Because Someone Wanted That Doll

The people at Oster Company were dumbfounded. Losing one Alice was nothing, but losing one Shen... it wasn't just that Shen was lost, but that their entire team was lost.

"This mechanism—" one of them had barely begun to speak when the mechanism door closed automatically, declaring the mechanism unusable.

The man paused, the indifference on his face fading to reveal a complex expression that was hard to describe, before completing the sentence: "You're quite good at stirring things up."

The captain rubbed his temples and turned on the walkie-talkie. "Chen, Alice, are you guys alright?"

A burst of static came through the walkie-talkie, indicating that someone was on the other end, and it was highly likely that their voice had been heard, but the signal for the reply from that end was being interfered with.

The few team members who had separated from the group were still able to communicate normally. Hearing the question on the walkie-talkie, they relayed some information. "No way, Chen and Alice stepped on the trap together? Will I ever be found safely...?"

"Zheng Zhan, behave yourself and don't get involved." The captain was also annoyed by the team member who replied. Like Chen, Zheng Zhan was a new member on his first mission. His personality hadn't settled down yet, and he was the most troublesome one along the way, curious about everything and wanting to get involved.

If Zheng Zhan's abilities hadn't proven so effective in the tomb, he would have wanted to beat the kid up to shut him up.

"Hmph, I can walk the right path on my own anyway, hehe. Now that Chen is not here, you guys might be slower than me~" Zheng Zhan's voice came from the walkie-talkie, the tone was distorted, but his annoying tone was not diminished in the slightest.

The captain and other members. "..." Although it's the truth, why can't this fake camaraderie continue? Why Stab Heart?

"Never mind, more important than Zheng Zhan is why the signal is being interfered with over there." Ling Heng is essentially a refined and cultured person. When he puts away his gloomy mood, he is a very relaxing person to talk to.

Ling Heng knew that Zheng Zhan was also a strategist, and the strategist's personality could not be found to have a cause in this strategizing world. It would be foolish to waste time on Zheng Zhan.

"What else could it be?" said a short-haired woman in the group. "He and Alice must have fallen deep inside, into some place more affected by the power of the Ghost Tree. There might be danger, but since they've trusted the Ghost Tree so much the whole way, and the captain still won't tell us the real reason..."

The short-haired woman glanced at the captain, a half-smile playing on her lips, "With Chen here, I'm sure he and Alice will be fine. Once they're out of that area, they'll definitely contact us, won't they?"

This woman speaks with a sharp tongue.

However, no one said anything, because what she said was true. Apart from the captain, no one knew Shen's background. In a place like Oster Company where promotion was based on contributions, Shen was like a chopstick stirring up a fish tank, disrupting their original order.

There will definitely be people who are dissatisfied. Even if they don't feel dissatisfied because of Shen's strength, there will always be doubts.

They wanted to ask the team leader, but he always brushed them off with, "It's the boss's arrangement, and I have no right to interfere."

The captain paused for two seconds, then said, "In that case, let's keep going. Now that we're no longer slack off, we can't be lazy. Everyone, stay alert and get ready for the machine to probe."

In the pitch-black space, Alice felt a sense of suffocation.

Well, she doesn't know where she's fallen to, and she can't focus on looking around.

As she slid down the sloping stone wall, the friction cushioned her fall, preventing her from getting hurt. However—the weight that followed seemed very light, and after gliding in an arc, it landed squarely on her.

Her first reaction was: Oh no, Shen is a germaphobe, will he accept this level of contact?

My second thought was: Should I push him away? What if he gets up and, because he's upset, tries to kill me?

The thought only flashed through her mind for a moment before being shattered by a deep voice.

Surprisingly, Shen didn't exhibit any germaphobia despite the large contact area. He gently pushed himself up from the ground and gentlemanly extended his hand to her. "Sorry, I bumped into you. Can you get up?"

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Alice really wanted to say that the women in the company weren't weak at all; they were all treated like men. Any one of them could easily defeat a group of ordinary people. How could they be so easily hurt by a little bump? Alice grabbed Chen's hand for support and stood up. "You don't need to apologize."

