Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 524: Exotic Realm Phenomena
The bone-chilling sensation struck instantly; in the next moment of his teammate’s exclamation, Xu Jiali felt his own steps abruptly hindered, as if something had suddenly entangled his hands and feet. A coldness capable of freezing the soul instantly made even such a powerful Deep Diver lose control over his body—until then, only his peripheral vision noted the strands of black threads appearing in the fog.
The barely perceptible black lines floated as if they had condensed out of thin air, crisscrossing the street, and three Deep Divers had already inadvertently touched those threads, the irresistible coldness and stiffness freezing their bodies in place.
The next second, the Power Armor started alerting, and the perception module connected to the umbilical cord detected an anomaly in the user—
"Warning, mild soul dislocation, warning, mild soul dislocation..."
The Spiritual Servant walking alongside instantly perceived the anomaly in the contracted Deep Diver’s status, Lingdang’s pupils shrunk to a narrow slit, fur on the tail bristling: "Boss, what’s wrong, meow!"
Saying this, the Jipulo Girl picked up her Mechanical Magic Ball, ready to set up a Spiritual Ability Field to disperse the eerie thread-like spider silk.
But Xu Jiali suddenly stopped her: "Wait—retreat and wait. All other unaffected Deep Divers also retreat slowly beyond these threads."
All Deep Divers immediately maintained a defensive formation, slowly retreating, and protected the few Spiritual Servants in the team, while Xu Jiali and the other two affected Deep Divers remained amidst the crisscrossing spider silk fog.
"Don’t fight back forcefully, move your hands and feet slowly," Xu Jiali said in a deep voice while gradually moving his arms bit by bit to free himself from the spider silk, "Don’t panic, we aren’t tied up, we’ve just touched it, but if you thrash about it might really ensnare you... the more you struggle, the tighter it gets."
The other two Deep Divers quickly followed suit, with a muffled voice coming from beneath one of their helmets: "Captain, do you know what this is?"
Xu Jiali frowned, looking at the floating spider silk in the fog: "...Yes, I’ve seen it, but they shouldn’t be here."
He recognized them as Erin’s "threads"—but why would the puppet’s threads appear in this place? Moreover, spreading like this in the fog...
Xu Jiali’s heart rose in confusion, amidst various chaotic speculations, his gaze scanned the streets on either side, suddenly noticing that the unexplained floating black "spider silk" in the fog might not just be in this area—there were more higher up, floating haphazardly, weaving in and out, passing through the barriers between the Dense Fog District and the Thin Mist District, and even in areas where the fog was thinner, they were seen passing directly through those towering buildings.
The visibility in the fog was terrible, he could only observe a small portion of the spider silk, but even just this observable portion instilled a chilling feeling in him—
As if there was a net, a net possibly woven long ago, yet unnoticed, invisibly covering the entire city.
The chilly feeling suddenly faded from within him, Xu Jiali’s hands and feet finally escaped from the black threads going through his limbs, he instantly stepped back two steps, and in the next second, he was astonished to find that the spider silk which had just trapped him and his teammates had vanished right before his eyes.
Even those webs stretching into the thin fog, floating in mid-air, disappeared.
"Captain!" A Deep Diver who had just freed himself from the spider silk immediately spoke, "That thing is gone!"
"I saw it." Xu Jiali waved his hand, cautiously raising his heavy particle rifle to probe the area where the spider silk had floated, and moments later reached hand over to test, discovering it truly vanished.
Collective illusion? Highly unlikely.
Xu Jiali furrowed his eyebrows, immediately activating the communication device to report this anomaly—standard communication equipment cannot be used under Exotic Realm conditions, but Deep Divers’ umbilical cord devices are not affected. Moreover, recently, communication nodes based on "Spiritual Fox Mysterious Iron" technology have been extensively set up in large exotic realms like Mist City, making it possible for him and his teammates to contact the Special Service Bureau headquarters from here.
Theoretically, it’s supposed to be this way.
Only unstable noise filled the communication channel.
Soon, the other Deep Divers discovered the anomaly in their communication devices.
"Captain, communication interruption!"
Xu Jiali deeply furrowed his brow, then sharply looked down at his chest.
A chain covered in black alloy joints extended from the interface of the Power Armor, only about ten centimeters long, as if floating in invisible water, slowly drifting, with red light flickering between the chain links, steady in rhythm.
"Umbilical cord connection normal... but all communication is cut," his face was stern, quickly ordering, "Number Two, Number Three, attempt emergency ’float up’."
The umbilical cord devices at the chests of two Deep Divers flashed a few times then calmed.
