Chapter 116: Confrontation with

Invaders from beyond the world: the Dim Angels.

Fanatical cultists who converted under the "guidance" of the Dim Angels, their very essence having completely deviated from humanity.

Modes of existence that defy common sense, bizarre forms and characteristics, wide-scale contamination, and power that cannot be countered with current technology—to study them means risking corruption, yet without knowledge, there is no way to oppose those invaders.

Yu Sheng gradually refined his impression of the Dim Angels and their angel cultists in his mind, outlining their contours and guessing at their true nature.

Song Cheng stopped and did not disturb Yu Sheng's thoughts; only after a long while did Yu Sheng voluntarily break the silence: "Judging by what you're saying, so far, you haven't successfully killed a single Dim Angel?"

Song Cheng sighed, helplessly spreading his hands, while Xu Jiali beside him nodded and spoke in a muffled voice: "We've tried every method, and every faction has made earnest attempts, but the existence of Dim Angels is... strange; they don't seem to be entirely located where they are observed. Any attack veers off when approaching them, and even those that luckily hit find it extremely difficult to cause damage to their surfaces, let alone the fact that some Dim Angels simply aren't in a normal material form—how are you supposed to kill a patch of shadow or a ball of light?"

The two-meter-tall burly man clicked his tongue at this point, clearly quite displeased, before continuing: "So far, the closest we ever came to success was the 'Angel Fall' operation that took place ten years ago in the border regions of Arglade.

"They prepared for a long time and were extremely fortunate to detect the signals preceding the descent of the angel 'Goddess of Beauty' in advance; an army, having been injected with sanity-blocking agents beforehand and equipped with heavy protective gear, assembled on the great plain, bombarding the entire area of the angel's descent with relentless fire, and even deployed a gravity bomb in hopes of counteracting the 'deviation' phenomenon occurring around the angel.

"According to signals fed back by monitoring equipment set up on-site, that gravity bomb worked; a massive volume of firepower indeed poured onto the 'Goddess of Beauty' and her throne, marking the first time humans collected data on an angel's 'body strength'—in the early stages, it withstood almost all attacks, but after a sustained period of bombardment, its main body began to crack and dissipate... but that was all.

"Once the damage reached a certain threshold, the 'Goddess of Beauty' vanished from the plain; the traps and restraint measures set up in advance failed to serve any purpose, and when that angel reappeared several years later, it had fully recovered."

Yu Sheng listened to all this with some shock, remaining silent for a long time.

The scene Xu Jiali described clearly exceeded the scope of normal Special Bureau operations; that was already a war—a war between an entire civilization named 'Arglade' and a single descended individual—yet despite what seemed like overwhelmingly one-sided firepower, the result was merely a successful 'expulsion'...

"This is the upper limit of damage humanity can currently inflict upon Dim Angels: severely wound them, then banish them; and considering that in most cases we don't even have the chance to lock onto an angel's descent location in advance, even this kind of 'banishment' relies entirely on luck," Song Cheng broke the silence from the side, "Additionally, according to post-event statistics, even with extensive protective measures employed, nearly a thousand soldiers were affected during the 'Angel Fall' operation, and hundreds were converted into admirers of the Goddess of Beauty during that battle, forced to undergo lifelong psychological treatment."

Erin blinked her eyes as she listened, then suddenly exclaimed with a sigh: "... It feels like there's absolutely no way to win this."

"No," Xu Jiali immediately shook her head, "Although the 'Angel Fall' operation didn't achieve the expected results, it still brought encouragement to everyone—because those things can indeed be hurt; they may not bleed, but at least we've confirmed they are not the 'Lord' claimed by the angel cultists. Human firepower can wound them and drive them away, so one day, we will definitely develop the technology to kill angels. In fact, we might already possess such firepower; next, as long as we can figure out the principles behind Dim Angel descents and find ways to predict and trap them, we will certainly be able to deal with them."

Hearing Xu Jiali's serious and firm rebuttal, Erin opened her mouth, and after a long pause, only managed to say: "... Your human optimism and resilience are truly admirable."

"The good news is that Dim Angels descend into the real world very rarely, and they don't actively launch any 'offensives' or attack densely populated areas," Song Cheng said from the side, "More often, Dim Angels descending into the real world simply appear randomly within civilized regions, sometimes in desolate frontiers, and sometimes even in places farther away; in such cases, the destruction they cause is quite limited.

