Chapter 123: Sweet Revenge! But, Is Lin Sanjiu Crazy?
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Li Tao said nothing. Instead, she raised her brow and retained that expression for quite some time. Lin Sanjiu looked at her, feeling slightly awkward. After Lin Sanjiu told Li Tao her plan, both of them fell into an indescribable silence. The prison van they had seen every day would be reaching the arena soon. The duoluozhongs who survived the previous matches had also gathered together waiting for a command.
Lin Sanjiu knew that her plan was a little too simple but she still couldn’t help urging Li Tao softly, "Hey, why don’t you just comment on it or something?"
If Li Tao’s expression could be described in words, it probably meant "You call that a plan?" However, she suddenly turned around and shouted, "What do you all think?"
Lin Sanjiu was surprised to discover that, at some point in time, the other three female contestants had surrounded them and heard her proposal. Compared to Li Tao, the three other women looked more helpless and terrified. One of the women, with an old-fashioned student hairstyle[1], facepalmed herself before looking up with a face filled with doubt, "Are you sure you can keep your word?"
"That’s too reckless. I, I can’t…" a petite woman in her mid-thirties muttered dishearteningly to herself while she looked at the howling duoluozhongs near them and held her own arm to comfort herself. Yet, she approached Lin Sanjiu, unconsciously.
"If I didn’t plan to hold onto this plan, I would have no reason to bring it up." Lin Sanjiu nodded to the both of them. Her eyes swept past the remaining woman who did not make any comment, "But, if you decide to join me, then I won’t allow you to give up halfway."
Once she said that, the last woman interjected, "I understand that we should help each other, but why do we still have to…"
"Don’t ask why!" Lin Sanjiu suddenly raised her voice, the woman was so startled that she stopped speaking. Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and turned her attention to the prison van which was opening. "If you want me to protect you, you must accept that condition!"
The three women didn’t say a word but Lin Sanjiu was slightly astonished by Li Tao’s reaction. Li Tao scrutinized her for a few seconds and suddenly said, "I’ll join."
Her voice was a little shaky but it was clear as day.
Once the first person agreed, it was easy for the rest to follow suit. While the three other women told her their names, Lin Sanjiu nodded at Li Tao gratefully.
"What’s the matter?" one of the audience member sitting in the first row of the VIP seats grumbled disgruntledly. As his voice escaped from the speaker of his helmet, it had a buzzing quality, "What are they discussing? Why aren’t they afraid?"
In previous years, by this time in the tournament, the female contestants would usually show signs of a nervous breakdown after witnessing the horrendous fates of the contestants before them. Typically, in other apocalyptic worlds, people only need the will to live and a bit of luck to withstand and survive the new pressures. Ironically, it might sometimes be easier to destroy a person’s sanity through the pure wickedness, driven by hedonistic pursuits, lurking within the Garden of Eden.
Perhaps, it could be better described in this manner: if humans were like computers, surviving two wholly different environments would require two different ‘operating systems’. Not many people possessed both systems, so the audience in the Garden of Eden was often entertained—but things were different this year. Ever since Contestant 97 whispered something to another contestant, the atmosphere in the arena suddenly changed for some reason, and it was not a welcomed change.
The person sitting beside the grumbling man kept quiet for a moment, and suddenly laughed, "Yeah." His gentle and crisp voice had a way of lifting people’s moods. The grumbling man looked at him but couldn’t see the person’s appearance because of his mask, so he just turned back to the area and immediately exclaimed, "Oh! It is a Grade 2 combatant! One of the sponsors must have spent a lot!"
At that moment, Lin Sanjiu stepped forward and stared hard at the person who walked down from the prison van. Even among the gruesome-looking duoluozhongs, the recent addition had a distinctive look—it had been a male posthuman... once.
There were two black empty sockets where his eyes once were; his body was covered with countless knife scars, surgical scars, and needle marks. He was like an over-experimented lab rat. When the person turned his head, everyone could see that he had no hair—or more accurately, he didn’t even have a skull. Instead, he had a large beetle-shaped machine with blinking lights embedded in his head.
