Chapter 123: The Giant Wolf

The squirrel's nervous muttering instantly made Yu Sheng think of many things, including possible "loopholes" in this forest and the possibility of helping Little Red Riding Hood break the curse, but before that, he grew even more curious about the squirrel itself.

"You... seem to always want to help Little Red Riding Hood escape from the forest?" He couldn't help but stare into the squirrel's eyes, seriousness mixed with curiosity. "Why?"

"What do you mean why?" The squirrel froze upon hearing this. "Does that need a reason?"

"Aren't you also an 'entity' born within this forest?" Yu Sheng frowned and asked directly. "You were helping me before—why would you think of actively helping a human who 'invaded' here?"

The squirrel stood dazed, rubbing its face with its paws, hesitating as it muttered: "Yeah... why... why do I want to help..."

It suddenly froze, as if its brain had completely crashed.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng thought, "Oh no." The brain capacity of this small rodent was obviously insufficient, even if it was an entity; his question probably triggered a bug in it.

But just as he worried the squirrel would completely freeze on this question, the little thing suddenly moved again, as if it had just rebooted successfully. It raised both paws high and let out a shrill cry: "I am a squirrel!"

Yu Sheng suspected it was still stuck in the bug: "Uh, I know you're a squirrel..."

"I am a F***ing adorable, bubble-bursting squirrel! A small animal in the forest!" The squirrel continued to cry shrilly. "There has to be such a small animal in the story, a carefree small animal in the forest that helps children who are about to be eaten. Yes, there has to be such a small animal! It's best if it can sing too. Although I can't, I still have to help the children lost in the forest, because—I am a squirrel!"

It raised its paws high, shouting excitedly, as if it had suddenly found—or rather, found again—the meaning of its existence, looking exceptionally happy.

Erin couldn't help but lean close to Yu Sheng's ear again: "Does it really have an illness? It looks mentally unstable."

"It's an entity generated in the Black Forest, what do you think?" Yu Sheng looked thoughtful. "This is probably one of the forest's rules, or rather, one of the 'fairy tale' rules."

"Why do you say that?"

"'Threats' that try to kill the protagonist, and 'friends' that try to help the protagonist. Fairy tales must have these two elements. And in the forest, the image of this 'friend' is usually a small animal. Anyway, that's how I understand it."

"Oh, is that so?"

Just then, the squirrel screaming on the table suddenly stopped. It stood up, as if listening intently to something, then suddenly jumped onto Yu Sheng and quickly climbed onto the latter's shoulder.

Erin watched the squirrel's movement, stunned for a moment, then reacted: "Hey! That spot is mine!"

"Shh!" The squirrel suddenly raised its paw. Its whole body was tense; Yu Sheng could even feel it trembling slightly. "Listen to the outside, listen to the sounds outside."

Yu Sheng reacted instantly, signaling Erin nearby to be quiet, while he cautiously approached the window, listening intently to the sounds coming from the forest.

Silence, a silence like death. Even the distant, blurred wind and the faint howling of wolves that had always surrounded the cabin had disappeared at some point.

Dead silence shrouded the cabin, and then a sudden knocking sound abruptly came, tearing through the silent night with a sharp, piercing noise.

Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang.

The knocking was unhurried, as if beating directly on the heart.

"The wolf is coming, the wolf is coming, the cabin's fire is almost exhausted!" The squirrel trembled all over, speaking low and fast. "How can it be consumed so fast? It's over, it's over, it's over..."

Yu Sheng glanced at the fireplace in the corner of the cabin and saw that the flames inside were indeed shrinking rapidly—even though there was still plenty of fuel piled in the hearth, the flames seemed to be pulled out of thin air and vanished from the fireplace.

Yu Sheng turned to look at Erin: "Can you fight in your current state?"

"Probably not—I'm a projection that squeezed in by exploiting a loophole, didn't you forget? You summoned me with a stick-figure drawing; how much power can I have?" Erin's picture frame swayed left and right. "At most, I can cheer you up later... Try not to die too gruesomely, or I'll have nightmares."

Yu Sheng almost choked on his breath: This doll was perfect in every way, so why did it have to grow a mouth!

Bang—

The knocking sounded again, the noise gradually rumbling like thunder. The entire cabin shook under the bang-bang-bang knocking; the walls creaked, and the roof swayed back and forth.

The squirrel let out a terrified scream, then somehow pulled out a dry, hard pine needle, gripping it in one paw like a single-handed sword, while the other paw held an acorn, blocking in front of it like a shield: "The squirrel is ready! The squirrel knight is ready!"

