Chapter 267

Chapter 268: Unknown Realm

It was clear the “big nephew,” swallowed by thick fog, ran blindly and ran into an Entity. As the only lucky break in his string of bad luck today, he didn’t meet Ink Stain or the Carnival Revelers, but the mild and harmless neutral Entity called Tree Granny.

As for why Tree Granny, who should be roaming the Autumn Forest, showed up in this fog, no one cared anymore. In this weird mist, it felt like any Entity could pop out.

A Deep Diver reported the rescue scene in a steady voice, his Powered Armor hung with extra support gear that marked him as a support specialist: “The detector hasn’t found Tree Granny. It may have wandered off or faded on its own. We found no other Entity activity nearby, but there were dried, broken twigs around the victim. Tree Granny may have tried to plant a tree to hang him, failed, then stuck him to the wall instead.”

A huge Fox head leaned in beside Yu Sheng, the Demon Fox peering at the clear, glassy lump on the ground: “So what now, do we crack this and pull him out? Slurp, it looks like a sugar cube.”

Yu Sheng broke into a cold sweat, grabbed the Demon Fox’s snout, and hissed: “You are not gnawing on that!”

Xu Jiali shook his head: “Don’t smash it, or the person will shatter too. We also shouldn’t move him. The crystal has entered its brittle phase. We wait. Tree Granny’s resin seals a person for one to two hours, then it ‘melts.’ From the look of it, he’s been sealed a little over an hour. It should be soon.”

“Then we wait here,” Yu Sheng said as he sat on the pavement and leaned against Foxy’s fluffy forepaw, “and I’ll grab a breather. Those last two waves really wore me out.”

Foxy lowered her head to look at Yu Sheng leaning on her paw. She touched him carefully with the other paw, then set her head down and closed her eyes to rest with him.

Xu Jiali stared: “Come on, this is the Otherworld. How are you two this relaxed?”

Irene csheepered onto Foxy’s forepaw and shooed him with one hand as she stretched out: “This is normal. Silly Fox relaxes when she’s next to Yu Sheng, and Yu Sheng can relax anywhere: he’s actually grumpy right now. The Ink Stain we met split into ink blots he couldn’t eat, and the Revelers turned into confetti he couldn’t eat after they died. He’s definitely sulking… ow!”

Yu Sheng didn’t even open his eyes. He chopped the little Doll on the head, cutting off her beeping commentary.

Xu Jiali tugged at the corner of his mouth and went back on guard. Personified Entities could lie around, but he and his Deep Divers couldn’t. This uncanny fog felt bad.

[There’s something else hiding here.] It wasn’t just that more Entities might appear. The fog itself felt nastier than it looked.

He lifted his head. Other than his own soldiers, only Little Red Riding Hood stayed on high alert. Her Phantom Wolf Pack flickered in and out at her side; shadows of wolves slipped away and returned from the distant mist without pause, scouting the depths of the fog.

[To be honest, high schoolers can be more reliable.]

“You ran from that mall to here,” he asked, “has your Wolf Pack confirmed how big this fog is?”

Little Red Riding Hood answered with a serious face: “We’ve confirmed six blocks so far. Centered on Myriad Plaza Mall, this fog holds at least a ‘mirror’ of the six surrounding blocks, as far as Taiyuan Road. And that’s not the limit. Beyond that, the ground and buildings are still solid, but the fog grows even thicker. Even the wolves’ senses feel muffled, and they can’t see or hear past three meters. I didn’t dare go farther.”

She paused, stroked a Shadow Wolf that slid out of the air, and frowned.

“I suspect there’s more in the fog out there. My wolves sent me their fear. But whatever hides in that fog doesn’t seem eager to come closer.”

“Entities?”

“Hard to say. The fog is too dense. Probably only your Director’s Eye could see that far here.”

Xu Jiali nodded, face grim, then called out: “What’s the current depth?”

A Deep Diver raised his arm and tapped on his forearm controller: “Report: current depth L-2, plus or minus twenty percent, overall stable.”

