Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 12: New Game Launch [Complete]

1386: Taxation is Worse Than a Tiger

When Lin Sanjiu slowly opened her eyes, she saw a person right in her face, staring at her without blinking.

That person's face had many white, shining eyeballs, each with a speck of black. They seemed to rise and fall with her breath.

She was shocked at first, but then she realized that they couldn't possibly belong to one person. Before the surprise could spread across her face, she quickly suppressed her expression, stopping just short of gasping.

She had actually fallen asleep by accident.

Lin Sanjiu slowly stood up, trying her best to keep her face expressionless. She watched as the elephant's trunk swept back and forth a few times before finally backing away. She had always thought that elephants had a gentle and stable appearance, but now, looking at the huge grey face full of human eyes, she felt her stomach contracting.

Looking around, she found the grand prize leaning next to her, also asleep due to fatigue. Not far behind the elephant, a few others were also awake, now looking at her with tired faces. They had watched the elephant getting so close to her, unable to say anything. Fortunately, after several hours, they found a rule: as long as they didn't acknowledge the elephant's existence, the elephant wouldn't harm them.

She glanced at the time. Only four hours had passed since they started farming and searching. However, no one had expected that, after the game started, they would be so tired. The farmers had felt the heavy burden of tilling the fields by hand, while those searching for the exit felt like they had been on a long journey, consuming a large amount of physical strength. Even Han Suiping, who had been lying down and resting, seemed to have suffered from the physical depletion brought about by the passage of time. Under the endless severe pain in his chest, he finally fell asleep.

The three people sent to search were resting at the other end of the room. Louisa was leaning against a cement trough, nodding as if she was about to fall asleep. Silvan was sitting under a wall, slightly panting. A few strands of golden hair hanging from his forehead were darkened by sweat. He and the other two had walked the same distance, yet their exhaustion seemed to be the same. It appeared that the room wouldn't go easy on him despite his superior combat power.

"No exit?" Lin Sanjiu asked, though she knew they wouldn't be so lucky. The evidence of their search was all around them. A third of the floor and a wall marked with white scratches from their desperate attempts to find a way out.

Silvan, too exhausted to engage in much conversation, shook his head. After a moment's pause, he managed to say hoarsely, "As long as I'm here, we'll get out."

Lin Sanjiu sighed and nodded. She turned around and called out to the grand prize, but Ji Shanqing remained fast asleep. She didn't have the heart to call out again; she wished she could let him sleep a bit longer since he wasn't used to such exertion. But if a farmer didn't work, the fields would have no production.

Lin Sanjiu decided it was time to rouse the other two farmers. "Horst, Nu Yue, wake up. It's time to work."

Even though it was already 1 PM, the actual farming time was less than four hours, so each person had only received three food balls. After paying an unknown amount of taxes, they couldn't even ensure their basic survival for the next day, so there really was no luxury to continue dozing.

When Lin Sanjiu finally coaxed the grand prize awake with soft and gentle words, he rubbed his eyes and picked up his small hoe again. Everyone had just taken a break and wasted quite a bit of time. After a few words of conversation, they all returned to their own tasks.

Around two in the afternoon, the grand prize's farming tools were the first to break.

Louisa avoided the elephant, moving halfway across the room; her face was pale from exhaustion. It seemed impossible for her to go back and continue searching within the day. Despite her fatigue, however, her expression was not heavy when she took over the farming tools, but rather, a bit cheerful. While repairing the tools with what looked like a toy, she said, "You haven't paid taxes yet, so you can't pay me, right?"