Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1660: Connection Point

"Actually, I can only understand basic lip-reading," Lin Sanjiu admitted, scratching her head as she faced Ah Quan's eager expression. "Thankfully, we only used lip-reading for the initial cues. For more complex communication, we had a better method."

She didn't elaborate on Ji Shanqing's and the others' interpretation abilities—it would have taken too long to explain.

"Even though you can see and hear us, you still only have one pair of eyes," Lin Sanjiu continued with a smile. "It was when you showed me the inside of the magazine that I thought of this strategy. If we spread out, you can only watch one person at a time. To see someone else, you have to switch your viewpoint."

Ah Quan nodded, looking as if he was about to say "but," but Lin Sanjiu didn't give him the chance. "That's why we came up with a plan to mislead your line of sight."

"Mislead?" Ah Quan frowned.

"Of the three of us, who do you distrust the most?" Lin Sanjiu tilted her head and pointed at Ji Shanqing. "It's him, right?"

The grand prize glanced upward, appearing mildly offended, though not enough to react further.

"I don't understand why you have feelings but completely lack empathy for the memory's owner," Lin Sanjiu said, her tone hinting at an upcoming serious talk. "But your suspicion and dislike made him the perfect distraction."

"When did this misdirection start?" Ah Quan hesitated.

"It began when they went to look for a new memoir," Lin Sanjiu recalled. "At that time, Ji Shanqing suggested you might have brought the new memoirs and asked me to wait while they went to search for them. You followed both of them with your gaze, didn't you?"

Ah Quan nodded vigorously. "Of course! You were just standing there; there was nothing to watch."

Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but smile. "Before they left, they had already given me the two critical props for this plan."

"What were they?"

"My entire strategy relied on two key items they provided," Lin Sanjiu explained. "Since you're from the Twelve Worlds Centrum, you must know about [masks], right? Well, I happened to have three humanoid figures and three [masks] resembling our faces."

Ah Quan's eyes widened in realization. "So after I started following them, you put the [masks] on the humanoid figures?"

"Exactly. If you had glanced back at me, you'd have seen an extra 'us' standing beside me. I was worried you'd notice, so I had to act quickly."

At that moment, the three humanoid figures were suddenly brought out for some fresh air, all quite pleased. The Life Coach, without even looking around, eagerly asked her what was happening. Lin Sanjiu acted swiftly, slapping [masks] on the Life Coach and Caster, silencing them before they could speak—luckily, the Artist couldn't talk, so he was spared.

When Lin Sanjiu masked the humanoid figures, she found that the Life Coach had taken on her appearance, Caster had become Ji Shanqing, and the Artist had turned into Yu Yuan. Upon reflection, the choices seemed quite fitting.

Patting her chest, she said, "Next, I quickly put on the second key item, the [Chameleon Suit], a Special Item I came across in the Salvation of God. I was familiar with how it worked; it could camouflage people seamlessly into their surroundings. Once I vanished into the environment, I briefly explained the plan to them."

Thanks to Ah Quan's habit of speaking loudly and narrating everything to himself, Lin Sanjiu, who was later hiding in the urban memoirs, managed to track the movements of the three humanoid figures. Thankfully, they kept their [masks] on as she instructed, and they seemed to be enjoying their time at the resort.

Ah Quan's face twisted with confusion. "Those three were really humanoid items? But they moved so naturally, like actual people..." He shook his head. "What happened next?"

"Then Ji Shanqing came halfway back to tell me that a new memoir had indeed been transferred. This was to make sure your eyes stayed on him. At that moment, the person who met him wasn't me—it was one of my humanoid items, the Life Coach," Lin Sanjiu admitted with a sheepish smile. "In fact, I had already retrieved the other two masked humanoid figures and quietly went to find Yu Yuan."

"I'm an actor too," Ji Shanqing chimed in, maintaining a straight face.

Ah Quan, absorbed in the story, urged her on. "What happened after that?"

"By then, you were probably concerned about Yu Yuan's whereabouts. When Ji Shanqing and I headed toward the new memoir, your eyes must have shifted back to Yu Yuan."

