After landing, Lin Sanjiu remained dazed for several minutes.
She had imagined many scenarios behind the door: the identity and appearance of the person behind the door, whether there were more reinforcements in the few buildings, and what the facility that generated the strange force field was.
However, she had never expected that there would be nothing behind the door.
Lin Sanjiu sat cross-legged in a daze, with the towering iron gate rising behind her like a city wall, and a flat, blank wilderness in front of her. Obviously, no one had done any work on this piece of land; weeds emerged from the corners, swaying between the rocks and soil.
She almost didn't know how to react.
How could there be nothing?
How is it possible that there is nothing?
What about the voice from behind the door? Could it be that the person had fled when things looked bad?
However, Lin Sanjiu lifted her eyes. On the other side of the gate, the flashlight she had dropped was still illuminated, casting a misty beam of light in the night. With the help of this faint light that seemed to dissipate with a gust of wind, she could distinguish the shape of another iron gate in the darkness.
They did indeed function like city walls, stretching out and connecting in the unknown, tightly enclosing this unknown expanse of land. Unless the person behind the door had burrowed underground, it would be difficult to determine how they had escaped from this iron enclosure. Even Lin Sanjiu herself wouldn't be able to climb over such a high iron gate in the blink of an eye.
Was the iron fortress created with so much effort just to enclose an empty space?
"No, just a moment ago, I could still see the rooftops of several buildings from the outside..."
The eyeballs had focused their gaze on the rooftop revealed behind the door, and that was how they had been thrown into it. But if there were no buildings, what did they see? With a hint of disbelief, Lin Sanjiu stood up and looked around.
She slowly opened her mouth.
Indeed, there was a rooftop.
It was like any ordinary rooftop, with a cement floor surrounded by a wall. However, below the cement platform, there was nothing... if one didn't count the steel supports that held it up.
A cement platform supported by steel frames faintly emerged behind the door, resembling a rooftop... apart from being an illusion to deceive others, Lin Sanjiu couldn't think of any other reason for its existence.
This couldn't be the place where the duoluozhong were being produced; there wasn't even a single person here. So, there was only one reasonable explanation: she had been fooled.
"Naga-ashi!" She immediately turned around and shouted at the duoluozhong, "You brought me here—"
The second half of her sentence got stuck in her throat.
When Naga-ashi curled up its body and remained silent, it looked just like an ordinary woman. Its messy brown-black hair fell on the ground, tainted with grass and dirt. The loose clothes hung loosely on its body, making it appear excessively thin.
Lin Sanjiu stood in place, and the night fell silent.
After hesitating for a moment, she slowly walked over to Naga-ashi and placed her hand on its shoulder, flipping it over.
Naga-ashi obediently fell to the ground with a soft thud. It revealed its unmasked face, tightly closed eyes, and a chest that rose and fell slightly... along with a prominent fleshy ball on its abdomen.
As if sensing her gaze, the swollen fleshy ball, resembling a pregnant belly, turned towards Lin Sanjiu and emitted a low, unmistakable chuckle.
Lin Sanjiu jumped up as if she had been shocked and quickly withdrew her hand.
She drew her Silver Tooth like a lightning bolt. Just as the curved silver light turned in the darkness, the protruding and sticky fleshy ball emitted another sound, "Now it's too late."
It was Naga-ashi's voice.
"I have completely replaced its internal organs and organs," the fleshy lump spoke with a buzzing tone as the silver light abruptly stopped—it sounded like Naga-ashi itself speaking. "Removing me will only send it to a dead end."
As if fearing that Lin Sanjiu didn't fully understand, it added, "Now, I am the only thing maintaining its life system."
However, the purpose of this thing was definitely not to keep Naga-ashi alive.
The silver light of the Silver Tooth trembled and disappeared into the night.
Lin Sanjiu looked at it and then at Naga-ashi's face.
With its eyes closed, the duoluozhong revealed the crack-like mouth and smiled faintly, without any amusement.
"...I thought I couldn't become any uglier," Naga-ashi lay on its back on the ground, stretching out its body, making the huge fleshy ball on its abdomen even more horrifying to look at. "But I guess this thing matches well with a duoluozhong."
It still didn't open its eyes, and its voice gradually became hoarse. "How many people are here? Look for... the man who brought me into that shed. He had a weathered face and a beard scarred and sparse... Is he here? Is the shed still there?"
