Chapter 176: Wutong Road No. 66, Talented People and Blessed Land
Yu Sheng suddenly regretted creating so many Irenes.
Especially when three of them pounced on him, screaming and scratching wildly. When there were only two Dolls, he could easily lift his hands and push them back. But with three, he found himself unable to block them, especially one that was made of rebar and stone. The force with which it charged at him was as though a bag of cement had been dropped on his head. Fortunately, he had been eating well recently, and his body was in decent shape. If he were still an ordinary person, having one of the Irenes charge at him would have knocked him out without a sound…
Moments later, Yu Sheng had several bite marks on his forehead, and three Dolls were still clinging to him, constantly chattering. He sighed, feeling helpless.
“Get off me,” he muttered, looking at the three Dolls hanging on his legs, shoulders, and collar. “Especially you, wrapped in a towel. Your towel is about to fall off.”
Finally, Irene screamed in realization, and with the other two Irenes, they jumped off him. The little Doll still wrapped in a towel stood on the bed, looking up: “Right, where’s my clothes!?”
Yu Sheng casually pulled out a repaired skirt from the nightstand and tossed it to her. “Here, I fixed it for you. I cut off the burned parts, then used the decorative pleats from the hem to patch up the obvious spots. The stitching isn’t great, but you can wear it for now. I’ll buy you a new one in the next few days.”
“Oh, thanks!” The little Doll, wrapped in the towel, gleefully caught the skirt, then jumped off the bed and ran toward the bathroom. “I’m going to change! Don’t peek!”
“…Why would I peek at you? I made all of you!” Yu Sheng’s eyelids twitched as he shouted toward the bathroom before turning his gaze to the remaining two Irenes, who stared back at him.
At that moment, Yu Sheng suddenly remembered something, slapping his forehead. “Ah, I forgot to tell Little Red Riding Hood about Xiao Xiao. No wonder I kept feeling like I was forgetting something.”
“Xiao Xiao? The child from the Orphanage?” Irene froze for a moment, then quickly recalled the name. “What happened to her?”
“She also entered my ‘strange dream,’ the one with the wasteland,” Yu Sheng explained. “And it seems she accidentally ‘fell’ into the Black Forest while trying to escape from the Wolf’s pursuit…”
He then told the Dolls about his recent experiences in the dream, including a brief mention of seeing an apparition of the Hunter—but he didn’t share the part where he almost ‘put on’ the Hunter’s outfit. Irene blinked as she listened to Yu Sheng, her face slowly reflecting surprise. After a long pause, she couldn’t help but complain, “Your dreams are always so ridiculous.”
“I don’t know!” Yu Sheng spread his hands, “I can’t control them.”
The two Irenes exchanged skeptical glances before one of them raised a finger and thoughtfully rested it on her chin. “But… to be fair, your guess about the ‘strange dream’ might be onto something. Based on the previous experiences, it could indeed be an independent, special consciousness space, not a dream that you created. It might just be that you ‘connect’ with it while dreaming…”
“So, what exactly is that wasteland?” Yu Sheng frowned. “Could it be another Otherworld?”
The two Irenes spoke in unison, “You ask me, and who should I ask? You don’t even know!”
One of the little Dolls, carrying a frame on her back, waved her hand at Yu Sheng. “Forget it. We won’t figure it out just by thinking. When you go to sleep again, I’ll help guide you in, and we can observe the place more carefully. Maybe we’ll find some clues.”
“Fine,” Yu Sheng replied, looking out the window. The light outside had already begun to dim. “Little Red Riding Hood will be here soon, but for now, we should focus on that suspicious ‘Museum commission.'”
Irene’s expression grew serious.
“I was about to mention this. There’s definitely something fishy going on behind this… it reeks of conspiracy.”
Yu Sheng didn’t respond, only raising an eyebrow.
“You must have felt it too,” Irene noticed Yu Sheng’s change in expression and nodded slowly. “If no one had died, this could easily be dismissed as a simple case of an association member seeking personal gain and making tampered commissions to hide Museum artifacts. But now the person who issued the commission is dead. That’s not even the biggest red flag. What really doesn’t sit right with me is the ‘sacrifice’ that took place inside the Museum…”
Yu Sheng furrowed his brow, vividly recalling the eerie scene he had witnessed at the Museum.
The victim, bound by iron thorns in a “Weeper” pose, the white Exhibition Hall drenched in blood, the strange and terrifying “security” Entity, and… the chaos Little Red Riding Hood faced during her uncontrollable encounter.
