Eileen's request caught Yu Sheng a little off guard. He had no idea why she had chosen this moment to bring it up so solemnly.
They had indeed discussed making a body for the person in the painting more than once, but they had never settled on it. For one thing, Yu Sheng and Eileen still lacked mutual trust and understanding. For another, there were simply too many chaotic matters to deal with, and Yu Sheng had had no time to consider Eileen's body.
But when he saw the extremely solemn expression on the doll maiden's face, Yu Sheng realized that she hadn't brought it up on a whim or out of momentary caprice.
He looked at Eileen questioningly.
"I want to go with you." Eileen's answer was simple. "Consider it having someone watch your back."
"Are you sure?" Yu Sheng's expression turned somewhat peculiar. "Of course, I'm not questioning your strength or anything..."
"Listen." Eileen cut him off. She leaned toward the edge of the frame, her face taking up nearly two-thirds of the painting. Her tone was unusually serious. "I'm not joking with you. Although I don't know exactly how you plan to deal with that 'entity,' judging by the fact that you can bring back 'local specialties' from it, you must have some ability. I won't ask what kind of ability it is, but you should understand that when dealing with the Otherworld, being able to fight isn't enough. At least, it isn't enough when dealing with a troublesome entity like 'Hunger.'"
As she spoke, she moved back a little. "Make me a body and restore some of my ability to move freely. It doesn't have to be refined. As long as I can break free of this damn oil painting, there'll be so much more I can do. Even if I can't recover all my strength, I'll definitely be stronger than ordinary investigators or those so-called Spirit Realm Detectives and Otherworld Hunters. Even though I've forgotten most of what I knew, I still have the instincts of a living doll."
Yu Sheng stared intently at Eileen, and Eileen gazed back at him with her crimson eyes.
"I can help you, Yu Sheng," Eileen said earnestly. "We already worked together once when we went into Huli's dream."
This time, Yu Sheng thought for much longer than usual. In the end, he had to admit that Eileen had a point.
All he could think about was returning to that valley and eliminating the "entity—Hunger" there. But he also knew that the odds of charging in alone and killing the monster were indeed low. Of course, he wasn't afraid of death, and he had gradually grown stronger while devouring the "entity—Hunger." But that enhancement clearly had a limit, while "Hunger"... wasn't easy to eliminate.
Repeatedly dying to wear the monster down through "corpse dragging" might work, but that was clearly the worst possible strategy. If he could have an ally who was good at fighting and understood some supernatural powers, that would certainly be preferable.
All he needed to do was place some trust in Eileen and release her from the painting.
And that trust had already been established when they had fallen into Huli's dream together, then awakened from the dream and met again only to vomit at each other.
"Looks like I'll have to go downtown." Yu Sheng let out a soft breath and leaned back in his chair. "Materials like clay and wigs have to be bought at a specialty craft store. You can't find them in an old neighborhood like this."
The doll maiden in the oil painting blinked. Once she realized what he meant, her face immediately lit up with delight. "Y-you agree?!"
"If you don't have high standards for the body's quality and you trust my craftsmanship," Yu Sheng said, waving his hand, "I can give it a try."
"My standards aren't high. It just has to look human. I can reshape it myself—as long as you don't make a mistake during the 'alchemy' part." Eileen hurriedly spoke, as if afraid Yu Sheng would change his mind if she waited too long. Afterward, she thought for a moment and turned her face away with an awkward expression. "And... and if you really can't find suitable materials..."
Yu Sheng looked curious. "What if I really can't find suitable materials?"
"...You can use dough."
Yu Sheng froze for two or three seconds before finally revealing the most shocked expression he had shown since meeting Eileen. "Huh?!"
Eileen explained in a small voice, "The material is only a medium. What truly makes it work is the alchemy, your blood, and my soul..."
Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded. "Wait, no... I understand settling for the next best thing, but isn't this taking it a bit too far?!"
Eileen thought it over, then decided to give Yu Sheng an innocent smile and try to get away with it through sheer adorableness.
She succeeded.
But Yu Sheng still decided to go out and buy the supplies.
"I'll still go buy some proper clay. I'll probably need quite a lot to mold a body for you, so we'd better not waste food. Besides, I have some other things to buy." Yu Sheng exhaled as he rose, speaking casually. "You stay home and watch TV. Call me remotely if anything happens—and if the TV crashes again, wait until I get back."
As he spoke, he picked up the remote and turned on the television for Eileen. Eileen in the frame obediently nodded. "Oh... Then come back quickly."
Yu Sheng answered, put on his coat, and walked toward the entrance.
