Chapter 1 I Knew You'd Come Save Me

The man next to her suddenly leaned in to speak into her ear. Jiang Yu'er instinctively recoiled, but before she could get angry, the unfamiliar voice spoke familiar words.

Jiang Yu'er was stunned. In the darkness, her round, sweet face blossomed with surprise, and her tired eyes sparkled.

"Yuan, Yuanzi?" She tilted her head, staring intently at the young man's face, as if she couldn't believe it.

"It's me," Zhang Yuanqing whispered,

"I've come to save you, but due to special reasons, my physical body can't enter here, so I can only descend my consciousness and attach myself to this young man..."

Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Yu'er cheered and threw herself at him.

"I knew you'd come save me. You're a member of the Dragon Team. You'd definitely come save me!" She was as happy as a little girl.

*Dragon Team*, the more I hear it, the more chuuni it sounds. I should have thought of a better name. Oh well, my little aunt wouldn't understand anyway… Zhang Yuanqing reached out and held her shoulders, preventing her from throwing herself into his arms.

"Calm down. I have some questions to ask you."

Jiang Yu'er huffed in dissatisfaction, then winced in pain, her eyes welling up with tears, and said aggrievedly,

"Yuanzi, why did you take so long? My aunt's leg is injured. Will it leave a scar?"

As she spoke, her eyes filled with tears, ready to spill.

Where's the composure and strength you had just now? Zhang Yuanqing consoled her in a low voice, "It's okay. I'll get you out of here, and we'll find a way to heal the injury. It definitely won't leave a scar."

This kind of injury would have healed long ago for a Lingjing Xingzhe. Even a swordsman with thin blood. But for ordinary people, it was indeed a serious injury, and could even lead to tetanus.

"What are you two talking about? I can't understand a word." A rather robust woman asked tentatively.

The other four looked over.

Zhang Yuanqing first patted his aunt's hand, signaling her to be quiet, then looked at the five people and said in a deep voice,

"I'm a member of the Songhai Special Operations Team. I'm here to rescue you."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and swiped it across his face. Immediately, a golden lacquer mark lit up between his eyebrows and quickly spread across his entire face, painting a mask with a golden lacquer base and black and red intermingling colors around the eyes, forehead, and lips.

The mask was dignified and awe-inspiring.

He didn't have the time, energy, or patience to explain to these ordinary people, so using an item to intimidate them directly was the most cost-effective approach.

In an instant, the ordinary people in the wooden house felt an unspeakable fear in their hearts. The person in front of them seemed to be a god, a high and mighty ruler.

Subservience was their only emotion at this moment. Any doubts, dissatisfaction, or fear vanished.

Zhang Yuanqing swept his majestic gaze over the crowd, seeing them bowing their heads in submission, and seeing the stunned, yet adoring, look on his aunt's face.

He felt inexplicably pleased. Not the superiority of an extraordinary person facing ordinary people, but the feeling of showing off in front of his aunt.

"Tell me everything that happened after you entered this place," Zhang Yuanqing said in a low and authoritative tone.

No one dared to disobey. They immediately told him everything that had happened after they entered this world.

After being drawn into this world, they were hunted by a terrifying monster. The monster was wolf-like, three to four meters tall, walked upright, and killed anyone it saw.

The elderly, the weak, and the young were all caught and killed.

The seven of them fled all the way, and when they saw this wooden house, they hid inside.

The monster chased them here, but couldn't break down the wooden door, so it had to leave.

That was how they managed to save their lives.

"That monster comes about once an hour. It tries to trick us into opening the door by imitating a baby's cry. When that fails, it starts ramming the door. The whole wooden house is about to fall apart from its ramming, but it just can't get in," a strong middle-aged man said with a terrified expression.

A three- or four-meter-tall werewolf couldn't break down a wooden door? Unless there was something strange about the wooden door, which would be in line with the sealing properties of the Eternal Night profession. But the Eternal Night profession shouldn't involve werewolf elements… After listening, Zhang Yuanqing suddenly felt like something was missing.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly remembered, where was the little girl in the red triangular hat?

