Chapter 94: 'Security Guards'

Yu Sheng suddenly gained a brand-new understanding of the 'peace' that the Spirit World detectives and investigators in the Borderlands talked about.

He couldn't believe such a sinister and bizarre place could be described as 'peaceful'.

But after thinking back to the valley from earlier, he felt that Red Riding Hood's description wasn't entirely wrong. The 'museum' was eerie, sure, but at least it was just eerie—it had a set of rules that allowed people to move around safely, and as long as you followed them, nothing would go wrong. The valley, on the other hand, had an entity that would hunt you to the death no matter how carefully you followed the rules, and lethal dangers lurked throughout the entire foreign domain. In terms of deadliness, the latter was obviously more dangerous.

One of the most important criteria for distinguishing between Danger Level 2 and Danger Level 3 was whether lethal factors within the environment could be avoided by following rules. For foreign domains and entities at Danger Level 3 and above, lethality was unconditional.

"The thing we're looking for is a statue called 'The Weeper.' It's a small statue, varying in size between fifteen and twenty-five centimeters," Red Riding Hood said quietly as she carefully observed the corridor ahead, speaking to Yu Sheng and Hu Li in a low voice. "It depicts a woman covering her face and crying, a bust, with abstract lines and a hollow back. Under normal circumstances, this small statue is placed in a separate white hall, the only exhibit in the hall, with no guards around. So as long as we find the white hall, taking the statue should be relatively easy."

Yu Sheng walked beside Red Riding Hood, curiously observing this 'museum' while casually asking a question. "I have a question. What does the Curio Association want this thing for?"

"Who knows? Either some collector paid a big commission to the Curio Association, and then the Association outsourced it to us, or the Association itself wants it for research," Red Riding Hood said offhandedly. "The 'Museum' is one of the few foreign domains that can continuously 'produce' collectibles. Many of its creations are highly artistic… I don't know much about art, but there are plenty of rich people obsessed with the objects in its collection—the harmless ones. And it's not just art; sometimes there are also antiques and mechanical exhibits of unknown origin. These things seem to showcase a fictional civilization, which has high research value, so scholars collect them too."

Yu Sheng nodded thoughtfully, then looked back in the direction he had come from.

"What are you thinking?" asked Red Riding Hood.

"I was thinking about the 'stage' earlier, and the unseen applauding audience, and the ticket window before that," Yu Sheng voiced his doubts. "Those were clearly part of the 'anomalous phenomena,' so shouldn't the entire 'theater' belong to the foreign domain, with 'Museum Night' just being a part of it?"

"You've hit on the key point," Red Riding Hood's lips curled upward. "Indeed, the theater itself is the starting point of all the anomalous phenomena here—but the 'theater' is not a complete foreign domain. It's only an entrance. A foreign domain needs to have its own complete spatiotemporal structure and closed-loop rules. The rules that apply in the 'Museum' don't take effect in the theater segment, so the two can't be lumped together. Also…"

She paused, then turned her head. "Let me tell you another piece of intelligence: the foreign domain connected by the 'theater' entrance isn't just the Museum."

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. "Not just the Museum?"

"During sunset, it's the night show. The theater stage leads to 'Museum Night.' During the day, another ticket window opens, and the matinee stage leads to 'The Mansion Mystery.' That place is even more dangerous. Inside, there's a 'Suspect Zero' that actively hunts 'participants,' and it's very powerful."

"Compared to 'Hunger'?"

"…Definitely not as strong as 'Hunger' influenced by the Dim Angel, but that thing has very strange abilities. How dangerous exactly… I've never encountered it."

"Oh."

And so Yu Sheng walked through the museum alongside Red Riding Hood, curiously absorbing all kinds of knowledge about foreign domains. Eileen sat quietly on his shoulder, unusually silent the whole way, listening intently.

Hu Li, on the other hand, was carefully observing her surroundings, her big furry ears occasionally swiveling sharply in a certain direction, listening for any sound in the museum.

"Benefactor, that painting ahead… there's a sound."

She suddenly lowered her voice and tugged at Yu Sheng's sleeve.

Yu Sheng and Red Riding Hood stopped immediately.

Faint, indistinct breathing could be heard coming from an oil painting ahead.

