Chapter 138 – After Waking Up

Chapter 138 – After Waking Up

The illusory Door slowly opened, but on the other side there was only a muddled expanse of darkness, unlike the distinct scenery that normally appeared when opening a Door in the Real World or in a “normal Otherworld.”

Yu Sheng didn’t rashly pass through the Door. Instead, he first observed it cautiously while sensing the Door’s “connection” status.

He had previously only confirmed that a Door could be opened within the Dark Forest, but had never actually passed through one. Now, with the wolf pack outside the cabin having temporarily retreated, the hunter having left, and everything around him having quieted down—even that squirrel had disappeared—Yu Sheng finally had a peaceful opportunity to study it.

Just as he had anticipated, the Door opened within the Dark Forest was very special.

Fairy Tale was an anomalous-type Otherworld built upon a foundation of a “story collection.” The Dark Forest, as a subset of Fairy Tale, clearly had an abnormal “spacetime structure.” Here, the power of “consciousness” was unprecedentedly amplified, while visitors’ physical bodies actually remained in the Real World. Correspondingly, the Door opened here seemed unable to be precisely “customized” or “tuned” the way it normally could.

Yu Sheng could feel that this Door led to a fixed location—his “body,” which was still sleeping in the West Building of the orphanage.

This seemed to resolve a question he’d had before—

After entering the Dark Forest in the form of consciousness, if he then opened a Door within the Dark Forest leading to some distant location in reality, what would happen when his consciousness “passed through the Door to escape”? Would his consciousness return to his body, or would it truly arrive at that distant real-world location and become a disembodied soul?

Now the answer seemed clear: in anomalous-type Otherworlds—or more precisely, at least in anomalous-type Otherworlds like “Fairy Tale – Little Red Riding Hood”—a Door opened in a consciousness state could only lead back to one’s own physical body in reality.

At the very least, that was all he could manage for now.

Yu Sheng lowered his head and looked at the wolf leg gripped in his hand—now there was only one final question remaining.

Could things obtained from the Dark Forest in a consciousness state be brought out?

He drew a light breath, maintained the Door in its most stable state, then grabbed the big gray wolf’s corpse and stepped through.

A brief spell of dizziness, followed by the sensation of suddenly falling from a great height—like abruptly waking from a deep dream. Yu Sheng instantly felt his body, and the soft sensation pressing up from beneath it.

He snapped his eyes open, and what greeted his sight… was tails.

And Hu Li’s ears.

He found himself lying in the middle of a huge pile of fluffy tails, with two of them even draped over him like blankets. The fox girl was turning her head toward him from between a mound of tails, a happy smile spreading across her face. “Benefactor! You’re awake! I was worried you’d catch a cold…”

Yu Sheng stared blankly for another two seconds before he fully came to, then began scrambling out from the middle of this enormous fluffy pile using both hands and feet, muttering as he went: “Catching a cold isn’t the problem—it’s actually kind of hot in here. Now I finally understand why you hug your own tails when you sleep every night. These things really do keep you warm!”

A smug expression immediately appeared on Hu Li’s face.

Eileen bounced over from nearby, her mouth running nonstop as she walked toward Yu Sheng: “She originally plucked all her tails off and piled them on top of you. It was me who pointed out that even if it didn’t scare someone to death, it’d smother them. Oh, you should’ve seen it—piled up like a burial mound, with you lying in the middle looking so peaceful, so lifelike. I was going to find a memorial tablet to stick next to you, but I couldn’t find one. Anyway, never mind that—Little Red Riding Hood and the others are waiting outside, I’ll just go get— AHHH!”

Eileen’s words were cut short as an enormous black shadow plummeted from above. With a resounding crash-splat, the Little Doll was knocked flat to the ground and completely buried underneath it.

It was an enormous wolf.

Yu Sheng scrambled to his feet in an instant and rushed over in two strides to assess the situation.

It was indeed the big gray wolf that had died from dissection.

“So it really can be brought out…” Yu Sheng’s expression turned contemplative. He then quickly checked himself over and, sure enough, found in his pocket the grimy slip of paper that had fallen from the “hunter.” Relieved but still puzzled, he couldn’t help but wonder, “What’s the principle behind this…”

One of Eileen’s hands emerged from beneath the wolf’s corpse, twitched a couple of times in midair, and firmly extended a middle finger.

“Yu Sheng, you bastard!” The doll’s voice came out muffled. “Is this really the time to study principles?! I’m still pinned under here!”

Only then did Yu Sheng break into a grin and step forward to haul the Little Doll out from under the wolf’s corpse.

He was mainly getting payback for the “so lifelike” comment.

Eileen jumped up and tried to kick Yu Sheng’s knee, but each of her three attempts was met with a hand pressing her back down. She could only pout with a displeased expression: “You’re so petty…”

Then Miss Doll decisively forgot about this minor grievance and turned her attention to the magnanimous big gray wolf.

