Regarding the favor that Little Red Riding Hood wanted from him, Yu Sheng imagined several possibilities, all of which were vaguely related to the supernatural realm.
After all, although she appeared to be just a girl of seventeen or eighteen, she was a professional "spirit world detective."
Whatever she was asking him to do should surely be of a professional nature.
To be honest, Yu Sheng was quite looking forward to it.
After all, he himself had dealings with foreign realms, and considering this assistance as a chance to accumulate experience from a "little senior" was not a bad idea.
However, he felt a bit nervous.
He wasn't sure if he could handle whatever Little Red Riding Hood had in mind.
If it turned out to be too difficult, he would need to think of a way to brush it off without losing face.
Then, while sitting in a café by the roadside, he stared blankly at what the girl pulled out from her bag.
It was a thick math exam paper for high school students.
What a huge book!
Yu Sheng glanced at the math paper in front of him and then back at the short-haired girl across the table, his gaze shifting back and forth several times, thoroughly expressing his confusion.
It truly was difficult—if it weren't for the answers being at the back, this seemed much harder than fighting monsters in the foreign realm.
After all, one could always return from a defeat in a physical battle, but if one simply didn't understand math, no amount of revival could help!
As he hummed to himself, Hu Li stood beside him, hugging Ai Lin and watching without understanding what was happening.
"You just need to copy the answers from this paper for me; the answers are at the back. Just write it out a bit carelessly, as long as it’s filled up," Little Red Riding Hood said calmly.
"Then I'll take Hu Li to the mall next door to buy some clothes—oh right, I need you to give me some cash first. I don't have much on me, but once we finish shopping, I'll give you the receipt and settle the difference."
Yu Sheng opened his mouth and finally found the words: "So, helping you means doing your homework? Is this... appropriate?"
"It's perfectly appropriate! I had already finished my homework, but it got ripped by a spirit! But the teacher doesn’t believe me," Little Red Riding Hood said, looking quite troubled, but when she turned to Yu Sheng, her eyes sparkled with a hint of joy, the kind that comes with hope—"I came over just to buy a new test paper. I was planning to stay up all night, but I didn't expect to run into you guys."
Yu Sheng frowned, "My handwriting is definitely not like yours. Even if I try to imitate it, it will be obvious."
"It's fine. They won’t examine it closely," Little Red Riding Hood waved her hand.
"This is my serious version. At least the first time I did it, I really wrote it myself. Some of my classmates just have someone else do it for them..."
"Alright then," Yu Sheng sighed, finally accepting the fact that many things in this world wouldn't meet his expectations.
He stood up, took out his wallet, and handed it to the girl.
Turning back to Hu Li, he said, "You stay with her and ask her anything if you don’t understand. Also, take Ai Lin with you. If anything happens, contact me through Ai Lin."
Hu Li glanced at Little Red Riding Hood, looking a bit uneasy, but nodded gently after hearing Yu Sheng's instructions.
Little Red Riding Hood paused for a moment after receiving the wallet.
With a playful glance up, she said, "So you are just giving me both people and money, huh? Aren't you afraid I’ll run away?"
At this moment, Yu Sheng was already looking down at the paper and lifted his gaze upon hearing her words: "Have you never stayed clear of any door your entire life?"
Little Red Riding Hood's expression tightened, and the corner of her mouth twitched, "That’s a bit scary..."
"This exam paper is even scarier," Yu Sheng sighed, "I never expected that one day I would have to face high school homework again in this way. To think I didn’t even have this much when I was a student..."
Little Red Riding Hood quickly grabbed Hu Li’s hand and started to back away while waving her other hand, "Let’s go buy clothes then!"
Hu Li hesitated for a second, then grabbed Ai Lin and waved back at Yu Sheng.
She meant to wave with her other hand, but that hand was being held by Little Red Riding Hood.
From a few meters away, Yu Sheng could see Ai Lin secretly baring her teeth.
...
After passing through several layers of quarantine doors and safety chambers, Song Cheng felt as though he were crawling inside a gigantic beast, constructed from steel and concrete.
After going through several checkpoints, he finally reached his destination.
At the end of a brightly lit underground corridor stood a heavy metal gate, flanked by armed guards from the Special Operations Bureau.
The gate was engraved with numerous intricate patterns that made one's eyes spin.
A light above the gate emitted a reassuring green glow, with the words "Deep Dive Zone - D2 Submersible Port" displayed prominently.
Song Cheng took out his identification card and swiped it over the reader next to the "Customs Inspection" sign.
As the gate opened, the scene beyond came into view.
