Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 729: Ryuji Has Been Absent For Several Days

When Mrs. Manas called out to her out of the blue, Lin Sanjiu was staring blankly out of the window. The scenery of multiple soulless forests sped by as the bus drove ahead. There was not a single hue of green among the gray trees as their leaves were all covered in a layer of thick dust. Somehow, the trees along this route that was frequented by buses and choked with traffic always looked dreary.

“When did you leave that building?” Mrs. Manas asked inquisitively. “Why was I suddenly deactivated?”

“Last night...” Lin Sanjiu quivered a little and scratched her neck as if those words made her itch. That was the only explanation she offered before she kept her silence and continued looking out of the window without making a sound.

“Did you check in?”

“Yeah.”

Mrs. Manas immediately fell silent. After some time, she suddenly coughed violently as if something was stuck in her throat. She stammered as she tried to catch her breath while she asked Lin Sanjiu a question, “Why— Ah! Th-that...cough...Where are you heading now?”

Lin Sanjiu was well aware that she could not hide anything from Mrs. Manas. However, at that moment, she felt as though ten glaring spotlights were focused on her and her skin became burning hot. “The Mokugyo Forum.” Lin Sanjiu shifted in her seat uneasily. “Leaving Exodus isn’t that convenient. I want to finish some errands before going back.”

“Uh...what errands?”

“I want to see if there are any replies. Then, I want to see Je-...if there are other registration points near the canyon.”

Both of them were clearly not in the mood to talk, yet they manage to hold that conversation for five minutes.

Even though only a week had passed since Lin Sanjiu had taken the same bus, she was happy to see Dali, the owner of The Lost Dog Pod Hotel again. It felt as if she was reunited with an old friend. Lin Sanjiu booked a room for what was probably her last night there. Next, she checked herself in at the entrance of the alley though she did not see Mophead around. After that, she headed for the Mokugyo Forum.

Regardless of the time of the day, the Mokugyo Forum was always bustling with people. It was always filled with cigarette smoke and a cacophony of laughter and curses. No matter how hard the ventilation fans spun, it was impossible to rid the place of the various body odors emanated from the crowd and the sweltering heat.

Lin Sanjiu squeezed through the crowd, navigating her way around based on her memory. She had barely taken a few steps when a gaunt, withered-looking man approached her enigmatically. “Miss, would you like a chart?”

Lin Sanjiu stared at the man, stunned by his question. “What?”

“A chart. Do you want one?”

At first glance, the man seemed to have a head of premature white hair. However, on closer inspection, his hair was actually coated with white dust as if he had just crawled out from the rubble of a construction site.

“No. W-what chart is that?”

“Not the chart to my heart. An astrology chart,” the gaunt man replied in all seriousness. If she read his expression right, his face was persuading her not to misunderstand him.

Since it was very cheap at just the price of two red crystals each, Lin Sanjiu bought one out of pure curiosity.

Once the man received his payment, he disappeared in a split second. He was so fast that it was as though he had tunneled into the ground. When Lin Sanjiu saw the astrology chart in her hand, she instantly understood why. He was most probably afraid that she would go back on her word.

The item in her hand was a plastic box the size of a palm. The piece of paper in the box was colored in black. The words “Heaven Underworld” were scribbled on the lower part of the paper, and a few simplified celestial bodies had been marked on the paper. There was also a row of coordinate numbers. Generally, it showed that an observer in the Heaven Underworld could locate various planets using the altitude and azimuth coordinates. When she pulled the paper, the black paper rolled up to the left, revealing a new piece underneath. The planets on the new piece of paper were different, but everything else was the same.

There were some divination instructions on the back of the box, but they seemed complicated and stupid. In the end, Lin Sanjiu dumped the item into her card deck without hesitation and forgot about it the very next second.

“Hello.” Lin Sanjiu stopped a staff and asked, “Is Ryuji here?”

The staff was a petite girl. With a quizzical look, the girl chewed on her bubblegum and asked, “Who?”

“Oh, you mean Giggle. He hasn’t reported to work for the past few days. ” The girl stopped chewing on her gum. She immediately flew into a tirade. “We’ve been covering his shifts. I haven’t had a rest in three days! I sure as hell would like to find him and ask him what’s up with him. Does he even want to work here anymore?!”

Lin Sanjiu excused the girl awkwardly and operated the individual pod like she did the previous time. She even brought along the “Laughter” she had bought from the Black Market. Unfortunately, for the time being, that person who needed it the most was not around to receive it. As Lin Sanjiu sunk into the leather chair, she could not help wondering if Ryuji had done anything foolish since he seemed to have such a nihilistic outlook on life.

When Lin Sanjiu saw the red flashing number 2, she clicked on it excitedly. “That’s quick! We’ve already gotten two replies!”

The first message was extremely long. When she first looked at it, she found that the format of the reply was similar to that of an old school email message. The topmost section was her announcement and the description of her target:

‘A brown male rabbit that can speak fluently. Between 3 to 4kgs. Bad-tempered and rude. Possesses evolved abilities. The last known location was...about five years ago. ‘

After another paragraph of detailed description, Lin Sanjiu added a photo of a pet rabbit which she had spent a lot of effort finding. The rabbit in the photo looked 60 to 70% similar to B.Rabbit. However, almost all rabbits looked alike based on human judgment. Lin Sanjiu had no choice but to add a bunch of annotations to the photo while she secretly hoped that B.Rabbit was the one and only rabbit that could speak the human language.

