Chapter 55

Chapter 55: The “professionals” were right in front of them

The enormous eye withdrew. It left without a sound, giving up none of its secrets.

Inside the cave, everyone stared at one another, as if no one knew what to do next. The pressure from that eerie gaze had been so suffocating that even after it vanished, fear still clung to their hearts—along with a lingering disbelief.

“So it just… left like that?” Irene murmured, unsettled. “Could it be hiding in the clouds?”

Yu Sheng shook his head. “It really left. At the very least, it’s no longer in this otherworld.”

He was sure of it. The “gaze” that had been hanging over the valley—the invisible weight that made it hard to breathe—had truly disappeared.

“But why?” Irene kept muttering under her breath. “What was that thing even doing here? It hid for so long, then woke up just to scare us. It even affected the entity here. And now it suddenly leaves again… what was the point?”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment. “Maybe it was resting here. And now it’s rested enough, so it left.”

Irene blinked at him, suspicious. “I-Is that how it works?”

Yu Sheng stared at her. She actually believed that?

“No one knows what Dark Angels want,” Xu Jiali cut in from the side, putting an end to their pointless back-and-forth. “Honestly, we can’t even be sure they have something like a concept of ‘purpose.’ These things appear at random. Sometimes it takes an enormous cost to drive them away. Sometimes… they leave on their own, quickly.

Trying to analyze how Dark Angels act is meaningless. We should just be grateful that eye wasn’t one of the more aggressive ones.”

“Oh,” Yu Sheng said, rubbing his chin.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Li Lin standing near the cave entrance, watching the outside.

That strange sense of familiarity rose again. Yu Sheng frowned, his memories churning—until a scene snapped into focus.

“Wait!”

He stepped closer, eyes widening as he stared at Li Lin. “Haven’t we met before? Recently. We definitely met—where was it… the convenience store. Right, the convenience store!”

He looked Li Lin up and down, studying that utterly forgettable face—the kind you’d lose in a crowd unless you tried hard to pin it down. This time it clicked perfectly.

“You bought a whole case of instant noodles,” Yu Sheng said.

Li Lin’s mouth twitched.

The moment before, he’d known Yu Sheng recognized him, and he hadn’t panicked at all—because back at the ruined temple, when they first met, Li Lin had recognized Yu Sheng, too.

Even if they’d only brushed past each other once in a small convenience store, he was a professionally trained Special Operations Bureau agent. His memory and observation were far beyond an ordinary person’s.

Recognizing each other was only a matter of time.

Li Lin’s calm reaction made a dozen things connect at once in Yu Sheng’s mind. His gaze swept to Xu Jiali nearby, then to Little Red Riding Hood resting not far away.

“So where are you from, exactly?” Yu Sheng asked, frowning.

Li Lin let out a slow sigh. “Let’s properly introduce ourselves. Li Lin—Borderland Councilor. Also an agent under the Special Operations Bureau’s Second Action Battalion.”

Xu Jiali stepped forward, shifted his stance, and spoke in a low voice. “Special ops team attached to the Second Action Battalion. Veteran deep diver, Xu Jiali. That’s my real name.”

Yu Sheng stood there with his mouth open for a long moment, then turned to the “Little Red Riding Hood,” who looked like a high school student. “So you’re with the Special Operations Bureau too…”

“I’m not,” she said, folding her arms and jerking her chin at Xu Jiali. “I’m the child laborer they hired.”

Yu Sheng froze, then stared at Xu Jiali. “Your organization hires child labor?”

“What child labor?” Xu Jiali instantly glared at her. “Holiday temp! Call it work-study if you have to!”

Yu Sheng felt like his head was filling with sludge.

His first thought was that high schoolers in the Borderland were way too hardcore. Their holiday work-study involved diving into an otherworld and trading fire with monsters.

His second thought was that he’d finally met the “professionals” Irene had mentioned… but these professionals were nothing like what he’d imagined.

And his third thought—

“So you came for me?” Yu Sheng looked at the three “professionals” in front of him. “You followed me into this otherworld just to find me?”

