Infinite Nightmares

"Third Line? What Third Line unit?!"

Zhang Wenda didn’t know what "Third Line" the man was referring to, but he was certain of one thing: his cover was blown!

The very next second, the man threw down his cigarette butt and quickly reached for the pistol at his waist.

’I can’t let him shoot!’ In that same instant, Zhang Wenda whipped a laser pen out of his pocket and aimed the beam right at the man’s eyes.

As the man flinched from the laser, instinctively jerking his head away, Zhang Wenda lunged forward with a punch.

He followed with a leg sweep, knocking the man to the ground. He then pounced, one hand desperately pinning down the undrawn gun while the other clamped tightly over the man’s mouth, trying to keep him from making a sound.

If it was just one person, he could manage. But if he alerted everyone else in the building, he was a dead man for sure.

But things rarely go as planned. Right as Zhang Wenda was struggling with the man, the gun went off.

The massive BANG echoed through the concrete building like a clap of thunder, loud enough to wake everyone.

"Fuck!" Zhang Wenda felt like his head was about to explode. No longer bothering with the struggle, he violently threw off the man’s grabbing hands and scrambled into the hallway.

But he hadn’t taken more than a few steps before he heard the sound of heavy, approaching footsteps from the other end of the hall. Judging by the noise, it was way more than just a few people!

With no time to think, Zhang Wenda forcefully activated the Yellow Core. Everything around him rapidly faded away.

Compared to the "big world" where he had nowhere to hide, his only option was to find a solution from another perspective.

When he found himself back on the street of the small town, he quickly dashed toward a house on his left.

Just as he leaped through a window, a giant, translucent foot came crashing down with an earth-shattering tremor, taking up half the street.

Before Zhang Wenda, now inside, could even catch his breath, he heard a groaning sound from above. Cracks rapidly spiderwebbed across the ceiling and walls, and the entire house seemed about to be torn apart.

It was obvious Zhang Wenda had been found. They were starting to chase him!

Seeing this, Zhang Wenda’s scalp tingled with fear. He hurriedly pushed open a door and bolted to the left.

Barely an instant later, the entire roof of the house was ripped off and flung high into the air.

Knowing someone was after him, Zhang Wenda could think of nothing else but escape. He ducked and weaved from house to house, truly getting a taste of what it felt like to be a cornered rat.

Behind him, the sounds of collapsing buildings and earthquake-like tremors rang out continuously, pursuing him like a vicious dog hot on his heels.

He didn’t know what was chasing him, or how many there were, but the only thing he knew for sure was that he absolutely could not be caught! Not in this world, not in any world!

Pushing open another grimy window, Zhang Wenda was about to climb through to the next house when he suddenly realized what lay outside was a small river. ’Shit! A dead end!’

Hearing the ceiling above him begin to groan again, Zhang Wenda took a deep breath, steeled himself, and jumped straight into the river.

Through the murky water, Zhang Wenda saw the twisted monsters. To call them giants would be inaccurate; they looked more like some kind of fusion of flesh and architecture.

He couldn’t tell if they looked so distorted because of the ripples in the water, or if that was just how they were.

Like a tidal wave, SPLASH! A giant, seven-fingered hand plunged into the river and began slowly scooping through the water.

The hand was so enormous that Zhang Wenda, curled up and holding his breath, could have passed right through the gaps between its fingers.

After sweeping back and forth a few times, the hand began to withdraw, leaving behind nothing but stirred-up, murky water.

Hidden in the murky river, Zhang Wenda was safe for the moment. The cloudy water made him much harder to find.

However, this safety was only temporary, because he was about to run out of air.

An intense feeling of suffocation made Zhang Wenda’s lungs feel like two red-hot coals, the burning sensation traveling up his windpipe and into his brain.

’Hold on, I have to hold on! They definitely haven’t left! If I surface now, I’ll be completely exposed!’

That was what he told himself, but he wasn’t a fish, and his body wouldn’t listen.

The overwhelming lack of air was making Zhang Wenda feel faint. It seemed his only choice was between suffocating to death or being caught and killed.

’What do I do? What do I do?’ As he struggled, a single air bubble escaped from his nostrils.

The instant the bubble rose, a massive hand composed entirely of thumbs broke through the surface of the water, lunging aggressively right for him.

Facing certain death, Zhang Wenda was just about to activate his Yellow Core for a final, desperate struggle when a beam of light shot down from above the water. It effortlessly pierced the murky depths, passed through the giant hand, and enveloped Zhang Wenda completely.

The beam of light contracted and vanished. Zhang Wenda’s vision blurred, and in the next moment, he found himself teleported—soaking wet—into a residential building.

Standing before him was a figure with a drone for a head, its lights flashing red and blue.

The figure was male, dressed in a black jacket, and seemed to be about the same height as him.

The drone-headed man was just turning off a flashlight in his hand. That beam of light had come from it. He had saved him.

More importantly, Zhang Wenda noticed that the man’s flashlight was the exact same model as his own, just in better condition.

Zhang Wenda wiped the water from his face and was about to ask a question, but the drone-headed man, who was sitting on a stool, spoke first.

"When did you get here? I never received any orders about reinforcements for this infiltration mission."

"What?"

"Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You’ve jeopardized my mission! Are you a rookie? Have you had zero training? How could you let yourself get spotted?" The drone-headed man stood up, his tone impatient as he berated Zhang Wenda like a veteran dressing down a greenhorn.

"You’ve stirred the hornet’s nest! They’re definitely going to move locations now. My months of undercover work have all gone down the drain!"

Hearing this, Zhang Wenda immediately understood that there had been some kind of misunderstanding. "Friend, uh, can you explain what’s going on? I think you’ve got the wrong person. I’m not with you."

At these words, the drone-headed man took two steps back, the eyes in his camera lenses widening in shock. "What? You’re not from the Third Line?"

But then his gaze fell on the flashlight in Zhang Wenda’s hand. "No, that’s not right. If you’re not from the Third Line, then where did you get that thing?"

"This thing?" Zhang Wenda glanced at the old, aluminum-cased flashlight in his hand.

"This thing... I think it was passed down to me from my grandfather. He was a machinist."