Chapter 103: A Peaceless Sleepless Night

The night had grown deep.

In a high-rise apartment somewhere in the central district of Border City, Bai Liqing, wrapped in a nightgown, poured herself a glass of strong liquor and strolled over to the large floor-to-ceiling window.

The room had no lights on; only the dim yellow glow from a nightlight in the corner outlined the contours of the furniture. Outside the vast floor-to-ceiling window lay a spectacular night scene rushing to meet her. The massive city was illuminated by neon, its gorgeous colors flickering and flowing between the layered, closely packed buildings like some breathing living creature. The earth seemed endless, the light and shadow of the city architecture stretching infinitely into the distance within her field of vision until disappearing into a hazy night curtain. And in this night, Bai Liqing's own reflection in the glass appeared exceptionally thin.

Fog had risen outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

The thin mist seemed to generate out of thin air, rapidly and evenly covering the night, gradually turning into a surging gray-white curtain. The scenery of Border City appeared hazy and illusory in the fog, and then, a pair of indifferent eyes appeared outside the window, gazing calmly at Bai Liqing standing before it.

Those eyes possessed contours like a human's, yet lacked color severely; their extremely pale pupil structure was almost identical to Bai Liqing's own eyes. They seemed to float in the thin mist outside the window, yet also as if printed directly onto the glass of the window, filling the entire window surface.

"Drinking at night is not a good habit, sister."

A voice entered Bai Liqing's mind directly, mechanical and dull, yet identical to her own vocal tone.

"It calms me down," Bai Liqing said casually, shaking the glass in her hand, "especially after being woken from a nightmare by a phone call."

"A nightmare?"

"I dreamed I eventually became you."

"Oh, that is indeed a nightmare," the faded eyes blinked once outside the window. "Be careful not to be bewitched and controlled by me—although what you have done so far is quite good. So, why have you called me out now?"

"I was suddenly awakened and just wanted to ask you about some matters on the side—about the 'One-Eyed' appearing in Nightfall Valley, have you found anything?"

The eyes narrowed slightly, and the voice subsequently entered Bai Liqing's mind: "I have traversed every place I have ever gazed upon, including those foreign lands we experienced together and the 'Death Holes' pierced by the Dark Angels in the deep space. I found no news related to that giant eye; it has never appeared in any of the aforementioned locations."

"Is that so, you can't find it either..." Bai Liqing seemed somewhat regretful. "Never mind, it was to be expected."

"Your mood is worse, sister," the eyes said, "and you are also somewhat anxious."

"... Because more and more clues now point to that giant eye entering this world without anyone noticing. And given the 'trail' of another unknown Angel discovered by the Algrede several months ago in deep space, it is likely that more Dark Angels have already pierced our world—there are more holes undiscovered, and even right now, holes may still be increasing."

As Bai Liqing spoke, she shook the cup in her hand, staring blankly at the vortex created by the swirling liquor, and asked softly, "Do you know what I worry about most?"

"You worry that more Dark Angels are already hidden in the real universe?"

"No, that is a common worry for everyone. What I worry about more is what lies behind the Dark Angels—is it a race, is there organization, do they have learning ability, have they gradually learned the rules of our world and mastered more efficient methods to pierce Death Holes, and... learned to actively hide themselves."

"That does sound very worrying."

Bai Liqing drank the strong liquor in her cup, feeling the scorching stimulation gradually spread in her mouth, then casually placed the cup on the floor beside her.

"Also, I asked you to scan the Old District and find that hidden 66 Wutong Road. Did you discover anything?"

"I found some distorted traces, but I cannot see clearly." The eyes said, and there was actually a hint of depression in the mechanical, dull voice.

A trace of surprise finally appeared on Bai Liqing's face: "Even you can't see clearly?!"

"Yes," the eyes in the thin mist blinked. "Every time I try to focus my gaze, it seems as if something suddenly... absorbs it. By the time I react, I find I have actually been zoning out. However... I have a hypothesis."

"What hypothesis?"

"That so-called '66 Wutong Road' might not be there at all; there is only an entrance..."

