Chapter 96: The Test Begins
A long, quiet hallway stretched out before them. Little Red Riding Hood leaned forward, peering around carefully before turning to face Yu Sheng. “The ‘guards’ created by the museum won’t leave their own areas,” she said, keeping her voice calm but firm. “We can rest here for a little while, right in this corridor.” She paused, then spoke more quietly. “But we have to be extra cautious once we move on. We still don’t know how many of these ‘guards’ the museum can produce. If some of them are blocking the entrance to the White Exhibition Hall, that would be terribly unlucky for us.”
Irene hopped down from Yu Sheng’s back, looking puzzled. Her small, doll-like face twisted in concentration. “What I don’t get,” she said, “is how these ‘guards’ are triggered at all. I mean, we didn’t do anything wrong, and yet, as soon as they appeared, they attacked us without a word…”
Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth as though she wanted to say something, then closed it again and fell silent.
Irene noticed this hesitation and prodded gently, “Come on, spill it. You clearly have something on your mind.”
Taking a steadying breath, Little Red Riding Hood finally explained, “The most likely reason is that we’re not the only ones in here. Someone else must have entered the museum before us, and that person’s presence might have set off the museum’s ‘purge’ mechanism. But this shouldn’t be possible. I checked the schedules. No other investigative teams were supposed to come tonight—just ours.”
Irene raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Maybe someone snuck in? Some shady character, maybe?”
“It’s not very likely,” said Little Red Riding Hood, shaking her head. “The Special Affairs Bureau keeps strict watch. The moment a place like this is opened, it’s all officially reported. Every single ‘node’ is under constant surveillance, creating a huge network of sensors. If any Otherworld gate or rift in spacetime opened up without warning, it would set off immediate alarms.”
Irene nodded in a way that suggested she recognized the idea—though no one could be sure if she truly understood. In fact, her attention was already drifting. Her gaze landed on Yu Sheng, who was crouched down just a few steps away.
Yu Sheng had picked up something strange—a twisted, plastic arm that had been sliced clean off one of the ‘guards.’ The detached limb, now drained of its supernatural life, looked just like a store mannequin’s arm. He tapped it lightly against the floor, creating a hollow clunking sound. It felt like plastic, looked like plastic, and he couldn’t help but wonder, with a bizarre curiosity, if it would taste like plastic if he bit into it.