Chapter 95: Relocation

Chapter 95: Relocation

“Weren’t you the one who said these things wouldn’t attack us on their own?” During a dangerous exchange, Yu Sheng narrowly dodged a plastic telescopic baton that swept past his face and shouted toward Little Red Riding Hood, who was directing the wolf pack’s counterattack nearby.

The baton in the plastic security guard’s hand smashed into the wall beside him. A shower of dazzling sparks erupted, accompanied by the sound of metal striking stone.

Yu Sheng spun around and grabbed the plastic security guard’s arm, slamming it to the ground and forcefully snapping the limb off.

This time, however, he did not break it in half at the waist or twist off its head as he had before.

Because during the brief fight, he had noticed a pattern.

Once these plastic mannequins were smashed into a pile of parts, or once their damage reached a certain threshold, their “repair” mechanism would immediately activate. Within seconds they would be restored to perfect condition. Simply breaking their limbs and crippling them, on the other hand, greatly reduced their threat while avoiding the repair trigger.

“I don’t know what’s going on either!” Little Red Riding Hood fought while retreating alongside the wolf pack. Having secured a position in one corner of the exhibition hall, she resisted the constant influx of Security Guard Entities while shouting rapidly, “I’m certain we haven’t violated any museum rules along the way. Under normal circumstances, these security guards shouldn’t even appear!”

Yu Sheng opened his mouth, about to say something else, when another burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the corridor at the far end of the hall.

One swaying, ridiculous figure after another ran out of the passageway.

Irene’s black spider threads had just trapped two charging plastic mannequins. Before she could even catch her breath, she heard the commotion from the corridor and glanced over.

“Holy crap... more of them?!” she cried. “Do these entities spawn infinitely?!”

“Infinitely,” Little Red Riding Hood answered quickly. “Until the evening performance ends, or all the actors die. Another way is to get out of sight of every security guard. That can temporarily stop the museum from dispatching more of them. They only move proactively to search for intruders when they first spawn. Once the intruders disappear from their field of vision, they stop moving. On the other hand, as long as they can still see you, more and more entities will continue appearing around you!”

Hearing this, Yu Sheng immediately looked up toward the only door leading out of the hall besides the corridor.

However, that doorway had also been occupied by plastic mannequins.

The entire exhibition hall had neither blind spots nor openings through which they could break out.

They could not afford to remain entangled here.

“Fall back first! Retreat somewhere without any security guards!” After a brief moment of thought, Yu Sheng shouted to the others and immediately ran toward Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf pack. “Everyone gather around me! Hu Li, clear out some space! Block that corridor for now!”

Hu Li responded immediately.

Then came a loud Hum! as her fox tails suddenly spread wide.

Large masses of eerie and dangerous foxfire blazed around them. The expanding ring of flames rapidly warped several nearby plastic mannequins from the heat.

Then the demon fox girl spun around sharply.

Two silver-white tails suddenly erupted with brilliant propulsion flashes, detached from her body, and shot toward the corridor with roaring shrieks.

“Fox Carrot Missiles!” Hu Li shouted dramatically.

Before her words had even finished, a violent explosion erupted in the corridor.

Even by the standards of the Other Domain, the entire building shook violently under the impact of the great monster’s twin tail strikes.

One corner of the hall collapsed. The walls near the corridor caved in, completely burying the opening through which the security guards had been pouring.

Yet only a second later, the collapsed area began trembling violently.

The steel and concrete writhed as if alive, attempting to restore themselves.

Arms and legs clad in security uniforms suddenly thrust out from among the rubble. The battered plastic mannequins struggled free of the debris in a horrifying display and continued crawling into the hall.

But for Yu Sheng, those few seconds were enough.

With Irene on his shoulder, he reached out and pulled open a faintly glowing illusory door.

“This way!”

For him, concepts like encirclement and sealed escape routes simply did not exist.

They might not be able to win a fight, but they could definitely run away.

Trusting Yu Sheng completely, Little Red Riding Hood led the wolf pack through the door without hesitation.

Hu Li retreated as well.

Before entering, she grabbed one of her tails and aimed its tip at the remaining Security Guard Entities still flooding into the hall.

One small foxfire orb after another shot from the tail tip like machine-gun bullets.

”Ratatatatat!”

“Fox Carrot Machine Gun!” the demon fox girl announced while firing and finding time to glance back at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng said, “What kind of ridiculous names are those? Get in there already!”

Hu Li immediately replied with an “Oh.”

She hugged her tail and fired one final burst into the hall. After completing her suppressive fire, she turned and leaped through the door.

Yu Sheng and Irene prepared to follow.

But at that moment, a plastic mannequin that had previously been hidden in one of Hu Li’s blind spots suddenly crawled up from the side.

