Chapter 404: The Twists And Turns

“First, I need to look for Sayo’s base…”

Under the azure sky, the sun glowed like a halo over the city. Two people walked together through the ruins of the city and stirred up dust with every step they took.

“I wonder if B.Rabbit and the others left any message there for me,” Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself as she drew out a card and looked at the address. Lin Sanjiu was didn’t know the location of Sayo’s base. She had never even heard of that place before.

According to B.Rabbit, Lin Sanjiu only needed to leave information about her next world at Sayo’s base. When Sayo returned to her base, she would bring the information to her base in the other world. With this, even if they were in different worlds among the Twelve Centrum, they would still be able to communicate.

When Lin Sanjiu thought about the last time she saw B.Rabbit, she realized that it had been two years since she had met him in Garden of Eden. If they were all heading toward the Twelve Worlds Centrum, there was a high chance that they might have left a message for her. She felt a little excited when she thought about it.

She turned to her grand prize and laughed, “Hurry up! The Free District isn’t far.”

After walking for few dozen kilometers without stopping, Ji Shanqing’s was so tired that his vision started to blur. He dragged his feet as he walked sluggishly and moved slower than the wounded Lin Sanjiu.

“Sis, Sis, hey, there is probably nothing fun in the Free District…”

The Free District was only the size of a second-tier city. The area surrounding the bustling city center was empty, desolate land. The view of the surrounding ruins of human civilization eroded by the wind had also eroded Ji Shanqing’s initial excitement.

“When you enter the Free District, you won’t say that,” Lin Sanjiu responded without turning her head. She raised her arm and pointed far ahead, “Look over there.”

Ji Shanqing was shorter than Lin Sanjiu so he had to lift up on his toes and stretch his neck like a meerkat to look at where she was pointing. From where he stood, he could only make out a few vague outlines.

While he tried to figure out what they were, Lin Sanjiu sighed softly, “Those are farmlands established by posthumans…I think we will reach the Free District soon.”

As they approached the city, Ji Shanqing could see some crude and damaged buildings as well as the plots of farmlands which had been cordoned off by scraps of construction materials. Just as Lin Sanjiu described, the flourishing city soon showed itself as he could see more and more posthumans.

The Free District was built from the ruins of the pre-apocalyptic world. From outside, it looked like a damaged giant, white shell with all sorts of strange buildings spouting within it. The posthumans wore all sort of weird-looking clothes. Once they were close to the city center, the smell of spices, wine, blood, and various other unique smells and the cacophony of singing voices and machinery greeted them. Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and finally felt that she was back. After she thought for a moment, she decided to look for Sayo’s address.

While they walked through the crowd, Ji Shanqing was in awe of everything around him. Since he was born, he had not seen so many people and so many strange, interesting things. Lin Sanjiu spent a lot of effort just to keep Ji Shanqing moving. She had to constantly look behind her and search for Ji Shanqing as he disappeared in the crowd. She even had to drag him away from various shops, stalls, streets and singing performances. Each time she interrupted his enjoyment of whatever drew his interest, he would grumble unhappily. When they finally found the address of Sayo’s base, it was almost evening.

Lin Sanjiu wiped the sweat off her forehead while she gave Ji Shanqing a dirty look before she walked into the building. The building was crooked, and for some reason, there were many wooden planks nailed to the outer walls. The door of the building had been removed, and there was a neon sign above the archway. The words on the sign glowed brightly in the night. The words such as “short-term accommodation”, “mailbox rental”, “messaging service”, and others were in multiple languages.

” This was why there was a P.O. Box 207 at the end of Sayo’s address, ” Lin Sanjiu thought.

The rental mailboxes were obviously luggage lockers which had been scavenged from pre-apocalyptic bus interchanges, supermarkets, and others. Unsurprisingly, their design and colors were all different. Lin Sanjiu found box 207 and entered the password 1944. The metal locker coughed out a cloud of dust when it opened with a clang.

After coughing once, Lin Sanjiu placed her hand nervously into the locker and searched for a moment.

“Is there anything?” Ji Shanqing asked.

Lin Sanjiu did not reply. She continued searching the locker unwilling to give up. Unfortunately, all she felt were the cold metallic sides of the locker and a thick layer of dust. From the looks of things, Sayo had probably not been in Red Nautilus for at least two years. Even though Lin Sanjiu knew that this outcome wasn’t entirely unexpected, she was filled with disappointment.

