Chapter 20 – Eileen’s Intelligence and Advice

The puppet girl in the oil painting greeted Yu Sheng with delight and surprise, her voice carrying a hint of unexpectedness — but not a shred of the shock and panic one might expect at seeing a dead person return alive.

Yu Sheng was certain this wasn’t because Eileen was simply easygoing.

Sure enough, the problem lay with himself — but given how many times he’d died and come back in such a short span of time, it seemed like no matter how strange something was, happening to him was no longer surprising.

“It was more of a lucky accident. At least I made it back,” Yu Sheng said offhandedly. He turned around, closed the half-open door, then immediately looked down to check himself over, confirming that not only had his body fully recovered, but his clothes had also been completely restored to their original state.

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow. Thinking back to Eileen’s reaction just now, he felt that rather than saying he had “resurrected,” it was more accurate to say the entire “event” of his death had simply vanished into thin air.

He stood dazed at the doorway, and Eileen watched him with puzzlement, the puppet in the painting speaking up: “Yu Sheng? Are you alright? You look out of it. Oh right, tell me how you made it back — my connection with you kept cutting in and out, and there was always a bunch of chaotic noise on your end. I had no idea what strange thing you ran into in that Otherworld… Hm? What’s that you’re holding in your hand?”

At her reminder, Yu Sheng finally noticed that he was still clutching something tightly in his hand — it was unmistakably a severed tail covered in pitch-black scales, its shape bizarre and grotesque.

The corner of Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched: “What the hell, I nearly forgot about it… and it’s still here.”

The thing was still faintly contracting and squirming in his hand, but clearly not as “lively” as it had been at first. It seemed that even with its astonishing vitality, the monster’s severed limb would eventually die off after being separated from its main body.

A strange feeling rose in his heart. Yu Sheng wasn’t even sure how to explain to Eileen where this thing had come from. After a brief hesitation, he carried the severed tail toward the kitchen, and as he walked, casually said to Eileen: “…A local specialty.”

The puppet in the painting was taken aback: “…Huh?”

By this point, Yu Sheng had already tossed the severed tail into the kitchen sink. After confirming the thing had no strength left to crawl out of the basin, he jabbed it a few times with a knife just to be safe, then pressed a pot lid down on top of it — at least that way, if it did manage to crawl out, he’d hear the lid hitting the floor. Only then did he return to the dining room with a trace of exhaustion, dragging his heavy body to slump down into a chair.

His mind was a mess. There were too many things to think about, and more importantly, he was truly exhausted.

But he forced himself to stay awake. Now was not the time to sleep.

Eileen, on the other side of the table, watched him cautiously: “Yu Sheng, tell me about your experience in that Otherworld. And how did you…”

“I was just about to bring that up,” Yu Sheng said, cutting her off with a wave of his hand. He adjusted his posture and looked at the puppet in the painting with a serious expression. “I’ve got a whole belly full of questions — let me start by going over what happened to me over there. I ran into a girl who was trapped in the Otherworld just like me, but she had probably been trapped for a very, very long time…”

Yu Sheng held nothing back. He told the puppet everything that had happened to him in that valley shrouded in night, including the information Hu Li had disclosed to him, as well as the monster that looked like a grotesque amalgamation of flesh and blood, with a form that defied all conventional aesthetics.

The only thing he omitted was his own experience of dying and returning to life — he hadn’t yet figured out how to explain that to her, so he left it for now.

He was well aware that he and Eileen were still not very close, and that there wasn’t much trust between them, but he had no other options. In this city, Eileen was the only “anomalous individual” he had contacted and communicated with so far, and the only person he knew who had any knowledge of things beyond ordinary understanding. Apart from Eileen, he genuinely didn’t know who else he could discuss Otherworld matters with.

He felt he should extend a little more trust to this puppet in the painting. After all, up until now, her attitude had been fairly friendly — except for when she cursed at him, which was quite foul-mouthed.

Eileen listened very attentively. When Yu Sheng mentioned the flesh-and-blood monster, her expression grew notably grave. Several times she seemed about to speak but held back, never once interrupting his account.

It was only after Yu Sheng’s account came to a natural pause that the puppet girl finally adjusted her posture. She sat upright and proper in her chair with its red velvet spread, and spoke earnestly: “First, I still need to emphasize — I don’t remember much. This painting has worn away too many of my memories, so the help I can give you is also very limited…”

Yu Sheng nodded: “I know that.”

“Mm,” Eileen gave a sound of acknowledgment, then relaxed her expression slightly. “Then I’ll do my best to fill in some knowledge about Otherworlds. To start, you should already have a basic understanding of Otherworlds by now — you know they’re a general term for certain ‘zones’ that deviate from order and defy common sense. But do you know that Otherworlds also generate things called ‘entities’?”

“…Entities?” Yu Sheng looked puzzled.