"That is not surprising," Bai Liqing shook her head before the other could finish. "The Special Agents who went to investigate also submitted this conclusion. They believe it should be a special space located in a spatial rift, drifting in the cracks of the space-time structure of the Borderland, just like other 'Fortress'-type foreign lands in Border City..."

"No," the eyes suddenly interrupted her. "What I mean is, it might not even be in the Borderland—it is not drifting anywhere; it is just... too deep, too far, so that the '66 Wutong Road' reflected in the Borderland is only a very thin shadow. When I feel my gaze being swallowed, it is actually because I am gazing at a place so far away it cannot be seen."

Bai Liqing's expression stiffened for an instant.

"Too deep, too far?" Her tone was unusually hesitant. "Do you know what this means? Your gaze... can even see the sub-space."

"So, deeper and farther than that. This is based on logical analysis, sister."

Bai Liqing blinked.

A moment later, she heard that mechanical, dull voice in her mind sound again: "So, what exactly is the 'person' living in '66 Wutong Road'?"

"I don't know," Bai Liqing said softly. "I only know that all current intelligence shows his personality and self-awareness are infinitely close to a 'human', and just now, he even called me."

"Ah, so the phone call that woke you from your nightmare just now was from him—what does he want?"

"He said he was going to open a 'door' and report it to me. According to intelligence from the Operations Department a few hours ago, he should have gone to the 'Museum'."

"... Interesting."

The eyes gradually dispersed in the thin mist, and the fog outside the window retreated rapidly as well. The boundless city night scene filled the window once more.

Yu Sheng barely slept at all during the second half of the night.

He lay in bed, tossing and turning; various thoughts, knowledge, and intelligence wriggled, crawled, jumped up and down, and squealed like countless Erin scurrying all over the floor in his mind...

Of course, describing it this way might be an exaggeration, because if there were truly countless Erin scurrying all over the floor, it would definitely be much noisier.

But Yu Sheng's mind was indeed this messy.

New knowledge about foreign lands, about Little Red Riding Hood and the 'Fairy Tale' organization behind her, about the Angel cultists and the 'Dark Angels', about that unfortunate victim in the white exhibition hall, and... the scene where the dead spoke to him.

Yu Sheng turned on his phone and searched the 'Border Communications' database for entries related to 'Conversing with the Dead', and really found some materials.

It mentioned that some 'experts' outside the Borderland did possess the power to communicate with the dead; some, called Necromancers, even had the ability to temporarily fix a dead person's soul in the real world after performing a series of complex rituals and conduct simple face-to-face conversations with them.

But regardless of which entry, the process of 'Conversing with the Dead' described was obviously quite different from the scene he experienced in the white exhibition hall at that time.

The 'techniques' appearing in the encyclopedia entries either required very complex ritual processes, or extremely advanced equipment assistance, or were simply like 'Holographic Deduction', using technical means to collect massive amounts of intelligence to attempt to reconstruct some scenes before death. Moreover, even those so-called methods capable of directly 'communicating with the dead' yielded extremely vague and crude results, sometimes only getting 'yes' or 'no' feedback from the dead person's residual brain waves or so-called 'soul'.

None of them involved touching the blood at the scene with a hand and having the dead person suddenly turn their head to rap at you...

Yu Sheng put down his phone, sighed softly in the unlit room, and then heard rustling sounds coming from the bed again.

Turning his head, he saw Erin wriggling and rolling at the foot of the bed, kicking a flying kick into the air, then plopping down with a thud.

Yu Sheng's expression was wooden.

Another main reason he couldn't sleep was that there really was an Erin crawling all over his bed.

And spinning around to kick people.

The next second, he saw Erin suddenly flip over, then the small doll sat up straight, pointed a finger forward with eyes still tightly closed: "I! Of Alice's Cottage! Pay up—or I'll hit you!"

Then she tilted her body, fell towards the edge of the bed, dropped to the ground with a bang, and then, still dazed, grabbed the bedsheet to climb back up, wriggling towards Yu Sheng while muttering: "Don't kick me... I fell down..."

Yu Sheng let out a sigh.

He wouldn't be able to sleep now.

(End of this chapter)