Boundary City East, Qinghe District, beside the entrance to an unremarkable old street.
Little Red Riding Hood stepped out of the shadow of a nearby building and saw Yu Sheng waiting at the crossroads.
"You're alone today?" The girl glanced around and discovered that only Yu Sheng was standing there, asking sowhat unexpectedly.
"They stayed back to watch the house — after all, today I'm just coming to check out this 'Dark Alley,' so it's fine for to be alone," Yu Sheng said casually, "Besides, in case of ergencies, I can always open the door to bring people over."
He paused, looking at Little Red Riding Hood: "How's your side of things? Did you get in touch with the person who posted the thread?"
"I've found out that the person is an independent investigator nad 'Sun Chen', not part of any Spirit Realm detective organization, residing in Beishin District, but haven't contacted him yet," said Little Red Riding Hood, "It should be resolved soon anyway — it won't affect our actions today."
Yu Sheng nodded.
Little Red Riding Hood had been investigating the person who posted three years ago on Border Communication, claiming to have witnessed a strange high tower. The progress was decent, but even so, Yu Sheng wasn't willing to just wait at ho, so he decided to first visit East City Qinghe District today to investigate the "Dark Alley" ntioned in the post. For this, he invited the experienced Little Red Riding Hood — after all, exploring the Exotic Realm is a ticulous endeavor requiring experience and skill, unlike battling Dark Angels, which often relies on brute force (dragging a corpse through also counts).
At present, the sky gradually darkens, and twilight is approaching.
Yu Sheng looked up at the sky, recalling the public information gathered before departure—
"Dark Alley" is a typical ti-limited entry Exotic Realm. In terms of size, it falls into the "Kingdom" category — despite being an infinitely repeating alley, it features characteristics of a "civilized settlent containing multiple ordered buildings." The entrance to Dark Alley is located between two buildings near the old street entrance in Qinghe District, and its activation ti is during the twilight period each day.
This "twilight period" is not an exact mont; rather, as long as the sky matches the "twilight" state, the Exotic Realm's entrance will activate. Moreover, as the sky gets darker, the activity level of the entrance and the "passing probability" increase accordingly, reaching its peak for a few to ten minutes, before abruptly closing when night falls.
According to the information, the darker the sky, the better the "luck" after entering Dark Alley, making it easier to judge the "safe exit" at the alley's end crossroads. However, too dark a sky might lead to premature generation of entity "cats" within Dark Alley, increasing the peril in Exotic Realm activities — such trade-offs require careful judgnt.
Yu Sheng himself didn't have any standards for judgnt; he just aid to return before those little rascals at ho tore the house apart.
"Shall we enter now?" He turned to the girl beside him, seeking expert advice.
"Wait a bit, I called for an assistant this ti," Little Red Riding Hood was swiping on her phone, "They'll be here soon."
"Assistant?" Yu Sheng was initially puzzled, but just as he intended to inquire further, a swift shadow zipped across his field of vision from a rooftop and landed gracefully on the ground nearby.
It was a tabby cat.
The cat swaggered over to Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood, glanced around to ensure no one was nearby, then raised a paw to scratch its neck, complaining in a rich and steady voice resembling a docuntary narration: "Spent a bit more ti handling the previous commission — the client provided too many cat treats."
"The assistant you ntioned is actually the King?" Yu Sheng looked at Little Red Riding Hood in astonishnt, then quickly realized, "Oh, for dealing with the 'cats' in the Dark Alley?"
"Exactly," Little Red Riding Hood said, quite pleased, "Usually, Spirit Realm detectives need to figure out how to find a can of cat food before exploring 'Dark Alley'. But we at 'Fairy Tales' are no ordinary organization; the King is adept at handling Dark Alley."
"The entities-cats within Dark Alley possess the traits of a living creature," the King shook his head, a proud human-like expression appearing on its cat face, "Entities with liveliness and animal characteristics tend to mimic the behavior of their 'prototype' to so degree. That's why using canned food generated within Dark Alley can be used to bribe those entity cats—since they can be bribed, they can certainly be communicated with and intimidated to so extent."
Yu Sheng: "...That works?!"
"Humans, exploring the Exotic Realm requires flexibility," the tabby cat raised its head proudly, then trotted towards the old street, "You're an expert in battling 'Angels', but you've much to learn as a Spirit Realm detective..."
Watching the tabby cat's cocky deanor, Yu Sheng couldn't help but twitch an eye but soon shook his head with relief—cats are just like this.
He followed the King and Little Red Riding Hood.
There were actually quite a few passersby near the old street entrance, but after a short walk, the flow of people in a certain direction started thinning. Yu Sheng could clearly feel that the crowd ahead was being "guided" by an invisible force, bypassing a few dilapidated buildings.
Walking a bit further, he unsurprisingly spotted the "node" device set up by the Special Service Bureau — a high-tech obelisk distinct from its surroundings stood in a clearing, all the people around instinctively ignored this whole area.
