Chapter 99: Evil Wolf

Little Red Riding Hood showed no reaction to the giant wolf in the shadow that attacked from behind—her mind seemed firmly pinned in place by something, leaving her entire body in a dazed state.

But Yu Sheng had already reacted instantly; he kicked the ground with the fastest speed he had ever mustered in his life, even cratering the solid marble floor, then launched himself at the girl in red like a cannonball.

The moment he pushed Little Red Riding Hood aside, he felt excruciating pain as sharp teeth tore into his shoulder.

However, before that strange "giant wolf" could deliver another fatal bite, countless pitch-black threads rapidly sealed every opening behind Yu Sheng, piercing the wolf shadow and binding the seemingly intangible monster layer by layer; then a burst of scorching fox fire suddenly rose, Hu Li, completely enveloped in azure flames, flew over Yu Sheng with afterimages and explosive roars, slamming hard into the massive humanoid wolf.

A thunderous crash shook the entire exhibition hall; this was the headbutt Hu Li unleashed in her rage after eating her fill, incomparable to the headbutt that once killed Yu Sheng—Yu Sheng felt a gale nearly blow him away, while the giant wolf was directly smashed by the fox girl's headbutt into a vast, splattered mass of ink-like black shadow.

Yet merely two or three seconds later, that black shadow reformed; pure physical damage seemed to have no effect on it; a headbutt capable of piercing main battle tank armor only caused the thing to disintegrate for a brief moment before it stood upright again, its blurred, distorted head opening a pair of blood-red eyes that fixed their gaze on Yu Sheng.

Its sharp teeth still bore Yu Sheng's blood, looking especially ferocious and eerie.

"What the hell is this?!" Irene gasped upon seeing this, then immediately raised both hands, weaving black threads like spiderwebs once more to try and hold back this unkillable shadow, while shouting at Hu Li, "Stupid fox! Stop headbutting! This thing might be unkillable!"

But the instant Irene's words fell, that massive humanoid wolf suddenly froze, stiffening in mid-air in a posture ready to pounce on Yu Sheng.

Howls rose and fell; those "wolf packs" that had previously frozen along with Little Red Riding Hood's daze suddenly regained mobility; howling, they fiercely lunged at that rigid giant wolf shadow suspended in mid-air; in the shocked gazes of Yu Sheng, Irene, and Hu Li, these "pups," tiny compared to the giant wolf, gnawed and tore, instantly shredding the monster that could withstand a single headbutt from Hu Li into pieces.

The pitch-black fragments fluttered down to the ground, reforming into a shadow as dense as ink, gradually returning behind Little Red Riding Hood.

Yu Sheng noticed the blood gradually fading from the latter's eyes; a shred of sanity returned to the girl's gaze; a moment later, she blinked, fully awake.

"Are you okay?" "Are you okay?"

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood shouted at each other almost simultaneously.

Then the two fell silent together, a low atmosphere briefly lingering in the white exhibition hall.

"What just happened?" Yu Sheng broke the silence first, looking seriously at the girl in red before him, "That half-human, half-wolf thing emerged from your shadow."

Irene silently approached Yu Sheng's side, the expression on the small doll's face subtly tinged with wariness.

Hu Li nearby was much the same.

"... Those were the 'wolves' hunting me, a curse brought by the 'Fairy Tale'," Little Red Riding Hood lowered her head, controlling her gaze to avoid looking at the evil sacrificial scene in the center of the hall, "The person over there, who replaced the 'Lamentor' statue and was sacrificed in the exhibition hall, carried intense mental pollution; I saw things I shouldn't have, causing that 'evil wolf' to briefly enter the real world. Sorry, I also caused you injury."

Yu Sheng turned to look at his shoulder; quite a lot of blood had flowed out, but he could feel the wound already beginning to heal.

"The injury isn't serious, but your 'loss of control' was severe—you just said this is a curse brought by the 'Fairy Tale', but isn't 'Fairy Tale' the name of your organization?"

Little Red Riding Hood fell silent for two seconds, then spoke softly: "...'Fairy Tale' is a foreign realm."

Afterwards, she silently reached into her personal bag and pulled out an item.

It was a needleless syringe; the liquid inside the syringe's glass tube emitted a faint fluorescent glow.

