When her Higher consciousness ebbed away like a tide, Lin Sanjiu felt as if something had been drawn from her body. Lin Sanjiu's body shivered as she slowly opened her own eyes. The perspiration on her body had soaked her clothes. She sighed and her limbs felt weak. This feeling wasn't foreign to her. Even though she made sure that she had enough Higher Consciousness to sustain that state, [Consciousness Mimicry] was simply a very draining ability.
"If these two Souls tried anything while I'm in this weakened state…" When she thought of this, she looked up and saw Soulsqn.
She was startled.
The teenager with two ponytails sitting in a slump on the floor. She sat motionless on the ground with a blank look. It was as if her human suit was also turning white. Lin Sanjiu found her staring and she could sense the creature's shock even through that human skin.
Behind her, AYU was lying beside Soulsqn. It had been removed itself from its human suit and was in its fleshy form. There was an opening in its frontal part of its body. Lin Sanjiu could see her layers of flesh and white colored tendons mixed with slimy mucus from the opening. The room was filled with an anxious hissing sound. From the looks of it, AYU was making those sounds.
When Lin Sanjiiu looked down, she saw a drop of mucus on the tip of her fingernail. She lifted her left hand and somehow caught a drop of slime dripping from her fingertip.
"I... I know." Soulsqn's voice was so muffled that Lin Sanjiu nearly couldn't make out what she was saying. "I know. I know…" She mumbled over and over again.
Soulsqn only let out a sigh of relief when she realized that there was a familiar wariness in Lin Sanjiu's amber eyes.
"Has your… friend left?" she asked while she climbed up from the floor with some effort. She didn't look at AYU, "Is... this your ability? You can use your body as a medium to communicate with your friend?"
This was a convenient misunderstanding Lin Sanjiu did not expect and she definitely wasn't going to explain herself.
Unlike a "possession", Lin Sanjiu retained her awareness when she was using her [Consciousness Mimicry]. Her own consciousness would take the backseat when she used the ability and she just let the Nüwa's mimic take over. With her [Consciousness Mimicry] deactivated, the memories of what had happened returned to her mind. Lin Sanjiu couldn't help shuddering and quickly wiped the mucus on her finger with the fabric of her pants.
"How was it?" Lin Sanjiu asked. She intentionally showed an expressionless face.
"I... I believe you." Soulsqn bent down and picked AYU. Lin Sanjiu didn't know if she was mistaken but Soulsqn seemed to be trembling non-stop. Lin Sanjiu couldn't tell if Soulsqn was trembling from fear or excitement. "How is she... right now?"
"Didn't I tell you? She is alright. She will be fine after a while." In that short time, the mimicked version of Nüwa was indeed very interested to know more about the Souls. She was so interested that she cut open AYU, who was their carrier, on the spot just to examine the creature's inner structure.
"She had just been examined, her organs aren't hurt," Lin Sanjiu explained. After thinking for a bit, she added something Nüwa definitely wouldn't say, "Get her to wear her human suit again. She looks terrible."
AYU, who had been hissing non-stop, seemed unable to move about freely. After she heard what Lin Sanjiu said, she struggled in Soulsqn hand and fell to the floor. Then, she crawled back into her human skin.
Even though Lin Sanjiu bought that fifteen-minute slot, they still had some time left when they stepped out of the room. Lin Sanjiu wasn't quite sure why but she felt that when she mimicked Nüwa just moments ago, it left a strong lasting impression on her. She felt as if she acted even more like Nüwa than before. As she held the black rope in her hand, she wandered into a pipe. She listened to the quiet footsteps of the Souls behind her as she asked Mrs. Manas about that issue.
"That is no surprise."
Lin Sanjiu did not expect that Mrs. Manas would answer her that way. "Have you forgotten? Nüwa's consciousness is contained in a small segment of your genetic makeup. A person's higher consciousness stems from their psyche. With a small bit of her psyche in you, your mimicry state would definitely be different. With that, you don't even have to use as much higher consciousness to maintain that state…"
"Is it alright to just leave her higher consciousness in my body? Wouldn't it cause any problems?"
"I don't know," Mrs. Manas said callously. "What could you do even if you knew? Anyway, you have no means of removing her higher consciousness now."
Lin Sanjiu felt an immediate urge to sigh.
Honestly speaking, if she had a choice, she wished she could just shake hands and make peace with Nüwa. But, that wasn't right either. Nüwa didn't treat her as any ordinary enemy.
While she was entertaining her random thoughts, they had reached one of the rhombus doors. Lin Sanjiu untied AYU's neck and nodded to Soulsqn.
AYU seemed to receive Soulsqn's command without any words. She looked back at her queen before turning to look at Lin Sanjiu with a doubtful expression. After that, she crouched and exited from the rhombus door.
There might be puppets waiting outside for them but AYU had already changed her appearance so it wouldn't be a problem even if she just walked in front of them.
