Chapter 298: Entering the Pocket Dimension
Within the Smiling Mermaid's territory, there was a piece of land which stretched over several square kilometers. There were no residents living there and there weren't even any buildings. When the wind bellowed, the wild grasses would sway, revealing the broken stones and ruins they hid.
"After discovering an unstable pocket dimension here, we demolished all the buildings around it when the boundary of the pocket dimension receded," Porcelain Vase's voice buzzed within his accessory. After their elimination process, he had brought the final five posthumans to this piece of land. "If we didn't demolish them and the pocket dimension continued expanding, who knows how those building would integrate with the pocket dimension and the additional complexity they would bring?"
Despite his words, leaving the land empty certainly couldn't guarantee anyone's safety.
"Can you see that yellow warning sign in the distance?" Porcelain Vase pointed to a spot not far from them. Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes and spotted a faint yellow sign several kilometers away. As there was nothing blocking her view, it was quite visible.
"That marks the boundary of the pocket dimension after the last mission," Porcelain Vase cast a sweeping glance at the six people before him. "One of your tasks is to find the new boundary of the pocket dimension and move the sign there."
The five posthumans looked at the warning sign simultaneously. No one responded for a while. Porcelain Vase suddenly laughed and pushed the faun forward. "Old Goat will be in charge of bringing you guys into the pocket dimension. He will brief you on all the other tasks. But, let me be very frank, if you do not complete all the tasks assigned, we will deduct the reward at the end."
Lin Sanjiu did wonder how the Smiling Mermaid members would even know if they completed the mission shoddily. Now, she got her answer. Even though the faun did not fight just now, by the looks of things, his combat abilities must be of a certain level.
After briefing the team, Porcelain Vase pulled the faun aside and spoke to him quietly. After that, he bid farewell to the freelancers and left. Somehow, once he left, the five posthumans started to size each other up.
Sajee was the first to jump beside Lin Sanjiu.
"Big Sister, let me follow you." Without knowing Lin Sanjiu's name, Sajee acted as if she was very close with Lin Sanjiu. She looked over at Lin Sanjiu with her pupils which seemed on the verge of dilating into nothingness, "Let's stick together—us girls."
Sometimes, the way she phrased her words was a little weird.
However, it was a fact that they were the only two women on the team—perhaps because women didn't usually follow random strangers. The remaining posthumans on the team were all male. One of them was an older man whose skin was dull red. He was wearing a feathered warbonnet. He was half naked and only wore only a grass skirt. His outfit seemed to mimic that of a Paleoindian. The next person looked even weirder. Half his body was clearly human and the other half had already become old tree barks. Supposedly, during the apocalypse in his world, he was just about to become a duoluozhong when he evolved. As a result, he retained his current appearance. The last young man looked the most normal among the whole group, even compared to Lin Sanjiu.
"Are you all ready?" Faun looked around while his head was still well-hidden in his hood. None of them could see his face and no one knew how he could keep his face hidden while looking at the outside world. "Let's go."
After he said that, he took one step toward the direction of the yellow sign. His hoof landed soundlessly on a patch of wild grass.
The ragtag team of posthumans did not know each other beforehand so they were still unfamiliar with each other. After Faun, who had unwittingly taken the team leader role, finished his sentence, the remaining posthumans followed him without saying a word—with the exception of Sajee, that skipped along speaking to Lin Sanjiu and trying to hold her hand.
Even though Lin Sanjiu was even-tempered when she wasn't in any sort of conflict, she didn't hold any qualms rejecting others. "We'll walk separately," she said blandly as she pulled her arm back and extended her pair of skeletal wings a little.
Her white skeletal wings extended swiftly and silently. Lin Sanjiu adjusted the angle of the spines on her wings such that the sharp ends were pointing outward. The sharp spines created a barrier between Lin Sanjiu and Sajee.
