"We landed on both feet!"
Irene stood on a dark stone, holding the kitchen knife with both hands with great effort. She tried to make a pose that she thought looked imposing against the night wind and shouted at the empty valley bottom.
Yu Sheng poked the doll's head with his finger, almost knocking her off the stone. "Don't be so noisy. We haven't found Hu Li yet. You'll attract the attention of 'Hunger' in advance."
"That thing doesn't sense by hearing," Irene jumped down from the stone resentfully and tightened the rope on her back. Then she looked up and observed her surroundings. "…It's really desolate, and as you said, it's very gloomy and strange. It's like something is covering the sky."
"Be careful," Yu Sheng glanced at Irene, who was so small that she hardly looked like she had any combat power. Although he knew that this doll had many strange abilities, he couldn't help but remind her at this time. "If something really happens, prioritize protecting yourself—I'm not afraid of death, but you're different. I'm not even sure if your soul can survive if this temporary body is destroyed."
"Don't worry, I'll protect myself. And to be honest, 'Hunger' is not a big threat to me," Irene looked up. "Dolls are generally not affected by mental influences. And more importantly—I don't get hungry."
"Yes, you don't get hungry, but you're usually quite gluttonous. I have to let you look at me for two seconds even when I drink water," Yu Sheng muttered and looked at his feet.
The several large plastic bags he had brought were all there, which made him instantly relieved—it was right to be so cautious and meticulous when opening the door. He had sent all the "load" through the door, so at least the beginning was smooth.
Yu Sheng bent down and easily picked up the food that was quite heavy for an ordinary person. He looked up at the front not far away.
The collapsed and dilapidated temple stood quietly in the night, not much different from when he left.
"Let's go there first. Hu Li should be nearby. I can feel it," Yu Sheng said softly and walked towards the night.
Then he had just taken two steps when he heard Irene shouting from behind, "Hey, wait! Slow down! I can't keep up!"
Yu Sheng turned his head and saw the 66.6 cm tall little doll dragging a kitchen knife with one hand and maintaining her balance with the other, circling around several large stones on the road as if crossing mountains and ridges, and then trekking on the rubble-strewn stone beach at the bottom of the valley.
She had to climb over obstacles that an ordinary person could step over in one step, or she had to go around for a long time…
Yu Sheng looked at this scene speechlessly, suddenly sighed, walked over and squatted in front of Irene. "You should still sit on my shoulder—don't say 'giddy up'!"
Irene was instantly happy and ran towards Yu Sheng with the kitchen knife. "Hey! You're so nice!"
Yu Sheng immediately shouted, "Put that thing away first! Or at least change the direction of the blade!"
Good heavens, a living doll with blood-red eyes was rushing towards his neck with a kitchen knife in the night. This scene was too terrifying.
Yu Sheng was not afraid of death, but he was afraid of this.
…
"Where did this take us," Li Lin shivered when the cold wind blew in the forest. A stronger and stronger sense of unease lingered in his heart. "Is this still the borderland…"
"Otherworld, Nightfall Valley, current depth L-3, gradually sinking towards L-4, danger assessment… according to the records, it's above level three," Xu Jiali's voice came from the side. This nearly two-meter-tall strong man had somehow connected the portable depth sounder to his eyeball. At this time, he was looking around while quickly speaking according to the information he remembered in his mind. "The classification of this Otherworld is 'wilderness'—we're in big trouble."
Li Lin's eyes slowly widened. With Xu Jiali's reminder, he finally belatedly recalled the information he had come into contact with during his training.
"Wilderness" type Otherworlds were large in scale, had no clear boundaries, and no clear exits. They required specific conditions or specific times and directions to leave; a depth of L-3 meant that they were basically completely isolated from reality and operated on rules that defied reason. Long-term stay also had a very high possibility of encountering spiritual and cognitive erosion and interference; a danger level of three meant that there was obvious malice here, something was entrenched here, and it would actively attack and try to kill intruders—its threat was fatal, and it could not be avoided or resisted by methods such as "obeying the rules."
To operate in an Otherworld of this level, it usually required at least a whole team of agents from the Special Operations Bureau, a dozen people, fully armed, and carrying heavy equipment.
And it was only for investigation missions—in other words, the goal was only to collect intelligence and then retreat alive, not to try to fight the entity here. That would require more manpower, or more senior special personnel.
