Chapter 166

Chapter 166: Gunshots

Creatures with tiny brains really did have terrible coping skills.

The neurotic Squirrel lost it the moment it saw Yu Sheng. It flung itself along the bushes, scrambling and hopping in blind panic, screaming loud enough to make up for its palm-sized body. It kept shrieking things like, “It’s getting weird,” “Where the hell did you come from,” and “Is this even still Little Red Riding Hood?”

In the end, Little Red Riding Hood couldn’t take it anymore. She stepped forward, grabbed it just as it tried to leap from the branch, yanked it close, and snarled, “Quiet! Or I’ll throw you into the thorns!”

Squirrel froze. Eyes wide. Body rigid.

Then it looked up at Yu Sheng and the others. Its neck stretched. Its head tilted—

And with a small “ga,” it fainted.

Yu Sheng: “…”

Irene blinked, stunned. “What kind of weak trash is that… it got scared to death?”

The moment she finished, Squirrel slowly woke up. Still trapped in Little Red Riding Hood’s grip, it fought to wriggle free. After confirming what it was seeing, it seemed to calm down a fraction, but it still couldn’t stop babbling.

“Is something huge about to happen… is this still the Black Forest? How did this whole crowd show up… none of you even look like a new Little Red Riding Hood…”

“Um… hello.” Foxy worked up the courage to step closer and greet it politely. “My name is Foxy.”

“And this on my shoulder is Irene,” Yu Sheng added, carrying Irene over as well. He smiled at Squirrel like sunshine. “We meet again, little Squirrel.”

“Yeah. Again.” Squirrel stared at him. “Of course I remember you, that ‘Lord’ who somehow barged in… and now you brought more weird ones. I’m confused, I’m confused.”

It finally wriggled out of Little Red Riding Hood’s hand, climbed onto her shoulder, and muttered like it was trying to calm itself by talking.

“The Black Forest won’t be happy. The Black Forest doesn’t like troublemakers… you don’t listen, you really don’t listen. You’re going to have horrible luck. Run. You have to run—now…”

“What a coincidence.” Yu Sheng heard it and smiled even brighter. “We came here to make the Black Forest unhappy.”

Squirrel stared at him like it couldn’t process the sentence.

Yu Sheng didn’t explain. The smile on his face tightened into something sharper, and he walked toward the weak light between the trees in the distance.

“Do you know where I can find ‘Hunter’?” he asked.

Squirrel made a thin, bewildered sound. “Hunter? Why are you looking for Hunter?”

“I want to ask them some things,” Yu Sheng said casually. Then his tone cooled. “Don’t ask anything else. Just tell me where to find them.”

“It’s not safe. It’s not safe to go looking for Hunter like this…” Squirrel’s whole body tensed. “Hunter has a gun. They’ll shoot anything that looks like a wolf. Little Red Riding Hood already looks a lot like a wolf… if you’re not careful, you’ll be treated like prey—especially tonight. Tonight…”

Yu Sheng’s steps slowed. His eyes shifted. “Tonight? What’s wrong with tonight?”

Squirrel clutched at the edge of Little Red Riding Hood’s hood like it could hide inside the cloth. It hesitated, but under Yu Sheng’s unblinking stare, it finally squeaked out the truth.

“Since yesterday, the Black Forest hasn’t been stable. Some wolves went mad. Some areas are disappearing. There was even a big explosion… tonight might be worse. When the Black Forest is unstable, Hunter becomes unstable too. They wander around, furious. Very dangerous. Sometimes more dangerous than the wolves…”

Yu Sheng went quiet.

Irene poked the back of his head. “Why do I feel like this has something to do with you?”

Yu Sheng stiffened and put on a straight face. “…It’s all part of the plan.”

“What are you talking about?” Squirrel asked, completely lost.

“Nothing.” Yu Sheng shook his head, jaw tight, then redirected without missing a beat. “You don’t need to worry about anything else. Just lead me to Hunter. Whether I can talk to them is my problem. Worst case, you run away like last time.”

“You never listen to warnings!” Squirrel waved its paws in agitation. But soon its tail drooped and it shoved half its body into Little Red Riding Hood’s hood. “Fine, fine. You asked for it… go find Hunter. Wherever Wolf Granny is, Hunter is. No matter where they were wandering before, once Wolf Granny appears, they will come.”

