Sitting cross-legged on a moth-eaten couch, Lin Sanjiu studied the deck of cards in her hand.
Calling the building they were staying in as a hotel made it sound decent, but in fact, it was merely a cleaned-up abandoned domicile. The walls were latticed with dirt and grime, and the flooring was cracked and deformed. Despite being a time-worn and decrepit building, there was a bulb on the ceiling connected via a shabby wire. The light provided by the tiny bulb was so pathetic that it thrust the whole room into the limbo of light and darkness.
When the shadow once again shifted past above her cards, Lin Sanjiu burst.
"Sit down," she patted the couch beside her, "Stop pacing in front of me. You're making me dizzy."
The echoing footsteps of the grand prize finally ceased, and he made a rustling sound as he snuggled into the couch.
Looking at his pale complexion and seeing the same panicked expression that had graced his face when he left the Mirror Maze, Lin Sanjiu attempted to ease him of his anxiety a little bit by comforting him, "Don't be so tense. It's not a big deal. This is my fourth time leaping across worlds, and since you're essentially my item, you're definitely going with me."
Ji Shanqing didn't say anything; instead, he gulped. Although he was an item by definition, the thumping of his racing heart was so loud that it was even audible to Lin Sanjiu.
"Why did they have to make a grand prize so human-like? To unwrap a present that looks and feels like a human, that man who commits such deed must be the vilest person in the world." Lin Sanjiu shook away the thought and re-focused on the cards.
Compared to before she came to the Red Nautilus, she had suffered quite a few losses on her card deck.
She had finished the [Cat Litter] and she had lost her [A Girl's Sorrow]. The [Mermaid Cultivation Drink] had only a bottle left, and she suspected that one bottle could serve her any good; meanwhile, the [Rob the Poor to feed the Rich Box] had reached its limit and was no longer usable, so she had thrown it away. She still had the [Flesh-Melting Hairdryer] with her, but it was sealed inside the [Scrooge McDuck Power] since she did not have enough red crystal to ransom it back. Though she understood that it was a good thing meant to be used, the loss she might be facing after getting it from the Scrooge McDuck Power suggested otherwise.
Sighing, Lin Sanjiu studied the Special Items.
[Ability Polishing Agent] was the very first Special Item she acquired during her days in the first world after killing Ren Nan. It was her best buddy that provided her light to drive away the darkness. She had already mastered this Special Item.
[Tornado Whip] was a powerful and fairly convenient weapon. It could conjure a small scale tornado with a swing, and it's the perfect weapon for a lazy fighter.
[Vibroblade] had been developed with the latest technologies in the Garden of Eden. Hailed as the sharpest weapon in the world that could slice open anything like a piece of tofu. It was one of the weapons aside from [Tornado Whip] that Lin Sanjiu utilizes the most in battle.
The [Pygmalion Choker] could grant the user the power of Superman for 5 minutes a day and heightened the user's self-confidence.
[Tape Recorder] was most effective when combined with [Pygmalion Choker] if the user was left alone.
Since Lin Sanjiu now had the grand prize as her companion, the demand for [Tape Recorder] wasn't that great anymore. Despite that, Lin Sanjiu still had Ji Shanqing to record a few ability descriptions into the tape recorder outside the room to prepare for all contingencies. Then, she looked to the next card.
To use [Oh My God, My wallet is missing!] she had to ask her opponent "Have you heard of route 300?" prior activating it. Right after that, all Special Items of the target would be sealed for an hour. However, [Oh My God, My wallet is missing!] could not be used twice on the same target.
[That spring, when the cherry blossoms fell, your sweet laughter melted my world] made up the word count and cleansed any ill intent from the heart of a male listener for a minute. It did not affect females. The number of times this item could be used was in tandem on how many times she had been in love. Current use count: one.
"I can still use this item," murmured Lin Sanjiu before putting it away. The next few cards were either she couldn't find any chances to test them, or she hadn't thoroughly gone through the description yet.
[Bubbles Blowing Girl] was a huge—yes, that's right— huge homing-type explosion device. The bubbles automatically pursued the target until it hit its target. It had excellent power, but the tedious process of setting up the doll and target had rendered the utility of the item useless in a battle.
[Howtorender] cast a powerful light and shadow distortion phenomenon. It was a hidden gem that had yet to be excavated.
