Doomsday Wonderland

Qiao Yuansi turned her head, gazing at the cars still whizzing by on the highway, murmuring to herself, "My world... has already met doomsday?"

At least to her eyes, there was no resemblance to the apocalyptic scenes depicted in movies or novels: traffic rules still governed the highway; the speed-detection display screen up ahead was working as usual, indicating the electrical system was intact; there were no flames, no thick smoke, no ambulance sirens, and no cries for help.

"It does seem a bit off," the young man said, following her gaze, apparently thinking the same thing. "At first, I thought I was lucky, randomly teleporting into a world six months before doomsday."

His words alone were enough to raise a hundred or more questions, but Qiao Yuansi bit her lip and asked none. The young man outside the car laughed at her silence. "Never mind, I have no obligation to convince you. There are Changelings everywhere, so remember to pretend you can't recognize them when you see them again. I'm leaving, take care—"

He stood up straight as he spoke, and Qiao Yuansi reacted quickly, unlocking the car and shouting out the window, "Get in!"

The young man paused, bending over again, his clear eyes widened slightly in confusion, making him look like a small animal.

"Aren't you afraid I'm a madman?"

"You knocked down a police officer. You can't keep wandering around," Qiao Yuansi said, looking in the rearview mirror and reaching out to open the passenger door for him. "Hurry up; I think someone may have noticed us."

He seemed not to have expected her attitude and chuckled. Qiao Yuansi, growing anxious, spoke faster. "Whether it's the end of the world or not, societal rules are clearly still in effect. You saved me; I can't let you get arrested for it. Can you please get in the car?"

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"Okay, okay, I know,"

The young man still wore half a smile, as if he didn't take her concern seriously at all, and leisurely made his way around the front of the car to open the passenger door. As the door opened, the sea breeze rushed in with him, along with a salty, azure, free feeling of the ocean.

Qiao Yuansi hesitated for a moment, withdrew her gaze, and started the car.

She glanced outside—the patrolman was still lying face down, unconscious, and his face's current state was unrecognizable. She dared not dwell on it, bypassed the patrolman, and quickly rejoined the highway, constantly scanning the rearview mirror, fearing that a police car would catch up.

"I'm a little worried that a passing car may have called the police," she explained, feeling the young man's glances. "We didn't delay long, right? Just a few words, probably not even two minutes."

Fortunately, it seemed there were no emergency phones along this stretch of highway, so even if someone was suspicious, they couldn't call the police immediately.

"You're worried about this instead of the apocalypse and Changelings?" The young man looked somewhat incredulous in her peripheral vision.

"It's precisely because you told me all that that I'm even more worried," Qiao Yuansi said as she sped up, leaving several cars behind. "If everything here is still the same as before, then even if you were arrested, it wouldn't be a big deal. I can testify that you were saving me, find a defense lawyer, even post bail... everything could proceed normally, without any harm to you."

But clearly, this world was no longer the same. Changeling were everywhere, and it wasn't possible that only one law enforcement officer had become a so-called "duoluozhong"; once the other Changelings realized the true reason for the attack on the patrolman, normal legal procedures wouldn't protect him anymore.

The young man seemed to understand her meaning but appeared quite surprised. He let out an "Oh," then fell silent for a moment before saying, "So you already believed me?"

Qiao Yuansi was a person trained in scientific thinking, which made her less likely to rashly resist or deny the unknown. She glanced at the young man in the passenger seat and said, "I'm not ready to make that conclusion yet."

He didn't seem to care whether she believed him or not; he shrugged, smiled and said, "That's fine, I'm not in a hurry. My name is Shoreis, what about you?"

It might sound strange, but considering that it's a name from another world, it might not be so odd – after all, she couldn't even figure out his race.

Qiao Yuansi gave her name and then asked him to explain everything again: what the apocalyptic world was, what a duoluozhong was, and who he was. The amount of information was substantial, and it wasn't easy to explain it all clearly and comprehensively, but Shoreis managed to do so in just a few words.

Although he explained clearly, how much Qiao Yuansi truly believed, she dared not say. She was driving and listening attentively; and as she turned her gaze, she found that Shoreis was actually reaching towards her cheek.

Qiao Yuansi was greatly alarmed, almost crashing the car into the next lane, and yelled, "What are you doing?!"

