Infinite Nightmares

"Wait, what the hell is going on? So you two organizations are just having an internal squabble?" Zhang Wenda grew more and more confused the more he listened.

He had thought the Big Circle and the Third Line were mortal enemies. How could one have just split off from the other?

"Not anymore. And never again."

Tang Xingxiong spoke again. "A lot of people left the Third Line after that incident. They scattered all over and founded more than just the Big Circle."

"What incident?" Zhang Wenda listened with rapt attention. ’2826 never told me about something this important.’

’The Big Circle has a lot of members, and if an entire bureau was dissolved over it, this incident must have been a seismic event for the Third Line. It’s definitely not some trivial matter.’

He looked out the window at the bizarre, phantasmagorical sights and suddenly had a thought. He immediately asked, "I heard that incident was related to the emergence of all these strange phenomena?"

The pieces of information quickly clicked into place, and Zhang Wenda immediately thought of a possibility. "Was it because of the disaster Bureau 749 caused? Is that why all these strange phenomena appeared? Is that why the world became so weird? And why the entire bureau had to be completely dissolved? Am I right?"

But this time, neither Saber nor Tang Xingxiong said a word. The jeep fell frighteningly silent, and the atmosphere grew oppressive.

"Come on, can’t you just spit it out already? The suspense is killing me!"

However, with a screech of brakes, the car came to a sudden halt.

"We can chat later. We’re here." Tang Xingxiong pushed open her door and stepped out.

Judging by their expressions, Zhang Wenda sensed that even if he hadn’t guessed everything correctly, he was pretty close to the truth.

’If that’s the case, then it would explain why the people who tortured Wang Dayan all had flashlights.’

’Whether it was due to a schism or a disagreement, there are definitely former members of the Third Line in the Big Circle, and they must strongly disapprove of what the Third Line is doing now.’

Zhang Wenda felt that through his investigation, the pieces of this fragmented world were gradually starting to form a rough outline.

This knowledge might be useful for the future, but it wasn’t much help right now. He still had to face the challenge right in front of him.

After shaking Song Jianguo awake from her spot on the cat bed, Zhang Wenda followed the others out of the car.

Before them was a pitch-black tunnel with a sign hanging above it that read, "Lushan Tunnel."

"Let’s go. It’s in here." Tang Xingxiong, clad in high heels, sashayed into the tunnel as if she were taking a stroll.

Zhang Wenda grabbed Song Jianguo’s wrist and said to her with utmost seriousness, "Remember, once we’re inside, you follow my orders. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to attack someone, you attack them. Understand?"

"Alright, alright, I get it!" Song Jianguo looked impatient. Maybe she was just that unflappable, but no matter how difficult or complex the situation, she never showed a shred of fear as long as she wasn’t about to die the very next second.

Upon entering the tunnel, Zhang Wenda deliberately walked behind the other two. He wasn’t sure if they might suddenly turn from friend to foe, so it was best to be prepared.

Once inside, the tunnel was long and dark. The only light source was a hazy white dot in the far distance.

The moment Zhang Wenda took out his flashlight and switched it on, the Black Cats beside him were so startled their fur stood straight on end.

The tunnel walls, which should have been smooth, were scrawled with all sorts of bizarre and terrifying monsters. Staring at the wall, Zhang Wenda felt as if a gate to hell had just opened.

He wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, but Zhang Wenda could have sworn the monsters were moving.

"This is all to scare off normal people and provide cover for hidden lookouts. Like this one."

Tang Xingxiong’s three Crows suddenly burst forth, darting rapidly back and forth through the tunnel.

Suddenly, one of the Crow’s red eyes flashed. On the wall not far from Zhang Wenda, the right leg of a giant monster began to move. It rapidly morphed into a human figure, peeled itself off the wall, and took off sprinting.

As the man ran, he pulled out a cell phone, ready to press a button. But just then, a Crow appeared by his hand as if from nowhere.

With a swift peck from its black beak, a small hole appeared on the phone. Instantly, the device deflated like a leaky balloon, collapsing into a limp, black casing.

The next second, the beak struck again. The man suffered the same fate as his phone, his body rapidly shriveling like a punctured balloon.

Zhang Wenda’s heart tightened at the sight. ’This is the first time she’s displayed her power,’ he thought. ’I never imagined that beak could be so potent. And that was just a single Crow.’

’I was even mulling over a plan,’ he thought. ’If things went south, I could just cooperate with the people here and eliminate these two. A failed mission is better than making a mortal enemy of the Third Line. But if Tang Xingxiong is really this powerful, that plan is probably dead in the water.’

’Is there a way to save the people here without killing them, and still fool these two?’

As Zhang Wenda was racking his brain over this problem, Tang Xingxiong found a door on the side of the tunnel. Seemingly without any fear of traps, she walked right in.

It was much brighter inside. Caged lightbulbs hung from the walls. As they walked deeper down the passage, Zhang Wenda discovered it was a maze of tunnels extending in all directions. The entire mountain seemed to have been hollowed out; even their voices echoed.

Watching Tang Xingxiong’s Crows once again chase after another hidden lookout, Zhang Wenda discreetly gave Song Jianguo a look.

Song Jianguo didn’t say a word, only giving a slight nod. With a subtle flick of her pinky, two of the Black Cats following her immediately peeled off, darting back down a fork in the path they had just passed in an attempt to raise the alarm.

This was the most Zhang Wenda could do without compromising his infiltration mission.

Just as Zhang Wenda thought Tang Xingxiong was about to slaughter her way through, she suddenly stopped in the middle of a tunnel intersection, as if listening for something. "People ahead," she said. "A lot of them."

"What’s there to be afraid of? I’ll handle whatever comes up!" Zhang Wenda said, taking the lead and striding to the front.

He hadn’t been walking long down the winding tunnels when he came upon a vast, echoing subterranean cavern. The cavern was filled with all sorts of equipment and instruments he’d never seen before. Not all of it was purely mechanical; some devices were even part plant and part flesh.

Several people in white lab coats were calibrating the monstrous equipment, completely oblivious to the intrusion. Clearly, the two cats hadn’t managed to raise the alarm here.

But Zhang Wenda paid them no mind. His eyes were glued to something in the distance: a purple, red-eyed rabbit conversing with two other people from Bureau 507!