Chapter 337: Friend

Prolonged oxygen deprivation made the veins on Zhang Wenda’s face bulge, and his lungs felt like they were on fire.

He was about to pass out from suffocation. He had been in the water for some time now, but he couldn’t worry about that, because the things lurking in the dark depths were already closing in on him!

Zhang Wenda gripped the red scar in his hand and swung it hard. As a brown liquid dissolved into the water from the severed ends, all the tentacles surrounding him were cut down.

Gasping for a moment of respite, Zhang Wenda ignored everything else and swam desperately for the surface.

Compared to the water’s surface near where he had captured Line 6, this place was far too deep. Even at Zhang Wenda’s speed, he swam for a good while without reaching the surface. This place was practically an ocean.

But after a short while, Zhang Wenda could see the water above him begin to brighten, no longer so pitch-black.

Just as Zhang Wenda thought he was about to escape, he finally saw what the source of the light was: gleaming white tiles.

Gone. There was no surface. The entire area was enclosed by white tiles. His only way out was completely blocked.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his leg. Something had pierced straight through his calf and was dragging him forcefully into the depths.

But before Zhang Wenda could struggle, more and more things rose from the depths. In the pitch-black water, he couldn’t see what they were at all; he only felt his body ache with increasing pain.

“Get off me!” Zhang Wenda roared, viciously swinging the red scar and carving a chaotic path through the water. Tentacles shattered and dark currents surged.

But no matter how many times he attacked, the things in the water seemed endless, constantly emerging from the darkness.

With Zhang Wenda’s current power, he wouldn’t have feared these things under normal circumstances. But his oxygen was completely depleted, and with the strenuous movement, he could even feel his head starting to spin.

Just as Zhang Wenda was growing weaker, a long tendril covered in translucent slime grabbed his feet. Instantly, an intense wave of despair washed over him.

The red within his heart dimmed in an instant. The thought that he was too tired, that everything should just end here, surfaced in his mind.

‘Damn it! There’s no way out! At this rate, I’m going to drown here no matter what I do.’

Although the Little Black Cats quickly stabilized Zhang Wenda’s emotions, in the fleeting chaos of the battlefield, that brief moment was more than enough.

In that short span of time, Zhang Wenda had been dragged even deeper than before. Even if there was a surface, it was now impossible for him to swim back up with the last vestiges of oxygen in his lungs.

Zhang Wenda was being dragged madly into the abyss by all sorts of unseen entities, and in his daze, he had the fleeting illusion that he was about to die.

In this pitch-black abyss, even with his power as “03,” there was nothing he could do.

And just as Zhang Wenda was about to drown in the sunless depths, he suddenly caught a fleeting glimpse of red light in the distance.

He stretched his right hand out toward it. Whatever that red thing was, under Zhang Wenda’s control, its light grew brighter and brighter as it rushed toward him.

Then Zhang Wenda saw it. It was a fish—a huge fish, almost seven or eight meters long. Under the control of the red light, it showed no fear of the surrounding monsters, ravenously devouring the debris in the water.

‘A fish? A fish!’ He rushed over, his sharp scythe slicing open the fish’s body, and precisely located its massive swim bladder.

When Zhang Wenda put the large swim bladder to his mouth and inhaled deeply, the intense feeling of suffocation was instantly relieved as a strong, fishy taste filled his mouth.

‘There’s a way!’ Now, Zhang Wenda no longer swam madly for the surface. Instead, he began fighting the monsters while searching for more fish nearby.

Each fish provided him with enough oxygen to greatly alleviate his predicament.

And now, completely free from the constraint of oxygen, Zhang Wenda began to settle the score with the monsters that had just tried to kill him.

Especially the one that had used Hu Maomao as bait. He sliced through the creature’s body effortlessly.

“Today, I’m going to show you that you messed with the wrong person!” With a flashlight clenched in his teeth, Zhang Wenda charged forward and smashed the giant eyeball, splattering it like an egg.

All sorts of memory fragments erupted in Zhang Wenda’s mind. The myriad of bizarre creatures within them nearly made his head explode; for a moment, his Hippocampus was overloaded.

But as Zhang Wenda shook his head, trying to cast off these foreign memories, he suddenly saw a familiar scene among the endless fragments—the Youth Palace! The very first Youth Palace he had ever visited. It was here!

Zhang Wenda immediately charged in the direction from the memory fragment, leaving the never-ending horde of enemies behind as his speed increased.

Gradually, he began to feel suffocated again, but there were no fish anywhere nearby.

With barely a moment’s hesitation, Zhang Wenda held his breath and charged onward in that direction.

An unknown amount of time passed. Surrounded and pursued by the monsters, just as Zhang Wenda was about to give out again, he saw it. In the pitch-black depths, even from a great distance, he clearly noticed the familiar white-cloud neon sign.

A surge of joyous surprise welled up in Zhang Wenda’s heart. It wasn’t his emotion; it was the Youth Palace’s. It had seen him too!

Surrounded by the monsters in the darkness, the two drew closer and closer. Finally, Zhang Wenda saw the familiar rainbow archway again and leaped straight through an open basement entrance.

The path down was so familiar. The moment the wooden door—the one with “Serve the People” written on it—opened, a powerful suction pulled Zhang Wenda inside.

He landed on the cold floor, coughing up mouthfuls of seawater, finally free from danger.

When he lifted his head again, he found he could see the dark water outside through a window.

Under the glow of the Youth Palace’s neon lights, Zhang Wenda could clearly see the shadows in the water quickly retreat now that he was gone. The chaotic depths grew quiet once more.

He now felt as if he were sitting in a giant submarine. With it, he could travel freely through this domain of water.

Zhang Wenda turned to look behind him and saw a giant, yellow set square floating before him. It swayed gently toward him.

Looking at the object before him, Zhang Wenda couldn’t help but smile knowingly. He reached out and gently stroked it.

“Long time no see, old friend,” he said. “I never expected to see you here.”