“…This is ‘Grandmother Wolf’?” She gazed at the corpse, which was far larger than a normal wolf, her face full of disbelief. “So huge—no wonder it could swallow a six-year-old child whole. The limb proportions are all weird. Kind of creepy to look at.”

Hu Li also walked over, squatted down beside the wolf’s corpse, and just started staring blankly.

“Benefactor,” said the Fox-Spirit Girl after spacing out for two seconds, turning her head toward Yu Sheng. “This… I’ve never eaten before.”

“Neither have I. We’ll have to try several different preparations,” Yu Sheng said casually. “The tender meat on the ribs could probably be stir-fried or pan-fried directly. The leg meat should work stir-fried or as cured meat—worst case, the pressure cooker can always work miracles. I’m just not sure how to handle the organs.”

Halfway through his musings, Hu Li was already drooling.

Eileen hadn’t said a word for a while, completely dumbfounded. It wasn’t until Yu Sheng was about to start discussing with Hu Li how to prepare Grandmother Wolf’s brains that she finally couldn’t take it anymore and jumped up: “You two just naturally fell into this conversation?! And about this of all things?!”

Only then did Yu Sheng snap back to his senses. He hurriedly reined in his head full of recipes and grabbed Hu Li’s tail to wipe the drool from her mouth. “Right, we’ve still got business to handle. Go call Little Red Riding Hood and the others in first.”

Eileen gave Yu Sheng and Hu Li two more deeply suspicious looks before finally heading toward the door, but she stopped halfway there and turned back, eyeing the terrifying “wolf” on the floor with hesitation.

“Won’t this thing be too much of a shock for Little Red Riding Hood and that child called ‘Xiaoxiao’? If they see this, they won’t… you know, have some kind of stress reaction or something, will they?”

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow slightly.

He knew what Eileen was worried about—and honestly, although the doll was unreliable much of the time, her concern at this moment was quite reasonable.

Little Red Riding Hood might be okay. She had been fighting the wolf from her nightmares for so long that, at least rationally, she could control the ever-growing fear in her heart. But the child called “Xiaoxiao”… perhaps the time wasn’t right yet.

After all, he didn’t even know what her current Mental State was like.

“Fair point,” he exhaled and nodded to Hu Li. “Put this thing away first… and no sneaking bites! It’s still raw!”

He couldn’t help adding that last reminder, because if no one was watching, this girl really might devour the entire Grandmother Wolf—raw, bones and all.

Hu Li let out an “oh” and obediently walked over to the enormous wolf carcass. She pulled off the tail she normally used for storage, gave it a casual shake—Yu Sheng couldn’t even see what happened—and the corpse on the floor was simply gone.

Only then did Eileen go outside and call in Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, who had been waiting at the door.

There was also a small girl who looked nervous and shy, timidly following behind Little Red Riding Hood.

It was Xiaoxiao.

The symptoms of Death had receded from her body. The flesh that had once been torn apart in every direction was now completely healed. Her shredded heart and brain appeared as if they had never been damaged at all. Vibrant vitality enveloped her, and through the faint connection established by blood, Yu Sheng could even feel every powerful beat of her heart.

As if sensing something, Xiaoxiao suddenly stopped in her tracks and raised her head to look at Yu Sheng.

Then, in less than a second, the child’s attention landed on the fox with the enormous collection of tails.

A look of wonder appeared on the little girl’s face, and she even let out a small gasp of surprise.

“Everything’s been taken care of,” Yu Sheng said with a smile, stepping toward Little Red Riding Hood at the front of the group. “How are you two doing?”

“If you’re asking about right after waking up… I felt like being dead would’ve been better,” Little Red Riding Hood’s expression immediately turned somewhat awkward, as though merely recalling the process of Forced Awakening was enough to make her miserable for a good while. “You told me it would be pretty intense, but I never imagined it would be that intense.”

“Not bad—you’re already making wisecracks, so clearly nothing’s wrong,” Yu Sheng nodded, then turned his gaze to the little girl who had walked over alongside Little Red Riding Hood. “Xiaoxiao… right? Does anything still hurt anywhere?”

The girl seemed a bit shy around strangers. Even with the faint connection established through blood, when she heard Yu Sheng’s words, she instinctively shrank back a tiny bit. But she quickly stepped forward again, raised her head, and opened her eyes wide.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“Mm, it doesn’t hurt,” Yu Sheng smiled and reached out to pat the child’s head. “As long as it doesn’t hurt.”

“Honestly, I still feel like this is a bit unreal,” Rapunzel broke the silence, having stayed quiet until now. “The wounds on her body just suddenly vanished, as if… nothing had ever happened. Then she opened her eyes and said she’d had a dream.”

“A dream?” Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow and looked down at Xiaoxiao. “What did you dream about?”

“Lots of people,” the little girl said with her head lowered, her voice so faint it was almost a hum. “Lots of people surrounded me, all wearing red cloaks, telling me to run quickly. But I couldn’t move… and then I don’t remember anything after that.”

(End of Chapter)