“Could it be that B.Rabbit and the others are still unable to come to the Twelve Worlds Centrum? Or perhaps Sayo’s message for them to come to Red Nautilus has not reached them? If it is the first scenario… how are they doing now?”

Lin Sanjiu stood still for a few seconds. Finally, she sighed and closed the mailbox. The moment she did that, Ji Shanqing figured that he could go out to explore again. His eyes lit up as he asked, “What do you plan to do next? Where should we go next?”

“Even though I don’t have any information about them, I can leave them with my whereabouts,” Lin Sanjiu muttered. “Before we came, I already asked around for the location of the Consular Officer Association. It isn’t far. I can get a visa and leave a message of what the next world I will be heading into is… It is late now, we can stay here for a night. Let’s go. We’ll go to the Consular Officer Association now.”

Although JI Shanqing wasn’t sure what the Consular Officer Association was, he followed Lin Sanjiu with zest. While he walked behind her, he asked, “How can you get a visa?”

“You can offer red crystals or resources,” Lin Sanjiu answered absent-mindedly. However, she suddenly felt a gloom settling over her without any warning. Getting a visa was definitely going to be expensive, but Lin Sanjiu didn’t worry over cost as she still had a large number of red crystals from the Slaves Training Camp. However, her misgiving about the situation was also due to the red crystals.

After the siblings left, she realized that the children did not take any of the red crystals and had left everything for her. It was as if they knew that they never needed those red crystals again

” No, I must be overthinking after hearing Ji Shanqing’s nonsense ,” Lin Sanjiu shook her head and force herself to abandon those thoughts before looking into the distance.

There wasn’t any sort of urban planning in the Free District. The roads and alleyways were all created naturally over time, so there were many unpredictable dead-ends. Luckily, the Consular Officer Association was the most popular place in the Free District. Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing didn’t take long to find the association’s building.

Consular officers had an important role in the apocalyptic worlds, and they certainly knew that they provided a rare commodity. The building they chose for their association was exceptionally fitting of their conceited attitudes. The high arched doorway, the elaborate Corinthian columns, the exquisite carvings—

When Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing climbed up the stairs and stood in front of the entrance, they felt comparatively small standing near the large doors. Based on appearances, the building had probably been an opera house before the apocalypse.

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“How pretentious,” Lin Sanjiu grumbled as she followed the crowd into the auditorium.

The chairs in the auditorium had been removed and replaced by rows of small desks. Some desks were occupied by people who looked like consular officers. There were even some promotional placards on some of the desks which read “Clearance sale: last few normal visas!”,”Special Price! Accepting survival items,” among other things.

They walked around the auditorium for some time, amused by what they saw. Lin Sanjiu gradually got an idea of how it functioned. The consular officers who were in the auditorium were either low-leveled or those who did not have any good visas left. The people who obtained their visas here were posthumans without much money. If a person wanted a rare visa, for example, a visa for any of the Twelve Worlds, or a nameless visa, they had to go upstairs. The VIP boxes were on the second floor of the theatre. There was more privacy there, and it was also more suitable for the exchange of rare items.

As she still had a few days before she needed to go to a new world, Lin Sanjiu wasn’t in a hurry to go upstairs. She wandered aimlessly around the rows of desks, browsing. After she had seen enough descriptions of the various varieties worlds that the consular officers offered, she stopped a consular officer who had just stood up from his desk, “I have a question, are there many consular officers upstairs now?”

The consular officer had very prominent dark circles around his eyes. Their bluish-black hue made it difficult for anyone to notice his other facial features. After looking at Lin Sanjiu, the man raised his chin at the VIP box and replied arrogantly, “More than enough for you.”

Lin Sanjiu nodded, not minding his attitude. After she saw him walking to the entrance of the auditorium, she brought her grand prize upstairs with her.

Once she entered the corridor on the second floor, a person immediately greeted her.

“Hello, are you here to obtain a visa?” a young man in a black suit asked quietly, “Please fill this registration form.”

“A registration?” Lin Sanjiu frowned.

“Yes,” the young man smiled. “Usually, it is unnecessary. However, our important Head of College is here today, so we can’t let you enter the VIP boxes without registering. Please write down your name, your request, and your bidding price; I will help you find a suitable consular officer. I need approval before I can let you in.”

Lin Sanjiu held the paper and pen that he had given to her. She was slightly bothered by what he said.

“The head of what college?”

