Doomsday Wonderland

Thinking about it now, Wu Yiliu wasn't even sure what the name of the middle-aged man working with him in the Candy House was.

The personnel responsible for monitoring his Changeling employees, as well as the few others who had heard the situation at the time, were all scared they would be swept into a real pocket dimension, becoming some weird pocket dimension residents. But if they were asked to cooperate and resist with Wu Yiliu, they would refuse outright.

So, Wu Yiliu merely told the few Changelings who had come to him yesterday, "If you're scared, just find an excuse to hide away for a couple of days. Let my colleague in the Candy House handle things. He can find some NPCs to cover for you. Even if it turns out to be fine after two days, you can come back. It's like taking two days off for free. Isn't that good?"

The Changelings, who could profit from either drought or flood, were naturally pleased, but this was a risky move for him.

He didn't know much about the middle-aged man. From what he could gather, the man might run away as soon as he got the news. Even if he didn't run, could he find other regular human NPCs to venture with him?

Wu Yiliu didn't know the answer to this question until he heard the broadcast.

"Hurry up!" the middle-aged man said on the radio, obviously becoming more and more nervous. "Any posthumans who fails to exit the pocket dimension within one minute will all become victims of the fire drill!"

Had he come up with this on the fly? Wu Yiliu was slightly surprised and even managed a smile despite the urgent situation. But in the next second, his gaze was captured by a shadow leaping high into the sky in the distance, and he turned his head in the direction where it had jumped over the rooftops.

Under the heavy gray-white clouds, countless shadows leaped up near and far.

True to the posthuman nature, they had quickly accepted the sudden situation, all abandoning the winding paths in the fake pocket dimension, leaping onto the rooftops and gliding out towards the various exits like water birds skimming over the sea.

At their speed, they probably wouldn't need a minute to escape the pocket dimension.

Wu Yiliu's chest burned with envy, wishing he could leap onto the roof and run out like them. He called out as he ran down the path, "Professor Qiao! Professor Qiao, where are you?"

The roadside was filled with green trees, temporarily transplanted, obscuring several hastily constructed buildings. Except for the echoing broadcast, there was no sign of people anywhere. Even the NPCs in the fake pocket dimension seemed to be gone, either having fled or been taken to replace the Changeling's work.

Not just Professor Qiao, but Pisces was also missing, probably having escaped early. He had to get out soon too—

Accompanied by a muffled roar in the distance, the ground beneath his feet trembled slightly. It didn't unbalance Wu Yiliu but caused him to stop suddenly, looking up. The sound spread like ripples on water and quickly disappeared, making it hard to discern the direction it came from.

He was struck dumb.

Right... he couldn't run yet. Everyone else was running out, meaning... if he guessed correctly, now was a rare opportunity.

But how much time did he have? Five minutes? Three minutes?

Wu Yiliu didn't know how much time he had left but knew that every move he made was gambling with his life. But when cornered, he could muster a fierce determination. He gritted his teeth, stopped thinking, and simply acted. If he woke up to find himself turned into a pocket dimension resident, that was his fate. But he couldn't let this opportunity pass.

Coincidentally, as he had just climbed a large tree by the road, parting the leaves to look out, that muffled sound rang again. This time it was like a rolling thunderclap. Looking far away, two buildings on the eastern side of the fake pocket dimension shook. Wires fell from mid-air, sparking a bright white electrical flash.

If he remembered correctly, the east was one of the exits, and some posthuman had run in that direction just now, right?

If Huanzi and her group were to activate the [Pocket Dimension Setting], he guessed that they would surely do so outside the fake pocket dimension. That way, they wouldn't get caught up in it themselves. When the posthuman charged out of the pocket dimension without any direction, was there a chance he ran into Huanzi's group, who were preparing to launch the item outside the pocket dimension, and a conflict occurred? The likelihood wasn't small, and it was enough to make him break into a sweat just thinking about it. Wu Yiliu didn't dare waste any more time, and with a "thump," he jumped down from the tree and ran towards the eastern exit.

"What happened in the east?" he asked, speaking into the receiver as he ran. After running for several minutes without taking a breath, he still hadn't heard any response or hint from the middle-aged man. In fact, the broadcast inside the fake pocket dimension had already disappeared, and the music hadn't started up again. The air was silent as if it had solidified, with only his own rapid breathing breaking the stillness before being suppressed once more. The middle-aged man who had taken over the Changeling's job might have finally escaped the pocket dimension.

