Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 525: A Certain Omen

Everything disappeared like an illusion, the giant space station that crushed down like a mountain passed through the buildings and ground of Mist City, maintaining a tilted angle as it merged into the earth, and the whole process didn’t even make a sound. If the monitor on the power armor hadn’t faithfully recorded the thrilling scene just now, Xu Jiali would have doubted whether it was a collective hysteria.

The Jipulo Girl beside her was trembling slightly, her cat-like eyes glinting with a hint of tension in the dim mist. Xu Jiali turned to look at her, and she jumped nearly a meter high in place—like a cat suddenly discovering a cucumber behind them: "Boss, why are you suddenly looking at me? You scared me meow..."

"What did you say you used my allowance for just now?"

"Boss, you must have misheard..." Lingdang quickly said, but halfway through, she shrank her neck and turned her head awkwardly, "I’ll make it up to you with my salary this month meow..."

Xu Jiali didn’t pay any more attention to this cat who spent every day close to losing touch with reality due to catnip addiction, but instead frowned and continued to vigilantly observe the situation on the street. He then checked the various environment parameters automatically recorded by the power armor and found a large number of inexplicable blanks and brief interferences—something unprecedented in his service career.

"Captain, communication has been restored," a deep diver’s voice interrupted Xu Jiali’s thoughts, "The signal from Submergence Port has also come through!"

"Everyone, surface immediately!"

...

Baili Qing’s expression was as usual, but if someone familiar was present, they might have seen an unusual gravity in her extremely light gray eyes—she carefully looked at the report just sent back from Submergence Port and only after a long time did she raise her head to look at Song Cheng standing across the table.

"Has the health check report of that team come out?"

"The deep divers are in good health, showing no signs of pollution. Three of them briefly experienced soul disassociation, but it was mild and left no after-effects," Song Cheng replied immediately, "Several accompanying spiritual servants showed mild mental distraction and spiritual agitation, possibly a mild stress reaction caused by ’witnessing a translimit event,’ but they’re fine, and a short rest will lead to self-recovery—I’ve already arranged a vacation for this team."

Baili Qing nodded slightly, then asked, "Song, what do you think about this incident?"

Song Cheng pondered for a moment before slowly speaking: "The black thread they encountered... is likely similar to the situation in the ’Dark Alley,’ a sign of the Omen Goddess’s power spreading in the Exotic Realm. As for the ’encounter’ mentioned in the report, I believe what they encountered belongs to the Black Dot Group—from the footage captured by the on-site personnel’s personal recording devices, it appears to be a large space station, similar in style to the Algredians’ ’Observatory,’ but I didn’t see the mark of the Star Nobles."

Baili Qing said nothing, her gaze falling again on the screen in front of her.

The screen showed the moment a huge alloy wall was crushing down the streets of Mist City—that was a scene captured by the power armor of a deep diver.

"Issue risk alerts to all Spirit Realm detectives and investigators, cautioning against entering Exotic Realm areas deeper than L-2 for the time being. Additionally, if anyone finds traces of suspected ’Black Spider Silk’ within any Exotic Realm, they should immediately evacuate and report to the Special Service Bureau," Baili Qing ordered without raising her head, "Finally—deploy twenty more Deep Dive Teams to Mist City, with a focus on monitoring the boundary of the misty district and several identified weak points in space."

"Understood."

Song Cheng left, and the large office quickly returned to silence. Baili Qing sat behind the desk, rubbing her forehead as if caught in long-term contemplation.

After an unknown period, she seemed to come to a decision, casually setting the office to a lockdown state, then raised her hand to remove one of her earrings.

The delicate silver earring held a light purple crystal, in which extremely intricate and complex patterns were hidden, though it appeared naturally formed.

Baili Qing turned the crystal facet upwards, her fingers brushing the edge of the earring, and waited silently for a few seconds.

A flow of light appeared on the surface of the pale purple crystal, and a palm-sized holographic projection emerged above the crystal. The projection showed no images of people, only the words "Channel encrypting."

Some noise-like movements came from the other end, followed by a clearly processed electronic synthetic voice reaching Baili Qing’s ears: "A rare guest, a rare guest—doing business? Or sponsorship?"

"Some things have happened recently in the Boundary Land," Baili Qing said expressionlessly, "Your people are getting close to overstepping the bounds of ’little tricks.’

The other side of the communicator was silent for several seconds.

Baili Qing didn’t expect a response from the other party, speaking straightforwardly: "Let’s be honest, what are you up to? Has something already lost control?"

"Why are you so sure it’s me?" The response finally came from the earring, "The Group has countless project divisions, and perhaps you and I aren’t that familiar..."

