Chapter 279

Chapter 280: Origin

Yu Sheng always came up with lots of clever ideas, and some of them were the kind where inspiration blinked out instead of lighting up.

Foxy never doubted him. She would carry out every wild plan he gave her without question.

So the demon fox did not think it was strange at all that her benefactor wanted to snap off a killing machine’s fingernail, make a knife, and poke himself with it; the moment she heard Yu Sheng’s order, she happily hugged the scary-looking arm, tugged her big tail forward, rubbed the tip, and let out a bright blue fox fire, then started hissing and slicing across the Metal Doll’s palm.

She planned to cut off all five “nails” first, then divide them further the way Yu Sheng wanted. As for taking apart the whole arm, there was no rush.

Sparks flew across the living room at once.

The glare washed over Irene’s face and almost blinded the little Doll.

Irene shouted, covering her eyes: “Silly fox, could you cut that somewhere else? There’s a sofa and a bunch of appliances here, and you’re going to set the house on fire!”

Foxy stopped at once. After thinking it over and deciding Irene had a point, she ran to the basement hugging the arm. She planned to go cut it in the Valley.

Watching Foxy dash downstairs, Irene turned back to Yu Sheng and squinted at him: “You really mean to make a knife out of that thing’s ‘nail’? It looks kind of sinister.”

Yu Sheng didn’t look up as he unlocked his phone and typed: “What else? Beating a monster and using the loot to craft gear is the normal flow, right?”

Irene had been hooked on games lately, so her doubts vanished at once and she nodded hard.

Then she noticed Yu Sheng’s hands moving and leaned closer, curious: “What are you doing?”

Yu Sheng kept typing: “Messaging Bai Li Qing. I’ve sent her the picture of that arm and a short report about going into the fog and getting ambushed. She’s probably asleep by now, but I’ll leave a note. Maybe she happens to know where that attacker came from. Either way, I need to go to the Special Affairs Bureau tomorrow.”

Irene answered with an oh and hopped to the sofa, picking up a black head veil to study it.

It was the scarf Yu Sheng had yanked off the Metal Doll’s head. Its shape was like a nun’s headpiece. The fabric looked high-end. On the thicker front panel sat a strange golden badge: two rings, one big and one small, nested and crossing at the bottom, with a golden rift running from top to bottom through the emblem.

They hadn’t been able to look closely during the fight. Now Yu Sheng finally noticed the odd mark on the head veil and stepped up to snap a photo with his phone.

Irene lifted the head veil higher and peered into its lining.

At only 66.6 cm tall, she could wear the thing like a cape. Yu Sheng watched from the side and almost poked the little Doll just to see her get swallowed by the veil the moment she pulled her hands back, but he held in the urge at the last second: [Don’t be that guy.]

Yu Sheng spoke offhand while staring at the photo: “Do you think that thing was an Entity? She wasn’t a Doll from Alice’s Little House, and she had a very clear sinister vibe. The style screams something born inside the dense mist.”

Before he finished, Irene’s muffled voice came from under the veil: “Well, no matter where that C Buckle came from, I’m sure she wasn’t an Entity.”

Yu Sheng blinked: “How can you tell?”

Irene struggled to flip the head veil inside out, then pointed to a corner of the lining: “There’s a brand tag here, and a signature, and it says hand wash recommended.”

Yu Sheng almost jumped off the sofa: “What?!”

He leaned in, and the little Doll hadn’t lied. The head veil he’d torn off the Metal Doll really did have a brand tag and a care label.

Yu Sheng pulled out his phone and searched the brand. A flood of results popped up.

It wasn’t some secret label or rare couture. You could buy it anywhere.

Of course, what he found online wasn’t exactly the same as the real one in front of him. The cut was a little different, and none of the pictures showed that golden double-ring badge.

Irene rested her chin on Yu Sheng’s arm and studied the results with a serious face: “Looks like someone bought it online and altered it. They trimmed the sides shorter and then sewed a symbol on the forehead. Wow, it’s actually kind of pricey.”

Yu Sheng stayed quiet, looking thoughtful.

