Chapter 145 – New Theories and Speculations

Hearing Yu Sheng’s doubts, Eileen’s expression also looked a bit dazed.

“If the Dark Forest really is just a pure consciousness space, then how did I bring that wolf’s corpse out? Grandmother Wolf’s body is still stored in Hu Li’s tail right now, isn’t it?” Yu Sheng spread his hands. “And besides, Little Red Riding Hood mentioned before that some anomalous-type Otherworlds can not only trap a person’s consciousness, but even transfer their physical body into those ‘alternate spaces’ constructed from stories or emotions — so I think when it comes to the Otherworld, the boundary between consciousness and matter might not be that clear-cut. The reason we can’t open a door to the Dark Forest from the outside should be something else entirely.”

Eileen listened with a stunned expression, unclear how much she actually understood. “I-is that so?”

Then she turned her head and saw Hu Li, who had maintained a calm expression from start to finish, and immediately exclaimed in surprise, “Hey, you dumb fox — you actually understood all that?”

Hu Li spoke calmly, “Of course.”

“…Really?!”

“Turning the virtual into the real, turning the real into the virtual,” Hu Li nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “All things in existence are interconnected at the ‘foundational scale.’ There was never a boundary between consciousness and matter to begin with. The immortals said that the entire world is like a complex set of ‘waves.’ What we call the ‘virtual’ and the ‘real’ are just waveforms expressed at different frequencies. The Celestials call this information unification, while the immortals call it the return of all things to the void…”

Eileen was stunned once again, listening to Hu Li’s sudden stream of words as if hearing divine scripture. After being dazed for a long while, she couldn’t help but blurt out, “What does any of that even… What kind of immortals taught you all this?!”

The Fox-Spirit Girl answered with a perfectly serious expression, “Compulsory education immortals.”

Eileen turned her head with a blank expression. “…Yu Sheng, did you understand that?”

“I… I think I did, but this is genuinely the first time I’ve heard this theory.” Yu Sheng nodded hesitantly, and when he looked at Hu Li, his expression couldn’t help but carry even more bewilderment —

What on earth was this fox girl’s homeland like? Someone who hadn’t even graduated elementary school was learning stuff like this in class?! What would their middle school exams even test? Building a warp drive by hand?!

But such questions were destined to remain unanswered. After a brief brainstorming session, Yu Sheng redirected his attention back to the matter of the Dark Forest — and this time, he couldn’t help but incorporate the “knowledge” Hu Li had just mentioned into his thinking.

As he pondered, he slowly raised his hand once more and grasped a doorknob in the void. The ethereal door materialized again and was opened by him bit by bit.

This time, he opened it extremely, extremely slowly, as if trying to carefully perceive every single instant and detail of the process from the door’s opening to its collapse. He poured nearly all of his attention into the process of opening the door.

At a certain instant, he felt as though he had touched the aura of the Dark Forest, even felt that the passage had been established. The connection between himself and the evil wolf was suddenly strengthened, as if in the very next second, the door would take shape as it always had.

But suddenly, those freshly established “connections” underwent a violent displacement. He felt the Dark Forest instantly “recede into the distance,” and the intense vertigo brought on by the passage’s sudden collapse swept over him once again.

Displacement?

The moment this question surfaced in his mind, Yu Sheng briefly went into a daze — but didn’t fall over. In just this short while, he seemed to have gotten used to the dizziness.

“Ah, the door collapsed again.” Watching the door fragments rapidly dissipate in the air, Eileen blinked and turned to look at Yu Sheng, whose gaze was slightly unfocused. “Are you alright? Maybe we should just call it a day — I’m worried you’re going to throw up last night’s dinner…”

“I’m fine,” Yu Sheng interrupted Little Doll, a contemplative look surfacing on his face. He pondered hard for a long while before suddenly raising his head. “I think I just felt what the problem is… It might be an error in the positioning.”

“Positioning?” Eileen looked confused. “You mean the ‘coordinates’?”

“Coordinates… yes! That’s exactly it!” Yu Sheng nodded, seeming to have grasped the crux of the matter all at once, and his gaze instantly fell on Eileen. “Wait — Eileen, it just hit me… How did you determine the Dark Forest’s ‘location’ and send my consciousness and Little Red Riding Hood’s into it?”

Eileen hadn’t expected the topic to suddenly land on her, but she quickly answered, “That’s… pretty simple, actually. It’s just dream-diving. I have the ability to infiltrate dreams — it’s practically instinct for me.”

“Yes, that’s it! Infiltrating dreams — that’s exactly what I was missing when trying to lock onto the coordinates!” Yu Sheng suddenly grew excited, reaching out and scooping Eileen up. “Eileen, you really are tremendously talented!”

Little Doll was completely bewildered. When Yu Sheng lifted her into the air, her eyes were still dazed. But upon hearing his praise, she instantly puffed up with pride. “Well obviously — I’m a doll from Alice’s Cottage, after all. My talents are vast… But what do you mean exactly?”

