Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 13: Sleepwalking in Dreamland

1620: Told You Not to Overreach

Unexpectedly, the answer was clearly written on a sign at the entrance of the Celestial Park.

"Operated by internal staff, the celestial system, with a 1:100 scale speed, follows the real celestial bodies' orbit and angle precisely..."

Lin Sanjiu read up to this point and, seeing that the two paragraphs below were about the celestial system and the park's setup, her eyes skipped past the crooked lines of text, searching for a further explanation of "internal operation."

For safety's sake, she couldn't wander around the park until the memory owner was found, so she still stood in place, two meters away from the boundary line. The paper full of scribbled handwriting she held was copied by the Artist from the park's entrance.

Copying unfamiliar writing was clearly not one of the Artist's uses, so the difficulty he experienced while writing could be seen on the paper. Even with the grand prize's translation tool, reading it gave Lin Sanjiu a headache.

"Ah, here it is!" she said, her eyes brightening. "It says here that all the planets are controlled by one system. The planetary system is also in charge of security monitoring, firefighting, and emergency systems... wow, it's so useful."

"Where do people operate this system? Inside the planet?" the Life Coach asked, leaning over.

Lin Sanjiu read the text again for a moment before saying, "Yes, the control room is in the largest orange planet, the biggest celestial body in the system. In any case, staff members can observe the entire park from inside it."

"By that logic, the memory owner is likely a staff member of the operating system," the Life Coach said, somewhat awed. "See, if you think about it, you can perceive the truth too."

Since the likelihood that the memory owner was in the sky was growing, Lin Sanjiu felt she could take some risks. Looking around, she decided not to clear mines and instead treated the park visitors' heads as floating islands. She jumped from one person's head to another's shoulder, moving closer to the orange planet by stepping on visitors' heads. It was good physical training for her. However, as she jumped forward, the human-shaped objects strolled leisurely on the ground, and anyone unaware of the situation might think she was being silly.

The celestial bodies floated high above the ground. From a distance, even the lowest one seemed dozens of meters away. According to the earlier introduction, different celestial bodies had different functions. Those orbiting stars usually housed surveillance cameras that constantly scanned the park. Smaller floating meteorites could be lowered to connect with ground water pipes and create rain showers in mid-air. All operations could be carried out from the control room within the orange planet, which was also the farthest from the ground.

If the memory owner was indeed in the orange planet, Lin Sanjiu could completely relax. No matter how casually she walked on the ground, she would not trigger a memory; the distance was too far.

"The question is, how do we get in?"

Underneath the orange planet, several human-shaped objects gazed upwards together; the Life Coach murmured the question as he looked at it.

Lin Sanjiu did have a small aircraft—it was the one she ordered at the new game launch, flown by Yu Yuan. However, if she operated the aircraft to go up herself, she couldn't help but worry that getting close to the orange planet would trigger the memory.

"You see, apart from me, you don't have a second choice," the Life Coach said, rubbing his hands together. "In these twenty-seven or twenty-eight years, I have never tried to pilot a flying vehicle. Ah, life is indeed filled with new experiences everywhere."

No piloting experience at all, could it really be trusted?

After a brief period of familiarizing himself with the controls, the triangular flying vehicle piloted by the Life Coach shakily ascended into mid-air. It looked as if it wasn't quite sure where to go next, hesitating — Lin Sanjiu was really afraid that he might wreck her flying vehicle. She watched anxiously, holding her breath until the vehicle finally trembled and stopped next to the orange star. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.

According to the plan, the Life Coach opened the door of the flying vehicle and carefully crawled onto the left wing. Amidst the back-and-forth gusts of wind, he swayed as if he might fall at any moment but managed to hold on. Stretching his neck, he looked up and down at the planet, which was as tall as a building, and yelled over the rumbling engine, "I see it! There's a door on the planet!"

He had to repeat the sentence several times before Lin Sanjiu understood.

Since they could see the door, that made things a lot easier. Next, the Life Coach unfastened a bag from his back, opening it towards the door. As long as the conditions were met, Lin Sanjiu could use the seed ability to make human forms emerge from any gap, opening, or corner. She willed it, and the fat old man's head popped out of the bag, perfectly colliding with the door on the surface of the star.

The group went quiet, all eight eyes fixed on the fat bookseller's head. His head pressed against the door, but nothing happened for a long time.

"Maybe the door is still far from the location of the memory owner..." Lin Sanjiu muttered. "You try turning to the other side!"

"I think this is more tiring than giving advice; there should be a charge for this." Despite the loud engine noise, the Life Coach still managed to communicate that thought.

Carefully circling the vehicle, Lin Sanjiu and others ran half a circle below, like performing aerial acrobatics. The Life Coach climbed out of the vehicle again—this time, he had new information: "There's a lookout window here, cleverly disguised as part of the starplanet's surface! It must be one-way glass; I can't see inside."

Lin Sanjiu quickly signaled him to open the bag.

The fat bookseller's head emerged from the bag once more. However, before he even hit the star's surface, his face and body suddenly flickered, like a TV screen during an electrical malfunction. Lin Sanjiu was startled, but before she could ask, "What's wrong?", he suddenly erupted in a burst of light, so intense that they couldn't see his features.

Had the two "switches" really come into contact and activated?

Caster screamed, pulling Lin Sanjiu's arm and pointing to the side—just a glance, and Lin Sanjiu was equally shocked.

The memory territory they had just left, the segment of Twelve Worlds Centrum Street where the fat bookseller's shop was located, had reappeared out of the distant fog. This was not a regular floating connection, for the memory territory rushed towards the Astronomical Park like a tsunami, breathtakingly fast, without any sign of slowing down.

Lin Sanjiu finally understood. "Is it going to crash in?"