It was precisely when Little Red Riding Hood was about to “come of age,” when she was on the brink of facing the devouring forces of the Black Forest, and her emotional state was at its most unstable.
…
The figures of the Wolf Pack darted between the shadows of the buildings, moving from the bustling main road to the quiet Old City District. They eventually arrived at the farthest reaches of Wutong Road No. 66, a space that could only be described as “seldom tread by human feet.” Out of the darkness, Little Red Riding Hood emerged among the wolves, raising her head to glance ahead.
Upon seeing the imposing Big Manor standing quietly before her, her expression froze, caught between disbelief and realization.
Though she had mentally prepared herself and knew that Yu Sheng’s “blood” had affected her, seeing this “Fortress-Type Otherworld” — a place even the Special Affairs Bureau couldn’t detect — standing before her was still something she couldn’t quite believe.
In her memory, this place used to be nothing but a barren plot of land, its end marked only by a short wall covered in graffiti.
The Wolf Pack silently faded into the shadows, and Little Red Riding Hood took a deep breath, stepping toward the old house.
Just as she raised her hand to knock on the Door, it swung open, revealing Yu Sheng with a smile on his face.
“I saw you from the second-floor window. Come in,” he said.
Little Red Riding Hood, slightly slow to react, gave a small “Oh” and followed Yu Sheng inside.
This was her third time stepping into this place. From the first visit, where she had been at a loss, to the second when she was somewhat anxious, now she felt oddly familiar with the Big Manor, which appeared to be nothing more than a typical house.
And then she saw three Irenes, walking down the stairs in a line, each one greeting her as they passed.
Little Red Riding Hood froze in place, rubbing her eyes in disbelief. When she looked again, the three were still there — now, two of them had gone off to watch television, and one was walking toward her, eyes fixed on her with a tilt of the head.
“You’re spacing out!” the little doll remarked.
“…How did another one show up?!” Little Red Riding Hood turned to Yu Sheng, her tone stunned.
“Yep, there’s another one now. The one that went with you to the Black Forest is new, but it seems you didn’t notice,” Yu Sheng said with a nod, as if it were perfectly normal. “She’s a combat-specialized model, created specifically for dealing with malicious Entities like Hunger and the Evil Wolf. I call her Irene MK-II…”
Little Red Riding Hood was left speechless as she listened, while Irene, standing nearby, immediately voiced her displeasure.
“Don’t go making random model names! If you must, at least pick something cooler, like Valkyrie-type or something…”
Yu Sheng struggled to keep a straight face, thinking that calling a 66.6-centimeter doll a “Valkyrie” was laughable. After all, the Valkyrie’s shield would probably be taller than the doll herself — but he didn’t dare say it out loud. It wasn’t because of how harshly Irene had insulted him, but because there were now three Irenes at home, and if they lined up and charged at him in an attack formation, he might not stand a chance…
Still processing, Little Red Riding Hood was led by Yu Sheng to the living room.
Foxy came over, carrying a plate of freshly washed fruit and placed it on the coffee table.
Yu Sheng immediately checked the fruits for bite marks — after all, if Foxy had snuck a bite, it wouldn’t do to serve them to guests. But then, he remembered that if Foxy had actually eaten the fruit, she would never bring it back with nibbles — the more likely scenario was that she had washed a whole bowl of fruit and brought out a fresh plate…
Little Red Riding Hood, oblivious to Yu Sheng’s inner thoughts, thanked Foxy and caught sight of an odd tail among Foxy’s massive bundle. All the other tails were lively, but one seemed limp, dragging on the floor, as if broken.
Yu Sheng noticed it too, furrowing his brow. “What happened to your tail? Did you hurt it?”
But Foxy, upon hearing this, smiled with glee, quickly trotting over to him and letting her tails drape across his legs.
“Benefactor, look! Is there no static anymore?”
Yu Sheng, confused for a moment, reached down to touch Foxy’s tail. Realization struck, and he nodded toward Little Red Riding Hood, who was still looking bewildered.
“It’s nothing. It’s just grounding,” he said.
Little Red Riding Hood was completely lost. “…?”
She suddenly realized that her fleeting sense of familiarity with Wutong Road No. 66 had been premature. Everything here was soaked in that strange, sinister vibe — the kind that matched her warped impression of the place. There was something almost spiritually disturbed about everything here. For instance, a new Irene seemed to appear every so often, or Foxy, the nine-tailed Demon Fox, would drag one of her tails on the floor during winter to eliminate static…
At that moment, Yu Sheng’s sudden question broke her from her thoughts.
“Little Red Riding Hood, have you ever made enemies in the past?”