A Small Task

By the side of a road bustling with traffic, Xu Feng stood in her usual spot, waiting for Uncle Shui. Every so often, she would tip her straw hat, shielding her eyes as she peered up at the sun.

“Is Uncle Shui… a good person?” The mark on Xu Feng’s forehead flickered; it was Weijiu speaking from within.

“Uncle Shui is a truly good man. He saved my life and brought me away from your world. Besides, I trust him and the Dream Protection Bureau—they might just have a way to send you home.”

“I hope… that’s the case.”

Inside the Scale Mark, Weijiu hugged herself tightly. The space was roughly the size of a bedroom, though devoid of furniture. The walls were a pale yellow, featuring a single window that allowed her to see the outside world.

“Alright, trust me. Stay quiet for a bit. Even though Uncle Shui might not be able to hear you, this is our little secret.”

“Mm.”

Before long, Xu Feng spotted the familiar black sedan and waved in advance.

The car pulled over and the window rolled down. It was the first time Xu Feng had seen Uncle Shui wearing a pair of sunglasses.

“Hop in. I happen to be passing by a minor mission site; I’ll take you along.”

“A minor mission?” Xu Feng stowed her backpack and asked curiously.

“Yeah. The destination is an abandoned building complex. There’s been a weak ripple of dream-state activity reported there. I’m stopping by to investigate. Oh, and buckle up.”

“Got it.”

As she clicked her seatbelt into place, Xu Feng wondered if this abandoned building had anything to do with what she had seen in her dream.

As the car sped along, the city buildings blurring past the window, Xu Feng took the initiative to mention her vision.

“Uncle Shui, I actually had a dream this morning.”

“What was it about?”

“An abandoned building as well. It was overgrown with grass, and there was a pack of stray animals… devouring a person’s corpse.”

Uncle Shui’s expression shifted instantly. He tapped the brakes and pulled into a side parking spot by the curb.

“Are you serious?” He turned to look at Xu Feng, his dark eyes filled with astonishment.

“Absolutely. I saw it clearly. And the corpse… it looked a lot like the person in the surveillance footage I sent you.” Xu Feng nodded firmly. Uncle Shui’s face turned grim as he pressed further.

“Around what time did the dream start? Did anything unusual happen?”

“Around 8:00 AM. I saw the strays, and while they were eating, a mass of moss-like substance started creeping across the ground. Then, it swallowed the animals whole.”

Xu Feng recalled the sounds from the dream—the chaotic, desperate wails of the animals, eventually silenced beneath the cold moon and the verdant growth.

“This is serious, Feng. What you saw in your dream is exactly the anomaly we detected this morning.” Uncle Shui furrowed his brows. He pulled the car back into traffic, but his direction had changed.

“Uncle Shui? Aren’t we going to the mission?” Xu Feng was puzzled. Even if they were going back to the Bureau for reinforcements, they should be heading the other way.

“We’re making a stop first. To buy some useful gear.”

“Useful gear?” Xu Feng found it strange. Did one fight dream entities with things bought in the real world rather than equipment developed at the Bureau?

Uncle Shui didn’t answer. Instead, he drove to a farmers’ market, bought several bottles of pesticide, and then resumed the trek toward the mission site.

Gazing at the bottles of pesticide in the back seat, Xu Feng couldn’t help but feel skeptical. “Uncle Shui, will pesticide actually work?”

“I used to be a farmer. No matter what a dream-state product is, it still maintains some connection to reality. Just as you have a vampire’s thirst for blood but aren’t afraid of the sun—I can make judgments based on that.”

“Oh. Alright then.” Xu Feng chose to trust him. With Uncle Shui’s strength, a “minor mission” shouldn’t be an issue.

Ten minutes later, the sedan stopped before a set of large, blue corrugated iron gates. This was the abandoned building complex.

Uncle Shui unloaded his gear from the trunk. Xu Feng stood before the derelict structures and glanced at the sky. The sun had just been obscured by clouds; the sudden shroud of shadows felt unsettling.

“Uncle Shui, maybe we should park the car in the sunlight? Might be safer.” Xu Feng suggested, thinking that if it were a plant-based entity, moss usually has a “fear of sunlight” setting.

“Mm, good idea.” Uncle Shui left the gear where it was and moved the car fifty meters away into a sunny patch.

When he returned, Xu Feng watched as he pulled two toy off-road trucks and two remote controls from his bag, handing one set to her.

Looking at the remote and the toy racer, Xu Feng blinked. “Are we… having a race?”

“No. I’ve loaded the pesticide into the rear sprayers of the trucks. We’re going to give that grass a little taste of the ‘strong stuff’ together.” Uncle Shui spoke calmly, but there was a flicker of excitement in his eyes—he actually looked like he was having fun.

His reaction proved the old adage: men never really grow up; the urge to play follows them at every age.

“Okay.” Xu Feng took the remote. Following Uncle Shui’s instructions, the two of them crouched near their cover and began maneuvering the little cars through the gates.

Uncle Shui’s gear was more high-tech than hers; his sunglasses turned out to be a display for his car’s camera.

The two vehicles rolled smoothly over the grass and reached the vicinity of the corpse. A mechanical arm extended from Uncle Shui’s car to begin collecting samples, while Xu Feng’s car scouted the surrounding greenery to see if it could bait anything out.

“Uncle Shui, I think the grass just moved.” Xu Feng watched the patch her car had just brushed against; there was a definite agitation there.

“Good. Keep baiting it out. I’ll finish the sample collection, and then we’ll give it the ‘special sauce’!” Uncle Shui’s eyes were bright, giving off the vibe of a big kid playing with his toys.

A man is a boy until the day he dies, Xu Feng thought with a hint of helplessness, though she continued to mash the buttons, making the little car aggressively “harass” the grass.

Once Uncle Shui retracted his mechanical arm, the grass seemed to have had quite enough of Xu Feng’s teasing. It snapped.

Rustle!

The surrounding patches of grass erupted with green moss, surging toward the toy cars. Xu Feng yanked the joystick, making her car zip away.

Seeing the opening, Uncle Shui secured his sample and drove his car into the fray with a jubilant shout.

“Incoming pesticide!”

He hit the switch. Undiluted pesticide sprayed out in a wide arc around the car. The moss, having no ears and no sense of evasion, was doused instantly. In that moment, the plants seemed to experience agonizing pain, twitching violently upward like waves on a heart monitor.

“Hahaha… tastes good, doesn’t it?” Uncle Shui was beaming. Xu Feng found herself getting into the spirit of it too, holding down her switch to join the irrigation.

Under the mobile dousing from the two cars, the poor moss looked like it was being electrocuted, twitching uncontrollably.

Uncle Shui was right! Pesticide actually worked!

Just as the pair were relishing their success, the moss reached its breaking point. It finally exploded.

CRACK!

The concrete ground let out a violent boom. Shards of broken pavement flew into the air, landing near their feet. The two toy cars were suddenly snatched by vines erupting from beneath the earth, hoisted into the air, and shredded into a shower of plastic fragments.

Playtime was over. Uncle Shui’s expression turned serious. He pulled Xu Feng back and produced a blue sphere that instantly morphed into a water blade.

“Feng, the mission starts now.”

“Right. I understand.”

Xu Feng stared at the dozen or so vines snaking out from the shattered ground, silently tightening her fists.

Mission: Engaged!