way. Ah, the old way…Here it comes…”

‘What the hell is it talking about?’

Before she got the chance to ask anything, the voice disappeared suddenly. It was as if nothing had happened before. The wind stopped blowing and silence returned to reign over the ruin.

It was so quiet that she could even hear the sound of her blood flowing in her veins.

Lin Sanjiu went into her hypersensory state, but this time she could not feel anything. She allowed her gaze to travel out far and she could still see several hot air balloons and other oddly-shaped aircraft rising into the air from the Mokugyo Forum. However, there was no wind and the air became stagnant. All the birds were gone and even the clouds had stopped moving. It was as if a force field had descended from the sky and separated her from the rest of the world.

“Where is that thing?” she pitched her voice low to ask. She took two cautious steps forward, but nothing happened. She was washed by a wave of relief, but she did not allow herself to revel in the feeling for long.

She had used the [Higher Consciousness Scan], the hypersensory, and her eyes to check her surroundings, but there was nothing other than silence.

“Since it has already run away, I guess I don’t have to stay here anymore,” Lin Sanjiu spoke to herself as she glanced at the grass. Crouching low, she pressed her head and began to skirt out cautiously.

One step, two steps…She felt more and more restless as she continued to move forward. She could not believe that the thing was really letting her go so easily. She had walked a few hundred meters away, yet nothing happened.

“What’s happening?”

Just as the thought flitted across Lin Sanjiu’s mind, the ground underneath her feet began to shake. Just like a dog that was trying to get rid of fleas on its body, the ground quaked and all the plants and grass tumbled down to reveal the cement beneath.

Several steel bars jutted up high into the sky, and the half-broken wall riddled with holes and slits told her of the signs of human activity here. The upper region of the building and most of the wall had eroded by the doomsday, leaving only the cement beneath Lin Sanjiu’s feet and several broken walls to stay until now.

“What’s this?”

She stopped and looked around.

The voice then returned. It still sounded robotic, but now it had become more fluent. Before this, it sounded like a madman talking, but now it sounded like an advertisement broadcast. “Welcome to the locked room escape!”

Stunned, Lin Sanjiu did not know how to respond.

“Locked room? Escape?”

She had a clear view here as all the walls were only as tall as her shins. Even the cement appeared as gray patches amongst the grass and soil.

Nonetheless, those were not important.

The most important thing right now was…

“Are you a pocket dimension?” Lin Sanjiu asked, disbelief accenting her tone.