Chapter 120

Chapter 120: The Forest’s Lure

The squirrel looked stunned. The little rodent froze on the railing like a statue, its bright black eyes fixed on Yu Sheng for a long time without moving.

[Being stared at by a talking squirrel felt creepy.]

[He couldn’t help wondering about this squirrel’s origin.] [If this Black Forest was the “Fairy Tale Otherworld” Little Red Riding Hood mentioned, was this squirrel an Entity born from that Otherworld? An Entity with feelings and reason like this? Were those wolves also Entities from the same Otherworld? In one Otherworld, could Entities stand on totally different sides?] [His grasp of the Otherworld was still far too shallow.]

The squirrel snapped out of it and paced on the railing, its big tail sweeping in nervous arcs as it muttered: “Weird, weird, this has never happened! Only Little Red Riding Hood can come here. I’ve never heard of any ‘friend’ coming in. Too weird. Something new is happening in the Forest! Something bad is coming, I just feel it… How did you get in? How did you get in?”

It suddenly leapt onto Yu Sheng’s arm, claws clutching his sleeve, edgy to the point of frantic as it repeated: “How did you get in?”

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head.

He didn’t tell the squirrel the truth. [Now that he realized this seemingly rational and friendly squirrel might also be nothing more than an Entity generated by the Black Forest, he had to stay a little wary of it.]

[He still didn’t know all the rules of this Forest. Who knew whether the squirrel’s stance came from its own reason, or from the Black Forest’s simulation.]

“You don’t know… fine, you don’t know,” the squirrel said as it climbed onto his shoulder. “Have you listened to a bedtime story? Did you dream of a Forest, little flowers, and candy? Did you?”

Yu Sheng felt a jolt and asked: “Little Red Riding Hood enters this Forest after hearing a bedtime story and having that kind of dream?”

“It’s always like that, always,” said the squirrel, more and more agitated. “But only children do that. A lord shouldn’t. A lord shouldn’t, by rights…”

“Why do you say that?” he asked, frowning.

“How would I know, how would I know, I’m just a darn squirrel!” the squirrel snapped, growing even more anxious as it rubbed its face with its paws. “No more chit chat. The lamps are dimming. This path is going to vanish. We have to reach the next safe place… Go, move, hurry, before they catch up…”

As it spoke, Yu Sheng noticed the whimsical “streetlamps” along the path fading before his eyes. With each lamp that dimmed, the trail that had been clear in the glow turned blurry too, as if the Forest’s natural darkness was swallowing it. A cold, sticky malice seeped in from the trees. Danger spread in from every side.

He stepped out on instinct, walking fast as he asked: “Which way? Where are we going?”

“Follow the path, just follow the path,” the squirrel said in a thin, tense voice. “If you keep to the trail, you’ll see other roads with lamps, or you’ll see the lights of a Little House. A Little House can be dangerous, but sometimes you can rest there. But be careful, be careful of the things on both sides of the path that tempt you. When the lamps grow dim, those things lure you off the road into the Deep Forest. That’s a trap set by the wolves…”

Yu Sheng thought of the warnings the squirrel gave when it first appeared: don’t let pretty flowers and mushrooms steal your eyes.

“Relax, I won’t be tempted by wildflowers and mushrooms,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not a kid.”

[He couldn’t help picturing what would happen if a child got trapped in this endless Black Forest. When did Little Red Riding Hood first fall into this Forest? How old was she? Did she ever leave the path, tempted by wildflowers and mushrooms?]

[The squirrel said the wolves’ hunt could happen more than once. The ‘child’ trapped here sinks deeper as the Evil Wolf hunts her again and again.]

[Even for someone like him, a ‘lord,’ it was hard to shake those wolves. A panicked child trapped here would be swallowed who knew how many times before gaining strength like Little Red Riding Hood.]