Shoreis was also startled by her reaction. "I just wanted to look at your face—"

"What are you doing with your hand then?" Qiao Yuansi had become jumpy since being grabbed by a police officer.

Shoreis pointed to his cheek. "I told you not to be afraid. The place where you were scratched on your face is getting redder and redder."

It wasn't until Qiao Yuansi finally exited the highway and had a chance to examine her face that she was shocked by what she saw: several thick, blood-red scratch marks crisscrossed her cheeks, extending from the corner of her eye to her chin. Despite nearly half an hour having passed, the color had not lightened but had deepened, turning almost purple, with blood spots appearing around the scratches, a sight to strike terror into the heart.

"He scratched my face with great force, a finger digging into the corner of my eye, as if he wanted to peel off my skin," she muttered, parking by the road. "Even though the skin didn't break, I didn't expect it to..."

Shoreis beckoned her to lean over, and she hesitated for a moment, biting her lip, then turned her head towards him.

Shoreis drew closer, and her face was warmed by his breath. As soon as she met his eyes, she slightly turned her gaze away—his slightly bluish eyes were immersed in cold snow-white, like the chilly air of a high mountain snowfield. Though clear and bright, they were hard to look at. In an indescribable tension, she clenched her trousers, waiting for his slightly cool fingers to touch her cheek.

However, he did not touch her face. From the corner of her eye, she saw Shoreis' hand, which had been about to lift, suddenly drop; he stared at her for a while, his brow furrowing tighter, and his face growing more serious.

Cold sweat in her palms, Qiao Yuansi finally straightened up and turned to ask him, "What's wrong?"

Shoreis looked at his untouched fingers, pinching the tips as if to flick away non-existent dust.

"How far is it to your home?" he asked, looking away. "I think you'd better go home first."

From his tone, it was only a small step away from saying, "You might as well eat something good while you can."

Qiao Yuansi took a trembling breath, feeling her hands and feet go cold, and didn't even know how she managed to restart the car. She didn't return to the highway but drove along the city streets. After a while, she broke the silence in the car. "You can just say it; I can handle it."

Shoreis looked at her. "Alright, you're probably about to become a duoluozhong."

That was too direct.

Qiao Yuansi gripped the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white. "Explain in more detail... How do you know?"

"Doomsday, as the name implies, usually refers to human societies that have been destroyed. Most of humanity has been buried, with only a small portion surviving. Within this small portion, some evolve into a duoluozhong, and some evolve into a posthuman—but clearly, this world is not like that."

Shoreis was intentionally speaking slowly, and Qiao Yuansi realized it. She was grateful because even describing her current state as utterly at a loss would be overly optimistic; having someone by her side narrating calmly provided her a sense of order amid chaotic uncertainty—like falling into a turbulent river but catching hold of a rope.

"I don't know why, but everything in this world runs normally, and dead people rarely appear. Yet, duoluozhongs with distorted faces make up the vast majority of the population. So, I've spent the last few days observing them in secret."

When mentioning the deformed people, he used "they" instead of "it"—when referring to duoluozhongs from other worlds, Shoreis used "it." Qiao Yuansi didn't know what this difference meant, but she silently noted it in her heart.

"I've found that if you're a normal person and your face doesn't deform, then there are two possibilities: either you can see their deformation or you can't. For normal people who can't see it, the duoluozhongs won't bother them. They still work and live with these normal people as before... because over time, those who can't see the deformation will gradually begin to deform themselves, as if subtly influenced. How long this takes, I can't say since I've only been here for four days. When I arrived, those few cases I observed might have already been in the process of transforming."

Qiao Yuansi exhaled, fixing her eyes on the road ahead. The light turned green, and a little girl in a school uniform crossed the zebra crossing while pushing ice cream into her mouth. Every time she opened her mouth, her face disappeared into the black hole, only to fall slowly back into place when she closed it.

"If you can see it, and they know you can see the deformation, then you're in trouble," Shoreis said, watching the little girl without changing his expression. "Possessing the ability to recognize the abnormal means you cannot naturally transform into one of them. The duoluozhongs' primary goal seems to be to turn more people into their companions. When this can't be guaranteed, they will resort to killing. When that patrol officer grabbed your face, he probably used some means to infect you with this transformation, like a virus."