Ah Quan nodded after a moment of thought. "Yes, at that point, you two were already near the edge of the new memoir. There was no need to keep watching, so I naturally checked on Yu Yuan to see if he was lost."

Yu Yuan looked as though he wanted to say something, but then decided against it.

"Exactly. Once I approached him, I didn't release the fake Yu Yuan, worried that you'd catch on," Lin Sanjiu explained, glancing at Ji Shanqing with a smile. "He's a clever one. I only asked him to keep your focus on him, and he took care of everything. Didn't he use some flashy trick when he went back to find Yu Yuan, leaving the fake Lin Sanjiu by the new memoir?"

"Ah!" Ah Quan slapped his thigh. "That flashlight—it could transmit sound and create symbols!"

"Yes," Lin Sanjiu nodded. "He first called out for Yu Yuan a few times, not to alert Yu Yuan but to catch your attention. Then, on the way, he pulled out that flashlight. It's an unusual gadget; anyone would take a second look. While your attention was drawn to it, I had already swapped out the real Yu Yuan with the humanoid figure disguised as the Artist."

To avoid raising suspicion, Yu Yuan also shouted back loudly while putting on the second [Chameleon Cloak]. It was Yu Yuan's voice calling out, but the one who actually went to meet Ji Shanqing was the Artist wearing a mask.

"You probably didn't notice," Lin Sanjiu said, a hint of pride in her voice, "but every time Ji Shanqing connected with someone, that person immediately stopped talking. Because one had a male voice, and the other couldn't speak at all."

Ah Quan finally pieced it together. "So there was just one Ji Shanqing left to replace... which is why he used those black boxes and had the fake Yu Yuan place them in the old memoir."

Seeing Lin Sanjiu nod, Ah Quan filled in the rest on his own. "My attention really was focused on the black boxes at that time... so that's when you had already snuck over to the real Ji Shanqing?"

"Just to be safe, I had the fake Lin Sanjiu stand in front of him. Luckily, he's shorter than me," Lin Sanjiu replied. "Despite appearances, he's pretty clever! He realized right away that if you were watching, you'd be looking from the old memoir out, not from the new memoir in. So, he had the fake Lin Sanjiu enter the new memoir first, with him standing behind her, using her as cover. That's when I took his place."

No matter how careful they were, there was always some risk—but the worst outcome would just be Ah Quan moving the new memoir away and becoming suspicious of them.

"You're a good person," Lin Sanjiu said, scratching her head. "Even if you'd found us, there wouldn't have been serious consequences... so, at the time, I actually thought it was kind of fun."

"So... so, you were sure I'd send a new memoir over to you?"

Lin Sanjiu smiled knowingly. "Yes, and I figured you'd bring back the resort memoir, too, so I could retrieve my three humanoid figures. They're very important to me."

"If it's humanoid, it's important to you, huh," Ah Quan muttered, eventually pulling out the magazine and turning to the page on the resort. "And those black boxes?"

"They were actually useless," Ji Shanqing said, looking every bit the part of a Veda. "They were just left to distract you, to make you go in and pick them up."

"Although my knowledge is extensive," Yu Yuan said calmly, "really extensive, I wouldn't speculate on people like Lin Sanjiu. For example, knowing you'd go in to tidy up because you value these memoirs—that's not a conclusion I could reach without more data."

"That's not speculation," Lin Sanjiu said, waving her hand dismissively. "I just have an intuitive understanding of people; you wouldn't get it."

The events that followed were relatively simple and uneventful: while Ah Quan was collecting the garbage, the three chameleons sneaked back into the urban memoir. Even after finding a small house to stay in, they kept their cloaks on—they couldn't be certain if Ah Quan would quickly notice something was off.

"We've been hiding here this whole time, and who would've thought we'd end up hiding for an entire month before the pocket dimension activated again..." Lin Sanjiu sighed. "When we discussed it, we thought that when the pocket dimension activated, that might be our chance to locate the connection point between it and the warehouse. Once we found the connection, we could enter the pocket dimension and, hopefully, leave."

Ah Quan lifted his head from the magazine.

A look flickered across his face, as if he wanted to give a weary smile or sigh, but it faded before fully forming.

"But you see it now, don't you?" he said hoarsely. "The connection point you've been looking for... it's me."