Alien Hotel.

Chapter 165: The Black Forest Club Takes Shape
The night was dark.

The night enveloped the orphanage, and the corridor outside gradually became quiet. The children had exhausted their energy from playing during the day, and most of them had fallen asleep at this time. The "parent" on night patrol walked through the corridor with a flashlight, and occasionally a light flashed from the observation window of the door, accompanied by the sound of deliberately slowed footsteps.

Little Red Riding Hood changed into her nightgown, leaned against the head of the bed, and listened attentively to the noise outside.

She was listening for any short cries or unusual screams in the night. Her wolf was sniffing the shadows for the scent of fear and uneasiness, sniffing for something that shouldn't be there and leaking into reality in the darkness.

She has developed this habit even on days when she doesn't have to take night patrol.

After a long while, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and lay down on the bed.

The first hour after lights out is the most prone to problems, and it looks like tonight will be a quiet night.

There was a creaking sound from the upper bunk, and a head poked out from the edge of the bed, with a curious look on its face: "Red Hat, why are you going to bed so early today? Have you really been sleeping more recently?"

"Well, I'm starting to feel sleepy," Little Red Riding Hood yawned and said a little sleepily, "and I have an appointment tonight."

The long-haired princess sleeping on the upper bunk was a little confused when she heard this. She didn't understand what this meant for a moment, but she reacted within a few seconds. A name that she had only recently become familiar with popped up in her mind: "...the uncle named Yu Sheng?"

"He's not that old, you should call him brother," Little Red Riding Hood rolled her eyes, "Yes, it's him, he asked me to meet him in the Black Forest."

"Okay, big brother," Rapunzel said with a strange look on her face, "I'll meet you in the Black Forest... Well, although I know what's going on, this still sounds strange. We have always been trapped in our own 'subsets', and your Black Forest has become 'lively' recently..."

Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyelids: "Envy?"

The head on the edge of the upper bunk tilted, then retracted after a moment: "I don't have any ideas."

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something, but she swallowed it back in the end. Then she picked up the phone beside her, and as she gradually became sleepy, she edited a message -

"Good night, see you later."

After an unknown amount of time in a daze, the girl finally fell into a dream.

Dark, cold, and empty, and then layer upon layer of shadows appeared before my eyes. From among the shadows, the forest at dusk emerged, and along with the shadows, there appeared the distant howling of wolves.

Little Red Riding Hood opened her eyes in her dream and saw a familiar "scenery".

“…I’m really here again.”

She sighed softly with helplessness, but her nerves were gradually beginning to tense up in her heart.

The fear and tension that had been rooted since childhood had almost become an instinctive part of her. It was not something that could be fought by making mental preparations in advance or exercising her courage on a daily basis. The calmness on her face and the teasing in her tone could only deceive herself, as she was still afraid deep down - she knew this better than anyone else.

As her nerves gradually tensed up, she summoned her wolves and then looked around.

She was wary of the evil wolves appearing in the darkness, and was also looking for the figure who had agreed to explore the Black Forest with her.

Almost at the same time when the wolves were summoned, Little Red Riding Hood saw a series of intertwining black threads suddenly appear in the air nearby, and heard a voice coming from somewhere:

"Hey, she's asleep, she's asleep... Don't rush, don't rush, we're just positioning ourselves. We have to find a way to get to her side. This is a delicate job... It's connected, hey, it's connected! Just put the door here, open it, open it..."

The next second, Little Red Riding Hood was surprised to see that the silk threads floating in the air suddenly condensed into a thorny "door frame", and a glimmering illusory door quickly took shape in the center of the thorn bush. The door opened, and three familiar figures stepped out of the door.

Yu Sheng carried Irene, with the fox girl beside him.

"Good evening," Yu Sheng greeted the girl cheerfully as he came in, "I guess we're not late. Irene said you just fell asleep a few minutes ago."

Then Hu Li and Irene also waved and greeted, looking very happy.

It was as if we were not entering a dangerous dark forest, but rather going on a picnic in the park.

Little Red Riding Hood suddenly felt that her emotions were a little out of sync. She felt that she should be nervous, but the atmosphere was suddenly destroyed by the cheerful attitude of these three people. She could only open her mouth and managed to say, "Um... I just came in."

Then she saw Yu Sheng rummaging through the door that hadn't been closed yet, and he bent over and pulled something in from the other side of the door. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a rebar that was more than one meter long. The front end of the rebar, which was as thick as a thumb, was bent several times, and a bunch of rusty nail blades and steel bar ends that were cut into corners were welded to the rings. In the dark forest deep in the dusk and approaching nightfall, this thing was glowing coldly, and it made her feel like she was going to get tetanus just by looking at it... Little Red Riding Hood had a lot of question marks on her head, watching Yu Sheng pull the tetanus stick out of the door and then swing it twice in the air. The more than one meter and nearly two meter long steel mace was as light as a plastic stick in his hand. She finally couldn't help asking, "What is this...?"

