Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 948: Erudite's Perplexity

The dock was located at the highest level of the Heaven Zone. The entire top was a massive metal hollow, with several layers of closely stacked berths suspended in the air, overlooking the buildings and floors nearly a hundred meters below.

"I’m curious, how do you plan to get up there?" Twelve tilted his head back, looking at the dishearteningly high dock, and asked softly, "And even if you manage to get into the aircraft... how do you plan to get out?"

Due to the emergency alarm issued by the Munitions Factory, the entire Heaven Zone was currently in a state of emergency lockdown. All the exits leading to the Command Tower were locked, and there was no longer any passage between the floors. In the bustling nightlife city on the lower floors, a large crowd was even trapped.

Fortunately, she reacted quickly...

Frowning, Lin Sanjiu stared at the suspended berth, lost in thought, completely ignoring Twelve’s provocative question.

The human brain, as an organ, sometimes operated in strange and incomprehensible ways. For example, at this moment, she had several pressing unresolved issues at hand, yet she found herself contemplating something seemingly unrelated: Why did she obtain Erudite so easily?

Erudite should have nothing to do with the twelve personalities... They hadn’t fully gained control of the Munitions Factory yet, and they had no reason to intentionally let Lin Sanjiu obtain it.

What did Silvan say back then? After obtaining it, she should hand Erudite directly to him... Was that the case?

Lin Sanjiu’s thoughts shifted to Silvan once again.

Everything was sealed off, so he must still be in the Heaven Zone... Was it because she thought of Erudite and remembered Silvan that she considered seeking his help?

She hesitated for a moment, then shook her head inwardly. Returning to the Munitions Factory now would be too risky. Moreover, if the Heaven Zone was spread out evenly, it was probably not smaller than a normal country. In such a vast place, how could she find someone who had hidden their tracks like searching for a needle in a haystack?

"What are you thinking?" Twelve suddenly asked softly, his voice sounding only inches away. Lin Sanjiu raised her head and involuntarily took a step back from him.

"I’m thinking about how to break out of the dock," Lin Sanjiu casually replied, trying to distract him. "Can you pilot an aircraft?"

Twelve weakly smiled and shook his limp arm. He was in so much pain that his face turned pale, and cold sweat continuously trickled down his body. However, he gave off an impression—as if his spirit was outside his body, meticulously experiencing the pain.

Lin Sanjiu hadn’t actually planned on letting him pilot, she just didn’t want him to notice that she was lost in thought. She looked at the dock, which disappeared into the shadows of the dome, and her thoughts once again returned to Erudite.

It was strange... Why did it always come to mind at critical moments like this?

She obtained it too easily. It seemed like the Munitions Factory didn’t intend to protect it properly at all, not even assigning a guard. The first time she saw Erudite, it was also sitting among a group of researchers without any defense... It wouldn’t be difficult for a powerful posthuman to take it away.

Why wasn’t it stolen by someone else? She felt like she must have missed some information... Perhaps Silvan mentioned something about it?

"After it turns into a card, hand it directly to me." What was the second half of that sentence again?

"You should check if there’s any access route nearby to go up," Twelve shifted his weight and urged softly, "You don’t have much time left."

"Going up is not difficult, the challenge is how to get out—" Lin Sanjiu instinctively responded but suddenly her gaze shifted from his face, and her voice trailed off.

Check?

Yes, Silvan also expressed a similar sentiment at that time... "Hand it directly to me without verifying its performance," he should have said that. At that time, he was unusually serious and earnest, with a gleam in his emerald green pupils, as if his gaze could penetrate directly into a person’s deepest consciousness.

But whether it’s Erudite or that sentence, does it have any relevance to the current situation?

While Lin Sanjiu contemplated, she started walking and Twelve silently followed. On this level of the dock control room, there was a long, slender white platform extending from the main trunk of the Heaven Zone into the berth. By lifting her head, she could see the berths high in the air through the cavernous space. In fact, there was no need to check, just a glance was enough to know that there were no elevators here.

Twelve seemed somewhat puzzled as he looked at both sides of the long control room walls. "Strange, how do they go up and down from the dock?"

Lin Sanjiu didn’t worry about how to get up at all. When she first saw the structure of this "narrow-necked bottle," she knew what she had to do.

What puzzled her even more was why her thoughts kept returning to Erudite? Why did Silvan ask her not to verify its function?

Twelve glanced at her several times in a row, seemingly suspicious of her unusual silence.

"If we can’t find their elevator, let’s create our own connecting ship," Lin Sanjiu noticed his gaze and walked briskly towards the end of the platform. "Don’t get too close!"

When she reached the end, she summoned the Artist. As he appeared on the long platform, he nearly fell off the edge because he couldn’t find a hostile target. He seemed unable to speak, took a deep breath, and quickly regained his balance.

"Do you see the bottom dock?" She pointed to the black steel outer wall of the lower level, the berth with circular windows carved out. She commanded, "The small aircraft visible in the outermost circular window, yes, the one that looks like a reptile. It’s my hostile target, don’t draw it."

This wasn’t the first time—strange targets even more chaotic than an aircraft, he had drawn them before. As soon as she finished speaking, the Artist immediately sat on a small stool, and his pen swiftly glided across the canvas.

Twelve stepped forward two steps, and Lin Sanjiu glanced back at him, placing her right hand on the Artist’s shoulder.

"Step back a bit," she said coldly, flexing her left hand fingers. "Don’t blame me for not warning you later."

At this moment, she was standing a step or two in front of the Artist, which meant that when the aircraft was drawn towards the canvas, it would first rush towards her face. Both of her hands were already prepared, and she would only use one ability, which was [Planar World].

Cannot verify Erudite...

As the aircraft shook in the berth and repeatedly collided with the walls, making a constant "clang" sound, her thoughts couldn’t help but drift back to Silvan’s words. He didn’t understand [Planar World] and didn’t know that the card could to some extent distinguish between genuine and fake objects. He probably thought that if Lin Sanjiu wanted to verify it, she would have to take out Erudite.

In other words, the true meaning of this warning was not to uncard Erudite.

When Lin Sanjiu thought about the lack of protection for Erudite by the Munitions Factory, she suddenly had a strong and overwhelming speculation. At the same time, a reptile-like aircraft spun out of the swift airstream and crashed towards the platform.