Infinite Nightmares

After stepping through the white door located in the fishing forum, Zhang Wenda took in the scene before him, not yet sure what to do.

But someone nearby was already demonstrating for him.

Just then, a middle-aged man with an anxious look on his face darted out from beside Hu Maomao. He leaned toward one of the fishing "bros" and asked quietly, "Hey, man. Hey, I wanted to ask, if I want to go sea fishing, how do I catch tuna?"

"Simple. You'll want a large popper rod, paired with a high-speed, heavy-duty spinning reel. Use an 80- to 130-pound PE line for the main line, with a 100- to 200-pound fluorocarbon or steel wire leader. The hook needs to be a high-strength circle hook..."

"Are you sure this is the right place?" After hearing all that, Zhang Wenda was even more uncertain. This place didn't seem like a professional consulting service for fishing.

"Don't worry. The bros in the fishing forum know everything—except how to fish. Go ask one of them, you'll see. Just keep it down. You don't want to spook their fish."

As Jia Junpeng was urging him on, Zhang Wenda spotted an old doctor walking past them. He was balding with gray hair and wore green surgical scrubs, a scalpel still dripping blood in his hand.

Just like the man before him, the doctor leaned toward one of the bros and whispered, "Hey, man. Hey, I'm back. This time, it's a skull base surgery. Ruptured internal carotid artery, massive hemorrhaging. The tear is extremely complex."

"Is that so? That's a critical situation. In that case, you might have to sacrifice the vessel. Perform a permanent ligation or clip the internal carotid artery. However, this must be based on a preoperative assessment of the compensatory function of the Circle of Willis. And after ligation, you need to immediately assess cerebral blood flow to prepare for a possible emergency vascular bypass graft..."

Zhang Wenda was dumbfounded. 'They know about this, too?! The guys here really are omniscient!'

At that moment, the last shred of doubt in Zhang Wenda's mind vanished. He immediately sidled up to a bro who wasn't occupied and asked in a low voice, "Hey, man. Hey, I'm looking for someone. Do you know where he is? A Mayan male. He went on the dark web not long ago."

Under Zhang Wenda's expectant gaze, the fishing forum bro thought for a moment before speaking slowly. "He's in great danger. He's at the 600-byte mark in the southeast corner of the Internet's Tower of Babel, hiding in a pile of junk data. He's contracted two kinds of network diseases—one is like leukemia, the other a malignant tumor. This morning, he had fermented mung bean milk with spicy pickles. His mood is dejected, his temperature is 37.1 degrees Celsius, and he has burned 521 calories today."

Just then, Jia Junpeng clapped a hand on Zhang Wenda's shoulder, a smug look on his face. "So? Pretty professional, right?"

"Professional. Extremely professional. You've been a huge help this time!"

Zhang Wenda stood up and said to Jia Junpeng, "You must know where this Tower of Babel is, right? Please, lead the way. I'll transfer you the money now."

But to his surprise, Jia Junpeng shook his head. "Not so fast. First, you have to pay the consultation fee. Twenty thousand for one-time access."

Even though Zhang Wenda had money, his heart still skipped a beat at the price.

"That expensive? Is it for the fishing forum bro?"

"The bro doesn't take money, of course, but the platform does. If we don't pay up, the admins will package up the whole fishing forum and sell it off to a bunch of scammers." After accepting Zhang Wenda's transfer, Jia Junpeng fed the money into the door.

Zhang Wenda was about to leave when he suddenly thought of something. He leaned back toward the bro and asked the core question directly. "Hey, man. Hey, do you know how to get rid of Kopan's harassment?"

'If I can find a way out of this here,' he thought, 'I won't have to go to all this extra trouble.'

This time, the fishing bro was silent for much longer, but eventually, he spoke.

"I don't know much about the 'outer web.' But if you really want to know, you could try looking on a foreign forum, like 4chan. Be warned, though, there's a language barrier, and it's an extremely dangerous place. It'll warp your perception. It's about a ten-day journey to get there. If you want to go now, I can share sixteen free VPNs with you."

Zhang Wenda had hoped to find a shortcut, but faced with so many obstacles, he immediately stood up and walked toward the main door. "Where is the Tower of Babel?"

'After all this running around,' Zhang Wenda thought, 'Kopan will have already digested my bones. Finding Ahava is still the more reliable plan.'

Zhang Wenda had no idea where in the Internet World to find a Tower of Babel; he'd never even heard of it before. Fortunately, he had Jia Junpeng, an old internet veteran, to guide him. After a grueling half-day journey, they arrived before a colossal, pitch-black mountain whose peak was lost in the darkness above.

"This is the Internet's Tower of Babel," Jia Junpeng said, full of emotion.

"I heard from the old-timers of the net that this tower appeared at the same time as the Internet World itself. Back when the tower was still whole, everyone embodied the true spirit of the internet, sharing their knowledge freely. It was nothing like how things are now."

"Before the tower fell, everyone could understand everyone else, no matter what different ideologies they came from. That was the whole reason this community was created in the first place. Ah, the Internet World was a wonderful place back then."

Normally, Zhang Wenda might have been interested in learning about all this. But if forced to choose between a history lesson and his own life, he would pick his life without a moment's hesitation.

"Enough with the nostalgia. Hurry up and help me find him," Zhang Wenda interrupted. "He's a Mayan with a pointy head."

Instead of approaching the towering structure, he circled its base, carefully searching for Ahava.

Luckily, the area was mostly deserted. Just as the bro had said, they finally found an unconscious Ahava in a pile of junk data.

He was wearing the same T-shirt as always, with "FOREIGNERS ARE COMING" on the front and "FOREIGNERS ARE LEAVING" on the back.

He looked incredibly pathetic, however, and the suitcase he always carried—the one with the Yiwu crystal skull—was gone.

"Hey, Ahava! Ahava! Are you okay?" Zhang Wenda propped up the man's long, thin head and shook him gently, but there was no response.

His shriveled lips were slightly parted, as if trying to say something. Zhang Wenda leaned closer and could just barely make out the word "oil."

"Let's get out of here first. As long as he's alive, someone at HQ can save him," Hu Maomao said.

"Right!" Zhang Wenda hoisted Ahava up and watched as Hu Maomao began to sketch a rainbow-colored portal into the air.

Just as the gate was about to solidify, a powerful gust of wind swept through, instantly dissipating the portal and revealing a sinister figure standing behind where it had been.

It was an old man, one who looked to be at least four meters tall. The biting wind couldn't disperse the rage on his face. "Put that foreigner down!"

The man's voice boomed like a roar, so powerful that Zhang Wenda and the others could barely stay on their feet.

The man was clearly powerful, but for a moment, Zhang Wenda couldn't place who he was.

"Could this guy be from the Big Circle?" Song Jianguo whispered, but the man somehow heard him instantly.

"Pah! The Big Circle!" the old man spat. "A bunch of sycophants who worship everything foreign! To think you'd go to foreigners to buy an Angel Engine just to fight the Third Line! What a disgrace!"

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