Chapter 130: The Story of

Erin slipped out of Hu Li's embrace, stood on the table, and gazed out the window at the empty lot alongside Little Red Riding Hood, both lost in thought.

"The 'Fairy Tale' first erupted right here, yet the subsequent victims made this place their home... It feels strange," the small doll muttered.

"Everyone needs a home," Little Red Riding Hood turned back, a faint smile on her face. "I don't know how the 'seniors' of many years ago made their decisions, but the children living here now regard this orphanage as their home. For me, this is also a place where I can find peace... even though so much has happened here."

"Only orphans are affected by 'Fairy Tale'?" Yu Sheng frowned. "Or do ordinary children, once affected by Fairy Tale, get sent here as well?"

Little Red Riding Hood sighed: "Only orphans."

"The reason? Is there a conclusion?"

"Because their hearts lack protection," Little Red Riding Hood said calmly. "Although we still have many blanks in our understanding of 'Fairy Tale' now, based on current progress, it can be confirmed that 'Fairy Tale's' influence is related to the victim's 'personality pattern' and 'social relations'. Orphans who lack protection from parents or other relatives, who have been in a psychologically unstable state for a long time, and who have weak social ties in the real world are its best 'prey'. After all..."

She paused here, then shook her head gently a moment later: "After all, if reality is too cold, then the warmth in fantasy becomes especially tempting. When 'Fairy Tale' first exerted its influence, its power was actually very weak; it only needed a thin 'rope' to firmly fix an affected child on the side of reality. But for many orphans, even that tiny 'rope' does not exist."

Yu Sheng's brows remained tightly furrowed. A moment later, he asked again: "What is the trigger for the influence? I heard that squirrel say... it was reading the corresponding fairy tale story?"

Little Red Riding Hood nodded gently: "That is the most important part."

"Why not simply list these stories as taboos?" Hu Li looked curious. "Back in my hometown, there was a demonic cultivator who, before dying, merged himself into a legend. Later, he almost succeeded in returning from the void to reality through the world's oral transmission. I feel it's quite similar to this... equally terrifying."

Upon hearing this, Erin's eyes widened slightly, and she stared at Hu Li in shock: "Damn, your hometown really has some outrageous things... What happened then? How did you deal with that so-called 'demonic cultivator'? By sealing off that contaminated 'legend'?"

"Ah, not exactly," Hu Li waved his hand. "Although we tried sealing it off at first, the demonic cultivator's backup measures had a wide influence and couldn't be sealed. But later, the era of self-media arrived."

Yu Sheng's expression instantly turned dazed: "Uh... ah?"

"It was full of demonic modifications, ghostly beasts, and short video clips. That demonic cultivator later died a miserable death," Hu Li gestured wildly. "His last plea for help was turned into a ghostly beast video and an emoji. By the time the Immortal Alliance noticed, he had perished and his Dao vanished amidst the laughter of the people of the world..."

The room instantly fell quiet. Little Red Riding Hood, Yu Sheng, and Erin stood there blankly on the sofa, while Hu Li, still looking dull, continued speaking: "So since then, even the great demon foxes in our clan dare not easily refine themselves into legend stories. If they must refine, they refine math problems and physics formulas; at least those don't change easily..."

Little Red Riding Hood listened to Hu Li's words in a daze, and only blinked her eyes after a long while. She turned to look at Yu Sheng: "Um, I'm a bit lost in my train of thought..."

"It's fine, I often can't keep up with things from her hometown either," Yu Sheng waved his hand. "Don't dig too deep into other things, but Hu Li's question is also one I want to ask—since the corresponding fairy tale story is an important cause triggering 'Fairy Tale', why not directly control the spread of these stories? Or, like in her hometown, 'destroy' those stories..."

Little Red Riding Hood did not answer directly, but threw a question back: "Do you remember we discussed why we didn't simply demolish that old theater to 'permanently close' the Otherworld - Museum?"

Yu Sheng's heart stirred, and his expression instantly became subtle.

He knew what was going on.

"Abnormal-type Otherworlds... follow the same principle?"

"Yes, abnormal-type Otherworlds are also Otherworlds; the underlying rules are the same," Little Red Riding Hood nodded. "The entity of 'Fairy Tale' is a deeper hidden 'information', and those stories are merely some 'entrances' connecting it to reality. Just as the entity of the 'Museum' is a twisted space, and the stage of the old theater is merely its entrance—demolishing an entrance can only cause the Otherworld to lose control in a more bizarre and harder-to-defend manner, and even the danger level might increase. Moreover..."

