Chapter 255

Chapter 255: Anka Aila Crystal

The Black Threads bounced off the invisible barrier and snapped. Irene cried out as she fell from Yu Sheng’s shoulder. Luckily, he reacted fast. When she was halfway down, his leg shot back on reflex to hook her up a bit. How to put it, at least she didn’t hit the floor straight away. She hit the floor after he accidentally kicked her.

Irene cursed him out in very colorful words.

Flustered, Yu Sheng grabbed the clawing little Doll and pulled her up. He had no idea how many times she bit him in the scramble, but there were plenty of teeth marks on his hands. Seeing how strong her voice still was as she kept scolding and biting, he figured she was fine, and he let out a breath.

Once Irene calmed down a little, he hurried to ask: “Are you okay? What was that just now?”

“You ask me, who do I ask?” Irene’s crimson eyes glared: “First time I’ve ever had this happen! Something suddenly bounced me back!”

She bared her teeth in anger, then looked up at the stone-faced Bai Li Qing and added: “My threads are non-Entity. Nothing has ever blocked them. At least nothing I remember could block them.”

Bai Li Qing’s look grew subtle, as if she had thought of something else, but she still nodded lightly: “I know. The Doll’s ‘threads’ are one of the Blessings given by the Ancient Holy Spirit Alice. I’ve never heard of anything that can stop them.”

Her gaze returned to the Mother Crystal on the Floating Round Dais. It had gone still again, like that clear humming had been a shared illusion.

Yu Sheng stayed quiet, brows drawn as he thought. A moment later he seemed to realize something and broke the silence: “Irene, test the Secondary Crystal too.”

Irene did not know why, but Yu Sheng’s face was serious, so she held back the urge to complain and gave a small nod. After getting ready, she once more called up her Black Threads and reached for the thumb sized Secondary Crystal.

Moments later, the Doll’s threads were blocked again by an unseen field. The recoil wasn’t as harsh as with the Mother Crystal, but as the threads neared the Secondary Crystal they met a firm, invisible force and froze in midair, unable to get closer.

What began as Yu Sheng’s offhand “let’s try it” suddenly revealed a brand new property. The researchers on site started taking notes at high speed, checking all the loggers to compare readings. One of them spoke while writing: “This looks like some kind of defensive effect. Both the Mother Crystal and the Secondary Crystals formed from it carry this trait. But that raises a question: what exactly are they defending against?”

He looked up, curiosity bright in his eyes behind the thick face shield, and glanced at the Doll on Yu Sheng’s shoulder.

“We tested those Secondary Crystals that can Regenerate with lasers and physical shocks,” he added: “We never saw anything like this. Even threats strong enough to shatter a crystal did not trigger ‘defense.’ Miss Doll, may I ask about your threads? As far as I know, the Dolls of Alice’s Little House use many kinds of ‘Doll threads.’ Some are good at moving objects at a distance, some at making illusions, some at touching the soul. What kind are yours?”

He was very polite, which made Irene instantly happy. She jabbed Yu Sheng’s head with a tiny finger and said: “Hey, did you hear? He called me ‘Miss Doll.’ Way more polite than you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I heard,” Yu Sheng said, peeling her paw off his hair: “He asked you a question.”

“Oh, right, ahem,” Irene coughed and turned, face serious: “My threads are amazing. They connect minds, guide dreams, set traps, and restrain enemies. You know Wolf Granny, right? That boss thing that can take a few cruise missiles head on without falling? I can hard control it for minutes.”

The researcher listened, stunned, like he was hearing such a complex thread power for the first time: “So… many abilities?”

“Yeah,” Irene said proudly. She flicked her fingers in the air, and the black lines wove and danced. “I can do cat’s cradle too. It’s fun. I know dozens of patterns.”

For people meeting the Hotel crew for the first time, keeping up with such jumpy talk is hard. The researcher lagged for a few seconds before his brain caught up. His mood flipped back and forth between “focus, be serious” and “is this Doll okay” several times. Then he finally locked in, face set as he analyzed: “Based on our previous tests, we can rule out forces on the physical layer for this defense. That leaves… let’s suppose the crystal is reacting defensively to ‘mind’ level forces.”

