Chapter 42: Excited Erin

In the old district, inside a rental house deep on Wutong Road, a burly man nearly two meters tall was curled up on a single-person sofa that seemed a bit cramped for him, his head bowed as he meticulously maintained his gear.

It was a beam dagger; the dark red hilt was inlaid with tiny teardrop-shaped crystals, the crystals connected in lines running through the entire body. The hilt was clearly custom-made for the user, fitting perfectly in the burly man's large palm.

The burly man flipped his hand, spinning the dagger a few times in his palm, then casually activated it. Accompanied by a faint humming sound, a bright pale-blue blade suddenly ignited, slicing a scorching arc through the air.

"Take it easy, don't scratch the coffee table—I'll have to file a report with the Bureau to pay for it later," Li Lin said, fiddling with a pocket watch as he looked up at Xu Jiali across from him. "... This thing is pretty cool."

"Cool, right? Exchanged my life for it," the burly man chuckled with a proud grin. "I saved an Argledel noble from the 'Windmill' in Deep L-3—single-handedly. He gave this to me afterward. It's custom-made, forged by the best smiths, using the finest luminous gold crystals. On Argledel territory, it can even serve as a knight's medal."

Li Lin was a bit curious: "What's it used for?"

"... No queuing for atmospheric transport tickets, green lanes at hospitals, free entry to the zoo—holidays only."

Li Lin listened, slightly stunned: "That's actually... practical. I thought those superstitious Argledel people insisted on rituals and symbolism for everything."

"They are usually pretty superstitious, but even superstitious people have to live, right?" Xu Jiali shrugged, then added with a hint of complaint, "Sigh, operating in the Borderlands is still a hassle. So much gear isn't allowed in. I even have a chainsaw sword, but before I came, it was flagged as a hazard and is now locked in a customs cabinet..."

Li Lin pondered, about to speak, when he suddenly sensed something. Immediately, he and Xu Jiali, who felt the same, turned their gaze toward the rental house window.

Under the gradually darkening night sky, a figure had appeared on the windowsill at some point—a petite girl in a dark red coat, leaning against the window frame in a rather dangerous pose, one leg dangling outside the sill.

She glanced curiously at the two men inside: "So, you two are the 'Specialists' in charge of this neighborhood for now?"

"You are..." Li Lin frowned, vaguely guessing the other's identity.

"Just call me Little Red Riding Hood," the girl on the windowsill waved her hand. "From 'Fairy Tale'. Your Bureau hired me to help you in this area for now."

"Oh, then I know you," Li Lin thought, 'As expected,' and put on a polite smile. "Our team leader has been mentioning you a lot these past two days, along with your investigation report on this area. I'm Li Lin, an operative of the Second Battalion, Council Special Operations Bureau."

On the other side, Xu Jiali sized up the girl on the windowsill and spoke in a low voice: "This place might be hiding a 'Big One'. I thought you'd send Bai Xue or the 'King'. Of course, I'm not questioning your wolves."

Unlike Li Lin, who was still relatively new, Xu Jiali clearly wasn't meeting Little Red Riding Hood for the first time.

"Bai Xue's destructive power would be overkill here—we might not even run into a high-risk entity," Little Red Riding Hood said casually. "I've been active in this city district and have been investigating the anomalies on Wutong Road recently, so I'm more familiar. No worries, Bai Xue can get here quickly anyway. If we do run into a 'Big One', she's on call."

As the girl spoke, she stood up from the windowsill and waved to the two inside: "I just came to say hi. You should all have my contact info. Call if anything comes up. Bye~"

The next second, the girl's figure suddenly melted into a shadow. The shadow vaguely took the form of a wolf; it leaped from the windowsill and dissolved into the night sky in the blink of an eye.

Leaving Li Lin and Xu Jiali staring at each other inside the rental house.

After dinner, Yu Sheng sat on the sofa with his eyes closed, resting. He heard the pitter-patter of footsteps darting back and forth between the living room and the dining room, sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left, then circling around the sofa again and again.

He opened his eyes and saw Erin running around the living room and dining room. A 66.6-centimeter-tall doll, carrying an oil painting frame almost as tall as herself, was darting around the floor as fast as a little rocket.

After Erin circled the sofa for the fourth time, Yu Sheng finally couldn't hold back: "Can't you take a break? Give your shoes a rest too."

