Woyu only hoped that he would pass out now so that by the time he woke up, everything would be settled and he would be waiting for Silas in the infirmary to fetch him a glass of whiskey.
Unfortunately, he did not pass out as he had hoped to be. Every muscle in his body was screaming and aching as if he had been run over by a truck. He could feel the fingers around his neck tightening. Less and less air flew into his windpipe, and he felt suffocated.
The man pressed his face closer to Woyu. His breathing was heavy and hot, tickling the fine hairs on the nape of Woyu’s neck.
The woman in front of them was not holding any weapons nor bringing out any of her Special Items. She was wide open, and she looked like an easy target. She promenaded towards them like she was strolling in a garden to meet an old friend. Only when the woman stopped and stood in front of him did Woyu realize how wrong he was.
The woman was entirely out of their league.
Imagine that you are in the savanna right now and there is a cheetah right in front of you. The first thing on your mind is hope that the cheetah will ignore you and walk away.
That was what the man and Woyu were thinking right now.
“Stay where you are, or I will kill him,” the man hissed menacingly.
Lin Sanjiu gave a perfunctory shrug.
“Believe me, you won’t,” she spoke nonchalantly.
Seeing her indifferent attitude, Woyu chided inwardly, ‘Can’t she be more serious about saving me?’
Then, Lin Sanjiu continued, “He is your only bargaining chip, so I am certain that the last thing you want is to lose your catbird seat. I seriously hope that you can let him go, step up, and have a square fight with me.”
With those words, Lin Sanjiu resumed walking forward. The man behind him was obviously flustered, as Woyu could feel the grip on his neck tighten again. As his heart made a somersault, a streak of silver light zoomed out of the corner of his eyes and grazed past his skin, causing all his hairs to stand on their ends.
Unlike Woyu, who was clearly startled, Lin Sanjiu was unfazed. She merely leaped to one side and avoided the attack. She took a few steps sideways, which was followed by the man. He grabbed Woyu and turned him around to face Lin Sanjiu.
“I noticed a few bruises on his face,” Lin Sanjiu tried to go around the man as she examined Woyu’s face, “Did you hit him? Then, why don’t you come forward and hit me too? Are you scared?”
“If you think you can goad me into rash behavior, then I suggest you drop the thought. The reason I could survive for so long in the apocalypse is that I am immune to such mind games. They don’t work on me,” the man said as he hid his head behind Woyu’s shoulders. His hot breath sprayed on Woyu’s skin and the air around them was poisoned by the metallic stench of blood from his mouth, causing Woyu to gag and fight back the urge to vomit every breath he took.
The tall woman nodded thoughtfully as the man finished speaking. The confrontation took a sharp turn and became silent. Both parties stared at each other in speechless dismay. Suddenly, before either of them could react, Lin Sanjiu kicked the floor and dashed towards the right rear quarter of the two. A half-suppressed scream slid from Woyu’s throat, then the world in his vision blurred as furries of images flashed across his eyes. By the time his sight became clear again, he saw Lin Sanjiu still standing in front of him.
Once again, the man had prevented Lin Sanjiu from going behind them.
‘Can’t she make it quicker?!’ Woyu chided Lin Sanjiu inwardly with teary eyes. He wanted to say something, but no sound came out of his mouth. He had seen how Lin Sanjiu fought, so he was certain she wasn’t trying her best now. Anxiety, doubt, and desperation entwined and twisted him like the tentacles of an octopus that was sucking the reason out of his brain.
After several half-hearted attempts, the three of them made a slow circuit of the hall and traded positions. Right now, Woyu and the man were standing in front of the aircraft while Lin Sanjiu was standing in front of the wasted metal scrapes. Other than that, nothing had changed.
“Just kill him if you want to,” Lin Sanjiu urged. She seemed to have run out of patience as she called out a whip, “If you think holding him as your hostage can stop me from killing you, then you are terribly wrong. Nothing can stop me if I want to kill you. So, prepare yourself.”
“Hah! Acting tough won’t do you any good, you know, little girl? If you really didn’t care about your little pet, you wouldn’t be lollygagging with me for so long. Judging from the fact that you gave him permission to enter your house, he must be your favorite, though I don’t understand why,” the man chuckled. He pulled Woyu, and together, they recoiled a few steps back. “Do you really think I am afraid of you? I am not weak, so don’t look down on me too much. It’s just that I am wounded and not as strong as I used to be. So, after putting everything together and weighing the situation, I’ve decided not to face you head-on.”
Woyu uttered some guttural noises that were swiftly cut off by the man as he squeezed his neck harder.
“Oh my,” Lin Sanjiu exclaimed, “Where did you get that idea from? He is not my pet. Your mind is so dirty.”
