Chapter 992: What Doesn"t Kill You

Lin Sanjiu was currently caught in the dilemma of happiness and annoyance.

After searching through ten consecutive corpses, she was exhausted and panting, crouching among the piles of bodies, resembling a mushroom that had just sprouted from a chaotic graveyard. After all, the difficulties she faced now were luxuries for an ordinary person.

There are too many Special Items, and she can"t take them all! Even if she had multiple pairs of hands, it wouldn"t be enough, let alone with the time limit.

The artist, who could only paint and nothing else, ended up carrying her bags. She found several bags that could hold items and ordered the artist to extend his arms and hang the bags on them, making him look like a scarecrow trailing behind her. Whenever she found a Special Item that hadn"t been deducted as rent, she would casually stuff it into the bags.

In nearly a dozen minutes, she had filled two bags, which was already enough to pay the rent. However, Lin Sanjiu not only needed to retrieve her own belongings but also planned to add some inventory for herself. Fortunately, the artist, being a Special Item, seemed unfazed by fatigue and continued faithfully extending his arms to follow behind her.

"Hey, you"re being too greedy," Lin Sanjiu said, relieved of the heavy burden. She even started chatting with the pocket dimension: "What a pathetic boat. You dare to demand four Special Items as rent... Look at all the things I"ve found. Most of them have already been taken by you. How about this fish?"

As she spoke, she casually picked up a recently deceased fresh river fish from the ground and asked aloud.

"That"s just an ordinary fish," the pocket dimension replied unhappily. "Don"t you have enough to pay the rent? Why haven"t you returned the boat?"

"I still have time, don"t I?" Lin Sanjiu tossed the dead fish back into the water, just like she had discarded dozens of Special Items that had become mere decorations a while ago. "Anyway, these things have no owners. Why do you care?"

"Don"t you want to leave some behind to pay the rent for the next batch of people?" The pocket dimension seemed a bit distressed. "Don"t you understand sustainable development?"

"I don"t understand," Lin Sanjiu replied. After searching each corpse, she pushed it back into the water. Driven by self-interest, she was extremely efficient. In this short time, she had already cleared out almost half of the wooden platform. "How long have you been here? How many people realized that they could use the items at the bottom of the lake as rent?"

"Quite a few," the pocket dimension hummed. "Over the course of ten years, there have been five people who realized it. Most of the others died before reaching this point. Many people didn"t even think of using the corpses at the bottom of the lake as a resource. Oh, I"ve already taken everything from this person"s body."

Lin Sanjiu disappointingly tossed the candlestick and the corpse back into the water. The wooden platform was once again cleared, and she looked around. Her eyes brightened when she took a few steps forward and retrieved a black bag produced by the Munitions Factory from under one of the corpses. It was the bag containing her weapons that had fallen into the water. Finally, she had found it!

However, when she weighed the bag with her hand, she felt that it seemed much lighter. With time being precious now, she couldn"t carefully inspect it. She quickly hung it on the artist"s body and continued searching for more corpses.

"I have a question that I can"t figure out," she picked up a sign and waved it. After hearing the pocket dimension"s reluctant "No" in response, she couldn"t help but laugh and handed it to the artist. "Let"s say you took someone"s life as collateral, but if that person is killed by someone else midway and their belongings aren"t enough to pay the rent, wouldn"t you suffer a loss?"

The pocket dimension exclaimed, "Oh, I would love that."

"You would love to incur losses?"

"No," it said slowly through the loudspeaker. "If I lose a life, the only thing I can use to compensate is the corpse."

"What would you do with the corpse?" As she spoke, Lin Sanjiu found the plastic bag she had thrown away earlier. There was only one item left in the bag, which was the coffee cup that was always full no matter when.

"You don"t know how useful a corpse can be."

Lin Sanjiu paused for a moment and whispered in agreement, "I know."

The pocket dimension seemed to have been triggered and said thoughtfully, "If I have a freshly deceased corpse, I can make it stand up, speak, walk, and perform actions..."

Before Lin Sanjiu could ask, "Why?" the loudspeaker continued, "I can make it one of the visitors on the lake, together with the unaware posthumans, to seize the boat. Just imagine, wouldn"t that be interesting?"

"Only at the beginning of my memory, I was fortunate enough to obtain a fresh corpse. I used it twice, and it was incredibly useful! It"s a pity that corpses decay... The third time, other posthumans discovered the corpse"s signs of decay and put an end to it. They united and cleared the game with only two deaths."

The pocket dimension sighed regretfully, but Lin Sanjiu couldn"t help but shudder. Did the other two posthumans perish because of the corpse?

"Where did you appear at the beginning?" she asked, thinking for a moment.

"The People"s Park."

"The... Soviet Union?"

"How would I know?"

"But now you"re no longer in the People"s Park."

"Mmm," unexpectedly, the pocket dimension"s tone remained calm. "Yes, I was dug up by someone. The lake, the forest, and the wooden platform you see now... They are all part of the former People"s Park. The area that used to be the lake in that park is now just a barren pit."

