Doomsday Wonderland C.1426: Mall Game

Lin Sanjiu had participated in countless survival games, encountering all levels of difficulty. What she hadn't expected was that one day, she would mentally prepare herself to lose the game while still trying to stay alive.

The posthumans, divided into two groups, stood on either side of the volunteer as instructed. Naturally, Advaita needed no introduction. Chen Hanwu was the dark-skinned young man who had asked the question earlier. Evidently, he was wary due to being paired with the ambush attacker and stood at a distance. On the other hand, Silvan had been grouped with two young women. It felt like a rat falling into a rice pot, but Lin Sanjiu was unsure who was the rat and who was the rice pot.

Silvan, who had lost both his voice and companion, seemed at a loss for the first time in his life. He ignored Advaita and kept glancing at Lin Sanjiu across the volunteer. When the two female teammates spoke to him, he looked even more helpless, only able to respond with a smile—a tactic that seemed to resonate with the two girls.

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The volunteer, thoroughly wrapped up from head to toe, seemed very satisfied with his grouping arrangement. He smiled and said, "Let's now introduce the game rules. Don't be disheartened; after all, you all failed to stop the new game launch."

To them, stopping the game launch was akin to trying to fish the moon out of the water. Hence, aside from the woman named Advaita, nobody reacted significantly to the statement. Lin Sanjiu watched as Advaita eagerly inquired, fully engrossed in noting crucial information. Naturally, she wouldn't remind her of anything. She was already frustrated enough.

The volunteer looked around. "Does everyone have a storage item? For those without one, you have pockets, right? Look in the places where you can store things."

Lin Sanjiu kept her hands tied and eyes fixed on Advaita, waiting to see where she would pull out a storage item. Just as Advaita was about to act, she glimpsed Lin Sanjiu and refrained.

"In those places, you'll find a note listing a series of goods," the volunteer continued. "What's written on this note is your... What's wrong with you two? Why aren't you moving?"

Chen Hanwu had just taken off one of his shoes, shaking it out like pouring out sand. Hearing the volunteer, he glanced at his two teammates and paused.

"Start searching," the volunteer urged, clapping his hands. "Hurry up! Why do you always need me to push you to act? Do you find it amusing to be constantly threatened by me?"

Advaita seemed to recall the experience of being "popped out" earlier. She took a glance at Lin Sanjiu before slowly reaching into her bosom. Although they had already met, it wasn't until after Advaita was pushed out that Lin Sanjiu finally noticed Advaita was wearing a loose cross-collared coat. The design was unique, seemingly having the pockets sewn inside.

She rummaged in her bosom for a moment but could not find the note the volunteer mentioned. Snorting lightly, she suddenly laughed.

"What can you do even if you see my storage item?" She shook her head as if realizing something. "If you're looking for a weak point, you're looking in the wrong place."

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Lin Sanjiu remained silent, watching Advaita take out a small mesh of fine copper wire.

She had seen many storage items, and the type Chen Hanwu hid in his shoe insole wouldn't make her bat an eyelid. However, this seemingly empty piece of copper wire mesh was puzzling; it was hard to see how it could store anything. Advaita held up the mesh, her gaze sweeping over each grid. When she was halfway through, she suddenly exclaimed, reaching in with her slender, fair pinky. Rather than coming out the other side, her finger disappeared into thin air. From the seemingly empty center of the grid, she hooked out a scroll of paper. freew𝚎bn𝐨𝘃𝐞𝗹.𝗰𝚘𝗺

Only then did Lin Sanjiu leisurely lower her head to check her card inventory.

Like all games, this mall game was designed by someone. If this note was a necessary item for the game, the volunteer could easily distribute it instead of having them rummage in their own storage items. Why take this detour?

Before she could figure it out, she realized that nothing extra had appeared in her card inventory. Over there, Chen Hanwu had already shaken a similar scroll out of his shoe. She flipped through her card inventory again but still found nothing.

Because of [Planar World], Lin Sanjiu seldom used storage special items. She remembered snatching a pair of pants from someone, which seemed to be a storage item. She quickly deactivated the card form and searched, still finding nothing. Eventually, at the volunteer's reminder, she found it in her own pocket.

Strange, why wasn't it placed in [Planar World]? Was there a selection criterion for where to put the note?

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As she pondered, she glanced across. Silvan retrieved the scroll from a black pouch on his combat belt while the short-haired, round-faced girl opened a locket around her neck that could hold a photo. The last young woman with fox-like eyes looked around before covering the lower half of her face with her hand, seemingly pulling the scroll from her mouth.

"Do you see? Each note lists a series of items, which is your shopping list. Each person's shopping list might be different." The volunteer also took out a demo scroll and unfolded it, pointing as he explained. "Before checking the list, look at the top, there's a letter followed by numbers... for instance, A1-A5. See it? That's the shelf number in the mall."

Indeed, Lin Sanjiu found the label "B1-B5" on her note.

"The shelf number assigned to you serves as your base. Everyone's base covers a range of five shelves, the specific location of which is randomly allocated. This means that even if you're in the same group, you might not be placed close together." The volunteer looked at Lin Sanjiu's team. "The main rule of the game is to try and collect all the items on your shopping list for your group, while preventing the other group from doing so. Every item on each list can be found within someone's base; some might be in a teammate's base, while others might be in a competitor's base. Any shelf not assigned to a player definitely won't have any items you need. It's important to note that when you retrieve an item from your list, you must place it back in the spot where you found the scroll for it to count."

Lin Sanjiu was taken aback. She lowered her head, eyes landing on the first item on her list. She couldn't help but glance at her trouser pocket again.

A 13L kitchen trash bin.

Was it inevitable that she would lose this game?

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