Chapter 324: Haha! There Isn’t a "The Journey To The Encyclopedic Forum 2"
Today was just like any other day at Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum. The place was bustling with activity as the crowd moved like rivers and streams between the monitor screens and metallic consoles. The noise of indiscernible human conversations and the heat from the crowd filled the hall.
"Yes. Yes. Okay. I will see you later," a tall and young handsome man nodded his head as he stood beside an individual console. He grinned widely as he watched two ladies walking away from him. After that, he sighed self-deprecatingly, "Sigh. If only I were born handsome like this…"
The girl with two ponytails held the black rope in her hand expressionlessly. When she turned to look at Honeysuckle, she actually looked puzzled. To Soulsqn, that flirty conversation between this human and the other two humans was totally pointless. Soulsqn found Lin Sanjiu much easier to understand compared to this man.
When she turned behind, she saw a fully focused Lin Sanjiu staring at the screen in front of her. Lin Sanjiu was not paying any attention to them. Honeysuckle turned her head and observed the girl beside him quietly.
She wasn"t wearing a mask so that was her original face...
Even though a person"s outward appearance can be deceiving, compared to the woman behind him, this young girl seemed easier to deal with...
Honeysuckle stealthily took two steps backward. He lifted his hands, pretending that it was just a casual action. As expected, the girl was tugged along as the rope taut.
"There is a chance to escape!" he thought to himself. Just as he became excited and even before that thought left his mind, the girl turned and looked at him as if she had detected something. She opened her mouth wide.
There was a sudden loud thud as he hit the "case" of a console. Lin Sanjiu was still writing her entry when that noise took her by surprise. She turned behind and saw Honeysuckle trying frantically to stand up. When she looked at Soulsqn, she saw the creature moving its lower jaw. She was slowly kneading her lower jaw so that it could return to its original position.
"What are you two doing?" Lin Sanjiu asked with a frown.
If it wasn"t for the [Mask] he was wearing, Honeysuckle"s expression would definitely be far worse. "My dear mother, what is that thing… Ah? Why didn"t you tell me…. gosh…" As he said this, he squeezed into the same "case" as Lin Sanjiu. Apparently, he felt that it was safer to be by Lin Sanjiu"s side.
"Go away!"
"I won"t look," Honeysuckle closed his eyes and turned away from the screen. "I"ll just wait here."
Lin Sanjiu glared at him and then at Soulsqn. She didn"t say anything in the end and just let him stay there.
Turning back to her screen, a picture of a blue planet disappeared from the screen. She had already completed her entry for [Hyperthermal h.e.l.l]. Sadly, it was only a D-Level world so she received very little red crystals for that entry. The number on the top right corner of the screen only increased by 3.
"In that case, Kisaragi Station is a B-level world, so I should get more money for it, right?" With this in mind, Lin Sanjiu opened [Kisaragi Station Thread]. When she reached the thread, she realized that she was too naive. Even though it was harder to survive in that world, it was quite famous in Twelve Worlds Centrum because of the unique spirits which occupied that world. The reward for information about a certain world was dependent on two things. First, it was dependent on the world"s level. Second, it was dependent on the rarity of the information. After writing down every single detail she forced herself to remember, she only received five red crystals for the entry.
When a person wrote an entry for a particular world, they could browse the corresponding thread for that world once for free. Using that opportunity, she noticed that the particular thread was filled with almost 100 entries about past experiences and information.
Sighing, Lin Sanjiu searched for Garden of Eden without much hope.
"[Garden of Eden]: Level C. Description: A s.h.i.+tty place that would make you uncomfortable each time you go there. Add entry?"
"Confirm."
After Lin Sanjiu typed listlessly about the world for a while. She decided just to write out her whole account of what had happened in Garden of Eden with every detail she could remember. She even added how she destroyed Garden of Eden City. Anyway, she was currently using a pseudonym, User 1112132225, so she wasn"t worried.
After she confirmed her entry, the number of red crystals indicated on the screen did not change even after some time.
"What"s wrong? Why isn"t it responding?" she grumbled.
Even though Honeysuckle couldn"t see what she was doing, it did not hinder him from commenting, "Is it lagging? This is common. Sometimes the system requires some time to audit an entry. If a person adds a fake entry, it might kill someone inadvertently."
"That makes sense…" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself. Seeing that the auditing process would take some time, she opened an announcement submenu called "Craglist".
A user had to categorize the announcement they wanted to publish. Different categories had different prices. The postings which involved searching for teammates and getting information about Consular Officers were the most expensive. After every 14 months, a posthuman would have to leave a world. There were residents with established businesses, shops, pets, and children. Unfortunately, they can"t bring them along. During this period, if a person has a working in a partners.h.i.+p with someone from another world within the Twelve Worlds Centrum, it would be much easier for both people.
