Chapter 20 Irene's Intelligence and Advice
The doll girl in the oil painting greeted Yu Sheng happily and pleasantly, and her voice sounded somewhat unexpected - but there was no trace of the shock and panic that comes from seeing a dead person come back alive.
Yu Sheng felt that this was definitely not because Irene was careless.
Sure enough, the problem lies with myself - but considering that I have been through death and life and death so many times in such a short period of time, it doesn't seem strange if even the most bizarre things happen to me.
"It was an accident. At least I'm back." Yu Sheng replied casually, turned around to close the half-open door, and then immediately lowered his head to check himself, confirming that not only his body had fully recovered, but even his clothes had returned to their original state.
Yu Sheng frowned. Considering Irene's current reaction, he felt that the entire "incident" of his "death" rather than "resurrection" seemed to have disappeared out of thin air...
He was standing at the door in a daze. Irene saw it. The puppet in the painting asked in confusion, "Yu Sheng? Are you okay? Why do you look so dazed? By the way, tell me how you got back. My contact with you has been sporadic, and there are always a lot of messy noises over there. I don't know what strange thing you ran into in that foreign land... Hey? What's that in your hand?"
After the other party reminded him, Yu Sheng noticed that he was still holding something tightly in his hand - it was a broken tail with black scales and a strange and ugly shape.
Yu Sheng's mouth twitched: "Fuck, I almost forgot about it...it's still here."
This thing was even still shrinking and squirming slightly in his hand, but it was obviously no longer as "alive" as it was at the beginning. It seemed that although the remains of this monster had amazing vitality, it would still gradually die after being cut off from the main body.
A strange feeling came over him. Yu Sheng didn't even know how to explain the origin of this thing to Irene. After a little hesitation, he walked towards the kitchen with the broken tail in his hand. As he walked, he casually said to Irene, "...a little local specialty."
The puppet in the painting was stunned when he heard this: "...Ah?"
Yu Sheng had already thrown the severed tail into the kitchen sink. After making sure that the creature no longer had the strength to climb out of the sink, he poked its surface a few times out of concern. Then he placed a pot lid on it (so that at least he could hear the sound of the lid falling to the ground when it really climbed out). Then he returned to the restaurant with a hint of fatigue and sat down on a chair with his heavy body.
His mind was in a mess, there were too many things to think about, and more importantly, he was really tired.
But he forced himself to stay awake; it was not time to sleep yet.
Across the table, Irene looked at them cautiously: "Yu Sheng, tell me about your experience in that foreign land, and how you..."
"I was just about to tell you this," Yu Sheng waved his hand before the other party finished speaking, then adjusted his sitting posture and looked at the puppet in the painting with a serious face, "I have a lot of questions in my mind - let me first tell you about what I encountered over there. I met a girl who was trapped in a foreign land like me, but she might be trapped for a very long time..."
Yu Sheng did not hide anything, but told the puppet opposite him all his experiences in the night valley, including the information revealed to him by Hu Li, and the monster that looked like a mixture of flesh and blood and had a very liberal appearance.
Apart from the fact that he had "resurrected from the dead", he had not yet figured out how to explain this to the other party, so he did not mention it for the time being.
Of course, he knew that he and Irene were still not very familiar with each other, and there was not much trust between them, but he had no other choice - in this city, Irene was the only "abnormal individual" he had come into contact with and been able to communicate with so far, and the only person he knew who knew something about "things beyond common sense". Apart from Irene, he really didn't know who else he could discuss matters related to foreign lands with.
He felt that he should have more trust in the doll in the painting. After all, her attitude so far had been quite friendly (except when she cursed at people in a very unpleasant way).
Irene listened very attentively. When Yu Sheng mentioned the flesh and blood monster, her expression became extremely serious. She seemed to want to speak several times, but she held back and never interrupted Yu Sheng's narration.
Only after Yu Sheng finished his story did the doll girl finally adjust her posture. She sat upright on the chair covered with a red carpet and spoke seriously, "First of all, I still want to emphasize that I don't remember much. This painting has worn away too much of my memory, so the help I can give you is also limited..."
Yu Sheng nodded: "I know this."
"Well," Irene hummed, and then her expression relaxed a little, "Then I will do my best to give you some knowledge about the alien world. First of all, you should have some basic understanding of the alien world. You know that they are a general term for a certain 'area' that deviates from the order and violates common sense. Then do you know that there is also a thing called 'entity' generated in the alien world?"