[Mewing Alarm Clock] was a cute alarm in the shape of the head of a cat. It imitated the mewling of a cat and was pretty useless.
[Tranquilizer gun for the Foot Soldier] was a weapon obtained from a soldier in the Garden of Eden. Copperish yellow, huge and bulky design, Lin Sanjiu had never used this item once after getting it.
Aside from those Special Items, Lin Sanjiu had only gotten herself two other Special Items in Red Nautilus. Luckily, the two items were dominant, and it comforted Lin Sanjiu a bit.
[An Unfinished Oil Painting] summoned an artist. He would stay in place and depict everything vividly. For the target, who was left out by the artist, would be sucked into the painting to perfect the drawing.
[Empty-handed Kleptomaniac] was a terrific, almost cheating god-like item. If she hid it in her palm and slapped it on to her target's skin, she could utilize her target's entire combat system to her advantage. However, getting it onto their skin was a huge risk like [Versu Poison].
After putting her Special Items away neatly, Lin Sanjiu still had a few cards in her hand.
She had gotten a few large packages of daily commodities such as tissue paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels, and linen to name a few from the hotel prior to departing from Kisaragi Station. It was enough to supply her for years. Besides, while she was waiting for world leaping, she had Ji Shanqing source some resources like clothes, shoes, a box of mineral water, instant noodles, eggs, sausages and other things that might be useful when they arrived in the new world.
The resources that were essential for their survival cost a pretty penny. Since Lin Sanjiu had dwelled in the twelve worlds for a long time, she was accustomed to how the thing run here. Before going to the next world, most people would only prepare the resources sufficient to last for around three to five months. Then, they would look for the remaining supply they needed when they arrived in the new world.
Nevertheless, no matter how costly or valuable the resources were, they couldn't be mentioned in the same breath to the card she was going to look at next.
It was a journal wrapped with parchment paper.
Truth to be told, it couldn't be called a journal nor was it a printed hardback. Every sheet inside the book was filled with finely scribbled handwriting, and the paper used was made from rough, straw-like fabric. There were gastric juices here and there in the book, and the book was poorly held together by a string — a measure obviously taken by its previous owner to prevent the journal from falling apart. Nevertheless, a page could still slip free from the book if it was handled carelessly.
Though the look of the book was not that convincing at all, Lin Sanjiu still thanked God for the minor fortune that allowed her to obtain the journal.
It was such a coincidence that she could get the journal.
No matter how much they adapted to life in the twelve worlds, they were still dwelling in the era of the apocalypse that acted as a hotbed for the birth of many vicious minds and savage people, all of which made the life of posthumans harder with every passing day. Some of them even lost their chance to see the sunrise of tomorrow, and all the people who had died became an asset to the group of people known as vultures.
Just like its animal counterpart, vultures were scavengers whose life depended on the deceased. It wasn't known how they found out the exact location and time of every posthuman that died, but vultures were always the first people to get to the death scene. They ransacked the body and raided it for whatever Special Items or belongings; sometimes they even took the limbs of the dead. Nevertheless, as disgusting and baleful as they were, vultures still played an essential role in keeping the equilibrium of the twelve worlds.
When Lin Sanjiu came out of the Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum empty-handed. She had come across a vulture.
Compared to the other vultures, the man she met looked more like a derelict. His body seemed to permanently ingrained with the smell of decayed meat, and his arms were wet dipped in some kind of gooey slime. A large gunny was tied to his waist, and whenever he walked, the gunny would emit a hair-raising squelch.
When Lin Sanjiu got near him, the vulture slid opened his gunny and whispered, "Are you interested in buying a second-hand item?"
Lin Sanjiu had been clueless about what he meant by "second hand" at the time. As such, she took a glance through the opening of the gunny, and she was stunned by what she had seen.
Although the thing inside was covered in layers of stretched human skin, it wasn't hard to see that under the skin was a dead body. It seemed like the person had been wrapped in the skin and suffocated to death.
"Recently, a few monsters were making a ruckus in the Seagral Square," said the vulture nonchalantly. He paused for a few moments before continuing the same speech that had been ground-in deeply in his brain, "This unfortunate man was the victim of the skin monster. The skin monster took him by surprise, wrapping itself around his body from his head to his toes and murdered him by eroding the man's own skin. The sight of the corpse was so unbearable to see since the skin monster had merged with the man's corpse. I have no idea what the man had on him… So, do you want it? I can give you a special discount."
