Little Red Riding Hood had no reaction to the giant wolf shadow that attacked from behind—it was as if her mind was firmly nailed in place, her entire being in a state of stupor.

But Yu Sheng had already reacted violently, kicking off the ground with the fastest speed he had ever displayed in his life, so forcefully that he even caved a deep pit into the solid marble floor. Then, like a cannonball, he threw himself towards the girl in red.

The very next second after pushing Little Red Riding Hood away, he felt a sharp pain tearing through his shoulder from the fangs.

However, before that strange "giant wolf" could deliver a fatal bite again, numerous pitch-black threads had already swiftly sealed off all the gaps behind Yu Sheng, piercing the wolf shadow and binding the seemingly incorporeal monster in layers. Then, a surge of scorching Fox Fire flared up; Hu Li, wrapped in ghostly blue flames, brought a trail of afterimages and a booming sound as she flew over Yu Sheng's head, viciously smashing onto the massive wolf-like figure.

The thunderous boom rocked the entire exhibition hall; this was the headbutt from an enraged Hu Li, full and satisfied from her meal—not at all comparable to the one that killed Yu Sheng once before. Yu Sheng felt an Astral Wind nearly blow him away, while the giant wolf was directly smashed into a massive spray of ink-like black shadow by the demon fox girl's headbutt.

Yet, merely two or three seconds later, the black shadow reassembled itself. Simple physical damage seemed to have no effect on it; a headbutt that could pierce through an armored tank's armor only managed to disintegrate this entity for a moment before it stood up again, its blurred and twisted head bearing a pair of blood-red eyes focused on Yu Sheng.

Its fangs were still smeared with Yu Sheng's blood, making it look especially ferocious and eerie.

"What the hell is this thing?!" Erin gasped sharply upon seeing this, quickly raising her hands again to weave spiderweb-like black threads, trying to hold back this indestructible shadow, and loudly shouting to Hu Li, "Silly fox! Stop ramming it! We might not be able to kill this thing!"

But just as Erin's words fell, the massive wolf-like figure suddenly became static, hanging in midair with a pose ready to pounce on Yu Sheng.

Wolf howls were intermingled, as those "Wolf Packs" that had become still alongside Little Red Riding Hood's stupor suddenly regained their mobility. They howled and ferociously pounced toward the suspended giant wolf shadow; in the stunned gaze of Yu Sheng, Erin, and Hu Li, these wolves, seemingly feeble compared to the giant wolf, gnawed and tore at it, and almost instantly shredded the beast that had resisted a headbutt from Hu Li into fragments.

The black Fragments fluttered to the ground, slowly converging again into a dense, ink-like shadow, trickling back behind Little Red Riding Hood.

Yu Sheng noticed the blood gradually leaving the latter's eyes, a trace of sanity returning to the girl's gaze. Moments later, she blinked and fully woke up.

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

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

Then the two of them quieted down together, as a somber atmosphere briefly lingered in the white exhibition hall.

"What just happened?" Yu Sheng was the first to break the silence, seriously looking at the girl in red before him, "That half-man, half-wolf thing came out of your shadow."

Erin silently approached Yu Sheng, her doll-like face displaying a subtle wariness.

Hu Li was much the same.

"...That was a 'wolf' that is hunting me, the 'curse' brought by 'Fairy Tales'," Little Red Riding Hood said, head lowered, avoiding looking directly at the eerie sacrificial scene in the center of the exhibition hall, "That, over there, that person sacrificed in the exhibition hall instead of the 'Wailer' statue, was carrying a strong psychic contamination. I saw something I shouldn't have, which caused the 'Evil Wolf' to briefly cross over into the real world. I'm sorry, and I got you hurt as well."

Yu Sheng glanced at his shoulder, which was bleeding quite a bit, but he could feel the wound beginning to heal.

"The injury isn't serious, but your 'loss of control' is—You just mentioned this is a 'curse' brought by 'Fairy Tales', but isn't Fairy Tales the name of your organization?"

Little Red Riding Hood was silent for two seconds before softly responding, "...'Fairy Tales' is an Exotic Realm."

Then she silently reached into her bag and took something out.

It was a needleless syringe, the glass tube of the syringe filled with a slightly glowing liquid.

