Chapter 97: The Surrounded White Exhibition Hall
Yu Sheng wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but ever since a moment ago, Little Red Riding Hood had been noticeably tense.
He suspected—no, he felt—that it probably had something to do with him…
Fortunately, Yu Sheng had a thick skin and a carefree nature (an attribute honed over time by dealing with Irene), so he quickly brushed it off, stood up, and refocused on the task at hand.
He could now sense that the security guards were frozen throughout different parts of the Museum, and some were being slowly dismantled in mid-air. It seemed that after the “Intruder” vanished from their collective sight, the Museum’s purge protocol had also been deactivated. Those temporary, plastic mock-janitors conjured to serve as cleaners were now being reclaimed.
But the reclamation was slow.
If they waited for every last plastic mannequin to vanish before moving, they’d likely miss the short window when the Museum was open.
He still remembered Little Red Riding Hood’s warning—this Museum was a time-limited segment of the Otherworld, accessible only during the Night at the Museum event.
“Let’s move. This way,” Yu Sheng said, focusing his senses and pointing toward a door deep within the hallway. “There are no ‘guards’ behind this Door.”
“Got it,” Little Red Riding Hood responded promptly, commanding the Wolf Pack to follow Yu Sheng—the only one now capable of identifying a safe route.
The next Exhibition Hall was bathed in a warm orange light. At its center stood a sprawling sculpture of mountains and valleys, while the walls were adorned with cheerful, brightly-colored landscape Paintings. None of the exhibits had names, and each was credited simply to “Anonymous.”
There were no plastic mannequins here. Along the path Yu Sheng had chosen, they encountered no guards at all.
Little Red Riding Hood found it strange. She’d never imagined she could walk so freely through a “activated” Museum. By Special Affairs Bureau assessment standards, the presence of security “Entities” marked the place as approaching a Level 3 Danger—a threshold that usually called for elite, heavily-armed squads. Yet here she was, guiding her Wolf Pack through this increasingly hostile Museum, crossing halls and intersections at high speed, while the “Entity-Guards” scattered throughout the Otherworld…
…acted like they simply didn’t exist.
Only when Yu Sheng occasionally hushed them and pointed out specific corners or pathways did she remember—those death-dealing threats were still very much there.
They crossed hallway after hallway, room after room… but the wide, white Exhibition Hall they were looking for never appeared.
Then Yu Sheng stopped abruptly, his brow furrowed in concern.
“What is it?” Little Red Riding Hood asked at once, tension rising in her voice.
“We still haven’t found that Exhibition Hall,” Yu Sheng said gravely.
“Maybe it’s deeper in?” Irene, now perched back on Yu Sheng’s shoulder—too lazy to walk on her own—interjected. “Didn’t someone say the Museum’s structure regenerates randomly?”
“I mean,” Yu Sheng replied, expression hardening, “we’ve already explored every route that wasn’t blocked by ‘guards’. What’s left… is guarded.”
Irene opened her mouth, paused, and finally managed to squeeze out a curse.
“So we’re looking at the worst-case scenario—the White Exhibition Hall is actually surrounded by those ‘guards’,” Little Red Riding Hood muttered, her expression turning sour. Unlike Irene, she’d at least gone to school and didn’t swear aloud. “Damn it. Of all the places they could’ve spawned…”
Yu Sheng went quiet for a couple seconds. Then, with a spark of suspicion, he spoke again.
“Or maybe… those plastic freaks spawned inside the White Exhibition Hall.”
He raised his hand and pointed toward another Door.
“That direction leads to the center of their cluster. Seven or eight Entities gathered in one space. And I noticed something strange—while guards in other sections are gradually vanishing, like the Museum is reclaiming them, these ones over there haven’t budged. I think that is our White Exhibition Hall. And something must’ve happened in there. Something triggered the Entity generation. Whatever it was—it’s still there.”
Little Red Riding Hood, Irene, and Foxy exchanged looks.
Yu Sheng’s intel and analysis made too much sense. But it wasn’t good news.
“So what now? Do we bail or check it out?” Irene was the first to speak. “This whole thing’s shady as hell. Backing out now would be totally understandable. But if we really turn back after all this, it’ll feel like we just got beat for nothing… Especially after how ugly that earlier escape was.”
