Chapter 92: Accumulating Knowledge

A girl in a red coat stood beneath the streetlamp, its light spilling over her somewhat slight frame, while shadows writhed at her feet and all around her; hidden within those shadows were pairs of alert, prying eyes—one such pair noticed the "outsiders" approaching, and Little Red Riding Hood immediately detected Yu Sheng and his group as well.

"Sorry, the taxi was a bit slow," Yu Sheng said, waving to her. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Only a few minutes," Little Red Riding Hood said casually, unconcerned, before turning to look aside. "I've already sent my wolf to scout the area first; it didn't detect any abnormal changes. The 'Museum' should be very stable today, making it a good day for operations. By the way, did you read the materials I gave you?"

"I have," Yu Sheng nodded, following Little Red Riding Hood's gaze to look at the large building standing silently in the night.

But it was no "Museum"; rather, it was an old theater that had ceased public operations many years ago—except that the entrance to the so-called "Museum" lay within this very theater.

"After 'Night at the Museum' begins, do not touch exhibits emitting breathing sounds, do not stare at portrait paintings of humans for extended periods, do not enter red rooms, and if you see plastic mannequins dressed in guide uniforms, observe their gestures carefully and do not enter any doors they indicate or imply—actually, those are roughly the only rules," Little Red Riding Hood instructed with some lingering worry. "The Museum is a relatively stable Otherworld, with its Depth long maintained around L-2; as long as the rules are followed, its inherent danger is controllable, which is why its Danger Level is rated as Tier Two..."

Listening to the girl's tireless instructions, Yu Sheng couldn't help but recall the "introductory materials" he had seen in the data encyclopedia while familiarizing himself with "Border Communications" earlier.

Those materials could be said to be the greatest harvest he gained after registering with the Special Duty Bureau—a systematic, complete set of basic intelligence regarding the supernatural world, including the knowledge about Otherworld "Depth" and "Danger Level" that Li Lin and Xu Jiali had mentioned before but which he had never fully understood.

Depth, simply understood, refers to the "degree of deviation" of an Otherworld relative to the real world; with the real world as level zero, Depth increases sequentially from zero to five. An L-1 Otherworld might merely be a place that looks slightly strange, where ordinary people could even stumble in and out by accident, whereas for an L-5 Otherworld, apart from extremely rare and unrepeatable survival records, there is essentially no possibility of survival; indeed, experts dare not even confirm whether an L-5 Otherworld truly possesses an "exit."

Generally speaking, an Otherworld's Depth is relatively stable, but it may undergo small-scale fluctuations over time or under certain specific conditions; conducting exploration when an Otherworld's Depth is shallow is a prudent move, whereas sudden changes in an Otherworld's Depth are the primary cause of death for many Spirit Realm Detectives and Investigators.

Danger Level is another important "parameter" for measuring an Otherworld's threat; in most cases, Danger Level is directly proportional to an Otherworld's Depth—the "shallower" the Otherworld, the safer it is, and the "deeper" it is, the more dangerous it becomes—but this is not absolute. Some shallow Otherworlds generate eerie entities that are exceptionally terrifying, while even some L-3 level Otherworlds (a depth generally considered to belong to high-risk Otherworlds) may contain stable safe zones.

Precisely because these exceptions exist, "Danger Level" and "Depth" have become two independent parameters.

At the same time, Danger Level is not only used to measure Otherworlds but can also be used independently to measure the danger level of "Entities."

The group walked toward the entrance of the old theater.

"To be honest, by the rules, I shouldn't be taking a 'newbie' like you to a Museum, which is an L-2 level Otherworld; Spirit Realm Detectives and Investigators who have just entered the trade usually start from L-1, after all, since shallower Otherworlds are more stable and evacuation is easier," Little Red Riding Hood said as they walked. "But you guys can't exactly be counted as ordinary 'novices'—after all, since you managed to handle Nightfall Valley, aside from a lack of experience and knowledge, your strength has long exceeded the standard."

"It's no big deal; anyway, it's all about broadening our horizons," Yu Sheng said somewhat casually, then looked curiously at the girl walking beside him. "Speaking of which, I suddenly feel... you seem quite accustomed to taking care of people?"

"Why do you say that?"

"You usually look quite mature and aloof, but once you start doing things, you ramble on about so many things, especially when leading us group of 'newbies'; it's like you're a parent leading a team."

Little Red Riding Hood stopped for a few seconds, her expression becoming somewhat subtle.

But she said nothing, merely pursed her lips before continuing forward.

"You've got the concepts of Depth and Danger Level clear, right?" After walking only a few steps, she broke the silence again.

"Got it; to put it plainly, Depth means 'how weird this place is,' and Danger Level means 'how lethal this place or thing is,' right?" Yu Sheng waved his hand. "Pretty easy to understand."

"Understanding it that way... although superficial, is quite vivid," Little Red Riding Hood nodded. "The Museum's Depth is L-2, belonging to the 'standard' Otherworld Depth; it already exhibits very obvious differences from the real world, the environment itself begins to distort, and it is extremely dangerous for ordinary people, but overall, the space within it still conforms to 'common sense,' aligning with human perception and logical thinking; if you follow the rules, nothing will go wrong..."

