Dimensional Hotel

Chapter 146: Exploiting the Bug to Enter the Map

To be honest, when the doll, Irene, mentioned the phrase “unity of mind and thought,” Yu Sheng immediately thought it was going to be tough. Most of the time, his interactions with Irene involved mutual exasperation, each thinking the other was completely nuts. Then again, wasn’t their shared belief in each other’s insanity a kind of “unity of mind” in itself?

His thoughts began to spiral in that peculiar direction, veering so wildly off course that even he couldn’t recognize where they’d started. Finally, Irene bonked her head against his with a sharp thud.

“I told you to clear your mind, not let it wander all over the place! Focus on opening the door!” she scolded.

“Oh, right, okay,” Yu Sheng replied, snapping back to the task at hand.

He pulled himself together and focused on the steps required to open the door. This time, he summoned an empty void door, a doorway leading nowhere. As he stabilized it, he began to relax his mind bit by bit.

He felt Irene’s small palm press against his temple. Her other hand lifted and pointed toward the door.

From her fingertips, fine black threads began to grow, silent and eerie. They twisted and wriggled like living creatures, weaving together in the air. The threads split, multiplied, and shifted shape, some burrowing into Yu Sheng’s flesh and mind. A chilling sensation slithered down his spine, making him shiver.

Had this been his first time encountering Irene’s threads, Yu Sheng might have instinctively thrown the little doll away. These ghostly, ominous threads seemed like they belonged in a horror story, perhaps one where a “cursed doll finally seizes her chance to betray her master and steal his place of power at Wutong Road No. 66.”

But by now, he was used to it—this was just how Alice’s dolls operated.

Some of the threads extended toward the void door, merging at their tips like a strange tentacle. They cautiously touched the door before probing deeper inside.

The connection was established.

At that moment, Yu Sheng felt a sudden disorientation.

The sound of wind in the valley disappeared. A heavy, dark curtain seemed to fall over the scene, filling his vision with endless fog. In the distance, he saw—

A golden-haired doll, broken and fragmented, lying quietly amidst ruins consumed by darkness. Shadows loomed large, collapsed alongside the doll in the depths of the wreckage. The dead doll’s eyes were open, and for a fleeting moment, Yu Sheng had the uncanny sense that those eyes were watching him.

The vision vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Yu Sheng didn’t even have time to confirm whether the doll he’d seen was the same one he’d once glimpsed in the mirror.

“Hey! Hey! The door’s open!” Irene’s excited voice broke through his daze. “I think it worked! Yu Sheng, check out my handiwork!”

He blinked and found himself staring at the now-open doorway to the Black Forest. Black threads wreathed the door, forming chaotic, thorn-like patterns around its frame. Beyond the threshold lay the shadowed forest, shrouded in mist and menace.

The door to the Black Forest had been successfully opened.

Yu Sheng stared at the doorway in a mix of awe and unease. The dark, thorny embellishments were strange, sure, but undeniably impressive.

What lingered in his mind, though, was the vision he’d seen.

“Irene,” he called.

“Huh?” she responded.

“Did you see anything just now? Like, during our connection—any visions or hallucinations?”

“Nope,” Irene said after a moment’s thought. “I was focusing on stabilizing the door’s position. Why, what did you see?”

Yu Sheng hesitated, then decided not to keep it from her.

“I saw that golden-haired doll again,” he admitted.

“Which one?” Irene tilted her head. “You’ve got other doll friends now?”

“The one I told you about,” Yu Sheng reminded her. “The one I saw in the mirror—shattered, lying in ruins. You said we’d help her get home someday.”

“Oh, her!” Irene’s expression shifted as she remembered. Her brow furrowed. “Why are you seeing her again? What was it this time?”

“The same as before,” Yu Sheng said slowly. “But this time, I felt like she was looking at me.”

Though they puzzled over it together for a while, neither of them could make sense of it. Yu Sheng’s mind was full of theories, but without evidence, they remained little more than wild speculation. ?????Ès

Pushing the mystery aside for now, Yu Sheng turned his attention back to the door.

Foxy approached, gripping his arm with a hint of worry.

“The door to the Black Forest is open,” Yu Sheng said, rubbing the fur behind the fox demon’s ears to reassure her. “You’ll come with me this time.”

She nodded firmly. “Okay.”

“Irene, you’ll stay here,” Yu Sheng instructed. “Keep an eye on things while we pass through. We’ll only stay on the other side for a few minutes and come straight back. If all goes well, we should reappear at this exact spot.”

“Are you sure you don’t need me in there?” Irene asked, looking uncertain. “What if you get lost and need my expertise?”

“Getting back from the Black Forest doesn’t require your navigation,” Yu Sheng explained. “It’s safer if you stay here as our backup.”

“Alright,” Irene agreed, hopping down from his shoulder. “But only a few minutes, okay? Don’t go dying in there.”

Foxy clenched her fists with determination. “I will protect my benefactor with my life!”

“That won’t be necessary,” Irene quipped, waving dismissively. “Just make sure you protect yourself. Yu Sheng’s life isn’t worth much anyway.”

Yu Sheng opened his mouth to protest but couldn’t think of a good comeback. To his dismay, Foxy didn’t object either.

“I must have owed you two in a past life,” he muttered with a sigh before stepping through the door with Foxy.

A wave of dizziness and sensory disorientation washed over him, and then they were standing in the Black Forest.

The distant howls of wolves echoed through the trees, the hollow whistle of the wind threading through the dense forest. The sky hung in a murky twilight, and shadows pooled in every corner, the underbrush bristling with unseen menace.

It was exactly as he remembered—the Black Forest was unchanging.

Foxy, on the other hand, looked around wide-eyed. Her tail bristled like a row of swords, her ears twitching at every sound. This was her first time here, and her wariness was palpable.

After a quick survey of their surroundings, Yu Sheng called out silently, “Irene, we’re in.”

“I see you,” Irene’s voice came back. “The door vanished, just like usual. Everything looks normal on this side.”

“Our bodies made it through, right? We’re not just… projections?”

“Nope, you’re here physically,” Irene confirmed.

Satisfied, Yu Sheng glanced at his hands, solid and real.

They had done it. By exploiting the “bug,” he had physically entered the Black Forest—and brought along a cyber-enhanced fox.

“Alright,” Foxy whispered, “what do we do now? Hunt the wolves? Wait for that squirrel you mentioned?”

“The wolves are invisible, and the big bad one has specific conditions to appear,” Yu Sheng replied. “We’re not here to fight—or to find the squirrel.”

He stretched out a hand and opened another door.

This time, the view on the other side wasn’t dark chaos but a clear glimpse of the valley they had just left. Irene stood on the other side, her wide eyes locking onto his.

“Hey! Yu Sheng, I can see you!”

“Looks like entering physically lets us open proper doors in here,” Yu Sheng said, grinning. Then, to Foxy, “Time to go. But before we leave, we’ll ‘greet’ the forest properly.”

“Greet it?” Foxy asked, confused. “How?”

“With twenty drumsticks,” Yu Sheng replied with a smirk.

“Got it!”