Chapter 60: Broadcast
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
【Planar World，Lin Sanjiu’s card deck】
Police Baton ×1
Description: It’s almost out of battery. Please take note of the instructions.
Small knives ×3
Description: Cheap fruit knives. If you are cut by one of these, you can stop the bleeding with a single band-aid.
Brick ×1
Description: Building material. Gangsters from Northeast China and Beijing enjoy using this to scare people, supposedly.
Pygmalion Choker | Cooldown time left: 8 hours 9 mins
Gentle word of advice: Please take care of your own safety.
“You gotta be f*cking kidding me!” Lin Sanjiu exploded, she pulled Xiao Yu up and ran like crazy. Without a second of delay, Fang Dan and Marcie followed behind Lin Sanjiu swiftly. They ran for the stairway. Usually, that distance was not that far, but today they seemed to take forever — Before they even got close, a black shadow flew above their heads.
Deep cracks appeared on the portions of the ceiling where the black shadow brushed past, and concrete and sawdust fell like rain. Covering their heads and faces and avoid the falling debris slowed them down significantly.
The black shadow landed with a thump in front of the women. It retracted its shiny raven black wings. Lin Sanjiu looked behind her and found that there were another five other winged duoluozhongs rushing toward them. A normal duoluozhong was outside, but it left the moment it saw the back of those winged duoluozhongs.
The winged duoluozhongs were very tall; they reminded Lin Sanjiu of the two duoluozhongs she met in the public security bureau. Their skin on their body and wings were not wrinkly and sticky, neither did they have a smooth, human-like skin. Instead, their skins had a dark brown glossy surface, a little like a beetle’s carapace.
If not for their human-like torsos, they looked like gigantic cockroaches from behind.
“Sob…” Xiao Yu fell to the ground weakly with unfocused eyes, she was too afraid to even move. Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help cursing inwardly when she saw Xiao Yu.
“Fight! Let’s fight!” Fang Dan’s voice trembled when she said that. “Do all of you have a weapon?”
Lin Sanjiu stared at one of the duoluozhong while cold sweat covered her entire body. That duoluozhong blinked at her as if showing its delight. At that moment, she smelt a familiar scent. They usually have an unpleasant stench, but this duoluozhong was emanating a faint fragrance. It was so familiar…
It was the smell of washing powder.
As water was a precious resource, in the entire Oasis, only the Executives’ building had washing powder as they were the only ones with the privilege to wash their clothes.
This duoluozhong was wearing an Executive’s shirt. Or rather, its clothes had been washed, just like the Executives’. Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth tightly as the horrifying speculations which filled her mind all pointed to very shocking conclusions. The main hall was very quiet, other than Xiao Yu’s sobbing voice, the duoluozhongs did not make the unique buzzing noise that they usually had. It was as if they intentionally controlled themselves.
In fact, if they listened carefully, they would’ve noticed that even with the alarming number of duoluozhongs flying in the sky, there were silent. It was just like watching an old film with animation but no sound.
Before the duoluozhongs could attack, Lin Sanjiu suddenly took action. She kicked Xiao Yu toward Fang Dan and shouted, “Blow your whistle! Alert everyone! Marcie and I will hold them back here!”
Once she moved, the duoluozhongs surrounding them also reacted. Some extended their wings, others swung their mouthparts, but they all maintained their silence when they attacked. Marcie had full confidence in Lin Sanjiu. Once Lin Sanjiu said that, Marcie rushed over to Fang Dan’s side and swung an impactful kick, pushing back a duoluozhong which attempted to attack Fang Dan.
Fang Dan’s calf grew a little weak. She looked down and saw the whistle in front of Xiao Yu’s chest. She recognized that whistle, it was used every night to wake everyone in their building. She scrambled for the whistle and pulled it off Xiao Yu. She did not even pause to question Lin Sanjiu, she just blew the whistle — The main hall was filled with a sharp whistle which reverberated through the building.
The duoluozhongs were undoubtedly a little startled, but they attacked with more persistence. It was very obvious that they wanted to kill all of them before they made any more noise. They were much more powerful that the normal duoluozhongs. Their mouthparts moved so quickly that they were even a little hard to track. In just a short time, Lin Sanjiu was covered with bleeding wounds. She pulled out her police baton and made no attempt to use its shock function sparingly. Her counterattack was accompanied by the cackling sound of electricity as she managed to defend herself against the combined attack of two duoluozhongs.
The sharp shrills from the whistle rang out a few times. Then, Fang Dan released the whistle and held her throat. With the loudest voice she could summon, she shouted, “DUOLUOZHONGS INVADED OASIS! DUOLUOZHONGS INVADED OASIS!”
Then, she began whistling again.
Despite being in a difficult battle, Lin Sanjiu could clearly hear the disturbance from beneath them. Very quickly, they heard a flurry of footsteps from the two basement floors rushing toward the stairway. The first person who swung open the door to the main hall was a man.
Just as his eyes grew wide, witnessing the scene in the main hall, a duoluozhong suddenly whipped toward him. It flung its mouthpart, and a human head flew into mid air.
A row of dense sharp teeth grew around the rim of its mouthpart. They had never seen such a thing before. The headless body fell lifelessly to the ground. Just then, a series of fearful screams erupted from behind him. With that, the crowd which only half believed the warning became uncontrollable. Some of them ran away, some of them jostle their way through crying, others hollered that they wanted to get out… The wave after wave of noise flooded into the spacious hall which amplified their voices. The noise traveled throughout the building.
While the duoluozhongs attacked the crowd, Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at Marcie and Fang Dan. The three of them ran to the windows to the side of the main hall. “Crash!” Lin Sanjiu broke a window as she turned to look at the duoluozhongs chasing after them. “Fang Dan, go! Go and wake the people from the other buildings! Quick!”
