Chapter 137: Hunter
Only belatedly did Yu Sheng notice the dead silence surrounding the Cozy Little House.
The unseen Phantom Wolf Pack had vanished, retreating at some unknown point into the shadows of the Black Forest. A stillness cloaked the surroundings. Yet the most ferocious of them all—the Giant Wolf meant for this generation’s Little Red Riding Hood—still had not shown itself.
But Yu Sheng could feel it.
That same Giant Wolf which had once devoured him was now watching this place from afar. The prey had been detected. But strangely, it made no move.
[What is it watching for? What is it waiting for? Or could it be… wary of something else?]
Cautiously, Yu Sheng extended his Dream Perception, trying to extract some pattern or logic from the Giant Wolf’s gaze. And then, within that perception, he saw a shadow.
A figure had appeared abruptly in the clearing between the forest shrubs near the Cozy Little House—a human figure.
Yu Sheng’s nerves tightened instantly. Almost simultaneously, he heard footsteps from outside.
Human footsteps—measured, unhurried, drawing near, crunching across fallen leaves and rotted forest loam. They were already close to the Door.
Yu Sheng’s heart tightened. A sudden realization struck him, and he quickly looked around, then darted into a nearby corner to hide.
Barely had he concealed himself when the Door of the Cozy Little House creaked open.
A tall figure filled the entrance—bathed in dim, cold starlight. All Yu Sheng could see was a hunting outfit of mottled green and brown and a thick hood that obscured the figure’s face. In one hand, the stranger held a long hunting rifle, and with a slightly comical gait, stooped low, they stepped into the house.
The Hunter had arrived.
But the Big Bad Wolf was already dead—slain before the Hunter had even arrived.
Yu Sheng saw the tall, hooded figure take two steps into the house, then suddenly freeze—clearly having spotted the disemboweled corpse of the Giant Wolf lying on the floor.
The script that should have been theirs to fulfill had been rewritten. And so, this Entity generated by the Black Forest stood locked in place, like a process frozen mid-execution.
The Hunter didn’t move. Hidden in the corner, Yu Sheng didn’t dare to move either. An eerie, awkward silence fell upon the Cozy Little House.
Yu Sheng even found the silence… a little embarrassing.
And then, Irene’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind: “Hey! Yu Sheng! Still alive? What’s going on over there? Why haven’t you come back?”
“I’m fine, but we hit a small snag,” Yu Sheng replied quickly in his mind, eyes locked on the motionless Hunter. “What’s the situation ‘outside’? Did Little Red Riding Hood and the New Child both ‘go back’?”
“All good here. Little Red Riding Hood’s over in the water room throwing up, and the kid’s up too—joined her for the pukefest. Looks like that ‘Awakening’ really hit them hard,” Irene rattled on. “Honestly, I was shocked! That kid actually ‘came back to life!’ No heartbeat or breath for ages, then suddenly boom, alive again! What the hell did you even do—wait, hold up. What exactly happened on your end? Little Red Riding Hood said you took down the ‘Wolf Granny’? So now…”
“Yeah. I killed the Wolf Granny. So now the ‘Hunter’ is stuck here,” Yu Sheng sighed, cutting her off. “You know the Hunter, right? The one who’s supposed to rush in at the end and save Little Red Riding Hood—yeah, I stole his thunder.”
Silence. Irene didn’t reply right away—maybe it took her a second to process.
Then the Doll’s voice piped up: “What?! It’s stuck?! That’s even possible?!”
“Only explanation I got,” Yu Sheng said helplessly. “Anyway, it’s still standing there like a statue. I’m hiding behind the cabinet. Don’t wanna risk stepping out—especially since this thing’s a Black Forest-generated Entity. Who knows what kind of taboos it’s got built in.”
“So what, you’re just gonna have a stare-down until someone blinks? You should probably just pull out—we can yoink you if needed…”
“Don’t you dare!” Yu Sheng snapped, hearing Irene preparing to forcibly ‘pull’ him out. The memory of that disorienting Awakening flashed through his mind, and he figured death might be the less painful option. “I’ll try probing it first—at least get a good look at what this Hunter actually is.”
As he spoke, Yu Sheng began to creep from his hiding place, slowly approaching the tall, hunter-garbed figure.
The Hunter didn’t react to the sound of footsteps behind. It remained frozen beside the corpse of the Giant Wolf, a statue in hunting clothes.
