Chapter 154

Chapter 154: Yu Sheng’s Plan

The small room fell quiet. Yu Sheng and Bai Li Qing both sank into thought. Foxy and Irene still didn’t fully get what was going on, but from Yu Sheng’s reaction they could tell it was complicated, so they kept quiet too.

After a long moment, Yu Sheng lifted his head. He stared at the “ID” on the screen for a few seconds, then shifted his eyes to the “action log” in front of him.

He asked: “Can we tell exactly which one of them it is?”

Bai Li Qing said: “The name and the key ID numbers were wiped and can’t be restored. I’m not sure if that was on purpose. All we can say is that it belongs to one of the twelve team members who carried out the Deep Dive seventy years ago… maybe we should cross off the two who returned to the real world?”

She paused, frowned, and gave a small shake of her head: “No… the files say the two who came back likely only returned in body. Their souls should still be trapped in Fairy Tale’s Otherworld, the same as the other ten.”

Yu Sheng said nothing. [His thoughts churned like a whirlpool. Clues linked to guesses, but each guess ran into clear contradictions and holes he couldn’t explain.]

After a while he frowned hard and, hesitating, broke the silence: “Remember what we just said? Those twelve Deep Divers probably didn’t end up in the Black Forest, but I picked up this ‘paper’ inside the Black Forest, and the Hunter is an Entity that roams the Deep Forest there.”

“That’s what puzzles me,” said Bai Li Qing, not hiding her confusion, “One long standing conclusion at the Special Affairs Bureau is this: ‘Seventy years ago, the Deep Dive Team did not enter any known subset of Fairy Tale’s Otherworld.’ So even if they did leave some ‘relics’ in the Otherworld, those things shouldn’t show up in the Black Forest, unless…”

Yu Sheng looked up: “Unless?”

“Unless after the accident, those Deep Divers kept moving deeper inside Fairy Tale… and finally found a path into the Black Forest.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes sharpened. He said slowly: “Then they, or one of them, became the Hunter in the Black Forest…”

Just then Irene, who hadn’t said much, tugged his sleeve. The little doll spoke up, a bit unsure: “Hey, don’t be mad I’m killing the mood, but the Hunter doesn’t have to be a member of that Deep Dive Team. Maybe those people were killed, and the Hunter took that ID as a trophy. The Hunter is an Entity in the Black Forest anyway.”

Yu Sheng and Bai Li Qing both looked at Irene. She shrank her neck a little and said: “I told you not to blame me. It’s only a guess.”

Bai Li Qing was quiet for a moment, then said softly: “Yes, we can’t rule that out.”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer. He couldn’t help recalling his time in the Deep Forest: the dim wooden house hung with Red Cloaks, and the moment he stood face to face with the empty figure in Hunter’s Garb.

The Hunter had no face and no words. Their movements were odd, stiff, and rigid. In every way they seemed more like a bizarre Entity shaped by the Otherworld than a living being with a human will.

But when Yu Sheng told them the child swallowed by Wolf Granny had been safely sent back to reality, the empty hood had dipped in a tiny nod.

[Was that barely seen nod the last trace of their humanity?]

Yu Sheng broke the silence and pointed at the list in the file on the table: “Do we have more detailed material? About the twelve person group.”

“Yes,” said Bai Li Qing at once, nodding, “I’ll have it sent here. It should arrive soon.”

She picked up the phone on the desk and gave a few orders to a subordinate.

Yu Sheng waited, watching the window into the lab across the way.

The lab was still busy. Even though the techs had restored the “paper” to its original look and confirmed where it came from, there was still plenty to analyze: changes in physical and chemical properties, what the stains were made of, tiny grains of soil it carried. These tiny, boring clues could become tools for “ordinary people” to fight the Otherworld.

