Infinite Nightmares

Chapter 314: Chapter 311: Qianxi

Now completely free from the constraints of “1999,” Qianxi’s body swelled back to its former colossal size. Her once-unstable mind had returned to normal, and before her, Zhang Wenda was as insignificant as an ant.

A trace of despair washed over Zhang Wenda. ‘An enemy so powerful that the very concept of death doesn’t apply to them… How am I supposed to fight something like that?’

Qianxi looked up at the enormous Golden Ball overhead. “All of human civilization is built on logic. Science, institutions, even death itself—it’s all founded on watertight physical principles. But what if, one day, logic were to disappear? How would humanity survive? How would we cope?”

“Try to return to the world of logic? How foolish! How ignorant!” Staring intently at the Golden Ball, Qianxi’s eyes burned with fanaticism. “A new world has arrived! Only by mastering the truth behind this change can we become the new rulers of the world!”

“You two sides fought until you were both battered and broken. Now, there’s no one left to stand in my way. This thing belongs to me.”

Just as her voice crescendoed, Wenda, having no interest in listening to her victory speech, made a decisive move. Without a moment’s hesitation, he abandoned the Lizard People to serve as meat shields and bolted downward.

‘Next to the Golden Ball, my powers are completely suppressed. There’s no chance of winning here. I have to get my abilities back, and fast!’

At first, Zhang Wenda’s tactic worked. As he moved away from the Golden Ball, his tri-color form began to re-emerge, and the new abilities he had just acquired gradually returned.

But suddenly, a shadow fell over him. When Zhang Wenda snapped his head up, he found Qianxi’s square head hovering before him like a massive mountain, her enormous screen less than half a meter away.

“Young people these days have no manners! Do you have any idea how many times I revised and re-revised today’s victory speech? Have you no respect for my hard work?”

THWACK! Zhang Wenda went flying. Accompanied by the continuous sound of cracking bones, he shot through the air like a meteor and slammed heavily onto the ground. The impact was so great it forced fragments of his shattered internal organs out of his mouth.

The overwhelming sensation of impending death caused Zhang Wenda’s vision to blacken as he keenly felt life draining from his body. But mercifully, now that he was away from the Golden Ball, his helpers returned.

Clowns materialized around him, scrambling to help him up and bandaging his broken body with streamers.

After the Little Black Cats brought him a cup of joy brewed from Dopamine and fed it to him, Zhang Wenda started to feel a bit better. By having these helpers share the damage, he was finally pulled back from the brink of death.

But before he could even get to his feet, a shadow fell over him once more. Qianxi hovered before him like a golden fighter jet. Covered in green blood, she clutched the corpses of several large green lizards in her hands.

‘This is bad. I’m no match for her like this. I have to find a way to turn the tables! But she just won’t die! What do I do? What do I do?!’

Zhang Wenda’s heart pounded in his chest. As his mind raced, a blue rabbit at his side frantically flipped through an assortment of translucent books handed over by the Hippocampus.

Suddenly, Qianxi moved. The instant she did, Zhang Wenda moved too. One shot forward while the other darted back, leaving two streaks of lightning—one large and gold, the other small and red—across the chaotic landscape.

Zhang Wenda used his smaller size to his advantage, ducking and weaving through the gaps between buildings. This tactic was useless against Qianxi. She simply smashed through everything in her path; buildings of any material were like tofu before her.

With a deafening roar, building after building and mountain after mountain were smashed to pieces and sent flying. The colossal sound echoed across the land.

Soon, the fleeing Zhang Wenda found his path blocked by another Qianxi. At some point, she had replicated herself. Seven computer giants, each dozens of meters tall, had him completely surrounded.

“Go on, run. Keep running,” one of the Qianxis said, looking down at Zhang Wenda with a mocking gaze.

Glancing at the ring of titans surrounding him, Zhang Wenda spoke up. “Leading you on this wild goose chase wasn’t about escaping. It was about attracting reinforcements!”

“Reinforcements? Heh. The Third Line is gone. What reinforcements could there be?” Just as Qianxi spoke those words, a figure appeared overhead.

It was an old man, withered and looking as if he were on his last legs. It was Old Tan, Tan Yougen, the Deputy Director of Bureau 507.

One of his arms was missing, and large parts of his body showed varying degrees of mutation. It was hard to imagine what he had been through.

Seeing him, Zhang Wenda breathed a small sigh of relief. ‘I was right. That sly old bastard Old Tan wouldn’t die so easily! He’s the only reinforcement I could have hoped for around here.’

The moment Tan Yougen appeared, Qianxi’s attention shifted instantly from Zhang Wenda. She stared intently at her father. “You always said I was wrong. But this time… this time I was finally right, wasn’t I?”

Tan Yougen slowly shook his head. “No. This time, you’ve won. But that doesn’t make you right.”

Hearing this, Qianxi lost all her previous composure. Her voice instantly turned savage. “Heh, so I’m wrong again? No! It’s all of you who are always wrong!”

“It was me! I was the first one to figure out that the emergence of the Ideological Tide had nothing to do with Bureau 749’s experiments! But did you old fossils listen? No! Why? Just because I was young?”

As she spoke, her voice became a furious snarl. “I was also the first to propose the ‘Foreign Object’ hypothesis! I’ve always been right! Just because I took things one step further, you all called me a lunatic?”

Seeing Qianxi’s unhinged outburst, a thought stirred in Zhang Wenda’s mind. ‘It seems… my influence on her wasn’t completely erased by the format.’

‘Damage to the Inner World is much harder to heal than physical wounds. I can’t beat her in a direct fight… perhaps I can attack from that angle.’

Just then, Tan Yougen spoke. “Qianqian, you weren’t wrong about those things. But back then… Dad wasn’t in a position to make the call.”

“Qianqian, can I ask you a question? What did I do so wrong… to make you hate me this much?”

Hearing this, Qianxi reacted as if a raw nerve had been struck. The sky instantly filled with mouse cursors that shot toward Tan Yougen. “If you couldn’t make the call, then you can just die!”

At that moment, a small, yellow version of Zhang Wenda appeared beside the real one and whispered, “I know the answer to that. I saw some things in her memories. A younger Qianxi saw her own death through the Internet World. She was killed by Tan Yougen’s own hands.”

“And she looked so innocent and pitiful when she died, too.”