"You saw a little girl in a red hat in the tunnel, and then you inexplicably entered this place, but the little girl in the red hat hasn't appeared from beginning to end," Zhang Yuanqing asked,

"Has anyone seen her since entering this place?"

Jiang Yu'er shook her head. "We only saw the monster, Yuanzi. Is something wrong?"

The others shook their heads, indicating that they hadn't seen her.

Strange. Could that little girl have turned into the werewolf? Zhang Yuanqing thought as he looked around the wooden house.

The wooden house was not small. On the left were a fireplace, a wooden dining table, and a water tank, which was where they were. On the right was a simple wooden bed, and by the window was a small desk.

The fireplace was connected to a chimney, and on top was a large iron pot. Zhang Yuanqing lifted the lid, and a sour smell wafted out.

The pot contained rotten beans.

The tableware on the dining table consisted of wooden bowls, wooden spoons, and half a piece of blackened, hard bread.

The various details in the wooden house told him that the owner was a foreigner, and a foreigner from the Middle Ages.

Zhang Yuanqing circled the fireplace and dining table, but didn't find anything of value, so he walked towards the wooden bed.

Jiang Yu'er followed closely behind her nephew.

Zhang Yuanqing had no choice but to support her, carefully avoiding obstacles, lest she bump into her wound and make it worse.

"Yuanzi, tell me quietly, which evil villain is causing trouble this time? Dr. Octopus or the skateboarding mad scientist?"

With her nephew by her side, Jiang Yu'er wasn't afraid at all, and showed a strong curiosity about supernatural events.

"This time it's a sudden incident. I don't understand what the enemy is yet," Zhang Yuanqing said, half-truthfully.

"Is this mask your superpower? Isn't your superpower invisibility? Can you put it away? I'm a little scared," she said curiously and weakly.

"No," Zhang Yuanqing refused.

"Why?"

Because putting away the mask is equivalent to stopping its use, and then I have to pay the price of a drastic change in temperament. You wouldn't want to see me being all 'Auntie, *muah muah* one second, and then slapping you mercilessly the next, right? Zhang Yuanqing couldn't explain, so he didn't answer.

He circled the wooden bed with his aunt, but found nothing. However, on the desk by the window, he found a piece of parchment.

The paper had a few lines written in a foreign language. By the moonlight, the nephew and aunt lowered their heads to read.

"That little bitch will definitely come back for revenge, she will… She's a bastard, a bastard born from her mother mating with a monster, so she's also a monster."

"Those stupid people only burned her mother, but didn't burn her. Now she's grown up, she'll come back to kill me for revenge… The priest has set up a barrier in my house. She can't get in, but I always have to leave the wooden house. I need help… There's an old hunter in this forest. He used to like me when he was young."

"Damn it, that old bastard promised to protect me, but he demands to sleep in the wooden house every night. I hate the stench on him. He never bathes… But I can only submit, because his hunting rifle can kill that little bitch."

"I told him that if he knocks on the door four times every night, the barrier will disappear, and he can come in. Oh, I really hate him, because he never bathes…"

The content ended there.

Something's not right. Why do I feel like I'm entering a dungeon… Zhang Yuanqing complained silently. According to the content on the parchment, the owner of the wooden house had an enemy.

She was sure that her enemy would come back for revenge, which meant that the owner of the wooden house was closely related to the burning of the "little bitch's" mother.

"So the wooden house has a barrier? No wonder the monster can't get in. Yuanzi, it seems that the werewolf is the little girl in the red hat?" his aunt whispered.

Their heads were very close together. When she spoke, her breath was like orchids, and her body was fragrant.

"What makes you say that?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.

"Didn't it say above that the little bitch was born from her mother mating with a monster? And after we came here, we only saw the monster and didn't see the little girl in the red hat," Jiang Yu'er said with a clear mind.