"You can now see one of the products developed by Garden of Eden Laboratories. It is a type of mutate called, "Grade 2 Combatant"... As you all know, male mutates are used for experiments, just like the one we have here today…"
Lin Sanjiu’s heart froze for a second. Before this, she thought that only female Posthumans were treated with such cruelty, but if she gave it more thought, they could only develop effective technology and methods to deal with Posthumans if they tested them on actual human subjects.
Every time the male Posthuman moved, the beetle-like machine would blink once. Even though he already lost both his eyes, Lin Sanjiu felt that he was assessing the current situation of the match especially when those cavernous holes were directed at her.
Li Tao’s close-up appeared on the large screen and the host cheerfully introduced her sponsor. The details mentioned were similar to the other sponsorships, being just as nauseating and sadistic. However, when Lin Sanjiu wanted to say something to her, she realize that there was a smile on Li Tao’s pale face.
"Don’t worry," she wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes, "If I win, I will let those sponsor eat sh*t."
In this match, only Li Tao and that woman with the student hairstyle, Dong Haohao, had sponsors. This was also the reason why the large group of duoluozhongs headed for both of them when the air horn was sounded.
When Lin Sanjiu was in her capsule, she did really feel how intense it was. But when she experienced it herself, it was a whole different story.
The ground was slippery as it was smeared with blood and flesh, and each step she took was accompanied by wet squishy sounds. The stench of blood overwhelmed her sense of smell, and the sharp screeches made by her opponents hurt her ears. The ground shook when the duoluozhongs moved, making it difficult to even stand properly. Although she told herself rationally that there were only about a few dozen duoluozhongs, when she looked around, they seemed to occupy every corner of the battle arena.
Lin Sanjiu used her mouthpart weapon like a whip and struck a duoluozhong lunging toward Dong Haohao. The sharp edges of the mouthpart combined with her new-found strength tore off a large limb from the duoluozhong, which no one could identify. "Three of us should surround the two of them with sponsors! Quick! First, let’s make sure they are not caught!"
The petite woman with short hair was called Xu Wei. She immediately agreed and held her fists in front of her. She quickly punched away a duoluozhong which had rushed in front of Li Tao. The last woman, Bai Xiaoke, jumped to Dong Haohao’s side and yelled loudly at Lin Sanjiu, "If I’m killed here, I swear I’ll get you even if I become a ghost!"
Lin Sanjiu smiled smugly and elbowed another duoluozhong so violently that its face was smashed, "Don’t worry. I will die before you!"
Before Bai Xiaoke could regain her balance, a few duoluozhongs howled and turned on her, that scared her so much that she could only close her eyes... Then, a muscular arm appeared in front of her and toppled the duoluozhongs. Bai Xiaoke, who had regained her composure, threw a glance at the tall man beside her.
[The Queen's Virile Escort]
Even though it has an appearance of a man, it is actually a product of an ability. According to the difficulty of the command given to the escort, it will grow smaller and smaller with each command, like a bar of soap (huh?), until it disappears. The queen needs to maintain a "craving for dashing young men" to successfully summon the next escort.
PS: Besides using it for combat, you can do whatever you want with it.
Lin Sanjiu was startled when a large man suddenly appeared near them. Just when she realized that that was Bai Xiaoke’s ability, Li Tao suddenly shouted behind her, "Dodge!"
Lin Sanjiu instantly remembered the male Posthuman who she had lost sight of since the beginning of the match. She could hear the incoming attack but she couldn’t dodge because there was someone behind her. If she dodged now, as long as one of the women was hurt, this makeshift party that was just formed would immediately dissolve.
She turned around and found that the two cavernous sockets were now very close to her. The two sockets suddenly appeared distorted as they emitted a glaring white beam which swallowed Lin Sanjiu the next second.
