Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 212: A Very Big Door
Yu Sheng actually wanted to point out that after spending so much time practicing and getting used to things, he has made huge progress in “shaping” houses in the Valley. The best proof is those two rows of grand, ancient pillars he formed around the Teleportation Door platform. He wouldn’t go so far as to claim he can shape a luxurious Hotel for the Orphanage’s Cursed Children, but at least creating a couple rows of simple housing wouldn’t be a problem. Still, after thinking it over, he decided it was smarter just to prepare the foundations for now.
He had one main reason: The Special Affairs Bureau had already prepared all sorts of supplies. [Might as well use free resources when they offer them…]
Of course, to show off his skills a bit, Yu Sheng still split his focus while smoothing the ground to build a structure at the far end of the planned camp.
Deep beneath the earth, soil and rock were rearranging themselves. With a heavy hum, they rose steadily, weaving together on the surface as if these materials had come alive. They formed layers upon layers, growing thicker until they became a grayish-white base, walls, pillars, and roof. Then more details appeared: Doorways, windows, and some simple decorations. Irene, curious about all this noise, ran over to watch that large building rising from the barren land. She turned around and asked, “What is that?”
“Right now, the camp only has rows of temporary cabins, which makes it feel like we’re all refugees. Even if those prefab rooms are comfortable, the place could use a bit more life. So, I decided to build a ‘Castle’ for Little Red Riding Hood and the others,” Yu Sheng explained to the little Doll with a grin. “It can also serve as the ‘Fairy Tale’ group’s ‘office’—or at worst, a warehouse. Once the Special Affairs Bureau’s construction crews show up, we just need them to hook up the electricity.”
Irene stood there, stunned. She climbed onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder, shading her eyes with one hand as she gazed at the big gray building with its stone-like texture. Then she mumbled, “If you hadn’t told me, I might’ve thought it was a huge public restroom—one of those scenic spot ones with a courtyard and watchtowers.”
Yu Sheng immediately raised his hand, pretending he was about to toss the Doll off his shoulder. “…So you’re never letting me forget that, huh?!”
Irene leaped down with a giggle, dodging around him as she spoke. “All right, I’ll stop teasing! For real, it actually looks pretty decent this time—sure, it’s rough around the edges, but kind of impressive. It gives me that vibe of a mysterious, alien ruin from some game’s CG scene.”
Yu Sheng suspected the Doll was hinting that his carefully shaped building looked a bit too ‘abstract,’ but he had no evidence. Anyway, he didn’t really mind. Right next to him, Foxy was so awestruck that her tail was practically wagging in a blur, stirring up clouds of dust.
Soon enough, the basic part of the camp was finished.
“Now it’s time to coordinate with the Special Affairs Bureau,” Yu Sheng said, watching the last stretch of foundation harden into rock. He let out a small breath and eased his tense mind. Then he took out his phone to check the time. “Not bad—finished even sooner than I expected.”
Irene crawled up his arm to peek at the phone screen. “It’s already this late? Don’t they rest over at the Special Affairs Bureau?”
“They said all personnel and supplies are on standby around the clock,” Yu Sheng explained as he tapped Bai Li Qing’s number. “They’re working in shifts, so even though the workers swap in and out, the project never stops. And in that sense, they’re pretty reliable. Hello? This is Yu Sheng. I’m all set here.”
On the other end, Bai Li Qing simply said in a calm voice, “All right. Come straight to my office.”
Yu Sheng paused. “She really is cool as steel,” he muttered as he hung up. Then, glancing at Irene and Foxy, he added quietly, “[No wonder everyone calls her a steel-faced statue…]”
But the very next second, a voice drifted out from the phone again: “I am not ‘steel-faced.’”
Yu Sheng: “…”
He silently hung up and forced a small smile. “My phone’s touch screen is acting up.”
A shimmer in the air marked the sudden opening of a large Door, a temporary passage from the Otherworld Valley straight to the Special Affairs Bureau Headquarters Building’s Director’s office. Yu Sheng stepped through with a serious look on his face, and he saw Bai Li Qing wearing an equally serious expression. Standing next to her was Song Cheng, who looked like he was having trouble keeping a straight face.
Yu Sheng realized that while he had been making fun of “Madam Steel-Face” on the phone, there was more than one person listening. Captain Song’s expression basically said, [Oh great, I just overheard something I shouldn’t have while standing next to my top boss. This is not good for my career.]
They all kept silent about the phone incident. Then Bai Li Qing personally led Yu Sheng into another elevator in the corridor.
Inside this strange Special Affairs Bureau Headquarters Building, nearly all the special floors were reached by these odd elevators—and they didn’t necessarily move only up or down. At first, Yu Sheng felt the elevator going upward, but after some ten floors, the arrow suddenly pointed straight down. Before he could figure that out, it turned ninety degrees, showing they were now going left. Then, with a shake, the elevator stopped. A gentle synthetic female voice announced, “Transfer Layer—Port, arrived.”
