Chapter 253

Chapter 253: Crystal Shard

Yu Sheng had many more questions, and he could tell that Bai Li Qing was hiding a few key secrets. For example, how exactly does the giant anchor of Boundary City hold the entire Borderland at L-0? What is the anchor’s working mechanism and how was it built? What parts of fast, high tech growth would shake the anchor’s stability, and by what principles? And before the anchor formed, what was the Borderland like?

After all, the city did not appear from thin air; it had to be made and perfected. From hints in her words, there must have been a chaotic era when the Borderland’s average depth was far above L-0. Did the Borderland have human natives back then? Did those natives find a way to pull their homeland from deeper levels up to L-0 by using an anchor? That sounded unbelievable, because common knowledge said that only at L-0 can rational species survive. If the Borderland really had a period deeper than zero, it should have been impossible for large numbers of humans to live there.

He hesitated, then decided to ask.

She only shook her head and said: “There are very few records of the time before Boundary City was founded. Even the period right after it was founded is confusing. It seems we rebuilt this place on ruins, but why it became ruins is a mystery. Maybe, as many scholars suspect, that part of history got ‘stuck’ at the moment of the second singularity burst. You should remember I told you the story of this world’s destruction and rebirth.

“At the instant the universe was reborn, everything was churned and reassembled once. That caused many historical leftovers, literally left-over history.

“So the Archaeological Association was born. Scholars obsessed with digging for the past banded together and grew into a large entity. They keep digging at the strangest and most unstable collapse points, trying to mend missing histories for many species or find proof that some civilizations existed. The Bamosian and the Forest Folk are their biggest shareholders. Because the Special Affairs Bureau holds lots of Otherworld intel and runs a huge market for strange objects and a containment vault, we work closely with them.”

She paused, gazing out at the endless dark beyond the bridge with a hint of feeling in her voice as she said: “It is in a civilization’s nature to trace its roots. The Archaeological Association seeks fragments of the old world and has searched for years for an ancient cluster of ruins they call the Lost Deep Lake. Scholars in the Borderland also try to mend the history before Boundary City, to piece together what this place we call ‘home’ used to be. I am not an expert in this field, but I have always respected these people.”

Yu Sheng listened quietly. He found it hard to feel this the same way she did, since he was not a Borderlander, but he knew he should respect the feeling; at the same time, he could not help thinking: [That Creator who triggered the second singularity had clumsy craft.] Of course, he knew he should not say that aloud, because this whole universe exists thanks to that second burst. [Think of Anka Aila’s homeland. It is gone. Compared to that, what is there to complain about?]

Thinking like this, Yu Sheng had already reached the foot of the giant cube.

Its gray-white concrete skin had no decoration and pressed down with near-suffocating weight at close range. The long bridge met one top corner of the cube. The entrance at The End Web of the bridge was very wide, large enough for two or three cars side by side, yet against the cube it still looked like a notch made for ants.

He could not imagine how this thing was built or how it floated in Dark Space. It had to be more “high tech” in the Bureau’s hands.

Led by Bai Li Qing, the Door opened and Yu Sheng stepped into the Containment Facility with Irene on his shoulder.

A broad corridor stretched ahead with guard posts at intervals, machine guns and detectors fixed to the ceiling, and monitoring gear everywhere.

Heavily armed staff appeared, spoke briefly with Bai Li Qing, then led the way in silence.

Yu Sheng looked around with curiosity. The Containment Facility’s interior felt exactly like its exterior: massive concrete members, hard lines, bare surfaces with no decoration, and a palette of white and many shades of gray. The black armor on the guards had become the brightest “color” in the whole place.

The cold, colorless feel gave Yu Sheng a strange sense of déjà vu, but before he could speak, Irene tilted her head toward Bai Li Qing and said: “This place has no color, like you.”

Bai Li Qing did not mind the doll’s rude little jab. She answered evenly: “Color is a medium for hiding and beguiling. Some contained objects use color to carry their power, or use it to slip control. This ‘container’ is specially reinforced against that class of object. As for it feeling like me, that’s just a coincidence.”

“Do Angel Fragments try to use color to escape?” Yu Sheng asked.

“No,” Bai Li Qing shook her head, “we have not found any ‘escape’ tendency. It’s here because the protection level is high, and the site has a full lab ready to run at any time.”

As they spoke, they stopped before a gray-white alloy Door. After a series of careful ID checks and handover steps, the Door finally opened.

Inside was an airlock-like space with a second Door beyond.

As Yu Sheng was about to step in, a staffer moved forward to block him and turned to Bai Li Qing. A muffled voice sounded under the heavy helmet: “Director, does the visitor need extra protection?”

“No,” said Bai Li Qing, “he is the one who knocked this fragment down.”

Through the thick helmet, Yu Sheng could not see the man’s face, but he clearly saw the body stiffen. The man froze for two or three seconds, then, rather awkwardly, lowered his hand and stepped back.

“I’ll emphasize again, I didn’t knock it down. It wanted to die,” Yu Sheng muttered to Bai Li Qing, but she was already walking on as she said: “I know, but saying it this way is convenient.”

They passed the second Door, and the real lab came into view.

The lights were bright, but the room still lacked color. Many advanced devices stood in neat rows. In the center, a complex Floating Round Dais rose, and from the ceiling above it hung a mechanical rig tipped with a cluster of analysis and monitoring devices.

Several workers in heavy protective suits were waiting.

Yu Sheng’s eyes went past them to the “sample” on the Dais.

It was a white, translucent crystal, irregular in shape, about the size of three fists.

It lay there quietly, looking completely harmless.

Yu Sheng suddenly felt his earlier worry had been right. A white, translucent stone that looked this harmless was exactly the kind of thing some unlucky daredevil might just pick up. If it had been left by the roadside, who would guess it was debris from a Dark Angel? Someone might pocket it on a whim. [Though something this big would not fit unless the pocket was huge.]

He walked closer. Under the tense, almost alarmed gazes of several staff, he stared at the crystal for a long moment, then murmured to the doll on his shoulder: “See anything?”

“It’s a rock,” Irene shook her head, “there is a faint energy release, but it’s weaker than the two chickens Foxy raises.”

A researcher, startled to hear the doll speak, glanced over and then quickly looked away. He nodded to Bai Li Qing and said: “We did detect a weak, continuous energy fluctuation from this crystal. The readings have been stable for several hours. The radiation level is very low and basically harmless to people.”

Bai Li Qing nodded and said: “What else? Any other findings?”

“There is, and it is the strangest property,” the researcher said as he took a tray from a container on a nearby bench and handed it to her.

On the tray lay another crystal shard. Its texture and color were very close to the larger one on the Dais, though its shine was a bit duller, and it was only the size of a pinky.

“What is this?” asked Bai Li Qing.

“Secondary Crystal,” the researcher explained, “converted from the Mother Crystal. Half an hour ago, this shard was just a silica-rich stone.”

Bai Li Qing’s eyes turned serious as she said: “You mean… it will assimilate the surrounding matter?”