Irene glanced up at him: “What are you thinking about?”

Yu Sheng’s face turned serious: “What this piece of intel means.”

Irene waved a tiny hand: “It means that C Buckle definitely isn’t an Entity. Entities don’t go shopping.”

Yu Sheng shook his head slowly: “Not just that. It also means she wasn’t acting alone. There are humans behind her, maybe teammates, maybe a master.”

Irene looked puzzled: “Why?”

Yu Sheng gave the Doll a look: “Those claws can’t do needlework. And that badge clearly means something.”

He had barely said it when his phone rang loud.

It was Bai Li Qing, awake at eleven thirty at night.

Yu Sheng was surprised but reacted fast. He raised the phone to his ear. Before he could speak, a cool, quick voice came through: “You were attacked by something like a black Metal Doll? Tall and thin, female shape?”

Yu Sheng answered fast, hearing at once that she knew something: “Yeah. About as tall as Xu Jiali. Full iron shell, chalk-white face, fights like she’s dancing, so fast you can’t track her. Weapon is her nails. Each nail is a blade. Oh, and she wore a head veil, kind of like a-”

Bai Li Qing cut in: “A nun?”

Yu Sheng nodded to himself: “Right, a nun, but the vibe was more like an Evil Cultivator.” He sent the photos as he spoke and added, “I ripped off the head veil. It has a mark on it. Sounds like you know where she’s from?”

Bai Li Qing went quiet for a few seconds, probably looking at the pictures. Yu Sheng heard a small intake of breath.

Then she said: “You ran into the Holy Revere Hermitage’s Artificial Saintess.”

Yu Sheng stared for a long moment. He remembered hearing the name Holy Revere Hermitage before. It was one of those groups that worked against the rule of law. He didn’t know the details.

He tested the waters: “That sounds pretty strong. The kind of thing we shouldn’t be running into under normal conditions?”

“Extremely strong killing machines, used to protect the Hermitage Order’s important property or key personnel,” Bai Li Qing said with unusual gravity. “Usually you need a fully armed Deep Diver team to deal with one. Regular fighters, even squads, have a survival rate of zero when ambushed by an Artificial Saintess. You’re saying it appeared inside the mist and launched a surprise attack?”

“Yes,” Yu Sheng answered, his face turning serious as he listened. He didn’t know exactly what the Holy Revere Hermitage did, but just from her tone he could tell it wasn’t in the same league as those sneaky Angel Cultists. The appearance of that Metal Doll meant the situation was big. “We walked into a zone where the fog was really dense. The environment around us had visible anomalies. Then she stepped out of the mist and attacked.”

“Did you turn on the Border phone’s environment logging?” Bai Li Qing asked suddenly. “The Special Affairs Bureau’s phones carry special sensors that record a lot of environmental data.”

“Yeah, it was on. I turned it on as soon as we stepped outside.”

“Good. I’ll have someone pull the data from the backend,” she said quickly. “Exactly where were you attacked?”

“Roughly the north side of the old city, next to the shopping street,” Yu Sheng said after thinking it over. “But streets inside the mist feel weird. Once you enter the dense zone, a lot of buildings shift position, size, even their directions. Where we fought, the ground in the distance was literally curling up. So my memory is only a reference.”

He paused, then added: “Also, I’m sure the old city fog links to the fog around Wanxiang Market. We didn’t walk across, but I could feel it. This Otherworld might be huge, maybe as big as Boundary City.”

“Mm,” Bai Li Qing said. She didn’t sound surprised, like she had already considered that possibility.

After a brief pause, she spoke in a low voice: “Can you come to the Special Affairs Bureau now? Bring the ‘samples’ you took from the Artificial Saintess.”

Yu Sheng glanced at the wall clock.

Almost midnight.

He asked softly: “Right now?”

“Sorry. It’s urgent.”

“No problem,” Yu Sheng said at once, touched by how honest she was about it. “I’ll head over. Are you still at the bureau?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks for the hard work.”

Her voice stayed the same as always: “It’s fine. I’m used to it.”

Yu Sheng fell silent: [She really doesn’t get much rest.]