Chapter 110: Lin Sanjiu, the Widow
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
There wasn't much in the backpack. Other than a saber, a white paper bag caught her eyes. When she opened it, she saw the familiar red sparkling glow. Apparently, it was more of those Anti-radiation Gummi Candy V2.0, and there were ten of them.
The effects of Er Dao’s blood could only last for a day and the effects of the ten gummies could last for three days. To make things worse, Lin Sanjiu could only regain enough energy to move if she used them in combination. For her, that meant that she had to overcome her emotions and rematerialize Er Dao’s corpse every day to draw blood from his body and then turn it back into a card...
When she converted items to cards, they would retain the particular state they were at during conversion. Thankfully, they were only exposed to the effects of time when she rematerializes them, otherwise, Lin Sanjiu wouldn’t know what to do if the blood in Er Dao’s corpse coagulated. Even so, she realized that she only had six days to find the next batch of gummies. She couldn’t help feeling that her future was bleak.
Lin Sanjiu massaged her sore temples and turned the bag of gummies into a card. Then, she apologized softly to her [Er Dao’s Corpse] card and kept both cards stored into her body. She felt rather helpless about the whole situation with the corpses. She wondered what Tai Sui[1] she offended. Why in hell did she have to collect a corpse from each New World?
She saw a dirty, stainless steel thermos at the corner of the bag and basically wasted a card-changing quota because the description simply stated [Irradiated water]. Right beside the thermos, there were a few slices of disgusting-smelling jerky of some kind, wrapped in paper. As Lin Sanjiu still had quite a lot of fish meat she collected from the deep sea, they did not interest her. She dumped them back into the backpack and heard a ‘thud’. She immediately reached and felt the bottom of the backpack and found a hard, circular plate-like object hidden under the fabric.
[If he had to hide this, it is probably something valuable, right?] With this in mind, Lin Sanjiu took an orange [Dog’s Frisbee], which had a ring of small LED lights around it, out from the backpack.
[Dog’s Frisbee]: No matter how far an owner throws this frisbee, a dog can always bring it back… Does anyone find that amazing? Why won’t the dog lose its way? The answer lies in the frisbee!
Instructions: There is an area on the edge of the frisbee that is specifically designed for biting. When the user bites this, the corresponding LED lights on the frisbee will light up, pointing the user in the right direction to the "owner". The "owner" is actually a geographical marker. When the user holds the Frisbee in its mouth, the frisbee will direct the user back to the location where the geographical marker had been set. Once the user reaches that place, the LED lights will automatically switch off.
"Does that mean I’m the dog?"
Status: There is already a geographical marker set, please check the name of your geographical marker when you reach your destination.
"If you manage to find your geographical marker, what’s the point of knowing its name?" Lin Sanjiu muttered as she tested the frisbee, holding it in her mouth using her teeth. Just as expected, a light on the left edge lit up. After she determined the direction, she took the frisbee out from her mouth and picked up the helmet on the ground.
Er Dao obviously knew that he had to hold a frisbee in his mouth, yet he chose to wear a helmet. Thus, It was easy to infer how important the helmet was to him. When Lin Sanjiu looked at the card in her hand, a faint smile appeared on her face.
[Ambition Helmet]: Inspired by MMOs, Locke Corp developed a line "Defictionalized Armors", transforming a fictional game armors into reality. This helmet is one of the items in the [Ambition Armor Set]. Effects are doubled when the user wears the complete set.
Key features: The helmet stimulates the user’s brain with Far-Infrared Rays. Increasing the rate of blood flow in the user’s brain, the user will feel more alert and energetic.
Additional features: Reduce physical damage by 15%, includes thermographic vision, provides a small amount of radiation protection.
"Did they mix up the key features with the additional features?" Lin Sanjiu commented as she examined the interior of the helmet. Her arms trembled slightly as she lifted the helmet, even though it weighed less than 5 kg.
"What sort of shadowy technology does this use?" Lin Sanjiu grinned to herself, trying her best to ignore her fatigue.
She felt so uncomfortable after this short stretch of activities that she was forced to take a break. But her biggest problem wasn’t the weak state of her body, which felt like she just recovered from some serious illness, her biggest problem was that she didn’t know where to go next.
Logically speaking, if she wanted to get more gummies, she should actually turn back. But she did not see any visible entrance in that snow globe city and the residents didn’t seem like they wanted to let her in. Even though Lin Sanjiu already prepared herself to accept that fact, she still tried knocking on the glass for quite awhile before she finally lowered her fists. She took one last look at the clean and beautiful city before she turned and walked away.
