Chapter 493: First Exploration of the Dark Alley
In the eastern part of , Qinghe District, by the entrance to an unremarkable old street.
Little Red Riding Hood emerged from the shadow of a nearby building and spotted Yu Sheng waiting at the intersection.
"Just you today?" the girl asked, looking around and noticing only Yu Sheng standing there, a hint of surprise in her voice.
"They stayed home to watch the place—since we're just here to check out this 'Dark Alley' today, coming alone is fine," Yu Sheng said casually. "Besides, if we really run into an emergency, I can open a door anytime and call them over."
He paused, then looked at Little Red Riding Hood. "How's your progress? Got in touch with the person who made the original post?"
"I've tracked down that the person involved is an independent investigator named Sun Chen, not affiliated with any spirit detective organization, living in North Shimen District, but I haven't been able to reach him yet," Little Red Riding Hood said. "But it shouldn't take much longer—anyway, it won't affect today's operation."
Yu Sheng nodded.
Little Red Riding Hood had recently been investigating the person who posted on Border Communications three years ago claiming to have witnessed the strange tower. Progress was going smoothly, but even so, Yu Sheng didn't want to just wait around at home. So he decided to come to East City's Qinghe District today to probe the "Dark Alley" mentioned in the post. He'd brought along the experienced Little Red Riding Hood—after all, exploring foreign realms was different from fighting the Dark Angel. The latter could usually be solved by brute force (dragging a corpse through counted as getting through), while the former required a delicate touch of experience and skill.
The sky was gradually darkening now. Dusk was approaching.
Yu Sheng looked up at the sky, recalling the public information he'd looked up before leaving—
The "Dark Alley" was a typical time-limited entry type foreign realm, classified under the "realm" category in terms of scale—even though it was just an infinitely repeating alley, it fit the characteristic of "a civilized settlement containing multiple orderly buildings." The entrance to the Dark Alley was between two buildings near the entrance of Qinghe District's old street, and it opened daily during the dusk period.
This "dusk period" wasn't an exact time. As long as the sky matched the state of "dusk," the foreign realm entrance would activate. As the sky grew darker, the entrance's activity level and "pass-through probability" would also increase, peaking at the darkest point and lasting anywhere from a few minutes to over ten minutes, then abruptly closing when night fell.
According to the information, the darker it got, the better one's "luck" after entering the Dark Alley, and the easier it would be to identify the "safe exit" at the crossroads at the end of the alley. But if it got too dark, it might cause the Dark Alley to generate "cats" early, increasing the danger of operating in the foreign realm—a trade-off that required careful judgment.
Yu Sheng himself didn't have any criteria for judgment. He just wanted to get back before those troublemakers at home demolished the house.
"Should we go in now?" He turned to the girl beside him, seeking the expert's opinion.
"Wait a bit. I called in a helper this time," Little Red Riding Hood said, scrolling through her phone. "He'll be here soon."
"Helper?" Yu Sheng was taken aback, and just as he was about to ask, a swift shadow flashed across the edge of his vision from the rooftop, landing lightly on the ground not far away.
It was a tabby cat.
The small cat strutted over to Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood with an air of importance, looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then raised a paw to scratch its neck, complaining in a deep, steady voice like a documentary narrator: "Handling the last commission took a little longer—the client provided too many cat treats."
"This 'helper' of yours is King?" Yu Sheng asked, looking at Little Red Riding Hood in surprise, then quickly realized, "Oh, to deal with the 'cats' in the Dark Alley?"
"Exactly," Little Red Riding Hood said, looking quite pleased. "Most spirit detectives exploring the Dark Alley have to find a way to get a cat food can first, but 'Fairy Tale' isn't just any organization. King is really good at handling the Dark Alley."
"Entity-cats in the 'Dark Alley' possess living characteristics," King shook its head, a remarkably human expression of pride appearing on its cat face. "Entities with living characteristics and animal features will, to some extent, mimic the habits of their 'prototypes.' That's why you can bribe those entity cats with cat food cans generated in the Dark Alley—and since they can be bribed, they can also be communicated with and intimidated to a degree."
Yu Sheng: "...That works?!"
"Humans, exploring foreign realms requires flexibility," the tabby cat declared, head held high, then turned and walked toward the old street. "You're the expert at fighting 'Angels,' but as a spirit detective, you've still got a lot to learn..."
Yu Sheng couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his eye at the cat's smug demeanor, but quickly shook his head in resignation—cats were just like that.
He fell into step behind King and Little Red Riding Hood.
There were actually quite a few pedestrians near the entrance to the old street, but after walking a little further in, the number of passersby in a certain direction began to thin out noticeably. Yu Sheng could clearly feel the crowd being "guided" by an invisible force, bypassing a few old buildings.
A bit further on, he unsurprisingly spotted the Special Affairs Bureau's "node" device—a high-tech obelisk whose style clearly clashed with the surroundings, standing abruptly in an empty lot. Everyone around seemed to subconsciously ignore this entire area.
