Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 14: Cloudwalk Heights

1669: What Friend?

For the next few minutes, everything that happened felt hazy to Lin Sanjiu.

Her thoughts were completely seized by the words "Hyperthermal Hell," and combined with the effects of the pocket dimension, her perception blurred. It was as though the scene before her—Ah Quan and everything else—was dissolving into flowing water, ready to be swept away. But when she steadied herself, Ah Quan was still standing there, solid and unmoving, and the ship's deck remained beneath her feet.

The only difference was that the sky above was now completely dominated by Exodus's massive hull.

Compared to the 26th transport ship, Exodus was a behemoth—so enormous it felt like an ancient leviathan conjured from imagination. When she looked up, her vision was filled entirely by its shadowy underside, pressing heavily down. There was not a single sliver of open sky, making it hard to breathe just looking at it.

A spaceship of such colossal size, pressing firmly above another smaller craft, generated a fierce airflow that was enough to leave the transport ship trembling violently. The deck beneath her feet quaked incessantly, as if the ship were torn between being drawn upward toward Exodus or breaking apart into fragments and scattering into the air.

Lin Sanjiu glanced around and noticed that the grand prize was nowhere to be seen. The passengers on the ship were panicking, hurriedly shuffling and pushing each other toward the bow and stern, as if trying to escape from Exodus—even though those areas were still covered by its looming shadow.

Even the pilot had bolted. Clearly, he had no intention of resisting, fleeing, or going down with the ship. With a speed that rivaled even posthumans, he disappeared into the crowd at the bow within moments.

Perhaps his decision was influenced by the sight of the massive ship above, where a hatch was slowly opening—directly aligned with the center of the transport ship.

"What's going on?" Lin Sanjiu muttered.

"So that's how it is," Ah Quan replied, unsteady on his feet yet smiling as if he couldn't help it. "Even I didn't realize this, but Ji Shanqing figured it out. When the memory manipulation process begins within the pocket dimension, the controller of the pocket dimension can no longer retract it!"

Lin Sanjiu's eyes widened in realization. The strange scene suddenly made sense. "So, he tried to retract the pocket dimension just now and failed?"

As she spoke, she craned her neck to look at the short man.

He was still hiding behind Ah Quan, his face and features blurred, likely an effect of the pocket dimension on her perception. Yet, even through his movements, Lin Sanjiu could sense his anxiety and struggle. Exodus was already hovering above, its hatch open and clearly targeting him. Who knew what would happen next? But with the pocket dimension unable to retract, he was effectively pinned in place. Unless he abandoned the pocket dimension, even escaping the ship wouldn't help him.

"Exactly," Ah Quan said, his face lighting up with hope—perhaps for the first time in the ten years since he had been turned into a pocket dimension. "This has never happened before. The last time, as soon as I appeared, I was retracted before I could even lock onto my target. I never imagined that once the pocket dimension's process begins, it can't be retracted... why is that?"

Lin Sanjiu already had an answer to that question.

It was similar to many space-related, containment, or binding items. Once a living being was contained, the item could no longer return to its original state. For example, her [Planar World] could not convert a card containing a living being back into its card form. It was likely based on the same principle.

"Releasing me to deal with you was actually a smart move," Ah Quan said after listening to her brief explanation. He sighed with a hint of admiration. "But he never anticipated that I'm not just a pocket dimension—I'm also a person. And he didn't expect that you're not after the pocket dimension for its value; you're trying to save me. If he had known we had a prior connection, he would never have released me."

After all, who would have imagined that the pocket dimension they'd been carrying around in their pocket had somehow been infiltrated by a group of people, who had even become friends with the pocket dimension's NPC? Saying it out loud sounded like utter nonsense.

"So... where's the grand prize?" Lin Sanjiu still felt as if she were dreaming. Even the sensation of her hair whipping against her face from the airflow felt dulled, as though wrapped in a layer of soft cotton. "Why is Exodus here... and what's it planning to do?"

She didn't expect her question to be answered by the short man.

It seemed he could no longer hold back and finally made his move—the situation couldn't have been clearer. The snow-white ship above was about to act. If he didn't leave now, both he and the pocket dimension would fall into the hands of Exodus's owner. Since Lin Sanjiu had made it explicit that she was after Ah Quan's pocket dimension, his only chance was to discard it, like a lizard dropping its tail, and make his escape.

The short man grabbed something and smashed it against the floor. As if propelled by an invisible force, he sprang into the air. The Higher Consciousness walls surrounding him and Lin Sanjiu left him only one direction to flee—upward.

But Lin Sanjiu hadn't anticipated that even after launching himself into the air, the short man didn't change direction. Instead, he headed straight for the open hatch of Exodus above. Almost simultaneously, Ji Shanqing's head appeared from the ship's opening. When his eyes caught sight of the short man hurtling toward him, Lin Sanjiu clearly imprinted the moment of shock on her mind: his eyes widened in terror.

"Grand prize!" she shouted, her entire body turning cold.

"I have to act now," Ah Quan said hurriedly at this critical moment. "You must be freed immediately. You can't stay trapped any longer..."

What happened next caused Lin Sanjiu to completely lose her sense of time.

It was as though time had ceased to flow linearly. Every moment of her life seemed to coexist and unfold simultaneously. The dances she performed at preschool at four or five years old, the crisp laughter of Bohemia by her side, the fires of war she endured in Peanut Town—all existed shoulder-to-shoulder in a single moment.

Her entire life encircled her, swirling in a vortex, without beginning or end.

When Lin Sanjiu finally snapped back to consciousness, drenched in sweat, Ah Quan was no longer in front of her.

She knew he had tampered with her memories, though she didn't yet know what exactly he had done. Before her, on the ship's deck where Ah Quan had been standing, was now a small cube, seemingly filled with swirling mist.

Lin Sanjiu rushed forward and scooped it into her hands. At that moment, a furious shout echoed from above, coming from Exodus.

"Give it back to me!"

Lin Sanjiu looked up to see the short man, now inside Exodus, leaning out from the edge of the hatch. His face, flushed with anger and urgency, was contorted as he screamed over the noise of the wind and the ship's engines.

"If you want your friend to stay alive, hand it over!" he roared.

Lin Sanjiu stared at him, her brow slightly furrowing.

"What friend?" she asked coldly.