Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 859: The Whale-Like Spaceship

"On the right side of the shop, there is a circular shelf with various goods hanging on it. Among them, there is a long box containing 'wilderness survival essentials.' Open it."

After the four circular leaves disappeared, Lin Sanjiu lay straight on the platform, feeling the soreness in her muscles from the tension. To distract herself from the discomfort, she recalled every word she had instructed the circular leaves. "Wilderness survival essentials" was something she had noticed during her past visits to the shop. She remembered that the box had a description of its contents, including accelerant and a lighter. It seemed to be something left from before the apocalypse, displayed in the shop for a long time without being sold.

As long as she opened it, starting a fire wouldn't be difficult.

The circular leaves should be able to accomplish this... right?

The sun gradually moved toward its zenith, casting a strong light that turned the sky into a translucent pale blue, causing Lin Sanjiu to squint. Her face and body felt warm from the sun, but it only made her more uncomfortable. The longer time passed, the more her heart tensed.

In the end, they were just four tea leaves... Had she placed too much hope in them?

Since her head was placed inside the box by the boy, she hadn't heard any noteworthy sounds. There had been some movements of objects, opening and closing of doors, and faint footsteps for a while, but it was difficult to judge the situation inside the shop based on those sounds. After that brief period of noise, the shop fell silent, with only the occasional sound of the boy sniffing from somewhere behind the shop—after all this time, there hadn't been a single customer, so it seemed like he had closed the shop.

Was there a gap under the door? Lin Sanjiu worriedly wondered. Those brothers were much rounder than ordinary tea leaves. Could they squeeze through?

Furthermore, why didn't the boy contact the other personalities after killing "Lin Sanjiu"? Why did he leave a corpse in the shop? Most importantly, it was already approaching afternoon—would the leaves have enough time to start the fire before they had to move on to their next incarnation?

Lying alone on the rooftop, Lin Sanjiu indulged in her chaotic thoughts. The more she thought, the more anxious she became. Just as she was lost in her thoughts, she suddenly heard a crisp sound, like something falling to the ground, through her earphones. It made her heart skip a beat—it sounded like the tea leaves had accidentally bumped into something!

Anxiously, she waited for a while and indeed heard vague footsteps approaching from afar. The boy walked briskly towards the cabinet where he had placed her head and shouted, "Who's there?"

Through the earphones, she could only hear silence inside the shop.

The boy seemed to walk past lightly, followed by a series of indistinct noises that were difficult to make out.

Unconsciously, Lin Sanjiu held her breath, afraid to make even the slightest sound, fearing that she would hear a sharp "Ah" from the tip of the circular tea leaves. She waited anxiously, her body tensed, but all she heard was the boy muttering, "Wasn't it properly hung?" and the sound of him seemingly adjusting the shelves.

A wave of relaxation and disappointment washed over her simultaneously.

The circular tea leaves hadn't been discovered, but it was evident that they had also not succeeded. After being lured out by the sound, the boy must have hung the box back in its place. Now, the circular tea leaves had to try again. However, they were slow and not agile, and time was running out for them to start anew.

Lin Sanjiu squinted her eyes, barely able to see the intense light source in the center of the sky through the shadow of her eyelashes.

She didn't know when, but it was already noon.

"Mrs. Manas, when did I go for tea?" she asked in her mind.

Her consciousness had been greatly depleted in the past few days and only began recovering today. Mrs. Manas finally responded to her call in a timely manner, "Let me think... It was probably after 12 o'clock. You went to drink the circular tea shortly after checking in. Although you strolled around for a while, it definitely wouldn't have been later than 12:30."

Lin Sanjiu silently sighed in relief.

Time was truly running out... In a little while, those four circular tea leaves would undergo reincarnation.

"Now what should we do?" Mrs. Manas asked with a hint of bitterness, "Setting aside whether we can still meet those four fellows, even the physical projection is nearing its time limit... The sudden disappearance of the corpse from the shop will definitely raise suspicion. But if there's a fire, the boy will certainly think someone has entered, and the disappearance of the corpse will be easier to explain."

Of course, Lin Sanjiu was well aware of this. She controlled her breathing and tightly bit her lip.

Was all her mental effort going to be in vain?

The earphones quieted down once again, and it seemed that the boy had walked back to the rear of the shop. Lin Sanjiu still remembered the long and narrow corridor at the back of the shop, as well as the yard where the flying ship was parked. It felt like the actual area of the shop was much larger than what could be seen from the storefront.

