Puppeteer mentioned that Lin Sanjiu would fare better if she died of starvation in the depths of the ocean. But from the current circumstances, it probably wouldn’t happen because…
Lin Sanjiu was standing right in front of the doors of a Macdonald’s...
—
It has already been a month since she was nearly caught by Puppeteer. Lin Sanjiu had not a single good night’s sleep for the entire month, so she had very obvious dark eye circles. As she couldn’t find portable water, she could only sustain herself with coffee; thus, she was constantly in a sleep-deprived, hyperaroused state. Despite this, she did not give up searching for clues regarding the whereabouts of B.Rabbit and the others.
The Puppeteer had probably decided to settle down at the pier because his mannequins occupied the entire coastal area. Due to this situation, Lin Sanjiu did not dare to go near the shore. She could only search in a circular manner as she continued deeper into the ocean.
But her search was futile, and she even got lost.
Logically speaking, it was quite predictable. If a person was thrown in the middle of the ocean without a nautical chart or a compass, they would definitely lose their bearings. By that point, Lin Sanjiu did not know where the shore was, and that could be a life-threatening problem.
Without any seawater, the sun-baked seabed emitted an odd-smelling fishy stench which wouldn’t go away. The seabed was not entirely flat, and soon she saw more seamounts and knolls until the terrain was like a forest of rolling hills. After climbing quite a few of these hills, Lin Sanjiu stood midway of the tallest hill and started feeling a vague sense of anxiousness.
She took stock of her supplies and realized that she had only three boxes of chocolates left. She was almost running out of food, but she was still clueless about the road ahead.
When she reached the peak, she looked out and saw that there was a fissure on the ground about one kilometer away, and as it only looked like a patch of black, she couldn’t tell much about it. She only knew that it was an oceanic trench.
After coming down the hill, she went to the edge of the trench.
Even though the probability of finding food in the deep sea was even slimmer, Lin Sanjiu was very curious as she had never seen an oceanic trench before. She leaned over the edge and looked down. The seabed instantly fell away, and it was as if her feet were dangerously close to a cliff’s edge. It fell steeply a few thousand meters down into the dark, deep base of the trench without a single gentle slope. It was impossible for the light from the stars in the night sky to reach the trench, so Lin Sanjiu could only see an indiscernible darkness and the extremely steep precipice.
[Anyone who still thinks about climbing down after seeing this must be crazy...] Lin Sanjiu rebuked herself as she held on to a jutting rock with some difficulty and climbed downward carefully. Her palms hurt badly as they were scratched by the abrasive surface of the rocks and the salt crystals on them. Even professional rock climbers would think twice before taking on such a challenging climb. If her body weren’t physically enhanced, this trench would have easily been her burial ground.
"Why didn’t you turn back just now?" she asked herself a little regretfully.
[So what if I’m lost, if I continue walking toward the flatter areas, there should be a better chance of survival than going down this trench, right?]
Just when she had decided to turn back, she suddenly heard a familiar sound. She had not heard this sound since the New World had descended. It was the sound of water.
It sounded like waves gently hitting the sides of the rock wall. Lin Sanjiu crouched for a moment, staring into the dark abyss, imagining what the seawater would look like. Even if almost the whole world has died, in the depths of the ocean, there was still water, and she was still alive. Just like how mankind will still live on.
The sound of the waves reminded Lin Sanjiu of her one peaceful, ordinary, and even a little boring, life. She leaned against the rocky wall, pausing to listen to the waves for quite some time.
Of course, that alone wouldn’t change her mind, as she convinced herself that she would never go down.
But, while she was staring blankly at the bottom of the trench, she saw something flashing by in the darkness. The light flickered for a few times as if there was a bad electrical connection before it finally stabilized. The eye-catching bright yellow light illuminated an M-shaped sign, the familiar golden arches.
[Mcdonald's.]
For a split second, Lin Sanjiu thought that she finally had a nervous breakdown due to the various events she went through after the apocalypse. It did not make sense to her that there would be a Mcdonald's sign in the middle of the deep sea when the whole world was already destroyed.
[No. It isn’t only a sign.] Lin Sanjiu was dumbfounded when she saw another two flashes of light beside the M-shaped sign. As if she could even hear the "Bzzt!" as the electricity ran through the fluorescent lights, a Mcdonald’s restaurant lit up in the darkness, right in front of her eyes.
The entrance was lit by a warm, inviting yellow light, and since it was very far away, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t see the restaurant clearly, but she could clearly read the white on red "McDonald’s".
After drinking a month of nothing but coffee, Lin Sanjiu, the insomniac, didn’t think too much despite having an inkling that there was something wrong, she just stepped onto the next jutting rock and continued her way towards the bottom of the trench.
Her appetite which had been turned off by her diet of melted chocolate seemed to suddenly come alive, and her stomach began spamming hunger signals to her brain. As she climbed downward, she couldn’t help thinking about those tasty fried McWings.
Climbing down a few thousand meters down such a precipice was a strenuous activity even for a Posthuman. The blade of the knife that Lin Sanjiu used while she climbed was already bent out of shape. There were many wounds on her fingers, and to make matters worse, her hands were covered with salt, so the pain she was experiencing was immense. When she was near to the bottom, she was stumbling rather than climbing. Without her singlet, Lin Sanjiu realized that her whole body was covered with bruises and abrasions when she stood up once again.
Fortunately, she had reached the bottom of the trench.
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