Chapter 71: Learn More

Yu Sheng didn't know why the woman across from him, who claimed to be the Director of the Special Operations Bureau, had suddenly frozen; he merely looked at her curiously, and seeing she wouldn't speak, he took the initiative to break the silence: "Speaking of which, the protocol your Special Operations Bureau uses when 'contacting' involved parties is quite high; I thought Li Lin and the others would come to meet me, but instead I'm meeting the Director directly—is this always how you operate?"

Upon hearing this, Baili Qing quickly reverted to her usual calm demeanor: "No, only under special circumstances."

"Under special circumstances?"

"For instance, a 'strange person' who has lived long-term in the Otherworld yet resided in the Borderland for over twenty years under the identity of an 'ordinary human'," Baili Qing said, looking into Yu Sheng's eyes. "Apologies; I hope you don't mind me addressing you in this manner."

"Uh, I don't mind, but do I really seem that strange in your eyes?" Yu Sheng felt a bit awkward. "Judging by Li Lin and Xu Jiali's reactions earlier, my lifestyle did seem to surprise them quite a bit, though I suppose it's not entirely incomprehensible."

"Perhaps you haven't noticed it yourself," Baili Qing sighed. "Many people within the Special Operations Bureau have been monitoring your actions; just in the last few days... a large number of agents have been busy because of this."

Yu Sheng opened his mouth: "... Huh?"

Baili Qing looked at him: "You possess the ability to open 'Doors,' correct?"

"Ah, yes," Yu Sheng nodded, reaching out to grab at the empty air beside him, whereupon a Door materialized out of thin air next to him. "This is what I used to return with Li Lin and the others..."

Before he could finish, the woman opposite suddenly raised her hand: "No need to demonstrate!"

It was rare for the usually calm and indifferent Baili Qing to be this agitated.

Yu Sheng awkwardly released his grip on the doorknob; seeing her reaction, he vaguely understood: "So... it seems that when I open a Door, it affects you all?"

"When you open a Door, the entire Borderland detects spatiotemporal tremors of unknown origin," Baili Qing stated bluntly. "The staff responsible for related monitoring have recently voiced strong complaints—do you truly feel nothing?"

Yu Sheng's expression went slightly blank, his gaze gradually turning subtle; after a long while, he shook his head with a strange look: "I feel nothing... So does opening a Door really have an impact large enough to affect the whole Borderland? Does this mean I'd better not use this ability in the future?"

As he said this, he clearly wasn't too pleased; after all, the "Door" was genuinely useful. He had only recently grown familiar with this ability and begun to taste its conveniences, so for someone from the Special Operations Bureau to suddenly show up and claim this thing was disturbing the public... that felt a bit awkward.

But judging by the attitude of this female Director before him, the degree to which his door-opening "disturbed the public" seemed... indeed significant, which made things even more awkward.

Baili Qing naturally noticed Yu Sheng's emotions; after a moment of thought, she shook her head: "I am merely making a suggestion, hoping that in the future you can try to control the frequency of your 'door-opening,' at the very least... don't open hundreds of rifts overnight like you did before, or at least give us advance notice. After all, this is your ability, and in itself it has not caused any substantial damage to the Borderland; in principle, we cannot directly prohibit such behavior—of course, this premise assumes you are willing to cooperate with us in completing some registration under a legal identity; on our end, we will also accommodate your ability by making some technical adjustments to our monitoring methods."

Yu Sheng was somewhat surprised.

This female Director before him appeared cold and serious in temperament, giving off an impression of being difficult to get along with, yet unexpectedly, she was actually quite... reasonable.

Regarding the "hundreds of rifts opened overnight" she mentioned, Yu Sheng immediately understood what she meant; at the time, he truly had felt nothing, but now, even just imagining it, he could envision just how much commotion he had actually caused that night—and despite this, this "Director Baili Qing" was still willing to negotiate with him in a spirit of good faith to resolve the matter, even coming personally to discuss it...

Yu Sheng was no fifteen- or sixteen-year-old hothead; he naturally knew that from the "official" perspective, this already represented a massive gesture of goodwill.

This "reasonableness" even caught him somewhat off guard—he had already prepared himself to engage in a battle of wits and courage with the Special Operations Bureau the moment Baili Qing brought up the matter of "disturbing the public," yet before he could even throw a punch, cotton had already been smacked onto his face.

He instead felt a bit embarrassed: "Well, that's easy to settle; registering certainly isn't a problem... but I have a few questions; could you answer them first?"

