Twelve Worlds Centrum was a consortium of twelve gigantic fortified worlds which had been chosen, built and modified over generations of posthumans. Nobody knew if these twelve worlds were geographically and dimensionally close to each other. In fact, there isn't any real alliance between them. In the early days, some of the large worlds didn't even know of each other's existence.
Due to their natural resources and level of development and modifications, they were gradually grouped together and named Twelve Worlds Centrum. Even though this wasn't Lin Sanjiu's first meeting with a resident from the Twelve World Centrum, she was very curious and had many questions. Unfortunately, it was difficult to ask them these questions now.
Thankfully, Rena was very proud of her hometown. Without asking much, Rena chirped non-stop about her world like a little bird, "Red Nautilus isn't the largest world among the Twelve World Centrum, but it is at least in the middle in terms of geographical area. In the beginning, the ecosystem of this world was invaded by some extraterrestrial organism called 'red nautilus'. It caused a mass extinction of animals and other organisms. Naturally, humans couldn't survive, but now... Hey, why are you hitting me?"
"You talk too much," Reno glared, "who wants to hear your history lesson?"
Lin Sanjiu quickly spelled the world, "me".
Unexpectedly, Rena narrowed her eyes and giggled, showing her a 'serves-you-right' expression and instead stopped her narration. Once again, Lin Sanjiu felt the frustration brought by the [Did you check your almanac before leaving your house today?] curse.
"Let's get back to the main topic, how did you become this?" Reno still had his mind on the issue. "We have been here in this world for a couple of months for our training. We haven't seen any exceptions... If a person is totally corroded by black matter, or somehow killed by the duoluozhongs here, there are only two outcomes: that person either dies or becomes a ghost. After becoming a duoluozhong, that person would not know anything except to deceive, kill and threaten. But, this is the first time I've seen someone in your form..."
The brain nodded a few times in midair, but the siblings didn't know what it was trying to express.
This also stirred Rena's curiosity. She approached Lin Sanjiu, acting as if she wanted to look out of the window, and crept to the back of the brain. Rena stretched out her finger trying to touch the brain. However, Lin Sanjiu could sense the area around her like it was part of her current 'body', so when Rena turned around, Lin Sanjiu already floated upward avoid her finger.
"Are you a guy?" Rena stared, "Why don't you let me touch you?"
Lin Sanjiu didn't know how to reply. After thinking for a second, she spelled out what she wanted to say honestly, "Female. No." Meaning, even though she was a female, you shouldn't go about touching people without their consent.
Rena fully understood what she meant and sneered. She went back to her seat while her brother laughed. Lin Sanjiu floated closer to Reno, who seemed easier to deal with and spelled: "Talk about Kisaragi."
"Do you mean... you want me to tell you more about Kisaragi Station?" Reno rubbed his smooth chin, confirming. The brain nodded as expected, and he gave an expression of deep thought, "Well... Being in this world seem effortless to us because we already gathered information about it beforehand. We specifically prepared ourselves before coming here, so you asked the right person. Huh? Why the question mark? Of course, we got information from people who had been to this world! In any case, you have to be very careful when you're in a B-level world! You shouldn't... Even though I don't know what happened to you, but I guess it can't be anything good."
When Lin Sanjiu heard the words 'B-level world', she was shocked. But, this was immediately replaced by frustration again.
"I guess you already know about the corrosive nature of black matter here. But that is a small problem. Even though most posthumans don't develop the 'Black Matter Resistance' ability, you'll be fine as long as you don't eat or drink anything from this world. Considering our body constitutions, it isn't hard to survive 14 months."
"I guess the duoluozhongs here are the hardest things to guard against."
Rena seemed to agree with her brother wholly as she nodded her head.
"We have been to quite a few places, but we haven't been to a world where there are so many variations of duoluozhongs... Other than the duoluozhongs on this train, who wait for people to fall into their trap, there are others who would deceive you. They will trick you believe that they would provide you protection from the other duoluozhongs..."
Lin Sanjiu immediately thought of the students and teacher from Mausoleum Elementary. In retrospect, they seemed to be warning her not to stay on the train. Their warning was right, but according to Reno, if she did alight at that stop, nothing good would have happened to her in the end.
"...and there are also duoluozhongs who disguise themselves as normal humans..."
Douglas' face appeared in Lin Sanjiu's mind.
"There are those which would possess human-like items or things that are related to humans, so it is easy to overlook them."
The old cloth shoes, cardboard standee, the Teru Teru Bozu and others...
"Then, there are all sorts of supernatural beings. They would randomly follow you or appear like in one of the stories..."
Lin Sanjiu thought of the tall men in the forest.
Thinking back, Lin Sanjiu realized that the various types of duoluozhongs she encountered in a single day could fill up an encyclopedia about this world.
"Even though we prepared ourselves well before coming here, we suffered a lot before this. That's why it looks effortless for us," Reno added the last sentence probably to comfort Lin Sanjiu.
"Says who? Bro, weren't you scared away by the Kitty Provincial Hospital?" Rena was quick to ridicule her brother. Reno jumped up and retorted, "That's because I'm afraid of cats! Not duoluozhongs!" Once again, the siblings started their meaningless bickering.
Lin Sanjiu smiled bitterly in her mind. Even without explanations, she knew that the siblings were different from people like her, who was a survivor from a new apocalyptic world. They were born in a world where the apocalyptic worlds were already an integral part of life and were educated to survive these situations. Naturally, the siblings had an easier time adapting mentally and physically.
"So, the Twelve World Centrum is really such an ideal place? " Just when Lin Sanjiu was engrossed by her own thoughts, Reno stopped bickering as if he suddenly remembered something. He turned to Lin Sanjiu and asked, "Hey, what's your name?"
"Lin Sanj-" Lin Sanjiu spelled out these alphabets when she remembered another person from the Twelve Worlds Centrum, Puppeteer. She froze.
Much to her surprise, the siblings exchanged glances before scruntizing her. All of a sudden, they shouted in unison, "Are you Lin Sanjiu?!"