‘Hello! Is that really important?’ the thought popped up in Woyu’s mind. ‘If you have the time to explain, why don’t you just—’
Before Woyu could finish his internal monologue, he was hit by a strong force from behind. Even though the man behind him had beared the brunt of the impact, the force of the blow still caused Woyu to lose his balance. The man loosened his grip, and he fell to the floor. Then, before he could turn around to look, Lin Sanjiu stepped in.
Like lightning striking upon an unfortunate hollowed tree, Lin Sanjiu jabbed her elbow deeply into the man’s stomach. Still in his dumb-struck state, Woyu spun his head around and saw two people were standing in front of him. On the other hand, the man who had been holding him hostage was crumbling to the floor like a rag doll.
However, before the man could make contact with the floor, Lin Sanjiu reached out and grabbed him by the collar.
Woyu’s eyes hopped from Lin Sanjiu to the blue-colored man that appeared out of nowhere. He turned to the aircraft, and the realization soon dawned on him. He stammered, “You… have you guys been planning this all along? You purposely switched positions with him so that Yu Yuan could… Watch out!”
Be that as it may, he was a tad bit too late. The man was resilient. After receiving two heavy blows, he still had some strength left to spare. He suddenly peeled his eyes open as Lin Sanjiu was scooping him up. Startled, before Lin Sanjiu could react, the man pressed his glove-clad palm on her shoulder.
Woyu’s brain exploded in black mindless horror. He kept shouting and screaming, yet nobody could understand him. It wasn’t until Yu Yuan shouted, “Calm down!” that Woyu realized what had happened. Lin Sanjiu’s shoulder was still intact. Her shoulder did not get turned into a pile of raw material. Woyu squinted his eyes and saw that there was a faint layer of glow on top of her shoulder.
“H—H—How?” He wiped his nose and turned back to Yu Yuan. “How did she do that?”
That was also the question in the man’s head as well. Confusion ran amuck in his mind as his face contorted into a grimace of pain.
Lin Sanjiu did not give any comment to Woyu’s inquiry. She turned her head down and cast a downward gaze at the man.
“How do you feel right now? Angry? Indignant? You thought that I was the only one in the aircraft, so you let down your guard; otherwise, you wouldn’t have fallen for my trick,” she said in an insouciant demeanor as she clutched at the man’s hand that was on her shoulder. She pulled his glove off before continuing, “Do you want to know why I went through the trouble and set you up so that my comrade could pull a sneak attack on you?”
The man stared fixedly at his glove. He opened his mouth several times, but no words came out. His body was so mangled that it deprived him of such an easy feat. Yu Yuan must have shattered his spine, and Lin Sanjiu must have crushed his organs.
Judging from his condition, he wouldn’t be able to see the sun tomorrow.
As the man lingered on the borderline between life and death, Lin Sanjiu giggled. “Because you are not worthy enough for me to fight you with my full strength.”
Woyu let out a long sigh, and his eyes warmed up. As if he lost all his strength, he fell onto the floor like a marionette that had its string cut. He gazed up at the ceiling of the hangar bay. There was only a bracing frame left since the supporting vessel was gone. In the distance, Lin Sanjiu’s voice was getting fainter as he slowly slid into oblivion. As his eyes blurred, he finally lost consciousness.
By the time he woke up again, he was entirely wrapped in bandages. His arms and legs were put in casts, and all his wounds were neatly stitched. The pain in his chest had lessened as well.
Yu Yuan was sitting by his bed, reading the magazine in his hand. His eyebrows, behind his ears, between his fingers—all were peppered with blue paint. It seemed like the paint wouldn’t come off entirely unless he washed it a few more times.
“Hey there,” Yu Yuan greeted, not peeling his eyes away from the magazine, “You look like you have something to say.”
Woyu nodded hurriedly. His head was completely wrapped by the bandages, so he couldn’t speak now.
“I’ll do the talking. I probably know what you want to say.” Yu Yuan picked up a glass of drink and took a sip. Tattoos covered his face, so Woyu couldn’t read his expression. “Well, the thing is, the man died before he could say anything. When I reached the bridge, I realized the man had set Exodus to an emergency recovery state. I don’t know why he didn’t undo it before he left the bridge.”
‘That’s because he thought to return to the bridge after he got rid of me.’
“So I helped Lin Sanjiu reset the passcode to get the system back online. I found the coordinates of the canyon in the system log, and we are now going back there,” Yu Yuan said. His voice carried an apathetic tone as if the entire incident was very normal to him.
“Silas told us everything,” he said, pulling Woyu’s attention back to him. “Lin Sanjiu and I both think that you did a great job. Oh yeah, she wanted to say thank you in person.”
Woyu was slightly shocked. A sudden wave of embarrassment and guilt swarmed over his heart. ‘Luckily, Silas didn’t know that I almost gave up.’
