Chapter 166: Gunshot

Small-brained creatures indeed have poor adaptability—the neurotic squirrel, upon seeing Yu Sheng and his party, instantly went berserk, tossing away its acorn and leaping frantically across the bushes, shrieking and clamoring. Its palm-sized body made nearly as much commotion as Erin, constantly shouting things like "This is weird," "Where the hell did you all come from," and "Is this still Little Red Riding Hood?"

Finally, Little Red Riding Hood could no longer endure it. She stepped forward, grabbed the squirrel just as it was about to leap from a thin branch, held it close to her face, and growled, "Be quiet, or I'll throw you into the thorn bush!"

The squirrel stared with wide, tense eyes at Little Red Riding Hood, then looked up toward Yu Sheng and the other two. Then, stretching its neck and tilting its head, it let out a "Gah!" and fainted dead away.

Yu Sheng: "..."

Erin, witnessing this scene, was stunned: "What kind of useless thing is this... it fainted from fear?"

Yet, no sooner had she spoken than the squirrel slowly regained consciousness. Struggling hard in Little Red Riding Hood's grip, it seemed to finally calm down after confirming the scene before it, but still couldn't help muttering, "Is something big about to happen... is this still the Black Forest? How did such a huge group appear out of nowhere... none of you look like a new Little Red Riding Hood?"

"Um... hello," Hu Li ventured forward with great courage and politely greeted the squirrel, "My name is Hu Li."

"The one on my shoulder is Erin," Yu Sheng said, carrying Erin over as he grinned broadly at the squirrel, revealing a bright, sunny smile. "We meet again, little squirrel."

"Yes, we meet again. Of course the squirrel remembers you, the 'my lord' who doesn't know how you got in... you've brought even more strange folks. I'm confused, I'm confused," the squirrel wriggled free from Little Red Riding Hood's grasp, climbing onto her shoulder while nervously mumbling, "The Black Forest won't be happy. The Black Forest dislikes troublemakers... you don't listen, you clearly don't listen. You're in for big trouble. Run, you must run immediately..."

"What a coincidence," Yu Sheng heard the squirrel's muttering and instead wore a pleased smile on his face. "We are here specifically to make the Black Forest 'unhappy'."

The squirrel stared blankly at Yu Sheng, seemingly unable to comprehend the meaning of his words.

Yu Sheng offered no explanation. He merely slightly restrained the smile on his face, then calmly spoke while stepping toward the faint light in the distant woods, "Do you know where to find the 'Hunter'?"

The squirrel emitted a sharp, questioning sound: "The Hunter? Why do you want to find the Hunter?"

"I want to ask him about some things," Yu Sheng said casually, then immediately added, "Don't ask anything else. Just tell me where to find them."

"It's not safe. Going to find the Hunter like this isn't safe..." the squirrel appeared very nervous. "The Hunter has a gun. They shoot everything that looks like a wolf. Little Red Riding Hood already looks very much like a wolf... if you're not careful, you'll be mistaken for prey, especially tonight, tonight..."

Yu Sheng's steps instantly slowed by a few beats, his expression shifting slightly: "Tonight? What's wrong with tonight?"

The squirrel nervously grabbed the hood of Little Red Riding Hood's coat. It seemed very hesitant, but under Yu Sheng's intense gaze, it finally shrank its neck in fear. "Since yesterday, the Black Forest has been unsettled. Wolves have gone mad, some areas are disappearing, and there was even a massive explosion... the situation tonight might be even worse... when the Black Forest is unstable, the Hunter becomes unstable too. He wanders everywhere, furious and very dangerous, sometimes even more dangerous than the wolves..."

Yu Sheng fell silent for a moment.

Erin poked the back of his head: "I have a feeling this has something to do with you?"

Yu Sheng stiffened his neck and kept a stern face: "... This is all part of the plan."

"What are you talking about?" the squirrel raised its upper body, looking at Yu Sheng and Erin with a puzzled expression.

"Nothing," Yu Sheng said with a stern face, shaking his head. He then quickly diverted their attention. "Don't worry about anything else. Just take me to find the 'Hunter'. Whether I can deal with them is my business—if worst comes to worst, you can just run away like last time."

"You won't listen to advice!" the squirrel waved its claws anxiously, but soon lowered its tail and burrowed half its body back into Little Red Riding Hood's hood. "Fine, fine, you asked for it... go find the Hunter. Wherever the Wolf Grandmother is, the Hunter will be too. No matter where he was wandering before, once the Wolf Grandmother appears, he will definitely come."

"Good, this information is enough. It's pretty much what I expected."

Yu Sheng nodded and continued walking toward the lights in the distance.

Erin was a bit confused—she wasn't familiar with the rules of the Black Forest, so she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Do you know where to find that 'Wolf Grandmother'?"

