Academy?

Seeing the message from "Evil Disciple Three Thousand," Yu Sheng felt puzzled at first, as the term "academy" seemed vaguely familiar. Then he recalled something Bai Qing had mentioned in passing during their conversation, as well as some information he had inadvertently seen while tinkering with his phone's functions. He finally connected the term to a specific organization.

The information stated that it was an organization located outside of Boundary Land. Its headquarters was on a distant planet called "Terra." The academy specialized in the inheritance of knowledge, archaeological discoveries, technological research, and combating ancient and bizarre threats that menace the sanity of ordinary people. Essentially, it did seem to be a "university"—a very large "university" with many of its operatives holding the title of "professor"...

If such an organization, fond of studying Mysterious Objects, was interested in the weird metal device Yu Sheng had found, it seemed reasonable.

But there was a problem. The academy wasn't as accessible as other "Outer Domain Organizations"—they mostly engaged in official interactions with other organizations and were quite secretive. Yu Sheng, a novice in the field who barely knew any "colleagues," where could he find an academy "professor"?

Yu Sheng frowned, hesitated for a moment, and then replied to "Evil Disciple Three Thousand," "How can I get in touch with the 'academy'? Do you have a way?"

However, this time he waited a long time and did not receive a new reply from "Evil Disciple Three Thousand." It seemed that the sender had gone offline after sending the last message.

"Well, at least it's a new lead," Yu Sheng thought after waiting for a long time. Regretfully, he put his phone away and picked up the dark metal device, examining it carefully from all angles.

He found the odd inscriptions mentioned by "Evil Disciple Three Thousand" on the surface of the device—he hadn't even noticed them when he took the photos, but then a careful "netizen" had spotted them.

They seemed to be some kind of text, slightly worn but deeply engraved, and still discernible. However, Yu Sheng did not understand their content and had never seen such a peculiar font made up of many curves and circles.

At that moment, Yu Sheng felt his phone vibrate again.

A reply?!

He quickly pulled out his phone, but it wasn't a new message from "Evil Disciple Three Thousand"; instead, Little Red Riding Hood's avatar was bouncing in the private messages.

He clicked on it and saw a message: "I saw the photos and messages you posted—surely that thing isn't something you picked up from your own 'home,' is it?!"

"Yeah," Yu Sheng replied frankly, "but I didn't want to scare people, so I didn't mention it."

"Good thing you didn't say that. You considered other people's sense of normality. By the way, how did you come across it? No. 66 Wutong Road is your 'territory.' Could something you don't even recognize appear there?"

"There have always been all sorts of weird things in this house," Yu Sheng sighed while typing, "Even Erin was something I picked up in the room. Strange things always pop up."

The little doll, Erin, was at the side, watching curiously, and promptly headbutted Yu Sheng's arm, "Why drag me into this?! And what do you mean 'all sorts of weird things'—am I weird?"

Yu Sheng absentmindedly ruffled Erin's hair, "I was just saying, to deepen the theme and strengthen the description..."

Then he described the process of finding the metal device in the private messages with Little Red Riding Hood, and did not forget to ask, "Have you seen anything like it?"

"It's normal for artifacts to appear in Exotic Realms, but it's strange for 'foreign' artifacts to emerge from one. Of course, we can't be sure that the thing really came from 'outside'; it might have been a part of No. 66 Wutong Road all along, and you just never noticed it. After all, I don't know much about you and your house," said Little Red Riding Hood, sending a long string of messages, "As for that metal device, I haven't seen it before. However, I suggest you stop asking around on Border Communication. On one hand, you can provide too little reliable information and probably won't get much out of it; on the other hand, there are all sorts of people in Border Communication, so don't get fooled by unreliable ones."

After a while, Little Red Riding Hood sent another message, "You might just keep it for now. If someone who likes collecting Mysterious Objects shows up, it could fetch a good price. For the time being, observe to see if similar new things 'drop' out. It looks like a part, maybe there are other structures..."

Yu Sheng was stunned by the message, then quickly typed a reply, "This piece of junk can be sold for money?!"

