Chapter 497: Signs of Invasion
Cat fights can be fierce and brutal—but sometimes also involve the very real art of compromise.
When they realized that they really couldn't "ha" as well as the king, the black cats gathered in the alley immediately meowed, which even seemed to make them more aware of the situation than cats in the real world.
Yu Sheng hadn't expected things to turn out this way. He watched from the sidelines and found the entire process magical. The king, on the other hand, seemed quite unfazed. This was clearly not his first time dealing with these "cats" in the alleys. After shocking the cats, he turned around and complained to Yu Sheng, "The 'cats' generated here are stupid and have no memory. Next time I come in, they'll still come up to me recklessly."
At this point, it spat rather humanely to the side. "But the good news is that they strictly follow several characteristics of 'cats,' including attacking living creatures within their territory, being bribed by cat food, and submitting to more powerful cats. This makes them much easier to deal with than many entities in other alien realms."
"Let's quickly ask them what's going on in this alley," Yu Sheng said immediately. "For example, the three emergency exits and the unusual situation in the used bookstore—it would be best to ask them about the broken tower."
As soon as he finished speaking, the king's cat's face visibly showed a look of nervousness (no one knew how it managed that expression). After several seconds of silence, the tabby cat spoke with embarrassment, "It's hard to communicate about such a complex issue... Cats don't have a rich vocabulary, and their brains aren't that good."
Yu Sheng: “…”
"Then I'll give it a try," the king added. "Don't get your hopes up. These low-level entities have limited thinking abilities, nothing compared to Passenger 22 or the Storyteller. Stand away from Little Red Riding Hood. Cats can get easily stressed."
It felt extremely strange to see a perfectly normal tabby cat telling him seriously that "cats are prone to stress", but Yu Sheng swallowed the complaint that was on his throat, pulled Little Red Riding Hood back a few steps, and watched the king go forward to negotiate with those weird black cats.
Then came a series of meaningless meows, accompanied by the King gesturing with his paw and the anxious jumping up and down of the opposing black cats. At one point, the meowing became extremely intense, and it seemed as if they would start to burp again at any moment, but then it turned into a heated discussion among the cats...
Yu Sheng was watching with amazement, and couldn't help but touch Little Red Riding Hood's arm: "Why is the King a little angry?"
Little Red Riding Hood looked helpless: "How should I know? I can't understand cat language."
Yu Sheng touched his chin and said, "...That's true. Cats and dogs can't communicate."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a sound of grinding teeth. He turned his head and saw that Little Red Riding Hood's teeth had become sharp...
Fortunately, the king finished communicating with the group of black cats before Wang Jiajia suddenly attacked and bit people.
The group of black cats seemed to have temporarily reached some agreement with the king, the "powerful foreign cat". They retreated a distance and hid in the shadows of various buildings. They continued to stare at the figures at the intersection with their strange pale eyes. The king ordered the magician group to keep an eye on the movements of those "cats" while walking back to Yu Sheng in a square step.
"How's the communication going? Did you understand?" Yu Sheng asked immediately.
"I don't quite understand. Their logic is all over the place, but I did get some useful information," the king said in a low voice, licking his paw. "They did mention 'some changes' in the alley, but these cats don't have a clear sense of time, so they can't say when the changes started. They mentioned something crawling into the alley, and not just near the old bookstore, but almost everywhere in the alley."
The tabby cat raised its head and glanced at Yu Sheng: "It might be those 'spider silks' you saw next to that big hole."
Yu Sheng's mind moved: "So, the changes in the dark alley now..."
"Perhaps it's because we've stimulated those 'spider silks,'" the King Cat said gravely. "The Dark Alley isn't in its normal state now, but rather the result of external interference. This isn't what those 'cats' said; they can't explain such complex matters. I'm just guessing based on their disjointed information. The many changes and mechanisms in the alley are beyond the 'comprehension' of these entities. They simply want us to leave immediately, or rather... it's the 'Dark Alley' that wants us to leave as soon as possible."
Yu Sheng frowned and subconsciously looked at the three forks in the road at the intersection.
Foreign lands... can also feel fear?! They might even proactively send entities to expel those uncontrolled invaders out of "unease"?
Is this a characteristic of the "dark alley" itself, or is it a change that occurred after it was eroded and entangled by those "spider silks"?
As Yu Sheng's doubts grew, Little Red Riding Hood beside him suddenly broke the silence: "What about that broken tower?"
"There's absolutely no communication on this matter," the king shook his head. "They have no idea what 'other dimensions outside the alley' are, nor do they understand what a tower is—entities cannot know information outside of alien realms. But from another perspective, perhaps this can be used to infer that the tower isn't an original structure of the 'Dark Alley,' but rather part of some kind of 'invasion'... Or, even further, the tower and the 'spider silk' outside the Dark Alley must have the same origin, and both have only begun to entangle this alley in recent years."
