Chapter 89: Extremely Creative
Academy?
When Yu Sheng read the message left by Three Thousand Wicked Disciples, his mind briefly stumbled in confusion. The word “Academy” tickled at his memory, sounding oddly familiar. Then it struck him—Bai Li Qing had mentioned it once in passing during one of their conversations. And just earlier, while tinkering with his phone’s bizarre functions, he had stumbled upon some scattered intelligence files that also referenced the term.
According to those records, the Academy was a colossal scholarly organization located beyond the Borderland, with its headquarters on a distant world known as Terra. Their domains of expertise included the inheritance of knowledge, archaeological discovery, technological innovation, and combat against those ancient horrors that threatened the sanity of mortals. In essence, it truly was a “university,” a grand one at that—and its operatives often bore the title of “Scholar.”
Given that, it wasn’t all that surprising the Academy might take an interest in the strange metallic component Yu Sheng had discovered.
But therein lay the problem: unlike many other foreign factions, the Academy wasn’t easy to approach. Their dealings were typically restricted to official-level exchanges with other organizations. They remained cloaked in mystery. And Yu Sheng? He was barely a newcomer to the field, knowing hardly any fellow Investigators. Where would he even begin to find one of the Academy’s elusive Scholars?
Yu Sheng frowned, hesitating only briefly before sending Three Thousand Wicked Disciples a message: “How do I get in touch with the Academy? Do you have any channels on your end?”
But this time, he waited for a long while and received no response. It seemed Three Thousand Wicked Disciples had gone offline right after their last message.
“At least it’s a lead,” Yu Sheng muttered regretfully, stowing away his phone. He then picked up the blackened metallic component once more, examining it intently from every angle.
It was then that he noticed the strange engravings that Three Thousand Wicked Disciples had mentioned. During his earlier attempts at photographing it, Yu Sheng hadn’t even registered them—but somehow, his keen-eyed Internet Friend had.
They resembled some kind of script, worn yet still legible due to their deep carvings. Twisting arcs and curves made up the bizarre glyphs, utterly alien to Yu Sheng. He had never seen writing like this before and couldn’t decipher a single symbol.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed again.
A reply?
He whipped it out in excitement—only to see that it wasn’t Three Thousand Wicked Disciples messaging him, but Little Red Riding Hood. Her avatar was flashing.
When he opened the message, it simply read: “I saw the photos and your messages—don’t tell me you picked that thing up from your home?!”
“Yeah,” Yu Sheng replied casually, “but I didn’t want to scare people, so I kept that part quiet.”
“Good thing you did. That would have shattered some people’s worldview. How exactly did you find it? Isn’t Wutong Road No. 66 your territory? How does something even you don’t recognize show up in that house?”
“Plenty of weird Doors in that place,” Yu Sheng sighed as he typed, “I found Irene in one of the rooms too. That house just coughs up strange things from time to time.”
The little doll had been peering over his shoulder, watching the drama unfold. At this moment, she headbutted Yu Sheng’s arm.
“Why drag me into this?! And what do you mean ‘strange things’?! You calling me weird?!”
Yu Sheng playfully mussed her hair. “Just emphasizing the point for effect…”
He then recounted to Little Red Riding Hood how he had discovered the metallic object, detailing the entire incident through private messages. He ended with a question: “Ever seen anything like it?”
“It’s not unusual for the Otherworld to spit out artificial things,” she replied, “but one Otherworld manifesting an object that clearly comes from somewhere else? That’s strange. Then again, we can’t be sure it’s truly foreign. Maybe it always belonged to Wutong Road No. 66, and you just never noticed. I don’t know your house well enough to say.”
“As for that metal piece, I haven’t seen anything quite like it. But I suggest you stop asking about it so publicly on the Border Communication Platform. You’re not offering much concrete data, and you’re likely to attract shady characters.”
After a short pause, she followed up with another message: “Keep it for now. If a collector of rare artifacts shows up, you might get a good price for it. Also, watch your house carefully. Maybe more parts will ‘drop.’ That thing looks like a component. There could be others.”
Yu Sheng blinked at the screen, then quickly typed: “Wait, this junk might actually be worth money?!”
