Chapter 217 – Emergency Evacuation

Snow White was the first to spot Yu Sheng. She immediately waved happily in his direction, and then many of the little children turned to look—only now did they behave like normal kids, showing surprise and curiosity, chattering away, bombarding the older boys and girls beside them with endless questions. Some of the children who had met him before called out excitedly, beaming with joy.

Yu Sheng strode over quickly. He didn’t have time to worry about Snow White calling him “Door-Opening Bro.” Instead, he walked past the crowd of little ones and came straight to Little Red Riding Hood, his expression serious as he looked her up and down.

Little Red Riding Hood blinked in surprise. “What’s wrong?” she asked instinctively.

“Where’s Xiaoxiao?” Yu Sheng asked rapidly.

“She’s over there in line,” Little Red Riding Hood raised her hand and pointed toward the column of children. “The one at the very end.”

Yu Sheng immediately turned to look and saw the thin, small girl standing in a line of five- and six-year-olds, a little backpack on her back and a pink water bottle hanging from her neck, waving vigorously in his direction.

“I just entered a vision of the Black Forest,” Yu Sheng said, smiling and waving back at Xiaoxiao. But when he turned to face Little Red Riding Hood again, his expression had already grown grave. “I thought you or Xiaoxiao had accidentally entered a ‘subset’…”

Little Red Riding Hood’s mouth fell open in surprise, momentarily at a loss for words.

“It seems the conditions for leakage are changing. Even without a ‘protagonist’ entering the Dreamscape, their corresponding subsets have started leaking into reality,” Yu Sheng said urgently, then glanced up around the Great Hall. “Is everyone here?”

“Everyone we could wake is already up, but the ones trapped in ‘nightmares’ can’t be forcibly awakened. Including the ‘Guardians,’ there are twenty-two children here,” Little Red Riding Hood answered. “The King’s Royal Guard is watching over those rooms. If it comes down to it… we’ll just have to carry them out.”

“Will that be dangerous?” Yu Sheng noticed the gravity in Little Red Riding Hood’s expression and asked immediately.

“Forcibly moving someone in a nightmare state or subjecting them to excessive stimulation can destabilize their condition. The erosion from the ‘Fairy Tale’ will accelerate, and the probability of encountering powerful enemies within their ‘subset’ will increase dramatically—it’s somewhat like stimulation from the Real World being converted into feelings of terror inside the nightmare,” Little Red Riding Hood explained. “But the situation is urgent. I’m afraid we can’t afford to worry about that now.”

She pressed her lips together, seeming to weigh her options rapidly, then took a breath. “Besides, with your ‘sanctuary’ active now, even if they encounter powerful enemies in their nightmares, they can retreat into the Wasteland. Let’s just give each of them an injection of Rationality-Blocker to temporarily suppress the erosion and move them by force… Compared to the alternative, the side effects of the blocker are a minor issue.”

Yu Sheng frowned, but quickly nodded. “Alright, you make the call.”

On this matter, he decided to trust the judgment of Little Red Riding Hood, the “specialist.”

Then he walked straight to the front doors of the first-floor Great Hall.

The children watched him curiously—dozens of pairs of eyes, a mixture of nervousness, confusion, anticipation, excitement, and unease.

Yu Sheng took a slow breath and placed his hand on the door handle.

“Ailin.” He called to the doll in his mind.

“Here, here! I’m here! How’s it going on your end?”

“Are you at the Valley construction site right now?”

“Didn’t you tell me to go to the Wasteland…” Ailin paused, then quickly caught on. “Oh right, I’m at the site! I’ve got a body at the site! The supervisor here nearly lost it when he heard the kids were being moved ahead of schedule—they’re throwing up a temporary kitchen and tents right now. The water purifier and generator are already hooked up, at least. If anyone’s hungry, there’s instant noodles…”

“It’s fine, the kids brought snacks,” Yu Sheng cut the doll off. “I’m about to open the door on my end. Be ready to receive them over there and lead the children to the Platform first—just keep an eye on them so nobody gets hurt. It’s the middle of the night in the Real World, but it’s daytime in the Valley. The little ones might get excited when they cross over. Don’t let them run around.”

“Okay, okay! I’m ready over here!”

Only then did Yu Sheng let out a breath of relief, and he settled his mind.

He could feel it—the door in his hands had already established a temporary connection with that valley.

The next second, he gently pushed open the East Building’s main door—the one that on any ordinary day would lead to the Orphanage’s outdoor activity area—

Bright, clear daylight. An endless expanse of grass. Distant mountains. A stream flowing at the base of the hills. And standing at the threshold, smiling and waving cheerfully—Miss Ailin, the doll. All of it appeared before everyone’s eyes.

The children gasped, and then the chatter erupted.

It was noisy, but this was exactly the kind of commotion you’d expect from a group of children ranging from five or six to their early teens—the eerie silence of their earlier assembly and lineup was never the atmosphere that children their age should have.

But the noise lasted only a moment. They quieted down quickly, rallying around a few of the older children, and the lines reformed in orderly fashion. Then dozens of pairs of eyes turned to look at whichever “Guardian” was nearest to them.