It took a while before Little Red Riding Hood replied, "...there are always collectors interested in all kinds of strange things, especially those non-hazardous items brought out from Exotic Realms. As long as you can prove it's really 'recovered from an Exotic Realm,' it's possible."

"Ah, how do you prove that? Are there specialists who do this kind of appraisal?"

"The Special Service Bureau has the qualifications for appraisals, and large organizations like 'The Academy,' 'Bamasa Hermit Association,' or 'Mysterious/Ancient Artifacts Association' have experts in this field as well. The certificates they issue are highly credible... Are you short on money?"

Yu Sheng hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at the fox girl who had just pulled out another chicken leg to nibble from her tail.

He was a bit embarrassed as he typed: "You know, I'm supporting two people right now, and Hu Li eats a lot... My own work has hit a bit of a 'bottleneck.'"

The main reason for the bottleneck was the sudden realization that his fans had developed extremely outrageous XP in his works, causing him to seriously doubt his creative direction and even his personal abilities.

Little Red Riding Hood's reply came quickly. She wasn't curious about what Yu Sheng's "personal work" was: "Then try getting an appraisal certificate from the Special Service Bureau. They're bound to believe that you found this thing in the Exotic Realm—unless they refuse to acknowledge No. 66 Wutong Road as an Exotic Realm."

A smile appeared on Yu Sheng's face, as he pondered that Hu Li's food and Erin's new TV could suddenly be taken care of. But at that moment, another thought struck him.

A very bold, highly creative, alluring, and practically valuable idea slammed into his mind.

This idea was gleaming with golden brilliance—his eyes sparkled with an unusual light as well: "Wait a second, does that mean any non-harmful item brought from the Exotic Realm could undergo this appraisal?!"

It took almost half a minute for Little Red Riding Hood to reply with a puzzled "Huh?"

Before Yu Sheng could type again, she quickly sent another message: "Wait a minute, I think I know what you're up to! Are you thinking of..."

Yu Sheng glanced around the living room.

Looking for anything of value.

Even the moldy, peeling wallpaper in the corner looked like it was gilded...

But the next second his phone started vibrating non-stop, Little Red Riding Hood bombarded him with a flurry of messages: "Collectors collect with standards, you know! At least it should look like something rare with a story behind it! At worst, they can't be bragging with two plastic flip-flops, old newspapers, and drink bottles, right? How did you come up with that—"

Yu Sheng was dumbstruck by the stream of messages, feeling directly the shock and awe of some high school girl from between the lines.

Meanwhile, at the edge of another old district within Boundary City, Little Red Riding Hood stared at her phone after sending the messages, unable to snap back to reality for a long time.

Shock and awe were indeed etched on her face.

"Aren't you sleeping yet?" A young female voice came from above, followed by a face peeking over the edge of the top bunk—a girl with black long hair who looked a year or two younger than Little Red Riding Hood. She glanced at the phone in Little Red Riding Hood's hand and recognized the screen interface, "Border Communication, huh—any new news? Got a job?"

"No, just chatting with someone, totally shocked," Little Red Riding Hood answered offhandedly.

"Is there anything that could still shock you? Did someone post nudes on the public board?"

Little Red Riding Hood didn't look up: "An entity wants to liquidate its assets to get rich."

The girl on the upper bunk suddenly slipped and almost fell off the bed, but fortunately, she wrapped her hair around the iron bed frame's support bars and dangled like a midnight wraith next to Little Red Riding Hood's bed, swaying as she spoke: "Is this some new thrilling discussion thread?"

"Long Hair, can you not talk to me in such a scary state?" Little Red Riding Hood couldn't help but give her roommate, hanging on the bunk bed, a look. A girl in a white nightgown, dangling and swinging in the dorm at night, would scare anyone who stopped by, "Besides, I'm not joking. Let's seriously discuss it, if there were an Exotic Realm, and in it lived an entity just like a human, and not only could this entity freely go in and out, but also had a legal identity in the human world, then could it..."

The girl hanging on the bed thought seriously for a moment, a look of shock crossing her face: "I got it, it's that one you've been dealing with recently... Oh no! He really is exploiting a bug!"

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