Chapter 100: Communication with the Dead

It had to be admitted that there were levels even among peers—the difference between one Spiritual Realm Detective and another could be massive. Some people had to take two shots of medicine just to look at a cursed object, and when they calculated their gains later, even their ribs ached. Others were like the legendary investigators in those stories—when they saw an anomalous realm, they kicked the door open and waded right in, beating the entities inside to a pulp…

But Little Red Riding Hood quickly adjusted her mindset and chose not to bother with this “Hotel Trio” in front of her. After all, based on the assessment from the Special Duty Bureau (and her own judgment), the three members of this whole “Hotel” didn’t add up to a single “person.” One of them was probably a high-risk entity, and what decent person compared “anomalous realm adaptability” with an entity?

Yu Sheng, however, had no idea what the red-clad girl was suddenly thinking about in her silence. He just circled the eerie, terrifying “sacrificed one” one more time, trying to find more clues, and asked curiously, “But say this was done by a human—how twisted would that person have to be? I can understand sneaking in to steal things, since we’re basically here to steal too. But after stealing, to pull a stunt like this… what’s the point?”

“A sinister religious ritual—the sacrifice was probably the main goal. Taking the ‘Weeping One’ statue might have been incidental,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “People who do this kind of thing are usually certain cultists or extremists. They hope to gain powerful strength, enlightenment, blessings, or the ‘attention’ of some weird existence by offering a sacrifice to the anomalous realm. And judging from the strong psychic contamination this ‘sacrificed one’ already produced, the person who performed this sacrifice… is an ‘expert.’”

“There are people like that?!” Yu Sheng’s eyes widened in surprise. “There are people who ‘follow’ the anomalous realm—a creepy thing like that?”

“They don’t follow the anomalous realm. They follow power and things of a higher dimension. The anomalous realm is just the most convenient path they can find to transcendence—of course there are such people, and quite a few,” Little Red Riding Hood sighed, revealing another side of the truth about this world to Yu Sheng, who knew nothing. “The Order of the Sacred Hermits, the Black Dot Group, the Angel Cultists, and those drifting through the anomalous realms—the ‘Converts’ Assembly,’ who might not even count as human anymore—any of them could do something like this.”

She paused, her expression becoming complicated. “The anomalous realm… many people have suffered from it. This thing exists in the Borderlands, and outside the Borderlands as well. We can save a lot of people, but many more weren’t rescued in time and fell into… the ‘other side’ of the world, never to return.

“Those who weren’t saved but didn’t die either went mad, were taken away by the groups I mentioned, or completely turned into something non-human. The various effects within the anomalous realm have a huge impact on the human mind. Being seduced by power, deceived by illusions, controlled by false memories—this happens all the time.

“Actually, if you think about it, you should know. With so many bizarre anomalous realms and dangerous entities, not everyone can stay strong-willed and hold on to their humanity forever when they come into contact with them. There are always people who go down the wrong path, it’s just that…”

“Just that?” Yu Sheng was listening seriously to this new information and asked instinctively when he heard her stop.

“Just that this kind of ‘illegal intrusion’ is unusual in the Borderlands,” Little Red Riding Hood said in a grave tone. “The entire Borderlands is monitored by the ‘Node Network.’ How did this ‘intruder’ sneak into the museum?”

“Well, that’ll be a headache for the Special Duty Bureau. The ‘Nodes’ are their setup. If there’s really a loophole there, the fun’s going to be huge.”

Yu Sheng shook his head as he spoke, then walked toward the sacrificial victim on the platform.

Seeing this, Little Red Riding Hood immediately exclaimed, “What are you doing?”

“Taking him down,” Yu Sheng said matter-of-factly. “The guy’s dead. He shouldn’t have to suffer anymore. I saw it, so I can’t just leave it.”

“Be careful of curses! It’s best to leave this to the Special Duty Bureau’s Deep Div…” Little Red Riding Hood instinctively warned, but halfway through she shut her mouth.

The Deep Divers from the Special Duty Bureau could come in fully equipped, and they probably wouldn’t have as much ‘resistance’ as this man in front of her…

“Do we need to preserve the scene?” Yu Sheng turned around, asking Little Red Riding Hood curiously.

“…Yeah,” Little Red Riding Hood thought for a moment, then nodded. “It’s best if we don’t touch anything. Leave this to the professionals.”

“Oh.” Yu Sheng figured that made sense, so he could only sigh regretfully. He had already reached the platform, observed how the iron thorns were wrapped, and found an opening. He had been gripping the thornless part, ready to pull hard, but considering the need to “preserve the scene,” he let go. After a brief hesitation, he nodded toward the kneeling victim on the platform. “Sorry about that, buddy. I’m not a professional either—once we get out, I’ll report to the… report to the Special Duty Bureau and have them send someone to take you out. Bear with it here a little longer.”

