Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Wei Sen climbed the stairs. The instant she opened the basement door, Mom’s face appeared before her.
“Little Red Riding Hood, I told you the basement is dangerous. Stay away from it! You really are a disobedient, bad child!”
Mom’s face was terrifyingly pale, and she was still gripping a fruit knife that gleamed with a cold light.
Wei Sen’s gaze settled on Mom’s face. “You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not Little Red Riding Hood.”
Mom, who had been bristling with hostility, froze for a moment at those words. But then her eyes became even more frightening. She slowly raised the knife. “No. You are Little Red Riding Hood! But you’re a bad child, a disobedient bad child, and you need to be punished!”
“If I’m Little Red Riding Hood, then who does this belong to?” Wei Sen opened her hand. In her palm lay the Red String Bracelet the little girl in the forest had given her.
The instant Mom saw the bracelet, her hand stiffened in midair. The fruit knife fell onto the stone steps with a clang, then bounced and clattered down into the basement.
Seeing Mom’s reaction only confirmed Wei Sen’s guess.
The little girl imprisoned by the Witch was the real Little Red Riding Hood!
Mom had actually known all along that the person who appeared on time every day, no matter what, was not the real Little Red Riding Hood.
And the real reason she was willing to knit Red Hoodie for them and call them Little Red Riding Hood was so they would deliver food to the one in the forest!
“Little Red Riding Hood! My Little Red Riding Hood!” Tears streamed down Mom’s face as she snatched the bracelet from Wei Sen’s hand like a madwoman. “Where did you get this?!”
“A teenage girl gave it to me,” Wei Sen answered calmly.
Mom staggered back in a daze. “My Little Red Riding Hood… She… she isn’t dead?”
“That’s right. I saw her, but she’s forgotten the way home.”
“Where is she?! Tell me! Where is she?!”
///Ding~ Warning! Mom is on the verge of losing control. Players, please mind your safety! Once Mom activates Berserk Mode, player survival rate is 0%!///
Wei Sen ignored the System’s warning and said solemnly to Mom, “Let’s make a deal. Then I’ll take you to see Little Red Riding Hood.”
Mom’s eyes widened. Her head moved mechanically, and her expression looked somewhat strange. “A… deal?”
“Give me a non-poisoned Red Hoodie,” Wei Sen said.
She needed a Red Hoodie knitted by Mom in order to become Little Red Riding Hood recognized by the System.
Only a Little Red Riding Hood acknowledged by the System could leave this Dark Fairy Tale Instance through Little Red Riding Hood’s Clearance Condition.
Mom’s earlier frenzy gradually eased. Her eyes were wet as she looked at Wei Sen. “Can I really see my Little Red Riding Hood again?”
“That depends on what you choose. If I die, there won’t be anyone left in this world who knows where she is,” Wei Sen said, completely confident.
Mom looked at the bracelet through her tears, then slowly turned and headed toward the second floor.
Wei Sen followed her.
Mom returned to her room and took an exquisite wooden box from the wardrobe. When she opened it, there was a faded Red Hoodie inside.
“Take it.” Mom handed the Red Hoodie to her.
Wei Sen looked at the Red Hoodie in her hands. It was a piece of clothing only a four- or five-year-old child could wear, exactly like the one Little Red Riding Hood had worn as a child in the painting.
///Ding~ Congratulations, Host. You have successfully obtained the identity of “Little Red Riding Hood”! (Beginner Tip) Current story unlocked: 90%!///
So that was it…
Realization dawned on Wei Sen.
She had originally thought that the Red Hoodie belonging to players with the identity of “Little Red Riding Hood” had also been knitted by Mom, but that was not the case!
A “Little Red Riding Hood” player’s Red Hoodie came with them when they arrived in this Eerie World. It was the symbol of the “Little Red Riding Hood” identity.
As for the Red Hoodie Mom knitted, they had always been poisoned!
When people came wearing Red Hoodie, Mom treated them as Little Red Riding Hood and had them deliver food to Grandmother in the forest.