He didn't have the resolve like Wu Yiliu to fight to the death with the Changelings. Wu Yiliu remembered him once sighing and saying with sadness, "I thought about hiding in the deep mountains and forests, but my child is a Changeling too, and he still has to go to school in that district." Wu Yiliu had found it ridiculous at the time, but now he secretly hoped the man had safely escaped back to the school district house he had rented for his Changeling child.

Surely, he wasn't the only one left in this fake pocket dimension? For some reason, this thought made Wu Yiliu's legs feel weak. He quickened his pace, rushing past one pocket dimension facility after another. Behind each door and window, there seemed to be no sign of anyone.

As he neared the scene of the incident, he felt as though something heavy was pressing down on the earth ahead. It was hard to describe the sensation, like sitting on a sofa after a heavy person had occupied one end, always feeling like he would slide toward that person - even though he knew very well that the ground beneath his feet was still level.

Ahead, there were not only posthumans, but they had all likely let loose. Since that meeting, Wu Yiliu had become aware of the posthumans' controlled "presence." Almost as if to confirm his suspicion, before his eyes could catch a human figure, a muffled roar came faintly to his ears, "Explain yourselves!"

It seemed he had guessed right. Wu Yiliu took a deep breath and gathered his courage before quietly creeping forward. After rounding a small path, the scene before him suddenly opened up: the makeshift construction wall that had been wrapped around the fake pocket dimension was now torn and draped on the ground like ruined paper. The guard booth was uprooted, and apart from broken bricks and shattered glass, not a trace was left.

In the center of this small-scale ruin stood a posthuman, apparently just having run out of the fake pocket dimension. Opposite him, where the makeshift construction wall had stood, was a person blocking the way—the gaunt female posthuman named Huanzi.

Wu Yiliu stared, then looked around again. It was indeed only Huanzi. Compared to a few minutes earlier, she had added a vest full of pockets to her outfit and was holding a camera-like device. She did look somewhat like a TV crew member, quite in line with the name [Pocket Dimension Setting]. In that case, was that camera the Special Item?

She and another posthuman must have noticed Wu Yiliu's presence, but they just glanced in his direction and turned their attention back to each other, probably feeling that the newcomer was no threat. The gaunt woman, not good with words, just sneered and said, "There's nothing to explain. You can't leave anyway."

This was strange. Something was not right.

Earlier, she didn't even have time to deal with him and Professor Qiao, taking out the iron cage and leaving, making Wu Yiliu think that she must be in a hurry because she was afraid that if she was slow, she would be sucked into the pocket dimension. This was a reasonable guess, right?

However, accepting this guess also meant accepting its underlying premise. The [Pocket Dimension Setting] was not in Huanzi's hands.

But now, looking at it, the [Pocket Dimension Setting] was clearly in her hands, so what was she in a hurry for? She could clearly control when the pocket dimension would become real.

Of course, perhaps this confusion was not important, but Wu Yiliu was always entangled by it, unable to shake it off several times. While he was pondering, he suddenly felt as if something was added to his peripheral vision, as if someone was standing behind him, casting a shadow on his shoulder.

He almost jumped out of his skin, quickly throwing himself forward, tumbling to the ground and looking back, only to realize that he was wrong. There was indeed a figure behind him, but not standing right behind him.

In another direction of the fake pocket dimension, closer to what appeared to be an exit, a stone statue of a human figure, nearly a hundred meters tall, was standing up from a group of green trees and building walls.

The stone statue slowly lowered its head, suddenly bent down, and pressed one palm down onto the earth. Wu Yiliu was already prepared for the ground to shake, but the earth was silent, as if quietly absorbing and dissipating that pressure.

In that direction, it seems that there was also a battle between posthumans?

What was going on?

Even though Wu Yiliu was quick-witted, he was a bit bewildered.

"Is anyone there? Is anyone still there?" he asked hurriedly in a low voice, speaking into the receiver. "Please, please think of a way. Tell me what's going on right now."

The middle-aged man had found a few other NPCs to replace the Changelings' monitoring work, which meant that now, only they had the clearest understanding of the overall situation in the entire fake pocket dimension—as long as they hadn't run away.

Wu Yiliu held his breath, anxiously waiting for a little while. During this time, the two posthumans confronting each other in the distance said a few more things, but he couldn't hear them clearly.

The people in the monitoring room couldn't possibly still be there, could they?

Just when he was about to give up hope, suddenly there was a "crackling" sound in the fake pocket dimension's broadcast, followed by a young and unfamiliar voice, trembling with panic but still trying to adopt an NPC's tone. "Ah... what's going on? So many camera enthusiasts have blocked our fake pocket dimension's posthumans."

Wu Yiliu stood still, stunned by the implications hidden in this sentence.

How many [Pocket Dimension Setting] Special Items were there?

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