Lin Sanjiu scanned through the 324 categories very quickly. Originally, she thought that she could only put her announcement in the "Others" category. However, her eyes caught something. She was slightly startled when she noticed it. She opened the "Corpses".
Unlike the other categories, the "Corpses" section was quite empty. There were only a few very suspiciously worded advertis.e.m.e.nts: "Offering high prices for corpses of young ladies below 20", "Accepting torsos and whole bodies. Supply must be stable", "Corpses transformation. Quick Job. 3 days"...
"What is all this creepy stuff…" Lin Sanjiu opened the first announcement. She realized that the requestor had a very specific requirement for the corpse he was looking for: Mid-length long black hair, "Shanling" race, no livor mortis spots, and no visible wounds…
Lin Sanjiu suddenly shuddered for no particular reason. She quickly closed the page. After she found the box to publish her announcement, she spent only six medium red crystal to post an advertis.e.m.e.nt.
"Seagral Square, RECYCLE-FL3-T120, is a corpse disposal collection point. There are fresh dead bodies there all year round. Some have wounds, but most of them are intact. Suitable for medical research."
With a soft "ding", her advertis.e.m.e.nt was published. She exhaled and hoped silently that the message would reach its intended target. Her current situation was too dangerous. Luck was really the only thing she could rely on now.
Out of the three matters, she had only completed her first priority.
"Hey, I have another question," Lin Sanjiu turned to look at Honeysuckle. "If I want to get information about a few worlds, do I have just to stand here and read each of the message threads?"
If that was the case, the effect of the [Mask] she was wearing wasn"t going to last. However, she definitely wasn"t the first person to face this problem. Honeysuckle pointed to a white ball beside the console, "Of course not. If you spend another red crystal, you can print out whatever you need from that thread and bring it along with you. But you don"t have enough red crystals. I guess you can only print out the information about two worlds—"
Before he could finish his sentence, an urgent, piercing sound rang twice in the center of the hall. The sound rippled through the hall from above. After that alarm stopped, Lin Sanjiu realized that it was the sound of the Mokugyo she had heard before.
When she turned to Honeysuckle, she noticed that his face had changed.
"What… what"s the matter?"
A large screen not far from her answered her question.
As the rapping sound rang out, a message popped up on all the few hundred white screens. Bright red words rolled down from the top of the screen and caught the attention of the crowd, "Announcement: A new AA-level world [Garden of Eden] has emerged. All Consular Officers and people heading to this world, please take note. Announcement: A new AA-level world…"
Lin Sanjiu stared blankly at the words in front of her. For a moment, she couldn"t process what was happening. She heard someone screaming something from the far corner of the hall. Then, a series of "dings" rang out behind her. That snapped out her of her trance.
Honeysuckle had a stunned expression as the number on the right corner of Lin Sanjiu"s screen jumped to "389". However, that wasn"t the main reason why Lin Sanjiu was shocked. Pages after pages of text requesting for more information popped up on her screen. Then, the console continued ringing.
"What... what"s happening?" Even though Lin Sanjiu said that, she had a vague answer in her mind. This was certainly related to the information she had entered. However, there were other questions in her mind: "How could it be an AA-level world? Isn"t A-level the highest tier? What do this people want? Why are they trying to contact me?"
Honeysuckle turned to look at Lin Sanjiu. He suddenly felt a sense of admiration for her that he did not have before. "Did you input information about that AA-level world?"
He didn"t need Lin Sanjiu to answer him. He quickly looked around them and hit the screen of her console. "We have to leave! There are only four known AA-level worlds even after all these years. The moment you arrived, you added another one… It"s no surprise that all sorts of people come knocking! We don"t have time now. If you don"t want to be discovered—"
Lin Sanjiu moved faster than Honeysuckle"s speech. The moment the console started slowly spitting out red crystals, Lin Sanjiu immediately stuffed them into her cloth pouch. When she stood up, she had already hidden her astonishment from her face. She walked out of her "cubicle" calmly.
Honeysuckle and Soulsqn followed behind her in a hurry. One of them tried to act as if nothing had happened; the other was totally unaware of the seriousness of the situation. Consequently, they did not draw any unwanted attention. With every intention, Lin Sanjiu and the others walked in a controlled pace and subtly blended in with the crowd.
However, as they headed for the exit, they had to stop because of the human traffic jam in front of them.
"What happened?" There was a noisy commotion and it was difficult to hear what the others were saying. The announcement of the AA-level world probably did not cause this chaotic situation. Without any other options, Lin Sanjiu grabbed a random person to get more information, "Why are you guys jamming up the exit?"
"Someone sealed the entrance! They are trying to catch somebody..."