Chapter 67: Luo Nightmare

Detective Luo Yajun slowly opened his eyes. His mind was foggy, like he'd just been shaken awake from a deep sleep. His eyes felt heavy, and everything seemed blurry.

It took him a moment to realize he was lying in his own bed, staring at the ceiling of his apartment. A dull pain throbbed in his temples.

He couldn't remember what day it was or what had happened before he fell asleep lazily. He reached out from under the covers, searching for his pack of cigarettes and lighter on the nightstand.

He wanted a smoke to clear his head, but when he found the pack, it was empty.

Great, just his luck.

He got up to check if he had any left, but his stash was all gone. For someone like him, a heavy smoker, running out of cigarettes was like running out of air. With no other choice, he put on a coat and headed downstairs to buy more.

Downstairs at the smoke shop, the owner, Old Li, recognized him right away. "The usual?" Old Li inquired with a smile.

"Yeah, the usual," Luo Yajun replied as he fished out his wallet.

As a Secret Service agent, Luo Yajun made a good salary and could afford the best tobacco. But he preferred Zhong Ye, the brand that had been the favorite of the late Sheriff Brooke.

Old Li grabbed the cigarettes and muttered, "You know, you should try cutting back. Smoking too much isn't good for you."

Even the guy selling the cigarettes couldn't help but comment on Luo Yajun's heavy smoking habit.

"It's fine, I'm tough," Luo Yajun said with a casual grin. "Besides, who knows how long someone like me is going to live? Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. But at least this cigarette is the real deal."

"Live for the moment, huh? That's really your style."

Old Li smiled too, but there was something off about it.

"You know, I've been feeling that way more and more lately," Old Li sighed. "They say you never know what'll come first—tomorrow or an accident. We're always afraid, afraid of everything—of power, of wealth, of the unknown. We tiptoe through life, numbing ourselves with the little things. But deep down, we all know what's coming. It's that thing we fear most, the one uncertainty we can't avoid."

Luo Yajun started to sense something was wrong. He didn't know Old Li that well, but even he could tell something was off.

"Old Li?"

Old Li turned around, but instead of holding Luo's usual pack of cigarettes, he was holding a knife. He was smiling.

"I should've done this a long time ago," Old Li said, swinging the knife at him.

Luo Yajun dodged, quickly countering by grabbing Old Li's arm. But Old Li just laughed, letting the knife fall into his other hand, and swung again.

Luo Yajun dodged again, grabbing Old Li's wrist and disarming him. The knife clattered to the floor. Then, with a swift move, Luo Yajun threw Old Li over his shoulder. The man crashed through the window, landing hard on the sidewalk outside.

Luo Yajun kicked open the door and put in his earpiece.

"This is the headquarters."

The line connected, and the familiar voice from headquarters came through.

"Headquarters, I've encountered an incident. Possible infection source, level unknown"

Before he could finish, the operator on the other end started laughing—an unsettling, weird laugh.

"Is it the source? Haha, that's...great…"

Luo Yajun was taken aback. "Headquarters? What's going on?"

"No need for headquarters anymore. This is Radio Nothingness."

The operator kept laughing, struggling to catch their breath. The laughter was spreading, growing louder and more chaotic on the other end.

Not just in his earpiece.

Luo Yajun stepped outside and saw a truck speeding toward him. He dodged just in time, and the truck crashed into the smoke shop, its front half wedged inside. The driver was slumped over the airbag, covered in blood, laughing uncontrollably.

More people gathered around.

Men, women, the elderly, kids—they were all laughing maniacally, their faces twisted with glee as they surrounded Luo Yajun.

He fought back fiercely. He punched one person down and broke another's nose with a kick. But soon, more people grabbed him from behind.

He swung his left fist, knocking out someone's front tooth, but the man just grinned through the blood. Then, two more people jumped on his left arm, pinning him down.

Luo Yajun was overwhelmed. The endless laughter seemed to trap him, suffocating him in a sea of madness. He felt countless hands pulling him deeper into the crowd, as if they were drowning him in an ocean of laughter until everything went dark—nothing made sense anymore, only the laughter echoed in his ears.

Then he woke up.

The nightmare vanished, but the reality he woke up to wasn't much better.

He was in a dirty room, dimly lit by an old chandelier. Shadows lurked in the corners, hiding who knows what.

Luo Yajun frowned, trying to piece together his memories. Slowly, it all started coming back to him.

He had been called to the branch base, where an agent questioned him. His face had been caught on surveillance at the Fourth Precinct the night before—at the very precinct where he'd once worked under an old alias.

The Secret Service Nine wanted him to explain what he was doing there, what he saw, and probably wanted to evaluate his mental state.

But then he'd escaped, shaken off his pursuers, and now he was here.

"You're awake."

A voice came from the shadows.

"I'm sorry I couldn't make this meeting more comfortable, but... let's just say I'm a big fan."

The man in the dark let out a series of unsettling laughs. "I know you'll be happy to talk to me face to face. After all, I'm special to you."

Luo Yajun smirked, trying to break free from the ropes binding his hands.

"I've seen plenty of people who think they're special," he said bluntly. "In the end, they're all the same. Just a bunch of delusional maniacs."

"Haha, funny. I'm sure you mean that," the man giggled. "But when you talk about delusional maniacs, don't you put yourself in that category too?"

As he spoke, the man paused, his piercing gaze cutting through the darkness.

"That dream, that laughing, twisted world—do you want to know what happens next?"

Luo Yajun was startled. He didn't reply but couldn't help glancing in the direction of the voice, trying to see through the darkness.

"You're wondering how I know about your dreams. The answer is simple. It's because, as I said, I'm special to you."

The man stepped out of the shadows and into the light, revealing his face.

Luo Yajun frozen in shock.

In the dim light, he saw himself.