The knocking sounded for the third time. The shelves and wooden wardrobe in the cabin fell down amidst violent shaking like an earthquake, making a huge bang, then quickly vanished into the air. The flames in the fireplace were reduced to a faint glimmer. The whole house shook, cracks appearing one after another on the walls—and then, a huge hole suddenly appeared in the roof.

Yu Sheng saw an eye, a wolf's eye glowing with a dim light. That eye was pressed against the hole in the roof, and behind the eye was a slender face covered in black fur.

The deafening bang-bang sound rang out again. The wolf outside the house struck the entire cabin fiercely, as if beating a broken drum that was about to fall apart.

The flames in the fireplace finally extinguished completely. The entire wooden cabin shattered instantly under the terrible beating. The red strings and rags wrapped around the doors and windows let out a piercing tearing sound—a sound so sharp it was like a scream—and then the huge figure of the evil wolf appeared before Yu Sheng and Erin.

It was far larger than the "evil wolf" Yu Sheng had seen in the "museum" that crawled out from Little Red Riding Hood's shadow; it was bigger than a house. Standing so close, its body almost blocked out the entire sky in Yu Sheng's field of vision. This tall and twisted creature slowly lowered its head, its violent and wild eyes coldly staring at the prey falling out of the cabin, as if enjoying the final step of this hunt.

"It's getting bigger again! It's getting bigger again!" The squirrel gripped its "pine needle sword" and "acorn shield" tightly, looking up and screaming loudly. "Little Red Riding Hood must be getting more and more scared! The more she fears, the bigger this wolf gets!"

Yu Sheng suddenly turned his head: "You say..."

However, before he could finish asking, the neurotic squirrel seemed to have lost its reason amidst huge fear and tension. It screamed, raised the pine needle in its paw high, and suddenly jumped into the air, rushing toward the giant wolf as if stepping on an invisible path: "The squirrel knight is ready! The squirrel knight will protect you!"

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded: "F***, wait a minute—"

But the squirrel didn't respond at all. It rushed toward that massive shadow like lightning, thrusting the tiny pine needle in its hand straight forward—

"The squirrel knight~ appears on the~ forest path," a hoarse, off-key song came from the air. The lyrics were strange, the melody unpleasant. Just as it said, a small animal that helps children must appear in the story, and it must sing—but it couldn't; its singing voice was so terrible it was like another nightmare. "Oh oh oh~ it wants to help~ the lonely Little Red Riding Hood~~"

It screamed and sang wildly like this, and its tiny figure disappeared into the giant wolf's mouth in the blink of an eye.

The wolf didn't even tilt its head; it simply opened its mouth once, so the squirrel looked as if it had jumped into its mouth voluntarily.

The piercing, unpleasant singing voice vanished. The wolf's mouth opened and closed a few times, a faint chewing sound coming from the gaps between its teeth. Then it lowered its head, looking at Yu Sheng with a gaze that seemed slightly confused.

For the entire forest, both Yu Sheng and Erin were "intruders who should not have appeared originally."

"That squirrel is dead!" Erin finally reacted, letting out a cry of shock. "I thought it would explode with something at the critical moment... how did it just die like that?!"

A gust of strong wind swept in, and the giant wolf's paw slammed fiercely toward the place where Yu Sheng stood.

But before that, Yu Sheng had already reacted. He stepped, shattering the ground beneath his feet, and his body suddenly jumped aside. Immediately after, he lunged fiercely under the giant wolf's body, trying to find a blind spot in the giant wolf's attack: "Stop sighing! I'll be dead soon too!"

Erin's picture frame flew toward Yu Sheng: "Any last words to pass on?"

Yu Sheng flipped over to dodge the giant wolf's another pounce and shouted loudly: "Tell Hu Li! Eat buns tonight! Tell her to take the meat filling out of the fridge first!"

"Okay, noted," Erin's picture frame passed through the wild wind swept out by the giant wolf's tail, wobbling crookedly, while gradually becoming transparent. "Then I'll withdraw first—this place is starting to become unwelcoming to me!"

"Bye-bye, I'll be back later!"

Yu Sheng waved his hand, and Erin's picture frame disappeared from his field of vision almost at the same time.

A gust of wild wind suddenly rose. The giant wolf seemed finally angry at Yu Sheng, this annoying prey crawling around under its body. It jumped fiercely to the side, its gaze staring fixedly at the tiny human figure on the ground, then raised its paw and pounced again.

Yu Sheng did not dodge or avoid; instead, he suddenly grinned, revealing a smile.

"Come on! Taste something good! With just one bite of this, your F***ing life is complete!"

(End of this chapter)