Thinking about it, she concluded that the people wouldn’t open up their shelter so easily as it would compromise its ability to protect them from the radiation outside…
[If that is the case, how did Er Dao get those gummies if he was cut off from the snow globe city?] In the end, Lin Sanjiu took out the orange frisbee after contemplating for some time.
Although she did not know where the [Dog’s Frisbee] would bring her, she decided to use it, as she was out of options. [If Er Dao set that location as a geographical marker, it should be important to him, right? Perhaps I can find some supplies there...]
Though there was no one miles away from her, Lin Sanjiu felt a sense of shame when she held the frisbee between her teeth. "Who thought of this sh*tty design…" she complained in a muffled voice.
As the last twilight peered over the horizon, the grey skies looked gloomier than before and her surroundings sunk into a few lifeless shades of grey. As Lin Sanjiu’s body was still on the verge of total collapse, she had to rest every now and then after walking for a short distance. She only walked for about half an hour but sweat poured from her forehead profusely. Her legs felt so weak that they were barely holding her up. When she saw a partially damaged house nearby, she rushed over and sat on the steps at the doorway, panting heavily. There was only half a roof on the house, and the slanted roof had collapsed into the room below it. A small patch of wild grass was growing from the side of the walls. Lin Sanjiu stared at it but her discomfort pulled her attention away from it.
She wondered if she was gradually feeling more and more uncomfortable because she did not take the recommended ‘dose’ of ten gummies. After confirming the direction that the frisbee was pointing towards, she swapped the frisbee for the [Ambition Helmet]. Even though the helmet was quite heavy, she felt better just a few minutes after she wore it. She began to feel a little more energetic. There was a small button on the eye level of the helmet and Lin Sanjiu pressed it to test its function. Her vision immediately changed, as her surroundings were reduced to their general outlines and charted with yellows and blues. When she looked at her arm, it appeared red due to the heat from her body.
She had never tried using a thermographic scanner before so she couldn’t help looking around inquisitively. She did not expect that her casual action would lead to her spotting a vague red silhouette crouching in a patch of grass nearby. She did not know how long it had been crouching near her. Lin Sanjiu quickly stepped away from the grass, switched off the thermographic scanner, and drew out Er Dao’s saber. From the size of the creature, it definitely wasn’t a human.
The creature probably sensed her movement so it leaped out from the black grass patch. The creature was a greyish white rodent which looked like a rat but it was the size of a five-year-old child. It was covered in white spots and had a hairless back. It flashed its red sinister eyes at Lin Sanjiu. The most gruesome part of this creature was the huge pustule, which bulged out from its back. Lin Sanjiu could see the fluid in the pustule, encased by the partially transparent, stretched, grayish skin of the creature. When she looked at it carefully, she could even see a smaller creature with a similar face within the fluid.
[Is this bloody creature pregnant?] Lin Sanjiu held back her disgust as she held her saber up.
"Don’t kill it!" a voice came out from within the dilapidated house. She paused and backed away awkwardly. A fat man with a round face looked out from behind a broken wall. He rushed over toward her anxiously, waving his hands, "It is my pet! Don’t touch it!"
Before Lin Sanjiu could react, the fat man whistled. The greyish white giant rodent hesitated for a second before it turned away from Lin Sanjiu and ran into the house. For a moment, Lin Sanjiu did not know if she should lament over the fact that she could not sense the creature even though it was so close to her or that someone would actually keep such an ugly creature as his pet.
In any case, it was good to avoid a battle. She slowly placed her arm down though she could still feel her muscles in her arm pulsating. In the past, such an ‘exertion’ would have been nothing to her. The man seemed to sense her frailness and his tone became rougher, "What’s wrong with you? How could you act so impulsively? These 'free-range chickens' are no longer found in the wild, how could you kill one just because you are hungry? Huh?"
He obviously wanted to continue berating her but he narrowed his eyes suddenly, "Wait, that helmet… It belongs to Er Dao, right?"
[Damn it!] Lin Sanjiu cursed in her heart.
The fat man looked at her suspiciously. Lin Sanjiu definitely appeared fishy—she was wearing someone else’s helmet, holding that person’s saber and her body was covered with blood… It wouldn’t be surprising even if that fat man immediately attacked her.
While Lin Sanjiu held her [Tape Recorder] card tightly in her hands, the man suddenly slapped his thigh, "I know! You’re Er Dao’s woman, right?"