Yu Sheng was not particularly surprised to open his eyes and find himself in the Black Forest after falling asleep.
After all, the "fairy tale" Otherworld had never disappeared, and Ankaela's activity had never stopped. The children from the orphanage had merely made it safely through that dangerous night. After that, the subsets within the fairy tale could reopen at any moment—and whether it was the Shelter Wasteland or that valley, they were essentially just safety nets, meant to prevent children who fell into nightmares from suffering severe mental trauma or being directly parasitized by Ankaela.
In other words, the nightmare was going to come sooner or later.
But that did not stop Yu Sheng from finding the whole thing absurdly bizarre. He also vaguely felt that the Black Forest was practically targeting him specifically.
He drew in a light breath. After calming down, he felt even more certain that his intuition was right.
The Black Forest was targeting him—or rather, something in the forest was targeting him.
Faint wolf howls rang out in the distance. The ceaseless cries of a baby made him restless, while wind swept through the nearby bushes. Every so often, a strange, indistinct buzzing sound came through the air.
The bizarre buzzing noise made Yu Sheng wonder if he was suffering from tinnitus. He slapped his forehead hard and dug at his ears, but the noise did not weaken at all. Instead, it mixed with the baby's cries, becoming even more irritating.
"Are there more and more weird noises in this damned place...?" Yu Sheng muttered. It was as if he wanted to use his own voice to counteract the annoying noise. "It sounds like an alarm is going off."
A rustling suddenly came from the grass nearby. The next second, a tiny, reddish-brown furry