Chapter 231

Chapter 231: Them

“…Final report. This is the deep-dive team. Operation codename ‘Adult’…”

The slightly muffled voice echoed in Yu Sheng’s ears, and he froze.

He lifted his head.

The control hall had been bleached into black and white. Foxy and Irene were frozen like phantoms. Even the fallen bullet hung in midair a few centimeters above the floor. Only the voice remained, clear and steady, pouring into his ears.

It felt exactly like the time he’d spoken with the dead.

The voice continued, close—less than a meter away. Yu Sheng couldn’t see anyone, but he could hear the speaker talking into some kind of recorder, muttering as if to themselves.

“…No one in the team can move anymore. We’re lying in this hall, our bodies melting like wax. Our thoughts… our thoughts are mixed with all kinds of things, twisting around each other…

“My name is… is… no, I can’t remember.

“This is the final report. I don’t know whether this recording will ever make it back to headquarters, but I have to record what we saw.

“Anka Aila is a ship—at least, it was when it first set off.

“After we made contact with the device called ‘umbilical cord,’ we saw many things about it.

“I… I don’t understand where this ship came from. The memories umbilical cord passed to us were insane and chaotic. It seems to have drifted for a very, very long time—so long it’s beyond reason. It came from a place completely different from the universe we know… Maybe that is what the scholars call ‘outside.’

“But now the ship has become something… something reason can’t explain. I don’t know how to describe what I saw while connecting to umbilical cord. I saw steel melt in light. I saw blood flow from its fuel lines. I saw it grow flesh bit by bit. The engines roared with searing heat. It kept speaking to me, saying so many things, and that rumbling noise almost shattered my mind…

“We fled the compartment where umbilical cord was and came back here to die. The damage it did to us can’t be undone. Our protective gear has failed. The change is happening from the inside out. I can feel a gaze—right now, this gaze is watching us through every one of our own eyes.

“I think I understand. We’re all becoming part of it.”

Heavy, ragged breathing followed.

The voice drifted, unstable, as if it were sliding through the hall itself. Then it steadied again, but from somewhere else.

“We don’t know what will happen next: death, or something even worse. We were ready before we set out. We are not afraid of that, but we fear the catastrophic aftermath if it loses control.

“Anka Aila, this otherworld ark that has learned to think, is still trapped for now in a dream called ‘fairy tale.’ But one day it will break free. Something is growing deep inside it. Some kind of… new life is maturing on the other end of umbilical cord. But that umbilical cord is damaged, and we can’t be sure what it is.

“Only one thing is certain: when that thing gives its first cry after birth, the borderland will see countless deaths.

“Whoever receives this recording—whether it’s the support unit of the Special Operations Bureau or any others who come later—you must stop that thing’s birth at any cost.

“Past this hall is a short corridor. At the corridor end is the room that houses the umbilical cord device. There, the mortal mind can barely connect directly with Anka Aila. That may be the only way to resist—or at least drive off—the dark angels.

“We failed. Our minds couldn’t withstand its assault. But if you reach this place alive, if you can still keep your sanity and understand the sounds we left behind… then maybe you can.

“Try it. There will be no reward, no payback. We have nothing left to give you, and we can’t even offer some grand, righteous speech…

“All we can do is ask: try it… before its child is born into our world…”

The suspended bullet dropped with a crisp clink.

Color snapped back. The hall started moving again.

The bullet bounced twice, then rolled slowly to Yu Sheng’s feet. At the same time, a dark-red stain—like dried blood—crept out from beside one of the strange machines and stretched toward him.

Was that the blood they’d left behind seventy years ago?

Yu Sheng looked up.

A figure had appeared, staring at him in silence.

It was a hollow set of hunter’s garb floating in midair. Beneath the hood was only faceless shadow. The whole thing felt unreal, like an illusion made solid.

Yu Sheng raised his arm.

At some point, the Hunter outfit on him had vanished.

