Chapter 111: Captured
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Despite the continuous waves of exhaustion, Lin Sanjiu tried her best to keep up with the fat man, trudging through the patches of waist-high grass. This place had probably been a part of the city as she could still see the remnants of pedestrian pavements. However, it was evident that the place had been abandoned for a long time as the plants have already decimated most of the tiles on the ground.
As they walked, the grayish-white pet rat obediently followed behind the fat man. When it moved quickly, the fetus within the pustule on its back would wobble along with the moving fluid. Lin Sanjiu did not have the time to process her disgust because all her attention was drawn to what the fat man was saying, “When Er Dao told me about that, I thought he was joking! I can’t believe someone like him would have an otherworldly lover who would come here to look for him… Cough, now I know he’s telling the truth.”
Lin Sanjiu felt an indescribable feeling when she heard that there was possibly a woman out there searching tirelessly for Er Dao. She found herself momentarily speechless, so she just said, “oh.”
“But my main point is that Er Dao is just too inconsiderate. How could he let a woman walk around here by herself? That’s too dangerous…” The fat man seemed a little angry as he shoved the grass in his path. “Sister-in-law, when we go back, make sure you lock all the windows and doors. I will go out and look for him.”
Moments before, Lin Sanjiu had made up an excuse about being separated from Er Dao because of a dangerous situation. After thanking the fat man for offering help, she couldn’t help secretly feeling relieved—it was, of course, impossible for that fat man to meet Er Dao, so she just needed to escape after finding some anti-radiation supplies. Furthermore, she managed to grasp some useful information between the lines of his words.
Firstly, the apocalyptic event in this world must have happened quite some time ago and definitely wasn’t like the newly “created” Hyperthermal Hell.
It was apparent that the Posthumans who live outside the snow globe city were already accustomed to the way of life and had their own survival methods. For example, that disgusting huge rat was the main source of meat for the people there. Even though it is a species which mutated due to the radiation, it seemed to have a mild temperament and supposedly the texture of its meat was quite tender, just like a spring chicken, and thus it was called “free-range chicken”.
From what the fat man said, Er Dao probably had his own shelter, so
it might even be possible that he had some anti-radiation supplies in his house.
The most important information she managed to glean from the man was that there were different batches of people sent to this world. As the Garden of Eden must have been around for some time, there were people who had been living here for different amounts of time, thus everyone had a different level of “familiarity” with this world. This might be Lin Sanjiu’s first day, but for others, it might be their last few days in this world. That is to say, Lin Sanjiu could benefit from others’ experience and the conveniences they left behind.
“Ah, what do I call you?” Lin Sanjiu asked the fat man with his hoarse voice.
The latter clapped his hands together and replied, “That’s right. I haven’t introduced myself. You can call me Yuzi. I’m Er Dao’s old friend, we came here together from the previous world…”
They chatted as they walked for an hour. After wearing the helmet, Lin Sanjiu already felt much better. Besides, she didn’t want a stranger to find out how weak she was now, so she gritted her teeth and forced herself to walk.
When they finally reached Er Dao’s dwelling place, a small three-story building, her tight-fitting singlet was already drenched with sweat.
The building was most likely a cheap motel in the past. She could vaguely make out the picture of a cutlery set and a bed on its black walls. There was also a red carpet in the main hall which stank of mildew.
“This place is quite big. We both live here. Er Dao lives on the second floor and I occupy the first floor,” Yuzi said briefly and quickly chased the grayish white rat into a corridor. One of the guestrooms had already been converted into a rat’s nest, and the huge rat entered it without any fuss.
After ensuring that his livestock was back in its room, Yuzi closed the door and smiled at Lin Sanjiu, “Are you hungry? Do you want food, I could make something… You can go upstairs to rest. When Er Dao comes back, I’ll lecture him on your behalf.”
The food and water in this world had already been contaminated with a high level of radiation. If Lin Sanjiu really ate anything, her body would immediately shut down, so she just shook her hand, refusing, “No, thanks for the offer. But I just need some rest… Where is his room?”
She was exhausted and she just wanted to quickly search Er Dao’s room for supplies. Yuzi brought her to the second floor and opened the first door. He said a few words before turning to leave. However, he suddenly chuckled, “Sister-in-law, I haven’t seen your face! Don’t worry. This building is very safe, you don’t have to keep that helmet on…”
Seeing his curious face, Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a moment before she took off her helmet. If she wanted to stay here until she gets her hands on some of those gummies, it would be too unnatural for her to keep wearing that helmet. She tidied her hair and kept her composure while she looked straight at Yuzi while silently hoping that he had never seen Er Dao’s lover before.
