Chapter 095

Chapter 95: Move

“Didn’t you say these things wouldn’t attack us first,” Yu Sheng shouted as he slipped past a plastic baton that sliced close to his face and sparked against the wall with a shower of light and a clang like iron striking rock.

He spun, seized the guard’s arm, slammed it to the ground, and snapped the arm with force. He didn’t break it in half or twist off its head like before.

In the brief clash, he had noticed a pattern. When the mannequins were smashed into lots of pieces or damaged past a certain point, they instantly triggered a “repair” and recovered within seconds. But if he only broke their limbs to cripple them, the threat dropped a lot and the repair did not trigger.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” Little Red Riding Hood called back while fighting and retreating with the Wolf Pack. Holding a corner of the Exhibition Hall, she blocked the swarm and shouted fast, “I’m sure we didn’t break any Museum rules on the way here. Under normal conditions, security shouldn’t even show up.”

Yu Sheng opened his mouth to answer, but his ears caught urgent footfalls rushing from the corridor at the far end of the Exhibition Hall.

More wobbly, silly silhouettes ran out one after another.

Irene’s black Spider Silk had just trapped two mannequins. She hadn’t even caught her breath when she heard the new noise and glanced toward the passage, yelping: “You have got to be kidding me. More? Are these Entities infinite?”

“Infinite until the night show ends or the performers all die,” Little Red Riding Hood said quickly, “or you break line of sight with every single guard. That can stop the Museum from sending more for a while. They only move to search for intruders when they’ve just spawned. Once they lose sight of you, they go still. But as long as any of them can see you, more Entities will keep appearing around you.”

Yu Sheng looked up at the only Door that led out of the hall.

Mannequins already jammed the doorway. There were no blind spots and no gap to break through.

They could not keep fighting here.

“Fall back. Get to a place with no security,” Yu Sheng decided at once and shouted, then sprinted toward Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf Pack, “everyone on me. Foxy, clear us space and block that passage.”

“Got it,” Foxy answered. With a humming sound, her tail flared.

Wheels of eerie, dangerous Fox Fire roared around her tail. The heat warped several mannequins nearby. Then the fox maiden spun, and two silver-white tails burst with a hard shove of force, detaching from the demon fox and screaming toward the passage.

“Fox Carrot Missile,” Foxy cried with gusto.

Explosions tore through the passage. Even an Otherworld’s strong walls shook under the blast of the two tails. A corner of the hall collapsed. Rubble tumbled down and buried the opening where the “security guards” had been flooding out.

But in the next second, the fallen section began to tremble. Rebar and concrete wriggled like living things, trying to put themselves back. Arms and legs in security uniforms shoved from between the bricks. Torn mannequins struggled, ripped free of the debris, and kept crawling into the hall.

For Yu Sheng, those few seconds were enough.

He threw Irene over his shoulder and pulled open a shimmering, unreal Door: “This way.”

For him, talk of blockades and sieges meant nothing. Maybe he could not win a head-on fight, but he could always run.

Trusting Yu Sheng, Little Red Riding Hood dove through the Door with the Wolf Pack. Foxy backed toward them, hugging one tail like a heavy weapon and aiming into the hall. Small bursts of Fox Fire spat from the tip like machine-gun bullets: “da-da-da-da-da.”

“Fox Radish Machine Gun,” the fox maiden called out, then stole a glance at Yu Sheng and added quickly.

“What are those ridiculous names,” Yu Sheng snapped, “get in there.”

Foxy let out a quick “oh,” swept the hall with one last burst to pin the guards, then jumped through the Door.

Yu Sheng moved to follow with Irene.

At that moment, a mannequin that had hidden in Foxy’s blind spot hauled itself up. Its body had warped from the flames, and the twisted, stiff features looked almost angry. It dragged its melted limbs and lunged, clamping a hand around Yu Sheng’s ankle with force like a hydraulic press.

Yu Sheng didn’t hesitate. He dragged the warped mannequin with him through the Door, then cut the path before it could follow.

The Door sliced the mannequin’s arm clean off.

Silence fell. The rushing guards, the Fox Carrot Missiles, the collapsing, burning hall all felt like a distant mirage.

Yu Sheng was used to it by now. Every time he crossed a Door, the violent shift in the scene felt unreal. [Here we go again.]

He raised his head. On both sides stretched a broad corridor lined with glass cases holding regular exhibits. Little Red Riding Hood stood alert, watching the area. Seven or eight shadowy wolves padded and faded in the air around her. Foxy hugged a tail in both hands, holding it like she was dual-wielding heavy rifles, and listened toward the far end of the corridor.

The security guards hadn’t followed. No new Entities were spawning either. Just as Little Red Riding Hood had said, once they broke every line of sight, the Museum’s “chase” paused.

“This is a corridor we walked earlier,” Little Red Riding Hood said, breaking the quiet, “I thought you’d use Door Opening to leave the Museum.”

“That would mean tonight was a waste. That blocker or inducer medicine you used would be wasted too, and it sounded expensive,” Yu Sheng exhaled, “and doesn’t it feel off to you? Why did the security suddenly attack? That doesn’t match your intel. Something is wrong in this Museum. I won’t feel safe unless we check it out.”

“Normally, the safest choice is to retreat as soon as an Otherworld starts changing in unknown ways,” Little Red Riding Hood said, looking at him. Then she nodded, “But you’re right too. Otherwise we came for nothing. If the risk is under control, digging into the change can bring a big payoff.”

“Yeah. If it really turns bad, we leave through here,” Yu Sheng said, then looked at Foxy.

The fox maiden grinned, clearly proud of how she had fought in the sky-blue Exhibition Hall.

“You showed real power. Nice,” Yu Sheng praised, then could not help asking, “but why do your moves suddenly have names? Who named them?”

“Irene,” Foxy said happily, selling out her friend without a second thought, “I told her all the ways I can use my tails, and she gave me lots of names. I even have a move in development called Fox Carrot Charge…”

Yu Sheng cut her off and glared at the doll on his shoulder: “I knew it had to be you. What kind of names are those?”

“I put real thought into them. How are they bad,” Irene said, hands on hips, quickly forgetting her earlier fatigue from using her power, “look at her tails. Isn’t it vivid? And the puns are very clever.” Then she muttered, “At first, for the rapid-fire Fox Fire move, the silly fox and I considered calling it ‘Fox Carrot biu’… but it didn’t sound formal enough.”

A vein throbbed on Yu Sheng’s forehead. [Stay calm. At least she didn’t call it Tail biu.]

Little Red Riding Hood watched the strange scene in silence, listening to the back-and-forth between Yu Sheng, the doll, and the demon fox.

Weird, absurd, and over the top, yet it fit its own logic. Nothing matched the surroundings at all.

They did not feel like Spirit Realm Detectives on an Otherworld job, yet they were not naive thrill-seekers either. The opposite was true. She could tell they were serious.

Yu Sheng was serious. The doll arguing that “Fox Carrot” was a smart pun was serious. Even the confused demon fox was serious. They took this place, their work, and the dangers seriously, only with a mindset regular humans would not use.

From a normal human point of view, Little Red Riding Hood found it hard to grasp the Hotel trio’s vibe and actions. She could not say whether their attitude was right or wrong.

She let out a soft breath, sat on a wolf’s back, and slowly gathered her strength. [What a strange experience. Meeting such interesting people before I even reach adulthood is not bad at all.]