Chapter 755: Three Dreams
It only took her a glance to know that the man on the TV was no ordinary man she might come across in a dream—he was a posthuman.
He stood on a podium and there was something dangerous in him that made him give the vibe of somebody who had soaked in numerous bloodbaths throughout his entire life. Compared to the rank of senators, he looked like a drop of black ink in a glass of milk. When the camera zoomed in, Lin Sanjiu saw something she was very familiar with.
A scar. A large, deep knife scar that slid from right to left on his forehead.
‘Could it be that this guy replaced Mayor Orlean in my dream after our librettos connected?’
Mulling over the possibility, Lin Sanjiu glanced behind her and was taken aback.
During the period of time she had been staring at the TV, time had leaped forward again and tremendous changes once more took place in Peanut Town.
Be that as it may, it seemed that all the townsfolk in Peanut Town had to report to the mountain at 6 o’clock in the morning and register at the town hall at 9 o’clock in the evening every day, no matter how much time had passed. They were still queuing in line, heading towards the mountain. All of them, be it men or women, were dressed in matching outfits, with the only difference being the color, which was so bright it hurt her eyes.
There was bright pink, deep blue, and neon yellow, just to name a few. Their faces looked pale in contrast with their vibrantly colored clothes. Standing next to Lin Sanjiu and behind her was still the same group of people. It was just that they all looked puffier right now, with a great wealth of double chins piling on their chests. The weather was cold, and despite the chill encapsulating them, all of them were sweating profusely.
Lin Sanjiu was the thinnest among them. Even a seven years old kid was chubbier than her.
‘Kid?’
The moment she saw the kid, she realized there was a ridiculous amount of kids in the crowd. The kids were slaloming in and out between the adult’s legs like huge rolling balls. Similar to their parents, their faces were ruddy and their breaths were puffy and fast.
She raised her head and looked ahead.
The sky was still as blue as always, but the black, balding mountain had grown at least a dozen meters taller. It cast a circle of shadows around its perimeter, consuming everything in its proximity in darkness, and any townsfolk who walked into it would be engulfed by the shadow, rendering Lin Sanjiu unable to distinguish their shirt’s color.
Similar to many years ago, the air was rented with a perpetual gurgling noise, and the townspeople pressed their foreheads closely to the mountain.
There were even more police officers right now. All of them were patrolling by the roadside as they stared daggers at the residents.
Lin Sanjiu scanned the surroundings, trying to look for a way out. She was now in a dream and her abilities had become extremely unreliable. As such, she was certain that she wouldn’t stand a chance against their firearms if she went off the deep without a thorough plan. She did not know what would happen to her body in real life if she was fatally injured in the dream, but she reckoned it wouldn’t be something good.
“Today’s breakfast is a feast.” Lin Sanjiu’s heart skipped a beat when she heard the voice. She followed the voice and soon found a black-haired woman standing in line—Josephine Lull. It took her some time to recognize her, as the woman had aged a little and her body had become so rotund that she was scarcely recognizable as the woman she once was. Her green shirt was completely soaked with sweat and adhered to her fleshy back as if it were glued there.
“Thanks to Mayor Orlean, we can have such a rich life. It’s really a blessing to have him as our mayor!” She wiped the sweat off her face as she talked to the man next to her. “I bet we’ll be feeling hungry once we finish our report. What do you want to have for lunch? We still have seven meals to go, so we have to plan it properly… Ah, how about another feast of fried bacon and omelet?”
She was the only one speaking. Even though she was talking in gasps and with short-windedness, her voice was clear and loud. Her new husband, who had jowly cheeks, quietly listened to her blabbing without giving any positive response. Similar to his wife, he was broad in the beam.
As Lin Sanjiu stared fixedly at Josephine, a middle-aged woman finished her report. Her face was ashen-white and she was also a sweaty mess. She carried a kid in her left arm and held a chocolate bar with the other hand. She tore the packet off with her teeth in the most barbaric way and wolfed it down as if she had been starved for days.
Lin Sanjiu did not know what was happening when they were “reporting”, but all of them looked extremely exhausted. They all walked with choppy steps and perpetually looked like they were about to tip forward. Their eyes were green with hunger as if they had not consumed any food for days.
Lin Sanjiu glanced at the police officers then the middle-aged woman. She suddenly had a brain wave as an idea instantly took shape in her mind. She threw herself out of the queue, tottering forward, and made herself look as if she was about to pass out. Just as the police officers raised their guns and yelled at her, the middle-aged woman arrived and was already within reach.
Quick as thought, Lin Sanjiu sprang up and pounced forward. She grabbed the kid’s collar and pulled him toward her. Her strength fluctuated greatly as if it was playing roller coaster with her. She felt dizzy and her vision went dark for a second. She clutched tightly to the kid and rushed into the crowd.
