Chapter 984: No One Should Expect to Survive
"You know the answer," it wasn't a question but a statement filled with certainty. The middle-aged gentleman stared intently at Lin Sanjiu and slowly reached into his pocket. "What is it?"
Lin Sanjiu glanced at the blue swan boat, already halfway submerged in the distance, then turned her gaze back with a cold expression.
"No need to be so guarded," she glanced at his pocket, "After Zao Peng's death, there are only four of us left here. According to the conditions set by the pocket dimension, we can all survive."
Philibert's hand froze, a mix of surprise and suspicion crossing his face.
"You... you're willing to tell us? Tell your enemies?" He seemed unable to comprehend this point and quickly came up with a new possibility. "I understand, we have no way to verify if you're telling the truth. You can say anything."
"I'm different from you."
Lin Sanjiu snorted lightly, "You've been plotting to attack me once we're out of the pocket dimension, thinking I took it seriously as well? I don't care what happens to you once we're out of the pocket dimension because no matter how many of you come, I can still beat you back."
The middle-aged gentleman seemed at a loss for words for a moment. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth as if he had just swallowed something hard and asked, "So... what does a sturdy boat look like?"
"First, let them gather all the boats together," Lin Sanjiu gestured towards the two of them in the distance, "It'll be easier for us to search one by one."
"Search... for what?" Philibert asked, wearing the same look of confusion when she repeated the phrase after Natasha and the round-faced man had gathered closer.
"Trash or stains."
This answer clearly caught Philibert off guard. As Natasha and the round-faced man approached, they all had the same puzzled expression.
"What trash are we looking for?" Natasha asked while looking down at her feet.
"When I was moving between the boats, I noticed that these rowboats can be roughly divided into two types." Lin Sanjiu climbed into a new boat and turned back to give the one she just left a kick. It started rocking and wobbling unsteadily. "... No, it's not about the condition of the boat, it's about cleanliness."
The other three just stared at her blankly. The occasional screams from Zao Peng, floating over the lake, sounded sporadic and fragmented, more like the sound of a cold winter wind passing through cracks, less like a human.
"The loudspeaker said the distinguishing method is simple, and after guessing the answer, I found it really is simple." Lin Sanjiu was now back on the yellow duck boat she had been on before, and she bent down to pick up a plastic cup from under the seat. She held it up to them. "Take a look."
It was a thin and soft plastic cup, resembling a milk tea cup, with a straw inserted in the lid, with half of it protruding outside.
"The rowboats don't have doors, and to facilitate visitors' entry and exit, there's only the seat and the foot pedal inside, with hardly any place to catch trash." Lin Sanjiu gestured around them. "We all thought of one thing before: if something is missing from the boat, it means it might have sunk to the bottom. But we didn't consider it from the opposite direction—what if something extra is on the boat, which could indicate it hasn't sunk to the bottom?"
"Trash...?" the round-faced man muttered.
"Yes. Besides this cup, I've also seen plastic bottles, tissues, and other trash on other boats, although I don't remember which ones exactly," Lin Sanjiu said, casually tossing the cup into the water. All their gazes were drawn to it—a transparent plastic cup floated on the surface of the lake, swaying with the water's ripples, showing no signs of sinking for quite a while.
"When I realized this, I also considered another possibility." Lin Sanjiu stared at the plastic cup. "The bottom of the lake is filled with trash and corpses. Is it possible that when the pocket dimension salvaged the sunken boats, the lake's trash got caught inside the boats?"
"Tissues," Natasha suddenly looked up, "Where did you see tissues on a boat? Tissues can't float in from the bottom of the lake—they would disintegrate in the water."
"This plastic cup can't be from the bottom of the lake either," the round-faced man stared at the cup on the water's surface with an intense gaze. "It's lighter than water, and the only possibility for it to sink is if water has seeped into the cup. But there's nothing inside this plastic cup..."
"Keep searching," Lin Sanjiu waved to them, "We can't rule out the possibility of the water drying up. But now we know we should look for boats with 'extra things'—whether it's trash or sticky juice stains that still look like they haven't been soaked in water. Those are our targets!"
"There aren't many boats left that haven't sunk," the middle-aged gentleman summed up, "It shouldn't take more than ten minutes for us to start heading back."
"What if we find more than four boats?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.
That possibility was quite likely, considering some trash might have indeed floated into the boats from the bottom of the lake, and it would be difficult to determine if items like plastic bags had been submerged. Lin Sanjiu surveyed the group and emphasized, "Then we'll line up all the boats together and tow them forward. Since only one person can sit on each boat, if someone's boat starts sinking, the other three have to cooperate to switch to the next boat."
The three individuals, who were originally part of the same group, had a momentary pause in their expressions upon hearing these words.
"Remember, from now on, we must cooperate fully and help each other. Otherwise, anyone could be the next Zao Peng," Lin Sanjiu paused and raised her voice, "Do you understand?"
Even though they belonged to the same organization within the Twelve Worlds, they still lived in a constant state of fear and scarcity. The more scarce resources became, the more people felt that "I can only survive if everyone else is dead." This notion was deeply ingrained in the posthumans, sometimes causing them to turn a blind eye and making it difficult to accept that humans were a species that needed cooperation to survive.
Although the group nodded in agreement, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy as she stepped into another boat. Natasha followed closely behind her and hadn't given up on her question, "Um, you mentioned seeing tissues—"
Before she could finish her sentence, a sharp sound cut her off. Lin Sanjiu had just turned her head when her vision was engulfed by a bright white flash—accompanied by a thunderous boom and a shower of water droplets raining down on them—a broken rowboat soared high into the air.
In an instant, they were drenched once again, stunned as they turned their heads.
Zao Peng stood on the sunken blue swan boat, the water having just reached her waist. On her shoulder was a pure black cylindrical device that Lin Sanjiu didn't recognize, but she knew she wouldn't like the answer.
"You bastards, if I can't survive, neither will any of you!" she shouted hoarsely.