Through another pane, he could also see a second workroom. The Mysterious Metal Device that “popped out” of the room at No. 66 Wutong Road was getting a new round of scans. Unlike the quick results from the “paper,” this sample was giving them trouble. So far the on site techs had not reported anything useful.

Maybe this kind of “trouble” was the normal state when analyzing Otherworld samples.

But Yu Sheng’s mind was no longer on that “Iron Lump.” He was focused on Fairy Tale.

In under ten minutes, the materials he asked for were brought into the small room.

It was a stack of personnel files printed from the database, a slim dozen sheets. They held basic info on the Deep Dive Team from back then: names, ages, photos, service records, and so on.

Yu Sheng flipped through them, matching the names to the mission log and studying the black and white portraits.

There were twelve people, men and women both. Some looked like seasoned veterans in their middle years. Some looked about his age. At the end was a group photo: the twelve wore heavy protective armor with an “old school sci fi” feel. They stood in neat rows before a building. No arms over shoulders. No victory signs or pep poses. They just stood straight, helmets off, and took a formal picture.

“This was taken before they set out,” said Bai Li Qing at his side, “It’s a rule at the Special Affairs Bureau. Before every Deep Dive mission, all team members take one group photo.”

“Mm.” Yu Sheng nodded lightly. He stared at the A4 print for a while, then suddenly said: “Can I take this with me? Just this one. I won’t take the others.”

“What for?” asked Bai Li Qing, curious.

“To show the Hunter, if I get the chance.”

Bai Li Qing went quiet, thinking.

“In principle, these files can’t leave this room. Not even a single page,” she said evenly.

Yu Sheng said: “Uh… okay…”

“But the principle is in my hands,” she added, and slid the page toward him, “Take it. Don’t share it. After the incident ends, destroy it at the right time.”

Yu Sheng blinked, a little dazed: “…?”

She looked at him and asked: “Is there a problem?”

Only then did he react. He took the paper, folded it, and put it away, muttering in a strange tone: “Uh, I didn’t expect you to have a sense of humor.”

“I’m not a stone faced robot.”

“I didn’t say those words…”

“I’m just used to being serious,” said Bai Li Qing, her face still calm, as if his comment had not mattered at all. Then she turned the topic: “Tell me your plan. How will you deal with Fairy Tale? Besides this intel, what else do you need from us? We’ll do all we can.”

Yu Sheng looked a little embarrassed: “Uh, your help is already a lot…”

“In the matter of Fairy Tale, the Special Affairs Bureau has an old debt,” she said, calm eyes firm, “And you are the only adult so far who can enter those subsets like the children and stay unaffected. You also pulled a child out of the Deep Forest. We have every reason to keep helping.”

He met that steady, colorless gaze and let out a slow breath.

“I’m trying to drag out the ‘storyteller’ behind the Black Forest,” he said, “From what I’ve seen and from my sense of the Wolf Packs, I’m pretty sure each subset of Fairy Tale is controlled and driven by a story source. That source is very likely the thing the Deep Dive Squad met back then. My problem is, I can enter the Black Forest, but I can’t find a way to the backstage. That might be the exact opposite of what that squad ran into.”

He paused, watching her: “They most likely dropped straight into the backstage.”

Bai Li Qing understood at once: “So, if the Hunter in the Black Forest really is a Deep Diver from back then…”

“Then they would know how to reach the backstage,” Yu Sheng said with a nod, “That squad may have already broken through the deep barrier of Fairy Tale back then. But by the time they broke through, they had lost contact with the real world.”

“But the Hunter can’t communicate and has no reason.”

“That’s why I need this,” Yu Sheng said, tapping his pocket where he had tucked the photo close to his body, “This might work.”

“With a group photo, you plan to move a soul that has become an Entity and bring back their empty humanity?” Bai Li Qing’s look turned a bit odd, “Do you really think something that sounds like a scene from a novel will work?”

“If it doesn’t, I’ll try something else,” Yu Sheng said easily, a smile on his face, “No harm in trying.”