As for those who hadn’t come wearing a Red Hoodie but still tried to pass themselves off as Little Red Riding Hood, Mother would dress them in a poisonous Red Hoodie, poison them to death, then drag them down to the basement to become her rations!
Wei Sen put on the Red Hoodie, packed the Poisoned Apple Pie into the bamboo basket, and walked into the Misty Forest with Mother.
This time, there was no Witch in the forest, and no Hunter either. During the day, no Wolf appeared, making the woods even quieter. Only Wei Sen and Mother’s footsteps sounded as they walked side by side.
Mother’s face was filled with anticipation, and her pace grew faster and faster.
Meanwhile, Wei Sen looked rather ridiculous walking in the ill-fitting Red Hoodie.
Wei Sen led Mother to the Witch’s house. The front door was tightly shut, but the curtains on the second floor had been drawn open. In the sunlight, there seemed to be a figure moving inside.
“She’s here,” Wei Sen said, looking at Mother.
Mother’s hands trembled uncontrollably as she slowly walked forward.
Wei Sen watched her from behind.
This poor woman had been blinded by hatred.
All these years, if she had been willing to go into the forest herself just once to see Grandmother, perhaps she would have discovered that Little Red Riding Hood had been somewhere not far from her all along.
Wei Sen paid no further attention to what happened next between Mother and Little Red Riding Hood. Carrying the bamboo basket, she headed deeper into the forest.
When she returned to Grandmother’s Cabin, Wei Sen first looked at the flowerbed by the door. The patch of soil tucked farthest inside had been dug up again, and the blue flower and key by the entrance had long since vanished.
She walked to the door and knocked.
“I’m Little Red Riding Hood.”
Before long, the door opened from the inside.
What Wei Sen saw was a stooped old woman with a head full of white hair, exactly like the reflection she had seen in the mirror when she first woke up here on the first day.
If her guess was right, then in the eyes of the person across from her, she should now look like a strange figure in a Red Hoodie, the red clothing and her face fused into one.
“Little Red Riding Hood, come in, have a seat,” Grandmother said, stepping aside to let her pass.
Wei Sen looked at the hand Grandmother had hidden behind her back. She didn’t need to guess to know that the scissors had to be in that hand.
Wei Sen entered the house. Everything around her was still so familiar.
She took the apple pie out of the bamboo basket and placed it on the table, but she was in no hurry to make Grandmother eat it. Instead, she looked solemnly at the wary Grandmother.
“You can’t escape, but I can,” Wei Sen said bluntly.
Grandmother froze, then looked at her with even greater vigilance. “What do you mean?”
“The Grandmother identity has no Clearance Condition. Only the Little Red Riding Hood identity does.”
“Y-you’re a player too?!”
“I’m not just a player. I’m also you.” Wei Sen stared straight into Grandmother’s eyes.
Yes. The Grandmother before her was also herself.
The Little Red Riding Hood buried in the yard, the dolls holding a tea party in the Hunter’s house, the corpses in Mother’s basement; they were all her!
There was one and only one player in this Instance, and that was her!
Because Grandmother was also her, she knew Grandmother should be able to understand what she meant very easily.
“Why are there two of me?” Grandmother asked calmly.
“Because I have two identities. One identity is Grandmother, and the other is Little Red Riding Hood. No matter which identity of mine dies, a new me with no memory of what happened before will appear the next day. Then I continue the Instance’s daily tasks until I clear it.”
Grandmother’s eyes darkened. “You’re Little Red Riding Hood. Why should I believe you?”
Wei Sen said, “You found the words ‘Don’t trust Little Red Riding Hood’ on the back of the Grandma Identity Rules, didn’t you? That was probably left behind by some previous Grandmother who discovered that Little Red Riding Hood was delivering a Poisoned Apple Pie. But because of that clue, we’ve been misled this entire time.”
Grandmother had not expected Wei Sen to know even about the Grandma Identity Rules. Now, she had no choice but to believe what she was saying.
Even if it was utterly absurd.