Chapter 863: Lin Sanjiu the Scavenger
...Where am I?
As the unfamiliar voice sounded, the dense mist within the orange petal began to gradually dissipate. The wind that came rushing in carried a salty smell, raw, refreshing, and light. Sunlight filtered through the thinning mist, causing Lin Sanjiu to squint her eyes involuntarily. When she opened her eyes again, she was confronted with a completely different world.
She had "transformed" into the owner of the memories, or rather, she felt like a soul that had entered someone else's body, looking out through the original owner's eyes. The moment she realized this, all the sensory perceptions of the memory's owner surged within her. She felt her "own" bare feet deeply sinking into the fine sand, with sand filling the gaps between her toes, ankles, and lower legs.
This body neither felt pain nor fatigue. The stomach had never lacked food, and the warmth of the sun heated her body. Regardless of where this was, it seemed that the owner of these memories had taken good care of herself.
Lin Sanjiu turned her head, but the surrounding scenery did not rotate with her gaze. She could only see what the memory's owner had seen at that time. Bohemia, who was supposed to be by her side, had long disappeared.
A pair of bony, broad-jointed male hands rose up from below, and a cigarette was lit with a crisp sound.
"Yes, I have been making marks all along..."
Another man's voice responded from Lin Sanjiu's left side, seemingly that of his friend. Since the memory's owner did not turn his head, she could only judge from the voice. The second man seemed to be filled with confusion at this moment, "Up until today, we have been in this world for 507 days."
...What?
Lin Sanjiu heard a sigh coming from "herself"—not a sigh of desolation or helplessness, but more of confusion and worry. "Did you discuss this with Mansa and Xiao Qianjun when you went to get food from them yesterday?"
These two individuals maintained contact with the other posthumans in the same world, and it appeared that everyone was trapped in this world.
"We did discuss it. How could we not? Just like us, all they think about every morning is this matter. We have to count the number of people every day. But so far, no one has been transported away." The man on the left pointed to "himself" and said, "Pass me a cigarette," and Lin Sanjiu immediately saw the hand from earlier passing over the cigarette pack. The pack of cigarettes looked clean and tidy, with the outer box in good condition, indicating that the person had experienced fewer hardships than others.
"This isn't a bad thing," the friend said while smoking, "We finally have a chance to settle down and live a good life, still in this world... If it were two years ago, I wouldn't even dare to imagine it. Maybe God has finally seen how miserable we've been and is giving us a second chance."
"...It's precisely because the situation is too good that I fucking fear it."
The owner of the memories discarded the remaining half of the cigarette, and Lin Sanjiu felt "herself" lifting her foot to stamp it out. "What exactly is the reason behind our lack of teleportation? How long can it continue? How can we maintain it? I truly think about these things every day. I can't sleep at night, fearing that when I wake up the next day, I'll be in another world."
The two remained silent for a moment. Another friend exhaled a long puff of smoke, drifting away from "himself" in the field of view. In the boundless expanse of the azure sea, seaweed and sand tinted the water's surface with layers of emerald-like deep blue and green. Under the sunlight, the colors appeared vivid and intensely captivating. Even though it was such a beautiful sight, Lin Sanjiu only realized now that the owner of the memories must have long been indifferent to this sea.
"I'm worried too, but what can we do?"
The friend smiled bitterly, and the owner of the memories turned his head. Finally, within the field of view, there appeared a man with thick eyebrows and a thick beard. His tall nose curved downward like a hook, but his eyes were round, reducing some of the gloominess. He took out a piece of paper and shook it, saying with a smile, "Let's be optimistic. Maybe the day of teleportation won't come. Look, this is my visa, it's already three months past the expiration date, and it still hasn't taken me to the next world."
The owner of the memories glanced at that visa for a moment, hastily catching a glimpse of the destination—[Colored Pond], a place Lin Sanjiu had never heard of.
"Indeed... I have a visa for the Netherworld, so logically, I should have been in the Netherworld by now." The owner of the memories spoke while sitting on the ground, and the field of view suddenly lowered. "It's all so unpredictable."
"After all, think about it. Teleportation itself is something that suddenly appears, so it's not strange for it to suddenly disappear."
The owner of the memories wasn't convinced—Lin Sanjiu could clearly sense his restless and uneasy state of mind.
"Then again, this world itself is different from the doomsday world." The friend with thick eyebrows also sat down and consoled, "I always feel like it's a case of entering the wrong door, inexplicably squeezing into the doomsday world, and now it's time to leave this lineup."
"I'll borrow your good words. I hope your words come true. Otherwise, even if I evolve into a superhuman, I won't be able to live a peaceful life for a day, and there won't be anyone around me to stay with... I'd still rather live well in a stable world."
"I want to find a wife," the friend laughed and said, "I'm afraid that guy needs to be teleported away before a woman would be willing to be with me! But if someone gets teleported away, it means we don't have a second chance to live well... Ah, it's really contradictory."
