Chapter 75: Another Boundary City

Not long after, two more people appeared in Baili Qing's office.

One was the burly Song Cheng; the other had graying hair and looked to be in his fifties.

The latter wore a pair of narrow-rimmed glasses, was not tall and slightly portly, looking just like an ordinary minor office supervisor beginning to coast toward retirement.

Baili Qing lifted her gaze to the two who had entered her office, nodded slightly, and said, "You arrived quickly."

"Did you go see that person called 'Yu Sheng'?" Song Cheng spoke first. "Judging by your demeanor... did you discover something?"

"I exchanged much with him, and the process differed greatly from my predictions. 'Yu Sheng' may be the most special 'unnatural' individual I have ever encountered, but before we discuss the details, I want to show you something first."

As she spoke, Baili Qing shifted her gaze to the gray-haired man—the head of the Confidential Management Division: "Luo Zheng, close the door."

Luo Zheng immediately nodded, turned, and shut the office's main door.

The instant he closed it, an invisible suppression instantly spread throughout the entire room, like a gentle breeze sweeping past; wherever the breeze passed, even the dust floating in the air seemed to freeze in place immediately.

Seeing this display, Song Cheng's heart tightened involuntarily; he mentally groaned, "Woe is me," and canceled his plan to clock off on time that afternoon.

After the office completed its "sealing," Baili Qing silently rose and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window nearby.

This window was vast; outside, a layer of faint mist always hung, within which scenery constantly shifted, yet that scenery was clearly not what should exist in the Boundary City—sometimes it was ranges of rolling mountains, sometimes endless stretches of forest, but most of the time it was a calm lake surface without any ripples, and in the distance of that lake stood quietly a small hut, wrapped in mist, hazy as a dream.

As Baili Qing approached the window, the flowing thin mist outside rapidly stilled, and the ever-changing landscapes within the mist slowly faded away.

Song Cheng and Luo Zheng watched that layer of mist with serious expressions; after a few seconds of stagnation, other things began to appear within the mist.

Buildings, rooftops arranged with irregular elegance, an unfamiliar city—and gradually spreading red auroral light.

"What is this?" Song Cheng asked instinctively.

"This is what 'Yu Sheng' showed me; he said this is another 'Boundary City,'" Baili Qing said softly, her colorless eyes calmly gazing at the thin mist outside the window, while the scenes stored in her memory continuously manifested and reconstructed within the mist. "He is fixated on this place, and he has seen this place before."

A layer of astonishment instantly floated up in Luo Zheng's eyes; he took off his narrow-framed glasses, wiped them on his shirt, then stared at the floating light and shadow outside the window: "Another 'Boundary City'?!"

"Yes, another one, and I faintly perceived his emotions; he seems to believe... that this is the 'normal' appearance a Boundary City should have."

Song Cheng and Luo Zheng fell silent simultaneously in shock; with a hint of unease, the two watched the so-called "normal" scenery outside the window.

Buildings so dark only their edge silhouettes remained were arranged across the land, while towering, bizarre spires stood in the distance, outlining a magnificent contour; mist permeated everything, making those rooftops and towers resemble rows of tombstones within the thin fog, while crimson auroral light pierced through the mist, giving the entire sky a strange and dim texture, and the sunlight...

Blood-red "sunlight" flowed like water through the city, swirling into vortices between the buildings, then mixing with the auroral light to cascade down from the rooftops, flowing and dripping continuously along the eaves, drip by drop, patter by patter...

Baili Qing's words reached Song Cheng and Luo Zheng's ears, sounding somewhat ethereal: "He said this is a peaceful small seaside city with beautiful evening clouds; the red auroral light spills across the sky like water, flowing along the rooftops..."

"... That sounds like a very poetic description," Song Cheng said softly.

"Yes, I thought so too when I first heard it," Baili Qing gently shook her head, "until I realized—it is realistic."

"This cannot be a 'location' that exists in reality," Luo Zheng said with a serious expression; he had already shaken off the unease and tension caused by witnessing the "anomaly" and quickly regained his composure. "There may be many planets with bizarre landscapes in the universe, but no matter how one looks at this scene, it does not resemble a natural landscape. The light and shadow around those buildings, and that 'sunlight,' their forms of existence violate physical laws; they... look as if they are melting."

"If one must say, it's a bit like when a graphics card driver crashes while gaming, causing rendering issues," Song Cheng added, rubbing his chin as he analyzed, then supplementing, "I've seen this happen when my daughter plays games."

