Chapter 1224: Farewell to Gardenia
The shaking finally stopped.
In the distance, the echoes gradually faded away, and silence fell upon the room like snowflakes gently covering the ground. The heavy and rapid gasps of several people sounded clearly in the air, scraping against their eardrums. The pocket dimension's invasion had torn two openings in the hospital, revealing two scenes that didn't belong to this world. The spot where Hei Zeji was standing just moments ago was now empty, and the flowing mud-like pocket dimension seemed to hesitate on the edge of entering the hospital.
"Did he really leave?" Bohemia said, unable to quite believe it.
Every time she reunited with her friends in this drifting doomsday, it felt like tasting a fleeting sweetness amidst the boundless sea of suffering. And every farewell, Lin Sanjiu thought, might be their last. She had already—not so much gotten used to it, but rather learned how to detach her emotions.
Whether it's the end of the world or not, wasn't life made up of bits of honey strung together in the sea of bitterness?
"He left early," Bohemia muttered to herself as she climbed to her feet. "Impressive, but also quite foolish. If I wanted to, I could have swindled him out of his pants."
She dusted off her skirt, lifted her head, and couldn't help but exclaim, "Huh? Why did they retreat?"
Lin Sanjiu's gaze swept across and she froze in place. The pocket dimension that had been continuously trying to erode the hospital was now shrinking rapidly. It seemed as if it was being wiped away, and in just a few seconds, they were reduced to the size of a fist each. When she thought back to the brief moment just before Hei Zeji disappeared, when everyone thought that the Great Deluge had not worked, she couldn't help but take a deep breath. "Could it be... that the second Great Deluge actually temporarily restored some order here?"
Normal teleportation was usually a process that could take several minutes. Only the Night Wanderers, who were swallowed whole by the Great Deluge, suddenly disappeared from their original locations. This time, it seemed that the teleportation mechanism had just started to work, restoring a small part of order.
"You're partially right," Bohemia said, seeming to admire her a bit for the first time. "Since the Great Deluge itself has no order or rules, it's possible that it randomly restored some order here."
"I don't quite understand all this talk," Gardenia suddenly said, having been trying to avoid drawing attention to herself like a shadow. "But regardless, we should hurry up and leave, right?"
The former security guard quickly nodded in agreement.
Gardenia was right. The hospital had just descended into chaos, and with Lin Sanjiu destroying parts of the building, the security guards were probably disoriented. Now that the Great Deluge had restored some order, they needed to leave quickly before the guards could regroup. Otherwise, they might not have another chance.
But before they left, Lin Sanjiu had something to do.
"I have a question for you," she said, observing Gardenia's face, which was gradually losing its glossy beauty. "Now that the NPC is gone, and I want to collect more points from the deceased, what should I do?"
Here, hundreds of white trees formed rows, and the densely packed branches formed a jungle. She hadn't forgotten that every branch was adorned with the points they desperately needed.
"Me? How would I know—" Gardenia seemed to find Lin Sanjiu's question baseless, but she suddenly stopped mid-laugh and furrowed her eyebrows, thinking hard. Then she took a deep breath and said, "Oh, you know what? I did hear about it. Yes, it was mentioned by that fat NPC at some point... But when exactly was that?"
"That's not important," Bohemia said, her impatience showing through as she channeled some of Hei Zeji's assertiveness. "Just explain the method to us!"
Gardenia glanced at her but directed her words at Lin Sanjiu, "But this method requires a crucial item. I'm afraid you don't have it. If you can't find it, you'll have to go out and get it before coming back. But by then, I won't accompany you."
No one who left here wanted to come back. Lin Sanjiu suppressed the rising anxiety in her abdomen and asked, "What item?"
"It's a reaper belonging to someone who has died. Use it to collect points from the branches," Gardenia said, then sighed. "Who would carry a dead person's reaper around? You can give it to the payment counter, and they'll exchange it for some information. But you—" contemporary romance
She didn't finish her words; Lin Sanjiu had already grabbed Bohemia and beckoned Magus to follow. They turned around and rushed back into the thicket of white trees. Reaping the points from the branches was the opposite process of reaping organs from living people: swipe the branches and then insert the points into a person's body. Since she wasn't an NPC, Lin Sanjiu didn't know how many points she could get each time. So, like a mouse in a rice bin, she took as much as she could since nobody was watching, making the solid white branches creak and sway as if under hail.