Growing bolder, Yu Sheng abandoned all pretense of stealth and walked right up. He leaned in for a closer look.
Irene’s voice buzzed in his mind: “Hey, hey, so? Still breathing? What’s the Hunter look like?”
Yu Sheng paused for two seconds.
“…Under the clothes, it’s empty.”
He gazed at the figure before him—the Hunter—only to see nothing more than an empty hunting outfit. Beneath the hood, there was no face, only the hollow shadow of absence.
The entire Hunter was nothing but a drifting set of garments.
Yet whether it was a trick of the mind or not, Yu Sheng couldn’t shake the feeling that beneath that vacant hood… something was watching. As if a formless face and a pair of unseen eyes were peering straight at him.
Yu Sheng sidled half a step to the side. The Hunter remained perfectly still, but he swore the “gaze” beneath the hood followed his every move.
“Hello,” Yu Sheng hesitated, then decided to give it a shot and greeted the Entity. “I’m Yu Sheng. Uh… just arrived.”
Irene’s voice buzzed in his mind. “Ugh, that sounded so lame.”
Expressionless, Yu Sheng retorted, “Shut up.”
The Hunter gave no reply. The invisible sense of being observed lingered, heavy and unrelenting.
Feeling awkward, Yu Sheng gestured to the Wolf corpse on the ground. “This was me—sorry if I stole your kill.”
In that instant, he noticed a faint change in the hood’s folds.
The Entity was shifting its gaze with his pointing finger. And more than that… it may have nodded.
It can communicate!
Yu Sheng’s heart stirred. He schooled his features, then cautiously continued, “The child swallowed by Wolf Granny—I already got her out.”
The Hunter’s hood twitched again, more visibly this time. It really nodded.
“So… it seems you’re not hostile toward me,” Yu Sheng attempted a friendlier tone and extended his right hand slightly. “If we’re both fighting against the Evil Wolf, then we’re on the same side.”
Suddenly, the Hunter took a step back.
Yu Sheng blinked, startled by the abrupt retreat. And then, just like a tape playing in reverse, the Entity clad in hunter’s garb retreated in fast, bizarrely fluid backward steps—unnatural, even absurd—moving so swiftly it vanished into the night beyond the Little House Door in the blink of an eye.
“Hey—” Yu Sheng instinctively reached out, but the eerie Entity was already gone.
Irene’s voice echoed in his mind, “What just happened?”
“The Hunter bolted. Right when I tried to shake its hand,” Yu Sheng replied, baffled. “I don’t think I did anything to spook it…”
He sighed, but something caught his peripheral vision.
A scrap of paper—dropped in the Hunter’s hasty retreat.
Yu Sheng bent down and picked it up. It was yellowed, fragile, no bigger than his palm. Whatever had once been written on it was now buried beneath layers of grime—ink smears, oil stains, maybe even blood. The words were completely illegible.
“I found something…” he muttered while trying to make out the markings.
“Huh? What’d you find?”
“A piece of paper. Fell off that Hunter. But it’s so dirty and torn I can’t read a thing.”
“Um… do you think you can bring it out with you?” Irene’s voice faltered. “I can only pull out your consciousness… or I could jump in and take a look myself? Though when it comes to Strange Objects or Artifact Identification, I really suck. Honestly, don’t count on me.”
To be fair, Yu Sheng didn’t even notice anything off about her ramble at first. He paused, then burst out laughing from sheer exasperation. “Well, at least you’re honest!”
Shaking his head, he carefully stashed the fragile paper scrap and stepped over to the Wolf’s corpse.
“I’m going to try opening a Door here—see if I can bring stuff back out. But this is my first time trying to open a Door from the Black Forest, an Awareness Realm, into the real world. No clue what’ll happen. Tell Little Red Riding Hood and the others to step back—best if they wait outside. Just you and Miss Foxy stay close by.”
“Oh, got it!”
After Irene confirmed, Yu Sheng drew a deep breath and first… took out his phone for a quick look.
He still wasn’t sure whether the “phone” he could pull out in this Black Forest was an actual object or something he merely dreamed into existence. Either way, there was no signal here.
Guess there’s no way to check in… But the Special Affairs Bureau is probably used to that by now… right?
Random thoughts flashed through his mind as he pocketed the phone, then bent to grab one of the Wolf’s legs. With his other hand, he drew a line through the air—and a shimmering, semi-ethereal Phantom Door materialized at his side.