Chapter 152: Operation Record

Upon hearing Baili Qing's account, Yu Sheng knew that the failure of that operation back then was an inevitable outcome—they had made a colossal error, one so absurd it defied belief.

Yet this misjudgment was almost unavoidable.

The bizarre nature of "Fairy Tale" is beyond the imagination of first-time contactees; its slow onset, weak effects, and exclusive targeting of children during the initial outbreak are highly deceptive. More importantly, it possesses a unique "structure" of "Original-Subset," with the true core of "Fairy Tale" hidden behind the dream stages it weaves. Decades ago, the Special Operations Bureau... could not possibly have known these things.

Yu Sheng opened the file, his gaze slowly scanning the operation record codenamed "Adulthood." At the beginning of the document, there was an attached file detailing the emergence records of the "Fairy Tale" anomaly and its early impact events. Most of the content matched the situation Little Red Riding Hood had revealed to him at the orphanage.

The initial outbreak of "Fairy Tale" occurred inside an orphanage named "Warm Sunshine Fuli Academy." This orphanage was affiliated with a public welfare unit under the Council. About half a month before the initial outbreak, several incidents occurred within the orphanage where children woke up screaming and wandered in their dreams or fainted during the day. At night, night watchmen reported hearing strange sounds resembling wolf howls, wind, or soldiers marching in formation coming from the dormitory area.

According to the records, these situations did not go unnoticed by the authorities. In fact, the day after the night watchmen reported the anomalies, a Special Operations Bureau investigation team entered the orphanage to conduct a detailed investigation. Accompanying them was an "Anomaly Doctor" who performed physical examinations on the children who had suffered nightmares and fainting spells. One could say that, by "standard procedure," the Special Operations Bureau and the Council at that time had done very well, with no major oversights.

However, these investigations failed to find any traces of "Fairy Tale." Perhaps it was because the technical means at the time were insufficient, or perhaps "Fairy Tale" was truly still very weak then, still in its early latent stage, such that even the "Anomaly Doctor," who mastered supernatural techniques, could not find any clues in those children's nightmares.

Shortly after this initial investigation ended, "Fairy Tale" finally "barely" revealed its fangs in the real world for the first time.

A patch of wildly growing rose bushes, centered on the orphanage's dormitory area, covered the entire compound overnight. The rose bushes receded at dawn, and one young girl and two night guards went missing from that point on.

"We later confirmed that the first out-of-control story was 'Sleeping Beauty,' but initially, the Special Operations Bureau judged this event merely as a 'leakage' phenomenon of some unknown anomaly, believing that the anomaly was parasitic within that orphanage," Baili Qing's voice sounded from the side. "The Council organized the evacuation of all personnel from that orphanage and temporarily sheltered the children in other facilities. Afterwards, a Special Operations Bureau action team composed of elite investigators entered the orphanage to conduct an extremely thorough search..."

"The result is not hard to imagine. They found no clues related to the anomaly within the orphanage. Just as the investigation hit a deadlock, a second case of loss of control occurred—a child who had been temporarily transferred suddenly fainted and transformed into an out-of-control giant wolf."

"Fortunately, when we were transferring those children, we considered the possibility that personnel had already been contaminated, so the new 'containment facility' had a higher security level. The out-of-control giant wolf was subdued quickly. Although we ultimately could not save that child, the damage did not expand. Moreover, due to our timely intervention, we finally captured certain clues of 'Fairy Tale'... We confirmed the existence of the 'Black Forest,' which was the first 'subset' to be confirmed and named."

While speaking, this female director pointed a finger at the file in front of Yu Sheng.

"After this came the 'Adulthood' operation."

Yu Sheng flipped through the subsequent content of the file without looking up: "You initially believed that the 'Black Forest' was the entirety of that 'unknown anomaly'?"

"Yes, at that time we had not yet confirmed the existence of other 'subsets'," Baili Qing nodded. "Discovering the 'structure' of Fairy Tale happened long after that."

Yu Sheng gave a soft hum and continued looking down.

He saw that the Special Operations Bureau at the time used technical means to lock onto the "entry window" of the "Black Forest" and conducted a "deep dive." The core of the entire so-called "Adulthood" operation was this deep dive.

Upon seeing the two words "deep dive" mentioned in the file, the first person Yu Sheng thought of was Xu Jiali—that burly man was a veteran deep diver. Based on some information he had previously gathered from him and Li Lin, Yu Sheng knew that the so-called "deep divers" were a type of "special forces operative" more powerful, more versatile, and more elite than ordinary Special Operations Bureau agents. They were not only skilled at executing extreme missions in various dangerous zones but could also, through special equipment and technical means, enter "battlefields" that ordinary people could hardly imagine to fight against things beyond reason and common sense.