The painting depicted a lion, pierced through the forehead by a sharp sword. At the edge of the frame, there was a hand wearing a gauntlet, as if it had just thrown the sword with force a moment ago.

The breathing came from the perspective of the thrower, and as Yu Sheng and the others noticed the painting, the breathing instantly became more obvious, clearer, as if a real person were standing just outside the frame, panting heavily after a battle to the death with a male lion.

"Detour around here, hug the wall," Red Riding Hood immediately lowered her voice and led Yu Sheng and the others around the exhibit that was breathing.

The breathing gradually faded away.

They passed through this hall and entered a corridor with many doors. Yu Sheng cautiously opened one of them.

"Red room," he reported, stepping back.

"Then skip this one, try the next door."

Yu Sheng nodded, walked a few meters forward, and opened another door.

On the other side of the door was a large hall with nothing in it. The sky-blue hall was brightly lit, with only a plaque standing near the entrance, describing the 'Exhibit':

"My Friend and My Endless Wealth," Creator: Fang Wen.

Below the plaque was a comment: "This is a sorrowful work, pouring out the creator's lifelong thoughts and feelings."

Yu Sheng stared at the plaque for a few seconds, then turned his head to look at Red Riding Hood. "…Does this museum have a sense of humor?"

"The sense of humor comes from the people who were 'eaten' by the museum. Their 'final works' sometimes carry a inexplicable sense of absurdity and self-mockery, but no one knows what state they were in when they left these works, nor whether they truly completed these 'creations' with their minds intact," Red Riding Hood shook her head. "In the end, the museum itself doesn't think. It just clumsily and distortedly imitates human-run facilities and 'operates' according to its own set of rules."

As she spoke, she looked up at the exit on the opposite side of this hall, which was exhibiting nothing but air.

"Let's go through here. Many of the exhibition halls and corridors in the museum are repetitive and randomly generated each time you enter, so there's no need to memorize a route. But its actual range is limited. As long as you keep moving to the next area according to the rules, with normal luck, you'll eventually reach the exhibition hall where 'The Weeper' is kept."

Yu Sheng nodded and stepped forward with Hu Li.

But just as he was about to cross the center of the hall, a stiff, monotonous footstep suddenly came from the passage ahead, making him stop.

The next moment, he saw several swaying figures.

They were plastic mannequins, dressed in security guard uniforms, with stiff, eerie features on their smooth faces, moving in stiff, ridiculous steps as they wobbled into the hall from the passage on the opposite side.

The fur on Hu Li's tail and ears shot straight up.

"It's the 'Security Guards'!" Red Riding Hood also exclaimed in a low voice, startled. "Why would security guards suddenly spawn…"

But the next second she calmed down, cautiously moving closer to Yu Sheng while lowering her voice. "Don't back away, don't make any suspicious moves. The security guards are aggressive entities, but they follow rules. We haven't violated any of the museum's 'management order' since entering. These things shouldn't actively att—"

Before she finished speaking, from the corner of his eye Yu Sheng saw one of the plastic mannequins in the corridor suddenly raise its hand—it made a whistling motion, and the next second, a sharp, piercing whistle rang through the entire exhibition hall!

All the 'Security Guards' instantly moved, charging toward the people in the hall with unimaginable speed and ferocity.

"What the hell—"

Yu Sheng only had time to yell once before he dodged to the side, and as soon as he hit the ground, he kicked out fiercely, slamming into one of the plastic mannequins. A loud clang like metal striking stone rang out.

The plastic mannequin was broken in half at the waist by his kick, but Yu Sheng's own leg ached from the massive recoil.

"These things are rock hard! Like they're made of damn stone!"

Yu Sheng couldn't help shouting, and at almost the same time, countless dense black threads spread out from the little puppet on his shoulder, firmly binding another 'Security Guard' that had burst out of the passage.

Hu Li pounced ferociously, tearing that temporarily restrained 'Security Guard' into several pieces with her bare hands, then spun around and sent the plastic mannequin's head flying with her tail.

But the next second, the shattered plastic mannequin on the ground began to tremble violently. The limb fragments, like building blocks, squirmed quickly and reassembled into a complete 'Security Guard,' which lunged again.

More footsteps came from the passage, and more and more swaying figures appeared in the corner of Yu Sheng's eye.

(This chapter ends)