“Simply put, they are the ‘natives’ or ‘products’ of an Otherworld. Entities don’t necessarily look any particular way — sometimes they might be humanoid figures with strange appearances, sometimes a kind of beast or monster, sometimes even a ball of fire, a gust of wind, or a rock that runs around. Anything that is produced within an Otherworld and possesses clear ‘vitality’ — capable of reacting to outsiders — can be considered an ‘entity.'” Yu Sheng nodded thoughtfully.

“Entities are broadly classified and numerous,” Eileen continued. “Generally speaking, entities have very obvious ‘anomalous’ characteristics. They are born within Otherworlds and naturally possess traits that defy common sense, are strange and dangerous. Most entities have no intellect, or at least don’t display ‘thinking behavior’ that humans can understand, but it seems a very small number of entities do possess intelligence… I can’t remember the details on that part.

“At any rate, ninety percent of entities are dangerous. They vary in strength, though — some entities might only cause your nose to itch, while others will put your life in danger the moment you lay eyes on them. So there’s a theory that ‘entities’ are a kind of rejection response from the Otherworld — an antivirus program generated by the Otherworld to eliminate intruders. Under this view, from the Otherworld’s perspective, the investigators and lost souls who come from the world of order and common sense are the unnameable monsters…”

Yu Sheng listened quietly, then suddenly realized: “…So the ‘monster’ I encountered was an ‘entity’ generated within that valley?”

“That would seem to be the case.” Eileen nodded.

“Can entities be destroyed?” Yu Sheng immediately asked.

“Entities can be killed, but cannot be completely eliminated,” Eileen said seriously. “Strictly speaking, entities are a kind of ‘generated product.’ Kill one, and a new ‘copy’ will be generated within the Otherworld. They are a manifestation of the Otherworld’s operating rules — as long as the Otherworld persists, entities will keep being generated. That said, generating entities also takes time, and apparently there are ways to suppress the functioning of certain Otherworlds, delaying or even disrupting the generation of entities within them… The specifics, I can’t remember.”

“Can be killed, but cannot be completely eliminated…” Yu Sheng repeated the words, and suddenly felt things were even trickier than he’d imagined.

He wasn’t afraid of death.

That monster, it seemed, was even less afraid…

Without realizing it, Yu Sheng had already silently accepted that he would return to that valley, that he would face that monster again — he didn’t know where this notion had come from, but by the time he became aware of it, the thought, or rather a certain “intuition,” had already taken root in his heart.

“…Never mind, being able to kill it temporarily is still a good thing,” he exhaled softly, then raised his head to look at Eileen again. “Besides that, what else do you know about entities? Their weaknesses, for instance.”

“Entities have no unified weaknesses. Sometimes an entity’s weakness isn’t even on the entity itself, but on the ‘Otherworld,’ or within the Otherworld’s own rules. And some entities… can even change their own weaknesses,” Eileen shook her head. “So exploring Otherworlds and confronting entities is a professional and dangerous affair. I’d suggest you try your best to find professional help — not someone like me who’s stuck in a painting.”

Yu Sheng couldn’t help rolling his eyes at that: “Easier said than done. Where am I supposed to find professionals? It’s not like they’d put up flyers on telephone poles…”

Eileen: “They would, actually.”

Yu Sheng: “…?”

“They have contact methods — not necessarily flyers on telephone poles, of course,” Eileen saw the dumbfounded look on Yu Sheng’s face and gave an especially emphatic nod. “Since Otherworlds exist all over this world and are very dangerous to ordinary people, of course there’s a large group of professionals who specialize in handling these matters. Setting everything else aside, this is such a big city — someone has to be responsible for maintaining order both openly and in the shadows, right? On the official side, there are dedicated government departments; on the civilian side, there are all manner of organizations large and small. I can’t quite remember the specifics, but these people are certainly active everywhere…

“Of course, under normal circumstances they keep their distance from the lives of ordinary people and remain hidden in the shadows. This is because many Otherworlds have peculiar traits — things like ‘activating upon being known about,’ or ‘actively approaching those who fear them.’ So they try as much as possible to prevent ordinary people from coming into contact with information about Otherworlds. But once someone unfortunate has already been exposed to an Otherworld, or an Otherworld reaction appears in the city, these professionals naturally have their own methods to quickly locate the person and come to their door…”

Yu Sheng listened to Eileen’s account in a daze, and after a moment’s hesitation, raised his head and looked out the window.

“So, since an ‘Otherworld reaction’ has already occurred here, all I need to do is wait, and the ‘professionals’ you’re talking about will come to me on their own — is that right?”

“…Probably… yes?” For some reason, Eileen’s tone suddenly lacked its usual confidence.

Yu Sheng noticed the uncertainty in her voice too: “…Then why haven’t they shown up?”

“I don’t know either. By all accounts, they should have come by now.”

(End of Chapter)