"What a petty man. It had been two years and he still holds a grudge against me because of that small matter." Lin Sanjiu complained to Mrs. Manas and asked, "Is there any way I can keep my wings. They are really too conspicuous."
"Theoretically, it shouldn't be impossible," Mrs. Manas gave her a rather reserved answer. Lin Sanjiu was waiting for her to elaborate when she heard Soulsqn speaking, "What should we do next?"
"We will wait here for AYU to return," she immediately replied. "I can only take action then."
However, it was quite obvious that Soulsqn still wanted to say something more. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke. "I have to admit that your friend is really our best hope, but there is another problem…"
"What's the problem?"
"You humans will change worlds every 14 months. You mentioned that you will look for your friend… But, how are you going to bring me along?'
Lin Sanjiu was speechless. She had always been dangling that hope in front of Soulsqn like a carrot on a stick. She only wanted to control the Souls but she had never really given it much thought. She had never really considered about this question. However, if she couldn't provide a solution now, this "collaboration" with the Souls would be a very unstable one. Lin Sanjiu's [Planar World] only worked on non-living things. The Souls were like humans so she didn't know if they could actually use a visa.
But, if that was the case, how did Nüwa bring her "Sages" around?
"Look, let's look for a Consular Officer," Lin Sanjiu didn't want to keep quiet for such a long time in front of Soulsqn, "They should know what to do."
Actually, Lin Sanjiu was only half-confident in what she had just said. But, Soulsqn was clearly unfamiliar with the functions of a Consular Officer so she was quite easy to fool. After that, Soulsqn followed her obediently.
Considering what she had to do, AYU probably needed more than ten days before she could come back to them. Lin Sanjiu knew she had to do something during these few days. After a discussion with Mrs. Manas, Lin Sanjiu decided to try to earn some red crystals. She wanted to rent a room and just spend some time properly experimenting with how she could deal with her wings.
When she thought about how she was going to earn those red crystals, she couldn't help wanting to sigh. She thought back about the fresh painful memories of how hard it was for her to get enough red crystals for an airship ticket in Cyber District and knew she would have to confront the problem of earning some money once again...
Unexpectedly, earning a living within Seagral Square wasn't as hard as she had imagined.
"From a certain perspective, the apocalyptic worlds which have not repaired their civilization have it pretty good. At least, you don't have to worry about money…" Lin Sanjiu grumbled to Mrs. Manas.
Meanwhile, she was holding a piece of a crudely drawn map which showed a part of the sector. She stretched her neck out to see if there were any passersby on the nearby travellator.
Lin Sanjiu successfully found a "job" the second day after AYU left. Unfortunately, it was a really low-paying job. She had even sent Soulsqn out to work but they only earned ten middle-sized crystals after a few days.
After Soulsqn met her mimicked Nüwa once, the creature just wouldn't leave Lin Sanjiu alone. The situation was so bad that Soulsqn would come back to look for Lin Sanjiu after a period of time just to check that she was around. It was as if she was super afraid that she might lose Lin Sanjiu.
Lin Sanjiu massaged her own neck. Then, she heard the travellator humming to life again. She sighed quietly and dragged herself to greet the person who was approaching.
When she saw that the person was a sweating plump man, she couldn't help rejoicing. When she was about a meter away from him, she stopped and greeted him, "Hello! Are you hungry right now? There is a 'Neverending Fried Rice Fountain' just right upstairs—"
Noticing that the person who greeted him wasn't a threat, the plump man squinted. He looked down at the directions on the map that Lin Sanjiu was holding. There was a bowl drawn on that paper. "Oh," he remarked, "It doesn't seem far! Alright, I will go take a look later."
She had just gotten another customer.
Lin Sanjiu watched as the plump man left. She exhaled. This particular "Fried Rice Shop" was just something another posthuman had created with his own Special Item. The shop only offered fried rice and nothing else. Her boss was very stingy with his red crystals but was very generous with his fried rice. Her meals over these few days were pretty much settled with the shop's own specialty. At least, she wasn't hungry.
Lin Sanjiu heard the travellator operating again. She prepared her map and was just about to greet the next person when she saw a girl with two ponytails coming up to her.
"Why are you back here?"
Soulsqn did not reply to her immediately. She ran up to Lin Sanjiu with another crumpled map in her hand.
"When I was at another sector, I met a group of humans. They asked me if I had seen a tall woman with skeletal wings—"
Lin Sanjiu was shocked, "Are they humans or puppets?"
"They are humans," Soulsqn replied as she turned to look behind her. It was as though she was afraid that those posthumans had followed her. "They are looking for you. What do you plan to do?"
"If they are looking for me during this critical period, they're probably up to no good." Lin Sanjiu thought to herself. She narrowed her eyes, "I told you not to harm any other humans. Did you do anything to them?"
"No. I didn't. I don't need any human skins right now," Soulsqn said a little defensively. "Anyway, their group was too big."
After getting the answer she wanted, Lin Sanjiu smiled. She rolled the map in her hand and tossed it aside.
"Okay, I'll wait for them here."