Doomsday Wonderland

The beige wall on which the television was mounted looked like it belonged in someone's living room. With its old-fashioned wallpaper, it stood isolated, making one feel as though there should also be a TV cabinet beneath it. While it seemed entirely out of place, its location made it blend seamlessly with the surroundings—because it stood in the middle of a barren grassland.

What little of the pure white paper that could be seen with the naked eye was pitifully sparse.

There were only sporadic patches of blank space scattered like snowballs among the clusters of text. Clearly, when the game is fully written, this entire paper will transform into a complete game world, just like every other game Lin Sanjiu had participated in.

Lifting the white cloth covering her head to sneak a peek outside, a stretch of green mountains spread before her, with a faint mist blanketing the grasslands, shrouding the TV wall in a hazy cover. The moment she stepped into that grassland, she'd be pulled into the game; no, to be precise, the game would grab her the moment she breathed in the air from there.

"So, how do you plan to get there?"

Hidden under a vast white cloth, Yu Yuan was pressed closely against her. The space was so cramped that Lin Sanjiu had to stand on one foot, with the other foot touching his. "It's too far. Even with your leaping ability, you can't make it."

Lin Sanjiu glanced at the grassland ahead, realizing Yu Yuan was right.

"You also can't use that space-traveling ability," Yu Yuan continued, "Not because it might drive you mad—I can heal that. It's mainly because you can't precisely control the direction and distance. If you're off by a bit when passing through walls or doors, it's fine; but if you don't land exactly on that wall, you'll fall into the game."

Lin Sanjiu looked at him.

Being a Veda, Yu Yuan was quite perceptive at such moments. "Why are you staring at me—oh, I get it."

"I can't land precisely on that wall, but you can," Lin Sanjiu said with excitement. "If you carry me and land on top of the wall, we'll solve the problem."

"I really don't want to take you there," Yu Yuan replied. "You're just guessing, and even I can't calculate the odds of this plan succeeding—"

"You wouldn't want to see me in trouble, right?" Lin Sanjiu asked. The Yu Yuan of the past was her friend and would assist her without persuasion. Now things were different, and she could only appeal to his interests. "You came all this way to find me. If I get into trouble, who will help you recover your human form?"

"Maybe," Yu Yuan said. "I said 'maybe'."

Lin Sanjiu continued staring intently at him.

If he had the emotion to sigh, he probably would have now. After a few seconds of contemplation, he said, "Hold onto me. I'll take you across."

Without hesitation, Lin Sanjiu wrapped one arm tightly around his waist, adjusting the white cloth with her other hand and clutching it under her chin. The wall in the distant grassland awaited in silence.

Before setting off, Yu Yuan gripped her shoulder without turning back. "My space-traveling ability is somewhat stronger than yours."

"Yes, that's why I need you to—"

"And my space-traveling ability isn't purely spatial."

"What do you mean?"

"Besides the worlds and spaces you might experience, it could also take me to spaces at different points in time. I don't know why, perhaps it has something to do with me being a Veda. Because what I see are places I've been to. Maybe the locations stored in my data get materialized when I activate this ability."

Could he... travel back in time?

Or did he just see the past when he activated his ability?

Lin Sanjiu was momentarily stunned, and before she could ask him exactly what he meant, her vision blurred—Yu Yuan made his move.

Initially, she couldn't distinguish which world, or period, she had traveled to. It felt like when she traveled through space herself; she almost lost her ability to think. Amid the ever-approaching, opening, and retreating kaleidoscope of worlds, she could only watch passively, becoming deeply engrossed without the ability to choose.

Until she jolted to find herself apparently thrown onto a bed. Curtains hung down from the sunlight, and a few specks of dust leisurely spun as if they were to float forever. Sitting at the edge of the bed, a woman dressed in a bright red dress gently lowered her head. Her black hair cascaded over her shoulders, and her blue eyes seemed to blaze with intensity.

Such breathtaking beauty, Lin Sanjiu had seen only a few times in her life.

Bliss whispered, "Your wounds haven't healed. What will you do in the new world?"

It was the scene just before Yu Yuan was teleported to the Olympics!

Lin Sanjiu was startled, and as she was about to turn her head to see where Yu Yuan was resting at the time, she was pulled into another space.

The fleeting glimpse of the next place she saw carried a vast amount of information. She felt she only glimpsed that location for perhaps less than half a second, but she clearly saw the desert, blue sky, dead trees, tumbleweeds, and the blood-soaked ground beneath Yu Yuan.

