Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 549: Invasion and Battle
Hu Li clutched her head and hopped around, yelping in front of the black "High Wall." When she finally calmed down, a large red bump had already formed on her forehead.
The Great Demon Fox gently rubbed the bump, tears welling up in her eyes.
Erin, who had been casually tossed to the ground by Hu Li, lay there motionless as if dead. After a long while, she suddenly seemed to reconnect with her body, jumping up and pointing at Hu Li, she started nagging: "Silly fox, can you not bring me along next time when you’re being so reckless? My waist almost got snapped! Do you even know how hard it is to deal with a broken joint in the waist..."
Hu Li didn’t say a word, just continued to rub the bump on her head.
Erin paused, looking at Hu Li’s head, then turned to glance at the black high wall that ran right through the laboratory—it was naturally part of the Broken Tower (World Bridge), made of mysterious materials not belonging to this world, with a hardness beyond imagination.
Possibly even harder than Luna’s battleship armor shell.
"Silly fox, just how tough is your skull," the little puppet couldn’t help but exclaim, "to only get a bump from hitting this thing?"
"Our line of foxes practices body cultivation," Hu Li said sullenly, as if she’d also hit her nose earlier, "back in school when there were no classes, the elders in the clan would take us into the mountains to mine with our claws and heads..."
Erin: "...Wow."
At that moment, Luna also entered through a large hole in the laboratory wall, carrying two mass-produced puppets she picked up along the way. She casually tossed the puppets to Erin, then looked up at the black high wall and spoke slowly: "No, entrance."
The surface of the high wall appeared seamless, with mysterious patterned grooves whose purpose was unclear, but there were no visible doors or windows. Luna went up and scratched it with her "nails," discovering that its strength was astonishing, and even her blade couldn’t leave a mark.
Then she and Hu Li watched as Erin walked up to the high wall and began to feel around on it.
"Do you know how to get in?" Hu Li asked curiously from the side.
"I... do I know?" Erin’s reaction was strange, not quite a reply but more like questioning herself. As she felt around the rough surface of the "World Bridge," her expression began to grow hazy. Suddenly, as if remembering something, nostalgia appeared on her face, "Ah, yes, I know, we all built this together... Go in? Yes, we can go in, Yu Sheng is inside..."
She pressed her hand against the outer wall of the World Bridge, black threads began to seep from her fingertips, spreading over the surface of the high wall, weaving into a web while gradually penetrating the wall.
The black "stones" at the edge of the web took on strange hues, and a curtain, composed of numerous irregular polygonal light fragments, covered the web. In the next moment, the curtain collapsed inward and shattered, revealing an entrance before everyone’s eyes.
Behind the entrance lay the vast interior space of the tower—an unoriginated faint glow illuminated the layers of platforms inside, ancient intricate mechanisms of unknown function, and flights of stairs seemingly without end.
Hu Li suddenly sniffed the air.
Her eyes lit up: "I can smell our savior!"
"Yu Sheng passed through here," Erin began walking into the tower, "he’s heading upward—let’s go after him!"
...
"The terminal structure of the World Bridge has intruded into the Big Shield! Our shield has not reacted to this!"
"Unknown composition of the intruding structure... Unable to lock it down... The terminal structure of the World Bridge contains many rifts, conventional interference and blockade measures are ineffective..."
"The Council Tower ’Requiem’ system is affected, and its effectiveness is decreasing—the backup system has kicked in!"
"The ’Spirit Fox’ system operation in the West City Canal Section is malfunctioning, one block hasn’t been exchanged with Mist City in time! A ’shadow’ has entered the real-world block! How far is the nearest mobile unit?!"
Baili Qing’s face was serious as she listened to the continuous reports and commands coming from the hall. She made timely adjustments to overall deployments while sharing another perspective in her mind with Baili Xue.
The giant eyes that only she and Yu Sheng could see were now floating above the Boundary City, sticking close to the Big Shield of Boundary Land—Baili Xue overlooked the city, constantly reporting the situation of erosion in each district to her.
From that high-altitude perspective, many areas could be seen already enveloped in thick fog.
When the viscous shadows dripping from the Big Shield into the city, the corresponding block would instantly activate the "Spirit Fox System," swapping a part of Mist City with the real-world block—battles would take place in the twisted Exotic Realm filled with mist, to maximize the protection of Boundary City in reality.
This was a system still in the experimental stage. Its hardware was based on the newest generation of the "Spirit Fox" node—publicly presented as communication devices, but their actual functions went far beyond that. Thanks to the fantastic spiritual energy affinity of their "core materials," scientists in Boundary Land found a way to incorporate some "Deep Dive" technology into these nodes and designed a vast "grid network" throughout Mist City, known as the "Spirit Fox System."
The purpose of this system... is to add an extra layer of "insurance" for Boundary Land, a place always encountering various accidents and crises.
Since Mist City covered the entire Boundary City, let it serve as Boundary City’s safety shield—people outside only harbored fear and resistance towards the Exotic Realm, yet for those living in Boundary Land, the Exotic Realm was a resource to be used.
