Chapter 20: Erin's Information and Advice

The doll girl in the oil painting greeted Yu Sheng with joy and surprise, her voice sounding somewhat startled—yet showing no shock or panic at seeing a dead person return to life.

Yu Sheng felt this certainly wasn't because Erin was carefree.

Sure enough, the problem lay with himself—but considering he had died and returned to life so many times in such a short period, nothing strange seemed odd anymore when it happened to him.

"I suppose it was just a lucky accident; at least I'm back," Yu Sheng replied casually, turned around to close the slightly ajar door, and immediately looked down to check himself, confirming not only that his body had fully recovered but also that his clothes had returned to their original state exactly as before.

Yu Sheng frowned; connecting this with Erin's current reaction, he felt that rather than having "resurrected," the entire "event" of his "death" seemed to have vanished into thin air...

His dazed stance at the door caught Erin's eye, and the doll in the painting asked in confusion, "Yu Sheng? Are you okay? Why do you look so dazed? By the way, tell me how you actually came back; our connection has been constantly intermittent, and there's always been a mess of noises on your end. I have no idea what strange things you actually ran into in that other realm... Hey? What is that thing you're holding?"

Her reminder made Yu Sheng notice that he was still tightly gripping something in his hand—it was unmistakably a severed tail with black scales, grotesque and ugly in shape.

Yu Sheng's mouth twitched: "Holy crap, I almost forgot about it... it's still here."

This thing was even now slightly contracting and wriggling in his hand, but obviously no longer as "full of life" as at the start; it seemed that although the monster's severed limb possessed incredible vitality, it would gradually die after being severed from its original body.

A strange feeling rose in his heart; Yu Sheng didn't know how to explain the origin of this thing to Erin for a moment. After a slight hesitation, he carried the severed tail toward the kitchen, saying casually to Erin as he walked, "... just some local specialty."

The doll in the painting froze upon hearing this: "... Huh?"

By this time, Yu Sheng had casually tossed the severed tail into the kitchen sink. After confirming the thing no longer had the strength to climb out of the basin, he uneasily stabbed it a few times on its surface, then placed a pot lid on top (so at least he would hear the lid fall if it really climbed out), before returning to the dining room with a trace of fatigue, dragging his heavy body and plopping down into a chair.

His mind was a mess; there were too many things to think about, and more importantly, he was truly exhausted.

But he forced himself to stay awake; now was not the time to sleep.

Erin across the table looked over cautiously, "Yu Sheng, tell me about your experiences in that other realm, and how you..."

"I was just about to tell you that," Yu Sheng interrupted her before she could finish, waving a hand, then adjusting his posture and looking at the doll in the painting with a serious expression, "I have a belly full of questions—let's start with the situation I encountered over there. I met a Miss trapped in that other realm just like me, but she might have been trapped for a very, very long time..."

Yu Sheng concealed nothing; he told the doll opposite him everything about his experiences in that Night Valley, including the information Hu Li had revealed to him, and that flesh-and-blood hybrid monster with a very free-form appearance.

Except for his own situation of "dying and coming back to life," which he hadn't yet figured out how to explain to her, so he didn't mention it for now.

He certainly knew he and Erin were still not very familiar and couldn't claim much trust, but he had no other options—in this city, Erin was the only "anomalous individual" he had encountered so far and could communicate with, and also the only one he knew who understood matters "beyond common sense." Besides Erin, he truly didn't know who else he could discuss matters related to other realms with.

He felt he should trust this doll in the painting a bit more; after all, up to now, her attitude had been fairly friendly (except when she cursed very harshly).

Erin listened very attentively; when Yu Sheng mentioned that flesh monster, her expression had already become exceptionally serious. Several times she seemed about to speak but held back, never interrupting Yu Sheng's narration.

Only after Yu Sheng's narration reached a pause did this doll girl finally adjust her posture. She sat upright on that chair covered with a red velvet blanket and spoke seriously, "First, I must emphasize one point: I don't remember much; this painting has worn away too many of my memories, so the help I can give you is also very limited..."

Yu Sheng nodded: "I know that."

"Mm," Erin made a sound, then relaxed her expression a bit, "Then I will do my best to supplement your knowledge about other realms. First, you should already have some basic understanding of other realms, knowing they are a general term for certain 'areas' that deviate from order and violate common sense. Do you know that a thing called an 'Entity' can also be generated within other realms?"

"... Entity?" Yu Sheng showed confusion.

