Chapter 206: Shadows

Beneath the west building of the orphanage lie two subterranean levels: Level -1 houses a semi-underground storage room, mechanical room, and comprehensive classroom, while Level -2 contains an underground passage leading to the east building and numerous old structures now abandoned—the orphanage's history is so ancient that even the two buildings considered "new construction" are several decades old, and the deepest, most antiquated parts of these two buildings are rarely visited even by the orphanage's "parents."

Little Red Riding Hood only remembers being taken by a few half-grown children to "explore" the west building's underground twice when she was very young; even then, the place already looked this dirty, chaotic, and forgotten, and now, more than ten years later, it seems unchanged—the grimy concrete floors and mottled, peeling walls even give one the feeling that they have always been this way, so upon completion and even when this building collapses, they will remain thus.

But Little Red Riding Hood knows that every part of this building actually receives at least minimal maintenance, including these seemingly forgotten corners; volunteers dispatched by the Council regularly inspect all orphanage facilities and repair the power, water supply, and drainage systems—adults care for the children here to the best of their ability, so if something strange truly happened in these old tunnels beneath the west building, it would certainly have already drawn the staff's attention.

After all, any "volunteer" dispatched here must have undergone specialized training.

Since there are no reports on this matter, it means the changes occurred recently—at least during the routine inspection a while ago, everything here should have been normal.

"Rats... cockroaches... oh, not even a single ant," the King crouched on the heavy-armor mercenary's shoulder, looking lazy, yet those feline vertical pupils seemed to have repeatedly "scanned" the entire place, "use your good nose to sniff, Little Red Riding Hood; there is a smell of mold in the air here, but besides this musty scent... all other scents are too 'clean'."

A shadowy wolf appeared in the shadows beside Little Red Riding Hood; she frowned slightly, her gaze sweeping over the mottled, moldy corners of the underground passage: "Were there rats here before?"

"What nonsense—of course there were," the King looked up at Little Red Riding Hood, his gaze as if looking at a fool, "rats and cockroaches are the creatures in this world that understand survival best; even if humans die out, they won't go extinct—I've been to this place many times; it used to be very 'lively'."

Little Red Riding Hood remained silent, only looking solemnly at this place which appeared completely normal on the surface; the phantom images of wolf packs prowled in the air beside her, appearing and disappearing, occasionally emitting uneasy whimpers.

"Let's continue forward," she suddenly said to the King, "let's go check the connecting passage between the east building and the west building."

"Alright."

A fully armed action team silently passed through the shadows between the buildings, gradually approaching the seemingly ordinary building ahead.

This location is on the edge of the old factory district in the southern old city; nearby are mostly old residential buildings constructed thirty or forty years ago; normally at this time, there would be many people walking outdoors inside and outside the residential area, but today this area is strangely quiet—

People seemed driven away from the streets by some invisible force; even if someone from a distant intersection occasionally glanced this way, seeing the foreign vehicles parked at the community entrance and those strange devices standing in the empty lot, they would quickly and naturally shift their gaze, as if this entire area had "disappeared" from people's "attention."

A special operations agency commander in a black uniform stood beside the mobile "node" device at the community entrance, looked up at the target building not far away—a six-story old building with white walls and a blue roof stood out quite prominently under the blue sky; currently, several seemingly unremarkable "birds" were circling the building's exterior wall, occasionally approaching a certain window on the third floor, while the forward action team had already drilled into the building and was reporting the situation ahead via walkie-talkie.

"This is 'Hunter'; we have reached the designated floor; the surrounding environment is stable; awaiting further instructions."

The action team's report came through the earpiece; the on-site commander ordered them to stand by, then looked to his side.

A young special operations agency agent was slightly bowing his head, perceiving the vision transmitted by those few "birds."

"Can you confirm the situation inside the house?" the on-site commander asked.

A small bird landed lightly on the windowsill of the target building's third floor, poking its head to look inside.

"Cannot see the interior, but can perceive residual spiritual fluctuations; supernatural power definitely exists in the target room," the young agent said rapidly, "... further perception is blocked; cannot determine the specific location of personnel; interference must have been set up."

"Classic trick of cultists," the on-site commander tugged at the corner of his mouth, "as long as we can confirm they are inside... 'Hunter', prepare to breach the door."

"Yes!"

An urgent phone ring suddenly sounded, interrupting Song Cheng's work; he reached out to pick up the receiver, glanced at the caller ID, and his expression immediately became serious.

"Hello, it's me—what's the situation?"

A rapid report came through the receiver; the next moment, Song Cheng stood up directly from behind his desk.

