Chapter 671: The First One That Returned
Lin Sanjiu could still vaguely see Eggy through the labyrinth of furniture if she peeked at the correct angle. Since she had spent some time with the boy, it was easy for her to pinpoint the boy"s figure from the rest of the shadows.
Eggy had returned to sitting on the single couch and now faced the wardrobe. He sat so still that if one did not look closely, they might mistake him for a weird furnis.h.i.+ng.
Letting out a breath, Lin Sanjiu withdrew her gaze and moved her head away from the slit in between two large bookcases. She turned around and stared at the dark hole that looked like a tunnel underneath the dining table.
She knew she did not have any other options left.
If Puppeteer was still alive and in his sober senses, there was no way he would hide in a wardrobe willingly. In fact, no one would do that for no reason whatsoever.
If that was the case, she would have no choice but to continue walking forward. No matter how small the probability, she had to find Puppeteer and the others.
Right now, taking the path ahead of her was her only option. The dark path stared back at her.
Lin Sanjiu really wanted to talk to someone and discuss the situation. However, after her higher consciousness depleted, Mrs. Manas could only remain silent. Lin Sanjiu would need to slowly recover her higher consciousness before Mrs. Manas could return to her mindscape.
"What is the highest G.o.d trying to do?"
Lin Sanjiu crouched down as she stared at the dining table directly in front of her.
His aim was to a.n.a.lyze either her or Puppeteer. The reason he created the furniture cemetery and replaced the sea was to separate her and her friends from each other so that he could concentrate on dealing with the two of them. However, even though they were already scattered, she had not seen even a single sign of the highest G.o.d. Was Eggy right? Did the highest G.o.d already catch Puppeteer, a.n.a.lyze him and then kill him afterward? Was that why when Eggy saw him, he was dragging his feet into a wardrobe with his head held low?
"No, that is not possible…"
Lin Sanjiu did not want to believe that Puppeteer was dead, but all the evidence was pointing at the fact that he was gone forever.
Then, another thought came in, putting the dark notion to an end.
"Or, Eggy was lying."
A kid without any Evolving Abilities, how could he survive all these years?
"Sister, you don"t believe me?"
Eggy"s voice rang out so suddenly that all the hair on Lin Sanjiu"s body stood on its ends. She jerked up from the floor, her head almost hitting the table. When she spun around, she saw a big eye that had more white than black staring at her through a slit between two large bookcases. Her arm held high.
It was Eggy.
She had almost forgotten that the furniture here could absorb sound.
In the end, Lin Sanjiu put down her high-held arm. She stared at the half eyeball. It wavered a bit then retreated to the darkness behind. Then, Eggy"s voice once again wafted over, "Sister, I didn"t lie to you."
"What?"
"You did not go into the wardrobe," Eggy said calmly. Lin Sanjiu noticed that his voice had become more solid than the first time she met him. Perhaps the bowl of noodles had been helpful to him after all?
"Aren"t you looking for that man? I didn"t lie to you. He walked into that wardrobe. I saw it with my own eyes."
Lin Sanjiu slowly squinted her eyes.
"So you followed me all the way here," she said softly, "Just to tell me that my friend has gone into the wardrobe and that I should follow after him?"
"Erm… That is not what I mean…" Eggy stammered.
"Well, that"s good then," said Lin Sanjiu as she continued to stare at the narrow, dark crevice. "I have decided not to look for him now. Do you have a problem with that?"
Startled by Lin Sanjiu"s sudden hostility, Eggy became fl.u.s.tered, and the nasal tone in his voice thickened, "I… I…"
"I"m leaving now," Lin Sanjiu interrupted. She clenched her fists tightly and crouched down. She held the card containing [Tornado Whip] in her palm but did not activate it. Despite the fact that he was probably telling her lies, part of her told her that she shouldn"t attack the poor little boy. She asked, "You don"t want to leave yet?"
The little boy sighed, tainting the air with his fetid breath, "I"m tired. I will just stay here."
In other words, he was not going to leave.
Setting her jaw, Lin Sanjiu stared at the slit for so long that her eyes began to sore. The dark hole under the dining table was behind her, and the air that petted her back was freezing cold.
Right now, the only option that laid in front of her was the dark hole. Since she did not want to expose her back to Eggy, there was only one way to go into the dark hole.
Slowly but steadily, Lin Sanjiu arched her back and placed both of her hands on the floor. She did not favor this posture, but she had no other option. Looking straight at the slit where Eggy was, she backed into the darkness under the dining table.
The hair on her back bristled, though she did not feel anything behind her. More and more cold air seeped into Lin Sanjiu"s body through the pores on her skin, and the darkness grew larger with every step she took. Eventually, she was consumed by the darkness; her figure slowly disappeared. Ahead, the spot where she previously stood shrunk into a small greyish rectangle.
