Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 667 - 666: Reflection

To be fair, too many strange occurrences have happened in the room at the end of the second-floor hallway of No. 66 Wutong Road. Yu Sheng is somewhat accustomed to them, to the point that whatever appears in this room doesn't really surprise him anymore. Even if he opens the door to see two magnetic force experts battling Darth Vader, he can accept it—as long as they help tidy up afterward.

But even if two magnetic force experts were indeed battling Darth Vader in this room, the impact they could bring to Yu Sheng is likely less than that one crack on the mirror at this moment.

The crack is thin and shallow, set against a pitch-black background, making it difficult to observe with the naked eye even when leaning in close. Only from a specific angle can one see that thin crack running through the entire mirror from bottom to top.

Yu Sheng recalled hearing a loud crash downstairs just moments ago.

Could that have been the sound of the mirror cracking?

Hu Li leaned forward to the mirror, her pointed ears gently quivering in the air. As she saw the crack, the demon fox girl's golden-red eyes showed signs of seriousness and tension: "Uh, Savior, the mirror has cracked... What should we do?"

Yu Sheng didn't speak, merely taking out a small knife from his pocket—that was a bloodletting knife crafted from Luna's blade.

He cut a wound on his palm with the knife, then tried pressing his hand against the mirror.

Erin and Hu Li watched the scene nervously together.

Blood spread across the black mirror surface, as if it had been dropped into some solution. Black-red ripples spread in the darkness, while a faint noise started to hover at the ear's edge.

Yu Sheng felt a sudden dizziness, not yet able to understand the sounds around him, when everything around him suddenly plunged into darkness—everything vanished, and he seemed to be falling into boundless nothingness. This "descent" lasted for an unknown duration, until he felt himself regaining control over his body and the falling stopped.

The dizziness gradually faded away, and Yu Sheng shook his head, raising his eyes to survey his surroundings. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

He saw distant, twisted starlight—not emptiness in the darkness, but infinitely distant stars that gave the sense of being in space. Yet, those starlights were so far away they appeared "embedded" on a curtain at the world's end, all warped and elongated, bearing twisted and rotating shadows, like an unreachable vortex, like the "culmination" of the entire world.

Meanwhile, all of these starlights were concentrated behind Yu Sheng—only when he turned around did he see the "culminating vortex" formed by the stars, while in front of him, there was nothing but endless darkness.

Yu Sheng frowned and instinctively reached out toward that endless darkness.

At the next second, he realized it wasn't an endless darkness.

It was a high wall, a "barrier" as smooth as a mirror, infinitely towering and wide in all directions.

This scene should have been immensely oppressive: an almost infinite "high wall" standing before oneself, while all the stars in the world rotate and converge on the other side. It's a situation where a tiny individual would undoubtedly feel a suffocating pressure—yet, at this moment, Yu Sheng instead felt an inexplicable, comforting and pleasurable sensation rising from deep within.

He felt as if he had returned home, lying in a familiar, eternal, and tranquil "resting place."

He even unconsciously stretched, literally "lying" before that endless high wall, comfortably gazing at the darkness before him, then turning to glance at the starlight of the vortex culmination.

He saw light currents operating among the starlights, saw shadows like flames flowing in the star river, saw some stars being born, others being corrected, new parameters being infused into the cosmic background radiation, then revised and altered.

After an unknown amount of time, he saw some "reflections" start appearing on that boundless "high wall"—certain "knowledge" quietly flowed into his mind, allowing him to comprehend the happenings before him.

New universal laws had become effective, and among all things in the universe, the mapping of information was gradually completing.

Yu Sheng saw familiar things among the projections—that was the first time on the Otherworld Inn ship entering warped space during superlight speed transitions, those "massive information structures" at the world's foundation he had seen—laws of tremendous scale supporting the real universe's operation, notes left by the world's creator in the creator's equations.

"A bug is a bug, a bunch of bugs can work..."

"This can run, so don't disturb it... Can squeeze a couple more balls there..."

"//How much sorrow can a person bear, alone kneading the universe"

"... What kind of disturbance is outside?"

Yu Sheng suddenly "sat" up as if awakened from an eternal and calm dream—a scattered thought converging into complete self-awareness, standing before the "high wall," staring at it somewhat stunned.

The information structure supporting the real universe still mapped on the high wall, stars running along the paths defined by the structure's laws, but Yu Sheng's mind was consumed with the creator's messages he'd "seen" in his haze, especially the last line of the message.