She truly hadn't expected that the seemingly aloof and unapproachable person would be so approachable and surprisingly gentlemanly.

So she grew bolder, trying to seize the opportunity to chat. "But you're much lighter than I imagined. When you fell, you didn't seem like someone over 1.8 meters tall, more like..."

It looks like a hollow piece of wood.

"It's good that you're not hurt." Shen withdrew her hand, not responding to her words, as if she didn't want to talk about this topic.

He put his hands back in his pockets and looked around.

This should still be a tomb chamber, but without the illumination of the Mingzhu, it has been completely plunged into darkness.

He had excellent night vision, but Alice didn't, so he took out a flashlight and turned it on.

In the instant the light appeared, a rustling sound seemed to come from the darkness, as if something had been disturbed by the light.

Alice's hair stood on end, and she instinctively moved closer to Chen. The next moment, Chen swung the beam of light around, illuminating a dense cluster of eyes glowing red.

Those were bats hanging upside down on the stone wall.

The bat's gaze was fixed on the two of them, its wings spread, and the flapping sound created a continuous and increasingly loud noise, almost more mentally polluting than flies.

The bat sensed their presence, its small mouth opening to reveal several rings of sharp teeth that rivaled those of the strange fish. A high-decibel cry emanated from it, causing the two to experience ringing in their ears.

Alice frowned, feeling a warm, moist sensation in her eardrums, as if liquid was leaking out; her ear canal had probably been punctured by the shock.

But when she turned her head, she saw that Shen's face was even more unpleasant than hers.

As a new colleague, Alice assumed that Shen wouldn't be too fond of this kind of creature, so she drew her short knife and took the initiative to stand in front of Shen.

She noticed bats flapping their wings and swarming towards them from outside the beam's range. She quickly said, "They're vampire bats! See them? They're afraid of light. Keep your flashlight on, I'll handle them."

Shen Youyou watched the bats swooping towards her without moving, clearly not afraid of them at all.

His voice was slightly cold. "A bat living in a tomb carries at least thousands of unknown pathogens that can infect humans. It's too filthy."

Alice just sliced open a vampire bat. "..."

Chen added, "And their blood, is there no way to stop the splattering?... Damn."

Alice: "..."

Alice was speechless.

Perhaps this is what it means to be a big shot; surrounded by so many mutated bats, all she can think about is filth. Should she be thankful that she's relatively safe with Chen?

As if to confirm her thoughts, when the bat got too close and was about to touch Shen, a burst of black mist suddenly erupted from Shen's body.

Thin, intricate black lines silently crawled out of the heavy neck. Black mist seeped from the lines, like tentacles reaching outwards. Bats that came into contact with this mist would scream and flutter backwards, but they still could not escape their fate of death.

Shen was very thorough in his actions. The black mist also enveloped Alice, carefully avoiding contact with her but creating a safe zone around her.

A pile of dead bats quickly accumulated on the ground around the two of them.

Seeing that their companions had all turned to death, the remaining creatures hesitated for a long time before flying away in a flock into the distance.

Shen didn't lift a finger from beginning to end; not even the beam of his flashlight flickered. Alice was shocked by the difference between herself and Shen, and managed to stammer, "Too strong. Is this your special ability? No wonder you were appointed as the deputy captain of the operation right away."

This kind of aggressive area-of-effect ability is exactly what the action team needs and is also the most scarce. Not only Oster Company, but even other forces, if they knew of Shen's existence, would try to poach him or destroy him.

"That's right." Shen nodded, his expressionless face making him seem ruthless, but his honest words were reassuring. "It's a bit cold in here. I can feel some of the Ghost Tree's power remaining here. Staying too long will affect you. Let's go."

Alice obediently followed Shen away, and she also keenly realized a bit of information that Shen had revealed.

She would be affected by the power of the Ghost Tree, so she had to leave quickly. Did that imply that Shen wouldn't be affected?

She grew increasingly curious about this person; the zombie department was, after all, a department dedicated to exploring secrets, and the secrets surrounding Shen were also very intriguing to Alice.

