Infinite Nightmares

"The moon?"

Zhang Wenda, still in the water, stared in astonishment at the hazy sphere before him. He wasn’t surprised that he had just accidentally hit some kind of switch. What surprised him was how the sun could turn into a moon.

However, Zhang Wenda had no time to ponder that question right now. The problem at hand was getting this thing into his possession.

’The sun was so hot, so the moon should be fine to touch, right?’ Zhang Wenda thought. He wrapped his sleeve around his hand and tentatively reached for the moon.

"It’s not hot." A jolt of joy went through Zhang Wenda. He immediately reached out to grab the moon, only to watch his hand pass right through it.

’Damn it! What kind of nonsense is this?’

Zhang Wenda stuck out both hands, repeatedly trying to scoop up the moon in the water. But the moon was like an afterimage; his fingers just kept passing through it.

Seeing this, Zhang Wenda grew frustrated. He’d had it with this thing. No matter what form it took, it was always a pain to deal with.

’The sun was a solid object, so I could at least come up with a plan for it. But this moon has turned into a hologram. How am I supposed to grab it?’ Zhang Wenda tried several different methods, but none of them worked.

’How does it change its physical state when it turns into the moon? What the hell is this thing?’

Unable to hold his breath any longer, Zhang Wenda climbed out of the water again for air. This time, he didn’t rush. Instead, he began to look around for a container. ’Since this thing is so hard to handle,’ he thought, ’there must be some kind of special containment vessel for it.’

However, after searching all around, both in and out of the water, he found nothing.

’The container can’t possibly be somewhere else, can it?’ Zhang Wenda wondered.

Just then, he saw the cans of yellow peaches by the wall again. ’Looks like the guy who was watching this place was from the Northeast,’ he mused. ’He really liked his yellow peaches.’

But the more he looked at the cans, the stranger they seemed. ’No one’s eating them, so why are there so many?’

Seeing this, an idea suddenly struck Zhang Wenda. ’If these cans couldn’t hold the sun, then maybe...’

When he tentatively tried to capture the moon with an empty can again, a miraculous scene unfolded. The full moon’s afterimage in the water flowed into the glass jar along with the water itself. It worked!

Soaking wet, Zhang Wenda walked out of the water, his face beaming with delight.

Watching the moon slosh back and forth with the water in the jar, Zhang Wenda knew he had turned a disaster into a blessing. This trip hadn’t been for nothing after all.

’I might even have a lot left over after selling this thing. But I can’t carry it in my hand; it’s too conspicuous.’ Just as Zhang Wenda was gleefully about to put it into the enamel crock, he remembered the cloud person was still inside.

But he quickly came up with an idea. He carefully opened a small gap in the sealed enamel crock, and wisps of dark cloud began to drift out.

After a little had escaped, Zhang Wenda sealed the gap again. The sparse dark cloud could only form a small, palm-sized cloud person, its threat level practically zero.

’This makes things easy.’ Zhang Wenda ran to several different spots, releasing a small amount of the dark cloud at each one. This way, he completely broke up the main cloud person into tiny, separate individuals, making it impossible for them to regroup and threaten him again.

After stomping on and dispersing the last little cloud person, Zhang Wenda placed the jar of rainbow and the jar of moon into the ceramic crock.

Zhang Wenda looked at his spoils with satisfaction. Now he wouldn’t have to venture onto that perilous dark web. ’Just based on its unique containment method, this moon has to be more expensive than that Oil Bab thing.’

Just as Zhang Wenda was contemplating whether he should sell it directly or use it to generate more rainbows and dark clouds to sell, like its previous owners, he suddenly heard a burst of intense gunfire from another concrete building.

He quickly ducked his head and looked cautiously in that direction. Although it wasn’t dawn yet, the moon was large and brightly illuminated the distant concrete building.

’Is that... Drone Head?’

Just as Zhang Wenda caught a glimpse of the familiar face flashing past an unfinished window, another intense volley of gunfire erupted, sending dust and debris flying from the window frame.

’Enemies! And a lot of them are still alive! How did such a massive flood not drown them all?’

Zhang Wenda watched a small group of people run past the window. The one in the lead had a bayonet-style haircut and a mouth full of black metal teeth. They were all carrying guns, and their heads were mostly replaced with blades or firearms. Covered in various tattoos, they looked exceptionally vicious.

A red light had just flashed between the floors when it was immediately extinguished by a burst of gunfire. Zhang Wenda watched this with extreme anxiety. It looked like Drone Head was in a very tight spot.

However, there seemed to be nothing he could do in this situation. ’This is the world of adults, after all. In this world, I can’t activate my Red Core.’

’Relying on my physical body alone is even more impossible. I’m not Superman; how could I fight them?’

Peering into the distance, Zhang Wenda noticed that the propeller on Drone Head’s head seemed to be broken. He hadn’t flown at all, and he was bleeding.

’What should I do?’ Zhang Wenda’s mind raced with anxiety. ’He saved my life, for crying out loud. I can’t just watch him die. Besides, I’m counting on him to get back!’

Just as Zhang Wenda saw Drone Head run onto the rooftop, find himself with nowhere to go, and finally get knocked down by a gunshot,

an idea suddenly struck him. Without hesitation, he pulled the jar of rainbow from his crock.

He had never actually used this thing before and wasn’t sure if it would obey whoever threw it. But a life was on the line, and he had no time to worry about that now.

"Kill all of them except for Drone Head, understand? Kill them all," he whispered urgently to the rainbow in the jar.

Moving to the window, Zhang Wenda quickly estimated the distance, gripped the jar tightly, and hurled it with all his might in their direction.

Before the jar could even land, a burst of intense gunfire shattered it in mid-air. A massive rainbow floated out from the broken shards.

The moment the vast rainbow appeared, the gang members saw it and reacted as if they’d seen the plague itself, unhesitatingly leaping into the water below.

The rainbow drifted down from the air and into the water. It mixed with the murky river, a process that looked like rot, and floated towards the men who had jumped in.

When the rainbow drifted further away, Zhang Wenda heard a few faint, muffled screams. Crimson blood began to spread through the water.

Although he couldn’t see how it killed them, one thing was certain: this rainbow was a stone-cold killer, way more powerful than the cloud people or fire people.

Seeing Drone Head lying motionless on the rooftop, Zhang Wenda quickly jumped into the water and swam over with all his strength.

When the soaking-wet Zhang Wenda reached Drone Head’s side, he saw that he was in a terrible state. The drone on his head was cracked open, revealing the wires and battery inside. The round hole that should have been a camera lens was now steadily dripping blood.