Garden of Eden || Apocalypse Paradise #2 [Complete]

145: What Are You Planning?

While they chatted, both women were already more than halfway to the top of the tower. If Lin Sanjiu looked down from where she stood, she could only see a murky darkness below her. The silver light from her [Ability Polishing Agent] could only reach the staircase segment one story beneath the handrails, and darkness swallowed anything beyond that. Being close to 200 meters above the ground, Lin Sanjiu felt her palms getting sweaty when she looked downward, even though she couldn't see anything. She quickly looked away and wondered why she never realized in the past that she was a little acrophobic.

She looked at the silhouette before her and then at the stairs leading upward. The top floor was about ten stories above them, and they would reach it soon.

"Ah..." Li Tao—or rather, the woman who called herself Li Tao—suddenly raised her head and sighed. She stroked her hair and said, "Really." She turned to her side under the dimly lit space, showing her slim side silhouette.

"Is this what you call a 'beast-like instinct'?" she cocked her head asking. Lin Sanjiu could not see her expression in the darkness; she could only see the woman's black, shiny eyes. "How could you see through my performance if you can't even understand that pocket dimension?"

"Who are you?" Lin Sanjiu said icily with a monotonous tone.

Li Tao smiled unexpectedly and ignored both Lin Sanjiu's questions and animosity. Li Tao continued up the staircase, minding her business one step at a time. She seemed unconcerned that Lin Sanjiu might just spring a surprise attack from behind. She stopped when she reached the next turning point on the spiral staircase. She lowered her head and looked down at Lin Sanjiu. Her previous lively, lighthearted persona, akin to a small animal, faded gradually from her face, just like melted snow. The aura of a calm and mature woman replaced it.

"Say, how did I expose my identity?" she asked gently, enunciating each word.

Lin Sanjiu knew that if she wanted to reach the top of the tower, she had no choice but to go through 'Li Tao.' She took a deep breath and continued climbing the stairs.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" While she noticed 'Li Tao's' slightly surprised expression, Lin Sanjiu tightened her muscles and forced a relaxed smile, "If you also want to head to the top of the tower, why don't you come along? Let's talk along the way."

'Li Tao' was stunned for a moment and finally uttered softly, "Ballsy."

Lin Sanjiu smiled faintly, but she walked cautiously close to the wall. When she saw Li Tao slowly climbing up the stairs again, she said slowly, "If it weren't for my diary card, I wouldn't be suspicious of you."

"Oh? You mean the card you told me to stick on Gong Daoyi?"

"Yes." Lin Sanjiu replied as she narrowed her eyes and looked at the woman nearby, who was still ahead of her. The woman seemed relaxed and unguarded, and Lin Sanjiu couldn't understand why. "One of the features of my Diary Card is that it will address the people I know by their names. Yet, though I know you, the Diary Card just referred to you as a 'super-cute girl.'

If it was once or twice, I would have accepted that it was due to the crappy personality of the card. However, when bathing, I already had a very slight suspicion because my Diary Card did not refer to you as 'Li Tao' even once."

"But seriously, your card is a little..."

"Unreliable, right?" Lin Sanjiu finished her sentence, "Since I've never seen it do that, I really couldn't be sure. But when you said, 'If I entered that pocket dimension,' I suddenly realized there was a problem... Why weren't you sucked into the pocket dimension when you entered the black tower?" Lin Sanjiu asked while she stared at Li Tao's back. Anyone else would think that the next person who entered the tower would not face the same problem once they broke out of the pocket dimension. However, Lin Sanjiu remembered a small detail. She remembered the words "No. 72 Pocket Dimension Quest". That is to say, every person who entered that pocket dimension should confront a different situation. Even if the fairytale scenario had been solved, the pocket dimension still existed, and Li Tao should have been sucked into a different scenario. But that didn't happen. From the time she walked through the door till now, nothing had happened to her. That would only mean that Li Tao had escaped that pocket dimension once.