Yuzi’s gaze paused for a few seconds on the flora design around her eyes, then he laughed, “That weird stuff around your eyes, it looks good! Alright, you should rest. I will look for him. Take care.”
“Okay, thank you,” Lin Sanjiu replied softly.
If she kept dragging herself around with this weak body, it was just a matter of time before she died. She knew that she needed to quickly find a way to deal with the radiation. As she walked into the room, Yuzi closed the door. She was a little stunned when she surveyed the room.
There was a large splatter of blood on the beige wallpaper. The bedsheet had been torn to shreds. There were a few pieces of broken wood planks on the floor and there was an overturned chair at the corner of the room…
[There is no way anyone would stay in this room…]
When Lin Sanjiu rushed toward the entrance and tried to open the door, she realized that she couldn’t open it. In that instant, she forgot her physical discomfort because she could only taste the salty feeling of regret. She slid down to the ground with her back to the door as she let out a self-mocking laughter. If she wasn’t so badly tortured by her body condition to the point where she couldn’t think straight, she wouldn’t have fallen so easily into that trap.
After she sat silently on the floor for some time, she asked quietly, “What do you want with me?”
As she did not hear Yuzi leaving, she was certain he was still outside observing the situation. There were a few seconds of silence outside the door and eventually she heard his voice, “You’re very cool-headed.”
Lin Sanjiu did not say a word. She tried to smash the lock and found that it had already been damaged quite badly before, however, the door did not budge. It was as if it was another wall. To make things worse, she was already starting to pant after just punching it a few times.
Yuzi waited for a few seconds outside and when he discovered that her resistance was only to that extent, he immediately laughed out and uttered, “Stop wasting your energy.” Then, she heard his footsteps going downstairs.
When she heard that he had walked away, Lin Sanjiu slunk over to the bed and lay down. Every skin, muscle, and bone in her body was aching.
With the current state of her body, Lin Sanjiu knew there was nothing she could do so she basically went to rest like she planned. She felt a sudden dizziness so she pinched herself to keep herself from fainting. While she tried to regain her strength, she listened carefully to the sounds outside the door. She did not know how many hours have passed but she only heard Yuzi’s voice when stars started appearing in the dark blue sky outside the window.
He seemed to be talking to someone else.
“The quality is superior, you don’t have to worry…” As he spoke, she could hear multiple footsteps heading upwards. There was definitely more than one person on the stairs. “I saw her face. She is quite beautiful and there is some flora design around her eyes…”
“Flora designs? Are those tattoos?” She heard another man clicking his tongue in disapproval, “If they cover most of her face, there is no way I am going to offer you a high price.”
“Of course not!” Yuzi explained anxiously. He held something in his hand and waved it past the door. The door responded to the item and opened. “You can go in and see for yourself.”
A tall, bald, muscular man threw a side glance at him and let out a contemptuous laughter, “How many times have you done this? Yet, you never dare enter first?”
Yuzi lowered his head, “Hehe. I’m just being careful. As you know, you are definitely better than me at fighting.”
The bald man didn’t say much. He pressed his waist and his whole body glowed faintly for a moment. Very quickly, the glow faded and it was as if that never happened.
Once he entered the room, he frowned. Anyone with common sense could tell that his preparation was for naught. It was obvious that the woman standing at the corner of the room was extremely weak.
As she was wearing a helmet, he could not see her face. She was sweating profusely even though it was only slightly above 20 degrees and she was armed with a long weird weapon. He could see that her body was quivering and was definitely unwell. The bald man gave Yuzi a dissatisfied glare.
“Is this the woman? She’s sick?” the man examined Lin Sanjiu from head to toe as if he was checking a merchandise. When he saw her placing her hand on an outdated voice recorder, he didn’t think much about it, “I can’t even see her face. This is a waste of my time!”
Yuzi was anxious when he heard this and quickly quipped, “She is not sick. Maybe her Potential Growth Value is a little low…”
Before he finished his sentence, a man’s voice rang out from the voice recorder. “What about a sharp blade? An ability to summon a sharp…”
Before Yuzi could react, the bald man kicked Yuzi to the ground with a lightning speed. Next, the voice recorder flew into his palms as if it had eyes. The voice instantaneously stopped. Lin Sanjiu’s Pygmalion Choker activation was halted before it could even grow warm.
It was only at that point that the bald brute looked at the voice recorder with amazement. He looked at Lin Sanjiu and there was certainly excitement in his serious voice when he exclaimed, “I really can’t tell. But you must have some fight in you. You even managed to activate my ‘Crisis Awareness’!