Little Red Riding Hood took noticeably longer to reply this time: “…There’s always some collector fascinated by bizarre, non-hazardous items retrieved from the Otherworld. If you can prove it’s a legitimate Otherworld Recovery, it might be worth something.”
“And how do I prove that? Is there some official Door that does these appraisals?”
Yu Sheng hesitated, glancing sideways at Miss Foxy, who had just pulled another drumstick from her Storage Tail and was gnawing on it.
He typed with visible awkwardness: “You know, I’m supporting two people now… and Miss Foxy has a very large appetite. As for my own work, well, I’m currently in a bit of a ‘bottleneck phase.’”
The so-called bottleneck was due to the recent and shocking realization that his fans had developed some incredibly bizarre desires based on his creations, causing him to question not only his artistic direction, but even his personal competence.
Little Red Riding Hood’s reply came quickly—without the slightest curiosity about what Yu Sheng’s “personal work” actually was: “Then you can try getting an appraisal certificate from the Special Affairs Bureau. They’ll definitely believe the item came from the Otherworld—unless they’re going to deny that Wutong Road No. 66 is part of the Otherworld.”
A smile crept onto Yu Sheng’s face. He began mentally calculating Miss Foxy’s meal costs and Irene’s new television budget. But then, a sudden jolt struck his mind—a bold, creative, and wildly tempting idea clanged into his thoughts like a struck gong.
The idea gleamed golden in his mind—his eyes even sparkled with inspiration. “Wait a second… does this mean anything brought back from the Otherworld, as long as it’s not dangerous, can be appraised like this?”
Little Red Riding Hood took nearly half a minute before replying with a confused, “Huh?”
And then, without waiting for Yu Sheng to respond, she rapidly followed up: “Wait, I think I just guessed what you’re about to do! Don’t tell me you’re planning to—”
Yu Sheng looked around the living room.
Everything suddenly looked valuable.
Even the moldy, peeling wallpaper in the corners seemed to be gilded with gold…
But in the next instant, his phone buzzed with a series of rapid messages. Little Red Riding Hood was typing furiously:
“Collectors have standards, okay?! At the very least, it has to look like a rare item with a story! Even if it’s not, it should be something someone could at least brag about! You can’t just bring out two plastic sandals, old newspapers, and drink bottles or whatever! How did you even come up with that?!”
Yu Sheng was left blinking at the screen, dazed. He could practically feel the sheer shock and awe of a high school girl vibrating from every character.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the Old City District of Boundary City, Little Red Riding Hood was still staring blankly at her phone after hitting send.
Her face was indeed filled with astonishment and disbelief.
“Still not asleep?” a young woman’s voice called from above, followed by a face appearing over the edge of the top bunk—a black-haired girl who looked a year or two younger than Little Red Riding Hood. She glanced at the screen, recognizing the interface. “Frontier Communications? Got a new job?”
“Nah, just chatting. Got completely mind-blown,” said Little Red Riding Hood absentmindedly.
“What could possibly blow your mind? Someone streaking on the public message board?”
Little Red Riding Hood didn’t even lift her head. “An Entity wants to sell his household junk to get rich.”
The girl on the top bunk lost her balance, her elbow slipping. She fell—only to snag the metal frame halfway down using her hair, hanging like some midnight ghost beside Little Red Riding Hood’s bed. Swaying eerily, she asked, “Is this some kind of new horror discussion thread?”
“Long Haired Girl, can you not talk to me while dangling creepily like that?” Little Red Riding Hood shot her roommate a glare. “It’s the middle of the night. You’re in a white nightgown swinging from your hair like a vengeful spirit. Anyone coming through the Door would get scared to death.”
“And I’m not kidding,” she added seriously. “Let’s discuss this. If there’s an Otherworld, and it has an Entity who looks and acts like a Human, and that Entity can freely come and go… and even has a legal identity in the Human world, then doesn’t that mean he could—”
The girl hanging from the bed pondered it seriously. Her expression turned shocked: “I get it now. It’s that guy you’ve been talking to lately… Oh no! He really found an exploit in the system!”