Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 13: Sleepwalking in Dreamland

1595: Paper Crane

At least, she didn't deform.

Wu Yiliu stared at the slowly rising pile of ash near Professor Qiao's feet, lost in thought. "Yes, that's Manmiao." The old lady looked down, her eyes falling on the grass below. "I feel really sorry for it... I have to involve it to go with me."

The big bird twitched on its back for a few times, its long wings suddenly spread out, and there was a moment when Wu Yiliu thought Professor Qiao was wrong, and Manmiao was about to fly again. However, its wings fell once more, and only the grass debris was hit into mid-air.

"Let's go," Professor Qiao said, her voice gradually lowering. "I have no regrets."

From behind or beside her, there was nothing wrong with her. It was only when Wu Yiliu realized the situation and looked at her front that he found Professor Qiao was slowly turning to ash: from her collarbone and chest, she was like a hollow paper person burned with a hole, the red-hot opening gradually expanding, getting larger, revealing a dark void inside. Only paper ash fluttered down her body, some falling into the hole, some piling at her feet.

'Professor Qiao, I would have died long ago if I hadn't met you,' Wu Yiliu wanted to say. 'Professor Qiao, if Shoreis hadn't met you, he might never have lived.' But he couldn't say a word; he wanted to cover the burnt hole, he wanted to call for help from the distant posthuman, he wanted to turn and run, but in the end, he just stood there, like a piece of waste.

"Let's go." Qiao Yuansi turned her head and smiled at him. The light from the dark clouds blurred the wrinkles on her cheeks, and the wind messed up her hair. The red-hot break was almost spreading to her throat, and Wu Yiliu knew that if he didn't answer her now, they might lose the last chance to talk.

"I... I'll accompany you, Professor Qiao," he finally said. "That way you won't be alone."

She smiled softly. "I've never been alone."

Before leaving, Wu Yiliu dug a hole in the grass with the leg of a chair.

Manmiao was heavy when picked up, and its feathers looked even more lustrous up close, as if it had lived a carefree life in pampering and indulgence. If birds had expressions, then its sudden terror and confusion at the last moment left no trace.

He still wanted to evolve—of course, he hadn't changed his mind—but he looked in the direction where the mini-doomsdays were constantly blooming, watched the overlapping and chaotic collisions of several apocalyptic worlds for a while, and walked in the opposite direction.

It wasn't a decision made after careful analysis; he just felt a little tired.

Maybe rest for a night, and randomly choose a small doomsday to enter tomorrow. Everything is settled now; he doesn't need to hurry.

Whether it's the school dormitory or his parents' house, they feel like words from the last century, and he wouldn't be surprised if he found them already collapsed and shattered. To him, they are no longer real places, and there's no need to go back and look at them, to confirm they have weathered with time.

No matter where he goes next, it's all the same, he could even sit in a park all night.

The place where the mini-doomsday broke out was in the center of the pocket dimension; in his confusion, he still knew to walk towards the farthest exit. Along the way, his footsteps were soft as if walking on clouds, not like fleeing for his life, but more like taking a stroll. Strangely, although he walked so slowly, thinking he couldn't escape the small doomsday, he smoothly reached the exit.

The place where this world began to collapse was a bizarre kaleidoscope; the green door marked "Exit" in front of him was as ordinary as ever.

Wu Yiliu pushed open the door and stretched out his foot with the locator first. The fake pocket dimension's monitoring system had long been in disarray, and no one could receive its signal—it was sent into a world of constant change, floating aimlessly like him, not knowing where to fall.