Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 523: Gloom in the Fog

The Black Spot soldiers on the other side of the barrier seemed to indeed not know any more information—afterwards, Yu Sheng inquired about the strange device at the dark alley intersection, but the other party reacted with confusion, claiming complete ignorance.

Considering this person was just a guard in the laboratory, and Baili Qing’s expertise in "memory restoration techniques", what he said should be true.

With a slight mechanical friction sound, the isolation gate of the single-person cell closed again. Yu Sheng carried Erin back to the door, with Baili Qing beside him.

"Now you should understand why I say the Black Dot Group is an ’extreme academic organization’," Baili Qing sighed slightly, lifting his eyelids to glance at Yu Sheng, "Their research is always so reckless and careless—and their laboratories are really prone to big explosions."

"Also, they might blow up someone else’s house, right," Yu Sheng tugged at the corner of his mouth, but then quickly changed the subject, "but to be fair, they do manage to get some real stuff... a fragment of the World Bridge, huh, no wonder they could open a rift leading to the dark alley."

Baili Qing frowned slightly and broke the silence after a moment of thought: "A Deep Dive Team has already entered the dark alley. They’ve found the ’silver-white cylinder’ you mentioned and are now figuring out how to transport it out. We can’t be sure what it’s for yet, but one thing is certain, it’s indeed a device made by the Black Dot Group."

"The soldier just now said he doesn’t know about any silver device, nor is he aware if his superiors have deployed any equipment to the Boundary Land," Yu Sheng said, contemplating, "I previously thought they opened that rift to recover the machine at the intersection, but now it seems... it’s more like two unrelated accidents."

"It doesn’t rule out that he’s lying," Baili Qing said slowly, "Of course, your speculation is also very likely, after all, that is a Black Dot Group project—accidents and loss of control are the norm."

Yu Sheng deeply agreed with Baili Qing’s statement.

After leaving the Special Service Bureau, Yu Sheng didn’t go straight home, but opened a door leading near No. 66 Wutong Road, walking slowly in the direction of home with Erin.

"Why not go home directly?" The little puppet lying in Yu Sheng’s arms muttered quietly while sneaking glances around, "I have to pretend to be dead outside..."

"This road usually has no people at this time—you should also come out for some fresh air occasionally," Yu Sheng said casually, then looked down at the little puppet in his arms. He hesitated slightly before continuing, "Erin."

Erin lifted her head: "Huh?"

"How long has it been since I let you out of that painting?" Yu Sheng asked with a serious expression.

Erin paused, seemingly unsure why the other party suddenly asked this, but she still thought seriously, recalled for a moment, and then said uncertainly: "Has it been a year? Ah, should be less than that... then a few months? I’m not sure either."

Yu Sheng didn’t seem to care much about the answer, just muttering to himself: "Judging by the time, the period when the ’Zolda Black Stone’ in that laboratory abruptly became active was about when I created your first body, letting you out of the oil painting."

Erin listened, eyes slightly widened, and after a while, she dragged her voice, saying: "Wow—"

Yu Sheng often couldn’t understand this little thing’s reactions to various matters, but he had gotten used to it.

"If you feel there’s anything wrong with yourself, or if you see or hear something, immediately tell me... or anyone around you, Hu Li or Luna would do."

"Mm-hmm!"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, still somewhat worried, and added: "Including if you feel your mind suddenly clears up or becomes confused, you should promptly tell us."

Erin: "But I feel my mind has always been very clear..."

"That’s an illusion—I mean if you suddenly feel a change."

"Oh... mm-hmm!"

Yu Sheng thought for another moment, suddenly stopping: "Ah, forgot to go to the supermarket!"

"What are you going to the supermarket for?"

"To buy lotus root and meat stuffing!"

Erin looked puzzled: "Huh? But my arm is already repaired..."

"Not that—Hu Li wants to eat lotus root pockets, I almost forgot," Yu Sheng hurried to open a small door leading to No. 66 Wutong Road’s living room, speaking quickly, "You go home first, I’ll go to the supermarket."

Before the voice had even faded, he placed the small puppet he was holding onto the sofa opposite the door, then turned and opened another door leading to a nearby supermarket and hurried out.

Erin was completely taken by surprise, and by the time she snapped out of it, she found herself sitting on the sofa at home. The little puppet blinked and looked around, first mentally greeting Yu Sheng’s uncle, then forgetting the grudge of being casually thrown home upon seeing Luna cleaning, and jumping up to point at the Artificial Saintess: "Ha! Sweeping robot!"

...

The thick fog spread over the streets.

