Infinite Nightmares

Zhang Wenda’s voice was so loud it nearly sent ripples across the perfectly clear water.

In all his time with Hu Maomao, Zhang Wenda had always treated her as an elder. This was the first time he had ever raised his voice to her in such a rage.

It even caught Song Jianguo by surprise. She thought the old Zhang Wenda, the one consumed by red, had returned. She hesitated, wondering if she should go over and slap him to his senses.

But Hu Maomao said nothing. She simply watched Zhang Wenda calmly. After a moment, she spoke. "What are you afraid of? That I know you’re not from this world? That I know you’re a transmigrator?"

Time seemed to freeze. In the next instant, a crimson aura exploded from Zhang Wenda as his killing intent flared. The scythes in his hands shot out, long and sharp. It would take but a single thought to slice through Hu Maomao’s slender neck and silence her for good.

Zhang Wenda glared at the floating girl, his eyes practically murderous. Through gritted teeth, he asked, "You know everything?"

Hu Maomao lowered her head and chuckled softly. "Are you regretting getting to know me now? You know what I can do. If you wanted to keep this secret, you never should have gotten so close to me in the first place!"

At this, she lifted her head to face Zhang Wenda again, her voice now filled with a suppressed agitation. "I don’t need anyone’s pity! I don’t need some junior fawning over me, and I don’t need a friend to bridge some age gap! So what if my ability makes everyone uncomfortable? I’ve spent all these years alone. I’m used to it!"

After saying her piece, Hu Maomao glanced toward the swirling dust in the distance. Deciding not to waste any more time here, her tone became calm again.

"If you’re going to kill me to protect your secret, now’s the time. In a direct fight, I’m no match for you. But if you’re not going to, then you can get out of my way."

"If you’re not going, I’ll go myself. It doesn’t matter how strong I am—I can’t let our home fall."

With that, she floated past Zhang Wenda and drifted into the distance, her voice fading as she went.

"I was curious, you know? I wanted to see if the blue has been subtly influencing you. But now I see it... that blue is part of you. You wield it with absolute mastery, far better than you ever use your red."

"You might not even realize it yourself. You’ve been a salaryman for so many years. You’ve spent most of your life constantly weighing pros and cons, trying to maximize your gains, and avoiding anything that offers no benefit. That’s your true color right there."

"But let me tell you something, Zhang Wenda. Not everything in life is just another empty promise from your boss! If you have to weigh the pros and cons of every single thing before you act, if that’s the kind of person you really are, then you never should have joined the Third Line in the first place!"

By the time she finished, her voice was barely a whisper, and with her last words, Hu Maomao vanished into the swirling dust.

Zhang Wenda stood frozen, breathing heavily. Just then, a flash of yellow zipped past in the distance again.

Zhang Wenda had never found a color so grating. For it to appear now, at this exact moment, felt like a deliberate provocation.

"Fuck!" A fire ignited within him, and Zhang Wenda vanished on the spot. When he reappeared, he was right beside the yellow object. With a cross-slash of his hands, he tore the tattered yellow cloth drifting on the wind in two.

"Give it to me or don’t! Stop fucking dangling it in front of me! I can gain my own ideology without you!"

An expressionless Song Jianguo walked over, swung her right arm in a wide arc, and WHACK!—smacked him hard on the head. "Don’t mention it," she said. "It’s the least I could do."

Zhang Wenda ignored her, his gaze returning to the direction Hu Maomao had gone. ’It’s dangerous in there,’ he thought. ’If I don’t go help, she’ll die... and if she dies, no one will ever know my deepest secret again.’

On one hand, the secret of his transmigration. On the other, the life of one of his few friends.

But as he recalled all the moments he’d shared with Hu Maomao, remembered how she had stepped in to help him time and time again without a second thought, Zhang Wenda finally moved, chasing after her.

’She wasn’t a perfect friend, that was for sure. But no matter how flawed she was, he could never just stand by and watch her throw her life away.’

"Let’s go," Zhang Wenda called out to Song Jianguo beside him, already taking off in the direction Hu Maomao had disappeared.

"Is there something wrong with you two? All this back-and-forth," Song Jianguo grumbled, but she led the Black Cats after Zhang Wenda, heading deep into the perilous ruins.

As they ventured deeper, Zhang Wenda could feel the ground begin to slope downwards, and the fragments of rubble from the Tower of Babel grew scarcer.

Recalling the massive explosion from earlier, it was clear they were nearing the epicenter. As the ground pitched further downward, the invisible water deepened, soon reaching almost to Zhang Wenda’s neck.

’This won’t work. I need to find a better way to travel.’

He shot Song Jianguo a look over his shoulder. She instantly split into six cats, which joined the other Black Cats to assemble themselves into a boat, complete with cat ears.

Zhang Wenda vaulted aboard. At his gesture, pointing forward, hundreds of cat paws beneath the boat began to paddle furiously, propelling them onward.

But after they’d been traveling for a while, Zhang Wenda, who had been on high alert, frowned. ’We’ve been at this for a bit now, why haven’t we found her? Maomao shouldn’t have gotten this far.’

"I have an idea." Instantly, the Black Cats replicated, forming a large, long-eared dog that leaped onto the boat. It raised its big nose and began to sniff the air.

Soon, after a few sharp WOOFs from the dog, the cat boat turned and began paddling in the opposite direction. They were clearly backtracking.

"Are you sure? Isn’t this the way we came?"

However, just as Zhang Wenda voiced his confusion, Hu Maomao’s small figure appeared in mid-air.

She had her hands pressed to her temples and was muttering something under her breath.

Hearing the noise behind her, Hu Maomao turned, looking at Zhang Wenda in surprise. "Changed your mind?"

Zhang Wenda didn’t answer. He waited until the cat boat was directly beneath her, then looked up. "Yeah," he said. "I changed my mind."

Then, with a powerful push from his feet that sent the cat boat rocking, he shot up into the air, lunging straight for Hu Maomao.