Doomsday Wonderland

The doorknob did not turn.

Yu Yuan gently placed the female corpse's hand back on the ground, his gaze fixed on the group of people, ready to react at any moment. Seeing that no one was looking at him, he stretched out his toes and kicked the hand back to its original place.

This was one of the possibilities he had anticipated. When people die, their authority is lost; thus, Yu Yuan was not surprised that the door did not open.

He weighed the situation in his mind and decided not to analyze the female corpse. Analyzing would consume a significant amount of energy, and he didn't know how long the current situation would last. Plus, having repaired his body twice already, he should be careful with his energy expenditure. Moreover, analyzing would take time, and he could not be sure he could constantly evade the sixteen eyes of the eight people.

It seemed he would have to find another way.

The Veda turned slightly, facing the eight people who were quietly discussing—their mediocrity and incompetence only stood out when compared to the likes of Lin Sanjiu and others. If placed in the Twelve Worlds, they would be the hurried posthumans on the streets, the teeming crowds in the Black Market, the roadside fried rice vendors, or the emotionless cashiers at exhibition halls who, after taking a deposit, would tell you to go inside.

In other words, they constituted the majority of the post-apocalyptic world.

Yu Yuan observed each person's face, listening to every word they exchanged; their discussion had shifted from the division of spoils to how to deal with Lin Sanjiu and what words to throw into the room.

"That, that..."

The one speaking was a timid, always shrinking woman. She was not young, with dark skin and vague features, appearing somewhat slow-witted. She seemed like a tattered bag on the roadside; some people would walk past without a glance, some would kick it as they went, only to ignore it later. When this "bag" suddenly spoke, it startled everyone. Their eyes circled before landing on her, almost forgetting her existence.

"I, I don't want this Special Item anymore. Can I go back?" she said, looking at no one. "My ability is poor, and I don't know how to throw words into the room."

"Stop talking nonsense," Blue Shirt said impatiently. "Whether you want the item or not is up to you. I don't even want to share, but that woman came to disrupt the new game launch, targeting all of us. You think you can run away now, and everything will be fine?"

So, the "new game launch" referred to the group formed by these eight people, not an event.

"What's your attitude? Aren't we on the same side? Have you forgotten?" Lord Tremors snapped back at Blue Shirt rather stiffly.

"You have a crush on her? Why the rush?" Blue Shirt retorted.

Lord Tremors, feeling insulted, immediately became angry, cursing and glaring at the other man, both stepping forward as if ready to fight. While others tried to calm them down, the timid woman just retreated, her face expressionless. She may have been in her forties or fifties when she evolved but resembled many aged and genderless people, so dull that one would hardly recognize her as a woman. Lord Tremors couldn't possibly have a crush on her.

Yu Yuan silently noted this detail.

Now, the eight people were stuck in a difficult impasse.

They didn't dare to leave Lin Sanjiu in a life-threatening situation. In that case, [Reincarnating Body] would be used, and Lin Sanjiu would be released. But they also couldn't bear to leave such a high-level posthuman, a walking treasure trove, untouched. Most importantly, if they didn't act, what if someone else did?

Edgar Allan Poe raised another concern during the discussion. "If we open the door and remove the mountain range, the risk is too great. I don't know which part of the mountain she has reached. If the mountain range disappears, with her pace, she might already be at the door. Given her speed, I... um, I find it difficult to block her, so I'm not taking that risk."

Huh?

"Why don't you place a few words inside that can cause unconsciousness first?" Queen Nocturna suggested to Edgar Allan Poe. Her original plan was to have Lin Sanjiu act on her behalf against other game makers. Now that the plan had failed, she naturally became the person who most wanted Lin Sanjiu to be finished. "Once she's unconscious, we'll remove the mountain range."

Oh, so that's how it was.

Yu Yuan glanced at the female corpse on the ground and realized that another piece of the puzzle about this game creation space had been filled in.

