As the feeling of weightlessness rushed through Lin Sanjiu's body, the rope formed by Lin Sanjiu's Higher Consciousness hung on the windowsill while she held the other end in her hand. Then, Lin Sanjiu lowered herself into the layer of smoke.
A few posthumans screamed from the window above her, "She really jumped down!" When they fell, they turned into ghosts above the thick layer of smoke. In the blink of an eye, they were swept away by the wind. Lin Sanjiu could only see countless vertical images flashing past her eyes.
The [Defense Forcefield] spread out thinly on her body, covering every crease and corner. Usually, even if she activated the forcefield, she could still hear, see, and breathe. That was why Lin Sanjiu had reminded Mrs. Manas. When she jumped down, she held her breath. When she took a deep breath, her nostrils were completely sealed.
Lin Sanjiu streaked across the building, which was gradually turning black and dirty. She passed through the smoke and fog that was billowing in front of her. She kicked the building with one leg and stopped her Higher Consciousness from spilling out of her body.
Judging by her speed, she should be somewhere between the fifth and the third level, not far from the ground. She could not see anything except for the thick, cold, and threatening leaden haze.
She sent out a few small air vortexes to blow away the heavy and unwilling smoke. Then, she found a window not far from her. Lin Sanjiu pushed against the wall and kicked into the empty window frame. She steadied herself and sat on the windowsill. Then, she retracted her Higher Consciousness rope.
According to her [Higher Consciousness Scan], the abandoned floor of the building was empty. Other than some furniture, rubbish, and debris, there seemed to be nothing else. She did not hear anything from the rolling haze. It was as if even the sound was stifled by the haze.
Lin Sanjiu quickly took out a set of oxygen tanks and breathing equipment from her card inventory. She put them on and wrapped them under the [Defense Forcefield]. The equipment that she took when she left Exodus out of caution had come in handy.
After she could breathe again, the fear that had been lingering in the depths of her instincts disappeared, and her mind became much clearer.
The next stop was the deepest part of the smoke that destroyed this world.
When Mrs. Manas found out about the plan, she warned Lin Sanjiu, "The land under the layer of smoke is completely unknown. Considering your movement and the consumption of your Higher Consciousness, you have to rush out of the layer of smoke within thirty minutes even with the [Defense Forcefield]."
Thirty minutes sounded like a long time, but the smog was so thick that it would affect their speed. Usually, it would only take ten minutes, but on the surface, it might take twice as long.
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and held it in her chest. Then, she leaped off the windowsill.
The whirlpool of air she created suddenly blew away the smoke below, revealing the ground that was falling towards her. For a moment, she could not see anything clearly. It was as if there were only blurry, dirty, and messy piles of dirt on the dirty, wet ground. She aimed at her target, flipped in mid-air, and plunged her feet straight down.
Sure enough, the rusted frame of the car couldn't withstand the impact of falling from the sky. It cracked and broke under Lin Sanjiu's feet. As the black dust scattered in the air, Lin Sanjiu fell into Lin Sanjiu's body.
Even through her Higher Consciousness, Lin Sanjiu could feel that she had fallen into a hard, broken ruin. Countless broken things stabbed her from all directions. If it weren't for the [Defense Forcefield], she would have been injured.
Lin Sanjiu did not rush out of the car.
She chose to jump into the car because the car was so corroded that there was only a bare frame left. There was no way for her to hide any accidents. At this moment, the smoke that had been blown away by the explosion was about to close up again. Through the sparse spots, from the lobby of the building, from the opposite side of the street, and from the ground behind the car, she could see a few swaying shadows.
Before she could see them clearly, the smoke blocked her vision again.
"Go, go, go," Mrs. Manas shouted, "They're coming from behind!"
Lin Sanjiu immediately leaped out of the car seat. She leaped over the windshield and stepped over the pile of metal debris that used to be the front of the car. Then, she landed on the ground like a bird. She pushed through the thick smoke that seemed to push her back and sprinted in the direction she remembered.
The air currents and whirlpools that she created when she ran blew away the smoke and black dust, revealing a world that was completely different from the one she saw in the sky. Dark green vines, bushes, and thick roots were entangled on the ground, snapping the tiles and slabs of the ground. Most of the cars had been covered by the turbid, purplish moss. Only a half-melted tire and a broken headlamp could be seen.
"Don't touch anything alive," Mrs. Manas reminded, "Some of the leaves actually sucked a few mouthfuls of your [Defense Forcefield]."
"What do you mean by sucking a few mouthfuls?"
"It's like a vacuum cleaner. A small piece of the leaf is sucked up by the leaf. If it stays there for long enough, it will suck away your [Defense Forcefield]."
This made it even more difficult for her to move.
The humidity in the air was very high. The plants, the ground, and the trash were all covered with a layer of greasy luster that resembled dirty engine oil. It was getting harder and harder to find an empty space to land on. The resistance from the smoke was overwhelming. When Lin Sanjiu slowed down, she could clearly see a glowing purple line on a leaf the size of a human head. It was covered with undulating "blood vessels", and it disappeared in a flash.
