Doomsday Wonderland

A few silent seconds passed before Yu Yuan spoke again, pulling Lin Sanjiu out of her chaotic thoughts.

"Whether you believe me or not, I won't interfere with your rescue operation," he said calmly. "Though you have no means to verify my words. If you wish, I can stand here and wait for you."

Lin Sanjiu waved her hand dismissively. As a Veda, if he intended any harm, he didn't need to be near her to execute it. There was no point in these formalities. "No need, I... I need to think."

Yu Yuan nodded.

His features were the same, the tattoos on his face unchanged, even the strand of hair turned slightly up by his ear was the same as when she last remembered seeing Yu Yuan. What was missing were his emotions, his preferences. He looked like a different person now.

It was as if... he was once an uplifting, vibrant piece of music, and now just sheet music.

There's a brief instant when touching something extremely hot or cold, where one feels a familiar temperature before the searing pain follows. Each prolonged look at him felt like that for Lin Sanjiu.

"Why wouldn't you want to be a Veda?" She forced a smile. "You know it's impossible."

If he were Yu Yuan, she would have believed him. But he was a Veda.

She couldn't trust him, not because he was 'other,' but because of a logical deduction: the Veda, as purely rational beings, fully accept their existence. They don't possess emotions, and they would effortlessly discard their existence if deemed unnecessary. Now that Yu Yuan had been transformed into a Veda, this characteristic was inherent.

Moreover, the Veda have no preferences, no aversions, no resentment. How could one not want to be a Veda?

After pondering for a moment, Yu Yuan replied, "You misunderstand. I said I might need your help to break free from it. I understand the infinite benefits of being a Veda. So, logically, I'd want to continue being one."

Lin Sanjiu was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"If I logically deduce that not being a Veda offers more benefits, then naturally, I will want to get rid of my Veda identity. I believe that before I became a Veda, I had set a backup plan to let me know the benefits of not being one."

She was so overwhelmed that she took a moment to process his words about the backup plan. She quickly inquired, "What backup did you set?"

Yu Yuan looked at her and blinked. "I don't know."

Lin Sanjiu's voice heightened. "Why wouldn't you—"

Yu Yuan raised his hand to stop her. "This isn't the place to talk. If you want to know, I can explain later when we're safe. For now, you need to decide if you can trust me."

Prompted by his reminder, Lin Sanjiu quickly scanned their surroundings. They'd been down here for a few minutes, and the game organizer had yet to appear. This textual structure was different from the Data Stream Library. However, this didn't mean she could keep chatting here indefinitely.

After thinking for a while, she turned her head and asked, "Where do you think we should go next?"

Yu Yuan suddenly lowered his head. For a moment, Lin Sanjiu almost thought he was about to smile. But when he lifted his head, his expression remained emotionless.

Not far away, a character that somewhat resembled the word "pillar" stood silently and solemnly between above and below. On the distant wall, the charging stations for electric cars appeared as a group of unidentified raised characters, protruding in layers, and glowing faintly green, just like charging stations in the real world.

"The word 'Lily' shrank within the elevator shaft, indicating a portion was absorbed," he noted.

Hearing this, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but frown—she had been avoiding the thought: if Lily shrank, what would she look like when she reverts to her original form?

"Then, where did the absorbed part go?" Yu Yuan inquired.

Lin Sanjiu gasped, looking at the "tube" character that stood towering through the air—she started to understand.

Yu Yuan pointed at the nearby "tube" character and said, "We already know that the elevator shaft is formed by this character. I've been thinking about why it's a 'tube' character and not a 'well' character. Why? If you look at its bottom, it's immersed in the floor characters. I think it extends downward, forming a channel. The absorbed characters might have been transported through this channel."

The two approached the "tube" character. At Lin Sanjiu's height, her gaze settled between two square metal structures. "So, we need to follow it downward. The question is, how do we get down?"

She could try squeezing into the spaces between the strokes of the "tube" character, but she doubted it would work.

