Chapter 206 – Shadows

The West Building of the orphanage had two underground levels. Basement one was a semi-subterranean floor housing storage rooms, mechanical and electrical rooms, and a multipurpose classroom. Basement two contained an underground passage connecting to the East Building, along with many old, long-abandoned structures. The orphanage’s history stretched back so far that even the East and West Buildings, which could be considered “new construction,” were actually several decades old. The deepest, most antiquated sections of these two buildings were places even the orphanage’s “guardians” seldom set foot in.

Little Red Riding Hood only remembered being taken down to explore the West Building’s underground twice as a small child, led by some older kids. Even back then, this place had already worn this same filthy, decrepit, forgotten appearance. Now, more than a decade later, nothing seemed to have changed. Those grimy concrete floors and mottled, peeling walls even gave one the feeling that they had looked this way from the very beginning — like this when first built, and still like this when the building finally collapsed.

But Little Red Riding Hood knew that every part of this building actually received at least minimal maintenance, including these seemingly forgotten corners. Volunteers dispatched by the Council would periodically inspect all of the orphanage’s facilities, repairing electrical systems and water supply and drainage — the adults looked after the children here to the best of their abilities. So if something truly anomalous had occurred in these old passages beneath the West Building, it would certainly have already attracted the staff’s attention.

After all, the “volunteers” assigned here had necessarily undergone specialized training.

Since there were no reports of anything unusual, that meant the changes had only occurred recently — at the very least, everything should have still been normal during the last routine inspection.

“Rats… cockroaches… oh, there isn’t even a single ant,” the “King” crouched on the heavy-armored mercenary’s shoulder, looking seemingly languid, yet those feline vertical pupils appeared to have already “scanned” this entire area repeatedly. “Use that good nose of yours and take a sniff, Little Red Riding Hood. There’s a musty smell in the air here, but aside from that bit of mustiness… all the other scents are far too ‘clean.'”

The flickering silhouettes of wolves materialized in the shadows beside Little Red Riding Hood. She furrowed her brow slightly, her gaze sweeping across the mottled, moldy corners of the underground passage. “Were there rats here before?”

“What a stupid question — of course there were,” the King lifted his head and glanced at Little Red Riding Hood, his gaze like he was looking at an idiot. “Rats and cockroaches are the things in this world that understand survival best. Every last human could die and they still wouldn’t go extinct — I’ve been to this place many times, and it used to be quite ‘lively.'”

Little Red Riding Hood said nothing, only watching this place that appeared perfectly normal on the surface with a grave expression. The spectral forms of wolves patrolled back and forth in the air beside her, flickering in and out of visibility, occasionally letting out uneasy whimpers.

“Let’s keep going,” she suddenly said to the King. “Let’s check the connecting passage between the East and West Buildings.”

“Alright.”

……

A fully armed action squad moved silently through the shadows between buildings, gradually closing in on an ordinary-looking structure ahead.

This was the edge of the old factory district in the southern part of the city. Most of the surrounding buildings were old residential blocks built thirty or forty years ago. Normally at this hour, there would be plenty of people moving about both inside and outside the residential area, but today this entire vicinity was eerily quiet —

People seemed to have been driven from the streets by some invisible force. Even if someone at a distant intersection happened to glance this way and noticed the unfamiliar vehicles parked at the compound entrance and those strange devices standing in the clearing, they would quickly and naturally avert their gaze, as if this entire area had simply “vanished” from people’s “attention.”

A Special Operations Bureau commander in a black uniform stood beside a mobile “node” device at the compound entrance, looking up at the target building not far away — the six-story old building with white walls and a blue roof stood out prominently against the blue sky. Several inconspicuous-looking “birds” were circling the building’s exterior walls, occasionally drawing close to a certain window on the third floor. The advance action squad had already slipped inside the building and was reporting the situation ahead via walkie-talkie.

“This is ‘Hunter.’ We’ve reached the designated floor. Surrounding environment is stable. Awaiting further orders.”

The action squad’s report came through the earpiece. The on-site commander ordered them to stand by, then turned to look beside him.

A young Special Operations Bureau agent had his head slightly lowered, perceiving the visual feed transmitted by those “birds.”

“Can you confirm the situation inside?” the on-site commander asked.

A small bird alighted delicately on the windowsill of the target building’s third floor, craning its head to peer inside.

“I can’t see the interior, but I can sense residual spiritual fluctuations. There is definitely supernatural power present in the target room,” the young agent said rapidly. “…Further perception is being blocked. Unable to determine exact personnel positions. They’ve likely set up interference.”

“Classic cultist tricks,” the on-site commander said with a slight curl of his lip. “Confirming they’re in there is enough… ‘Hunter,’ prepare to breach.”

“Yes sir!”

……

An urgent phone ring suddenly cut through the air, interrupting Song Cheng’s work. He reached out to pick up the receiver while glancing at the caller ID, his expression immediately turning serious.

“Hello, it’s me — what’s the situation?”