Little Red Riding Hood stepped forward with practiced ease, completing the entry registration at the node device, then King also jumped onto the obelisk and pressed a paw against it.
The obelisk emitted a sound indicating authentication passed.
Yu Sheng didn't even bother to complain anymore. After all, this was such a remarkable place...
Under Little Red Riding Hood's guidance, he arrived at the entrance to the "Dark Alley."
Between two old, mottled two-story buildings was a narrow gap barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side, only a few meters deep. At the end was a cement wall covered in moss, with graffiti that seemed to have seeped into the concrete, its chaotic, dirty lines appearing to outline twisted, leaning shops and abstract, ferocious cats.
Among the graffiti, a line of faintly glowing text stood out prominently:
"Remember the safe exploration guidelines. Don't be a reckless casualty case—Special Affairs Bureau public service announcement."
It looked very official.
"Walk up to that wall and stand still for at least fifteen seconds," Little Red Riding Hood reminded. "When you feel wind blowing from the cement wall, don't turn around. Just back out of here..."
Yu Sheng followed Little Red Riding Hood's instructions. The two of them and the cat approached the wall, and when the wind came, they simultaneously stepped backward, keeping their faces toward the wall as they retreated all the way back outside.
The wall suddenly loomed larger before Yu Sheng's eyes, as if it had "run out" chasing them, squeezing out from between the two buildings, then expanding to both sides until it filled his entire field of vision.
"We've entered the 'Dark Alley.'"
Little Red Riding Hood's voice came from beside him.
Yu Sheng turned his head.
The old street was gone. What had been a fairly wide street and a small plaza at the intersection had become a narrow alley only four or five meters wide. On both sides of the alley were tightly shut doors, and some entrances had old, timeworn signs with rough, faded printing. The writing on the signs was blurry, illuminated by dim light from an unknown source, making them look even more... eerie and gloomy.
The sky was overcast, the dusky light seemingly frozen above the two rows of old houses. The alley was filled with a damp, chilly air. The ground, paved with multicolored bricks, was wet, with shallow puddles everywhere reflecting the crooked images of the buildings on either side.
A sense of "otherworldliness," distinct from the real world, spread from deep within. Yu Sheng took a deep breath in this oppressive, dim alley and muttered with a shake of his head, "Stay here too long and you'll get rheumatism."
"That'd be healthy," Little Red Riding Hood glanced at him. "Most people don't live long enough to get rheumatism here."
As they spoke, King looked around the Dark Alley, then jumped onto a relatively dry spot and raised a paw to wave.
A four-person adventurer party stepped out of thin air, each wearing class costumes that perfectly matched the stereotypes. This time, the group consisted of a young swordsman from the countryside (wielding the best sword in his village), a village-girl cleric from the same village, a wandering female mage who seemed burdened with many stories, and a stealthy assassin wrapped in a dark cloak.
Incidentally, the young swordsman with the village's best sword and the white-robed cleric girl carrying a wooden staff were childhood sweethearts. They were supposed to go back to their village and get married after this adventure—but because the cat was capricious, their adventure never ended, and it was still going on today.
"King" nimbly jumped onto the wandering mage, settling on her shoulder.
Now the wandering mage was carrying not only many stories but also a cat.
"Let's not rush to the crossroads yet," Little Red Riding Hood said. "Let's check the entire 'Dark Alley' first, confirm if there are any changes from the records—like other exits. If there's nothing, then at the crossroads, we'll deliberately choose the 'dangerous path' to enter the next cycle of the Dark Alley. According to that post, the person involved entered the tower space while being chased by 'cats.' We need to replicate that process as closely as possible..."
"One problem though," Yu Sheng raised his hand. "Isn't the crossroads random? What if we accidentally hit the safe exit? How can we guarantee we'll go into the dangerous path?"
"Wolf can make a rough judgment," Little Red Riding Hood stroked the air, and a huge shadow wolf gradually materialized beneath her hand. "If Wolf can't be sure, then let King's summoned mage cast a Great Prophecy spell—the accuracy rate is over ninety percent. Anyway, we'll try to explore using methods that fit the Dark Alley's rules. Unless it's a special situation, we'll avoid opening 'doors' to shift between different layers of the Dark Alley. We need to replicate the 'procedure' mentioned in that post as much as possible, to increase the probability of the tower space appearing."
Yu Sheng was about to say he had a new idea, but when he heard Little Red Riding Hood's reminder, he immediately felt awkward and laughed sheepishly. "I wasn't going to open a door, okay."
"Did I need to wait for you to say it?" The girl put her hands on her hips. "If there's more than five steps to walk, you'll pull out a portal. Last time, I heard from Irene that you opened a door between the bedroom and living room just to watch TV, and you even used a portal to snatch the remote from her..."
Yu Sheng: "Ahem, ahem..."