Chapter 174

Chapter 174: Piercing the Deep Dream

After finishing what the Director assigned, Song Cheng went back to his office, lit a cigarette, and stared out the window in a daze.

Outside, layer upon layer of looping walls stacked like a maze stretched away into the distance. From between those maze walls, a downpour spilled out, flew upward into the sky, and washed a second land that seemed to hang above the clouds.

He blinked and finally remembered it was Friday, the day his floor would move after noon to the “Maze” scenic level.

[Friday. Nice. Something to look forward to. Tomorrow is the lovely weekend… the overtime day.]

He chuckled at himself, pulled down the blinds, turned to his desk, and looked over the folders just delivered by his staff.

They were materials about the Otherworld “Fairy Tale,” along with intelligence on current Fairy Tale Organization members.

Thanks to the recent activity of a certain up-and-coming Spirit Realm Detective Organization, several departments of the Special Affairs Bureau had shifted their attention to “Fairy Tale.”

He stubbed his cigarette in the ashtray and calmed his mind as he read the paper files.

After some time, hurried footsteps sounded in the corridor beyond the door, making him pause.

The instant knocking began, he spoke first: “Come in.”

The office door opened, and Ren Wen Wen, with short black hair, appeared in the doorway and reported: “Captain Song, the capture team we sent to South City is back. The mission went smoothly.”

He raised his brows and smiled: “They caught those two Angel Cultists? Any bigger fish?”

She shook her head: “It seems not. The team staked out for days. The two cultists acted alone, or they were standard disconnected members. Their superior assigned the task and then cut the line for a while. Do you want to come see for yourself?”

He nodded: “Alright. I’ll head over now.”

In the bedroom, Yu Sheng had fallen into a heavy sleep.

That expedition in the Black Forest and the fight with Wolf Granny had drained him. A vague excitement had been holding him up, making him feel not very sleepy, but once he lay down, less than two minutes later, irresistible drowsiness took him.

Half-awake, he heard soft rustling at his side. That was probably the Doll coming for a nap too. Bare footsteps pattered in the hallway; that should be Foxy heading back to her room.

Then came a hollow wind. It blew through a forest, rattled thick leaves, and hissed between towering ancient trees and fallen dead trunks, thin as a cry, as if a baby were sobbing somewhere far away.

Yu Sheng snapped his eyes open.

He found himself lying in darkness. Around him, a heavy curtain of murk hung like a thick drape. Something seemed to wait behind it, but nothing could be seen. In the dark ahead, a tall, hazy shape took form.

The figure wore an old Hunter’s Garb and a dark hood. Under the hood was empty air, no body at all.

Yet Yu Sheng clearly felt a gaze in that emptiness under the hood, watching him quietly.

He jolted fully awake, pushed himself up from the dark, and stared hard at the figure in Hunter’s Garb.

At the same time, he flicked his eyes to survey the surroundings, gauging the situation.

[Am I back in the Black Forest? Not quite. The Black Forest never looked like this. This heavy curtain feels more like my own dream. But I just heard wind through a forest, and that felt like the Black Forest. And there was another sound riding the wind. A baby crying? Is this my dream? The Black Forest? Or did my dream link to something weird again?]

Realizing he could not tell where he was for now, he focused on the phantom before him.

The other stayed still, not about to lift a hunting gun and shoot him.

He tried a greeting: “Hello. Should I call you ‘Hunter’?”

The figure made no response.

“You definitely are,” Yu Sheng said, feeling awkward yet talking on his own, “we met twice in the Black Forest. The second time you even shot me. I didn’t take it personally. You must have had your reason, right… hey, can you respond a little? This is making me feel super awkward.”

The “Hunter” still did not react, as if it were nothing more than a projection appearing for no reason in this Dark Space of a dream.

Yu Sheng frowned. He edged closer, watched for any reaction, and carefully circled the figure once.

“Can’t you talk?” he asked, curious.

Still nothing.

After a tense pause, he clenched his teeth and reached toward the floating Hunter’s Garb.

He only meant to tap it and see what the Hunter would do, but the next second he found his fingers passed through the clothes with ease.

He flinched, then saw the “Hunter” still standing blankly, and relaxed a little. He extended his hand farther.

He felt a slight drag, the faint resistance of “fabric” as his fingers slipped through it. Then came a hint of cold, like touching air a few degrees cooler than the world around him. Other than that, there was nothing.

Standing at the “Hunter’s” side, he had slid one whole arm into the Hunter’s Garb when he suddenly frowned.

By accident, part of his arm overlapped with the sleeve of the Garb, as if he had “put on” that sleeve.

The next moment, the sleeve that had floated like a phantom, motionless from the start, moved a little with his arm. The motion was slight, but he caught it.

[Am I wearing this thing?]

That flash of realization struck the dark, murky “dream,” and the space shook as if from all directions. In that tremor, he found his arm already withdrawn without knowing when. He saw the thick curtain collapsing. The dark world began to fall apart. The empty “Hunter” suddenly moved, retreating with stiff, eerie steps, and in the blink of an eye it was only a thin shadow.

Yu Sheng reached out without thinking to block that strange “Hunter,” but before he could raise his arm fully, a familiar little voice piped up beside his ear: “Uncle, what are you doing?”

Everything shattered. Yu Sheng blinked once and found himself standing in a boundless, gray wilderness. A dim sky hung low over the plain. Nameless wild grass covered the ground. A familiar low hill crouched in the distance. A soft wind swept the wilderness and sent waves across the grass.

At his side stood a little girl about five or six, looking up at him with wide blinking eyes.

Yu Sheng’s mind was still stuck on the moment he interacted with the “Hunter,” almost “putting on” the Hunter’s Garb. It took him two or three seconds to snap back and blurt out: “Xiao Xiao?!”

The girl beamed and waved: “Hello, uncle!”

“Uh, hi… wait, why are you here?” he asked, stunned. He quickly looked around for Little Red Riding Hood, but did not see her. He asked, “Are you alone?”

“I don’t know,” Xiao Xiao said, tilting her head. “I was napping.”

“Napping?”

“Mm. Teacher Su had us nap. We have to sleep at noon or we’ll be sleepy later,” she said. “I fell asleep and dreamed that a Big Bad Wolf was chasing me, so I ran and ran. I got too tired to run and fell down… and then I fell here. After a while I saw you come too, but you looked like you were spacing out.”

Her words were jumbled like a child’s, but the basic order of events was clear. Yu Sheng understood and yet looked even more confused.

[Xiao Xiao dreamed of the Big Bad Wolf. That is clearly Fairy Tale influencing her. She must have slipped into the Black Forest in her sleep again and got spotted by the wolf. But she says she ran and ran, then tripped… and fell into this plain? How does that work?]

He looked around. He knew this place. It was that strange “dream” of his. After several unsettling visits in a row, a thought was taking shape.

[Is this really a “dream”?]

He remembered the last time he had seen Little Red Riding Hood here. After Yu Sheng “woke up,” she had still stayed in this wilderness. If a teacher had not caught her snoozing in class and woken her with a chalk toss, she could have kept staying here. And this time, Xiao Xiao had arrived before he even entered.

[Every sign says this wilderness is no “dream.” It is a place, some kind of mind-space or something else entirely. It has always existed. It’s just that when I fall asleep, there’s a good chance I can come here.]