Chapter 130 – The Story of “Fairy Tale”

Eileen wriggled out of Hu Li’s arms. She stood on the table and, along with Little Red Riding Hood, gazed somewhat absently at the open space outside the window.

“When ‘Fairy Tale’ first erupted, it was right here, yet the victims who came after ended up calling this place home… it just feels strange.” The Little Doll mumbled to herself.

“Everyone needs a home,” Little Red Riding Hood turned back, a faint smile on her face. “I don’t know how the ‘predecessors’ from many years ago made their decision, but the children living here now all consider this orphanage their home. For me, it’s also a place where I can feel at ease… even though so many things once happened here.”

“Only orphans are affected by ‘Fairy Tale’?” Yu Sheng furrowed his brow. “Or do ordinary children who are affected also get sent here?”

Little Red Riding Hood sighed. “Only orphans.”

“Why? Has there been a Conclusion?”

“Because their hearts lack protection,” Little Red Riding Hood said calmly. “Although there are still many gaps in our understanding of ‘Fairy Tale,’ based on current findings, it has been confirmed that its influence is related to the victim’s ‘personality pattern’ and ‘social relationships.’ Orphans who lack the protection of parents or other relatives, who are psychologically unstable over long periods, and who have weak social connections in the Real World are its ideal ‘prey.’ After all…”

She paused here, and after a moment gently shook her head. “After all, if reality is too cold, then the warmth found in fantasy becomes especially tempting — when ‘Fairy Tale’ first begins to exert its influence, its power is actually quite weak. All it would take is a single thin ‘rope’ to firmly anchor the affected child to the side of reality. But for many orphans, even that one thin ‘rope’ doesn’t exist.”

Yu Sheng’s brow remained tightly knitted. After a moment, he asked again, “What triggers the influence? I heard that squirrel say… it’s reading the corresponding fairy tale?”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded gently. “That’s the most important part.”

“Why not just list those stories as forbidden?” Hu Li asked, her face full of curiosity. “Back in my homeland, there was once a demonic cultivator who, right before death, fused himself into a legend. He nearly succeeded in returning from the ethereal to the physical through people’s word-of-mouth retelling. I feel like it’s pretty similar to this… equally terrifying.”

Eileen’s eyes widened slightly the moment she heard this, staring at Hu Li in stunned disbelief. “Holy crap, the stuff from your homeland really is insane… So what happened? How did you deal with that ‘demonic cultivator’? By banning the contaminated ‘legend’?”

“Oh, no, that’s not what happened,” Hu Li waved her hand. “They did try banning it at first, but the demonic cultivator’s contingency plan had spread too far and they could never fully contain it. But then the age of social media arrived.”

Yu Sheng’s expression instantly went blank. “Uh… what?”

“You know — remixes, meme edits, and short video clips everywhere. That demonic cultivator ended up dying horribly,” Hu Li gestured animatedly. “Even his final distress message got turned into meme videos and reaction images. By the time the Immortal Alliance noticed, he had already perished in body and soul amid the joyful laughter of the world’s people…”

The room fell instantly silent. Little Red Riding Hood, Yu Sheng, and Eileen just sat there on the sofa, frozen stiff, while Hu Li continued speaking with her usual oblivious expression. “So after that, even the great demon foxes in our clan didn’t dare recklessly refine themselves into legends and stories anymore. If they refined anything, it would be math problems and physics formulas — at least those don’t get changed easily…”

Little Red Riding Hood listened to Hu Li in a daze, and only after a long pause did she finally blink, turning to look at Yu Sheng. “Um, I think I’ve lost track of the conversation…”

“It’s fine, I can’t keep up with stuff from her homeland either,” Yu Sheng waved his hand. “Don’t think too hard about the rest, but Hu Li’s question is what I wanted to ask too — since the corresponding fairy tales are such an important trigger for ‘Fairy Tale,’ why not directly control the spread of those stories? Or like what happened in her homeland, ‘corrupt’ those stories…”

Little Red Riding Hood didn’t answer directly, but instead tossed back a question. “Remember when we discussed why we couldn’t just tear down the old Theater to ‘permanently close’ the Otherworld Museum?”

Something stirred in Yu Sheng’s mind, and a subtle expression instantly crossed his face.

He understood now.

“Anomalous-type Otherworlds… follow the same principle?”

“Yes, anomalous-type Otherworlds are still Otherworlds. The underlying Rules are the same,” Little Red Riding Hood nodded. “The true form of ‘Fairy Tale’ is ‘information’ hidden at a deeper level, and those stories are merely some of its ‘Entrances’ connecting to reality. Just like the true form of the ‘Museum’ is a warped space, and the old Theater’s stage is merely its Entrance — destroying the Entrance would only cause the Otherworld to spiral out of control in more bizarre and harder-to-defend-against ways. The danger level might even escalate. And furthermore…”

She raised her head and looked at Yu Sheng with a grave expression.

