Chapter 55: The “Professionals” Are Right Here
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
The enormous, silent eye had disappeared at last, slipping away as quietly as it had come. It revealed no secret, offered no explanation, and left everyone feeling strangely drained. Inside the cave, the group looked at one another, unsure of what to say or do next. The echo of that eerie eye’s presence still hung thickly in the air, making their hearts feel heavy.
Irene glanced nervously outside, her voice still trembling. “It really left, didn’t it?” she whispered. “What if it’s just hiding in the clouds, waiting to leap out again?”
Yu Sheng shook his head with certainty. “No. It’s truly gone,” he said softly. “At least it’s no longer in this part of the Otherworld. I can feel that its gaze has vanished.”
Irene kept peering into the gloom, still unconvinced. “But why did it come in the first place?” she asked, her voice tight with worry. “It lurked around, woke up to scare us half to death, stirred up all the creatures here, and then just left. What was the point of all that?”
Yu Sheng thought about it, rubbing his chin. “Maybe it was only resting. Perhaps it just needed to sleep here for a while, and once it felt refreshed, it moved on.”
Irene blinked at him doubtfully. “You think so?” she asked, sounding as if she couldn’t believe he’d give such a simple answer.
Yu Sheng was surprised that she would even consider his guess. He was about to say something else when Xu Jiali’s calm, steady voice cut in.
“No one can truly understand what the Dark Angels want,” she said, standing a little straighter. “We can’t even be sure if they have goals at all. They appear without warning. Sometimes, it takes a great battle to drive one away. Sometimes, it just drifts off on its own. Trying to find meaning in a Dark Angel’s actions is pointless. We should be thankful this particular one wasn’t aggressive.”
Yu Sheng nodded thoughtfully. He noticed Li Lin standing near the cave’s entrance, quietly watching the valley outside. That odd feeling of familiarity tickled Yu Sheng’s memory again, and suddenly an image shot through his mind. Without thinking, he spoke up.
“Wait a second!” Yu Sheng said sharply, staring at Li Lin. “I know you! We met before—recently, in fact. At that little supermarket near the border, right? You bought a box of instant noodles!”
As Yu Sheng stepped forward, he looked Li Lin up and down. The ordinary-looking face that had once blended so easily into a crowd now matched the memory stirring in Yu Sheng’s head.
Li Lin gave a faint, tight-lipped smile. He had expected this the moment Yu Sheng’s eyes lit with recognition. After all, Li Lin had also recognized Yu Sheng back at the ruined temple. Even though their meeting at the supermarket was brief, Li Lin was trained to remember even the smallest details.
Now that it was out in the open, Yu Sheng turned toward Xu Jiali and then toward “Little Red Riding Hood,” who was resting nearby. His voice grew more serious.
“Who are you all, really?” he asked, frowning. His tone was cautious, his eyes darting from face to face.
Li Lin stepped forward and straightened his back, as if preparing to salute. “Let’s do a proper introduction,” he said. “My name is Li Lin. I’m an agent of the Second Mobilization Squad under the Special Affairs Bureau of the Borderland Council.”
Xu Jiali cleared her throat and followed. “Xu Jiali,” she said calmly. “I’m a senior deep diver, part of the Special Operations Team of that same Second Mobilization Squad. And yes, that’s my real name.”
Yu Sheng’s jaw dropped a little. Then he looked at the girl who had been nicknamed Little Red Riding Hood. She had the air of a teenager, but he asked anyway, “So, you too? Are you with the Special Affairs Bureau?”
The girl crossed her arms and tilted her chin up at Xu Jiali, smirking as she answered, “No, I’m not one of them. I’m just their hired help—child labor, you might say.”
Yu Sheng stared at Xu Jiali, astonished. “Child labor?” he repeated, shocked at the idea. “Really? Your organization hires child labor?”
Xu Jiali shot a glare at the young girl. “Child labor? Don’t phrase it like that! It’s just some holiday work. A part-time work-study arrangement, that’s all.”
Yu Sheng felt as though his mind was spinning. His first thought: The high schoolers around here must be unbelievably tough if their part-time jobs involved entering the Otherworld and fighting monsters. His second thought: These must be the “professionals” Irene had mentioned. His third thought: They’d tracked him down all the way here.
“So you’ve come for me?” Yu Sheng asked, looking from Li Lin to Xu Jiali and then the girl, putting it all together. “You actually entered the Otherworld to find me?”
