Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

237: Does Derik Have an Identity Issue?

Lin Sanjiu had never noticed that ten seconds was such a short time. The tall male student attacked her ferociously. He attacked her as if that was his only goal and showed no regard for his life. It took Lin Sanjiu some effort to create distance between him and herself with two consecutive attacks. She turned back to the family and was just about to randomly choose one of them when the child finished his countdown, "Time's up."

Her heart missed a beat. However, Lin Sanjiu had no time to understand her emotions because the tall male student started attacking her again. This time, when he moved, a shadow leaped from the family of three and coordinated with him. The person targeted Lin Sanjiu's lower body with a low sweep kick.

"You didn't identify me correctly!" the petite young wife giggled. A metallic sheen flashed from the tip of her shoes. It had obviously been modified. Lin Sanjiu did not wish to test if her Higher Consciousness body could withstand their attacks. She flipped her body and flew oppositely until she heard a third voice.

"You have ten seconds. Guess which of us is Derik."

'How are there so many Deriks?' Lin Sanjiu thought. An indescribable feeling welled up from her heart, she spat. As an old woman started counting down, Lin Sanjiu mustered her strength and stretched out her left arm. Using it like a whip, she targeted the elderly couple in front of her.

Her speed made it almost impossible for any human to evade that attack. Her arm struck the elderly couple head-on. The old woman who had just almost said "8" was forced to stop when she was hit. At the same time, Lin Sanjiu's two initial attackers rushed toward her again. Lin Sanjiu bent her head to evade their attack and quickly countered with another punch. The old woman who had been struck suddenly leaped up with incredible agility and jumped to join the scuffle.

"If I don't make a guess, all these people would join in the fight!" Lin Sanjiu thought gloomily. At the same time, she received a kick from that petite wife. Even though her "body" was now quite dense, that kick did manage to disperse a bit of her Higher Consciousness. Just when Lin Sanjiu was dealing with the attacks from four people, she heard a spine-chilling voice nearby.

It was not a terrifying voice but a unified voice of quite a few people saying the same thing in unison.

"You have ten seconds. Guess which of us is Derik."

Lin Sanjiu had already heard the same words a couple of times. Now, it was coming from three groups of people. If Lin Sanjiu's vocal cords had developed, she would have shouted in frustration. As she was too busy fending off her attackers, she didn't even look at the three groups and just randomly pointed at a few people. She didn't even know if she had pointed her finger at anyone.

"You've guessed correctly!" a young girl announced cheerfully, disappearing into the darkness with her parents. Before Lin Sanjiu could even breathe, two black shadows started heading her way. "You're wrong!" they shouted and rushed toward her.

The situation got worse the following minute.

Whether the person was a man or woman, old or young, tall or short, or even an LP, anyone could be Derik. While she continued fighting, Lin Sanjiu tried to choose people with different attributes. However, apart from her few random lucky guesses, she could not find any underlying pattern.

Under such circumstances, her thinking calmly and analyzing the patterns was too difficult. More and more people were asking her to identify Derik, and sometimes, a few batches of people appeared simultaneously. Sometimes, an earlier group had not finished their countdown, but there would suddenly be a new voice. In any case, anyone surrounded by almost a hundred people fighting constantly and listening to the crowd's buzzing voices would find it impossible to think clearly.

"You've got to preserve!" Mrs. Manas spoke out anxiously. It was useless to stare at and analyze the image from her Higher Consciousness because the whole scenery had been filled by the top of many people's heads. A wave-like crowd of arms headed toward Lin Sanjiu, trying to attack her. There was no point in being careful because every inch around Lin Sanjiu was filled with people.

Even if they randomly waved their arms, they could hit Lin Sanjiu. Let alone when each of these people targeted Lin Sanjiu with all sorts of methods. Lin Sanjiu would have been in a more terrible state, but luckily, she could occasionally fly up and evade some attacks.

However, being in the air did not guarantee her safety. Whenever she flew upward, she would become a very obvious target. Therefore, unless necessary, Lin Sanjiu would rather hide and dodge within the crowd.

"Could all these people be Derik?" she gritted her teeth and asked herself. She was holding a dagger that she had taken from someone. She stabbed a man's neck viciously. The man glowed and slowly faded away. "I have already gotten rid of 30 to 40 Deriks. This doesn't make sense!"

However, she didn't have time to think. Her full focus was on fighting. There was no safe spot for her. While Lin Sanjiu shifted sideways and dodged a knife, she would also need to use her arm to knock over a person coming from the side. She split herself into two to avoid a kick from the back and let that person miss. In this pose, Lin Sanjiu had to kick a few more people away from her.

It wasn't just multi-tasking. She had to react to about eight different fight styles. Gradually, she stopped thinking. Lin Sanjiu entered a sort of state. She couldn't tell if she was numb or extremely focused. She could only react to the attacks raining down upon her and nothing else.

Though the endless attackers who came down upon her like a tsunami were reasonably strong and had good stamina, at best, they were only around the level of people who had just become posthumans. None of them had any abilities. As a result, though Lin Sanjiu found it difficult to keep up at times, with the current strength of her Higher Consciousness, she was like a sturdy millstone grinding her enemies slowly into dust.

When the space around her finally felt wider, and the number of people gradually decreased, Lin Sanjiu finally had the time to take a breather and realize that her opponents had stopped attacking.

From her Higher Consciousness, she could see that though she had already halved the number of people, there were still nearly 100 people around her. Lin Sanjiu couldn't believe she could get rid of about 80 to 90 people at a very basic posthuman level in just a few minutes.

A red body floated quietly in midair, observing the group of people below coldly.

Finally, a man and a woman emerged from the crowd.

While Lin Sanjiu was surprised and wanted to attack them, the woman suddenly spoke calmly, "Between us, who is Derik?"