Chapter 212

Chapter 212: A Very Big Door

Yu Sheng really wanted to point out that after a stretch of practice and adjustment, he’d made huge progress molding houses in the valley. The two rows of ancient, imposing pillars beside the teleportation door on the platform were proof. He didn’t dare claim he could mold a luxury Hotel for the orphanage children, but two rows of temporary housing should’ve been no problem.

Still, after thinking it through, he decided it was better to just prepare the foundations.

Mainly because the Bureau had already prepared the supplies. If he didn’t take advantage of that, he’d be wasting a rare opportunity.

To prove his craftsmanship anyway, he split off some focus while leveling the ground and made a building rise at the far end of the planned campsite.

Soil and rock recombined deep underground. With a low humming rumble, it rose and wove at the surface like living limbs, thickening layer by layer into a gray-white base, walls, pillars, and a roof. Then it split into doors and windows, adding a few simple decorations.

Drawn by the commotion, Irene ran over to stare at the large building rising out of the earth. She turned back and asked, “What is this?”

Yu Sheng grinned. “A camp made of nothing but prefabs is a little dull. No matter how comfortable it is, it still feels like we’re refugees. So I made Little Red Riding Hood and the others a ‘castle.’ It can also serve as Fairy Tale’s office—or, if nothing else, a warehouse. Once the Bureau’s crew arrives, they can help hook up the power.”

Irene climbed onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder, shaded her eyes with one hand, and stared at the stone-textured building for a long time before muttering, “If you hadn’t said so, I would’ve thought it was a scenic public restroom with three courtyards and two barbicans…”

Yu Sheng reached up like he might fling the doll off. “You’re never letting that go, are you?!”

Irene hopped down instantly, giggling as she darted away in circles. “Alright, alright, I’m done. Honestly, this time it really does look like something. It’s rough, sure, but it’s impressive. It has that ‘mysterious alien ruin with unclear purpose’ vibe from a game cutscene…”

Yu Sheng suspected she was mocking how abstract his hard-made building looked, but he had no proof.

He didn’t really care anyway. Foxy was beside herself with admiration, her tail wagging so fast it left afterimages and kicked up dust and gravel.

Soon, the camp’s basic groundwork was finished.

Yu Sheng let out a breath as the last section hardened into a stone-like texture. “Next is coordinating with the Bureau,” he said, easing the tension in his mind as he pulled out his phone and checked the time. “Not bad. Faster than I expected.”

Irene climbed onto his arm and peeked at the screen. “It’s already this late. The Bureau doesn’t take a break?”

“They said all personnel and supplies are on standby twenty-four seven,” Yu Sheng replied. “Resettlement construction and transfer will run in shifts. People rest; the work doesn’t stop.”

He dialed Bai Li Qing. “They’re reliable when it matters… Hello? I’m Yu Sheng. We’re ready on this end.”

From the receiver came Bai Li Qing’s calm voice: “Okay. Come to my office directly.”

Yu Sheng paused. He lowered his voice as he hung up, whispering to Irene and Foxy, “Honestly, she’s really cold. No wonder everyone calls her the Iron Poker Face…”

The next second, a new message popped up on his screen: “I’m not the Iron Poker Face.”

Yu Sheng: “…”

He stared at the phone, then twitched his mouth. “This touchscreen is busted.”

A phantom door opened out of thin air. A temporary passage ran straight from the valley to Bai Li Qing’s office at Bureau headquarters. Yu Sheng stepped through with a stiff face—and immediately saw Bai Li Qing wearing the same stiff expression, with Song Cheng beside her, barely managing to keep his own face straight.

Yu Sheng realized that when he’d just mocked a certain ma’am’s “Iron Poker Face,” there had been more than one listener.

Captain Song’s expression screamed, [Oh no. I just heard something I shouldn’t have while standing next to my boss. I’m definitely getting dragged into extra shifts.]

They all silently agreed not to mention the phone call again.

Bai Li Qing led the way into an elevator down the hall.

In this bizarre headquarters, almost all the special floors were connected by these odd elevators—and they didn’t necessarily move in any normal direction.

At first, Yu Sheng felt the elevator rising. After more than ten floors, the arrow above the cabin suddenly pointed straight down. Before he could process that, the arrow rotated ninety degrees, showing the cabin was moving sideways to the left. A moment later, the whole elevator lurched, and a gentle synthesized voice announced, “Transit Level. The Harbor has arrived.”

