Yu Sheng stood motionless at the doorway, one hand still maintaining the passage to the valley, but his eyes locked firmly on the depths of the hall, staring intently at the entrance to the staircase leading underground.

He was certain he had just seen the figure of the Hunter—a worn-out hunter's garb, a thick hood, and under the hood, nothing but emptiness. The figure was standing silently within his sight, though it only lasted a blink of an eye, the Hunter... was definitely staring this way.

Why did the Hunter appear? Was it because Little Red Riding Hood was the last to leave, causing the "Black Forest" Subset to not fully dissipate? Was there something still lingering in this building? Or was it... the increasing activity of Anka Aela?

Also, Yu Sheng was sure the mysterious Hunter had looked at him just now... Did he want to communicate with him?

He frowned tightly, and at that moment, he saw a figure move by the door he had opened, Erin leaned over, looking at this side curiously through the door: "Hey? Yu Sheng, why aren't you coming?"

"You take Little Red Riding Hood and the others to settle the children first," Yu Sheng quickly said, "I'll check here again and come over in a while."

"Oh," the little puppet nodded and didn't ask much, "Come over soon, there are a bunch of kids here, I'm afraid they'll start chasing me once they settle down, I won't be able to handle it later..."

Yu Sheng responded absentmindedly and let go of the door handle.

The passage to the valley closed in the blink of an eye, the scenery within the door frame vanished into thin air, leaving only the empty courtyard outside the East Building submerged in the night.

With a sense of inexplicable caution and vigilance, Yu Sheng first inspected the first floor, then walked up to the second floor, slowly moving forward along the corridor.

The lights were on in the building, and the doors were open everywhere. Traces of the hurried evacuation of the children could still be seen in the rooms—beds unmade, items left on tables or at the foot of the beds in a hurry, chairs knocked over and left lying on the floor untouched.

The only sound echoing in the empty, silent corridor was Yu Sheng's footsteps.

No strange noises, no sudden lights outside the windows, no bizarre shadows emerging from the air or the walls—Yu Sheng checked both the second and third floors but didn't see any more unnatural phenomena.

It seemed that with the children's evacuation, the "overflow" of fairy tales had indeed stopped, and the Hunter's appearance earlier was probably some sort of "aftershock."

...Was it really just that?

Yu Sheng still harbored some suspicion, and then his phone rang.

The caller was Song Cheng—since the children had been evacuated early, the engineering personnel in the valley had been notified, and the news would of course reach the Special Service Bureau as well.

He answered the call, speaking proactively before the other side: "The children have been urgently evacuated, the 'overflow' at the orphanage has stopped, and various illusions that entered the real world have dissipated. I'm patrolling the corridors now, currently, it's just me here."

"Good," came a relieved voice from the other end, "It's good that the overflow has stopped... A small team is on its way to you, they'll arrive in about ten minutes, and they'll be responsible for monitoring the place afterward."

"Alright, I'll wait then," Yu Sheng said, glancing out the corridor window at the sky—where it had been lit up by the "Prince's" anti-air fire earlier, "Just now, there were overflowing illusions everywhere, some extending beyond the orphanage's walls, or even into the sky... Has there been any significant impact on the surroundings?"

"That's what I wanted to say—we haven't received any reports of sightings yet. The Special Service Bureau's sensors around the orphanage haven't detected any abnormal signals either," Song Cheng's tone sounded a bit serious, "The bureau is hastily verifying data from other sensors and recent nodes, but it seems... none of the equipment captured the 'overflowing illusions' you mentioned."

Yu Sheng stopped, his expression somewhat stunned.

Those illusions that overflowed from the nightmare were so grand in scale, with the roar of gunfire and flames shooting into the sky, yet there was no commotion outside the orphanage?!

It's one thing not having sighting reports, given it was late at night and there were devices around the orphanage to shield ordinary people, but for even the nearby monitoring equipment of the Special Service Bureau to detect nothing seemed off.

...Could it be that these overflowed illusions from the nightmare were only "visible" within the orphanage boundaries?

Yu Sheng pondered, sharing his hypothesis with Song Cheng over the phone, and after a few seconds of silence, the latter spoke: "…Very likely. The essence of those 'overflowing' illusions is still the 'nightmares' of fairy tale members, not actual entities invading reality. As you mentioned, they left no trace in the real world after dissipating, indicating their 'visibility' is still highly limited."

