Chapter 212: A Very Big Door

Actually, Yu Sheng really wanted to emphasize that after such a long period of practice and adaptation, he had made significant progress in "molding" houses in the valley; the two rows of ancient and atmospheric pillars on both sides of the portal on the platform were the best proof. He didn't dare claim he could mold a luxury hotel for the orphanage children, but at least making two rows of resettlement housing was no problem. But after thinking carefully, he felt it was better to just prepare the foundation first.

Mainly because the Special Bureau had already prepared all the supplies; it would be a waste not to take advantage of it...

Of course, to prove his craftsmanship, while leveling the foundation, he also diverted some of his energy to create a building at the end of the designated campsite.

Soil and rock reorganized deep within the earth, gradually rising with a low, humming rumble. Like limbs possessing life, they intertwined, stacked, and thickened layer by layer on the surface, transforming into gray-white bases, walls, pillars, and roofs, and then further differentiating into doors, windows, and simple decorations on the walls. Attracted by the commotion, Erin ran over to curiously watch this large building rising from the end of the wasteland, turned her head, and asked curiously: "What is this?"

"A camp with only a pile of prefabricated houses is ultimately a bit monotonous, and no matter how comfortable it is, it feels like fleeing a disaster, so I've named a 'castle' for Little Red Riding Hood and the others," Yu Sheng explained cheerfully to the small doll. "It can also serve as the 'office' for the 'Fairy Tale' organization—if all else fails, it can work as a warehouse. Later, when the Special Bureau's construction team arrives, just have them help connect the electricity."

Erin stood there listening, completely stunned. She climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder, cupped her hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun, and stared at the large gray-white building with a stone texture for a long time, muttering: "If you hadn't said anything, I would have thought it was a three-courtyard landscape public toilet with two Wengcheng..."

Yu Sheng reached out to throw the doll off his shoulder: "... This matter isn't going to pass, is it?!"

Erin instantly jumped down from Yu Sheng's shoulder with a giggle, dodging in circles while saying: "Alright, alright, I won't cause trouble anymore—honestly, this time it really does look the part. It's a bit rough, but it looks quite imposing, kind of like those mysterious, meaningless alien ruins in game CGs..."

Yu Sheng suspected this doll was implying that the house he had painstakingly molded was abstract, but he had no evidence.

However, he didn't care either; after all, Hu Li beside him was so admiring that her tail was wagging into a blur, sweeping up flying sand and stones...

The basic part of the camp was quickly completed.

"Next is to coordinate with the Special Bureau," Yu Sheng sighed slightly as he watched the last patch of foundation in front of him gradually harden and take on a rock-like texture. While relaxing his somewhat tense spirit, he took out his phone to check the time. "... Not bad, a bit faster than expected."

Erin curiously climbed onto Yu Sheng's arm to glance at the phone screen: "It's this late; isn't the Special Bureau resting?"

"They said all personnel and supplies are on twenty-four-hour standby. The construction and transfer work for the next resettlement point will be on shifts; people stop, work doesn't," Yu Sheng said, casually dialing Bai Liqing's phone number. "In matters like this, they are very reliable... Hello? This is Yu Sheng, we are ready here."

Only a calm sentence from Bai Liqing came through the receiver: "Good, come directly to my office."

"Honestly, she is truly cold and aloof," Yu Sheng paused, hanging up the phone while whispering to Erin and Hu Li, "No wonder they call her Steel Stoic..."

The next second, another sentence floated out from the phone: "I am not Steel Stoic."

Yu Sheng: "..."

Silently hanging up the phone, he tugged at the corners of his mouth: "This phone's touchscreen isn't working properly."

A illusory door opened out of thin air, a temporary passage connecting the otherworldly valley directly to the Director's office in the Special Bureau headquarters building. Yu Sheng walked out of the door with a stern face, seeing Bai Liqing with an equally stern face, and Song Cheng beside her who was barely able to keep his face straight.

He realized that when he had just complained about a certain lady being "Steel Stoic," there seemed to be more than one listener present—Captain Song's face clearly showed the expression of "I'm done, I heard something I shouldn't have while with my direct superior, and now I definitely have to work overtime on this broken job."

Everyone tacitly avoided mentioning the matter in the phone call. Afterwards, Bai Liqing personally led the way, guiding Yu Sheng and his group into another elevator in the corridor.

In this strange Special Bureau headquarters building, almost all special floors were connected by these weird elevators—and they didn't necessarily move in any particular direction. Yu Sheng first felt the elevator moving upward, but after passing more than ten floors, he noticed the arrow above the cabin turned straight down. Before he could think further, he saw the arrow rotate ninety degrees on the spot, indicating the cabin was moving horizontally to the left. After a while, he felt the entire elevator shake violently, and a soft female voice came through the electronic synthesized sound: "Transfer Level - Port has arrived."

The cabin doors opened, and a stunningly vast space appeared in Yu Sheng's field of vision.

