Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1453: The Fallen Object and the Vanished Person

Only four minutes remained in the countdown as a money tree.

Lin Sanjiu rushed out of the mall, gripping tightly but feeling an emptiness in her palm as if she were holding nothing. If she hadn't seen a tiny, mole-like shimmer midway, she wouldn't have believed she had taken anything from Advaita.

Should she embed it in her body? What if it was Silvan's voice?

"Hey, over here!" the Life Coach called from a distance, waving his arms. "Come get me!"

With Advaita closing in, running in any direction felt futile. Lin Sanjiu glanced over her shoulder. Advaita realized she had lost something again and took about ten seconds to assess the damage. Seizing the opportunity, Lin Sanjiu quickly distanced herself and spotted Advaita emerging from the mall entrance.

"Come here," she called to the Life Coach and playfully slapped him on the shoulder. Despite the light touch, a tiny light point flew out from her palm—just like the one she had taken from Advaita. Lin Sanjiu was startled but swiftly reached out to catch it.

Who would have thought such a minor impact would cause her to drop something?

She recovered the tiny glow and immediately pressed it onto the hand that held the point from Advaita. What she had almost lost was [A Twinkle in the Sky]. Then, she noticed something odd.

The Life Coach remained standing there, not converted into a card.

'What's going on?'

Lin Sanjiu dashed past the Life Coach without slowing down. The humanoid Special Item grew anxious and chased after her, shouting, "Hey, where are you going? Take me with you!"

A chill ran down her spine.

Despite knowing Advaita was closing in, each step felt like trudging through deep ice, slowing her down until she stopped entirely. She turned around, and the Life Coach hurriedly moved aside, allowing Lin Sanjiu and Advaita—only a few steps apart—to face each other. Neither moved.

Lin Sanjiu swallowed hard.

She had returned. Not far away, Advaita's balloon-like Special Item that the Southwind Goose had burst lay motionless on the ground like ordinary trash.

"Give it back," Advaita said, expressionless.

Although she could hear Advaita and see her clearly, it felt as though seventeen or eighteen circuses were drumming in her ears, making her irritable and distracted. Her focus was completely off, and she couldn't concentrate on the formidable enemy before her.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't access her card inventory. In fact, it seemed that the inventory was completely gone. She couldn't turn the Life Coach into a card or locate her inventory as if she had never had the ability [Planar World] at all.

The likely cause was evident: during her fall after being dragged out by the Southwind Goose, the impact must have knocked [Planar World] out of her, who was subjected to being a money tree. In her dazed state at the time, she hadn't noticed the loss.

Advaita hadn't noticed her loss earlier, so [Planar World] might still be nearby on the ground. Lin Sanjiu needed to shake off Advaita within the remaining four minutes and retrieve [Planar World].

The task seemed nearly impossible.

"If you want this back, tell me what just happened. Don't move recklessly, or I'll assimilate it," Lin Sanjiu said, raising her clenched fist to briefly show Advaita before closing it, ready to embed it into her body at any moment. "Did Silvan just disappear? How did he vanish?"

Advaita raised an eyebrow. "You expect me to believe you don't know where Silvan went?"

That was exactly what Lin Sanjiu wanted Advaita to think—because it was the truth. If Advaita chose to spare her to search for Silvan, Lin Sanjiu might have a chance to retrieve [Planar World]. Moreover, she genuinely wanted to know how Silvan had disappeared.

"Don't you realize that with my abilities, I can strip you of whatever you have without affecting myself?" Advaita tilted her head. "No matter how many times you embed it, I can take it out every time."

"Feel free to try," Lin Sanjiu replied, her confidence growing as Advaita threatened but didn't act. She smiled and continued, "Though my combat prowess might not match yours or Silvan's, I have a unique trait."

Advaita looked uninterested.

"Puppeteer once praised me. I'm like a gummy bear—resilient and sticky. My agility may not be on your level, but it's enough to give you headaches. And if I'm not mistaken, your ability is more about area effects than physical combat, isn't it? There are less than four minutes left until the money tree time expires. Want to bet I can last that long?"

With that, she pressed her hand onto the back of her other hand.

Advaita raised an eyebrow and reacted immediately. She reached out as if grabbing a piece of air and flung it toward Lin Sanjiu's hand. Lin Sanjiu, anticipating the move, bent backward swiftly, letting the second slice of air Advaita threw pass over her face.

"You see," she said, flashing the light point in her palm, "I can keep up this dance for four minutes without breaking a sweat. Once the time is up, you'll never get this back. By the way, what is it?"

"You don't need to know," Advaita replied calmly.

"Oh."

They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. The Life Coach cleared his throat beside them, as if to cheer Lin Sanjiu on, but seeing Advaita's expression, he thought better of it. Finally, Advaita spoke up, "Do you truly have no idea where Silvan went? He was standing not far from me and had even agreed to exchange my roots to get you back."

Lin Sanjiu felt a surge of warmth in her heart and nearly sighed aloud.

"To do that, we were going to return to the mall and let him lose a game. So, we headed towards the mall..." Advaita frowned as she recalled the scene. "At that moment, I felt the [Parasitic Balloon] shaking, as if it was about to shatter. I quickly pulled it out and set up a barrier-like special object in front of me."

True to her nature, Advaita had thought to guard against Silvan in the blink of an eye, not giving him any opportunity.

"That barrier prevented others from seeing me, but I could see out, like one-way glass," Advaita continued in a whisper. "I glanced at the [Parasitic Balloon]. When I looked up again, Silvan was gone. The air didn't even stir; he had vanished completely. I was stunned for a moment, and then you fell out."

Despite some mental preparation, Lin Sanjiu shuddered.

"So, there were no disturbances, no signs at all?"

Advaita nodded.

"It was like..." Her frown deepened, and she struggled with her next words. "Like a timed shutdown program. When the time came, he just disappeared."