As for the crucial reaper—Wushi Fan was already dead, wasn't she?
When Lin Sanjiu had discovered that using Wushi Fan's reaper returned the points to her, it was like taking a blow to her head. But who would have thought that she would have a change of fortune here after being tricked by Wushi Fan?
"You actually had one on you?" Gardenia seemed a bit incredulous. "Unfortunately, I don't need any points right now."
"No one said we were going to give it to you. If we're giving it to anyone, it's to the gamer first," Bohemia said, extending her arms and beginning to hit the stainless steel reaper again and again. Finally, she was unable to endure it any longer. "Alright, alright. We've probably collected enough points!"
Magus, with her head still covered in a cloth, also nodded vigorously.
Lin Sanjiu didn't bother getting points for herself; after all, she was a fugitive, unlike Bohemia, who still had a bit of luck on her side. She stuffed the reaper back into the card inventory and patted the former security guard who was still dazed, shouting, "Let's go!"
They pushed the door open and found that the guards at the entrance were like bloodhounds catching a whiff of blood. Not only did they refuse to disperse, but there were even more of them than the last time Lin Sanjiu stormed into the room. However, this time, it was much easier for them to rush out. The silk cocoon that had been taken off before was blocking the corridor not far away, and it hadn't been moved yet.
For them, it happened to act as a safe haven. While Lin Sanjiu resisted the guards and provided cover for them, the others crouched and rushed past her, with Gardenia following closely behind, scrambling to get into the silk cocoon. Next, Lin Sanjiu used the cocoon as a defensive cover. Between dodging and attacking, she exerted continuous force, pushing the cocoon onto another corridor. After everyone climbed out of the cocoon, Lin Sanjiu immediately turned it into a card and picked up Puppeteer's body by the waist, giving the command to move forward. The remaining three followed her and dashed deep into the hospital's corridors.
The most wonderful thing was that when they left the guards far behind, Lin Sanjiu heard someone say, "Don't chase them all! There should be a man inside and an NPC!"
Next, they went around corner after corner, familiar with the layout, and rushed into the payment counter. They swiftly pushed aside the NPC on duty and vaulted over the counter—everything happened so quickly that it was almost unbelievable. Bohemia took the lead and jumped over first, and Lin Sanjiu immediately passed Magus to her. After the former security guard fell off the counter with a 'thud,' she also propped herself up on the counter and jumped out.
When she landed, she turned her head to look back.
Inside the payment counter that looked like a small shop, Gardenia stood pale and defeated. Her hands rested on the edge of the counter, and her knuckles turned white. The electric fan above her head creaked and rotated, disturbing the stagnant, hot air with little vigor. The light illuminated the top of her head, and her originally platinum-like hair now appeared darker, as if it was about to enter an inconspicuous, ordinary dark brown territory.
"I..." Gardenia opened her mouth but didn't finish her sentence. After a few seconds, she wiped the corner of her eyes. "Why can't I leave?"
Lin Sanjiu was clearly aware that the NPC behind Gardenia was cursing as he climbed up and staggered towards the telephone on the wall. But she didn't move from her spot.
"The reason you were able to save me in time before," she whispered, "is because you saw something that posthumans couldn't see. That is, the Great Deluge."
She knew that Bohemia didn't bring Gardenia into the garden. So, the reason why Gardenia could see the Great Deluge was the same reason the fat NPC understood the Great Deluge.
Gardenia stared at her, and her eyes shimmered with watery light, a glimmer of the brilliance she had when they first met.
"Haven't you looked in the mirror yet? Do you remember Bohemia saying you look ordinary?" Lin Sanjiu took out a small mirror from the card inventory and tossed it to her. "Take a look."
Gardenia grabbed the mirror tightly but couldn't bring herself to look. It was as if the mirror held her deepest fears, and tears kept streaming down her face.
Lin Sanjiu sighed softly and said, "I hope that during the time you are an NPC, the Great Deluge won't disturb you."
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