Chapter 267: Big Life

The cluster of revelers is gradually dispersing.

They were not completely annihilated—in fact, they were constantly resurrecting; no matter how many were killed, new revelers could be seen emerging from the mist, making them endless to fight—but as the heavily armed Deep Divers brought by Xu Jiali eliminated a certain "critical point" of these entities, Yu Sheng observed them beginning to "fade" at a speed visible to the naked eye.

First, the colorful line figures in the peripheral areas gradually retreated out of sight, followed by the entities near the "battlefield" melting back into the mist, and finally, the entities eliminated on the battlefield ceased to regenerate.

The fog-shrouded streets finally grew quiet; the pulse rifles in the hands of the Deep Divers stopped roaring, beam sabers severed the last few reveler entities, and the fluttering confetti lay in a thick layer on the streets before being swept up by the wind and quickly turning to dust.

Yet these battle-hardened soldiers did not fully relax; they still vaguely maintained a combat formation, dispersing in groups of 8 to 12 around the area, ensuring they monitored the entire block while guaranteeing that every group remained within the visual range of at least two other groups at the same time to prevent any "mechanism" in this eerie mist from taking effect; meanwhile, other soldiers retrieved various small devices from the storage compartments of their power armor, placed them nearby to collect environmental parameters, and transmitted the data back to the control center via a "umbilical cord" device connected to their armor.

These details were explained by Xu Jiali from the side.

"This is our 'umbilical cord'," said the burly man, who was already nearly two meters tall and stood close to two and a half meters in his power armor; he raised his hand and pointed to the chest of his armor, where a black cord-like object extended outward, floating in mid-air in an eerie state, swaying slowly with his movements as if submerged in an invisible liquid environment, "its other end connects to the 'Deep Dive Pool' in the real world; this connection maintains our humanity and sanity—and also maintains our communication with the rear."

Irene stared with wide eyes: "I'm telling you, just hearing the word 'umbilical cord' makes me a bit neurotic now..."

Xu Jiali smiled helplessly: "Normal. After the Anka Elra incident, many of my colleagues became neurotic too; some even suggested to the higher-ups that we change the name of this thing. If nothing else, call it a 'tether line,' but the higher-ups didn't agree."

Yu Sheng pondered: "So, there isn't absolutely no way to communicate between the Otherworld and the real world... First came the 'locator,' and now there's your equipment... The Special Operations Bureau does have the technology to solve this."

"Regular communication gets blocked, but we have 'irregular' means," Xu Jiali nodded, explaining while watching her comrades clean up the battlefield, "It's just that these 'irregular' methods are somewhat tainted with 'uncanny' qualities... My saying this will definitely get me chewed out by the tech department when we get back, but many of us feel this way."

"You saw my 'umbilical cord,' right? When we execute deep dive missions, we essentially voluntarily immerse and dissolve our physical bodies and minds as 'humans' in the Deep Dive Pool, then like diving headfirst into a nightmare, the dissolved matter 'jumps' into the Otherworld with the umbilical cord, allowing us to bring the other end of the cord in to transmit signals; when returning, we reverse the process: we disintegrate again in the Otherworld, the disintegrated fragments are recovered by the umbilical cord, brought back to the 'amniotic fluid' of the Deep Dive Pool, and 'born' again in the pool..."

"I feel this process must be somewhat akin to subspace witchcraft—but the guys in the tech department don't admit it; they insist it's all science..."

Xu Jiali chattered on like this, her complaints clearly carrying a hint of smugness, while Yu Sheng beside her listened with wonder, unable to stop glancing at her full set of equipment—not to mention anything else, this thing was truly quite cool...

Irene unconsciously muttered: "Why does your so-called 'dive' technology sound so unreliable to me? The process sounds like it could easily go wrong."

"There is risk, certainly, but it's not really high; especially compared to the risks of 'Otherworld operations' themselves, the probability of loss of control during the 'deployment' or 'dive' process is negligible," Xu Jiali seemed quite carefree, "It's just that newcomers get nervous easily; the process of disintegrating and being 'born' in the 'amniotic fluid' for the first time is most prone to psychological issues; veterans must guide them through at least a dozen times before they stabilize."

Having heard Xu Jiali explain much knowledge related to Deep Divers, Yu Sheng finally gained a preliminary understanding of the Special Operations Bureau's "high-end combat power" when dealing with the Otherworld; and according to Xu Jiali, Otherworld incidents requiring Deep Divers were actually a minority—in most cases, teams composed of "regular agents" like Li Lin could go to various known Otherworlds to rescue people or conduct investigations.

And this time, it obviously belonged to the "minority cases."

"Uncanny, this place," Xu Jiali tilted her head back, looking at the sky filled with thick fog and the street scenery appearing and disappearing within the mist, mirroring the real world, "It's definitely not a known Otherworld; this is a new one... Someone in the bureau will have to work overtime again when we get back. But it's normal; we have people working overtime every day, whether it's this department or that one..."