"In short, they are the 'indigenous people' or 'products' within other realms. Entities don't necessarily have a specific form; sometimes they might be humanoid figures with strange appearances, sometimes they might be some kind of beast or monster, sometimes even a ball of fire, a gust of wind, or a running stone. Anything produced within an other realm that possesses obvious 'vitality' and can react to outsiders can be regarded as an 'Entity'." Yu Sheng nodded thoughtfully.

"Entity classification is broad, and their numbers are vast," Erin continued, "Generally speaking, Entities have very obvious 'anomalous' characteristics. They are born within other realms and naturally possess features that defy common sense, are strange and dangerous. Most Entities lack reason, at least they don't exhibit 'thinking behaviors' understandable to humans, but it seems a very small number of Entities possess intelligence... I don't remember the details of this part clearly."

"Anyway, ninety percent of Entities are dangerous, though their strength varies. The harm of some Entities might just make people's noses itch, but there are also some Entities where merely witnessing them puts one's life in danger—so people have a hypothesis that 'Entities' are some kind of rejection response of other realms, a virus-killing program generated by other realms to eliminate invaders. This view holds that for other realms, investigators and lost souls coming from the world of order and common sense are the unspeakable monsters..."

Yu Sheng listened silently, then suddenly realized: "... So, the 'monster' I encountered was an 'Entity' generated within the valley?"

"It should be." Erin nodded.

"Can Entities be destroyed?" Yu Sheng asked immediately.

"Entities can be killed, but cannot be completely eradicated," Erin said seriously, "because strictly speaking, an Entity is just a 'generated product.' Kill one, and a new 'copy' will be generated within the other realm. They are the embodiment of the other realm's operating rules; as long as the other realm exists, Entities will keep being generated—however, usually, the generation of Entities also requires time, and it seems there are some methods to suppress the operation of certain other realms, delaying or even blocking the generation of Entities within them... Specifically, I don't remember."

"Can be killed, but cannot be completely eradicated..." Yu Sheng repeated this sentence, suddenly feeling that things were more thorny than he had imagined.

He wasn't afraid of death.

That monster seemed even less afraid...

Unknowingly, Yu Sheng had already assumed he would return to that valley and encounter that monster again—he didn't know where this thought came from; by the time he noticed it, this notion, or rather some kind of "intuition," had already taken root in his heart.

!.

"... Never mind, being able to kill it temporarily is still a good thing," he exhaled lightly, then looked up at Erin, "Besides this, what else do you know about Entities? For example, their weaknesses and such."

"Entities don't have a unified weakness; sometimes an Entity's weakness isn't even on itself, but on the 'other realm' itself, or within the other realm's own rules. Some Entities... can even change their weaknesses," Erin shook her head, "so exploring other realms and combating Entities is a professional and dangerous matter. I suggest you'd better find professionals to help—someone like me, trapped in a painting."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng couldn't help but roll his eyes: "Easy for you to say, where am I supposed to find professionals? They don't paste small ads on telephone poles..."

Erin: "They do."

Yu Sheng: "...?"

"They have contact methods—of course, not necessarily small ads on telephone poles," Erin saw Yu Sheng's stunned expression and nodded with extra emphasis, "Since other realms are everywhere in this world and are very dangerous to ordinary people, naturally there must be a large group of professionals specializing in handling such matters. Not to mention anything else, in such a huge city, someone must be responsible for maintaining order both openly and covertly, right? The official side has specialized departments, and the civilian side has organizations of all sizes. Although I don't remember the specific details clearly, these people are definitely active everywhere..."

"Of course, under normal circumstances, they keep their distance from ordinary people's lives and hide in the shadows because many other realms have bizarre and strange characteristics, such as 'becoming active once known' or 'actively approaching those who feel fear toward them,' so one must avoid ordinary people coming into contact with information related to other realms as much as possible. But once a unlucky soul has actually encountered an other realm, or an other realm reaction appears in the city, these professionals naturally have a set of methods to quickly locate and come to the door..."

Yu Sheng listened to Erin's narration in a daze, hesitated for a moment, then looked up and gazed out the window.

"So, since an 'other realm reaction' has already occurred on my end, I just need to wait, and the 'professionals' you mentioned will come to contact me proactively, right?"

"... Should... probably?" For some reason, Erin's tone suddenly lost so much confidence.

Yu Sheng also heard the lack of confidence in the other party's voice: "... Then why haven't they come yet?"

"I don't know. According to logic, they should have come by now."

(End of this chapter)