Before the other party could finish, Yu Sheng took the initiative to continue: "A Danger Level of Tier Two means it won't actively cause death, lacking active or indiscriminate malice, but if regulations aren't followed, there remains the possibility of causing serious injury or even death—is that correct?"

"Not bad; you remember it quite solidly, so I won't worry."

Little Red Riding Hood said casually, then stopped walking.

They had already stepped through the old theater's main gate; after passing through that slightly ajar old iron door, what came into view was a hall paved with dark green tiles, with corridors leading into the interior of the theater on both sides, and directly opposite the main gate were several pitch-black ticket windows.

But what Yu Sheng noticed first was a strange device placed in the center of the hall.

It was a black-gray metal quadrangular prism, wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, about half again as tall as a person; several lights on the top of the pillar slowly brightened and dimmed, while a low, intermittent humming sound occasionally emanated from within, clearly indicating it was operating.

"This was placed by the Special Duty Bureau; we call this a 'Node,' full name 'Stabilization Node Generator,'" Little Red Riding Hood said, pointing at the metal quadrangular prism. "The low-frequency cognitive interference it releases can affect ordinary people, causing them to stay away from those identified dangerous locations within the Borderlands; actually, the effect is very weak, but it's sufficient for dealing with ordinary people who haven't undergone spiritual awakening."

"... Are there many of these things in the city?" Yu Sheng asked in astonishment, looking at the device called a "Node." "I've never noticed one before..."

Little Red Riding Hood glanced at Yu Sheng; instinctively, she wanted to say, "Because you were an ordinary person before, so you simply wouldn't get close to this thing," but she forcibly swallowed the words before they could leave her mouth.

Because she felt that even the fox beside her had a higher "human content" than Yu Sheng...

"How effective is this thing? Can it really stop all ordinary people?" Yu Sheng asked curiously again.

"The effect is good, but even the best safety measures don't have a one-hundred-percent interception rate; even if you sealed this place with reinforced concrete, there would still be people wielding hydraulic cutters and impact drills seeking their own doom," Little Red Riding Hood sighed. "There are always those stubborn-headed or uniquely gifted individuals who, despite the instinctive dizziness, blurred vision, and calf cramps, resolutely insist on going 'exploring,' or simply those who are unlucky, born with high spiritual sensitivity and thus unaffected by the Nodes; therefore, there are often unlucky fools falling into Otherworlds waiting for us to rescue them—in the end, they either become the remuneration for Spirit Realm Detectives and Investigators, or turn into sorrowful cases circulated in internal Special Duty Bureau bulletins, and in a minority of cases... after crying out to heaven and earth and undergoing psychiatric treatment, they become new Detectives, Investigators, or Special Duty Bureau agents."

"Why not just demolish this place?" Hu Li suddenly asked from the side.

"Demolish? That would create a huge mess," Little Red Riding Hood, knowing Hu Li lacked common sense in this regard, could only shrug helplessly. "What you demolish is merely an identified 'entrance'; the Otherworld itself does not exist in the real dimension. If you demolish its known and controllable entrance, no one will know where it will open next time."

Listening to Little Red Riding Hood's explanation, Yu Sheng felt emotional; seeking one's own doom was indeed a human instinct, truly impossible to stop...

Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood stepped forward again, approaching the "Node," and swiped her ID card across its top.

"Registering entry and exit information," she said, turning back and waving the document in her hand toward Yu Sheng. "Just in case we die inside, the corpse collectors will know where to retrieve us—after all, once inside an Otherworld, external communication is basically interrupted; registration at the Node is the last stop where Spirit Realm Detectives and Investigators can leave a trace in the real world."

Seeing this, Yu Sheng also took Ailin and Hu Li forward to register, remarking as he operated the device: "Luckily we got ID cards for the two of them..."

A faint humming sound emanated from the Node.

Afterwards, Little Red Riding Hood led Yu Sheng and the other two past the "Node" to the far end of the hall.

She stopped in front of those pitch-black ticket windows.

In this long-abandoned old theater, all the ticket windows had naturally been out of service long ago; of the four windows, two had been cordoned off with crisscrossed plastic caution tape, while of the remaining two, one had been emptied, revealing only piles of unwanted junk inside, whereas the other still held a ticket-printing machine—a machine covered in dust.

Little Red Riding Hood stopped before the window housing the ticket-printing machine and took out her phone to check the time.

After two or three minutes, she suddenly reached out and tapped on the glass of the ticket window.

"Night session, Night at the Museum, four tickets."

Within the hollow, unoccupied ticket window, lights suddenly appeared—although the electric lamps were shattered, a warm, bright radiance filled that dust-covered little cubicle.

It was as if an invisible ticket seller, lost in time and memory, still sat behind that window.

The old-fashioned ticket-printing machine creaked and groaned; the empty paper feeder rotated round and round, beginning to spit out admission tickets.

(End of Chapter)