“Good. That’s enough. It’s about what I expected.”

Yu Sheng nodded and kept walking toward the distant lights.

Irene, still not fully familiar with the rules inside the Black Forest, asked as she leaned forward on his shoulder, “Do you know where to find that ‘Wolf Granny’?”

“Little house,” Little Red Riding Hood answered, walking beside them. “In the Black Forest, a path lit by streetlamps will appear. At the end of the path, you can usually find a little house. In the little house, there are usually two possibilities—one is a safe empty room, and the other is Wolf Granny hiding inside.

“By the way, normally I should avoid a little house that has Wolf Granny.”

Irene listened closely, then caught a word. “You said ‘usually’ there are two possibilities. So what about when it’s not ‘usually’?”

Little Red Riding Hood’s steps slowed. Her voice stayed calm, but fear flickered in her eyes.

“…There’s another possibility. Wolf Granny isn’t in the little house, but when you enter to hide, Wolf Granny comes knocking. That’s the most dangerous. You only get an instant to run. A few times… I got caught right when Wolf Granny knocked.”

She paused, then exhaled softly. “And recently, the ‘fourth possibility’ that Yu Sheng and I ran into. A little house deep in the forest, not connected to any path, standing alone with no light. That little house was filled with red cloak.”

Irene’s eyes widened. “Ah. The one you ran into last time.”

Yu Sheng noticed something then: the instant Squirrel heard “a little house with no light” and “filled with red cloak,” it shrank back like it had been stabbed. A moment later it peeked out again, and its glossy black eyes were full of terror.

Yu Sheng stepped closer and stared straight into its eyes. “Why are you so afraid of that unlit little house?”

Squirrel trembled visibly. It squeaked in a pleading panic. “I don’t know! Squirrel doesn’t know anything!”

Yu Sheng frowned.

“Don’t push it,” Little Red Riding Hood cut in with a tired sigh. “If it reacts like this, you won’t get anything out of it. When the pressure gets high enough, it’ll faint again.”

“Yes yes yes!” Squirrel squealed immediately. “Little Red Riding Hood and Squirrel are friends! Best friends!”

“Yes,” Yu Sheng muttered, “and a not very reliable friend.”

He didn’t press further. He just kept walking, while letting a sliver of attention track Squirrel’s every twitch.

Then the path appeared.

A winding trail lit by fantasy-like streetlamps, leading deeper into the forest. The scene beyond the lamps’ reach lay in darkness. Their limited glow drew a clear boundary along both sides. Wherever the light touched, the Black Forest’s malice retreated, and the path carried a fragile sense of calm.

The moment they stepped onto it, the constant feeling of being watched eased. Even the wolf howls, which had been circling them, seemed to drift farther away.

“Wow…” Irene murmured, sensing the change immediately. Her eyes widened as she stared at the floating orbs of light. “That’s actually kind of interesting. But this doesn’t feel like a normal ‘designated safe zone’ in the otherworld… is the stability of this path maintained by these lights?”

Yu Sheng frowned. “What’s the difference? Isn’t it all a safe zone?”

“It’s different.” Irene shook her head. “A normal safe zone in the otherworld is stable by itself. Even if it moves, even if it disappears over time, as long as you’re within the set time and range, the safe zone won’t be affected by dangerous things like entities. But this place feels more like a temporary barrier created by strange objects. With these lights, the path is safe. Without them, it becomes unsafe again. So what’s safe here isn’t the path—it’s the streetlamps. This isn’t a safe zone. It’s a safe object.”

Yu Sheng listened seriously, following her reasoning with surprisingly little effort.

He really did need to bring this doll along when exploring the otherworld. Sure, she was unreliable half the time, but in mystic matters, her perspective—and her hit-or-miss intuition—could be genuinely useful.

His thoughts were cut off by a sound from beyond the path.

Bang!

A dull gunshot. Sudden. The heavy crack of a shotgun.

The group stopped sharply, exchanging looks.

Squirrel popped out of Little Red Riding Hood’s hood and rubbed its paws nervously. “Hunter fired… Hunter fired…”

“Benefactor, it came from that direction.” Foxy tugged Yu Sheng’s sleeve and pointed off the path. Her ears twitched, angling toward the sound. “About one or two hundred meters away.”

As soon as she finished, another gunshot rang out.

Bang!

Same direction. A second shot.