"Report, float up attempt failed—no response from ’Submergence Port’."
"Lingdang, you try to disengage."
"Boss! We can’t get out, meow!" The Jipulo Girl operated a few controls on the arm guard of her Light Power Armor and looked up with blinking eyes, "The spiritual energy link is also cut off."
After coming into contact with those black spider silks, all communication was lost. Although the umbilical cords were still connected, the entire team was unable to surface, the Spiritual Servants were unable to return to reality, and the spiritual energy link was interrupted...
These conditions may recover over time, or they may not.
"Continue moving towards the target district as planned. There’s a fixed communication node and a safe house near the next thick mist barrier," Xu Jiali ordered without much hesitation. "Meanwhile, continue attempting to contact the ’port’ and other Deep Dive Teams in Mist City—Number Three, release the relay drones and try to contact those walking machines we left behind. See if their communication devices are functional, and if they are, bring one over. Lingdang, stay vigilant. Leave those unseen things to you."
"Received." "Got it, Boss!"
After quickly completing the arrangements, the Deep Dive Team continued moving along the mist-covered streets.
They crossed a perpetually slanted intersection and passed a cluster of buildings at the edge of the thick mist that swayed like thin paper cutouts. The lights in the distance became increasingly blurred and indistinct, and the towering buildings appeared as if they would never be reached, standing silently in the fog and shadows.
Xu Jiali suddenly slowed his pace.
Everyone promptly stopped behind him.
A sleek road surface appeared in front of the Deep Dive Team— it gleamed with a silvery-white sheen, as if made from some kind of alloy.
"...Boss, the roads in the city don’t look like this, meow." Lingdang muttered in a low voice with wide eyes.
Xu Jiali tightened his grip on his weapon and cautiously led the team a bit further forward.
The scene ahead left the battle-hardened deep divers in stunned silence.
They saw a wall—a towering, slightly arched wall that resembled the outer hull of some large space structure. It stood amidst the mist, tilting approximately thirty degrees to the ground, with one end buried in the earth and the other pressed against a nearby shopping mall. Additionally, various mechanical structures extended from the high wall, seemingly "fused" into surrounding buildings.
Xu Jiali: "...?"
What on earth is this? How could this thing be in Boundary City?
Mist City is an "exotically duplicated replica" of Boundary City, where everything is a shadow cast by the real Boundary City. Although the projections in the Thin Mist District can appear distorted and disoriented, Xu Jiali had led his team through countless operations here without ever encountering a scene so outrageous—let alone the fact that this isn’t even the Thin Mist District. Where did this thing come from?!
In the blink of an eye, just as Xu Jiali was dumbfounded, he suddenly noticed that the distant "wall" was moving.
That enormous alloy wall, reminiscent of a giant space station’s outer wall, "glimmered" within the mist before it started to lurch along the street towards them, its speed increasing rapidly—like a mountain rolling over them!
"Holy crap—get out of the way!"
Xu Jiali felt his hair standing on end and shouted as he led the team to dodge to the side, while still grasping the nearest Spiritual Servant.
The sound of the Power Armor’s joints suddenly overloading shattered the silence in the foggy street, and the flash of the booster rockets lit up the surroundings.
Lingdang, dragged by her boss through the air, screamed as she spouted incoherently: "Boss, I’ve always wanted to tell you that I used the allowance you had in your balance to buy catnip. I’ve had a good life with you in this lifetime; if there’s a next, I still want to be with you. Do you want to join me in learning to use catnip—bit my tongue off, meow..."
The next second, the massive alloy wall that covered the sky suddenly accelerated again. Even with the divers’ speed, they couldn’t evade in time, and everyone could only watch as the enormous structure, capable of crushing an entire district, loomed overhead—
Then they watched it pass through the entire street as if it were an illusion, leaving everything untouched.
Xu Jiali was dumbfounded, watching as the seemingly non-illusory alloy high wall silently passed through Mist City. He could even distinctly see the structure behind the alloy wall—large supports, complex pipes and cables, bizarre mechanical chambers, corridors, and airlocks...
Then, he saw a massive chamber—it looked like a cafeteria, with many individuals dressed like researchers and others in combat uniforms, sitting together eating.
He and his Deep Dive Team swiftly brushed through the middle of this "cafeteria," and then two researchers’ eyes became dazed before they suddenly seemed to see something, rising abruptly from behind the table, pointing towards Xu Jiali’s direction in alarm.
Xu Jiali couldn’t hear what they were shouting—because the entire scene was silently unfolding.
Then, the alloy wall, the cafeteria, the Algredians... everything dissipated into thin air.
