The arena, which was usually overlit during the matches, was now dark. The pale yellow light streaming from the few weak spotlights barely pierced through the darkness, illuminating a small area. There were about a few dozen guards guarding the place. Their sergeant sat in a chair in a carefree manner, with his hands crossed. He had already fallen asleep. Other than a small patrolling team, the other guards crouched down to rest, and some even started smoking and chatting quietly.
It had already been a couple of hours, but the female posthumans remained in their capsules without showing any odd behavior. The soldiers who had maintained their high vigilance throughout the night were starting to feel a little tired. "It's okay to rest, but I don't want any of you to let down your guard. Keep your eyes on those capsules," the sergeant, who had been sitting motionless, suddenly spoke. It immediately got the guards' attention, who all replied with a "Yes, sir!"
For a split second, Lin Sanjiu thought that they had spotted her. She held her breath and waited for some time. After confirming that the guards weren't planning anything, she half-crouched as she walked stealthily between the space of two capsules, signaling for the women in the capsules to keep quiet. She had five minutes before the guards started patrolling again. Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment before she pressed both hands on the floor and activated her [Mosaic Censorship]. Boom! Concrete flew everywhere, and a shallow hole appeared.
"What's that sound? Team three, investigate!" the sergeant stood up instantly, yelling at his men with his rough voice.
"Sir, the sound came from the capsule containment area, but we can't see it clearly!"
Lin Sanjiu felt her throat tightened. The patrolling guards did not enter the containment area when they were patrolling. They basically just walked outside the electric net and swept their flashlights through the area. However, it was vital for her to lure them inside...
Lin Sanjiu had no choice but to use her stupid method again. She waited for some time. Once the flashlight from the patrolling team disappeared above her head, she created another small hole in the floor.
This time, the people outside could no longer neglect it.
"Inform the control room to switch off the High Energy Deflector Barrier. Team three, Team four, go in there and find out the source of that noise. Remember to release the safety locks on your weapons."
'So, it's called the High Energy Deflector Barrier...' Lin Sanjiu watched as the electric net grew faint and vanished instantly. A total of twenty soldiers from the two teams carried their heavy weapons and stepped cautiously into the capsule containment area. As the light from their headlamps flashed across the capsules, they found nothing wrong. All the women were resting quietly in their capsules. They walked around the containment area twice and finally shouted that there was no problem. After that, the twenty guards walked out of the containment area, and the High Energy Deflector Barrier was once again erected.
The two teams returned to their guarding positions and continued watching the capsule containment area.
"That's weird. What made that noise..." the sergeant mumbled to himself. After contemplating, he returned to his chair, activated the screen on his wristband, and decided to report the incident to his superior. However, before he could send out his message, he suddenly felt someone touching his shoulder. Following this, he heard a soft, cold female voice from behind, "Have you seen me in the tournament?"
The sergeant, Nanders, froze, and goosebumps instantly appeared on his skin.
"Don't move. Let me introduce myself. I am Contestant 97, Lin Sanjiu." When he felt her breath on his neck, it was as if Death was leaning on his shoulders, "Right now, both my hands are on you."
Nanders could not remember the number of duoluozhongs that had exploded into pieces in a blood mist once Contestant 97 touched them. He opened his mouth dryly but didn't say a word.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
Even though the place was quite dim, other guards noticed the odd behavior of the particular guard who was standing way too close to the sergeant, and one of them shouted, "Go back to your post!"
When Nanders felt the hands exerted more force on his shoulders, he hurriedly replied with cold sweat pouring, "I... I told him to give me a massage. Mind your own business!"
The person who spoke quickly kept quiet, while others laughed, "Sergeant, if you like this. Why don't you buy some male mutates back..."
Nanders did not process any of those teasing words or laughter. He could only hear the voice by his ear whispering, "How obedient..."
"I... I will do whatever you want..." It was difficult for him to control his volume when his voice was quivering so much. He had to stop a couple of times as he continued, "Don't kill me. I never killed any mutates..."
"Alright, I need you to switch off that High Energy Deflector Barrier."
Nanders felt as though there was a large black hole behind him. If he was not careful, he would be sucked in, and he wouldn't even have an intact corpse... He gave a dry cough and contacted the people in the control room. Even though the other party was rather annoyed, he managed to convince the person that they had to recheck the containment area just to be on the safe side.
After a minute, the electric net surrounding the capsule containment area vanished.
Noticing this abnormality, many of the guards stood up, and someone even asked, "Sir, why did you switch off the barrier? Do we have to check one more time?"
Nanders paused but did not receive additional orders from the person behind him. He gritted his teeth and laughed wryly, "It is almost dawn. I just received orders from the head. You can all go back now..."
The guards kept still for two seconds. Suddenly, another leader waved his hands, and all of the guards surrounded both Nanders and Lin Sanjiu while they deactivated the safety locks on their weapons.
"The sergeant has been taken hostage!" one of the men yelled.
Nanders exploded in his chair and became a mixture of torn clothes and splattered flesh the next second. Multiple laser beams were immediately fired at the chair and the small area where both persons were.
'Such firepower should have killed the target, right?' while that was what everyone thought, the yellow light above them went dim for a second. This was when they realized that someone had flipped over their heads. However, before they could take aim again, cries filled the air as a snake-like shadow swept across the men's necks. Blood erupted from their necks as several heads, still in their hazmat helmets, flew to the far end of the arena and fell noisily on the floor.
The guards who were still alive quickly aimed their guns at the fleeting shadow above their heads, but they were all too nervous after watching their colleagues being killed. Besides, Lin Sanjiu's speed far exceeded any normal person's. When she finally landed on her feet, none of the men were left standing.