"...Entity?" Yu Sheng expressed confusion.
"In short, it is the 'natives' or 'products' of a foreign land. The entity does not necessarily have to look like a certain thing. Sometimes it may be a strange-looking humanoid, sometimes it may be some kind of beast or monster, sometimes it may even be a ball of fire, a gust of wind, or a moving stone. As long as it is produced in a foreign land and has obvious 'activity' and can react to outsiders, it can be regarded as an 'entity'."
Yu Sheng nodded thoughtfully.
"Entities are widely classified and numerous," Irene continued, "Generally speaking, entities have obvious 'abnormal' characteristics. They are born in foreign lands and naturally have characteristics that are inconsistent with common sense, strange and dangerous. Most entities are irrational, at least they do not show 'thinking behavior' that can be understood by humans, but it seems that there are also very few entities that have wisdom... I can't remember this part clearly.
"Anyway, 90% of entities are dangerous, but they also vary in strength. Some entities may only cause an itch in the nose, but there are also some entities that can put human life in danger if humans see them. So people have a guess that the 'entities' are some kind of rejection reaction of the alien world, and are anti-virus programs generated by the alien world to eliminate invaders. This view holds that for the alien world, the investigators and lost people from the world of order and common sense are the indescribable monsters..."
Yu Sheng listened silently, and then suddenly realized: "...In other words, the 'monster' I encountered was the 'entity' generated in the valley?"
"Probably." Irene nodded.
"Can the entity be destroyed?" Yu Sheng asked immediately.
"Entities can be killed, but they cannot be completely eliminated," Irene said seriously, "Because strictly speaking, entities are just a kind of 'reproduction'. If you kill one, a new 'copy' will be generated in the alien domain. They are the embodiment of the alien domain's operating rules. As long as the alien domain exists, entities will continue to be generated - but generally speaking, the generation of entities also takes time, and there seem to be some ways to suppress the operation of certain alien domains, delay or even block the generation of entities in them... I don't remember the details."
"It can be killed, but cannot be completely eliminated..." Yu Sheng repeated this sentence, and suddenly felt that things seemed to be more difficult than he had imagined.
He is not afraid of death.
That monster seems even less afraid...
Unconsciously, Yu Sheng had already accepted that he would return to the valley and encounter the monster again - he didn't know where this idea came from. When he realized it, this thought, or some kind of "intuition", had already taken root in his heart.
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"...Never mind. Being able to kill them temporarily is a good thing." He exhaled softly and looked up at Irene. "Besides that, what else do you know about entities? For example, their weaknesses."
"Entities don't have a unified weakness. Sometimes an entity's weakness isn't even in itself, but in the 'alien', or in the rules of the alien world itself. Some entities... will even change their weaknesses." Irene shook her head. "So exploring alien worlds and fighting entities is a professional and dangerous thing. I suggest you find a professional to help you - not someone like me who is trapped in a painting."
Yu Sheng rolled his eyes when he heard this: "It's easy to say, but where can I find professionals? They won't put small advertisements on telephone poles..."
Irene: “Yes.”
Yu Sheng: “……?”
"They have contact information - of course, it doesn't have to be the small advertisements on the telephone poles." Seeing Yu Sheng's stunned expression, Irene nodded with extra emphasis, "Since there are foreign lands everywhere in the world, and foreign lands are very dangerous to ordinary people, there must be a large group of professionals who specialize in dealing with this matter. Apart from anything else, such a big city must have someone responsible for maintaining order, right? The official ones have special departments, and the private ones also have large and small organizations. Although I don't remember the details, these people must be active everywhere...
"Of course, they normally keep their distance from ordinary people and hide in the dark, because many alien worlds have strange and bizarre characteristics, such as 'will come alive when known', or 'will actively approach people who are afraid of them', so ordinary people should be prevented from coming into contact with information related to alien worlds as much as possible. But once an unlucky person has really come into contact with an alien world, or an alien reaction occurs in the city, these professionals naturally have a set of methods to quickly locate them and come to their door..."
Yu Sheng listened to Irene's story in a daze. After hesitating for a moment, he raised his head and looked out the window.
"In other words, since I have already experienced the 'foreign reaction', all I have to do next is wait for the 'professionals' you mentioned to contact me, right?"
"...Should...right?" For some reason, Irene's tone suddenly lost its confidence.
Yu Sheng also heard the other party's lack of confidence: "...Then why didn't they come?"
"I don't know, it should have come by now."
(End of this chapter)
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