Doomsday Wonderland

'Do I really lack food?'

This thought crossed Lin Sanjiu's mind as the iron door slammed shut.

That man might have been struggling to survive for too long, or perhaps he just entered this apocalypse. He actually thought that food and water were significant issues for everyone else. Not to mention that Yu Yuan himself could produce endless supplies of food; just the provisions prepared for her by the grand prize would be enough for her to last until teleportation — of course, she wouldn't just sit and wait until then.

"The prison time has ended," announced a cheery feminine voice as soon as the door closed. It seemed that the effect of [Drawing Ground into Prison] vanished the moment that man left.

Lin Sanjiu sighed in relief, feeling even more amused. Without [Drawing Ground into Prison], would she really be afraid of an empty room? This seemed like a perfect opportunity to investigate.

On the ground, Yu Yuan's shoulder twitched slightly. She quickly squatted beside him and asked, "Are you okay? We should be safe for now."

"Why do I always have to repair my body from scratch?" Yu Yuan moved a little, supporting himself with his hand, and slowly got up, still a bit stiff. "Without the Data Stream Library as a base, it's very draining for me."

"I'll protect you more from now on," Lin Sanjiu said.

"Thank you."

Being a Veda, Yu Yuan seemed to have accepted reality. He turned his gaze to the area behind Lin Sanjiu and said, "You need to start protecting me now."

Taken aback, Lin Sanjiu quickly turned around and jumped.

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Out of nowhere, rows upon rows of massive words appeared in the room. These characters closely resembled Chinese characters, but they seemed far more sinister and brutal. The characters for "hunger" radiated a sickly green-yellow hue, appearing hollow and fragile, yet sharp enough to pierce. With just one glance, Lin Sanjiu felt a pang of hunger so strong it was nearly unbearable. Without hesitation, she grabbed a pound cake from her card inventory and took a large bite, tearing the plastic and swallowing the cake with bits of plastic.

Amid the layers of "hunger" characters, there were numerous massive characters for "locust."

She had never seen such disgusting words in her life.

The strokes forming "locust" looked like layers of insect wings, rubbing against one another with a rustling sound. Looking up, she could see tentacles swaying above, and below that, countless emotionless black eyes.

Each "locust" character shimmered with an eerie smoothness, standing on long leg-like strokes. If one looked closely, they could even see tiny hairs on these legs. Wait, that's not right. It wasn't because she had stared too long; rather, these words were gradually becoming reality, transforming into countless locusts, each the size of a palm.

"They're materializing," Yu Yuan said matter-of-factly as if providing a live report. "And from the looks of it, their number is vast."

As his words fell, the already dim cement room was instantly overwhelmed by a tidal wave of darkness. Each character for 'locust' morphed into millions of them, swarming like a storm towards the two individuals. At the exact moment the dark tide engulfed the pair, a white light from the [Defense Forcefield] suddenly flared amidst the countless shadowy figures sweeping past. The protective barrier shimmered and wavered under the onslaught of the dark swarm. In a matter of seconds, Mrs. Manas cried out.

"Think of something else quickly!" she shouted. "We're running low on Higher Consciousness. It won't hold much longer!"

Lin Sanjiu pulled Yu Yuan close, and the [Defense Forcefield] had to expand to encompass him. Her Higher Consciousness field was already trembling at its limits. Without its protection, the vicious swarm would likely leave gashes on their skin just by grazing them with their wings.

Gritting her teeth, she summoned the [Tornado Whip] and swung. Conventional combat tactics many posthumans used were ineffective against the sheer number of these tiny, densely packed locusts. However, a tornado could potentially sweep all these locusts away—if they were outside.

Lin Sanjiu soon realized that she didn't have a method to handle this swarm of locusts.

It seemed as if the swarm was endlessly thick. Just as she managed to disperse a portion around her using the wind, another wave instantly filled the gap. The locusts blown away hit the walls without showing signs of injury but came back with even more ferocity, as if intending to strip flesh with each collision.