Looking Chen up and down, Alice finally found a new topic to bring them closer. "I remember you used to wear a doll on your belt, a little boy in a black suit."

She paused slightly in her steps, then asked, "Where is it now?"

Chen seemed to chuckle, so softly it was almost an illusion.

"That doll... someone wanted it, so I gave it to him."

"Huh?" Alice was stunned, but her mind worked quickly. "You know someone from another faction?"

What kind of acquaintance would be tempted by a doll, especially a girl?

"We're probably not that close yet." Chen tilted his head, walked out of the bat's lair, and returned to a narrow passageway. As he sorted his way, he said, "But we'll probably get to know each other better in the future... He once gave me a vulgar doll and told me I had to return the favor. Ha, like a robber."

"Hmm..." Alice didn't quite understand; she couldn't grasp the concept of a doll that swore all the time.

Moreover, the words "now," "later," and "once" that Chen used in his mouth didn't sound like conventional nouns at all; instead, they carried a special meaning.

Because of the chaotic timeline within the tomb, Alice easily considered one possibility. "You've met in other timelines, but are you still strangers in this one?"

Shen glanced at her with some surprise, seemingly not expecting her to be so clever.

"More or less..." Shen didn't intend to explain further. A delicate face, always carrying a calm smile, appeared in his mind. He murmured something in a voice Alice couldn't hear—

"It's not another timeline within the tomb, but another world. He probably hasn't even seen me yet... Won't what I'm doing disrupt the Karma? Oh well, it's good to give the Witch something to do, so she won't be so rambling on and on."

Shen isn't actually as aloof as he seems; most of the time, he's quite approachable.

However, the curse-like aura emanating from him was beyond his control.

He could sense that the air was filled with the aura of the Ghost Tree, and that the tomb passage was perhaps a little too close to the Ghost Tree itself.

This greatly affected his perception, so he simply gave up and took a small black cat out of his pocket.

It really was pinched out. Two fingers were put together and pinched the kitten's nape. The little black cat meowed softly, rubbed its eyes with its paws, and revealed its dark golden eyes.

If Yu Xing were here, he would definitely recognize at a glance that this cat is the same "Bad Luck" he saw next to the Witch in the original version of "The Witch's Time Cabin" in Alice's Park.

Compared to then, Bad Luck had grown a little older, its eyes were a very similar color to the Witch's, and its every move had become more human and lively. It was very affectionate towards Shen.

Yu Xing could see this scene, he would definitely be able to connect a lot of information with the cat's owner that the Witch mentioned. No, he wouldn't need to go through all that trouble. He only needed to hear the word "sink" to recall the story the old butler told him in Alice's Park 2.0 version, the one where the "sink" burned down Alice's bedroom and the entire floor.

Unfortunately, the information gap was amplified to the extreme at this moment.

Yu Xing was completely unaware of what was happening here.

Chen put the black cat on the ground and nudged its rear with his toe. "Come on, don't be lazy, go scout ahead."

Alice had seen this cat before; it would occasionally jump onto Chen's shoulder to make its presence known, but she assumed it was just a handsome guy's pet. After all, who doesn't have a quirk these days?

Bringing a pet cat into a tomb is not entirely incomprehensible.

She never imagined that the cat was actually kept as a scout.

The black cat obediently started walking ahead, its elegance seemingly ingrained in its very bones. Alice and Chen followed the black cat, choosing their own path.

After walking for a few minutes, they were indeed safe and sound. Alice even felt the surrounding chill gradually receding, indicating that they had followed the black cat and were at least on a path away from danger.

She didn't pause for long before asking, "Chen, is your real name Chen?"

Oster Company is a legally registered company, and every employee uses their real name. Alice, Zheng Zhan, and Ling Heng all use their real names, but one-character names are too rare, and this doesn't sound like a normal surname.

"No, it seems the boss calls me that for convenience." Shen didn't seem to care. "It's not a secret. My name is Yu Fengchen, the 'Feng' in 'seal'..."

For some reason, Alice blurted out, "The 'sinking' in 'Ghost Tree'?"