"The cottage," Little Red Riding Hood, walking beside them, answered. "In the Black Forest, paths illuminated by streetlamps will appear. At the end of these paths, you can usually find a small wooden cabin. There are typically two situations inside the cabin: one is a safe, empty room; the other, the 'Wolf Grandmother' is hiding inside. By the way, under normal circumstances, I should avoid cottages with a 'Wolf Grandmother'."

Erin listened carefully to Little Red Riding Hood's explanation, suddenly noticing a specific word choice: "You said 'usually' there are two situations? What about the 'unusual' times?"

"... There is another situation. The cottage has no Wolf Grandmother, but when you enter to take shelter, the Wolf Grandmother will come knocking," Little Red Riding Hood paused her steps. Her tone remained calm, but a hint of fear faintly surfaced in her eyes. "This situation is the most dangerous. The opportunity to escape lasts only an instant. Several times... I was caught exactly when the Wolf Grandmother was knocking."

She stopped speaking here. After a moment, she sighed lightly: "And recently, the 'fourth situation' we encountered with Yu Sheng: a cottage unconnected to any path, standing alone deep in the forest with no lights, filled with red cloaks." Erin immediately realized: "Ah, I know that. It's the one you met last time."

Yu Sheng noticed that the squirrel, hiding in Little Red Riding Hood's hood, instantly shrank back upon hearing the words "cottage with no lights" and "filled with red cloaks." When it peeked out a moment later, its small, dark eyes were full of terror.

He walked over and looked directly into the squirrel's eyes: "Why are you so afraid of that cottage with no lights?"

The squirrel's body trembled noticeably, emitting a pleading shriek: "I don't know! The squirrel knows nothing!"

Yu Sheng frowned tightly.

"Don't push it," Little Red Riding Hood sighed, interrupting Yu Sheng's next question. "If it reacts like this, we definitely won't get anything out of it. If the pressure reaches a certain level, it will faint again."

"Yes, yes, yes," the squirrel immediately shouted, "Little Red Riding Hood and the squirrel are friends! Best friends!"

"Yes, and not very reliable friends," Yu Sheng muttered with a frown. He didn't press further, but continued walking forward while keeping a portion of his attention focused on the squirrel's every move.

That path appeared in the party's field of vision.

A winding forest path, illuminated by fantastical streetlamps, led deep into the forest. The scene at its end was shrouded in darkness. The limited range of the streetlamps outlined a clear "boundary" on both sides of the path. The malice of the Black Forest temporarily retreated where the light reached, and the path was filled with a sense of stability.

=9+Book_Hall

The moment they stepped onto the path, that ever-present malice and sense of being watched temporarily receded. Even the occasional howling of wolves from the surroundings seemed to suddenly grow distant.

"Wow... this is actually quite interesting," Erin immediately noticed the change in the surrounding "aura." She widened her eyes, looking in surprise at the "light orbs" floating in mid-air. "But this doesn't seem like the 'specific safe zones' found in ordinary otherworlds... the stability of this path seems to be maintained by these lights?"

"Is there a difference?" Yu Sheng didn't immediately catch on. "Aren't they all safe zones?"

"Different," Erin shook her head. "In ordinary otherworlds, a 'specific safe zone' refers to an area that is inherently stable. Even if the area moves, or even if it disappears over time, as long as you are within the designated time and range, you won't be affected by dangerous entities or the like inside the safe zone. Here, however, it seems more like a temporary safety barrier formed by a 'mysterious artifact'. As long as these lights exist, the path is safe. If the lights go out, this place should become unsafe again—in other words, what is safe here isn't the path, but the streetlamps. This isn't a safe zone; it's a safe object."

Yu Sheng listened very intently and followed the little doll's train of thought without much difficulty.

He realized that when exploring otherworlds, it was indeed necessary to bring this doll along. Although she was often unreliable, in the field of mysticism, her observational perspective and her occasionally useful, occasionally useless intuitive experience could indeed play a role.

However, just then, his train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a sound coming from outside the path.

"Bang!"

It was the sound of a gunshot.

Muffled, abrupt, the sound of a shotgun firing.

The few people walking on the path suddenly stopped, exchanging glances the moment the gunshot reached their ears.

The squirrel popped out from Little Red Riding Hood's hood, nervously rubbing its paws: "The Hunter fired... the Hunter fired..."

"My lord, the sound is coming from that direction," Hu Li tugged on Yu Sheng's sleeve, pointing toward a direction outside the path. Her ears twitched sensitively in the air, slightly adjusting the angle of her large ear flaps. "It's about one or two hundred meters away."

No sooner had Hu Li finished speaking than another gunshot rang out.

"Bang!"

Still from the same direction, the second gunshot arrived.

(End of Chapter)