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Although Yu Yuan still appeared calm, he must have realized the severity of the situation. "We can't think of killing them now; these are not ordinary locusts. Throw your food to distract them."

Right, locusts eat anything. Without waiting for Yu Yuan to finish speaking, Lin Sanjiu quickly uncarded a large box of food. She grabbed handfuls of unidentified food packets and frantically threw them towards another corner of the room.

Yu Yuan declared after a glance, "It's not enough."

Before Lin Sanjiu's food packets hit the ground, they were torn apart and consumed by the locusts in mid-air. Occasionally, remnants of packaging fluttered down from the storm of black and yellow locusts, only to be instantly swallowed up.

"Keep throwing, faster," Yu Yuan said. "Their number around us has decreased slightly."

Had it?

At that moment, hunger gnawed at Lin Sanjiu. Despite feeling as if a black hole was consuming her from the inside, she couldn't help but continue throwing food, hoping her actions would lead the swarm to the other side of the room before the [Defense Forcefield] gave out completely.

"It's gone," Mrs. Manas announced. "Your Higher Consciousness has depleted."

The moment she realized this, countless bursts of blood appeared on her face, hands, and body. Just as Lin Sanjiu had feared, each locust tore a piece of flesh from her, spraying blood everywhere. These were not natural locusts. If anything, the blood seemed to drive them even wilder.

Although Yu Yuan was also bloody from the bites, he seemed impervious to pain. He quickly moved his hand and yelled over the deafening buzz, "You keep leading them away, I'll heal you!"

Ever since Lin Sanjiu entered the doomsday universe, she believed she had endured many inhuman pains. Yet today, she experienced a new kind of torment. Her flesh was torn off alive, immediately beginning to heal, but before it could fully recover, it was torn off again. She couldn't even faint. One reason was to divert the locusts, and the other was the constant intense pain that hit her like raindrops, not allowing the luxury of passing out.

Her worst fears did not materialize.

The locusts didn't seem to prefer human flesh more than anything else. After an unknown amount of food was thrown out, the locusts around them had almost all flown to the other side. Only a sparse number of locusts hopped around them. With the absence of the dark cloud of insects, the view finally brightened a bit. Lin Sanjiu's face was pale, and she bent over, retching, vomiting only some acid – the huge piece of cake she had just eaten had disappeared from her stomach in the blink of an eye.

She felt a sharp pain in her stomach, a sign of starvation.

Yu Yuan, without any sympathy, looked back at the dense, writhing swarm of locusts on the other side of the room, grabbed her, and said, "Hurry, let's find a corner against a wall. I'll create a defensive—"

"Food," Lin Sanjiu stumbled as he dragged her along, "Make me food! Quick!"

By the end of her sentence, her voice was shrill and hoarse – her card inventory had not a single crumb left.

Yu Yuan understood. He paused for a few seconds and quickly produced a large piece of bread. Lin Sanjiu snatched it and bit into it deeply. On the other side of the room, the swarm of locusts that had been munching on her food suddenly stopped their noise.

It was as if someone had slowly turned their head, and the countless locusts turned towards them—or the bread in her hand.

By the time the bread had traveled down her throat, Lin Sanjiu was nearly in despair.

"When the food runs out, eat his corpse." She finally understood the meaning of this phrase. She imagined herself sitting amidst a dark tide of locusts, taking large bites out of Yu Yuan's corpse, while the locusts took large bites out of her.

Even for a Veda, producing such a massive amount of food would take time—and the locusts, along with Lin Sanjiu, who seemed to have become one of them, wouldn't give Yu Yuan that time.

"What do we do?" she mumbled, continuing to devour the bread like a madwoman. "Can we use fire? Poison?"

Yu Yuan shook his head.

"These locusts are formed from text, like the games you've played. They've become a part of this world. They can only be recalled by their creator, not destroyed."

So, what were they to do? Just sit and wait for the end?

As Lin Sanjiu stared at the swarm, feeling like vomiting while continuously eating, wanting nothing more than to escape from her own body, there was suddenly a knock on the door.

"Is someone there?" a young girl'svoice asked.