Her arm had been grazed by one of the laser beams, so she applied pressure to her wound and sneered. 'That sergeant was smarter than he looked. But if he didn't try to make some sort of signal, he and those guards wouldn't need to die so quickly...'
"Ah, what a massacre."
Lin Sanjiu heard a brisk male voice coming from a dark spot in the arena. Lin Sanjiu tensed her body and pulled out her mouthpart weapon once more.
"Don't worry. I am not your enemy. I am also a posthuman."
The gentle voice gradually grew closer, and a person in a hooded cloak emerged from the darkness. The person stopped when he was still some distance away from Lin Sanjiu. He took off his hood, revealing his fair face.
Even though she knew that it was a man, the person had such exquisite and feminine features that the first impression that Lin Sanjiu had was that he was very beautiful, regardless of his gender.
"Hi, let me introduce myself. I am Gong Daoyi. I am a smuggler and your number one fan." The man chuckled, "Don't look at me so warily... You might not be aware, but we have both helped each other, albeit unintentionally."
That sentence had no effect. Lin Sanjiu continued staring icily at him.
"You have thirty seconds to prove that you're a posthuman."
"Oh my! How prudent." Gong Daoyi seemed delighted. He waved his left hand, and a large black shadow suddenly appeared from behind him. It appeared from nowhere, and though Lin Sanjiu could not see it clearly, it seemed to be some large beast.
"Is that enough? I'm here to help you. I know those capsules are hard to open." Gong Daoyi waved his hands again, and the large apparition quickly disappeared like smoke. "Thanks to you, there is a large commotion about radiation sickness now. I guessed that you would attempt to escape tonight. Otherwise, it would be a wasted opportunity.
"You know it was me?" Lin Sanjiu frowned slightly but did not pursue the question. The man was right. Even though she could try using her [Mosaic Censorship], she did not have the confidence to open the capsules without hurting the women inside. She nodded at Gong Daoyi and gestured for him to follow her. She turned and walked toward the capsule containment area, but she placed her full attention behind her, tightening every inch of her muscles so she could react immediately if anything happened.
Gong Daoyi narrowed his eyes, grinned, and followed her casually into the capsule containment area. The female contestants stood up one after the other, pushing the walls of their capsules, looking at them with brightened eyes. After being trapped for so long, they couldn't wait to regain their freedom. While the women looked at them with teary eyes, Lin Sanjiu led Gong Daoyi to one of the capsules, saying, "You can try to open this capsule."
Xu Wei bit her lips as she stared at the two people outside her capsule without blinking her eyes even once. Gong Daoyi laughed a little and took out a little bird from nowhere. The little bird had very bright feathers, and its eyes moved around in a lively manner. Once it was in Gong Daoyi's hand, it began to chirp, "I want to sing."
"If you eat this door, you won't need to sing, right?" Gong Daoyi stroked the little bird gently. The little bird replied with a "yes." Lin Sanjiu watched with amazement as the bird opened its small yellow beak, and then, in a scientifically impossible manner, it swallowed half the door in one mouth.
The mass of what it ate was a few dozen times its own body, so where that mass went was totally unfathomable.
"Is this a Special Item?" Lin Sanjiu stammered while she held Xu Wei, who rushed out of the capsule and hugged her. She patted the woman's back a few times to comfort her.
"You're right." Gong Daoyi nodded, and when the bird announced that it wanted to sing again, he brought it to the next capsule. "Anyway, it needs to eat so that it will shut up and not sing."
The little bird ate quickly, and within a few minutes, they had freed over twenty women. But when the little bird ate the next door, a black shadow rushed out from the capsule, aiming a direct attack at Gong Daoyi—
The latter leaped out of the attack range as if he had already expected it. The black shadow stopped. It was a green snake-like cucumber.
"Xueqin, what are you doing?" Lin Sanjiu was shocked and carried Xueqin out from her capsule.
One of the female contestants in the afternoon match knew how to set broken bones, so she managed to help Xueqin set her bones back. However, the woman still could not move and had to lean against Lin Sanjiu's arm as she panted, "It's him! He betrayed me! He called the Military and Police Department!"
The atmosphere suddenly became tense. Gong Daoyi acted surprised and clasped his hands. "Oh, it's you... I didn't expect that you would be caught. Well, you must have gotten the wrong guy."
If one were to rate his acting, the half-hearted attitude he showed deserved a negative score. Xueqin wanted to scold him, but Lin Sanjiu pressed her arm lightly as if to signal something to her, so she kept quiet.
"Let's free everyone first. We can talk about that later." Lin Sanjiu handed Xueqin to Bai Xiaoke's escort before giving Gong Daoyi a bland look. The man continued smiling as if he was totally unaware that his trustworthiness had fallen to rock bottom.
All the 52 women, including the two survivors from the previous match, were finally freed from their capsules. With the exception of the woman who went insane and was a little difficult to handle, the rest of the women surrounded Lin Sanjiu and waited for her to say something.
"What should we do next? Should we escape this city?" one of the women asked.
These women probably never imagined that they would actually end up in a situation where they would rather face an apocalyptic landscape...
Lin Sanjiu looked at all of them. Before she spoke, she walked to the pile of corpses and removed the hazmat suit from a body. She held it in her hands and said calmly as she felt the eyes on her back, "If you want to get out of this snowglobe city, I won't stop you. But, please also help the mentally unsound woman escape. As for me, I won't run away."
"Where... do you want to go?" Li Tao couldn't help asking.
Lin Sanjiu straightened her back and smiled at them. "You know something? No matter where I go, I will leave that place in shambles before I leave. First, it was a supermarket, then another survivors' settlement... I don't see why the Garden of Eden should be an exception."
After pausing for a moment, Lin Sanjiu finally announced softly, "I want to stay and destroy their glass dome."