Chapter 99 – The Big Bad Wolf

Little Red Riding Hood had absolutely no reaction to the enormous shadow wolf lunging at her from behind — her mind seemed to be pinned firmly in place by something, her entire being trapped in a state of stupor.

But Yu Sheng had already snapped to attention. He pushed off the ground with the fastest burst of speed he’d ever produced in his life, stomping so hard that he left a deep crater in the solid marble floor, then launched himself like a cannonball toward the red-clothed girl.

The instant after he shoved Little Red Riding Hood aside, he felt the searing agony of sharp fangs tearing into his shoulder.

But before that bizarre “giant wolf” could land another fatal bite, countless pitch-black threads had already sealed off every opening behind Yu Sheng. The threads pierced through the wolf’s shadow, binding the seemingly incorporeal monster layer upon layer. Then a searing fox fire erupted skyward — Hu Li’s entire body was wreathed in spectral blue flames as she streaked overhead with afterimages and a thunderous boom, slamming headfirst into the enormous humanoid wolf.

The deafening impact shook the entire exhibition hall. This was a headbutt from Hu Li after a full meal and in a state of fury — utterly incomparable to the one that had killed Yu Sheng before. Yu Sheng felt a gust of force nearly blow him off his feet, while the giant wolf was smashed apart by the fox-spirit girl’s headbutt into a massive splash of ink-like black shadow.

Yet merely two or three seconds later, the black shadow coalesced again. Pure physical damage seemed to have no effect whatsoever — the headbutt that could have punched through main battle tank armor had only disintegrated the thing for a brief moment. It rose upright on two legs once more, its blurred and distorted head opening a pair of blood-red eyes, its gaze fixed on Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng’s blood still stained its fangs, making it look especially savage and eerie.

“What the hell is this thing?!” Eileen gasped sharply at the sight, then immediately raised both hands and began weaving spider-web-like black threads again, trying to hold back the unkillable shadow. At the same time, she shouted to Hu Li, “Stupid fox! Stop headbutting it! This thing might be impossible to kill!”

But the very instant Eileen’s words fell, the enormous humanoid wolf suddenly froze, its body locked rigid in midair in a posture poised to pounce on Yu Sheng.

Wolf howls rose one after another. The “wolf pack” that had gone still along with Little Red Riding Hood when she fell into her stupor suddenly regained their ability to move. They howled and ferociously lunged at the giant wolf shadow frozen in midair. Before the astonished eyes of Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Hu Li, these wolf pups — looking as small as puppies compared to the giant wolf — gnawed and tore at it, ripping the monster that had tanked Hu Li’s headbutt to shreds in almost an instant.

The pitch-black fragments drifted down to the ground, recongealing into ink-dark shadows that slowly crept back behind Little Red Riding Hood.

Yu Sheng noticed the blood-red hue gradually fading from her eyes as a glimmer of reason returned. A moment later, she blinked and came fully awake.

“Are you okay?” “Are you okay?”

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood called out to each other almost simultaneously.

Then they both fell quiet at the same time, a subdued atmosphere briefly lingering in the White Exhibition Hall.

“What just happened?” Yu Sheng was the first to break the silence, his expression serious as he looked at the red-clothed girl. “That half-human, half-wolf thing crawled out of your shadow.”

Eileen silently moved to Yu Sheng’s side, the little doll’s face carrying a faint hint of wariness.

Hu Li beside them looked much the same.

“…That was the ‘wolf’ hunting me — a curse brought upon me by ‘Fairy Tale,'” Little Red Riding Hood said, head lowered, keeping her gaze away from the sinister sacrificial scene at the center of the hall. “That person over there, the one sacrificed in the hall in place of the Weeping One’s statue — they carried intense psychic contamination. I saw something I shouldn’t have, which caused the ‘big bad wolf’ to briefly cross into the real world. I’m sorry — I got you hurt too.”

Yu Sheng glanced at his shoulder. It had bled quite a lot, but he could feel the wound already beginning to heal.

“The injury isn’t serious, but your ‘loss of control’ was — you just said this is a curse from ‘Fairy Tale,’ but isn’t Fairy Tale the name of your organization?”

Little Red Riding Hood was silent for two seconds, then spoke softly: “…’Fairy Tale’ is an Otherworld.”

She then quietly reached into her bag and pulled something out.

It was a needleless injector, its glass tube containing a faintly luminescent liquid.

Yu Sheng could tell at a glance that the thing was expensive — because Little Red Riding Hood clearly showed a flicker of hesitation and pained reluctance when she injected it into herself.