The doors opened, and an astonishingly vast space filled Yu Sheng’s view.

Still a little dazed, he led Irene and Foxy out onto a metal platform. All around them stretched an artificial island. Across its broad ground stood more than a dozen large buildings lined up like warehouses. Unmanned transport vehicles ran back and forth between the warehouses and distant harbor facilities.

And beyond it all was an endless ocean.

Yu Sheng instinctively looked toward the shimmering sea. Many large cargo ships painted with the Special Operations Bureau emblem were docked at the piers of the man-made shoreline. He watched one ship leave the harbor, gradually picking up speed across the water.

In the next second, a chaotic curtain of light abruptly appeared on the surface, as if the ship had pierced an invisible rift. It vanished into the swirling glow.

A faint mechanical hum came from behind. Yu Sheng turned to see the elevator doors had already closed. The cabin itself was mounted on sturdy rails at the platform’s edge. As the machinery activated, the cabin sped backward and, in the blink of an eye, disappeared into another curtain of light.

Yu Sheng held it in as long as he could. Then he blurted, “Where the hell did you drag me to? Is this still the borderland?”

Song Cheng laughed. “This is the Border,” he said. “What you’re looking at is both a storage facility and an external-traffic hub. You know the whole borderland is a closed space, different from normal space outside. For people in the borderland—aside from you, I mean—ordinary people can only leave through fixed ‘natural passages.’ Some are small, maybe just a drawer in an office at headquarters. And the big ones… a station, a tunnel end, or like what you see here: a harbor.”

He pointed toward the shimmering sea.

“This place is part of the shortcut network,” Song Cheng continued. “Depth 1, danger 0. This sea overlaps with a sea on some planet outside. Cross the light curtain you saw just now, and you’re out of the borderland.”

He hesitated, then added quickly, “Of course, we can’t go through right now. To leave from here, you have to get an exit permit from the Councilor Council first…”

Song Cheng suddenly stopped and stared at Yu Sheng.

“You’re not going to suddenly open a door and walk out from here, right?”

He sounded genuinely nervous.

Yu Sheng couldn’t help laughing. “I’m not that bored.”

“Oh.” Song Cheng nodded, but less than two seconds later he asked again, still anxious, “You really won’t?”

“To open a door, I need a clear set of coordinates first,” Yu Sheng said. “The coordinates decide where I go, not where I open from. If I really wanted to leave, I could do it from home. There’s no need to cause trouble here.”

He thought about it and decided it was the difference between sneaking across the border through some wilderness and charging straight through customs like a one-man army. Technically both were smuggling, but the latter had way too much swagger.

Soon, Bai Li Qing and Song Cheng led them off the platform to the entrance of a large warehouse.

Reception staff were already waiting. Along with them stood a construction crew in Bureau Engineering uniforms, more than a dozen heavy transport trucks, and a full load of supplies on every vehicle.

To move enough materials—and an entire construction team—from the real world into the otherworld valley, relying on a single basement door was obviously unrealistic.

Bai Li Qing pointed at the warehouse entrance. “You said you needed a door big enough for heavy trucks to drive through. A door with a real-world entity will reduce how much effort you spend when opening it. Will this door work?”

Yu Sheng looked up at the massive warehouse door, wide enough for two container trucks to drive through side by side.

He rubbed his chin, eager now. “Honestly, this is my first time opening one on this scale. I’m curious whether it’ll work. Let’s try.”

Hearing that even Yu Sheng wasn’t sure, Song Cheng frowned. “Uh… what if it doesn’t work?”

Yu Sheng said matter-of-factly, “Then we unload everything, break it down, and carry it piece by piece by stuffing it into a fox tail.”

He glanced at Foxy. “Can you fit it?”

Foxy looked up at the dozen-plus trucks and thought seriously. Then she gestured as she answered, “I definitely can’t fit an entire truck. Even with an object-shrinking method, each item would still need to be under four meters…”

Yu Sheng hummed and turned back to Song Cheng. “That’s a tight limit. Let’s hope the door works.”

Song Cheng stared, blank. He still wasn’t used to Yu Sheng’s wild leaps in logic.

Yu Sheng ignored him. He walked up to the giant door and set his hand on the frame.

As long as it was a door… he should be able to open it. Right?