Chapter 5: Incoming Crisis
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
“Oww..” the woman, curled up on the ground, and gave a low moan. It broke the tense atmosphere. “Aghh… that was quite painful.”
Seeing “Mother Lin” standing up, rubbing the back of her head, Lin Sanjiu could even feel the twitching at the corner of her eyes. Things were not going well. Two against one. Apart from the fact that there was a large tall man in the other party, she was so exhausted that her limbs were feeling weak. She did not even have a single ability which she could use to defend herself...
“Mother Lin” stood up straight and cracked her neck. When she turned to face Lin Sanjiu, she had already turned into a young stranger who was about seventeen or eighteen.
“Oh well. What have we done? There are so many people whose parents are still alive, but we had to meet an orphan…” the youth did not even look at Lin Sanjiu, but actually complained to his companion first. “Father Lin” nodded silently as he walked two steps out from the bedroom. After that, “Father Lin” turned into a redhead middle age woman. “Did she manage to hurt you just now?” she asked in fluent Chinese.
The youth grinned showing his set of white teeth, “Of course not, she isn’t that strong.”
Witnessing the two of them talking naturally with each other, acting as though there were nobody else present, Lin Sanjiu felt somewhat bitter. She stealthily edged backward and asked in a trembling voice, ”Are both of you also from a New World?”
Her question seemed to have sudden piqued the youth’s interest. “Huh? So you actually know that much? We really underestimated you. That was why you totally showed no mercy just now. Um. I already noticed just now that you have already evolved a little… your potential growth value must be quite high.” The youth’s manner of speaking was particularly quick and lively. It sounded as though he was talking about his favorite game. If the young man did not trick her into the apartment by disguising as her dead mother, Lin Sanjiu would have really lowered her defenses.
“Is my friend… really dead?”
The youth shrugged in an exaggerated manner. “There is a person in the bathroom. Her dehydration seems really bad, so she was probably trying to get some water. But I think there is a drought here? So anyway, not even a single drop of water came out from the tap. Right… she doesn’t look too good, dead. So I would recommend you not to go over to take a look.”
Her tears poured out uncontrollably. Lin Sanjiu quickly wiped them away as she continued staring at the two people in front of her. She took another step back.
She had already met a person like Ren Nan who was an ‘Posthuman[1]” from a New World. Unexpectedly, she managed to meet another two of them. Lin Sanjiu could not help feeling extremely wary of them. “If you two did not kill my friend, why are both of you here? Why did you trick me into the apartment?”
The young man spread his arms out and replied, “It is not as if we could choose where we appear when we get here! We are quite lucky that we appeared in a person’s apartment. There is even a bed here for us to rest… Anyway, when we came here, your friend was already dead.”
“Then, why did you disguise yourselves as my parents to trick me? How did you know my parents?” It was obvious that this youth enjoyed talking. He had revealed quite a lot of information in such a short time. Lin Sanjiu noticed that and purposely chose to ask these questions, as she planned the conversation.
It was unclear if she saw through her plans, but before the young man could reply, the redhead woman gestured in an irritated manner for to stop the young man from answering enthusiastically. “I planned for you to come inside,” she said coldly.
With a metallic sound, the redhead woman’s nails suddenly grew by half a meter, it shined with a faint luster in the dark. She laughed and said, ”I wanted to see how far people in this world have evolved.”
Just as redhead woman’s nails extended, Lin Sanjiu kicked the chair forward to block the path of the two people. At lightning speed, Lin Sanjiu turned and ran; fortunately, she did not close the door when she entered so she had an escape route.
Without even turning her head once, she sprinted for the stairways exit, skipping steps as she ran down the stairs. She could hear the immediate footsteps behind her; they continued to chase after her. Midway, she could even hear the young man complaining, “She injured me again!”
Next, she could not hear anything at all as a single thought occupied her entire mind: Escape. She felt as if she had used up all the oxygen in her body; her lungs began to hurt with a burning sensation. Each time she took a breath, the boiling hot air scalded her trachea. She was not afraid, but the pain was unavoidable. In addition to that, she was still wounded, and her limbs felt weak. She simply could not run that quickly in this condition. Just when she could see the entrance of the residential complex, she heard a swish sound beside her ear as metallic nails swiped through the air. Gritting her teeth, she did a forward roll. With that, Lin Sanjiu manage to avoid those metallic nails which belonged to the redhead woman behind her.
She rolled a meter forward, turned her head and realized that the pair were about to reach her, just as they reached out towards her…
A piece of white thing was abruptly flung into the air by Lin Sanjiu. With a thought in her mind, two large metal gates appeared out of nowhere in mid-air. It fell from mid-air with a swoosh of air, falling heavily on the young man as he shrieked. Lin Sanjiu fell to the ground as her legs gave way under her.