The familiar cityscape had transformed into indistinct, seemingly paradoxical reflections within the fog. Towering skyscrapers stood like slanted tombstones shrouded in mist. The normally bustling streets of the real world appeared desolate in Mist City, with only a few "shell" cars parked at nearby intersections, their windows filled with twisting, dark shadows.

Occasionally, suspicious clusters could be seen passing through intersections in the distant fog, along with giant insect-like shadows with long legs moving slowly between the clouds and skyscrapers. Bright red beams of light projected from the tops of nearby buildings, creating distinct boundaries in the fog, with large holographic displays looping—

"Warning, dense fog area ahead, unauthorized personnel are forbidden from entering."

This is the Foggy Boundary City, a massive Exotic Realm located "below" the Real Boundary City. As a newly discovered Exotic Realm, many of its rules and physical boundaries remain unexplored. Considering the astonishing size of Foggy Boundary City (potentially covering the entire Boundary Land) and the high risk of dense fog areas, the Special Service Bureau remains cautious in exploring this Alternate Dimension.

Except for a few "Thin Mist Districts" that have been charted and opened to Spirit Realm detectives or investigators, more than seventy percent of Foggy Boundary City remains accessible only to Deep Dive Teams of the Special Service Bureau.

A burst of gunfire noise came from within the dense fog area, accompanied by the distinct bright blue flashes from the annihilation of matter via particle weapons, and the energy hum from spiritual ability users employing purification techniques. The fog in the entire district began to churn violently as if boiling, and then quickly settled back to calm.

Several entities wandering at the edge of the dense fog were annihilated, and a team of figures clad in heavy power armor stepped out from the dense fog.

The leading figure was particularly robust.

Xu Jiali opened the mask of her power armor helmet, turned to glance at the Barrier of the dense fog area, and rubbed her nose: "Honestly, seeing a ’clown’ entity outside the ’circus’ is really gross. It’s using instant teleportation all over the open area, and I’ve never fired so many empty shots in my entire life before today."

"But in the end, you still blew its head off with one shot, boss," a petite figure wearing light power armor with cat ears on the helmet also emerged from the dense fog, happily looking at Xu Jiali, "It didn’t even have time to open the ’gift box’~~"

"Of course, it’s all thanks to my superior skills," Xu Jiali said cheerfully, raising a hand to rub her nose again, then her expression turned peculiar as she looked down at her gloved thick fingers in the power armor, her mouth twitching.

"What’s wrong, boss?"

"One of the top ten most painful things while wearing power armor happened; I really want to pick my nose..." Xu Jiali’s face contorted slightly, and then she glanced at the Spiritual Servant nearby, "Lingdang, do me a favor..."

"Eww—boss, that’s a bit gross," Lingdang immediately stepped back half a step with a look of disdain and waved her hand, "I’m also wearing power armor, so you’ll have to hang on, boss."

Xu Jiali tugged at the corner of her mouth, rubbing her nose harder, muttering, "Strange... There’s this weird smell, but the environmental monitors aren’t detecting anything."

"Boss," another deep diver came over from the side, a muffled voice coming from beneath the heavy mask, "The Barrier area scan is complete, entity generation confirmed stopped, and the recent battle data has already been uploaded."

"Got it," Xu Jiali nodded, glancing down at the info-terminal on her arm, "This area next is for the tactical walker; we’ll proceed as planned through Qinghe District to East Forest Square to meet up with a technical team that just landed there and assist them in setting up communication relays. Along the way, watch for changes in fog density—the Thin Mist Districts in the eastern part of the city have been quite unstable lately."

"Roger!"

Orders given, the deep divers quickly completed a simple check on their equipment and set out for the next fog-covered area. Lingdang and several Spiritual Servants were safeguarded within the team—in general, Spiritual Servants only accompany deep divers on "external missions," but given the unknown and unstable conditions in many areas of "Mist City," the Deep Dive Team has recently started including Spiritual Servants in their expeditions.

The keen perception and Mind protection abilities of spiritual ability users could play a crucial role in this overwhelming fog.

The action team began moving along the edge of the Barrier of the dense fog area, proceeding cautiously and swiftly through the fog-covered areas. They navigated through roads that were slightly misaligned with the real world, searching for the correct path and leaving small Dao Markers for subsequent teams to follow.

Suddenly, Lingdang stopped.

Every deep diver has a certain level of telepathic connection with their Spiritual Servant, and Xu Jiali immediately sensed the cat-eared girl’s anomaly, "What’s wrong?"

"Cold," Lingdang shivered, quickly moving closer to her boss, "I felt like I tripped over something just now, and suddenly it chilled me to the bone."

Xu Jiali knitted her brows tightly. In the next moment, she heard an exclamation from a teammate nearby, "Something’s got me wrapped up!"