But after all, it’s an experimental system, and Mist City is massive, the production of Spirit Fox nodes is limited by raw materials, and this network set up in Mist City is not completely finished—as the shadows intruding from the Big Shield into the city grew in number, the whole system began to show unstable behavior.
More and more blocks were undergoing "flipping," and the energy needed to maintain the stability of the real-world boundary would increase exponentially.
The voice of Baili Xue echoed in Baili Qing’s mind: "...I heard that this set of things also uses some techniques from the Black Dot Group... Their ’Black Spirit Ability’ stuff itself has questionable stability."
"Deep Dive technology was created by the Black Dot Group. If we want to make the Spirit Fox Node practical, we can only use compatible things," Baili Qing said calmly, but her gaze fell upon the city—
At the highest point of the Big Shield, the black tower that extended from beneath the Black Stone Space Station had already intruded into the sky of Boundary City. The end of the tower was filled with bizarre space rifts, making its overall appearance fragmented and broken. Now, a large number of mobile units and deep diver units had gathered near the Council Tower, trying various means to prevent the further extension of the "World Bridge," but they were clearly having little success.
"Sister, it’s time to make a decision," Baili Xue’s voice echoed again, "If we execute ’Dome Shattering’ now, we can still manage to ’eject’ that space station along with the extended World Bridge—of course, the cost is that the Boundary Land will forever lose a piece of sky, and perhaps some land as well."
"Moreover, the ejected World Bridge could very likely change its position and invade again," Baili Qing said slowly, "Its origin isn’t here."
"Oh? Do you have a way to solve its ’origin’?"
Listening to the voice in her mind, Baili Qing simply took a gentle breath and slightly narrowed her eyes.
When she opened her eyes, a silver-gray vertical pupil flashed across her pupils.
"Xue, I need to leave here temporarily—you take over commanding and don’t let anyone find out." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"Ah?" Baili Xue was evidently taken aback, "Wait, I’m replacing you... I can’t! How do I replace you?!"
"Song Cheng and Secretary Liu know what to do, you can directly inform them of my whereabouts," Baili Qing said calmly, turning to walk towards the door, "As for you, you don’t need to do anything. Just let the people at headquarters ’see’ that their director is still here."
"Wait, aren’t you being a bit reckless? You really want to go into that tower?! Hey... uh, alright then, it feels like it’s not the first time you’ve sold me out..."
Listening to the voice in her mind, the corners of Baili Qing’s mouth unconsciously curved into a slight smile.
She left the hall, her footsteps hurrying through the corridor. In a moment when everyone coincidentally wasn’t looking at her, her figure vanished into thin air.
At the same time, Baili Xue took over the visual and auditory senses of everyone within the building.
In the command hall, several staff members saw Baili Qing hastily leave earlier, but soon they saw the "director" return from outside, standing at the initial position, continuing to stare at the scene without any change in expression.
Everything proceeded as usual, except "Baili Qing" furrowed her nose slightly when no one was paying attention, raised her hand to pinch her face, and mumbled quietly, "Keep a poker face, keep a poker face..."
...
The "backyard" of No. 66 Wutong Road, deep within the valley.
The square of Fairy Tale Town was bustling with activity.
"Sanity Blocker! Sanity Blocker! Make sure they’re all checked, take sufficient supplies before heading out—if you can’t win, come back quickly!"
"Cinderella went out to scout. She just reported back that the old town road toward Sun City Square is full of monsters! The fog has connected three or four blocks, it’s a huge area."
"Dorothy’s ground troops have already engaged up ahead, but they’re lacking assault forces! Has the Dragon Slayer awoken? If he has, let him charge again..."
"Emergency situation! Drones near Taihe Shopping Mall found a team of trapped Spirit Realm detectives who are barely holding on—who’s nearby? The King? Great, quickly get it over there..."
The main combat force of Fairy Tale gathered on the square, using walkie-talkies and phones to contact partners who had already left the valley and entered the city, while confirming the current situation in the city and arranging subsequent manpower for battle under Little Red Riding Hood’s command. In this sudden chaos and crisis, these precocious children (and one who is now an adult) have clearly become the strongest "civilian fighting force" in Boundary City.
With the "Spirit Fox" system’s load gradually exceeding limits and a large amount of the Special Service Bureau’s combat strength being diverted to deal with several large erosion points around the World Bridge, they were practically supporting the entire defense of the old city area.
And at this moment, a twisted, vibrating "door" suddenly appeared on the square.
The door abruptly opened, accompanied by creaking noises, quickly dissipating. A dizzy puppet fell out of the doorway, dragging along an unfamiliar person.
The long-haired princess, Bai Xue, and a few young kids who were preparing on the square were startled at once, but after being stunned for less than a second, they rushed forward.
"What’s this..."
"Thrown in by Brother Yu?"
"Golden hair, like the hair after Long-haired transforms."
"Hey, hey, it’s still moving! It’s alive!"
"Don’t poke them, it’s rude..."