Little Red Riding Hood thought for a moment. Then, slowly, she turned her gaze to Yu Sheng.
“You decide,” she said.
Yu Sheng blinked. “You sure you want a newbie like me making the call? I’m reckless and clueless.”
“You’re the one with the ability to get us out of this Otherworld,” she said calmly. “And right now, you’re also the only one who can still identify a safe path. Whether you’re new or not has nothing to do with it.”
Yu Sheng’s expression grew solemn. After a long and silent moment of deliberation, he finally exhaled and turned toward the Door.
“We’ll get closer to observe first. Try to figure out what’s happening inside the White Exhibition Hall without alerting the Entities. If we can confirm what’s going on, great. If not—we’ll pull back,” Yu Sheng said, his decision clear. He then turned to Little Red Riding Hood for confirmation. “Those ‘guards’—do they only react when they actually see us? Would just getting close trigger them?”
“Only if they see you,” Little Red Riding Hood responded without hesitation. “That’s been confirmed by previous Investigators. The ‘guards’ in the Museum have vision, but no hearing or smell. Their vision is a conical range, about one hundred and twenty degrees directly in front of their heads—so technically, their sensory perception is quite limited. But on the other hand, if you step into that cone of vision, they won’t get distracted. They never miss a target. And considering that most Exhibition Halls in the Museum are vast and empty, just a few guards placed at strategic angles can cover the entire room, leaving no ‘safe corners’ to hide in.”
Yu Sheng nodded thoughtfully as he listened. Then, leading his party, he silently moved away from the current Exhibition Hall and crept toward the area that had tripped his sense of foreboding.
They passed through another “repeating corridor” that looked nearly identical to the ones they’d seen before. Soon, they reached an opening at the corridor’s end.
Before they even arrived at the exit, Yu Sheng stopped in his tracks.
“It’s a white room,” Irene noted keenly, her eyes catching a glimpse through the half-open Door ahead, revealing a fragment of the space beyond.
Yu Sheng, however, could feel the presence of the Museum’s “guards” at the end of the hallway. He even saw a glimpse of a dark-blue security uniform peeking out from the Door’s edge.
Just as he had suspected—the Entities were originating from the White Exhibition Hall. And there were still no signs of that spawning ceasing.
Little Red Riding Hood’s expression suddenly changed. Her nose twitched.
“Blood,” she whispered gravely.
“I smell it too,” added Foxy, nodding. “Fresh.”
Blood. Corpses. The stench of death.
The scent of blood drifted out from the White Exhibition Hall—where the guard Entities were spawning from.
There was no doubt. Something had gone terribly wrong inside.
But from their current vantage point, they still couldn’t see exactly what was happening in the hall. Moving closer might trigger the Entities standing sentinel within.
“…Should’ve borrowed Dorothy’s drone,” Little Red Riding Hood muttered under her breath. “Didn’t expect we’d run into something like this…”
Yu Sheng glanced at her, curiosity sparked—not just about her, but the entire Fairy Tale Organization she represented. He’d come across some intel on them through Frontier Communications: an organization whose members all adopted aliases from classic fairy tales. Beyond that, details were scarce.
Still, judging by the Wolf Pack that Little Red Riding Hood commanded… perhaps each member of the Fairy Tale Organization possessed abilities tied to their respective names? Then what about Dorothy? What connection did she have to drones?
“If we get the chance, could you tell me more about your comrades?” Yu Sheng asked with genuine interest. “I’m pretty curious about your ‘Fairy Tale’ organization.”
“Curiosity can be dangerous,” Little Red Riding Hood replied coolly, not particularly enthusiastic but not outright dismissive either. “Maybe—if they’re okay with it. I could introduce you to a few. But for now, we need to decide what to do next. Moving forward isn’t an option.”
Yu Sheng rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You mentioned a drone earlier… You mean those ‘guards’ don’t react to drones?”
“They only respond to Intruders themselves,” she nodded. “These Entities—they’re mass-produced and have barely any cognitive functions. Their senses are limited, and they follow rules rigidly. That’s what gives us people a chance to work around them.”
“What about your Wolf Pack?” Yu Sheng asked again. “Can you send one of your Wolves to scout?”
Little Red Riding Hood hesitated—then shook her head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because, in a way… my Wolves are me.”