In an old rental house deep along Wutong Road in the old city district, a brawny man nearly two meters tall was nestled in a single sofa that seemed a bit cramped for him, meticulously maintaining his equipment with his head bowed.
It was a Laser Dagger, its dark red handle embedded with tiny droplet-shaped crystals. The crystals connected to form lines that ran through the entire body, and the handle was clearly custom-made to suit the user, feeling perfectly fitting in the large palms of the burly man.
The brawny man flipped his palm, twirling the dagger in his hand for a few rotations, then casually activated it. Accompanied by a slight buzzing sound, a pale blue Light Blade suddenly lit up, tracing a scorching arc through the air.
"Take it easy there, don't mess up the coffee table—I'll have to report and pay compensation to the Bureau," Li Lin fidgeted with a pocket watch, glancing up at Xu Jiali across from him, "...That thing's pretty cool."
"Cool, huh? I risked my life for it," the brawny man chuckled proudly, his face showing smug satisfaction, "I rescued an Algredian noble from the 'Windmill Mill' deep in L-3—all by myself. Afterwards, he gave this to me. It's customized, forged by the finest craftsmen using the best Radiant Gold Crystals, it can even be used as a Knight's Medal in the Algredian territories."
Li Lin grew a bit curious: "What's it good for?"
"...You don't have to queue up for atmospheric transportation, you get priority access at hospitals, free entry to the zoo—holidays only."
Li Lin listened, a bit astonished: "Quite... practical. I thought those mystical Algredians would be all about rituals and symbolism in everything they do."
"They usually are all mystical and chatty, but at the end of the day, they still need to live, right?" Xu Jiali shrugged, then complained a bit, "Ugh, operating in the Boundary Land is still a hassle. A lot of gear is not allowed to be brought over. I even have a chainsaw sword, but it was deemed a safety hazard before coming and is now locked up in customs..."
Li Lin thought for a moment, just as he was about to speak, he suddenly felt something, and together with Xu Jiali, who sensed it too, they both turned to look at the rental's window.
Under the gradually darkening night sky, a figure had appeared on the windowsill at some point—a petite young girl in a dark red coat, leaning against the window frame in a rather precarious posture, one leg dangling outside.
She curiously glanced at the two men inside: "So, you two are the 'Special Commissioners' responsible for this street block these days?"
"You are..." Li Lin frowned slightly, guessing the girl's identity.
"Just call me Little Red Riding Hood," the girl sitting on the windowsill gestured, "From 'Fairy Tales.' Your Bureau hired me to help you out in this area for the time being."
"Oh, I know you," Li Lin thought to himself, that figures, and a polite smile spread across his face, "I often hear our team captain mention you these past few days, and about your investigations of this area. My name is Li Lin, an operative of Squad Two from the Special Service Bureau of the Council."
Xu Jiali, on the other hand, gauged the girl on the windowsill with a look up and down, speaking in a muffled voice: "This place might be harboring a 'big guy,' I thought you'd send Snow White over, or the 'King.' Of course, I'm not questioning your Wolf Pack."
Unlike Li Lin, who was relatively new, Xu Jiali evidently was not meeting Little Red Riding Hood for the first time.
"The destructiveness of Snow White would be a bit too much for this place—we might not even encounter high-risk entities," said Little Red Riding Hood casually, "I have been active in this city block for a while and have been investigating the anomalies on Wutong Road recently, so I'm more familiar with it. No worries, Snow White can come over in no time if really necessary, she's on call."
While speaking, the young girl stood up from the windowsill and waved at the two men in the room, "I just came over to greet you. You should have my contact information already, call me if anything comes up, bye~"
The next second, the girl's figure suddenly melted into a shadow, faintly taking the shape of a wolf. It leaped off the windowsill and dissolved into the night in the blink of an eye.
Leaving Li Lin and Xu Jiali facing each other in the rental, speechless.
...
After dinner, Yu Sheng sat on the sofa, eyes closed, resting, listening to the patter of footsteps scuttling back and forth between the living room and dining room—now on the right, now on the left, then circling around the sofa.
He opened his eyes and saw Erin running back and forth between the living room and dining room, a 66.6 cm tall doll carrying a painting frame almost as tall as herself, dashing around the floor as fast as a little rocket.
After Erin made her fourth lap around the sofa, Yu Sheng finally couldn't stand it anymore: "Can't you take a break? Give those shoes of yours a rest, too."