When the woman with the tattooed eyebrows had cursed Queen Nocturna, she had also revealed a bit of evidence. They couldn't put words into each other's words. It was because of the mountain range created by Edgar Allan Poe that the "death" word thrown by the female corpse when she was alive had not affected Lin Sanjiu. Thinking about it, this setup made sense.

They were originally tasked with using words to create games, trapping players inside. Otherwise, players inside a certain game would be affected by another nearby game, which would be ridiculous.

From their conversation, once the room's door was opened, it would lead directly to the foothills and the forest. Aside from Edgar Allan Poe, if others wanted to put words into the room, they'd have to remove the mountain range first to affect Lin Sanjiu. But removing the mountain range was not safe, hence Queen Nocturna's suggestion to have Edgar Allan Poe make Lin Sanjiu unconscious first.

"Young lady, you always think everyone else is a fool, thinking that no one is as clever as you," Edgar Allan Poe said, glancing at Queen Nocturna. "Status effects are immediate, and the caster is the first to be affected. If it's like Lord Tremors, creating hunger, one can endure it and walk away, then close the door; that's one thing... but creating unconsciousness, wouldn't I fall down instantly? Are you trying to take advantage of me? Do you think you're so clever?"

The more they argued, the longer it took, the more smoothly Lin Sanjiu would be able to find the door.

Yu Yuan stared expressionlessly at the scene in front of him. Compared to the emotive the Life Coach, he looked more like a mannequin. No one suspected him as he secretly wrote words in his hand behind his back.

Yu Yuan temporarily stopped describing the bickering crowd in [Migratory Letters], asking Lin Sanjiu, "How's it going? How much longer will it take you to find the door?"

"I'm not sure," Lin Sanjiu replied. "The forest is too vast, and I'm moving as quickly as I can. But I haven't yet—"

A stroke suddenly flew diagonally across the paper, spanning half the sheet. If it weren't for the Special Item, she might have been torn by this stroke. Yu Yuan remained calm, still holding [Migratory Letters], watching the increasingly noisy crowd. After a while, Lin Sanjiu's second message came through.

"It hurts so much, the fog was too thick, and I didn't see the cliff ahead." She was even trembling as she wrote, clearly having taken a hard fall. An ordinary person might have lost their life. "The door," she suddenly wrote, "I see the door. It's right in front of me! But I can't open it. What should I do?"

"That's easy," Yu Yuan replied. "Wait by the door."

Lin Sanjiu had already started to write back when he began to implement his second plan. A crisp "clank" drew the eyes of all eight people towards the door, and then down to the ground.

The doorknob, previously used to tie the rope, had somehow fallen, rolling twice on the floor. Everyone gasped, stunned.

"How did it fall?" Queen Nocturna yelled.

Blue Shirt rushed forward, trying to seize Yu Yuan but was pulled back by Edgar Allan Poe before he could get close.

Master Zhang's face was paler than anyone else's, muttering, "Is the woman coming out?"

The woman with tattooed eyebrows shouted, "Hurry, put it back, don't let her out!"

The crowd was in chaos, like a flock of chickens disturbed by firecrackers, not settling until the door remained unopened for a while.

Several people's first priority was to surround Yu Yuan, fearing that a moment of negligence might allow someone to snatch this precious item, equivalent to a second life. The woman with tattooed eyebrows pressed Yu Yuan's arm while bending down to pick up the shiny doorknob, trembling as she said, "What happened? It fell off. This isn't a good omen."

"Hurry up and put it back!" Master Zhang urged. "Move this Special Item away a bit; he's standing in front of the doorknob."

Yu Yuan obediently shifted to the side.

The woman with tattooed eyebrows took the doorknob and tried to screw it into the metal lock on the door, but before her hand touched the lock, she struck something invisible in the air with a "clank." She furrowed her bluish eyebrows, and just as the word "Eh" escaped her mouth, Yu Yuan acted.

He suddenly reached out, slapped the woman's hand onto the door lock, and gripped something invisible in the air with her hand. The doorknob, hidden by his method of light and shadow refraction, finally turned under the game maker's hand. Then, the door was forced open by a strong force from behind.

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