Sajee did not seem to mind Lin Sanjiu's action. Her pair of eyes which seemed constantly on the verge of turning fully black landed on the spines on Lin Sanjiu's wings. Sajee's smile did not change even one bit, as if it was a natural part of her face.
"Big Sister," even though she couldn't hold Lin Sanjiu's hand, she did not give up trying to walk as close to Lin Sanjiu as possible. After what Mrs. Manas told her before, Lin Sanjiu could clearly hear that Sajee was inhaling very deeply between her words.
"Don't you think it is a little weird?" Sajee asked.
Lin Sanjiu threw a glance at the pair of black lusterless eyes staring at her through her white skeletal wings guarding her shoulders.
As though she had received Lin Sanjiu's encouragement, Sajee immediately chirped excited, "It's like this. Smiling Mermaid has more than enough members. Why don't they get their own members to enter this pocket dimension? Isn't that more reliable?"
Lin Sanjiu frowned a little but she didn't think much about it.
Since this particular pocket dimension was unstable, that also implied that the risks were unpredictable. With so little known about it, naturally, the sensible thing to do was just to get some unimportant people to scout for more information first. Besides, although getting information about a pocket dimension was important, fundamentally, it was only of more significance in an unfamiliar apocalyptic world. Since everybody knew that there was a pocket dimension here, they could simply avoid it. There was actually no real necessity to find out more details about the pocket dimension.
However, Lin Sanjiu quickly understood why Sajee raised that question. While she thought about the question for a few seconds, the girl had already sneaked up from behind her. The girl's hand was almost about to reach her back.
Before Sajee could edge her hand closer, two long sharp bones immediately swung out. It was so quick that she barely saw it moving. The sharp tips of the two viper-like bones flashed in front of Sajee.
"Oh gosh! Big Sister is so petty," she pouted. Following which, she took a deep breath as if she was inhaling a scent from Lin Sanjiu, "Well, I just have never seen those before."
Lin Sanjiu eyed her coldly but didn't warn the girl verbally.
Evidently, Sajee wasn't a girl that took any sort of verbal warning to heart.
The others looked once at the two girls and did not make any comments. They continued walking wordlessly. Among posthumans, it was common to just mind one's own business.
Apart from the noise they made, when someone accidentally kicked a pebble or when they were walking through the ruins, it was as if the only sound that remained in this vast land they were in was the sound of rustling grass as the wind bellowed. Cyber District was astonishingly large. When they looked back, it was as if the tall skyscrapers belonged to another city.
After walking in this manner for a short time, the yellow sign gradually became clearer and clearer.
"Huh?" Faun stopped at the warning sign and tapped his hooves subconsciously.
Although he didn't specifically explain himself, the other posthumans more or less understood his reaction. Walking toward this boundary, they did not notice any hints of entering a pocket dimension. Seemingly, the boundary of the pocket dimension had shrunk this time.
"It is always better that it's shrinking rather than expanding, right?" the half-bark man said with a deep voice.
This was the first time that Lin Sanjiu heard someone speaking with such a low register. Hearing his voice made it feel as a person's innards would just sink down with that sound.
"Perhaps," Faun stared for a moment at the warning sign and turned to Lin Sanjiu. "You are the tallest here so you'll carry the sign."
Lin Sanjiu froze for a moment but didn't say anything. Anyway, she had more than enough strength. She immediately pulled out the warning sign from the ground and carried it over her shoulder; she did not convert it into her card.
"Alright, we'll start here. Be vigilant." Uncharacteristically, Faun continued with more words, "Each time the pocket dimension evolves, it can be completely different from the previous version so I don't have any point of reference for you guys. With that being said, we must not miss out any details regarding the pocket dimension."
Everyone became a little tense as they braced themselves. When they started moving again, they reduced their pace by quite a bit.
They continued walking for 20 to 30 minutes. Finally, all of them were at a loss.
"Where is the pocket dimension?" the old Paleoindian couldn't help asking.
Looking around them, they were still in the vast, desolated land under the early morning sky.