Baili Qing nodded: "Certainly; what do you wish to ask?"

"First, this 'Special Operations Bureau' of yours... what kind of organization exactly is it?" Yu Sheng immediately organized the questions he had long harbored in his stomach and asked with a serious expression. "What is its nature? What is the scope of its jurisdiction?"

"Is it just these things you're curious about?" Baili Qing seemed slightly surprised by the issues Yu Sheng was focusing on, but she quickly responded: "The Special Operations Bureau, full name 'Special Security and Duty Assurance Bureau,' is a department directly managed by the Council, the highest administrative body of the Borderland, and also the highest-level official department in the Borderland for handling various 'supernatural events' involving the Otherworld, entities, anomalies, and the like; if one divides the Borderland into the 'Natural' and 'Non-Natural' aspects, you can consider us the highest authority responsible for the 'Non-Natural' side."

"However, our sphere of activity, or rather our jurisdiction, is not limited to the Borderland—I don't know if you are already aware of the Borderland's special nature..."

Baili Qing paused, looking into Yu Sheng's eyes.

"The Borderland's special nature..." Yu Sheng frowned, immediately recalling all the intelligence he had previously heard from Erin, as well as one thing he had realized while opening those Doors leading to distant places—

This world consisted of far more than just one Borderland; outside this peculiar "city," there existed countless "distant places."

"I know a little," Yu Sheng said while thinking. "From its name, it seems connected to many locations? It's said that all sorts of strange things exist here, merely hidden beneath a 'normal' facade..."

"Hiding those things that exceed common sense and surpass the Borderland's 'baseline,' allowing this city to operate and develop according to 'standard parameters,' is one of the Special Operations Bureau's duties," Baili Qing nodded gently. "Just as you understand, this place is connected to many locations, and the quantity and breadth of these connections... exceed anyone's imagination. You can imagine the entire world as a vast 'net' woven from countless traffic lines; these 'traffic routes' do not exist in the physical dimension, and ordinary people cannot perceive them, but on the 'Non-Natural' side, they become entangled, influencing one another, and there is one place where all routes converge..."

"That is the Borderland."

Baili Qing paused briefly, confirming that Yu Sheng could fully comprehend these matters, before continuing to speak.

"And the work of the Special Operations Bureau is, first, to maintain the boundary between the 'Natural' and 'Non-Natural' within the scope of the Borderland, ensuring order on the 'Non-Natural' side; second, to deal with all threats spreading from the 'traffic network' that point toward this 'convergence point'—whether they originate from a stone's throw away or from the deep space three hundred and sixty billion light-years distant."

Yu Sheng widened his eyes; several seconds passed before he blurted out: "... Isn't the span between those two distances a bit too large?"

"For the special attributes of the 'Borderland,' their distances are the same," Baili Qing said with a calm expression, raising a finger to point at Yu Sheng. "For you, isn't it the same?"

Yu Sheng was stunned, quickly understanding the meaning behind her words.

"Among those hundreds of rifts, no fewer than two digits pointed to locations billions of light-years away," Baili Qing stated lightly.

Yu Sheng made no sound.

His expression remained very calm, yet his mind was churning with turbulent thoughts.

In fact, he was not surprised; when those Doors opened, he had already speculated thus—just how far were those distant sceneries?

He had no clear answer, but when enthusiastically discussing it with Erin, he had felt... that some of them might be so far they reached the very limits of his imagination.

The numbers he now heard from Baili Qing's mouth seemed like nothing more than a sudden "footnote" appearing for the imaginings of that moment.

What truly shocked Yu Sheng was the "coverage" of the "Special Operations Bureau"—he had met Li Lin, an "agent" who stocked instant noodles with him in a supermarket and would even disguise himself as a spirit guy squatting by the roadside scrolling through short videos while on surveillance (he had finally connected the dots now); the style of such a person, at best, was that of a neighborhood police officer, so for such a character... to suddenly say the organization behind him had some background involving stars and seas, that was truly hard to imagine...

But Yu Sheng hesitated for a long time, not having the nerve to voice this moment's sentiment to the "Director" before him.

Mainly because he worried it might affect Li Lin's career prospects...

With Yu Sheng not speaking on his end, Baili Qing also remained silent, and the two of them momentarily fell into a brief quietude.

It wasn't until half a minute had passed that Baili Qing took the initiative to break the silence: "Do you have anything else you wish to ask?"

"Yes," Yu Sheng immediately swept away the chaotic thoughts in his mind, organized his words, and spoke: "Next question: is there only one Border City?"

(End of Chapter)