Fang Dan clenched her teeth and leaped out of the window. Lin Sanjiu waved her left hand, and two cards flew behind her. She heard a painful shriek when her two cheap fruit knives dug deep into a duoluozhong’s pair of eyes.
Meanwhile, two duoluozhongs chased after the people going down to Basement One, leaving a bloody mess as blood and limbs flew everywhere. Two other duoluozhong in the main hall made a low growl when they saw their injured companion, and both rushed toward Lin Sanjiu.
Just then, Lin Sanjiu heard Fang Dan’s screaming: “Wake up and fight! Duoluozhongs have invaded Oasis!” her thunderous screams woke the people in Oasis like an explosion. It took only a few seconds for the bewildered people to wake up, realize the situation they were in, and collapse with fears and tears.
“What’s the use of waking them?” Marcie used her long nails to block a mouthpart coming at her, “Wouldn’t those normal people die for nothing?”
“These duoluozhongs live within Oasis!” Lin Sanjiu blocked an attack. Next, she leaped and swung her police baton so that it hit one of the fruit knives, pushing that knife further into the duoluozhong’s brain. The duoluozhong swayed for a second, crashed on the floor and stopped moving. Lin Sanjiu never had any martial arts training, but from the way she fought, she did have some talent for it.
Marcie was stunned for a moment when she heard what Lin Sanjiu said. She rolled forward to avoid a mouthpart that nearby hit her back. “What do you mean?”
“I think they’ve been hiding here for some time.” Lin Sanjiu touched the duoluozhong’s corpse and converted it into a card and held it in her hands. “There must be a reason why they refuse to reveal themselves to the people living in Oasis. I just want to prevent them from doing anything worse!”
Even though she said that, Lin Sanjiu did not expect that it would cause so many fatalities.
The situation outside was getting more and more complicated. The crying and screaming crowd ran around like headless chickens. Due to the panic, they were like trapped preys for the duoluozhongs; every now and then, blood spurted out from a victim in the crowd, and this drove the crowd into a wilder frenzy. The fear in the atmosphere was so thick it was almost tangible. Rather than being killed by a duoluozhong, it was unfortunate that much more people died from the stampede.
Amidst this purgatory-like scene, a sudden long whistle suddenly rang out. Almost as if it was a command, the duoluozhongs in the main hall stopped their attack, the two in the basement also returned to the first floor. The duoluozhongs heard what Lin Sanjiu said just now. One of them peered at her with its narrowed eyes but did not say a word. Subsequently, the four duoluozhongs turned and flew out of the main hall.
As Lin Sanjiu looked out of the main entrance, the duoluozhongs which covered the skies like dark clouds flew into the distance, even the duoluozhongs wandering on the roofs somehow disappeared. Their retreat was quick and coordinated.
Marcie, somewhat unable to believe her eyes, was now dumbfounded. For a few seconds, Oasis fell into a sort of deadly silence. Everyone watched in a daze, unable to say a word, as the duoluozhongs flew away.
“Sob…”
Lin Sanjiu heard a soft cry. It was Xiao Yu. From the start, Xiao Yu had been scared out of her wits, so she laid in one corner. Somehow, it was also the reason she survived. Lin Sanjiu shuddered when she heard Xiao Yu. As if she suddenly realized something, Lin Sanjiu pulled Marcie and ran outside.
“This is our best chance! While Oasis is in a mess, let’s drive the vehicles…” as she said this, she looked around and ran toward their line of vehicles. Unfortunately, her plan was disrupted by a voice over the loudspeakers: “Attention! This is an announcement from Professor Bai’s office!”
The two women slowed down when they heard this.
An imposing male voice rang out over the loudspeakers, the atmosphere froze, and the deadly silence fell over the entire compound once again. “Firstly, dear members do not worry, the duoluozhongs which invaded us have left. We are out of danger! Our five Executives are now at the scene of the incident, investigating the issue and helping deal with the aftermath. Please return to your own rooms after this broadcast; otherwise, you will be captured and banished from Oasis. I will repeat this again. Please return to your own rooms after this broadcast…”
If they went back now, they would never escape. If they were captured by Chen Jinfeng, they would never have the good fortune to get banished from this place. Lin Sanjiu and Marcie exchanged a look, and Lin Sanjiu pointed upward. After that, the women scaled the walls of the building nimbly each climbed onto an air-conditioning unit. As factories require a lot more air-conditioning units than households, it was a reasonable hiding place. The air-conditioning units could support their weight, and when they curled up, the space was just enough.
After the broadcast, the crowd moved like fearful herds of sheep back into their dormitory. The five Executives stomped around the compound, shouting commands. The sounds of corpses being dragged, interrogations, and feverish searching filled Oasis. The two women hid above the people below them and did not move for at least two hours. Finally, Oasis gradually regained its order.
As they had not been under the afternoon sun for a long time, the longer the two women hid on the air-conditioning units, the more unbearable it became.
“Bzzt!” Suddenly, the loudspeakers were filled with the sound of someone hitting a microphone.
It was the same man who spoke previously. “Attention everyone! This is an announcement from Professor Bai’s office! According to a reliable eyewitness, the tragic incident today occurred because two Oasis members colluded with the duoluozhongs and led them here. As the last hope for humanity, we will not tolerate such behavior… We will now announce the names of these two traitors.
“Lin Sanjiu. Marcie. The traitors are two women in their twenties or thirties. They might have multiple accomplices. The main culprit, Lin Sanjiu, wears a bandage around her neck while Marcie is a red-haired Caucasian…
“All Oasis members have the responsibility to look for these two traitors and report their locations to the authority… At the same time, all guards must now be on duty. The main entrance must be heavily guarded to prevent the traitors from escaping. I’ll repeat this again…”