To his surprise, both Xu Jiali and Li Lin let out weary sighs at once. Even the young girl sighed heavily, dropping her arms and covering her face as though this had all been a great bother.
Xu Jiali fished out a cigarette, lit it, and took a long drag. Her face looked grim and tired. “If we’d had a choice, we wouldn’t have come here like this,” she admitted. “This was never how the plan was supposed to go.”
Yu Sheng blinked, confused. He felt it might be best not to ask any more questions right now. At least everyone was alive, and the trouble seemed to have passed. There would be time to talk later, once they were back in the real world.
Irene fluttered back from Foxy’s side to Yu Sheng’s shoulder. He cradled the injured little doll gently as he stepped toward the mouth of the cave. Together, they looked out at the ruined valley.
“It’s quiet now,” Irene said softly, clinging to Yu Sheng’s head with her damaged arms. She gazed into the depths of the valley, her eyes wide with disbelief. “What a terrible mess…”
Yu Sheng nodded, surveying the scarred land below. A whole layer of ground had been torn away by the horrors that once lurked there. “At least the Hunger Entity is gone,” he said, squinting at the bright daylight that managed to pierce through the darkness. “Think it’ll come back?”
Irene shrugged sadly. “The Otherworld never truly dies. It always heals, always returns. The Hunger Entity will reappear someday. No matter how many times we blow things up or push them back, this place always mends itself. Still, after all the damage today, it might take a while.”
Yu Sheng sighed and stepped forward. The air felt crisper, lighter, now that the dreadful presence was gone. Although the valley was in ruins, he felt relief. A cool breeze swept through, and daylight spilled over the land.
“Foxy,” Yu Sheng called, glancing back at the fox girl who followed closely. “How are you feeling now?”
Foxy tilted her head and gave him a bright, genuine smile—something new and warm. “I feel good,” she answered cheerfully. “Not cold, not hungry. I’m full now!”
Yu Sheng grinned back, relieved. He reached out his hand to her and said, “Then let’s go home.”
Just as Yu Sheng prepared to lead everyone back, Foxy tugged gently at his sleeve, surprising him. He paused, looking down at her puzzled face.
“Is there something you need?” Yu Sheng asked softly. He thought maybe she was worried about the food they’d left behind at the ruined temple. Everything there was likely destroyed, yet if she wanted to return, he would.
But Foxy shook her head, then gave the smallest nod, as if struggling to find the right words.
“Benefactor,” she said quietly, “I… I want to go somewhere else before we leave.”
Her voice was hesitant, and her expression uncertain, as though she feared she was asking for too much.
Yu Sheng looked at her closely. He remembered something—a scene he’d glimpsed in her dream—and finally understood. After a silent moment, he nodded.
“I know,” he said gently. “It’s in that forest, right?”
Foxy’s eyes widened with surprise and relief. Slowly, she nodded again.
Li Lin, Xu Jiali, and the young girl—Little Red Riding Hood—exchanged puzzled looks, but Yu Sheng turned to them and said, “I’ll take her there first. After that, I’ll get everyone out of this place. If you’re worried, you can come along.”
“I’ll go,” Xu Jiali said at once, taking a step forward. “She’s probably been here a long time, and it makes sense she’d want to settle something before leaving for good. I understand.”
So they all set out together, leaving the back mountain behind. They avoided the ruined temple—now even more thoroughly wrecked—and passed through the valley’s floor, which was riddled with deep cracks and scars from the battle. Soon, they reached what remained of a small forest.
Only, it wasn’t a forest anymore. The dark, twisted trees had been swallowed up in all the earlier chaos, leaving behind a charred wasteland scattered with jagged holes and strange patches of blackened debris. The smell of ash and scorched earth was everywhere.
“Is this where you wanted to come?” Yu Sheng asked softly, turning to Foxy. She stepped forward with a calm, sad look in her eyes.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “My parents are here.”
Irene’s eyes widened. She recalled the scattered images from Foxy’s dream: distant murmurs, vague shadows, the chill of hunger and loss. Irene shivered uneasily, glancing at the deep pits scarring the ground. She tried to comfort Foxy, though her voice trembled a bit.
“Maybe… maybe they’re gone,” Irene said loudly. “Look at the ground! It was all dug up and chewed apart by those awful tendrils. Maybe everything that was buried here has been destroyed…”
But Foxy shook her head firmly. “No,” she said. Her voice was gentle, but certain. “They’re still here. I buried them very deep. My parents told me to bury them deep, so I did.”