"Weapons," Yu Sheng explained cheerfully, seeming a little embarrassed at the same time, "It's mainly because I don't have any good weapons, nor do I have any combat experience or skills. I don't have any other strengths except brute force and selling blood. It's not like Hu Li who has the Fox Carrot Set or Irene who has a bunch of magic stuff... I can only make do with this."

As he spoke, he swung the vicious stick that could cause heavy bleeding and tetanus to ordinary people with just one rub, and sighed: "Although I feel that this thing is useless against the 'evil wolf', having a stick is better than going up with bare hands or swinging a stone like before."

Little Red Riding Hood was stunned by what she heard. It was not until she came back to her senses from the extremely shocking "weapon" style and followed Yu Sheng's train of thought. Her expression couldn't help but show a bit of awe - but it was not because the stick was really that powerful.

To be fair, she has seen a lot of dangerous weapons in her years as a detective in the spirit world, and all kinds of strange things that can take people's lives in foreign lands are countless. A rebar with a lot of blade breaks welded on it is actually not a high-end thing at all, but the power of this thing lies in the style of painting. The bunch of sharp spikes and barbs flashing with cold light are obviously the result of the designer's full use of subjective malice and ruthlessness. The murderous aura filled in the style of the weapon has exceeded the lethality of the weapon itself.

And for some reason, she always felt a wave of... fear when looking at this thing. This feeling of tension became more and more obvious, and finally made Little Red Riding Hood feel that something was wrong.

She suddenly sniffed and realized the source of this abnormality from the cold light of the blades.

"…Is there blood on it?" The girl gradually opened her eyes and looked in astonishment at Yu Sheng who was turning around and carefully closing the door.

"Yes," Yu Sheng laughed, "a lot."

In the shadow of the dark forest, that smile seemed to glow with pure joy.

Little Red Riding Hood stood there in a daze, thinking that she should say something at this moment, but she couldn't find the right words with her limited life experience and worldview. After a while, she could only say: "This... your blood? Isn't this a little..."

"Don't worry about it," Yu Sheng waved his hand nonchalantly before the girl finished speaking, "Anyway, this whole stick is just the leftover scraps from making dolls, and can be considered a by-product of doll making."

little Red Riding Hood:"……?"

Yu Sheng did not continue to explain, but put the tetanus stick on his shoulder and looked up into the depths of the Black Forest.

"Let's not stay in this dark place for now. According to what the squirrel said, let's look for the direction of the light. I think there seems to be some light ahead. Let's walk ahead and see who will come out first, the squirrel or the wolf..."

As he was talking, he walked out on his own. Little Red Riding Hood reacted and had to follow him. After walking a few steps, she noticed the nail marks on Yu Sheng's arm and the tiny teeth marks on his forehead (she didn't know how the teeth marks could be on his forehead). She couldn't help but ask curiously, "Then what are these wounds on your body? They're like cat scratches..."

Yu Sheng's pace suddenly slowed down, and his face twitched in embarrassment: "Uh... this is also a byproduct of making dolls. Don't worry, it will be fine in a while."

Irene, who was sitting on his other shoulder, snorted and tried hard to act as if she was still angry, but it had no deterrent effect at all. In the end, she even reached out and touched the teeth mark on Yu Sheng's forehead, looking particularly twisted.

Little Red Riding Hood continued: "......?"

Just then, a rustling sound suddenly came from the bushes next to them, causing everyone to stop instantly.

The next second, under the gazes of several people, a small figure suddenly jumped out of the bushes——

The squirrel with a big furry tail, a red rag wrapped around its body, and holding an acorn it had picked up from somewhere, proudly jumped onto the thin branch at the top of the bush and made a shrill cry: "Ah - dusk! The forest has darkened, Little Red Riding Hood is walking alone on a small path in the suburbs. Good children should control their curiosity and never be attracted by the wild flowers and mushrooms on the roadside..."

The little squirrel suddenly stopped talking halfway and stared at the group of people in front of him.

Yu Sheng, with a smile on his face, holding the tetanus stick.

This doll is only 66cm tall but looks so impressive for some reason.

A demon fox with a bunch of tails behind it and fox fire floating around it.

Little Red Riding Hood looked embarrassed but didn't know why.

The squirrel stared at the scene in a daze. After a few seconds, the acorn in its claws fell to the ground with a plop.

“…It’s getting weird!!”

(End of this chapter)