Infinite Nightmares

Zhang Wenda said nothing. The sudden action took Hu Maomao by surprise. She was about to pull away, but Zhang Wenda raised his right hand and seized all the red from within her, instantly robbing her of the ability to move.

She had been right before. The Zhang Wenda of today was far stronger than her. If he really decided to move against her, her Mind Control ability would be utterly useless.

Zhang Wenda reached out, and as if plucking a peach, he snatched Hu Maomao out of the air. He hoisted her onto his shoulder, stomped his foot on the cat boat, and said, "Go, Jianguo. Let’s get out of here."

Hu Maomao stared at him in disbelief. "What do you think you’re doing? Didn’t you say you changed your mind?"

Zhang Wenda nodded at her and said with an air of perfect justification, "I did change my mind. You’re my friend. I have to save you, even if you know my biggest secret."

"But that doesn’t mean I agree with you, or that I’m going to follow you deeper into this place just to die. No matter what you say, I still believe that Old Tan’s life isn’t as important as ours. No life is more precious than my own."

Devoid of her red, Hu Maomao was like a rag doll. Zhang Wenda tossed her casually onto the boat.

Zhang Wenda reached out and patted her head. "Maomao, I don’t have many friends. I know you want to go, but I can’t watch you throw your life away. Since you’re so insistent on taking this risk, my only choice is to abduct you and take you home. It’s the most efficient solution."

"As for Old Tan’s plan, we’ll wait and see. I’ll make my move when the time is right."

Just then, a flicker of yellow drifted past again at the edge of their dust-choked vision, but Zhang Wenda acted as if he hadn’t seen a thing.

"You’re insane! Let me go!"

Hu Maomao tried to reason with him further, but her arguments were completely useless against Zhang Wenda; he treated them as nothing more than hot air.

As the seemingly levitating cat boat drifted slowly forward, Hu Maomao realized that nothing she said could change Zhang Wenda’s mind. Knowing it was futile, she gradually fell silent.

As the visibility around them gradually improved, Zhang Wenda’s tense nerves eased slightly. ’Looks like we’ve reached the outskirts,’ he thought. "Maomao, when did you read my mind and find out I’d transmigrated?"

Hu Maomao turned her head, not wanting to look at him, but she wasn’t a child. She quickly stopped the petulant behavior.

"I never pry into people’s thoughts without reason. Back in the Prefrontal Strait, when I was helping you sort through your memories, you tipped me off yourself."

"I tipped you off? What did I say?" Zhang Wenda froze.

"You said the college entrance exams don’t belong after Song Jianguo’s kindergarten. But I remembered your file. You didn’t even graduate elementary school. You’ve never taken college entrance exams."

"At first, I suspected you’d been replaced by someone. So, out of curiosity, I flipped through a few more pages of your memories. All I found were memories of you pulling all-nighters and working overtime. You’re Zhang Wenda, but a Zhang Wenda who transmigrated." She said this with perfect calm, as if discussing something utterly commonplace.

Glancing at Hu Maomao’s profile, Zhang Wenda turned his gaze to the distance again, resuming his role as captain. "Aren’t you surprised? Or shocked at all by any of this?"

"Surprised by what? You think your situation is that special? That unique? After everything you’ve been through, what part of it *isn’t* weirder than your transmigration?"

"It’s not the same! This is transmigration! Do you get it? Transmigration!" Now that it was all out in the open, Zhang Wenda didn’t hold back.

Hu Maomao shook her head and said nonchalantly, "What’s the difference? Ever since 1999 came, practically nothing in this world is normal anymore, and that includes time and space. Your consciousness traveling from your adult self back into your child self... the strangeness of that doesn’t even compare to Song Jianguo’s ability to materialize menstruation."

Zhang Wenda couldn’t help but frown. ’I can’t believe I’m being compared to a period.’

"That’s not the same thing at all! It’s not surprising for weird things to happen *here*. But my world doesn’t have all this crazy shit. My transmigration has absolutely nothing to do with the arrival of 1999."

Hearing this, Hu Maomao finally turned her head to look at Zhang Wenda. "A transmigration like yours... it’s definitely not your own ability. Since it happened, there must be a cause, right? If it wasn’t triggered by the arrival of 1999, then what do you think could have done it? I certainly can’t think of anything."

Zhang Wenda’s pupils constricted at her words. Since arriving in this bizarre world, one thing had happened after another, and he’d never stopped to consider that his transmigration was, in itself, an incredibly strange event.

’Does transmigration need a reason? Isn’t it just... transmigration? Isn’t that how it works in all those historical romance dramas and Japanese isekai anime?’

’But I’m not living in a TV show,’ he quickly thought, snapping out of it. ’My transmigration *does* need a reason. What power caused it? Who was behind it? And what was their goal?’

The moment Zhang Wenda came to this new realization, the entire world seemed to transform before his eyes.

’The Big Circle? The Third Line? Impossible, there’s no logic to it. Besides, if they really had that kind of power, wouldn’t they be going from here to my world, not the other way around? 1999? That makes no sense either. I’m not even sure if it’s a living being.’

Zhang Wenda racked his brain but couldn’t think of anyone with both the ability and the motive to do this to him.

But his thoughts quickly moved on.

’No matter how the transmigration happened, I’m already here. There’s no point dwelling on it now.’

His mind seized on another question. ’Does this mean my original world still exists? If I could come here... does that mean that if I find a way, after I get my revenge, I could take Song Jianguo and the others back with me?’

At the mere thought of this possibility, Zhang Wenda’s heart began to pound in his chest.

His old world certainly had its flaws, but that was all relative.

The longer he stayed here and the more bullshit he had to deal with, the more Zhang Wenda yearned for those wonderful times spent lounging in his cozy little apartment, scrolling through his phone.

Compared to this place, his old world was practically Heaven. There were no bizarre ideological rules to obey, and he wouldn’t have to fight for his life against groups like the Big Circle.

Only after joining the Third Line and experiencing one heart-pounding crisis after another did he realize that a simple, stable life was its own form of happiness.

Besides, he still had a decent amount of money in his bank account back home. If he couldn’t go back, wouldn’t all those years of working overtime have been for nothing?