When the elevator Door slid open, Yu Sheng found himself staring at an enormous open space.
Looking dazed, he led Irene and Foxy onto a metal platform. All around it, there was what seemed to be a giant artificial island. Spread across this huge area were about a dozen large warehouse-like buildings, and automated transport vehicles were steadily going back and forth between the warehouses and some distant harbor facilities. Beyond that great, open stretch lay an endless… ocean.
Yu Sheng stared at the glittering waves. Several large transport ships, all marked with the Special Affairs Bureau’s emblem, were docked along the artificial coastline. One of the ships departed the port, slowly picking up speed until it reached the vast ocean. Then, out of nowhere, a patch of swirling light appeared on the water, and the ship sped right through that invisible “rift,” vanishing into the distortion.
The soft hum of machinery sounded behind them. Yu Sheng turned, seeing the elevator “car” closing its Doors. The entire box was connected to the edge of the platform by a system of sturdy rails. With a whirr, the device began moving away, disappearing into another distortion just moments later.
After a long pause, Yu Sheng finally said, “…Where exactly are we? This can’t still be inside the Borderland, right?”
“This is the ‘Frontier.’ The place you see here is both a storage facility and a major transport hub,” Song Cheng explained with a smile. “As you already know, the Borderland is a sealed space, separate from normal universal space. People here—except you, apparently—can only leave by using fixed ‘natural passages.’ These passages vary in size. A tiny one might be a drawer in some office inside the Special Affairs Bureau Headquarters. A big one might be a train station or a tunnel. Or, like you just saw, a port.”
He gestured toward the shimmering water. “This route can only be reached by a ‘shortcut’ in the network, with a depth of 1 and a hazard level of 0. This sea overlaps with a sea on some planet in the outside world, so when you cross that curtain of light, you’ll be outside the Borderland. Of course, we can’t just waltz out there right now. Leaving requires a permit from the Council.”
Song Cheng suddenly stopped walking and fixed his eyes on Yu Sheng. “…You’re not planning on opening a Door out of here, are you?”
Yu Sheng couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’ve got better things to do.”
“Oh.” Song Cheng nodded, then two seconds later, he asked again, this time looking even more anxious, “But you really won’t open a Door from here, right?”
“To open a Door, all I need is the right coordinate—it doesn’t matter where I open it from,” Yu Sheng said, shaking his head. “If I actually wanted to leave, I could just do it from home. No point in creating chaos here.”
“Right, that makes sense.” Song Cheng looked relieved, though he still seemed a bit embarrassed. “Sorry for asking so many times. This place is just…sensitive.”
Yu Sheng thought it over. [I guess sneaking across the Frontier is different than simply slipping through some quiet back door—both ways count as crossing illegally, but one is a lot more obvious…]
Before long, Bai Li Qing and Song Cheng brought Yu Sheng over a metal bridge and to the entrance of a large warehouse. Waiting at the Door was a contact team. There was also a construction crew from the Special Affairs Bureau, along with more than a dozen trucks loaded with all kinds of building materials.
If all they had was the Bureau’s basement Door, it would have been impossible to send so many supplies and an entire construction team to Otherworld Valley in one go. Obviously, Bai Li Qing had considered this. That was why she brought Yu Sheng here.
This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.
“You said you needed a big enough Door—one that large trucks could pass through,” Bai Li Qing explained, pointing to the warehouse behind them. “Having a real, physical Door will help you save a lot of energy when you open your passage. See if that one is suitable.”
Yu Sheng glanced at the huge rolling Door, big enough for two shipping trucks to enter side by side. “Honestly, I’ve never tried making something on this scale. I’m curious if it’ll work.”
Hearing that Yu Sheng himself wasn’t sure, Song Cheng frowned. “Uh, so if it fails…?”
“Then I guess we’ll have to unload the cargo, shrink everything down, and stuff it through Foxy’s tail storage,” Yu Sheng replied. He turned to look at Foxy. “Think we can manage that?”
Foxy stared at the fleet of trucks, lost in thought. “I can’t store whole vehicles at once, even with the Object Shrinking Method. Anything that goes in has to be four meters long or smaller…”
Yu Sheng nodded and faced Song Cheng again. “So that’s a bit limiting. Let’s all hope this Door works.”
Song Cheng looked stunned. He clearly wasn’t used to how Yu Sheng’s mind could bounce around so quickly. As an overworked office employee, he definitely hadn’t gotten all the details on how these bizarre abilities worked.
But Yu Sheng didn’t bother explaining further. By now, he was already standing in front of that massive warehouse entrance, placing one hand against the doorframe.
[A Door is a Door…right? It should open just fine,] he thought.
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