“Depth 2,” Xu Jiali exhaled. “On paper that isn’t extreme. Most physical rules should still hold. What worries me is uneven depth. We may just be standing in this Otherworld’s ‘shallow water.’”

A soft crack cut him off.

Yu Sheng, still leaning on Foxy’s paw, opened his eyes at once. Everyone’s gaze snapped toward the sound.

The pale yellow “amber” was splitting fast. The edges of each Rift began to melt. In seconds the whole crystal melted like ice under a blazing sun.

The crystal turned to sticky resin, then softened further. The young man trapped inside dropped to the ground. The light impact made him lurch and he gulped air, then woke with a fit of coughing.

He struggled up from the thin puddle of resin, tried to stand by habit, slipped, and fell again. That fall jolted him sharper awake. He sat there, eyes wide, staring around.

He saw soldiers in full Powered Armor.

He saw shadows of a Wolf Pack moving in the fog.

He saw a Doll with scarlet eyes.

He saw two van sized Foxes, each head bigger than he was.

Even while sealed, his thoughts had kept working, but the thick resin distorted his senses. He had seen blurry shapes waving around him. Now he finally saw what those shapes were.

The unlucky nephew had one thought and started to topple backward.

Irene snapped a strand of Spider Silk and yanked him back.

Spider Silk was so icy cold it could give a normal person nightmares, but it was also bracing. The young man, seconds away from passing out, jolted as if drugged awake and blurted a pure, round exclamation: “Ah, crap!”

Yu Sheng finally spoke, calm as a lake: “You’re awake.”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded: “We’ve been waiting for you.”

The young man blinked. Only then did he notice Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood’s faces. Everything else had been so shocking he hadn’t even noticed them. Familiar faces snapped him out of panic. Reason edged back in.

But faint noise still echoed in his mind. Strange Illusion Arts crawled up from memory and tangled at the edges of his sight, weaving restless colors at the corners of his eyes.

He shook his head. A tall figure in black Powered Armor spoke beside him: “Mild mental contamination, sanity reduced. 0.5 units of Mindguard, 1 unit of Buffer Tonic. Don’t put him on a sanity blocker, he can’t take it.”

Hands caught his arm, and a small sting pricked his skin.

“Medications injected.”

Clarity returned to the young man’s eyes.

“I…” He looked around again, then settled on Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood: “Am I saved?”

A giant Fox head slid out from behind Yu Sheng and said in a girl’s voice: “Yep, benefactor brought people to rescue you!”

The young man staggered back two steps, knees wobbly: “Brother Yu, this, this one doesn’t eat people, right?”

Foxy, not waiting for Yu Sheng, shook her head solemnly: “I like chicken legs, roasted mushrooms, and benefactor’s cooking! And noodles.”

She started drooling and peered at Yu Sheng: “Benefactor, I’m hungry.”

The young man: [vibrate mode].

“Your first contact with ‘the other side’ can be like this,” Little Red Riding Hood said with a knowing smile, looking very much the seasoned guide even though she was younger than him, “you get scared by everything you see. Welcome to the other side of daily life, your first official day crossing. Every reaction you have is understandable. Save your questions until we’re back in the real world.”

“Right. This isn’t a place to linger. Time to go,” Yu Sheng said as he raised his hand and opened a Door back to Boundary City. He turned and saw Foxy trying to shove her snout into the Door, and cold sweat broke out: “Change back first! You think you can squeeze through like that?”

Foxy flashed and returned to human form. The young man went slack jawed again.

He had been behind the curve the whole time and still hadn’t caught up.

Yu Sheng looked to the burly man in Powered Armor: “Coming with us? My Door feels a lot more convenient than your setup.”

“No, no, we’ll use our own method,” Xu Jiali waved both hands fast. “If headquarters sees our Umbilical Cord cut, a piercing alarm will shriek from top to bottom, and the Director will bury me on the spot.”

Behind him, the Deep Divers’ silhouettes faded, one by one, and vanished into the fog.

Yu Sheng sighed and waved to the rest: “We’re out too!”