Chapter 149: The Unbelievable Special Operations Bureau

I must say, although the ride in Xu Jiali's car was a bit uncomfortable, listening to her drone on about obscure trivia all the way was quite interesting.

It was far more vivid and lively than those dry, rigid entries in the "Border Communications" database.

The scenery outside the window kept receding as the battered Xia Li drove from the old streets of the old district onto the main road of the city center, then along the main road through the bustling area lined with high-rises and shopping malls. Hu Li leaned against the window, eyes wide with curiosity, watching the outside world. Although her ears and tail were tucked away, her excited and happy expression always made Yu Sheng feel as if a bunch of tails were wagging behind her.

"By the way, about how long does it take to get to your Special Operations Bureau from here?" Yu Sheng asked curiously. "We're going to your headquarters, right... or should it be called the General Bureau?"

"We're going to the headquarters," Xu Jiali nodded, looking at the three of them through the rearview mirror. "It's quick; we'll be there in an hour."

"That close?!" Yu Sheng exclaimed upon hearing this. Thinking of the city's mind-bogglingly vast scale, he was stunned by the distance being reachable in a half-hour drive. "Is your headquarters near the old district?"

Xu Jiali shook her head: "No, the Special Operations Bureau headquarters is very, very far away—but from any point in this city to the Special Operations Bureau, the drive will be within an hour."

Yu Sheng paused, stunned: "... Huh?"

"Because we take a 'shortcut'," Xu Jiali smiled, a hint of pride in her smile as if she was finally getting to surprise him once. Then she turned the steering wheel, drove off the main road, turned onto a side road along the edge of the commercial district, and entered a quiet area behind a certain shopping mall. "Our Special Operations Bureau does have its own little 'tricks'."

As she spoke, Yu Sheng saw the entrance to a parking garage appear ahead. Xu Jiali drove the car up the ramp into the entrance. The first level down looked like a normal parking garage, filled with many private vehicles, with numerous signs pointing to the shopping malls, supermarkets, or nearby intersections above. But immediately after, Xu Jiali zigzagged through the lot and turned into another ramp from the depths of the area—

Yu Sheng couldn't even tell how this ramp had appeared. Before they approached, it seemed to be just an empty space at the end of the parking garage, with some unexplained puddles on the ground. But as soon as they got close, a sloping road suddenly emerged from the puddles. Dim lights illuminated this strangely long corridor, which sloped downward continuously, as if it could extend all the way into the earth's depths.

As they went deeper, the color of the lights on both sides of the corridor gradually changed. A cold, dim blue filled the space outside the car windows. The surroundings became exceptionally quiet; even the engine sound of the small car seemed to be muffled behind a thick curtain, sounding distant and dull. Yu Sheng suddenly felt his spiritual intuition start to thump-thump. Just as he was wondering what this feeling meant, Erin reacted even faster than him: "Wait, are we falling into an Otherworld?!"

"Strictly speaking, we are just 'passing through' an Otherworld," Xu Jiali turned her head slightly. "Depth L-1, Otherworld 'shortcut', covering the entire Borderland. It does not generate physical entities and is basically harmless except for a slight risk of getting lost. The Special Operations Bureau is located at the main intersection of the 'shortcut', and we slightly 'borrowed' the special power of this Otherworld—we've arrived."

As soon as Xu Jiali finished speaking, Yu Sheng felt a jolt beneath him. Immediately, the strange feeling of his spiritual intuition thumping-thumping while falling into an Otherworld faded rapidly. He noticed the car had exited the corridor and, after passing through a gate, entered a brightly lit parking garage.

"Get out," Xu Jiali parked the car in a spot, came over, and opened the car door for Yu Sheng. "We'll take the central elevator straight up."

Yu Sheng casually hoisted Erin onto his shoulder, then followed Xu Jiali, the "guide," with the fox Miss looking full of curiosity and excitement. The group crossed this surprisingly huge parking garage, winding through several intersections in the maze-like underground space before reaching the elevator hall, and then followed Xu Jiali to swipe a card and board the elevator.

As soon as they entered the elevator, Yu Sheng noticed the notice papers pasted on the cabin walls and near the buttons.

Printed or written on them were many strange-looking tips and warnings—

"The elevator will not stop at floors 1-3."

"Floor 4 has lighting control. If you enter the brightly lit Floor 4, please immediately return to the parking garage via the original route or proceed to the Security Level on Floor 12."

"Saturday elevator maintenance. If the screen inside the elevator displays the word 'Maintenance' outside this time, press the blue button and exit. You can transfer to Elevator No. 2 or No. 5."

"If you are an upper-level employee, you may only use this elevator to go to floors -1, -2, and the above-ground floors. If the elevator indicates arrival at floor -3 or deeper underground floors, greet the deep-level staff riding the elevator, but do not leave the cabin."