She raised her head and looked at Yu Sheng with a serious expression.

"Moreover, 'Fairy Tale' has an even stranger characteristic: its 'stories' do not even require a person to tell them. There are records of a child who had never come into contact with the corresponding story falling into a 'subset' created by Fairy Tale after a certain sleep. Later investigations found that the child had heard the sound of someone reading a story coming from the void. This is also why, although the 'Fairy Tale' Otherworld does not directly cause death, its danger level is set at Level Three or above—it possesses active malice."

Little Red Riding Hood's narration came to an end. Yu Sheng sat on the sofa, his expression somewhat gloomy.

A nameless irritability surged up. He rose from the sofa and paced around the room, yet didn't know what to say.

"It shouldn't be like this... Does the Special Operations Bureau have no solution at all?" He suddenly turned his head, looking at the girl in red sitting beside him.

Little Red Riding Hood merely sat there, raising her head to look at him with calm eyes: "Have humans eradicated the common cold?"

Yu Sheng: "..."

"If you view it as a chronic disease targeting only a few orphans, isn't it much easier to understand and accept?" Little Red Riding Hood continued. "You cannot, because you feel we orphans are 'pitiable', demand that a natural phenomenon be eradicated from the world, or demand the Special Operations Bureau do things beyond human capability. An Otherworld is not a factory with a problem that can be fixed by simply closing its doors. An Otherworld is a 'phenomenon' operating in this world. Having its entrances located in fixed places is already its greatest mercy to people."

Little Red Riding Hood's voice was calm and powerful, but Yu Sheng still felt something was wrong.

No, there was one Otherworld... one Otherworld had indeed been "eradicated".

That valley.

Yu Sheng thought quickly, various thoughts swirling in his mind like a storm—

Could what happened in Nightfall Valley be replicated in that Black Forest? Even if it were replicated in that Black Forest... how could it affect the entity of "Fairy Tale"? After all, that Black Forest was merely a subset of Fairy Tale, just a temporarily generated "room" within that "Formless Mansion". And according to Little Red Riding Hood's explanation, Yu Sheng could not think of any way to reach the entity of "Fairy Tale" right now...

How could he smear his blood onto a "collection of stories"?

Little Red Riding Hood looked curiously at Yu Sheng, who had suddenly stopped in front of the window, curious about the constantly changing expressions on his face. She didn't know what this strange "my lord" from 66 Wutong Road was thinking, but she could feel that this "strange entity" that made the Special Operations Bureau extremely nervous truly wanted to help her.

"You want to do something very difficult," she said to Yu Sheng. "I know you want to help us—in fact, there have been others before: those deep divers, scholars, investigators, and even an astrologer from Algrade. Those adults who wanted to protect the children from nightmares, but none of them succeeded. I... saying this has no other meaning; I just want to tell you in advance that this is a dangerous matter with no leads so far."

Yu Sheng seemed not to hear what Little Red Riding Hood was saying. He merely continued to ponder, and only after a long while suddenly raised his head: "I may have no leads regarding the entity of 'Fairy Tale', but we can start with the Black Forest."

Little Red Riding Hood was stunned: "Uh... did you not listen to a word I said?"

"I did listen. I don't think it's a big problem," Yu Sheng waved his hand. "For me, there are many things in this world without leads. I still don't have any leads on where my home's water and electricity bills go or where the sewer leads. As for danger... to be honest, which Otherworld isn't dangerous?"

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth but couldn't think of how to refute him for a moment.

But just then, as Yu Sheng was preparing to ask the girl in front of him for more information related to the Black Forest, a sound of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the corridor, interrupting everyone's conversation.

The door to the reception room was pushed open, and a girl with long black hair, who looked a year or two younger than Little Red Riding Hood, rushed in.

Little Red Riding Hood immediately stood up: "Long Hair? What happened?"

The girl called Long Hair first glanced at the few "outsiders" in the room. After receiving a look from Little Red Riding Hood, she took a light breath and spoke softly and quickly: "A child has 'left'. The situation was very rapid; there was no time to..."

Yu Sheng noticed Little Red Riding Hood's body sway slightly for an instant, and her breathing even stopped.

"... Which one?" she asked in a small voice.

"The new one."

(End of Chapter)