Infinite Nightmares

"That’s enough! How long are you guys going to laugh?" Zhang Wenda was so mad he was about to blow his top.

’So what if I guessed wrong? Everyone makes mistakes.’

"Cough... I’m not laughing. I just thought of something funny," 2826 said, turning his head to the side.

"Cut the crap, you’re totally laughing!"

As they bickered, the Mayan man introducing the mushroom next to them was reduced to a background character muttering to himself.

Hearing that absolutely no one was listening to him, Ahava cleared his throat. "My friends, over here, please. I’m trying to explain."

"Go on, go on, I’m listening. Just ignore them."

After confirming Zhang Wenda’s eyes were on him, Ahava cradled the mushroom in both hands and said with extreme solemnity, "I can trade this with you, but you must promise me you will treat it well and care for it properly. There are a few conditions you must follow. If you can’t, I won’t trade it to you no matter how high a price you offer."

"First, it likes to sunbathe. Every nine sunsets, it must be planted in soil and get at least five hours of sun. Also, it likes to listen to songs. You need to sing to it every day. If you don’t agree, I won’t trade it even for all the Oil Babs in the world. In the hearts of us Mayans, a Wai is not a commodity to be traded, but a true friend!"

"It needs sunbathing *and* singing?" A question mark practically appeared over Zhang Wenda’s head. ’This damn mushroom sounds harder to take care of than Song Jianguo.’

But now Zhang Wenda’s interest was piqued. The more high-maintenance something was, the more powerful it usually turned out to be. Plus, given how painful it was for the man to part with it, ’this mushroom seems to be something special.’

"I can promise to follow your rules, but shouldn’t you tell me how to use this thing first? If this mushroom can’t help me improve my strength and is just something to be raised like a flower, then it’s useless to me."

Ahava quickly held the mushroom high. "You can’t call it a mushroom! It will get angry! You must call it ’friend’!"

"..." If the conversation hadn’t already gone this far, Zhang Wenda really wouldn’t have wanted to waste any more time on this neurotic foreigner.

After confirming Zhang Wenda understood all the rules and had him solemnly swear an oath to the sun, the man finally smiled and presented the mushroom—with its gray cap and white, skirt-like stem—to him. "Here, take a small bite and try it."

Zhang Wenda took it, puzzled, and examined it with curiosity. "It gets angry when I call it a mushroom, but it won’t get angry if I eat it?"

Dubiously, he took a bite. How to describe it... the texture was very ordinary, a bit like chewing on a piece of damp paper that had an earthy taste.

The moment Zhang Wenda swallowed that bite of mushroom, something strange happened. His surroundings began to distort, and he felt dizzy, like he had a fever.

Gradually, Zhang Wenda started seeing things floating on the ceiling—pink, translucent elephants that appeared and disappeared in the air like bubbles.

"What do you see?" Ahava asked, draping an arm over Zhang Wenda’s shoulders, his eyes full of anticipation.

"I see pink elephants," Zhang Wenda said, looking up. "Are they the ’friends’ you were talking about?"

"Of course not. Those are Yichamuna’s, the little sprites the Moon God uses to hang stars in the sky at night. They appear around dusk. Ignore them. Now, repeat after me: Wai~"

"Wai?"

"Not like that! Shout with feeling! Call out to your friend!" Ahava directed, waving his arms and legs animatedly.

After following the man’s lead and emotionally shouting "Wai" a few times, a mist rose around him. Suddenly, a transparent gray rat floated up in front of Zhang Wenda.

The completely transparent rat looked to be about 40 centimeters long. It radiated a silvery, ethereal glow, exactly like the one he had seen before.

Zhang Wenda stared at the creature in astonishment. Everything happening before his eyes seemed to be beyond his comprehension.

"What do you see now?"

"A big, floating, transparent rat."

"Excellent. That is a Wai. Everyone’s inner friend is different; it is a projection of your heart. The fact that you can see it means the Wai has accepted you. Now you can ask your new friend to do things within its power, for example, bringing that paper cup over there."

At Zhang Wenda’s command, the transparent rat floated over and delivered the disposable paper cup into his hand.

Taking the cup, Zhang Wenda turned excitedly to 2826 and Song Jianguo. "Look! I have a flying pet! How about that? Impressive, huh? I told you my intuition was good! All you guys do is laugh!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Wenda saw an angry expression appear on the Wai rat’s face, and it immediately turned to leave.

Zhang Wenda had to quickly call it "friend" several times to calm it down. Clearly, it only considered itself Zhang Wenda’s friend, not his pet.

However, at that moment, neither 2826 nor Song Jianguo could see anything at all.

Song Jianguo looked at Zhang Wenda with a hesitant expression. "Did that mushroom make you hallucinate? What flying pet? Didn’t you just walk over and grab that cup yourself?"

"What? You guys can’t see it?" Zhang Wenda asked, shocked, pointing at the transparent gray rat flying in the air.

After various experiments, Zhang Wenda quickly discovered that no one else could see the gray rat but him.

More importantly, everything he commanded the gray rat to do, they saw as him doing it himself.

This was true even for extremely absurd tasks.

Even when Zhang Wenda had the transparent rat lift a cup of water five meters away, in the eyes of 2826 and Song Jianguo, it looked like his own arm had suddenly stretched to a bizarre length of five meters, picked up the cup, and then set it back down.

Zhang Wenda could now only confirm that the mushroom was indeed useful, but the way its power manifested was highly unconventional.

’Why is this Mayan stuff so weird?’ Zhang Wenda frowned as he watched the floating rat circle around him, unsure if he should trade his Oil Babs for it.

However, when Zhang Wenda saw he could make the rat fly thirty meters away and snatch someone’s wig off, he immediately decided to make the trade.

It didn’t matter what it looked like to others. As long as he had this thing, it was like having a long-range assistant.

The next time he ran into a sneak attack from the Big Circle Gang, an obedient pet that no one else could see would be incredibly useful.

Most importantly, this thing didn’t consume any Tri-Core Energy and could be used anytime, anywhere.

"Thank you, Wai. I’ll be in your care from now on," Zhang Wenda said with a smile, stroking the floating, transparent rat.

The transparent rat nuzzled the top of its head against Zhang Wenda’s palm, its mouth, filled with small, sharp teeth, curving into a slight smile.

To everyone else, however, the scene was utterly bizarre. They saw Zhang Wenda gently stroking his own head, all while affectionately murmuring nonsensical things to the mushroom he held in his hand.