Chapter 206 Shadow
There are two underground floors in the west building of the orphanage. The first underground floor is a semi-underground storage room, an electromechanical room and a comprehensive classroom, while the second underground floor has an underground passage leading to the east building and many old structures that are now abandoned. The history of this orphanage is so long that even the east and west buildings, which can be regarded as "new buildings", are actually several decades old. The deepest and oldest parts of these two buildings are rarely set foot even by the "parents" of the orphanage.
Little Red Riding Hood only remembered that when she was very young, she was brought to the basement of the west building for "exploration" twice by some half-grown children. At that time, this place was already dirty, old and forgotten. Now, more than ten years have passed, and there seems to be no change here. The dirty concrete floor and mottled and peeling walls even give people a feeling, as if they have been like this from the beginning, when they were first built, and will be like this when the building collapses.
But Little Red Riding Hood knew that every part of the building was actually maintained at a minimum level, including these seemingly forgotten corners. Volunteers sent by the board of directors would regularly inspect all facilities in the orphanage and repair the electricity, water supply and drainage systems. The adults took care of the children here to the best of their ability, so if there really were some strange changes in these old passages under the west building, it would definitely have attracted the attention of the staff.
After all, the "volunteers" who can be sent here must have received special training.
Since there are no reports in this regard, it means that the changes have only occurred recently - at least during the routine inspection a while ago, everything should have been normal here.
"Rats... cockroaches... oh, not even an ant." The "King" squatted on the shoulder of the heavily armored mercenary. He looked lazy, but his cat-like pupils seemed to have repeatedly "scanned" the whole place. "Use your good nose to smell it, Little Red Riding Hood. There is a musty smell in the air here, but other than this musty smell... the other smells are too 'clean'."
The shadowy wolf appeared in the shadows beside Little Red Riding Hood. She frowned slightly and glanced at the mottled and moldy corners of the underground passage: "Were there rats here before?"
"What nonsense - of course there is," the king looked up at Little Red Riding Hood as if he was looking at a fool, "Rats and cockroaches are the most capable creatures in the world at surviving. Even if all the people die, they will not become extinct - I have been to this place many times, and it used to be very 'busy'."
Little Red Riding Hood said nothing, but looked solemnly at this seemingly normal place. The shadows of the wolves appeared and disappeared in the air beside her, and made some uneasy whimpering sounds from time to time.
"Let's go on," she suddenly said to the king, "and take a look at the connecting passage between the east and west buildings."
"good."
…
A fully armed action team quietly passed through the shadows between the buildings and gradually approached the ordinary-looking building in front.
This place is located on the edge of the old factory area in the southern old city. Most of the nearby buildings are old residential buildings built thirty or forty years ago. At this time of day, there are always many people walking outdoors in and outside the residential area, but today this area is strangely quiet.
People seemed to be driven away from the streets by some invisible force. Even if someone at a distant intersection occasionally looked over here and saw the foreign vehicles parked at the entrance of the community and the strange devices standing on the open space, they would quickly and naturally shift their gaze, as if the entire area had "disappeared" from people's "attention".
A Secret Service commander in a black uniform stood next to a mobile "node" device at the entrance of the community, and looked up at the target building not far away. The six-story old building with white walls and blue roof was quite eye-catching under the blue sky. At this moment, there were several seemingly inconspicuous "birds" circling around the outer wall of the building, approaching a window on the third floor from time to time. The forward action team had already entered the building and was reporting the situation ahead through the intercom.
"This is 'Hunter'. We have arrived at the designated floor. The surroundings are stable. We are awaiting further instructions."
The action team's report was heard through the headset. The on-site commander ordered them to stand by and then looked to his side.
A young Secret Service agent was lowering his head slightly, sensing the vision coming from those "flying birds".
"Can you confirm the situation in the house?" asked the on-site commander.
A small bird landed lightly on the windowsill on the third floor of the target building and poked its head to look into the house.
"I can't see inside the room, but I can sense residual spiritual fluctuations. There is indeed supernatural power in the target room," the young operator said quickly, "...Further perception is blocked, and I can't determine the specific location of the personnel. I think there is interference."
"A classic trick of the cultists," the on-site commander curled his lips, "As long as we can make sure they are there... Hunter, prepare to break the door."
"yes!"
…
The urgent ring of the phone suddenly rang, interrupting Song Cheng's work. He reached out to pick up the receiver, glanced at the incoming call prompt, and his expression immediately became serious.
"Hello, it's me—what's going on?"