Little Red Riding Hood smoothly moved ahead to complete entrance registration on the node device, and the King also leapt onto the obelisk, pressing on it with its paw.
The obelisk emitted a sound indicating that the certification had passed.
Yu Sheng didn't want to complain anymore, considering this place was so full of talents...
Led by Little Red Riding Hood, he arrived at the entrance of the "Dark Alley."
Between two old and dilapidated two-story buildings, there was a narrow space barely wide enough for two people to enter side-by-side, its depth only a few ters, ending at a moss-covered concrete wall. So graffiti seed to have seeped into the concrete, covering the wall with chaotic dirty lines sketching twisted and crooked shops and abstract, nacing cats.
Among the graffiti, a line of glowing words was particularly striking:
"Rember the safety exploration guidelines, do not beco a reckless casualty case — Special Service Bureau declares."
It looked very official.
"Walk near that wall, stay in place for more than fifteen seconds," Little Red Riding Hood reminded from the side, "When you feel the wind blowing from the concrete wall, don't look back, just reverse and walk out of here..."
Yu Sheng followed Little Red Riding Hood's directions, the two of them and one cat approached the wall, then simultaneously retreated when the wind blew, maintaining their position facing the wall until they were outside.
The wall in Yu Sheng's eyes suddenly enlarged, as if it "pounced" out from between the two buildings, then expanded to the sides until it blocked his entire line of vision.
"We've entered the 'Dark Alley.'"
Little Red Riding Hood's voice ca from the side.
Yu Sheng turned his head.
The old street was gone. What was once a fairly spacious road and a small square at the street entrance had turned into a narrow alley only four or five ters wide. On both sides of the alley were tightly closed doors, so with old, weathered signs hanging above, appearing to have significant history, with rough and faded printing. The sign's writing was unclear yet illuminated by dim, inexplicable lights, making them appear even more... bizarre and gloomy.
The weather was gloomy, the twilight seed solidified above the two rows of old buildings, and the alley was filled with a moist and chilly atmosphere. The ground paved with miscellaneous bricks was wet, and shallow puddles reflected the leaning shapes of the houses on both sides.
A peculiar "alien sense" different from the real world spread from the bottom of his heart, and Yu Sheng took a deep breath in this oppressive dark alley, shaking his head muttering, "Staying here too long you'll catch rheumatism."
"That's considered healthy," Little Red Riding Hood glanced at him, "Most people don't live long enough here to catch rheumatism."
While the two were talking, King glanced around the state of the dark alley, then swiftly jumped to a drier spot on the ground, raising his paw with a wave.
Imdiately, a four-person adventurer team erged from the air, dressed perfectly in line with the stereotypical attire of various professions. This ti, the combination consisted of a young swordsman from the countryside (holding the village's best sword), a village girl priest from the village, a wandering mage elder sister seemingly burdened with many stories, and a stealth assassin wrapped entirely in a black cloak.
Incidentally, the young swordsman with the village sword and the village girl priest in a white robe carrying a wooden staff were childhood friends. They planned to return to the village for marriage after this adventure — however, because the cat was quite capricious, their adventure never ended, and continued to this day.
"King" lightly jumped onto the wandering mage's body, sitting on her shoulder.
Now the wandering mage was not only burdened with many stories but also a cat.
"Let's not rush to the crossroads," Little Red Riding Hood said, "Let's first inspect the whole 'Dark Alley,' make sure there's no change from the docunts, like other exits, if there's no gain, deliberately choose the 'dangerous path' at the crossroads to enter the next cycle of dark alleys. According to the post, the subject entered the tower space while being pursued by a 'cat,' let's try to recreate this process as much as possible..."
"There's a problem," Yu Sheng raised his hand, "Isn't the crossroads random? What if we accidentally enter the safe exit? How can we ensure we enter the dangerous path?"
"The wolf can make a rough judgnt," Little Red Riding Hood raised her hand to stroke the air; a giant shadow wolf slowly appeared under her hand, "If the wolf can't decide, have the magician King summoned use the Great Prophecy Technique, the accuracy is over ninety percent. Anyway, try to explore in accordance with the rules of the dark alley, unless in special circumstances, avoid using the 'door' to traverse different layers of the dark alley, we need to recreate the 'process' ntioned in the post as much as possible to increase the probability of tower space appearing."
Yu Sheng was about to say he had new ideas too, but upon hearing Little Red Riding Hood's final reminder, he beca embarrassed and laughed sheepishly, "I never said I was going to open doors."
"Do you need to say?" The girl placed her hands on her hips, "On paths longer than five steps, you open a teleportation gate, and last ti I heard Erin said you opened a gate between the bedroom and living room to watch TV, even using a teleportation gate to snatch her remote..."
Yu Sheng: "Ahem, ahem..."
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