"Relatively speaking, the damage they cause when descending into Otherworlds is actually greater—an Otherworld parasitized by an angel will see its danger level increase by at least one grade; some originally stable and harmless Otherworlds will turn into dangerous 'traps' in the real world, and there have even been instances where an angel altered the restriction rules of an Otherworld, causing certain entities to briefly enter the real world... For an organization like the Special Bureau, this is an even greater disaster."

Yu Sheng's gaze involuntarily swept over the documents on the table once again.

After a moment, he steered the conversation back to the incident that occurred in Boundary City.

"So, what exactly were those two angel cultists in the museum trying to do?"

"Summon their 'Lord' here," Song Cheng said in a deep voice.

Erin: "... Are they sick?!"

"Exactly, a mentally normal person wouldn't become an angel cultist," Xu Jiali shook her head, "They are simply obsessed with such things—conducting their weird 'sacrifices' within Otherworlds. Since Dim Angels descend more easily into Otherworlds, they believe that using special rituals to contaminate an Otherworld can attract their 'Lord'."

"Does this method work?" Yu Sheng couldn't help but feel curious.

"In most cases, it's actually futile and only increases the number of victims, after all, Dim Angels don't truly respond to those cultists' prayers," Song Cheng waved his hand, "But the fear lies in low-probability events—they carry out various evil and chaotic sacrifices, which essentially amounts to attracting the angels' 'attention'; once the quantity increases, one of those attempts might actually succeed. There are indeed historical records of such 'summoned descents,' and not just once or twice.

"Therefore, promptly exterminating emerging angel cultists has become a very important and effective means of countering Dim Angels—we may find it difficult to kill an 'angel,' but by stamping out those sacrificial activities, we can greatly reduce the probability of Dim Angel descents; furthermore, eradicating those angel cultists also helps control the spread of information contamination from Dim Angels."

Song Cheng paused here for a moment, organized his thoughts, and continued: "Our people will enter the 'Museum' tonight to resolve the leftover sacrificial site there and confirm the identities of the victims; additionally, we will conduct a comprehensive inspection of the entire Museum along with the 'Theater' outside to see if those angel cultists have left behind any other hidden dangers."

"They infiltrated the Otherworld, bypassing the node monitoring," Yu Sheng reminded, "Have you found out the reason for this?"

"We are investigating, but it won't be quick," Song Cheng shook his head, "The node monitoring network has been operating normally all along; given the capabilities of angel cultists, it's impossible for them to damage the node network in a place like the Borderlands without being detected—not to mention anything else, they couldn't even evade our Director's 'eyes.' Currently, we speculate they might have found another 'entrance,' one... not registered in the database, undiscovered by anyone, leading to the Museum."

Yu Sheng looked utterly surprised: "There could be another entrance?"

"The probability is low, but not zero," Song Cheng nodded, "In the end, an 'Otherworld' is simply a special information structure bound by rules that creates a 'limited overlap' with the real world; in other words, as long as its entry rules are satisfied, any location can become an entrance to an Otherworld. However, under normal circumstances, except for a few anomalous types, the entry rules of standard Otherworlds are strongly tied to specific locations in the real world, and in the Borderlands, all these locations are under the Special Bureau's surveillance—but as I said before, there is no situation in this world that is one hundred percent free of accidents."

Yu Sheng rubbed his chin, muttering: "So there's such a thing... 'Accidents' are truly hard to guard against."

Li Lin, who had been silent from start to finish beside him, finally couldn't hold back at this point; he looked up at Yu Sheng: "To us, you opening the door was that 'accident'."

Yu Sheng instantly switched to a more serious sitting posture, as if he hadn't been the one who spoke those words just now.

"The main reason we came over today was to tell you about these matters," Song Cheng cleared his throat, pretending not to have heard the exchange between Yu Sheng and Li Lin, "Regarding 'Dim Angels,' since you have already dealt with them, the probability of you encountering them again in the future will be far higher than that of an average person—accumulating some knowledge in advance might prove useful someday.

"Besides that, if you have any needs requiring the Special Bureau's assistance, whether in your work as a Spirit Realm Detective or in dealing with troubles caused by Otherworlds and entities, feel free to tell us whenever you encounter difficulties—the Special Bureau always values its 'partners' highly."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng actually pondered it seriously, and just before Song Cheng stood up to take his leave, he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh right, there is actually one thing; I don't know if you can help with it."

Song Cheng was slightly stunned: "Ah... go ahead."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, feeling somewhat embarrassed: "Is there any way you can solve the issue where food delivery and express couriers can't reach No. 66 Wutong Road?"

Song Cheng: "... Huh?"

(End of Chapter)