Chapter 89: Highly Creative

Academy?

Seeing the message "3,000 Sinful Disciples," Yu Sheng was first confused, feeling the word "Academy" seemed somewhat familiar; immediately, he recalled something the other party had casually mentioned during his earlier conversation with Bai Liqing, as well as some intelligence he had inadvertently spotted among a pile of data while fiddling with his phone functions just now, finally matching the term to its source.

The data stated that it was an organization located beyond the Borderlands, its headquarters on a distant planet named "Terra"; the Academy specialized in knowledge transmission, archaeological discoveries, technological research and development, and combating ancient anomalies that threatened mortal sanity; essentially, it really seemed to be a "university," a university of immense scale, and most of its dispatched field personnel held the title of "Professor"...

If it were such an academic organization fond of researching strange objects, it would be quite reasonable for them to be interested in the bizarre metal device Yu Sheng had found.

But there was one problem: the Academy was not as easy to contact as other "Extranormal Organizations"—they basically only conducted exchanges at an official level with other organizations and were very mysterious in private; how could Yu Sheng, a newcomer who had just entered the field and didn't even know a few "colleagues," find a "Professor" from the Academy?

Yu Sheng frowned, hesitated slightly, and then replied to "3,000 Sinful Disciples" with a message: "How should I contact the 'Academy'? Do you have a channel for that?"

However, this time, he waited a long time but received no new reply from "3,000 Sinful Disciples"; the other party seemed to have gone offline after sending the last message.

"At least it's an added line of thought," Yu Sheng could only regretfully put his phone away after waiting a long time, then picked up that blackish metal device again, examining it closely from all angles.

He found those strange inscriptions mentioned by "3,000 Sinful Disciples" on the surface of the device—he hadn't even noticed them when taking photos earlier, yet a careful "netizen" had discovered them.

It looked like some kind of script, already somewhat worn, but because it was deeply engraved, it could still be made out; however, Yu Sheng could not understand its content and had never seen such a peculiar font, curved and composed of numerous arcs.

Just then, Yu Sheng suddenly felt his phone vibrate again.

A reply?!

He quickly took out his phone, only to find it wasn't "3,000 Sinful Disciples" with a new message, but the avatar of Little Red Riding Hood in the private messages jumping.

Opening it, the other party had sent just one sentence: "I saw the photos and messages you posted—could that thing have been picked up from your own 'home'?!

"Yes," Yu Sheng was quite open about it, "but I didn't mention that for fear of scaring others."

"Good thing you didn't say that; you spared normal people's worldview. By the way, how did you pick it up? Wutong Road No. 66 is your 'territory'; how could something you don't even recognize appear in that house?"

"There are many weird things in this house," Yu Sheng sighed as he typed, "I even picked up Erin from inside the room; all sorts of messy things keep popping up."

The small doll, peering over from the side, immediately headbutted Yu Sheng's arm: "Why drag me into this for no reason! And what do you mean by 'messy things'—am I messy?"

Yu Sheng casually ruffled Erin's head a couple of times: "I just said that to deepen the theme and strengthen the description..."

He then roughly described the process of finding that metal device in his private messages with Little Red Riding Hood, and at the end, he didn't forget to ask: "Have you seen anything similar?"

"It's normal for artificial objects to appear in the Otherworld, but for an 'external' artificial object to emerge from within an Otherworld is very strange; of course, we can't confirm yet whether that thing really came from 'outside'; it might be part of Wutong Road No. 66 itself, and you just never noticed it, after all, I don't know your situation or that of your house," Little Red Riding Hood sent another long string of messages, "As for that metal device, I haven't seen it, but I suggest you stop asking around like this on the Border Communications; on one hand, the reliable information you can provide is too little, so you probably won't find out anything, and on the other hand, all kinds of people are on the Border Communications; don't get scammed by unreliable folks."

After a short while, Little Red Riding Hood sent a new message: "You can keep it for now; if someone who likes collecting strange objects appears later, that thing might sell for a good price; you can also observe during this period to see if any similar new things will 'drop' out again; this thing looks like a part, so there might be other structures..."

Seeing the message the other party sent, Yu Sheng was stunned, then quickly edited a reply: "Can this kind of junk still sell for money?!"

