Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 13: Sleepwalking in Dreamland

1582: Worker Ant Wu Yiliu

"There's an extra box of cream pies today. You don't want them, do you?" the middle-aged man said, already putting the cream pies into a plastic bag. "I'll take them home then."

For ordinary people who had surrendered willingly, an NPC was nothing more than a special kind of job. To placate and make use of ordinary people, the Changelings were even willing to pay them a modest wage. Wu Yiliu, of course, didn't get this treatment. After twelve hours of work, he could only return to his cell in the fake pocket dimension.

Yes, there was a prison in the fake pocket dimension.

After saying goodbye to the replacement NPCs, Wu Yiliu left the candy house with the middle-aged man. At the end of the employee passageway, there was a small room connected to a guard booth. They needed to remove their receivers, cameras, NPC uniforms, and hand them in for safekeeping, to wear them again the next day. The two men couldn't take off their ankle trackers, but the middle-aged man could ask the staff to switch modes for him before leaving work.

While changing clothes, Wu Yiliu sighed heavily and whispered to the middle-aged man with a sagging belly, "Today, while I was out delivering things, I overheard the posthumans talking about something."

"What was it?" The man turned his head before he had even put his clothes on. After working together for nearly a month, although he still disliked talking to Wu Yiliu, he had inevitably become more familiar with him.

"It seems... it seems they already have a plan to turn this place into a real pocket dimension."

What he had heard was only fragments, insufficient information, hard to determine that this was the posthumans' plan. Those few words could have other explanations—but Wu Yiliu needed the middle-aged man to think so. He was very firm in his tone and added some embellishments to the few words he repeated.

"Turn into a real pocket dimension... what would that look like? Can they really..." The middle-aged man pondered for a moment as he put on his clothes. "But that has nothing to do with us, right?"

Was he unfamiliar with the concept of a pocket dimension, or had he not reacted?

"How can it have nothing to do with us?" Wu Yiliu looked at the door and leaned closer to him to speak in lowered voice. "Have you forgotten? Real pocket dimensions come with real NPCs."

The middle-aged man paused, his face suddenly turning pale. "So, we—"

"We'll be useless," Wu Yiliu said. "Do I need to spell out what will happen to us then?"

Even though they had surrendered willingly, it seemed that these ordinary people still had a tiny bit of persistence, holding back their inclination towards the Changelings, preserving their current mindset—they were all unwilling to transform.

For example, this middle-aged man's dislike for Wu Yiliu was not because of Wu Yiliu himself but because he didn't like who he had become. More precisely, he didn't like that he had surrendered to the Changelings.

"What should we do then?" the middle-aged man said, seeming a bit lost. "Is there really no escape?"

"You should have contacts with other NPCs, right?" Wu Yiliu whispered. "Ask them, see if anyone knows what's really going on. I only heard those few words; it's best to gather more information."

He meant the other ordinary people who had surrendered, who had slightly more freedom and were more able to gather information, something the middle-aged man understood. "When I go back, I'll ask others too."

"Okay," the middle-aged man said, picking up the plastic bag and heading towards the door marked 'Exit.' "We'll talk tomorrow."

Wu Yiliu watched him push the door and leave, standing still. He always waited for the moment the middle-aged man pushed the door, a habit he had developed recently. When the door was pushed open, the outside world existed for a brief moment, like a gentle reminder, disappearing as the door closed again.