He gripped the doorknob. His first action was to steady himself. Only after confirming that there wouldn't be a volcanic crater, a meteor shower, a sulfur lake, a little green man wielding a lightsaber, or a fairy big sister covered in mechanical modifications outside did he take a deep breath, open the door, and successfully make his way onto the old streets of Wutong Road.
Yu Sheng suddenly felt that this was rather interesting.
Going to the end of the world was easy for him. Whether he could return or would die out there was another matter. But opening the door and walking onto the street was much more difficult for him now...
As he headed toward the bus stop, Yu Sheng casually surveyed his surroundings again.
At some point, his state of mind while walking through this enormous, unfamiliar city had changed slightly. The oppression and unease of the past few days had quietly faded. Walking along a street that couldn't really be called his "hometown," he felt not only calmness, but also a trace of... excitement and anticipation.
Even the sky, bright enough to be somewhat glaring, now looked pleasantly sunny and clear.
Vendors were selling things at the intersection. Sparse pedestrians passed by. A child who had apparently gotten into some unknown trouble ran shouting down the roadside, while an adult chased after him, cursing the whole way.
Yu Sheng wondered, Could any of the "professionals" Eileen mentioned be among them? The people protecting this city from the shadows and fighting the Otherworld—has anyone noticed that this calm and peaceful old neighborhood is hiding a few small "anomalies"?
His thoughts even began to wander as he guessed which pedestrians looked unfamiliar, which seemed to be undercover, and which might be Spirit Realm Detectives or investigators.
The uncle frying jianbing at the intersection looked a little suspicious. He had changed to someone with terrible technique today. The auntie hanging laundry on the balcony across the street was another possibility; Yu Sheng had never seen her before. Could that noisy brat who had just run past be one of them? Eileen had said that Spirit Realm Detectives had a "trick" for changing their appearance. It was amazing...
In any case, the delinquent squatting beside him in a tank top with dyed blond hair and his phone playing audio aloud definitely wasn't one. He looked far too unconvincing.
Humming a little tune, Yu Sheng crossed the old street, brushing past Li Lin, who was squatting on the ground in a tank top with dyed blond hair—a wig, in his case—with his phone playing audio aloud.
A while later, Xu Jiali, nearly two meters tall, wandered onto the street. He glanced down at Li Lin, who was keeping watch, then squatted down and lit a cigarette, squatting alongside him like a delinquent.
"Is that outfit of yours really reliable?" Xu Jiali asked.
"Extremely reliable," Li Lin said casually. "I used to dress like this whenever I went out on stakeouts. All those colleagues frying jianbing got exposed, but I never did. I even have an anime battle suit. Its concealment is even better. Once, I pinned down someone involved in Boundary City smuggling, and he still refused to believe that an anime character could be an agent of the Special Operations Bureau."
The burly man was utterly bewildered. "What's an anime battle suit? Sounds like a force-field Power Armor. Aren't you forbidden from using that stuff in The Crossroads?"
"...I can't explain it to you." Li Lin looked disgusted and shifted to the side. "Stay farther away from me. You're too big. You'll expose me."
"Absolutely impossible. Anyone can tell at a glance that my vibe is even more unemployed than yours." The burly man curled his lip. "But you haven't found anything all morning, have you? Honestly, I doubt that even if something really is hidden here, it's likely to be a 'person.' It's probably some kind of anomalous entity or an Otherworld corruption point. That would fit the clues you've found here so far better. Damn it, who knows how things are going at the bureau after all that commotion in Boundary City last night? The two of us still have to sit here like a pair of idiots, wasting time watching some thing we don't even know..."
Li Lin couldn't be bothered to answer the burly man. He pulled out a large power bank, jammed it into his phone, and then turned the phone's external volume up even louder.
Two or three hours later, Yu Sheng had bought everything he wanted at a shopping mall in the city center.
Now, he dragged several large bags to an empty place and fell into thought.
He had bought quite a lot. The weight itself wasn't a problem for him now, but carrying it all the way home on a crowded bus would still be troublesome.
So he had a bold idea.
He thought it was very worth trying.
Yu Sheng raised his head and once again confirmed that no one was watching. Then he silently reached toward the air beside him. A door took shape in his hands.
Three seconds later, deep within a hidden "depth" of Boundary City, countless agents, clerks, team leaders, and even their director, Baili Qing—people who had worked overtime until their minds had gone numb—shot up from their chairs as an alarm suddenly rang out at Special Operations Bureau headquarters...
Yu Sheng went home carrying several large plastic bags.
Before you continue