"Then we should feel fortunate that we managed to contain the 'overflow' while it was still just illusions." Yu Sheng exhaled lightly.

At that moment, he noticed through the window that a few beams of light were appearing outside the orphanage's walls—these were the headlights coming from the direction of the street.

Song Cheng's voice came through the phone: "Our people have arrived, they're at the front gate."

"I see them—I'm going down to meet them."

Yu Sheng arrived at the front gate of the orphanage, and as soon as he stepped out, he saw several black vans with the Special Service Bureau's emblem parked beside the wall. The doors were open, and a dozen figures dressed in Special Service Bureau Officer gear, armed from head to toe, looking like futuristic agents, jumped out of the vehicles—they looked incredibly professional, and there was a particularly familiar face among them.

Li Lin.

Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned upon seeing the young Special Service Bureau Officer, feeling a bit uncertain—because the other was dressed in full tactical gear and armor, holding a gun, a sight that could take on a squad of NPCs in an FPS game, yet his deepest impression of the young man was still stuck on the image of him buying discounted instant noodles at the neighborhood supermarket and squatting on the street acting like a spirited kid...

The image of the spirited kid from his memories and the elite agent before him overlapped for a long time without fitting together, until Li Lin took a step forward, prompting Yu Sheng to raise his hand and greet him: "Uh, it's you?"

"Yes," Li Lin nodded, then snapped to attention, delivering a highly trained and formal response, "Special Service Bureau Second Action Team, 'Fairy Tales' Emergency Response Unit, Li Lin, now in charge of monitoring and garrison duties in this area!"

Yu Sheng was stunned, blurting out: "...You're the person in charge?"

"I was temporarily reassigned," Li Lin explained, his expression turning somewhat bitter as he lowered his voice and leaned in, "Brother Yu, I'm freaking out..."

Yu Sheng was still feeling a bit out of sorts from Li Lin's current appearance, but as soon as he spoke, Yu Sheng couldn't help but chuckle. Curiously, he asked casually, "Where's Xu Jiali?"

"He's a deep diver, waiting at headquarters. If the Exotic Realm really loses control, he'll be deployed," Li Lin explained quietly, "Our group's main task is to keep watch here—how's the situation inside now?"

"Cough, it's calm now, but things were lively just a moment ago," Yu Sheng cleared his throat twice before roughly explaining the recent situation inside the orphanage, "Basically, after the children were evacuated, the overflow phenomenon stopped. But since we're not sure if the orphanage itself has any 'mutation' factors, someone needs to stay here and keep watch. I'm going to the settlement point next; I'll leave this place to you guys."

"Got it, you can count on us," Li Lin immediately nodded. At this point, he indeed showed some reliable qualities of an elite officer, "You go ahead."

Yu Sheng felt that something was oddly off in Li Lin's words, though it might just be his recent paranoia from seeing too many dead bodies, somewhat like a professional mortician...

Nevertheless, he didn't dwell on it. After briefing the young officer on the orphanage situation and the characteristics and precautions of the overflowing illusions, he waved goodbye to Li Lin, picked up his phone to report in, and pushed open the door toward the valley.

In the first second after crossing through the Teleportation Gate, Erin's loud commotion rang in his ears—

"Oww, Yu Sheng!! Help—someone please handle these little brats!"

Yu Sheng was startled, and immediately saw several doll heads running wildly in circles on the grass not far away, Erin being chased like a rabbit, her short legs flailing so fast sparks were nearly flying...

Further away, he saw several Fairy Tale Organization "parents" leading a group of children as they rested on the grass and platforms near the settlement point construction site, talking with Little Red Riding Hood and the Fox Girl who were running towards him.

Great, the children were happy and adapted here, no accidents had happened—an overwhelming sense of relief filled him.

Yu Sheng smiled and greeted the joyously running Fox Girl, who was still shouting happily as she ran over, "Savior! Human younglings are so fun!"

Yu Sheng chuckled joyfully, but suddenly stopped midway, and finally noticed the situation on the other side of the platform from the corner of his eye—several fox tails blazing blue fire were flying around in the air above the grass, each tail carrying an exuberant doll head...

His cold sweat practically burst out on the spot: "…Damn! You can't play like that!"

Erin continued to run in circles on the grass not far away, shouting louder than Yu Sheng: "You really can't play like this!! Is anyone going to handle this or what!"

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