Infinite Nightmares

Listening to the black cats meow their refutations at Song Jianguo, Zhang Wenda let go of the cat girl.

Apparently, she hadn’t passed on the instructions, which was why the black cats hadn’t alerted them upon arrival.

"Sigh. I’d have been better off raising a piece of barbecue pork." After saying his piece, Zhang Wenda unbuckled his seatbelt, walked to the cockpit, and asked the pilot, "Hey buddy, quick question. Where are Wanli Shuisheng and the others?"

"They left on the mission. The captain said you’re to wait here."

"What mission?"

The helmeted pilot gave Zhang Wenda an indifferent glance and uttered a phrase Zhang Wenda had come to despise. "That’s classified."

"Oh, for crying out loud. I can’t believe this." Zhang Wenda went to the hatch, shoved it open, and jumped straight down.

The moment he hit the ground, Zhang Wenda was shocked to find that the gunship was parked in the middle of a dense, primeval forest.

’So, they brought me all this way just for a plane ride?’

Zhang Wenda knew he was an outsider, and he knew he had some friction with Wang Xiaohua, but wasn’t this a little too rude? ’Are they just treating me like I’m not even here?’

Indignant, Zhang Wenda pulled out his phone to call Ouyang Shuangdian, only to find that this godforsaken place had no signal whatsoever.

"Damn it!" Zhang Wenda raised his phone as if to smash it, but he forced himself to stop.

The scythe-wielding monster in his mind sprang forth once more, utterly shredding his furious thoughts. Gradually, he brought his emotions under control.

’Fine. You don’t want me to tag along? I couldn’t be bothered anyway. You’d think I actually enjoy slaving away for Bureau 507. Isn’t it way better to do nothing and still get paid?’

Zhang Wenda turned, walked back to the hatch, and pushed Song Jianguo and the black cats, who were on their way out, back inside. "It’s nothing. Go on back to sleep. When it’s time, we’ll just go home for dinner!"

"Nooo!!" Song Jianguo cried, her eyes full of longing as she gazed at the dense primeval forest outside.

After her persistent pleading, Song Jianguo was finally allowed out. Under the guise of standing guard, she took the black cats to play in the forest, giving them a much-needed chance to blow off some steam from the past few days.

Even catching a single mountain rat was enough to make them cry out in excitement. It was obvious that both Song Jianguo and the black cats had been going stir-crazy back at Bureau 507.

Zhang Wenda, on the other hand, was like an old monk deep in meditation, continuing to train his mental focus inside the helicopter cabin.

Time ticked by, but to the meditating Zhang Wenda, its passage was imperceptible. A sudden jolt of pain, however, snapped him back to reality.

He looked down to see that a Little Black Cat had hopped up beside him and was licking the pad of his rabbit paw with its barbed tongue.

Having spent so much time with the black cats, Zhang Wenda was starting to remember their names.

He picked the black cat up and asked curiously, "What’s wrong, Black Coal?"

"MEOW~ MEOW~" Black Coal wriggled free from his rabbit paws and padded toward the hatch.

’Is Song Jianguo in trouble?’ Zhang Wenda’s heart sank. He immediately scrambled to his feet and ran out after Black Coal.

After walking a short way into the woods, he saw Song Jianguo perched on a branch like Tarzan, a self-made flower crown sitting jauntily on her head.

"Hey! Why’d you send the cat for me? What’s going on?" Zhang Wenda shouted up at her.

Song Jianguo cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone and yelled back. "I don’t know! The kitties say there’s a scent of other people around here!"

"Scent of other people? You mean the team that left? Get down from there first! It’s tiring to yell like this!"

Grabbing a vine, Song Jianguo swung down from the tree, using Zhang Wenda’s furry body as a landing cushion and crashing right into him.

"It wasn’t the team that left. It was someone else. The kitties went to track them, but their scent just suddenly vanished."

"Vanished?" Zhang Wenda scratched his head, his brow furrowed. He didn’t know where they were, if this was even Thought Wave Two, or whether something like this was considered normal here.

"Come on, let’s go back and ask the pilot what’s going on." Zhang Wenda had just started to turn back when he suddenly felt an extremely violent tremor.

"Not good! Something’s wrong!" Zhang Wenda scrambled back the way they came. When he reached the helicopter’s landing site, he was met with an unbelievable scene.

A massive hole, three meters in diameter, had opened up in the ground. Wreckage from the helicopter was scattered everywhere, and the crimson blood that stained the clearing turned it into a slaughterhouse.

"Holy shit!" Forgetting everything else, Zhang Wenda rushed over and began frantically searching for the pilot among the debris.

However, after a thorough search, the two of them found nothing. It was clear the attack had targeted the pilot. The entire front half of the helicopter, pilot included, had been dragged down into the deep pit.

Zhang Wenda stood at the edge of the pit and peered cautiously inside. It was pitch-black, and a foul, coppery stench wafted out, turning his stomach.

"The mushroom?" Zhang Wenda held out his right paw to Song Jianguo.

"Here."

After taking the fully-grown mushroom, Zhang Wenda took a small bite and immediately began to probe the pit’s interior as the Wai Rabbit.

However, no matter how much he amplified his vision—his personal "flashlight"—Wai still found nothing, even at the furthest limit of his sight.

The tunnel was very deep, and it curved out of sight at the bottom.

Whatever had attacked them, it was clear the pilot who’d been dragged inside was almost certainly dead.

Zhang Wenda turned and looked back at the dense forest. The once-pleasant scenery now seemed sinister and terrifying.

’Clearly, this place the combat team came to isn’t as safe as they thought. This forest is dangerous. For all I know, some entity is already watching me.’

’My best guess based on the situation is that Wang Xiaohua’s enemies found out they were coming and moved ahead to cut off their escape route.’

’As for who the enemy is, I have no idea. I don’t know which Thought Wave this is, whether it has new rules, or even where we are. Everything is a complete unknown.’

’But no matter how many unknowns there are, I have to do something. If I don’t want to end up like that pilot, I have to find a way to get back.’

Zhang Wenda thought for a moment, then looked at the little cat girl beside him.

"Jianguo, have your cats find Wang Xiaohua and her team’s scent. We need to find them and let them know their escape route has been cut off."

"Okay, no problem!" With a whistle from Song Jianguo, the black cats instantly scattered. A moment later, meows echoed from the forest.

Zhang Wenda cleared his mind of everything but vigilance. With Song Jianguo in tow, he began to cautiously follow the trail of Wang Xiaohua’s team, feeling his way deeper into the unknown forest.

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