Chapter 69: Deep Dive

Regarding the favor Little Red Riding Hood wanted to handle herself, Yu Sheng speculated on several possibilities, all roughly related to the supernatural realm—after all, though the other party appeared to be just a seventeen or eighteen-year-old Miss, she was also a professional "Spirit Realm Detective," so whatever she needed to do should naturally be professional in nature; to be honest, Yu Sheng was quite looking forward to it, since he himself would be dealing with the Otherworld, and treating this favor as gaining experience alongside a "junior senior" was not a bad thing...

He was just a bit nervous, unsure if he could handle whatever Little Red Riding Hood needed to do; if it was too difficult, he would have to think of a way to bluff his way through without losing face...

Then, sitting in a roadside café, he stared blankly at the items the girl pulled out.

It was copying math exam papers for a high school girl.

What a huge book!

Yu Sheng looked at the math exam paper before him, then raised his head to look at the short-haired girl opposite, his gaze shuttling back and forth several times, fully expressing his confusion.

It was indeed very difficult—if it weren't for the answers at the back of the paper, this thing would be far harder than fighting monsters in the Otherworld; after all, even if a physical entity was hard to kill, dying a few more times and dragging its corpse along would eventually work, but with math, if you didn't know it, you really didn't know it; even if they shot him dead on the spot and he opened his eyes to life again, he still wouldn't know it...

Hu Li, holding Erin, stood nearby watching, also not understanding what was happening.

"Just copy this entire exam paper for me here; the answers are at the back, you can write a bit messily, as long as it's filled out," Little Red Riding Hood said calmly, "then I'll take Hu Li to the mall next door to buy clothes—by the way, you need to give me some cash first; I don't have much money on me. After we finish buying, I'll bring the receipt to settle the bill with you, refunding any excess or collecting any shortfall."

Yu Sheng opened his mouth, finally organizing his words: "So... the favor is helping you do your homework? Is that... appropriate?"

"Appropriate? I had already finished my homework, but a physical entity tore it up—but the teacher didn't believe me," Little Red Riding Hood looked depressed, but when she looked at Yu Sheng, there was a smile in her eyes, the joy of being saved, "I came here today just to buy new exam papers; I had already planned to stay up all night, never expecting to meet you guys."

Yu Sheng made a bitter face: "My handwriting is different from yours; even if I try my best to imitate it, it will still be noticed."

"It's fine; they won't check it carefully when they collect it," Little Red Riding Hood waved her hand, "I'm actually quite serious about this; at least the first time I did it, I really wrote it myself; some of my classmates just directly asked others to help them..."

"Alright," Yu Sheng finally sighed, accepting the fact that many things in this world wouldn't unfold according to his expectations, stood up, took out his wallet, and handed it to the girl before him, then turned to look at Hu Li, "You follow her; if there's anything you don't understand, just ask her. Also take Erin; if anything happens, contact me through Erin."

Hu Li looked at Little Red Riding Hood, seeming a bit uneasy, but after hearing Yu Sheng's instructions, she nodded lightly.

Little Red Riding Hood, after taking the wallet, was slightly stunned for a moment, then rolled her eyes and looked up, jokingly saying, "Handing over both the person and the money to me at once—you're not afraid I'll run away?"

Yu Sheng, who was already looking down at the exam paper, raised his eyelids upon hearing this: "Aren't you not supposed to approach any door in your life anymore?"

The expression on Little Red Riding Hood's face instantly tightened, her lips twitching: "That's a bit scary..."

"Your exam paper is even scarier," Yu Sheng sighed, "Sigh... I really never expected that one day I would face high school homework again under these circumstances; by the way, I didn't have this much when I was in school back then..."

Little Red Riding Hood immediately grabbed Hu Li's hand and stepped back, waving her hand as she retreated: "Then let's go buy clothes!"

Hu Li was stunned for a moment, then hesitantly grabbed Erin and waved at Yu Sheng—she wanted to wave with her other hand, but that hand was being held by Little Red Riding Hood.

Even from several meters away, Yu Sheng could see Erin secretly baring her teeth and grimacing.

Passing through layer after layer of isolation doors and safety compartments, Song Cheng felt as if he were burrowing through the belly of a massive beast cast from reinforced concrete; after continuously passing through several checkpoints, he finally arrived at his destination for this trip.

At the end of the brightly lit underground corridor stood a heavy alloy blast door; on both sides of the blast door stood fully armed Special Bureau guards, and the door itself was engraved with dense, complex patterns that made one's eyes dizzy at a glance; the light sign above the blast door emitted a reassuring green glow, bearing the words "Deep Dive Zone - D2 Submersion Port."

Song Cheng took out his identity card and swiped it on the card reader marked "Customs Verification" beside the blast door; as the door opened, the situation opposite immediately came into his view.

