Chapter 95: The Truth Behind the Beret Men
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
Lin Sanjiu placed her hand on her chest, trying to calm her violently thumping heart. Next, she rocked Hai Tianqing a few times, carefully avoiding his skin. The latter opened his eyes, hazily. After spending the entire morning working together with his companions to empty ten tons of goods, even someone as strong as Hai Tianqing had long fallen asleep due to exhaustion.
“Huh? What’s wrong?” he asked quietly as he rubbed his tired eyes.
Under the dim lighting in the container, he could see Lin Sanjiu’s amber cat-like eyes shining.
“I know what those Beret Men are,” her voice was a little shaky when she said this.
Hai Tianqing sat up immediately. At that moment, there were already close to 100 posthumans in the container…
—
Throughout the short morning, they constantly heard footsteps outside the shipping container, and each time the door opened, a few people with panicked faces would be pushed into the container by the Beret Men, becoming the new members in this group of prisoners. As the number of people grew, the prisoners couldn’t help feeling anxious.
[What are those Beret Men and their colleague planning, why would they need to capture so many people?] this was the thought that bothered them.
When the container was almost full, one of the Beret Man slammed the door shut. He secured the door with a metal chain and locked it from the outside. Considering that the prisoners were all Posthumans, the metal chain was just for display. The thing which the “prisoners” feared were what they could see through the gaps in the container: the Beret Men with their weapons. The middle-aged white collar worker with broken limbs serving as a clear warning to all, so the newcomers did not dare to act recklessly. For them to survive till today, all of them must have gone through some life-threatening experiences. Seeing that the weird people did not have the intention to kill, all of them decided to rest to preserve their stamina after a short discussion.
As Lin Sanjiu and her companions were still wary of the [Versu Poison] in their bodies, they sat far apart. Worried that she might accidentally come in contact with someone when she was asleep, Lin Sanjiu chose to rest at a space near the door where there was no one. The sunlight seeped through a gap in the door and cast its rays on her, it was uncomfortably warm and bright thus no one wanted to go near that space.
After she slept drowsily for a while, she suddenly heard footsteps outside. They sounded different from what they heard in the morning. The rustling footsteps sounded like troops of people, probably with small statures, approaching from a distance. Their feets had to be very small as they sounded like a colony of giant rats, scurrying.
Lin Sanjiu struggled for a few minutes to force her eyes open, and when she peeped through the gap in the door, she was shocked.
Then, she rushed over to Hai Tianqing to wake him up.
—
“Wake Hu Changzai, I’ll wake B.Rabbit. We will meet at the door.” Lin Sanjiu ordered without explaining herself properly. She carefully avoided the disorderly groups of people lying on the ground and ran to where B.Rabbit was. Hai Tianqing got up and woke Hu Changzai before they all met at the door as agreed.
There was a spot of light where Lin Sanjiu previously slept. Hu Changzai walked into this spot of sunlight, he bent and peeped out of the gap. As the group approaching them was very large, there were still “people” trailing behind. The four of them watched the scene unfolding before them.
They saw a group of very short women whose heights didn’t even reach a meter. Their heads were disproportionately large compared to their bodies, and they also appeared to be of mixed-heritage. They all had pale blonde hair, blue eyes, and were beautiful in an unfathomable way. B.Rabbit wiggled his ears and looked at Lin Sanjiu with a puzzled face. “Aren’t these just a group of dwarves from overseas? What does this have to do with what those Beret Men are?”
Lin Sanjiu gave him a wry smile, while something suddenly appeared in her hand. “Look at this, then look outside.”
A motionless 60cm toy Elsa, in a see-through box, stared back at them with a smile.
Her three companions were stunned. They looked at the toy and then at the “dwarves” walking outside.
“This, this… They look exactly like this,” Hu Changzai stuttered, “You mean they’re—”
“That’s right.” Lin Sanjiu nodded. “I found a crate filled with dolls just now. When the Beret Men discovered this, they immediately guarded the crate and did not let anyone near the crate. Though I thought it was weird, I didn’t think too much about it. Now, it seems…” She took in a deep breath, her face was visibly pale.
“Someone or some force can change those humanoid dolls into… umm… could we consider them real people? If this conjecture is right, it could explain why they’re so weird. They appear strange because they retain a lot of their doll characteristics — for example, their expressions don’t change, and they tiptoe when they walk because they were manufactured like this.”
