Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 14: Cloudwalk Heights [Complete]

1774: Room Without Light

"Stay away from me!" A woman's voice suddenly turned shrill, ripping through the darkness with a scream of anger. "Get away from me, all of you!"

Who was that? The voice was so distorted by fear that Lin Sanjiu couldn't immediately recognize it.

"What's going on?" Hina's unmistakable booming voice rang out, full of confusion. "What happened?"

"It's just the dark, isn't it?" Wen Ya's voice chimed in, clearly irritated. "Stop yelling. Are you seriously scared of the dark at your age?"

"I'm not joking!" The woman's voice sliced through the air again, sharper than before. Her words stumbled over her tongue, saliva, and panic. "I picked [Flying Blades] as my evolved ability. If any of you come near me now, I can't guarantee what will happen to you!"

Lin Sanjiu recognized her this time. It was Guan Nan, the frail and muddled woman who had always been quiet and unassuming.

"Are you crazy?" Rodent-Face, as expected, immediately snapped. "No one even knows how big this place is, and you're threatening to shoot off Flying Blades randomly?"

"Then stay away from me!" Guan Nan practically screamed, her voice tearing with desperation.

Perhaps everyone realized that her threat, in her current emotional state, could easily turn into reality. Amid hurried assurances of "Alright, alright, we'll back off," the sound of rustling robes and quick footsteps scuffing against the floor filled the darkness.

As they retreated, someone tried to calm Guan Nan down. Others asked her what was wrong, and one person, moving too hastily, bumped into something, letting out a yelp of pain. "I think there's a chair here."

"Who picked this stupid place? There's not even any light," Hina grumbled loudly.

Lin Sanjiu didn't move an inch. She kept her eyes tightly shut, trying to map her surroundings using Higher Consciousness Scanning. But with no light and her ability weakened to just 6% effectiveness, she had to painstakingly scan and rescan to faintly piece together the shape of a corner. Just then, Muya's voice called out from the front left corner. "I've reached the wall!"

"So have I," Ya Rong said nervously. Her voice came from the back right corner behind Lin Sanjiu.

Others, groping their way toward the walls, also began speaking up. With people retreating in all directions, their scattered voices and Lin Sanjiu's faint scans gave her the sense that they were in a large rectangular room. Even with twelve people inside, their voices echoed emptily against the ceiling.

"Yes, yes, everyone stay by the walls..." Guan Nan's voice sounded as though she hadn't moved at all, still rooted in the top right corner of the rectangle. Lin Sanjiu, meanwhile, was standing in the center.

"Guan Nan, what's wrong with you?" Rob asked gruffly.

Guan Nan's frantic breathing slowed slightly as she steadied herself. She seemed to realize that her reaction had been over the top.

"Don't p-play dumb!" she shouted, her trembling voice laced with accusation. Just as Lin Sanjiu thought she was addressing Rob, Guan Nan unexpectedly called out, "Jiang Tian! Didn't you say it yourself? You said that when everyone's together, it's best to pick people off one by one... that all you needed was the right opportunity. Wasn't that you?"

In the darkness, Jiang Tian stayed silent for a moment.

"I didn't mean it like that..." she finally muttered. "You misunderstood me. I was worried someone else might try to pick us off, not that I would do it myself."