Chapter 226: Descent

The emergency evacuation in the nearby district is proceeding in an orderly manner and is now basically complete; a large number of node devices and protective equipment have been transported to the site and are currently being installed by engineers near the orphanage walls, where an invisible barrier is rising across the entire area. If someone with spiritual talent were to gaze at the district at this moment, they would see that layer of barrier emitting a faint glow in the night sky, enveloping vast swaths of shadows within that are constantly swelling, shrinking, and writhing, like... a strange "cocoon."

The threat level of the Angel's descent is higher than anything else; the "Baseline Technology Restriction Act" has been temporarily suspended, and a large quantity of technical equipment exceeding usage permits has been transported to the site. As various protective devices are successively powered on, the stability of the area's boundary finally begins to gradually recover.

At least, standing outside the orphanage walls no longer reveals those terrifying sights.

But the situation inside the walls remains far from optimistic.

More than a dozen black vehicles arrived here one after another, and more Special Agents appeared within the blockade zone; one of the vehicles drove straight to the orphanage entrance. After the car door opened, a figure with long gray-white hair wearing a white suit skirt stepped out, gazing solemnly at the sky above the orphanage.

Yu Lin felt his very breathing tighten—the colorless figure was not looking in this direction, yet he could still distinctly feel a gaze falling directly upon himself.

"How long have they been inside?" Bai Xue asked.

"Thirty-two minutes," Yu Lin replied immediately. "After they entered, the pollution readings inside the walls showed no significant change; the overall environmental depth continues to rise steadily. Currently, the internal depth is L-2, and the danger level cannot be assessed."

Before he could finish speaking, a monitoring officer hurried over and handed him a tablet computer used for surveillance.

"... The depth has reached L-3 and is still rising," Yu Lin said, a visible sheen of sweat appearing on his forehead as he forced himself to speak to Bai Xue. "Conventional monitors have lost contact; we can no longer capture video signals from inside the walls."

"Hmm."

Bai Xue simply nodded calmly, saying nothing more, and continued staring at the sky above the orphanage.

A pair of hidden, gigantic eyes slowly opened behind her, scanning the situation inside the walls.

To the naked human eye observing this orphanage from outside the walls, everything now appears "normal"; however, in Bai Xue's mind, its true form, gradually being swallowed by "nightmares," simultaneously materialized.

Two towers entwined and growing like umbilical cords, the ground covered in "mud" and swelling and writhing, and... three tiny points of light moving within the "umbilical cords."

Bai Xue gazed at those three points of light until an irresistible dizziness forced her to look away.

"Can you lock onto them?" she asked in her mind.

"It's too difficult; they are almost no longer in the real world. We probably won't be able to track them in another ten-plus minutes," a slightly mechanical and stiff female voice responded. "However, what can be confirmed is that the Dark Angel's 'erosion' should truly be ineffective against the three of them—they have been active inside the walls for over thirty minutes, and the 'Eye-Travel Markers' I left on them remain pure and intact."

Bai Xue lightly "hmmed," then withdrew her gaze from the orphanage and took out her mobile phone.

"... It's me. Prepare for 'shattering.' If no stop command is received within twenty-four hours, or if the Angel's descent is observed during this period, execute Dome Shattering—I will take responsibility. At least try to drive that thing outside. Of course... the best outcome is for this night to pass peacefully."

Inside the orphanage walls, the Angel's dream has merged with reality, like flesh adhering to flesh, and mud soaking into mud.

Everything has become mixed; the boundary of reality within these walls has become blurred and turbulent. Thoughts emit hollow echoes amidst the continuous collapse of the material world—these echoes, reflected in perception, are gradually transforming into a spreading forest.

That is the first story from a certain fairy tale book.

A certain inferior, old fairy tale book, full of errors and blanks, yet one that once brought immense joy to many children.

Yu Sheng entered a room.

This was once the reading room at the end of the orphanage's second floor, but now the original room structure and the illusions of the Black Forest have overlapped, making everything here appear strange and chaotic. Great trees pierced directly through the roof and floor; the tree canopies suspended fluorescent tubes and the keel structures of the ceiling; the walls had turned into broken chunks of earth and stone, chaotically buried deep within the rotting leaves and shrubs between the giant trees. Yu Sheng also saw those bookshelves and tables, crookedly embedded in the tree trunks, already fused with the wood—and on the ground nearby lay scattered books.

Yu Sheng cautiously entered this "forest," walking amidst the constantly changing and expanding forest scenery, his gaze sweeping over those scattered books, before suddenly stopping in his tracks.

He saw a stack of books—still unopened, bound with plastic straps, lying in a pile of weeds.

His gaze was strongly drawn to them, and even the scorching bullet in his hand seemed to tremble faintly.

Yu Sheng walked over quickly, casually untied the binding straps, and shook out the books intended specifically for children, which had bright covers.

They were all normal books.

Most were brand new, or at least printed within the last two years, with above-average print quality and good paper; not a single one had any connection to that "Squirrel Knight."