A fast-paced report came from the receiver, and the next moment, Song Cheng stood up from behind the table.
"What do you mean by 'all dead'? Explain clearly - are all the victims captured by the Angel Cult dead? Are there innocent people sacrificed at the scene? Or are they the original residents of the residential building..."
The on-site commander on the other end of the phone spoke a few words in a hurried tone, and Song Cheng's expression gradually stiffened.
"…are all the cultists dead?!"
…
Yu Sheng was sitting on the balcony on the second floor of the east building, looking through the window at the little kids doing outdoor activities on the playground. Seeing a group of kids led by teenagers running around the yard, shouting and yelling, a smile gradually appeared on his face.
The feeling was subtle, but he could indeed feel that a subtle "connection" had been established between himself and these children. He could even vaguely feel the joyful and carefree mood coming from the playground.
Just like the clear sky now.
"That's great," Irene climbed onto the windowsill and looked at the scene on the playground outside with Yu Sheng. The little doll's tone was full of emotion, "Children's happiness is simple. It would be even better if they could stop chasing me around the yard."
"They like you very much," Yu Sheng looked at the resentful little doll happily, "I saw them in the classroom just now. There were two little girls who wanted to help you comb your hair, right?"
It would have been fine if he hadn't said this. As soon as he said this, Irene almost fell off the windowsill: "Fuck, don't mention such a scary thing! I saw with my own eyes that they pulled a doll's head off to comb its hair! It scared me to death!"
Hu Li was also standing nearby, and had a thoughtful look on her face from the beginning. At this moment, she suddenly broke the silence: "In this way, all the children in this orphanage are now protected by Benefactor's Witch Blood Art, right?"
"Yes," Irene sat on the windowsill and swung her legs, "All the seventy-plus children in the courtyard are now in Yu Sheng's hands..."
Yu Sheng immediately glared at the puppet: "Can't you use a nice word? What do you mean by 'all fell' into my hands?!"
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Hu Li ignored Irene's interruption and thought about it seriously before continuing, "But this is only a temporary solution. Benefactor has only protected the children currently affected by the 'Fairy Tale', but there will always be new children affected by the 'Fairy Tale'. We still have to find a way to cure the root cause."
"That's right... We still have to find a way to solve this problem from the root," Yu Sheng sighed and said slowly, "I don't know if Little Red Riding Hood has found any problems. I don't know why, but I've been feeling a little uneasy since a while ago."
Irene's expression immediately turned serious: "We can't neglect this kind of thing - is my spiritual intuition giving me a warning?"
"It's not that serious," Yu Sheng hesitated a little, and after a very rigorous assessment, he slowly shook his head, "It's probably just the level of 'spiritual intuition swaying', but not yet the level of 'spiritual intuition jumping around'."
Irene listened in amazement, and after a while she managed to utter, "When will you change your psychopathic behavior? No one can understand what you mean..."
Yu Sheng scratched his hair, and just as he was about to say something else, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the direction of the corridor, interrupting his actions.
The three people in front of the window looked in the direction of the sound and saw Little Red Riding Hood walking hurriedly towards them, followed by the chubby tabby cat.
As soon as he saw the expression on the girl's face, Yu Sheng knew that she must have found something wrong.
"What did you find?" he immediately stepped forward and asked.
Little Red Riding Hood waved her hand and said quickly, "The rats and cockroaches in the basement of the west building have been eradicated."
Yu Sheng was stunned for a moment, and looked at Irene. He didn't react for a moment. After two or three seconds, he hesitated and said, "Um... congratulations?"
"Is this something to congratulate?" Little Red Riding Hood glared at Yu Sheng. "This is obviously an abnormal situation! Hey, I haven't finished yet. Then the 'king' and I checked along the underground passage of the west building, and finally found something near a ventilation shaft where the west building and the east building are connected..."
As she spoke, she quickly took out her cell phone, pulled out a picture and handed it to Yu Sheng.
Yu Sheng took the phone curiously and saw on the screen a photo that was hastily taken in the underground passage.
The lighting in the photo was not very good, and the lens seemed to be covered with a blurry layer, but he could still see that the corridor wall captured in the photo had many overlapping and closely spaced outlines and shadows.
Yu Sheng frowned, trying to figure out what the shadows reflected on the wall were. After a long while, he suddenly took a deep breath.
"It's the trees," Little Red Riding Hood said slowly beside her. "The faint light passes through the woods and casts the shadows of the trees on the wall, casting shadows like this - in the underground passage of the west building, the wall is reflected with the appearance of a dark forest."
(End of this chapter)
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