Chapter 226: Tide of Thought No. 6

"Can you tell me about Thought Wave Six? This is my first time there, and I'm afraid I might violate some taboo."

Zhang Wenda turned his head and shouted to Wang Xiaohua beside him. The roar of the plane's engines forced him to raise his voice.

"Actually, Thought Wave Six is an offshoot of Thought Wave Two. If you work for too long and your job is too stable in Thought Wave Two, you'll slip into Thought Wave Six," Wang Xiaohua explained patiently, gesturing with her slender fingers.

"The rules are similar to Thought Wave Two. First, you have to have a job. Second, you must work more than twelve hours a day. But don't worry, we shouldn't be staying that long." Her voice cut in and out over the engine's roar.

"Besides, the situation in Thought Wave Six is much better than last time. There's signal everywhere, so we can call for reinforcements at any time." This information reassured Zhang Wenda somewhat.

Zhang Wenda nodded as he listened. 'It sounds simpler than the last mission. If that's the case, I can afford to slack off a bit.'

"Is this Big Circle territory, too?"

Just then, Wanli Shuisheng spoke up from the side, his voice deep and steady with the characteristic firmness of a soldier.

"Correct. The main objective for now is to besiege their strongholds and sever the roots of their expansion. We're the bureau's shears, sent to snip those roots."

Zhang Wenda fumbled in his pocket, pulled out a lollipop, and offered it to him. When the other man shook his head, Zhang Wenda unwrapped it and popped it into his own mouth. "Shuisheng, are there many people in the bureau who have their own Thought Wave?" The candy clacked softly against his teeth.

Hearing this, Wanli Shuisheng looked up at Zhang Wenda in surprise. "Of course not. As far as I know, there are only fifteen people in the bureau. Someone who can have their own Thought Wave is literally one in ten thousand. Most people can only live inside someone else's."

'So only fifteen people in Bureau 507 have their own Thought Wave? Ouyang Shuangdian must be one of them. Who are the other fourteen? Does Old Tan count?'

Zhang Wenda crossed his arms, processing this information. The number was far lower than he had imagined.

"People who have their own Thought Wave are usually incredibly powerful. They don't typically need teamwork; they can single-handedly complete A-level or higher combat missions with ease." Wanli Shuisheng's clarification gave Zhang Wenda a much clearer understanding of this power.

"Then what about our last mission with those Little Immortals? Before things went south, it was rated B3. After that monster showed up, what would the mission level have been?"

Zhang Wenda leaned in as he asked, his ears practically twitching.

"A5. That monster had a Thought Wave, too," Wanli Shuisheng answered succinctly.

'That whole situation was only an A5?' Hearing this, Zhang Wenda now had a clear grasp of the power held by beings who possessed their own Thought Wave.

'Okay, I got my answers, but this path is not going to be easy. Never mind how difficult the journey itself will be; the first and most important problem is just finding the path in the first place.'

Zhang Wenda's brow furrowed again, revealing his inner conflict.

After mulling it over for a moment on the gunship, Zhang Wenda turned to Auntie, who was cradling a dozing Song Jianguo.

"If this mission goes smoothly, I might need you two to help me."

'Actually, having Auntie here is even better. She and Song Jianguo can provide an intelligence boost to protect me while I'm in my inspirational state.'

"Alright, alright, we're old pals, you don't even have to ask! Oof, my arms are so sore, so sore. Help me out, would you?"

As she spoke, Auntie transferred Song Jianguo from her arms into Zhang Wenda's.

To the sound of Song Jianguo's soft snores, the plane gradually entered Thought Wave Six. The transition was almost imperceptible; only a subtle change in the scenery outside hinted that they had crossed some threshold.

Zhang Wenda looked through the plane's window at the so-called Thought Wave Six. At first glance, it didn't seem much different from a city in Thought Wave Two; the ground below was covered in dense, towering buildings.