Lin Sanjiu frowned. Even though she had been to the Seagral Square before, she was as clueless as the vulture regarding the true face of the monster.
Despite that, seemingly driven by an unknown force, Lin Sanjiu still purchased the corpse from the vulture for five red crystals.
The vulture had been telling the truth: the corpse was so disfigured by the layer of skin that nobody could discern what was on the body inside, but that wasn't the case for Lin Sanjiu. After she turned the body into one of her cards, a description appeared on the card that said there was a journal rolled up in the thoracoabdominal cavity of the corpse. It wasn't known how he managed to swallow it.
With the help of the description, Lin Sanjiu found the journal dripping with gastric juices inside the thoracoabdominal cavity of the corpse. Then, she found a place and buried the body so that he could rest in peace.
That was the whole story of how she obtain this journal. Withdrawing herself from reminiscing, she had lost track of the last time she had read the journal.
Taking advantages of the little time while waiting for the transfer process to complete, she decided to read the journal as she was curious about what secret the journal held.
On the first page, the journal classified every Special Item that existed in the world into four classes.
The first was the defensive type. Aside from Sandwhale's [Lone Wolf Casual-smart Leather Belt Protection] that could actively form a protective barrier to shield its wielder from any harm, other items like [Cat Litter] which could hide a person's presence and [Versu Poison] which could instantly kill a person upon physical contact were also included in the "defensive" type.
The second class was the illusion type. The Special Items that fell into this category were capable of causing illusions to confuse an enemy, seal his or her ability, or control his mind. Most of the Special Items Lin Sanjiu had belonged to this class along with the third class, that's the assault type.
Meanwhile for the fourth type, due to their versatility, the author just grouped them as "other."
Lin Sanjiu was somewhat put off by the information the journal had disclosed to her.
She growled, "This is so general."
However, when she flipped to the next page, she was stupefied.
The following ten pages contained illustrations of some famed Special Items in the Twelve Worlds. All of them had been classified into the four classes specified on the firrst page. Alongside the drawings were a couple of lines of in-depth description of the Special Items such as their outlook, initiation criterion, and limiting factors.
She flipped through the journal and found that there were at least thirty illustrations under every class that she had never heard or seen before.
With this knowledge, if she ever had the chance to encounter any Special Item mentioned in the journal in the future, she believed that her chance of getting on top of the battle would increase by leaps and bounds.
Yet, this wasn't the most wonderful part of the journal.
After browsing through a dozen pages of illustrations, Lin Sanjiu flipped past the entire Special Item section. The content that greeted her next was truly eye-widening: the author had unearthed the spawning location of the Special Items and how to find them based on an investigation he had recorded and studied over the year.
In all these years, Lin Sanjiu had only obtained her Special Items through battles. She never knew nor tried to learn about the origin of the Special Items.
If her memory served her right, the [Pygmalion Choker] mentioned in its description that it spawned from where team battles occur. "So that sentence was the truth…"Lin Sanjiu sighed. Now, she was even more eager to explore the rest of the journal.
The next chapter talked about "Evolved Ability," and it was the longest chapter in the whole journal. In addition to the break down of the ability system, it also summed up the similarities of each Evolved Ability and their evolutionary pathway. It also contained a hundred types of illustrations.
"Who's the author of this journal? Was it that unfortunate man who was killed by the skin monster?"
"Sis', I'm done recording," While Lin Sanjiu was going to dive further into the journal, Ji Shanqing had returned into the room and placed the [Tape Recorder] beside her, interrupting her. "I only managed to record four verses before it ran out of tape."
"Great," Lin Sanjiu closed the journal, and when she extended her hand to stow the [Tape Recorder], something happened and it made her frown.
Her skin tone was clearly lighter than the [Tape Recorder]. It was as if she was fading.
Suddenly, it dawned on Lin Sanjiu.
"Quick! Grab my hand!" She yelled as she grabbed the [Tape Recorder]. Ji Shanqing didn't know what was happening, but he did what Lin Sanjiu had ordered him to do.
Then, Lin Sanjiu faded entirely.