"Forget it," she whispered to Mrs. Manas, "If it really comes to that, while he's not in the shop, I can sever the projection--"

Before she could finish her thought, there was suddenly a soft "snap" in her earphones, cutting off her unfinished words. Lin Sanjiu shivered all over, quickly perked up her ears, and focused intently on any faint sound that came through the earphones.

Although the shop was still relatively quiet, there was an indescribable, vigorous, and aggressive sound gradually spreading in her ears. It was like the tide and the sound of the wind, and wherever it reached, it occasionally made something burst with a low, crisp sound. Soon, she could feel it even inside the cabinet where the head was placed—the peculiar, scorching silence when the tongues of fire licked and swallowed the surrounding objects.

"They succeeded!"

Lin Sanjiu's heart thumped, and she immediately sat up, raising her hand to turn off the physical projection, still somewhat incredulous. "They actually succeeded!"

She quickly stored the projection device card and hastily put on a mask, then rushed towards the exit of the rooftop. "Maybe I still have time to meet the leader—"

"It's too late," Mrs. Manas suddenly reminded in a low voice, "The time has come."

Lin Sanjiu froze, stopping in the corridor. "...What time is it?"

After humanity rebuilt society, some aspects of their previous way of life were also restored. She took a few steps along the hotel corridor, then looked up and her gaze fell on a wall clock.

"12:43," she stood in the corridor, feeling a bit lost. "They... they have reincarnated."

Mrs. Manas remained silent for a while.

She originated from Lin Sanjiu's subconscious, a collective of emotions, memories, experiences, and thoughts that were usually suppressed by her will. She must have been more acutely aware of how lonely she felt at this moment than Lin Sanjiu herself.

"In and out, gathering and dispersing," Lin Sanjiu chuckled wryly, comforting Mrs. Manas in a soft voice, "Actually, it's quite normal. I've long been accustomed to it."

She returned to her room and changed into a different outfit, quietly sneaking out through the hotel's back door. She knew exactly what she needed to do at this moment: "Lin Sanjiu" was now dead, and she had to take advantage of this time to hurry to the Orange Grove and proceed with the next plan—Exodus had been waiting for her there for several days.

"They also wanted to reincarnate, right?" Lin Sanjiu said, somewhat searching for words. "They found it tiring to accompany me. Well... I seemed to have made them do quite a lot."

Considering their small, round bodies with no limbs, only a bit of tea stem at the bottom, any activity must have been quite difficult for them.

It was not until she boarded a giant spacecraft's docking station that Mrs. Manas let out a soft sigh.

"These companion-type tea leaves are... so strange," Lin Sanjiu bought her ticket and walked into the sky tunnel with the crowd. In the airspace beside her, several similar giant spacecraft were hovering in the sky, revealing their whale-like huge hulls from within the clouds. She looked at the wisps of clouds passing by outside the sky tunnel and couldn't help feeling a bit envious for a moment. "Only able to accompany for five days, what's the point? After they leave, it will be even lonelier, won't it?"

"After everything is settled, let's go back to that round tea shop," Mrs. Manas suggested, "Perhaps there's a way to see them again... Of course, if the shopkeeper hasn't transported them away."

Lin Sanjiu nodded in her mind, feeling a bit ashamed of herself. After going through so many farewells and separations during the apocalypse, she couldn't afford to be fragile because of a few tea leaves.

As she walked, she forced herself to rethink the current situation and what she needed to do. After walking for a while, she realized that the sky tunnel seemed unusually long.

"Is this tunnel so long?" Lin Sanjiu muttered to herself, looking around. The sides of the tunnel were transparent, made of an unknown material. If she stood at the edge of the walkway and looked down, the distant Black Market resembled a beehive crowded with countless people, bustling and bustling.

"It's indeed quite long," a passerby posthuman who happened to hear her muttering responded loudly, "You can tell by looking at that spaceship parked in the clouds in the distance. We still have a distance to go before reaching the docking area."

"Do they all park at the same height?" Lin Sanjiu asked, looking up for a moment.

The middle-aged man with a long travel bag on his back seemed eager to strike up a conversation, "Yes! Is this your first time boarding this type of spaceship? This is the largest vessel provided by the Night Wanderer. It can fly the farthest distance and has the highest altitude in the sky traffic layer. You know, each type of aircraft flies at a different height... It's arranged layer by layer to ensure air safety. I really like spaceships. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me."

He seemed to be expecting Lin Sanjiu to ask him more, but she disappointed him.

She stood still, staring fixedly at the whale-like spaceship in the distant clouds. It seemed that something had crossed her mind, and she fell silent for a while. It wasn't until the enthusiastic yet disappointed posthuman walked away that she gritted her teeth and muttered, "Is it really impossible?"