Little Red Riding Hood looked at Yu Sheng with a strange expression. He soon noticed her gaze and turned his head. “What’s wrong?”

Little Red Riding Hood almost blurted out, “I didn’t think you had that much humanity in you,” but she barely stopped herself and changed it to: “…I didn’t expect you to be so compassionate. Too many people get hurt in anomalous realms. A lot of people get used to it—when they see a victim, they just mourn silently in their hearts, then go out and report it so the Special Duty Bureau can send a corpse collector. Very few people care as much as you do… you even talk to the dead.”

When she finished, Hu Li, standing nearby, frowned slightly. “Isn’t that a bit cold?”

Little Red Riding Hood sighed. “After all, in the anomalous realm, ‘corpses’ themselves often become dangerous factors. It’s not uncommon for the body of a victim to become the next perpetrator.”

Yu Sheng waved his hand. “Can’t be helped. I’m a rookie—I don’t know about this stuff.”

As he spoke, his fingertips accidentally brushed the edge of the platform.

He touched the nearly dried blood.

Silence instantly fell around him.

Everything happened in a split second. At first, Yu Sheng didn’t even register what was happening—he saw Little Red Riding Hood, Eileen, and Hu Li suddenly freeze in place. Then, all the colors in the hall rapidly faded, becoming dim and oppressive. A monotonous grayscale covered the entire exhibition hall. In this suddenly frozen, quiet world, he stood dumbfounded for two or three seconds before hearing a faint creaking sound from behind him.

It sounded like stiff joints straining to turn—against the backdrop of such silence, the abrupt noise was even somewhat jarring.

Yu Sheng slowly turned his neck.

The corpse on the platform, tangled in iron thorns and bled dry, also slowly turned its neck.

One was gradually becoming horrified, the other covered in blood.

“What the—” Yu Sheng instinctively cried out, but he cut himself off mid-shout because he heard the corpse in front of him speak.

“The one who killed me…” The corpse’s lips moved, producing a hoarse, strained voice. “The one who killed me is… is…”

Even though Yu Sheng had no idea what was going on, hearing this he was practically frantic. “Get to the point! Don’t worry about grammar!”

Then he saw the corpse suddenly take a breath—

“The ones who killed me are Angel Cultists, two men. One is about one meter seventy, stocky, dark-skinned, short hair, wears glasses, in his thirties, with a mole on his forehead. The other is about one meter eighty, very skinny, bald, high nose bridge, in his forties, wears a silver watch on his left hand. While they were working, they kept repeating sentences like ‘You will help Him descend’ and ‘Save the Lord from suffering.’ Heavy accent from the South City Wusong Estuary. They didn’t take the Weeping One statue—they tossed it into the opposite hallway. They weren’t interested in that; they came just for the sacrificial ritual. It hurt so much…”

The corpse rattled off a long string at an astonishing speed, even biting its tongue once or twice in the middle. Then suddenly the whole body relaxed, its head tilted back slightly, looking at the white ceiling of the exhibition hall, and murmured softly and slowly like a dream: “Ah… eternal peace has come for me…”

It slowly lowered its head, returning to the “Weeping One” pose with its face hidden in its hands, and then fell completely still.

Yu Sheng: “…”

He stood by the platform, dumbfounded. The corpse’s rapid-fire speech just now had been so fast that he hadn’t even processed it. Now that the other party had suddenly quieted down, he was completely stunned. After two seconds, he couldn’t help but speak up: “Hey, wait! Can you say that again?”

The corpse did not respond to him. Instead, the grayscale in the exhibition hall abruptly faded, and Eileen, Hu Li, and Little Red Riding Hood, who had just been frozen, recovered in an instant—as if nothing unusual had happened at all.

Eileen was the first to notice the subtle change in Yu Sheng’s expression and the “atmosphere” around him. She looked at him curiously. “Hey? What’s wrong? Why so serious all of a sudden?”

Yu Sheng snapped back to reality, then took a deep breath and turned to look at Little Red Riding Hood—

“The killers are Angel Cultists, two men. One is about one meter seventy, stocky, dark-skinned, short hair, wears glasses, in his thirties, with a mole on his forehead. The other is about one meter eighty, very skinny, bald, high nose bridge, in his forties, wears a watch on his left hand. They kept saying stuff like ‘Help Him descend’ and ‘Save the Lord from suffering’—I didn’t catch it exactly, but that’s roughly it. Heavy accent from South City Wusong or some Estuary. They threw the Weeping One statue into the opposite hallway… Almost forgot that.”

Little Red Riding Hood was completely bewildered. “…Huh?”