There was a bright red sentence underneath her description that read ‘Verified by the Consular Officer Association’.

The reply from the Consular Officer came below the line of words: “I’ve read every search notice you posted. To be honest with you, finding a few people in the endless number of apocalypse worlds is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Furthermore, you don’t even know if they’re alive. The probability of you succeeding is almost zero.”

The Consular Officer with the username ‘Morals are Useless’ was so frank that he almost seemed like he lacked EQ.

“As such, I’ve chosen the most unique and probably the most attention-grabbing and easy target, the rabbit.”

Lin Sanjiu did not post any search notice for the cat doctor during her first visit after much hesitation. The cat doctor was still stuck with Puppeteer. If she got any Consular Officer to look for Puppeteer, that would probably put that person in danger. Putting that in perspective, she decided against it. Anyway, Puppeteer was such a prominent target in the Twelve Worlds, so she reckoned she could stealthily get some intel about him on her own.

“I’ll get the people who request for visas from me to look out for him. Don’t worry. Consular officers do have this privilege.”

She could sense his self-aggrandizement even through the screen.

“I’ll continue looking for the rabbit as long as I don’t get any verifiable information that the rabbit has been eaten. My charges are as follows...”

Lin Sanjiu activated her Scrooge McDuck power. She was definitely hoping that her ability could affect the other party through the screen facing her. Instead, she used the Scrooge McDuck negotiation skills to craft a clear, precise, and powerful message. After she dealt with the first reply, she sighed while opening the second message with much less enthusiasm.

“What a pity. I thought we’ve become friends.”

Lin Sanjiu was baffled for a moment when she read the first line. The message lacked the description of her target. There was no verification by the Consular Officer Association.

“You’ve posted so many search notices. You could have added me to one of them.”

“Who’s this?”

“Oh, I’ve forgotten to mention that I’m also in the Heaven Underworld. You can come to visit me. My address is No. 23, The Munitions Factory HQ, Heaven Zone, Rare Creatures Nature Reserve. Just tell the guard that you’re looking for Silvan.”

Lin Sanjiu was shocked. She stared blankly at the last sentence for some time.

She could not find the people she sought, yet someone she had no interest in finding was nearby. She contemplated for a while with a frown before she replied. “This is such a coincidence. I’ll go visit if there’s a chance. By the way, how come you can see the message in the Consular Officers’ channel?”

Of course, it was impossible for Silvan to also be using the Mokugyo system at the same time. After Lin Sanjiu sent out her reply, she searched for information about registration points near the Grand Canyon for about ten minutes. Unfortunately, she did not receive a reply.

After spending five red crystals, she only found one result from her search.

“The swimming pool on the fourth floor of the Bliss Convention center, Mid Mountsburg. Do take note that there’s an entrance fee.”

Lin Sanjiu’s face suddenly turned hot. She instinctively looked around but remembered that she was in an individual pod.

“Oh, so that place is called Bliss?” Mrs. Manas cooed. Lin Sanjiu was sure that if Mrs. Manas was not just a construct but had a true body, that woman would have already stuck her face out and pulled her face to the screen.

“This is going to be troublesome.” Lin Sanjiu finally sighed after a few seconds.

The problem had nothing to do with Jezebel. The Black Market was only over 30km away from Mid Mountsburg. If she did not want to go to Bliss, she could check in at the Black Market. Regardless, both places were simply very far from the Grand Canyon. Her worries were confirmed. It took almost an entire day just to make the trip to and fro, so she could barely spend much time in her new house.

Could the Grand Canyon be so secluded that even a Checkpoint Pocket Dimension could not be bothered with it?

When Lin Sanjiu thought of Exodus, she could not help feeling a pang of pain. After spending such a large sum of money to buy a perfect dream house, was she really going to go back to stay at The Lost Dog Pod Hotel every day?

When she was about to reach The Lost Dog Pod Hotel, Lin Sanjiu noticed a familiar figure lurking in an alley in the distance. The person was covered in layers of ragged clothes and he had skinny, twig-like legs. It was almost as if he was the embodiment of a mop that had come alive. When the man locked glances with her, he froze for a moment before he retreated back hastily. “I-I thought y-you don’t live here anymore!”

It seemed like she did not see him around because he was intentionally hiding from her.

That did not come as a surprise. Another person with less restraint would have vented their anger on him the moment they stepped into that pocket dimension, much less someone in Lin Sanjiu’s annoying situation. She had to take a few deep breaths before she managed to control her emotions.

“Mid Mountsburg?” Even Lin Sanjiu had already reined in her emotions, Mophead could not escape getting manhandled off the ground by his collar. The collar was really something. It felt like it was about to tear at any moment. “Oh, oh. It’s not Mid Mountsburg...Go further north? How far? Gosh, why do you have to run off to that rural place? Uh, registration point? Of course, I wouldn’t have any idea. I’ve been to...”

After prattling on and before he could finish his sentence, Lin Sanjiu released him and he fell heavily to the ground.

Thud.

He fell backward. Even though he was a posthuman, he did not seem much stronger than a normal person. He climbed up from the ground and looked at the woman who had flung him. Lin Sanjiu walked away without turning her head. Quickly, she was just a tiny figure in the distance in that red brick alley. The man hesitated for a moment before he gritted his teeth, mumbled something, and disappeared into the crowd.