She had never heard of a Head of College, or that there was even a college, but when she thought about it, she spent most of her time in Red Nautilus in the Starry Carnival Amusement Park pocket dimension. She did not really know much about the various factions in the Free District, so it wasn’t strange that she didn’t hear of that person before.

After contemplating for a while, she wrote down the details hesitantly: “Lin Sanjiu: a Twelve Worlds visa and a nameless visa, offering large red crystals, price negotiable.”

If she wanted to get a visa, she needed her name to be in the Consular Officer Database. However, she had been traumatized by Puppeteer’s pursuit and even by Ji Shanqing. She was now reluctant to tell people her name so she wrote her “Lin Sanjiu” is a very squiggly manner which made it more like a blob and even added a spelling mistake.

The young man took the paper without examining it carefully, “Wait here. Don’t come in until I invite you,” he said before turning and disappearing into the dimly-lit corridor. Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing stood by the stairs.

Unexpectedly, they were made to wait for more than ten minutes. The longer they waited, the more anxious Ji Shanqing seemed. Lin Sanjiu didn’t know what he was thinking. After he paced in circles a few times, he suddenly got close to Lin Sanjiu and whispered, “Sis, something isn’t right.”

“What now?”

“When we were downstairs, I could see that there were only six consular officers upstairs,” Ji Shanqing stared into the dark corridor. He spoke very softly, “This opera house is old, you can’t hear people’ footsteps because of the carpeted floor, but we can hear the sound of the doors… After that man entered the VIP box, how many times did you hear the door?”

Lin Sanjiu froze, “Once”.

“Yes, that man only entered the first VIP box and didn’t come out. If the first consular officer was suitable, he wouldn’t need to spend so much time. If that consular officer wasn’t suitable, he should have already exited and gone to the next box.” Ji Shanqing bit his nails as he continued, “He mentioned that there was an important person here, so they didn’t want to let you enter… Since that VIP values his privacy, logically speaking, everyone that wants a visa should just need to wait at the door, why is it even necessary to go through the troublesome process of registration…”

“If you suspect something, just spit it out,” Lin Sanjiu massaged her temples.

“Didn’t you mention that once your name is in the consular officer database, anyone can easily trace a specific person? I think that important man came here to track down people… The registration is probably just a backup to screen the people who want to get visas. I have considered many possibilities, but this is the only explanation that seemed the most plausible.”

In other words, that big shot or his subordinate was now reviewing Lin Sanjiu’s registration form. Lin Sanjiu frowned. She was about to say something when she the door of the first VIP box opened with a creak. The young man appeared in the corridor shortly after with her registration form in his hand. He walked over with a beaming face and asked the duo, “You must be Miss Lin Sanjiu. Please enter, I’ve found a suitable consular officer for you.”

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t tell what flashed in her mind at that very moment. She shot a glance at Ji Shanqing. When she noticed that his expression had also suddenly turned sour, she suppressed her racing heart. She stepped forward and smiled, “Really? Thank you…”

Before the young man could react, a dark shadow struck the back of his neck. There was no way he could have guarded against that attack, so he immediately fainted. Lin Sanjiu grabbed the unconscious man and put him down on the floor as quietly as possible. Ji Shanqing acted as if they were still talking and spoke with a cheerful voice, “Oh, which consular officer? Oh, I see…”

The moment the young man was on the floor, Lin Sanjiu immediately grabbed Ji Shanqing by his sleeve and rushed downstairs. The moment they reached the first floor of the auditorium, they heard a commotion from the VIP boxes on the second floor.

“Why are they after me?” Lin Sanjiu threw Ji Shanqing over her shoulders as he was too slow. Then, she ran for the door, “Who could be looking for me?”

“Have you forgotten? There is a mastermind behind the Slaves Training Camp. That person must have found out what you’ve done!” Ji Shanqing wheezed as he laid over her shoulders, “No secrets can be hidden forever; it’s not hard to know your name!”

Lin Sanjiu pursed her lips. She felt as if her heart was on fire. She didn’t know if it was because she couldn’t fight to resolve this situation or because she couldn’t get a visa. If she couldn’t get a visa, how was she going to tell B.Rabbit her location?

By the time an uproar started behind them, Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing were already out of the door. After she ran a bit, she suddenly turned around. She stopped before she collided in the person in front of her.

“What are you doing!” the consular officer with dark circles had apparently returned from his little trip outside. Startled, he rebuked, “Why are you running so recklessly!”

Lin Sanjiu froze. She quickly turned her head. When she saw him, she narrowed her eyes.