What was even more irrational was that she heard the entire conversation between Yu Yuan and Nüwa.

"You're beyond help," Nüwa's voice echoed as if transcending time, still sounding as it did back then, tinged with detached compassion. "Only I can help you."

Yu Yuan's voice was weak and barely audible due to his injuries.

"There's a group of fascinating beings nearby called the Veda," she continued, ignoring whatever Yu Yuan said. Lin Sanjiu couldn't see her, only hear her. "They've recently upgraded their recruitment methods. Ironically, it's thanks to Lin Sanjiu. You can't resist their methods. You'll definitely agree to join them."

Nüwa paused, listening to Yu Yuan's mumbled reply.

"I will help you, leaving you a way out," she whispered, her voice sounding like a wisp of smoke in the corner of one's vision, both distant and close. "Of course, I have my own motives. Ultimately, you will bring Lin Sanjiu to me. For that, I need to thank you in advance."

"You... what are you going to do to her?"

"Are you ready?" Nüwa murmured, seemingly picking something up from the ground, rustling. Lin Sanjiu soon realized what it was. "I'm going to send the signal for you."

It was the [Battle Item] she gave to Yu Yuan. She had wanted him to turn it into a communicator to send a distress signal to the grand prize. But she never imagined that the Veda would eventually take Yu Yuan away.

It now seemed that Nüwa had anticipated this all along.

That was the last clear, logical thought in her mind.

Almost immediately after Nüwa's voice disappeared, Lin Sanjiu's continuously bombarded consciousness felt like sand scattered in the wind, suddenly drifting in mid-air. It felt as if her cognition was divided into millions of tiny particles, each one agitated and scalding, making her want to scream and cry out in pain, but she couldn't utter a sound.

She felt as if she had been struggling for countless years in the sensation of disintegration, as if she was breaking apart and turning to ashes, only to be suddenly pulled out of the abyss by two words.

"We're here."

When Yu Yuan's calm voice sounded, her consciousness had clearly been restored to its original state. Lin Sanjiu staggered, almost sliding off the wall. When she regained her composure, she was drenched in cold sweat.

Thankfully, her hypothesis was correct; they weren't sucked into the game.

The white cloth still wrapped around their heads and bodies, extending to their feet, covering half of the television wall. At Lin Sanjiu's request, the size of the white cloth that Yu Yuan conjured this time was much larger.

"You've met Nüwa?" was the first question she asked after regaining her senses, her voice slightly hoarse.

Yu Yuan squatted beneath the cloth and replied, "Yes."

Lin Sanjiu felt like pulling her hair out in frustration. "What else did she say? What did she do to you?"

"I can't remember," Yu Yuan said as he looked at her, much calmer than she was. "Before I encountered Veda, part of my memory was taken away. When I decided to become Veda, by chance, I got a... well, let's call it a message. However, this message contained a small fragment of my lost memory."

Lin Sanjiu gripped the television wall tighter to maintain her balance.

"It was this small fragment of restored memory that informed me that the reason I willingly joined the Veda," Yu Yuan paused, "was because the Veda created a premise under which I would undoubtedly agree."

"What was the premise?" Lin Sanjiu's heart tightened. After all, from what she gathered from Nüwa, it seemed that the Veda's method was somehow related to her.

"They exploited my emotional abilities," Yu Yuan said indifferently. "At that time, I still had the ability to perceive emotions. In fact, I was even more sensitive to emotions than the average person."

"I... I don't understand..."

"They let me experience an emotion," Yu Yuan spoke softly, lowering his head to look at his foot dangling off the television wall. "Under that state of mind, I agreed to migrate. I essentially had no resistance; as soon as I fell into that mindset, I immediately agreed."

Emotions? The Veda themselves had no emotions. Where did they get such emotions for Yu Yuan to experience?

Moreover, it was such a powerful and infectious emotion... and it was somehow related to her. Lin Sanjiu started to feel goosebumps creeping over her skin.

Coincidentally, a mumbled voice came from the other end of the paper beneath her feet, "Strange, why is there a missing character?" — and then the television wall beneath them shook.

As they were being pulled straight towards the white paper landscape along with the text on the television wall, Lin Sanjiu's suspicion escaped her lips.

"The emotion they made you experience, was it Puppeteer's?"

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