There were several more tips of this nature.

Yu Sheng stared at these papers pasted on the cabin, stunned for a few seconds before turning to look at Xu Jiali: "... Your work environment has quite high risks, doesn't it? Do you have to pass a round of rule checks just to come to work?"

"Actually, you get used to it," Xu Jiali said calmly. "Mainly because the Special Operations Bureau headquarters building has many special 'nodes' connecting to many places, and some floors are even set up in extra-dimensional spaces. Besides offices, there are also some strange 'natives' wandering around inside. But it's not as dangerous as outsiders think. Most locations and rules here are non-lethal, and there are dedicated help devices or return shortcuts if you get lost. The building also has a dedicated 'Peaceful Work Department' that coordinates with the Security Section, specifically responsible for bringing colleagues who get lost in the building back to their workstations..."

His explanation didn't help; it only made things feel even more eerie. Even Erin couldn't help muttering: "What the hell is a 'Peaceful Work Department'... So in your place, if you try to sneak off to an empty corner to slack off, you'll be treated as a 'lost' incident and then a bunch of security guards will drag you back to your workstation?"

Xu Jiali shrugged: "There's no way around it. Given the nature of our work and the special work environment, especially near the special floors, if you're away from your post for thirty minutes without returning, who knows if you went to slack off or got swallowed by the office next door. But actually, it's fine. Most floors here are very stable, and some high-pressure positions have short working hours. For Special Operations Bureau staff who have undergone special training, this environment is no different from ordinary people working in an office building."

"Do you work in this building too?" Yu Sheng asked curiously.

"No, I'm mostly out on field duty," Xu Jiali waved her hand. "When I come back, I'm basically on standby in the annex building. Besides that, there are facilities like 'Deployment Stations' and 'Garrisons' for regular action units. They are not directly connected to the headquarters building, but can be reached quickly via shortcut floors or special 'channels'."

As she spoke, the elevator stopped at a floor marked 54-1/2. Accompanied by the soft announcement of the cabin broadcast opening the doors, the elevator doors opened, revealing a brightly lit corridor to the group.

The three of Yu Sheng followed Xu Jiali into the corridor and noticed that this floor was very quiet. Only occasionally could a few people in uniform be seen walking by, and they all looked hurried and serious.

On one side of the corridor were rows of tightly closed doors; on the other side was a row of neat, wide windows. Through the windows, the scenery outside could be seen—

Outside the window was a thick, oppressive layer of rock. Dark-colored stone pillars and massive stalagmite structures crisscrossed, filling the entire space. At the far end of the rock layer, there was a huge crack. Outside the crack seemed to be a forest. The forest was covered in white snow, and sunlight shone on the snow layer, dazzlingly bright.

Yu Sheng: "... What the hell kind of scenery is this?!"

Xu Jiali, however, wore an expression of seeing nothing unusual and looked at the outside quite happily: "Oh ho, it's sunny outside the 54th and a half floor today. The weather is nice—the crack outside this floor has been snowing for nearly an hour."

Hu Li's eyes widened, and finally even she couldn't help speaking up: "Does every floor of this building form its own universe?"

"Not every floor," Xu Jiali waved her hand. "Didn't I just say that most floors here are quite stable? Only about one-third of the floors have some strange scenery, and it's not that they form their own universes; it's just that they happen not to be in the Borderland."

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded—What the hell "only one-third of the floors," and "happen not to be in the Borderland"! Is this place really that eerie?

Xu Jiali, however, seemed not to notice the wonderful expressions on the faces of Yu Sheng and the others, and calmly continued to explain: "The Special Operations Bureau headquarters building is like a huge 'spacetime rift sampling needle'. Each floor penetrates many 'anomalous locations'. If the Borderland is the 'spatial hub' of this world, then the Special Operations Bureau headquarters is built on the busiest N-way intersection of this hub. So, our building even has two small customs offices and one border traffic station set up inside. I can take you on a special tour if there's a chance later—it's quite interesting for first-time visitors."

"I'm already finding it interesting enough just hearing about it," Yu Sheng's tone was already a bit numb. "How did you even build this building?!"

"Some magical civil engineering; I don't know the specifics," Xu Jiali shrugged. "But you should know now why the entire Special Operations Bureau goes into chaos as soon as you 'open a door'."

The expression on Yu Sheng's face instantly froze.

"When a spacetime displacement is detected, the whole building, from top to bottom, sounds the alarm," Xu Jiali sighed, her tone full of a feeling that the past was too painful to recall. "It even sets off the alarm in the annex building and several satellite facilities connected to the main building by floors. Although we later found that no actual damage was caused, when the alarm sounded, it really felt like the headquarters had fallen. On the liveliest night, half the building had to be evacuated in an emergency..."

What else could Yu Sheng say? He could only continue to freeze: "..."

(End of this chapter)