A rapid-fire report came through the receiver. The next moment, Song Cheng stood up abruptly from behind his desk.

“What do you mean ‘all dead’? Explain yourself — are you saying the sacrificial victims captured by the Angel Cultists are all dead? Were innocent people sacrificed at the scene? Or the original residents of the apartment building…”

The on-site commander on the other end of the line spoke a few hurried sentences. Song Cheng’s expression gradually froze.

“…The fucking cultists are all dead?!”

……

Yu Sheng sat on the balcony of the East Building’s second floor, watching through the window as the little ones did their outdoor activities on the playground. Seeing a pack of kids running wild all over the yard under the lead of the older children, shouting and yelling, a faint smile gradually appeared on his face.

The feeling was subtle, but he could indeed sense that a delicate “connection” had been established between himself and these children. He could even vaguely feel the carefree, exuberant moods drifting over from the playground.

Just like the clear sky overhead.

“How wonderful,” Ailin climbed up onto the windowsill beside him, watching the scene on the playground together with Yu Sheng. The little doll’s tone carried a note of wistfulness. “Children’s happiness is so simple. If only they’d stop chasing me all over the yard, that would be even better.”

“They really like you,” Yu Sheng said cheerfully, looking at the rather aggrieved little doll. “I saw it earlier in the classroom — there were even two little girls who wanted to comb your hair, right?”

He shouldn’t have brought it up. The moment he did, Ailin nearly tumbled right off the windowsill. “Holy shit, don’t mention such terrifying things! I watched with my own eyes as they ripped a doll’s head off to comb its hair! Do you have any idea how scary that was?!”

Hu Li was also standing nearby, and had been wearing a contemplative expression for a while now. She suddenly broke her silence: “So with this, all the children currently in this orphanage are now under the protection of Benefactor’s Technique of Witch Blood, correct?”

“That’s right,” Ailin said, sitting on the windowsill and swinging her two legs. “All seventy-something kids in this whole place are now in Yu Sheng’s hands…”

Yu Sheng immediately shot the doll a glare. “Can’t you use better phrasing? What do you mean they’re all ‘in my hands’?!”

Hu Li paid no mind to Ailin’s tangent. She thought carefully for a moment, then continued: “But this is only a stopgap measure — Benefactor has currently only protected the children that the ‘Fairy Tale’ has already affected. But there will always be new children who come under the Fairy Tale’s influence. We still need to find a way to address the root cause.”

“That’s right… we still need to find a way to solve this at its source,” Yu Sheng sighed, speaking slowly. “I wonder if Little Red Riding Hood has found anything down there — I don’t know what’s going on, but ever since a while ago, I’ve had this nagging feeling of unease.”

Ailin’s expression immediately turned serious. “You can’t ignore something like that — is your spiritual intuition sending a warning?”

“It’s not that severe,” Yu Sheng said with some hesitation. After a very careful assessment, he slowly shook his head. “It’s probably just at the level of ‘spiritual intuition swaying back and forth.’ Hasn’t reached ‘spiritual intuition bouncing all over the place’ yet.”

Ailin stared at him in speechless bewilderment. After a long pause, she managed to squeeze out: “When are you ever going to fix these deranged descriptions of yours? Who on earth can understand what you mean…”

Yu Sheng scratched his hair, and just as he was about to say something more, a set of somewhat hurried footsteps suddenly came from the direction of the corridor, interrupting him.

The three of them by the windowsill turned toward the sound and saw Little Red Riding Hood approaching with quick steps, followed by that pudgy tabby cat.

One look at the girl’s expression told Yu Sheng she must have found something amiss.

“What did you find?” he immediately stepped forward to ask.

Little Red Riding Hood waved her hand and said rapidly: “The rats and cockroaches in the West Building’s basement have completely vanished.”

Yu Sheng blanked for a moment, exchanged a glance with Ailin, and couldn’t process it right away. After two or three seconds, he tentatively spoke: “Uh… congratulations?”

“Is that something to congratulate?” Little Red Riding Hood immediately glared at Yu Sheng. “This is obviously an abnormal situation! Hey, I wasn’t done yet. Then the ‘King’ and I continued checking along the West Building’s underground passage, and near a ventilation shaft at the junction between the West and East Buildings, we found something…”

As she spoke, she quickly pulled out her phone, brought up a photo, and handed it to Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng took the phone curiously and saw a photo that had clearly been hastily taken in the underground passage.

The lighting in the photo wasn’t great, and there seemed to be some kind of hazy film over the lens, but he could still make out what appeared to be many layered, overlapping silhouette-like shadows on the corridor walls captured in the image.

Yu Sheng frowned, trying to discern what those shadows on the walls were. After quite a while, he suddenly drew in a soft breath.

“Trees,” Little Red Riding Hood said slowly from beside him. “When faint light passes through a forest, it casts the shadows of trees onto the walls, creating silhouettes just like these — in the underground passage of the West Building, the shadows of the Black Forest have appeared on the walls.”

(End of Chapter)