Leading Erin and Hu Li out of the elevator in a bit of a daze, he found himself standing on a metal platform. Surrounding the platform was clearly a huge artificial island. On the open ground were more than a dozen large buildings neatly arranged like warehouses. Many seemingly unmanned transport vehicles were running back and forth between the warehouses and the port facilities in the distance. Beyond this extremely vast area was clearly an endless... ocean.

Yu Sheng instinctively looked at that sparkling sea, seeing many large transport ships painted with the Special Bureau logo docked at the pier of the artificial coast. He also saw a ship leaving the port, gradually accelerating towards that endless ocean. The next second, a chaotic light curtain suddenly appeared on the sea surface. The transport ship seemed to penetrate directly through some invisible "rift" and quickly disappeared into that chaotic light curtain.

A faint mechanical operating sound came from behind. Yu Sheng turned around and saw that the "elevator cabin" doors were already closed, and the entire cabin was clearly connected to the edge of the platform by a series of sturdy tracks. With the mechanical devices on the tracks starting up, the entire cabin began to move backward rapidly, disappearing into another chaotic light curtain in the blink of an eye.

After holding it in for a long time, Yu Sheng finally couldn't help but speak: "... Where exactly has this brought me? Is this still the Borderland?"

"This is the 'Border'. The place before your eyes is both a storage facility and an external transportation hub," Song Cheng smiled. "You also know that the entire Borderland is actually a closed space, different from the normal universe outside. People in the Borderland... except for you, us ordinary people can only go out through those fixed 'natural passages'. These natural passages vary in size; small ones might be a certain drawer in a certain office in the Special Bureau headquarters building, while large ones... the end of a train station, the end of a tunnel, or like what you saw, a port." As Song Cheng spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to that sparkling sea in the distance.

"This place can only be reached via 'shortcuts', considered part of the shortcut network, with a depth of 1 and a danger level of 0. This sea area overlaps with a certain sea area on a certain planet 'outside'. Crossing that light curtain you just saw takes you outside the Borderland. Of course, we can't go over there now; to exit from here, we first need to get a permit from the Council..."

Song Cheng suddenly stopped, looking steadily at Yu Sheng.

"... You won't suddenly open a door and go out from here, right?" he asked with a tense expression.

Yu Sheng was somewhat amused by the other's reaction: "I'm not that idle."

"Oh."

Song Cheng nodded, but less than two seconds later, he nervously confirmed again: "You really won't go out from here, right?"

"To open a door, I first need clear coordinates, and the coordinates only affect where I arrive, not where I open the door from," Yu Sheng helplessly spread his hands. "If I really wanted to go out, I could just open a door at home; there's no need to cause trouble for you guys here."

"Oh, that's good then," Song Cheng nodded again, then smiled somewhat embarrassedly. "Don't blame me for talking too much; mainly, this place is quite sensitive."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment and felt this might be the difference between crossing from a border no-man's-land and cutting a bloody path through customs—although theoretically both count as smuggling, the latter is smuggling a bit too brazenly...

No errors, one sentence, one chapter, one content, all in one place!

Soon, Bai Liqing and Song Cheng led Yu Sheng and his group away from the metal platform to the entrance of a large warehouse.

Reception personnel were already waiting here—along with them was a construction team wearing Special Bureau engineering department uniforms, more than a dozen large transport vehicles, and various supplies fully loaded on those vehicles.

Transporting enough supplies to build a temporary settlement point and the supporting construction team from the real world into the otherworldly valley relying solely on a door in the basement was obviously unrealistic.

Bai Liqing had naturally considered this point, which was also the reason she brought Yu Sheng to this place.

"You said you need a door big enough, preferably one that large trucks can drive straight through," Bai Liqing said while raising her hand to point at the warehouse beside her. "A door with a real physical entity can effectively save your energy consumption when opening the door—do you think this door works?"

Yu Sheng looked up and glanced at the warehouse door large enough for two container trucks to drive in side by side.

"... Honestly, this is also the first time I'm opening a door of this scale; even I'm curious if it will work," he rubbed his chin, a look of eagerness gradually appearing on his face. "Let's try it first."

Hearing Yu Sheng say that even he wasn't sure and could only try, Song Cheng instinctively frowned: "Uh, then what if it's not successful?"

"If it's not successful, then we can only unload the things on the trucks, disassemble them, stuff them into the fox's tail, and transport them slowly," Yu Sheng said, turning his head to look at Hu Li. "Can it fit?"

Hu Li looked up at those dozen large trucks and thought seriously.

"The whole truck definitely won't fit in. Even using the method of shrinking objects to an inch, each object must be under four meters..." the fox girl said while gesturing.

Yu Sheng hummed, turned his head, and said to Song Cheng: "Then the restrictions are quite large; let's just hope opening the door goes smoothly."

Song Cheng's expression was a bit dazed—mainly because he wasn't yet used to Yu Sheng's overly leaping way of thinking...

Obviously, as a middle-aged corporate slave who was busy every day, he didn't understand some of the weird details around Yu Sheng deeply enough.

Yu Sheng ignored Song Cheng's reaction; at this moment, he had already arrived beside that huge door and placed his hand on its door frame.

As long as it's a door... it should be openable, right?

(End of Chapter)