He instinctively leaned closer to the high wall, as if trying to discern something from the information flow reflected on the high wall. But in that very moment, the entirety of the information flow on the wall vanished, and boundless darkness enveloped the curtain once more.

Yu Sheng blinked, slowly retreating a few steps—within the darkness, he saw "the wall" again projecting some new things, but they were blurry and indiscernible.

He retreated further.

It was a vague shadow, Yu Sheng's own shadow—it was reflected in the "mirror."

An inexplicable sense of caution rose from the depths of his heart, causing Yu Sheng to instinctively continue retreating.

The hazy reflection disappeared from his sight.

Then he repeatedly kept retreating, getting further and further away from that "high wall mirror."

After distancing himself several times, Yu Sheng suddenly noticed a slight curve appearing at the edge of the "high wall."

The curve gradually became the obvious edge of a sphere.

Yu Sheng's heart was pounding, and it was only then that he realized it wasn't a "high wall" at all, but a mirror-like smooth sphere—just enormous in size, and he had been too close to it just before.

He continued backing away rapidly, seemingly trying to see the full picture of the sphere—and behind him was that vortex-like cluster of stars.

This rapid retreating movement resembled deliberately falling into the vortex formed by the cluster of stars.

Time passed unknowingly; Yu Sheng stopped at a balance point between the stars and the darkness.

Standing at the edge of the vortex formed by converging stars, he quietly gazed at the spherical object floating in endless darkness—

The Black Star.

Or perhaps, it was some sort of "projection" formed by the Black Star in his Conscious World.

"...What are you, really..."

Yu Sheng muttered to himself, furrowing his brow while staring at the pitch-black star.

However, the Black Star did not respond; the pure black sphere just quietly floated in the infinite void, basking in the starlight of the entire universe, yet silently guarding all its secrets.

A sense of falling suddenly hit him, and Yu Sheng felt that he had lost control of his body, beginning to plunge into the endless starlight behind him.

But at the moment the loss of control sensation hit, countless golden threads appeared at the edge of his vision—golden "lines" emerged out of thin air and instantly entwined him, accompanied by Erin's animated exclamation: "Ah damn, can't we have once where nothing goes wrong! I've told you this creepy thing, don't mess with it... You're so heavy!"

In the next moment, the perception of reality descended thunderously, and the surroundings instantly reverted to the familiar room setting. Yu Sheng staggered in the snow, but at the moment of fall, a warm and soft touch enveloped him—he leaned back into a pile of fluffy tails.

Next was the sensation of the little puppet tugging at his hair: "Awake, awake yet..."

Yu Sheng frantically shook off the tiny claws: "Awake, awake, don't pull, my hair falls out easily when I write..."

"Trying to fool a ghost, three hours to spit out two sentences, then delete half afterwards," Erin smacked Yu Sheng's head with her little paws, "Besides, you would give up on an ingrown toenail without treatment and go straight to suicide and reincarnation, still worried about hair loss?"

Yu Sheng knew he couldn't argue with the little thing on his shoulder, so he casually brushed her off and then his gaze fell on the mirror on the wall.

The previously pitch-black mirror had returned to normal, and after the darkness retreated, the room's scenery was once again reflected normally in the mirror—and the tiny crack had healed.

"Savior, the moment you pressed your hand on it, it restored," Hu Li said, looking at Yu Sheng a bit worriedly, "But you were standing there motionless, looking dazed, and then Erin thought something was wrong and pulled you out..."

"How long was I dazed?" Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead and asked casually.

"Five or six seconds? No longer," Erin counted on her fingers, "Mainly, your consciousness suddenly vanished... Uh, not really vanished; your consciousness seemed still there, even without brain death, but I felt your Mind was suddenly running to a very, very far place."

Yu Sheng slowly furrowed his brow: "...To the ends of the world and time?"

Erin thought for a moment: "What do you mean?"

Yu Sheng offered no explanation, just raised his head thoughtfully.

As the mirror returned to normal, the room's snowfall had stopped. Now only unmelted snow remained, with cold air filling the room, uncertain when it would completely dissipate.

"...I saw the Black Star."

He suddenly said.

Erin and Hu Li both froze, then exclaimed in unison: "Ah?!"

"The Black Star, but likely just a projection in my consciousness—it floated at the universe's end and for some reason, when I was beside it, there was a moment I felt... extraordinarily familiar and at ease, nearly fell asleep there."

Erin: "...Damn!"