Doomsday Wonderland Chapter 1694: The New Lin Sanjiu's Decision

Chapter 1694: The New Lin Sanjiu's Decision

In hindsight, the duoluozhong behind the red fabric had already made its intentions quite clear.
Even those who accidentally got too close would find the neural cords attaching themselves to their face. She had seen it happen, hadn't she? When Bee Sting Venom crawled into the space beneath the platform, those dangling cords had lifted slightly toward her face, like worms sniffing out prey.
When Lin Sanjiu abruptly let go of the door earlier, Bee Sting Venom panicked and frantically fumbled around. She must have accidentally connected with the neural cords while searching for the switch to open the platform.
By the time Bee Sting Venom regained her senses, "she" was already standing inside the glass tube, staring at Lin Sanjiu from the outside.
Lin Sanjiu knew she couldn't afford the luxury of standing frozen, but somehow, she couldn't tear her eyes away.
It was a pitch-black duoluozhong, vaguely humanoid, yet resembling a figure crudely molded from chewed-up gum. Its torso was a tangled mass of sticky, twisted flesh, and its neck was unnaturally long and bent, drooping downward. Compared to its grotesquely thick neck, its disproportionately small head looked like a face grafted onto the tip of a tentacle.
That face had only a single deep hole—a twisted depression in its wrinkled skin, like a dark, gaping belly button that made Lin Sanjiu's scalp crawl at the sight.
Thud! The black duoluozhong suddenly slammed into the inner wall of the glass tube, startling Lin Sanjiu. Her reaction seemed to delight it. As it braced its long arms against the glass and tilted its head back, it was clearly preparing for another strike.
"Miss Bee!" Lin Sanjiu shouted angrily, though her heart felt ice-cold.
She had encountered the pure malevolence of the Santa Claus-type duoluozhong and seen the agony and despair of Naga-ashi, yet this was the first time she had witnessed a creature born of darkness and fully understood that beneath it lay a person—a soft-hearted, somewhat kind, and talkative human being.
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It was also her first time seeing human consciousness wrapped in pure malice, revealing this horrifying side.
"Bee Sting Venom," Lin Sanjiu called quietly, knowing full well that the duoluozhong couldn't hear her but might see her lips. "Pull yourself out of it! Quickly!"
By rights, a visitor who chose to experience becoming a duoluozhong should also have the ability to exit. As long as Bee Sting Venom didn't panic and calmed herself, there had to be a way to withdraw from the duoluozhong's mind and climb back out of the platform. After all, this wasn't a trap; it was an experience hall.
At that moment, she heard it.
A soft rustling sound, fabric brushing against fabric, came from not far behind her. It sounded as if something enormous was slowly crawling out from beneath a covering.
Lin Sanjiu spun around abruptly, flooding her body with additional Higher Consciousness for protection.
The creature beneath the red fabric had emerged. Another duoluozhong now stood before her.
Unlike most duoluozhong, whose appearances were grotesque and horrifying, this one was surprisingly restrained. Aside from being the size of a light truck, it almost seemed frail—like a mouse flattened under a car tire, dried into a shriveled, grayish-white husk. Sparse, scraggly fur sprouted from the creases in its wrinkled skin. At the front of its body, a large, semi-arched white structure, smooth and seemingly hard, stretched across its flat head, facing Lin Sanjiu directly.
In the middle of the white structure, a tiny black dot appeared and disappeared in a flash, making Lin Sanjiu realize—it must be its eye.
"You dare... you actually dare to come out," Lin Sanjiu swallowed hard, acutely aware of the chains binding her body. "Did you destroy the display platform?"
"Destroy?" The duoluozhong, which looked like a shriveled sack of fur and skin, spoke without moving a single part of its body. There was no indication of where its mouth might be. It stood on all fours, its limbs disturbingly human-like, with long fingers and toes pressing against the ground. It resembled a grotesquely deformed man trapped inside a flattened sack, with only its hands and feet visible. "I didn't have to destroy anything. I know the structure of the platform, know how to open it. I came out smoothly and easily."
How was that possible?
Lin Sanjiu wasn't foolish; she immediately sensed the flaw in its statement. It might be plausible for a duoluozhong to discover the platform's design through some means. But the creators of the platform would have no reason to include a mechanism that allowed the duoluozhong to open it from the inside.
The duoluozhong let out a low, raspy chuckle.
"I'm not like the other duoluozhong you've encountered," it said, lowering its voice to a sinister rasp. "I'm... special. For example, you must be thinking right now that I'm going to hurt you, aren't you?"
Lin Sanjiu didn't reply.
"Well, you're wrong. I'm a good duoluozhong, with absolutely no ill will toward humans. You can't judge individuals by the behavior of their group, right?" Despite the impossibility of it forming a smile, it somehow exuded that unsettling impression. "Look at you, all tied up like this, unable to walk—just hopping around. Are we really going to fight? Fighting is so pointless. Relax, I have no intention of harming you. In fact, I can even tell you which direction to take to get out of this hall. Just turn around and leave. I won't stop you or even look at you." ṚἁŊŐＢƐś
As it spoke, it raised its two humanoid hands and theatrically pressed them over its large, semi-arched white eye, as if shielding it like a car window. Of course, it failed to cover anything, and a small black dot—its pupil—hovered between its fingers, peeking at Lin Sanjiu before vanishing with a chuckle.
Duoluozhong, being manifestations of humanity's darkest impulses, naturally lacked credibility. Yet, after a few seconds of thought, Lin Sanjiu realized that, at least for now, there was a strong possibility that it was telling the truth—it genuinely wanted her to leave.
If she stayed, the only outcome would be a life-or-death battle. Despite being bound, Lin Sanjiu had already proven she could obliterate a duoluozhong, so she posed a real threat. For the creature, fighting would not only be dangerous but also fail to satisfy its sadistic tendencies.
From another perspective, if Lin Sanjiu abandoned her companion in this moment of peril, then once Bee Sting Venom returned to her body, she would be faced with an unimaginable horror. Breaking her spirit first, then tormenting her physically, would likely bring the duoluozhong far more satisfaction than a direct fight.
Moreover, even if Lin Sanjiu left, it didn't mean she would escape entirely. If the duoluozhong could shatter her hope and cut off her escape route just as she thought she was safe, it would undoubtedly revel in ecstasy.
That said, Lin Sanjiu trusted her ability to escape. Even bound as she was, all she needed was a sliver of an opportunity, and she was confident she could get away.
"So, what do you say?" The duoluozhong urged almost gently. "If I had wanted to harm you, I would've done it already, wouldn't I? I think I've proven my generosity and kindness. If you're still worried, I'll go back into the platform and wait. Once you've hopped far enough away, I'll come out. Oh, sorry—once you've hopped far enough away." It found its own words hilarious, breaking into a raspy chuckle.
Behind her, another dull thud echoed from the glass tube. Bee Sting Venom still hadn't figured out how to return to her body. That meant even if Lin Sanjiu left now, Bee Sting Venom wouldn't mind or perhaps wouldn't even be aware enough to care.
Her despair would only set in after she returned to her body.
So why shouldn't Lin Sanjiu leave?
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