The moment he said it, Xu Jiali and Li Lin sighed in unison. Even Little Red Riding Hood sighed, dropping her head and covering her face like she couldn’t bear it.

Xu Jiali pulled out a cigarette, lit it with a deeply troubled expression, and took a drag that burned down a third of it.

“If we could’ve avoided it, we would’ve,” he said. “This wasn’t our original plan.”

Yu Sheng blinked, then decided it was better not to ask.

At least things here were resolved. There were still plenty of unanswered questions, but those could wait until everyone got back safely.

Irene climbed out of Foxy’s arms and returned to Yu Sheng’s shoulder. Yu Sheng cradled the battered Little Doll and stepped out of the cave first.

“It’s completely quiet now,” Irene said, sitting on his shoulder and wrapping her broken arms around his head. She stared into the valley with a mix of awe and disbelief. “…What a mess.”

“Yeah,” Yu Sheng said, looking at the place where an entire layer of ground had been gnawed away. “A mess. But at least the hunger entity is gone. For now.” He paused. “By the way… will it come back?”

“It will,” Irene said softly. “As long as an otherworld exists, an entity will appear again. And an otherworld never truly disappears—even if you bomb it ten thousand times, it will restore itself.” She squeezed his head like a comforting habit. “It’s just that… this time will probably take a long while.”

“Then we should leave,” Yu Sheng said, letting out a long breath.

With the hunger entity gone, the air in the valley almost felt fresher. A cold wind swept in from the distance, and bright daylight drove off the eternal night that had hung here for so long. Everything in front of him was still shattered, but relief loosened something tight in his chest.

He glanced back. “Foxy, how do you feel now?”

The demon fox girl had been trailing close behind him. She lifted her head at once. “I’m good. Not cold, not hungry. I ate a lot just now!”

As she spoke, she smiled—open and bright, freer than Yu Sheng had ever seen her smile before.

Yu Sheng smiled back and reached out. “Then let’s go home.”

But just as he was about to open the door back, Foxy stepped forward without warning and gently tugged his sleeve.

Yu Sheng stopped, confused, and looked down at her.

“Worried about the food we left at the ruined temple?” he asked. “The hunger entity probably ruined most of it. Do you want to go back and see what we can salvage?”

Foxy nodded lightly—then immediately shook her head.

“Benefactor… I want to go somewhere. I…” She hesitated, as if afraid she was asking for too much, and just as afraid that what she wanted was too willful. She looked torn.

Yu Sheng watched her struggle for words. At first, he didn’t understand. Then a memory surfaced—something he’d seen deep inside Foxy’s dreams.

After a moment, he nodded. “I know. Is it in that grove?”

Foxy looked up sharply, meeting his eyes.

Then she nodded again. Just a little.

Li Lin and the others didn’t understand, but Yu Sheng didn’t explain. He only waved a hand. “Don’t panic. I can send everyone back in a bit. But wait first—I need to go with Foxy somewhere. If you’re not comfortable, you can come along.”

“Then we’ll go together,” Xu Jiali said first, nodding. “She’s been here a long time. If she’s leaving, she probably has things to settle. I get it.”

They left the back mountain, circled the ruined temple—now even more broken than before, with almost nothing left but shattered walls—crossed the valley floor cut by trenches and cracks, and finally reached where the small grove used to be.

It was gone.

The dark, mutated plants had been devoured clean during the feast. Only a pitch-black wasteland remained, pocked with pits of every size. Suspicious black fragments lay scattered across the ground.

“Here?” Yu Sheng asked softly, glancing at Foxy.

“Mm,” Foxy said, nodding slowly. “Dad. Mother. Here.”

Only then did Irene finally understand why Yu Sheng had brought her here.

The Little Doll’s eyes widened. She remembered what she’d seen in Foxy’s dream—the temptations, the half-true memories, the cold hungry phantoms. The countless pits around them made her unease spike.

“B-But…” Irene blurted, forcing her voice louder than it wanted to be. “You might not be able to find them! The ground’s been bitten off. Maybe those tentacles already—”

Foxy cut her off with a firm shake of her head.

“No,” she said, steady and sure. “I buried them deep. Dad and Mother told me to bury them deeper. I buried them deep.”