Nightmare AssaultChapter 250: Infiltration

“They are tortured until they are dragged out on the ground and tossed out the door like bags of trash.” The middle-aged man rolled up his sleeves to reveal the scar on his arm that was like a centipede. “They will return to the real world safely and then…” He glanced at the door. The night was falling. “Majority of them will mentally collapse and choose to end their lives.” He added, “Before the next nightmare arrives.”

It was hard to imagine, but the fear instilled by Deep Red was stronger than the nightmare realm. The middle-aged man turned to Jiang Cheng with his eagle eyes. It felt like the dark night was his real domain.

Jiang Cheng moved his lips. “What about the minority of them?”

The middle-aged man was startled. Then, his pupils narrowed. Eventually, he said, “Young man, you are sharper than I thought.”

“You said the majority of them,” Jiang Cheng said, “So I assumed.”

“Not bad,” The man nodded. “There is a small batch of them. They were so small that we had stupidly neglected them before.” The middle-aged man took a deep breath, “They… were chosen by Deep Red.”

“To join them.” Jiang Cheng nodded. This was not a hard guess. It was hard to gather a group of mad people in the real world, but it was not hard to do that in the nightmare realm.

The middle-aged man laughed. There was melancholy and sadness in them. “No.” He leaned forward. “They are chosen… to infiltrate this world.”

Both Jiang Cheng and Fatty were stunned. Fatty was instinctually afraid of the word infiltration, especially since the infiltration agent was unknown.

“Alright.” The middle-aged sat up straight and told Jiang Cheng, “Young man, I’ve given you the price. You need to give me a reply now.”

Several seconds later, Jiang Cheng nodded. “Deal.”

The middle-aged man didn’t look surprised. He slowly stood up. After he straightened his suit, he turned to leave, “Don’t need to contact me. When the time is right, I’ll come find you.” As he was about to disappear into the night, Jiang Cheng stopped him, “Wait.”

The middle-aged man paused.

“The mission hasn’t even started. How did you know the people from Deep Red would be a part of it?” For Jiang Cheng, the middle-aged man was the closest person he knew who could give him information about the nightmare realm. He didn’t want to give up any chance to know more about the nightmare realm.

“That is not within our bargain,” The man said coolly.

“Then, let me ask a different question.” Jiang Cheng was not scared off by the middle-aged man. He could feel that the man didn’t like him, but he didn’t wish to kill him… yet. “How are you certain that I can save her? Or… why would you trust me?”

The middle-aged man slowly turned around. Behind him was the neon city. The nightlife was just starting. The shops were opening. There were hawkers firing up the stoves. For the people in the nightmare realm, such a normal life was beyond their reach.

“Instinct,” the middle-aged man gave a casual answer.

“Instinct?” Jiang Cheng smiled.

“I have my reasons, but you don’t need to know them,” The man’s tone was not firm, but it signalled the end of the conversation. It was not pointed. It was merely his tone from being superior to the majority of the world.

“Aren’t you afraid that I’d do things to Xia Meng…”

“You wouldn’t dare.” The middle-aged man cut him off. His eyes hidden in the eyes shone. He scanned the worried Fatty and uttered calmly, “If something happened to the girl, I will slice his flesh off bit by bit and feed them to you.”

…

It rained that night. The wind was strong. The old door and windows creaked.

Jiang Cheng sat at the office table. Fatty curled up on the couch. His chin was placed on his knees. He looked so worried. He wanted to tell the Doctor to ignore this whole incident but he knew that the middle-aged man was not joking. If the Doctor didn’t follow his order, both of them would suffer. The power of the organisation behind him was a power that they couldn’t afford to fight against.

“Doctor,” He raised his head to ask hesitantly, “What’s on your mind?”

“Go.”

“Okay.”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m afraid.” Jiang Cheng typed on the keyboard. “I need to verify something.”

“Then, you have to be careful.” Fatty swallowed and said carefully, “I have a feeling the man wasn’t lying. This Deep Red is probably scarier than he said. And that Xia…” He suddenly paused.

“It’s Xia Meng,” Jiang Cheng reminded him.

“Right, right, Xia Meng.” Fatty continued, “She is not a good person either. You have to be careful around her.” He thought about it and added, “Especially when the mission is almost over. You will have no value then. She might kill him. Don’t forget how she treated us earlier.”

Jiang Cheng ignored him. He kept searching on the internet. If Fatty had checked the screen, he would have realised there was a long list. It was a print screen from a forum. The list was filled with names and their personal information. There were around twenty people who went missing over the most recent months, and they… were all from Rong City. One of them was Hu Yan.

Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes. He was reminded of the casual conversation between the policewoman and the young officer. “Sister Wei,” The young officer said, “Captain Liu told us to be faster. Someone went missing in the northern part of the city again. We are low on manpower.”

Again…

Then, the middle-aged man’s mysterious declaration appeared in Jiang Cheng’s mind.

“No.” He leaned forward. “They are chosen… to infiltrate this world.”

The middle-aged man and the young officer’s voices entered his brain. They collided and melted together. They were like yarns becoming more complicated until all the threads snapped.

“Infiltration huh…” Jiang Cheng leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.