“If you shoot me, I will kill this kid!” She grabbed the kid’s neck and shouted in a voice laden with menace. She tried to activate her Planar World, but unfortunately, she could not do it. The knife just wouldn’t appear no matter how many times she tried.
The kid was about one-years-old, but he was unbelievably heavy to carry. He did not struggle, nor did he cry out. If he weren’t breathing, Lin Sanjiu might think he was just a doll. Seizing the chance as the group of police officers hesitated, she yelled at the middle-aged woman, “You! Come over here!”
According to her plan, the woman would surely come to rescue her kid and then she would use her as leverage to help her escape from here. However, little did she expect that not only did the woman not come forward, but she took a few quick steps back and took cover behind the police officers.
“If you don’t come over here right now, I will kill your son!” Lin Sanjiu shouted again.
The middle-aged woman glanced at the kid in Lin Sanjiu’s hand. Her gaze was cold as if she was looking at a fire hydrant on the roadside.
Lin Sanjiu stopped screaming as she realized that her plan had failed. The eyes and the response the middle-aged woman gave suggested that she did not care about her son at all.
“She is not from Peanut Town!” a chubby female police officer’s eyes glowed as she shouted. “She must be one of the terrorists! She didn’t even know our kids were distributed to us!”
‘Distribute…? Kid?’
However, Lin Sanjiu did not allow her bafflement to affect her too much. She snapped herself out of her thoughts and roared, “I don’t care! If you don’t want me to kill him, let me go now!”
The police officers looked at each other.
“Mayor Orlean has given out a clear cut order,” an older police officer with ruddy cheeks glanced at the crowd and shouted at the top of his lungs, “We must eliminate our enemy, whatever it takes!”
When he looked at the crowd, Lin Sanjiu knew something bad was about to happen. The next second felt as long as an eternity. Several people beside her roared and threw themselves at her. She released the kid, threw him on the ground, and barreled into the crowd.
Then, before she knew it, a furious bout of gunshots erupted in her ears and a rush of a sulphuric smell permeated the air. As Lin Sanjiu ran forward, she lowered her head and realized there was a large patch of blood flowing on the ground. She looked over her shoulder and saw the kid falling to the ground after being shot several times.
The middle-aged woman dashed forward and stared at the kid.
In this critical moment, Lin Sanjiu’s body finally awakened. Seizing the golden opportunity, she rammed the people away and rushed out a large distance in the blink of an eye. Through the wind, she vaguely heard the middle-aged woman’s voice. “I’ve raised him for a year. Now that he is dead, will my contribution point still be counted?”
Lin Sanjiu picked up her speed again and left the crowd far behind. As she ran, she looked down the street in the hope of finding an unlocked car. However, to her dismay, she discovered that there was no vehicle in sight despite the road being filled with cars earlier on. It seemed as if every person in this town had abandoned their cars and chosen to walk.
“Hold her down!”
“Stop that intruder! She is a terrorist!”
Distant roars and shouts rolled over from the horizon like dull rumbling thunder. Lin Sanjiu did not turn around but continued to run as fast as she could towards the town hall.
Perhaps everybody had gone to the black mountain to report, for she did not bump into any townsfolk along the way and soon arrived in the town hall. She slammed the door close, took a broom she found in a corner, and latched it on the door handle.
She took a deep breath to soothe her burning lungs. After that, she turned around and began studying the hall.
The town hall was huge and majestic, its grandiose atmosphere reminding her of the national theatre.
She walked forward, the heels of her boots clicking rhythmically against the shining floor. Just when Lin Sanjiu was about to take the stairs up, the soft female voice rang out again, making her jump. “Attention. Connection to another posthuman’s libretto is being established. Please take note.”
‘Another libretto? Isn’t this place where Mayor Orlean, the posthuman who dreamt up the black mountain, resides? Could it be that the one who previously linked to my libretto was not Mayor Orlean?’
Lin Sanjiu pressed down the sea of questions and bounded up the stairs.
Before she could reach the top, the door above her exploded. Shrapnels of wood were sent into the air along with a violent airstream that shot out of the wall. A humanoid figure flew across the air and fell to the floor.
Lin Sanjiu stopped in her tracks and raised her guard. She looked and realized that the man had tattoos all over his body. He was clearly a posthuman.
“F*ck!” Mr. Orlean’s gasping voice rang out from the room. “What have you done to me?!”
The tattooed man clawed his way up from the floor. He coughed incessantly, and before he could say anything, he froze. Mr. Orlean fell silent as well. At that moment, Lin Sanjiu knew that, like her, they received the notification from the female voice as well.
“Attention. You have been connected to another posthuman’s libretto. Please take note.”
