Infinite Nightmares

In the pitch-black darkness, the flashlight in Zhang Wenda’s hand flashed rapidly between red and yellow. Its beam traced the edges of a polyhedron in the dark.

In his mind, he repeated 2826’s words over and over.

’The Tri-foci... The Tri-foci light-path brands a star-scar. Three red to the left to dye Kun, two dark to the right to erode the dust. The regular polyhedron splits the void-gate—three red patterns on the left lung, burning through the Riemann trace—two dark-yellow on the right lung, the orbital domain sinks in self-rotation—’

As Zhang Wenda chanted silently, the flashing light from the flashlight no longer vanished with the switch but coalesced and lingered in the air.

The red and yellow light illuminated everything around them, merging into a sunset-like orange glow that also shone upon the shadows.

The shadows seemed to be afraid of something, looking up at the increasingly bright Orange Light in the sky.

Suddenly, they seemed to snap out of it and charged at Zhang Wenda, who was holding the flashlight.

For a moment, Zhang Wenda was like the eye of a black storm, in danger of being torn to shreds at any second.

Just as their sharp, black fangs were about to pierce his eyes, he gritted his teeth and rapidly clicked the flashlight’s switch.

Red-Red-Red-Yellow-Yellow-Red-Yellow. With Zhang Wenda’s seven rapid flashes, the shadows around him instantly exploded outward, thrown back.

At that moment, Zhang Wenda, holding the flashlight high, was like a god raising the sun. No shadow could get within five meters of him.

The ritual was complete. The Orange Light in the air shone like a small sun, illuminating everything and dispelling all surrounding darkness.

Bathed in the Orange Light, all the shadows began to emit black smoke. They cowered from Zhang Wenda, retreating one by one back into the darkness.

Seeing this, Zhang Wenda couldn’t help but tremble all over. He felt he now possessed an extraordinary power beyond that of a normal person.

’This feeling of power is incredible!’ He felt omnipotent at that moment, on a completely different level from the increased strength from the Red Core or the thought-stream switching from the Yellow Core.

’Just as I thought. Combining the Tri-Core can unleash power far greater than the sum of its parts, a power that far exceeds the physical limits of the human body.’

At that moment, Zhang Wenda made up his mind. ’No matter what it takes, I have to learn all of it.’

But before he could celebrate for long, a wave of intense dizziness washed over him. The brilliant Orange Light in the sky quickly vanished, and the bright surroundings were once again shrouded in darkness.

Zhang Wenda, nearly losing his balance, looked at his arm and discovered that in that short time, his Red Core had been completely depleted, leaving only a sliver of his Yellow Core.

’It drains so fast! It was all used up in just a moment.’ But Zhang Wenda had no time to dwell on it. He helped the injured 2826, who was lying on the ground, to his feet. "Is there a healing ability? Teach me so I can heal you."

shook his head. "You can’t. You don’t have a Blue Core."

"Then where’s your mouth? I’ll give you some candy." Just as Zhang Wenda took out the candy, Song Jianguo ran over, snatched it, and stuffed it into the mouth of the blind, injured cat in her arms.

"How old do you think I am? I’m not a kid who eats candy. That stuff is useless on me. We need to get out of here, now. I have a feeling it won’t be long before they come back." 2826 looked miserable, covered in wounds.

"Alright." Zhang Wenda supported him as they walked, but before leaving, he didn’t forget to collect the drop of Oil Bab he had seen.

’That’s two drops. Four hundred bucks right there,’ Zhang Wenda thought to himself, looking at his prize.

’No wonder this stuff is worth so much. This place is too dangerous. All the money in the world is useless if you’re not alive to spend it.’

He was still a bit short of his goal, but one look at 2826’s current state told Zhang Wenda they couldn’t stay. With one less fighter, it was too dangerous to remain. He said immediately, "Let’s go. We need to leave this place first."

"Aren’t you from Bureau 507? How could you get ambushed by a shadow just like that? Are you that weak?" Zhang Wenda asked as they walked.

"I’m on the exploration team, not the combat team! And it was a sneak attack—a sneak attack, you get it?" 2826 said, annoyed.

Hearing the confidence in his voice, Zhang Wenda relaxed a little. ’Looks like he won’t be dying anytime soon.’

"What was that move just now called? I want to make sure I remember it."

"Orange Light."

Hearing this, Zhang Wenda immediately began repeating the tongue-twisting Spell over and over to commit it to memory and avoid forgetting it.

After leaving that large area, Zhang Wenda and the others took a short break. They tore strips from their own clothes to crudely bandage 2826’s many wounds and stanch the bleeding.

"We definitely can’t stay at the very bottom anymore. We have to go up," Zhang Wenda said, holding the flashlight.

"Easier said than done. How do we get up?" Song Jianguo looked up at the equally pitch-black expanse above, where the bottoms of massive Floating Islands completely blocked out any light from above.

"If I could fly, maybe I could get you up there. But I can’t right now," said 2826.

The cats nearby quickly tried to form a tower, stacking on top of each other, but there weren’t enough of them. The tower collapsed before it got very high, followed by a chorus of meows.

Zhang Wenda pointed his flashlight upward and made a rough estimate. The nearest Floating Island had to be over a hundred meters high.

"However we’re going to get up, I think we’d better hurry." Song Jianguo looked hesitantly into the surrounding darkness. Her sharp senses seemed to pick something up, and a RUSTLING sound began to emanate from nearby.

"I only have the Yellow Core left. Is there a way to get us out of this using only the Yellow Core?" Zhang Wenda asked 2826.

Seeing him hesitate, Zhang Wenda pressed, "Don’t hold back on me now. You’ve already taught me one, what’s the big deal about teaching me another?"

Hearing footsteps approaching in the darkness, Zhang Wenda swung his flashlight forcefully, startling whatever was in the dark and making it retreat quickly.

’Cat shadows don’t have footsteps. There must be something else in the dark besides them.’

"It’s not that I won’t teach you. A single Yellow Core is mostly related to switching thought-streams. It’s basically useless in this situation."

Zhang Wenda swung the flashlight again, scaring back the approaching shadows, but this deterrent wouldn’t last long. Once they realized he could no longer use the Orange Light, they would likely swarm him. The situation was becoming critical again.

"Wait, switching thought-streams? Maybe I can..." Zhang Wenda trailed off in thought. He looked at the Yellow Core on his arm and pressed it forcefully, but nothing happened.

"It’s no use. You can’t switch thought-streams in the presence of this place’s unique thought-stream creatures. That’s common knowledge."

Hearing this, Zhang Wenda was immediately reminded of the time he couldn’t switch thought-streams in front of the airplane.

"Who says? I’ve definitely switched in front of those monsters before—" Zhang Wenda stopped mid-sentence, stunned. It suddenly dawned on him. The times he had been able to switch thought-streams... it seemed he had always done it in front of other people.