Yu Sheng quickly set Eileen back down, placing her on his arm so their eyes were level, and said excitedly, “When I normally open a door and determine the ‘frequency,’ I calibrate based on spacetime structure — that’s the only method I have. But to enter the Dark Forest, I have to determine its coordinates on the ‘dream’ layer, because it doesn’t have a fixed spacetime position — do you understand? Dreams are constantly ‘drifting’ outside of reality!

“The door collapses from the previous attempts weren’t because ‘it can’t be opened from this side’ — it’s because in the very instant I open the door, the Dark Forest’s ‘position’ has already changed!”

He finished speaking rapidly, and noticing that Eileen’s expression was still a bit dazed, he continued patiently, “Still don’t get it? Think of the Dark Forest as a train constantly moving along its tracks, and the Real World as solid ground. When I opened the door to leave the Dark Forest, it was like jumping off the train — no matter what, you’re going to land on the ground. But opening a door from the outside to enter the Dark Forest is like trying to jump from the ground into the doorway of a train speeding by — the moment you jump, the train has already moved on.

“Of course, this analogy is just for ease of understanding. The actual situation is definitely not this simple. After all, even in the real world, jumping from a moving train to the ground still produces ‘displacement’ — it’s just that my door corrects for this displacement when targeting the Real World. The reverse, however, doesn’t hold…”

“Okay, okay, I get it, but if you keep explaining I might actually get confused instead,” Eileen hurriedly waved her arms to cut off Yu Sheng’s lecture. “So? How do you solve this problem? When you open a door, you can only determine spacetime coordinates, but the Dark Forest doesn’t have spacetime coordinates, and you can’t determine a dream’s position…”

Yu Sheng let out a cheeky grin, eyes gleaming as he looked at the doll in his hands. “I can’t — but you can.”

Eileen: “…Huh?”

“I open the door, you navigate,” Yu Sheng said with a deadly serious expression. “Use some of that magical mumbo-jumbo of yours — don’t you usually brag about how great you are? The miraculous power bestowed upon you by Alice’s Cottage…”

“…Is this actually going to work?!” Eileen was completely dumbfounded, then quickly added, “Of course the power bestowed upon me by Alice’s Cottage is definitely reliable — I mean your plan. Don’t go opening a door that erases yourself from existence.”

Yu Sheng said casually, “Let’s just give it a try.”

Eileen: “…”

Little Doll froze for an instant, then finally couldn’t help but frown skeptically at this person who was always so ready to either give it a try or give up the ghost. “Speaking of which, why are you so fixated on opening a door from the outside into the Dark Forest? Can’t I just use my dream powers to send you in?”

“But you can only send my ‘consciousness’ in,” Yu Sheng said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “And right now it’s just the Dark Forest, but in the future there’s still Cinderella’s ball and Rapunzel’s tower. Being able to open a door and walk in is always going to be more convenient. What’s more…”

He suddenly paused at this point, then turned to glance at Hu Li standing beside him. His voice unconsciously dropped. “I still want to see a cyber Fox Spirit beat up children’s literature…”

Eileen: “…Are you insane?!”

“Just tell me — don’t you want to see it too?!”

“I do.”

“Well then, let’s try it.”

“Okay.”

Little Doll caved in quickly.

In truth, Eileen had guessed from the very beginning that this was how things would turn out — not just because she also thought Yu Sheng’s idea of a “cyber Fox Spirit beating up children’s literature” was genuinely awesome, but because she understood Yu Sheng. She knew that this guy’s “persistence” had always been like this.

An extraordinary, logic-defying persistence. Once a wild idea opened up in his mind, he absolutely had to give it a try before he’d let it go. This persistence, just like his intense curiosity, was pure and powerful — like…

A child.

But that was fine. Complaints aside, she actually quite enjoyed going along with this guy’s antics.

“In a moment, summon the door but don’t open it yet. Just maintain it and then clear your mind,” Little Doll climbed onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder and gave instructions with a serious expression. “Then I’ll guide your consciousness… The process is very similar to how I usually guide your dreams, but this time I’ll have to do it while you’re fully awake. And at the final step, I’ll need to ‘take over’ part of your ‘spiritual intuition’ — only then can I influence your ‘door.’ Is that okay?”

She confirmed with particular earnestness, then emphasized once more, “During this process, you absolutely must cooperate — you have to trust me completely. Otherwise, we’ll both experience a shock similar to Forced Awakening. I won’t throw up anything, but you’ve already gotten dizzy so many times — this time you’ll definitely throw up last night’s dinner.”

Yu Sheng nodded repeatedly. “Alright, alright, I got it. Let’s begin.”

Eileen gazed at him steadily for a moment, then finally let out a soft breath, slowly bent down, and gently embraced Yu Sheng’s head.

“Now, let our minds become one…”