She did not peel her eyes away from the greyish spot as she slowly pushed herself into the unknown darkness behind.
Lin Sanjiu had studied the surroundings beforehand. Behind the dining table was a huge corner sofa. Several parts of the sofa were stacked together and blocked the dining table, only leaving enough s.p.a.ce for a person to squeeze through from the right side.
She knew where she was going and which furniture she would b.u.mp into. After all, even if it was a dining table that could accommodate 12 people, how far could it go?
However, there was something she had forgotten. The darkness underneath the dining table was boundless.
Five minutes pa.s.sed.
Cold sweat p.r.i.c.ked Lin Sanjiu"s back like thousands of needles. She had been groping around in the dark for a full five minutes, yet she still hadn"t gotten out of it. Since she had experienced the same incident under the bed, she was less fl.u.s.tered this time. However, after moving in the darkness for five minutes straight, she could not remain calm anymore.
She did not have to keep watching in front anymore since Eggy was out of her sight. Huffing, Lin Sanjiu stopped and wiped the sweat off her face. The darkness remained as frightening as always.
She then silently turned around and looked at the pitch-black in front.
The darkness was never-ending. The darker it was, the heavier it felt. Like a serpent coiling around its prey, the darkness clung closely to Lin Sanjiu"s skin, taking her entire being in its deathly embrace as it tried to coil her to death. Her nerves jumped, her limbs turned cold, and she could not hear anything around her. The silence was punctuated only by the rustling of her clothes against the rough texture of the floor. With each susurration that raised into the air, the urge inside of her that called for her to turn around and rush back grew stronger.
Last time, she was startled when she found out that Eggy was trailing her. This time, however, she still got scared the wit out of by the rustling of clothes. There were times where she was so overwhelmed by anxiety that she wanted to stop and listen to the rustling noise.
Unbeknownst to even herself, she stopped.
However, the swis.h.i.+ng that set her teeth on edge did not stop. Her heart was in her throat as she held her breath. She jerked her head around to check behind her, but she saw n.o.body. Eggy wasn"t there. With every second that ticked away, the noise from the darkness ahead got closer, tickling her ears.
She could not help but release a guttural voice. The rustling stopped. Just when Lin Sanjiu summoned her [Tornado Whip], she heard a click, and something flared up ahead.
"It… It"s you?"
The dancing fire cast a symphony of orange and darkness on the small face. It took Lin Sanjiu several seconds before she recognized who it was. Lucy looked at Lin Sanjiu with wide-eyed horror, the match in her hand quivering. "What do you want? Why are you here?"
"Lucy?" Lin Sanjiu parroted. Her mind was still blank, and her Tornado Whip was still held high in the air. She studied the young girl in front of her for a moment before the fire went out.
Darkness returned. The atmosphere became even tenser.
"Argh, why does it always burn out so fast?" There was still a tremble in her voice. It seemed that she was startled by the sudden appearance of Lin Sanjiu as well. "I do not have many matches left…"
"That should be my question—why are you here?" asked Lin Sanjiu in a shaky voice. Since they did not trust each other, both of them maintained a safe distance. "I thought you"d left a long time ago."
"That b*stard!" Lucy growled angrily. "He never intended to let me go in the first place. I"d been running towards an open s.p.a.ce, but since he turned the entire area into this sh*t place, the more I ran, the more furniture would appear. In the end, all the paths were blocked, and there was no way I could run."
"Well, that"s pretty much the same as what I"ve been experiencing…"
"Do you have anything other than matches?" Lin Sanjiu asked
Although Lin Sanjiu was not implying anything, Lucy suddenly got triggered and reacted defensively. "Don"t be so funny, sis. Having matches is good enough, although there is not much left. I"m a Special Item dealer, but sometimes a normal item such as a match or torchlight sells better than a pistol that could reload bullets infinitely."
"Which side did you enter from?"
"Which side?" It occurred to Lin Sanjiu that when she was not doing business, Lucy cladded herself in an emotional barrier and reacted to everything defensively. She had seen this att.i.tude a lot in those posthumans that traveled alone in the apocalyptic worlds. "I came from under the bed, of course!"
"Under the bed?"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. She lifted her arm to touch the dining table above her head. However, since both the dining table and the bed were made out of wood, she could not tell the difference between the two.
Lucy could not see Lin Sanjiu"s movement in the darkness, so she continued to speak.
"I saw one of your friends," the young girl"s voice softened, as though she realized she had been a little bit too harsh on Lin Sanjiu, "But it was a dead body. Your friend is dead."