Infinite Nightmares

Chapter 323: Chapter 319: The Plan

As Zhang Wenda felt increasingly comfortable and drowsy, his body gradually began to disappear.

At that moment, he was like a block of ice, gradually melting into the waters of the residential complex’s river.

Just as Zhang Wenda was on the verge of vanishing, when his body had turned transparent up to his chest, the Golden Ball he had snatched from Qianxi lost its support. It crashed heavily onto the floor tiles with a sharp clang.

The moment the Golden Ball hit the ground, it seemed to send ripples through the air.

The sound snapped the groggy Zhang Wenda back to his senses. His pupils contracted the instant he saw his own transparent body. ‘Something’s wrong! There’s something wrong with this place!’

However, the pleasant sensation quickly overwhelmed him. His newfound clarity began to fade, and a serene smile returned to his face.

A sharp sickle shot out, plunging directly into his body and jolting him awake again. But it wasn’t enough!

Struggling, the nearly transparent Zhang Wenda waved a hand toward the empty air to his left. “Pain!”

The Little Black Cat quickly mixed a cup of “pain” and handed it over. The surface of the black liquid mirrored reflections of painful memories—his old uncle’s stars, Jianguo’s disappearance.

“COUGH COUGH COUGH! COUGH COUGH COUGH!!” Much of the painful liquid went down his windpipe, sending Zhang Wenda into a violent coughing fit. He coughed until his face was flushed and his eyes streamed with tears.

Yet Zhang Wenda didn’t stop. He proceeded to pour the entire large glass of liquid straight into his windpipe.

As Zhang Wenda tilted his head back and poured the liquid “pain” from his Inner World straight into his mouth, the bitterness and agony instantly snapped him out of his complacent haze and the pleasant sensations.

As the black liquid poured into him, his body regained its solidity as if being dyed, quickly changing from semi-transparent back to its original state.

When Zhang Wenda, having recovered his wits, looked around again, the friendly neighbors, the corner store, and his childhood friend were all gone. Everything had returned to the way it was before.

Zhang Wenda quickly snatched the Golden Ball from the ground, tossed it into his Inner World, and scanned his surroundings warily.

‘This isn’t right. Something is wrong with this place! It’s assimilating me!’ The once-cozy environment now seemed sinister and strange to him once more.

He immediately retreated back into his Inner World, severing the outside influence.

After returning to the familiar forest, Zhang Wenda finally let out a sigh of relief.

‘That was too close. I almost fell for this place’s tricks.’

“Hippocampus! Show me the recording!”

After taking the recording from the Hippocampus, Zhang Wenda meticulously reviewed it from start to finish. Once he was done, he finally understood the entire sequence of events.

Clearly, the place had its own set of rules. His perception had started to be affected eight hours after his arrival.

At the nine-hour mark, the smell of cooking and the sound of the evening news had appeared. By nine-thirty, he had started to believe that Apartment 501 on the fifth floor of Unit 3 was his home. At ten, his childhood friend showed up and led him to the corner store.

The records were crystal clear: the place intensified its assimilating influence every thirty minutes, with the final goal of assimilating him completely.

A wave of delayed fear washed over Zhang Wenda. He didn’t know what would happen to him if he were assimilated, but it was definitely nothing good. His very consciousness might even be erased.

Peering out at the environment with trepidation, Zhang Wenda paced back and forth before the rift leading outside. ‘This really is a bad place. I have to find a way to leave, and fast.’

But he was back to the same old problem. With no clues, he was completely stumped and unsure of what to do.

Just then, the rabbit to the side spoke up. “Do you think the old Third Line was also discovered by exploring one school of thought after another like this?”

Zhang Wenda shot it a glance. “Is this really the time to be thinking about that? We need to figure out how to get out of this godforsaken place!”

Then, the yellow one also spoke up. “Do you think those people are real? For instance, did our childhood friend have a mind of her own?”

“What does it matter to us if they’re real people or not? Can you please stop getting sidetracked?” Zhang Wenda retorted, his brow furrowed.

But he stopped abruptly mid-sentence. ‘Real people? If they’re all real people… natives… does that mean they know the way out?’

He tried to recall his interaction with his childhood friend. Then he glanced at the can of soda and the instant noodles on the ground, which hadn’t vanished along with the people. The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

‘Nearly being assimilated was a crisis, but it’s also an opportunity!’

If it weren’t for this incident, Zhang Wenda would never have guessed that this seemingly empty place was actually filled with so many people.

‘If there’s a way to leave this place, the answer has to lie with them!’

But that presented another problem. To get the information from these natives, he’d have to strike a delicate balance. He needed to be just assimilated enough to see and interact with them and ask for the way out, but also be able to snap out of it in time.

After a moment of thought, he turned to face everyone in his Inner World. “Wait a minute. When I was being influenced just now, were all of you affected too?”

The three colors, the Little Black Cat, and even the Hippocampus all nodded in unison. It was obvious. No matter how distinct they seemed, they were all one and the same. If they hadn’t been affected, they would have warned him long before.

Just then, however, a group of one-eyed black cats batting a soda can back and forth caught Zhang Wenda’s attention. Here on this island, only Song Jianguo’s Black Cats weren’t part of his own consciousness.

Watching the cats, and recalling the rule about the assimilation intensifying every thirty minutes, an idea suddenly sparked in Zhang Wenda’s mind.

Some ten minutes later, Zhang Wenda left his Inner World and returned to Area 1. The place was as empty as before, but to him now, it was fraught with hidden dangers.

After downing the rest of the soda, Zhang Wenda crushed the can in his hand and stepped back into the quiet residential complex.

Time ticked by. Zhang Wenda couldn’t tell if he was being influenced again, or if he was already under its spell and simply didn’t know it.

Gradually, Zhang Wenda noticed the exercise equipment moving again. But this time was different. He saw that the equipment was moving because there were children swarming around it, playing and roughhousing as if it were a jungle gym.

An elliptical trainer, meant for one person, was being commandeered by two little boys, one on each pedal, racing to see who could go faster.

‘Maybe they were the ones moving it all along, and I just couldn’t see them before.’

“It’s starting,” Zhang Wenda murmured as a reminder. At that moment, he saw a familiar figure in the distance. It was his childhood friend!

Zhang Wenda quickly chased after her. “Hey! Wait!”

Hearing him, she turned around. The sun was still high in the sky, its glare so bright that he couldn’t make out her face.

But she didn’t wait for him. Instead, she just smiled and ran off into the distance.

As Zhang Wenda continued his pursuit, the desire to escape began to dissipate from his mind like sand scattered by the wind. The surroundings once again became intimately familiar.