Erin quickly ran up to Yu Sheng, her face full of excitement: "I don't want to! I can't stop at all! I can run around everywhere! Look, I can even climb onto the coffee table and jump down from it!"

Before she finished speaking, the doll had already run off again. She ran half a circle around the sofa, then climbed onto the coffee table in front of Yu Sheng using all four limbs, took a few running steps, and jumped from the table top onto Yu Sheng's lap. Just as the latter tried to raise his hand to grab the thing darting all over the floor, Erin had already agilely leaped forward, jumping from the sofa to the floor...

Immediately, she darted under the TV cabinet in the living room, struggled to climb up the cabinet, stood on tiptoes to reach up hard, and successfully pressed the TV's power switch. The doll lady cheered, turned her head to look at Yu Sheng with an excited expression: "I can even reach the TV switch! From now on, when you're not home, I can turn the TV off and on by myself!"

Yu Sheng rolled his eyes and helplessly looked up: "Okay, okay, okay. Congratulations. You're great."

The next second, he felt something flash in the corner of his eye—Erin had quickly run back from the TV cabinet. Grabbing the sofa cover with one hand and Yu Sheng's pant leg with the other, she climbed onto the sofa in a few moves and sat beside him.

The petite doll, after sitting cross-legged on the sofa, wasn't even as big as a cushion.

That oil painting propped behind her looked like a wall from the proportions.

But Erin had already adapted with astonishing adaptability to the existence of the frame. Whether running with it on her back, climbing up and down with it, or even sitting on the sofa with it, it didn't affect her movements at all—occasionally there were unavoidable bumps, but the doll didn't seem to care in the slightest.

This made Yu Sheng feel quite surprised.

"Don't you think carrying it is inconvenient?" he couldn't help but ask curiously. "To be honest, if you asked me to carry a door around all day, I probably wouldn't adapt as fast as you..."

"I think it's fine," Erin happily swayed her body on the sofa. Although the TV was on, her attention was clearly completely unable to focus on it. "It was a little uncomfortable at first, but after running a couple of laps, I completely adapted to its weight and size. And, how to put it..."

The doll suddenly stopped, as if searching for the right words. After a few seconds, she spoke hesitantly: "It's just a kind of... sense of security. When I carry it, I feel my back is very safe, very reassured. Have you ever had that feeling? Like needing your back to lean against a wall when sleeping, or propping it against a pile of quilts or something."

!.

"I know what you mean, but it still feels very... incredible," Yu Sheng looked at the small doll beside him. "I thought you'd be resistant to this painting. After all, it sealed you for so many years, and now you have to carry it around all the time."

"That's true to some extent," Erin thought for a moment and nodded lightly, but soon her smile bloomed again. "But there's that saying, 'Since you're here, be at ease.' As long as I'm stronger today than yesterday, there's nothing to complain about."

"It's 'Since you're here, make yourself at home'..." Yu Sheng corrected.

"Pretty much the same meaning," Erin waved her hand carefree. She seemed to have finally calmed down from the excitement of running nonstop earlier. At this moment, she remembered the main matter. "Alright, I've mostly adapted to my new body. It's time to discuss that fox..."

Yu Sheng nodded, but soon frowned slightly, looking at the small doll who only reached his knee: "Do you still plan to go with me?"

Erin looked completely natural: "Of course. It was agreed."

"In this state?" Yu Sheng tried to phrase it tactfully, but no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't be tactful, so he just said it straight. "Can you still fight? Even kicking my knee makes you have to jump..."

"I'll kick you into pieces! So what if I'm small!" Erin suddenly got a bit flustered. "Who told you I can't fight in this state!"

Seeing this, Yu Sheng quickly comforted her.

Fortunately, Erin's temper always came quickly and left even faster. She soon quieted down, leaned back on the sofa, and hugged her chest with both hands: "But you're right. In my current state... fighting head-on is still somewhat affected. You can't expect a doll over 60 centimeters tall to block bullets for you, right..."

Saying this, she shook her head, and suddenly her tone shifted: "But don't worry. Dolls don't just have frontal combat power. I have many other skills—even with just this level of 'freedom' now, there are still many things I can do."

She raised her hand, holding it up in front of Yu Sheng as if to show something.

Threads of pitch-black silk spread from her fingertips, like eerie spider silk, like independent life, winding and growing in the air, weaving into a net.

"A doll's skills are vast!"

Erin looked very proud.

(End of Chapter)