This was an “emergency.” They knew they were supposed to wait for the next instruction.

“Think of it like a field trip,” Yu Sheng broke the silence. A smile appeared on his face as he looked at the children. “Go on—it’s a good place.”

“Come on, everyone follow me—those in the back, keep up with the older kids in front!” Rapunzel spoke up. She led the first group, heading toward the door that opened onto the Valley. “Everyone follow instructions. Once you’re through, don’t run off. Stay behind the older kids and head to the assembly point together!”

The children began filing through the door in orderly lines. After each group passed through, a “Guardian” would serve as a checkpoint in the middle, while the older children—around fourteen years old—walked on either side of the column, responsible for confirming headcounts as they crossed through the doorway and checking the condition of every younger child.

A few minutes later, the Royal Guard knights summoned by the King also arrived in the Great Hall. These tall, imposing knights carried the still-sleeping children, moving silently and swiftly through the door toward the Valley on the other side.

And in Yu Sheng’s ears, he could still hear, from time to time, all manner of strange sounds coming from the underground corridors, from beyond the walls of the East Building, from certain areas upstairs.

Off-key music. The shouts of knights. Singing. The sound of cannons and gunfire.

Light blazed from a window nearby. Within that light, a grand feast seemed to be underway—a prince was about to wed a mysterious princess said to have slumbered for a hundred years among the ruins. They were to hold a banquet in the square before the castle, and the bonfires would blaze, burning until the entire city was reduced to ash.

Bells tolled. A great ship was docking against the night sky. Sailors whispered of secrets from the sea. It was said that a creature, half-human, half-fish, had slipped into the crowd. The stench of brine crept beneath the decks. Soldiers on the shore lit braziers fueled with whale oil. The hunt would begin when the ship made port.

A squad of soldiers marched across the ceiling of the Great Hall, wearing tunics as bizarre as playing cards, then vanished into a corner of the roof.

With their little backpacks and water bottles, holding hands, the children filed through the Great Hall in their lines. One of the older kids started them off, and the little ones began singing nursery rhymes. Their mismatched, off-key voices mingled with the courtly dance music, the horns, the fifes, the cannons. They marched, line after line, through the phantom ballroom visions that shimmered into being around them, past the sailors, the soldiers, the talking lions, past the flames and seawater that had begun spreading across the floor at some unknowable moment—marching toward that sunlit valley.

On they walked, little hands holding big hands.

“Don’t look to the sides! Don’t let go of your friends’ hands! Follow the older kids—you can let go once you’re through the door!”

On they walked, big hands holding little hands.

“Last group—’Jack,’ you and Rapunzel go through and help maintain order on the other side. Follow Ailin’s instructions once you’re there.”

The phantoms receded once more. All the sounds that had no place in the Real World began to fade.

“Your Majesty, take your knights and do one more sweep of every floor. Make it quick.”

With Little Red Riding Hood’s final orders, the surroundings gradually fell quiet. The youngest children had all passed through the door. Only a handful of “Guardians” remained in the Great Hall, and as the majority departed, Yu Sheng noticed that a certain “atmosphere” that had kept the Orphanage perpetually unsettled had finally, truly calmed.

He didn’t know how to describe the feeling. He only knew that his Spiritual Intuition was settling.

It seemed that tonight’s “leakage” had finally stopped.

“It’s quiet…” Snow White looked up, scanning the surroundings, listening carefully to the sounds within the Orphanage. “It seems like it’s stopped?”

Yu Sheng relaxed slightly, then asked silently, “Ailin, how are things on your end? Any anomalies in the Valley? What about the Wasteland?”

“Everything’s normal here. The children are in good spirits after coming through. No signs of ‘leakage’ in the Valley. The sleeping children and their ‘Guardians’ have been moved into several temporary tents,” Ailin answered. After a brief pause, she continued, “No problems on the Wasteland side either. From what they’re telling me, all the ‘subsets’ seem to be settling down rapidly.”

The tension that had been locked on Yu Sheng’s face finally eased a fraction. He turned to look at Little Red Riding Hood, who was still wound tight as a spring, and allowed himself a small smile. “Good news—the Valley’s isolation is working.”

Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White both let out a breath of relief at the same time.

“Shall we get going too?” Snow White asked. “We shouldn’t linger—things might change again.”

“I’ve checked every floor, upstairs and down,” the King’s voice came from the stairwell just then. “Everything’s clear. No one left behind.”

Only then did Little Red Riding Hood nod. “Alright, let’s go.”

The two of them and the cat quickly passed through the door to the Valley.

Yu Sheng, of course, stayed until the very end—after all, he was the one in charge of Door Opening.

After Little Red Riding Hood had gone through, he finally let out a quiet breath. Before stepping through the door himself, he cast one last glance at the now-silent Great Hall.

In that instant, he froze.

A hollow figure clad in hunting garb stood silently in the hall.

Yu Sheng blinked.

And in the span of that blink, the Hunter vanished without a trace.

(End of Chapter)