"The 'deep dive' mentioned here... what exactly is the process?" Yu Sheng asked curiously.

"You can consider it a controlled and directed technology for 'sinking' towards a specific anomaly," Baili Qing did not hide anything, seeming to regard this as non-classified information. "By injecting inducers and performing neural signal coverage, we can artificially guide the consciousness of operational personnel to the edge of the rational world. Then, through specialized equipment, these 'hypnotized' personnel can be sent into the anomaly and awakened on the other side. This technology does not always work, but it is effective for most anomalies."

Irene, standing nearby, muttered: "... Sounds troublesome, and feels very dangerous."

"Yes, troublesome and dangerous," Baili Qing nodded, her gaze falling on Yu Sheng. "Especially compared to your 'Gate,' but the advantage is that the process is controllable, reproducible, and scalable, usable on more people. To combat the vast number of anomalies and entities, we need an equally vast number of personnel."

Yu Sheng said nothing, simply continuing to turn to the next page.

However, the first thing that caught his eye was a long list.

The moment he saw that list, his expression changed slightly.

He heard Baili Qing's voice enter his ears, still calm, yet carrying an inexplicable heaviness and solemnity:

"In the operation codenamed 'Adulthood,' a total of twelve deep divers, thirteen Special Operations Bureau agents, and seven logistics and support personnel were killed or went missing. Additionally, four children died on the spot due to anomaly loss of control. Six peripheral monitoring personnel were impacted by the shock, falling into madness one after another over the following years and eventually passing away prematurely."

This time, even Irene, who was usually always joking, suddenly stopped joking. The small doll paused, looking at the file with complex eyes, remaining silent for a long while.

With a solemn expression, Yu Sheng turned the pages backward. He skipped over content that was too professional or already known, his gaze sweeping over line after line of operation records—

The deep divers conducted three "dives" in total. The first attempt failed; the inducer caused the personnel involved to fall into a period of sleep. But in the muddled "consciousness border," they only found a chaotic barrier and failed to enter the interior of any anomaly.

In the second attempt, some of them briefly entered a space described as "vast, dim, and entangled with numerous strange net-like structures," and heard the space filled with "noise resembling weeping." That did not seem to be any subset within Fairy Tale.

In the third attempt, large-scale casualties erupted.

The deep dive team members who entered the "alien space" were almost all instantly lost. Only two survived and "returned," but they only lived for a few dozen minutes before rapidly weakening to death from unknown causes. Afterwards, contamination erupted. Some unknown "thing" entered the real world and began rapidly killing all the adults on the scene.

At the critical moment, the safety protocols took effect. The facility was quickly sealed, and the contamination was contained within the laboratory. But the price was those Special Operations Bureau agents and other staff members who could not evacuate—and the four children.

Yu Sheng's brows furrowed bit by bit. Looking at the observation records mentioned in the operation report regarding the second dive and the loss of control situation during the third dive, he felt something was wrong.

Soon, he realized where this sense of incongruity came from.

"... Did they enter the 'Black Forest'?"

He raised his head, looking into Baili Qing's eyes, and immediately added: "I have entered the Black Forest. There are indeed dangerous things there: wolves, shadows, and some fatal rules. But based on my personal feeling, as long as one is cautious after entering, it is at least not fatal in the short term. Even if adults encounter targeted malice inside, it shouldn't be like what is mentioned in the report..."

He shook his head, not finishing the rest of his words.

—Those professionally trained deep divers with rich combat experience, even if they were ultimately wiped out after entering "Fairy Tale," should not have perished so quickly.

Because the Black Forest did not possess a "mechanism" to instantly swallow invaders, nor was it a space filled with "noise resembling weeping," and it was certainly not "vast, dim, and entangled with numerous strange net-like structures."

"Exactly, this is the crux of the problem," facing Yu Sheng's question, Baili Qing indeed nodded gently. "According to the direct observation data left at the time, the place they entered... was actually not the Black Forest."

Yu Sheng's eyes widened: "Then where was it?!"

"It might be a 'subset' that only opens to adults, or a 'void zone' between subsets, or even the 'Fairy Tale' original body itself deeper within. There are too many possibilities," Baili Qing sighed softly. "You can look at the two attached records later. They were respectively recorded by an external monitoring personnel recalling the events afterwards, and by a personnel who sacrificed themselves on the scene just before death."

(End of Chapter)