Yu Sheng instantly recognized that this thing must be expensive—since Little Red Riding Hood hesitated and winced a bit as she injected the substance into her body.

"Don't worry, I won't lose control again, at least not during this mission," after injecting the medicine from the syringe into her body, Little Red Riding Hood let out a soft sigh and raised her head to look at Yu Sheng, "The payment for this mission... if there's still a reward to be had after this, it's all yours."

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow in confusion: "Why?"

Little Red Riding Hood let out a sigh: "I'm holding the team back, it's only fair to follow the rules."

"Oh, that's not necessary. We can just split it as we agreed before—what happened just now was an accident. When you're working in a team, accidents happen; it shouldn't count as holding anyone back," Yu Sheng said dismissively with a wave of his hand, followed by a mysterious smile, "Besides, I'm more interested in other things than the issue of how to split the reward or who's holding the team back."

Little Red Riding Hood paused, her eyes filled with puzzlement as she looked into Yu Sheng's eyes.

"Curiosity. I'm interested in that 'Fairy Tales' Exotic Realm you mentioned, and the curse that's on you—if I'm not mistaken, the curse that's on all of you," Yu Sheng said earnestly, his eyes even sparkled a bit, "I want to know what exactly is going on with you all. Why would you be cursed by an Exotic Realm, and why would you take the name of this realm for your organization."

Yu Sheng's gaze was filled with sincerity, yet counterintuitively, facing his look, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly felt a sense of...

Fear and trembling.

It wasn't that she sensed any malice, nor was it fear of Yu Sheng himself. She couldn't explain it; she felt as if she was confronting something fervent, pure, and benevolent yet beyond human comprehension—was it merely curiosity?

She hesitated. Although she wouldn't usually speak of the organization's secrets to others, this hesitation was clearly mixed with other emotions.

But under Yu Sheng's gaze, her hesitation ultimately gave way.

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

"Okay, then we'll wait until we have time," Yu Sheng nodded readily, his mood lifting, "The situation right now indeed doesn't suit storytelling... after all, there's still such a mess waiting to be tidied up."

He looked up at the sacrifice.

The brief but hazardous chaos caused significant destruction in the exhibition hall, with large pits smashed into the ground and walls and scorch marks from the Fox Fire visible everywhere. But because the incident was resolved promptly, the central display in the gallery remained untouched.

Only two "Security Guards" had been knocked to the ground by the shockwave from Hu Li's headbutt, yet the silver-white Fox Tail still firmly covered the dummy's head, these "entities" strictly adhering to the rules laid motionless on the floor, their figures both eerie and slightly comic.

"...Could this have been the work of the 'Security Guards'?" Yu Sheng looked at the dead sacrifice and inquired curiously to Little Red Riding Hood.

"No," Little Red Riding Hood immediately shook her head. After administering an extra dose of the Sanity Blocker, she could finally observe the sinister sacrifice, though every time her gaze shifted in that direction her head filled with a faint noise, "'Security Guards' only straightforwardly eliminate the rule-breakers within the Museum; they wouldn't perform such a complex and symbolic 'sacrifice.' This kind of act... looks more like the work of humans."

"So someone really did enter the museum before us and stole the 'Wailer' that was supposed to be here, replacing it with a living person as a sacrifice," Yu Sheng concluded, frowning ever more tightly, "…And this series of actions also triggered the Museum's 'Security Guards,' leading to our attack?"

"That's a reasonable deduction," Little Red Riding Hood nodded slightly but seeing Yu Sheng standing nonchalantly next to that "altar," she couldn't help but speak up, "You... watching this sacrifice, don't feel anything? You didn't take a Sanity Blocker in advance?"

"Nope," Yu Sheng shrugged, "I don't even know where to buy that Sanity Blocker you mentioned, and I suspect I haven't even finished the beginner tutorials yet—besides, you said when you saw the person on this platform you were contaminated, but I didn't feel a thing."

Little Red Riding Hood blinked, then turned to look at Erin beside her.

"Dolls have no fear of mere mental corruption!" Erin declared, hands on her hips.

Little Red Riding Hood then turned to look at Hu Li on the other side.

"She's been fending off 'Hunger' alone in Nightfall Valley for decades," Yu Sheng reminded, "She almost drove 'Hunger' insane with frustration."

Little Red Riding Hood: "..."

What a bunch of characters!

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