Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 534: Superposition

Outside the intersection, mist enveloped the air, making the distant cityscape appear hazy and strange. Street lamps far away wavered like the eyes of living creatures, with suspicious shadows flitting by now and then—perhaps entities born of the mist, possibly tactical patrol robots from the Special Service Bureau, or maybe just simple illusions.

Undoubtedly, it was an extremely dangerous act for anyone to venture alone into that mist.

Thus, Li Lin remained dutifully within the "safe zone" surrounding No. 66 Wutong Road, observing this fog-shrouded Exotic Realm while waiting for Zheng Zhi and Yu Sheng to return.

The good news was that this wait was not too lonely—thanks to the widespread use of the new "Spiritual Fox" relay node, he could still connect with the real world here, as well as access the Special Service Bureau’s dedicated channel within Mist City. Now, hundreds of Deep Dive Teams were operating in this vast Otherworldly maze city. Despite the barrier created by the mist, the periodic updates from various task forces on the public channel made him feel somewhat reassured.

"...So, I’m here guarding the place," Li Lin said as he sat at the courier collection point entrance, messaging in the Special Service Bureau’s Second Team colleague group, "Honestly speaking, this thick mist is rather eerie. Being alone for too long makes me feel as if something might emerge from the fog, no wonder the bureau issued a notice prohibiting solo exploration of this place." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

His phone buzzed with an incoming message; Xu Jiali replied in the group: "Don’t even mention solo, even in a team, there’s risk. Last time when I led a team, we nearly got caught by the ’Clown.’ That thing teleports in the mist, and even Lingdang can’t lock it down, but thankfully my skills were exceptional..."

"Is there a Deep Dive Team near Wutong Road? Have you seen them?" another colleague asked.

"They passed by fifteen minutes ago and greeted me," Li Lin quickly typed. "Sister Liu led the team—they got startled because they didn’t know No. 66 Wutong Road is operational. The team initially planned to take a shortcut through the alley here; now that the shortcut is a no-go, they’ll have to write a report when they get back..."

"What report?" Ren Wenwen suddenly piped up—being a logistics clerk, she was particularly sensitive to these words.

"Contact report for No. 66 Wutong Road, they crossed the alert line," Li Lin chuckled. "Even though Brother Yu wasn’t there, that’s the regulation. They weren’t on the permit list."

Xu Jiali: "...The world is a huge impromptu stage."

Ren Wenwen: "Who would say otherwise."

Li Lin chuckled as he watched the group chats, subconsciously rubbing his fingers.

The temperature had unknowingly dropped, a slow and imperceptible descent—an eerie coldness gradually seeped into the mist, making his fingers feel somewhat numb.

His spiritual intuition was suddenly triggered; Li Lin awakened instantly, hurriedly putting down his phone, and looked up around him.

Everything appeared as usual; no changes in the mist.

But that faint chilling sensation was slowly seeping from the mist, becoming increasingly distinct.

Something was wrong—better to hide indoors.

The thought sprang to his mind, and Li Lin turned decisively towards the outpost disguised as a courier collection point.

Just as he was about to step forward, he spotted with his peripheral vision a shadow emerging in the mist.

Above No. 66 Wutong Road, layers of mist high in the sky swept a gigantic, slender shadow across.

Followed by two similarly slender shadows appearing nearby.

The shadows moved slowly overhead, stirring the mist in high altitudes.

In the ensuing seconds, Li Lin felt a terrifying numbness spreading through his brain—a realm where human imagination ran rampant, completing some possible hidden structure in the mist from the fleeting glimpse of those limb shadows. His mind battled the sudden surge of fear in his subconscious, letting that dreadful image fully form in his mind, only then realizing what he had truly seen.

A gigantic spider, an Alien God, was strolling across the sky of Mist City.

The massive black web appeared and disappeared amidst the mist, with the Alien God crawling slowly on the web, or perhaps due to the mist’s veil, or because It hadn’t fully "entered" this dimension, Li Lin could only see a small part of Its existence—he could only see several gigantic jointed limbs moving blindly above Wutong Road like a sleepwalker, and each sway of those limbs seemed like it was slicing through space-time, stirring ripples along the web’s edges.

"Oh my..."

Li Lin desperately tried to avert his gaze and step forward, only to find his whole body frozen, difficult to move; the bizarre coldness had seeped into his bones. Witnessing the web in that instant, he seemed to be a captured insect in the web, in a futile struggle. He could only watch as those limbs repeatedly crossed his vision, until suddenly, the enormous shadow halted in the mist.

