He opened the door of the supermarket and then walked into the supermarket.
It was such a simple and normal process, but at this moment, Yu Sheng felt a sense of disbelief. The shock of opening the door several times just now was too great, so much so that he still had a kind of post-door-opening syndrome. Even when he saw the shelves and the owner in front of him, some absurd thoughts would inevitably pop into his mind—
Could this be some kind of evil otherworldly nest that looked exactly like the small supermarket in his memory but was actually mimicked by some evil entity? The shelves looked the same as usual, but maybe the bottles and cans on them were all full of eyeballs soaked in formalin. The owner, after greeting him, would suddenly pull out a chainsword from his pocket and charge at him, cutting him down under the cash register…
But fortunately, these absurd thoughts only lingered in his mind for a moment. Yu Sheng quickly calmed down. First, he confirmed that he had really entered a normal supermarket, and at the same time, he roughly understood under what circumstances he could "open the door normally and correctly." Then he nodded to the young owner opposite him. "I'm here to buy something—do you have whole boxes of instant noodles and compressed biscuits?"
"We have instant noodles. The unopened boxes are all piled up under the stairs to the second floor. You can see what kind you want," although the young owner thought it was a bit strange that Yu Sheng was in a daze as soon as he came in, he quickly ignored it and pointed to the iron ladder not far away. "There are no more whole boxes of compressed biscuits. The middle row of the shelf on the left, you see it? That's all of them. Not many people usually buy this stuff, so I don't stock much."
"Alright, help me pack all the biscuits. I'll go get a box of instant noodles… and two packs of ham sausage, the large size."
"Okay."
The young owner replied and then turned around to get a large shopping bag and pack the things on the shelf. As he was busy, he casually asked, "Buying so many instant noodles and compressed biscuits all of a sudden? It's not good to eat only these. My wife scolds me for this every day."
"I'm stocking up at home," Yu Sheng said perfunctorily.
The supermarket owner didn't say anything more. He packed a large bag of things according to Yu Sheng's request and walked to the cash register. And just then, the glass door of the supermarket was pushed open again—both doors were pushed open, and the hinge of one of them made a screeching noise that made one's teeth ache.
The owner, who was counting the compressed biscuits and calculating the bill, quickly looked up. "Hey, that door is broken. There's a piece of paper on the door."
"Uh, I didn't notice," the one who pushed the door in was a young man with black hair, wearing casual clothes, and with no distinguishing features. He looked back at the half of the glass door that seemed to be unable to automatically turn back with some embarrassment, then turned his face. "Do you have whole boxes of instant noodles?"
At this moment, Yu Sheng was walking over from between two rows of shelves with a box of instant noodles in his arms. He looked up when he heard the noise from the cash register, but quickly looked away.
"Oh, this kind is fine," the young man with short black hair pointed at the instant noodles in Yu Sheng's hand. "I'll take a box too."
The supermarket owner didn't look up. "Front, right side, under the stairs. Get it yourself. I'll calculate the bill first."
Yu Sheng passed by the young man, paid at the cash register, and then carried a large shopping bag in one hand and the instant noodle box on his shoulder, and walked into the gradually darkening night outside the supermarket.
Li Lin found the instant noodles he wanted to buy under the stairs that the supermarket owner had mentioned. Just as he bent down to move the things, he felt a vibration in his pocket. He took out his phone and saw that it was a message from the captain.
He turned his head to look in the direction of the cash register, looked down at the phone screen, and casually replied, "I've settled in. I'm out buying things now."
The phone buzzed twice, and a new message popped up on the screen, "Have you found anything unusual?"
Li Lin typed, "No. I'll walk around the street tomorrow and get in touch with the residents here."
After sending the message, the young agent of the Special Operations Bureau hesitated for a while, and then edited the next message, "When will the 'deep diver' from the team arrive? Who's been arranged to come over?"
This time, after a long while, the phone vibrated again, "Xu Jiali, will be on duty tomorrow."
Li Lin was stunned for a moment as he looked at the message on the screen. Just as he was about to send a message to ask something, he saw that his leader had sent a new message, "He just came back from Amein-IX. Something happened there, and his mission ended early. He's now in the bureau doing a debriefing and a full check-up. He'll be sent to your side tomorrow."
After reading the message on the screen, the corner of Li Lin's mouth twitched. He quickly typed, "He's being sent on duty right after finishing a field mission? No half a day off?"