"This should be some kind of Otherworld," Luo Zheng said cautiously. "From the scene, it appears to be large-scale, but lacking data and reference points, we cannot determine whether its classification is 'Wilderness' or 'Realm'; in any case, it is definitely not a 'Fortress'."

"It could also be an 'Anomaly'," Baili Qing said indifferently.

"An 'Anomaly'-type Otherworld?" Luo Zheng asked, somewhat surprised, frowning. "Like 'Fairy Tale' or 'Heroic Epic'? But it looks like an actually existing space..."

"'Anomaly'-type Otherworlds also form their own 'actual existence' within cognition; what I saw was merely the scene sketched in Yu Sheng's mind, so we cannot rule out that the essence of this scene is just a 'memory' or a 'story'," Baili Qing shook her head. "The key now is that, regardless of what the essence of this 'Otherworld' is, Yu Sheng believes it to be another 'Boundary City'."

Song Cheng and Luo Zheng fell silent simultaneously; the atmosphere in the office became exceptionally heavy.

Countless Otherworlds exist in this world, and those that establish connections with the Borderlands, or even overlap with them, are as numerous as stars; yet, no matter what, an Otherworld is merely an Otherworld, and the scale of their ambiguous overlaps with the real world has always been extremely limited; since records began, never has an Otherworld been able to do something like this—

Pointing to "another Borderlands".

Song Cheng stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, staring fixedly at the city outside being flushed and soaked by red flowing light.

To be fair, those dark city silhouettes bore little resemblance to the "Boundary City" beneath his feet; at least, he could not see it. He did not understand why that "person" called "Yu Sheng" would think this was another Boundary City, but there was one thing he did understand:

Different perspectives of observation yield different worlds in one's eyes.

In the eyes of the Algreid people, the starry sky is covered with magnificent and orderly lines and patterns; in the eyes of the Bamosa people, the world is illuminated simultaneously by "light" and "magnetic fields"; the Giplo people can observe the contours of electric fields; and the ancient Senjin people, during meditation, embrace time itself, even achieving brief precognition of the future.

Humans are one of the races with the narrowest "field of vision" in this world; in the eyes of those gifted races, humans are both deaf and blind, so that of the infinite information in this vast world, less than one percent constitutes "effective" "intelligence" for humans; yet at the same time, provided with suitable equipment or methods, the human mind can process almost all "knowledge," and humanity's tolerance and adaptability to dangerous information beyond perception are absurdly high.

It is for this reason that humans are universally recognized by all races in this world as the "innate constitution of investigators."

"The world in 'his' eyes is not the same as the world in ours," Song Cheng suddenly said.

"Yes," Baili Qing did not deny, merely adding, "But 'he' can also survive in our world; apart from being slightly awkward, he adapts very well to everything else."

"Possessing both human and... 'non-human' dual perspectives? Or rather, dual 'cognitive systems'?" Luo Zheng frowned slightly, speaking while in thought. "You have made contact; do you think he is ultimately an 'entity' or a 'human'?"

"More like a human; at least, that is what he currently believes," Baili Qing turned her head and simultaneously tapped lightly on the glass of the floor-to-ceiling window; as her words finished, the "scenery" outside abruptly collapsed and contracted, returning to the previous calm state of swirling mist with mountains and waters alternating in appearance. "I believe it is best not to disrupt this 'status quo'—not until we can determine exactly what No. 66 Wutong Road and 'Yu Sheng' are."

"I understand," Song Cheng took a gentle breath and nodded with extreme solemnity. "Then next..."

"Next, the Second Brigade will allocate some personnel and resources to specifically handle matters related to No. 66 Wutong Road and 'Yu Sheng'. The first task is to help him with some registrations."

"Registrations?"

"The two 'people' beside him need legal identities," Baili Qing said unhurriedly. "Secondly, he himself seems inclined to register as a... 'Spirit Realm Detective'."

Song Cheng: "... Huh?"

"He said he wants to maintain the order of the Borderlands and combat Otherworlds and entities."

Song Cheng: "... Huh?"

"I know what you are 'huh'-ing about," Baili Qing lifted her eyelids to glance at Song Cheng. "The Special Operations Bureau has always dealt with absurd matters; go arrange it—pick someone sharp and reliable to handle this; I think the two mentioned in the last report are quite good."

Song Cheng's expression was subtle: "I just gave them three days of leave..."

Baili Qing thought for a moment: "True, a situation like this warrants rest—you arrange it as you see fit, just don't delay it too long."

(End of Chapter)