Its body had been warped and twisted by the foxfire’s heat. Its rigid face had shriveled and distorted from the temperature, somehow taking on the appearance of anger.

Dragging its deformed limbs behind it, it lunged forward and seized Yu Sheng’s ankle.

The grip was as powerful as a hydraulic clamp.

Ignoring it completely, Yu Sheng dragged the twisted plastic mannequin across the threshold and then severed the passage before it could follow.

The plastic mannequin’s arm was instantly sliced off by the door.

Silence descended around them.

The endlessly spawning security guards, the explosions of the Fox Carrot Missiles, the collapsing and burning hall, all seemed like distant hallucinations.

But Yu Sheng was gradually getting used to it.

Every time he crossed a door, there was a strange sense of unreality caused by the abrupt environmental shift. This was far from his first experience.

He looked up.

On either side stretched a spacious corridor lined with glass display cases containing ordinary exhibits.

Little Red Riding Hood was vigilantly observing the surroundings. Seven or eight shadowy wolves prowled and flickered into existence around her.

Hu Li stood with both hands clutching a tail, watching the end of the corridor with caution.

She looked as though she were dual-wielding Barrett rifles.

The security guards had not followed them.

No new entities were appearing in the surrounding air either.

Just as Little Red Riding Hood had said, once they escaped the sight of every security guard simultaneously, the museum’s pursuit would temporarily cease.

“This is one of the corridors we passed through before,” Little Red Riding Hood broke the silence. “I thought you’d open a door and leave the museum entirely.”

“Wouldn’t that make tonight’s whole trip a waste?” Yu Sheng let out a breath. “And the inhibitor, inducer, or whatever drugs you injected before coming here would have been wasted too. From the way you described them, they sound expensive. Besides, don’t you think it’s strange? Why would those security guards suddenly start attacking people? That’s different from the information you had before. Something must have happened inside this museum. It doesn’t sit right with me if we don’t investigate.”

“Under normal circumstances, the most cautious option is to leave as soon as possible whenever an Other Domain undergoes unexplained changes.” Little Red Riding Hood glanced at him.

Then her tone shifted.

“But you’re right. Otherwise this trip would have been pointless. As long as the risks remain manageable, continuing to investigate changes within an Other Domain can sometimes yield tremendous rewards.”

“Right. If things really start looking bad, we’ll leave immediately.” Yu Sheng nodded.

Then his gaze fell on Hu Li.

The demon fox girl flashed him a proud smile.

Clearly, she was very pleased with her performance in the sky-blue exhibition hall earlier.

“...You really showed your stuff. Nicely done,” Yu Sheng admitted.

Then he could not help adding:

“Though those techniques of yours... why do they suddenly have names now? Who came up with them?”

“Irene,” Hu Li said cheerfully, betraying her friend without the slightest hesitation. “I described the various ways I use my tails, and she gave me all kinds of names! I even have one that’s still in development. It’s called Fox Carrot Char...”

Before she could finish, Yu Sheng turned toward the doll on his shoulder.

“I knew it couldn’t have been anyone else. What kind of awful names are these?!”

“I spent a long time seriously thinking them up! How are they awful names?” Irene instantly perked up, despite having been exhausted from repeatedly using her powers only moments ago. She planted her hands on her hips and spoke with complete confidence. “Just look at her tails. Isn’t it fitting? I even used an extremely clever pun...”

Then she lowered her voice and muttered:

“Actually, at first the rapid-fire foxfire attack was going to be called Fox Carrot Pew. But we decided it didn’t sound formal enough...”

The veins on Yu Sheng’s forehead throbbed visibly.

But he quickly comforted himself.

At least they hadn’t called it Fox Tail Pew...

Little Red Riding Hood stood quietly nearby, watching the bizarre scene before her and listening to the exchanges between Yu Sheng, the doll, and the demon fox.

...Strange, absurd, ridiculous, yet somehow governed by its own internal logic.

Everything about them clashed completely with their surroundings.

They did not resemble spirit world detectives carrying out an Other Domain operation.

Yet neither were they ignorant thrill-seeking novices wandering around on a sightseeing trip.

On the contrary, she could tell they were serious.

Yu Sheng was serious. The doll currently arguing over whether Fox Carrot was a brilliant pun was serious. Even the somewhat muddle-headed demon fox was serious.

All of them treated this place seriously. They treated what they were doing here seriously. They treated the situations they faced seriously.

It was simply that they approached everything with a mindset and attitude no normal person would possess.

From the perspective of a “normal human,” Little Red Riding Hood found it difficult to understand the atmosphere and behavior of the Inn trio.

Naturally, she could not say whether their state of mind was right or wrong.

She merely let out a quiet breath and sat atop a wolf’s back, slowly recovering her strength.

This truly was the strangest experience she had ever had in her life.

To encounter a group of such interesting “people” before reaching adulthood was not bad at all.