Yet Yu Sheng still felt that inexplicable "connection," a sense of "gaze" directed at these books, transmitted from the Black Forest, or perhaps even from Ankaila.

He frowned, then suddenly thought of something and turned to the doll who was nervously watching the surrounding forest environment, saying, "Eileen!" The little doll hurriedly responded, "Ah, ah?"

"Look at these books," Yu Sheng said seriously. "Are they 'hiding' something? Just like that letter we found at Old Zheng's house back then—"

"Wait, let me see!" Before Yu Sheng finished speaking, the little doll on his shoulder jumped down and, with some effort, began moving those books that were somewhat too large for her. "This thing is so heavy... Wait! There's paper tucked inside here—didn't you see?"

While speaking, Eileen had already opened the cover of one of the books, and right before Yu Sheng's eyes, she naturally pulled out a yellowed, edge-torn old sheet of paper from between the pages—as if that paper had been openly tucked inside the book from the very beginning.

Yu Sheng reached out and took the paper; the first line that met his eyes was the title "Little Red Riding Hood"!

"Ah, there's one here too! This one has it tucked inside as well, lots of them!"

Eileen's voice immediately followed, and then she quickly flipped through several books, pulling out page after page of fragments "tucked" inside the books and handing them to Yu Sheng.

Fairy tales one by one, yellowed old sheets of paper one by one, and that cover with crude colors and lines, depicting a forest and a reddish-brown squirrel—

"The Squirrel Knight Takes You to Read Stories."

Yu Sheng finally understood why Bai Xue had found nothing unusual when inspecting these books donated by the "Sunshine Foundation."

Not a single error, not a single sentence, not a single page, not a single content piece, all hidden within the books!

Those cultists had infiltrated the process here and used a technique similar to the one used when exchanging secret letters with Old Zheng back then, disassembling entire old books and "stuffing" them inside the normal donated books!

In this way, they had sent an "old object" with extremely high symbolic connection and directional significance to Ankaila into the orphanage!

Perhaps... this was also a crucial part of their plan to "cultivate" the entire orphanage into a qualified "container."

Many clues instantly connected together, and Yu Sheng felt the tangle in his mind suddenly become clear. Meanwhile, Eileen, sitting amidst a pile of books and weeds, held up the last two books, shook them in the air, and casually tossed them aside: "That's it! That's all there is!"

Yu Sheng slowly nodded, simultaneously roughly organizing the collected book fragments, yet his gaze involuntarily fell upon the book covers again.

That reddish-brown squirrel with a fluffy big tail sat there, holding a pine needle in a silly pose, pointing at the book title on the cover.

It blinked its eyes and sat up from the cover.

She stumbled forward a couple of steps, jumped onto Yu Sheng's wrist, and looked up at the surroundings.

"Ah! It's you!" the squirrel called out happily, turning back to affectionately hug Yu Sheng's finger. "Great, you're safe! Those wolves were so scary... And you brought a friend this time!?"

"... Wow," Eileen said, her eyes wide as she watched this scene. "Truly worthy of... uh, truly worthy of being 'in a dream'?"

Hu Li, however, seemed not at all surprised and greeted the squirrel with an air of obviousness: "Hello."

"Hello! The Squirrel Knight is very happy to meet friends!" the squirrel called out happily, and only then finally noticed what Yu Sheng was holding.

She saw that book—on the worn cover, a squirrel was still sitting foolishly on a tree stump beside a forest path, holding a pine needle in its paws.

"You... you found it?!" The squirrel's face displayed an extremely human-like expression of shock, and the pine needle in its paws even fell to the ground. "Where did you find it?!"

"This isn't the one you originally gave away," Yu Sheng finally explained. As he placed the squirrel on his arm, he roughly flipped through the already disassembled fairy tale collection so the other party could see the condition of the pages inside. "This is another copy that someone 'outside' has been collecting all along, but it is from the same batch and edition as the fairy tale book you originally gave away. For some very... complex reasons, this book was recently delivered to the orphanage."

The squirrel gripped Yu Sheng's sleeve, watching as he turned the pages of those old books, making soft, tiny sounds: "Ah, indeed, it isn't that one... The one we had back then was filled to the brim with writing."

Yu Sheng instantly turned his head: "Filled to the brim with writing?"

"Mm," the squirrel nodded, seemingly smiling, "because many places in the book had no printed text, older brothers and sisters would tell us stories based on the illustrations, and children who already knew how to write would inscribe stories in those blank spaces—some were stories the book was originally meant to have, some were made up by everyone themselves, and others... were heard from elsewhere."

"That book was everyone's treasure, it was... it was everyone's treasure..."

As the squirrel spoke, it suddenly began to cry again.

"I'm sorry... I lost it... I can never find it again... Wu..."

Yes, she had lost the "treasure" crafted jointly by so many children.

That was the collection of stories written by all the children in the orphanage.

(End of Chapter)