“Furthermore, ‘Fairy Tale’ has an even more uncanny characteristic — its ‘stories’ don’t even need a person to tell them. There are records of a child who had never been exposed to the corresponding story falling into a ‘subset’ created by Fairy Tale after a single night’s sleep. Subsequent investigation revealed that the child had heard a voice from the void reading the story aloud. This is also why, even though the ‘Fairy Tale’ Otherworld doesn’t directly kill, its danger rating is classified as level three or above — it possesses active, intentional malice.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s account came to a pause. Yu Sheng sat on the sofa, his expression somewhat gloomy.

An inexplicable sense of frustration surged up in him. He rose from the sofa and paced around the room, yet couldn’t find the words to say. “It shouldn’t be like this… The Special Operations Bureau doesn’t have any solutions at all?” He suddenly turned around, looking at the red-clothed girl sitting to the side.

But Little Red Riding Hood simply sat there, raising her head to look at him with calm eyes. “Have humans eradicated the common cold?”

Yu Sheng: “…”

“If you think of it as a chronic disease that only targets a small number of orphans, doesn’t it become much easier to understand and accept?” Little Red Riding Hood continued. “You can’t demand that a natural phenomenon be eradicated from the world, or demand that the Special Operations Bureau accomplish something beyond human capability, just because you feel sorry for us orphans — an Otherworld isn’t a malfunctioning factory that can be fixed by simply shutting it down. An Otherworld is a ‘phenomenon’ operating within this world. Having its Entrance open in a fixed location is already the greatest mercy it shows to people.”

Little Red Riding Hood’s voice was calm and firm, but Yu Sheng still felt something was off about it.

No — there was one Otherworld… one Otherworld that had indeed been “eradicated.”

That valley.

Yu Sheng’s thoughts raced, all manner of ideas swirling through his mind like a storm —

Could what happened in Night-shrouded Valley be replicated in that Dark Forest? Even if it could be replicated in the Dark Forest… how would that affect the true form of “Fairy Tale”? When it came down to it, the Dark Forest was merely a subset of Fairy Tale, just a temporarily generated “room” within that “invisible building.” And based on Little Red Riding Hood’s explanation, Yu Sheng couldn’t think of any way to reach the true form of “Fairy Tale”…

How was he supposed to smear his blood onto a “collection of stories”?

Little Red Riding Hood watched Yu Sheng with curiosity as he suddenly stopped by the window, intrigued by the constantly shifting expressions on his face. She didn’t know what this strange “adult” from No. 66 Wutong Road was thinking, but she could sense that this “peculiar entity” who made even the Special Operations Bureau extremely nervous genuinely wanted to help her.

“You’re trying to do something very difficult,” she said to Yu Sheng. “I know you want to help us — in fact, there have been others before. Deep-divers, scholars, investigators, even an astrologer from Algreide. Those adults who wanted to help the children fend off nightmares — but none of them succeeded. I… I don’t mean anything else by saying this. I just want to let you know in advance that this is something dangerous, and something that to this day remains without any leads.”

But Yu Sheng seemed not to have heard what Little Red Riding Hood was saying at all. He simply continued to ponder, and only after a long while did he suddenly look up. “I may not have any ideas about the true form of ‘Fairy Tale,’ but we can start with the Dark Forest.”

Little Red Riding Hood blinked in surprise. “Um… did you not hear a single word I just said?”

“I did. I don’t think it’s a big deal,” Yu Sheng waved his hand. “As far as I’m concerned, there are plenty of things in this world I have no leads on. I still have no leads on where my house’s water and electricity bills go or where my drain connects to. As for danger… honestly, which Otherworld isn’t dangerous?”

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth but couldn’t think of how to refute him.

But just then, as Yu Sheng was about to ask the girl before him for more intelligence related to the Dark Forest, a flurry of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the Corridor, interrupting everyone’s conversation.

The door to the reception room was pushed open, and a girl who looked a year or two younger than Little Red Riding Hood, with long black hair, rushed in.

Little Red Riding Hood immediately stood up. “Rapunzel? What happened?”

The girl called Rapunzel first glanced at the several “outsiders” in the room. After receiving a signal from Little Red Riding Hood’s expression, she took a light breath and spoke in a low, rapid voice. “A child has ‘departed.’ It happened extremely fast. There wasn’t time to…”

Yu Sheng noticed Little Red Riding Hood’s body sway almost imperceptibly, her breathing stopping entirely.

“…Which one?” she asked in a small voice.

“The new one.”

(End of Chapter)