The owner of the memories also laughed at his jokes. The two of them sighed for a while and started chatting about other trivial matters. Suddenly, the scene in front of them went dark, and the scene was abruptly cut off. When Lin Sanjiu blinked, she found herself "back" inside the orange segment.
Bohemia was standing beside her, her delicately contoured face filled with astonishment.
They glanced at each other, momentarily forgetting their bickering.
"Let's talk outside," Bohemia said, feeling uncomfortable within the confines of the orange segment. Lin Sanjiu squeezed past her and climbed out of the orange. When they looked back after jumping down, the message "Warning, warning, please watch" was still on the orange peel—it had been seen countless times, and perhaps it would continue to be seen in the future.
The rule of teleportation for fourteen months had malfunctioned in one place—this was the message that the orange believed the posthumans must know.
If it was true, it was indeed astonishing... but what kind of meaning did it contain?
As they aimlessly walked in the orange grove for a while, Lin Sanjiu suddenly asked, "Is it possible that the memory was fabricated by someone?"
"Don't you believe it?" Bohemia had become much quieter since coming out of the orange. She asked in a soft voice, which was rather unsettling.
"It's not that... I need to eliminate all possible scenarios first."
"You sound so intelligent and rational." Bohemia's gentleness couldn't last for more than two seconds before it cracked. She scoffed, "It's unlikely to be fake. If it was a fabricated memory, the person involved would be well aware that it's fake, so the orange wouldn't have accepted it from the beginning. Even if we assume, for argument's sake, that the orange accepted it as a 'memory of fabricated memories,' then we should be able to sense that."
"But you forgot that there's another possibility," Lin Sanjiu said, but as soon as she said half a sentence, she looked back and indeed saw Bohemia's mouth downturned—she seemed particularly intolerant of being pointed out for her negligence. "If the person involved wholeheartedly believes that this memory is real, then what you just said wouldn't hold true, right? After all, the orange can't know whether the teleportation rules in a certain world have truly malfunctioned or not."
Bohemia was becoming as irritable as a cat being constantly disturbed; she wiped her sleeve in annoyance and muttered, "Who would be so bored as to do such a thing? What benefits are there? You must have evil intentions!"
It was impossible to have a proper conversation with her.
"Listen to me," Lin Sanjiu patiently said, softening his tone. "The owner of this memory was definitely eventually teleported, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to put the memory into the orange. So there are two possibilities: either this thing is true, and he thought it was significant enough to put the memory in here, or the entire thing is a scam... although I don't know the reason behind such a scheme."
Bohemia, on the other hand, hadn't forgotten her main task. She pulled Lin Sanjiu towards another orange, looking at it while asking, "So what?"
From her appearance, it seemed as though she was afraid that Lin Sanjiu would run away.
"It's not great," Lin Sanjiu sighed. "I just want to understand why the teleportation rules malfunctioned."
Another orange disappointed Bohemia. She seemed to be gradually losing even the energy to be angry, her face drooping as she said, "Are you thinking of settling down?"
"Of course. Don't you want to?" Lin Sanjiu asked.
"I don't," Bohemia took out a pair of large earrings from her waist and put them on. "If I settle down, trouble will find me for sure. Since you caused me trouble, I haven't stayed in one place for more than two days... I don't have many friends like you. I only have myself. It's not interesting to settle down and have to deal with enemies."
She had initially appeared to rob Lin Sanjiu of her Growth Potential Value - that was something Lin Sanjiu remembered quite clearly. So when she sensed a sudden tenderness in her heart, she immediately resisted and changed the topic, "You caused it yourself. Who asked you to provoke me first?"
"I'm stronger than you. It's only natural for me to rob your Growth Potential Value!"
"You're absolutely right. I'm stronger than you, and it's only natural for me to rob your Growth Potential Value."
Bohemia's face flushed red in an instant. She stood still for a few seconds before realizing it and caught up with Lin Sanjiu in big strides, saying, "It's different!"
"How is it different?"
"It just is! I... I've always had to rely on myself. I can't survive without being ruthless," she said confidently, "But you clearly didn't live like that. So you can't rob me."
Her logic was really as shitty as dog poop... but at this moment, Lin Sanjiu didn't feel like retorting.
She looked at Bohemia, torn and conflicted in her heart, unable to make a decision. She remained silent for a long while.
"Why are you staring at me without saying anything?"
"...I'm wondering if I will regret it."
"What do you regret?" Bohemia cautiously crossed her arms, her two golden round earrings swaying and radiating a golden glow in the shade of the trees. "What are you up to?"
After several minutes of consideration, Lin Sanjiu finally gritted her teeth and spoke before she could change her mind.
"I'll take you to a place. It's safe and comfortable there. If you're willing to stay, then stay... but if you don't follow my rules, the consequences won't be as simple as having your Growth Potential Value robbed—because that place is my home."