The young man could no longer get up, but she did not feel even slightly happy. After all, the redhead lady was the one that posed the largest threat to her, yet she was standing without a scratch at the side of the metal gate!
But, Lin Sanjiu could not run any longer. Each time she transformed a card, it took energy from her. Reverting the metal gate back to its original form had sapped the very last bit of energy that Lin Sanjiu had. Right now, she could not even stand up, so she laid on the ground staring at the redhead woman, feeling extremely bitter.
Unexpected, the redhead woman sighed and did not continue chasing her. She remained where she was and sat down. She frowned and turned back to talk to the youth,”Why are you so stupid?”
The youth who was trapped under the heavy metal gates did not actually seem to be mortally injured. He tried hard to cough out twice, gasped, then retorted, ”I am made of real flesh and blood, I am real and corporeal; obviously I can’t run as fast as you!” he coughed twice, “I feel terrible… the metal gate is pressing against my windpipe…”
The redhead woman tutted and smiled coldly as she said, “Yeah, you are made of a body of fats. That’s why you are so slow. I don’t know how you were able to survive till today.”
“Well, that is obviously because I have a very high growth potential!”
Lin Sanjiu could not believe her eyes as she saw the two people, who had chased after her, bickering with each other as if they had forgotten about her existence entirely.
“I mean... Aren’t you going to kill me?”
“What?” The young man stuck his head through the metal rails of the metal gates and looked at her with astonishment. “Big Sis, did you think we were trying to kill you? No wonder you ran like crazy. I was yelling at you, but you did not stop… My evolution is already that advanced, why would I bother to kill you. You are like a newly hatched chick. How would that benefit me?”
Looking at the highly evolved person who was stuck under the metal gates, Lin Sanjiu mouth twitched, but she did not say a word. At the same time, she felt her heart falling heavily back into her stomach. It was great that they were not hostile, but….
“Big Sis, please get rid of the metal gates. I am almost flattened by it now.” the young man whined noticing that no one spoke a word.
Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at the redhead woman who was sitting on the ground. She did not know why the woman did not try to help. Hesitating for a moment, she replied coolly, “I can do that, but both of you should introduce yourselves first.”
“Yes, we should. I am Luther. It was nice knowing you. Do you want to shake my hand?” The young man leaned his head against the metal rails. Probably because he spotted Lin Sanjiu rolling her eyes, he quickly laughed and said, “Oh! Yes. This is one of my alternate personalities, she is called Marcie.”
Lin Sanjiu’s eyes widened. “Your other personality?”
“That’s right. Before the New World arrived where I came from, I was the second person on the entire earth that was diagnosed with having a genuine case of Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Luther sounded exceptionally proud when he said this. He tried his best to raise his chin, ”After that, I evolved. I could separate Marcie as an individual entity, but we can’t be too far apart… Well, I won’t tell you too much about my abilities. Don’t ask me about how I knew your parents; this is also part of my abilities…” He was aware that he almost revealed too much and quickly tried to conceal his words saying, “Anyway, in short, Marcie is a biologist. She is very interested in humans who have just evolved, so she was a little too eager just now.”
Lin Sanjiu looked over to Marcie as she nodded with a serious face.
“But she extended her nails…” Lin Sanjiu looked at Marcie’s nails, perplexed. Under her flashlight, those ten fingernails were now back to their normal form, short and rounded.
“She uses them to draw blood. After she draws your blood, she is able to analyze some of your basic stats. This is an ability that Marcie developed herself. It does not actually have any combat value,” Luther replied truthfully.
“Wait, you are saying that not only can you evolve and gain abilities. But even your personalities can do that?” Lin Sanjiu was really shocked. Luther was indeed worthy of the title of Heavenly King of Potential (this was what he called himself). “That means, if you continue evolving, you will become a single person with the power of a whole army?”
“It is not that simple…” Luther said with a difficult expression. “At this moment, my ability is pretty useless. Other than her nails, Marcie can’t even hurt a person right now. Alright. I can’t tell you any more about my power; it is too dangerous. Just let me out from under here. We can talk it through if we have any other misunderstandings.”
Lin Sanjiu exhaled deeply. Perhaps, suddenly seeing her dead parents was too strange that it spooked her. After speaking to Luther, she realized that she did not feel any malice from him or Marcie. She grimaced and admitted, “It is not that I don’t wish to release you from under the metal gates, but I really don’t have the energy right now. I need to rest for a while. Why don’t you tell me more about this thing called New World…”
Just as she finished her sentence, they suddenly hear an odd “Ah gu?” sound coming out from the guardhouse.
Marcie, who had been sitting silent, suddenly jumped up. With a grave look, she whispered, “Damn it.”
[1] The original term can also be interpreted as evolved human. In the context of this novel, the term ‘posthuman’ carries the a better intended meaning of the author.