A city built from prefabricated people. As far as the eye could see, the entire metropolis resembled a living creature.

The only real difference was that this city had no end. There were no mountains, no water—nothing to be seen beyond the urban sprawl. The extreme urbanization was suffocating, as if the entire world had been devoured by prefabricated buildings.

The moment the gunship touched down, Zhang Wenda finally discovered the unique feature of Thought Wave Six.

The landing zone had no empty space at all. It was full of people, a dense mass of humanity, packed shoulder to shoulder and stepping on each other's feet.

They all wore similar gray suits and were completely expressionless, like a horde of programmed robots.

As the gunship descended, the people underneath weren't crushed into a bloody mess. Instead, as if boneless, they simply slipped smoothly out of the way.

The instant the cabin door opened, the crowd outside surged back in like a tide, completely engulfing them. Zhang Wenda felt countless bodies pressing against him.

Zhang Wenda's scythe had just extended from the rabbit's paw when Wang Xiaohua stopped him. "Wenda, don't attack them! They're all prefabricated people. This is what Thought Wave Six is like."

Only then did Zhang Wenda realize that these jostling people had no eyes. They simply kept their heads down, silently going with the flow. Their faces were blank, as if they were executing some predetermined program.

Seeing Song Jianguo completely submerged in the crowd, Zhang Wenda yanked him out with one hand and hoisted him onto his shoulders.

"Phew! I almost suffocated!"

When he looked at the others behind him, he saw they were all taller than 1.6 meters, so for the time being, their heads were still high enough to get air. The discovery was a small relief.

Zhang Wenda took the lead, using his body to force a path through the slick, crowded mass of people. He felt like he was wading through a viscous fluid.

Deformed prefabricated people pressed in from all sides, and every step required immense effort. Their bodies were unnaturally soft, as if boneless, yet also incredibly resilient and difficult to shove aside completely.

It was less like being surrounded by a crowd and more like being trapped in a 1.6-meter-deep swamp of living flesh. The sensation was both nauseating and unsettling, as if they could be completely devoured by this human sea at any moment.

Fortunately, he and Auntie—one strong, the other large—acted as an icebreaker at the front, sparing the others a great deal of effort.

"These guys are insane, setting up camp in a shithole like this. What's the word from the intel team? Where's the Big Circle's stronghold?"

"Straight ahead." Shuisheng pulled a city map from his jacket and began to navigate. "They're hiding here precisely because the environment is so hostile." His finger slid across the map, searching for the best route.

Zhang Wenda didn't enter his inspirational state right away. 'I have to do my job first.' Once he confirmed the Big Circle stronghold wasn't a major threat, he would begin his search here.

After about twenty minutes, a crowded subway entrance appeared before them. The mouth of the station constantly swallowed and spat out people.

According to intel, they were supposed to go inside. But forget about entering—the subway entrance was actively spewing people out.

The subway entrance was like a giant, square, vomiting mouth, day and night endlessly and slowly extruding those greasy, crowded prefabricated people, as if they were witnessing some grotesque life cycle.

"What now?" Just as Zhang Wenda turned to ask, he saw Wang Xiaohua and the others pull thumb-sized test tubes from their pockets, tilt their heads back, and drink the contents. In the dim light, the liquid within the tubes gave off an eerie fluorescent glow.

"What is this?" Zhang Wenda took the potion Wang Xiaohua handed him and immediately tipped his head back, pouring it into his mouth. The liquid had a peculiar sweet taste as it slid down his throat.

"Underground Breathing Potion. The R&D team developed it specially for Thought Wave Six. With this, we can dive deeper," Wang Xiaohua's explanation was brief and forceful.

As she finished speaking, Wang Xiaohua swallowed the potion, raised her hands high, took a light hop, and with a PLOP, dove into the thick, human swamp at the subway entrance.

Her figure was quickly swallowed by the surging mass, leaving only a few spreading ripples on the surface of the crowd.