Chapter 270

"The situation is basically this: the trapped citizens have been sent home, and the blockade at the shopping mall will continue until tomorrow. Assessors will confirm there are no residual risk factors within the blockade zone during this period," Song Cheng reported while standing before Bai Liqing's desk. "The technical department is intensifying its analysis of the various data returned by the Deep Dive Team and the audio-video records from their operation."

Bai Liqing sat behind her exceptionally large desk, her expression calm and revealing no emotion. She only nodded lightly after Song Cheng finished his report: "Do we have any conclusions for now?"

"We can confirm it is an Otherworld that has never appeared before. The depth range recorded by the Deep Divers' sensors is L-1 to L-2. Its scenery is a district covered in thick fog; this district may be a 'reflection' of the real world. The scope cannot yet be determined, but it is preliminarily suspected that the depth will increase as one moves deeper into the fog."

"This Otherworld randomly generates entities that should exist in other Otherworlds. Currently, only Ink Trace, the Carnival Crowd, and Tree Granny have been confirmed. Based on this, the danger level of this Otherworld is temporarily set to Level 3. However, considering the sample data is too small, this danger rating is for reference only. It is not recommended for any Spirit Realm detective organization or individual investigator other than 'experienced teams' like Fairy Tale or the Inn to actively go there."

"Of course, there is no need to worry too much about this last point. Other civilian investigators probably couldn't get in anyway—we haven't found a stable method to open this Otherworld yet. Currently, there are only two entry routes: either Yu Sheng's 'Open Door' ability, or relying on the locator set up there by the Deep Divers before their evacuation to send Deep Divers in again."

Song Cheng spoke all this in one breath, then paused briefly to organize his thoughts before continuing: "Besides the opening conditions, the urgent questions regarding this Otherworld now mainly focus on its entity generation rules. This is the first time we have encountered an Otherworld capable of generating entities from other Otherworlds. We must find a way to understand this mechanism—exactly how many entities can it generate? Can it generate entities of danger level 4 or even higher? In the operation report, Ink Trace, the Carnival Crowd, and Tree Granny all appeared independently, but the possibility that they appeared simultaneously in that thick fog cannot be ruled out..."

"Based on the answers to these questions, the danger level of this Otherworld might be extremely high. Level 3... might just be its lower limit."

Song Cheng finished speaking, but Bai Liqing did not open her mouth for a long time. She seemed to be thinking quietly. After a while, she raised her head: "Xiao Song, don't you feel that, besides the entity generation mechanism, the abnormal situations before and after the opening of this new 'Otherworld' are also highly suspicious?"

"Do you mean..."

Bai Liqing slowly tapped her fingers on the table: "Those hundreds of short oscillations that were almost ignored by the equipment, the opening time as short as only one second, and the traces cleaned up completely afterwards."

Song Cheng's eyes widened at once: "You say the traces were 'cleaned up'?"

"A human event," Bai Liqing stopped tapping the table, her expression becoming serious. "Doesn't it seem so? Those short oscillations look very much like someone was conducting some kind of experiment, and the target of the experiment was to open this Otherworld."

"Then the trapped citizens..."

"They might also be part of the experiment, randomly selected test subjects," Bai Liqing said in a deep voice, "used to confirm whether the entrance was truly opened."

Song Cheng frowned deeply: "Who would have such boldness to do such things in the Borderland?! And who has such ability to..."

Speaking to this point, he suddenly stopped, exchanging a glance with Bai Liqing with a slightly embarrassed expression.

Then the two of them silently averted their gaze, understanding each other without words.

Bai Liqing: "Of course, it definitely isn't him."

Song Cheng: "I didn't say it was him..."

The two fell silent again for a few seconds without agreement.

"In any case, treat 'someone is deliberately sabotaging' as a possible direction," Bai Liqing said indifferently. "We have many enemies. The phenomenon on the night of the Angel's Fall was seen by many people. It is hard to guarantee that some fool hasn't come up with a bold idea—during such times, we must remain vigilant."

"Yes, Director."

After finishing the report, Song Cheng left. Bai Liqing continued to sit behind her desk, seemingly still thinking quietly about something.

After a while, she turned on the computer on her desk and pulled up a series of video materials.

Streets shrouded in thick fog, scenes of fierce firefights, destroyed clusters of Revelers...

These were first-hand materials shot by the Deep Divers' personal recording equipment, coming from dozens of videos with different perspectives.

After casually glancing over them, Bai Liqing rose from behind her desk and simultaneously tapped a certain spot in the corner of the table.

A faint humming sound came from the ceiling.

The next second, the lights in the room went out. The projection devices originally hidden in the roof and floor rapidly unfolded. Dazzling holographic light and shadow struck the walls and various furnishings. The scene in the room was swallowed by light and shadow in the blink of an eye. Immediately, dozens of videos were projected all over the room at once. Then they split again, divided and cut according to different time periods into hundreds of frames, filling every inch of space around Bai Liqing.

All the frames began to play simultaneously, fast-forwarding at high speed.

Bai Liqing casually poured herself a glass of water. While drinking slowly, she analyzed every instant and every perspective recorded by the Deep Divers frame by frame.

Not far behind her, outside the large floor-to-ceiling window, the hazy mist churned violently, beginning to rapidly reorganize and present the restored scenery of that foggy district.

A pair of illusory eyes appeared in the streetscape 'rendered' by Bai Liqing's ability, moving rapidly through those constantly changing scenes.

"Stop." Bai Xue suddenly said.

The scenery outside the floor-to-ceiling window froze, and the frames played by the holographic projection were paused by Bai Liqing at the same time.