Erin ran up to Yu Sheng excitedly, her face full of exhilaration: "I don't want to stop! I can't stop! I can run everywhere, look, I can even climb onto the coffee table, and jump down from it!"
Before the words had finished, the doll had run off again, first circling half way around the sofa, then using her hands and feet to climb onto the coffee table in front of Yu Sheng, taking a few steps to build momentum and leaping onto Yu Sheng's lap. Just as the latter was about to reach out and grab this scrambling guy, Erin agilely bounded forward, jumping from the sofa to the floor...
She then sprinted like a shot to the TV cabinet in the living room, struggling to climb up the TV cabinet and reaching up on tiptoes, she successfully pressed the power button on the TV.
Miss Doll cheered, turning her head to look at Yu Sheng with excitement: "I can even reach the TV switch! I can disconnect and restart the TV by myself when you're not home!"
Yu Sheng rolled his eyes and helplessly looked up: "Okay, okay, congratulations, you're amazing."
The next second, he felt a flash of something in the corner of his eye—Erin had quickly run back from the TV cabinet area, grabbing the sofa cover with one hand and Yu Sheng's trouser leg with the other, climbing onto the sofa in a few moves, and sitting down next to Yu Sheng.
The petite doll, even sitting cross-legged on the sofa, was smaller than a cushion.
The oil painting stuck behind her, in terms of proportions, looked almost like a wall.
But Erin had already adapted to the existence of this frame with remarkable adaptability, whether it was running with it on her back or climbing with it, including sitting on the sofa with it, all without affecting her movements at all—although occasionally there were some unavoidable bumps and knocks, the doll seemed not to care at all.
This astonished Yu Sheng.
"Don't you find it inconvenient carrying that around?" he couldn't help asking curiously, "Honestly, if you asked me to run around with a door panel on my back all day, I think I wouldn't adapt as quickly as you..."
"I think it's alright," Erin jubilantly rocked her body on the sofa, even though she had turned on the TV, clearly unable to concentrate on it, "Although it was a little uncomfortable at first, I got used to its weight and size after running around a couple of times, and how should I put it..."
The doll suddenly stopped, as if searching for the right words, and hesitated for a few seconds before speaking: "It's like... a sense of security, I feel safe and reassured with it on my back. You know that feeling? Like you have to sleep with your back against the wall or pressed against a pile of blankets."
"I know what you mean, but it still feels very... unbelievable," Yu Sheng looked at the little doll beside him, "I thought you would be very averse to this painting, after all, it's sealed you for so many years, and now you still have to carry it around."
"There is a bit of that," Erin thought for a moment, nodding slightly, but quickly her smile blossomed again, "But how does that saying go, 'come and then be at ease.' As long as today is better than yesterday, there's nothing to complain about."
"It's 'when we come to it, then we must accept it...'," Yu Sheng corrected.
"Same difference," Erin dismissed it casually with a wave of her hand, apparently finally calming down from the excitement of running incessantly before, and she seemed to remember the matter at hand, "Alright, I've pretty much adapted to my new body, we should talk about that fox..."
Yu Sheng nodded, but soon furrowed his brow slightly, looking at the little doll that only reached up to his knee: "Do you still plan to go with me?"
"With a face full of certainty, Erin said, "Yeah, we agreed to."
"In this condition?" Yu Sheng tried to phrase things diplomatically, but it seemed impossible to be diplomatic, so he just said it straight, "Can you still fight? To kick my knee, you'd have to jump up..."
"I'll kick you to pieces! What's wrong with being short!" Erin suddenly got a bit prickly, "Who said I can't fight in this form!"
Seeing this, Yu Sheng quickly consoled her.
Fortunately, Erin was quick to anger and quicker to calm down, and she soon quieted down and leaned back on the sofa, hugging her chest: "But you're right, in this form... it does affect direct combat a bit, you can't expect a 60 cm tall doll to take bullets for you, right..."
With that, she shook her head, then suddenly changed her tone: "But don't worry, dolls have more than just combat abilities, I still have plenty of tricks up my sleeve—even with just this level of 'freedom,' there's still a lot I can do."
She lifted her hand as if to demonstrate something, stretching it out in front of Yu Sheng.
Silky strands of pitch-black thread spread from her fingertips, like eerie spider silk, like having a life of their own, wriggling and growing in the air, weaving into a web.
"The abilities of a doll are big!"
Erin wore a proud face.