“I should go and call Lin Sanjiu,” Yu Yuan said as he exited the infirmary. Woyu stole a glance at the clock and found out that he had just been unconscious for a short period of time. This was because Lin Sanjiu boarded Exodus at midnight and it was just 9 am in the morning now.
‘It’s 9 o’clock in the morning…’ Woyu thought inwardly. Then, he raised his arm and pulled his bandage apart a little to reveal his mouth.
A series of hurried footsteps could be heard from the corridor outside. As the door pushed open, Lin Sanjiu, who had changed into an oversized shirt unlike her usual tank top and long pants, appeared in front of Woyu. When she saw that Woyu was trying to get up from the bed, she walked forward and put a cushion behind his back. Then, she thanked him earnestly.
Woyu couldn’t talk a lot now, so most of the time, he just listened. After a short while, Lin Sanjiu finally went into the main topic.
“I will not erase your authority as an administrator of Exodus. I know this may not mean much to you, but I hope that Exodus will become your home,” Lin Sanjiu said as she held Woyu’s hand tightly. There was a gentle smile on her face, which melted the harsh line on her face. Right now, she looked more like a woman than ever. “Welcome. Also, I think this belongs to you.”
As she said, she shoved the glove into his hand. The glove melted into the texture and color of the bandage. It was nearly impossible to differentiate between the glove and the bandage. Truth to be told, Woyu was actually very surprised that she would give him such a powerful Special Item without batting an eye.
It took him quite some time before he finally came around to his senses. He looked at the glove and spoke in a croaky voice, “Thank you so much.” Then, something popped up in his head, so he said, “About the communication device…”
Lin Sanjiu’s brows furrowed a little, but it was swift. Then, she sighed.
“Did you…” Woyu had no idea why, but he felt as if she had a bone in her throat. However, after shilly-shallying for a moment, she still finished her sentence, “Did somebody pick up the call when you used the communication device to call me?”
‘How did she know?’
“I guessed so.” Lin Sanjiu lowered her head, her hand clutching tightly at the coverlet. “That communication device can’t be used anymore… That person is too far away from here, and the device can only support a long-distance call once, then it will be out of use.”
It seemed to Woyu that she did not want to continue this topic, as she continued without waiting for him to say anything, “I will give you a new one. As long as you don’t make a mistake while calling me, we can contact each other anytime through the device.”
“Are… Are you going out now?”
“Yes, I have to check-in,” Lin Sanjiu nodded. Then, she turned to Yu Yuan and said, “You ready?”
Since there was still some time needed for Exodus to arrive at the canyon, Lin Sanjiu decided to have Yu Yuan bring her to the checkpoint to check-in. After she gave Woyu the new communication device and ordered Silas to take care of him, she went out along with Yu Yuan. The infirmary became silent. Woyu laid quietly on the bed. He thought for a moment, and then suddenly, he gritted his teeth and got up from his bed.
“Silas, bring me a pod,” he ordered, to which Silas replied, “All right.”
Very soon, a maglev pod arrived. Woyu slowly and arduously inched toward the pod and threw himself on the seat. After he took a short breather, he said, “Let’s go to the prison area.”
When he arrived at the prison area, he trudged into the cell holding Lollipop.
“Lin Sanjiu has asked me to tell you that she is busy today, so she is not going to come here and let you check-in,” Woyu said as the door behind him closed silently, “But since you haven’t checked-in for more than one day, if something bad happens, you just call Silas. She will…” Woyu paused and let out a spell of coughing. “She will inform me.”
It had been some time since Lollipop was confined in here. The girl had put on some weight, and she had become chubbier. She glanced at Woyu and then scoffed sarcastically, “You? Look at yourself, what can you possibly do if something really bad happens?”
“I…” Woyu had to pause again to catch his breath before continuing, “I can come and help you.”
“Please don’t make me laugh. You can’t even walk properly right now.” Lollipop got down from the bed and stretched her body. “Anyway, it doesn’t really matter if I can’t check-in right now. After all, I am trapped here, and look around yourself, there is nothing in here that can harm me anyway. By the way, this house can fly?” She pointed at the window. “I saw the clouds last night!”
Woyu pulled himself over the window. He looked out of the window and replied hesitantly, “Don’t tell anybody about this. You are not supposed to know that.”
“Tell anyone? Me?” Lollipop paced back to her bed and said exasperatedly, “I am all alone here, do you think there is a second person for me to talk to? By the way, when are you going to let me out?”
Woyu followed after her and stammered, “I don’t know about that… You—You have to ask Lin Sanjiu. I—I only know…”
“What do you know?”
“I only know what calamity is about to befall you.”
When Lollipop jerked her head back, a hand wrapped in bandages fell on her shoulder.