"...It seems I’m wasting my time," Baili Qing seemed to quickly lose patience, but also appeared to have gotten the answer she wanted. She shook her head, fingers again touching the edge of the earring, "You can continue hiding in your secret base somewhere, but you should know that if the Boundary Land falls into danger, any place that’s been connected to the boundary network will no longer be safe—just a friendly reminder, don’t tamper with things beyond the boundaries of rationality."

In the last moment before the communication was cut off, Baili Qing heard a voice reach her ear—

"If we can only remain confined within borders, then rationality itself is meaningless."

Then the communication was cut off, it was the other side who cut it off unilaterally.

"Ah, as always, it’s annoying," Baili Xue’s voice came from the side, a pair of giant eyes appeared on the nearby wall, "If only we knew where those Black Dot lunatics were hiding, we could just send two boatloads of soldiers to blow them up and be done with it."

Baili Qing, however, made no response. She merely calmly put her earrings back on and then turned her head to look at the massive floor-to-ceiling window—a window that at the moment reflected the normal scenery of Boundary City, showing no illusion or mist like an ordinary window.

She blinked, and then, in the depths of her faded pupils, another scene appeared that only she and her sister could see—an endless stretch of city buildings, crisscrossed with countless fissures and secret pathways.

The clusters of fissures ran through the entire megacity, and the numerous secret pathways wove between earth and sky.

Some of these fissures and pathways were entrances to Exotic Realm scattered throughout the city, some directly led to certain "path points" of the observable universe, and others were secret passages akin to "shortcuts" effective within the Boundary Land.

Technicians at the Special Service Bureau could monitor the conditions of these fissures and pathways in the city using various detection devices, pinpoint their locations, and calculate their recent tendencies for change, but observing them directly with the "eyes" was evidently a different experience.

In the eyes of the monitoring department, abstract data and blurred radar images were a magnificent and deceitful spectacle before Baili Qing. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Baili Xue’s eyes floated languidly to the floor-to-ceiling window, starting to wobble back and forth in Baili Qing’s sight.

Baili Qing frowned: "Don’t mess around, I’m observ..."

She suddenly stopped.

In her vision, the countless fissures spread across the entire Boundary Land outside the floor-to-ceiling window suddenly flickered, and then dense black spider silk abruptly emerged from each fissure, like countless interwoven hidden giant webs descending in an instant. The entire city was enveloped layer upon layer by the gigantic webs, and even the sky plunged into darkness!

Baili Xue, who was clambering on the window, let out a gasp and instantly shot up to the ceiling.

However, in just an instant, the deceitful and terrifying sight vanished, and outside the floor-to-ceiling window returned to a normal scene.

Baili Qing gasped a cold breath, stunned as she looked at the restored scenery outside.

Baili Xue floated down from the ceiling: "Sister, was that just..."

"I saw it too, it’s not something that’s really happening now, but it’s not an illusion either."

"Some sort of omen?"

"...Some sort of bad omen."

...

"Achoo—"

Erin, who was sitting on the coffee table passionately arguing with foolish netizens via her phone watch, suddenly sneezed heartily, losing her balance and tumbling onto the carpet with a clatter.

Yu Sheng, who was holding a stack of draft papers and sketching on the sofa, felt something collide with his leg. He looked down and saw the little puppet lying between the sofa and the coffee table, blinking up at him.

"How can you, a puppet, even sneeze?" Yu Sheng casually picked up the little thing, patted the dust off, and placed it back on the cushion as he casually remarked, "And with such intensity."

"I’m not an ordinary puppet, I’m an Alice Puppet!" Erin said proudly, looking up, evidently having forgotten her online argument. Her attention was then drawn to the draft papers in Yu Sheng’s hand, "Hey, what are you doing? What’s this?"

"Weapon design drawings," Yu Sheng replied as he continued to doodle, "I’m preparing them for myself, I’ll send them to Mo Ran later to have her help me produce a batch..."

Erin blinked as she listened to Yu Sheng’s explanation, then looked at the somewhat abstract schematics on the draft paper. After holding back for a long time, she finally couldn’t help but ask, "What’s what... What’s a blood reservoir? What’s a blood gun? What’s a blood needle launcher? Do these grandiose names have any connection to your abstract doodles?"

Yu Sheng’s face showed unabashed embarrassment: "...I admit my drawing is a bit rough, but not to the point of being abstract doodles, right?"

Erin gave an "oh", pointed to the draft paper, "Then explain what this water gun is for, will you?"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, and said seriously: "It’s for laying fungal mats in a situation where you try not to get killed..."