"Xu Jiali requested it himself. The situation he encountered there was a bit special, and he has some post-deep-diving aftereffects now. He needs to wear a stabilizer for the next few days, so he just moved his post-mission vacation to next week. Your side shouldn't have any situation in the short term. He'll be resting on your side. We'll talk about the specifics when you meet tomorrow."
Li Lin pursed his lips, replied with an "okay," and then got up with the instant noodle box and walked towards the cash register.
The supermarket owner behind the cash register looked up, and while taking out the scanner, he muttered again, "It's not good to eat only these. My wife scolds me for this every day…"
Li Lin smiled. "Then I won't buy it?"
"Total is 62 yuan and 80 cents."
…
Irene heard a noise from the main door—the door was opened from the outside, but she poked her head out from the edge of the frame and looked towards the entrance, but she didn't see Yu Sheng's figure for a long time.
After another long while, she finally saw Yu Sheng finally poke his head in from the door furtively. He first looked around for a long time, then cautiously stepped into the house like a thief, put down the bunch of things he had bought, and turned around to close the door.
Irene just quietly watched this scene. After Yu Sheng closed the door, she finally spoke, "Yu Sheng, what are you doing? Why are you coming home like a thief?"
Yu Sheng sighed, and while changing his shoes, he muttered, "Don't even mention it. I now have a very serious psychological shadow about 'opening doors.' I don't dare to take a step forward without confirming it three times."
Irene listened and her gaze fell on the pile of things at the door.
"You bought a lot," the doll said with some amazement. "You should have pushed a small cart, the kind for camping. They're very useful."
Yu Sheng didn't speak for a moment. He just looked down at the instant noodles, ham, and compressed biscuits piled up at the door, and then seemed to suddenly remember something and slapped his forehead hard. "I should have bought some liquid food! She's been hungry for too long and can't eat this directly… no, I'll go buy a case of eight-treasure porridge tomorrow morning… or should I go now?"
Irene listened silently. Seeing that Yu Sheng was really about to open the door and go out again, she suddenly spoke, "Let's do it tomorrow."
At this time, Yu Sheng had already changed his shoes again. He was holding the doorknob and turned his head. "She's still hungry…"
"Even if you buy it now, do you have a way to send it to that fox immediately?" Irene looked straight at Yu Sheng. "And… seriously, I wanted to say this before. Even if you send these things over, you can only temporarily alleviate her situation. The biggest problem there is not the lack of food, but the entity called 'Hunger'."
Yu Sheng stopped his hands.
After a moment of thought, he changed his shoes back, walked to the dining table, and sat opposite Irene.
"That's true. The biggest problem is 'Hunger.' Although it's good to be able to temporarily fill her stomach… let's talk about it tomorrow. It's not urgent for now. I still need to find a way to stably enter that valley first."
Irene noticed that Yu Sheng had a solemn expression of thought on his face when he said the second half of the sentence. At the same time, she recalled the few words the other party had revealed when he contacted her earlier, and immediately keenly noticed something.
"…What exactly happened?" she asked tentatively. "You… do you have a clue on how to enter that valley?"
"Strictly speaking, it's not a clue on how to enter that valley, but…"
As Yu Sheng spoke, he raised his hand and grabbed the air in front of Irene.
He grasped a doorknob, and a door suddenly appeared in the air. The door itself was unremarkable, but its edges trembled and shook like a phantom. And then, under Irene's shocked gaze, Yu Sheng pulled the door open with a jerk.
The illusory door suddenly opened. Yu Sheng saw a female elf with a bunch of mechanical limbs and a wheel-like lower body, but wearing a silver-white robe on her upper body, standing on the other side of the door.
She was standing in front of some large machining equipment, turning her head to look over here in shock.
The mechanical limbs behind the elf were still quickly and accurately adjusting the large equipment on the platform that was constantly emitting a stream of light. Her eyes were wide open as if they were about to pop out. She stared at Yu Sheng for two seconds before letting out a loud shout, "So you're the one who's been…"
Yu Sheng slammed the door shut with a bang.
"…I didn't expect to be able to connect to the same place twice in a row," Yu Sheng said with a trace of surprise and thought. "Wait, this might be… I'll try to replicate it later…"
He had just muttered halfway when Irene, opposite the table, finally couldn't hold it in anymore. The doll seemed to be about to fly out of the oil painting and bite someone. "What was that just now?! What was it?! Huh?!"
"As you can see," Yu Sheng let out a breath. "It's a door."
"Of course I know it's a door, but the key is—" Irene took a deep breath, and her whole body jumped up from the chair. "What·the·hell·is·that·thing?!"