Irene didn’t really get it, but nodded anyway: “Right… sure?”

“Then we have a next test path,” the researcher said with a small smile: “In research, sometimes all you need is the right idea. Thank you very much for your help, miss.”

Irene poked Yu Sheng’s head again and chirped: “Hey, he called me ‘miss’!”

Yu Sheng: “…” He no longer wanted to respond to this Doll.

After that came more technical talk. The lab lead reported to Bai Li Qing about test results on the samples, follow up research plans, and current safety protocols. Yu Sheng could not follow and did not dare cut in, afraid he’d sound ignorant. This place was a restricted zone, and he didn’t even dare touch things for fear of breaking them. He felt very out of place.

He could not help envying Foxy, who was still in the cafeteria feasting. [That miss must be living her best life right now.]

While he drifted, the briefing wrapped up. The lab lead asked at the end: “Director, should we give these crystals a name? Right now they’re filed by sample numbers, but given how special they are…”

“Call them Anka Aila Crystals,” Yu Sheng tossed out: “The small ones are Secondary Anka Aila Crystals. If we get even smaller ones one day, or if we make them by hand, call them Anka Aila Crystal Youth Edition.”

The lab lead: “…”

“Do as he said,” Bai Li Qing said after a quiet look at Yu Sheng, then nodded to the lead: “Strictly speaking, he has the right to name them.”

“…Understood.”

…

When they walked out of the Containment Facility, Yu Sheng let out a long breath.

If you stay too long inside that giant cube, a sense of pressure piles up on your chest. Even with bright, clean, wide halls everywhere, the weight keeps building. He didn’t feel it much while he was inside, but the instant he stepped out, the difference hit him hard.

Bai Li Qing did not seem surprised by his reaction. She said: “That’s normal. Everyone who enters the Container for the first time feels it. Even some trained agents from the Special Affairs Bureau are affected. The Container is itself part of the suppression conditions for holding dangerous things. It isn’t designed to be comfortable. Because of that, people who work in a Containment Facility at this level must be carefully chosen. Training alone isn’t enough. They have to endure the ‘environmental contamination’ of the Container and stay mentally stable for long periods. That takes talent.”

“I don’t feel any mental effect. I just don’t like the vibe in there,” Yu Sheng waved it off, then switched topics: “By the way, what about the Angel Fragments that went ‘missing’? Any leads?”

“No,” Bai Li Qing said with a shake of her head: “But we can basically confirm it wasn’t taken by anyone inside Boundary City, and it never entered the city. It’s likely still hidden somewhere in the ‘suburbs,’ or worse, it has already been moved beyond the Boundary Stele by some secret means.”

Her eyes grew grave.

“As much as I hate to admit it, the chance of recovery is slim. The impact point was near the most remote settlement on the edge of the Borderland. Recently, time turbulence has been moving around the outskirts with the winds. Those currents severely disrupt our monitoring gear outside the city. The staff posted near the settlements can’t watch the area outside the walls all the time. You could say all the worst conditions lined up.”

Yu Sheng heard a new term: “Time turbulence? What is that?”

“It’s a chaotic phenomenon that sometimes appears near the outer rim of the Borderland,” Bai Li Qing explained: “You know the wild outside the city is not as stable as inside Boundary City. Time turbulence is a concrete sign of that chaos. In a disturbed zone, time speeds up and slows down at random. Communication with the outside is badly disrupted, sometimes cut off. It usually shows up as a sudden wind. You get caught in it and feel like you spend a few seconds or a few days in the airflow. Then the wind vanishes. If you are lucky, you only lose contact with the world for a short while. If not, your missing person report might already be out of date.”

She paused, then continued: “The good news is that time turbulence does not threaten life. In fact, it even ‘preserves’ it. Inside a time turbulence, you do not age, feel Hunger, or die. Based on what we know, you are in a state of ‘material stasis’ and only your mind feels time pass. Still, no matter what, it brings us trouble. Like this time.”

Yu Sheng listened carefully, soaking in the fresh knowledge. Then he sighed again in his heart: [How else to put it? The Borderland is full of strange power and odd life.]