Doomsday Wonderland

Yu Yuan didn't have emotions, but he rationally knew what kinds of emotions humans might experience in certain situations—for example, right now, the emotions he should feel would probably be something odd and amusing.

The eight people outside the cage were surrounding him and Queen Nocturna. The cage had a concrete top. When the eight approached, their faces were cast into shadows by the concrete, blurring their features and expressions.

If this scene involved outstanding posthumans, it would undoubtedly enhance their intimidation; but with these eight people, it merely reminded one of a crowd whose features weren't even properly caught on camera.

Yu Yuan folded the [Migratory Letters] into a small piece and pressed it into his palm.

"Is this him?" a young man with short bangs asked, bending slightly to peer into the cage through the bars.

"Where's the woman? What have you done with her?"

As soon as the voice sounded, Yu Yuan recognized it as their old acquaintance, Lord Tremors. He trembled as he spoke, whether out of anger, fear, or adrenaline, truly living up to his name. "I knew that woman was no good as soon as I saw her," he said, his face turning red. "Better to take care of her sooner rather than later. I set a trap to deal with them. Who let them out?"

Edgar Allan Poe immediately said, "Queen Nocturna, come on, you let them out for your selfish reasons. Was that right? Can you answer to all of us?"

Queen Nocturna probably never expected him to expose her right away. She turned her gaze sharply, as if she wanted to burrow into his face. "What are you doing?"

"You were in the room, telling that woman how you saved her life, asking her to repay you in this way and that," Poe said solemnly. "With things as they are now, who do you think you're fooling?"

As his words fell, the other seven people fell silent, casting glances at Queen Nocturna. The cage had four sides, with two people standing on each, a symmetrical arrangement that gave Yu Yuan a data-driven sense of balance and comfort. Though he had no human preferences, he had developed the Veda's preferences.

"What are you looking at?" Queen Nocturna's voice became sharp and tremulous. "Did anyone inform me? How would I know who's in the room? Since he found out someone broke in long ago, why didn't he notify me earlier? He must have had ulterior motives!"

"Let's not argue," said a man so ordinary-looking that Yu Yuan could only refer to him by his blue shirt. "What do we do now?"

"Just leave this tattooed man to me," Queen Nocturna said. "His combat strength is low, and he won't withstand me if I take action. You don't need to worry about him. First, think of a way to deal with the woman inside the house... By the way, can we turn her into text here?"

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At this question, the other seven looked at each other, seemingly at a loss.

"Some games allow it," a woman said softly, her appearance timid and fearful, as if afraid of being overheard.

"Nonsense, of course. I know some games allow it. The question is here, can it be done?" Queen Nocturna's words snapped back like a slap.

It seemed that they could only manipulate and combine characters, and they did not understand the deeper rules of text operations at all.

Queen Nocturna's words made several people among them feel annoyed. Nobody likes being constantly reminded of their inadequacies.

"What's the big deal if we can't convert her to text?" asked a youthful girl, who looked no older than twenty even after becoming a posthuman, as she cocked her head to the side. "Just crack open the door, toss in a 'death' character, and then slam it shut. Heh, I'm so naughty... but I'll pat myself on the back with a full score."

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"You're new around here, aren't you?" Edgar Allan Poe said, with a hint of derision and a smile.

The girl's face flushed, but before she could respond, an older man who appeared to be the eldest in the group, hands clasped behind his back, intervened. "She was brave enough to offer a suggestion, which I find commendable. Her proposal isn't half bad, quite thoughtful actually. What does it matter if she's new? I think she's quite clever. Let's encourage that kind of quick thinking."

Edgar Allan Poe turned his head, looking through the cage at the chubby man. There seemed to be subtle changes in the air, but Yu Yuan couldn't quite understand what was happening.

The young girl's face relaxed considerably. She glanced at the chubby man through the timid woman, seeming to want to thank him but only managing a shy smile. She wasn't particularly pretty, but her youth and fresh skin seemed to invite misjudgments.

"I like her plan too," chimed in the young man with the short bangs. "Looks like you're going to earn a nickname, 'The Female Grim Reaper.'"

