Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1469: Yes, There Is

As Lin Sanjiu dashed into the corridor and hurriedly sprinted past several offices, she realized that she had overestimated the urgency of the situation.

From her perspective, she had managed to calmly and quietly retrieve the Life Coach under tension, and it was only logical to retreat from the crime scene with the Artist as her accomplice. But from Lily's viewpoint, all she saw was Lin Sanjiu standing at the doorway in a daze, lost in thought for several minutes before suddenly shouting out loud, then turning and running. Who wouldn't think, "Is she crazy?"

When Lin Sanjiu realized this, an angry shout from Lily echoed from behind, "Who's there? Who else is here?"

Lily seemed momentarily confused, perhaps thinking Lin Sanjiu had other posthumans with her. However, this bewilderment wouldn't last long. Lily would soon understand because, in another corridor separated by about two walls, the Artist was making as much noise as an entire band.

Running in the long, narrow, and dim corridors, the echoes from the Artist sounded like continuous waves, almost twice as loud as usual. Besides his footsteps, there was the clattering sound of his drawing board, the clinking of his easel, and the rustling of a bucket of brushes. The backpack on his back, filled with countless painting tools, swayed with each step, making it abundantly clear to anyone listening. "Come on, there's someone here."

Apparently, the young man had taken out all his tools earlier, probably thinking he had a chance to draw.

"Isn't that a client?" Lily's piercing question reached even Lin Sanjiu, who had already run far.

Ah, she was about to find out.

"Life Coach, should I..." Lily's voice trailed off, then after half a second of silence, she exclaimed, "Coach? Life Coach?"

Lily would soon realize, but she probably wouldn't come after Lin Sanjiu—chasing her would be pointless. It would be better to catch the other humanoid Special Item to minimize the loss. Lin Sanjiu hastened her pace and made a quick left turn ahead, wanting to quickly retrieve the Artist. Only by turning him into a card could she feel at ease.

However, even after she sped through two corridors, the Artist's performance still echoed on the maze-like floors. The reverberations made it hard to pinpoint his exact location. Lin Sanjiu stopped, listened, and shouted, "I'm here, come quickly!"

The clattering noise unique to the Artist suddenly halted, leaving only a gradually fading echo. Just when Lin Sanjiu was getting anxious, she heard the Artist's footsteps again. This time, they seemed to be approaching her, getting closer with each step.

Lin Sanjiu listened to the surrounding movements in the hallway and quickly moved toward the Artist. All her apprehension melted away into a layer of cold sweat on her back when she finally saw the pale-faced Artist.

"Hurry," she said, patting him on the shoulder. "Let's go back."

The Artist stood in front of her, unchanged from moments ago. Although he didn't need to breathe, his chest faithfully rose and fell.

Lin Sanjiu paused.

Everything seemed normal with [Planar World] and the card inventory, but for some reason, the Artist couldn't be turned into a card now.

The Life Coach had mentioned that they were becoming more adaptable, but surely they hadn't evolved to the point of becoming true humans.

"Artist? Can...can you speak?"

The Artist blinked at her, showing no signs of understanding.

"What's one plus one?"

The Artist hesitantly raised two fingers.

"Do you feel... more human now?"

There was no sign on the Artist's face that he understood the question. Lin Sanjiu didn't know what to do with him for a moment. She looked down the corridor behind him but didn't spot Lily. Perhaps Lily thought the chances of capturing the Artist were slim, or maybe she believed that humanoid Special Items were now less important than actual clients. Lin Sanjiu waited quietly for a while, but there was no sign of Lily approaching.

She couldn't linger in the corridor forever. Grasping the Artist's arm, she started to run back. When she finally spotted the door to her office from a distance, she checked the status of the Life Coach—and took an involuntary cold breath.

It was indeed a bit eerie.

This was the first time she had used Advaita's seed ability to absorb a humanoid. The previous instances, when she had sent Caster out, were straightforward. Once the seed ability was activated and she chose to release Caster from its card form, everything else was as instinctive as chewing food. However, absorbing someone from the outside was a different story—the Life Coach wasn't lying in the card inventory. Instead, he was trapped inside the seed ability as a backup seed.

Lin Sanjiu wanted to move him into the card inventory, but after several attempts, the two abilities refused to coexist harmoniously. The seed stubbornly enveloped the Life Coach. Perhaps she could get the Life Coach to come out first and convert him into a card. "Let's go in first."