"Who are you?"
A soft voice called out from the depths of the black dust, "We are from the Treadmill Coin Agency. We are here to collect materials to make fog balls. Tell us who you are now to avoid any misunderstandings!"
Even though the content of the voice was full of caution and urgency, it sounded like a weak actor trying to squeeze out lines for a role. Lin Sanjiu walked forward slowly. The voice followed her and continued, "Old Ding, we only need to collect one kilogram of this black dust per person. Don't you think you're collecting too much?"
If Lin Sanjiu listened carefully, she would notice that the person's speech was a little unclear. It was as if he couldn't pronounce the words with his tongue.
"Why are you so inflexible? Just take a little more as a backup so you don't have to make another trip, right? Even if you can't use it, what's wrong with keeping it for me? "The same voice changed its tone and answered its own question.
The fog balls that contained black dust were the most valuable currency in the Treadmill Coin Agency. Lin Sanjiu now understood that they had to send people deep into the ground to collect them. She swept the ground with her metal rod as she took a step forward. She sighed inwardly for the workers from the agency who were collecting the materials. She was afraid that this was where they met with an accident.
"Is it a duoluozhong?"
Lin Sanjiu raised her hand and conjured a vortex to clear away the fog in front of her. As the fog dispersed, she could vaguely see a long and dilapidated dark red brick wall. The sidewalk had long disappeared. There were no signs of any living creatures nearby. There wasn't even any vegetation on the ground. There was only the brick wall standing on the dark ground.
"But, what's that on the brick wall?"
Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes and conjured another vortex just as the fog was about to close. The vortex was much weaker at the deepest part of the fog. Since even the air was heavy, it needed to be replenished frequently.
There was nothing on the brick wall. In other words, there was nothing on the brick wall other than the dirty and cracked red bricks.
Lin Sanjiu stared blankly at the red brick wall. She suddenly understood why the task force, which was supposed to be well-prepared, would meet with danger here.
The black cracks on the brick wall formed the shape of a person walking with one leg in front and the other in the back. If Lin Sanjiu looked closely, she could even tell that it was the shape of a woman.
When Lin Sanjiu looked closer, she saw that the woman's eyeball, which was a black mark on the brick wall, had fallen to the edge of the face drawn by the cracks. The eyeball was staring at Lin Sanjiu.
Lin Sanjiu's gaze followed the brick wall to the back, then to the front. All the cracks and cracks on the wall formed the shape of a person. Lin Sanjiu could even tell that the person was the same woman. Even the clothes they were wearing were the same style.
Just like the figures on Egyptian murals or a comic strip, the simple human figure formed by the cracks on the wall moved in a different way. It was even a little stiff and ridiculous. However, Lin Sanjiu could tell that the human figure was walking step by step on the brick wall. She was following Lin Sanjiu.
The human figure that was looking at Lin Sanjiu had its mouth closed and raised its right arm high. The next human figure in front of Lin Sanjiu had its mouth open. Lin Sanjiu realized that when she walked to the front, she would probably hear the human figure talking to the task force again.
"What... is this thing?" "Wall? Living creature? Duoluozhong? Ghost? "
"Stop looking at it," Mrs. Manas's tone suddenly became urgent. "We don't know what will happen if we look at these cracks for too long. We still don't know why the human figure formed by the cracks can make a sound."
Lin Sanjiu quickly lowered her eyes. She thought for a moment before she jerked her arm and threw the iron rod at the woman on the brick wall. The iron rod spun through the thin smoke and hit the woman's arm. A new crack appeared on the wall, starting from the woman's head. It split the woman into two halves.
Lin Sanjiu seemed to have achieved her goal, but she was taken aback. She didn't expect that she could really create a new crack on the wall. It seemed like her guess was wrong. The red brick wall wasn't the problem.
"Let's go," Mrs. Manas urged, "At least the crack can't go down the wall."
She was right. Lin Sanjiu allowed the smoke to recede, and once again, the red brick wall was hidden behind a barrier that she could not see, even though she had a feeling that the cracked humanoid could see her. Only then did she feel the goosebumps on her back recede. Lin Sanjiu turned around and looked at the thick smoke, but she didn't move.
"Mrs. Manas," Lin Sanjiu asked, "I was heading in this direction, right? When I turned my head to look at the wall just now, I noticed that I only turned my right leg 90 degrees … "
Lin Sanjiu's abdomen tightened even more in the silence in her mind. She continued to speak dryly, "Let me confirm it. Otherwise, it will be bad if we walk further and further into the fog."
"Yes, that's right," the voice of the woman on the red brick wall rang out from the depths of Lin Sanjiu's mind. It was as if the woman had been pinching her throat and speaking in Mrs. Manas's tone since the beginning. "It's this direction.
I wrote this chapter for two days because I felt that there must be something different in the depths of the smoke. Duoluozhongs, mutated creatures, and so on, I felt that they were too ordinary. I felt that they didn't live up to the description of the land in the deepest part of the smoke. Finally, an Egyptian mural appeared.
(End of the chapter)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