[Lone Wolf Casual-smart Leather Belt Protection] was immediately activated. The remaining 67% protection charge, left behind by Sandwhale, was rapidly being consumed but there was no sign that the white beam was fading off. As the others were busy fending off duoluozhongs, they couldn’t help her. Even if they were able to free themselves from the tussle, they did not know how they could help. Everyone in their group became anxious.
"Looks like our Contestant 97 will have to say goodbye soon…" When the host was in the middle of his sentence, Lin Sanjiu heard her belt cracking. It broke into a few pieces and fell off her waist. At the same time, the white beam finally disappeared.
Her body was drenched in cold sweat. She checked her body, glad to find herself still in one piece. Seeing that his attack failed, the male Posthuman leaped away and hid among the duoluozhongs.
"What was that?" Xu Wei asked with a trembling voice.
Lin Sanjiu had no idea but it was clearly a problem. Versu Poison was so lethal that it could kill a person within seconds, but it only used up a tiny percentage of the protection charge on the belt. On the other hand, her opponent destroyed the belt in a few seconds. She couldn’t help wondering how many lives it could have taken.
"What should we do? If he’s going to do that again…" Li Tao was standing in the middle of their formation. She swung her hands in the air and before a duoluozhong got close, it fell to the ground with a thud.
[N.Heller’s Filler Writing Ability]
When necessary, an obscure web novelist has the god-level ability to write 6300 Chinese in one go without advancing the plot. This skill can be extracted by the reader, and converted into a good method to delay one’s opponent—your opponent won’t make a move even after a long, long time.
PS: This ability can be used on multiple targets. But with more targets, the effective delay would be shorter. The maximum delay is three seconds. This ability can be used five times per day.
Xu Wei was very scared but with companions backing her up, she stepped forward and forcefully punched a duoluozhong’s head.
After her close encounter with death, Lin Sanjiu steadied her racing heart and roared, "Let’s get rid of all the duoluozhongs first. Without these things blocking our way, we can at least evade his attacks! But we need to be quick! We need to do this before his next attack!
An attack like that definitely required a cooldown period or required charging; if he could use it continuously, he wouldn’t have to retreat.
"But there are too many of them!" One of the duoluozhongs spat out a green fluid which brushed past Dong Haohao’s body. Her clothes melted instant and white smoke rose from her skin. Enduring her pain and tears, she shouted out, "My ability isn’t good for fighting!"
Ever since the match started, many duoluozhongs have been incapacitated, whereas Dong Haohao only received a small wound. When they saw the white smoke, the audience’s dissatisfaction exploded. They stood up hollering, brandishing their flags, throwing things around… Almost everyone was jeering and cursing, egging the duoluozhongs and the 2nd Grade combatant to put in more effort to catch one of the women.
Lin Sanjin gave the audience a threatening glare and yelled something to Li Tao, and her voice was quickly drowned out by all the noise surrounding them.
Li Tao stopped slowly, her gaze swept past her companions and it finally stopped on the ground not far from them. In the semifluid mess of blood and flesh, she saw the white eyeball which couldn’t be destroyed. It was just there, watching the sky.
[Let’s go with this.] Li Tao bit her lower lip. "You will have the ability to summon all the vengeful spirits who died in this arena so that they can enact their revenge."
Once she finished her sentence softly, the bandage around Lin Sanjiu’s neck grew warm. Lin Sanjiu’s Pygmalion Choker had been activated.
Noticing that something was wrong, the commotion within the arena gradually died down. If it weren't for the electrical net, the eerie, howling wind within the battle arena would have pulled down the hoods of the audience members sitting in the VIP section. Piercing wails filled the entire battle arena as dark shadows appeared suddenly and began to take on the forms of numerous dead contestants.
There were those which Lin Sanjiu recognized and those that were totally unfamiliar; some had missing limbs and others who looked perfectly well. The numbers were far beyond a few dozens, probably because the vengeful spirits from the past tournaments were also summoned. Lin Sanjiu could feel her stamina being drained, her eyes wavered a little when she saw Xinyi’s face.