This time, Little Red Riding Hood's message was clearly delayed: "... There will always be collectors interested in all sorts of strange things, especially things brought out from the Otherworld that themselves carry no danger; as long as you can prove it is indeed an 'Otherworld Recovery Item'."

"Ah, then how do you prove that? Is there a specialized agency for this kind of authentication?"

"The Special Operations Bureau has authentication qualifications; large organizations like the 'Academy,' the 'Bamosa Hermitage,' or the 'Strange/Artifact Association' also have authentication experts in this field; the certificates they issue carry high credibility... Do you need money?"

Yu Sheng hesitated for a moment, then turned his head to look at the Fox Miss who had just pulled another chicken leg out of her tail and was gnawing on it.

He felt a bit awkward while typing: "You know, I'm currently supporting two people, and Hu Li has a huge appetite... and my personal work has encountered a slight 'bottleneck period'."

The main reason for the bottleneck period was the sudden discovery that his fans had cultivated extremely outrageous fetishes in his works, leading to serious self-doubt regarding his creative direction and even his personal abilities.

Little Red Riding Hood's reply came quickly; she wasn't curious about what Yu Sheng's "personal work" was: "Then you can try to get the Special Operations Bureau to issue an authentication certificate; anyway, they will definitely believe this thing was found by you in the Otherworld—unless they don't recognize Wutong Road No. 66 as an Otherworld."

A smile appeared on Yu Sheng's face as he thought that Hu Li's food expenses and Erin's new TV were suddenly secured, but just then, he suddenly felt a stirring in his heart.

An extremely bold, highly creative, and highly tempting and practical idea crashed into his mind with a clang.

This idea shimmered with golden light—causing an unusual gleam to flash in his eyes as well: "Wait, does this mean anything brought out from the Otherworld that has no harmful effects can undergo this kind of authentication?!"

It took nearly half a minute for Little Red Riding Hood to send back an "Huh?"

Then, before Yu Sheng could type again, she quickly sent another sentence: "Wait, I think I guess what you're going to do! Do you want to..."

Yu Sheng glanced around the living room.

Everywhere looked valuable.

Even the moldy, peeling wallpaper in the corner seemed to be gilded with gold...

But the next second, his phone vibrated continuously; Little Red Riding Hood sent a string of messages in rapid succession: "Collectors have standards for collecting things, okay! At the very least, it has to look like a rare item with a story! At the very least, when they go out to brag, they can't be holding things like a pair of plastic slippers, old newspapers, or beverage bottles! How did you come up with this—"

Yu Sheng was stunned by this barrage of messages; he could almost directly feel the immense shock and awe of a certain high school girl from between the lines.

At the same time, at the edge of another old district within Border City, Little Red Riding Hood, lying in her room, stared blankly at her phone after sending the message, unable to regain her composure for a long time.

Her face was indeed filled with shock and awe.

"Still not sleeping?" a young female voice came from above; immediately, a face appeared at the edge of the top bunk—a girl with long black hair who looked a year or two younger than Little Red Riding Hood; she glanced at the phone in Little Red Riding Hood's hand, recognized the interface on the screen, "Border Communications—any new messages? Got a job?"

"No, just chatting with someone, hugely shocked," Little Red Riding Hood said casually.

"Something that can hugely shock you? Someone posting pictures of running naked on the public message board?"

Little Red Riding Hood didn't even look up: "There's an entity wanting to sell off its assets to get rich."

The girl on the top bunk instantly slipped her elbow, unable to hold onto the bed edge, and fell from above—but fortunately, halfway down, her hair wrapped around the supports on both sides of the iron bunk bed, so she hung beside Little Red Riding Hood's bed like a midnight vengeful spirit, swaying as she spoke: "Is this a new horror discussion thread?"

"Long Hair, can you stop talking to me in such a horror state?" Little Red Riding Hood couldn't help but roll her eyes at the "roommate" hanging on the bunk bed; a girl in a white nightgown hanging by her hair in the dorm at night, who would visit and not be scared half to death? "And I'm not joking; let's discuss this seriously. If there is an Otherworld where an entity identical to humans lives, and this entity can not only run out freely but also has a legal identity in the human world, then can he..."

The girl hanging on the bed thought seriously for a moment, her face showing shock: "I know, it's the one you've been contacting recently... Oh no! He really found a bug!"

(End of Chapter)