"Ew, that's so cliché. I want something quirkier, cuter. How about 'The Little Devil that Calls You to Die is Online'? Too much of a mouthful?" The girl had bounced back completely, laughing as she looked around through the cage. "Maybe I should give it a try then?"

Yu Yuan's gaze also traveled around the group.

Lord Tremors was scowling, looking constipated – this description from Lin Sanjiu's memory seemed fitting now – and it was unclear what he was hesitating about. Blue Shirt nodded at the girl, arms crossed; Edgar Allan Poe kept his eyes on her and the rest, silent; the timid woman stared at Yu Yuan's shoes.

Queen Nocturna leaned against the rail, her face showing complex emotions. After thinking and comparing hundreds of human emotions and subtle expressions, Yu Yuan felt she was both looking forward to some drama and perhaps feeling a sense of loss – or she might just be hungry.

The girl turned and strode towards the door, coughing and placing her hand on the doorknob.

Although the reader, Lin Sanjiu, was in control of everything outside the door in real-time, she couldn't possibly have crossed the mountains in a matter of minutes, nor could she seize the opportunity the moment the girl opened the door.

'No matter how I look at it, Lin Sanjiu will have to passively endure the 'death' character thrown in by her,' Yu Yuan thought calmly.

"By the way, I put a mountain inside to block that woman," Edgar Allan Poe said. "You don't have to worry about her taking the chance to rush out. Just throw the character in quickly."

Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, the girl pulled open the door, flung something inside, and immediately closed it again.

With a dull "thud," the door closed, and she collapsed.

The seven people next to the cage, and the one person and one Veda inside, all fell into silence.

The young girl who had been blushing and a little self-indulgent just before was now lying rigidly on the ground—her face smashed directly onto the floor, looking like a piece of broken wood, motionless for a while, her body no longer rising and falling.

After a few seconds, Yu Yuan slowly asked, "Why is she dead?"

Lord Tremors had also thrown a word and then closed the door, and the locusts didn't attack him. Might the girl's death be explained by the unique nature of the word "death"? Although several guesses had formed in his mind, he still wanted to ask the person who held the correct answer.

Even though no one answered him, his voice seemed to break some kind of atmosphere in the air—suddenly, the remaining seven people all began to move, some turning their eyes away, some coughing softly, some adjusting their coats.

"Ah, there are no banquets that don't end in life. What needs to be done must be done," said the middle-aged man, his double-chin vibrating as he spoke. "Her idea was actually not bad. We can throw in some other words. What do you think? What would be good to throw in?"

So, it seems that the word "death" just now had no effect on Lin Sanjiu, and it only made the girl die—in fact, the other seven people seemed to have known this outcome.

Lord Tremors tilted his head back, not looking at the corpse on the ground but staring at the concrete ceiling of the cage, looking displeased. He muttered under his breath, "What a waste, such a fair-skinned girl..."

"There are many words we can throw," Blue Shirt said, stepping towards the room's door, as if not seeing the body on the floor. "Like, extreme cold or radiation. What do you think?"

"Oh, or illusion," Poe said, cheering up again, "as you can tell by my name, I specialize in creating all kinds of terrifying illusions."

"I threw locusts last time; this time, I can throw in something like bedbugs." Lord Tremors' attention was also brought back.

Since even games could be programmed, the words they could utilize were likely countless. Lin Sanjiu might cope with a single or a few challenges, but if dozens or hundreds of different word groups simultaneously materialized in the room, she surely wouldn't last. Surviving would be problematic, let alone helping him regain his human form.

"You cannot kill my master." Yu Yuan knew he didn't have to pretend; his tone was enough to make people realize he was not human. Queen Nocturna lunged at him as if stepped on, trying to grab him, but it was too late; Yu Yuan continued, undeterred, "As her humanoid Special Item, my purpose is to be her tool for reincarnation."

To buy as much time as possible for Lin Sanjiu, he quickly made up a lie. "If you kill her, she will reincarnate with all her abilities intact through me, essentially freeing her from the room. And as a Special Item, you can't destroy me."

After the Veda finished, he found that everyone had fallen silent.

He scanned the room and saw that everyone was staring intently at him—their gazes were so intense that even he had some doubts in his stomach.