Infinite Nightmares

Chapter 310: Chapter 307: The Chase

Faced with Zhang Wenda’s attack, Qianxi—ever the seasoned veteran—sensed something was wrong and immediately changed tactics.

Realizing the situation had turned against her, Qianxi unleashed a dense swarm of computer viruses to overrun the battlefield.

While Zhang Wenda was busy dealing with the viruses, she cranked her speed parameter to the maximum, becoming a blur as she shot away from the fight.

“Wenda! She’s getting away!” Hu Maomao’s voice rang in Zhang Wenda’s ear. He and the red monster simultaneously stretched out a right hand. Instantly, the red glow within every computer virus extinguished, freezing them in place like sculptures.

Now a red blur himself, Zhang Wenda shot past the frozen sculptures, chasing after the fleeing Qianxi. The scene from a short while ago was repeating itself, only this time their roles were reversed.

But the chase didn’t last long. The ground began to tremble, the vibrations growing stronger. Something was coming.

No, perhaps from the very beginning, Qianxi never intended to run at all.

The sound grew louder. Amidst the phantasmagorical, fused cityscape, a colossal shadow began to loom over them.

Through the oversaturated filter of ‘1999,’ the mobile city of old, Cavalry, appeared before Zhang Wenda in a truly oppressive fashion.

Compared to its previously bizarre appearance, Cavalry was now even more grotesque. Flesh, metal, and plants intertwined and overlapped, making the mobile city and its inhabitants exceptionally strange, as if everyone had grown extra limbs.

“Everyone, let’s move. Kill him.” With a slight raise of Qianxi’s hand, Cavalry, carrying an entire city of enemies, surged menacingly toward Zhang Wenda.

Zhang Wenda raised his right hand, attempting to strip all the red from the entire city. But a strange thing happened: there was no reaction. Cavalry and the people on it had no red,

or rather, under the influence of ‘1999,’ the red had been converted into something else. As Cavalry advanced, its massive, miles-wide shadow gradually enveloped Zhang Wenda, and the atmosphere grew incredibly tense.

Seeing this, Qianxi laughed. She floated in mid-air with her arms outstretched, her back to the golden light of ‘1999’.

“You seem to have forgotten that the Big Circle is an organization—a massive one. And I am now its true leader. Only a fool fights one-on-one. The wise engage in a righteous group beatdown.”

Looking at the enemies that vastly outnumbered him, Zhang Wenda knew he couldn’t fight so many people on his own. Regardless of whether there were other ’03s’ among them, their sheer numbers, coordinated by Qianxi, would be enough to trap and kill him here.

‘If I don’t want to die, I have to find another way.’ Just as he was thinking this, he didn’t even realize that the blue rabbit that had been constantly thinking by his side had vanished. He *had become* the blue rabbit.

Images of the past flashed through his mind as countless ideas and plans began to form.

Beside him, the Hippocampus was writing furiously. A few seconds later, as the Hippocampus stopped its pen, Zhang Wenda looked up.

‘Maomao, are you there?’ Zhang Wenda asked inwardly. He was sure he had just heard his voice.

“I’m here,” Hu Maomao’s voice replied, thick with emotion.

A warmth spread through Zhang Wenda’s chest. It wasn’t a delusion; Hu Maomao was alive. ‘We need some friends to hold these people back.’

“There’s no one left! Everyone’s dead! The Big Circle has ‘1999.’ Against that, we… we don’t stand a chance.” Hu Maomao was barely holding himself together.

Gazing at the city to his left that had been sliced in half, at the fused reality around him that embodied all ideologies, Zhang Wenda knelt on one knee and placed a hand on the ground.

‘No, I still have friends. Friends I met when I first arrived. Friends I can communicate with through powerful emotions alone.’

Then, Zhang Wenda took hold of that yellow emotion. With Hu Maomao’s help, he pushed it downward, spreading it deep into the earth below.

The thousands of Big Circle members on Cavalry roared in excitement, raising the flashlights they had looted from the Third Line as they swarmed the lone, outnumbered Zhang Wenda.

Just as they, led by their boss, were about to utterly crush this foolhardy enemy, the ground began to tremble, and a familiar voice rose from the depths.

“I wanna tell you, I’ve got to tell you, with the crayons you gave me, I drew a picture, and I’m sending it special delivery…”

As the voice reached its crescendo, the ground cracked open. A colossal monster, hundreds of meters long, rose from beneath Zhang Wenda’s feet, carrying him and his companions high into the air.

It was impossible to know what these creatures looked like to others, but in Zhang Wenda’s eyes, they all took the form of the Youth Palace.

The old walls, the green windows, the whimsical drawings on its surface—all these elements formed an architectural whale, a Youth Palace swimming through the air.

Zhang Wenda looked down and saw its window-like eyes, and the gratitude within them. He recognized it—this was the one he had saved before.

It raised its head and let out a deafening, earth-shaking cry, and one after another, giant Youth Palaces burst forth from the ground.

Perhaps in other places, a Youth Palace couldn’t appear in the sky. But in the world drawn by Zhang Wenda, by the rules he created, it could!

“Help me out!” At the command, led by the Youth Palace beneath Zhang Wenda’s feet, the subterranean whales charged toward the colossal mobile city, their advance heralded by music.

Just as the epic battle erupted, Zhang Wenda spotted Qianxi again. He saw her turning her back. ‘She’s running again?!’

‘The moment anything goes wrong, her first instinct is self-preservation, her first thought is to run!’ The realization infuriated Zhang Wenda.

‘Has she gone completely blue-brained? Why won’t she face any risk at all?’

Zhang Wenda leaped high off the Youth Palace’s back, giving chase once more. “Still trying to run? You’re always running! You can’t even face me? Is that all the nerve you have, Qianxi? You coward!”

Hearing this, Qianxi roared with laughter. “And why shouldn’t I run? Don’t try to goad me. I’m a woman; I couldn’t care less about ‘having nerve.’ Do you know why I’ve lived this long?”

“It’s because I’ve never cared about short-term wins or losses. Don’t you get it, Zhang Wenda? Whatever you do now is futile. So what if you’ve grown stronger? You’ve already lost.”

“Not only have you lost, the Third Line has lost! The Big Circle has won! The entire world will be ours! HAHAHA!”

Amidst Qianxi’s wild laughter, she led Zhang Wenda on a frantic chase toward the golden sun rising in the distance.