Infinite Nightmares

When Zhang Wenda finally arrived at the residential building, sneaking around with his two companions and a large clowder of cats, he was surprised to find their contact wasn’t there.

Before a frowning Song Jianguo could even ask, a large hole opened up in the ceiling. A drone, its rotors spinning rapidly, slowly descended.

"Sorry, I had to go back and deal with them for a moment so they wouldn’t get suspicious."

"My friends are here. What’s the situation on your end?" Zhang Wenda asked.

"Not good. The situation is terrible. My earlier deduction was correct. You tipped them off, and now they’re preparing to move."

"To prevent complications, I’ve already notified my comrades at Bureau 507. But it will take time for them to get here, so we need to delay our targets and stop them from moving out ahead of schedule."

The drone then scanned each of their faces. "It’s not that I don’t trust you, but this isn’t a game. People could die. I need to see what you’re capable of."

"You piece of..." Song Jianguo started to say, but Zhang Wenda clamped a hand over her mouth and ordered her to be quiet.

After seeing the cats’ various transformations and watching Auntie punch a hole straight through a wall, the drone nodded in satisfaction.

"Very good. You’ve exceeded my expectations. In that case, follow me."

As he spoke, he raised the flashlight in his hand, and a beam of light shot straight through several walls. He led the three of them along the beam, speaking as they walked.

"Next, when I create a diversion, I need you to find a way to destroy their vehicle."

Zhang Wenda watched this, truly envious. ’It seems there are many more ways to use this flashlight,’ he thought. ’But since I don’t have any legacy knowledge, I can only figure it out on my own.’

"It will be just as dangerous over there, but since none of you are ordinary people, I trust you’ll be able to handle it."

Following the beam of light, Zhang Wenda and his group came to a wide-open field. A massive, bright white passenger jet was parked incongruously in the middle of it.

"The diversion I create will last thirty minutes, at most. You must take care of it within that time."

Song Jianguo poked Zhang Wenda with a fingernail, then pointed toward a corner. "Someone’s there."

Zhang Wenda squinted into the distance and saw a few blurry dots. There were guards, but not many.

’They... flew a plane from the modern era back to the past?’ Zhang Wenda couldn’t figure out the logic behind it.

"What did you think? That they walked?"

The voice from the drone continued, "Remember, you only have thirty minutes. If the mission fails, get out of here. The farther, the better. If they capture you, I can’t protect you."

Just then, Zhang Wenda noticed a contradiction. This wasn’t the "adult world," yet those guards could clearly be seen.

"Don’t worry. To keep the vehicle hidden, they’re all inside Thought Wave One. They’re on the same frequency as you, so you can deal with them." A new term came from the drone.

"Thought Wave?"

"We’re in Thought Wave One right now. Pressing the Yellow Core takes you to Thought Wave Two. Got it?"

"So what is a Thought Wave?" From the sound of it, the Third Line had their own terminology for the different perspectives of the "adult world" and "child world."

"I’m not your teacher, and this isn’t a classroom. Can you save the non-essential questions for after this is all over?" The voice from the drone was calm as he calmly looked at his watch.

"Fine, let’s give it a shot." Zhang Wenda took out his flashlight. He looked at the blurry figures in the distance and made a quick assessment. With their combined abilities, taking them down shouldn’t be a problem.

He had so many questions about this whole world.

’Once this is over, I have to pin him down and get some real answers.’

"Synchronize watches. We start in five minutes." With that, the drone turned and flew away.

"Shit, I don’t have a watch," Zhang Wenda muttered, resigned to counting down the seconds in his head.

After watching the drone disappear completely into the distance, Auntie whispered to Zhang Wenda, "Kid, I’ve got a feeling he’s lying to you. This is too simple. His plan can’t be just to create a diversion. He must have another motive."

"Who cares? This is just a transaction. As long as we can get back safely, he can do whatever he wants." Recalling the time the man behind the drone had saved his life, Zhang Wenda felt he probably wouldn’t go back on their deal.

After what felt like a very long five minutes, Zhang Wenda, Song Jianguo, and Auntie had crept up on the guards. They were so close they could hear the men playing cards and shooting the breeze.

There were five men in total. Their five semi-automatic rifles were leaned together like the logs of a campfire. Not a single one was on watch; they were completely relaxed, apparently thinking the location was too remote for any trouble.

Gripping his flashlight, Zhang Wenda signaled that he would take the two on the left. The other three were for Song Jianguo and Auntie.

Song Jianguo tightened her grip on her spear and gave a slight nod. At her command, the cats crept forward, silently surrounding the men.

CLANG! A flattened enamel mug was thrown nearby. Just as all the guards whipped their heads around to look at it, Zhang Wenda and Song Jianguo sprang from the shadows behind them.

VWOOM! A red Light Saber ignited. Zhang Wenda swung it, driving it forcefully into one man’s back.

Meanwhile, Song Jianguo flung her spear. Propelled by the cat-cord whipping behind it, the sharp point plunged directly into another man’s eye with a wet SQUELCH.

The instant Zhang Wenda and Song Jianguo made their move, Auntie burst out of the flattened enamel mug, her giant fist smashing down hard on a third man’s head.

Screams and shouts filled the air as the scene devolved into chaos. But it was a battle of the prepared against the unprepared, and Zhang Wenda’s side clearly had the upper hand.

Just as Zhang Wenda pulled his Light Saber from a man’s body, he saw another guard pull something glowing from his coat and hurl it at him.

Zhang Wenda’s scalp tingled at the sight, and he quickly dodged out of the way.

As the object flew past him, Zhang Wenda saw it was a glass bottle containing a small, dark cloud crackling with lightning. Compared to the one he’d seen before, however, this glass jar had something drawn on it.

The bottle flew past his face and shattered on the ground.

Just when Zhang Wenda thought the guard’s throw had missed, a plume of dark smoke billowed out of the shattered bottle. It rapidly expanded into a humanoid figure made of storm clouds and crackling lightning. The massive cloud-man was incredibly burly, like a small giant.

’This is bad!’ Just as Zhang Wenda was bracing for some kind of lightning Magic attack, the cloud-man suddenly picked up a nearby semi-automatic rifle, pulled the trigger, and began spraying bullets wildly at them.