Chapter 70: Contact
Within the Special Affairs Bureau, the Deep Divers are elite warriors, handpicked through brutal selection trials and forged through relentless training. They are survivors of unspeakable crucibles, chosen from among countless Special Affairs Bureau Operatives.
They are dispatched to the deadliest realms, facing challenges that shred the boundaries of Human reason. Whether surviving lethal alien ecosystems, hunting deranged Angel Cultists in lawless zones, diving into the Otherworld to battle the most dangerous Entities, or plunging into twisted dream-realms woven from mind and soul to rescue lost spirits—Deep Diving is their mission. To descend from peace into madness, to breach the shadows beneath rationality… that is their calling.
But even in this world, there exist things beyond comprehension and confrontation. And even the best-trained Deep Diver may fail—frequently so.
Yet the current situation had already veered beyond anything Song Cheng had encountered in his career—perhaps even beyond the Director’s expectations.
The six Deep Divers were pulled from the Umbilical Cord Connection Bay immediately. Their Powered Armor activated emergency medical protocols the moment they re-entered the material realm, flooding their systems with high doses of Sanity Blocking Agents and other protective compounds. This induced a swift, artificial calm. Medics then swarmed in, scanning each for contamination, confirming their minds had returned alongside their bodies—ensuring, too, that no… passengers had returned with them.
Song Cheng stood alongside Bai Li Qing, brows furrowed, watching it all unfold.
“A math problem?” After a long silence, Song Cheng broke it. “A math problem hit them that hard?”
Bai Li Qing gently shook her head.
“The scholars of Terra Academy can indeed weaponize sudden bursts of knowledge infusion into a person’s mind,” she said solemnly. “But not with this outcome. And our Deep Divers are specifically conditioned to withstand knowledge-based attacks. Their minds can even forcibly shut down when overwhelmed. They’re built to learn fast—but also to survive information overload.”
Song Cheng frowned. “So you’re saying…?”
“The ‘math problem’ that Deep Diver mentioned before collapsing may just be a symbolic imprint—a reflection of what they saw during the dive. The real source of the contamination… must be something else.” Her voice was grim. “The passage… led to no Night Valley. But why math?”
Song Cheng said nothing, afraid to disrupt her thought process.
After a pause, Bai Li Qing suddenly turned to him. “Little Song, you haven’t contacted that Yu Sheng yet, have you?”
“No, I was just about to today—until all this happened…”
“Don’t go.” Her tone was calm but final.
…
Yu Sheng heard a faint noise. He looked up, glancing around, but found no source.
The café was quiet. Business was slow, with just a few scattered patrons. Two employees nearby scrolled lazily on their phones. A dull, chilled silence filled the air.
Now and then, someone cast a curious glance in his direction—likely wondering why a guy in his twenties was huddled over a massive workbook, copying High School Student assignments like a man possessed.
Yu Sheng sighed, staring at the half-finished stack before him. His hand throbbed with a dull ache.
He’d been scribbling carelessly just to get through it, his answers now closer to ancient runes than legible solutions. Still, years of keyboard work had left him out of shape for this much handwriting—far more exhausting than he’d expected.
Though… he wasn’t sure if this was worse than dragging an utterly clueless Fox Girl through the Shopping Mall to buy clothes.
He thought about it.
[Nope, copying worksheets here’s the lesser evil.] At least he didn’t have to guide Foxy into a lingerie store—that would’ve made him feel like a full-blown creep.
Especially when Foxy responded to everything with that pure, blank-eyed innocence. He’d absolutely get the cops called on him.
Just then, Irene’s voice rang out in his head: “Hey hey~ Yu Sheng, how much have you written?”
Without looking up, he kept writing. “Halfway. Damn, High School Students these days really got it rough. Why’s there so much homework?!”
“You’re doing great! By the way, Little Red Riding Hood was muttering earlier—turns out she’s got a whole physics packet she left at home…”
“She can go home and write it herself. I’m not doing that too,” he grumbled. “What about your side? Everything good?”