"We previously encountered 'Ink Stain,' and this time we ran into a cluster of revelers; they are entities generated only in other Otherworlds, yet they appeared in this thick fog," Little Red Riding Hood spoke up as well, "It's not yet determined how they 'entered'..."

"Either this 'Otherworld in the mirror' possesses the characteristic of connecting with other Otherworlds, like the 'Train,' linking to other Otherworlds at a certain level, or this is its own 'characteristic,'" Xu Jiali looked casual but spoke with great logic when analyzing, "The characteristic is that this Otherworld can internally generate 'signature entities' from other Otherworlds."

"... If it really is this characteristic, then the danger level of this place rises sharply," Little Red Riding Hood's face turned somewhat grim, "The depth of this thick fog might only be between L-1 and L-2, but the danger level could reach Level 3 or even higher."

"Leave the analysis to the smart people in the bureau; the key now is that someone is trapped in there, right?" Xu Jiali said, her brows already furrowing, "I don't mean to sound harsh, but looking at the situation... it's likely more bad than good. Ink Stain, the Carnival crowd; just these two revealed entities are already lethal threats to ordinary people; facing them head-on, hardly anyone could escape, let alone I heard that person belongs to..."

He thought for a moment, tapping his forehead: "Oh right, belongs to the 'High Sensitivity, Low Stability' constitution, right? Then the probability of him encountering entities is probably even higher than yours; at this time, it's likely... Sigh." The muscular man sighed.

Yu Sheng's face also turned grim.

Hu Li's ears drooped down, and she lay flat on the ground—because she was now a nine-tailed fox as big as two vans, so this lying down made the earth shake and the mountains tremble.

However, just as a suffocating atmosphere was about to spread, a call suddenly came through Xu Jiali's communicator from a Deep Divers patrolling the perimeter: "Commander! Found a trapped civilian!"

Everyone instantly perked up; Xu Jiali's eyes widened in a flash, and she shouted loudly into the communicator: "Where? What's the situation? Is he still alive?!"

A somewhat conflicted voice came through the communicator: "Alive, but the situation is a bit complicated; we are trying to cut him off from... uh, the wall; this person is sealed in the wall by amber substance, but he should be fine."

Yu Sheng and Irene exchanged glances; Little Red Riding Hood beside them looked thoughtful; Hu Li... Hu Li's face now couldn't really show expression; she suddenly stuck out her tongue and licked Yu Sheng, almost knocking him over—who knows what the fox was thinking.

Xu Jiali ordered the discovered "trapped civilian" to be brought over, so a moment later, Yu Sheng saw his "big nephew," whom he hadn't seen in many days.

He finally understood what the "situation is a bit complicated" referred to in the communicator earlier.

This young man, who always wore an expression of fatigue, was now quietly wrapped in a large mass of pale yellow transparent substance resembling amber; he still maintained a posture of running forward, with a look of terror remaining on his face, as if he had been "captured" and sealed into this "amber" at some moment while desperately fleeing.

!

But apart from being sealed, he had no obvious wounds on his body.

"Ah, this..." Yu Sheng had never seen this situation before, his expression looking somewhat dazed, "Are you sure he's still alive?"

Irene also looked full of worry: "He won't suffocate, will he?"

Little Red Riding Hood, however, showed a look of relief after seeing the shape of that "amber," waving her hand relaxedly: "It's fine, it's fine; he's still alive—this guy really has a big life."

Yu Sheng looked up, casting a puzzled gaze.

"Neutral entity, 'Tree Granny,' appearing in the Otherworld 'Autumn Forest,'" Little Red Riding Hood knew Yu Sheng lacked knowledge in this area and explained very patiently, "The image of this entity is a humanoid tree wandering deep in the forest, with an old woman's face on the trunk; it actively chases living humans appearing within its territory and wraps 'intruders' in resin, but this is not fatal; intruders wrapped in resin into 'amber' are merely thrown out of the territory by Tree Granny; people inside the 'amber' can still breathe and think, and the resin itself even has powerful protective effects..."

Little Red Riding Hood stopped speaking here, and Xu Jiali beside her continued: "Tree Granny is one of the few entities with both high power and high eeriness but gentle and harmless behavior; in the past, even poaching gangs appeared; they would specifically go to Autumn Forest to provoke Tree Granny, sending a member as bait to trick Tree Granny's resin—because some said that thing could cure the 'three highs' when soaked in water and drunk, and even beautify the skin when applied to the face."

Yu Sheng sat beside them, listening in shock: "... How could poaching gangs even emerge from this?! How was it resolved later?"

"Star Media found two experts with an ethereal and Daoist demeanor; one was a Taoist priest from Qianfeng Spirit Mountain, the other a prophet from the Bamosa people; the two said on the program that Tree Granny's resin had radiation."

Yu Sheng: "..."

(End of Chapter)