A slightly distorted light curtain covered the inner side of the blast door; through the light curtain, one could see that opposite was an extremely spacious hall, brightly lit, with many large devices resembling "water tanks" neatly arranged; those "water tanks" were all three-meter-square containers, their bottoms featuring structurally complex black metal bases, and the containers were filled with a certain pale blue liquid.

Many people in white uniforms moved back and forth between those "water tanks," checking the operating status of certain tanks.

Song Cheng stepped through the door.

The instant he passed through that distorted light curtain, he felt a brief sense of weightlessness and dizziness, followed immediately by a ringing in his ears lasting several seconds; when the ringing disappeared, he heard a soft system prompt sound come through his headset: "Entered D2 Submersion Port; current Deep Dive Zone is overall located at Paning-III Station; current average depth in the hall is L-1; environment: stable."

Song Cheng shook his head, shaking off the lingering dizziness, then walked straight toward several neatly arranged "water tank" devices not far away.

He saw a figure in a white suit-skirt with long gray-white hair tied in a ponytail already standing there.

"Director!" Song Cheng walked over quickly, his tone quite surprised, "You came personally?"

"After all, this is a situation that has never occurred before," Bai Li Qing turned her head, her colorless eyes looking at Song Cheng once, "Your team members are ready."

Song Cheng nodded, looking at the six "water tank" devices before him.

Six fully armed "Deep Divers" were slowly entering the tanks with the assistance of mechanical arms; they wore pitch-black powered armor, their faces obscured by fully enclosed helmets, with only dark red monitors flickering slightly on their faces; each person also carried an extra micro-reactor backpack on their back, providing power for mental shields and specially designed observation and recording equipment.

These Deep Divers were lowered into the water tanks from above by mechanical arms, then suspended in that pale blue liquid; after a moment, a faint humming sound came from the black metal bases beneath the tanks, and the humming noise of the devices gradually rose from low to high.

A broadcast voice sounded around: "Configuring 'Deep Sea' environment; personnel please prepare for submersion... 'Umbilical Cord' ready, awaiting manual command."

A technician responsible for monitoring the "water tanks" stared at the readings on the device in his hand, and a few seconds later shouted loudly: "Connect the 'Umbilical Cord'!"

Several white-robed staff members immediately stepped forward and began manually inputting commands into each "water tank."

The pale blue liquid in the tanks began to ripple slightly; at the same time, tube-like objects resembling spines, made of black metal, rose from the bottom of the tanks; faint dark red light flickered between their metal segments, and the whole thing seemed to swim and extend within the pale blue liquid as if alive, then accurately connected to the chest position of every Deep Diver.

The broadcast voice sounded: "'Umbilical Cord' connected; inducer injected... Submersion begins."

Ripples arose in the water tanks; the pale blue liquid seemed to turn into "seawater" in the blink of an eye, or rather, each water tank seemed to become a small "slice" cut out from some vast ocean, beginning to surge simultaneously at a certain frequency.

And the next second, all the Deep Divers disappeared from Song Cheng's line of sight; only the "Umbilical Cords" connected to their powered armor remained floating in their original positions, gently undulating in the liquid, as if indicating that those Deep Divers were still inside the tanks—just no longer observable by people outside the tanks.

"Do you think this will work? What will they see?" Bai Li Qing turned her head, looking at Song Cheng.

"... The inducer will make them sink into the Spirit Realm; this will be very effective for certain types of Otherworlds, especially those with entrances based on spirit, dreams, or emotions, but to be honest... Nightfall Valley is a bit special," Song Cheng shook his head, "We still haven't found a stable method to enter and exit Nightfall Valley; using the inducer only allows observation personnel to see its shadow in hallucinations, and now that place has even developed a 'mutation'; even Passenger No. 22 doesn't know the specific situation; I suspect... the Deep Divers will return empty-handed."

Bai Li Qing nodded.

Song Cheng was about to say something more, but just then, a sharp humming sound suddenly rang out!

"Woc! Contamination!" A technician almost instantly jumped up and rushed toward the main emergency stop button nearby like a gust of wind, "Pull them back!"

The emergency stop button was slammed down; harsh static noise erupted from the bottom of every "water tank"; the pale blue liquid in the tanks was almost emptied in the blink of an eye; immediately, bright sparks erupted on the surface of every "Umbilical Cord"; the next second, the figures of the six Deep Divers instantly reappeared in the real world—they fell clumsily into the water tanks, their bodies curled up; one person tore open his faceplate and began vomiting violently on the ground, while another struggled to stand, stumbled to the edge of the tank, and forcefully pounded on the reinforced polymer tank wall, as if trying to shout something loudly to the people outside.

Song Cheng and Bai Li Qing immediately walked over.

"We reached the end of the corridor!" the Deep Diver who had struggled to stand shouted loudly; through the safety barrier of the "water tank," his voice sounded distorted and warped, "The end of the corridor! A beam of light! No Nightfall Valley, none! At the end of the corridor there is only, only... only math problems! All math problems! They are TM full-length real exam questions!!"

(End of Chapter)