Yu Yuan crouched down, contemplating for a moment, and slowly reached out to the base stroke of the "tube" character. The stroke was about a meter and a half long, resembling a metal platform, half of which was embedded into the floor, disappearing into the intertwined, glowing character strokes.

"I can't decipher it," he said and paused before touching the stroke. "It's the first time I've encountered something I can't decipher."

"I know why," Lin Sanjiu told the Veda. "It's like how Windows can't open Pages—it's incompatible. I... I used to work in an office."

Yu Yuan looked at her. "I know."

"So, we can't turn ourselves into text?"

Yu Yuan stood up and shook his head. "I don't know how to do that, and this is not my problem anyway. If you want to save Ji Shanqing, you should figure it out."

Lin Sanjiu swallowed back the retort, "How do you know I want to save Ji Shanqing?" The disappearance of the grand prize was her primary concern, and it was natural for Yu Yuan to deduce her intentions from the fragments of information.

She looked at the "tube" character, thinking about reaching out to touch it, but pulled back. Unlike other characters, this "tube" connected to the inner parts of the underground game organizer; what if her touch would be interpreted as a signal?

Yu Yuan, indifferent to her plight, began observing other characters in the parking lot. Lin Sanjiu walked in circles, rejecting one idea after another. Beneath her feet, the solid and steady characters interlocked in layers, forming a floor no different from concrete.

She stared at the words beneath her feet, zoning out for a moment before suddenly exclaiming, "You said you can't analyze these characters?"

In the short while she didn't keep her eyes on him, Yu Yuan had wandered quite a distance away, observing a wall formed of characters. "Yes."

"Then they shouldn't be able to turn Veda into text, right?" Lin Sanjiu mused. "How did they send the grand prize down then?"

Having sharp hearing, Yu Yuan responded from a distance, "There's nothing confusing about it. I think you wouldn't normally be able to turn these characters into cards directly because they're neither living beings nor physical objects. However, you did manage to store Lily in the card inventory because the text was inside the elevator, and you could card the elevator itself."

"So, you mean they used something to wrap... wrap the grand prize and send him down?"

Yu Yuan paused his observations and said, "Even the Veda couldn't escape being wrapped."

Lin Sanjiu's heartbeat quickened. "So, if we get wrapped too, we can go down, right?"

Facing the Veda, the most discouraging thing was their impassive demeanor regardless of breakthroughs or crises. "What will you use to wrap?"

Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and took out a brick from her card inventory that she had stored ages ago, tossing it gently at the character for 'tube'. It clanged against the character, surprising her. It's just a brick and not a human; it should be fine, right?

"The original wrapping for the grand prize might have been the character for 'wrap'," Yu Yuan said. "This is just an example. I'm trying to say that normal matter might not be able to enter the textual structure."

If that's the case, was she out of options?

Feeling a sense of frustration, Lin Sanjiu reflected on their journey. She felt there should be clues to reference. While Lily began to be absorbed in the elevator shaft, the elevator itself couldn't go down the tube, which didn't solve the issue. Then they entered this parking lot... parking lot...

She suddenly jumped up.

"Yu Yuan!" she shouted. "The car!"

The Veda, who was still staring at the characters, swiftly turned around. Without a word of explanation from Lin Sanjiu, and not needing one, she dashed towards the group of characters that formed a car. She examined the text, and even though she was prepared, she was still taken aback.

Seats, steering wheel, engine, and battery—all were densely packed with intricate characters. But they were also clear and concise. The most amazing part was the rearview mirror; the character for 'tube' was reflected in it. Yu Yuan approached and said, "There's no key character. Can this car start?"

"I don't think so," Lin Sanjiu replied. "Get in."

Yu Yuan didn't move.

"Help me now, and I'll help you later."

Yu Yuan then sat inside the textual structure—unfazed, as if the astonishing interior was nothing special.

"I'm going to push the car towards the 'tube' character," Lin Sanjiu said, gripping the front of the car. "I'll jump in at the last moment. Are you ready?"

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