Lin Sanjiu wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and crouched down next to Naga-ashi.
"What kind of shed?" she asked softly.
Naga-ashi remained quiet for a moment. It slowly opened its eyes, and the starless dim night sky reflected in its pupils.
"...It was a shed with plastic curtains. Have you experienced an extremely cold winter? In some places, they hang thick plastic curtains at the entrance to block the wind. It was that cold that day... When I lifted the curtain, it was even colder inside than outside. I shivered and turned back to take a look."
Lin Sanjiu made a nasal sound of acknowledgment.
"Melhor was standing not far away, looking at me. There was a tight smile on her face," Naga-ashi rotated its eyes, but no matter where it turned, its expression remained calm. "She said, 'Once you go in, you will evolve'... There was another half of the sentence, what was it..."
It furrowed its brow tightly, carefully searching its memory for a while, but eventually gave up.
"So I went in," it said softly. "After taking two steps, I turned around and rushed back to the plastic curtain. I wanted to tell her that I wanted to give up, that it wasn't so bad to be an ordinary person... But after a while, I was dragged away, so that was the last time I saw Melhor. Her brown short hair was much thinner than I remembered. When a man in a gown approached her, she quickly smiled at him. So, she didn't see me standing behind the curtain, looking at her."
A woman with short brown hair... Lin Sanjiu had heard about Melhor's age from Timo. She scrutinized Naga-ashi's face, thinking that perhaps there was some resemblance between Naga-ashi and the current appearance of Melhor. They didn't have to look too similar, just slightly reminiscent of Melhor herself would be enough.
While she was thinking, she waved her hand in front of Naga-ashi's eyes. The duoluozhong's eyes flickered slightly but then stopped.
The raw materials were sufficient, Lin Sanjiu thought, retracting her hand. She still had some collected bodies in her card inventory, gathered at some unknown time in the past.
"What did Melhor say then?" Lin Sanjiu asked softly.
"Compensation... I don't remember if she said that word first or if the man did," Naga-ashi said with a trace of confusion. "But I remember the man said, 'Whether it works or not, she will have to work for us in the future, although we don't lack posthumans'..."
"I wondered why that man was so rude to his new colleague. But Melhor didn't seem to find it strange. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but she only held onto the bag of compensation and stared at the man without saying anything. Then I felt my elbow being pulled, and I only had time to shout before being dragged away like that."
Lin Sanjiu imagined a thin girl being pulled into the depths of the shed.
"...You know what happened afterward. I want revenge," Naga-ashi, also known as the girl named Mephis in the past, murmured. This time, it sounded devoid of any hatred, just as calm as discussing what to have for dinner. "Help me look... Is there anyone here who looks like Melhor? That day, she told me that she found a new job here and that my evolution would definitely be successful because she was an insider. She must still be here. See, she's a fair-skinned woman with a medium build..."
Lin Sanjiu stood up and took a few steps towards the distance. Naga-ashi's head turned with the sound of her light footsteps on the sandy ground, eagerly listening.
"There is someone," she whispered, tightly gripping the 【Tailor Learning】 in her hand. "The people here haven't realized that we've infiltrated. I can lure her out."
When the second set of footsteps sounded, Naga-ashi suddenly half-sat up from the ground, as if it had regained strength. It opened its eyes wide, emitting a faint and muffled sound towards the direction of the footsteps. It wasn't until the woman with short brown hair and a gown came closer that Naga-ashi reached out its hand, lunged forward, and grabbed the woman's throat.
"It seems like you've been doing well all these years after you got rid of me," it hoarsely laughed. The woman with brown short hair struggled, hitting Naga-ashi repeatedly, trying to break free from its grip. "Have you spent all your compensation?"
Lin Sanjiu watched for a few seconds before turning away and walking towards the distance.
She thought that if this place was an illusion, someone should appear soon—although it was more likely to be a trap. However, she remained still, standing in a far corner, letting the cool night breeze tousle her slightly longer hair.
"'Once you go in, you will evolve'," Naga-ashi's voice drifted intermittently, like a music sheet blown and scattered by the wind. "'You are the daughter of this posthuman, you will definitely succeed.' Is that so? Why didn't you show up after I failed?"
Of course, "Melhor" couldn't provide any response. Fortunately, Naga-ashi no longer needed an answer. After a while, all the commotion gradually subsided, and the night returned to silence.