It was just a head floating in the air. The girl’s body had been so thoroughly violated that it wouldn’t return even after she became a ‘ghost’. Lin Sanjiu felt her eyes watering, but she held back her tears and screamed, "GO!"
Finally. The spirits washed over the duoluozhongs like a massive wave, drowning them in a sea of ectoplasm. The duoluozhongs shrieked and struggled but they were quickly swallowed. Finally, they had this opportunity...
Their hatred thrust the battle arena into darkness, and amidst the dark shadows, a beam of white light shone through a few times before it disappeared. The panicked host tried to say something but he just couldn’t. Before the five-minute activation limit was reached, all the duoluozhongs had been defeated. Some of their bodies were still twitching.
With all the duoluozhongs dead, the spirits wailed again and assaulted the electric net in waves. Their attack was so violent that the faces of the audience beneath their masks were turning pale; the people who previously called out so fervently for Posthumans to be killed, couldn’t help scrambling out of their seats and heading for the exit. But the electric net withstood their blows, and the spirits disappeared into smoke, one after the other, as if they were burnt by the net. The audience was only assured after seeing that.
The five minutes was almost up. The innumerable spirits in the arena turned back and flew toward the five contestants. Lin Sanjiu was stunned but quickly felt the chilling shadows passing through her body.
"Thank you." Lin Sanjiu heard a whisper, but she wasn’t sure if it was Xinyi or the other spirits. When she opened her eyes, she found that the arena was still brightly lit.
There was total silence. Everyone was looking at the five women who were standing still and the floor of the battle arena which was smeared with blood, guts and torn limbs.
Even the host was dumbfounded. He did not know what comments to make.
As silence hung in the air, LIn Sanjiu could hear the breathing sounds from the people behind her, so she looked around the battle arena anxiously.
That male Posthuman must still be alive. Ignoring her tired muscles, she activated her [No coincidence. No story], and surveyed her surroundings. Though she couldn’t use the full potential of that ability, it was still useful. She immediately spotted some movements under a mashed up pile of white remains.
Lin Sanjiu held her breath and she walked toward the pile soundlessly. She raised her mouthpart weapon…
Her weapon struck and shattered the beetle-like machine first. Then, pale yellow brain fluid sprayed out from his head. Before he took his last breath, Lin Sanjiu vaguely heard him uttering, "Lil’ sis."
[Did he see his sister amongst the spirits?]
Lin Sanjiu kept her mouthpart weapon and walked back to her companions. A small camera which had been circling the arena from the top flew down discreetly and zoomed in to film her expression.
"Why aren’t you speaking, Mr. host?" Lin Sanjiu grinned. The large screen showed the blood stains on her face clearly. "Let me announce the outcome of this match on your behalf."
"We won this match. We are not withdrawing. All of us will continue and participate in the next match."
"We are not mutates! We are Posthumans! We are Posthumans who are superior to you!"
This was Lin Sanjiu’s plan. She wanted to stay in the tournament to help the other contestants survive. The condition she set for the other women was that anyone who received her help would have to continue fighting in the tournament.
At that moment, the last two sentence raised hell in the entire Garden of Eden, but Lin Sanjiu couldn’t care less. The large screen quickly changed to show the host’s face. After hesitating for a moment, Lin Sanjiu crouched down.
"What’s wrong? Are you hurt?" Li Tao asked urgently.
The other women were still confused by the situation. They couldn’t process the fact that they had won the match. Meanwhile, Lin Sanjiu regained her focus after crouching down.
"No, I am alright." Lin Sanjiu seemed uncharacteristically indecisive, "Don’t look at me, you will be grossed out."
Li Tao stared questioningly at Lin Sanjiu with her bright eyes.
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and suddenly grabbed a piece of duoluozhong’s remain. She placed it in her mouth and sucked the blood from it. Her brows knitted tightly when she tasted the odd, disgusting liquid. Her throat shuddered as if she was about to vomit. Yet, in the end, she drank all the blood she could.
She covered her mouth, stood up with her pale face and glared at the entire populace of Garden of Eden who was shocked by her antics once again.