Chapter 103: A Sleepless, Still Night
Night had fallen deep across the realm.
Within a towering apartment nestled in the heart of Boundary City’s central district, Bai Li Qing, clad in a robe of silken nightwear, poured herself a glass of strong spirit. She wandered languidly to the expansive floor-to-ceiling window.
No lights illuminated the room save for the faint amber glow of a corner night lamp, casting dim outlines over the furnishings. Beyond the massive window lay a breathtaking vista—the sprawling city ignited with neon, colors blooming like a sentient being breathing through the interlocking towers and endless steel arteries. The skyline shimmered with dreamlike hues, pulsing, flowing, stretching to the infinite edge of the horizon, where the buildings merged with the misty shroud of night. Against this surreal backdrop, her own reflection in the glass appeared hauntingly insubstantial.
A mist was rising beyond the glass.
Thin vapor, as if conjured from the void, spread rapidly and evenly across the scenery. It thickened into a drifting gray-white veil, making Boundary City’s lights blur into hazy illusions. Then, a pair of indifferent eyes appeared beyond the glass—calmly staring into Bai Li Qing’s soul.
The eyes bore Human contours but were utterly drained of color. Their faded pupils mirrored her own almost perfectly. They seemed to hover within the mist yet also pressed against the glass itself, consuming the window with their presence.
“Drinking at night is a poor habit, Big Sis,” a voice whispered—not aloud, but directly into Bai Li Qing’s mind. Mechanical, emotionless, and yet uncannily identical to her own.
“It helps me stay calm,” Bai Li Qing replied flatly, swirling the liquid in her glass. “Especially after being jolted awake from a nightmare by a phone call.”
“A nightmare?”
“I dreamed I’d finally become you.”
“Oh, now that is a nightmare.” The colorless eyes blinked once. “Be careful, lest you fall under my sway—or worse, become me. Though, I must say, you’ve done quite well so far. So? Why summon me now?”
“I woke up abruptly. Figured I’d ask what you’ve learned—about the ‘One-Eye’ that appeared in Night Valley. Got anything?”
The pale eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Then the voice returned in her thoughts, “I’ve combed through every place I’ve ever observed—including those Otherworlds we crossed together, and those death-pierced voids in deep space carved open by the Dark Angels. There is no trace. That eye has never appeared in any of them.”
“I see. Not even you could find anything…” Bai Li Qing sighed with faint regret. “Expected as much.”
“You’re more unsettled, Big Sis,” came the reply. “And a bit afraid.”
“…Because more and more clues suggest that the eye slipped into our world unnoticed by all. And given the suspected ‘trail’ left by an unknown Angel detected by the Alglade Star System Nobles months ago in deep space, it’s likely that more Dark Angels have already breached our world. More voids may be hidden. Even now, more may be opening.”
She swirled her drink again, eyes tracing the vortex within the amber liquid. “Do you know what scares me the most?”
“You’re afraid more Dark Angels already hide in our universe?”
“No. That fear belongs to all of us. What scares me… is what lies behind the Dark Angels. Are they a race? An organized force? Have they begun to learn our rules? Found better ways to carve into our world—and worse, learned how to conceal themselves?”
“That does sound troubling.”
Bai Li Qing downed the fiery drink, the sting unfurling through her throat. She placed the empty glass on the floor beside her.
“Also—I asked you to scan the Old City District. Any sign of Wutong Road No. 66?”
“I found traces. Twisted ones. But I couldn’t see clearly,” the voice admitted, and for once, the mechanical tone bore a hint of dismay.
Bai Li Qing’s expression shifted to surprise. “Even you couldn’t see it?”
“Indeed,” said the eyes in the mist, blinking again. “Every time I tried to focus… my gaze felt absorbed, hijacked. By the time I snapped back, I realized I’d been daydreaming. Still… I’ve formed a theory.”
“What theory?”
“Wutong Road No. 66… might not actually be there. What you see—may only be the entrance.”