"What do you mean 'all dead'? Speak clearly—were all the sacrifices taken by the Angel cultists killed? Were innocent people sacrificed at the scene? Or were the original residents of the residential building..."

The on-site commander on the other end of the phone spoke a few sentences in an urgent tone; Song Cheng's expression gradually stiffened.

"... the f*** cultists are all dead?!"...

Yu Sheng sat on the balcony of the second floor of the east building, looking through the window at the bob-headed children doing outdoor activities on the playground; seeing a group of children running wildly around the yard under the guidance of half-grown kids, shouting and screaming, a smile gradually appeared on his face.

That feeling was subtle, but he could indeed sense a faint "connection" had been established between himself and these children; he could even vaguely feel the joyful, carefree moods coming from the playground.

Just like the clear sky above now.

"How nice," Irene climbed onto the windowsill from the side, looking at the scene on the playground outside with Yu Sheng; the small doll's tone carried emotion, "children's happiness is simple; it would be even better if they wouldn't chase me all over the yard."

"They like you very much," Yu Sheng looked happily at the resentful little doll, "I just saw it in the classroom; two little girls even wanted to help you comb your hair, right?"

He shouldn't have said that; once he did, Irene almost fell off the windowsill: "Holy crap, don't mention such terrible things! I saw with my own eyes them pulling a doll's head off to comb its hair! It scared me to death, okay!"

Hu Li was also standing nearby, and her face had been wearing a thoughtful expression since a moment ago; at this moment, she suddenly broke the silence: "With this, all the children currently in this orphanage are protected by the Benefactor's Witch Blood Art, correct?"

"Yes," Irene sat on the windowsill swinging her two legs, "all seventy-plus children in the entire orphanage are now considered to be entirely in Yu Sheng's hands..."

Yu Sheng immediately glared at this doll: "Couldn't you use a better word? What do you mean 'entirely in my hands'?!"

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Hu Li ignored Irene's interruption, thought seriously for a moment, then continued: "But this is only a temporary measure—the Benefactor has now only protected the children currently affected by 'Fairy Tale'; but there will always be new children affected by 'Fairy Tale'; we still need to find a way to cure the root cause next."

"That's right... we still need to find a way to solve this matter from the source," Yu Sheng sighed, speaking slowly, "I don't know what problems Little Red Riding Hood has found over there—I don't know what's going on, but since a moment ago, I've felt a bit unsettled in my heart."

Irene's expression immediately became serious: "This matter cannot be neglected—is your spiritual intuition warning you?"

"Not that serious," Yu Sheng hesitated slightly, judged very rigorously, then slowly shook his head, "probably just reached the level of 'spiritual intuition wobbly'; hasn't reached the level of 'spiritual intuition bouncing wildly' yet."

Irene listened with her mouth agape; after a long while, she squeezed out a sentence: "When exactly will you change this neurotic way of describing things? Who can understand what you mean..."

Yu Sheng scratched his head, and just as he was about to say something else, a slightly hurried sound of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor direction, interrupting his action.

The three people by the windowsill looked toward the sound together, and saw Little Red Riding Hood walking over hurriedly, with that chubby tabby cat following behind her.

Seeing the expression on the young girl's face, Yu Sheng knew she must have found something wrong.

"Found anything?" he immediately stepped forward and asked.

Little Red Riding Hood waved her hand, speaking rapidly: "Rats and cockroaches have vanished from the west building's underground."

Yu Sheng was stunned for a moment, exchanged a glance with Irene, couldn't react immediately, and after two or three seconds, hesitantly spoke: "Uh... then congratulations?"

"Is this something to congratulate?" Little Red Riding Hood immediately glared at Yu Sheng, "This is obviously an abnormal situation! Hey, I haven't finished yet. Then 'King' and I checked along the west building's underground passage, and finally found something near a ventilation shaft at the connection between the west building and the east building..."

While speaking, she quickly took out her phone, pulled up an image, and handed it to Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng curiously took the phone and saw that the screen clearly displayed a photo hastily taken in the underground passage.

The lighting in the photo was not very good, and it seemed a layer of blurry substance covered the lens, but he could still make out that on the corridor walls captured in the photo, there were vaguely many overlapping, closely pressed contour shadows.

Yu Sheng frowned, trying to distinguish what the shadows reflected on the walls were; after a long while, he suddenly took a light breath.

"It's trees," Little Red Riding Hood said slowly beside him, "faint light passes through the forest, casting the trees' shadows onto the wall, creating such shadows—in the west building's underground passage, the walls reflect the image of the Black Forest."

(End of this chapter)