A slightly distorted light curtain covered the inner side of the gate, allowing him to see a vast hall on the other side.
The hall was bright and contained many large devices that resembled "water tanks," all neatly lined up.
These tanks were three meters square, each resting on a complex black metal base, and filled with a light blue liquid.
Numerous individuals in white uniforms moved between the tanks, checking the operating conditions of the various systems.
Song Cheng stepped inside.
As he passed through the distortion of the light curtain, he felt a brief moment of weightlessness followed by dizziness, and then a ringing in his ears that persisted for a few seconds.
Once the ringing subsided, he heard a soft system prompt in his headset: "Entered D2 Submersible Port. Current Deep Dive Zone is at Paning-III site. Average depth in this hall is L-1. Environment: Stable."
Shaking his head, he cleared the remaining dizziness and walked directly toward a row of neatly arranged "water tanks."
He spotted a figure in a white suit with grayish-white hair tied back in a ponytail already waiting there.
"Director!" Song Cheng hurried over, surprised, "You came in person?"
"After all, this is an unprecedented situation," Bai Liqing turned her head, her colorless eyes briefly examining Song Cheng, "Your team members are ready."
Song Cheng nodded and glanced at the six "water tanks" in front of him.
Six fully equipped "divers" were slowly entering the tanks with the help of robotic arms.
They wore sleek black powered armor, their helmets obscuring their faces, leaving only dark red lights flickering on the monitors embedded in their helmets.
Each diver also carried a small reactor backpack to power their mental shields and specialized observation and recording equipment.
The robotic arms lifted the divers into the tanks, and they floated within the light blue liquid.
Moments later, a faint humming sound began to emanate from the black metal base of the tanks, the noise gradually rising from low to high.
An announcement echoed around them: "Configuring 'Deep Sea' environment, please prepare personnel for submersion... 'Umbilical' ready, awaiting manual command."
A technician monitoring the "water tanks" observed the readings on his device, and seconds later shouted, "Connect the 'umbilical'!"
Several staff members in lab coats rushed forward to manually input commands for each "water tank."
The light blue liquid within the tanks began to ripple.
At the same time, slender black metal tubes resembling vertebrae rose from the bottom of the tanks.
Specks of dark red glimmered between the metallic joints, and the tubes seemed to swim and extend within the blue liquid before accurately connecting to the chest areas of each diver.
The announcement resumed: "'Umbilical' connected, inducing agent injected... starting descent."
Waves began to swell within the tanks, and the light blue liquid seemed to instantly transform into "sea water," as if each tank were a small slice taken from some vast ocean, gradually moving in unison with some specific rhythm.
In the next moment, all divers vanished from Song Cheng's sight, leaving only the "umbilicals" connected to their powered suits floating in their original positions, gently swaying within the liquid, as if indicating that the divers still remained in the tanks—only now they were no longer observable from outside.
"Do you think this will work? What will they see?" Bai Liqing turned to Song Cheng.
"... The inducing agent will allow them to sink into the spirit realm, which can be effective for certain specific types of foreign dimensions, especially those entering through spirit, dreams, or emotions. But honestly... Nightshade Valley is a bit unique," Song Cheng shook his head, "We still haven't found a stable way in and out of Nightshade Valley. Using the inducing agent might only allow observers to see its shadow in hallucinations. Right now, the place has also experienced 'mutations,' and even Passenger 22 doesn't know the specifics. I suspect... the divers might return empty-handed."
Bai Liqing nodded.
Song Cheng wanted to say more, but just then, a sharp buzzing sound suddenly erupted!
“Woc! Contamination!” a technician almost instantly jumped up and dashed towards the emergency stop button, "Pull them back!"
The emergency stop button was slammed down, piercing noise erupted from the bottom of each "water tank," and the light blue liquid within the tanks was almost instantly drained.
Immediately, every "umbilical" sparked, and in the next moment, the six divers’ figures suddenly reappeared in the real world—they landed clumsily within the tanks, curled up.
Some tore off their helmets and immediately began to vomit on the ground, while others struggled to stand, staggering to the edges of the tanks, desperately banging against the reinforced polymer walls, as if trying to shout something to those outside.
Song Cheng and Bai Liqing rushed over.
"We reached the end of the corridor!" shouted the diver who struggled to stand, his voice warped and distorted as it passed through the safety barrier of the "water tanks."
"At the end of the corridor! A beam of light! No Nightshade Valley, there’s nothing! The end of the corridor is all—it's all... all math problems! It's all TM real questions!!"
(End of Chapter)