“Not surprising,” Bai Li Qing interrupted, shaking her head. “The Special Affairs Bureau Operative who went to investigate came to the same conclusion. They believe it’s a space tucked between seams—like a fortress-type Otherworld, floating within the temporal lattice of the Borderland…”
“No,” the eyes abruptly cut her off, “I mean, it might not even be in the Borderland at all—it isn’t lingering anywhere. It’s just… too deep, too far, that what reflects as ‘Wutong Road No. 66’ in the Borderland is merely a faint shadow. When I felt my gaze being consumed, it was actually because I was staring into a place too distant to be seen.”
Bai Li Qing’s expression stiffened momentarily.
“Too deep, too far?” she echoed, a rare hesitance in her voice. “Do you realize what that means? Your gaze… it can see into Subspace.”
“Exactly. Deeper and farther than even that. It’s a logical deduction, Big Sister.”
Bai Li Qing blinked.
Moments later, that mechanical monotone returned in her mind: “So then, the ‘person’ living at ‘Wutong Road No. 66’… what exactly is he?”
“I don’t know,” Bai Li Qing murmured, “I only know that all intelligence so far suggests that his personality and self-perception are almost indistinguishable from a ‘Human’. And just now, he called me.”
“Ah, so the call that yanked you out of your nightmare came from him—what did he want?”
“He said he was going to open a ‘Door’ and wanted to report in. According to intel from the Special Affairs Bureau’s Door Division a few hours ago, he should have gone to the ‘Museum’.”
“…Interesting.”
The eyes slowly faded into the mist, and the fog outside the window swiftly receded, revealing once more the boundless city nightscape.
…
Yu Sheng barely slept during the latter half of the night.
He lay tossing and turning on his bed, thoughts, knowledge, and information wriggling through his mind like countless Irene dolls crawling all over the floor—skittering, leaping, squealing…
Of course, that comparison might be an exaggeration. If there really were countless crawling Irenes, it would be far noisier.
Still, Yu Sheng’s mind was undeniably a mess.
New knowledge about the Otherworld, about Little Red Riding Hood and the Fairy Tale Organization behind her, about the Angel Cultists and the Dark Angels, about that unfortunate victim in the white Exhibition Hall, and… that moment when the dead spoke to him.
Yu Sheng opened his phone and searched the Border Communication Platform’s archive for terms related to “Conversation With The Dead” and indeed found some entries.
They mentioned that some individuals beyond the Borderland possessed powers enabling them to communicate with the dead. Some, known as necromantic Mages, could even temporarily anchor a deceased soul in the physical world through complex rituals to engage in simple dialogue.
However, none of the archived techniques resembled what he had experienced in the white Exhibition Hall.
The documented methods either required elaborate rituals, extremely advanced equipment, or were akin to “holographic forensics,” reconstructing pre-death scenarios using massive data. And even those so-called direct communication methods only yielded vague, simplistic exchanges, like yes-or-no responses drawn from residual brainwaves or the so-called “soul.”
None of them involved touching a bloodstain and having the corpse suddenly turn and spit a rap verse at you…
Yu Sheng set his phone down and sighed in the dark.
Then came a rustling sound from the bed.
He turned to see Irene wriggling at the foot of the bed, spinning around and throwing a flying kick into the air before flopping down again with a thud.
Yu Sheng’s face remained blank.
Another main reason he couldn’t sleep was the very real Irene crawling all over his bed.
And kicking him in circles.
The next moment, Irene suddenly flipped over, then the little doll sat bolt upright, eyes still shut, pointing forward: “I! From Alice’s Little House! Pay up—or get beat!”
Then she tilted sideways and crashed off the bed with a thump, groggily clawed her way back up using the sheets, and started crawling toward Yu Sheng while mumbling, “Don’t kick me… I fell off…”
Yu Sheng sighed again.
There was no way he was getting any sleep tonight.