Beside him, Foxy was holding Irene, and Irene was holding Squirrel. The moment they saw the figure, all three blurted together, “Hunter!”

Yu Sheng didn’t flinch. He steadied his breathing and walked up.

“…It’s been many years.”

Hunter’s voice slid directly into his mind, blurred and hollow.

“We’ve been trying to return to this place, even though we forgot why we needed to come back. Anka Aila turned us into ‘Hunter’ in the black forest. The hunter’s garb is a solid shell that traps us inside the endlessly looping script of the angel’s dream. We once tried to speak with ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ who entered the forest, but aside from shooting and killing Big Bad Wolf, we were not allowed to do anything extra.

“Again and again, we tried to recall our mission and purpose, but the memories always wore down as we remembered them…”

Hunter raised a hand and pointed toward the center of the hall.

“Ten bodies fell there, and twelve souls. At the last moment, we did everything we could to send two bodies back to the real world, hoping the residual neural signals in their brains could carry what happened here back to headquarters. Since then, we’ve been waiting for reinforcements, but we never held much hope. In that situation, the bodies we sent back were already severely contaminated. They couldn’t possibly deliver any clear, rational information.

“So when you pulled out that group photo… we were stunned. We even woke up from the roles Anka Aila had woven for us.”

“Yeah,” Yu Sheng said, a faint smile tugging at his mouth. “You woke up—and put a bullet in me. It hurt, too.”

“…Sorry. But that was on stage, in the black forest. It was the only out-of-script thing we could do.” Hunter’s voice carried something like apology. “And it was only because you had absorbed the wolf’s blood that we could see you as Big Bad Wolf. Death in the black forest is only temporary. The erosion from dying over and over, and wolfification, is far more dangerous.”

Yu Sheng thought about explaining that he’d entered with his real body—that shot had genuinely killed him.

He decided against it. Somehow, it didn’t feel like the right thing to say.

“Anyway,” he said instead, “reinforcements are here now.” He lifted a hand, indicating himself, then Foxy, Irene, and Squirrel. “We’re not from the Special Operations Bureau, but we were hired by them. Sorry—we’re a bit late.”

Hunter silently shook their head.

Then they pointed to a door on the far side of the hall.

“Go out from there, and you’ll reach the room where the umbilical cord is.”

“Besides the umbilical cord, what else is there?” Yu Sheng’s expression hardened. “What should I do?”

“That room is small—more like a maintenance platform. The umbilical cord is a connector in the middle of the circular platform. It links to a special area below. We couldn’t find a way down there, so we don’t know what it looks like beneath… but we’re sure that what Anka Aila is gestating is down there.

“Touch the umbilical cord, and you can form the strongest connection with Anka Aila. But what happens after that…”

Hunter stopped.

After a long silence, they gently shook their head.

“The dangers hardly need to be stated. We can’t promise you anything or guarantee your safety. In fact, no human has ever connected with the dark angels and come out unscathed. If you follow reason, you can leave right now.”

“If I were following reason, I wouldn’t have come in the first place,” Yu Sheng said with a soft chuckle. He lifted a hand in a casual wave. “All right. That’s enough. I’ll go take a look. You rest here. After all these years, you deserve a break.”

He turned and walked toward the door Hunter indicated.

Foxy followed without hesitation.

Irene and Squirrel were nervous—but one was in Foxy’s arms and the other in Irene’s, so they had no choice except to come along.

Hunter’s voice came from behind. “Wait…”

Yu Sheng didn’t turn around. He only glanced back with a small smile.

“Don’t worry. I’ll try.”

He pushed through the unlocked door, and a dim corridor appeared, exactly as expected.

At the far end, dark-red lights pulsed slowly in the gloom—like a silent invitation, and an omen.

The sound of a baby crying rang out again. This time it wasn’t distant or hazy. It sounded like it was truly waiting beyond those lights.

Yu Sheng’s lips curled.

He stepped forward.