Hai Tianqing frowned as he mulled over it, “Tiptoeing, a proportionate body, a normal height…”
“They are plastic mannequins displayed in clothing stores.” Lin Sanjiu showed another wry smile. “That’s why they showed no reaction when B.Rabbit and I touched them… They don’t even have pores, so naturally, they won’t bleed to death.”
“I see! Those mannequins are made of high temp plastics which have high melting points. No wonder they said they’re not afraid of the heat. They don’t get tired either,” Hu Changzai said with some realization.
“I wonder who brought these mannequins and toys… to life?” Hai Tianqing found himself at a loss for words. “On top of that, who gave each of these fake people a powerful weapon like that?”
None of them could answer these questions. They could only look at the Elsas that were outside. However, the gap was really too small, and the patrolling Beret Men blocked their sight every now and then, so this was not sufficient for them to get a clear picture of what was happening.
“Let’s make a hole in the ceiling and look out from there,” Lin Sanjiu suggested. “We will be able to see more from the top. Don’t forget, we’re in a white shipping container right now.”
Hearing that was like a slap to Hu Changzai. A surprised smile appeared on his face which was still covered with a black computer circuit-like patterns. “Right! I still have that Tofu knife!”
[Tofu Knife]
“Description: A beautiful Tofu Xi Shi requested Pockmark Wang to create this knife [1]. This knife might not be good for anything, but it is perfect for cutting tofu. After a long time has passed, it can not only cut through tofu, but it can cut through any white item. Cutting any white item is as easy as cutting tofu with this knife. The logic might be weird, but this is how it is.”
This was also an item they had won from the Red vs. White Challenge and was unexpectedly useful in this situation. Reaching the ceiling was not a difficult feat — Lin Sanjiu stepped on Hai Tianqing and jumped up. She reached the ceiling and stabbed it with the ordinary-looking fruit knife (the Tofu knife) creating a small opening. The Tofu knife worked just as described, it easily cut through the metal ceiling like tofu without any resistance. Lin Sanjiu did this a few times and finally create a square window opening on the ceiling as a piece of the metal fell. Afraid that it would make some noise, Hu Changzai caught the metal piece before it fell to the ground.
Even though he was fast, a few people nearby were woken by the commotion. Noticing what they were doing, people surrounded them and looked up at Lin Sanjiu who was clinging on to the edges of the window.
“What is the situation outside?”
“Are those weirdos still around? How many of them are patrolling this place?”
“It has been such a long time. They should be sleeping, right?”
Those few people knew lesser than Lin Sanjiu and her companions, so they wanted to ask many questions.
Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth, unable to say a word. As the rim of the “window” was very sharp, she felt that her palms were about to bleed, especially as she was supporting her entire weight using only her hands.
The rest of them watched her anxiously. Lin Sanjiu was the only one who could jump that high because of her Overall Physical Enhancement. Hai Tianqing realized that she was in trouble, so he quickly took off his top, rolled it into a ball and threw it upwards. “Xiao Jiu, use this to cushion your hands!”
Lin Sanjiu stretched out to grab the top, but her fingers just brushed past it. Just when the others thought she had missed, a mouthpart appeared in her hand, and she used it to pull the top toward her. Then, the mouthpart disappeared. Lin Sanjiu cushioned her hands with the clothes and steadied her body with the strength of her arms.
The audiences below let out a sigh of relief.
“Young lady, what’s it like outside?” someone from beneath her asked nervously.
Lin Sanjiu ignored the question and looked out in a daze.
Ever since Hyperthermal Hell descended on their world, she had not seen so many “people”. There were heads everywhere, on the pier, the roads, and around the containers. They filled every available space like a black patch of fallen gray clouds tightly clustered together. The crowd was very silent and extremely orderly as if they were all following an inaudible command.
As she looked across the sea of heads, she spotted mannequins like the Beret Men and toys like the Elsas. She even saw some women who looked abnormally thin. When they turned to their sides, they revealed their flat, 2d bodies—they were probably cardboard standees used for advertising.
Seeing the stiff, lifeless smiles on the faces of most of these “people”, Lin Sanjiu shivered a little.
Just when she was stunned by the scene before her, the crowd suddenly parted creating a clear path. She followed the path with her eyes and finally saw a normal man of blood and flesh.
The man was wearing an odd attire. He walked slowly and leisurely to the pier.
Lin Sanjiu stuck her head further out and stared hard at the man, without moving her eyes away from him. He continued walking, then he paused, turning to say something to the “people” around him.
Next, as if someone had given an order, thousands of stiff faces slowly turned around, and every single pair of lackluster eyes was now looking back at Lin Sanjiu, who was still peeking out from the window.