Li Lin looked at his side. Including Xu Jiali, there were a total of two agents from the Special Operations Bureau on the scene. Although one of them was a deep diver, a special personnel who specialized in fighting entities, the incident happened suddenly, and this fierce man didn't bring much equipment at all.
There was also an underage "spirit world detective" who took on outsourced work on the side. It was said that she was an investigation type.
His fate was doomed.
"Give the food in your hand to that little girl over there," just then, Xu Jiali, who had the most experience on the scene, broke the silence and said seriously. "Li Lin, you and I will use this."
Li Lin quickly woke up from the感慨of "fate is doomed" and unhesitatingly carried out the instructions from the senior agent. He handed the two bowls of instant noodles in his hand directly to the still somewhat dazed Little Red Riding Hood, and then reached out to take what Xu Jiali handed over.
It was a needle-free syringe, and the light green medicinal liquid inside glowed slightly in the night.
Reason inhibitor.
Li Lin looked up in astonishment at his colleague who had already pressed the syringe against his arm.
"The entity generated here is 'Hunger,' and it has a tendency to attack mentally," the strong man said calmly. "You should also know what's going on from the name—let's take a shot first. Although the aftereffects are greater than the atomized inhaler, at least for the next forty-eight hours, it can ensure that you won't lose your judgment."
Li Lin nodded. With a "hiss," the reason inhibitor in the syringe had been injected into his body.
And Little Red Riding Hood on the side reacted instantly after hearing the name "Hunger." She immediately took a step forward. "Wait, then you guys quickly eat the things. Your bodies are still ordinary people. I can resist much more than you—and I have snacks on me…"
"Listen to me," Xu Jiali directly interrupted her. This nearly two-meter-tall strong man stood in the night, almost two heads taller than Little Red Riding Hood. He looked down at the girl in front of him, his expression unusually serious. "I know your situation."
Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, but finally said nothing more.
Xu Jiali then patted her on the shoulder, and his low voice seemed to have a reassuring power. "This is also for us—your wolf pack is our greatest hope against the entity. You have to maintain your combat effectiveness."
Li Lin watched Little Red Riding Hood squat down by a stone on the side and begin to silently eat the instant noodles that had already turned cold. He turned his head and looked at his colleague beside him with a hint of confusion.
Xu Jiali shook his head lightly and lowered his voice, "If she falls into hunger, her wolves will eat her."
In the night, the wolf pack let out uneasy whimpers in the forest.
In the cold wind, a "gaze" filled with malice was spreading in the valley.
In the ruins of the broken temple, Yu Sheng and Irene were searching carefully.
The ubiquitous stench of decay became more and more intense, and even seemed to drill into their nostrils as if it were conscious, which was extremely unpleasant.
Irene simply stopped breathing.
This made Yu Sheng very envious.
"Are you sure that fox is here?" Irene held the kitchen knife with one hand and held onto Yu Sheng's hair with the other, stretching her neck on the latter's shoulder and looking around vigorously. "I can't see anything…"
"I'm sure," Yu Sheng said casually. "I have a weak connection with her, established by blood—I also have it with you, although you may not have noticed it yourself."
"Is, is that so?" Irene looked at Yu Sheng with some suspicion, then looked down at her hands, as if she were thinking about what the "weak connection" the other party was talking about was.
And just then, a slight rustling sound suddenly came from the silent ruins, interrupting Irene's thoughts and Yu Sheng's actions.
The two of them looked up almost at the same time and at the direction where the sound came from.
A white figure carefully drilled out from behind a collapsed wall.
The silver-white fox tail swayed gently in the night, and the fluffy ears trembled slightly in the wind. The fox demon girl who had drilled out of the ruins stared at the figure standing not far away. When she finally saw who it was, she immediately smiled happily.
"Benefactor!"
Hu Li ran out from behind the broken wall, almost like a gust of wind sweeping over the broken bricks and tiles on the road. She ran around Yu Sheng twice, and then stopped in front of Yu Sheng, with pure happiness and a little disbelief on her face. "You, you really came! Benefactor, really?"
"It's me, it's me. It's real," Yu Sheng also smiled happily, and then immediately put the things in his hand on the ground. "I brought you a lot of delicious food. You don't have to be hungry from today."