Infinite Nightmares

Chapter 313: Chapter 310: Golden

After the emotionally unstable Qianxi spoke her last words, her shattered body went limp, and she fell still.

Staring at Qianxi’s motionless body, Zhang Wenda froze. He was stunned for a long moment before it finally registered. Qianxi was dead. Qianxi was finally dead.

‘The enemy I dreamed of defeating day and night… at this moment, I’ve finally done it! I’ve finally gotten my revenge.’

Zhang Wenda had thought he would be overjoyed, but at this moment, he felt none of the elation he had imagined. Instead, a trace of emptiness bloomed in his heart.

He pulled his scythe from Qianxi’s cooling body and slowly turned around, a dazed look in his eyes.

But he quickly snapped out of it. ‘I’m not out of danger yet.’

Zhang Wenda looked toward the distant Lizard People, his mouth parting slightly. Just as he was about to speak, SQUELCH—a sharp pain shot through his abdomen.

When he looked down at his body, he saw, in utter disbelief, a white glove soaked completely in blood that had pierced straight through him from his back.

The white glove was torn now, revealing fingers with mechanical joints underneath.

‘It’s Qianxi’s hand! She’s still alive!!’

Gritting his teeth against the excruciating pain, Zhang Wenda kicked backward. His internal organs spilled out of his abdomen, but he finally broke free before his opponent could strike again.

Panting, a cold sweat pouring down his face, he stared at the enemy not far away.

Qianxi, whose body Zhang Wenda had nearly torn in two, was somehow standing again. Even though there was no sign of life in her, she could still move.

Zhang Wenda clenched his jaw, staring in shock at the Qianxi before him. She was clearly dead, yet she was moving again.

‘A Tide-Object? Or something else? The rules of the Tides? No, those things definitely shouldn’t work near the Golden Ball. How the hell did Qianxi manage it!’

He had been too naive. Even with her mind scrambled and her consciousness out of control, as the one in charge of the entire Big Circle, she was never going to be killed that easily.

Meanwhile, Qianxi was clutching her cracked head with both hands, sobbing brokenly as if she were the one who had been ambushed. “I won’t accept this! I won’t! I was the one who won!”

When he saw her charge at him again without hesitation after her screams, Zhang Wenda clutched his own organs with one hand and rushed forward with all his might.

The two broken bodies collided heavily. Just as Zhang Wenda opened his fang-filled maw to bite down hard on Qianxi, she likewise plunged her mechanical arm deep into his wound again.

Bloody fluids from their wounds splattered into the air, mingling under the golden light. Their struggle now had no form or technique, just two wild beasts tearing each other apart.

This time, Zhang Wenda aimed for Qianxi’s head, driving his sharp scythe straight through her temple and out the other side.

But no matter how Zhang Wenda attacked Qianxi, even when he had nearly torn her body down to its skeleton, she remained alive.

As a violent tremor emanated from the 1999 in the air, the surrounding space-time seemed to shift, and outside, the great Tides began to dissolve one after another.

The two battered figures locked in combat once more. As they drew closer and closer to the Golden Ball, they continued to attack each other, but their methods of attack grew increasingly inhuman. Their bodies would stretch and then shrink, sometimes even melting into two pools of liquid that crashed together.

Time and space in this area were beginning to break free from their constraints.

After several long minutes, the two broke apart after a fierce exchange. Now completely unhinged, Qianxi looked past Zhang Wenda’s body, glaring at the distant Lizard People. “So you’re just not going to help, is that it?”

The Lizard People’s expressions were indifferent. Only when they looked at the Golden Ball above their heads did their slitted pupils fill with reverence and adoration.

Seeing this, Qianxi, still clutching her head, began to laugh neurotically. “Did you think I didn’t know you were using us? Did you really think I’d be content to be your puppet? It seems you have no idea what the true spirit of the Big Circle is. People of the Big Circle accept no rules or restrictions.”

“I’ve said it before, I always like to have a backup plan. Always! That includes our collaboration!” Under the gazes of all the Lizard People, Qianxi suddenly looked up at the Golden Ball, kicked off, and shot rapidly upward toward it.

Zhang Wenda immediately dragged his battered body after her, holding his breath as he gave chase. ‘Whatever she’s planning, it can’t be anything good.’

The Lizard People seemed even more anxious than Zhang Wenda. They all swam upward, attempting to stop Qianxi from reaching the Golden Ball.

A sudden flash of inspiration struck Zhang Wenda. He shouted to the Lizard People, “Let’s deal with her together! Otherwise, she’ll definitely make a move on the 1999!”

‘It doesn’t matter what side these lizards are on; at this moment, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’

The Lizard People quickly swarmed in, assisting Zhang Wenda in attacking Qianxi.

In this environment, the Lizard People’s attack methods were quite primitive; they all drew firearms and began shooting relentlessly at Qianxi’s body.

This made Qianxi’s already fragmented body even more tattered, with some of her joints appearing to be shattered.

Zhang Wenda, of course, would not let this opportunity slip by. He wrapped his long, thin body around Qianxi’s neck and, with a powerful wrench, tore her head clean off. “Just die!!”

Just as Zhang Wenda thought it was all over, Qianxi’s head tumbled over and over, finally transforming into a bulky, old-fashioned computer made from the same material as the Golden Ball.

With a familiar startup chime, the classic blue-sky-and-white-clouds desktop background popped up.

A figure in a spotless white suit emerged from below the computer screen once more.

A golden cursor arrow gently clicked “Format” on her, and the effects of Zhang Wenda’s mental assault vanished in an instant.

Now completely golden, Qianxi was totally immune to any effects from the Golden Ball.

Then, as she rapidly adjusted her parameters,

Qianxi instantly grew to a colossal size and began to laugh maniacally. Her voice was deafening, echoing across the entire expanse of the Tides.

Seeing this, Zhang Wenda’s heart sank.

“Was your goal to obtain the power of the 1999 from the very beginning? Was the Big Circle just your tool?”

Qianxi admitted it outright. Now immense, she looked down on the ant-like Zhang Wenda before her.

“You’re smarter than I thought, figuring that out. That’s right. The so-called ‘will of the Big Circle’ is just bullshit used to fool idiots.”

“Anyone who gives their life for a goal someone else feeds them is a fool. The Third Line, the Big Circle—to put it bluntly, they’re all the same.”

Then, Qianxi pointed a single hand toward the Golden Ball in the sky, her voice becoming incomparably brazen and triumphant.

“Zhang Wenda, allow me to tell you one more thing. Do you know why you can’t kill me? Because for something like the 1999, death does not exist. Everything you’ve done from the very beginning has been in vain.”