Chapter 154 – Yu Sheng’s Plan

The small room fell quiet for a moment. Yu Sheng and Baili Qing were both lost in thought at the same time. Though Hu Li and Eileen hadn’t quite grasped the full picture yet, they could tell from Yu Sheng’s reaction that things had gotten complicated, and neither dared to speak up carelessly.

After a long while, Yu Sheng finally raised his head again, his gaze landing on the “identification document” displayed on the screen. He stared at it for a few seconds before looking away, turning his attention to the “action record” in front of him.

“Can we determine which one of them it specifically belonged to?”

“The name and key document serial numbers have been wiped clean and can’t be restored. It’s unclear whether this was intentional,” Baili Qing said. “We can only determine that it belonged to one of the twelve team members who carried out the deep-dive mission seventy years ago… Perhaps we should rule out the two who successfully returned to the Real World?”

She suddenly paused at this point, then furrowed her brows and gently shook her head. “No… according to the records in the archives, the two Deep-Dive Agents who returned to the Real World most likely only returned in body. Their souls should still be trapped in the Fairy Tale Otherworld… just like the other ten.”

Yu Sheng said nothing. His thoughts were in chaos. Countless speculations and known information intertwined into threads of clues that swirled through his mind like a maelstrom. One hypothesis after another surfaced, only to be consecutively overturned by obvious contradictions or inexplicable gaps.

After a long while, his brow furrowed deeply, and he finally broke the silence with hesitation. “Remember what we were discussing earlier? The twelve Deep-Dive Agents from back then… the place they arrived at shouldn’t have been the Dark Forest. But this ‘scrap of paper’ was something I picked up in the Dark Forest, and the ‘Hunter’ is also an entity that roams the depths of the Dark Forest.”

“That’s what’s been puzzling me too,” Baili Qing didn’t hide her confusion. “‘The deep-dive team from seventy years ago did not enter any known subset of the Fairy Tale Otherworld’—this has always been one of the Special Operations Bureau’s conclusions regarding that operation. By all reason, even if those Deep-Dive Agents truly left behind some ‘relics’ in the Otherworld, those items shouldn’t have appeared in the Dark Forest. Unless…”

Yu Sheng looked up. “Unless?”

“Unless after the incident erupted, those Deep-Dive Agents were still active deep within Fairy Tale… and eventually found a path leading to the Dark Forest.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes instantly sharpened, and he spoke slowly. “And then, they—or one of them—became the ‘Hunter’ of the Dark Forest…”

Just then, Eileen, who had been mostly silent at his side, suddenly tugged at his sleeve. The Little Doll said hesitantly, “Um, don’t blame me for being a buzzkill, but the ‘Hunter’ isn’t necessarily one of those former Deep-Dive Agents. It’s also possible that those agents were killed, and the ID document is the Hunter’s trophy. After all, the Hunter itself is an entity native to the Dark Forest, right…”

Yu Sheng and Baili Qing’s gazes fell on Eileen simultaneously. She instinctively shrank her neck. “I said don’t blame me for being a buzzkill. It’s just a guess.”

Baili Qing was silent for a moment, then said softly, “Yes, that possibility can’t be ruled out either.”

But Yu Sheng didn’t respond. He couldn’t help but recall his experiences deep in the Dark Forest—the scene in that dim Wooden House hung with Red Cloaks, where he had stood face to face with that spectral Figure draped in hunting garb.

The Hunter had no face, no words. Its behavior was eerie, its movements stiff and rigid. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed more like a bizarre entity generated by the Otherworld than a “living thing” possessing any humanity.

But when Yu Sheng told them that the children devoured by Grandmother Wolf had been safely returned to the real world, that empty hood had given a slight nod.

Had that barely perceptible nod been the last remnant of their humanity?

“Are there more detailed materials?” Yu Sheng suddenly broke the silence, pointing at the roster in the dossier on the table. “About this twelve-person team.”

“Yes,” Baili Qing nodded immediately. “I’ll have someone bring them over. They’ll arrive shortly.”

With that, she picked up the phone on the desk and gave a few instructions to a subordinate.

For the next short while, Yu Sheng waited patiently, keeping an eye on the situation beyond the wide observation window.

The laboratory across the way was still bustling—although the technicians had successfully restored the original appearance of the “scrap of paper” and confirmed its origins, there was still much intelligence on that paper worth analyzing. Changes in physicochemical properties, the composition of stains on the paper, trace soil particles it carried… These utterly inconspicuous, tiny clues could all potentially become assets for those “ordinary people” in their fight against the Otherworld.

Through another section of the window, another operating room was visible—the mysterious metal device that had “emerged” from the room at No. 66 Wutong Road was undergoing a new round of instrument scanning. Compared to the intelligence quickly obtained from the “scrap of paper,” the analysis of this sample had clearly run into difficulties. The on-site technicians still hadn’t reported back any valuable information.