Even though time was precious, Lin Sanjiu took a moment to gesture on her face with her hand. "The person who dug you up, is it...?"

"Oh, yes, he had a rectangular face," the pocket dimension sighed. "After he dug me up, my business suffered. Hey, you only have five minutes left. Aren"t you going to leave the boat?"

The corpses that hadn"t been searched were still piled up at the end of the wooden platform like small mountains. Lin Sanjiu glanced at them with some regret, but she could only respond with a quick "okay." When she finally managed to pull a corner of the sunken s.h.i.+p out of the water, she was already exhausted.

"Congratulations on successfully leaving the boat. Your deposit has been returned to you," the loudspeaker casually congratulated her. "I hope you had a good time. Come again next time."

Lin Sanjiu lay on the ground, gasping for breath. She had found a total of 25 usable Special Items, and 17 of them had been used as rent. As she felt the long-lost power gradually returning to her body, she also heard the sound of the water receding. When she looked up, the green water in the lake lowered once again, returning to its original depth.

Once she regained her strength, she quickly collected her belongings, fearing that if she moved too slowly, she would be treated as a returning customer for renting the boat again. After reabsorbing each card into her body, just as she was about to take a step towards the back of the house, the pocket dimension suddenly spoke, "Do you know the person who dug me up?"

"Ah, sort of."

"Can you ask him to put me back? It"s bad enough being a pocket dimension, but it"s even more frustrating to be carried around by someone. I haven"t had a single customer for several months."

"I don"t have the final say, but I know who does."

"Who?"

"A... friend."

"Alright," the pocket dimension hesitated. "If you can get that rectangular-faced person to release me, I"ll give you and your friend an evolutionary ability each."

"You have evolutionary abilities?"

"After collecting rent from so many people," the loudspeaker suddenly sounded proud. "Whether it"s abilities, Potential Growth Value, items, or Higher Consciousness, I have it all. How do these abilities sound to you: "Divination of Fate Transitions"... or "Innocent Search Engine"?"

Even Lin Sanjiu, who didn"t lack abilities, couldn"t help but feel excited at the mention of them. She nodded, accepting the offer. With the help of [Planar World], she quickly browsed through her newly acquired Special Items. After making the necessary preparations, she took a deep breath and finally walked towards the back of the house. The process of leaving the pocket dimension was the same as entering — as the white light flashed before her eyes, the green trees and park disappeared completely. When she opened her eyes again, she was still standing on the corridor of the Ocean Voyager, without even a slight change in position.

The corridor was empty, with no one in sight, but she could occasionally hear hurried footsteps in the distance. The frequency of the sirens had decreased. Under the mobilization orders issued from the command center, the posthumans seemed to have gone about their tasks. After all, she had spent two hours in the pocket dimension.

Lin Sanjiu looked around and opened [No Coincidence, No Story], striding in the direction she had come from. There were only two possibilities: either the rectangular-faced person had released the pocket dimension and left, or he had to stay nearby to maintain the pocket dimension. If he had already left, there was nothing more to say. However, if it was the second possibility...

She forcefully opened the door to the tool room.

There was only one place nearby where a person could hide for a long time.

From the dark corner of the tool room, a figure seemed to be startled, moving in the shadows. In an instant, Lin Sanjiu"s Higher Consciousness surged forward like a wave, and with a loud "thud," she slammed the figure against the wall. The person struggled silently for a few moments, but under the blockade of her Higher Consciousness, they soon lost control of their limbs, as if they were a piece of gum pressed against the wall.

Lin Sanjiu"s eyes adjusted to the darkness, gradually making out the rectangular face that emerged from the shadows.

She didn"t speak or approach — because at that moment, "Pure Touch" lightly tapped her Higher Consciousness like a finger.

Lin Sanjiu immediately crouched down, and the triangular shape composed of black dots hovering above the back of her head missed its target. In that instant, her body moved like a snake, agile and flexible. In the narrow doorway, she twisted her waist and effortlessly flung something small into the corridor without looking back—

Followed by a slight "pu-chi" sound as the skin was punctured, a deep gasp emerged sharply, trembling sharply as if it were about to turn into a painful scream. Lin Sanjiu stepped into the tool room, took a glance back at the corridor, and then withdrew her gaze uninterestedly.

"I found Natasha"s Cross from under the water," she calmly said as she approached the rectangular-faced person. "Did you think that my abilities and items were all taken away? You"ve been ambus.h.i.+ng here for so long around the corner, truly working hard. But you see, you"re not entirely wrong. The things I used to deal with you aren"t Special Items after all."

Outside the door, the frequency of the panting on the corridor increased, and the throaty sound of blood gurgling resonated from one after another. Lin Sanjiu ignored it and stood in front of her target, her gaze sweeping across the expressionless rectangular face.

"Take me to your master," she said softly. "Or your Lord Father, I don"t know what that pervert wants to be called... Lead me there. I think he"s waiting for me."