Opening the door, the office appeared just as she had left it. The employees and clients still sat blankly in their cubicles, gazes vacant and fixed in mid-air. Considering she had been away for over ten minutes and there wasn't even a single guard in the office, it was a stroke of rare good luck that everything was still intact. Perhaps this suggests that Whit E. and Qian Dao were watching each other closely, leaving neither of them a chance to make a move?

"Come in," Lin Sanjiu instructed the Artist. As he stepped in, she closed the door behind him. However, before the door could latch shut, it was stopped by something unseen in the air.

Still holding the doorknob, Lin Sanjiu looked at the small gap between the door and the wall, her expression turning grave. She tried to shut it again.

Again, it was clear that something invisible was blocking the door from closing. She pursed her lips and slowly released the handle, letting the door open.

The Artist turned his head, his gaze shifting in confusion.

Lin Sanjiu glanced at him, stepped back a few paces, and began to feel around him, starting from his head, as if she were trying to understand something by touch alone. The Artist squirmed under her touch, looking as if he was being tickled. But when Lin Sanjiu's hands reached his right ankle, she stopped.

She had found it.

Without a doubt, it was a rope made by Higher Consciousness, now wrapped around the Artist's ankle. Given that the Artist couldn't speak and always had a blank expression, it would indeed be hard for anyone to notice an invisible leash on him. This meant Lily knew where her office was.

With growing unease, Lin Sanjiu sighed.

No wonder she couldn't turn the Artist into a card earlier. He wasn't becoming more human; it was simply because he was connected to another human via Higher Consciousness, forming a whole, which made him incompatible with the card inventory. In retrospect, her earlier hope seemed rather foolish.

That purple yam was quicker than she had anticipated, leading her home without her even realizing it. Thankfully, Lily only had twenty dollars left, so she didn't pose a major threat. But in the future, things could get tricky.

"Life Coach, come out."

Due to her dwindling Higher Consciousness, Lin Sanjiu couldn't deal with the rope made by Higher Consciousness for the time being. So, she partially opened the door, allowing the Life Coach to slowly squeeze out through the gap. Clearly, this was the first time he had entered a scene this way; he kept glancing back at the narrow opening while squeezing through. When he was finally all out, he greeted her with his usual enthusiasm, "Hello! If you view this day positively, it will respond to you in the same way."

Lin Sanjiu rubbed her temples.

"Well, it seems being captured and turned into a backup seed didn't affect the Life Coach. Maybe it's because he's a Special Item." She let out a sigh of relief, but her anger flared up. Pointing to the invisible Higher Consciousness rope, she said, "I was so close to making her go broke, but with your interference, now my base has been discovered."

The Life Coach sheepishly said, "I... I'm glad we can cooperate again."

Glancing at Lin Sanjiu, the Life Coach sighed. "I had no choice. After the transfer, she became my new owner. I have to serve her wholeheartedly and consider issues from her perspective. You should know that coming up with a plan that could help both her and me was already hard. If it's inconvenient for you, there's not much I can do."

Lin Sanjiu remained silent for a moment and then went over to give the Life Coach a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

He didn't say, "help her and you." This meant that the Life Coach subconsciously believed that returning to Lin Sanjiu's side fulfilled his own wishes. Even though he belonged to someone else, he had hoped to come back to her.

"Let's hire a Level 4 employee," Lin Sanjiu said, changing the topic. While Lily might be powerless to attack now, knowing that someone else was aware of her office location made her uneasy. She felt she needed a Level 4 defensive employee.

"After he comes out, you can look for clients nearby. Don't go too far," the Life Coach suggested.

"I thought there were many clients," Lin Sanjiu said, a bit concerned. "But when I went out earlier, I didn't see a single one."

She felt that aimlessly looking in the corridors wasn't the right approach.

The Life Coach made a thoughtful sound as if something struck him. Lin Sanjiu turned to look at him, and after a few hesitant moments, he finally said, "Considering I've leaked so much about you, I'll give you this piece of advice for free. Think about how you found that client, whether the conditions of that success can be referenced."

Nodding while contemplating, Lin Sanjiu shifted her thoughts from clients to something else. She slowly turned her gaze to the Life Coach.

The Life Coach responded with a, "Hmm?"

Lin Sanjiu realized something crucial. "You've told Lily so much about me. Regarding Gong Daoyi, is there anything you can tell me?"

The Life Coach cleared his throat. "Yes, there is."