Little Red Riding Hood put her fingers to her chin, thoughtfully saying, "So the poster three years ago was the unlucky one who first noticed the intrusion?"
"Based on my experience dealing with alien worlds and various erosion incidents, the post you mentioned might even describe the moment when Dark Alley was first 'invaded,'" the king said professionally. "The moment when an alien invasion is most easily detected by 'clairvoyance' is the very moment it occurs—that's also the moment when people are most likely to be drawn in."
Little Red Riding Hood pondered for a moment: "It seems that we still need to find that person first..."
"So what now?" Yu Sheng looked at the "black cats" still gathered on the roadside not far away but not making any further moves. He then glanced back at the intersection. "Are you still looking for a way to the depths?"
"...We should go back first. The alley is rejecting us. Its space-time structure has changed. There's no point in continuing to search for a path to the 'deeper'." Little Red Riding Hood thought carefully for a moment and shook her head. "Anyway, we've already gathered a lot of information. We need to go back and carefully sort out the clues we have."
"We also need to inform the Secret Service of what's happening here," the king muttered, licking the fur on his front legs. "Spiritual detectives are obligated to promptly report any anomalies discovered in foreign lands to the Secret Service—one piece of useful information can earn you a lot of money."
…
The TV in the living room was playing a variety show that no one cared about. Hu Li was sitting cross-legged on the carpet next to the coffee table, fiddling with a pile of wool. Luna was sweeping the living room with a broom. Irene was lying on the armrest of the sofa, bored, muttering to herself as she fiddled with the ominous wandering star that was rolling around in front of her eyes.
"Ah, why hasn't Yu Sheng come back yet... He's been out for a long time. He clearly said he was just going to check out the situation in that alley, but he didn't take me with him. He suddenly opened the door just now, and I thought he was going to call for help, but he didn't take me with him... It seems he didn't die outside, and he didn't take me with him... He should be back by now, it's dark... and he didn't take me with him."
In the end, no one paid any attention to the dwarf's mumbling. Hu Li and Luna were busy doing their own things. Irene looked around and found that no one was paying attention to her, so she took the initiative to crawl behind Hu Li and raised her hand to pull the fox girl's tail: "What are you doing? What's going on from just now...what's this?"
"I want to knit a scarf for my benefactor," Hu Li said seriously, pulling out a handful of unprocessed silver-white fur from his tail. "This is all the fur I shed recently."
Ai Lin looked at what Hu Li was fiddling with in surprise. After a long pause, she finally blurted out, "So this is why you've been actively cleaning up your own shed hair lately?!"
Hu Li looked very proud: "Yeah~~"
"But it's summer!" the doll stared. "Does anyone knit a scarf for summer?"
"To keep warm in winter and cool in summer, just use some magic." Hu Li narrowed his eyes. "Now my benefactor also likes to lie on my tail - because it's cool."
"Then if he goes out in the middle of summer wearing a fox fur scarf, people will think he's crazy," Irene said, a rare moment of clarity. "Yu Sheng isn't afraid of death, but he's not afraid of social death."
Hu Li was stunned for a moment, as if he had never thought about this before. Then he held a pile of wool and fluff and pondered it. After a few seconds, he looked up and said, "What suggestions do you have?"
Irene thought about it, and suddenly her eyes lit up: "Get him some woolen underwear..."
Hu Li raised his head and looked at the little doll steadily: "Erin."
Irene immediately looked a little guilty: "What...what are you doing?"
Hu Li: "I'm not stupid—that thing will tickle."
The little doll smiled awkwardly: "I just made a suggestion, just a suggestion..."
Then she quickly crawled to the other end of the sofa and lay there watching Luna sweep the floor.
After a while, she couldn't help but start teasing again: "C-shaped buckle!"
Luna stopped and turned her head to look at the little doll quietly.
Irene: "You look like a robot vacuum cleaner now."
Luna remained still for two seconds, as if she was delaying, before she let out a long sigh: "Short..."
In the end, Irene didn't hear anything and started rolling around on the sofa in boredom again.
When she rolled to the seventeenth circle, the sofa suddenly became quiet again.
Hu Li, who was seriously thinking about how to prevent his woolen underwear from scratching, noticed the changes in the movement beside him and looked up towards the sofa.
The little doll was lying quietly in the middle of the mat, holding the Ominous Star, with a silly smile on its face and snoring softly.
She fell asleep, in a sweet dream waiting for Yu Sheng to come home.
(End of this chapter)
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