But perhaps this kind of “difficulty” was simply the normal state of affairs when analyzing Otherworld samples.

However, most of Yu Sheng’s attention was no longer on that “lump of iron.” He was far more focused on matters related to Fairy Tale.

Less than ten minutes later, the materials Yu Sheng had requested were delivered to the small room.

It was a stack of personnel files hastily printed from the database—a thin sheaf of a dozen or so pages, bearing the basic information of those Deep-Dive Agents from that era: names, ages, photographs, service records, and so on.

Yu Sheng flipped through them one by one, gradually matching their names to the roster in the action dossier, studying those black-and-white portraits.

Twelve people, men and women. Some appeared to be seasoned veterans already in middle age, while others looked about as young as he was. At the very end of the file was a group photo. The twelve of them wore some kind of heavy protective armor with a distinctly “retro sci-fi” aesthetic, standing neatly in formation before a building. No arms slung over shoulders, no victory poses or rallying gestures—just standing there straight and proper, helmets removed, standing at attention for a group portrait.

“This was their group photo taken before departure,” Baili Qing said from beside him. “It’s a Special Operations Bureau tradition. Before every team deep-dive mission, all participating agents must take a group photo.”

“Mm,” Yu Sheng nodded lightly, quietly gazing at the group photo printed on the A4 paper. After a long while, he suddenly spoke. “Can I take this with me? Just this—I won’t take any of the other materials.”

“What do you want to do with it?” Baili Qing asked curiously.

“Show it to that ‘Hunter,’ if I get the chance.”

Baili Qing was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking it over.

“In principle, none of these materials may be taken outside. Not a single page,” she said calmly.

Yu Sheng: “…Uh, alright…”

“But the principle is in my hands,” Baili Qing continued, pushing the paper toward Yu Sheng. “Take it. Don’t share it with anyone, and after the matter is resolved, destroy it at an appropriate time.”

Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned. “…?”

Baili Qing looked at him. “Is there a problem?”

Only then did Yu Sheng snap out of it. He took the paper, folded it, and put it away, muttering in a somewhat peculiar tone, “Uh, I didn’t expect you actually had a sense of humor.”

“I’m not some stone-faced robot.”

Yu Sheng: “I didn’t say those words either…”

“I’m simply accustomed to being serious,” Baili Qing said, still expressionless, as if completely unbothered by what Yu Sheng was saying. She promptly shifted the topic. “Tell me your plan. How do you intend to deal with Fairy Tale? Besides this intelligence, what else do you need from us? We’ll do everything we can.”

Yu Sheng immediately felt a bit sheepish. “Uh, your help has already been more than enough…”

“When it comes to Fairy Tale, the Special Operations Bureau has an old score to settle,” Baili Qing cut him off with her calm gaze and even tone. “And on the other hand, you are so far the only ‘adult’ who can enter the ‘subsets’ just like those children without being affected, and you’ve even successfully rescued a child from deep within the Dark Forest. We have every reason to continue providing assistance.”

Those colorless eyes were calm and resolute. Yu Sheng met her gaze for a while, then let out a soft breath.

“I’m trying to root out the ‘storyteller’ behind the Dark Forest,” he said slowly. “Based on my observations of the Dark Forest and my perception of those wolf packs, I can now essentially confirm that every subset of Fairy Tale is controlled and driven by a ‘story source.’ And this source is very likely the same thing that the original deep-dive team encountered. But the problem I’m running into is that while I can enter the Dark Forest, I can’t find a way to reach the ‘backstage.’ This is probably the exact opposite of what that team experienced back then.”

At this point, he paused and fixed Baili Qing with a serious gaze. “They most likely landed directly on the backstage.”

Baili Qing immediately understood the implication. “So, if the ‘Hunter’ in the Dark Forest really was one of those former Deep-Dive Agents…”

“Then they would know how to reach the backstage,” Yu Sheng nodded. “That team may have already successfully punched through the deep-layer barrier of Fairy Tale back then—it’s just that by the time they broke through, they had already been completely cut off from the Real World.”

“But the ‘Hunter’ can’t communicate and has no rationality.”

“That’s why I need this,” Yu Sheng pointed at his pocket, where he had tucked away the group photo close to his body. “It just might work.”

“Using a group photo to move a soul that has already transformed into an entity, to reclaim their hollow humanity?” Baili Qing’s gaze toward Yu Sheng seemed to carry something unusual. “You really think something straight out of a novel… would actually work?”

“If it doesn’t work, I’ll think of something else,” Yu Sheng said with an open-minded ease, even wearing a smile. “Might as well give it a shot.”

(End of Chapter)