Yu Sheng immediately saw that this thing must be very expensive—because Little Red Riding Hood clearly hesitated and felt the sting when injecting it into her own body.

"Rest assured, I won't lose control again, at least not during this operation," after injecting the medicine from the syringe into her body, Little Red Riding Hood finally let out a soft sigh, looked up at Yu Sheng, and said, "The reward for this operation... if there can be any reward given this situation, it all goes to you."

Yu Sheng frowned in confusion: "Why?"

Little Red Riding Hood sighed: "I dragged the team down; we follow the rules."

"Oh, that's not necessary; let's just split it as agreed before—what just happened was an accident; accidents happen during team operations; it doesn't count as dragging the team down," Yu Sheng waved his hand somewhat casually, then a strange smile appeared on his face, "Compared to small issues like reward splits and 'dragging the team down', I have something else I care more about."

Little Red Riding Hood paused, looking at Yu Sheng's eyes with incomprehension.

"Curiosity; I'm interested in that 'Fairy Tale' foreign realm you mentioned, and the curse on you—if I'm not mistaken, the curse on all of you," Yu Sheng said seriously, his eyes even shining slightly, "I want to know what exactly is going on with you, why you are cursed by a foreign realm, and why you use the name of that foreign realm as your organization's name."

Yu Sheng's gaze was exceptionally sincere; yet, meeting that line of sight, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly felt for some reason a...

Fear and trembling.

It wasn't sensing any malice, nor was it fear of Yu Sheng himself; she couldn't say what it was, only feeling as if she were facing something blazing, pure, devoid of malice yet far beyond human understanding—was that merely curiosity?

She hesitated; although she normally wouldn't mention the organization's secrets to others, her hesitation now clearly mixed with other emotions.

However, under Yu Sheng's gaze, her hesitation finally yielded.

She slowly nodded: "If you really want to know, I can tell you—but it's a very long story."

"Alright, then we'll wait until we have time later," Yu Sheng nodded readily, his mood improving, "This situation really isn't suitable for listening to stories... after all, there's such a mess waiting to be cleaned up."

He raised his head, looking at the sacrificed victim.

The brief and dangerous chaos just now caused considerable damage in the exhibition hall; large craters from impacts or scorched marks from fox fire were visible everywhere on the nearby ground and walls, but since the matter was resolved in time, it did not spread to the display platform in the center of the hall.

Only two "guards" were knocked to the ground by the shockwave from Hu Li's headbutt, yet their silver-white fox tails still firmly covered the plastic mannequin heads; these "entities" that strictly followed rules lay motionless on the ground, looking strange yet slightly comical.

"... Would a 'guard' do this?" Yu Sheng looked at the dead victim and asked Little Red Riding Hood curiously.

"No," Little Red Riding Hood immediately shook her head; after injecting an extra dose of sanity-blocking agent, she could finally observe the evil sacrifice, though a slight static noise would appear in her head every time her gaze turned that way, "'Guards' only simply kill violators in the museum; they wouldn't perform such a complex and obviously symbolic 'sacrifice'. This kind of thing... is more likely done by a human."

"So someone really entered the museum before us, stole the 'Lamentor' originally placed here in advance, and placed a living person as a sacrifice here," Yu Sheng frowned more tightly as he spoke, "... this series of actions also activated the 'guards' in the museum, causing us to be attacked?"

"That is a reasonable deduction," Little Red Riding Hood nodded lightly, but seeing Yu Sheng standing beside that "altar" as if nothing were wrong, she finally couldn't help but speak, "You... looking at this sacrifice, do you feel nothing? You didn't use a sanity-blocking agent beforehand either?"

"Nope," Yu Sheng shrugged, "I don't even know where you bought that sanity-blocking agent you mentioned; I suspect I haven't even finished the newbie tutorial yet—and you said you were polluted when you saw the person on that platform, but I didn't feel anything."

Little Red Riding Hood blinked, then looked at Irene nearby.

"Dolls aren't afraid of mere mental pollution!" Irene put her hands on her hips.

Little Red Riding Hood then looked at Hu Li on the other side.

"She withstood 'Hunger' alone in the Night Valley for decades," Yu Sheng reminded, "making 'Hunger' so anxious it almost grew a brain."

Little Red Riding Hood: "..."

What kind of people are these!

(End of Chapter)