“I hope you don’t get tempted,” the squirrel grumbled as it trotted, “things always show up in the dark to confuse you. The Forest has its ways. It always has…”

Yu Sheng smiled, lengthened his stride, and hurried along the trail, now lit by ever-dimmer lamps and fading into a blur, while he watched the roadside from the corner of his eye.

Then he froze.

In the dim shadows beside the path, something flashed. Looking closer, he saw a brand-new Model 090 Graphics Card lying quietly in the grass.

Then he spotted a new laptop beside it, and an Elite Sixth-Gen Smart Feedback Gamepad, a co-branded edition with an RGB light mod kit and a carrying case.

He rubbed his eyes and saw more: a Pro Power Tool Kit Limited Boxed 18-Piece Set, cases of Wild Ice Red Tea, and a Carbon Fiber Fishing Rod Set. From the other side came the sound of running water. Turning, he saw an open pond. By the pond was a little stone nook barely good enough for wind and rain, with folding chairs, a tackle box, half a case of beer, a sun umbrella, and a fisherman packing up as if he was about to leave.

The squirrel on his shoulder stared, eyes almost popping as it squeaked: “What the heck is all this?!”

“They’re an adult’s wildflowers and mushrooms,” Yu Sheng said, shaken to the core. He almost slapped himself to drag his eyes away, then lowered his head and hurried on, gritting his teeth: “This Forest is too dangerous. Way too dangerous…”

He walked for who knew how long, and who knew how many sly traps popped up along the way. The Illusion Arts finally stopped showing themselves. At the same time, the lamps along the path dimmed to almost nothing, leaving only a few drifting points of light like fireflies in the air, barely outlining the trail.

Far ahead, deep in the Dense Forest, he saw a faint glow.

“There it is! A place to rest!” the squirrel cried, bouncing on his shoulder with a sharp, excited squeal. “Hurry, hurry! I hope there’s a warm fire and hot vegetable soup.”

Yu Sheng quickened his pace without thinking.

The “streetlamps” beside him went fully dark. Night folded over everything again. The Forest’s malice whispered in the wind, and far-off wolf howls floated closer.

The howls drew nearer. Once the path vanished, the unseen Evil Wolves scented their prey again. A new net closed in around the intruder in the Forest.

But Yu Sheng had reached the warm light: he saw a Little House.

It was wooden, a bit old, standing quiet in the Deep Forest.

Warm light spilled through its windows, and in this cold, shadowed Forest the glow looked impossibly cozy.

He reached the door and saw a red scrap of cloth hanging there, along with many thin red strings twined around the doorframe, the window lattice, and the wood under the eaves. He couldn’t tell if they held some special meaning or were just decoration.

“Don’t rush in,” the squirrel said quickly. “Go to the door. See that crack? If you press close, you can see the bed inside. Check whether someone is there. If no one’s on it, the Little House is safe and we can rest. But if ‘Grandma’ is inside, we keep moving into the Deep Forest.”

Yu Sheng frowned and did as the squirrel said. Through the crack in the door he looked into the Little House.

A warm fire burned in the fireplace. On a plain wooden table sat bread, a bouquet, and candles. The bed was deeper in the room. No one lay on it.

“No one’s inside,” he told the squirrel.

“Great, then we can go in,” the squirrel said, suddenly cheerful. “Lucky us. We can rest a long time, even until you wake up!”

Yu Sheng nodded. With wolf howls coming closer, he pushed open the wooden door of the Little House.

The howls faded almost at once.

He and the squirrel stepped inside and shut the door.

The light and heat met them head-on, pushing back the Forest’s unease and pressure with an almost unreal warmth. The crackling fire brought such comfort that Yu Sheng’s always-tense heart eased a little without him noticing.

“Relax, relax a bit,” the squirrel said, reading his expression as it hopped onto the table. “A Little House without Grandma is the only place in the Forest where you can fully relax. Let’s just hope we don’t suddenly hear footsteps or knocking at the door…”