Chapter 1448: Lin Sanjiu's Good Luck
"Hey there," the Life Coach said, crouching down with his muscles straining against his tight exercise shirt. He examined Lin Sanjiu's hand carefully. "You're lucky to have come across something so rare. Quite lucky."
Lin Sanjiu thought nothing could be further from the truth.
Half-lying on the ground, with the hellish pain slowly receding and her body drenched in cold sweat, she found one of her hands completely immobilized. She couldn't move it even a little while trying to wiggle her fingertips. She glanced at the silver trash bin hanging from her hand and then at the Life Coach, gasping for breath. "Do you... do you recognize this thing?" she asked.
The Life Coach didn't respond immediately. He lowered his head, scrutinizing the object for a moment. Lin Sanjiu had no idea what he was examining; the silver trash can appeared empty. However, something invisible clung to her fingertips-the object she had dragged halfway out of the bin.
She wanted to reach out and touch it, curious if she could feel its form, but after all the torment she had endured, she feared that doing so might cause it to grab her left hand as well.
"I recognize it," the Life Coach said, raising his head with a determined expression.
"What is it?"
The humanoid item coughed. "For that, you need to exchange a Special Item."
What a demanding fellow. Lin Sanjiu turned her head, looking for something in the pile of items that hadn't been put away yet. However, when she turned, the other two humanoid Special Items recoiled in fright and retreated more than ten meters.
"Not you guys." Lin Sanjiu sighed, her body still trembling weakly. She wasn't eager to stand up, so she ordered, "Artist, give me... never mind. Caster, come here. Bring me the can of [Bone Broth]."
Caster approached with a look of apprehension, extending her arm as far as she could while standing on her tiptoes, and carefully handed the can of [Bone Broth] to Lin Sanjiu.
The Life Coach didn't hesitate; he gulped down the soup, then crushed the can into powder. The world had forever lost one Special Item.
"Your trash can is a relatively common space item with various models," he said, wiping his hands clean. "After all, people produce garbage as they live. Having a trash bin is not only convenient for maintaining cleanliness but also for storing things you can't keep but don't want others to access. You toss the trash inside, and it falls into a separate space specially designed for disposal. I understand your doubts. I don't know why there's a whole separate secondary space used as a landfill, but that's just how it is."
What Lin Sanjiu really wanted to ask wasn't about the landfill. "Tell me, what is this thing-"
"Don't be in a hurry; I'll explain it all from the beginning," the Life Coach said with a smile. "This landfill space is quite unique. It isn't connected to any other space; only the trash bin can establish a temporary channel with it. Think of each trash bin as a small door. When garbage falls in, the door opens and the channel is established. Once the garbage lands in the landfill, the door closes and the channel disappears. You have no idea how many strange things float around in the landfill space."
Even after nearly ten years in the midst of doomsday, Lin Sanjiu occasionally experienced overwhelming sensations like the one she was feeling now. "You don't need to mention the landfill anymore. So, what exactly is this thing? Is it dangerous for me?"
"It's called the Southwind Goose."
The name sounded more elegant than she had expected.
"I can't say exactly what kind of creature it is," the Life Coach continued, "but it has a crucial trait that earned it this name. No matter how many times it's thrown into a different space away from its native land, it will always try to move toward the original location or a similar place. So even in a landfill far from any living beings, it's always searching for a way back."
Lin Sanjiu stared blankly at him, then at her fingers, which had turned pale from being tightly gripped. So, she had been caught by the Southwind Goose just because she had foolishly stuck her hand into the landfill and didn't let the passage close in time?
"Usually, the Southwind Goose prefers places inhabited by humans for reproduction, and its native land is often a space close to the human world. So, as soon as it enters this bubble space, it will try to find a way into the game world."
"So... what about me?"
The Life Coach nodded. "You two share a common goal now."
"Can it open a way back for me?" Lin Sanjiu asked, her eyes lighting up as the pain in her hand seemed to diminish.
"No, it can't."
The hope she had just built up quickly deflated. "So, my right hand is just a useless crab?"
"When you put your hand into the bucket, it didn't take long for the Southwind Goose to catch you. It wasn't entirely coincidental," the Life Coach said, lifting the bucket and shaking it vigorously as if trying to dislodge the Southwind Goose-but it only made Lin Sanjiu's hand ache more. "It can move between different spaces, and due to its nature, it can sense where it needs to go to return to its native land. That's why it was able to catch you so quickly. However, the Southwind Goose can go back, but you cannot."