“Pretty smooth. Foxy didn’t know how to work a zipper. Little Red Riding Hood’s been teaching her forever—they’re in the changing room now. They made me sit on a bench outside the door,” Irene chirped, clearly in high spirits. “Little Red Riding Hood even bought me a hair clip! From the doll shop. It’s red…”
Yu Sheng thought for a moment and suddenly realized, “Wait, that was my money you spent!”
“I know, I know,” Irene quickly said, “Just think of it as a gift you gave me… I didn’t ask for much, just a hair clip. It wasn’t expensive…”
“Alright, alright, I didn’t say you couldn’t buy it,” Yu Sheng replied, half amused, half exasperated. “I just wanted to remind you not to go too wild with shopping. And don’t forget to get some toiletries for Miss Foxy. Also bed sheets and a quilt cover. You remember the size, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, got it. Don’t worry, my brain…” Irene suddenly paused mid-sentence, her tone shifting, “Foxy’s brain…”
Yu Sheng fell into an awkward and eerie silence in his mind.
[This is what it’s like when a team can’t carry its own weight.]
“What size is her bed again?” Irene’s voice now sounded significantly less confident.
“One and a half meters by two,” Yu Sheng sighed. “Tell that number to Little Red Riding Hood and have her remember it for you two. She’s a High School Student—her brain works better than yours.”
“Right, right…”
Yu Sheng ended the telepathic conversation helplessly and lowered his head to continue working on his test papers.
But just then, he felt something strange.
Silence. At some point, everything around him had gone completely silent. Even the faint murmurs from the other few customers were gone.
Yu Sheng snapped his head up and scanned his surroundings.
He was still in the café.
Countless tables and chairs were neatly arranged, stretching forward and backward into infinity.
In this boundless café, not a single soul remained. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but endless rows of tables and chairs.
To his left were the street-facing windows—now they too extended infinitely forward and back. Beyond the glass was no longer the street view, but an endless expanse of pale fog.
Massive shadows slowly shifted within the mist. Occasionally, they would approach the windows, seemingly gazing into the café. But no matter how closely Yu Sheng looked, the outlines of those shadows remained vague and indistinct.
Stunned, Yu Sheng slowly rose from his seat.
Just as he prepared to head for the Door to leave, a voice suddenly came from across the table: “Hello.”
It was a slightly hoarse yet youthful female voice.
Yu Sheng was startled to see someone sitting across from him, a woman who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. She looked to be under thirty, dressed in a fitted white suit. A beautiful Long Haired Girl, her ponytail and graceful features carried an aloof, distant air.
But it was her eyes that caught Yu Sheng’s attention the most—a pale grey hue so faint it seemed drained of all color. Even the boundaries between her pupils and sclera were blurred, giving her a distinctly… un-Human appearance.
Then, Yu Sheng witnessed something even more bizarre—everything around the woman began to lose its color. From the nearby coffee table and chairs to the floor and distant furniture, everything was rapidly bleached into soft greys and whites. The colorless aura extended over ten meters before fading.
Only the woman herself and Yu Sheng retained their original colors.
Yu Sheng steadied himself, recalling what Irene had once told him—Entities in the Otherworld might appear rational, even Human, but they always bore some uncanny, distinctly inhuman traits. This woman looked odd, but not quite unnatural enough to be considered an Entity.
If she was Human, and had greeted him first, then clearly, she was someone he could speak to.
Yu Sheng gave up the idea of leaving for now and sat back down, eyeing her curiously. “And you are…?”
“Bai Li Qing, Director of the Special Affairs Bureau under the Borderland Council,” the woman said with a polite nod. “Apologies for meeting you in such a manner—this was the most secure and confidential way.”
Yu Sheng was taken aback.
The Special Affairs Bureau had actually come to find him—and they sent the Director?!
While Yu Sheng was still processing this, Bai Li Qing’s gaze casually swept across the table.
Her expression froze briefly upon seeing the pile of test papers Yu Sheng had left out.
Math problems. All advanced entrance exam questions from previous years.