"No, I think the monster is the hunter," Zhang Yuanqing said.

"The hunter?" Jiang Yu'er widened her eyes in surprise. "Isn't the hunter supposed to protect the owner of the wooden house? How could he become a monster?"

"I don't know, but I heard those people say that the monster knocks on the door once every hour. You've been missing for about three hours, so it knocked three times, right? The monster only needs one more time to get in," Zhang Yuanqing said,

"The monster knows how to enter the wooden house… Why are you avoiding me?"

Jiang Yu'er looked disgusted. "You have bad breath. Did you forget to brush your teeth?"

… Zhang Yuanqing said angrily, "Your life is about to be gone, and you're still worried about bad breath? Besides, this isn't my body. Do you believe I'll leave?"

Jiang Yu'er knew when to yield:

"Yuanzi still smells good, but your analysis is too arbitrary. Couldn't it be that the little bitch caught the hunter and threatened him to tell her how to enter the wooden house?"

"That possibility can't be ruled out," Zhang Yuanqing nodded.

Jiang Yu'er tilted her head, thought seriously for a moment, and said,

"Yuanzi, I feel a little familiar, the little girl in the red hat, the owner of the wooden house, and the things written above… It's very familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

Familiar? Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself, how could you, a mortal, feel familiar with a Lingjing Xingzhe's item?

But after hearing what his aunt said, Zhang Yuanqing thought carefully and found that there was indeed a strong sense of déjà vu.

"Ah, I remember," his aunt clapped her hands. "Little Red Riding Hood!"

Little Red Riding Hood!!

Zhang Yuanqing had a sudden realization. That's right, Little Red Riding Hood.

Putting aside the bizarre and terrifying reality, looking only at the keywords, little girl in a red hat, forest, hunter, wooden house, werewolf… these elements combined are the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

"So the owner of the wooden house is Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother? The grandmother who was eaten by the wolf?" Zhang Yuanqing read the parchment again, and slowly pieced together the whole story in his mind.

Little Red Riding Hood's mother gave birth to her after mating with a monster. After the grandmother found out, she gathered the people to burn her mother to death, but the young Little Red Riding Hood escaped.

The grandmother knew that Little Red Riding Hood was a hybrid monster and was worried that she would take revenge when she grew up, so she hid in a wooden house blessed by the priest.

But that still wasn't safe, so the grandmother made a deal with the hunter in the forest. The hunter could come to the wooden house to sleep every night, on the condition that he helped her kill Little Red Riding Hood.

What kind of dark story is this?

Also, why does a tool contain such a space, such a story?

This could already become a copy.

It is also possible that these are themselves part of the copy? The foreign Lingjing Xingzhe cleared this copy and subdued a certain tool, so he stripped it from the main copy?

The space they entered is not only the space formed by the Eternal Night professional tool, but also used to be part of the copy?

That's why I would have a strong, copy-undergoing sense of déjà vu.

It's meaningless to think about these now, get that tool and everything will be clear… Zhang Yuanqing muttered in his heart.

"Auntie, when was the last time the monster knocked on the door?"

"A long time ago," Jiang Yu'er said.

"How long is a long time?"

"Let me ask..." Jiang Yu'er shouted softly to her companions huddled by the fireplace:

"Sister Li, what time is it now?"

The rather robust middle-aged woman took out her phone, glanced at it, and replied softly:

"It's half past ten."

A cell phone? Uh, I almost forgot, this is not a copy, cell phones can be brought in, no wonder they can clearly calculate that the monster knocks on the door once an hour… Zhang Yuanqing was stunned when he saw the cell phone, and then remembered that this was a tool space.

"Yuanzi, exactly four hours," Jiang Yu'er's face turned flustered.

She entered here at six thirty in the afternoon, and it was now ten thirty in the evening, exactly four hours.

The monster knocks on the door once every hour, and the fourth time is coming soon.

Just then, heavy footsteps sounded outside the wooden house. In the night, some huge monster was approaching.