He saw two clusters of crimson glow.

A few seconds later, he realized they were two eyes—the spider leaned down from the sky, revealing a vague female upper body surrounded by swaths of black drapes, making it impossible for Li Lin to discern Its appearance, only those doomsday-like eyes, gazing down at the tiny insect below through the mist.

Doomsday was looming.

Li Lin spent a second deciding where he should be buried, and then quickly reviewed his unfulfilled wishes in life. He wanted to strike a brave and fearless pose, hoping that when someone came to collect his body, they might speak a few good words for him in the action report—he wasn’t hoping to become a beautiful girl in some card-drawing game in a few years, but at least he wanted to become a positive example in the Special Service Bureau’s year-end work summary...

He felt his brain trembling, his rationality evaporating, his blood freezing little by little, and his soul beginning to uncontrollably escape from his body.

But suddenly, those scarlet eyes seemed to blur for a moment—the dreadful pressure abruptly dissipated.

Li Lin heard a vague mumbling voice coming from the mist.

"Hehe..."

Li Lin: "...?"

"Yu Sheng’s friend..."

The giant spider swayed its body, murmuring to itself as if in a trance, then inexplicably laughed again, its laughter carrying a touch of eeriness: "Hehe~"

It seemed very happy, swaying on the web, and then slowly crawled deeper into the mist, murmuring to itself as it crawled.

"Not going home yet... Silly fox and the C-type buckle, where did they go... Weaving the web, weaving the web, oh, stick it together, once it’s stuck, it’s fixed... It’s hard to make, must fix it, gather the fragments first... Hehe, make a repair, strong one, crawl, crawl, crawl over %￥%#@..."

The giant spider crawled along the web just like that, muttering as it went as if speaking its dreams.

The bone-chilling cold suddenly vanished, and the nearly boiling rationality quickly calmed. Li Lin took a sharp breath, feeling himself regain control of his body in an instant—there was no time to sort out the mess of information in his head. He instantly retrieved two large doses of Sanity Blocker, specially distributed to Special Service Bureau Officers, and injected them into himself with muscle memory precision, then sprinted into the outpost, rapidly pulling out his phone.

His first reaction was to call Yu Sheng, but there was no answer.

So then he dialed Zheng Zhi.

This time, the call connected quickly.

"Something happened here!" He spoke quickly as soon as the call connected, "I saw a giant spider crawling across the sky, half spider, and half human—I couldn’t get through to Brother Yu on the phone, tell him about this, you guys hurry back!"

On the other end, Zheng Zhi was evidently startled by the sudden news, and after a two-second delay, rushed to speak: "Uh, we’re on our way back, Brother Yu, he..."

Zheng Zhi suddenly hesitated, as if unsure which words to use for a moment, and then Erin’s loud voice came through the receiver, as if she had snatched the phone: "Hey, Yu Sheng went out for a bit, he’ll be back soon. You find a safe place to stay—go to No. 66 Wutong Road, I’ll open the door for you."

Li Lin was stunned for a moment, hurriedly rushing out of the outpost, and then saw the door of No. 66 Wutong Road being opened from inside by someone—three Erins stacked atop each other opened the door for him.

As the door opened, the topmost Erin couldn’t release her hold in time and got hung on the doorknob, swinging there as she yelled over, "Hey, hey, Little Linzi, come hide here..."

Li Lin stumbled after taking two steps forward, his expression strange: "Can you change the nickname?"

"You’re picking now?" The Erin hanging on the door turned to glare at Li Lin, "Or would you rather be standing outside?"

Those scarlet eyes, through the thin mist at the crossroads, were like two flickering starbursts.

Li Lin’s steps toward No. 66 Wutong Road abruptly hesitated, and for a moment, he even felt like he saw the illusion of that giant spider again.

But the small figure hanging and swaying on the doorknob quickly washed away the tension and hesitation rising from his heart.

He exhaled, swiftly moving forward.

After all, survival was key—it’s definitely better not to become a typical example if possible.

The door of No. 66 Wutong Road shut with a bang. Erin jumped down from the doorknob and casually spoke to Li Lin, who had just entered the house: "Help yourself to something to drink, the living room TV is mine, the dining room TV is mine, the sofa is mine, the coffee table is mine—just find a place for yourself besides those."

Another Erin pattered over to the living room window, climbed onto the windowsill, and looked out at the fog-shrouded street.

"Where’s the spider..." The little puppet sat on the windowsill muttering, its scarlet pupils flickering.

In the puppet’s eyes, clear as red gemstones, the illusion of the giant spider slowly faded away.