Lin Sanjiu took a moment to digest this information. "I don't quite understand. If it can move between different spaces, why can't I follow it?"
The Life Coach put the bucket down and crossed his arms, looking troubled. "How should I explain this? I feel like I'm charging too little. I'm usually more focused on motivating and guiding people. Educational and explanatory things aren't exactly my expertise."
Lin Sanjiu rubbed her forehead with her free hand.
"Why not increase your fee?"
This time, the Life Coach chose an item she hadn't used yet, the [Non-Human Growth Hormone]. After thoroughly erasing it, he coughed and waved for the Artist to come over, taking his bottle of paint and brush.
The Artist's face reflected the dismay of dropping a freshly bought ice cream on the ground before getting to eat it.
"Have you seen a beehive before?" the Life Coach asked, drawing a hexagon on the ground. Seeing Lin Sanjiu nod, he used one side of the hexagon as a starting point to draw another hexagon right next to it. "A beehive is made up of these hexagonal units, right?"
Although Lin Sanjiu didn't understand why the Life Coach always started with seemingly unrelated topics, she was less impatient this time-after all, she had already given away two items, so anything he said now was a bonus for her.
"Alright, now imagine that each hexagon is a world, and each world is tightly connected to others, just like the hexagonal units in a beehive," the Life Coach continued, startling her despite his own unfazed demeanor. "Can you picture that? The next step requires a bit more imagination."
"Imagine that each world has countless surfaces. At the same time, all these surfaces are directly adjacent to all the countless worlds. If we pick one of these worlds as 'A,' it has countless 'neighbors.' If the Southwind Goose travels from neighbor 'B' to 'A,' then the relationship between 'A' and 'B' is like a shared wall with a hole drilled by a rat, through which you can see your neighbor's feet."
What kind of analogy was this?
"It's because of this behavior of the Southwind Goose that these two 'neighbors' permanently share this wall. Before the Southwind Goose drills the hole, 'A' can share this wall with ten thousand other neighbors at the same time. It's somewhat like Schrödinger's cat theory-'A' and 'B' are both connected and not connected."
"Wait a second," Lin Sanjiu interjected. "Why doesn't it drill a hole and leave the landfill?"
The Life Coach drew a circle far from the beehive on the ground, leaving a gap between the two.
It seemed the Southwind Goose could drill holes but couldn't create a passage.
"So, I can't go over there because..."
"Can a person crawl through a mouse hole to their neighbor's house?" the Life Coach replied, waving his hand dismissively. "This analogy isn't perfect, but you get the idea. Without special methods or achieving an ideal state, posthumans can't use the Southwind Goose's 'hole.'"
So essentially, the answer was, "Humans can't use it," right? Yet the Life Coach had gone on and on, even taking another Special Item.
Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and then asked, "But it created an actual hole in my card. I could put my finger through it. Why can't I pass through the hole it creates in space?"
"That property is different," the Life Coach said, looking surprised by the question. He furrowed his brows, thought for a while, and then replied, "Well, your card inventory is connected to the outside world at a unique point-your card... The Southwind Goose can only drill a hole at a single connected point. If this point happens to be a visible and tangible entity, then that situation could arise."
Lin Sanjiu was skeptical, wondering if this was just an improvised explanation.
"Long story short, it's as if I've been given a wretched door, and I'm stuck here because of this wretchedness," she said, lifting her right arm and shaking it, glancing at her hand with its white fingertips and the swaying silver trash can hanging from them. "My right hand is useless, I'm trapped here, and now even my card has a hole in it..."
Her voice trailed off, and her train of thought finally broke.
The Life Coach raised his head, his eyes shining. "What's wrong? Did you think of something?"
Lin Sanjiu abruptly stood up.
"You just said," she said, her excitement causing her to breathe unevenly, "that my card is a material door, and the Southwind Goose drills a hole from outside and goes through the door, right?"
The Life Coach nodded.
"This bubble space also has only one connection point to the outside world, and this connection point is a visible and tangible material," Lin Sanjiu said, her heart racing faster. "The Special Item that Advaita used to create the bubble space-that's the material connection point! If I can somehow get the Southwind Goose into the bubble space, it should be able to drill a hole from inside and go out through the door, right?"