Those eyes passed through the floor-to-ceiling window and came behind Bai Liqing. The gazes of the two "people" simultaneously fell on a certain frame nearby.

It was just an ordinary frame, facing an advertisement board of a ground-floor shop by the roadside. Colorful confetti from the shattered Reveler entity was scattering at the edge of the frame. On the advertisement board, the bright characters "xx Fresh Produce" could be clearly seen.

"... The characters are upright." Bai Xue said softly.

Bai Liqing nodded: "That's right—if it were truly a mirror image, the text here should be reversed left-to-right." "So, the essence of this Otherworld is not as simple as 'a few streets reflected in a mirror'. Its entrance just happens to be a 'mirror'," Bai Xue's voice had a slight fluctuation. "It is more likely to be an independently existing space, a..."

Her voice suddenly hesitated a bit.

Bai Liqing finished it for her: "A real-time copy of the Border City—or, to be more exaggerated, 'another Border City'."

The two sisters fell silent at the same time.

After several minutes, Bai Xue cautiously spoke: "Do you guess... how big it is?"

Bai Liqing casually turned off the holographic projection in the room, sat down in her chair, and rubbed her temples.

"I don't want to guess at all."

Those eyes also floated over, sticking to the glass of the floor-to-ceiling window behind Bai Liqing. After a while, they spoke in unison—

"Why do such absurd things always happen when he's involved!?"

A knocking sound suddenly came.

!

Bai Liqing immediately adjusted her sitting posture, put away that slightly lazy look, and returned to her usual cold and calm state. She spoke in a deep voice: "Come in."

The duty secretary walked in and placed a stack of documents in front of Bai Liqing.

"Director, these are the documents just delivered by the technical department, regarding those 'Ankara Crystals'."

"Test data for the crystals?" Bai Liqing raised her eyebrows, immediately took the documents, and flipped through a few pages briefly. Immediately, her expression became subtle.

"According to the test results, the Ankara Crystals—including the Mother Crystal and the Secondary Crystals—have not shown any special feedback to mental attacks," the secretary nodded, reporting with a serious face. "This includes, but is not limited to, common hypnosis, consciousness guidance, higher-level memory manipulation, mental control, or mental shocks directly released by the entity 'Illusionary Butterfly'. The testing department basically tested the crystals against all mental shocks that can be produced in the laboratory. The conclusion is as stated in the report... there is no protective effect whatsoever."

Bai Liqing slowly took a breath.

She went through the documents more carefully again and noticed that there was another point in the conclusion given by the testing department—

Besides mental attacks, so far, no crystal sample has shown any special feedback to any other type of "stimulus". In terms of "specialized protection", it has no special characteristics.

"So," Bai Xue's voice sounded in Bai Liqing's mind, still in that mechanical, dull manner, but the tone seemed to have a subtle touch of sarcasm, "this crystal can only be used to protect against that puppet... right? It has no use for anything else?"

Bai Liqing also found it hard to keep a straight face: "So it's specifically targeted at her alone...?"

Ailin was doubled over with laughter at the intelligence-lowering variety show on TV when she suddenly slipped with a plop from the coffee table, then began complaining as she struggled to crawl back up.

Yu Sheng watched this scene from the side, rolling his eyes: "Just keep watching; spending all day on this junk, your brain wasn't great to begin with, and if you keep it up, you'll lose what little brain matter you have left!"

"Where would a doll like me get a brain!" Another Ailin stood on the sofa, hands on her hips with righteous indignation, before noticing the row of small knives arranged before Yu Sheng. "Eh? What are you doing with so many fruit knives and utility knives here, waving them around like that? Let me tell you, this is getting a bit creepy..."

Yu Sheng sighed helplessly, picked up a fruit knife, made a couple of slicing motions across his hand, then set it down: "I was just thinking the knife I usually carry for bloodletting isn't working well anymore, so I planned to switch to a new one. As a result, I've tried every single one I could find in the house..."

"So the final conclusion is that the problem isn't with the knives, but with you, right?" Ailin burst into laughter as soon as she saw this; clutching a small knife with both hands, she poked repeatedly at the back of Yu Sheng's hand until the blade's tip was no longer sharp. "It's because you eat all sorts of random garbage normally, and that silly fox cooks you all sorts of random stews. I told you long ago that your dietary habits are problematic..."

Yu Sheng reached out and snatched the small knife from the doll's hand: "Can becoming tougher the more you eat really be called a problem?"

"You're damn well too tough! Next time your appendicitis flares up and the physicians at the hospital can't even cut into you, you won't be laughing anymore!"

Yu Sheng paused for a moment, thinking the little doll's imagination did have some merit, but quickly waved his hand: "If I really encounter the situation you described, worst case scenario, I'll just open a gateway to a volcanic crater and jump in. Thirty minutes later, I'll be a fine fellow again without any appendicitis—much faster than surgery..."

Ailin was dumbfounded: "... You're going to prove your loyalty through death just to treat appendicitis?!"

"What other choice do I have?" Yu Sheng tossed the small knife in his hand onto the table. "If this continues, I'll have to carry a chainsaw with me at all times; anything with lower power won't work."

Just then, the mobile phone Yu Sheng had placed on the table suddenly rang, interrupting their conversation.

Ailin glanced at the caller ID on the screen, then hugged the phone and handed it over: "Here you go; it's Baili Qing again."

Yu Sheng exhaled, took the phone, and held it to his ear.

"... What exactly is an 'Anti-Ailin Special Crystal'?"

(End of Chapter)