“Don’t worry, I won’t lose control again — at least not during this operation,” Little Red Riding Hood said after injecting the agent into her body, breathing a soft sigh of relief before looking up at Yu Sheng. “The payment for this operation… if there’s still any payment to be had given this situation, it’s all yours.”

Yu Sheng frowned in puzzlement. “Why?”

Little Red Riding Hood sighed. “I held the team back. That’s how the rules work.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary. Let’s just split it as we originally agreed — what happened was an accident. When you’re working as a team, someone’s bound to have the occasional mishap. That doesn’t count as holding anyone back,” Yu Sheng waved his hand dismissively, then a strange smile appeared on his face. “Compared to trivial things like splitting payment and ‘holding the team back,’ there’s actually something I care about much more.”

Little Red Riding Hood blinked, staring at Yu Sheng’s eyes in confusion.

“Curiosity — I’m interested in this ‘Fairy Tale’ Otherworld you mentioned, and the curse on you. If I’m not mistaken, the curse on all of you,” Yu Sheng said with utmost seriousness, his eyes practically sparkling. “I want to know what’s really going on with your group — why you were cursed by an Otherworld, and why you took that Otherworld’s name as your organization’s name.”

Yu Sheng’s gaze was exceptionally earnest, yet as Little Red Riding Hood met that gaze, she felt an inexplicable sensation of…

Dread and trembling.

It wasn’t that she sensed any malice, nor did she feel any fear toward Yu Sheng himself. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was — she only felt as though she were facing something blazing, pure, bearing no ill will yet far beyond the bounds of human comprehension. Was that really nothing more than curiosity?

She hesitated. Normally she would never share the organization’s secrets with outsiders, but the hesitation she felt now was clearly tinged with other emotions.

Under Yu Sheng’s unwavering gaze, her hesitation ultimately gave way.

She slowly nodded. “If you truly want to know, I can tell you — but it’s a very long story.”

“All right, then let’s save it for when we have time,” Yu Sheng agreed readily, his mood brightening. “This isn’t exactly the right setting for story time… after all, there’s still this mess to clean up.”

He looked up at the sacrificed victim.

The brief yet harrowing chaos had caused considerable damage throughout the exhibition hall. The nearby floor and walls were pocked with craters and scorched by fox fire, but since the situation had been resolved quickly, the damage hadn’t reached the display platform at the center of the hall.

Two of the “security guards” had been knocked flat by the shockwave from Hu Li’s headbutt, but the silvery-white fox tail still firmly covered the plastic mannequin’s head. These “entities” that operated in strict adherence to the rules simply lay motionless on the ground — a sight that was eerie with a touch of absurdity.

“…Could the ‘security guards’ have done this?” Yu Sheng asked, gazing at the dead victim with curiosity as he turned to Little Red Riding Hood.

“No,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head immediately. After injecting the extra dose of Rationality-Blocker, she could finally observe the sinister sacrifice, though a faint static buzzed in her head each time she looked. “The ‘security guards’ simply eliminate rule-breakers in the museum. They wouldn’t carry out something this elaborate with such obvious symbolic meaning. This sort of thing… is more like something a person would do.”

“So someone really did enter the museum before us, stole the Weeping One that was originally placed here, and arranged a living person as a sacrificial offering on the altar,” Yu Sheng said, his brow furrowing deeper as he spoke. “…And this series of actions activated the museum’s ‘security guards,’ which is what caused us to be attacked?”

“That’s a reasonable chain of deductions,” Little Red Riding Hood nodded lightly, but watching Yu Sheng stand beside the “altar” looking completely unfazed, she finally couldn’t help asking, “You… looking at this sacrifice, you really feel nothing at all? And you haven’t taken any Rationality-Blocker beforehand?”

“Nope,” Yu Sheng spread his hands. “I don’t even know where to buy this Rationality-Blocker of yours. I suspect I haven’t even finished the tutorial yet — and you said you were contaminated when you saw the person on this altar, but I didn’t feel anything either.”

Little Red Riding Hood blinked, then looked toward Eileen.

“Mere psychic contamination is nothing to a doll!” Eileen declared, hands on her hips.

Little Red Riding Hood then looked toward Hu Li on the other side.

“She solo-tanked the Hunger in the Night-shrouded Valley for decades,” Yu Sheng reminded her. “Even the Hunger was getting so frustrated it nearly grew a brain.”

Little Red Riding Hood: “…”

What kind of people were these?!